Head of Wagner

In 1912, Julio Antonio received a commission from the Sociedad Wagneriana of Madrid to create a monument a Wagner and decided that the subject would require a monumental scale.  After producing an initial model of the full body, 94 cm high, the artist, to create the effect of a monumental work, began work on a clay model in its final measurements, eight metres tall, which he began in his own workshop and later transferred to the Codina Hnos. Forge, where the final work would be cast. The First World War ended the project. The French-speaking members of the Sociedad Wagneriana decided to withdraw their support; the lack of resources delayed the project and the clay model deteriorated over time and was eventually destroyed. Only the head remains, which Antonio de Hoyos y Vinent described in the following manner: "In the face there is a certain gesture of spiritual concentration. The profile has a certain energy, it frowns with such fierce intensity that we imagine that the musician is listening to an imaginary orchestra, an orchestra made of a hurricane, of enraged oceans and of the roars of jungle monsters, the magnificent notes of the Lohengrin’s wedding march…"