Biography

Spanish architect and engraver, part of a family of artists, son of Antonio González Velázquez the Elder. He is one of the most outstanding architects of Spanish Neoclassicism. His teacher was Juan de Villanueva with whom he learned to admire the works of classical antiquity and the Renaissance. Finishing his Spanish training in 1790, as an extraordinary pensioner of Carlos IV he traveled travels to France, Italy and Greece, studying and measuring monuments and objects of the classic antiquity. He returned to Spain in 1795.

In 1799 he is a scholar of the Academy San Fernando and is named "Lieutenant of the greatest architect of the royal palaces and country houses of the King". His important projects are the Casita del Labrador in Aranjuez and the Monument to Dos de Mayo of Madrid (monument to a rebellion by the people of Madrid against the occupation of the city by French troops on May 2, 1808), currently the monument to the fallen of Spain.

After the War of Independence, the works of the great architect hardly go beyond projects.