Mario Zamora Alcántara: esculpiendo vida en el frío mármol

Abstract

The present article has been conceived as a reflection and a homage to the sculptural marble ensemble that the national artist Mario Zamora Alcántara made to beautify the lower floor of the Legislative Palace, towards the second half of the last 20th century. Five marble sculptures and a high bronze relief were the original project. However, only four marble works were situated in their place. The fifth was abandoned and finally located in the central courtyard of the National School of Fine Arts. A professional photographic record has been made of four of the five works which will be the focus of this study. Also, the main national newspapers have been consulted in the decade from 1952 to 1962, adding several interviews given by the artist to diferent Honduran and Mexican magazines in his long artistic career. In this way the history of the execution of these works has been reconstructed, as well as the historical facts that made them a reality.

A brief review of the construction of the Legislative Palace building, work that by it dimension lead to the idea of decorating it with a sculptural ensemble according to its architectural importance, has also been included in the article. More than a biographical or historical writing, this work has the purpose to be a visual tribute to Zamora’s artistic work; to whom in this year 2020 the first centenary of his birth must be celebrated with all the honors he deserved.