Francisco Gutiérrez Arribas


Francisco Gutiérrez Arribas was a Spanish sculptor.

Life and works

His youthful works were all of a religious nature; primarily images of saints, but they were very derivative. At the age of seventeen, he moved to Madrid, and had the opportunity to improve his skills in the workshops of Luis Salvador Carmona. He developed his personal style by attending the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, where he was exposed to Classical art and monumental sculptures.
After returning to Madrid in 1761, he focused on creating secular works; notably a statue of Cybele for a fountain in the Plaza de Cibeles, numerous figures in Puerto de San Vicente and Alcalá de Henares and, among his last works, a shield bearing the coat-of-arms of the Borbónes.
Among his other projects, he participated in creating the mortuary for King Ferdinand VI and provided allegorical figures depicting "Abundance", "Justice" and "Time" for the church of the Salesians, as well as some decorative putti.
He became a Professor at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando and a court sculptor. In 1765, he was named Director of the Academia when his mentor, Carmona, was forced to resign.

Other selected works