RODRÍGUEZ, Ventura

Spanish architect. He was the son of a bricklayer. In 1727, he collaborated with his father in the work at the Royal Palace of Aranjuez. He was trained by Filippo Juvarra and Giovanni Battista Sacchetti, among others. His work followed the transition from BaroqueGLOSSARYThe period in art history from about 1600 to about 1750. In this sense the term covers a wide range of styles and artists. In painting and sculpture there were three main forms of Baroque: (1) sumptuous display, a style associated with the Catholic Counter Reformation and the absolutist courts of Europe (Bernini, Rubens); (2) dramatic realism (Caravaggio); and (3) everyday realism, a development seen in particular in Holland (Rembrandt, Vermeer). In architecture, there was an emphasis on expressiveness and grandeur, achieved through scale, the dramatic use of light and shadow, and increasingly elaborate decoration. In a more limited sense the term Baroque often refers to the first of these categories. The development of the Baroque reflects the period's religious tensions (Catholic versus Protestant); a new and more expansive world view based on science and exploration; and the growth of absolutist monarchies. architecture in the academic mold to the classicalGLOSSARYRelating to the culture of ancient Greece and Rome (classical Antiquity). The classical world played a profoundly important role in the Renaissance, with Italian scholars, writers, and artists seeing their own period as the rebirth (the "renaissance") of classical values after the Middle Ages. The classical world was considered the golden age for the arts, literature, philosophy, and politics. Concepts of the classical, however, changed greatly from one period to the next. Roman literature provided the starting point in the 14th century, scholars patiently finding, editing and translating a wide range of texts. In the 15th century Greek literature, philosophy and art - together with the close study of the remains of Roman buildings and sculptures-expanded the concept of the classical and ensured it remained a vital source of ideas and inspiration. building styles of the later eighteenth century. Until the death of Ferdinand VI he enjoyed great respect as court architect and later worked as professor of the Academy.

Of the innumerable designs he created for the court, the Academy, and for private commissions, about fifty were actually realized. While his early work was still completely under the influence of the Italian Baroque of Bernini to Guarino Guarini, by the end of the 1750s the influence of French architecture was evident in his academically classical style. The discovery of the Greco-Roman remains, however, caused Rodríguez to look again the work of Juan de Herrera and thus brought about his break with his own architectural heritage.

His first major work, still entirely in the Baroque idiom, was the parish church of San Marcos in Madrid (1749-53) In 1750 he undertook the difficult task of converting the pilgrimage church of El Pilar in Zaragoza. His design for the church of the monasteryGLOSSARYthe complex of buildings used by a community of monks. Among the main elements of the complex are the church, cloister, chapter house (used by the governing body), refectory (dining room) and dormitory (sleeping quarters). of the Augustinian missionaries to the Philippine Islands in Valladolid (1760) was based on a clear and functional concept, directly in the tradition of Herrera's unornamented architecture. The façadeGLOSSARYthe front or principal face of a building, especially one elaborately constructed; a blind façade is a façade that is purely decorative and does not relate to the structure of the building. of Pamplona cathedralGLOSSARYThe principal church of a province or diocese, where the throne of the bishop is placed. For reasons lost to time and tradition, a cathedral always faces west - toward the setting sun. The altar is placed at the east end. The main body, or nave, of the cathedral is usually divided into one main and two side aisles. These lead up to the north and south transepts, or arms of the cross, the shape in which a cathedral is usually formed. was executed in 1783 in style which anticipated the nineteenth-century romantic movements.