Abstract

CUESTA HERNANDEZ, Luis Javier. Some reflections on the Mexico City Mint Building and Luis Díez Navarro. An. Inst. Investig. Estét [online]. 2014, vol.36, n.104, pp.189-205. ISSN 0185-1276.

This work examines the production of the Spanish military engineer Luis Díez Navarro (Málaga, 1699-Guatemala, 1780), as an example of eighteenth-century artistic migration. From Spain, Navarro brought to the Viceroyalty of New Spain and the Capitanía General of Guatemala a complex genre: the duo formed by the fusion of military engineering and architecture. This entailed a new way of understanding and expressing the imaginary of metropolitan power in the Hispanic realms. Both in fortifications (Veracruz), and in administrative buildings (the Casa de Moneda, or mint, in Mexico City), Díez Navarro gave a new sense to the universality of Baroque architecture. It was, however, his work in the planning of the new capital of Guatemala, after a series of earthquakes had destroyed Santiago de los Caballeros in 1773, that ensured him a fundamental role in the dialectics of globalization and local identity.

Keywords : architecture of New Spain; eighteenth-century architecture; military engineers; Díez Navarro; Mexico City Mint.

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