This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Mariano Belliure y Gil to be produced by the Fundacion Benlliure, Madrid.

Provenance:
Don Pedro Alejandro Paterno (1857– 1911) and
Doña Luisa Piñeyro de Lugo y Merino (Sra. de Paterno, d. 1897)
Exposicion Historico-Natural y Etnográfica, Madrid, 1893

Exhibited:
Exposicion General de Las Islas Filipinas, 1887, Palacio de Cristal,
Parque de Retiro, Madrid;
Exposicion Historico-Americana, 1892 alongside the Exposicion
Historico-Europe, Palacio de Biblioteca y Museos Nacionales
(National Library and Museums) 1892, Parque de Madrid
(formerly Parque de Retiro), Madrid

Literature: A photograph of the Exposicion Historico-Natural y Etnográfica, Madrid, 1893. Collection of Don Pedro Paterno.

ABOUT THE WORK

by LUCRECIA ENSEÑAT BENLLIURE Mariano Benlliure Foundation, Madrid This bust of Pedro Paterno is modelled in Rome in 1881, the same year that Mariano Benlliure arrived in the city in the beginning of April, and where he immediately began working in a part of the studio of his brother and painter José Benlliure, in Via Margutta 33, who had resided there for two years. The expressive dedications of the bust and the photographs of two figures in terracotta (reproduced in this book), "To my dearest friend (...)" and "To the poet Pedro Paterno / his admirer / Mariano Benlliure", respectively, we discover a friendship and mutual admiration, which could have been initiated earlier in Madrid, and of which the photograph "Young artists in Rome" is also a testimony, in which they appear together with another of the brothers Benlliure, Juan Antonio, Juan Luna, Juan José Puerto, Félix Resurrección and Miguel Zaragoza (photo © Mariano Benlliure Archive, Madrid). In the bust of Paterno, sculpted to a size slightly smaller than the natural, Benlliure already left a record of some of the keys that will characterize his portraits. Modelled without accessory elements, it concentrates the composition in the psychological study of the face, which is worked with small incisions to profile its physiognomy, as seen in the hair, eyebrows and the incipient moustache, or in the soft touches that recreate the texture of the skin. With the emptying of the iris it manages to give expression to the look and the mud seems to come to life. In contrast, the torso is moulded with longer strokes, leaving some areas only sketched. Benlliure didn’t mind leaving visible the fingerprints and tools, a treatment that will be exaggerated over time, brings naturalness and tactility to his works and speaks of the sculptural process itself. THE ENIGMATIC DON PEDRO PATERNO by LISA GUERRERO NAKPIL Don Pedro Paterno would perhaps begin to hatch his plan to become an indispensable part of Spain’s elite sometime in 1881. Like the Resurreccion Hidalgo painting from the same year, it is a portrait of a man with a vision. Paterno had already established his reputation as a poet in Madrid social circles, reciting his own creations — as was the fashion of the day — in tertulias that he hosted at his spectacular residence at the palace of the Marques de Salamanca. He would also have witnessed the effect that Juan Luna’s first triumph at the Madrid Exposition of Fine Arts of 1881, with the moving “Death of Cleopatra” would have wrought on the Spanish court as well as the newshounds of the day. Don Pedro would thus launch a concerted effort to influence the cultural elite to put forward a project to be known as the Exposicion General de las Islas Filipinas. It was Paterno’s aim to project the Philippines as an important part of the firmament of Spain’s colonial empire. One newspaper article, by the editor of “El Liberal” on May 8, 1887 had this to say: The ‘Catapusan' Yesterday, almost at the same time as the 'news of that the Filipino Indios had arrived in Madrid for the Exposition at the Retiro, we received a card that said that was inscribed as follows, “The Maguinoo Paterno has the honor of inviting the director of ‘El Liberal' to a ‘catapusan’ (a Filipino festivity) to be held tonight at his home, Barquillo, 23.» We know Señor Paterno as a poet, for his ‘Sampaguitas’, as a novelist for his book on Filipino customs, ‘NInay’, and as a speaker, for his lectures at the Ateneo, but this is the first that we have known= him as ‘Maguinoo'. For this alone, we attended his catapusan. The new house of Messrs. Paterno, is a museum of Filipino treasures. If it had been entered into a competition, surely it would have won a prize. Last night's party was attended by many beautiful women our aristocracy, politicians, writers, etc. The guest of honor was the Marquise of Estella. They all examined the infinite objets d’art, listened to music and danced many waltzes and rigodons; and they were presented with a splendid dinner. A very clever deputy said at the end of the evening, “While Maguinoo, is a highly enviable noble title in the Philippines, Don Pedro Paterno has no real need of it, as he many other titles that the world is eager to give him."