Juan Bautista Villalpando
Encyclopedia
Juan Bautista Villalpando (also Villalpandus, or Villalpanda, born 1552 in Córdoba, Spain
—died 22 May 1608 in Rome
) was a Spanish
Jesuit
scholar, mathematician
, and architect
.
and San Hermenegildo Church in Seville
. He studied geometry and architecture with Juan de Herrera
, the architect of Philip II of Spain
. After ordination, he specialised in Exegesis
of the Old Testament
. After first publishing his Ezechielem Explanationes, or Commentary on Ezekiel, with Jerónimo del Prado in 1596 he was accused of heresy and faced an Inquisition
, subsequently he was found innocent. Also in 1596, Villalpando traveled to Rome where he published further volumes in 1604, and died in 1608.
Villalpando's major work as a scholar was a commentary on the prophet Ezekiel
, which was published with the support of Philip II. This text included imaginative reconstructions of Solomon's Temple
and depictions of Jerusalem, which were renowned and influential. They were based on the vision of the prophet Ezekiel, and appeared in his Ezechielem Explanationes. They inspired many European illustrators and were circulated among the master builders of the 17th century. His reconstructed drawings were based on the assumption that the buildings of Jerusalem were designed using the laws of geometry, and they were drawn in parallel or orthographic projection
, which is a form of image Villalpando likened to God's vision. Furthermore, they proposed an original link between the classical orders and Solomon's Temple. After the Renaissance
republication of Vitruvius
' De architectura
, which had reported that the origins of the orders lay in the Architecture of ancient Greece
, Villalpando reinterpreted them to provide a higher authority. His reading was that they had been derived from the architecture of Solomon's Temple, thus reconciling the Bible with the antique architecture described in Vitruvius' text, and finding classical architecture's origins in God
. The illustrations brought an Inquisitorial investigation against Villalpando, claiming a misinterpretation of the holy writing, which was however, decided in his favour. In the opinion of some art historians, Villalpando's illustrations of Solomon's temple had an influence on numerous monastery
constructions of the baroque
era, as well as on the gridded arrangements of urban planning
. Villalpando's imagery was used also in design of Protestant churches and synagogues, at least in the 17th century. Geometrical designs of facilities with quadratic inner courtyards and risalit
s are also found in the built form of El Escorial
: Villalpando was a disciple of Juan de Herrera, architect of El Escorial.
Some criticisms of Villalpando's work on Solomon's Temple bring up points with relevance to both architecture and philosophy. An architectural criticism is the exaggerated sized of the substructure of the Temple in his designs. Incidentally, this feature of an enormous buttress
ed base was subsequently used by Fischer von Erlach
in his Entwurf einer historischen Architektur, an early history of architecture
, figuring prominently in the early pages. A second related criticism is the lack of an archaeological basis, and apart from the detail of the renderings, a lack of grounding in realism. A textual criticism focuses on his failure to use Jewish sources distinct from the Hebrew Bible
, such as the writings of Josephus
, the Talmud
, and the writings of Maimonides
.
Villalpando also wrote theoretical tracts on gravity, geometry
and architecture
, occupying himself above all with conveying the geometrical principles of constructions. The great scholar of physics Isaac Newton
made use of Villalpando's works in his studies of architecture.
Córdoba, Spain
-History:The first trace of human presence in the area are remains of a Neanderthal Man, dating to c. 32,000 BC. In the 8th century BC, during the ancient Tartessos period, a pre-urban settlement existed. The population gradually learned copper and silver metallurgy...
—died 22 May 1608 in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
) was a Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
Jesuit
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
scholar, mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
, and architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
.
Life
Villalpando became a Jesuit in 1575, and for the Society he designed buildings such as the Cathedral in BaezaBaeza
Baeza is a town of approximately 16,200 inhabitants in Andalusia, Spain, in the province of Jaén, perched on a cliff in the Loma de Baeza, a mountain range between the river Guadalquivir on the south and its tributary the Guadalimar on the north. It is chiefly known today as having many of the...
and San Hermenegildo Church in Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
. He studied geometry and architecture with Juan de Herrera
Juan de Herrera
Juan de Herrera was a Spanish architect, mathematician and geometrician.One of the most outstanding Spanish architects in the 16th century, Herrera represents the peak of the Renaissance in Spain. His sober style was fully developed in buildings like the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial...
, the architect of Philip II of Spain
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....
. After ordination, he specialised in Exegesis
Exegesis
Exegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text. Traditionally the term was used primarily for exegesis of the Bible; however, in contemporary usage it has broadened to mean a critical explanation of any text, and the term "Biblical exegesis" is used...
of the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
. After first publishing his Ezechielem Explanationes, or Commentary on Ezekiel, with Jerónimo del Prado in 1596 he was accused of heresy and faced an Inquisition
Inquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
, subsequently he was found innocent. Also in 1596, Villalpando traveled to Rome where he published further volumes in 1604, and died in 1608.
Work
Ezekiel
Ezekiel , "God will strengthen" , is the central protagonist of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible. In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Ezekiel is acknowledged as a Hebrew prophet...
