Colonia Family. Juan de Colonia (c.1410–81), as his name suggests, came from Cologne (he is also known as Hans of Cologne): he settled in Burgos in Spain, where his family was associated with the building of the Cathedral from c.1440 to c.1540. He built the spires of the western towers (1442–58), which are of the German tracery type, and La Cartuja de Miraflores, near Burgos (from 1441). Juan's sculptor-architect son, Simón (d. c.1511), succeeded his father at Burgos Cathedral in 1481, and designed the spectacular Plateresque or Isabellino late-Gothic Capilla del Condestable (1482–94), with its huge escutcheons and eight-pointed star-vault with tracery infill similar to the western spires of the Cathedral. Simón was also responsible for the elaborate façade of San Pablo, Valladolid (1486–1504), an early example of a church-front designed to look like a reredos (a type which became common in Spain and in Latin America), and in 1497 was appointed master-mason of Seville Cathedral. His son, Francisco (d. c.1542) worked with Simón on the decorations of the San Pablo façade, and designed and made the Gothic retable of San Nicolás, Burgos, (c.1503–5), where there are early Renaissance motifs. Francisco (who succeeded his father as master-mason in 1511) worked with Juan de Vallejo on the crossing-tower (Gothic) from 1540 and himself made the Puerta de la Pellejería (early Renaissance, 1516), both at Burgos Cathedral. He also worked with Juan de Álava at the Cathedrals of Plasencia and Salamanca.

Bibliography

Chueca Goitia (1953, 1965);
Dezzi Bardeschi (1965);
Kubler & and Soria (1959);
Lamperez y Romea (1904)