Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
Encyclopedia
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
: "National Art Museum of Catalonia"), abbreviated as MNAC, is a museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
of Catalan
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...
visual art located 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...
, 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...
. It is housed in the Palau Nacional, built for the 1929 World's Fair
World's Fair
World's fair, World fair, Universal Exposition, and World Expo are various large public exhibitions held in different parts of the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom, in 1851, under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All...
. Situated on the Montjuïc
Montjuïc
Montjuïc is a hill located in Barcelona, Catalonia.-Etymology:Montjuïc is translated as 'Jew Hill' in medieval Catalan, or is perhaps related to the Latin phrase Mons Jovicus . The name is found in several locations in the Catalan Countries: the Catalan cities of Girona and Barcelona both have a...
hill at the end of Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina, it was rehabilitated for the 1992 Summer Olympics
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event celebrated in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, in 1992. The International Olympic Committee voted in 1986 to separate the Summer and Winter Games, which had been held in the same...
.
The museum was located in this building in 1990, when the Catalonian Museum Law reunited the collections of the former Museu d'Art de Catalunya (Catalonian Art Museum) and the Museu d'Art Modern (Modern Art Museum), and declared it the national museum. The new museum thus combined Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque art collections from the Museu d'Art de Catalunya with the 19th and 20th century art collections of the Museu d'Art Modern, and incorporated the Gabinet de Dibuixos i Gravats (Department of Drawings and Prints), the Gabinet Numismàtic de Catalunya (Catalonia Department of Numismatics
Numismatics
Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, and related objects. While numismatists are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, the discipline also includes the broader study of money and other payment media used to resolve debts and the...
; coinage and medals) and the Biblioteca d'Història de l'Art (Art History Library). In 1996, the Department of Photography
Fine art photography
Fine art photography refers to photographs that are created in accordance with the creative vision of the photographer as artist. Fine art photography stands in contrast to photojournalism, which provides a visual account for news events, and commercial photography, the primary focus of which is to...
was created.
The museum opened in 1995, with the Romanesque art
Romanesque art
Romanesque art refers to the art of Western Europe from approximately 1000 AD to the rise of the Gothic style in the 13th century, or later, depending on region. The preceding period is increasingly known as the Pre-Romanesque...
section. The Gothic art
Gothic art
Gothic art was a Medieval art movement that developed in France out of Romanesque art in the mid-12th century, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, but took over art more completely north of the Alps, never quite effacing more classical...
section was opened in 1997, while the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
, Baroque, 19th century and 20th century collections opened in 2000. The official opening, with the building completely rehabilitated and all the collections in place, was in 2004.
The original Museu d'Art de Catalunya was opened in 1934 at the same location as today, but was closed during the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
. It was reopened from 1940 to 1942. In 1945, the Modern Art Museum opened in the Arsenal of the Ciutadella park.
Since 2004, the MNAC accommodates works of the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection. The works were exposed in the Monastery of Pedralbes
Monastery of Pedralbes
The Monastery of Pedralbes is a Gothic monastery in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is now a museum, housing collections from Barcelona City's History Museum.-History:...
but it was decided to move them to facilitate the visits of the public. Paintings of the periods included between the Gothic period and the rococo are shown.
The museum operates in association with the Museu Comarcal de la Garrotxa
Museu Comarcal de la Garrotxa
The Museu Comarcal de la Garrotxa is a museum in Olot, Catalonia, Spain. It is associated with the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona; the other institutions in this association are the Biblioteca Museu Víctor Balaguer and the Cau Ferrat...
(Olot
Olot
Olot is the capital of the comarca of the Garrotxa, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain.- Etymology :The etymology of Olot is not clear and there are several hypotheses...
), the Biblioteca Museu Víctor Balaguer
Biblioteca Museu Víctor Balaguer
The Biblioteca Museu Víctor Balaguer is a museum founded in 1884 by Víctor Balaguer, a Catalan politician and writer. Is one of Catalonia’s oldest and most singular museums...
(Vilanova i la Geltrú
Vilanova i la Geltrú
Vilanova i la Geltrú is a city in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain and the capital of the Garraf comarca. Originally a fishing port, the city has a growing population of approximately 66,000, and is situated 40 km south-west of Barcelona, with the more famous coastal resort of...
) and the Cau Ferrat (Sitges
Sitges
*Church of Sant Bartolomeu i Santa Tecla . It houses two Gothic sepulchres , belonging to the an older church located on the same site...
).
The building
The National Palau of Montjuïc was constructed between 1926 and 1929, with the goal to be the main building of the International Exhibition of Barcelona of 1929, for an Exhibition of Spanish Art (The Arte in España), with more than 5.000 works coming from throughout Spain.The building is a work of Eugenio Cendoya and Enric Catà, under the supervision of Pere Domènech i Roura, rejecting an initial project of Puig i Cadafalch and Guillem Busquets. It shows a symmetrical main façade, with a central body which stands out and two lateral ones; the central body is crowned all the set of the façade by a dome of roman, dominant style and accompanies itself to the sides of two smaller domes. The four angles of the big Hall are compound for some towers of square plant that integrate into the composition of the façade exterior.[4]
The work has an area of 32.000 m² and is from classicist style, inspired in the Spanish Renaissance. It has a rectangular floor with two lateral bodies and one of posterior square, with a big dome on the part central. The waterfalls and fountains of the outside staircase of the Palau would be a work of Carles Buïgas. In the same period nine big projectors that today still issue some intense bundles of light that write the name of the city in the sky were placed.
