Rafael de la Cova


Rafael de la Cova was a Venezuelan sculptor active in the second half of the 19th century.
has since been erected on the central plinth.
De la Cova received some important commissions, but a number have not survived to the present day. Perhaps his best known work is a monument to Christopher Columbus called Monumento a Colón en el Golfo Triste. Now largely destroyed, it stood in Caracas for a hundred years. Its central statue was torn down from its plinth in 2004 on Columbus Day, which had been renamed in Venezuela as the Day of Indigenous Resistance.

Career

De la Cova was awarded a government scholarship in 1875 which he used to study in Rome.
On his return to Venezuela he received a number of commissions including:
A copy of his statue of Francisco de Miranda was erected in Fitzroy Square, London, in 1990.