Buenavista Palace ( es, El Palacio de Buenavista or ''El Palacio de los Condes de Buenavista'', "the palace of the

count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

s of Buenavista") is a historical edifice in Málaga,

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The t ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. It was built in the first half of the 16th centuryPalacio Condes de Buenavista
www.ISOCanda.org, 1998, reproduced on picasso.tamu.edu (the Online Picasso Project), accessed online 2010-01-16, says "1530–1540", as does Remedios García Rodríguez

Homines.com, portal of the Centro del Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, 2008-09-06, accessed online 2010-01-17.
Javier Arroyo
El museo del pintor en Málaga abrirá a finales de 2002 con 186 piezas
'' El País'' 2000-06-09, accessed online 2010-01-16, says 1530.
Palacio de Buenavista, en Málaga
''Diario Sur'', 2007-08-02, accessed online 2010-01-17, says the first quarter of the 16th century.

, europeforvisitors.com, accessed online 2010-01-17, says "built between 1516 and 1542 by Jewish converts". Those same dates are given by Javier Caballero
La 'nueva casa' del maestro
''El Mundo'', 2003-10-04, reproduced on the site of the Online Picasso Project, accessed online 2010-01-18. for Diego de CazallaPalacio Condes de Buenavista
www.ISOCanda.org, 1998, reproduced on picasso.tamu.edu (the Online Picasso Project). Accessed online 2010-01-16.
, Museo Picasso Málaga. Accessed online 2010-01-16. on the ruins of a Nasrid palace. Declared a "Property of Cultural Interest" in 1939, it was leased to the Spanish government in 1946 for a provincial art museum, which opened in 1961. In 1997 it was acquired to house the present

Museo Picasso Málaga The Museo Picasso Málaga is a museum in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain, the city where artist Pablo Ruiz Picasso was born.The Collection: History
, Museo Picasso Málaga. Accessed online 2010-01-16. It is located in the historic center of Málaga, in the Calle San AgustínMonumentos de Málaga
, webmalaga.com. Accessed online 2010-01-17 in the former Jewish quarter (''judería''),Javier Martín-Arroyo
La metamorfosis malagueña
''El País'', 2006-03-04. Accessed online 2010-01-17 next to the San Agustín convent and not far from the Cathedral of Málaga.

Architecture

Except for its towers, the Buenavista Palace is a two-story building. Its

Plateresque Plateresque, meaning "in the manner of a silversmith" (''plata'' being silver in Spanish), was an artistic movement, especially architectural, developed in Spain and its territories, which appeared between the late Gothic and early Renaissance ...

façade is built of thick stone blocks; the ornament around the doors and windows is elaborate, although the rest of the

ashar Ashar (Modern Turkish: ''Öşür'' or ''Aşar'' ) was a tax in the Ottoman Empire, based on the traditional practice of muqasama (which means "sharing"), a traditional tithe in the Fertile Crescent. It was abolished on 17 February 1925 in Turkey t ...

facades are simple to the point of austerity.Remedios García Rodríguez
Pasear por el centro de Málaga (2ª parte)
Homines.com, portal of the Centro del Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, 2008-09-06. Accessed online 2010-01-17. The doors and windows are very large, and are placed asymmetrically. The design of the main entrance is of a piece with the balcony over the door. The interior is arranged around two ''

patio A patio (, from es, patio ; "courtyard", "forecourt", "yard", "little garden") is an outdoor space generally used for dining or recreation that adjoins a structure and is typically paved. In Australia the term is expanded to include roofed str ...

s''. The first patio is surrounded by a double

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or cur ...

(a separate colonnade for each story). The other, farther in, is in the

Mudéjar style Mudéjar ( , also , , ca, mudèjar , ; from ar, مدجن, mudajjan, subjugated; tamed; domesticated) refers to the group of Muslims who remained in Iberia in the late medieval period despite the Christian reconquest. It is also a term for M ...

, with octagonal pillars, and two

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

-era mosaics. One of these, from

Cártama Cártama is a town and municipality in the province of Málaga, part of the autonomous community of Andalusia, southern Spain. The municipality is situated approximately from Málaga. It is one of the most extensive towns in the province, coverin ...

