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Baltazar Álvares (c. 1545-1624) and its work
The work of the royal architect Baltazar Álvares has never deserved, until today, any specific study, contrary to what happened with other contemporary architects such as his uncle Afonso, Filippo Terzi or António Rodrigues. The inexistence of a monograph on his figure and activity constituted an obvious gap in the history of Portuguese architecture in the modern period and an injustice for what was, without a doubt, one of its greatest interpreters. This reality did not even have any logical reason, given the important set of works that, from an early age, were associated with its sphere of influence and whose importance, moreover, has always been recognized by art historiography since the second half of the 20th century.
The purpose that presided over the investigation of this regal architect and his work required, in addition to the historical context of his production, an analysis as systematic as possible of the main buildings attributed to him, translating this not only into the study of shapes, influences and material execution, but also in the composition of each of the parameters that define the architectural design: structure, function, proportion, aesthetics, plan-altimetric configuration, in other words, everything that makes it unique as an identifying artistic and cultural element of the period.