Mistress of Her Domain

Emerging during the late Middle Ages, the domestic space known as the estrado kept pace with the ever-increasing reach and buying power of well-to-do households in Spain and the Spanish Americas, becoming a showcase for fineries from the world over. But as a female-coded area, it provided women a degree of autonomy and self-expression not generally possible in Continental or colonial society of the time.

During the fifteenth century, an opulent type of interior space known as the estrado, whose origins can be traced to the Muslim-controlled kingdom of al-Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula, began to gain predominance in upper-class Spanish homes. The Diccionario de Autoridades (Madrid, 1732) defines the estrado as the “set of furniture used to cover and decorate the place or room where the ladies sit to receive visitors, which is made up of a carpet or rug, pillows, stools or low chairs.” The earliest interpretations were characterized by a central platform, or tarima, layered with rugs and pillows. By the end of the fifteenth century, the concept evolved into a gendered symbol of wealth and prestige among Spain’s upper class, where women entertained guests or relaxed in privacy surrounded by the riches of Spain’s empire.

Lady in A Fancy Interior by Rogelio de Egusquiza Barrena (1845–1915), 1873. Signed and dated “R Egusquiza 1873” at lower right. Oil on panel, 8 3/8 by 6 3/8 inches.

Carpets were among the most important elements of the estrado, transforming the cold, tiled floors of Spanish homes into warm and inviting spaces. In the seventeenth century Spanish writer Juan de Zabaleta (b. c. 1600, active to 1667) vividly described estrado rugs as being “so large and so varied that hey resemble the floor of a large garden.”* The city of Cuenca became renowned for its production of rugs with distinctive golden yellow, cream, blue, and green dyes, whose makers drew inspiration from Turkish designs of the Ottoman Empire. Women sat cross-legged or reclining on pillows “a la morisca” (in the Turkish fashion) and entertained, did needlework, played instruments, or ate sweets and drank chocolate or mate, a traditional tea in Latin America.

Side table, Peru or Guatemala, 1700s. Mother-of-pearl, wood; height 28, diameter 27 1⁄2 inches. On loan from Robert Simon Fine Art, New York.

Known as muebles ratones, or “mouse furniture,” the estrado’s chests, writing cabinets, and low tables, as well as sillas bajas para mujer (“low chairs for women”), or taburetes, were typically small in scale. Such diminutive furnishings marked the estrado as a sitting room and highlighted the gender-specific nature of the space. (Men would occupy full-sized furniture in an adjacent area or room nearby, and only could enter the estrado if expressly invited by its female occupants.) During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, curiosity cabinets, known in Spain and its viceroyalties as escaparates, begin to appear in the estrado. These cabinets displayed objects crafted from ivory, mother-of-pearl, silver, and tortoiseshell—materials obtained through extensive trade networks spanning Europe, the Americas, and Asia. The Manila galleons connected the port of Manila in the Philippines to Acapulco, Mexico. From there, goods traveled across Mexico to the port of Veracruz and then to Spain. This route brought silk, ivory, ceramics, and other luxury items into the homes of elite women, many of which found their way into the estrado. Well-to-do families often purchased or commissioned furniture and decorative objects with lacquer—produced locally or imported from abroad—to display in the estrado. A number of inventories from New Spain list Chinese and Chinese-style decorative objects, furniture, and textiles. During the seventeenth century ceramic workshops in Puebla de los Angeles, Mexico, began producing blue-and-white tin-glazed earthenware known as “talavera poblana” (named after Talavera de la Reina near Toledo in Spain) inspired by true porcelain wares produced in Jingdezhen, China. Many of these forms emulated Chinese originals, like Ming porcelain ginger jars, but featured distinctively American motifs, like the nopal cactus.

Doña María Catalina de Urrutia by José Campeche y Jordán (1751–1809), 1788. Inscribed “Retrato/de la Sra. Da. Ma-/ ria Catalina de/ Urrutia. Año de 1788” on the piece of parchment at lower right. Oil on wood panel, 15 3/8 by 11 inches.

Goods and cultural influence flowed both ways along these trade routes, carrying the concept of the estrado outward from Spain to the far-flung territories of its global empire. In the viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru the estrado was adopted and adapted by women of various social and ethnic backgrounds, among the first being female descendants of Inca nobility, in the early seventeenth century. These women availed themselves of the rich natural resources of the Americas and the diverse array of objects that passed through the trade route of the Manila galleons en route to Europe.

The estrado’s opulence and coziness, and its association with women’s activities also made it a target for criticism, and a symbol of feminine frailty. Moralists condemned it as a site of frivolity and impracticality, emblematic of what they saw as the excesses of the self-indulgent and vain woman of means. By the first quarter of the nineteenth century, the estrado had largely disappeared from wealthy, cosmopolitan homes in Spain and the viceregal capitals. The decline of the estrado reflected broader shifts in peninsular Spanish and viceregal society in the Americas and coincided with the sweeping political and social changes of the eighteenth century, when the War of Spanish Succession ended with a king of the French house of Bourbon on the throne of Spain. During this period, French and English tastes began to influence cultural trends across the empire, and introduced fashionable new furniture styles like the sofa, adapted from its Turkish origins, and the settee. The estrado persisted in more rural areas in the Spanish Americas for several more decades, but as a shadow of its once central role in the domestic and cultural life of Spain and its empire.

“Espagnole du perou en Chupon et faldellin . . . ,” (“Spanish woman from Peru in an upper waistcoat and upper petticoat…”), showing a tarima, or platform, in an estrado, engraving attributed to Bernard Picart (1673–1733), from Amédée François Frézier (1682–1773), Relation du Voyage de la Mer du Sud aux cotes du Chili, du Perou, et du Bresil, fait pendant les années 1712, 1713, and 1714 (Paris: Chez Jean-Geoffroy Nyon, Etienne Ganeau, Jacque Quillau, 1716), p. 236, Pl. 36.

The history of the estrado serves as a testament to the interplay of social status, gender, and cultural identity in the Hispanic world during the centuries following the end of Moorish rule, and under the Spanish Empire. Its evolution, adaptation, and eventual disappearance illustrate how spaces within the domestic interior shaped, and were shaped by, broader historical forces—with particular ramifications for women and their ability to live independent lives, even while ostensibly confined to a limited domestic existence. Through its furnishings, collections, and social rituals, the estrado became a stage upon which women negotiated their place within society, asserting their agency and influence within their homes.

Rug, Cuenca, Spain, 1600s. Wool, 117 by 65 3/8 inches.

ALEXANDRA FRANTISCHEK RODRIGUEZ-JACK is assistant editor and graphic designer at the Hispanic Society Museum and Library, New York, and curator of A Room of Her Own: The Estrado and the Hispanic World, on view at the Hispanic Society Museum and Library in New York to March 9, 2025.

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