SCULPTURE COLLECTION

 
Sculpture of Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba by Federico Amutio y Amil

 

The sculpture collection is a reflection of the Spanish figurative production from the 19th and 20th centuries, most of it portraits and sketches of monuments. Many of the items come from the Royal Foundry of Trubia, as the delicate Bust of the Queen Elisabeth II by Elías Vallejo (1782-1858), where the taste of the baroque classicism is appreciated. The collection depicts a gallery of portraits of the main characters in the political and cultural life of the history of Spain and its armies. Some of them appear in a definitely romantic manner, as the Busts of the Infanta Mª Luisa Fernanda and the Duke of Montpensier by Piquer y Duart (1806-1871); others respond to the leading academicism from the Royal Academy of Saint Ferdinand, as the bust of Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, portrayed by Federico Amutio y Amil (1868-1942), a piece with a clearly historicist appearance which evokes the pureness of the Renaissance prince: a courtesan and a warrior, bearer of the ethical and physical virtues of the work Il Cortegiano by Baltasar Castiglione.


Piquer y Duart also signs the magnificent bas-reliefs Wounded Daoiz and Death of Velarde, samples of the reflection of the compositional models of the historical painting in the sculptural works from the 19th century.

 

With regard to the presence of collective monuments, of a military and patriotic nature, it is worth mentioning the figure of Julio González Pola (1860 -1929), represented in two of the collection’s pieces: the sketch of the allegorical monument La Patria (The Motherland), and that of the sculpture No importa (It Does not Matter), both of a notable commemorative and propagandist nature, about the Spanish Army’s feats. Following this tendency, the naturalism of Mariano Benlliure (1862-1947) will also be very present in the Museum’s collections, both in sketches, as that of the Monument to the Corps of Cavalry in Valladolid, as in portraits, emphasizing the magnificent one depicting Manuel Cassola in the covers of the album Military Reforms’ Project, from 1889 (National Museum of El Prado’s deposit).
 

Images

  • “Daoiz Wounded” by José Piquer y Duart

    SCULPTURE
    SCULPTURE

  • “Velarde’s Death” by José Piquer y Duart

    SCULPTURE
    SCULPTURE

  • Infanta (a king or queen’s daughter) Maria Luisa Fernanda of Spain by José Piquer y Duart

    SCULPTURE
    SCULPTURE