Royal Palace of Madrid - Exterior of The Palace

Exterior of The Palace

The main facade of the Palace was built on a base pad, on which rises a series of big Tuscan pillars. It is also adorned with a series of statues of saints and kings, relocated under the reign of Charles III to give to the gates of the recint a classicist touch.

At the time, Italian Sachetti decided fourteen vases and placed at the corners statues of the Aztec tlatoani Moctezuma II and the Inca Atahualpa, works by Juan Pascual de Mena and Domingo Martínez, respectively. Near the Tuscan columns are representations of Honorius, Theodosius I, Hadrian and Trajan. A medallion with classical figures topped the set.

On the southern front were placed the statues of Philip V, Maria Luisa of Savoy and Elisabeth Farnese, and that of Ferdinand VI and his wife Barbara of Portugal. Also found flanking both sculptural series an allusion to Zodiac of the Greeks.

Is remarkable the intervention of Juan Domingo Olivieri and his workshop, who labored more than half of the sculptures that adorned the palace at the time of Ferdinand VI. It was also the author of many heads of mask and other allegorical figures of Greek mythology, that not occupied a place as visible as other works.