Torre de Santa María de Illescas

Torre de Santa María de Illescas 

Louis-Jules Arnout after Genaro Pérez Villaamil, 1844 

Lithograph 

The bell tower of the church of Santa María in Illescas, located halfway between Madrid and Toledo, is an exemplary representation of mudéjar architecture. Built in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, it combines round Romanesque arches with the intricate brickwork characteristic of Islamic architecture. This architectural style, which is unique to Spain, was developed during the gradual Christian conquest of Muslim-ruled territories between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries. Nearby Toledo features similar examples of buildings that blend Romanesque or Gothic with Islamic-style architecture.  

The church itself was extensively remodelled as a Gothic building in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries when the interior lost many of its original features. Some of these have been revealed in recent excavations. The tower, however, possibly because of its massive construction, was spared most of the worst effects of this transformation and continues to illustrate the architectural consequences of the political and religious upheavals and achievements during the Christian reconquest. Only the bottom three storeys are original; the fourth dates from the sixteenth century and the fifth, from the cornice to the cross, was added in the seventeenth century.  

Villaamil’s drawing perfectly captures the qualities of the tower that Escosura emphasises in his brief commentary: pureza, gallardía, economía, inteligencia, primor [purity, gallantry, economy, intelligence, elegance]. But what is most striking, perhaps, is the drama of the composition, with the church almost totally subservient to the tower, the tower itself strongly lit from one side by the setting sun, and the humble, semi-derelict dwellings and human figures in the foreground equally distributed between sol y sombra. 

Title: Torre de Santa María de Illescas |Tour de Sainte Marie de Illescas. 

Author/Artist: Louis-Jules Arnout (1814-1882, lithographer) after Genaro Pérez Villaamil (1807-1854, artist). 

Technique and Material: Lithograph on paper. 

Dimensions:  390 x 295 mm (image), 525 x 375 mm (page). 

Published: Plate 58 from Genaro Pérez Villaamil and Patricio de la Escosura. España artística y monumental. Three volumes. Paris: A Hauser, 1842-50. Volume 2.  

Date: 1844. 

Marks and Inscriptions: lower edge, left: ‘G.P.de Villa-Amil Dibujó’ / ‘Paris, chez A Hauser, boul. Des Italiens, 11.’; centre: title as above; right: ‘Arnout lith.’ / ‘Imp. Lemercier, Benard et Ce. À Paris.’ 

Institution: Barry Ife Collection.