Luis Sanguino

Luis Antonio Sanguino de Pascual (; 13 August 1934 – 12 July 2026) was a Spanish sculptor who is known for many monumental works, mostly in bronze, both in Spain and in the Americas. After living abroad more than once, including sojourns in other European countries as a child, arising from the Spanish Civil War's upheavals, and periods during his adult life in the United States and Mexico, he later lived near Segovia in the land of his birth. Libertad ("Freedom"), one of Sanguino's works on public display in Oviedo.

Early life Sanguino's parents, the lawyer Aquilino Sanguino and Rosa de Pascual, were a noble family of Barcelona, while their son was the seventh of eight siblings. When the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, they fled Barcelona, leaving behind all their belongings in their rush to take flight. The project's direction then shifted to Diego Méndez González, who at once set about simplifying parts of the work (for example, Coullaut-Valera's project for a Way of the Cross vanished from the plans). The sculptures that alluded to the armed forces were Sanguino's.

One story – considered legend rather than history – has it that the counts with the unusual name came into ownership of the castle in King Henry IV's time when the king found himself having to fight a duel. The count at the time gallantly offered to take the king's place in the duel and fight it for him. The count apparently won, and he was thanked by the king by being awarded all the land that the count's horse could cover until the animal exhausted himself.

Death Sanguino died on 12 July 2026, at the age of 91.

Style 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. For Hemingway's face, Sanguino worked from photographs provided by the writer's widow, Mary. The work stands on a street named after Hemingway. 1971 – "The Kiss", a work on display in the entrance to 345 Park Avenue, New York realized for an important real estate developer from this city, Samuel Rudin, in red marble from Alicante. 1975 – "Monumento al matador de toros Juan Montero Navarro", Albacete Cemetery, commissioned by his kin. The monument is a sculptural set of a bullfighter giving an Espaldina Monterina, a pass invented by him and typical of his fights. Work executed in bronze. It is a bronze sculpture of the whole body. 3.5 m tall, clad in period jacket. A bust has been made of this work and can be found at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Undated – "La pensadora" ("The Thinking Woman"), commissioned by Julio Rodríguez Martínez, Minister of Education and Professor of Crystallography, to mark Franco's death and the establishment of the Spanish monarchy, as a gift to King Juan Carlos I on his Coronation Day. It is an onyx carving. 1977 – "Monumento a Jacinto Benavente", in Galapagar's Plaza de la Constitución; The Nobel Prize-winning writer lived in the town and was buried there. Cast in bronze and carved in limestone. Undated – "Monumento a Antonio Bienvenida", just outside Las Ventas, Madrid. Sculptural group made up of eight bronze figures on a low granite pedestal on which is inscribed "Madrid a Antonio Bienvenida". Commissioned in 1975 by the company Jardón, which was the one that built Madrid's bullring, on the occasion of the bullfighter's death (which was not bullfighting-related). Undated – As part of José López Portillo's first visit to Spain after the reestablishment of diplomatic relations with Mexico after Franco's death, two busts were commissioned, one of King Juan Carlos I and the other of the Mexican president to be placed in the Casa de Campo, where a fair was held promoting products from both countries. 1999 – "El Sol de Marbella", City of Marbella. Executed in bronze with brass, reaches a height of 9 metres. 1999 – In this year, the City of Oviedo placed three of Sanguino's sculptures in the city's streets: "Vida" ("Life"), "Libertad" ("Freedom") and "Paz" ("Peace").

2000–2001 – Doors to the Almudena Cathedral: 2000 – Those facing the Plaza de la Armería. Made of bronze with a Pompeian green patina. The main door is at the Plaza de La Almudena, and is the one known as the Door of the Most Holy Trinity, as it has on its upper part representations of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Below appear the Virgin of the Almudena as Madrid's patron ringed by a halo of angels announcing the arrival of the third millennium. The two side doors, Evangelization of the Americas (on the left: a representation of the discovery, that is, Columbus's arrival in the Americas along with his sailors and two representatives of the Catholic Church) and Memory of the History of Spain or Kings' Door (on the right: a representation of all the kings of Spain who, beginning with Pelagius of Asturias and Saint Hermenegild, fought for the Cross from the time of the Reconquista down to the present day). 2001 – "Los Doce Apóstoles: San Andrés, Santo Tomás, San Simón, San Juan, San Mateo, San Pedro, Santiago Menor, San Matías, San Judas Tadeo, Santiago Apóstol, San Bartolomé y San Felipe" ("The Twelve Apostles: Saint Andrew, Saint Thomas, Saint Simon, Saint John, Saint Matthew, Saint Peter, Saint James the Less, Saint Matthias, Saint Jude, James the Apostle, Saint Bartholomew and Saint Philip"). Each one bears the symbology and attitude fitting his story. They stand on the twelve pillars that surround the outside of the cathedral's cupola. Done in bronze and finished with a patina of silver nitrate and limestone.

