Palacio Torre-Tagle, Lima
Date
1735
Creator
Name(s) currently unknown
Location
Lima, PER
Introduction
The Palacio Torre-Tagle is considered by many to be the most luxurious and elegant private home still extant from Spanish America. It occupies a busy street near the center of Lima.
Iconography
Rooms on the second floor of this urban mansion open onto balconies. The wooden screen of the balcony windows develops a Moorish tradition of allowing insiders to see out into the world, but not to be seen from the street. While these cantilevered structures form a pair, the one at right is noticeably smaller, suggesting that asymmetry was an aesthetic preference. They are made of woods thought to be imported from Nicaragua or Guatemala. Other parts of the Palacio are built of hardwood from Peru’s jungles. The two-part portal, defined both by distinct architectural elements and material, forms a dramatic break between the balconies. Above the street-level entrance, the Torre-Tagle coat of arms is set in the stone. Its placement above the primary entrance was traditional in elite houses across Spanish America.
Patronage/Artist
The patron and first resident of the Palacio Torre-Tagle was don José Bernardo de Tagle y Bracho, a Spaniard given the noble title Marquis of Torre Tagle. He built the house as an elderly man, and lived there only a few years. The name of his architect is not known.
Material/Technique
The house was built of stone and wood. Interior parts of the house display exquisite tiles and wood-working in a style derived from Moorish prototypes, a style filtering into the New World through southern Spain.
Context/Collection History
Built on a street in the historic center of Lima, the Palacio Torre-Tagle passed from one family member to another for almost two centuries, until 1918, when the Peruvian government took over the mansion. Today it houses the state ministry of external affairs.
Cultural Interpretation
Palacio Torre-Tagle exemplifies both the affluence of Lima’s 18th-century residents and the conspicuous display of that wealth in domestic architecture. Indeed, visitors to Lima in the 18th century commented both with awe and disdain upon the luxury that was freely displayed in the city—not only in its churches and domestic buildings but also upon the bodies of Lima residents. Beyond this, the Palacio suggests something of the trade networks that allowed materials and ideas to flow from Europe and other parts of Spanish America to the viceregal capital of Lima.
Photo credit
Barbara E. Mundy
Cite as
Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy.
Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820. http://www.fordham.edu/vistas, 2015.
Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820. http://www.fordham.edu/vistas, 2015.
Selected bibliography
Bayón, Damián and Murillo Marx. 1992. History of South American Colonial Art and Architecture. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa.
Historia y Descripción del Palacio de Torre Tagle. Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores del Perú.
Historia y Descripción del Palacio de Torre Tagle. Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores del Perú.
Collection
Citation
“Palacio Torre-Tagle, Lima,” VistasGallery, accessed May 20, 2024, https://vistasgallery.ace.fordham.edu/items/show/1810.