The statue of Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo is a monument in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, Spain. A work by

Lorenzo Coullaut Valera Lorenzo Coullaut Valera (1876 – 1932) was a Spanish sculptor. Born in Marchena, he grew up in Nantes where his family had moved. He studied at the Livet Lyceum and returned to Spain in 1893. At Seville, he studied at the studios of and A ...

, it consists of a limestone statue of the aforementioned philologist and it is installed in the lobby of the

National Library of Spain National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

History and description

An initiative of the Junta Central de Acción Católica after the death of Menéndez Pelayo in 1912, the idea was endorsed by the director of the National Library of Spain (BNE), Francisco Rodríguez Marín. The project was entrusted to

and the sculptor presented the plaster model by 1916. Made of limestone from

Novelda Novelda (, ; ) is a town located in the province of Alicante, Spain. , it has a total population of 27,135 inhabitants. Novelda has important quarries and mines of marble, limestone, silica, clay and gypsum. It is a major centre of the marble indu ...

, the monument was unveiled on 26 June 1917. The statue consists of a mature Menéndez Pelayo (while in charge of the BNE) seated on an armchair, reading a book. The frontal inscription reads , the lateral ones reference Menéndez Pelayo's posts as director of the BNE and the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

while the backside reads ''.'' Education Minister

Fernando de los Ríos Fernando de los Ríos Urruti (8 December 1879 – 31 May 1949) was a Spanish professor of Political Law and Socialist politician who was in turn Minister of Justice, Minister of Education and Foreign Minister between 1931 and 1933 in the early yea ...

attempted to move the statue to another location in the 1930s, yet he was dissuaded by BNE director , who warned him it would be considered a sectarian action either way. On 8 March 2006 the BNE director

Rosa Regàs Rosa Regàs (born 1933, in Barcelona) is a Spanish writer and novelist. She is a recipient of the Premio Planeta de Novela and the Premio Nadal. Biography Rosa Regàs was born in Barcelona in 1933. During the Spanish Civil War she was exiled to ...

tentatively announced the move of the statue from the library's lobby to the exterior gardens. The proposed move raised criticism in a number of instances of the public opinion (most notably from

Cantabria Cantabria (, also , , Cantabrian: ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain with Santander as its capital city. It is called a ''comunidad histórica'', a historic community, in its current Statute of Autonomy. It is bordered on the east ...

). It was also criticised by the speaker of the PP in the Committee of Culture of the

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Ma ...

, Beatriz Rodríguez Salmones. Regàs counter-argued that (Ménendez Pelayo) "will never have a company as good as the one in the garden", accompanied by the likes of

Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-emin ...

Lope de Vega Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio ( , ; 25 November 156227 August 1635) was a Spanish playwright, poet, and novelist. He was one of the key figures in the Spanish Golden Age of Baroque literature. His reputation in the world of Spanish literature ...

, San Isidoro, or

Nebrija Antonio de Nebrija (14445 July 1522) was the most influential Spanish humanist of his era. He wrote poetry, commented on literary works, and encouraged the study of classical languages and literature, but his most important contributions were i ...

. Following months of heated controversy, Regàs rectified and announced the dismissal of the plans to move the statue to the exterior garden in October 2006, on the basis of the reported fragility of the stone from Novelda. Years later, Regás still wondered about the ruckus the "extreme right media" had created around the move, claiming her intention was always to place the statue in a privileged location.

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * {{Cite journal, title=La estatua de Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo en la Biblioteca Nacional de España, first=Joaquín Manuel, last=Álvarez Cruz, journal=Laboratorio de Arte, issn=1130-5762, issue=26, year=2014, pages=315–332, url=http://institucional.us.es/revistas/arte/26/articulo_15.pdf, doi=10.12795/LA.2014.i26.16, publisher=

Universidad de Sevilla The University of Seville (''Universidad de Sevilla'') is a university in Seville, Spain. Founded under the name of ''Colegio Santa María de Jesús'' in 1505, it has a present student body of over 69.200, and is one of the top-ranked universi ...

, location=Seville, doi-broken-date=1 August 2023 Monuments and memorials in Madrid Menendez y Pelayo, Marcelino Sculptures of men in Spain Stone sculptures in Spain Sculptures in Madrid Buildings and structures in Recoletos neighborhood, Madrid