Jordi Camps If one had to choose the most impressive Romanesque works of sculpture from the Pyrenees, there can be no doubt that the list would have to include the Descent from the Cross from Erill la Vall and, especially, the Christ of Mijaran, unquestionably the sculptural equivalent of the apse of Sant Climent in…
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Milena Pi Historical and legendary events are interwoven in the figure of Saint Eulàlia, whose saint’s day we are celebrating this week. We thought this would be a good opportunity to take a closer look at the historical sources, the origins of her cult, and the symbolism that this relic has for Barcelona and the…
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Núria Oriols The year 2019 was declared International Year of the Periodic Table by UNESCO. It commemorated the 150th anniversary of a system to organize and classify the 63 chemical elements that were then known, designed by the Russian chemist Dmitri I. Mendeleev. He based it on atomic mass, and left gaps in which to…
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Iker Spozio Italian-born artist Iker Spozio came to the Museu Nacional as someone passionate about ancient art and history, and especially Romanesque painting, for which he feels a special attachment. With the project to reinterpret and translate the Romanesque paintings conserved in the museum into his style, he had a period of residence at the…
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Àngels Comella i Jordi Camps A crowned Child Jesus about to get down from his mother’s lap is the feature that characterizes a Romanesque image that entered the museum in 1920, after the Museums Board had purchased it from the antiques dealer Josep Valenciano. It is a polychrome hardwood carving, with a very interesting conception…
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Jordi Camps Saint Michel de Cuxa: an exceptional Romanesque site One of the most spectacular and enigmatic Catalan Romanesque monuments is without doubt the Benedictine monastery of Saint Michel de Cuxa, on the north side of the Pyrenees, in the shadow of the Canigó mountain evoked admirably by Mossèn Cinto Verdaguer. The architectural site remains…
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Joan Pey Have you ever seen these four carved stone sculptural bases from the middle third of the 12th century? They belong to the Monastery of Ripoll and are on permanent loan in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, exhibited in the Romanesque Art galleries. It has been possible to reunite a lion’s head, which…
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Martí Casas As the Christmas festivities approach, just about everyone at home is clear about which figures can’t be missing in a crib, just as it should be: the Holy Family, the ox and the mule, the three wise men with their pages…and of course we can’t forget the caganer! Taking a look at the…
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Juan Carlos Asensio How are the images and music of the Romanesque related? The manuscripts of Gregorian songs and Visigoth songs allow us to put forward an answer: the contents painted on apses and the frontals of altarpieces, the carved figures on chests and capitals, and even the ritual formulas carved in commemorative inscriptions, have…
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Jordi Camps The cloister is one of the basic and at the same time most visually attractive parts of monasteries and cathedrals. From the Romanesque period onwards it became a monumental, articulated area, endowed with an iconographic programme sculpted on the arcades of all four sides. Due to the gradual disappearance of some of the…
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