Arturo Mélida y Alinari

Madrid, 1849 - 1902.

Architect, sculptor and painter from the nineteenth-century romanticism-historicism current, his sense of the integration of artistic disciplines -he was also a designer, illustrator and restorer - brought him close to the Arts and Crafts movement as opposed to the art industrialisation of his time.

In 1873, he completed his studies at Madrid’s School of Architecture, where he later became modelling professor there (receiving tenure in 1887). His way of using natural light was his architectural legacy, with works such as the Botanical Garden at Valencia University or the Toledo School of Art.

In sculpture, Arturo Mélida is doubly associated with Christopher Columbus, because of the neo-gothic figure of the explorer which has overlooked Madrid’s Plaza de Colón since 1885 and because of Columbus’s sepulchre created in 1891 to be laid in Havana, and which since 1902 lies in Seville’s cathedral.

His artistic temperament led him from the outset to undertake a range of different projects. He left his mark illustrating Episodios nacionales by “Pérez Galdós” and Leyendas by “Zorrilla”. He made a number of watercolour studies for theatre curtains, compositions for ephemeral scenographies such as processions, and decorative motifs for fans made for the Royal Family. On the industrial front, he designed objects such as lamps and carpets.

Many of his works in interior decoration for Madrid’s upper class and aristocracy have been lost with the passage of time. In those residential palaces, mythological themes combined with foreshortened baroque perspectives of open skies, like the one which (sadly also lost) he made for what is now the Velázquez room at the Prado Museum.

Some important evidence of his interior decoration skill has survived, such as Spain’s Library of Congress, the office of the Under-Secretary of Finance, and his work at Palacio Bauer in calle San Bernardo, all in Madrid.

As a restorer he updated the painting work on the facade of the Real Casa de la Panadería in Madrid’s Plaza Mayor, which was further restored by Carlos Franco in 1992.

His entry into the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1899 was the culmination of a career that earned him international recognition, including as a gold medal from the French Academy and the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour for his work as an architect on the Spanish pavilion at the Paris World’s Fair in 1889.

Two of his last paintings were watercolours with which the UEE collection began, “Diana Cazadora” (Diana the Huntress) in 1900 and “ Santa Bárbara” (Saint Barbara) in 1901. They were a magnificent end to his career and made him a pioneer of Spanish poster art.

1900 Arturo Mélida Diana the huntress Watercolour and gouache on paper 49 x 27 cm.	1901 Arturo Mélida Saint Barbara Watercolour and gouache on paper 49 x 27 cm.