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José Grases Riera
José Grases Riera (25 April 1850 – 12 February 1919) was a Spanish architect from Barcelona. Born in Barcelona, Grases graduated from the School of Architecture in Barcelona in 1878 and moved to Madrid shortly after. Through to the turn of the century he worked on residential projects, and proposed a realignment of the entire city, the ''Proyecto de Gran Vía Norte-Sur'', which was not adapted but influenced the subsequent urban planning in the city. In 1902 Grases won a national design competition for the Monument to Alfonso XII of Spain to be erected in the Buen Retiro Park. His design was a grand and elaborate curved colonnade, topped with a bronze equestrian statue of the king by sculptor Mariano Benlliure, and incorporating the work of 21 other artists. The monument was inaugurated on 3 July 1922, after Grases' death. The architect also designed perhaps the most significant example of Art Nouveau in Madrid, the Palacio Longoria, built in 1903 for financier Javie ...
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Monument To Alfonso XII Of Spain
The Monument to Alfonso XII () is located in Buen Retiro Park (''El Retiro''), Madrid, Spain. The monument is situated on the east edge of an artificial lake near the center of the park. In 1902, a national contest was held to design a monument for King Alfonso XII at the initiative of the Queen mother, Queen Mother Maria Christina of Austria. The winner was the architect José Grases Riera, whose design consisted of a grand colonnade alongside a pond in El Retiro, with several sculptures surrounding an equestrian statue of the king, with everything constructed in bronze and marble. Grases Riera died in 1919 with work still in progress. The architect Teodoro Anasagasti took control of the project without modifying the original design. More than twenty sculptors worked on the project. The monument, financed by a popular collection, was inaugurated on June 6, 1922. It was the first of many commemorative statues (by artists such as Mariano Benlliure, Josep Clarà, and Mateo Inurria) ...
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Buen Retiro Park
The Retiro Park (Spanish: , literally "Good Retreat Park"), also known as Buen Retiro Park or simply El Retiro, is one of the largest Urban park, city parks in Madrid, Spain. The park belonged to the Spanish monarchy until 1868, when it became a public park following the Glorious Revolution (Spain), Glorious Revolution. The park is located at the edge of the city centre, near both the Puerta de Alcalá and the Museo del Prado, and covers . It has gardens, monuments, galleries, an artificial lake, and event-hosting venues. In 2021, Buen Retiro Park became part of a combined UNESCO World Heritage Site that also includes Paseo del Prado. History In 1505, the Hieronymites, Jeronimites monastery was moved to a new Isabelline (architectural style), Isabelline Gothic-style building at the present-day site of the Church of Saint Jerome the Royal. The royal family had a retreat built as part of the new church. Philip II of Spain, King Philip II (ruled 1556–1598) moved the Spanish cour ...
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Mariano Benlliure
Mariano Benlliure y Gil (8 September 18629 November 1947) was a Spanish sculptor and medallist, who executed many public monuments and religious sculptures in Spain, working in a heroic realist style. Life and works He was born in the Lower Street of the Carmen neighborhood of Valencia. His earliest sculptures featured bullfighting themes, modeled in wax and cast in bronze. At the age of thirteen he showed a wax '' modello'' of a picador at the Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes, 1876. Pursuing the thought of becoming a painter, he went to Paris his expenses paid by his master, Francisco Domingo Marqués. A trip to Rome in 1879, revealing at first hand the sculptures of Michelangelo convinced him to be a sculptor. In 1887 he established himself permanently in Madrid, where in that year's Exposición Nacional his portrait sculpture of the painter Ribera won him a first-prize. Benlliure's style is characterized by detailed naturalism allied to an impressionistic spontanei ...
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Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and flowers. Other characteristics of Art Nouveau were a sense of dynamism and movement, often given by asymmetry or whiplash lines, and the use of modern materials, particularly iron, glass, ceramics and later concrete, to create unusual forms and larger open spaces.Sembach, Klaus-Jürgen, ''L'Art Nouveau'' (2013), pp. 8–30 It was popular between 1890 and 1910 during the Belle Époque period, and was a reaction against the academicism, eclecticism and historicism of 19th century architecture and decorative art. One major objective of Art Nouveau was to break down the traditional distinction between fine arts (especially painting and sculpture) and applied arts. It was most widely used in interior design, graphic arts, furniture, glass ...
