Gianello della Torre

Gianello della Torre or to Spaniards Juanelo Turriano or Giovanni Torriani, c. 1500 — 1585) was an Italo-Spanish clockmaker, engineer and mathematician. He was born in Cremona.

Juanelo Turriano
Bust of Juanelo Turriano
Born
Giovanni Torriani

1500
Cremona, Duchy of Milan
Died1585 (aged 85)
Toledo, Spain
Resting placeToledo, Spain

Biography

Called to Spain in 1529 by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, he was appointed Court Clock Master and built the Cristalino, an astronomical clock that made him famous in his time. Philip II of Spain named him Matemático Mayor. He worked and lived in Toledo, where he built the Artificio de Juanelo, an engine that, driven by the river itself, lifted water from the Tagus to a height of almost 100 meters, to supply the city and its castle (Alcázar). He, however, did not get to be properly paid for its expenses.

A wooden figure. Gears are visible on the right.
The monk automaton exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2020.

Turriano is attributed as the creator of the "Clockwork Prayer", an automaton representing a monk manufactured in the 1560s based on a commission from Philip II of Spain.[1][2] Following the recovery of his son, and in the belief that Didacus of Alcalá had in some way intervened on his behalf, King Philip II of Spain would have commissioned Juanelo Turriano, mechanic to his father, to build a clockwork model of Didacus. The model would perform a number of set actions, including the beating of the breast which accompanies the Mea culpa prayer. An automaton of similar age, functions, and appearance is in the collections of the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.[3] [1]

Another automaton associated with Turriano is a figure of a lady playing a lute housed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.[1][4]

He died at Toledo in 1585.

Bibliography
  • Zanetti, Cristiano. Janello Torriani and the Spanish Empire: A Vitruvian Artisan at the Dawn of the Scientific Revolution. Brill, 2017.

References
  1. King, Elizabeth (Spring 2002). "Clockwork Prayer: A Sixteenth-Century Mechanical Monk". Blackbird. 1 (1). Retrieved 2011-06-18.
  2. "A Clockwork Miracle". Retrieved 2011-06-18.
  3. "Smithsonian Institution collections listing".
  4. Martin L. Davies, ed. (2003). Breaking the disciplines : reconceptions in knowledge, art and culture. London [u.a.]: Tauris. ISBN 9781860649172.
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