How Legends Are Cast in Bronze: The Creation of Arrascaeta and Bruno Henrique Busts

The busts of Arrascaeta and Bruno Henrique, to be immortalised at Flamengo's Gávea headquarters, represent far more than the likenesses of two legendary figures in the club's history. Behind these bronze sculptures lies meticulous work combining state-of-the-art technology, traditional sculpting techniques and the artistic vision of a craftsman deeply familiar with Rubro-Negro lore.

The works are part of Nação Legado (Legacy Nation), a platform created by Flamengo to celebrate the club's history and connect generations of supporters. Its inaugural initiative is Lance Histórico, a gala dinner and charity auction taking place on 30 October at the Maracanã, serving three purposes: honouring the past by supporting former players facing financial hardship; celebrating the present by paying tribute to today's idols; and building the future through investment in youth academy infrastructure, women's football and the Jogaremos Juntos social project.

The busts of Arrascaeta and Bruno Henrique represent the tribute to current heroes and will hold centre stage at the auction: 21 supporters will win the opportunity to have their names etched on the pedestals of these sculptures.

The artist behind the works is sculptor Edu Santos from Piracicaba, São Paulo, specialising in portraiture within the classical figurative tradition. His pieces are displayed across Brazil and internationally in the USA, Italy, France, the Netherlands and Denmark. His name already features in other Flamengo tributes: he created the busts of the club's World Cup winners displayed at Gávea and the statue of Zico.

This time, the challenge was capturing not just the facial features of Arrascaeta and Bruno Henrique, but also the gestures and characteristics that have made them so iconic to supporters.

From technology to handcraft

Creation of the busts began with three-dimensional scanning of the players. Using reverse engineering equipment, the sculptor captured precise measurements and volumes, generating a digital mesh of each athlete.

From this data, 3D-printed models were produced, serving as the foundation for the next phase: manual sculpting in synthetic clay. This is where technology gave way to the artist's eye and hands, responsible for refining details, adjusting expressions and imbuing the sculptures with character.

Interestingly, the model dimensions needed to be enlarged by 5%. The reason is technical: to compensate for the shrinkage that occurs during the bronze casting process.

The pieces were produced at Fundarte, one of Latin America's largest art foundries, using an alloy known as Bronze 85, comprising 85% copper and 15% tin.

The challenge of immortalising a gesture

Edu chose to begin with the Arrascaeta bust precisely because he considered it the most complex. The sculpture captures a signature moment from the Uruguayan: the instant he pulls his shirt to highlight the Flamengo crest.

The positioning of the arms, extending forward, required a special solution. Rather than casting the entire work in one go, it was necessary to produce sections separately and then assemble them.

Another challenge was reproducing the players' tattoos. Since bronze doesn't permit the same visual treatment as ink on skin, Edu had to find an artistic alternative to preserve the designs.

"A tattoo is ink on skin. In bronze, it's not possible to cast and then engrave without losing quality. So I transformed the tattoo into relief. What was a drawing became high-relief, and the lettering was worked in low-relief, playing with the contrast between light and shadow," the sculptor explains.

The result is a work in which every detail was conceived to preserve the identity of the athletes, despite the particularities and constraints of the material.

A special bond with Flamengo's history

Although he has created various works for the club, Edu holds an especially emotional memory of creating the Zico statue.

"Every piece carries a part of the artist, but of all the works I've done for Flamengo, I think the Zico statue moved me most," he recalls.

The sculptor remembers having little time to complete the work and experiencing tense moments until receiving approval from Zico himself.

"It was quite nerve-wracking until Zico said it was perfect and joked that he liked that I'd made him slim," he smiles.

Based in Piracicaba, Edu also creates works beyond the sports world. Among his recent productions is a tribute to cartoonist Mauricio de Sousa, installed in the lobby of the São Paulo Museum of Art (Masp).

A tribute for future generations

Like the sculptures of the World Cup champions and the Zico statue, the busts of Arrascaeta and Bruno Henrique will become part of the gallery of icons at Gávea headquarters, preserving for future generations the image of two players who defined an era of glory in the Sacred Mantle.

More than simply honouring two great names of the present, these new sculptures reinforce one of Nação Legado's core purposes: keeping Flamengo's history alive and strengthening the bond between the idols of yesterday, today and tomorrow.