The Palace Façade and the Urban Form in the Documenting of Hispanic America

Author: Barteet, C Cody

Source: Terrae Incognitae, Volume 43, Number 1, April 2011 , pp. 3-23(21)

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Abstract:

This essay examines the relationship between palace architecture and the urban form in sixteenth-century Hispanic America. By analyzing period plans, cartographic renderings, paintings, residences, and archival texts, a direct relationship can be drawn between the architectural practices of the early Spanish colonizers and the implementation of monarchical urban policies. This article explores how individuals' architectural patronage, whether princely or individual, affected the formation of Las Leyes de Indias (the Laws of the Indies) of 1573 and other urban policies, considering that homes and palace façades were deeply encoded artifacts in European and pre-contact cultures. I suggest that the architectural façade in the sixteenth-century Hispanic world had some correlation to the evolution of the early Spanish-American urban environments. Currently, we have not sought to analyze such a dynamic interaction between the colonizers and the monarchical state.

Keywords: COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE; SIXTEENTH-CENTURY HISPANIC AMERICA; URBAN PLANNING; COLONIZATION

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/008228811X12959685200661

Publication date: 2011-04-01

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