Romanesque Altar Frontal from Seu d'Urgell

Another wonderful Romanesque altar frontal in MNAC, showing Christ surrounded by the apostles. Dated about 1150, tempera on wood. From a church in the old dicese of Urgell.  Heavy linearity and symmetry (look at the feet!) tending - physical details like garments and bodies all become the occasion for abstract patterning, as if the pattern is the reality, and the physical object just a brief configuration as the play of line and colour goes on for ever. This play, or pull, between concrete and abstract gives much of Romanesque art itrs animating tension. I like the tilted heads - impossible not to follow the gaze from side to centre.

Video introduction produced by MNAC:


Short entry on Spain is Culture

Wikipedia entry (note: 'lack of funds' in the description is a mistranslation and should read 'lack of background')

Article: Walter W. S. Cook, 'The Earliest Painted Panels of Catalonia (II)', The Art Bulletin, Vol. 6, No. 2  (Dec, 1923), pp. 31-60 on JSTOR. Article begins with a detailed account of this frontal, pages 30-32. It's a great example of detailed visual description - how pausing, looking and putting into words what we see leads to a much sharper awareness of what is happening. The eye wants to skim - particularly in a musem where there is so much to see - so sketching or describing like this is an essential discipline for slowing down and focussing.

Some lovely illustrations, and a good section on Geometrical Forms, in MNAC's excellent Guia Visual Art Romanic.

Romanesque Art: Apse of St Pere d'Urgell

Apse of St Pere, Seu d'Urgell. MNAC, Barcelona. Image: Wikimedia Commons.

This is the first monumental fresco to confront the visitor to the Romanesque Collection in MNAC. It is the decoration of the apse of the church of St Pere, which forms part of the Cathedral complex of the Seu d'Urgell (the church is now St Miquel). The painting dates from the first half of the twelfth century.

Subject  The subject matter is, characteristically, a theophany - that is, a vision in which divine majesty is revealed. Christ appears in a mandorla (mystical almond shape), manifesting the Maiestas Domini (the Majesty of the Lord). Around him are the creatures making up the Tetramorph, the symbols of the Four Evangelists: to the right of the mandorla we see the eagle (St John) and the ox (St Luke). It is notable that Christ is standing, not enthroned - imagery which goes back to Early Christian models. This fact, together with the pleats of the drapery and the vertical elongation of the figure, have led some to suggest that the subject is the Ascension. But other elements of the iconography point to the Second Coming, when Christ returns at the end of the world to judge the living and the dead. We notice that Christ holds the Book of Life in his left hand, and has his right hand raised in blessing. Beneath the horizontal band, the fragmentary inscription comes from a Latin liturgical hymn concerning the Last Judgement.

On the lower level, Mary and the Apostles stand in pairs. They are identified in Latin shorthand (S Petus: Sanctus Petrus, S Iohs: Sanctus Johannis etc.) and by their attributes. From the left: St Andrew carrying the cross (on which he was crucified); St Peter with the keys to heaven; St Mary, holding a crown in her covered left hand (identifying her as the Queen of Heaven; the covered hand reminds me of the covered left hand of Justinian and attendants in the S Vitale Ravenna mosaic); St John holding his gospel with a similarly covered hand; on the right, we can just identify Paul from his name.

Style  Romanesque art was formed from a diversity of stylistic influences, and we can see several of them here. The scene of Theophany itself derives from Early Christian art of late antiquity. Here, the modelling of the figures, and the loosely geometrical approach to the drapery, point to the art of Provence, which was strongly influenced by classical models. The white background of the upper part is characteristic of southern and central France, while a similar image has been identified in a manuscript from St Mary of Lagrasse, dated to the time of Abbot Robert (1086-1108). The lands of this community included Urgell in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Observations One of the striking features of this painting is the interlaced geometrical schemes, especially in the beautiful central band where the pattern gives an impression of depth: this takes us to another stylistic source, the geometrical art of the barbarians and the early Middle Ages (the Celtic patterns in the Book of Kells, for example). The love of pattern is shown in the mandorla, in the semicircular configuration where Christ's feet extend (he is either taking off or coming in to land), and around the window openings. The band around the central window, punctuating the white horizontal line of the inscription, helps to join the separate spaces (as the trumeau abuts the lintel at Moissac). Deep browns and reds give a unifying tone to the whole composition, while among the vivid colours we notice the blue of Mary's mantle, made from lapis lazuli. Faces are elongated and - by modern realist standards - inexpressive. Yet the large eyes, with their deep mirada fuerte, give them a compelling intensity; and the painter has clearly tried to differentiate them with different beards, hair colour etc. (We think of the row of elders on the lintel of the tympanum at Moissac - first apparently identical, but each given a distinctive posture). We notice the love of symmetry when we look across the pairs of figures beneath, and see the disposition of hands being mirrored. The bodies seem to face outward to the viewer, while feet and hands indicate they are turned slightly inwards towards each other: the pictorial plane is ambiguous. There is a blend of space and intricate detail, animation and stillness, creating the drama of theophany, the transcendence from the earthly to the spiritual realm.

