Architects of Madrid: Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón
In 2017, the 5th anniversary of the death of Cardinal Cisneros, founder in 1499 of the Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso, the origin of the University of Alcalá, was celebrated. On a simple initial structure with the basics already in place (Cisneros wanted to start work as soon as possible), in 1537 construction began on one of the hallmarks of Alcalá de Henares: the new façade. This commission would become one of the exponents of the Plateresque style, a style of transition between Gothic and Renaissance, and the most outstanding work of its author: Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón.
Brief biographical sketch
Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón (Rascafría, 1500 - Segovia, 1577)
He was born in Rascafría in 1500 into a family of stonemasons and architects: his father Juan, close to the Guas circle, would be in charge of training Rodrigo and his brother, Juan Gil de Hontañón 'El Mozo', who would become a senior teacher of works. After a period of learning in the works in which his father worked (Seville, Segovia, Salamanca ...), Rodrigo will participate in many of the most representative religious and civil projects of the time: the Guzmanes Palace and the Astorga Cathedral, in Leon; the cathedral and the Palacio de la Salina in Salamanca; the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, where he builds the façade of the Treasury, and that of Segovia, in which the main chapel and one of the heads are attributed to him.
After a prolific career, Hontañón dies to the 77 years in the city where he performs his last great work, the Cathedral of Segovia, the same one in which he is buried.
Works
In Alcalá de Henares, for the composition of the façade, Hontañón uses symbolic elements. The allegories refer to knowledge through Philosophy and the Bible: practical wisdom is represented by Saint Ambrose, Saint Augustine, Saint Gregory and Saint Jerome. The spiritual, San Pedro, San Pablo and San Ildefonso. Halberdiers and Atlanteans defend the core of knowledge: the library on the 2nd floor. The façade is dominated by the coat of arms of Charles V and its dynastic symbols: the Fleece, the columns of Hercules and the double-headed eagle. The whole is crowned by a pediment: inside, God blesses the world; above him, a young couple and an elderly couple allude to the passage of time.
Also in Alcalá, he built the tower of the Magisterial Cathedral of Santos Justo y Pastor, begun in 1527, breaking with it the exterior austerity of a temple built by order of Cisneros on the remains of other medieval basilicas. It is a key construction in a city of relevance, as evidenced by the fact that it was one of the only two cathedrals in the world with the title of Magistral, in which all the canons had to be doctors of Theology.
Finally, it is worth noting in the work of Hontañón in Madrid his possible intervention in the tower of the basilica of the Assumption, in Colmenar Viejo, whose works are taken over by Juan Guas and Hannequín de Bruxelles. A church built under the auspices of the Mendoza family in which its tower stands out again, built in ashlar stone, surrounded by a balustrade and topped with a spire.
He also intervenes on the floor and roofs of the funeral chapel of the inquisitor Gregorio Vélez in the church of Torrelaguna, in the chapel of Alfonso Palacios in Colmenar Viejo and in the parish of Miraflores de la Sierra, as well as on the facade of the University in the Torre de la Magistral both in Alcalá de Henares. Likewise, although they were built by other stonemasons, the traces of the church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Meco and San Pedro Mártir de Fuente del Saz are his.
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