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Adán, Juan
(b Tarazona, 1741; d Madrid, 1816). Spanish sculptor. He was trained in Saragossa with José Ramirez. In 1765 he went to Rome, where he won a scholarship from the Spanish Academia de Bellas Artes and was appointed Director of the Accademia di S Luca, Rome. Adán’s early work became known in Spain through the drawings and sculptures he sent from Rome, the finest being a Lamentation. He returned to Spain in 1776 and worked in Lérida, Granada and Jaen, finally settling in Madrid in 1786. In 1793 he was appointed court sculptor (Escultor de Cámara) by Charles IV (reg 1788–1808). He made many carvings in wood, such as a St Joseph and a Virgin of the Sorrows, for churches in Madrid. Other characteristic works are the portrait busts of leading contemporary figures such as Manuel Godoy, the Prince de la Paz, and José Monino, the Conde de Floridablanca. The busts of Charles IV and Queen Maria Luisa (Madrid, Pal. Real) recall their portraits by Goya. Adán’s Venus (1793) at the Alameda, Osuna, is one of the finest works of Spanish Neo-classicism. During the French invasion of 1808 he refused to cooperate with the enemy, and after the war he was elected Director of Sculpture at the Real Academia de S Fernando, Madrid.
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