José Álvarez Cubero (23 April 176826 November 1827) was a Spanish sculptor in the neoclassical style. He spent a large part of his career in Paris and Rome.

Biography

José Álvarez de Pereira y Cubero was born at

Priego de Córdoba Priego de Córdoba is a town and municipality of Spain located in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It lies on the southeasternmost end of the province of Córdoba, near the headwater of the Guadajoz, and on the northern slope of the Sierra ...

on 23 April 1768, the son of a stonemason. He spent all his spare time drawing and modelling. He was taught by the French sculptor Miguel Verdiguier at Cordova, and at the

Academy of San Fernando The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (RABASF; ), located on the Calle de Alcalá in the heart of Madrid, currently functions as a museum and gallery. A public law corporation, it is integrated together with other Spanish royal acade ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

. In 1799 Charles IV awarded him a pension of 12,000 reals to visit Paris and Rome. In 1804 he executed a statue of Ganymede while in Paris, now in the Museo del Prado, which gained him immediate recognition as a leading sculptor. His pension was doubled and he left for Rome, where he stayed until within a year of his death. While in Paris Álvarez married Elizabeth Bougel, by whom he had a son in 1805. This son, Don Jose Alvarez y Bougel, also distinguished himself as a sculptor and a painter but died at Burgos before reaching the age of twenty-five. His refusal to recognize

Joseph Bonaparte it, Giuseppe-Napoleone Buonaparte es, José Napoleón Bonaparte , house = Bonaparte , father = Carlo Buonaparte , mother = Letizia Ramolino , birth_date = 7 January 1768 , birth_place = Corte, Corsica, Republic of ...

as King of Spain led to his imprisonment in Rome.Parry, Melanie (1997) ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary - Centenary Edition', Chambers, , p. 49 After his release he was employed by

Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

to decorate the

Quirinal Palace The Quirinal Palace ( it, Palazzo del Quirinale ) is a historic building in Rome, Italy, one of the three current official residences of the president of the Italian Republic, together with Villa Rosebery in Naples and the Tenuta di Castelporzia ...

. In 1816 he was appointed court sculptor to

Ferdinand VII , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Charles IV of Spain , mother = Maria Luisa of Parma , birth_date = 14 October 1784 , birth_place = El Escorial, Spain , death_date = , death_place = Madrid, Spain , burial_plac ...

. One of the most successful works of the elder Álvarez was a group representing Antilochus and Memnon, which was commissioned in marble (1818) by Ferdinand VII. It is now in the museum of Madrid. He also modelled a few portrait busts (Ferdinand VII., Rossini, the duchess of Alba), which are remarkable for their vigour and fidelity. After his return to Madrid, he taught at the Academy of San Fernando, where one of his pupils was the young

Ponciano Ponzano Ponciano Ponzano y Gascón (19 January 1813 – 15 September 1877) was a Spanish neoclassical sculptor. A prolific artist, in his day he was highly esteemed. His work is now largely forgotten, although it can still be seen in many public locations. ...

(1813–1877), later to become one of the most famous of Spanish neoclassical sculptors of his day. Álvarez died in Madrid on 26 November 1827.

Gallery

File:Ganímedes (José Álvarez Cubero) MRABASF 01.jpg, Ganymede, 1804 File:Isabel de Braganza (J. Álvarez Cubero) 01.jpg,

Maria Isabel of Portugal Maria Isabel of Braganza (Maria Isabel Francisca de Assis Antónia Carlota Joana Josefa Xavier de Paula Micaela Rafaela Isabel Gonzaga; 19 May 1797 – 26 December 1818) was an Infanta of Portugal who became Queen of Spain as the second wife of ...

(1797–1818), sculpted in a Neoclassicist style. ca. 1826 File:Madrid Museo Del Prado Accueil Statues - panoramio.jpg, The defense of Zaragoza, 1825

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alvarez-Cubero, Jose 1768 births 1827 deaths 19th-century Spanish sculptors 19th-century Spanish male artists Spanish male sculptors People from Subbética