I am so excited to share this beautiful piece of architecture with you today.
This year, for my art talk posts, I have highlighted an architectural design once a month. Art Talk Posts 2021. Today I get to share a piece of Spanish Renaissance architecture.
This patio is now in the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art). It is one of my favorite museums and the highlight tour is my favorite things to do at the MET. The meeting place for the highlight tour was in this patio. My feet and back were sore so I headed strait to the meeting place to rest. As I sat there and started looking around I realized what a cool space I was in.
This way my view for about an hour.
Patio from the Castle of Vélez Blanco
It is a stunning marble patio built in 1510 in Spain and has many of the museum's Italian Renaissance statues.
Size
One of the most amazing this about the MET is it's shear size. The Met measures almost 1⁄4-mile (400 m) long and with more than 2 million square feet (190,000 m2) of floor space. 1
The patio measures Height. 33 ft. (10.05m) ; Width. 44 ft. (13.41 m); Length. 63 ft, (19.20 m) 1 which is 2,772 square feet or 844.9 meters. That means that this room is 0.13% of the total size of the museum.
I could spend all day in just this room learning about Spanish Architecture, Pedro Fajardo, the king Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, George Blumenthal, Olga, Corinthian columns and arcades and Plateresque. This is what I enjoy most about blogging about my travels is researching later and learning so much.
People
There were so many interesting people connected with this patio.
Pedro Fajardo
Fajardo was the governor of the Spanish kingdom of Murica (in Spain) and was raised in Isabella's court. He was instrumental in suppressing the Moorish rebellions. His full name is 56 words long. 2 That is impressive. Fajardo built a castle with a this as it's central patio.
Ferdinand and Isabella
The King and Queen of Spain, who reigned from 1474 to 1504 and are know for the Reconquista, the Spanish inquisition and supporting and financing Christopher Coloumbus's 1492 voyage. 3
George Blumenthal
George was a banker that was born in 1858 in Germany. He held many prestigious positions- he was the president of the Mount Sinai Hospital (in New York City, next to the MET), the American Hospital in Paris and the MET. 4
According to a plaque in the patio
The owner of the castle sold the patio's marble fittings in 1904. George Blumenthal purchased them in 1913 and had them installed in his Park Avenue home. The nearly two thousand blocks of marble that form the structure were reassembled at the museum in 1964.
Olga Raggio
Olga was an art historian and curator at the MET that undertook a 5 year research study of the patio to have it be historically correct before they installed it in the MET.
She was born in Rome, Italy in 1926 and received a Fulbright to study at Columbia University in New York City. She worked at the MET for 60 years. 2 5
All these people are fascinating and the role they play in the patio's history.
Spanish Renaissance Architecture
Renaissance architecture is a revival of Greek and Roman ideas by the Italian architects. By the 1500's this architecture spread to Spain and to the Castle of Velez Blanco and this patio.
Let's look at the patio from a few different angels.
 |  |  |
|---|
Four distinct characteristics
Columns
The columns are a very quick way to identify Renaissance architecture. In this patio we see many Corinthian columns. Corinthian columns are the most ornate and are slender fluted columns with elaborate capitals (top) and are decorated with acanthus leaves and scrolls. 6
Arcades
In this patio we can see arcades both on the first floor and the 2nd floor. An arcade is a succession of arches with each arch supported by columns. 7
Windows
These are Renaissance semi-circular arches windows.
Details/ Plateresque
Look at the detail in the windows in the patio. In Spanish Plateresque means "in the manner of a silversmith" and is an artistic movement in Spain in the late Gothic and early Renaissance. 9
According the the MET plaque
Masks, vases and birds eating berries are among the sensitively carved details adorning the windows and other architectural elements of this marble patio. The decoration also feature a rich array of fantastic creatures, including sphinxes, dragons and rams with serpent tails. These motifs were inspired by the ornamental vocabulary of ancient Rome as interpreted by Italian stonecutters working in Spain during the early 16th century.
In Renaissance architecture moldings stand out around doors and windows rather than being recessed, as in Gothic architecture. 8
Thank you for joining me on this journey to the MET in New York City (2021) to learn about this courtyard built in (1510) by a governor in Spain bought by a German born banker (1913) from a dealer in Paris and studied extensively by a Italian born curator (1960s) before it was installed in the MET (1964).
Sources:
1- MET
2- Patio from the Castle of Velez Blano
Catholic Monarchs of Spain
3- Isabella I of Castile
4- George Blumenthal (banker
5- Olga Raggio
Spanish Renaissance architecture
6- Corinthian Columns
7- Arcade (architecture)
8- Renaissance architecture
9- Plateresque
Plaque in patio at the MET
Art Talk Series Highlights
Art Talk: 2020 Posts
Art Talk: 2019 Posts
Art Talk: 2018 Posts