24 May 2009
Statues are hard to photograph well, especially bronzes. I was motivated to try for two main reasons: after two weeks of daily posts in Sevilla, I have to dig a bit deeper for blog subjects; and statues say something significant about who is considered important for a city.
The statue in the opening photo is Juan Belmonte (1892-1962), "one of the best known bullfighters in Sevilla's history." I don't find the sculptors depiction to be flattering; what are we to make of the big hole in his chest? (What remains does make a nice frame for the distant tower of the cathedral!)Sevilla is an important inland sea port; ships could navigate the 80 km or so from the Atlantic up Rio Guadalquivir. Triana provided many sailors, including Juan Rodrigo Bermejo. The statue shows him in the crow's nest of La Pinta, calling out the first sighting of the New World on Columbus' voyage.
In Plaza del Salvador is a large bronze statue of Juan Martinez Montañes (1568-1649) who was responsible for creating some of the more important religious pieces in Sevilla, including "Señor de la Pasión," which itself is inside the adjacent Iglesia del Salvador.
Sevilla is especially proud of its flamenco traditions expressed in music and in dance. In Triana, just across the bridge from Sevilla (and near the bullfighter Juan Belmonte) is this female guitar player. The dancer is near the north end of one of the main shopping streets in the center of Sevilla.
The final statue in this set depicts Hermes (Mercury) in front of the Bank de España, just around the corner from our apartment. Being a mythical figure, this statue doesn't fit in with the rest; but I like the photo. The same applies, but even moreso, to the picture at the bottom of the post. This shows the lovely scene looking south from the east side of the bridge that connects Sevilla to Triana.
1 comment:
Interesting post abba. I too find it a challenge, often, to engage with statues in public spaces. They just seem so self-contained to the point of not really interacting with the landscape around them. It's because of the framing of the cathedral that I in fact like the first statue you photographed best of all. Maybe that is what the sculptor was intending: more foreground-background interactions.
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