Six metres high and weighing 600 kilos: the four Solomonic columns that greet visitors to the Gallery.

The President of Patrimonio Nacional, Ana de la Cueva, and the Director of the Royal Collections, Leticia Ruiz, presented this Tuesday at the Royal Collections the first pieces that have already been installed on site where the public will be able to observe them. They consist of four Solomonic columns six metres high and weighing 600 kg that Patrimonio Nacional has restored for the Gallery. In the process, the lapis lazuli blue and gold leaf decorations that make them unique in Spanish Baroque architecture have been revealed.

”We are in the countdown to the inauguration of the Gallery and everything is going according to plan. We are proud to present, for the first time today, these four wonderful and newly restored columns, which will be a part of the Gallery's permanent collection,” said Ana de la Cueva. “This ensemble is a good representation of the rich variety that characterises our Royal Collections: paintings, sculpture, tapestries, armour, carriages, or incredible columns like these."

According to Leticia Ruiz, Director of the Royal Collections, these columns are "a metaphor" for the Gallery itself: "The building created by Tuñón and Mansilla is a modern container of very pure forms that interact in a dialogue par excellence with the baroque columns". Speaking of the columns, she highlighted “the beauty of the gold intertwining with the marbled lapis lazuli blue”.

Key columns of the Spanish Baroque

The columns belonged to the main altarpiece of the now-disappeared church of the Royal Patronage of the Hospital Virgen de Montserrat, in the surroundings of Antón Martín, in Madrid. The Solomonic columns were built between 1674 and 1678, when this style was still not widespread in Spain. "They are key items of the Spanish Baroque because they were essential to the development of this style and because they were made by the best designer in the late 17th century", stated José Luis Sancho, researcher at Patrimonio Nacional.

The sculptor who built them, José de Churriguera (1665-1725), followed the designs of Francisco de Herrera el Mozo (1627-1685). The columns are 5.65 metres high and weigh almost 600 kilos. Each column is built with eight pine trunks from the forest of Valsaín in Segovia. The twisted shaft is decorated with vine leaves and bunches of grapes.

Revealing their original blue

The restoration was carried out between late 2022 and early 2023 at the Gallery and the process revealed the intense lapis lazuli blue that had been hidden by the repainting. “It has been amazing. When we started to remove the repainted layer and varnish, we found a spectacular blue that gave the columns a vividness that they didn't have previously", said one of the restorers.

For José Luis Sancho, this blue is what makes these pieces unique, as in the Spanish Baroque period, Solomonic columns were usually entirely gilded. “Lapis lazuli is one of the most prized colours in the history of Western art and it is an essential colour that gives off the impression of richness that is quintessentially Baroque", he concluded.