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Palacio Longoria
The Palace of Longoria (Spanish: ''Palacio de Longoria'') is an Art Nouveau palace that the politician and financier Francisco Javier González Longoria ordered to be built in the district of Chueca, at the corner of Fernando VI and Pelayo streets, in the city of Madrid, Spain. Together with the House of Gallardo (Spanish: Casa Gallardo) in the Plaza de España, it is Madrid's most notable example of modernist architecture. Longoria contracted the Catalán architect José Grases Riera to design and build it in 1902. It was declared ''Bien de Interés Cultural'' in 1996 and is currently the headquarters of the Sociedad General de Autores y Editores The Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers (''Sociedad General de Autores y Editores, SGAE'') is the main collecting society for songwriters, composers and music publishers in Spain. It is similar to AGADU, ASCAP, GEMA, SADAIC, SACEM and SA ... (SGAE). References External links Palaces in Madrid Bien de Interés ...
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Antoni Gaudí
Antoni Gaudí i Cornet ( , ; ; 25 June 1852 – 10 June 1926) was a Catalans, Catalan architect and designer from Spain, widely known as the greatest exponent of Catalan ''Modernisme''. Gaudí's works have a style, with most located in Barcelona, including his magnum opus, main work, the Sagrada Família church. Gaudí's work was influenced by his passions in life: architecture, nature, and religion. He considered every detail of his creations and combined crafts such as ceramics, stained glass, wrought ironwork forging, and carpentry. He introduced new techniques in the treatment of materials, such as ''trencadís'' which used waste ceramic pieces. Influenced by Gothic Revival architecture, neo-Gothic art and Oriental techniques, Gaudí became part of the ''Modernista'' movement, which peaked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His work eventually transcended mainstream ''Modernisme'', developing into a unique style inspired by natural forms. Gaudí rarely drew det ...
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Monument To Cánovas Del Castillo
The ''Monument to Cánovas del Castillo'' (Spanish: ''Monumento a Cánovas del Castillo'') is an instance of public art located in Madrid, Spain. The monument consists of a bronze statue of Antonio Cánovas del Castillo by Joaquín Bilbao at the top of a pedestal designed by José Grases Riera that features additional sculptural elements by Bilbao. History and description It was funded via popular subscription. It is located at the Plaza de la Marina Española, next to the Palace of the Senate. Following the description by Carlos Luis de Cuenca y Velasco, the monument features a lower circular basement. Over the first course, it lies a body with 12 drawers decorated with ornamental plants, featuring some buttresses on its superior limit. In the middle body, there are two bronze sculptural groups placed in two ledges: on the front ledge there is a seated statue—''History''—writing the remarkable facts of the Cánovas' life in a book and a second standing statue—''Glory' ...
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Architects From Catalonia
An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that have human occupancy or use as their principal purpose. Etymologically, the term architect derives from the Latin , which derives from the Greek (''-'', chief + , builder), i.e., chief builder. The professional requirements for architects vary from location to location. An architect's decisions affect public safety, and thus the architect must undergo specialised training consisting of advanced education and a ''practicum'' (or internship) for practical experience to earn a license to practice architecture. Practical, technical, and academic requirements for becoming an architect vary by jurisdiction though the formal study of architecture in academic institutions has played a pivotal role in the development of the profession. Origins Thr ...
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Art Nouveau Architects
Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, technical proficiency, or beauty. There is no generally agreed definition of what constitutes ''art'', and its interpretation has varied greatly throughout history and across cultures. In the Western tradition, the three classical branches of visual art are painting, sculpture, and architecture. Theatre, dance, and other performing arts, as well as literature, music, film and other media such as interactive media, are included in a broader definition of "the arts". Until the 17th century, ''art'' referred to any skill or mastery and was not differentiated from crafts or sciences. In modern usage after the 17th century, where aesthetic considerations are paramount, the fine arts are separated and distinguished from acquired skills in general, ...
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1850 Births
Events January–March * January 29 – Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the United States Congress. * January 31 – The University of Rochester is founded in Rochester, New York. * January – Sacramento floods. * February 28 – The University of Utah opens in Salt Lake City. * March 5 – The Britannia Bridge opens over the Menai Strait in Wales. * March 7 – United States Senator Daniel Webster gives his "Seventh of March" speech, in which he endorses the Compromise of 1850, in order to prevent a possible civil war. * March 16 – Nathaniel Hawthorne's historical novel '' The Scarlet Letter'' is published in Boston, Massachusetts. * March 19 – American Express is founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo. * March 31 – The paddle steamer , bound from Cork to London, is wrecked in the English Channel with the loss of all 250 on board. April–June * April 4 – Los Angeles is incorp ...
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