Celestí Devesa

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Celstí Devesa: Tomb of the Agustí family in the Olot cemetery with the figure "Meditative Tranquility"
Celestí Devesa: Modernist tombstone on the grave of the Danès family in the Olot cemetery (1905)
Celestí Devesa: Modernist tomb of the Masllorens family in the Olot cemetery
Celestì Devesa: grandfather and grandmother, terracotta, 1891 (Museu Comarcal d'Olot)

Celestí Devesa i Pinadella (born January 20, 1868 in Begudà , † August 1, 1935 in Olot ) was a Catalan sculptor and lecturer in drawing and sculpture at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de Olot .

life and work

He received his artistic training from Josep Berga i Boix at the Art Academy in Olot. Devesa worked for many years as a sculptor for the Olotens religious art company L'Art Cristià , also known as El Arte Christiano in Spanish . Together with the sculptor Miquel Blay , Devesa designed the current folklore giants of the city of Olot in the years 1888/1889, which are carried around publicly in parades at festivals. These giants have replaced Ramon Amadeu's old giants . Devesa herself modeled the giantess (La Gegantessa).

Modernist tombs in the Olot cemetery

Devesa became famous for the design of modernist tombs in the Olot cemetery. Here he created artistically significant memorials for the Esquena, Danés, Masllorens, Agustí, Capdevila and Vayreda families. At the back of the pantheon for the Esquena family winds an irregular, upward staircase that ends in a corpus of Christ on the cross. This staircase symbolizes human life that ends in Christ, sometimes more difficult and sometimes easier. A skeleton rises from the memorial of the Danés family, pushed by a puff of air. The skeleton includes the family name. A three-step staircase symbolizing the three ages leads to the pantheon of the Masllorens family. The stairs are flanked by two figures, sadness and resignation. The pantheon of the Agustí family is formed by one great figure, meditative calm. This reflects on the reason for human existence. The grave of the Capdevila family is guarded and defended by two religious angels on the left and right. The grave of Marià Vayreda is closed with a plate with the Maltese cross in the middle . Next to it on the right is the family coat of arms, on the opposite side the coat of arms of Catalonia.

literature

  • Hèlios Rubio et al .: Art de Catalunya (Ars Cataloniae) . Celestí Devesa. 1st edition. tape 7 /16 (Escultura moderna i Contemporània). Edicions L'Isard, Barcelona 1998, ISBN 84-89931-03-8 , pp. 183 . There images of the two terracotta figures "L'àvia i l'avi" (1891, grandmother and grandfather, Garrotxa Museum, Olot)
  • Josep Maria Canals: Diccionari Biogràfic d'Olot; Article “Devesa i Antiga, Celestí” . Ed .: Ajuntament d'Olot. 1st edition. Olot 2015, OCLC 943687866 , p. 281 f . (Catalan).

Web links

Commons : Celesti Devesa  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual references and comments

  1. ↑ The daily life data come from the information in the Catalan language Wikipedia.
  2. ↑ Enciclopedia.cat: Olot (chapter folklore). Retrieved January 30, 2018 (Catalan).
  3. ↑ The historian Joaquim Danés i Torras is buried here.
  4. ↑ For this paragraph see the YouTube film by Jesus Codinach: Escultures de Celestí Devesa al cementiri d'Olot
personal data
SURNAME Devesa, Celestí
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Devesa i Pinadella, Celestí
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Catalan sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH January 20, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Begudà
DATE OF DEATH August 1, 1935
Place of death Olot