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Lot Essay
This monumental sculptural relief was almost certainly intended to emulate friezes from Roman antiquity. It was possibly inspired by the antique figural sculpture of Alexander and Bucephalus that stands in the Piazza del Quirinale, Rome; the authoritarian stance of the male figure to the left of the principal protagonists, and the dramatic equine poses are very similar. Another related scene, also in Rome, ‘Alexander the Great taming Bucephalus’, is depicted on a 16th century fresco by Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, in Agostino Chigi’s wedding chamber, Villa Farnesina. The Spanish sculptor, José Vilches, of which little is known, was in Rome in the early 1860s, and was undoubtedly aware of at least one of these masterpieces.
One of the most celebrated anecdotes regarding Alexander the Great is his taming of the horse, Bucephalus. According to Plutarch, Bucephalus was offered by Philonicus the Thessalian to King Philip II for the high sum of 13 talents, but because no one could tame the animal, the King refused to buy it. However, his son, Alexander, engaged in a wager, offering to pay the amount himself should he fail to tame it. Through his gentle handling of the horse, and turning it towards the sun so that it could no longer see its own shadow, which had been the cause of its distress, Alexander succeeded in taming it.
Other works by Vilches include a sepulchral monument of the Catalan sculptor Antoni Solà (1787-1861), created in 1862 in the church of Santa María de Montserrat de los Españoles in Rome, and a neo-classical statue of ‘Andromache’, dated 1853, in the Paseo de Recoletos, Madrid, Spain.
One of the most celebrated anecdotes regarding Alexander the Great is his taming of the horse, Bucephalus. According to Plutarch, Bucephalus was offered by Philonicus the Thessalian to King Philip II for the high sum of 13 talents, but because no one could tame the animal, the King refused to buy it. However, his son, Alexander, engaged in a wager, offering to pay the amount himself should he fail to tame it. Through his gentle handling of the horse, and turning it towards the sun so that it could no longer see its own shadow, which had been the cause of its distress, Alexander succeeded in taming it.
Other works by Vilches include a sepulchral monument of the Catalan sculptor Antoni Solà (1787-1861), created in 1862 in the church of Santa María de Montserrat de los Españoles in Rome, and a neo-classical statue of ‘Andromache’, dated 1853, in the Paseo de Recoletos, Madrid, Spain.