Abstract
Torre de la Palada, a hunting tower outside Madrid, was composed of 170 paintings
by Rubens, Velázquez and others. Although this architecture has been treated as
a villa, it differs from traditional villas in two distinctive ways: first, its structure
has characteristics unique to a tower, second, its interior has distinctive pictorial
decorations without any garden common with villas.
This article focuses on the fact that this hunting tower was also called “watchtower
(Atalaya)” at the time. We would like to highlight that the watchtower is associated with
sight, the most important of the five senses, and considered to be a symbol of “vigilance”
in several emblematic books for the education of monarchs.
Furthermore, the watchtower had symbolic meaning in the 16th and 17th centuries as
a place to find the truth. Popular literary works of the time depicted the act of ascending
to a watchtower or a high mountain to look down on Earth and learn the truth.
Notably, the fact that the hunting tower was decorated with the portrait “Menippos”
by Velázquez is an interesting coincidence. This ancient Greek philosopher was famous
for the episode in which he acquires knowledge by looking down from the sky.
