Monument to the Heroes of Tarragona

This work occupies virtually the entire artistic career of the sculptor, from 1910 to beyond his passing, given that the final work was produced by his disciple Enrique Lorenzo Salazar. A monument based on two principles: beauty and harmony. To produce this work, he made two sketches and a series of preliminary sculptural studies, all of very high quality. In the monument, the figure of the woman, the symbol and personification of the city, is presented standing, nude, svelte, powerful and effortlessly holding her children, one dead, the other injured; from her arm hangs a large tablecloth which covers the ensemble at the back. The dead hero reveals his young and beautiful nudity, which he has offered to the city as a symbol of all those who sacrificed their lives to liberate it. The dead hero, also nude, maintains the tautness of his musculature and holds the sword with his right hand. This monument made an impact on public statue making in our country not only for what we see in its presentation and in its masterful treatment of nude figures, but for its ability to transform public space, a landmark in the history of our city. It is worth noting that in this work the artist leaves to one side the commemoration of a historical event through a historicist and anecdotal tale, in order to interpret the event through allegorical language. We leave behind the soldiers, blunderbusses and canons in order to emphasise the fact that, in a siege, it is the city and all of its people who suffer, die or are injured, whether they are soldiers or not. This is a turning point in the work of Julio Antonio: to transfer the subject of the representation of an act of war, the army and soldiers to the citizens. Text by Antonio Salcedo Miliani