Main content
Europe 1300 - 1800
Course: Europe 1300 - 1800 > Unit 9
Lesson 5: Spain and Portugal- A Still Life of Global Dimensions: Antonio de Pereda’s Still Life with Ebony Chest
- Juan Sanchez de Cotán, Quince, Melon and Cucumber
- Velázquez, The Waterseller of Seville
- Velázquez, Los Borrachos or the Triumph of Bacchus
- Velázquez, Vulcan's Forge
- Velázquez, The Surrender of Breda
- Velázquez, Las Meninas
- Velázquez, Las Meninas
- Zurbarán, The Martyrdom of Saint Serapion
- Ribera, Martyrdom of Saint Philip
- Jerónimo de Balbás, Altar of the Kings (Altar de los Reyes)
- Making a Spanish polychrome sculpture
- Pedro de Mena, Ecce Homo and Mater Dolorosa
- Juan Martínez Montañés and Francisco Pacheco, Christ of Clemency
- Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables
- Josefa de Óbidos, Christ Child as Salvator Mundi
- The Abduction of Helen Tapestry
- Baroque art in Spain
© 2023 Khan AcademyTerms of usePrivacy PolicyCookie Notice
Jerónimo de Balbás, Altar of the Kings (Altar de los Reyes)
Jerónimo de Balbás, Altar of the Kings (Altar de los Reyes), 1718-37, Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary (Mexico City). A conversation with Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank and Dr. Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- You know the sculptures of the Christian kings and the queens/princesses? Are they supposed to represent real people who once lived during that time?(1 vote)
- They were imagined portrayals of ancient and legendary people dressed as the painter imagined that they would be acceptable in the painter's own time.(2 votes)
- Was Creole nationalism, "which comes to be known as ultrabaroque" an outdoing the Baroque of Spain by the Creoles whose claim to being Spanish was rejected from the homeland? In a way, is it like the "more norse than the norse" language of Iceland? That kind of thing that immigrant populations around the world sometimes grasp which denies change in the homeland, and makes the immigrant communities little islands of cultuiral conservatism for a generation or so?(1 vote)
- It is called like that by some art historians because it is even more sumptuous that the "baroque" that arrived before and because of the use of the estípite pilaster (it isn't a column) that arrived with Jerónimo de Balbás. It is not a cultural claim or anything like that.(1 vote)
Video transcript
- [Voiceover] We're in the
main cathedral of Mexico City, the largest cathedral in the Americas. And we've walked all the
way down the side aisle, to the very back of the church, and we are presented with the most opulent architecture
that I have ever seen. - [Voiceover] What we're looking at is what's called the Altar of the Kings, there was nothing like
it until its creation. - [Voiceover] And this
would set a precedent for architecture across Mexico. - [Voiceover] It's begun in 1718, but it's not finished until 1737, and that's in part because of its enormous size and the numerous people who had to work on this altarpiece. - [Voiceover] The woodworking
alone took seven years, and then it took a dozen
years to gild it all. - [Voiceover] It's
orchestrated and designed by the artist Jeronimo de Balbas, who comes from Spain. He's from Sevilla, or Seville. He's thought to have been either working in the circle of the Churriguera family, or to have at least been familiar with this architecture, which is a really sumptuous architecture, dominated by what's
called an estipite column. - [Voiceover] We're in an artistic era which we call the Baroque, and magnificent, sumptuous
religious structures are being built throughout
Catholic Europe, but one of the dominant forms of architecture at this time is what is known as the solomonic column, which is a spiral column, probably most famously seen in St. Peter's in the Vatican. But the estipite is a very
different kind of form. It is rectilinear, but
it is just as dynamic as the solomonic. - [Voiceover] The use
of the estipite column is important here, and what it approximates
is the ideal male body, where you get the sense of the neck, the broad shoulders and
then tapering to the feet. It also looks like an inverted obelisk. - [Voiceover] So unlike a
traditional Greek column, which tends to be wider at the bottom and to taper upward, this tapers downward, and the result is complex and fascinating. You have placed the mass, that is, the heaviest part of the column upward, and so there is
this inherent instability. And what a perfect way of understanding the Baroque interest in dynamism. Because when we look at
the Altar of the Kings, it seems as if it is absolutely in motion, undulating, shifting, it is this ideal
representation of the Baroque. - [Voiceover] And of
course we have to imagine the candlelight flickering
over the surfaces that are primarily gilded. - [Voiceover] But on a scale that is almost hard to comprehend. - [Voiceover] You don't
have clear-cut registers where you're displaying
sculpture and painting. - [Voiceover] Instead there's
this very sophisticated mix of painting, architecture and sculpture, and in fact, the architecture is gilded, the sculptures are painted, and the paintings are completely framed by both the sculpture
and the architecture. So we really lose those
kinds of clear distinctions. - [Voiceover] And even
though at first glance it might seem that there
isn't any order here, there actually is. - [Voiceover] It's probably
easiest to see the structure by focusing on the four largest columns. There are two columns that frame the paintings in the center, and then two columns beyond those. - [Voiceover] And if we're
starting at the bottom and we look horizontally, we see a row of women who
are queens and princesses. If we go to the middle level, we see Christian kings. And then we see God the Father crowning the entire scene before us, and figures of the Holy Family. - [Voiceover] The two largest paintings in the center, which today are fairly dark represent at the bottom the Three Kings, and then the Assumption of the Virgin Mary which is appropriate, given the name of this church. - [Voiceover] If we look between these two estipite columns on either side, you see what's called the niche pilaster, and it's basically a broken up pilaster that has a niche with some of these fabulous sculptures of kings that are again,
all polychromed wood, painted wood, and so this pairing of the estipite column and the niche pilaster
is something that you continue to see when
this style is employed after this point. - [Voiceover] This was a major commission, it was supported by the Crown, and locally by the Viceroy. And it was meant to assert the authority of the King. - [Voiceover] And I think it's important to keep in mind that instead
of using local artists, you have an emigrant artist from Spain. - [Voiceover] Underscore that point, the contract forbade the use of estofado, the local style of gilding,
stamping and carving. - [Voiceover] And instead, it stipulated sculptures
in the Roman style, that are just polychromed
wooden sculptures and what's fascinating about this is even though Balbas, the
designer of this altarpiece, did employ some local artists, there was this distancing of some of these local traditions. - [Voiceover] This is after
all, the most privileged place within the most important
church in Mexico. And so it's no surprise that the Viceroy and the King are going to
assert their power here. - [Voiceover] And what's
wonderful about this is that even though
there's this alienation of some of the local population, particularly the Creoles,
or pure-blooded Spaniards, born on American soil, after the completion of this altarpiece, it begins to influence architecture that is seen as expressing
this new patriotism or let's say Creole nationalism. - [Voiceover] Which comes to be known as ultra-Baroque.