José Álvarez Cubero

José Álvarez Cubero, 1835.

José Álvarez Cubero (born April 23, 1768 in Priego de Córdoba , † November 26, 1827 in Madrid ) was a Spanish sculptor .

Ganymede (1804, RABASF , Madrid ).

José Álvarez came to Granada at the age of 20 , where he drew at the academy, but also modeled on the side. From 1794 he studied at the San Fernando Academy in Madrid. There he won the first academic award with a relief depicting King Ferdinand I and his sons carrying the corpse of St. Isidore . This moved the king to grant him an annual salary of 12,000 reales for further training from 1799 in Paris and Rome.

In Rome he was commissioned by Napoléon Bonaparte to create four bas-reliefs for the Quirinal Palace , but due to the political situation they did not go beyond plaster models. In Rome in 1818 Álvarez created the group: Antilochos and Memnon , and the colossal group: Defense of Zaragoza , which, executed in marble, came to the Museum in Madrid. In 1823 Álvarez was admitted to the Académie des Beaux-Arts as a foreign member . In 1826 he returned to Madrid and died a year later.

Álvarez belonged to the circle of contemporary sculptors who, like Bertel Thorwaldsen and Antonio Canova , formed after antiquity . His art is most closely related to Canova and, according to Spanish art historians, surpasses him in passion for movement and energy of expression.

literature

• Jean-Louis Augé et al. a. (Ed.): Les Élèves espagnols de David . Editorial ACL-Crocus, Saint-Sébastien 1989, ISBN 2-86723-043-8 , p. 41 (catalog of the exhibition of the same name, January 24 to August 31, 1989, Musée Goya, Castres).
• Friedrich Mueller: The artists of all times and peoples. Life and works of the most famous builders, sculptors, painters, and engravers . Ebner & Seubert, Stuttgart 1857, p. 33 ( full text in the Google book search).

Web links

Commons : José Álvarez Cubero  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Short biography (Spanish)