RODRGUEZ, LORENZO

born c. 1704, , Guadix, Spain died 1774, Mexico City, New Spain [now in Mexico] Spanish-born architect who became the originator of the elaborate ultra-Baroque style known as Mexican Churrigueresque. Rodrguez was a son and pupil of the chief architect for the bishopric of Guadix. From there he moved to Cdiz as a master mason. By 1731 Rodrguez had settled in Mexico City, where he was initially employed as a carpenter at the Mint. His Sagrario Metropolitano (c. 174969), a small church adjoining the cathedral in Mexico City, is a principal Churrigueresque monument in the New World. Its facades are lavishly ornamented in the tradition of Rodrguez' native Andalusia but surpass even that style in their richness and complexity of detail. Among Rodrguez' other works are the chapel of the Convent of Santo Domingo (dedicated 1757, now demolished) and, probably, the Church of La Santsima Trinidad (begun c. 1755 on the site of an earlier chapel), both in Mexico City. Rodrguez' influence can be seen best in the mining territory of Guanajuato, northwest of Mexico City, where adherents to his style built extensively.