Juan de Villanueva
1878. Marble.Room 100
Juan de Villanueva (1739-1811) is represented somewhat larger than life-size, dressed in late eighteenth-century style and covered with a cape. This enlightened architect designed the Prado Museum building, which was originally intended to be a Museum and Cabinet of Natural Sciences. The artist follows the same characteristics found in some of his other commemorative sculptures, such as those of the politician, Juan de Mendizábal, in the Plaza de Tirso de Molina, or that of the natural scientist, Rojas Clemente, in the Botanical Gardens. In the present bust, he concentrates all of his creative powers in an attempt to emulate the capacity of the architect represented there. This image, a bust on a pedestal with robes on his shoulders, is in keeping with neoclassical concepts. Esthetically, it clearly owes much to the busts of illustrious men made during the Renaissance and Baroque, which were in turn based on Roman sculptures.
