Monument to Tomás Morales

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Art · Subcategory: Sculpture · Year: 1925 · Authors: Victorio Macho

[...] the author of this sculpture was Victorio Macho. Born in Palencia in 1887, as a young man he moved to Santander, where he started as an apprentice in a sculpture workshop, and then later on, received a scholarship in 1902 from the Panlencia Local Authority to go and study in Madrid. There he enrolled three years later in the School of Fine Arts. Despite his academic training, he never felt attracted to rigid and official art forms; he was much more interested in the artistic traditions of his homeland, especially the statues of the Rennaissance, specifically those of Alonso Berruguete, who he admired greatly. One of his finest skills was his direct carving, hence he preferred stone as a medium over other materials, although he did not scorn them by any means, and did use them on occasions. He was considered a constant traveller, he embodied the styles in each place he visited, fusing them in with their surroundings.

The piece dedicated to Morales is composed of a simple pedestal made from Fuerteventura granite, designed by the craftsman himself. It has the poet's name inscribed on it and is dated 1922. The effigy stands above it, and is made out of bronze. It is a quite sober style, the sculptor made a great effort to embody the physical features properly, displaying a wide nose and very short hair at the back but thick above the forehead with a raised forelock. He eludes accessory motifs to avoid making it look to lavish. This is characteristic of many commemorative pieces from the beginning of the century, hence he hardly has any showy clothes at all. It also reflects the simplicity of the protagonist, as he is shown smiling with his head leaning slightly to the right, losing any haughtiness and therefore remaining an approachable figure for the spectator.

In this work there are some clear hints at the authors own style, which is set in Castilian realism, reacting against the academic realism proclaimed by Benlliure. This tendency is characterized by an interest in the truth, and life before beauty. 

It shouldn't seem strange then that the monument be considered bad taste for its time, as if it were compared to the other few that were dotted around the city, it introduced the following novel techniques: a) a pedestal formed by a simple parallelpiped granite base, which contrasted with the fountain of Cairasco and the extremely elaborate one of Columbus; b) he used bronze instead of Carrara marble; and c) its format is that much smaller, with the bust coming out of its base, in which the attributes of the subject are not prominent.

 Writer Claudio de la Torre is the one who had proposed the idea of approaching the Town Hall to request permission to locate the bust in a public place, possibly within a small rose garden carrying the name of his work. Sculptor and friend of the famous figure, Victorio Macho, had his finished work placed in San Telmo Park, near to the beach. Later on, in 1955, it would be moved to the Paseo Tomás Morales, where it stands today.

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