Philip II of Spain and the Architecture of Empire

Philip II of Spain and the Architecture of Empire
Author: Laura Fernández-González
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 155
Release: 2021-05-10
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0271089989

Philip II of Spain was a major patron of the arts, best known for his magnificent palace and royal mausoleum at the Monastery of San Lorenzo of El Escorial. However, neither the king’s monastery nor his collections fully convey the rich artistic landscape of early modern Iberia. In this book, Laura Fernández-González examines Philip’s architectural and artistic projects, placing them within the wider context of Europe and the transoceanic Iberian dominions. Philip II of Spain and the Architecture of Empire investigates ideas of empire and globalization in the art and architecture of the Iberian world during the sixteenth century, a time when the Spanish Empire was one of the largest in the world. Fernández-González illuminates Philip’s use of building regulations to construct an imperial city in Madrid and highlights the importance of his transformation of the Simancas fortress into an archive. She analyzes the refashioning of his imperial image upon his ascension to the Portuguese throne and uses the Hall of Battles in El Escorial as a lens through which to understand visual culture, history writing, and Philip’s kingly image as it was reflected in the funeral commemorations mourning his death across the Iberian world. Positioning Philip’s art and architectural programs within the wider cultural context of politics, legislation, religion, and theoretical trends, Fernández-González shows how design and images traveled across the Iberian world and provides a nuanced assessment of Philip’s role in influencing them. Original and important, this panoramic work will have a lasting impact on Philip II’s artistic legacy. Art historians and scholars of Iberia and sixteenth-century history will especially value Fernández-González’s research.

Book Auction Records

Book Auction Records
Author: Frank Karslake
Publisher:
Total Pages: 828
Release: 1920
Genre: Autographs
ISBN:

A priced and annotated annual record of international book auctions.

Philip of Spain

Philip of Spain
Author: Henry Kamen
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 416
Release: 1997-05-29
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0300184263

Philip II of Spain—ruler of the most extensive empire the world had ever known—has been viewed in a harsh and negative light since his death in 1598. Identified with repression, bigotry, and fanaticism by his enemies, he has been judged more by the political events of his reign than by his person. This book, published four hundred years after Philip's death, is the first full-scale biography of the king. Placing him within the social, cultural, religious, and regional context of his times, it presents a startling new picture of his character and reign. Drawing on Philip's unpublished correspondence and on many other archival sources, Henry Kamen reveals much about Philip the youth, the man, the husband, the father, the frequently troubled Christian, and the king. Kamen finds that Philip was a cosmopolitan prince whose extensive experience of northern Europe broadened his cultural imagination and tastes, whose staunchly conservative ideas were far from being illiberal and fanatical, whose religious attitudes led him to accept a practical coexistence with Protestants and Jews, and whose support for Las Casas and other defenders of the Indians in America helped determine government policy. Shedding completely new light on most aspects of Philip's private life and, in consequence, on his public actions, the book is the definitive portrayal of Philip II.

Raised to Rule

Raised to Rule
Author: Martha K. Hoffman
Publisher: LSU Press
Total Pages: 407
Release: 2011-06-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 0807139513

The children of Philip III of Spain (1578--1621) and Margarita de Austria (1584--1611) inherited great potential power: the abilities to declare war or make peace, to advocate religious doctrine, and to exert lasting influence over art, culture, and taste. The leadership provided by this generation raises the question of how royal families learned the roles they played in court, country, and on the international stage. In Raised to Rule, Hoffman presents a deeply researched and stimulating study of the formative experiences of children in the royal households of early modern Spain. Five of the eight children born to the royal couple survived to adulthood: the future king Philip IV; the future queen regent of France, Anne of Austria; the Cardinal-Infante Fernando, who rose to international fame as a general during the Thirty Years' War; the future Empress María, briefly known as the princess of England during Charles Stuart's 1623 pursuit of a "Spanish match"; and the Infante Carlos, the constant companion of Philip IV and his heir-presumptive for nearly a decade, who was named governor of Portugal but died before he could serve. Hoffman elucidates the formal instruction and informal training that prepared these individuals to shape the history of their country and influence all of Europe. For the heirs of Philip and Margarita, developmental experiences took place within the social structures and patronage systems of the royal court -- a place that proved to be influential and precarious, where public and private relationships overlapped and political metaphors of family relationships reflected the reality of public service based on personal ties. Drawing on a wide variety of sources, including palace rulebooks, chronicles, household accounts, a journal of the royal chapel, diplomatic and personal correspondence, published and unpublished advice to kings, and treatises on the education of princes, Hoffman illustrates the formation of the leadership of Spain and early modern perceptions of the proper education and function of royalty. Hoffman's Raised to Rule provides an insightful account of the education of the Spanish Habsburgs from 1601 to 1634. Her work fills a significant historiographical gap and offers new revelations into a previously neglected aspect of royal life.