Dome

View of retablo by Pedro Maldonado (1688-1690); The present church of Santo Domingo was begun in 1571 and finished in 1611. It was originally part of a Dominican monastery. It was mainly the work of Juan de Rivas and Pedro López Florín. Becerra cited his involvement in Puebla in building the churches of S Francisco, S Domingo, S Agustín and S Luis, besides the cathedral. The severe facade is in the Estilo desornamentado style, a term used to describe a phase in Spanish architecture in the 16th century and the early 17th, which developed in reaction to the excessive decoration of the Plateresque style. Emphasis was placed on the correct use of Classical orders, the composition of masses, walls and spaces and contemporary Italian practice. Estilo desornamentado owed much to the influence of Italian and Portuguese military engineers and to the anti-decorative functionalism of the first Jesuits. It was coined to replace the various terms--Herreran, Escurialense, Viñolesco, Tridentine and Mannerism--used by Spanish architectural historians to describe the Escorial and its sequels. Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.oxfordartonline.com/ (accessed 6/21/2009)