Mariano Benlliure

Mariano Benlliure y Gil

Portrait of Mariano Benlliure in his youth by his friend, Filipino painter Juan Luna[1]
Born Mariano Benlliure y Gil
(1862-09-08)September 8, 1862
Valencia, Spain
Died November 9, 1947(1947-11-09) (aged 85)
Madrid, Spain
Known for Sculpting, Painting
Movement Heroic realism, Neoclassicism

Mariano Benlliure (8 September 1862 – 8 November 1947) was a Spanish sculptor, who executed many public monuments and religious sculptures in Spain, working in a heroic realist style.[2]

He was born in El Grau quarter of Valencia. His earliest sculptures featured bullfighting themes,[3] modeled in wax and cast in bronze. At the age of thirteen he showed a wax modello of a picador at the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes, 1876. Pursuing the thought of becoming a painter, he went to Paris his expenses paid by his master, Francisco Domingo Marqués. A trip to Rome in 1879, revealing at first hand the sculptures of Michelangelo convinced him to be a sculptor. In 1887 he established himself permanently in Madrid, where in that year's Exposición Nacional his portrait sculpture of the painter Ribera won him a first-prize.[2]

Benlliure's style is characterized by detailed naturalism allied to an impressionistic spontaneity. His portrait busts and public monuments are numerous, and include:

He was depicted on the Spanish 500 ptas banknote in the 1950s, with his sculpture "Sepulchro De Gayarre en el Roncal" on the reverse.

His brothers José and Juan Antonio were also painters.

Works

Monument to Álvaro de Bazán, 1891 (Madrid) 
Equestrian statue of Alfonso XII of Spain, 1928 (Madrid) 
Monument to Emilio Castelar, 1908 (Madrid) 
Monument to Queen Elizabeth and Columbus (Granada) 

References

  1. ↑ Santiago Albano Pilar (1980). Juan Luna, the Filipino as painter. Eugenio Lōpez Foundation. p. 56.
  2. 1 2 España es Cultura. "Mariano Benlliure". Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, Government of Spain. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Neoclassicism: Mariano Benlliure". Spanish Arts. 2011. Retrieved December 4, 2014.


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