Perhaps more than anyone in the early eighteenth century, Ventura Rodriguez (1717-85) stands as the most exemplary Spanish architect, for he exhibited an outstanding character and ability that was unmatched by any of his immediate contemporaries (Reese 1976). Though he never made it to Italy, Rodriguez’ direct link with Italian artistic currents is well known, having been trained in the ateliers of the royal residences of Aranjuez, San Ildefonso (La Granja), and Madrid. In addition to his training with Filippo Juvarra and Giovanni Battista Sachetti at Madrid, he had worked under the Piacenzan architect and decorator Giovanni Battista Galluzzi, who had arrived in Spain about 1730 and placed in charge of the decoration of the interiors of the Royal Palace at Aranjuez (Bottineau 1986a: 453). Galluzzi brought with him his assistant Giacomo Bonavia, a painter-architect also from Piacenza. Though Galluzzi died early in 1735, Bonavia remained in Spain until his death in 1759, working primarily as the architect and planner in charge of rebuilding the palace and renovating the town of Aranjuez. There is, perhaps, no project in Rodriguez’ portfolio that illustrates the debates on the emerging Italian influence in Spain better than his Idea de un templo magnifico for the Accademia di San Luca in Rome (Marconi et al. 1974: II, 9).
Late in 1745, when Rodriguez was teaching architecture in the Junta preparatoria in Madrid, the Roman academy elected him an accademico di merito, but it was not until three years later that he submitted his final design as a dono accademico. That an architect would submit a completed project several years after receiving a diploma is certainly a curious situation, though by doing so he fulfilled the academy’s requirement that he present a design of his own invention. Thomas Reese (1976: 48) has suggested that this was likely the result of the Roman academy’s requirement that a member be thirty years of age. Yet the issue of experience extended well beyond the minimum age requirement. The Junta had originally appointed four professors to teach architecture: three Italians, Giovanni Battista Sacchetti, Giacomo Pavia, Giacomo Bonavia; and one Spaniard, Francisco Ruiz. All of the professors were over-burdened with their professional responsibilities and, as a consequence, the teaching of architecture at the Junta waned under the weight of early growing pains (Bedat 1989: 52 ff). Since February of 1745, Rodriguez had been teaching as a substitute for Sacchetti, who was committed to his Royal commissions over his obligations to the academy.
In 1745, following the death of Francisco Ruiz, Rodriguez applied for the vacant teaching post. He was turned down, as the Junta felt he was insufficiently qualified, but after a year of remaining unfilled, the position was finally awarded to him under the caveat that he was serving as Sacchetti’s substitute. Nevertheless, the Junta maintained their position that he was still too inexperienced to be a director of architecture, even though the students preferred his teaching methods to those of his colleague, the Frenchman Frangois Carlier (Caveda y Nava 1867: 124). Rodriguez was intent on reversing the opinion that he was unqualified to hold an academic post, and therefore he applied to be recognized by the Roman academy. His Idea de un templo magnifico was evidence of his merit and mastery of design. Rodriguez was so confident of his skills that he even sent copies of the drawings to the new monarch Ferdinand VI, in the hope that the king might approve of them as well and recommend him to the Junta. In spite of his efforts, Rodriguez never achieved the degree of recognition one would have imagined given his promising background, and, even though the Roman academy elected him an accademico di merito, he never did make it to Rome.
The principal aim of Rodriguez’ design was to tackle the single most important building type of contemporary Roman architecture - the centralized church plan as perfected in the Basilica of Saint Peter’s. Gil Smith (1993) has drawn attention to the importance of the centralized plan in late seventeenth - and early eighteenth-century Rome, particularly with respect to the frequency with which it was given as a theme in the architectural competitions at the Accademia di San Luca. The teaching methods of the Roman academy were key to the development of Late Baroque architecture in Spain. As pointed out by Reese (1976: 31):
The faculty of architecture under the Junta preparatoria was dominated by Italian architects working in the Spanish court who were all educated in the traditions of the Italian Baroque. Their task was to educate the pupils in these Italian traditions, their method involved the copying and imitation of the most celebrated monuments of the past, and their tools were the treatises, engravings, and illustrated books which were disseminated throughout Europe by publication.
Hence, Rodriguez’ design for a magnificent church signaled a turning point in the way that Spaniards would consider Roman architecture in the future.
As already noted in the previous chapter, Miguel Fernandez and Jose de Hermosilla were the first Spanish architects awarded a royal pension to study architecture in Rome. On January 9, 1747, Miguel Fernandez set off for Italy in the company of his fellow pensioners, Antonio Gonzalez Velazquez, and Francisco Gutierrez. Hermosilla was awarded a pension in May of 1747 and he set off on his journey to Italy shortly thereafter. It is likely that both Fernandez and Hermosilla had seen Ventura Rodriguez’ Idea de un templo magnifico. Moreover, they understood that the latter’s relationship with the Roman academy was a requisite step in completing his education and setting him on the correct path to achieving artistic excellence. Prior to their respective departures, Fernandez had been a pupil of Rodriguez in the Junta preparatoria, and Hermosilla had been working as a draftsman (delineador) alongside Rodriguez at the new Royal Palace in Madrid. And, even though Rodriguez did not complete his scheme until August 24, 1748, he had been working on the design for nearly three years. Moreover, aside from his professional and academic responsibilities at the Royal Palace and the Junta preparatoria, Rodriguez’ most important personal goal at the time was to establish a reputation as a critically-independent architect. Of all of Rodriguez’ early works, none displayed his interest with the notion of Roman grandeur and mastery of the Baroque formal vocabulary as intensely or profoundly as the Idea de un templo magnifico. Therefore, when Fernandez and Hermosilla set off for Rome in the late 1740s, they had a very clear idea of what their initial task had to be, and what sources they needed to verify in order to proceed with their own ideas for a magnificent church.
World History
