{"id":10989,"date":"2025-11-20T14:57:03","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T12:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xarxa.museunacional.cat\/the-eternal-promise-childhood-in-art\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T14:19:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T12:19:18","slug":"the-eternal-promise-childhood-in-art","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/xarxa.museunacional.cat\/en\/the-eternal-promise-childhood-in-art\/","title":{"rendered":"The eternal promise: Childhood in art"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; use_row_as_full_screen_section=&#8221;no&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221; angled_section=&#8221;no&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; background_image_as_pattern=&#8221;without_pattern&#8221; bg_type=&#8221;bg_color&#8221; z_index=&#8221;&#8221; bg_color_value=&#8221;#000000&#8243; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1746632125762{background-color: #000000 !important;}&#8221; anchor=&#8221;hero&#8221;][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column_inner][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;368px&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;2\/3&#8243;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;color-blanc m3-bottom-res&#8221;]<\/p>\n<h1>The eternal promise:<br \/>\nChildhood in art<\/h1>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;]    <div class=\"block_quote color-blanco m6-bottom-res italic\">\n        <div class=\"image_holder\">\n                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/xarxa.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1-MR-4-Nen-de-Portici.-Maria-Fortuny_1.jpg\" alt=\"\">\n                <\/div>\n        <div class=\"block_quote_content\">\n                                        <p>Boy of Portici. Maria\u0300 Fortuny. Museu de Reus <\/p>\n                        <div class=\"social-links\">\n                                                                                                                            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    [\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column_inner][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;190px&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; use_row_as_full_screen_section=&#8221;no&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221; angled_section=&#8221;no&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; background_image_as_pattern=&#8221;without_pattern&#8221; bg_type=&#8221;grad&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1740590072551{margin-top: -95px !important;}&#8221; z_index=&#8221;&#8221; bg_grad=&#8221;background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%, #000000), color-stop(20%, #000000), color-stop(21%, #FFFFFF), color-stop(60%, #FFFFFF));background: -moz-linear-gradient(top,#000000 0%,#000000 20%,#FFFFFF 21%,#FFFFFF 60%);background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top,#000000 0%,#000000 20%,#FFFFFF 21%,#FFFFFF 60%);background: -o-linear-gradient(top,#000000 0%,#000000 20%,#FFFFFF 21%,#FFFFFF 60%);background: -ms-linear-gradient(top,#000000 0%,#000000 20%,#FFFFFF 21%,#FFFFFF 60%);background: linear-gradient(top,#000000 0%,#000000 20%,#FFFFFF 21%,#FFFFFF 60%);&#8221;][vc_column css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1739708113171{margin-top: -95px !important;}&#8221;]<div id=\"ult-carousel-354203918469d771f3caa8b\" class=\"ult-carousel-wrapper   ult_horizontal\" data-gutter=\"10\" data-rtl=\"false\" ><div class=\"ult-carousel-292891666269d771f3ca9af \" ><div class=\"ult-item-wrap\" data-animation=\"animated no-animation\"><div class=\"qode-info-card\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"qode-info-card-image\" style=\"background-color:#fff\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/xarxa.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1-MR-4-Nen-de-Portici.-Maria-Fortuny_1.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"qode-info-card-text-holder\" style=\"background-color:#fff\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"qode-info-card-text\" >\n\t\t\t\tBoy of Portici. Maria\u0300 Fortuny. Museu de Reus \t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><\/div><div class=\"ult-item-wrap\" data-animation=\"animated no-animation\"><div class=\"qode-info-card\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"qode-info-card-image\" style=\"background-color:#fff\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/xarxa.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/17-MACBA-2087_001_pub_1.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"qode-info-card-text-holder\" style=\"background-color:#fff\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h6 class=\"qode-info-card-title\" >\n\t\t\t\tModest Cuixart, Brunilda\u2019s Labour, 1979, Pastel on canvas. MACBA Collection. Long-term loan from the Generalitat de Catalunya. National Collection of Art. Formerly the Salvador Riera Collection. Image courtesy of the Museu d\u2019Art de Girona. Photo: Rafel Bosch     \t\t\t<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><\/div><div class=\"ult-item-wrap\" data-animation=\"animated no-animation\"><div class=\"qode-info-card\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"qode-info-card-image\" style=\"background-color:#fff\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/xarxa.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/13-2031_CA-Atr.-Bernardo-Martinez-del-Barranco-Mare-de-Deu-de-la-faixa-c.-1775_1.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"qode-info-card-text-holder\" style=\"background-color:#fff\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h6 class=\"qode-info-card-title\" >\n\t\t\t\tAttributed to Bernardo Mart\u00ednez del Barranco, Our Lady of the Holy Girdle, c. 1775 . Museu de Lleida \t\t\t<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><\/div><div class=\"ult-item-wrap\" data-animation=\"animated no-animation\"><div class=\"qode-info-card\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"qode-info-card-image\" style=\"background-color:#fff\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/xarxa.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/50-MR-13305-Ja-sou-de-lassociacio-protectora-de-lensenyanca-catalana-Josep-Obiols-i-Palau-1921_1.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"qode-info-card-text-holder\" style=\"background-color:#fff\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h6 class=\"qode-info-card-title\" >\n\t\t\t\tJosep Obiols, Are you a member of the Catalan Education Protection Association?, 1921&lt;br&gt;Lithography in colour. Museu de Reus (IMRC, MR13305) \t\t\t<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><\/div><div class=\"ult-item-wrap\" data-animation=\"animated no-animation\"><div class=\"qode-info-card\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"qode-info-card-image\" style=\"background-color:#fff\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/xarxa.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/5Murillo.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"qode-info-card-text-holder\" style=\"background-color:#fff\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h6 class=\"qode-info-card-title\" >\n\t\t\t\tCopy of Children playing dice by Bartolom\u00e9 E. Murillo, 19th century, Oil on canvas Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya, no. 113809  113809\t\t\t<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><\/div><div class=\"ult-item-wrap\" data-animation=\"animated no-animation\"><div class=\"qode-info-card\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"qode-info-card-image\" style=\"background-color:#fff\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/xarxa.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/56-keisai.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"qode-info-card-text-holder\" style=\"background-color:#fff\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h6 class=\"qode-info-card-title\" >\n\t\t\t\tKeisai Eisen, The courtesan Sakie, of the Sanotsuchiya house, with the kamuro Tayori and Ayano &lt;br&gt;c. 1830, Publisher Yorozuya Kichibei, Colour woodcut. Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya, Gabinet de Dibuixos i Gravats \t\t\t<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><\/div><div class=\"ult-item-wrap\" data-animation=\"animated no-animation\"><div class=\"qode-info-card\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"qode-info-card-image\" style=\"background-color:#fff\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/xarxa.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/64-GAGB_15_08_1.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"qode-info-card-text-holder\" style=\"background-color:#fff\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h6 class=\"qode-info-card-title\" >\n\t\t\t\tJoaquim Mart\u00ed-Bas, Contribute to the work of the Children&amp;apos;s Aid Committee, 1936-1937, Print by J. Horta &amp; Cia, Colour lithography. Museu del Disseny, GAGB 15\/08, Photography: Xavi Padr\u00f3s \t\t\t<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(document).ready(function ($) {\n\t\t\t\t\tif( typeof jQuery('.ult-carousel-292891666269d771f3ca9af').slick == \"function\"){\n\t\t\t\t\t\t$('.ult-carousel-292891666269d771f3ca9af').slick({dots: true,autoplay: true,autoplaySpeed: \"5000\",speed: \"300\",infinite: true,arrows: true,nextArrow: '<button type=\"button\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Next\" style=\"color:#333333; font-size:20px;\" class=\"slick-next default\"><i class=\"ultsl-arrow-right6\"><\/i><\/button>',prevArrow: '<button type=\"button\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Previous\" style=\"color:#333333; font-size:20px;\" class=\"slick-prev default\"><i class=\"ultsl-arrow-left6\"><\/i><\/button>',slidesToScroll:4,slidesToShow:4,swipe: true,draggable: true,touchMove: true,pauseOnHover: true,pauseOnFocus: false,centerMode: true,adaptiveHeight: true,responsive: [\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t{\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t  breakpoint: 1026,\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t  settings: {\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tslidesToShow: 4,\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tslidesToScroll: 4,  \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t  }\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t},\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t{\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t  breakpoint: 1025,\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t  settings: {\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tslidesToShow: 1,\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tslidesToScroll: 1\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t  }\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t},\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t{\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t  breakpoint: 760,\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t  settings: {\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tslidesToShow: 1,\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tslidesToScroll: 1\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t  }\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t\t\t],pauseOnDotsHover: true,customPaging: function(slider, i) {\n                   return '<i type=\"button\" style= \"color:#333333;\" class=\"ultsl-radio-unchecked\" data-role=\"none\"><\/i>';\n                },});\n\t\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t});\n\t\t\t<\/script>\n\t\t\t[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; use_row_as_full_screen_section=&#8221;no&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; angled_section=&#8221;no&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; background_image_as_pattern=&#8221;without_pattern&#8221; z_index=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column][vc_separator type=&#8221;normal&#8221; thickness=&#8221;1&#8243; up=&#8221;94&#8243; color=&#8221;#000000&#8243; down=&#8221;64&#8243;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; use_row_as_full_screen_section=&#8221;no&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; angled_section=&#8221;no&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; background_image_as_pattern=&#8221;without_pattern&#8221; z_index=&#8221;&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1739778989055{margin-bottom: 94px !important;}&#8221;][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;]<div class=\"comissionariat-title color-negro orientation-false\" style=\"\" id=\"the-eternal-promise-childhood-in-art\">\n        <h2 class=\"fade-in\">The eternal promise: Childhood in art<\/h2><\/div>    <div class=\"block_quote color-negro fade-in\">\n        <div class=\"image_holder\">\n                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/xarxa.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/RicardBru.jpeg\" alt=\"Ricard Bru Turull\">\n                <\/div>\n        <div class=\"block_quote_content\">\n                            <p class=\"title\">Ricard Bru Turull<\/p>\n                                        <p>Professor in the Department of Art and Musicology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona<\/p>\n                        <div class=\"social-links\">\n                                    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ricardbru\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><i class=\"fi fi-brands-instagram\"><\/i><\/a>\n                                                                                    <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ricard_bru?lang=es\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><i class=\"fi fi-brands-twitter-alt\"><\/i><\/a>\n                                                                            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n    <a  itemprop=\"url\" href=\"\" target=\"_self\"  class=\"qbutton  default expandir fade-in\" style=\"font-size: 22px; margin: 36px 0px; \">See more<\/a>[\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243; el_class=&#8221;expandir&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221;]Our perception and understanding of childhood has changed and evolved over time, just like our concept of gender and family. However, children have always been present in the minds of artists and have often become the central figures in their work. In a certain way, art history is a history of humankind, or at least the recent history of humanity that has striven over the most recent millennia to record its passage through the world with its ideas, beliefs, reflections and emotions. From this perspective, the countless images that we have inherited from this past, which also feature children as the main characters, offer a revealing portrait of the societies that created them and reflect how artists have understood this stage of life through art from the standpoint of adulthood. While our recent perception would seem to hint that art limited its representations of childhood to the Infant Jesus and a limited array of Christian iconography, the richness and variety of depictions of childhood is much more extensive, insofar as we have often sought to mirror ourselves in it. The American educator Kate Douglas Wiggin in fact spoke of childhood as the eternal promise that no one ever managed to keep. Childhood was viewed as a promise of dreams that we believed in and longed for, a nostalgic time in which everything seemed possible and in which life was understood through different criteria.     <\/p>\n<p>This virtual exhibition is the result of our desire to offer a different journey through the collections of the Xarxa de Museus d\u2019Art de Catalunya. Considering that our entire collection can be read and interpreted through infinite prisms, as diverse as there are people and perspectives, we have selected some of the numerous works featuring children to trace a journey towards childhood through art and the artists\u2019 gaze.