Spanish sculpture of the last third of the 19th-century and first third of the 20th century was frequently of a high level of technical virtuosity and excellent artistic quality, and the Museo del Prado has various masterpieces of this kind. The National Fine Arts Exhibitions provided the context for the display and dissemination of such works. Eduardo Barrón (Moraleja del Vino, Zamora, 1858 – Madrid, 1911) participated in the 1904 exhibition with the sculptural group Nero and Seneca, winning a First Prize Medal (photo, E-586).

In addition to being one of the leading sculptors of the day, Barrón had been Curator of the Sculpture Department at the Prado since 1892, also becoming its Restorer in 1895. He thus wrote the first catalogue of the Museum’s sculpture collection, entitled Catalogue of the Sculpture (1908), which provided information on the Museum’s sculptures up to the 18th century, given that those from the 19th and 20th centuries had passed to the recently created Museum of Modern Art (MAM) in 1896.