The Model of Monument to the Heroes of 1811

The Model of Monument als Herois de 1811 is the final work from which the monument currently located in the Rambla Nova of Tarragona would be erected. For financial reasons, Julio Antonio had to extend the execution time of the sculpture and was not able to construct it on the monumental scale it has today. Sadly, the sculptor died in 1919 without seeing his sculpture positioned in its location and it was his friend and disciple, Enrique Lorenzo Salazar, who constructed the sculpture in 1921 according to Julio Antonio’s original model.

The positioning of the sculpture in the Rambla Nova of Tarragona was not without controversy either. Julio Antonio’s sculptural ensemble was of great modernity and depicted three nude figures, a somewhat unusual representation for a public monument at that time. This fact resulted in a refusal to position the sculpture in the Rambla, with many critics considering that it should be hidden in one of the city’s public buildings instead. The sculpture was kept in the Archaeological Museum of Tarragona, then located in Plaça de la Font, and it was not until 24 September 1931 under the government of the 2^nd Republic that it was inaugurated in the Rambla in a major act, attended by numerous dignitaries and citizens, to pay homage to the heroes of 1811, and also to the sculptor Julio Antonio.

The Monument als Herois de 1811 was the project that Julio Antonio spent most time on. He produced various sketches before deciding on the ensemble we know today, at all times true to a structure in which several characters are featured around a central figure. 

Once he had completed his research and sketches, he decided that in his final model he would emphasize the heroism of the characters, discarding any superfluous elements and returning to the more classical and Mediterranean spirit typical of noucentism works. 

Three nude figures arise from a rough base that has not been fully polished, as if it were a lump of clay or a rock, in the purest style of Rodin or Michelangelo, in contrast to the delicately modelled torsos of the figures.

The central female figure, the symbol of the city of Tarragona, has a firm and impassive stance, with her gaze fixed on the horizon. Julio Antonio, conscious of the important connection between Tarragona and the Roman world, took inspiration from the classical sources in conceiving his sculpture. Consequently, in the treatment of the torso of the Tarragona figure, we can see a resemblance with the Esquiline Venus, or in the Hieratism of expression her face and the treatment of the hair, a certain inspiration of the ancient sculpture of the Charioteer of Delphi.

Tarragona holds in her arms the lifeless body of the dead Hero, representing all of those who fought to defend the city during the War of Independence of the French War. Julio Antonio idealised the torsos of these characters. The musculature of the dead hero remains firm, in contrast with his drooping right arm, limp and inert. The treatment of this figure reminds us of Michelangelo’s Palestrina Pietà, a sculptured admired by Julio Antonio, whose sculptures he became familiar with during this visit to Italy.

Finally, at the feet of Tarragona, laying wounded, there is another hero. With the head leaning to one side, his lips are half-opened and the forehead has a furrowed expression of pain.

The hands of the wounded hero are a very important element of this monument. Julio Antonio produced a mould of his own hands and left his own fingerprint to give the monument more realism. In his right hand he is holding a dagger, the only military symbol in the sculpture, which Julio Antonio justified in the following words:

Although the dagger is not from the period of Independence, I included it to add more beauty and at the same time as a symbol of the war, and to give it more majesty I did it more vigorously. 

The Monument als Herois de 1811 has become a symbol for the city of Tarragona, a symbolic work, yet a simple one dominated by an ideal of beauty and harmony, present in all city affairs since it was erected in the Rambla Nova.