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and 1698 it was the centerpiece of a Portu-
guese trade and military-naval dominance
in eastern Africa and the Middle East. For
varying periods during this span of years
Portugal controlled outposts at the entrance
to the Red Sea and at the entrance to the
Persian Gulf, including Zanzibar, Masqat,
Hormuz, and Socotra. Portugal also exer-
cised a transitory dominance of what is now
the Cape of Good Hope region in South
Africa during the 16th century. These loca-
tions were essentially way stations on its
trading route to India and the Far East, a
region ruled from G
OA
.
of the Angels in Los Angeles, California,
completed in 2002. By then his accomplish-
ments had already earned him the Pritzker
Prize, in 1996, generally regarded as archi-
tecture's equivalent to the Nobel Prize.
Moneo's admirers have repeatedly praised
his ability to combine a sense of the past
with the present circumstances of his archi-
tectural site and the future purpose of the
structure that he is designing. His respect for
the past is particularly valued by those who
favor the concepts of continuity and integ-
rity as opposed to radical innovation. Fur-
thermore he has consistently exhibited a
respect for the need to blend new additions
seamlessly with preexisting stages of con-
struction, most notably in his extension of
the Prado. This deference to the evolving
demands of a historical site has been criti-
cized by some as excessively cautious, and
his work has been perceived in some circles
as a rebuke to the boldness of architects
such as S
ANTIAGO
C
ALATRAVA
, who con-
stantly strive for the “new.” Moneo has
therefore been presented as a counterbal-
ance to his more daring contemporary.
Moneo stated his position clearly when he
declared that architecture demands a com-
bination of “beauty and necessity.” He has
set himself frankly in opposition to the
architects who “seek to manifest motion
instead of stability,” “the ephemeral instead
of the perpetual,” “the fragmented instead
of the whole,” and “the fictitious instead of
the real.”
Moneo, José Rafael
(1937- )
Spanish architect
Born in N
AVARRE
, Moneo was educated at
the Madrid School of Architecture and
worked at the Spanish Academy in Rome
from 1963 to 1965, after which he opened
his own architectural office in Madrid. Most
of his early commissions were in Spain,
beginning with the design of a factory in
Z
ARAGOZA
in 1967. He went on to create the
Museum of Roman Art in Mérida in 1986,
the building of the Miró Foundation at Palma
de Mallorca in 1992, and the long-discussed
extension of the P
RADO
Museum in Madrid.
He also held teaching positions in the Uni-
versity of Barcelona, Princeton University,
and, during the 1990s, at Harvard University
(where he was for several years chairman of
the department of architecture). His growing
reputation abroad earned him commissions
in Stockholm and in several cities of the
United States, including the Davis Art
Museum in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and
the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas.
Perhaps the most notable achievement in
that country was the Cathedral of Our Lady
Moratín, Leandro Fernández de
(1760-1828)
Spanish dramatist
Generally esteemed to be the best Spanish
dramatist of the neoclassical school,
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