Category: Restoration

The process of restoring the Christ and cross from Capdella/2

The restoration that sheds light on a work affected by the passage of time. Front and back of the Christ and the cross prior to restoration. Photograph by Jordi Calveras. In the post published on 10 June last year reference was made to the many earlier restorations prior to the admission of the Christ and…

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Author: Anna Carreras

Carracci’s frescoes under the microscope

Now, that the exhibition of the frescoes of the Herrera Chapel by Annibale Carracci has just finished, we take the opportunity to share some of the experiences and information, the result of observing samples of these paintings under the microscope. Usually, the magnification of the combinations of pigment particles in works of art provide images…

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Author: Núria Oriols

The fresco paintings by Annibale Carracci and his assistants, conserved in the Museu Nacional: removal, transferral and shipping from Rome to Barcelona

Paz Marqués Madrid, Barcelona and Rome are the venues for a travelling exhibition curated by Andrés Úbeda, deputy director of the Museo del Prado, with the aim of bringing together an extraordinary group of paintings composed of the fragments of fresco mural paintings, which have been removed, and an altar panel. They were originally in…

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Author: Paz Marquès

Jacopo Amigoni and the replicas of the «Portrait of the Marquis of La Ensenada»

Àngels Comella and Joan Yeguas In the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (Barcelona) and the Museo Nacional del Prado (Madrid), two virtually identical portraits are conserved. This leads us to formulate different questions. Could both paintings have been done by the same artist? If they were, what part did the painter’s workshop play in it?…

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Author: Àngels Comella and Joan Yeguas

From Catalonia to Ukraine. From 1936 to 2022. Wars and heritage

Mireia Capdevila and Francesc Vilanova Curators of the exhibition The Museum in Danger! The Safeguarding and Organization of Catalan Art During the Civil War, MNAC, July 2021-February 2022 From the autumn of 1934, with the creation of a modern, functional and comprehensive museum of art at the service of the country, thanks to the efforts…

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Author: Mireia Capdevila and Francesc Vilanova

Christ of Capdella, paradigm of reuse/1

Anna Carreras Study of the restoration work prior to its admission to the museum In an attempt to prolong the functional lives of works of art, the Catholic Church has often renewed their decoration, in order to reuse highly prized assets, joining them together artificially, updating them and adapting them to new tastes and liturgical…

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Author: Anna Carreras

Calaf Market: the restoration of an unusual work

Núria Prat and Teresa Sardà Calaf Market is a work that has recently been placed in one of the rooms in the museum, on loan since 2019 from a private a collector. It is a folding screen signed by the lacquer artist Enriqueta Pascual Benigani, and also by Xavier Nogués, who did the caricature drawing…

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Author: Núria Prat and Teresa Sardà

Conservation and restoration in wartime

Mireia Campuzano i Mireia Mestre The exhibition Museum in Danger! Safeguarding and Organization of Catalan Art During the Civil War is due to end shortly, having highlighted the steps taken by the museum’s directors and technicians to save the Catalan artistic heritage after the coup d’état. It was a tumultuous period, in which ceaseless efforts…

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Author: Mireia Campuzano and Mireia Mestre

2021 at the Museu Nacional

2021 has been a year that has still been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, we have worked with the conviction that the museum is a meeting place with art and with others, a collective experience that offers enjoyment, safety, reflection, debate and dialogue in difficult times. For this reason, we wanted to make a…

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Author: Redacció museu

The Miralles altarpiece is exhibited in the first Antoine de Lonhy retrospective

Cèsar Favà and Ruth Bagan Until 9 January 2022, the work will be displayed in the exhibition Il Rinascimento europeo di Antoine de Lonhy, in the Palazzo Madama-Museo Civico d’Arte Antica in Turin. It sheds light on the painter’s work in Catalonia, together with a reproduction of the other work surviving from the same period:…

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Author: Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya