Spanish Period

The Spanish era was a fusion of the Moors and Christian Spanish. It is known to be the most brilliant era in Spanish history. Two styles of design were used in this era, plateresco and desornamentado. In the plateresco phase, the work resembled that of a silversmith, being minute and delicate. It was also used on exteriors, patios, churches, public buildings, furniture, and accessories. 

The other is the desornamentado, being unornamented. This was applied to court, ecclesiastical and public buildings. This was a reaction to to the plateresco style.

The above pictures show the difference between the two. You can see that the plateresco style is highly adorned while the desornamentado is just the opposite, being very bland with carefully defined proportions.

The Spanish period was highly known for having the most castles. It is interesting that just like in the Italian Renaissance, the start of attentiion towards interiors arose. I will particularly talk about some of the furniture. I will go on to talk about much of the furniture in this era. To start off, Spanish furniture, included such characteristics as simplicity and boldness, heavy proportions, crude carving, and rectangular shape. The most common material was Walnut, while Mahogany was introduced, and silver was used for ornamentation. Often, they used repetitive panels to create a pattern.
The most well-known chair from this period was the sillon de frailero. Some might know it as the Monk's chair.

In this chair you can see the simple rectangular form, leather seat and back, and broad front stretcher. The decorative nail heads and other qualities indicate this chair can be described as plateresque.

Spain had a lot of distinctive cabinet work called vargueno. This was to hold documents and valuables. Some were used as a desk with a hinged drop front.

This picture above is a vargueno puente stand. The bone and ivory inlays in this piece were often painted in bright red, blue, green and gold. The base, or puente part was often elaborately carved with sides that pulled out to support the drop front. Earlier I talked about panels being repeated to form a pattern. On the right, you can see the facade in four and three different sections. Drawers and cupboards were included. It is crazy to see this piece of furniture as mill work and cabinetry, and then think about the cabinetry we have today installed in our kitchens, bathrooms, etc.


Current Applications

Although this picture of an interior is actually in Spain, I love the Spanish Renaissance influence. All the nail heads in the door for ornamentation are beautiful and all the geometric shapes show a great influential purpose here.

This desk, which we see many of in homes today, includes a hinged drop front which reminds me of the vargueno puente stand.

(modern Spanish area)