Juan Bautista Villalpando

Juan Bautista Villalpando (also Villalpandus, * 1552 in Córdoba ( Spain), † May 22, 1608 in Rome) was a Spanish Jesuit priest, scholar, mathematician and architect.

Life

Villalpando came in 1575 in the Society of Jesus. He studied geometry and architecture at Juan de Herrera, the architect of the Spanish King Philip II and the second architect of the Escorial. After ordination, he specialized in the exegesis of the Old Testament.

Work

Villalpando's main work as a scholar is a three-volume commentary on the biblical prophet Ezekiel ( Ezechielem Explanationes ), which he published with the support of Philip II.

Famous and influential were his ( fictional) reconstructions of Solomon's Temple and the Heavenly Jerusalem after the vision of the prophet, which appeared in 1604 in the second volume of his Ezekiel commentary. They have been shown by many European illustrators and circulated among the builders of the 17th century. The reconstruction should prove that the buildings of the Holy City were constructed according to the divine laws of harmony and geometry consistent with the principles of ancient architecture treatise of Vitruvius.

The illustrations brought Villalpando an ecclesiastical investigation because of incorrect interpretation of Scripture, but failed in his favor. Villalpando's illustrations of Solomon's temple may have had an impact on numerous monastic buildings of the baroque some art historian 's view. The geometric designs of systems with square courtyards and projections as they also shape the Programmbau of the Escorial, find themselves in the baroque monastery buildings around the imperial abbey of Salem or the pin Admont; a direct influence, however, is difficult to prove.

In addition Villalpando wrote theoretical treatises on gravity, the geometry and architecture, which he mainly dealt with the transfer of geometric principles to buildings. The great polymath Isaac Newton made ​​of Villalpando's work in his studies of architecture use.

As an architect he built, among other things, the church of the Jesuit College of Seville. He also designed the first Spanish church with an oval ground plan.