Royal sculptures from the Royal Palace

Do you know these sculptures?

They are in Plaza de Oriente, but were created for a “higher location”.

…

On Christmas Eve of 1734 a fire destroyed the old Alcazar. Philip V, the King of Spain and the first of the Bourbon dynasty, began the construction of the current Royal Palace.

Several projects were created for the sculptural decorations of this new palace, and for the balustrade a chronological row of sculptures of the 94 Spanish kings were erected. All these sculptures were placed on top of the Palace, but didn’t last long, as in 1760, Charles III ordered them to be removed. There are many theories about the motivation of this order (including one that says that the Queen dreamed that they fell on top of her) but more likely is simply that Charles III had a neoclassical taste and a certain rejection of ornamental baroque excess.

Whatever the reason, the fact is that in 1842 the statues were distributed to various places of Madrid, such as Plaza de Oriente, the Retiro Park and the Museum of the Army, as well as in other locations, such as Aranjuez, Toledo, Burgos , Logroño and Vitoria.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Programa iconográfico para la decoración escultórica del Palacio Real Nuevo de Madrid – Maria Jesús Herrero Sanz, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
• www.artehistoria.jcyl.es
• Estatuas de Madrid – monumentamadrid Vol I