Studio: international art (37.1906)

Modern Spanish Sculpture: Agustin Querol

MARBLE BUST " MODESTY' BY A. QUEROL

soil he had invaded and sent him fleeing across
the straits of Gibraltar. Unless hampered by the
memory of ruins, or buried beneath the boastful
traditions of past glories, she will gradually wend
her way to the front again.

Hand-in-hand with this social crisis strides the
artistic renaissance, and proofs of it are plentiful.
In painting, many Spanish artists of to-day rank
among the world's foremost. Such names as
those of Sorolla, Pradilla, and Zuloaga bring vividly
back to the mind the Spanish glories of past
centuries. The decorative arts, too, are under-
going a steady development. The crafts which
flourished under the Hapsburgs and early
Bourbons are yearly increasing in vitality, bap-
tized anew by the requirements of modern life.

But perhaps the most striking development
is that which can be signalised in modern
Spanish sculpture. To-day the renaissance in
sculpture as a national art is a confirmed fact.
Independence, individuality, freedom from the
melancholic influence of religious dogmas and
mystic creeds are the characteristics of modern
Spanish sculpture as compared with the old;
and a new art, national and flourishing, is rapidly
being created
302

Nowhere is this more clearly to be traced than
in the works of Don Agustin Querol y Subirate.
Grateful Spain points to him with pride as one of
her most renowned sons, whose life-work is a
national song, whose every monument breathes the
atmosphere of his native country ; now despairing,
melancholy and sorrowful, now impulsive, generous
and joyful.

Querol's life is summed up in a few words :
incessant work, untiring energy, and an unquench-
able ambition. Born of poor parents, in 1863, in
Tortosa (Cataluna), he migrated at an early age to
Barcelona, where he was apprenticed to a baker,
spending much of his time in moulding dough

BRONZE STATUETTE OF JUAN TENORIO BY A. QUEROL