Spanish sculptor active around 1870, awarded at the Turin Exhibition for his marble Masaccio, figure of international academic sculpture.

Manuel Garriga is a Spanish sculptor active in the second half of the 19th century, whose activity is attested primarily around 1870, at which time he appears in European exhibition sources and the artistic press. Precise biographical details remain undocumented to date, but available primary sources allow us to identify at least one significant stage of his career with precision.

He is documented as a participant in the Turin Exhibition of 1870, organised by the Società Promotrice di Belle Arti, where he presented two marble sculptures: Masaccio and Nydia. This participation is confirmed by the Society’s official catalogues, which list Garriga among the foreign exhibitors, confirming his effective presence on the Italian artistic scene at that date.

The critical reception of Garriga was relayed by the Spanish cultural press, notably in La Ilustración Española y Americana. In an article published on 3 May 1873, Garriga is cited as “a young sculptor, almost a child”, distinguished at the Turin exhibition. The text states that his sculpture Masaccio was awarded, then acquired at the close of the exhibition for placement in a museum. The choice of subjects of great historical and intellectual significance — Masaccio, a founding figure of the Florentine Renaissance; Nydia, the blind slave from Bulwer-Lytton’s novel The Last Days of Pompeii — attests to a pronounced intellectual ambition.

Manuel Garriga also appears in biographical dictionaries and artists’ dictionaries of the 19th century, confirming his identification as a recognised sculptor of his time. He is part of the international academic tradition, combining technical mastery, learned references and museum ambition, in that context of intense circulation of artists between Spain, Italy and the major European exhibitions.