The Defense of Zaragoza - Priego de Córdoba - Andalusia

The entitled sculptural group was made by José Álvarez Cubero in his workshop in Rome around 1818 and immediately became his masterpiece.

In 1823 , with the financial support of King Ferdinand VII, the statue was executed in marble , as the first version was modeled in plaster , and moved to Madrid shortly thereafter. In 2005 it was transferred to the workshops of the Prado Museum to be restored and later placed in the new extension of the museum that was built. It is currently on display in the lobby of this expansion.

The project to create a replica or copy of the sculptural group for an exhibition in Priego seems to have started in 1968, when Priego-born José Luis Gámiz Valverde was elected a full member of the Royal Academy of Córdoba and presented his acceptance speech on the figure by Álvarez Cubero, who was little studied at the time. In practice , however, the project fell into oblivion until 2005 , when several of Priego's neighbors in Madrid alerted the council to the possibility of making the copy for the restoration that was being prepared. There was then a long debate in Priego about where to place the statue, and finally the central area of Paseo de Colombia was chosen, where it was placed in 2010 .

There are two versions of the subject that the sculptor wanted to depict.

For some scholars of his work, Álvarez was inspired by the Iliad and in his work he introduces Nestor , one of the members of the Greek League against Troy; mortally wounded, the old king is defended by his son Antiochus.

Other art historians claim that the work alludes to an episode of the War of Independence set in the Aragonese capital; As is well known, Álvarez Cubero, who was crowned by Napoleon in Paris in 1804, later defied the Emperor when he usurped the Spanish throne and launched the invasion of Spain.

Willem Vandenameele