Juan Pascual de Mena (1707 in Villaseca de la Sagra – 16 April 1784, in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

) was a Spanish sculptor in the Neoclassical style.

Life and work

When he was barely five years old, his family moved to Madrid. He began his studies there and soon made contact with the foreign sculptors, mostly French, who worked at decorating the Royal buildings, and was exposed to new styles originating in Italy, transmitted by Spaniards studying in Rome; notably Felipe de Castro. It is not, however, known with whom he studied. In 1730, he married Josefa Fernández Pillado. He participated in planning the

Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (RABASF; ), located on the Calle de Alcalá in the heart of Madrid, currently functions as a museum and gallery. A public law corporation, it is integrated together with other Spanish royal acade ...

and, in 1752, when it opened, he was appointed a Lieutenant-Director, becoming the Director of Sculpture in 1762. In 1765, his wife died, leaving him with a young daughter. Three months later, he married Juliana Pérez. In 1771, he was appointed General Director of the Academia. He was named an Academician of Merit at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos in 1768. He was very prolific. His most notable sculpture in marble is the Fountain of Neptune, from a design by Ventura Rodríguez. Notable is a bust of King

Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person ...

and several statues of previous kings for the

Royal Palace of Madrid The Royal Palace of Madrid ( es, Palacio Real de Madrid) is the official residence of the Spanish royal family at the city of Madrid, although now used only for state ceremonies. The palace has of floor space and contains 3,418 rooms. It is the ...

. Additionally, he provided numerous religious figures for institutions such as the Church of San Jerónimo el Real, the Church of San Marcos, and the Church of San Martín in Torrecilla en Cameros. As one of his last works, he participated in decorating the altar at Toledo Cathedral, but there has been some difficulty distinguishing his contributions from those of the other artists involved. The project was left unfinished at his death. He also sculpted in wood. Many of his works have been incorrectly attributed to his contemporary, Luis Salvador Carmona; a problem complicated by the fact that few of them are dated.

Sources

* F. Sánchez Cantón, "Escultura y pintura del siglo XVIII", in ''Ars'' XVII, 1965. * M. E. Gómez Moreno, ''Breve historia de la escultura española'', Imprenta de Blass, 1951.

External links

* Juan Nicolau Castro
Biography
@ the ''Diccionario Biográfico Español'',

Real Academia de la Historia The Real Academia de la Historia (RAH, 'Royal Academy of History') is a Spanish institution in Madrid that studies history " ancient and modern, political, civil, ecclesiastical, military, scientific, of letters and arts, that is to say, the dif ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mena, Juan Pascual de 1707 births 1784 deaths Spanish sculptors Spanish male sculptors Religious sculptures People from the Province of Toledo