Sources
Most of the above is derived from the Guia art romanic published by MNAC.

Wikipedia netry on St Miquel de la Seu d'Urgell

Further bibliography on Ars Picta

St Vicenç, Cardona

This church is in the ‘First Romanesque’ style. The First Romanesque is a style of building of roughly 950-1050, the first century of Romanesque. This was a period when builders were experimenting with developing new forms and new solutions to the problems of vaulting and lighting a church. The style is common to churches in the Mediterranean area from Lombardy to Catalonia, from which it subsequently spread upwards to the regions of France. As well as being an example of this particular style, St Vicenç in Cardona exemplifies some of the key elements of Romanesque architecture: clearly organised space, with the units marked out by architectural elements; stone vaulting; a Latin Cross groundplan; the development of the East end with chapels projecting from transepts; blind arches decorating the exterior; and a general sense of restraint and fitness for purpose. As Eric Fernie puts it, “nothing is superfluous, nothing confused” (entry on Romanesque architecture in Grove). Studying this church is thus a good introduction to ‘reading’ Romanesque church architecture in general.

Location
Cardona is in the county of Bages, roughly in the centre of this map.

History

A church is documented on the site from 980. Around 1019, it was redeveloped by the Viscount Bermon, who reformed a religious (Augustinian) community that was present there from the late tenth century. The present church was built beween c.1029 and 1040, when it was consecrated by Eriball, the Bishop of Urgell .The church and community were under the control of the lords of the castle of Cardona – a reminder of the close association of Romanesque architectuyre and the feudal system.  Typically of many Romanesque churches, especially in Catalonia, it is dramatically situated on a rocky hilltop.

Groundplan. Source: learn.columbia.edu

Architecture

Groundplan:

·        The church is compose of a wide nave and two narrower aisles.

·        Naves and aisle are crossed by a transept, which is slightly wider, but not very long: it barely projects beyond the basic rectangular plan. Nave crossed by transept gives the Latin Cross groundplan.

·         The East end is emphasised, with chapels projecting from the North  and South arms of the transept, giving three semicircular apses.

Interior Elevation

Interior elevation. Source: romanicocatalan.com

·       Barrel vaulting is used in the nave, with transverse arches clearly articulating three bays + crossing. Aisles have groin vaulting.

·       The Tribune at the West forms a special gallery, an elevated space for the noble family of the castle: this is a feature derived from Carolingian architecture.

·       Inside the Crossing Tower is a dome carried on pendentives – a feature from Eastern architecture. Above that is the octagonal drum (cimborio).

·       The vaults are notably high (more than 19 metres), a characteristic feature of Catalan Romanesque churches, and also of Eastern derivation.

Piers; shafts continue into transverse arches. Barrel vaults



Nave: shafts join the two storeys; raised Chancel

Transverse arches and groin vaults in aisles.

Dome inside Crossing Tower. On pendentives, with scallop shapes.

·         Inside the Crossing Tower is a dome carried on pendentives – a feature from Eastern architecture.

Exterior

·         The Crossing is marked by an octagonal  tower.

·        Blind arches create a regular rhythm and unify the parts of the building. The decoration is very restrained, consisting of repeated shapes largely defined by straight lines.

·       The three chapels are clearly legible in the outward appearance of the East end.

Crypt

·         A three-aisled crypt with columns carrying vaults from simple pyramidal capitals lies beneath the Chancel, which is raised above the level of the nave.

Features typical of Catalan Romanesque: Nave and two aisles; high vaults; Latin Cross plan.

Features typical of Romanesque: articulation – clear division of space (bays, aisles, transepts, apses all clearly defined by simple lines and arches); symmetry in plan; austere decoration.

Another example of the 'First Romanesque' is St Philibert, Tournus.

Sources

Text, photos, plan and video on romanicocatalan.com

Catalan Wikipedia entry

Excellent photos, with images of the original painted decorations (c.1200) now in MNAC, are on the Catalan Monastery site.

Fernie, Grove entry; Zarnecki, Romanesque; Focillon, Art of the West.

