Context brings the brightest minds to your living room with perspective-shifting online lectures.

The Mudejar and Neo-Moorish Styles:  Islamic Influence on Western Architecture with Tiago Neiva

The Mudejar and Neo-Moorish Styles: Islamic Influence on Western Architecture with Tiago Neiva


No events are scheduled at this time. Want to be notified when it’s back? Click the blue button to the right and we’ll notify you.

Can't make this time? A video recording will be sent to all participants after the seminar.

Join historian Tiago Neiva to explore the artistic and architectural history of the Iberian Peninsula. Learn how the construction techniques and artistic style of the Mudéjar, the assimilated Muslim population post-Christian reconquest, have had a lasting influence on Spain and Portugal’s art and architecture. See how the Neo-Moorish revival in the twentieth century connects back to Iberia’s early political and artistic history.

The Iberian peninsula, contested for centuries, was dominated by Muslim rulers from North Africa for nearly 700 years. The aesthetic influences of this long history are still evident in Spain and Portugal today. After the fall of Al-Andalus, Muslims were allowed to remain in the territory despite the dramatic changes to religious, political and military life under the new Christian kings. These Mudéjars, or Muslims who maintained their faith and traditions, created a unique artistic style in the Medieval period. A confluence of Christian and Islamic styles, Mudéjar art has left a lasting impression on the history of art and architecture. We will explore churches, convents, and palaces that best express this unique aesthetic.

Centuries later, in the wake of the Romanticist fascination with the Oriental world and the search for exotic influences, a Neo-Moorish revival took hold across Europe and the Americas. Drawing on the architectural style of the Mudéjar, architects and designers employ the Islamic aesthetic in all kinds of buildings in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A parallel revival movement occurs in the Iberian Peninsula, creating what is known today as the Neo-Mudéjar style.

Led by an expert on Architecture and Art History, Tiago Miranda Neiva, this interactive seminar will explore the history of Islamic art and architecture in the Iberian Peninsula and compare this to the Neo-Moorish revival in the Western world. Designed to inform curiosity as well as future travels, participants will come away with a better knowledge of the rich legacy of Islamic architecture throughout modern history.

Tiago Miranda Neiva was born and raised in Lisbon. He studied architecture in Rome and worked later in distinct offices in Portugal and Spain. For several years he was Professor of Arts and Art History, having a Master's degree in Teaching of Visual Arts. He is currently working towards a PhD focused on the Art and Architecture of al-Andalus: the confluence between the Arab, Jewish and Christian medieval world. In recent years he has been working as a tour guide in his hometown, seeking to show and reveal its most intimate secrets through an authentic and passionate local vision.

This conversation is suitable for all ages.

90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A.

Customer Reviews

Based on 4 reviews
100%
(4)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
d
denise (Chicago, US)
Another Great Seminar

Tiago does a fabulous job with his seminars. I've signed up for all of his. He's so well organized, interesting, engaging and his passion for the subject really shows. This seminar brought together history and it's influence on architecture.

N
Nancy (New York, US)
A wonderful seminar

Anyone traveling to Spain will benefit from attending this lecture. It will greatly enhance my travels there. Tiago Neiva is a good teacher, explaining clearly the of main elements of Islamic architecture: materials, ornamentation, etc., so that identifying Mudejar buildings will be easy after this. Plus, he has a passion for the history of the great reconciliation of Islamic and Christian as played out in art.

K
Kath (Edmonton, CA)

Guest did not leave comment

A
Anonymous (Porto Alegre, BR)

Guest did not leave comment

Customer Reviews

Based on 4 reviews
100%
(4)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
d
denise (Chicago, US)
Another Great Seminar

Tiago does a fabulous job with his seminars. I've signed up for all of his. He's so well organized, interesting, engaging and his passion for the subject really shows. This seminar brought together history and it's influence on architecture.

N
Nancy (New York, US)
A wonderful seminar

Anyone traveling to Spain will benefit from attending this lecture. It will greatly enhance my travels there. Tiago Neiva is a good teacher, explaining clearly the of main elements of Islamic architecture: materials, ornamentation, etc., so that identifying Mudejar buildings will be easy after this. Plus, he has a passion for the history of the great reconciliation of Islamic and Christian as played out in art.

K
Kath (Edmonton, CA)

Guest did not leave comment

A
Anonymous (Porto Alegre, BR)

Guest did not leave comment