PALACIO DE ARANJUEZ

El rey de España abría cada estación desplazándose a uno de sus Reales Sitios cercanos a Madrid: en la villa y corte pasaba el verano y la mayor parte del año y se marchaba al Escorial y Valsaín en otoño, al Pardo en invierno y a Aranjuez en primavera.

The king of Spain opened every season moving one of his Sitios Reales near Madrid: in the court of Madrid spent the summer and most of the year and was leaving the Escorial and Valsaín in autumn, winter Pardo and Aranjuez in spring .

Resumen
La fuente de Hércules y Anteo es la más monumental de todas las que embellecen los jardines que componen el Real Sitio de Aranjuez. Encargada en 1795 por Carlos IV al escultor Juan Adán, su comisión se encuadra en un periodo de transformaciones importantes en Aranjuez, en especial en el Jardín del Príncipe donde el rey estaba creando su capricho, la Real Casa del Labrador, su mayor empeño decorativo.
La localización de la “Cuenta general de la obra de la fuente”, redactada por Juan Adán en 1805, ha permitido conocer su proceso constructivo, los cambios de planteamiento y de ubicación y las vicisitudes de tan ambicioso proyecto.

Abstract
The Ercole and Anteo’s fountain is the most monumental one that embellish the gardens of the Aranjuez Royal Site. It was commissioned in 1795 by Charles IV of  Spain to the sculptor Juan Adán. Around these years a lot of transformations had been made in Aranjuez, especially in the Prince Garden, where the king was creating a place of caprice in which the Real Casa del Labrador was the greater decorative commitment.
The discover of an important document wrote by Juan Adán in 1805 informing of the cost of process of the fountain has allowed to know the vicissitudes through which the project passed.

This book contains the transcription, according to rigorous scientific criteria, of the letters exchanged between the years 1560 and 1568 between King Philip II of Spain and Pedro de Hoyo, Secretary of the Monarch for matters concerning the Royal Works and Forests of the House of Castile.

These letters, preserved in the British Library in London and the Hispanic Society of America in New York, complement other similar documentary sets preserved in Spain, namely those in the Casa y Sitios Reales section of the General Archive of Simancas, and Those from the old Altamira Collection now divided between the Archive of the Institute of Valencia of Don Juan and the Archive and Library Francisco de Zabálburu of Madrid.

The modern edition of the correspondence of London and New York is an instrument of enormous utility for the historical investigation in the knowledge of the patronage and artistic-cultural sponsorship carried out by Felipe II in the first years of reign, after his return to Spain since The Netherlands in 1559.

Indeed, these letters offer direct and personal information about the architectural enterprises undertaken by the King after fixing the capital of Spain in Madrid: the old Alcázar of Madrid, but also the nearby Royal Works, such as the Casa de Campo, palaces of Aranjuez, El Pardo, Valsaín, the Alcázar of Segovia, etc.

A section of great importance is the construction of the most emblematic work of the reign of Philip II: the Monastery of San Lorenzo el Real de El Escorial.

But also the correspondence also tells us about the decoration of these palaces and buildings, as well as the architects, painters, sculptors and other minor craftsmen who intervened in their factories, which allows to complete their biographies.

Apart from these questions of an artistic nature, the crossed letters between the King and Pedro de Hoyo also provide abundant administrative, social and economic data of great interest to the historians of this time.