Gaudí, Sagrada Familia

Gaudí's  Sagrada Familia (Holy Family) has attracted a huge amount of attention. Here are a few selected links that should help with deeper study of Gaudi's 'Expiatory Temple'.

General
Introductory video from SmartHistory site.
Generalitat Heritage profile of Gaudí's works, includes text on Sagrada Família. Short video on Gaudí, architect and craftsman.
There is a lot of information on the official website, including link to a Sagrada Familia app and a Virtual Tour.
Film on Gaudi's works (French) includes discussion of SF.
Short film (1 minute) on the projected completion of the building

Public and Critical Reaction
From its inception to its near-completion, the Sagrada Família has been controversial. The following give a flavour of the debate.
Josep Miquel Sobrer, 'Against Barcelona? Gaudí, the City and Nature', Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, 6 (2002), 205-219. Account of the building's relation to the city, and reactions to it.
Austen Ivereigh, 'Why Gaudí's Sagrada Família is a cathedral for our times' applauds the building in its current state.
Rowan Moore, 'Sagrada Família: Gaudí's cathedral is nearly finished, but would he have approved of it?' is less convinced.

Mathematics
It is quite a relief to retreat from heated debate into the pure world of Gaudi's paraboloids, conoids, ellipses and helicoids.
Gaudinian Geometry explores forms used across Gaudí's works.
The Accidental Mathematician (Izabella Laba) gives a gentle introduction to 'The Sagrada Familia and the hyperbolic paraboloid'
Gaudi's shapes are analysed in A Simple Explanation of Absolutely Everything which combines maths and spirituality.
Gaudi and CAD is on the use of digital and computer modelling in the project
Art and Mathematics in Antoni Gaudí's Architecture goes into depth on the forms employed.

Barcelona, Sant Pau del Camp



View of East end and North apse. Note tower and blind arcading

The church of St Pau del Camp in Barcelona is a gem, tucked away at the edge of the busy Raval by the Ronda St Antoni. It is a rare and beautiful example of Romanesque architecture within the city. There does not seem to be much information in English - the Spanglish of the short leaflet is not very enlightening - so I offer here a translation - with some additions and abbreviations - of the history and architecture sections of the excellent website.





History

It is not known exactly when the monastery of St Pau delCamp was built. But in 1596 the tomb inscription of Count Wilfred-Borrell, the son of Wilfred the Hairy, was discovered there. This suggests that a monastery must have existed at the site in 911 (the date of Wilfred-Borrell’s death) and that, if it was indeed the burial ground of the Counts of Barcelona, it must have been a site of great importance. According to one much later source, from 1420, it was Wilfred the Hairy himself (first of the line of the Counts of Barcelona, and the father of Wilfred Borrell) who founded a monastery to St Paul here, but, again, there is no document to confirm this.

Count Wilfred's tomb inscription

Graves from the Romano-Christian era (4^th and 5^th centuries) have also been found in Sant Pau (the tombstone of the Count has an inscription from this period on the reverse side). Local tradition has it that there was a hospice in the same place, founded by Saint Paulino, which would date it to the early fifth century, but there is no documentary evidence supporting this. However, the use of Visigothic carvings in the principal door to the church clearly show that a church existed here at that period (late 5^th to early 8^th century).

While its earliest history is undocumented, St Pau del Camp is clearly one of the most ancient monasteries of Barcelona. When it was built it lay far outside the city walls, among the orchards and the fields which lay between the walled city and the hill of Montjuic – hence its name, St Paul-in-the-fields.

In 985 Barcelona was sacked by the Moorish army of Al-Mansur. It is very likely that the (Benedictine) monks abandoned St Pau: for more than a hundred years afterwards the monastery was empty, and  only the church remained open.

Foundation

At the end of the 11^th century,  the nobleman Geribert Guitard and his second wife Rotlendis, both of the family Bell-lloc, restored St Pau del Camp. This restoration must have been effectively a rebuilding, since so little remains from before this date. Geribert and Rotlendis refounded the monastery, joining it with that of Sant Cugat del Vallès to form a single monastic community. Thus was born the Priory of St Pau del Camp. Some years later (29^th April 1117), the foundation was placed under the protection of the Bishop of Barcelona and Archbishop of Tarragona, Oleguer (later Saint Oleguer), after Geribert and Rotlendis donated the castle of Bell-lloc (in Cardedeu) with all its privileges. The donation is recorded on the tombstone of Guillem de Bell-lloc. Placing St Pau under the Holy See in this way gave it autonomy. The house of Bell-lloc retained its association with the monastery, and in 1278 Beltran de Bell-lloc left it the greater part of his possessions in his will, in return for being buried in the cloister.