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; use_row_as_full_screen_section=&#8221;no&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221; header_style=&#8221;light&#8221; angled_section=&#8221;no&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; background_image_as_pattern=&#8221;without_pattern&#8221; z_index=&#8221;&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1746632202059{padding-top: 120px !important;padding-bottom: 84px !important;background-image: url(https:\/\/xma.iurisdoc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/antorcha-background.jpg?id=8792) !important;}&#8221; anchor=&#8221;foc_section&#8221;][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;row-reverse-res&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;]<div class=\"comissionariat-title color-blanco orientation-false\" style=\"\" id=\"children-and-art\">\n        <h2 class=\"fade-in\">Children and art<\/h2><\/div>[vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;font-gran color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]From the iconographies crafted in Ancient Egypt, the images made in the Graeco-Roman world and depictions from Christian society to the representations of childhood amongst the bourgeoisie, working class and peasants, from the nameless child, happily running out on the street, to wartime corpses, throughout history children have represented a powerful symbol of life, innocence and tenderness, but also a possible source of concern. Hence, although artistic representations of children do not necessarily have to be faithful to their world, they have served both to celebrate life and love as well as to denounce injustices. To do so, art has adopted the image of children, especially starting in the 18th century, and has made use of these depictions, making them shine as a reflection of life itself with all its ambivalence and complexity, yet mostly seeing in them a perennial symbol of hope, happiness and the freedom we all yearn for.  <\/p>\n<p>The appearance of the representations of Harpocrates, the god Horus as a young child, the son of Isis and Osiris, vulnerable yet indestructible, reflects the use of domestic practices in Pharaonic Egypt linked to protecting children. The iconography of this divinity is one of the oldest iconographic representations associated with childhood. We can easily identify Harpocrates as he appears nude, with a knotted braid behind his ears and especially because he has put his index finger in his mouth, like many infants.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;2\/12&#8243; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1739785784681{background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: contain !important;}&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10495&#8243; img_size=&#8221;289&#215;570&#8243; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763644188910{margin-top: 20px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc width-70 fade-in m1-top-res&#8221;]Head of Harpocrates (fragment of an Egyptian figure) 2nd-1st century BC, Terracotta, Museu Frederic Mar\u00e8s, MFM no. 4383 4383. Photography: \u00a9 Pep Herrero[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764586575138{padding-top: 80px !important;}&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10498&#8243; img_size=&#8221;large&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765984509014{margin-top: 20px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc fade-in m1-top-res&#8221;]The adoration of the magi, Front of a Roman sarcophagus, Roman workshop. Second decade of the 4th century AD, Layos (Toledo), Marble, Museu Frederic Mar\u00e8s, MFM no. 157. Photography: \u00a9 ArtWorkPhoto.eu[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764586604162{margin-bottom: 46px !important;padding-top: 46px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in m1-bottom-res color-blanc&#8221;]Although we can find images that feature children in Graeco-Roman art, the fact that they were not part of public life normally either relegated children to a secondary role or they were connected to symbolic scenes, beliefs or myths, like the story of Eros. However, as soon as the first Early Christian images emerged, images of the Infant Jesus started to appear. This front of a late Roman sarcophagus, created by a sculpture workshop in Rome in the early 4th century AD, offers an excellent example. From left to right, the piece represents the resurrection of Lazarus, Isaac being sacrificed at the hands of his father Abraham, the multiplication of the loaves and fish, the orant, the original sin of Adam and Eve and, finally, the adoration of the magi of the Infant Jesus, wrapped in swaddling clothes and held tightly in the Virgin\u2019s embrace.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10501&#8243; img_size=&#8221;large&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765984522449{margin-top: 20px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc fade-in m1-top-res color-blanc&#8221;]Master of Saint Basilissa, Compartment of an altarpiece representing Saint Anne, the Virgin Mary and the Child, Catalonia, second quarter of the 15th century, Tempera and gold leaf on wood. Unknown origin, Museu Episcopal de Vic, MEV no. 1031. Photography: \u00a9 Museu Episcopal de Vic, file: The Mad Pixel Factory[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764586848691{margin-bottom: 46px !important;padding-top: 46px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in m1-bottom-res color-blanc&#8221;]As soon as the religious images of the Gothic period abandoned the rigid nature of previous eras, stories that spoke directly about the more human side of Jesus, the stories about his childhood and his family, started to spread. The same happened with his mother, the Infant Virgin Mary, as well as Saint Anne. After this period, coinciding with the spread of the devotion to Saint Anne, the first representations of the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne started to appear as a clear precursor of family portraits. In this case, the representation of the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne forms part of a fragment of a Catalan altarpiece of unknown origin, of which two compartments are preserved in the Museu Episcopal de Vic.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; use_row_as_full_screen_section=&#8221;no&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221; angled_section=&#8221;no&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; background_image_as_pattern=&#8221;without_pattern&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1741615775356{margin-top: 94px !important;margin-bottom: 94px !important;}&#8221; z_index=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;2\/5&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10741&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;m1-bottom-res&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/12&#8243;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1768211620752{margin-bottom: 46px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in m1-bottom-res&#8221;]Murillo\u2019s oil painting Children playing dice (1665-1675), preserved today in Munich with the Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya owning a 19th-century copy, bears testimony to how pictorial naturalism enabled the appearance of new subject matters and the presence of children in art even as far back as the 17th century. Although Vel\u00e1zquez, the iconic Spanish painter from the Golden Age, paid special attention to children, Murillo singularly stood out as one of the great painters of childhood. Murillo made children the central characters; he gave them a role in painting that they had rarely held before, both in religious works and particularly in secular pieces. He managed to depict them with all kinds of nuances which made his works a unique testimony of the joyful and spontaneous, albeit poor and humble, childhood of the kids who lived in the street in 17th-century Spain.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765981354424{padding-top: 40px !important;padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda fade-in&#8221;]Copy of Children playing dice by Bartolom\u00e9 E. Murillo, 19th century, Oil on canvas. Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya, no. 113809  113809[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; use_row_as_full_screen_section=&#8221;no&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221; angled_section=&#8221;no&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; background_image_as_pattern=&#8221;without_pattern&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765467101649{margin-top: 60px !important;margin-bottom: 94px !important;}&#8221; z_index=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1768211670327{margin-bottom: 46px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in m1-bottom-res width-80&#8243;]Vig\u00e9e Le Brun was one of the most renowned female artists from pre-revolutionary France and early 19th-century Europe. Chosen as a member of the Acad\u00e9mie Royale at a precocious age in 1783, she became a trusted painter of Queen Marie Antoinette and one of the most revered portrait artists among European courts. Despite her initial intimacy with the French monarchy and rococo aesthetics, the portraits by Vig\u00e9e Le Brun soon started to evoke the influence of the Enlightenment mentality evinced by Rousseau and his essay <em>Emile<\/em> (1762), where childhood was recognized as a vital stage with its own character. The natural appearance and direct gaze of this elegantly dressed young girl recalls the Rousseauean conception of a loving childhood and the changing conceptions of the era.   <\/p>\n<p>Until the mid-19th century, commissioning a painter to create a portrait was quite expensive. Normally, only the wealthiest classes could afford to do so, given the difficulty in finding talented portrait painters and the time required to create the piece. Thus, as soon as photography started to democratize the possibility to immortalize people\u2019s faces and appearances, the demand for family portraits, as well as portraits of the children at home, increased substantially. It goes without saying that over the years photography put an end to the old profession of miniaturists and a large part of portrait painters who had previously monopolized that demand.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/4&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10744&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;m1-bottom-res&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda fade-in&#8221;]\u00c9lisabeth Vig\u00e9e Le Brun, <em>Portrait of a Girl,<\/em> 1788-1790, Oil on canvas. Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya, no. 65011 65011[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/4&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10511&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;m1-bottom-res&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda fade-in&#8221;]<em>Portrait of a child, c. 1855 <\/em>1855. Albumen photograph in a Daguerreotype case. Museu Frederic Mar\u00e8s, MFM no. S-6359<br \/>Photography: \u00a9 Mariano R. Blanco[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;row-reverse-res&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10514&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;m1-bottom-res&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765981540898{padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda fade-in&#8221;]P. Tera, <em>Cigarrillos Par\u00eds<\/em>, 1901, Gouache on paper. Museu de la Garrotxa, Olot[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765981536842{margin-bottom: 46px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in m1-bottom-res&#8221;]Like women, children were a common subject in advertising. With the spread of chromolithography and modern posters, children started to appear in advertisements on a large number of posters, showcasing everything from chocolates and soap to an endless array of commercial products, including some as unlikely as tobacco. P. Tera (humorously signed Tabako) presented this project to the international <em>Cigarrillos Par\u00eds<\/em> contest promoted in Buenos Aires by the Olot-born entrepreneur Manuel Malagrida. Like many other artists, Tera chose an image of a woman and child, but he did so by creating a literal copy of an 1889 cover of the magazine L<em>e Japon Artistique<\/em> that featured a late 18th-century engraving by Torii Kiyonaga. By changing the girl\u2019s umbrella that appeared in Kiyonaga&#8217;s work for a <em>Cigarrillos Par\u00eds<\/em> brand cigarette, the artist found the way to draw people\u2019s attention and make this poster, as was popularly said at the time, \u201ca call stuck to the wall\u201d.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10517&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;m1-bottom-res&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765981493752{padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda fade-in&#8221;]Joan Mir\u00f3, <em>Untitled<\/em> (The podiatrist), 1901, Pencil, watercolour and ink on paper. Fundaci\u00f3 Joan Mir\u00f3. FJM No. 22  22[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765981563345{margin-bottom: 46px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in m1-bottom-res&#8221;]<em>The podiatrist<\/em> is one of the earliest preserved drawings by Joan Mir\u00f3. At the age of eight, he started to create detailed drawings that faithfully depicted his surroundings, drawings in colour which were signed and dated, that testify to the young Mir\u00f3\u2019s interest in becoming an artist. These pieces are still childlike drawings, even if they show a stubborn desire to represent reality in a meticulous and objective manner. They feature a vastly different perspective from the poetic language he discovered later on and from the freedom of children\u2019s drawings that he later admired as an adult. In a precocious and veiled fashion, <em>The podiatrist<\/em> highlights the artist\u2019s ever-present obsessive interest in feet, and for feet rooted in the ground. Mir\u00f3 saved these childhood drawings, along with those made by his daughter, at a time in which, during the height of the avant-garde movement, both Mir\u00f3 and his companions from ADLAN found in children&#8217;s drawings the fantasy, sensibility and spirit of creative freedom that modern art yearned for. Unsurprisingly, Sebasti\u00e0 Gasch explained how when Joan Mir\u00f3 visited the Escola del Mar in the Barceloneta neighbourhood in 1930, the painter admired the rough and unpolished drawings made by the 4- to 6-year-old children. \u201cNow that is art, exclaimed Joan Mir\u00f3 excitedly standing by my side\u201d.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;row-reverse-res&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764586894756{margin-top: 60px !important;}&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/4&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10521&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;m1-bottom-res&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda fade-in&#8221;]Leandre Crist\u00f2fol Peralba, Representative drawing, 1915, Graphite pencil on paper. Museu Morera, Lleida, no. 1758 1758[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/4&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10524&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;m1-bottom-res&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda fade-in&#8221;]Brassa\u00ef, Picasso &amp; Co. Graffiti. Series XI: \u201cPrimitive images\u201d, c. 1930 (print from 1950), Gelatin silver print. MACBA Collection. MACBA Foundation. Photography: FotoGasull[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765981624078{margin-bottom: 46px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in m1-bottom-res&#8221;]Leandre Crist\u00f2fol was one of the most fascinating 20th-century Catalan sculptors and, starting from when he began coming closer to the ADLAN group, one of the pioneers in surrealist sculpture. Crist\u00f2fol was born in Os de Balaguer in 1908. Years before starting his artistic training and beginning to learn the carpentry trade in Lleida, his interest in art started to appear in drawings made at age 7 or 8 that his parents decided to keep. In this case, the child\u2019s innocent gaze was fixed on the forms of nature and small animals in motion. This aspect, i.e., movement, years later became one of the hallmarks of his sculpture.  <\/p>\n<p>The avant-garde movement of the 1920s and 1930s saw in children&#8217;s drawing the free art which, unentangled from debased rules and the academy, expressed itself in a pure, virgin manner as prehistoric art had done. Collected and praised by critics and artists alike, contests and exhibitions were held, and they were seen as a source of original expression as intense as the work of Michelangelo. Children\u2019s graffiti etched in rock was a similar example, such as the ones found in the church of Sant Joan de Bo\u00ed which were on display at the Museu d\u2019Art de Catalunya in the 1930s and which became a point of departure for artists including Mir\u00f3 and Picasso. Around the same time, Brassa\u00ef started taking photos of the walls along the streets of Paris with graffiti etched into them, starting a series which was first printed in the magazine <em>Minotaure<\/em> (1933-34) and later shown in 1956 at the <em>Language of the Wall<\/em> exhibition at New York\u2019s MoMA before being published in the book <em>Graffiti<\/em> (1961) accompanied by two conversations with Picasso.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; use_row_as_full_screen_section=&#8221;no&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221; angled_section=&#8221;no&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; background_image_as_pattern=&#8221;without_pattern&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1741615830920{padding-top: 120px !important;padding-bottom: 120px !important;background-color: #D5D7E3 !important;}&#8221; z_index=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985287411{margin-bottom: 80px !important;background-color: #D5D7E3 !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;row-reverse-res&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;]<div class=\"comissionariat-title color-negro orientation-false\" style=\"\" id=\"from-pregnancy-to-childbirth\">\n        <h2 class=\"fade-in\">From pregnancy to childbirth<\/h2><\/div>[vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763650457903{margin-bottom: 46px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in m1-bottom-res&#8221;]A vast chasm spans between the numerous depictions of Our Lady of Hope from the Middle Ages and the contemporary artistic images of pregnancy and childbirth. Yet they all resort to a series of constants, whether the uncertainty or hope of new life, to waiting for the unborn child\u2019s arrival. Conception and pregnancy are represented throughout art history in different manners, based on every culture\u2019s traditional iconography, whether pre-Colombian, Graeco-Roman, Christian, Buddhist, or Hindu, among others. Likewise, childbirth has not always been represented in the same way. Childbirth, which essentially until the 20th century could result in a clear risk for the woman, has rarely been shown realistically. On the contrary, artists have generally depicted it symbolically or have focused on the time after childbirth. This private act in previous times took place at home, though in recent years has moved into the hospitals.     <\/p>\n<p>Sculpted with polychrome alabaster from Beuda, this statue probably comes from the former convent of Saint Francis of Assisi in Girona. The priestly nature of the figure, represented from the front, with an immovable look and rigid symmetry, recalls the Romanesque tradition, although it contrasts with the naturalism of the folds in the clothing, which emphasize the Virgin\u2019s pregnancy. The carving also stands out due to the position of her hands, resting on her knees, her open legs and the folds of her clothing that insinuate the birth canal through which the baby, still in his mother\u2019s womb, must come.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;2\/12&#8243;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10535&#8243; img_size=&#8221;292&#215;604&#8243; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765981684254{padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1768211814740{padding-bottom: 60px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda fade-in&#8221;]<em>Our Lady of Hope<\/em>, 1401-1425, Polychrome alabaster. Museu d\u2019Art de Girona, no. 001830. 001.830. Diputaci\u00f3 de Girona Art Fund. Photography: Rafel Bosch[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1739804158447{margin-top: 46px !important;background-color: #D5D7E3 !important;}&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10747&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763650373620{margin-top: 48px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda fade-in&#8221;]Attributed to Bernardo Mart\u00ednez del Barranco, Our Lady of the Holy Girdle, c. 1775. Museu de Lleida[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763652183250{margin-top: 48px !important;margin-bottom: 46px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in m1-bottom-res llegenda&#8221;]Our Lady of the Holy Girdle, or of the Belt, is one of the numerous Marian names that spread throughout the 17th and 18th centuries in Catalonia thanks to the tradition that tells the story of the miraculous apparition of the Virgin in the Cathedral of Tortosa in 1178 to give a girdle from her pregnancy. The worship of the relic of the Holy Belt turned the Virgin of the Holy Girdle into the patron saint of Tortosa in 1863, while the girdle spread as a symbol of heavenly aid in the months of pregnancy. The practice of wrapping the woman\u2019s belly with a belt during the last stage of pregnancy until childbirth spread in Tortosa, and to part of the Terres de l\u2019Ebre, a practice that still remains to this day. This belt, or girdle, which has previously been in contact with the relic, is a symbol of the desires and the hope that pregnancy and awaiting a newborn\u2019s arrival entails.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10750&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763650481911{margin-top: 48px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda fade-in&#8221;]Martin Kaldenbach, <em>Rosegarden for pregnant women and midwives<\/em> (<em>Der Swangern Frauwen und Hebammen Rosengarten<\/em>), 1513. Woodcut. Museu de Lleida. Gelonch Viladegut Collection.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763652192140{margin-top: 48px !important;margin-bottom: 46px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in m1-bottom-res llegenda&#8221;]The emergence of printing in the late 15th century transformed the way in which knowledge was circulated. During the era of humanism and the Renaissance, books, often featuring illustrations, were distributed on a mass scale and allowed knowledge to be shared more quickly and effectively. Within this context, accompanying the appearance of texts printed with moving type, woodcutting became a new complementary means for conveying ideas and a wide range of medical and healthcare practices. This is the case of this engraving by Martin Kaldenbach, one of D\u00fcrer\u2019s disciples, which comes from an important book on obstetrics by Eucharius R\u00f6sslin published in Strasbourg in 1513. Although the image shows the book\u2019s author giving a copy to Katharina von Braunschweig-L\u00fcneburg, to whom the work is dedicated, the book includes a series of 20 woodcuts that showed the positions of the foetus, the uterus and childbirth for the first time.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10753&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763650521732{margin-top: 48px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda fade-in&#8221;]N\u00faria Pompeia, Original piece for the book Maternasis, 1967, Ink on paper. Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya, no. 254647-013 254647-013[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763650501625{margin-top: 48px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda fade-in&#8221;]In 1967, the artist N\u00faria Pompeia, a writer, cartoonist and pioneer of feminist drawing, published the book Maternasis, a work celebrated for its groundbreaking, intimate and poignant approach to the uncertainties that go hand-in-hand with pregnancy. The taboos, the loneliness, the pain and the fears about pregnancy were laid bare and demystified across seventy-some paintings that portrayed what pregnancy and childbirth meant first-hand from a woman\u2019s perspective, with irony and sincerity.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763651658046{margin-top: 86px !important;background-color: #D5D7E3 !important;}&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10757&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763650680858{margin-top: 48px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda fade-in&#8221;]Mari Chord\u00e0, <em>Pregnant self-portrait,<\/em> 1966-1967, Varnished gouache on cardboard. Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya, no. 254216 254216[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763652202646{margin-top: 48px !important;margin-bottom: 46px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in m1-bottom-res llegenda&#8221;]Within the growing feminist wave in the West, Mari Chord\u00e0 painted a series of self-portraits while pregnant. She addressed motherhood from a liberated feminist perspective. However, unlike the contemporary approach in <em>Maternasis<\/em> based on natural or everyday concerns, Chord\u00e0 chose to represent pregnancy from a symbolic and transcendent dimension. Following the psychedelic aesthetic of 1960s pop art, the artist crafted a series of different paintings corresponding to the different months of pregnancy.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10544&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763650719591{margin-top: 48px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda fade-in&#8221;]Modest Cuixart, <em>Brunilda\u2019s Labour<\/em>, 1979, Pastel on canvas. MACBA Collection. Long-term loan from the Generalitat de Catalunya. National Collection of Art. Formerly the Salvador Riera Collection.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764586931859{margin-top: 48px !important;margin-bottom: 46px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in m1-bottom-res llegenda&#8221;]In the past, art rarely represented childbirth based on pain and suffering, almost never associating it with death. After having grown past his informalist stage, Modest Cuixart returned to figuration and did so through an interest in the human body and in women that was awakened when the artist was still young, especially after studying for two years at Medical School. <em>The myth of Brunilda<\/em>, a Valkyrie and shieldmaiden from Nordic mythology, appears throughout a series of works by the artist. Brunhilda\u2019s Labour testifies to the artist\u2019s recurring tendency to evoke bodily amputations, deformations, monstrosity and metamorphosis, here representing the main figure after an infant\u2019s death, in the style of a <em>mater dolorosa<\/em>.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10547&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763650743741{margin-top: 48px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda fade-in&#8221;]Josep de Togores, Femme avec raisin (Woman with Grape), Paris, 1926, Oil on canvas. Museu d\u2019Art de Cerdanyola, MAC[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763652070106{margin-top: 48px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda fade-in&#8221;]<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Femme avec raisin<\/em> (Woman with Grape) is the portrait that the painter Josep de Togores made in Saint-Tropez shortly after his wife, the Austrian Antonia Bechtold, had their first daughter Maria del Roser (Tit\u00ed). This piece is a natural and sensual depiction of a woman\u2019s nude body that becomes an allegory of fertility through the presence of the grapes in her hand. The young Tit\u00ed had a portrait made of her the following year by Manolo Hugu\u00e9 in Prats de Moll\u00f3; a childhood portrait made with baked clay that is preserved in the Museu d\u2019Art de Cerdanyola, just like this painting.  <\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; use_row_as_full_screen_section=&#8221;no&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221; angled_section=&#8221;no&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; background_image_as_pattern=&#8221;without_pattern&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763652278854{padding-top: 120px !important;padding-bottom: 94px !important;background-color: #000000 !important;background-position: 0 0 !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;}&#8221; z_index=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;row-reverse-res&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;2\/3&#8243;]<div class=\"comissionariat-title color-blanco orientation-false\" style=\"\" id=\"the-first-days\">\n        <h2 class=\"fade-in\">The first days<\/h2><\/div>[vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763652370629{margin-top: 24px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;font-gran color-blanc fade-in width-80&#8243;]When a child is born, both during the labour itself and in the first weeks of recovery, the newborn lived in a woman\u2019s universe where the mother was often accompanied by midwives who took charge of providing the initial care. Biblical scenes, in particular depictions of Christian events (the birth of the Virgin, Saint John the Baptist and Jesus), are the ones that have most prolifically described and represented these moments and allow us to discover both the practices and the mentality of the era. <\/p>\n<p>Both Romanesque as well as early Gothic art, especially after the founding of the Franciscan Order, expanded the images of the Nativity with the Virgin lying down, resting after having given birth, accompanied by Joseph who nonetheless remains practically absent. This is the case of the famous murals like the ones in the church of Sant Andreu de Pedriny\u00e0, in the Museu d&#8217;Art de Girona, as well as in altarpieces and altar tables like this one from Sag\u00e0s, in Bergued\u00e0. In the image, the Virgin appears resting with her eyes closed, stretched out on a wooden bed and wrapped up in a blue sheet. Mary is recovering from the painful childbirth while the infant rests in a separate space in the background, in the feeding room in the manger, with the ox and the mule keeping him warm with their breath.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10550&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;m1-top-res&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765467257953{margin-top: 48px !important;margin-bottom: 60px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]<em>The Nativity<\/em>, Altar table of the church of Sant Andreu de Sag\u00e0s, Late 12th century, Tempera painting on wood. Museu Dioces\u00e0 i Comarcal de Solsona, MDCS no. 11.2  11.2[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; use_row_as_full_screen_section=&#8221;no&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221; angled_section=&#8221;no&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; background_image_as_pattern=&#8221;without_pattern&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763714916984{padding-bottom: 90px !important;background-color: #000000 !important;}&#8221; z_index=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/5&#8243; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1739805694782{padding-right: 0px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}&#8221;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10554&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763653402049{margin-bottom: 36px !important;}&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763654006890{margin-right: 20px !important;margin-left: 80px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda m2-left-res m2-right-res m2-bottom-res color-blanc&#8221;]Francesc Solives, Compartment of the altarpiece dedicated to the Virgin, 1481, Tempera and gold leaf on wood, Museu Episcopal de Vic, MEV no. 887 887. Altarpiece from the sanctuary of Mare de D\u00e9u de la Bovera, in Guimer\u00e0 (Urgell). <br \/>Photography: \u00a9 Museu Episcopal de Vic, photographer: Enric Gracia[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764586941800{margin-right: 20px !important;margin-bottom: 46px !important;margin-left: 80px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in m2-left-res m2-right-res m1-bottom-res color-blanc llegenda&#8221;]Starting in the 14th century, and especially in the 15th century, following the mystic visions of Saint Bridget of Sweden, the Nativity of Jesus was no longer represented as a natural birth. Instead, it became a painless miracle with the Immaculate Virgin kneeling while adoring her unclothed and solitary infant on the earth, who appears as if from nowhere. This is how the Nativity scene is depicted on the altarpiece in the sanctuary of La Mare de D\u00e9u de Bovera, painted by Francesc Solives with a style notably influenced by Jaume Huguet.