Famous Artwork

Famous Artwork

The Escorial palace is a historical residence to the rulers of Spain. The fortress is situated about 45 kilometers northwest of Madrid and is documented as one of the Spanish imperial sites. It additionally functions as a monastery and a museum. The paper discusses the palace in details paying attention to the construction.

Who built the Palace?

The palace was constructed by King Felipe on April 23 1563. This was after a solemn guarantee that he made, which he said he will build the fortress if he wins the encounter against King Richard. The town of El Escorial was chosen due to the excellent weather and fine waters that were flowing around there.  The person who was given power in the building was Juan Bautista de Toledo. However, Juan de Herrera took over the when the former died in 1567.   He finished it in the year 1584. The shape of the floor of the palace was designed to match the suffering that San Lorenzo went after he was killed and cooked on a grill. The palace was declared as a world heritage site in 1984 by UNESCO. The fortress reports visitations of over 500,000 per year, which makes it an incredibly popular site (Madrid Online para 1).       

Key players in the construction

The key contributor to the construction of the fortress was Juan Bautista de Toledo. He was a Spanish designer who was well informed in Italy. He had a mixture of experiences in military and architecture. In the laying of the first stone of the palace, he wrote that he was the draftsperson of the work. They joined forces together with Philip to design the palace. The main role when they were constructing the palace was to make stronger the role of Spain in the early Christianity. Another key player in the construction is Juan de Herrera who constructed the reading area.  He used ideas of the renaissance to bring out a beautiful artwork. He studied his art at the University of Valladolid. He was involved in the construction from 1548. He took over the directorship of the structure after the death of Juan Bautista (Serrano, p 64). Another key architect in the construction was Pellegrino Tibaldi. He was a famous wall painting artist.   

Famous artwork

The palace contains some of the supreme artworks in account. It has German, Italian and Spanish art. These arts were all created from Spanish schools. The architectural museum has a display case of eleven rooms and materials that were employed in the construction. The Garden of Friars was constructed as a spare time point in the museum. It is famous for the many roles that it plays in meditation. King Philip made an individual donation of his collection of manuscripts to the library of the palace. The palace also has some of the finest books of history since the premium books from Spain were collected to from it. It was planned by Juan de Herrera and Pellgrino Tibaldi (Serrano, p 46). The crypt of the library’s ceiling is constructed with wall painting. The palace has over 7500 relics that were designed by Juan Herrera. However, most of the constructions were made by Juan de Arfe Villafane.       

Different parts of the Palace

The courtyard of the Kings has an extraordinary façade. The palace has three doors. The middle door leads to the courtyard. The side doors lead to the monastery and the school. The courtyard derived its name to the statues of Kings of Judah that are present. The statues can be reached if a person uses the route to the courtyard (Serrano, p 103). The basilica is shaped like the Greek cross. The large chapel is also a spectacular site in the palace. It is floored with red marble. The art pieces are constructed and set out according to their sizes. There are also bronze sculptors that were put together by Tibaldi.

There is also the royal pantheon that is the burial place for the kings. The first King to be buried there was Charles. The middle point of the building is the palace. It is located centrally, and it was originally designed by gothic concepts of medieval Europe.  The main intention of the construction was to give it a form of tea tin cross. The shape of the basilica resembles that of St. Peters Basilica. The most decorated part of the church is the high altar. It is three tiered.  The tiers are made of Jasper and Granite. It is a significant part of the palace since it is where the prayers take place. This is a significant aspect of the palace since it was designed on religious concepts (Losada, p. 56).  

Move from the royal capital of Spain to Madrid

The move of the royal capital to Madrid was instigated by the construction of the palace. This led to the need of a location of the royal capital to a place that could serve as a revelation to Christianity in Madrid. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, the royal palace is an example of historic art that combines all the elements of good construction. The construction of the palace used numerous resources, but they did not go to waste as the palace still stands today. The palace is also significant due to the religious architecture that flourishes around it.