Luis Sanguino
It was made up of a bas-relief in baked clay (terracotta) that depicts a bucolic or pastoral countryside scene in which one sees a shepherd with his flock in the middle of nature, and before the ruins of what must once have been a monastery.
It was decided that Sanguino should move to Madrid, where he had already held exhibitions in December 1947 at the "Kebos" art salons, so that he could undertake his studies at Federico Coullaut-Valera Mendigutia's side.
[1][2] Sanguino's beginnings as a sculptor were not easy and he gave himself over to making little works to sell so that he could earn a living and at the same time continue his studies.
He thus realized in polychrome plaster "Portales de Belén" ("Gates of Bethlehem") which he sold at the Plaza Mayor in Madrid, coming to establish a small industry in which his siblings collaborated.
[2] Besides helping his teacher Coullaut-Valera, Sanguino worked for an antiquarian, Arturo Linares, a member of the Cortes Españolas (Francoist Spain's legislature), making statues of saints for him.
[2] Motivated by his teacher, Coullaut-Valera, Sanguino presented himself as a sculptor at the contest for the "Valley of the Fallen", submitting a number of draft works on the armed forces of the land, sea and air, and militias; at this time, he was 18 years old.
[1][2] The works for the construction of the "Valley of the Fallen" Basilica (San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Community of Madrid) were begun in 1942, with Director General of Architecture Pedro Muguruza being put in charge of the project.
It is found on the upper parts of both the walls of the Basilica's nave, which is structurally a crypt (it is underground), symbolizing at once the watch and the grief (representing the theme of a man being half monk and half soldier, and at the same time referring and paying homage to the armed forces: army, navy, air force and militias), before the remains of those who lie within.
[3] It was at the time when Sanguino and other sculptors were working on models for the project in a room at the Palacio de Oriente (as it was then known) that he actually met Francisco Franco, who came to see them while attending a credentials ceremony.
[1][2] His acquaintance with Dalí began one weekend morning when the surrealist painter called him on the telephone, saying that somebody had given him Sanguino's references as a sculptor with some impact.
[2] Sanguino returned to Spain to live in the land of his birth in 1976 (albeit not definitively), then receiving the Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic from His Majesty King Juan Carlos I, for representing and feeling proud of his country wherever he was.
[1][2] In 1978, Sanguino once again moved, making his new home this time in Mexico, there leaving a great mark with his works and beginning a new artistic stage in which he accentuated his sculptures' classicism.
[1][2] The keep – or as it is popularly styled, castle – in Valdeprados that Sanguino bought in the 1970s has an illustrious history, having once been a royal inn where Queen Isabella sometimes spent the night on her journeys across the Province of Segovia.
It nowadays houses Sanguino's private collection, which comprises not only his own works, but others by Joaquín Sorolla, Marià Fortuny and Jan de Ruth, among many others.
The castle's appointments include a habitable four-storey tower, a throne room, hearths, Gothic windows with their original Romanesque capitals, a great porticoed two-storey hall, gardens and a swimming pool surrounded by sculptures.
[7] Luis Sanguino's style emerges gradually as he increases his studies in plastic and artistic areas, perfecting sculptural techniques such as woodcarving, stone carving, modelling, etc.
His artistic education was carried out in different workshops and with various teachers, from Antonio the potter in his childhood hometown Pozoblanco to Federico Coullaut-Valera in Madrid.
The people whom he has rendered in sculpture range from presidents of countries to cardinals, writers, kings and queens, bullfighters, singers, musicians, actors, popes and those who are otherwise prominent.
[2] At the Cemetery of San Fernando in Seville, visitors may see the "Monumento a Juanita Reina", a whole-body figure executed in bronze by Sanguino.
[2] In 1996, the Castilian-Leonese Hostelry Federation commissioned from Sanguino a bronze bust of Cándido,[3] a famous local restaurateur,[22] to be put before his inn next to the Aqueduct of Segovia.
[2] Sanguino has busts of Their Majesties Juan Carlos I of Borbón (four copies can be found at: Agencia EFE, the Club Financiero Génova in Madrid, the Ministry of Tourism; another was bought by the Banco de Alfonso Fierro) and Queen Sofía.
Even though he was commissioned to make only two busts, he made three bronze copies: one for Toluca Cathedral in the capital of the state of México, another for President López Portillo's mother's private chapel at the then Presidential Residence "Los Pinos", and a third, which Sanguino himself kept, even though he had been asked to have it placed next to the Church of Our Lady of the Fuencisla in Segovia.
Furthermore, one can see how the artist returns to the woman in all instances when he is not referring concretely to male characters, but rather to ideas, such as the seasons of the year, life's wellspring, "Raíces", "El Sol de Marbella", etc.
