Jaume Busquets i Mollera (Girona, 1904 - Barcelona, 1968) was a Catalan sculptor and painter of the noucentisme

Noucentisme

Noucentisme was a Catalan cultural movement of the early 20th century that originated largely as a reaction against Modernisme, both in art and ideology, and was, simultaneously, a perception of art almost opposite to that of avantgardists...

generation.

He was the youngest son of a family of four artist brothers from Girona

Girona

Girona is a city in the northeast of Catalonia, Spain at the confluence of the rivers Ter, Onyar, Galligants and Güell, with an official population of 96,236 in January 2009. It is the capital of the province of the same name and of the comarca of the Gironès...

, Catalonia

Catalonia

Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...

, Spain.

Busquets was a disciple of Antoni Gaudí

Antoni Gaudí

Antoni Gaudí i Cornet was a Spanish Catalan architect and figurehead of Catalan Modernism. Gaudí's works reflect his highly individual and distinctive style and are largely concentrated in the Catalan capital of Barcelona, notably his magnum opus, the Sagrada Família.Much of Gaudí's work was...

. He designed and sculpted the Holy Family

Holy Family

The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Saint Joseph.The Feast of the Holy Family is a liturgical celebration in the Roman Catholic Church in honor of Jesus of Nazareth, his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and his foster father, Saint Joseph, as a family...

 ensemble on the Nativity façade of Gaudí's Sagrada Familia

Sagrada Familia

The ' , commonly known as the Sagrada Família, is a large Roman Catholic church in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí...

 Basilica

Basilica

The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...

 Shrine

Shrine

A shrine is a holy or sacred place, which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated....

 in Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

. Busquets also designed and sculpted the statue of the Blessed Virgin with Child on the façade of the Girona Cathedral.

Career

A precocious boy, Busquets went to work, at the age of fifteen, in the Barcelona studio of Darius Vilas.

In his final years, Busquets devoted his energies exclusively to sculpture, producing his masterworks, the Jesus, Maria i Josep ensemble (1958) that forms the centerpiece of Gaudi's Nativity Façade and the Mare de Deu statue (1962) that adorns the façade of the Girona Cathedral.

Sources

Ajuntament de Girona, Els Germans Busquets 1917-1941, Girona, 1996.

Ajuntament de Girona, biographical page (Catalan)

Busquets, Joan, L'art que expressa la fe, Girona, 1997.

Cathedral de Girona Official website (English avail.)