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/5&#8243; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1739805670650{padding-right: 0px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}&#8221;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10557&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763653410658{margin-bottom: 36px !important;}&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765467346671{margin-right: 20px !important;margin-left: 20px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda m2-left-res m2-right-res m2-bottom-res color-blanc&#8221;]Pere Serra, <em>Nativity<\/em>, c. 1400, Fragment of the altarpiece of the church of Sant Pere de Cubells (La Noguera). Tempera on panel, Museu Maricel, Sitges[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764586969121{margin-right: 20px !important;margin-bottom: 46px !important;margin-left: 20px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in m2-left-res m2-right-res m1-bottom-res color-blanc llegenda&#8221;]Beyond the cold of an unclothed newborn alone on the ground, adored by Joseph and Mary according to Saint Bridget\u2019s visions in her dreams, starting in the 14th century, as a result of a progressive process of humanizing Jesus, the image of the Holy Family often started to become warmer, more approachable, vivid and tender than in previous representations. We can find a highly representative example in this scene painted by Pere Serra around 1400, with Saint Joseph, the Virgin, the ox and the mule accompanying the infant wrapped up in swaddling clothes in the manger.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/5&#8243; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1742467780617{padding-right: 0px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}&#8221;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10560&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763653419471{margin-bottom: 36px !important;}&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763654124357{margin-right: 20px !important;margin-left: 20px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda m2-left-res m2-right-res m2-bottom-res color-blanc&#8221;]Juan S\u00e1ez de Torrecilla, <em>Nativity of the Virgin Mary<\/em>, Palencia, 1570-1582, Polychrome carving[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764586974520{margin-right: 20px !important;margin-bottom: 46px !important;margin-left: 20px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in m2-left-res m2-right-res m1-bottom-res color-blanc llegenda&#8221;]In 1633, Bernini sculpted different faces representing each of the different stages of childbirth on the coats of arms on Saint Peter\u2019s Baldachin in the Vatican. However, we do not typically find images from the past that realistically depict childbirth. Yet, thanks to the non-canonical narrations in the apocryphal gospels on the nativity (<em>Proto-gospel of James<\/em>, <em>Pseudo-Matthew<\/em>, <em>De nativitate Mariae<\/em>\u2026), the Christian tradition features numerous works that celebrate the first moments after childbirth. This is the case of the birth of the Virgin Mary, often represented with greater verisimilitude than the typical miraculous images of the Infant Jesus. In this relief, Saint Anne is shown lying on the bed, resting after giving birth, with a wet-nurse breastfeeding the child and another woman drying the swaddling clothes.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/5&#8243; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1739805687394{padding-right: 0px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}&#8221;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10563&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763653426559{margin-bottom: 36px !important;}&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763654175185{margin-right: 20px !important;margin-left: 20px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda m2-left-res m2-right-res m2-bottom-res color-blanc&#8221;]<em>The Nativity of the Virgin Mary,<\/em> Last quarter of the 16th century. Talavera de la Reina (Toledo).[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764586980087{margin-right: 20px !important;margin-bottom: 46px !important;margin-left: 20px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in m2-left-res m2-right-res m1-bottom-res color-blanc llegenda&#8221;]When representing childbirth, many works of art often resort to memorializing a baby&#8217;s first bath in a washbasin or bathtub. This task was typically carried out by the midwives and assistants while the mother rested in bed. The women ran a warm bath, sometimes with a drop of wine, to remove the biological waste, and anointed the baby\u2019s body with oil before covering them in swaddling clothes and wrappings. The apocryphal gospels do not provide as many details about the Nativity of Mary. However, these stories served as the starting point so that the tradition was able to develop its own iconography over the centuries which made it possible to humanize the image of the Virgin Mary and the Baby Jesus, thus making them more relatable.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/5&#8243; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1739805905012{padding-right: 0px !important;padding-left: 0px !important;}&#8221;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10566&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763653434420{margin-bottom: 36px !important;}&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763714898869{margin-right: 80px !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;margin-left: 20px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda m2-left-res m2-right-res m2-bottom-res color-blanc&#8221;]<em>Virgin with Child,<\/em> Catalonia, 14th century, Polychrome carving, Museu Frederic Mar\u00e8s, MFM no. 847  847. Photography: \u00a9 ArtWorkPhoto.eu[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764587019991{margin-right: 80px !important;margin-bottom: 46px !important;margin-left: 20px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in m2-left-res m2-right-res m1-bottom-res color-blanc llegenda&#8221;]Newborns were represented with their entire body tightly wrapped, often with white swaddling clothes and all kinds of coverings, leaving only their heads bare. This common practice in both the Roman and Mediaeval eras lasted throughout the ancien r\u00e9gime, serving to protect the newborn\u2019s body until the fourth month. This practice ensured that the child was completely immobilized to avoid risks out of fear that the body would become deformed due to the baby\u2019s erratic movements, while it helped keep their body warm and, according to tradition, relaxed the infant. As this carving shows, the widespread presence of this iconography of the newborn Jesus is significant. We can understand how a representation of the child made it possible to empathize with him and make the gospel more approachable for the faithful, although it is interesting to note how, starting in the 15th century, precisely when Christ became humanized, he also started to be depicted nude. In any case, completely swaddling newborns was a practice which, although discouraged by the most recent medical studies, lasted until the mid-18th century, in the era of the Enlightenment and the discovery of the importance of childhood.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; use_row_as_full_screen_section=&#8221;no&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221; angled_section=&#8221;no&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; background_image_as_pattern=&#8221;without_pattern&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765466239054{padding-top: 20px !important;padding-bottom: 120px !important;background-color: #000000 !important;background-position: 0 0 !