Carlos V 's Palace

INTRODUCTION:

Carlos V’s palace is a building located in “La Alhambra” in Granada. Carlos I ordered Pedro Machuca to build it. Carlos I, after his wedding with Elizabeth of Portugal, started living in “La Alhambra”. He was astonished because of its beauty, so he build the palace, which was his real palace in Granada. Nowadays the palace belongs to the Alhambras’ Museum, and it works as a museum, like the other buildings.

PEDRO MACHUCA:

Pedro Machuca (Toledo, ca. 1490 - 1550) was an spanish painter and architect. Although he was born in Spain, he went to Italy for develop her career as artist. There is an hypothesis that said he was a learner from Miguel Ángel, in some texts is mentioned a Pedro Spagnuolo, which might be him. In Italy he also knew Rafael Sanzio, he reflected Sanzio’s style in some of his paintings.

He was one of the 1^st artist to bring the most modern style from Italy to Spain, actually the palace was the most “italian” building from Spain.

MATERIALS,  STYLE  AND SHAPE:

The palace is made of stone, as I did not find where the stone is from, I suppose that is  from a near open pit of the Alhambra. It also has some decoration made of metal in the façade or of wood.

It style is mannerism. It is a style inside the Renaissance, at its final days during the Cinquecento. This styles loses all canones of beauty; proportions, harmony, serenity and balance. In mannerist architecture, buildings lose clarity of composition and lose solemnity with respect to full classicism. 

The shape is a prism with a base of 63mx63m. In the middle of it, the courtyard is shaped as a cylinder. The shape of building it reflects its mannerism style, that was brought from Italy by Machuca.

OPINION:

In my opinion the palace is very original and it has a funny shape, especially taking in account the year in which it was built. But even though its freshness, I don't like it so much. The decoration of the façade is not very elaborated, and it doesn’t contrast very much with its location. I think façades from the Quattrocento are much more beautiful because, the are simple geometric patterns, but they play with colours and fits good with the buildings. Also the palace of Carlos V doesn’t match and it is not well balanced with the others buildings from the Alhambra, which are extremely more beautiful and elaborated.  

Bruno Valderrey Alonso 3rd A