In 1127, Oleguer  and the monastery’s founders Geribert and Rotlendis once again put St Pau under the charge of San Cugat monastery, despite its autonomous status.

Model of church and former monastery complex (Catalunya en Minitura park)

The ‘Tarragona Cloistered Congregation’

The ‘Congregación Claustral Tarraconense’ was founded in 1229. This was composed of all the Benedictine monasteries of Catalan lands, and by papal commission the Prior of St Pau was appointed president of the assembly. As a result, many assemblies of abbots and priors met in St Pau, and there are numerous documents pertaining to these meetings which were signed in the monastery.

In 1492, by royal decree, the monastery of Montserrat was united to the community of Saint Benedict in Valladolid. The Congregation of Catalan monasteries was thus split, and their assemblies became steadily less important.

Montserrat Monastery became increasingly interested in the monastery of Sant Pau, and in 1577 they finally persuaded Pope Gregory XIII to decree the union of the two communities. A year later the observant monks of Montserrat moved to St Pau, much to the displeasure of the Catalan Congregation, who had now lost their main meeting place. After many protests from the Congregation, the monks of Montserrat moved in 1593 to the Benedictine monastery of Bages, which was closer and better suited to the needs of Montserrat.

But the independence of St Pau did not last long: in 1617 it was annexed by Pope Paul V to the monastery of Sant Pere [Peter] de la Portella  (in the county of Berguedà), whose monks (with a single exception, who stayed behind as curate of the church) moved to St Pau, which changed in status from priory to abbey. In 1672 the buildings were enlarged to accommodate the school and novices of the Benedictine Congregation of Catalunya.

The End of the Monastery and the Start of the Parish

In the years 1808-1814, when Spain was occupied by the French, the monastery became first a hospital for the French troops and subsequently a barracks for Italian soldiers. In October 1814, when the French had left, it opened once again as a teaching institution. This was owing to the efforts of a young teacher named Joan de Zafont, who two years later was appointed Professor of Theology at the age of only 27; later he would become the last abbot of St Pau del Camp.

1820-23 are the years of the ‘Trienio Liberal’, three years of liberal government in Spain. During this period, the government decreed the dissolution of the monastery and novitiate and created the parish of St Pau. The monastery buildings – with the exception of the church which continued to serve as a parish church – were appropriated by the government, who passed them to Barcelona City Hall [ie the Council]. The City Hall initially considered using them as an abattoir (!), then decided to use them as a reformatory. Fortunately this period was a brief one, and was overseen by Joan de Zafont, who had been appointed administrator of the parish of St Pau in 1822.

[In 1823 a French army invaded Spain and restored the absolute power of the monarchy]. When the Trienio fell in 1824 the monastery returned to its original use, although since it was still used as a barracks for French soldiers (who remained to protect the monarchic government), the monks themselves could not return until 1828.

In 1835 there was a popular uprising in Barcelona in protest at working and living conditions; as on other occasions, this expressed itself through the burning of religious buildings and factories. It is likely that the monks of St Pau del Camp left definitively at this point, although it was spared destruction.

In 1837 the Minister of Finance Mendizábal oversaw the ‘desamortización’ or confiscation of Church property, which the government then auctioned in order to raise funds to reduce the chronic public deficit. The Church of St Pau became the parish church, while the rest of the monastery was used for various functions: in 1842 it housed two schools, one for boys and one for girls, and from 1845-90 it was an infantry barracks. In 1879, after a campaign led by a patriotic Catalanist group led by the writer and politician Víctor Balaguer, St Pau del Camp was recognised as a national monument.

Fifteen years later, in 1894, the first phase of restoration began. This concluded in 1927 with the demolition of the outbuildings, with the exception of the gothic chapter room of the fourteenth century. work was set back by further destruction in the Tragic week (1909) and in 1936 (the start of the spanish Civil War). Recent restoration has concentrated on levelling the terrain, which has been affected by rain and floods, and dealing with the problems caused by dust and dirt and the erosion of timber and stone. Of the original monastery of St Pau del Camp, today there only remains the church, the chapterhouse, the cloister and the abbot’s house, which is now the rectory.

Architecture

The monastery of St Pau del Camp is one of the few surviving Romanesque buildings in Barcelona. Although we know it existed in some form in the tenth century, the structure we see today is the result of the rebuilding in the twelfth century.

Exterior
The principal door to the church is reached from the carrer de Sant Pau. From this side we see that the facade of the church is at right angles to the wall of the rectory (formerly the abbot’s residence), a typical feature of thirteenth and fourteenth century Catalan Gothic.