In its show the opening ceremony of the exhibition The Arte was made in España, presided by the king Alphonse XIII and the queen Victòria Eugènia.
In the decoration of the Palau -of art nouveau style (contrarily to the classicism of l'estructura)-, several artists, like the sculptors Enric Casanovas, Josep Dunyach, Frederic Marès and Josep Llimona, and the painters Francesc d'Assís Galí, intervened Josep de Togores, Manuel Humbert, Josep Obiols, Joan Colom
Joan Colom
Joan Colom i Altemir is a Catalan photographer renowned for his portraits of Barcelona's underworld and working class, especially in the infamous neighbourhood of Raval. Colom was a self-taught photographer, and produced his best-known pictures while working during the week as an accountant...
and Francesc Labarta.[5] From 1934 it is the headquarters|venue of the MNAC.
In year 1985 the first projects started to be discussed for rehabilitating the building, but it was not until 1990 that the works of restitution started according to the project of the architects Gae Aulenti and Enric Steegmann. The year 1992 the rehabilitation of the Oval Room and the consolidation and partial structural adequacy of the building was carried out, as well as the restructuring of two galleries temporals.[6]
Among 1995 and 2004 the palace suffered several reforms and enlargements in charge of Gae Aulenti, Enric Steegmann, Josep Benedito and Agustí Obiol, with the goal to create spaces for being able to squeeze in all the works of the col·lecció.[7] The works were ordered to Eduard Carbonell, the director of the museum in that moment.
The zone of the Palau that needed a more complex reform was the wing where the Romanesque art is set forth. The first floor|plant had to be disassembled, went reinforce the dome and went construct new walls and panels, in more of changing all facilities of certainty|security. In order to guarantee some favorable conditions of conservation (damp|humidity, heat...) in February of 1995 the collection had to be moved from Romanesque apses, under the supervision of Aulenti. The goal of the architectural reform was "to gather the past and the present, to preserve the philosophical and moral needs of the building", becoming interested especially in the subject of the lighting. Because of that lights were placed arran de terra focusing to the apses, leaving some points of the rooms more darkened so that the environment of the Romanesque esglesioles was replayed. Many of the restorations were carried out by Gianluigi Colalucci and its|his|her|their equipment|team, restaurateurs also of the Chapel Sixtina del Vaticà.
Sections
- Romanesque art: This collection contains mainly Catalan art from the 11th-13th centuries (with some works pre-dating this period). The most significant part of this collection are the internationally important wall-paintings of Romanesque churches and chapels around Catalonia that have been transferred to the museum, including the fragmentary remains of the cycle by English artists from Sigena, and sculptures like the Batllo Crucifix.
- Gothic art: Catalan art from the 13th-15th centuries, along with some Italian art.
- Renaissance and Baroque art: Spanish, Italian and Flemish art from the 16th-18th centuries. The collection was started with the local art and augmented mostly through donations, specially that of the Francesc CambóFrancesc CambóFrancesc Cambó i Batlle was a conservative Catalan politician, founder and leader of the autonomist party Lliga Regionalista. He was minister in several Spanish governments...
collection. - Modern art: Catalan art from the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century, including photography and the decorative arts. Notable are the works of Ramon Casas, Santiago RusiñolSantiago RusiñolSantiago Rusiñol i Prats was a Catalan post-impressionist/Symbolist painter, poet, and playwright.He was born in Barcelona in 1861, and died in Aranjuez in 1931 while painting its famous gardens....
, Isidre NonellIsidre NonellIsidre Nonell i Monturiol a Catalonian painter and drawer belonging to post-impressionism known for his expressive portrayal of the socially marginalized of Barcelona society...
, Pau Gargallo and the modernist decorative arts of Antoni GaudíAntoni GaudíAntoni 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...
. Picasso'sPablo PicassoPablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
Woman in Hat and Fur CollarWoman in Hat and Fur CollarWoman in Hat and Fur Collar , painted in Paris in 1937, is one of the numerous portraits Pablo Picasso did of Marie-Thérèse Walter, his lover between 1927 and 1935, approximately, and the mother of his daughter Maya...
can be found in this section, too. - Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection: A collection of works deposited by the Thyssen-Bornemisza MuseumMuseo Thyssen-BornemiszaThe Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, or in Spanish Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, is an art museum near the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain. It is known as a part of the "Golden Triangle of Art", which also includes the Prado and the Reina Sofia galleries...
. It includes pieces from the Renaissance and Baroque. It also includes a collection of Catalan art belonging to the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, from the mid-19th century to the second half of the 20th century. - Department of Drawings and Prints: collection of drawings, prints and posters from the last 17th century to the historical avant-gardes.
- Photography collection: Photographs from the 19th century to mid-1990s.
- Numismatics collection: Coins, medals and paper money from VI BC to the present day. Outstanding is the collection of pieces from Catalonia and the neighbouring territories.
In popular culture
- The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya is a featured locale in the 2009 video game Wheelman, published by Midway GamesMidway GamesMidway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the...
. - This place was also the 11th pitstop of the 4-time Emmy Award winning reality show The Amazing Race 10The Amazing Race 10The Amazing Race 10 is the tenth installment of the reality television show The Amazing Race. The Amazing Race 10 features twelve teams of two with a pre-existing relationship in a race around the world....
.
See also
- List of museums in Barcelona
- Biblioteca Museu Víctor BalaguerBiblioteca Museu Víctor BalaguerThe Biblioteca Museu Víctor Balaguer is a museum founded in 1884 by Víctor Balaguer, a Catalan politician and writer. Is one of Catalonia’s oldest and most singular museums...
, section of the museum