2002 – Sculpture of Bret Hanover, an American Standardbred racehorse (1962–1992), in bronze, originally stood outside Castleton Farm's office, but now stands at Bret Hanover's grave at the Champions Cemetery at the Kentucky Horse Park. 2003 – Busts on the Avenida de Francisco Fernández Ipazaguirre, commissioned by Guadalajara city council. They are a series of nine busts in bronze on a granite pedestal which bears an explanatory plaque as to who those depicted were and their relationships with the city: Bust of Izraq Ibn-Muntil on whose plaque it says: "Gobernador de la ciudad Árabe y nacido en Guadalajara." ("Governor of the Arab city and born in Guadalajara.") Bust of Alvarfayez de Minaya, Christian warrior who reconquered the city of Guadalajara. Bust of Mose Ben Sen Tob de León (13th century), philosopher and rabbi born in Guadalajara, author of Zohar, a Kabbalistic text. Bust of Íñigo López de Mendoza, 1st Marquis of Santillana (1398-1458), poet, writer of Las Serranillas (a serranilla being a kind of poem). Bust of Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán (1499-1544), conquistador and founder of the like-named city of Guadalajara in Mexico. Bust of Francisco Fernández Iparraguirre (1852-1889), pharmacist, founder of the Scientific, Literary and Artistic Athaenium of Guadalajara and culture promoter in said city. Bust of María Diega Desmaissieres y Sevillano, duchess in the late 19th and early 20th centuries whose works include one of Guadalajara's most emblematic: the pantheon that bears her name, loved in the city for her many beneficent works. Bust of Guadalajara's own Antonio Buero Vallejo (1916-2000). Playwright, academic, Premio Nacional de Teatro and Miguel de Cervantes Prize. Bust in homage to Camilo José Cela Trulock, whose relationship with Guadalajara was established beginning with his journeys through La Alcarria, which gave rise to his like-named novel, written in 1948. On his plaque it says: "Escritor, Premio Nobel de Literatura, Premio Nacional de las Letras Españolas y Premio Cervantes" ("Writer, Nobel Prize in Literature, Premio Nacional de las Letras Españolas and Miguel de Cervantes Prize"). 2008 – "Monumento al Arrastre" ("Arrastre" is the dragging of a dead bull from the bullring), at the Félix Colomo de la Villa bullring in Navalcarnero. It is a sculptural set in bronze with brown patina that represents the moment when the bull is dragged out after the bullfight by a team of mules accomanied by the mule drivers. The Civil Guard's director general, Arsenio Fernández de Mesa, travelled to Segovia to preside over the unveiling. 2017 – "Bust of Saint Anthony", installed at Saint Anthony's shrine in Navas de San Antonio, a bronze bust of Saint Anthony of the Hill ("San Antonio del Cerro") holding the Christ Child. It is about 55 cm tall. This project's main promoter was the parish priest Don Juan Pérez. The inscription on one side reads "En homenaje a Don Juan, por su gran dedicación y su labor pastoral con enorme devoción a San Antonio bendito" ("In homage to Don Juan, for his great dedication and his pastoral work with enormous devotion to Blessed Saint Anthony"). Don Juan had been the parish priest for 32 years by this time. Undated – Figure of bullfighter Julio Robles fighting a bull, on public, outdoor display in Ahigal de los Aceiteros.

Portraits Statue I on the Paseo de la Princesa in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Throughout his career, Sanguino has executed a considerable number of busts or portraits, to perhaps a total of some five or six hundred busts. 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.

United States After Sanguino's appearance on an American television programme that enjoyed the country's greatest audience – The Tonight Show, then hosted by Johnny Carson – on which he executed a portrait of the host live, and was interviewed afterwards by him, the commissions would not stop. to be put before his inn next to the Aqueduct of Segovia. It was unveiled in 2003.

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.

Also prominent are: the bust of Miguel de Unamuno, commissioned by President of Mexico José López Portillo; the bust of Federico García Lorca; the bust of Pío Baroja, a commission from San Sebastián city council; all were executed in bronze.

Mexico Given that Pope John Paul II was to make the first apostolic visit to Mexico during José López Portillo's presidency, Sanguino executed by commission two busts of the Pontiff by which to remember his visit. 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. Later, he had to make another to put in a square in Huelva.

In 1989, Sanguino executed a bust of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

The woman in Sanguino's work

The artist sees in the woman life's wellspring, continuity, the procreator of new generations and the best medium of expression for all human feelings. 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.

A direct example of homage to the woman might be "En Homenaje a la Mujer" ("In Homage to the Woman"), a fountain sculpture dating from 1998, found in Madrid's San Blas neighbourhood (on the Calle Hermanos García Noblejas), commissioned by the San Blas District Councillor, Isaac Ramos, to pay homage to the woman in a residential area called "Las Rosas". The fountain was conceived as five sculptural sets, each representing the woman at different ages, always beautiful and free. The first group is the mother with her newborn child, representing both childhood and motherhood; the second group is the woman playing sports and games, representing youth through an adolescent girl; the third shows infatuation, putting the woman together with the man to whom she gives herself when she loves him; the fourth group represents maturity through a mature woman together with her granddaughter with whom she begins a new life to which she passes down her wisdom and vital experience. In the centre and raised above a bowl of water is the woman in her fullness, bearing a bunch of flowers, a symbol of the woman's triumph.