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Juan de Villanueva (September 15, 1739 in
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
– August 22, 1811) was a Spanish
architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
. Alongside
Ventura Rodríguez Ventura Rodríguez Tizón (July 14, 1717 – September 26, 1785) was a Spanish architect and artist. Born at Ciempozuelos, Rodríguez was the son of a bricklayer. In 1727, he collaborated with his father in the work at the Royal Palace of Aranj ...
, Villanueva is the best known architect of Spanish
Neoclassicism Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was ...
.


Biography

His father was the sculptor Juan de Villanueva and his brother,
Diego de Villanueva Diego is a Spanish masculine given name. The Portuguese equivalent is Diogo. The name also has several patronymic derivations, listed below. The etymology of Diego is disputed, with two major origin hypotheses: ''Tiago'' and ''Didacus''. E ...
was not only his protector, but also his teacher. He entered the
Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (RABASF; ), located on the Calle de Alcalá in the heart of Madrid, currently functions as a museum and gallery. A public law corporation, it is integrated together with other Spanish royal acad ...
as a pupil when he was eleven years old. In 1758, he travelled to
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to become a grant holder of the Academy to complete his studies. In 1765, he returned to Spain. A year later, he travelled through Córdoba and
Granada Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...
, where he, together with José de Hermosilla, went to draw the "Arab antiquities." The drawings from these travels were published in 1804. He settled in Madrid, where he was appointed Academic of the Academy of San Fernando. In 1777,
Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...
appointed him Architect of the Prince and the Infants. From then to the end of his life he would work almost exclusively for the Royal House. In 1781, he was appointed Architect of the Royal Monastery of El Escorial, and Charles IV appointed him Major Architect. He was going to construct several pavilions for the royal disposal: in 1771, he built the ''Casa de Infantes'' in the Royal Site of Aranjuez; in 1772, the ''Casita del Príncipe'', at
El Pardo El Pardo is a ward (''barrio'') of Madrid belonging to the district of Fuencarral-El Pardo. As of 2008 its population was of 3,656. History The ward was first mentioned in 1405 and in 1950 was an autonomous municipality of the Community of Madrid ...
; in 1773, the ''Casita de Arriba'' (with a Palladian scheme and a notable plasticity in the treatment for the main portal) and the ''Casita de Abajo'' or ''del Príncipe'', both in El Escorial, where he also constructed the ''Casas de Oficios'', a group of houses, according to the sober
Herrerian The Herrerian style ( es, estilo herreriano or ''arquitectura herreriana'') of architecture was developed in Spain during the last third of the 16th century under the reign of Philip II (1556–1598), and continued in force in the 17th centu ...
style of the Monastery. Nevertheless, his undisputed masterpiece is the
Prado Museum The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...
, projected in 1785 and 1787. It was constructed as a Museum of Natural History, a School of Natural History, and an auditorium for conferences and lectures. It was transformed into the Museum of Art in 1814, and today it is also known as ''Edificio Villanueva''. He was a prolific architect and he displayed the majority of his work in Madrid: buildings like the Academy of History, the Caballero de Gracia oratory, the Astronomical Observatory are remarkable. With his interventions in the Plaza Mayor, both after the fire of 1790 and in the Major House among others, he collabored in the renovation of the image of the city. He was buried in San Sebastian church, Madrid. (subscription or membership of a Spanish public library required) With his personal style and with his strong local influences, he was the architect who best brought the theorical basis of European Neoclassicism to Spain.


Main Works

* ''Casita de los Infantes'', Aranjuez (1771) * '' Casita de arriba'', El Escorial (1773) * '' Casita de abajo'', El Escorial (1773) * Royal Botanical Garden, Madrid (1774-1781) * '' Casita del Príncipe'', El Pardo (1784) * ''Casa de los Oficios'', El Escorial (1785) * Prado Museum, Madrid (1785) * Academy of History, Madrid (1788) * Oratory of Caballero de Gracia, Madrid (1789) * Major House of Madrid: Columned façade to the ''Calle Mayor'', Madrid (1789) *
Astronomical Observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. His ...
, Madrid (1790) * Reconstruction of the Plaza Mayor, Madrid (1791) * Príncipe Teater, Madrid (1804) * General Cemetery of the North, Madrid (1804)


References


External links


Digitized works by Juan de Villanueva
at Biblioteca Digital Hispánica,
Biblioteca Nacional de España The Biblioteca Nacional de España (''National Library of Spain'') is a major public library, the largest in Spain, and one of the largest in the world. It is located in Madrid, on the Paseo de Recoletos. History The library was founded by ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Villanueva, Juan De 1739 births 1811 deaths 18th-century Spanish architects 19th-century Spanish architects Spanish neoclassical architects Burials in Madrid