Barcelona: Museu National d'Art de Catalunya

The Museu National d'Art de Catalunya is located on Montjuic, a high hill where a former castle/military fortress stands.   While the fortress besieged Barcelona with cannons and served as a site of torture, it now houses a military museum.  You may take the funicular up the hill, a bus (which we did this time around) or follow the path from Placa d'Espanya, which we did the first time around.  If you look at the picture below and spot the two towers near the bull-fighting ring (now a shopping center) you can see Placa d/Espanya.  It is a long walk.  There are a series of escalators as you reach the foot of Montjiuc that fool you into thinking the hike is not so bad.  They are followed by many, many steps.  As you might expect the views are quite lovely.

Looking out to the Placa d'Espanya

Looking up at Museu National d'Art de Catalunya

What makes the MNAC so unusual is not just what is contained in their collection, but how it is displayed.  Museu National d'Art de Catalunya has one of the, if not the, best collection of medieval art in Europe.  There are many other periods represented in the museum, but I will focus on the Catalan Romanesque art, from about the 11th - 13th c. since that is what we saw.

                       

The museum has a collection of church frescoes which are displayed as they would look if they were in situ.  First there is a complicated process of copying the frescoes from the actual site.  This involves spraying a particular substance, placing special cloth over the frescoes, applying another substance with a brush, carefully removing the cloth, etc, etc.  Quite a lot for me to get my little brain around.  Then the museum constructs a 'false' church apse for each of the frescoes from wood covered with some type of plaster.  Quite ingenious. 

One of the frescoes

This is the back showing the construction of one of the 'false' apses

What I really love about some of this art is the symbolism that is incorporated.  Hopefully, you can see that the angel has six wings. This, I believe, is indicative of the Seraphim the highest order of angels.  Four of the wings are black, not the traditional red.  And Seraphim usually have two wings covering their faces.  In this depiction, the four black wings are covered with eyes, probably signifying the eyes of a watching God.  Since Seraphim serve as the caretakers of God's throne, that might make sense.  This is, of course, merely my own conjecture. 

Angel with 6 wings, note beast at angel's feet.

There was also a nice display of altar frontal pieces.  These have been nicely preserved and restored to their original colors.  This is another aspect of medieval religious art that I find interesting.  Everything is so colorful.  And since not many people could read everything tells a story.

Jesus is surrounded by his apostles

This cheery little altar piece shows the tortured death or several saints.

This Jesus is wearing colorful robes.  You can see the cross itself is also very colorful.

There are many wonderful carved figures that are shown as much in context as possible. 

Deposition of Christ

You wonder what comprised the rest of the tableaux. 

Imposing Jesus

Overall the impact of the exhibition gives a very real impression of what the church going experience was like during this period.  If you are ever in Barcelona I highly recommend it.

Barcelona: Palau de Musica de Catalunya

There are three great Modernista architects of Barcelona.  Everyone has heard of Antoni Gaudi, mainly due to the fame of the church Sagrada Familia along with some of his houses in the center of city, Casa Mila and Casa Batllo.  Another is Josep Cadafalch who designed Casa Marti which became the Eis Quatre Gats (4 Gats), a cafe that was a center for progressive ideas, and Casa Amatller.  We had drinks in the first and hope to visit the second later this week.

Interior of 4 Gats

The third was Liuis Montaner who designed the Casa Lleo Morera.  I wrote a post on the CLM earlier in the Barcelona blogs.  He also designed the Palau de Musica de Catalunya (PMC). Montaner taught at the School of Architecture of Barcelona and counted Gaudi and Cadafalch among his students.  The PMC is indeed one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen.  Whereas Gaudi seems to love the fantastical, Montaner brings the beauty found in nature to life in his designs.

The large arches were so the carriages could enter and drop off their patrons.

Each balcony column is decorated with a different floral pattern

I promise there are plenty more pictures, but first I'll give some background. The Orfeo Catala, a choral society in Barcelona, was founded by Josep Clave.  Clave had founded the first choral society in Spain in 1850.  His desire was to bring music to the working class whom could not afford to attend concerts due to little free time and even less money.  He felt music would bring much needed joy to their lives and help build a sense of community.  He composed choral pieces,  some of which were based on folk songs, that became very popular and many towns formed choral groups (at this time the groups were restricted to men).  Clave was also a politician and took part in the Glorious Revolution of 1868, which hoped to establish a republic.  He died in 1874 at the age of 50.  What does this have to do with the Palau de Musica?  I'm getting there.

