Caracterización de la iluminación natural original de las iglesias barrocas madrileñas, para su conservación y armonía con la iluminación artificial utilizada

Abstract

Nowadays, many churches have a "standard" artificial lighting whose sole purposes seem to be to provide enough light for the liturgical rituals or touristic use, emphasizing detached artistic or architectural elements. The original aspect of lighting in many Baroque churches of Madrid has, therefore, been ignored in its vision of a whole space where arts, architecture and light work together for a deeper intention. This study intends to classify different typologies of natural lighting, through the analysis of relevant examples in Madrid, and serve as well as a tool to support future artificial lighting projects. The objective of this paper is to analyze the natural lighting of Baroque church architecture in Madrid in search of elements that define it. Through a documentary and archival search of relevant cases it is possible to understand these architectural spaces in the moment they were conceived. Based on the available information and photographic data we proceed to a typological classification of lighting spaces. An analysis of artificial lighting used is also made in order to find solutions to improve its quality.