António Rodrigues, a Portuguese architect with a scientific inclination...

Abstract

This paper presents an architectural analysis of a pair of works by Mestre António Rodrigues (c.1520-1590), who was selected by Dom Sebastião in 1564 for the post of First Architect of the Realm: Santa Maria da Graça Church in Setúbal, now elevated to the status of Cathedral, and the Onze Mil Virgens Chapel in Alcácer do Sal, a latter addition to the Sto António Convent, built to serve as a mausoleum for Dom Pedro de Mascarenhas. By this analysis we wish to draw attention to the works rigorous geometric structure, as expressed in the proportions and the purity of the stereometric shapes that were used, as well as in the clarity of their spatial articulation. These characteristics are reinforced by the safety of a strong, clean drawing technique, which is a fundamental vehicle for the poetry of these architectural works. This high degree of convergence between geometry and classicism, taken from Euclid and Vitruvius, is ubiquitous in the work of António Rodrigues. It betrays his scholarly education, acquired in Italy and subsequently developed through his collaborations with Pedro Nunes, his mentor and colleague at the school of Moços Fidalgos do Paço da Ribeira. Here, António Rodrigues introduced for the first time in Portugal an official architectural education. While Pedro Nunes lectured on Mathematics and Cosmography, Rodrigues directed the Military Architecture course, for which he wrote an unpublished treatise of architecture, inspired in Vitruvius, Serlio and Pietro Cataneo (Rafael Moreira, 1982). This disciplinary treatise, to our knowledge the first in Portugal, highlights the theoretical side of his architectonic education and demonstrates his mathematical abilities: mimicking the works that inspired him, Rodrigues starts his treatise with a "book" of geometry and a "book" of perspective, which are also analyzed in our study.