, represents the birth of

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

. The other, from Benalmádena, is in a geometric pattern. The stairway at the right accesses the upper story, which originally had the same floor plan as the ground floor. The floor plans have been somewhat modified for the Museo Picasso Málaga.Isabel Cámara Guezala and Rafael Martín Delgado
El encuentro del pasado y el futuro
''Diario Sur'' Digital. Part of th
Canal Picasso
series. Accessed online 2010-01-18. The palace is the most important example of seigneurial architecture executed after the 1487 conquest of Málaga by the forces of the

Catholic Monarchs The Catholic Monarchs were Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, whose marriage and joint rule marked the ''de facto'' unification of Spain. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, being bot ...

Isabella Isabella may refer to: People and fictional characters * Isabella (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Isabella (surname), including a list of people Places United States * Isabella, Alabama, an unincorpor ...

and

Ferdinand Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "protection", "peace" (PIE "to love, to make peace") or alternatively "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "co ...

during the

Granada War The Granada War ( es, Guerra de Granada) was a series of military campaigns between 1482 and 1491 during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, against the Nasrid dynasty's Emirate of Granada. It e ...

, the last war of the ''

Reconquista The ' (Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the Nasrid ...

''; Diego de Cazalla had participated in that conquest. The architectural style is basically that of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

, with a Plateresque façade and

Mudéjar Mudéjar ( , also , , ca, mudèjar , ; from ar, مدجن, mudajjan, subjugated; tamed; domesticated) refers to the group of Muslims who remained in Iberia in the late medieval period despite the Christian reconquest. It is also a term for ...

aspects. Some of those

aspects may be directly inherited from the previous Nasrid palace on the site: Professor Fernando Marías states that the ''torre morisca'' (" Moorish tower") adjacent to the Mudejar patio dates back to the old Nasrid palace. This combination is particularly emblematic of the period following the completion of the ''Reconquista''. The chief Mudéjar element is the tower, which resembles those of certain houses in Granada in its style of cornice and in the low ''

alfiz The alfiz (, from Andalusi Arabic ''alḥíz'', from Standard Arabic ''alḥáyyiz'', meaning 'the container';Al ...

''-style arches of its upper story, but is on a much grander scale than any found in that city. The basement is effectively an archeological museum in its own right, visible from above through transparent panels in the floor.Museo Picasso - Málaga
''Diario Sur'' Digital. Part of th
Canal Picasso
series. Accessed online 2010-01-18. During the construction of the museum, there were a series of interesting discoveries. There are remnants of a city wall and towers dating back to the

Phoenicians Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...

, of a

factory to produce the fish-based sauce ''

garum Garum is a fermented fish sauce that was used as a condiment in the cuisines of Phoenicia, ancient Greece, Rome, Carthage and later Byzantium. Liquamen is a similar preparation, and at times they were synonymous. Although garum enjoyed its gre ...

'', and also of an earlierSimon Baskett, John Fisher, ''The rough guide to Spain'', Rough Guides, 2004. . p. 464-465. Nasrid palace on the same site.

History

The palace was built in the first half of the 16th century. sometime after the death of Diego de Cazalla, it passed to the Counts of Mollina and in the 19th century to the Counts of Buenavista.Palacio de Buenavista, en Málaga
''Diario Sur'', 2007-08-02. Accessed online 2010-01-17. Eventually, the palace passed to the Countess de Luna. It was used as a family home for centuries, but less so from some time in the 19th century. After that, the palace had various uses including as an educational center, a furniture factory, and in 1938 (during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

) a

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and ...

hospital.Presentación del libro Arquitectura del Museo Picasso Málaga. Desde el siglo VI a.C. hasta el siglo XXI, patrocinado por Ferrovial
, Museo Picasso Málaga, press release 2005-28-01. Accessed online 2010-01-17. A royal decree in 1913 established the Museo de Bellas Artes (later Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes, "Provincial Museum of Fine Arts"), which opened in 1916 and was located beginning in 1920 in a space that had formed part of the former Jesuit College of Saint Sebastian. The museum built up a strong collection, including works by

Luis de Morales Luis de Morales (1509 – 9 May 1586) was a Spanish painter active during the Spanish Renaissance in the 16th century. Known as "El Divino", most of his work was of religious subjects, including many representations of the Madonna and Child and ...

