Monument to the Marqués de Campo

By Mariano Benlliure in 1908. It was first located in the old Plaza de San Francisco, but later moved to Plaza de Cánovas del Castillo where it remains today.

Its composition is very simple: a high stone pedestal supports the bronze statue of Don José Campo Pérez dressed in a levitate with an astracan neck and welcoming a girl, in clear allusion to the Asylum for Girls that he himself created in Valencia.

At his feet and surrounding the axis formed by the pedestal four symbolic figures: Charity, the Navy, Gas and the Railway, alluding to the four fundamental companies in which the Valencian banker used his effort. Although the ensemble is very monumental and perhaps recalls the scheme of the Fallas compositions, the work is carefully executed, particularly in the three knots alluding to navigation, gas and railway, works possibly executed in Rome, which clearly define the style of Benlliure’s early period. One of these figures – navigation – was presented by Benlliure at the International Exposition in Munich, where he won first prize. This statue also won first medal at the National Exhibition of Madrid in 1890.

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