, which was published with the support of Philip II. This text included imaginative reconstructions of Solomon's Temple
Solomon's Temple
Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple, was the main temple in ancient Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount , before its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar II after the Siege of Jerusalem of 587 BCE....
and depictions of Jerusalem, which were renowned and influential. They were based on the vision of the prophet Ezekiel, and appeared in his Ezechielem Explanationes. They inspired many European illustrators and were circulated among the master builders of the 17th century. His reconstructed drawings were based on the assumption that the buildings of Jerusalem were designed using the laws of geometry, and they were drawn in parallel or orthographic projection
Orthographic projection
Orthographic projection is a means of representing a three-dimensional object in two dimensions. It is a form of parallel projection, where all the projection lines are orthogonal to the projection plane, resulting in every plane of the scene appearing in affine transformation on the viewing surface...
, which is a form of image Villalpando likened to God's vision. Furthermore, they proposed an original link between the classical orders and Solomon's Temple. After the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
republication of Vitruvius
Vitruvius
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman writer, architect and engineer, active in the 1st century BC. He is best known as the author of the multi-volume work De Architectura ....
' De architectura
De architectura
' is a treatise on architecture written by the Roman architect Vitruvius and dedicated to his patron, the emperor Caesar Augustus, as a guide for building projects...
, which had reported that the origins of the orders lay in the Architecture of ancient Greece
Architecture of Ancient Greece
The architecture of Ancient Greece is the architecture produced by the Greek-speaking people whose culture flourished on the Greek mainland and Peloponnesus, the Aegean Islands, and in colonies in Asia Minor and Italy for a period from about 900 BC until the 1st century AD, with the earliest...
, Villalpando reinterpreted them to provide a higher authority. His reading was that they had been derived from the architecture of Solomon's Temple, thus reconciling the Bible with the antique architecture described in Vitruvius' text, and finding classical architecture's origins in God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
. The illustrations brought an Inquisitorial investigation against Villalpando, claiming a misinterpretation of the holy writing, which was however, decided in his favour. In the opinion of some art historians, Villalpando's illustrations of Solomon's temple had an influence on numerous monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
constructions of the baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
era, as well as on the gridded arrangements of urban planning
Urban planning
Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....
. Villalpando's imagery was used also in design of Protestant churches and synagogues, at least in the 17th century. Geometrical designs of facilities with quadratic inner courtyards and risalit
Risalit
A risalit, from the Italian risalto for "projection", is a German term which refers to a part of a building that juts out, usually over the full height of the building. In English the French term avant-corps is sometimes used. It is common in façades in the baroque period.A corner risalit is where...
s are also found in the built form of El Escorial
El Escorial
The Royal Seat of San Lorenzo de El Escorial is a historical residence of the king of Spain, in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, about 45 kilometres northwest of the capital, Madrid, in Spain. It is one of the Spanish royal sites and functions as a monastery, royal palace, museum, and...
: Villalpando was a disciple of Juan de Herrera, architect of El Escorial.
Some criticisms of Villalpando's work on Solomon's Temple bring up points with relevance to both architecture and philosophy. An architectural criticism is the exaggerated sized of the substructure of the Temple in his designs. Incidentally, this feature of an enormous buttress
Buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall...
ed base was subsequently used by Fischer von Erlach
Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach
----Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, born Johann Bernhard Fischer was probably the most influential Austrian architect of the Baroque period....
in his Entwurf einer historischen Architektur, an early history of architecture
History of architecture
The history of architecture traces the changes in architecture through various traditions, regions, overarching stylistic trends, and dates.-Neolithic architecture:Neolithic architecture is the architecture of the Neolithic period...
, figuring prominently in the early pages. A second related criticism is the lack of an archaeological basis, and apart from the detail of the renderings, a lack of grounding in realism. A textual criticism focuses on his failure to use Jewish sources distinct from the Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
, such as the writings of Josephus
Josephus
Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...
, the Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
, and the writings of Maimonides
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
.
Villalpando also wrote theoretical tracts on gravity, geometry
Geometry
Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....
and architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
, occupying himself above all with conveying the geometrical principles of constructions. The great scholar of physics Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
made use of Villalpando's works in his studies of architecture.
Further reading
- Hanno-Walter Kruft. A History of Architectural Theory: From Vitruvius to the Present. Princeton Architectural Press. 1996. ISBN 1568980108
- Gregor Martin Lechner: '"Villalpandos Tempelrekonstruktion in Beziehung zu barocker Klosterarchitektur", in: Piel, Friedrich / Traeger, Jörg (ed.), Festschrift Wolfgang Braunfels, Tübingen 1977, 223-237
- Harry Francis Mallgrave. Architectural Theory - Volume I: An Anthology from Vitruvius to 1870. Blackwell Publishing. 2005. ISBN 1405102586
- Joseph Rykwert. On Adam's House in Paradise The Idea of the Primitive Hut in Architectural History. Museum of Modern Art. 1972. ISBN 0870705121
External links
- Ancient Maps of Jerusalem. Villalpando, Juan Bautista, 1552-1608 Jewish National & University Library.
- Jerusalem 3000: Three Millennia of History. VII. Jerusalem: From Town to Metropolis University of Southern Maine.
- Joseph MacDonnell, S.J. Juan Bautista Villalpando, S.J. (1552 to 1608) and his version of Solomon's Temple Fairfield University.
- Museum of the History of Science. The Temple: Catalogue Number 51 University of Oxford.