Museu dels Sants d'Olot
The Museu dels Sants d'Olot (the Museum of the Saints of Olot ) is a museum whose main objective is to display and document the industrial production of figures of saints over a period of well over 100 years in Olot .
This production is illustrated by means of specific religious art objects, by means of video productions and by means of the specific artistic and manual work. At the same time, the museum is a real art workshop that is in operation. It was founded in 2007 in the former headquarters of the company "L'Art Cristià" (Spanish also: "El Arte Christiano", German "The Art of Christianity") founded by Marià Vayreda , Josep Berga i Boix and Valentí Carrera in 1880 ) set up in Olot. The company and current museum building, also known as " L'Art Cristià " or " El Arte Cristiano ", was built in neo-Gothic style from 1890 by the modernist architect Joaquim Codina Matalí on behalf of Joaquim Vayreda. The Vayreda family used to live in a wing of the building. Today the museum takes up most of the house. Some rooms in the basement are still used by the company "L'Art Cristià". This company currently employs around 10 to 15 people who produce saints on a commission basis. These employees sometimes give an insight into their work in the basement of the museum. Interesting in terms of both art business and art history are the “Army of the Saints” set up in the model room, representing two thousand years of Christian art history and provided with catalog numbers, and the Christ corpora in the video room on the ground floor, arranged according to the motto “Christ off the peg”, changing from small to large figures .
iconography
In the entrance area of the museum on the ground floor, the museum gives an introduction to Christian iconography . In a series of pictures, dogmas, ideas, beliefs and facts of Christianity are presented in an understandable way. Examples from hagiography , the science of the saints, like the life of the saints, their virtues and their miracles are presented through folk traditions and legends; they are thus placed in a context of everyday life today.
production
Modeling and shaping
The production of saints is shown on the ground floor. The figures of the saints are made by sculptors or sculptors based on templates. They are poured into cardboard or other forms with a colored mixture of mortar or gelatin. For each model, i.e. H. Shapes were created for the core body and for protruding elements of the model such as outstretched hands, protruding feet or characteristic insignia. There are two types of shapes: full-model shapes and half-model shapes. The whole-model molds are filled with clay, while figures formed in half-model molds are later put together from two manufactured figure halves. The molding process begins with greasing the mold so that the filling reaches all the cavities in the mold. Finally, all elements are reinforced with wood and wire mesh. The eyes of the figures are made of solid or blown glass and used. The artisans who fit these glass eyes into the figures are called oculists. Then the separately cast protruding parts are attached to the core body, all edges are polished and ground and all visible transitions are concealed. A variety of tools are required for this final process: chisels, spatulas, mandrels, brushes and sandpaper of various grain sizes.
Painting and decoration
In the painting workshop, the figures are first given a colored primer. Details of the face or other areas are recorded on it. In the next step, the figures come to the painters in the painting department, who use oil paints to paint clothes, accessories and insignia. Other professionals such as engravers and gilders are responsible for embellishing the figure. Finally, in varying degrees elaborate crowns or halos attached to the figures, which can range from simple circular shape up to diffizil elaborate royal crowns. These crowns represent the holiness of the person depicted. A simple circular halo is used for all saints. The cruciform or crossed halo is reserved exclusively for Christ. The halo of the Mother of God and Queen of Heaven, Mary, is usually adorned with twelve stars.
Special religious art forms
kitsch
Part of religious folk art falls into the kitsch category , which, contrary to art struggling for truth and beauty, treads a simple path of evoking sentimental and trivial feelings in a large number of people. Such kitsch productions work with lavish decoration, imaginative color schemes, the use of glittering materials, the simulation of high-quality materials such as marble and wood or the use of motifs and figures outside of their actual religious context.
Nativity Art
A special area of religious folk art is the production of nativity scenes . The working for the company "L'Art Cristià" painter and decorator Joaquim Renart (1879-1961) was one of those cribs specialist who himself has put together an extensive collection of renowned nativity artists who partially removed in a few hundred meters Garrotxa Museum will be exhibited . Here, for example, you can see nativity scenes by the Catalan sculptor Ramon Amadeu (1745–1821), who sought refuge in Olot during the war of independence against Napoleon from 1807 to 1812. Amadeus nativity figurines are - in a popular style - the result of close observations of the rural world during his stay in Olot.
Model catalog of the saints
The model room of the saints in the museum and the workshops on the ground floor is interesting in terms of art history. Hundreds of saint plaster models created by artists and provided with catalog numbers are exhibited here, which come very close to the later figure. These original models consist of the actual core body and various protruding, independently modeled fragments such as hands, arms or insignia such as the crescent moon of the Madonna . These fragments are each attached to the core body with a network.
literature
- Arnau i Prades, M. Assumpció; Sala i Plana, Joan: L'Art olotí en el XIX i XX / El Taller El Arte Christiano . 1st ed.Diputació de Girona, Girona 2013, ISBN 978-84-15808-03-9 , chap. 15 , p. 42 f . (Catalan).
- Ajuntament d'Olot, Fundació Museu dels Sants d'Olot (editor): “Museu dels Sants d'Olot” leaflet (editions in Catalan, Spanish and English; as of 2016)
Web links
- Museu dels Sants d'Olot: Museu dels Sants d'Olot. Retrieved January 19, 2018 (Catalan).
Remarks
- ↑ The article is based on the leaflet “Museu dels Sants d'Olot” (English version), from information on the museum's website and from the author's personal opinion when he visited the museum in August 2016.
- ↑ The exact address of the building is: C / Joaquim Vayreda 9, 17800 Olot, Spain. The museum can be visited on weekdays from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., and Sundays from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. 00 o'clock. The museum is closed on Mondays. Combined tickets can be purchased with the Garrotxa Museum and the Volcano Museum in Olot.
- ↑ As of 2016, according to information from a museum employee
Coordinates: 42 ° 10 ′ 47 " N , 2 ° 29 ′ 19.6" E