And the original Goya belongs to… Mariano Benlliure!


Everyone knows the statuette of the Goya Awardsthe one that recognizes the best of cinema in Spain, but perhaps not everyone knows that it came out, more than a century ago, from the hands of the sculptor Mariano Benlliure and that one of the originals can be seen in the Museum of Fine Arts in Valencia.

Precisely the celebration this Saturday in the city of Valencia of the Goya gala is allowing the museum to bring the figure of this sculptor, a contemporary of Blasco Ibáñez and Sorolla, closer to the general public, since many people are coming to the art gallery these days to see Goya’s bust and even take selfies with him.

This was revealed to EFE by the director of the Museum, Pablo González Tornel, who highlights that Benlliure was able to capture in that bust the collective image that society had and still has of the painter, who exemplifies very well “the idea that is carried transmitting since the 16th century what genius is”.

Benlliure (Valencia, 1862-Madrid, 1947) “was able to understand what the public expects to see when they stand in front of a portrait of Goya”, and his sculpture has become part of the “collection of visual culture” of the community in Spain, and represents the image of Goya, much more than the self-portraits left by the painter himself.

That means, according to González Tornel, that Mariano Benlliure“apart from his technical quality, which is unquestionable” since he was “the best sculptor” of his time, he knew how to “understand the communicative values ​​of the figurative arts and what was needed to succeed completely”.

THE GOYA STATUE

Benlluire’s work has inspired the famous Goya statuette since the start of the Film Academy Awards, but only since 2020 has the replica been made from an original by the author: specifically, one that one of the relatives keeps of the sculptor in his private collection, and which has been given free of charge through the Fundación Mariano Benlliure.

Before that, the Academy had commissioned the creation of the statuettes to different artists, who were inspired by the work of Benlliure but were not reproductions of the original, as explained to EFE by the vice president and director of the Foundation, Lucrecia Enseñat Benlliure.

Finally, after many years of offerings by the family, in 2019 an agreement was signed so that, as of 2020, the statuettes would be reproductions of one of the originals that the Valencian sculptor created in 1902.

BUT… WHERE DOES THE GOYA COME FROM?

The origin of Goya’s bust lies in the various monuments commissioned by the Madrid City Council to celebrate the coming of age of Alfonso XIII. For the occasion, Mariano Benlliure He made one dedicated to the painter, which was inaugurated in 1902 in the Retiro Park and today is located in front of the north facade of the Prado Museum.

That same year the artist presented as an independent work the detail of the bust of Goya in plaster, to which he added more details, and later made two versions in marble and several bronze castings between 1904 and 1912, significantly different from each other; one of them was acquired by the State and is currently on display at the Prado Museum.

In the following Goya heads cast by Benlliure, he used a new prototype based on the first plaster cast presented in 1902, but in which he introduced some modifications, especially in the treatment of the hair – flatter – and in the expression somewhat more tough on the face

On this modified model, Benlliure cast several more copies, one in 1913 and another four between 1915 and 1916. Precisely, one of them, from 1915, which belonged to the sculptor’s private collection, was donated by the artist himself to the Museum of Fine Arts Saint Pío V of Valencia in 1940 and today can be seen in the gallery of the art gallery that bears his name.

The bust exhibited in this museum measures 60 centimeters high by 37 wide, weighs 32 kilos and is an “iconic” work by this sculptor, the most famous in turn-of-the-century Spain and a contemporary -and countryman- of the writer Vicente Blasco Ibáñez and of the painter Joaquín Sorolla, with whom he formed “a triad of great cultural aces”.

https://diariolibre.blob.core.windows.net.optimalcdn.com/images/2022/02/10/statue-of-a-person-with-the-open-mouth-4d8af85f.jpeg

infographic

The director of the Museum of Fine Arts of Valencia, Pablo González Tornel (EFE/ JUAN CARLOS CÁRDENAS)

AND WHO WAS MARIAN BENLLIURE?

Mariano Benlliure Gil was born in 1862 in Valencia, where he spent his childhood, and in 1874 he moved with his family to Madrid, where after learning sculpture in a self-taught way and learning the trades related to sculpture, working in different craft workshops , traveled to Rome in 1881 to complete his training.

There he perfected his mastery of techniques and materials, in addition to being enlightened mainly with the study of classical, Renaissance and Baroque statuary, and the sculpture of the Italy of his time.

In 1884 he obtained a medal with “Accidenti!”, the sculpture that made him famous, and from then on he was decorated on numerous occasions, both nationally and internationally.

Benlliure also assumed important public positions related to the world of culture and Fine Arts: he was director of the Spanish Academy in Rome (1901-1903); General Director of Fine Arts (1917 to 1919) and Director of the Museum of Modern Art in Madrid, currently part of the Prado Museum (1917 to 1931).

In addition, he belonged to various academies of Fine Arts: San Fernando in Madrid, San Carlos in Valencia, San Luis in Zaragoza, San Telmo in Malaga, San Lucas in Rome, Brera in Milan, Carrara and Paris; Likewise, he received important decorations, such as the Legion of Honor of France, Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy or the Grand Cross of Alfonso X of Spain.

Source-www.diariolibre.com