Dolores Candelaria Mora Vega (November 17, 1866 – June 7, 1936) known professionally as Lola Mora, was a

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

born in

San Miguel de Tucumán San Miguel de Tucumán (; usually called simply Tucumán) is the capital and largest city of Tucumán Province, located in northern Argentina from Buenos Aires. It is the fifth-largest city of Argentina after Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Argentina, ...

, in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. She is known today as a rebel and a pioneer of women in her artistic field.

Early life

Dolores was the daughter of Romualdo Alejandro Mora, a prosperous landowner of

Tucumán Province Tucumán () is the most densely populated, and the second-smallest by land area, of the provinces of Argentina. Located in the northwest of the country, the province has the capital of San Miguel de Tucumán, often shortened to Tucumán. Neigh ...

of Spanish origin and Regina Vega. She was the third born of seven children, three boys and four girls. Her parents (unusual behavior for the time) decided that the girls should also have the best education possible. In 1870 when Lola was four years old her parents moved the family to San Miguel del Tucumán. At seven years of age, she was a boarding school pupil at Colegio Sarmiento de ucumán Province In 1885, within two days both her parents died. Her older sister Paula Mora Vega married the engineer Guillermo Rucker, and together took care of the orphans.

Education

At 20 years of age she began painting

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this r ...

s, but soon turned to sculpting

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...

and

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

. She studied art in her home province and then, with a scholarship, in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, studying under Costantino Barbella and Giulio Monteverde. In 1900 she returned to Argentina and, with government connections, was commissioned to create two bas-reliefs for the Historical House of Tucumán. As her career developed, her sensual style and her status as a female artist made her controversial. In 1903 her ''

Nereids In Greek mythology, the Nereids or Nereides ( ; grc, Νηρηΐδες, Nērēḯdes; , also Νημερτές) are sea nymphs (female spirits of sea waters), the 50 daughters of the ' Old Man of the Sea' Nereus and the Oceanid Doris, sisters ...

Fountain'', created for the city of

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, met bureaucratic problems at the city's Deliberative Council, which had the sculpture moved around from place to place. Near the end of her life, she entered into some extravagant business (such as financing

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...

surveys in

Salta Salta () is the capital and largest city in the Argentine province of the same name. With a population of 618,375 according to the 2010 census, it is also the 7th most-populous city in Argentina. The city serves as the cultural and economic ce ...

), and then retired with only a pension to support herself. After her death in Buenos Aires, in poverty and obscurity, her friends burned her letters, mementos and personal diaries. Mora obtained various patents. One included a system to project films without a screen (using a column of

vapor In physics, a vapor (American English) or vapour (British English and Canadian English; see spelling differences) is a substance in the gas phase at a temperature lower than its critical temperature,R. H. Petrucci, W. S. Harwood, and F. G. Her ...

), as well as systems for

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

. Mora was the subject of the 1996 film "Lola Mora", directed by Argentine director Javier Torre.

Works

Mora's works include (in Buenos Aires unless otherwise noted): * two bas-reliefs at the House of Tucumán, with the themes of the

May Revolution The May Revolution ( es, Revolución de Mayo) was a week-long series of events that took place from May 18 to 25, 1810, in Buenos Aires, capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. This Spanish colony included roughly the terri ...

's First National Government and the Declaration of Independence, 1900 * the Nereids Fountain, now located at

Puerto Madero Puerto Madero, also known within the urban planning community as the Puerto Madero Waterfront, is a barrio of Buenos Aires in Argentina in the central business district, occupying a significant portion of the Río de la Plata riverbank and repres ...

, 1903 * two major sculptural groups flanking the entrance, and other interior and exterior work, Palace of the Argentine National Congress, inaugurated 1906 (four allegorical sculptures of ''Peace, Justice, Liberty'' and ''Progress'' were moved to the grounds of the Government House of

San Salvador de Jujuy San Salvador de Jujuy (), commonly known as Jujuy and locally often referred to as San Salvador, is the capital and largest city of Jujuy Province in northwest Argentina. Also, it is the seat of the Doctor Manuel Belgrano Department. It lies near ...

) * several sculpture groups placed along the "Oath Passage" in the historic centre of Rosario, leading to the National Flag Memorial * female figure for the crypt of Ramon Lopez Lecube,

La Recoleta Cemetery La Recoleta Cemetery ( es, Cementerio de la Recoleta) is a cemetery located in the Recoleta neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It contains the graves of notable people, including Eva Perón, presidents of Argentina, Nobel Prize winners, ...

, circa 1912City of Angels: The History of Recoleta Cemetery : a Guide to Its Treasures, OLMO Ediciones, 2002, page 71 * Avellaneda Memorial, Plaza Alsina, Avellaneda, 1913 * ''Liberty'', Independence Square,

* Monument to

Francisco Narciso de Laprida Francisco Narciso de Laprida (October 28, 1786 in San Juan – September 22, 1829) was an Argentine lawyer and politician. He was a representative for San Juan at the Congress of Tucumán, and its president on July 9, 1816, when the Declarati ...

San José de Jáchal San José de Jáchal (, often shortened to Jáchal) is a city in the northeast of the province of San Juan, Argentina, located on National Route 40, south of the Jáchal River. It has 21,018 inhabitants per the , and is the head town of the Jácha ...

File:Estatuas de Lola Mora 2.jpg, Monument to

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

along the Monument to the Flag in Rosario File:Fuente de las Nereidas by Lola Mora 06.JPG, ''The Nereids Fountain'', Buenos Aires File:El Progreso.JPG, Progress File:Recoleta 011.jpg, Grave in

File:Estatuas de Lola Mora en el Congreso Nacional (lado Norte).JPG, Statues in the National Congress File:Estatuas de Lola Mora 6.jpg, Grenadier (

Argentine Army The Argentine Army ( es, Ejército Argentino, EA) is the land force branch of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic and the senior military service of Argentina. Under the Argentine Constitution, the president of Argentina is the commander- ...

) File:La Justicia.JPG,

Lady Justice Lady Justice ( la, Iustitia) is an allegorical personification of the moral force in judicial systems. Her attributes are scales, a sword and sometimes a blindfold. She often appears as a pair with Prudentia. Lady Justice originates from the ...

References

External links

VisiteTuc.com
- A site about Tucumán

- A women's site with a romantic biography

- Official website

- Pictures of the Oath Passage in Rosario, flanked by Lola Mora's sculptures {{DEFAULTSORT:Mora, Lola 1866 births 1936 deaths Argentine inventors Argentine women sculptors People from Salta Province People from Tucumán Province 19th-century Argentine sculptors 20th-century Argentine sculptors 19th-century Argentine women artists 20th-century Argentine women artists Women inventors