Joan Yeguas In 1949, along with the main group of paintings from his collection, the portrait of a gentleman – with inventory number 64995 – entered the museum via the bequest of Francesc Cambó i Batlle (Verges, 1876 –Buenos Aires, 1947). On the back of the canvas there was an inscription in French that has…
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Dr. Xavier Sierra i Valentí Three Beggars, Giacomo Ceruti, known as Il Pittocchetto, 1736. Thyssen-Bornesmiza Collection, (on long-term loan to the Museu Nacional). In this painting by Giacomo Ceruti we can see three old beggars dressed in rags. Ceruti, who was also known as “Il pittochetto” was a painter of the late Italian Baroque, active…
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Alícia Cornet The Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya preserves among its tombstone collections a slab dedicated to Geralda and Maria, from the old convent of Sant Francesc in Barcelona. These two women were tertiaries, that is, lay people who followed the Third Rule of the Order of St. Francis. There is no documentation on them,…
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Sílvia Redondo, Mireia Rosich and Íngrid Vidal On 10 March 2021, to mark International Women’s Day, the activity “Transforming the gaze: the visibility of women artists” was held virtually. The main objective of this event, organized by the museum’s Joaquim Folch i Torres Library and the Art Museums Network of Catalonia, was to learn about,…
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Sílvia Redondo and Miguel Navas On 5th November, the 2nd Conference on Open Science and Scientific Communication was held virtually, organised by the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, the Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona (MCNB) and the Centre de Recerca en Informació, Comunicació i Cultura (CRICC). This event is the continuation of the Open…
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Pablo José Alcoverand Rosa Mayordomo Bread, a brief history From prehistory to the Middle Ages, bread played a decisive role in food. So far, the oldest bread remains have been found in an excavation in Israel. They are 22,500 years old, that is to say, from the Upper Paleolithic period. These prehistoric loaves would be rounded,…
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Pablo José Alcover Cateura and Antoni Riera Melis Introduction Cherries are depicted in two Gothic altarpieces in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya. This entry in the museum’s blog will explain why they are there. First, a few notes about the word ‘cherry’. The English word, the Catalan cirera and the Castilian cereza all come…
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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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Ingrid Vidal These days more and more museums are re-examining their discourses and rescuing works by women artists from the basements. To mark International Women’s Day we propose to take a look at some of the ideas that were crucial to, on the one hand, the birth of museums and, on the other, to the…
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Núria Oriols We continue our visit to the museum’s rooms that we began in last week’s article. Renaissance and Baroque art rooms Preparations with clays As we move into a new room, we observe another change in the type of format. In the different sections of this period the majority of paintings are on canvas….
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