HISTORICAL CONTEXT
El Casón del Buen Retiro was constructed by Alonso Carbonel in 1637. It was built for el Conde Duque de Olivares during the reign of Felipe IV. It initially had the function of a dance room from la Corte de Felipe IV (it was one of the few buildings that survived to the destruction of the Palacio del Buen Retiro), but over time el Cason Del Buen Retiro became a museum. The building was started by Alonso Carbonell, but it was continued and finished by José de Olmo in the 17th century. In the early 19th century, its baroque style was altered, and in 1868, it was nationalised by the revolutionary government becoming the Museo Nacional de Reproducciones Artísticas.
In that time, social conflicts with the validos(that was a new invention from the spanish monarchy and by these way they could mind their own bussiness while validos minded the goberment problems and decisions.) occurred and in 1640 a big crisis appeared due to the continious wars. Then another big problem were the epidemics, famines and more demographic problems,but finally at the end of this century, most of the economy and society problems disappeared and evolved. The most important thing was this century was called The Gold Century.
ARCHITECTURAL STYLE
El Casón del Buen Retiro is mainly built of stones and bricks. Its principal entrance was mainly constructed with stones. Its decoration includes ionic columns and medium, pointed arches. On the interior of the vault, we can find the Alegoria Del Toison de Oro. They used pulleys and horse cars to transport and place the rocks. To lay the bricks, they made their own scaffolding.
Over time, El Casón del Buen Retiro has suffered changes because of the deterioration of the materials.
Inside on the vault, a few painters from the XIX restored the vault painting several times. Outside, as El Casón was one of the few buildings that survived a fire, it was restored when it joined the Prado, and two facades were added to have more space.
On the inside, we can find the Alegoría del Toisón de Oro painting that was painted by Luca Giordano in 1695. After the destruction of El Buen Retiro, it experimented some restorations with the neoclassical style.
Originally, the facade was different from the current one. The front part of the building that we can see from Calle Alfonso XII was redesigned in 1887 by Antonio Felipe Peró, Manuel Antonio Capo and Mariano Carderera.
Nowadays, it is one of the buildings that forms part of the Prado Museum. It is the home to many paintings from the 19th century even though it's not in the same location as the Prado Museum.
GEOLOGICAL ASPECTS
MATERIALS USED IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE BUILDING
Granite: Granite is an igneous plutonic rock. It solidifies inside the Earth's crust.
Clay: Clay is a sedimentary rock that is fine-grained and is made up of particles from the soil. It is treated and then pressed into molds to create the individual bricks. The clay is set aside to dry, fired in a kiln, and when hardened, it is used to build.
WHY DID THEY USE THESE MATERIALS?
They decided to construct it with stone 100 years after a fire destroyed the Palacio Real del Buen Retiro. In this fire, the king lost many important paintings and a lot of money.
They used granite because igneous rocks are durable, harder than other rocks and very dense, so it doesn't deteriorate with time.
DESCRIPTION
CHICOS THIS IS REPEATED FROM ABOVE UNDER ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION. CHANGE IT.
El Casón del Buen Retiro is mainly built by stones and bricks. Its principal entrance was mainly constructed with stones and also its decoration includes Ionic Columns and also Medium Pointed Arches and on the interior of the vault we can find the Alegoria Del Toison de Oro. They used pulleys and horse cars to transport and put the rocks and to put bricks they made their own scaffolding.
By the time El Casón del Buen Retiro has suffered changes because of the deterioration of the materials.
Inside, on the vault a few painters from the XIX restored the vault painting several times and outside, as El Casón was one of the few buildings that survived, when it joined the Prado Museum, it was restored and they also added 2 facades to have more space.
HOW DID THEY MANIPULATE THE ROCKS
Granite can be found in many quarries in Spain, like Pontevedra, Madrid, Alicante, Valencia, Murcia Barcelona, Málaga, Toledo and in many other places. The biggest quarry of granite in Spain is Madrid with 265 businesses.
