Acceso usuarios
Rafael Castillo Bejarano
After the Plaza Mayor of Madrid was largely rebuilt between 1617 and 1619, its monumental urbanism would enhance the splendour and the political symbolism of the many civic and sacred festivals and ceremonies—such as the staging of plays, bullfighting, tourneys, executions, autos-da-fé and processions—that were held within its newly rectangular shape. Antonio Mancelli’s classicist Verdadero retrato del suntuoso edificio de la plaza de la muy noble villa de Madrid (1623) portrays the brand-new forum (Figure 1), while he celebrates the memory of Philip III (1578–1621), the direct instigator of the renovation, as the worthy successor of ‘los mejores emperadores de la Monarquía Romana que hicieron mucho por ilustrar a su Roma haciéndola tan famosa con la gloria de sus edificios como con la de sus leyes’.