The door is flanked by two columns supporting the round archivolt. The decoration of the door complex is in the visigothic tradition: two marble visigothic capitals, presumably recovered from the older building, carry imposts with geometrical motifs. The facade carries the symbols of the four evangelists: at the base of the archivolt we find a lion (St Mark, on the left), an ox (St Luke) and above the archivolt, on the wall, a winged man (St Matthew) and an eagle (St John).

On the tympanum Christ in Majesty is in the attitude of blessing (below the highest facade sculpture of the divine hand blessing), accompanied by St Paul on the right and St Peter on the left. On the lintel beneath, immediately beneath the figure of Christ is a Cross with inscriptions of alpha and Omega, and the names of Sts Peter and Paul. Around this is an inscription which reads: ‘This door is the way to the Lord for all, the door to the Garden of Life. Enter here, passing through me. Renard, for himself and for the soul of his wife Ramona, gave 7 maravedís towards the building of this church.’

Around the archivolt are carvings of human, fantastic animal faces and vegetal motifs. The west wall on either side of the door is decorated by blind arcading, which is continued around the exterior.

Interior



View from Crossing. Shell-shaped concavities in pendentives

From the outside one can see the Greek cross for of the church, which is made up of a nave, transepts, and three apses .  The ceiling consists of barrel vaulting, and a dome over the crossing supported by pendentives, carrying  an octagonal tower. As on the outside, the interior wall surfaces are articulated by blind arches.

The south transept leads to the gothic chapter room, which in turn connects to the Romanesque cloister. The three apses are decorated with carvings of vegetal and geometric forms which reveal an Arabic influence.  The groundplan makes the scheme clear, but conceals the many irregularities which are typical of the period.

Only limited light enters the interior, giving the church an atmosphere suited to prayer and reflection. The main altar was formerly dedicated to St Pau, patron saint of swordsmiths. On the right there used to an altarpiece dedicated to St Benedict and on the left an altar to Our Lady of the Rosary and to Saint Galderic, patron saint of peasants.

The floor of the church was restored in 2002, when the ground was levelled (it had been seriously affected by rain and floods).

The Cloister
From an architectural point of view, the cloister of St Pau is the most important feature: the arches here are unique in all of Europe. The twelfth-century cloister was constructed after the church, and shows clear Moorish influences.

Five-lobed arch, Moorish influence. Compare Gaudi, Casa Vicens

The arches are composed of three or five lobes, decorated with vegetal or geometric carvings, and rest on simple paired columns. The column bases are very simple, and two have vegetable designs, as if they are upside down capitals.

Of the 48 capitals, many repeat a pattern derived from the Corinthian, while others are clearly Romanesque, with zoomorphic designs. Figurative elements include lions, warriors fighting monsters, and birds of prey. Next to a carving of a man hunting a gazelle there is a depiction of Adam and Eve being tempted by the serpent, and a woman tormented by two toads.  Such motifs also appear in other Catalan monasteries, such as San Cugat. There is a stylistic mixture, from the Moorish arches to the Romanesque carvings of a group of sculptors, some of whose other works can also be seen in Barcelona, to Gothic elements.

Adam and Eve (left)

The cloister itself is clearly articulated, with buttresses in the middle of each side supporting a gallery. Around the cloister are several tombs, many of them pertaining to the Bell-lloc family.

Further Sources

Images

Video (images only)

Photo album by Angels Gomez

General
Web page with photos and good information on history and architecture (Spanish / Catalan): principal source for this blog
Catalan Monasteries (Catalan) - includes photos of the church in the early twentieth century.
Catalan Romanesque gencat guide: see opening pages on Romanesque style
Sacred Destinations site

History
Catholic Barcelona blog (English)
Josefina Mutgé i Vives, Noticies Historiques sobre el Monestir de Sant Pau del Camp de Barcelona (1117-1212) (Catalan)
armoria.info - details of tombs and heraldic symbols (Spanish)

Park

BCN Green Spaces page on church and surrounding space

Barcelona, Santa Maria del Mar

Santa Maria del Mar is one of the most beautiful churches in Spain, and the purest example of the distinctive Catalan Gothic style, characterised by undecorated wall masses, clear and minimally decorated articulation, and unified space. Together with the Cathedral and Santa Maria del Pi, Santa Maria del Mar one of the monuments of Gothic ecclesiastical architecture in the old quarter of Barcelona. To them we can add the church and monastery of Pedralbes. Santa Maria del Mar (Our Lady of the Sea) seems to turn its back on the modern city and communicates through its pure, spacious and simple style something of the devotion which inspired its creation. Anyway, below are some less rhapsodic and more factual notes. They are derived pretty much entirely from the Spanish Wikipedia page.

