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buildings. The Arch of Triumph motif is also found in Renaissance Spain, where the architect Alonso de Vandelvira seems to have been one of its main exponents.10
The number of Arches of Triumph appearing at this time on the portals of both Spanish and Portuguese buildings at home and in the colonies is very large. It was particularly favoured in the decoration of church façades. We must remember that this is the period of the Counter-Reformation, or what some prefer to call the Catholic Reformation. Although architects could be flexible in their use of it, its more symbolic connotations for Spaniards and Portuguese in their newly conquered territories were, broadly speaking, mainly twofold: to celebrate their secular victories in battle and to celebrate the triumph of the Church over paganism.
In Spanish colonial architecture of the sixteenth century it appeared at a time when building decoration had not yet acquired the richer, more elaborate styles of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Many of the buildings in question were often technically solid but with little exterior ornamentation and this particular motif often formed the most striking decorative element of the elevation.
In respect of Spanish Colonial architecture in South America, Dr. Valerie Fraser of the University of Essex, in the U.K., has brought the motif into disrepute. Dr. Fraser carried out a comparative study of contemporary sources and colonial church façades in South America. She came to the conclusion that in these colonial façades the symbolic meanings previously given to the motif by Italian Renaissance architects, such as triumph over death, etc., was gradually mutated into a symbol of Spanish cultural superiority."
The civilizations the Spanish encountered in the New World had no knowledge of the arch prior to the arrival of Europeans. After the Spanish Conquest their degree of cultural development came to be judged according to Spanish cultural values. Consequently, the employment of the Arch of Triumph in colonial South America served ideological as well as artistic purposes, expressing the perception the conquistadors had of the conquered.
Although I cannot discuss the pros and cons of Iberian colonialism
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buildings. The Arch of Triumph motif is also found in Renaissance Spain, where the architect Alonso de Vandelvira seems to have been one of its main exponents." 10
The number of Arches of Triumph appearing at this time on the portals of both Spanish and Portuguese buildings at home and in the colonies is very large. It was particularly favoured in the decoration of church façades. We must remember that this is the period of the Counter- Reformation, or what some prefer to call the Catholic Reformation. Although architects could be flexible in their use of it, its more symbolic connotations for Spaniards and Portuguese in their newly conquered territories were, broadly speaking, mainly twofold: to celebrate their secular victories in battle and to celebrate the triumph of the Church over paganism.
In Spanish colonial architecture of the sixteenth century it appeared at a time when building decoration had not yet acquired the richer, more elaborate styles of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Many of the buildings in question were often technically solid but with little exterior ornamentation and this particular motif often formed the most striking decorative element of the elevation.
In respect of Spanish Colonial architecture in South America, Dr. Valerie Fraser of the University of Essex, in the U.K., has brought the motif into disrepute. Dr. Fraser carried out a comparative study of contemporary sources and colonial church façades in South America. She came to the conclusion that in these colonial façades the symbolic meanings previously given to the motif by Italian Renaissance architects, such as triumph over death, etc., was gradually mutated into a symbol of Spanish cultural superiority."
The civilizations the Spanish encountered in the New World had no knowledge of the arch prior to the arrival of Europeans. After the Spanish Conquest their degree of cultural development came to be judged according to Spanish cultural values. Consequently, the employment of the Arch of Triumph in colonial South America served ideological as well as artistic purposes, expressing the perception the conquistadors had of the conquered.
Although I cannot discuss the pros and cons of Iberian colonialism
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