The Orfeo Catala was reestablished in 1898 during a resurgence of Catalunya identity.   By 1904 it was decided that a concert hall, as well as larger headquarters, were needed and it hired Montaner to design the building.  The building was completed in1908 but the Modernist movement fell out of favor and it was nearly demolished in the 1920's.  Fortunately for us, it has survived and has now been expanded and is used for concerts throughout the year.

Montaner's idea was to build a tribute to Clave, the tradition of Catalan music and the International music found in the likes of Wagner and Beethoven.  To accomplish this he used a great deal of symbolism. The proscenium arch has a sculpture of Josep Clave on one side standing under a Mulberry tree.  This is a reference to one of his most popular Catalan choral pieces. 

Clave next to Mulberry Tree with maidens sitting beneath

The other side of the arch has a bust of Beethovan and above that four horses carrying the Valkyrie from Wagner's operatic epic cycle, Der Rings das Nibelungen. I have inserted a you tube file (if it works) of the familiar piece.

Montaner also had sculptures of the nine Muses of Greek Mythology adorn the back wall of the performance area.  What is visually arresting is the way the muses 'emerge' from the wall to look down on the performers. 

Muses overseeing the performance

Montaner's use of mosaics and stained glass allowed light to be reflected in the concert hall that seats over 2,000.  Words cannot really describe the building and pictures do not do it justice.  Overall, the Palau is a wonderful and unified vision. 

The capitals of the columns are decorated in mosaics

Stained glass in a design of pink and green replace traditional walls

A large stained glass 'bell' hangs in the center of the concert hall

A close up of the design

This image of the concert hall I found online.

Barcelona: Modernista Architecture-Casa Lleo Morera

Modernisme or Modernista is Cataluyna's distinct version of what was happening worldwide at the end of the 19th century.  In France it was Art Nouveau, in Germany, Jugendstil, and in Austria, Secessionism. Barcelona is a haven of this architecture with its focus on nature and form.
The first Modernists building we visited was Casa Lleo Morera, located on the same street as our apartment, Passeig de Gracia.  The existing house underwent renovation in1905 by Lluis Domenech I Montaner for the new owners.  His work reflects the Modernist movement with a dash of Renaissance.  He brought together top craftsmen to bring his design to life.  

Fireplace with wood cravings and mosaics

Painted ceiling and sculpture (from concrete not stone) over doorway shows Renaissance influence

 One of the more spectacular aspects of the house is the former dining room which has a beautiful stained glass window and well preserved mosaics.  

We can affirm that this part of the dining room gets hot in the summer.  There were doors to close it off.

The walls on the inner part of the dining room were covered in scenes done in mosaics.

Barcelona: Medieval Shipyards

I am not a sailor nor a fisherman.  I have been known to enjoy an afternoon out on a boat being manned by others (especially if beverages are involved) but that is the extent of my enthusiasm.  So when I say the Museu Maritim is terrific, take it from a landlubber, it is.

The museum encompasses the site and portions of the medieval shipyards built around 1284. From the outside the defensive walls are still visible.  There are eight parallel aisles, part of the original footprint of docks and shipbuilding that took place here.  These were the royal shipyards for the Crown of Aragon and later Spain.  You can see the arches of the aisles in the picture of the exterior.   Grasslands means shipyard in Catalan and both a street and nearby metro stop bear that name.

Each arch signifies one of the original aisles

Medieval wall attached to shipyard/museum

The shipyards could build up to 30 galley ships at a time.  There is a well researched, full scale model on display which is mighty impressive.  I think the pictures give you an idea as to the size of the complex.  

The detail work is amazing.  I think this galley ship held about 275 people.

Here is a small model with the sails up.  I think there were about 29 oars to be manned on each side.

In addition, there are smaller models of different types of boats including more modern speed boats like the Evinrude.  (Anyone remember The Rescuers?)  One we found interesting was a model of the one surviving ship from Magellan's voyage.  Of the five original ships, only Victoria completed the voyage and was the first ship to circumnavigate the world.