Homage to Vegetables (La Hortelana) (2002)

Author: José Antonio Eslava Urra (Pamplona, 1936).
Promoter/financing: Tudela City Council.
Inauguration: May 5, 2002
Location: place del Mercado (next to the Mercado de Abastos).

On May 5, 2002, in the framework the VIII conference of Exaltation of the Vegetable, Tudela inaugurated the monument to the Hortelana in the place of the Market. The work does not celebrate a specific figure with a name and surname, but is conceived as a collective tribute to a whole tradition: that of the women who, generation after generation, grow and sell the vegetables that have made the city famous. In this way, the monument becomes a sign of civic identity that, with its location next to the Mercado de Abastos, fulfills a dual function: to dignify the everyday and to reinforce the link between public art and local identity. La Hortelana is not just a sculpture, but a symbol in which the city recognizes itself through one of its most beloved products: vegetables.

The work was created by José Antonio Eslava Urra from Pamplona, a multifaceted artist with a recognized career in different disciplines such as painting, sculpture and engraving. With academic training in Pamplona, Madrid and Florence, and with national awards to his credit, Eslava is considered one of the most complete creators of Navarre. His sculptural production, marked by a balance between figuration and abstraction, reveals influences of Constantin Brancusi and Hans Arp, as well as a constant concern for movement and expressiveness. Eslava is a versatile creator, capable of approaching both the monumental and the intimate, always from a reflection on the symbolic meaning of forms.

In the case of Homenaje a la Verdura (Homage to Vegetables), Eslava opts for a costumbrista figuration, capable of elevating a popular motif to the category of urban symbol. La Hortelana, in bronze and more than two meters high, presents a woman standing in an everyday attitude: with sandals, tight apron and hair tied up, she carries a bunch of artichokes in her left hand, while with her right hand she protects herself from the sun's rays in a spontaneous gesture that gives the sculpture great naturalness and immediately connects with the viewer, as if the woman had stopped for a fleeting moment in broad daylight. The slightly unstable posture of the body and the stylization of the forms introduce a dynamism that avoids rigidity and suggests the vitality of agricultural work . The work is thus inscribed in the figurative tradition, but at the same time participates in the plastic modernity and elevates the scene from the costumbrista plane to the symbolic one: she is not only a market gardener, but the incarnation of the vegetable garden of Tudela. At the base is the registration: "Hortelana. Antonio Eslava. May 2002". The piece was cast at the Bronces Artísticos S. L. Foundry in Madrid, founded in 1986.