Arteta’s work fused the teachings of classical art with the new art movements he became familiar with during his time in Europe. This is clearly visible in the synthesis, the canonical proportions, monumentality and the intellectualisation of what is depicted. His compositions are always built around form, order and proportion.
 
In this study —for one of the figures in El astillero, a fresco created to decorate the rotunda in the old Banco de Bilbao building in Calle Alcalá in Madrid— a bare-chested worker in motion is wielding a sledgehammer to rivet the metal sheets of a ship under construction. For this composition the artist drew inspiration from scenes he had seen in a forge in Olaveaga where he made countless preparatory studies, many of them perfunctorily sketched in drawing notebooks.
 
Like in the case of this study, Arteta’s figures have a robust, almost titanic appearance with a strong, vigorous anatomy: brawny arms in tension, athletic torsos and legs in motion. The volume of these bodies is reminiscent of the models painted by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel that Arteta would probably have seen for himself during his stay in Italy.
 
In 1921 he was commissioned with the painting for the rotunda of the Banco de Bilbao building under construction in Calle de Alcalá in Madrid, paying tribute to man’s work. He materialised it in a circular frieze made up of twelve mural paintings measuring 2 metres high by 3 metres wide each, separated by quasi-baroque composite order pillars.
 
From 1920 to 1922 he filled countless notebooks with preparatory studies, drawing sketches from life in mines, ports, factories, railways and farms. He used charcoal to jot down his first impressions on paper with quick, meditated, sketchy and rectilinear lines, creating figures that he would later incorporate into his compositions and that he would then colour before transferring them to the fresco; figures made with strongly defined lines that were materialised with a palette of highly contrasting colours depending on the scene.
 
These frescos pay homage to the work of Basque men and women. They represent the virtues of a powerful, sculptural race in action, unafraid of the future and dedicated to hard work. That explains why Arteta used mining, industry, metallurgy, shipbuilding, and also agriculture, cattle raising and fishing, to allegorically represent work. All his scenes speak of progress achieved through perseverance and fortitude in overcoming adverse situations. Also present are the arts and intellectual work, the keen eye of painting, the sense of touch of sculpture, the precise calculation of architecture, the introversion of music and the melancholy of poetry.