Equestrian statue of Augustus (Mérida)

The sculpture was initially intended to be erected on the roundabout of Tres Fuentes,^[1] yet plans changed along the way. With a budget of 112,780 € in disposal, the municipal managing board awarded the project in September 2005 to Eduardo Zancada [es], the only artist who had entered the public competition,^[1] and himself a son of the mayor of Mérida between 1952 and 1954, Eduardo Zancada Alarcón.^[2] There is another sculpture of Augustus in a city's roundabout, near the Lusitania Bridge.^[3]

Cast in bronze in Madrid at Codina's foundry,^[4] the sculpture weighs 2.5 tonnes.^[5] The 3.75 metre high sculpture,^[6] features the Roman emperor riding a horse without stirrups, wearing a muscle cuirass, and brandishing a staff while keeping the sword in the belt.^[7] It lies on top of a granite plinth.^[8]

Shortly before the 2007 municipal elections, the sculpture was inaugurated in April 2007 along the whole reform of the traffic circle, with an inner radius of 7.50 m and an outer radius of 17.50 m,^[9][5] at about the same time that another equestrian statue also by Zancada featuring Augustus' son-in-law Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa.^[9]

Citations

Bibliography

• Bazán de Huerta, Moisés (2016). "Referencias romanas en la escultura pública emeritense". Norba Arte (36). Badajoz: Universidad de Extremadura: 157–188. ISSN 0213-2214.