Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón: geometric drawing and stonecutting in his work
Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón (1500-1577) is considered one of the most important Spanish architects of the sixteenth century. Son of the prestigious stonemason Juan Gil de Hontañón, he is the last representative of Gothic tradition in Spain. His work expanded over a vast territory of the Crown of Castile, where he built countless religious and civil buildings. He took part in the construction of two of the most noted buildings of his time, the cathedrals of Salamanca and Segovia. Besides, he is the author of the most complete manuscript on Gothic construction in Europe. His figure has been the subject of numerous studies, mainly referring to the historical aspects of his work and, to a lesser extent, to those of structural design theory contained in his texts. However, virtually none of them analyzes the practices used by this master in the design and construction of his buildings.
Ribbed vaults are without a doubt the most relevant elements in the work of Rodrigo Gil, from the point of view of stonecutting. The main part of this Doctoral Thesis is devoted to them, and focuses on two categories. The first one refers to the geometric features of these structures, analyzing, on the one hand, their proportion, dimensional ranges and plan layout, and, on the other hand, the design of their arches and ridge. The second one investigates the constructive features of the elements that make them up, examining successively their ribs, tas-de-charges, bosses and web. The individual and comparative study of a set of 104 vaults, carried out under the specified criteria, has enabled to establish the most usual procedures of drawing and cutting utilized by Rodrigo Gil: the analysis has disclosed that rather limited techniques are hidden behind their elaborate patterns, aimed at considerably simplifying vault drawing, execution and erection, and very effective in their results. The construction of a 1:3 scale model of one of these vaults has brought some of these devices to light.
Along with the aforementioned ones, other architectural stonework elements are also present in the buildings by Rodrigo Gil, such as arches, arrière-voussures, pendentives, squinches, stairs, and varied vaults. A small section is dedicated to them.
Additionally, the research deals with Rodrigo Gil’s architectural booklet. A detailed analysis has resulted in the identification of a series of procedures oriented to establish the architectural layout of a Gothic religious building. Next, a set of fifteen churches designed by this master has been selected, in order to examine the application, on the one hand, of these design criteria, and, on the other hand, of some of the well-known rules for structural sizing.
A study of the historical and professional context in which Rodrigo Gil developed his activity, as well as a brief historical review of each of the buildings in which this master took part, is included, for the purpose of complementing the understanding of this architecture.