In Brief

·         SMM is a Catalan Gothic Church.

·         It is situated in the seafront area called the ‘Ribera’.

·         Built 1329 – 1383

·         The two masters of works were Berenguer de Montagut (principal designer) and Ramón Despuig

History

·         There is some evidence that it is built on the site of a Roman amphitheatre

·         The stones of the Portal of ‘las Moreras’ indicate that construction began in 1329

·         Local ties were very important: the work was undertaken by the faithful of the area of the port and the Ribera, who supported it with both money and labour. Thus it was a church for the common people, in contrast to the contemporary Cathedral, which was patronised by the monarchy, nobility and eminent ecclesiastics.

·         All the local population appear to have contributed to the construction, especially the ‘bastaixos’ – the stevedores who offloaded the huge stones at the port and then carried them on their shoulders to the church. A carving on the main door of the church pays homage to the ‘bastaixos’.

·         Walls, side chapels and façade were finished c.1350

·         In 1379, when the vaulting of the 4^th bay was nearing completion, the scaffolding caught fire and the stonework was damaged.

·       In 1383 the final section of vaulting was completed, and the first Mass was said in 1384.

·         In 1428 an earthquake caused the rose window  to collapse, causing some deaths.

·         In 1936 baroque and later work was destroyed when the church was attacked by anarchists and communists [making it look a lot less cluttered than the Cathedral]

Exterior. General Effect is one of massiveness and strength

·       Horizontality is emphasised. Walls have mouldings, cornices and smooth surfaces. Although it is a high building, the design of the exterior makes us see it as heavy and grounded (in great contrast to French Gothic).

·         Building as a whole forms a compact block.

·         The uniform height creates an even lighting effect inside (again distinct from the play of light and shadow in French Gothic churches)

·        Façade is framed by two octagonal towers. The columns on the inside take up this octagonal form.

·         Two pronounced buttresses frame the West rose window and emphasise the width of the vault.

·         Façade is clearly divided into three sections. Horizontality is again stressed in the towers, which have layered galleries rather than pinnacles or spires.

·         The lower level has the West portal at its centre; the second level is centred on the rose window

·         The West façade is particularly austere in the aisles, where there are large areas of undecorated and uninterrupted wall.

·         The light and elegant finials and other decorations of French Gothic are entirely absent from this typical example of Catalan Gothic.

·         On N and S walls the lower level corresponds to the side chapels, each of which is marked by a thin window. Windows and grouped into three between buttresses, creating a rhythm.

Interior

·         Plan: Nave, aisles leading directly to presbytery with ambulatory. No transept.

·         Nave and aisles formed of four bays

·         Presbytery formed of a half bay + seven-sided polygon.

·         Ribbed vaulting throughout, with bosses marking the intersection of the ribs (also a feature of the Cathedral).

·         Although the formal division is nave + aisles, the architect seems to want to create the same sensation as a single nave. This effect is achieved by:

o   Leaving a lengthy space (15 metres) between the columns

o   Making nave and aisles almost the same height: the aisles are only ⅛ lower than the nave.

o   This leads to a ‘diaphonous space’, quite different from the divisions of European Gothic

·         Nave lit by high clerestory windows.

·         Windows between presbytery columns create effect of a hemisphere of light

·         Aisles lit by small low windows

·         Spacious design allows light to illuminate the nave.

·         General effect of austerity created by:

o   Smooth walls without sculpted decoration

o   Undecorated, slender octagonal columns

o   Ribs springing from capitals (not following to the floor as engaged shafts) means columns retain pure form

o   Arches in nave and aisles have the same springing point (ie they start from the same height) further emphasising the effect of uniformity.

Other Sources
Santa Maria del Mar is one of a select group of churches that has inspired a novel (like Salisbury inspiring Golding's The Spire). Ildefonso Falcones' The Cathedral of the Sea  depicts fourteenth-century Barcelona in vivid detail, and keeps us reading with an adventure story typical of the genre. There is a huge amount to be learned from it about the city when Santa Maria del Mar was being built. Well worth checking out.

There is a brief description on the Sacred Destinations site, and a thumbnail sketch by the City council.

Description on Catholic Barcelona blog

Generalitat Catalan Gothic guide

Edward Steese, 'The Great Churches of Catalonia', Parnassus (7:3, March 1935), pp 9-12.

