On the basis of its style, a small fragment from an altarpiece in the collection of the Ulm Museum (Germany) can be attributed to the painter Joan Mates, one of the principal exponents of Catalan Gothic. With the attribution of this piece – of singular iconography – to this artist, not only has the painter’s…
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The use of incisions by the artist As we saw in the previous post, once the panel had been prepared with the different layers of plaster, the artist made the preparatory sketch. He began with sticks of charcoal and, when it was done, he half erased it with a feather; he then went over the entire drawing…
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El Gorg Blau (The Blue Pool) was a beauty spot in the Tramuntana mountain range in Majorca, one of the highest and wildest points on the island. There, after passing through a deep narrow gorge, a mountain stream drained into a small lake before continuing on its way to the sea. This place in Majorca,…
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Cheese, milk, gelatin and flour could be some of the ingredients placed on the desks in Franco Steffanoni’s restoration workshop. We are not talking about a cook here, but a restorer who works with works of art –to be precise, with material patrimonial assets (for nobody can deny that culinary dishes are works of art…
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Coins minted at la Seca throughout the 19th century: 20 pesetas of the Napoleonic occupation of 1812, back; 20 Reales of Fernando VII of 1822, face; 6 provincial quarters of 1846, back; 100 Reales of Isabel II of 1861, face, and 10 cents of Alfonso XII of 1877, face. Photos: Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya…
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The panel of The princess Eudoxia in front of the tomb of Saint Stephen of the altarpiece of Saint Stephen of Granollers represents the Roman Emperor Theodosius II and Empress Eudoxia leading their daughter, the princess Eudoxia, possessed by the devil, in front of the relics of Saint Stephen. It shows the moment of the…
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Anna Carreras i Àngels Comella It is difficult to imagine, nowadays what a classical or medieval work of art looked like when it had just been finished. You only need to think about the controversy caused by the cleaning of the paintings of the Sistine Chapel, which allowed us to see the colours themselves of…
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The church of Sant Climent de Taüll, situated in the valley of Boí (Alta Ribagorça) and declared a world heritage site of Humanity by UNESCO in the year 2000, has offered since 2013 an innovative presentation of its Romanesque paintings, by means of a virtual mapping video that recreates, within the greater apse and the…
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At the end of the 19th century, the publicity poster reached a renowned level of popularity, becoming one of the main emblems of the modern society. The major commercial brands supported the development of posters, aware of the possibilities that, for the diffusion of the advertising message, they offered a very attractive visual resource. The…
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We are reopening the first floor dedicated to Modern Art, after a process of renovation of the collections, the galleries and the museography. We have turned everything round in the museum so as to explain a new narrative and to provide a new way of looking at the collection. These have been six vibrant and…
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