 | This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia.(July 2012) |
| Desolation | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Josep Llimona |
| Year | 1907 |
| Type | sculpture |
| Dimensions | 66.4 cm× 78.8 cm(26.1 in× 31.0 in) |
| Location | Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona |
Desolation is a sculpture made by Josep Llimona 1907 which is part of the collection of the National Art Museum of Catalonia in Barcelona. [1]
Llimona, of the Catalan Modernism school of sculpture, joined the Symbolism movement during the first few years of the 20th century after adopting an idealism deeply rooted in his religious convictions. Llimona contributed to the founding of the Artistic Circle of Sant Lluc, which intended to preserve art from the perceived excesses of contemporary artists. Female nudes were prohibited by the Circle's initial statutes, and Llimona created Desolation after the prohibition was lifted. The work was exhibited for the first time in 1907 and aims to communicate feelings that reflect a deep humanity through a naked female figure.
Desolation, an example of Modernisme sculpture, represents the formal traits of Symbolism as adopted by prominent Catalan sculptors of the day. These traits include undulating lines and softened contours, features that derive from The Danaide by Auguste Rodin. Critics have said that a notable difference exists between the resigned, melancholic and chaste attitude of Desolation and the vitality, strength and sensuality of Rodin's work. With Desolation, Llimona utilised his process of sculptural renewal, while also aiming to exemplify the Symbolist aesthetic of Catalan Modernism. [2] [3] [4]
Desolation is a nude version of a figure produced for a burial vault in the Montjuic Cemetery. [5] The sculpture´s measurements are 67 cm x 76 cm x 67 cm (26.4 in x 29.9 in x 31.5 in). [6]
The sculpture belongs to a group of works created specifically for new pantheons built during the early 1900s. Artists created sculptures of angels, or Virtues, that included women overcome by the weight of their grief and allegorical figures reflecting feelings such as despair, grief, or resignation. The artists aimed to capture feeling, rather than beauty. Typical characteristics of these works are languid, bowed female figures with long hair dressed in flowing tunics. Although this style wasn't adopted in all the works, female figures predominate, and their formal characteristics passed into the artistic language used by modernist sculptors in the works they produced for collectors, which discarded the funerary elements of the originals. [7]
The most notable characteristic of Desolation is the ease with which it transmits inner emotions. The hermetic and mysterious nature the sculpture evokes has to do with its posture. The hidden gaze, the closed composition of the body, and its curved contours seem to enclose the figure within its own silence. [8] [9]
The sculpture can be found at The National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC). [10] The work earned a gold medal in the V Exposition of Fine Arts of Barcelona in 1907. That same year, a photograph of the work was published in the catalog of the International Exhibit of Art in Barcelona. In 1909, Desolation was purchased by Barcelona's Major Domènec Sanllehy who donated the statue to The Museum of Modern Art of Barcelona. The statue was later moved to the Modern Art gallery of The National Museum of Contemporary Art of Catalonia. [11]
In addition to the original, Josep Llimona produced replicas utilizing diverse materials. [12] The bronze replica is somewhat bigger in size than the original. It was presented at an art exhibition that commemorated the work of Josep Llimona at the Parés Salon in 1934. The stone replica is a variation of the original, in which the female figure is clothed. The sculpture is the same size as the original and is part of a funerary monument dedicated to Mercedes Casas de Vilanova. The stone variant of Desolation can be found at the Southeast Cemetery in Barcelona.
In 1917 Josep Llimona produced a second marble replica, much bigger than the original. It measures 78.8 cm x 68.8 cm (31.0 in x 27.1 in.) The sculpture was damaged over time and was replaced by a plaster replica produced in 1984. The sculpture is the centerpiece of a pond situated in front of the Parliament of Catalonia in the Ciutadella park. [13]
A replica is located in the Kelleher Rose Garden in the Back Bay Fens in Boston. It was presented to Boston – one of Barcelona's sister cities – in 1986. [14]
Desolation represents a woman hiding her face in an attitude of despair, and is one of the paradigmatic works of the Catalan Modernist movement. One of the principal points of reference for the Catalan modernist artists was the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. The artwork reflects the influence of Rodin's work Danaid but with a more melancholy, chaste approach. [15] The similarities between Llimona's Desconsol and Rodin’s Danaid lie primarily in the modeling technique used by the artist, the composition of the figure, and the thoughtful use of light and shadow. [16] Llimona's masterful work arises from a block of stone, but the softness and roundness of its forms contrasts strongly with the roughness of the material. The female figure evokes contained melancholy that can be perceived subtly; her pose hides much of the inner world of the character. Her face, concealed by a thick veil of hair, is known only to her and Llimona. Only the gesture of the hands, gracing the stone, provide a trace of life to the sculpture. [17] [ failed verification ]
Modernisme, also known as Catalan modernism and Catalan art nouveau, is the historiographic denomination given to an art and literature movement associated with the search of a new entitlement of Catalan culture, one of the most predominant cultures within Spain. Nowadays, it is considered a movement based on the cultural revindication of a Catalan identity. Its main form of expression was Modernista architecture, but it also encompassed many other arts, such as painting and sculpture, and especially the design and the decorative arts, which were particularly important, especially in their role as support to architecture. Modernisme was also a literary movement.
The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, abbreviated as MNAC, is a museum of Catalan visual art located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Situated on Montjuïc hill at the end of Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina, near Pl Espanya, the museum is especially notable for its outstanding collection of romanesque church paintings, and for Catalan art and design from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including modernisme and noucentisme. The museum is housed in the Palau Nacional, a huge, Italian-style building dating to 1929. The Palau Nacional, which has housed the Museu d'Art de Catalunya since 1934, was declared a national museum in 1990 under the Museums Law passed by the Catalan Government. That same year, a thorough renovation process was launched to refurbish the site, based on plans drawn up by the architects Gae Aulenti and Enric Steegmann, who were later joined in the undertaking by Josep Benedito. The Oval Hall was reopened in 1992 on the occasion of the Olympic Games, and the various collections were installed and opened over the period from 1995 to 2004. The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya was officially inaugurated on 16 December 2004. It is one of the largest museums in Spain.