Robert Hughes, Barcelona, ch.3 ('If not, not') section v has a beautiful description of this church and other examples of Catalan Gothic in Barcelona.

To see how Gothic fits into the whole story of architecture in Barcelona (and Catalonia) see the Generalitat handy outline.

Barcelona: Reading Suggestions

There are a fair few posts with the 'Barcelona' tag on this blog now, most with links and suggestions for reading. But a straight reading list on the city and its art might also be useful, so here it is - limited to English language publications, not counting guidebooks etc. which can be bought on site, and aimed at those whose interest is principally in art history.
Robert Hughes, Barcelona. A mighty tome which covers the city's history from its origins to the late nineteenth century. There's a huge amount of interest here. The early chapters might have been pruned a bit - lengthy quotations from Spanish Latin poets seems a little indulgent - but Hughes writes brilliantly about Romanesque and Gothic art. The later chapters, on the nineteenth century and Gaudí, are the sharpest.

Colm Toíbin, Homage to Barcelona. Picks up after Hughes leaves off, concentrating on the twentieth century and drawing on the author's experiences of living there. By no means just about art - there are great passages on food and out-of-town clubs under Franco - but there is a good deal on the visuals of the city too. Some lovely writing on Miró here. Toíbin is a distinguished critic and novelist, and the book is a masterclass in observational writing.

Bahamón and Losantos, Barcelona: Historical Atlas of Architecture. Beautifully produced book, which takes us through the history of the city, pointing out many buildings along the way, from the Roman walls to 2006. Sections on the different districts of BCN take us well beyond the usual tourist routes.

Manuel Gausa and others, BCN: Barcelona, a Guide to its Modern Architecture. Handbook to architecture between 1860 and 2002, with key facts on a huge number of buildings. These last two books show there is a lot more to Barcelona's architecture than Gaudí!

Marilyn McCully, ed., Homage to Barcelona: The City and its Art, 1888-1936. Exhibition catalogue for a Hayward Gallery exhibition of 1985. Covers the period where the city saw most expansion and development, and probably the richest profusion of artistic movements. Digestible chapters on many topics, well illustrated.  Out of print, but well worth tracking down.

William H Robinson and Jordi Falg, Barcelona and Modernity: Gaudí, Picasso, Miró, Dalí.  Another exhibition catalogue, big and beautiful, covering the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Online

Most of these links are given elsewhere in the blog, but I repeat them here for convenience.

The Culturcat site has detailed accounts of the major periods and movements in art in Catalonia.

Barcelona One and Only is an entry-level pdf guide to the main works in the city.

Routes of Gothic covers civil and ecclesiastical buildings in the Gothic style across Barcelona.

Modernism in Barcelona - another pdf guide, this time to the Modernist works of Gaudí and his contemporaries.

David Mackay, Modern Architecture in Barcelona (1854-1939). Monograph which goes well beyond the usual guidebook level.

See the Art Public link on the sidebar opposite for an invaluable source of information on public monuments.

Antoni Tàpies

The Catalan artist Antoni Tàpies (1923-2012) died on February 6th. He was one of the most important Spanish artists of the postwar (post 1936-39 Civil War, that is) period, bringing Arte Povera and other vanguard ideas into Spain throughout the insular years of the Franco dictatorship. This post is limited to some  links, including some of the longer English-language obituaries. The ABC radio programme is especially recommended.

Obituaries
Christopher Masters in The Guardian
Marcus Williamson in The Independent
Claudia Massie in The Spectator
William Grimes in The NY Times


Other
Article by Martin Gayford, 'From earth to eternity'
Article by Katherine Jentlesen in ArtInfo
Radio discussion on the Australian ABC Channel (30 minutes)
Biographical and other information on the Tàpies Foundation site.

Programme on radio series Documentos (50 minutes, Spanish).

Image from Tàpies Foundation.

Barcelona, 1929 International Exhibition

Like any big city, Barcelona has been marked by some key events which have involved major urban projects, among them:

        1714 (the construction of the Ciutadella and the occupation of the city),

        1888  The Exposiçió Universal (Arc de Triomf etc)

       1929  The Exposiçió Internacional (Plaça d’Espanya, Montjuic)

        1992  Olympics (Olympic Village and the ‘Olympic ring’ on Montjuic)

2004 The Fòrum Universal (devpt of seaside area, Parc del Fòrum)

The 1929 Expo has left behind a whole series of monumental constructions, offering a rich site for the study fo the interaction of architecture, urbanization, and history. Below I post some notes on an En Guàrdia programme on this event.

