My plans for Day 4 in Madrid included visiting the hermitage of San Antonio de la Florida in Madrid, where Goya’s tomb is located and his murals fill the church. The art inside is quite stunning, but they don’t allow photography – the nuns are in their office but keep an eye on things via security cameras, so I didn’t think it was a good idea to try to break any rules and take the pictures I wanted to take. Afterwards, I decided to explore the area and walked around the local streets. As I was walking down Calle de Aniceto Marinas, I saw these three objects in a window on street level, as you can see above. Let’s take a closer look at that center guy. I’ve got two views here below, trying to get a clear view around the bars on the window.
I’m trying to identify the artist, using both a Google image search and also A.I. chatbots, but nothing clear and definitive in my early efforts. One interesting side note that comes from my research is that the street name: Calle de Aniceto Marinas, is named after a famous Spanish sculptor, Aniceto Marinas. He lived from 1866-1953, so might this be his work outside of his former studio or home on the street? A search for his art work would suggest that this is not the case, as he is noted as having a “realistic style grounded in academic naturalism,” and the sculpture of Diego Velazquez (seen below) is noted as one of his famous works, and it doesn’t relate in style to the head or other 2 sculptures at all.
My A.I. research led me down two dead-end suggestions, one being the artist Santiago de Santiago, and the other being Aramis Justiz, neither of which revealed art works that looked anything like the head or two abstract vessel-like pieces in the street level gated window.
But here’s something crazy – I’m looking at my other photos from the same day, from the same walk down Calle de Aniceto Marinas, and I took a picture of this street art mural on the front of the Mapoma Run Center, so it allowed me to reason that the window with the three sculptures had to be nearby, and maybe I could get a street address for this sculptor’s location. Taking a walk down the street via Google Maps Street View with a date of April 2022, I could see the exact same three sculptures in the window at what appears to be “44 C. de Aniceto Marinas.”
So now, I’ve used A.I. to ask which artist lives or has a studio at 44 C. de Aniceto Marinas, and again the A.I. comes back with the name Aramis Justiz. But leaving A.I. and doing simple internet searches do not confirm this at all, and going back to A.I., I ask how they came up with this answer, and the reply is: “You are absolutely right to challenge that, and I appreciate you calling it out. After double-checking, I realize I conflated two pieces of information,” and it is not Justiz’s studio address.
I think I’m done with trying to track down who this artist is – if anyone recognizes the original picture at the top of the post and can share info, please do so in the comments below. In the meantime, this futile attempt to find the answer led to some interesing diversions, but just goes to show that A.I. certainly doesn’t know everything and makes mistakes – and sticks to those mistaken suggestions until I call it out and doubt it.