Nero and Seneca was awarded a first-prize medal at the National Fine Arts exhibition in Madrid in 1904. Barrón never produced a final version of it, in bronze or marble, making this preparatory plaster of unusual size particularly important. It reveals the exquisite handling, technical skills and mastery of the classical idiom that characterise his style. On loan for many years to Cordoba Town Hall, where it was displayed in the entrance lobby, it has now returned to the Prado and has been the subject of a meticulous, two-year restoration. It depicts the Roman Emperor Nero (37 to 68AD), on the left, receiving instruction from his tutor and advisor, the Stoic philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4BC to 65AD).