Prelude

The 1888 Exposició Universal had a huge impact on Barcelona. This was one of the Great Exhibitions of the late nineteenth Century and put this provincial port city in the same league as the giants London and Paris. As early as 1905 the architect / scholar / politician Josep Puig i Cadafalch, writing in La Veu de Catalunya (house paper of the Lliga Regionalista), had proposed a follow-up. A commission was set up in 1913, comprising Puig i Cadafalch, Mayor Joan Pich i Pon and Francesc Cambó (founder and leader of the Lliga Regionalista). They considered various sites, in particular the Plaça de les Glòries (planned as a city nexus by Cerdà), before settling on Montjuic. Financially, the Expo was meant to support itself. This partly explains the choice of Montjuic, since there the city would not have to buy any land back from private owners. (Pich I Pon seems to have more or less promised to friends around the Plaça de les Glòries that their property would increase in value). The first concrete proposal was for an exhibition of electrical industries in 1917.

Theme

The 1888 Expo was quite recent. So what motivated another? First there were the technological advances that had been made in the twentieth century: the introduction of electric power, the telephone, radio (an antenna was placed on Montjuic in 1924). There was also the desire to develop Montjuic – still a wild place, on the fringes of urban life – and a strong political will: the Catalanist Lliga and sympathetic individuals were behind another project that would promote Barcelona and Catalonia as a distinctive nation.

1917 came and went. The First World War, and then the seizure of power by Gneral Primo de Rivera (1923) made the idea unfeasible.  The concept of an Exhibition in Barcelona was also viewed with great hostility by Primo’s government in Madrid, who were highly suspicious of any signs of Catalanism. So the Expo had to wait until 1929 (when it coincided with the Ibero-American Exhibition in Seville).. By then, further urbanization had seen the first Metro line (1924), and the very beginnings of discussion about an airport at Prats. The Eixample continued to grow, way beyond – and in defiance of - Cerdà’s original plans. Lluís Domènech i Montaner’s Hospital de Sant Pau was in construction. The first traffic lights were going up. Socially, Barcelona was now a very stratified society, though a fairly homogenous Catalan-speaking one: before the thirties immigration from other parts of Spain was less than 10%. The Expo itself altered the demography of the city as workers from the South of Spain poured in, living in makeshift huts (‘barracas’) wherevever they could find a space.

Development

The architecture for the Expo is a kind of last-fling of turn-of-the-century eclecticism. There are outposts of modernism, and we see examples of neogothic, and neoclassical noucentisme. The Palau Nacional (now MNAC) was constructed (without proper foundations). Primo de Rivera was determined that the event should not be an opportunity for Catalanist symbolism, and probably for this reason ordered that Puig i Cadafalch’s four ionic towers (the ‘quatre barres’) be dismantled: they suggest the Catalan flag. The Poble Espanyol was built to celebrate the different regional styles of Spain. All of this must have looked antiquated next to the minimal modernism of the German Pavillion by Mies van der Rohe, an indicator of the supremacy of German culture at this time. Only a few countries sent representatives to the Expo. Partly this was because the international economy was in difficulties. There was also suspicion of Spain as it was a dictatorship: with the exception of Portugal and Italy, democracy was the norm in Europe at the time.

Coda

The 1929 Expo was not the sensation that the 1888 one had been. And it ended in a minor key, as it coincided with the Wall Street Crash (in Mendoza’s La ciudad de los Prodigios the city authorities fill empty pavilions with anything they can find, but it’s hard sometimes to separate fact from fiction in that novel). Primo resigned just fifteen days after the closure of the Expo, and died shortly afterwards in Paris. In 1931 King Alfonso XIII went into exile as Spain became a Republic. And a few years after this the country fell into civil war. The physical legacy of the 1929 Expo is a remarkable space, stretching from the remodelled Plaça d’Espanya and its Metro up the Avinguda Reina Maria Cristina to MNAC. It is still the site of international fairs and congresses today.

Individual Works

Of the many buildings and monuments that remain, some of the most notable are:

·         The Magic Fountain of Carles Buigas

·         The Plaça d’Espanya, including the Fountain and Venetian Towers

·         Puig i Cadafalch’s four columns.

·         Palau Nacional / MNAC

·         Poble Espanyol

The Mies van der Rohe Pavillion is covered elsewhere in this blog

General Sources

Detailed Wikipedia entry

Richly illustrated guide to the site (in Spanish)

Key facts in Expo 2000 site

Book: Gausa and others, Barcelona: a Guide to its Modern Architecture

En Guàrdia programme (in Catalan)

There is an evocative film of the constructionm work taking place.