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Classical Architecture in Viceregal Mexico
by DR. JUAN LUIS BURKE
Round arches carried by columns in the Doric order reflect classicizing trends in the former Franciscan convento of Tecali de Herrera, 16th century, Puebla, Mexico (photo: Luis Espinoza, CC BY-NC 2.0)
The Renaissance not just in Italy
The term renaissance generally invokes images of Italian cities, buildings, and artworks, rather than images of American ones. However, the renaissance had tremendous repercussions on the American continents, and its influence can be found from Philadelphia to Buenos Aires. In fact it might be more useful to think of the renaissance not as a European phenomenon at all, but as a wide-ranging cultural movement that centered on the rebirth and rediscovery of classical (ancient Greek and Roman) culture that sparked many innovations and changes in architecture, urbanism, pictorial art, theatre, science, literature, and more.
Map of New Spain. Note that at its height, the Viceroyalty of New Spain also included Central America, parts of the West Indies, the southwestern and central United States, Florida, and the Philippines.
Map of New Spain. Note that at its height, the Viceroyalty of New Spain also included Central America, parts of the West Indies, the southwestern and central United States, Florida, and the Philippines.
Cities, buildings, and architects in New Spain
Spanish colonizers and criollos believed that adopting specific classicizing architectural styles from Europe helped to give their civic and religious buildings a sense of proper decorum. The idea of what constituted decorous architecture derived from Greek and Roman philosophical and architectural sources, including those written by Aristotle, Cicero, St. Augustine, and even Isidore of Seville.
In the sixteenth century, cities were considered to embody an ideal of sophisticated and refined living. This is an ancient idea that took root among peoples in Spain during the medieval period. In the Hispanic world, the term for this idea of a civilized urban center was polica (which derives from the ancient Greek term polis, meaning city). This idea of the ordered urban center was brought to the Americas where the structure and building of cities became one of the most important colonizing strategies of the Spaniards.
One of the regions in the Americas that saw a resurgence of classical culture was Mexico. From the early sixteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, the territory roughly comprised by present-day Mexico, the midwestern and southwestern U.S., and parts of Central America was known as New Spain a territory claimed and ruled by the Spanish Crown. Throughout this period, towns and cities in the central and southern part of New Spain (by far the most populated of the territory) grew in size. They were inhabited by a diverse population that included Spanish colonizers, criollos (the offspring of Spanish colonizers born in the Americas), indigenous peoples of diverse ethnic origin, Africans (originally brought as slaves, many later becoming freed citizens), small communities of other Europeans, Asians, conversos (Jewish people who had converted to Christianity), and many ethnic mixtures in between.
Aerial view of the city of Puebla de los ngeles, Mexico
Aerial view of the city of Puebla de los ngeles, Mexico (image: Google Maps)
Cities acquired a prominent place in the colonizing strategies of the Spaniards. Spanish colonizers and criollos adopted architectural styles from Europe in an effort to validate their civic and religious institutions. Cities participated in dividing peoples along ethnic lines to create social and racial hierarchies. During the sixteenth century, cities were created for indigenous peoples, while other cities were created for Spaniards and their offspring, in what was a clear segregationist effort on behalf of the Spanish colonizers. Cities for indigenous peoples were termed repblicas de indios, while repblicas de espaoles was the term employed for cities destined for European colonizers and their offspring. In the repblicas de espaoles and also in the repblica de indios, but arguably to a lesser extent the preferred architectural language of the most representative buildings was classical in style.
Drawing of the Plaza Mayor of Mexico City, 1596
Drawing of the Plaza Mayor of Mexico City, 1596 (image: Archivo General de Indias, Seville)
Residences for elite families or buildings such as city halls, educational institutions, and hospitals, drew from classical architectural sources. In a plan of Mexico Citys central square drawn in 1596, we can see that some of the most important buildings of the city
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