February 13, 2013

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

STATELY AND PALATIAL ARCHITECTURE OF PAMPLONA

Magnificence and comfort of the domestic space

Beatriz Blasco Esquivias.
Complutense University of Madrid

The tour through the Spanish palaces and manor houses of the Modern Age will now lead us to the domestic space of some buildings, whose interior physiognomy is difficult to reconstruct, due to their continuous transformations over time and the scarce graphic documents that have come down to us; at least until the nineteenth century, when literature turned the house into one of its protagonists. Unlike what happens in the Netherlands and other regions of Europe, in Spain there are few images of domestic interiors, which we can only reconstruct thanks to assimilable examples and the domestic scenes that artists recreated to frame a religious scene, whether it was the Education of Saint Teresa, the Birth of the Virgin or any other.

Anonymous. Birth of the Virgin. Church of Nuevo Baztán
 

Adornment, comfort and convenience were considered essential in these domestic interiors destined to represent -through the factors mentioned above- the social status and magnificence of their owners. Comfort was already then assimilated to the air conditioning and thermal control of the rooms, while comfort is a more abstract and unaffordable concept, referring to the harmony of the domestic environment, to the well-being of privacy, to the ease of life and to everything that contributes to provide it, making our existence more pleasant by natural or artificial means. The house will be comfortable if its temperature is pleasant and produces a balanced, invigorating and pleasant thermal sensation; moreover, it will be comfortable if it has the necessary furniture for the development of an easy life and useful facilities and services to this same end. Luxury and magnificence depended on the refinement with which all of these requirements were undertaken, although they were also evidenced in aspects such as the size and spaciousness of the rooms, their ventilation and sunlight, the sophistication of their decoration (furniture, fabrics, paintings and sumptuous objects) or the sophistication of their decoration (furniture, fabrics, paintings and sumptuary objects), and sumptuary objects) or through the distribution and characterization of the domestic space, with specific areas for the family and servants (segregating by gender the men and women of the house) and zones for the social and private life of the main members of the family.
 

Ramón Bayeu. The kitchen, tapestry cardboard
Collection LivinioStuyck Pérez del Camino
 

After learning about the modern distribution of domestic spaces and the characterization of their rooms according to their owner (female or male) and their use (private or public), we will analyze the systems used to achieve temperature control with the essential ornamentation (by means of draperies, leathers and natural fibers, braziers, glass and shutters, fireplaces, etc.). It will also show the uses and customs to transform and ingest food in private or as a social act, valuing the importance and evolution of the kitchen and the dining room with their respective facilities and furniture. The analysis of the bedroom and other reserved rooms will allow to know, finally, the methods to dislodge from the interior the bodily filth and to guarantee the domestic hygiene, allowing the development of specific rooms (like the masculine "toilet" or the feminine "boudoir", often of public nature), that will acquire prominence in the XVIII century due to the influence of the fashions of France.
 

Jan van Kessel, Family in the Garden of a Main House in Madrid
Madrid, Prado National Museum