Mediterranean Venus - Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

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Mediterranean Venus

Julio Antonio

Mora de Ebro, Tarragona, 06/02/1889-Madrid, 15/02/1919

Bronze

104 x 26 x 16 cm

c. 1912

Early 20th century

82/211

Contributed by the Provincial Council of Bizkaia in 1920

Julio Antonio was a key figure in Spanish sculpture of the early 20th century and his oeuvre, without breaking away from realist tradition or resorting to technical or formal innovations, abandoned the taste for anecdote and conventionalism characterising sculptors of the previous century. Having trained in a workshop dedicated to the making of religious images, Julio Antonio discovered classical Roman statuary in his homeland and then in Italy, a country he visited in 1909. Back in Spain he travelled throughout Aragon, Navarre and Castile preparing an imaginative series of bust portraits in which he sought to describe the country¿s different human types. Its sober realism links much of his oeuvre to the recovery of popular culture championed by the writers in the Generation of 98 movement, some of whom -Azorín, Baroja and above all Pérez de Ayala- were great advocates of his work. Another part of his production, however, verged on Catalan noucentisme.

On account of its classicism, Mediterranean Venus can be included among the works that received the influence of noucentisme; it is one of the numerous preparatory studies he made for his most ambitious project, Monument to the Heroes of Tarragona (1911-1916), erected in this city in memorial of those who had defended it against the siege of the French troops. This Venus is the definitive version, albeit without arms, of the female figure that symbolises the city of Tarragona in the monument, inaugurated in 1931, and is inspired by the classical Roman Esquiline Venus that the sculptor could have seen either in Rome or in copies of the work he could have come across in Tarragona. The archaic treatment of the figure's hair emphasises the links between the work and the Classic world. (Miriam Alzuri)

Selected bibliography

  • Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. p. 153.
  • "Exposicion internacional de pintura y escultura", Hermes : revista del Pais Vasco, n° 46-47. 1919.
  • "Las Exposiciones Bienales de Bilbao", Arte vasco : revista mensual de la Asociación de Artistas Vascos, n° 4. 1920. p. 79. (Con el título Venus Mediterránea) [ Ed. facs. en Hegalez Hegal, n° 2/3, mayo 1981].
  • Exposición organizada con motivo de la concesión, por la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, de la Medalla de Honor al Ayuntamiento de la Villa [Folleto]. Bilbao, Ayuntamiento, 1952. n° cat. 69. (Con el título Venus Mediterránea)
  • Bengoechea, Javier de. Catálogo de arte moderno y contemporáneo del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao. Bilbao, Banco de Vizcaya, 1980. p. 138. (Con el título La Venus mediterránea).
  • Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2014. p. 153.
  • Barañano, Kosme María de ; González de Durana, Javier. "La Exposición Internacional de Pintura y Escultura : Bilbao 1919", Kobie : bellas artes, n° 4. 1987. p. 179. (Con el título La Venus Mediterránea)
  • Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 153.
  • Musée des Beaux Arts de Bilbao : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 153.
  • Bilbao Fine Arts Museum : guide. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2006. p. 153.
  • Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : guía. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2011. p. 153, n° cat. 108.
  • Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa : gida. Bilbao, Bilboko Arte Ederren Museoa-Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 2012. p. 153, n° cat. 108.
  • Launes Villagrasa, Joan ... [et al.]. Julio Antonio, 1889-1919 : un segle després = un siglo después. Barcelona, Viena Edicions, 2018. p. 126.
  • Manterola, Ismael [coord.]; Onaindia, Mikel [coord.]. "Bilbao 1919 : la Exposición Internacional de Pintura y Escultura = Bilbao 1919 : Nazioarteko Pintura eta Eskultura Erakusketa [Recurso electrónico]", Boletin 11 = Bulletina 11. 2019. pp. 73, 102-103, 106, il.