("El Divino"),

Luca Giordano Luca Giordano (18 October 1634 – 3 January 1705) was an Italian late-Baroque painter and printmaker in etching. Fluent and decorative, he worked successfully in Naples and Rome, Florence, and Venice, before spending a decade in Spain. Earl ...

, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo,

Enrique Simonet Enrique Simonet Lombardo (February 2, 1866 – April 20, 1927) was a Spanish painter. Early life Simonet was born in Valencia. His first vocation of childhood was religious studies, but he abandoned it to devote himself to painting. Despite ...

Francisco Zurbarán Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Nicknames In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father of ...

, and other comparably distinguished artists. The Countess de Luna leased the palace to the Spanish State in 1946 as a new home for the museum; in 1961 the Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes moved into the palace. The Museum of Fine Arts was closed in 1997 to make way for the Picasso museum which, after extensive modifications including the addition of some new adjacent buildings, opened in 2003. As of 2010, the Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes collection remains intact. Various temporary exhibitions have taken place at the Palacio de la Aduana, but it does not yet have a new permanent home. The palace was selected for the Picasso museum in accord with the wishes of the museum's principal donor, Christine Ruiz-Picasso, who wished the museum to be housed in a notable and typically Andalusian building. Besides the palace itself, the museum incorporates 18 houses from the old ''judería'' (Jewish quarter). The museum was purchased in 1996 by the

Andalusian Autonomous Government The Regional Government of Andalusia ( es, Junta de Andalucía) is the government of the Autonomous Community of Andalusia. It consists of the Parliament, the President of the Regional Government and the Government Council. The 2011 budget was 31. ...

for the sum of 650 million pesetas. (roughly

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

6.5 million). The conversion of the building for the Museo Picasso was a major undertaking. Led by the American architect Richard Gluckman, along with Isabel Cámara and Rafael Martín Delgado,Gonzalo Zanza/Pedro Corral
Málaga: principio y fin del siglo de Picasso
''ABC'' (Madrid) 1999-11-06. Article begins on p. 31, link is to p. 33, which has the relevant passage. it was budgeted at over 2,000 million pesetas, about

20 million. In December 2009 the Fundación Museo Picasso Málaga ("Malaga Picasso Museum Foundation")—which operated the museum—and the Fundación Paul, Christine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso ("Paul, Christine and Bernard Ruiz-Picasso Foundation")—which owned the collection—merged to become the "Fundación Museo Picasso Málaga. Legado Paul, Christine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso" ("Museo Picasso Málaga Foundation. The Paul, Christine and Bernard Ruiz Picasso Legacy"). As a result, the Andalusian government agreed to give the new merged foundation ownership of the palace. La Opinión de Málaga.es,
La Junta aprueba el martes ceder la sede del Museo Picasso a su Fundación
', 2009-01-30. Accessed online 2010-01-16.

Notes

External links

* Remedios García Rodríguez

Homines.com, portal of the Centro del Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, gives a good architectural description of the building, with pictures. *
Canal Picasso
a very comprehensive series of articles about Picasso and the museum from ''Diario Sur'' Digital. These include a lot of images of the building, and articles about the building discuss what elements come from what period. * Isabel Cámara Guezala and Rafael Martín Delgado
El Patriominio Histórico en la Escena Urbana: El Museo Picasso Málaga
part of
Viva la Calle
', Ayuntamiento de Málaga, Comisión Europea y Ministerio de Economía y Hacienda. Undated (2005 or 2006). Includes numerous photos of the palace and surroundings, as well as some architectural drawings and sketches. {{DEFAULTSORT:Buenavista Palace, Malaga Buildings and structures completed in 1530 Palaces in Andalusia Buildings and structures in Málaga Bien de Interés Cultural landmarks in the Province of Málaga