Barcelona, March 02, 2005. Now visitors to Barcelona have the opportunity to see 1000 years of art at the National Museum of Catalan Art or Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC) which reopened in mid-December. The museum’s vast collection of 236,000 works – 1,315 on permanent display – constitutes the world’s most extensive in Catalan art spanning Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque to the mid-twentieth century.

Housed in the Palau Nacional, the emblematic building – designed by Carles Buigas for the 1929 International Fair and later renovated by Gae Aulenti, the architect for the Musee d’Orsay – is situated at the highest point of the city on the mountain of Montjuic. The museum reopened last December after a $160 million renovation. MNAC is near several other cultural institutions: the Fundacio Joan Miro, the Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya, the Castell de Montjuic now housing a military museum, the Mies van der Rohe pavilion and Casaramona, a former Art Nouveau factory which is now Caixaforum, a center for cultural events. Nearby are the Poble Espanyol, or Spanish Village, of 116 houses representing architectural styles from all over the country, and the 1992 Olympic Stadium.

Romanesque art was the first medieval artistic movement to spread internationally across Europe and the museum has the world’s greatest display of those works. The most emblematic pieces are the mural paintings which are exceptional and considered unique in the world. Some magnificent 12th century frescos were peeled off the apses of a number of Catalan churches in the Pyrenees and repasted onto replicas of the vaulted ceilings. Wooden altarpieces, stone sculptures and metal and enamel work from the 11th to the 13th centuries are on display. Also impressive is the Gothic collection (13th to 15th centuries) including stone sculptures, wood and ivory carvings, and mural and panel paintings from throughout Spain with Catalan works predominating. The collection shows the apex of Catalonia’s expansion in the context of Mediterranean Europe at that time.

Works by such renowned painters as Berruguete, Cranach, Carracci, Goya, El Greco, Fragonard, Ribera, Rubens, Tiepolo, Velazquez, and Zurbaran can be found in the museum’s Renaissance and Baroque collections. Soon to open are the 22 rooms of 19th and 20th century works – one of the most brilliant periods in the history of Catalan art – which will transport visitors on a journey through Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realist, Modernisme, Noucentisme, “the generation of 1917” and the Avant-garde. Paintings and sculptures by Damia Campeny, Mariano Fortuny, Ramon Marti Alsina, Santiago Rusinol, Dario de Regoyas, Joaquim Mir, Joaquim Sunyer and Julio Gonzalez are being transferred from the Museu d`Art Modern. Additionally, the museum has extensive collections of drawings, prints, posters, photography and coins.

Two exhibitions are on view now: “Masterpieces of Romanesque Art; Sculptures from the Boi Valley” runs through March 28 and has been organized with the Musee de Cluny in Paris. Fifteen 12th century woodcarvings from small churches scattered throughout Catalonia’s western Pyrenees are being presented along with several large mural paintings – several rarely exhibited before. Running through February 2006 is “The Public Image of Rome” which analyzes the iconographic message of Roman coinage from the very first ones issued in the third century B.C. to coins from the 4th century A.D.

By: Rania Deimezi

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