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A handsome youth feeds a swan that he his holding by its neck. Intended as an ornamental piece, Álvarez combines his taste for the dynamic forms of Greek sculpture with the polished, matt finish of the Praxitelean school; these tastes were shared by his master Antonio Canova, whose influence is evident.
The Emperor (1500-1558) is represented with attributes alluding to his power: armor, the necklace of the Golden Fleece and a crossing sash. The armor has a low relief of the Virgin Mary carved on the chest, representing the armor Carlos V wore during the Battle of Mühlberg in 1547. The bust sits on a base carved from the same piece of marble and adorned with the mask of a satyr. It is also he
In 1562 and 1565 Philip II commissioned the Bonanome brothers to execute two series of busts of the “Twelve Emperors” of whom Suetonius wrote biographies. The monarch was not satisfied with the busts and had them sent to the gardens of the Casa de Campo in Madrid in 1571. This monumental head of Nero reproduces with slight variations the last portrait of the notorious emperor (54-68 AD).
Numerous portraits of Constantine of this type were produced to mark his victory over Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 A. D. Coins of the period depict him as invictus (unconquerable) with a nimbus in the manner of the Sun, considered at that time to be the centre of the universe, like the Emperor.
This portrait of Hadrian (117-138 AD) does not follow a specific classical model, freely interpreting elements such as the curls of his hair and his expression. It may have belonged to Queen Christina of Sweden (1626-1689). It is technically comparable to the bust of Caligula (E00375).
A mother plunges into her own breast the dagger with which she has killed her son, to avoid their being taken by the Carthaginian soldiers, led by Hannibal, who were laying siege to Sagunto, a Spanish city protected by Rome during the Second Punic War in around 218 B. C. In this work, which Querol made in Rome, he combines a realistic treatment with a strongly dramatic rhetoric.
In 1549 in Brussels Charles V commissioned Leone Leoni to execute a group of statues of himself and his deceased wife the Empress Elizabeth of Portugal.They were to be in different formats (bust and half-length) and materials (marble and bronze).The most famous is Charles V and the Fury due to its conceptual and artistic importance and complexity.This was the first monumental sculpture by Leoni an
Double hermae of gods, similar to the image of the two-headed Janus, were created from the first century B. C. onwards for Roman collectors. Here, Aphrodite and her son Eros, the goddess and god of love, respectively, were brought together employing the heads of two masterpieces produced by artists from the circle of Phidias (440-420 B. C.).
The goddess Fortuna holds a cornucopia and a rudder resting on a globe. The statue is based on a Greek original, an Artemis by the School of Polyclitus (4th century BC), as may be seen from the similarity in the band across her bust. The head and left hand are later additions. Christianity did little to undermine faith in Fortuna, who was extremely popular in Rome.
Álvarez Cubero trained in Rome, and in 1816 was appointed Court Sculptor by King Ferdinand. Because he was Spain’s leading exponent of Neoclassical art, he was known as “the Spanish Canova”. In this sculpture, King Ferdinand VII (1784-1833), eldest son of Charles IV and Maria Luisa of Parma, is portrayed wearing the insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece, as well as various decorations
A representation of the first amorous encounter of a youthful couple. In a style some have called lyrical, Blay transmits the soft warmth of adolescent figures modeled with exceptional realism. They are seated on a group of boulders alongside a tree trunk bearing leaves and flowers. The scene of tender intimacy is very beautiful and intensely emotional.The subject is somewhat linked to the innocen
Posthumous life-size statue of Queen Isabel de Braganza (1797-1818), the second wife of Fernando VII (1784-1833). The queen appears sitting on a chair adorned with figures of castles, lions and lilies, wearing a belted tunic, with robes and a studded diadem. This clothing was very much in style at that time. Its composition recalls the Agripina in the Capitolino Museum of Rome. This neoclassical w
The Marquess of Salamanca sold Venus and Mars by Antonio Canova (1757-1822) to the Museo del Prado in 1881. At the time of acquisition, its attribution had been maintained for decades, but when Pavanello was cataloguing all of Canova’s work in 1976, he considered it a copy. While focusing on Canova’s workshop, Reyero (1996) thought the piece could have been made in the 1820s by someone in Canova’s
Blay customarily made versions of fragments of his works, which he handled separately. This sculpture at the Museo del Prado is a fragment from the group titled The Onset of Winter. During his stay in Rome in 1892, Blay made a terracotta model of an old man and a girl, both dressed, suffering the rigors of winter. For the expanded version, he tested nude figures to see if they would be more expres
Hercules, who defeated the Nemean lion in his first Labour, used his impregnable crocodile’s skin as a cuirass and a lion’s head as a helmet. Alexander the Great was represented in a similar manner following his heroic conquest of the East, as was the Emperor Commodus at a later date. This classicising bust looks back to Roman models in the ducal palace in Mantua and in the Villa Albani in Rome.
This expressive head is executed with great technical virtuosity. Typologically, it can be related to the Pseudo-Seneca which derives from a classical Roman bust traditionally thought to depict this Stoic philosopher. The pedestal is original while the reference in its inscription to Juan Alfonso Enríquez de Cabrera (1594-1647), IX Almirante de Castilla.
Apollo holds a lyre and in keeping with Praxitelean ideals adopts an elegant contraposto pose. The original version was commissioned by Antonio Canova to decorate the Real Casa del Labrador at Aranjuez, but during the Pensinsula War Álvarez Cubero was forced to sell it in order to survive. He later made this second version, which he never completed.
This impressive portrait of Augustus (27 BC to 14 AD) is by the Bonanome brothers, who were commissioned by Philip II in 1562 and 1565 to execute two series of busts of the first twelve Roman emperors, based on their biographies by Suetonius (c. 97-126 AD). This bust is from the small-format series, of which three survive. Philip II was dissatisfied with them and had them sent to the gardens of th
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