Architecture And Artistic Practices In Fourteenth Century Castile: The Visual Memory Of Alfonso Xi And Pedro I Under The First Trastamaran Kings

In 1369 the Castilian Civil War came to an end when Pedro I was murdered by his stepbrother, Enrique II, the first king of the Trastámara dynasty. The importance of the artistic patronage of Pedro I and his courtesans is well known, but 1369 seems to stand as a historiographical watershed, as though the death of the king brought to an end a period of experimentation, interconnections and creativity.This article analyzes the architecture and artistic practices in Castile during the decades immediately following the end of the war, a key moment in the articulation of a Castilian courtly architecture. It considers how the artistic experimentation of the previous decades, which includes the reigns of Pedro I and his father Alfonso XI, was continued and revisited during the early years of the Trastámaras dynasty, not only by the kings themselves but also by the nobility.