Rafael de la Cova (c. 1850 – c. 4 May 1896) was a Venezuelan sculptor active in the second half of the 19th century.

The remains of the vandalized monument to Columbus in 2006. A statue of Guaicaipuro 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 which was commissioned to commemorate the explorer's arrival in what is now Venezuela. Its title, Monumento a Colón en el Golfo Triste, refers to the Gulf of Paria where he reached the mainland of South America in 1498. The work is now largely destroyed having fallen victim to changing attitudes to the legacy of Columbus. It stood in Caracas for a hundred years before 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.[1]

Career

De la Cova was awarded a government scholarship in 1875 which he used to study in Rome.[2] On his return to Venezuela he received a number of commissions including:

Statue in London

A copy of his statue of the Venezuelan revolutionary Francisco de Miranda was erected in Fitzroy Square, London, in 1990.[3]

References

  1. ^ García Marco, Daniel (October 12, 2016). "¿Dónde está la estatua de Cristóbal Colón que fue juzgada, condenada y colgada el 12 de octubre de 2004 en Caracas?" (in Spanish). BBC Mundo. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
  2. ^ Salvador, José María (2003). Actuación de Rafael de la Cova hasta 1888. ExtraMuros Nueva (18), (pp. 51-77). Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela. Facultad de Humanidades y Educación
  3. ^ "Statue: Francisco de Miranda". London Remembers website. Retrieved 2020
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