CAST BY COMPAÑIA METALURGICA DE SAN JUAN DE ALCARAZ, DATED 1886

Alfonso de Borbón y Borbón (1857-1885), son of Queen Isabel II and Francis of Assisi, was King Alfonso XII of Spain from 1875 until his death in 1885. He ascended following a military coup which brought an end to First Spanish Republic. Thanks to the skill and support of his Prime Minister Canovas del Castillo, his reign brought political stability to the country. After the death of his first wife, his cousin Maria de las Mercedes de Orleans y Borbón, he married Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen. They had three children, Infanta Maria de las Mercedes, Infanta Maria Teresa and Infante Alfonso who succeeded him as King Alfonso XII. Although the sculptor of this bronze has not been formally identified, it bears striking similarities to the majestic large-scale bronze that the Regent commissioned Mariano Benlliure to create to adorn the Alfonso XII Monument erected in Buen Retiro Park, Madrid erected in 1902. Yet in 1886, when this small scale bronze was first exhibited at La Plateria Martinez, in the Museo del Prado, Madrid, Benlliure was just 12 years old which seems very young to execute such an accomplished piece. The model was featured on the front page of La Illustracion Artistica, 11 April 1887, Barcelona. There are two other known casts, one in the collection of the Senado de España, Madrid discussed in Carlos Reyero Hermosilla, El Arte en el Senado, Madrid, 1999, p. 482 and the other is in the collection of Museo del Ejército (Army Museum), Madrid, donated by Alfonso XII’s sister, Infanta Isabel de Borbón y Borbón (1851-1931)