Reflejos de lo sagrado. El ciclo del retablo en Cataluña, del final de la Edad Media al Academicismo

Reflections of the sacred. The altarpiece cycle in Catalonia, from the end of the Middle Ages to Academicism.

Program: Call 2020 «R&D&I Projects». Modality Coordinated Projects.

Coordinators: Dr. Joan Bosch, Dr. Francesc Miralpeix, Dr. Rafael Cornudella, Dr. Mariano Carbonell. Period: 2021-2024. UdG-ICRPC participants: Research team. Dr. Joan Bosch (IP), Dr. Francesc Miralpeix (IP), Joaquim Nadal, Rosa Creixell. Working team: Adrià Vázquez, Anna Nadal, Sara Montroig, Francisco Agustí, Mauro Salis.

Amount

€33,800 (UdG), €36,000 (UAB).

Project description

The project Reflections of the Supernatural. The altarpiece cycle in Catalonia, from the end of the Middle Ages to Academicism arises from the rich experience that the coordinated group treasures in the study of figurative arts in Catalonia from the end of the Middle Ages to the end of the 18th century and its heritage ups and downs, highlighted in various ministerial and regional projects, in numerous publications, in the curation of various exhibitions, in the organization of seminars, etc. Over 3 of the 35 years, a considerable part of the contributions of the coordinated team has had the altarpiece and its crafts as its objective, whether in monographic studies, in the context of research on authors linked to the genre, or in the framework of work on religious culture, that is to say in approaches interested in issues of iconography. Among other contributions, the materials obtained have allowed the creation of a dense body of information and the construction of a methodological and critical framework that has enriched the knowledge of the late Gothic artistic panorama and, above all, has contributed decisively to the historiographic normalization of the great cycle of the modern era in Catalonia after decades of undervaluation.

However, the further we advance and delve deeper into the study of this artistic genre, the more complex and multifaceted it appears to us. More possibilities for research and transfer are revealed. Each step, each historiographical leap, each reading of the bibliography referring to the subject in other Spanish territories and in late medieval and modern Catholic Europe, reveals new approaches and perspectives, proposes new perspectives and new reading strategies and, why not, reminds us that despite our knowledge, in the study of the altarpiece in Catalonia there are still very little explored scenarios and that if we manage to clarify them even further we will be in an optimal position to propose a comprehensive reading of the phenomenon of altarpieces (typology, function, elaboration, reception, genre and avatars) in the former Principality of Catalonia, a demarcation that for the stage addressed includes the territories that passed to French sovereignty from the Treaty of the Pyrenees of 1659.

And the further we advance, the more sense we see in accepting the challenge of explaining it globally. It is a genre -- perhaps more than a typology -- of sumptuous and symbolic manufacture that over five centuries presided over the daily and festive life of our ancestors, constituting part of their basic landscape, at once physical and spiritual, visual and religious, cultural and monumental. We are talking about the artistic manufacture that on the stage of the Principality focused most of the activity of the workshops of sculptors and painters, but also of gilders and assemblers, all with their respective guild dynamics; the monumental book where they recorded their beliefs and supernatural visions and, finally, of an often collective work that challenged the ingenuity of painters, sculptors and stonemasons, absorbed huge amounts of financial resources and involved a complex network of human relationships. A stage on which human beings saw reflected and interacted with "their" beyond inside the sacred spaces. A genre, finally, that suffered the terrible destruction caused during the Civil War and that, symmetrically, was the object of decisive safeguarding operations. Both still mark the heritage management today and in particular that of the collections of many of our museums. And a world, moreover, where the reflection of women's participation and the possibility of reading from a gender perspective is a great challenge to know and explore.