What coincidences can be found between a self-portrait by Picasso or Miró and the famous “Maiestas Domini” of Sant Climent de Taüll? Despite being almost unbelievable, both contemporary artists copied the trace set by Sant Climent de Taüll’s Christ Pantocrator in their works. You’ll find out more about it on the exhibition “Temps del Romanic. Art, vida i consciència”, set in Tarragona’s Caixa Forum until 16 August.
Let’s go step by step though. Even though the Romanic left a deep trace still perceivable in both Catalan and European art, by visiting this exhibition you’ve got the chance to understand how this artistic, social and cultural movement became a burst of light, colours and ideas that went beyond the borders of religious art and that, in the specific case of Catalonia, is part of the iconographical construction core of the country.
In “Temps del Romànic. Art, vida i consciència” though, you won’t see any objects. The exhibition makes use of new technologies in order to guide you, through five different subjects, and discover how life was back in the Old Catalonia between the 11th and 13th century, while providing hints of how the New Catalonia was built after the reconquest.
This tour will also allow you to get into the skin of those old citizens while learning how farmers, nobles or members of the clergy could interpret art in order to build temples and civil constructions.
The showing does also provide a tour round the most sensorial Romanic, which you can also smell. All this, without forgetting the reencounter of some jewels of the period, such as the Hospital de Santa Tecla in Tarragona, home today of the Consell Comarcal del Tarragonès, or the front major altar in Tarragona Cathedral, dedicated to Sant Pau i Santa Tecla.
Anna Catà, from Auriga Serveis Culturals, the main guide for the tours, explains that the exhibition opens new points of view, such as discovering what are the roots of today’s works to an art that was created over 10 centuries ago. Would you like to give it a try?
Temps del Romànic. Art, vida i consciència
Open until 16 August, 2015
Monday to Friday, 9am – 9pm
Saturdays, Mondays and bank holidays, 11am – 2pm and 4pm – 9pm
Free entrance
Guided visit for the general public
Catalan: Saturdays at 8pm
Spanish: Sundays at 8pm
Price: 3€ per person
Group guided tours
More information: +34 977 249 871
Price per group: 60€
More info:
http://agenda.obrasocial.lacaixa.es/ca/-/tiempo-del-romanico
Text and pictures: Gemma Casalé (@Casalesi on Twitter)
Translation: Artur Santos (@artur_1983 on Twitter)
