Monumento Las Nereidas, de Lola Mora BA 5
Monumento Las Nereidas
Monumento Las Nereidas, de Lola MoraThe Monumento Las Nereidas, or "Font of the Nereids", is now located at "Costanera Sur". It was created by Lola Mora (1866 – 1936), in 1903. The sensuous and erotic sculpture met bureaucratic problems at the city's Deliberative Council, which had it moved from place to place.
Lola Mora was a rebel and a pioneer of women in her artistic field. At 20 years of age she began painting portraits, but soon turned to sculpting marble and granite. She studied art in her home province and then, with a scholarship, in Rome, Italy, where she created her greatest works, some of them by request of the Argentine government. In 1900 she was charged with creating two bas-reliefs for the Historical House of Tucumán (seat of Argentina's Declaration of Independence of 1816).
Fuente de las Nereidas
At the turn of the 20th century, the city of Buenos Aires inaugurated the fountain called “Fuente de las Nereidas”, otherwise known as ‘Lola Mora’.
A sensuous and erotic work, the monument was designed by the young and rebellious Argentine artist, Dolores Hernández-Mora, and carved completely from Carrara marble.
Depicting the mythical birth of Venus in ways reminiscent of a famous work by Italian painter Sandro Botticelli, Mora’s statue introduced controversial animalistic undertones to an otherwise delicate deity.
Featuring a retinue of nude sea nymphs and three virile figures wrestling winged horses, the fountain roused reactions from moralists who argued not only against its pornographic nature and the licentiousness of its nude figures, but also objected to its sculptor’s decision to wear trousers rather than skirt.
Perhaps a woman before her time, Mora married a man 20 years her senior when she was 40 years old, only to be left by him five years later. Some claimed she was bisexual, although there were also rumours that she had a love affair with Julio A. Roca, the former president of Argentina, and himself a polemic figure.
Originally placed in the Parque Colón Sur near the Casa Rosada, pressure from moralists resulted in the relocation of the monument to Puerto Madero’s Costanera Sur in 1918.
Amid the controversy that arose from its installation, Mora wrote expressing her regret at having provoked such emotions but welcomed the opinion of a public who was not yet ready for her: “I deeply regret what is happening, but I don’t see these as expressions of repudiation, rather the pure and noble voice of my people. That is the final judgment.”
The sculpture was recently recognised as one of the most important in the city however, when it was declared a National Historic Monument in 1997
Monumento Las Nereidas, de Lola Mora BA 5
Monumento Las Nereidas
Monumento Las Nereidas, de Lola MoraThe Monumento Las Nereidas, or "Font of the Nereids", is now located at "Costanera Sur". It was created by Lola Mora (1866 – 1936), in 1903. The sensuous and erotic sculpture met bureaucratic problems at the city's Deliberative Council, which had it moved from place to place.
Lola Mora was a rebel and a pioneer of women in her artistic field. At 20 years of age she began painting portraits, but soon turned to sculpting marble and granite. She studied art in her home province and then, with a scholarship, in Rome, Italy, where she created her greatest works, some of them by request of the Argentine government. In 1900 she was charged with creating two bas-reliefs for the Historical House of Tucumán (seat of Argentina's Declaration of Independence of 1816).
Fuente de las Nereidas
At the turn of the 20th century, the city of Buenos Aires inaugurated the fountain called “Fuente de las Nereidas”, otherwise known as ‘Lola Mora’.
A sensuous and erotic work, the monument was designed by the young and rebellious Argentine artist, Dolores Hernández-Mora, and carved completely from Carrara marble.
Depicting the mythical birth of Venus in ways reminiscent of a famous work by Italian painter Sandro Botticelli, Mora’s statue introduced controversial animalistic undertones to an otherwise delicate deity.
Featuring a retinue of nude sea nymphs and three virile figures wrestling winged horses, the fountain roused reactions from moralists who argued not only against its pornographic nature and the licentiousness of its nude figures, but also objected to its sculptor’s decision to wear trousers rather than skirt.
Perhaps a woman before her time, Mora married a man 20 years her senior when she was 40 years old, only to be left by him five years later. Some claimed she was bisexual, although there were also rumours that she had a love affair with Julio A. Roca, the former president of Argentina, and himself a polemic figure.
Originally placed in the Parque Colón Sur near the Casa Rosada, pressure from moralists resulted in the relocation of the monument to Puerto Madero’s Costanera Sur in 1918.
Amid the controversy that arose from its installation, Mora wrote expressing her regret at having provoked such emotions but welcomed the opinion of a public who was not yet ready for her: “I deeply regret what is happening, but I don’t see these as expressions of repudiation, rather the pure and noble voice of my people. That is the final judgment.”
The sculpture was recently recognised as one of the most important in the city however, when it was declared a National Historic Monument in 1997