Tag: history

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

The shooting of “The Great White Hope”: A boxing match in the large Sala Oval of the building of the Museu Nacional

Manuel Vallejo Manuel Vallejo, a Friend of the Museu Nacional, explains some of his memories from youth related to the spaces of the museum that he has uncovered during lockdown. Already fifteen years before the initiative “Barcelona posa’t guapa” (Barcelona, make yourself beautiful) our building and sites attracted the attention of the international cinema industry.  The film…

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Author: Manuel Vallejo

The faces of the museum’s history

Mireia Berenguer It is important not to lose sight of the museum’s origins and to keep in mind the people who contributed to its creation. And this is the reason for the task we are carrying out at the museum to collect the biographies of the characters linked to the history of the museum and…

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Author: Mireia Berenguer

History of a symbol: the searchlights of the Palau Nacional

Focus de llum del Palau nacional de Barcelona

Mireia Berenguer When you talk about the city of Barcelona graphically or draw its skyline, there are always a series of significant monuments and buildings in the city, such as the Sagrada Familia, the Agbar tower, the monument to Columbus or the triumphal arch, but there is also the Palau Nacional  with its unmistakable beams…

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Author: Mireia Berenguer

August L. Mayer and the Baroque painting in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya

Museografia del Museu d'Art Modern al Palau Nacional, 1934. Vista parcial de la Col·lecció Gil. AFB.

Joan Yeguas August Liebmann Mayer (Griesheim, 1885 – Auschwitz, 1944) was one of the great experts on Spanish painting of his day; his opinion was heeded in academic circles, the world of museums and the field of art dealing. He graduated in Berlin in 1907 under the wing of Heinrich Wölfflin and with the support…

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Author: Joan Yeguas

Examining the Jewish evidence in the Museu Nacional with Manuel Forcano

Martí Casas Have you ever wondered why we Catalans fem dissabte (clean the house on Saturday)? Or why we eat bunyols (fritters) for Lent? Or why we make slaughtering the pig, an essential source of food in our cuisine, a big public event, but not slaughtering the lamb or the calf, animals that are also…

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Author: Martí Casas

An Almoravid thurible in Romanesque art

This week’s blog includes a version of the text published in the blog of the Museum of the Alhambra, which links Romanesque works in different museums, including ours, to an Almoravid thurible in the Alhambra’s collection. Museum of the Alhambra One of the most outstanding bronzes to be found exhibited in the Museum of the…

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Author: Z_ Guest blogger

The Collection of the Propaganda Commission of the Generalitat de Catalunya (1936-1939) conserved in the library

Yolanda Ruiz On the occasion of the exhibition Romanesque Picasso  in the foyer of the Library of the museum, we are exhibiting some documents published by the Propaganda Commission.  The Commission, directed by Jaume Miravitlles, was created in Barcelona on 3rd October 1936 and remained active until February 1939. The activity of the Commission, as…

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Author: Yolanda Ruiz

Peter of Portugal, King of the Catalans (1464-1466). A cursed prince redeemed by art?

Albert Estrada-Rius Events are a good pretext to commemorate historic events or to remember forgotten characters. This year we are celebrating 550 years of the death of an infant from the royal household of Portugal, called Peter, who ended up reigning in Catalonia between 1464 and 1466 with the name of Peter IV. The context…

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Author: Albert Estrada-Rius

The Palau Nacional, a building with a long history /2

Montse Gumà and Sandra Estebanin collaboration with Marta Mérida During the Spanish Civil War, the Palau Nacional was evacuated and the works moved to Olot and Darnius. In 1937 some pieces travelled to Paris to form part of an exhibition of Catalan medieval art.  Once the conflict had come to an end, in 1939, they…

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Author: Montse Gumà