{"id":5303,"date":"2021-04-22T16:52:39","date_gmt":"2021-04-22T14:52:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.toursevilla.com\/?p=5303"},"modified":"2021-04-22T16:59:06","modified_gmt":"2021-04-22T14:59:06","slug":"palaces-of-seville-and-mithology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.toursevilla.com\/en\/palaces-of-seville-and-mithology\/","title":{"rendered":"3 palaces of Seville and classical mithology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the 3 main palaces of Seville we can find a beautiful decoration telling us the stories of gods and godesses of Rome and Greece.<\/strong> How can it be possible with the huge influence of the Church in the city in the old days? Read this article to know more about this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Catholic tradition in the art of Seville is very powerful as you well know. For lovers of painting and sculpture, we are familiar with the Christs, saints, virgins Mary and biblical scenes that since the Middle Ages have decorated not only religious but also secular monuments in our city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seville in the 16th and 17th centuries was flooded with churches and convents to combat the Protestant reform and left little space for other non-religious artistic manifestations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, one of the features of the Renaissance and also of the Baroque is that an attempt to return to Ancient times. Greek and Roman mythology became popular especially from Italy. But also the court in Madrid for the fondness of the Austrian monarchs<\/strong> quickly joined this fashion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, Charles V and the very pious Philip II were lovers of mythological art. They hired Titian or Rubens to decorate the palaces of the Spanish capital with gods and goddesses of Olympus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what about Seville? here the clientele of the artists was almost exclusively the Roman Catholic Church so there was not much room for different themes, but there was something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city of Seville itself would have been mythically founded by Hercules, a demigod.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is then that myth meets History. And although some versions make a legendary Phoenician merchant named Hercules-Melkart the founder of the city, others speak directly of the god Hercules who was sent to the Hesperides, to the far western border, to carry out some of his famous works. He was specifically commissioned to steal the oxen of Gerion, the king of Tartessos. Meanwhile, Hercules had time, among other things, to found our Hispal city, that would be later Seville.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today we can see an statue our hero in the Arch of the town hall. And also at the top of the columns of the square Alameda de Hercules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it was above all the nobles who, in imitation of what was happening in Italy, decorated their beautiful Renaissance palaces with classical myths. These are some examples that we can see in the main palaces of Seville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palaces of Seville 1. The Casa de Pilatos <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A mythological theme also referred to Hercules was represented by a Sevillian painter that we would never imagine. He was Francisco Pacheco, overseer of the Inquisition, a painter who established in his treatises how religious figures should be painted in order not to depart from Catholic orthodoxy. But he is also the author of portraits and occasionally of mythological scenes as we see in this beautiful ceiling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one of the halls of the upper floor of the Casa de Pilatos we can see represented the Apotheosis of Hercules, that is, the rise of Hercules to heaven. Hercules was the son of Zeus and Hecuba, he was therefore not immortal, but he achieved this immortality by his own heroic merits. Painting the hero, Pacheco wanted to make a parallel with his client, the III Duke of Alcal\u00e1: Don Fernando Enr\u00edquez de Ribera, a perfect Renaissance man and lover of everything Italian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another daughter of Zeus is Athena, born from the head of Zeus. We have this formidable warrior goddess in this Palace of Pilate. We actually have two, one with weapons called belligera<\/em> and the other unarmed, called pacifera<\/em>. They are two versions of the same character, one as a goddess of war but also of the opposite of her peace. The giant sculpture is made of marble, 4 meters high<\/strong>, brought by the founder of the palace from Italy and is largely a Greek original, although the arms and the head were added later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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