The Batlló Majesty is a large 12th-century Romanesque wooden crucifix, now in the National Art Museum of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain. It is one of the most elaborate examples in Catalonia of an image of Christ on the Cross, symbolizing his triumph over death.
Josep Llimona i Bruguera was a Spanish sculptor. His first works were academic, but after a stay in Paris, influenced by Auguste Rodin, his style drew closer to modernisme. He was very prolific, and exhibited in Catalonia, Madrid, Paris, Brussels and Buenos Aires. Some of his monumental work is familiar to Barcelona residents and visitors alke.
Albert Ràfols-Casamada was a Spanish painter, poet and art teacher involved in the vanguard movements of his time. He is considered one of the most important, multifaceted Catalan artists of his time. His artwork began in the post-expressionist, figurative sphere but soon developed into his own abstract style grounded in a poetic rendering of everyday reality.
Josep Clarà i Ayats was a Spanish sculptor. His work was part of the sculpture event in the art competition at the 1924 Summer Olympics.
Joan Brull i Vinyoles was a Catalan painter active in the late 19th century. He was a Catalan symbolist painter, along with other artists including Adrià Gual, Josep Maria Tamburini, and Alexandre de Riquer.
The Cerdanyola Art Museum, also known as Can Domènech, is an art museum located in the old quarter of the city of Cerdanyola del Vallès. It was opened on 10 September 2009 and is part of the Barcelona Provincial Council Local Museum Network and of the Art Nouveau European Route.
The Altar frontal from La Seu d'Urgell or of The Apostles is a Romanesque altar frontal currently exhibited at the National Art Museum of Catalonia, Barcelona. The work dates from the second quarter of the 12th century and comes from a church of the Bishop of La Seu d'Urgell and was acquired in 1905. It is one of the masterpieces of the collection of panel painting of the MNAC. The frontal, the item covering the front of the altar, stands out for the quality of its bright colours and because it illustrates some of the characteristics of composition in Romanesque art, such as bilateral symmetry, abstraction of the background, with no reference to space or context, and the unnatural geometrical treatment of form to be observed in the folds of the clothing. It also shows certain conventions of representation, such as so-called hierarchical perspective, which consists in representing the chief character in a larger size.
The Altar frontal from Avià is a rare Romanesque altar frontal exhibited at the National Art Museum of Catalonia in Barcelona. It is the front of the altar of the church of St. Mary of Avià, in the county of Berguedà, later moved to MNAC Barcelona, while the church has a replica in place. It is dated to the 13th century or earlier, and was painted by an unknown artist.
Over My Dead Body, 1893, is a painting by Ramon Casas, in the National Art Museum of Catalonia in Barcelona.
The Southern apse from Pedret is a Romanesque fresco painting from late 11th century or the beginning of the 12th century, which was acquired during the 1919-1923 campaign of the Junta de Museus. The artwork originated from the southern apsidiole of the Church of Sant Quirze de Pedret and is currently exhibited in the Romanesque Art collection at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, in Barcelona, Spain.
The Apse of Sant Climent de Taüll is a Romanesque fresco in the National Art Museum of Catalonia, Barcelona. The fresco is one of the masterpieces of the European Romanesque, from which the unknown Master of Taüll takes his name. It was painted in the early 12th century in the church of Sant Climent de Taüll in the Vall de Boí, Alta Ribagorça in the Catalan Pyrenees. The mural covered the apse of the church. In 1919-1923 it was moved, along with other parts of the fresco decoration, to Barcelona, in an attempt to preserve the murals in a stable, secure museum setting.
Erill la Vall Descent from the Cross is a set of seven 12th-century wooden sculptures from the Pyrenees village of Erill la Vall in Catalonia. Originally painted, it comprises a complete Romanesque Descent from the Cross sculpture group, which in Catalonia has the peculiarity that it is made up of seven figures. Two of the carvings are kept at the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC) and the rest at the Vic Episcopal Museum.
The Virgin from Ger is a 12th century sculpture exhibited at the National Art Museum of Catalonia in Barcelona.
The Christ from 1147 is a Catalan wood sculpture from the 12th-century, exhibited at the National Art Museum of Catalonia in Barcelona.
The Pendant with Saint George is a gold and enamel pendant designed and created by Lluís Masriera i Rosés, now in the permanent collection of the National Art Museum of Catalonia in Barcelona.
Public art in Barcelona is a designated group of monuments and outdoor sculptures in the city. The artworks in city's architecture and network of museums, parks, and gardens, put an artistic stamp on the Catalan capital. Public art in the city developed in the 19th century, although the first municipal commission was the 1673 monument to Saint Eulalia in Pedró Square.
The Palau del Parlament de Catalunya is the assembly hall of the Parliament of Catalonia, located in Barcelona. It was built between 1717 and 1727 as the arsenal of the Ciutadella, to designs of Jorge Próspero de Verboom.
Maria Llimona i Benet was a Catalan sculptor. She was the daughter of the sculptor Josep Llimona and Mercè Benet i Salas, and sister of the painter Rafael Llimona. Maria began in the art of sculpture in a late age and studied with Rodolfo Castagnino in Italy, where she was in exile due to the Spanish Civil War.
| Romanesque works |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Gothic works | ||
| Renaissance and Baroque works | ||
| Modern works |
| |
| See also | ||