PARES | Spanish Archives

Identification

Type:

Person

Preferred form:

Benlliure, Mariano (1862-1947)Other forms

Fechas de existencia:

València (España) València (España) 1862-09-08 - Madrid (España) Madrid (España) 1947-11-09

History:

Spanish sculptor.

Mariano Benlliure was born on 8 September 1862 in Valencia, Spain.

He was the son of decorative painter Juan Antonio Benlliure Tomás and Ángela Gil Campos, and his brothers were the painters Blas, José and Juan Antonio. He married Leopoldina Tuero O'Donnell in 1886, but the couple separated in 1893. Later, in 1896, he became romantically involved with the zarzuela singer Lucrecia Arana (Lucrecia López de Arana Fernández). His three children were Leopoldina Benlliure Tuero, Mariano Benlliure Tuero, a writer, and José Luis Benlliure López de Arana, an architect.

As a child, Mariano lived in Valencia until 1874, when his family moved to Madrid. He learnt sculpting and other related crafts on his own, finding employment in different workshops until he travelled to Rome in 1881. He maintained a studio in the Italian capital for twenty years. There he completed his knowledge, perfected his technique and absorbed contemporary Italian sculpture while also studying Renaissance, Baroque and classical statuary. In 1895 he opened another studio in Madrid. He also began winning medals at exhibitions in Bilbao, Vienna, Munich and elsewhere, and in 1900 came the crowning achievement: the grand prize at the Paris Exposition. Ten years later, in 1910, he participated in the International Exhibition of Contemporary Medals, organized by the American Numismatic Society in New York, and other shows in Chile, Mexico and Argentina.

Benlliure was director of the Academia de España en Roma from 1901 to 1903 and Director-General of Fine Arts for the Spanish government from 1917 to 1919. In the latter capacity, he interceded with Leopoldo Matos to secure a government pension for Manuel de Falla. He directed the Museo de Arte Moderno in Madrid from 1917 to 1931 and was appointed to the Royal Board of Trustees of the Museo del Prado in 1917. He was also a member of the fine arts academies of Madrid (San Fernando), Valencia (San Carlos), Zaragoza (San Luis), Málaga (San Telmo), Rome (San Luca), Milan (Brera), Carrara and Paris. Mariano was named a Commander in the Order of the Crown of Italy, inducted into the French Legion of Honour, and awarded the Grand Cross of Alfonso X in Spain. In 1931 he married Carmen Quevedo Pessanha, who would later published his biography, "Vida artística de Mariano Benlliure" (1947). He was best-known for his bust and many monuments, in which he combined sculpture and relief, dedicated to prominent personalities like Goya, Queen Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg on horseback, King Alfonso XIII of Spain and Faustina Peñalver y Fauste, Dowager Marquise of Amboage, or more conceptual themes such as his "Ode to Love". He passed away on 9 November 1947 in Madrid, Spain.