Theses Doctoral

In the Manner of Silversmiths: Architecture, Ornament, and the Plateresque in Renaissance Spain

Jiang, Angel

This dissertation presents an intermedial and cross-cultural approach to architectural ornament in sixteenth-century Spain with a particular focus on works labeled plateresque, a stylistic term that likens architecture to the work of silversmiths.

Using a methodology combining historical study, visual and technical analysis, and media theory, it examines the relationship between architecture and European graphic art in Renaissance Spain, and contends that ornament and the media through which it circulated informed new modes of invention and reception. Focusing on canonical plateresque buildings, including the University of Salamanca, Medinaceli Palace at Cogolludo, Castle of Vélez Blanco, and Ayuntamiento of Seville, as well as examples of ornament conceived more broadly, such as Sevillan domestic architecture and a group of Spanish ornament drawings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this study of architectural ornament uncovers new sources of design, the processes by which these decorative programs were made, and the meanings they inspired.

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More About This Work

Academic Units
Art History and Archaeology
Thesis Advisors
Waters, Michael J.
Degree
Ph.D., Columbia University
Published Here
May 10, 2023