View of the Monastery of El Escorial
Third quarter of the XVII century.On display elsewhere
Between the vegetation of La Herrería and a sky that silhouettes the mountains, the southern façade of the Royal Seat of San Lorenzo, perhaps the most balanced of the entire edifice, stands out in the light. The painter emphasizes the rows of windows to mark the wall´s horizontality, establishing a contrast with the vertical towers on the corners. The church´s central nave and transept are also visible, as is the dome where they intersect.
This monastery of Hieronymite friars stood at what were then the outskirts of El Escorial, in the midst of the Sierra del Guadarrama. Philip II ordered it built after a long period of preparation, and its Founding Charter, which dates from 1567, lists the reasons for its construction: to give thanks to God for his favors to the Spanish crown and to provide the Royal Family and its successors with a pantheon for their mortal remains. This grandiose building also commemorates the Spanish army´s triumph at the Battle of Saint Quentin, which occurred on Saint Laurence´s feast day in 1557.
The king appointed Juan Bautista de Toledo to direct construction of this monument which, in the Italian sense, is dominated by square and rectangular volumes both horizontally and vertically. Work continued after Bautista de Toledo´s death and was completed under the supervision of Juan de Herrera. The first stone was laid on April 23, 1563—for the very façade depicted here—and the last on September 13, 1584. The decoration and construction of the pantheon mentioned above required further work, however, and were not completed until 1654.
The La Herrería estate, which offered Agüero the panoramic view depicted here, was a rich forest and hunting ground and was soon taken over by the Monastery. Documents reveal the king´s interest in it as early as 1561, when it still belonged to Pedro Gómez de Porras. This canvas, as well as its companion (P00892), are from the Royal Collection. Their highly elongated format suggests they were intended to hang over doorways. When they arrived at the Museo del Prado, they were attributed to Mazo, but they are undoubtedly two of the thirty-three landscape paintings listed as originals by Agüero in the palace inventories.
Urrea, Jesús, Pintores del reinado de Felipe IV, Madrid, Museo del Prado-Caja de Ahorros de Navarra, 1994, p.86
