Jaume Ferrer de Blanes

Sculptor: Francesc Pagès,
Restoration: Josep Miret
Architect: Gaietà Buigas
Materials: Stone from Monóvar
Inauguration: June 1, 1888

In memorials of a certain size is often coupled with the honoree character, albeit at a lower level, appear representations of figures related to his career. As noted Carlos Reyero in a study of the memorial sculpture in Spain, some of these figures or groups, usually placed in the pedestal, at first seem subsidiaries, at least from a formal point of view, their situation in a lowest level. However, they can function as main figures for even more visual relevance have memorialized that figure and especially because they help to explain the true symbolic value of the monuments. This is the case of the sculptures stationed at the base of the column of the monument to Christopher Columbus.

Given that the iconographic program of patent monument a clear intention to assert the presence of Catalonia in the adventure of discovery and colonization of America, it is logical to have a significant importance the Catalan characters who, in one way or another, were related to Columbus' voyages to the Americas.

Specifically, the figure now before us corresponds to the diplomat, cosmographer and writer Jaume Ferrer de Blanes, born in Vidreres (Selva) by the year 1445. The character is represented accompanied by the figure of a page, which holds a globe. This group, carved in stone by Francesc Pagès Alicante, is a clear example of naturalistic realism adopted by many sculptors of the nineteenth century when representing historical figures. Thus, given the inherent impossibility of simultaneously taking history (past) and reality (present), the use of certain formal and compositional resources derived from the immediate perception of reality, allowing them a fictional approach of the historical past.