Juan de Herrera

Contemporary coin portrait of Juan de Herrera (1578)

Juan de Herrera (* 1533 in Movellán , Cantabria ; † January 15, 1597 in Madrid ) was a Spanish architect , mathematician , scientist and scholar. He is considered to be the main builder of the El Escorial monastery near Madrid.

life and work

Origin, youth, military

Juan de Herrera was born out of wedlock into a family of wealthy Cantabrian petty nobility. His father Pedro Gutiérrez de Herrera (* approx. 1460) married Juan's mother María Fernández after the death of his wife and died around 1536 when Juan was three or four years old. Juan de Herrera was legitimized by this, but was not recognized in the family and later had to litigate for his inheritance.

At the age of 14, Herrera left his father's house in 1547. In autumn 1548 he joined the entourage of Crown Prince Philip in Barcelona , who later became King Philip II of Spain , and accompanied him as a simple sillero (young noble " blackhead ") on his journey to Italy , Flanders and Germany , where his father took him Charles V wanted to present as his successor. On this trip, from which he returned with the prince in 1551, Herrera came into contact with the artistic and intellectual currents of that time in Europe and broadened his educational horizon. However, he did not get a permanent position and had to leave the court in Valladolid after returning to Spain.

In 1552 he joined the Spanish army and in 1553 moved with a company of soldiers to Italy, where he was accepted as a mounted arquebusier in the bodyguard of the imperial condottiere Ferrante Gonzaga and took part in battles in Piedmont . In the spring of 1554 Ferrante's army was called to Flanders and took part in battles against French invading forces under the leadership of Charles V. It was the last personal military engagement of Emperor Charles. After a successful defense, the emperor withdrew to Brussels . Ferrante's association was dissolved and Herrera was assigned to the emperor's bodyguard. After his abdication, he accompanied Karl on his return journey to Spain in 1556 and, according to older assumptions, is said to have followed him to the monastery of Yuste , which recent studies cast doubt on, as the bodyguard was probably disbanded before moving into the monastery.

At the court of Philip II.

After the death of Emperor Charles, he entered the service of Philip II in 1558, for whose court he remained active throughout his professional career. Around 1562 he was one of the teachers of Prince Don Carlos . For the training of the heir to the throne, he copied several astronomical textbooks, including the Libro del Saber de Astronomia from the Alphonsian translation school of Toledo in the 13th century.

Architectural work

South side of El Escorial

He began his construction work in 1561 as an assistant to the court architect Juan Bautista de Toledo in the construction of the royal palace complex of Aranjuez south of Madrid, which he later completed on his own. From February 1563, Juan de Herrera worked on behalf of the king under the direction of Toledo on the construction of the monumental monastery complex Real Monasterio de El Escorial in the mountains outside Madrid. Initially he took part in planning work and deepened his architectural knowledge. Herrera was a gifted draftsman and many of his designs have been preserved. From the seriously ill Toledo, who died in 1567, he finally took over the sole construction. A modified and expanded floor plan of the church in the center of the monastery complex compared to the original plan and the decoration of the church interior are regarded as his independent work. The ornament-free design of the huge facade surfaces is essentially attributed to Herrera, who, in addition to working on the Escorial, also carried out numerous other construction projects. From 1572 he officially took over the management of the building and completed the complex in 1584.

The strict architectural style of the complex was named after him in Spain as the " Herrera style ". From 1579 Herrera served as building inspector for the Spanish Crown, which contributed to the rapid spread of the Escorial style, which he helped shape, throughout Spain.

Scientific work

Herrera's hand-drawn drawing from one of his astronomical treatises shows an armillary sphere

In 1583 he founded the Academia de Matemáticas y Delineación ("Academy of Mathematics and Technical Drawing", forerunner of the Spanish Academy of Natural Sciences ) and became its first director. Herrera was particularly interested in classical sciences such as astronomy, mathematics, and physics and was a follower of Neoplatonic philosophy . He is said to have a special relationship with the thinking of the medieval Catalan philosopher Ramon Llull . Herrera is also credited with a "treatise on the dice figure " ( Discurso sobre la figura cúbica ), which proves his excellent knowledge of geometry . But he was also interested in alchemy and materials science. “As a typical Renaissance person, he was interested in all forms of intellect: mathematics, philosophy, art, etc. His mind was always open to new things,” summarizes biogram author Esther Alegre ( MCN Biografías ). Overall, his concept of science was more practical and application-oriented, despite broad theoretical interests. Already in the 1560s he was noticed for the development of an improved metallurgical process for copper extraction, which showed his process engineering understanding and practical application skills. Better techniques for metal extraction were in great demand for the newly conquered colonial empire overseas, from which mainly precious metals flowed back.

End of life

Due to a serious illness, he spent the last years of his life from 1594 withdrawn in his house in Madrid. After his death in 1597 he was buried in the Servite Church of San Nicolás in Madrid. According to his testamentary wish, his remains were later transferred to his Cantabrian homeland.

Afterlife

Juan de Herrera, with a wide range of interests, was also active as a writer apart from his architectural projects. In addition to his numerous buildings and designs, he left textbooks, scientific treatises, military-historical treatises and memorabilia. He is considered to be the most important Renaissance architect in Spain and, in addition to the Escorial and the Royal Palace of Aranjuez (one of the residential castles of the kings of Spain ), built the town hall and the Renaissance facade of the Alcázar of Toledo (1571–1585), the current building of the Archivo General de Indias in Seville (1582/83) and the Puente de Segovia (1582–1584) in the Renaissance quarter of Madrid . Valladolid Cathedral, built between 1585 and 1589, is usually considered his masterpiece. Some of his buildings are now part of the UNESCO World Heritage .

literature

• Miguel Ángel Aramburu-Zabala Higuera (ed.), Javier Gómez Martínez (arrangement): Juan de Herrera y su influencia. Files from the symposium in Camargo, 14. – 17. July 1992. Fundación Obra Pía Juan de Herrera, Universidad de Cantabria , Santander 1993.
• Catherine Wilkinson-Zerner: Juan de Herrera. Architect to Philip II of Spain. Yale University Press, New Haven 1993.
• Agustín Ruiz de Arcaute (1889–1967, author), Javier Ortega Vidal (ed.): Juan de Herrera. Arquitecto de Felipe II. Instituto Juan de Herrera, Escuela Técnica de Arquitectura (School of Architecture), Madrid 1997 (new edition of a standard work published in Madrid in 1936, reprint of the first edition with an introduction by the publisher; the book appeared in response to the 1996 edition . Spanish translation of the architect's biography of American Wilkinson, who was heavily criticized in Spain).
• Agustín Bustamante García: Juan de Herrera y su obra. Reviewed May 1, 1997 in Revista de Libros (critical of Wilkinson).
• Miguel Ángel Aramburu-Zabala Higuera: Estudio crítico. Juan de Herrera. Fundación Ignacio Larramendi, Madrid 2013.

Web links

Commons : Juan de Herrera  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Esther Alegre Carvajal: Herrera, Juan de (1530–1593). Short biography on the MCN Biografías platform (Spanish).
• Herrera Juan de. In: Arts4x (online encyclopedia for art, architecture and plastic arts), accessed June 11, 2017.