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 Aranjuez.

Ventura's career was remarkably prolific. Between 1749 and 1753, he built the parish church of San Marcos in Madrid. In 1752, he was named the director of architectural studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando.

In 1750, he was commissioned with finishing and remodeling the basílica del Pilar of Zaragoza. Earlier plans by Felipe Busiñac, Felipe Sánchez, and Francisco de Herrera the Younger had not satisfied the demands of the municipality, a convenient distance from the river and proper alignment with the icon and other buildings. In the cathedral of Cuenca, Ventura was asked to construct a Transparente(a glass-roofed altar complex) similar to that made by Narciso Tomé in the Cathedral of Toledo.

Between 1755 and 1767, he decorated the interior of the church of the Royal Monastery of la Encarnación, in Madrid. Then at his peak of influence, the Bourbon monarchs of Spain, Fernando VI and Carlos III began to favor foreign architects such as the French Jacques Marquet and the Neapolitan Francesco Sabatini (nephew of Luigi Vanvitelli).

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