This title provides an entertaining look at the many regional styles of architecture in Spain, including such notable structures as Bilbao's Guggenheim and La Alhambra in Granada.

In analyzing the early medieval architecture of Christian and Islamic Spain, Jerrilynn Dodds explores the principles of artistic response to social and cultural tension, offering an account of that unique artistic experience that set Spain apart from the rest of Europe and established a visual identity born of the confrontation of cultures that perceived one another as alien. Architecture and Ideology in Early Medieval Spain covers the Spanish medieval experience from the Visigothic oligarchy to the year 1000, addressing a variety of cases of cultural interchange. It examines the embattled reactive stance of Hispano-Romans to their Visigothic rulers and the Asturian search for a new language of forms to support a political position dissociated from the struggles of a peninsula caught in the grip of a foreign and infidel rule. Dodds then examines the symbolic meaning of the Mozarabic churches of the tenth century and their reflection of the Mozarabs' threatened cultural identity. The final chapter focuses on two cases of artistic interchange between Islamic and Christian builders with a view toward understanding the dynamics of such interchange between conflicting cultures. Dodds concludes with a short account of the beginning of Romanesque architecture in Spain and an analysis of some of the ways in which artistic expression can reveal the subconscious of a culture.

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.

Three millennia of Spain's masterworks and major artistic personalities are illustrated in crisp, new color photography for this extraordinary and unprecedented survey. Fourteen original essays, each by a prominent specialist, cover the following topics: Prehistory and First Contacts with Mediterranean Antiquity; Roman Art and Architecture in Spain; From Antiquity to the Middle Ages, Christianization, and the Visigothic World; Preromanesque and Romanesque Art; Gothic Spain; The Presence of Islam and Arab Art; The Art of the Renaissance; The Baroque; The Art of Colonial Spanish America; Francisco Goya; The Nineteenth Century; Spanish Art from 1900 to 1939; Pablo Picasso; and Contemporary Art, Architecture, and Design. Each chapter includes illustrated mini-essays highlighting subjects of special interest: for example, recent discoveries of prehistoric art; a stunning illuminated Apocalypse made in the year 1078; and the twentieth-century Catalan master architect Antoni Gaudi.

More than 500 period photographs explore the Spanish Revival movement (1915-1940) in architecture. Original Spanish and Mediterranean buildings inspired partrons on "the grand tour" in Europe to build for themselves these sturdy homes in the 20th century that reflect a strong Mediterranean heritage. Tiled roofs and floors, arched windows and passageways, and stone walls and floors characterize the style. Exquisite details are explored, both inside and out, from residential, commercial, and public projects. Sections in the book focus on exterior details including outdoor rooms and staircases, verandahs, patios, and courtyards, pools, fountains, chimneys, and garden gates. Inside, revel in beamed ceilings, fireplaces, tile details, lighting and flooring. In addition to dozens of private residences, this book tours retail and commercial spaces, churches, schools, libraries, theaters, and private clubs. Work by celebrated architects who helped pioneer the Spanish Revival movement is featured, including George Washington Smith, Wallace Neff, Gordon Kauffman, Morgan, Walls and Clements, and many others. Also, some architectural renderings and floor plans are included. Architects, designers, and remodelers will find inspiration for today's structures on every page.