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;}&#8221; z_index=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10570&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;m1-top-res&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/12&#8243;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763714954334{margin-top: 24px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;font-gran color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]Coming from the main altarpiece of the parish church of Santa Maria de Verd\u00fa, together with the altarpiece of the chapel of the Paeria in Lleida, this piece represents one of the greatest works by the painter from Lleida Jaume Ferrer II. Among the scenes on the altarpiece, we can find the circumcision of Jesus. The Gospel of Luke (2:21) explains how the child was circumcised on the eighth day after he was born, in accordance with the Hebrew tradition. Normally, this was a ritual that was practised at home, although the mediaeval artistic tradition typically placed the scene in a temple, with a bit of added poetic licence, imagining that the event took place in the presence of the Virgin, who should have been on bed rest after childbirth. The naturalism of the International Gothic is shown in this scene in all its splendour, with the accurate portrayal of the priest\u2019s face and Mary&#8217;s tears.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1763653827995{margin-top: 48px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc width-60 fade-in&#8221;]Jaume Ferrer II, <em>Circumcision<\/em>, Altarpiece from Verd\u00fa, c. 1432-1434, Tempera and gold leaf on wood  1777. Photography: \u00a9 Museu Episcopal de Vic, photographer Enric Gracia.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; use_row_as_full_screen_section=&#8221;no&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221; angled_section=&#8221;no&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; background_image_as_pattern=&#8221;without_pattern&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765467877954{padding-top: 120px !important;padding-bottom: 94px !important;background: #000000 url(https:\/\/xarxa.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/26-Canapost_3.jpg?id=10610) !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: contain !important;}&#8221; z_index=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;background-top-center&#8221;][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;]<div class=\"comissionariat-title color-blanco orientation-false\" style=\"\" id=\"concepts-of-motherhood\">\n        <h2 class=\"fade-in\">Concepts of motherhood<\/h2><\/div>[vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765468052029{margin-top: 24px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;font-gran color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]The concept of motherhood, just like that of fatherhood, has changed over time. We find it abundantly present in Ancient Greece, through the Greek figurines known as <em>kourotrophoi<\/em>, images of mothers breastfeeding children, likely often used as an amulet with protective purposes, or as votive images expressing appreciation. Until the modern age, European representations of breastfeeding focused on the figure of the Virgin Mary, although it occasionally included Saint Anne. It wasn&#8217;t until the 17th and 18th centuries that the more secular representations of motherhood became commonplace, whether as mothers or wet-nurses. The Enlightenment above all witnessed the appearance of novel voices when trying to understand the value of motherhood and the first stage of childhood growth under a mother\u2019s gaze. In art, as a reflection of society in past centuries, women\u2019s role in caring for children has always been predominantly from a tender and close perspective.     <\/p>\n<p>This scene was painted in oil on wood on the central panel of the altarpiece of the church of Canapost, in the Baix Empord\u00e0, portrays long-standing iconography in Christian art that is known as the <em>Virgo lactans<\/em>, that is, the representation of breastfeeding as a manifestation of Mary\u2019s motherhood and, also, as a symbol of the Virgin&#8217;s role as an intercessor. In this case, following a realist style with Hispano-Flemish influence, the master from Canapost crafted a delicate, serene and emotional representation of the Madonna, surrounded by angelic musicians, with eyes nearly shut, veiled by chastity, yet still attentive to the nursing babe whom she presses close to her left breast.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765468069991{margin-top: 48px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc width-80 fade-in&#8221;]Master from Canapost, Nursing Madonna, from the altarpiece of Sant Esteve de Canapost<br \/>Second half of the 15th century, Oil and gold leaf on wood. Museu d\u2019Art de Girona, MDG no. 293.  293. Bishopric of Girona Fund. Photography: Rafel Bosch.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;120px&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/4&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10616&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764587695613{margin-bottom: 36px !important;}&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc&#8221;]Georges Pull, Wet-nurse, c. 1860-1880, Polychrome pottery. Museus de Sitges[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc&#8221;]The bond between mothers and their babies became closer in the modern era, especially as of the late 18th century with the rise of the bourgeois family model. Motherly affection made many women decide to breastfeed their own children instead of delegating this responsibility to a wet-nurse. Wet-nurses were women who breastfed other women\u2019s babies professionally, whether due to the biological mother lacking natural milk or due to social reasons. They were often in charge of taking care of orphaned children. The polychrome pottery figure of this wet-nurse was copied in the 19th century from the original 17th-century piece by the French sculptor Guillaume Dupr\u00e9, preserved at the Mus\u00e9e national de c\u00e9ramique in S\u00e8vres, and was acquired by the Museu de Reproduccions Art\u00edstiques de Barcelona.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/4&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10613&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764587703454{margin-bottom: 36px !important;}&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc&#8221;]Manolo Hugu\u00e9, Motherhood, c. 1897-1900, Painted plaster, Cau Ferrat, Sitges[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc&#8221;]This representation of motherhood, modelled using plaster possibly during one of the many times Manolo Hugu\u00e9 stayed in Cadaqu\u00e9s in the late 19th century, is the only piece preserved from the early part of the sculptor\u2019s career, prior to his trip to Paris in 1900. This was a time during which he nonetheless achieved initial recognition in Barcelona\u2019s arts scene. Hugu\u00e9, one of the most brilliant Catalan sculptors from the first half of the 20th century and the creator of many other depictions of motherhood, and even some of fatherhood, in this case modelled a set of sculptures full of compassion following the turn-of-the-century aesthetic. By placing an emphasis on the social outlook that he shared with many postmodern friends, such as Gargallo, Fontbona and Picasso, he created the modern image of a mother of modest means breastfeeding a newborn as she hugs her other child.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/4&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10619&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764587711845{margin-bottom: 36px !important;}&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc&#8221;]Plate decorated with Saint Joseph and the Child, Barcelona, late 17th century &#8211; early 18th century<br \/>Polychrome pottery. 37 cm, Cau Ferrat Consorci del Patrimoni de Sitges, MCFS 30.069[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc&#8221;]The Xarxa de Museus d\u2019Art de Catalunya boasts a large number of depictions of motherhood from numerous eras, from Gothic carvings and altarpieces to modern sculptures from artists including Llimona and Gargallo that portray women breastfeeding their children. On the contrary, we do not frequently find portrayals of fatherhood, a fact that should not surprise us if we consider that society\u2019s role for fathers never included childcare: \u201cthis first education undeniably belongs to women: if the Author of nature had wanted it to be a matter of men, he would have given man milk to nourish the children\u201d, Rousseau argued. However, we can find scenes like this Catalan Baroque plate, from the series of girdles and belts, where Joseph, who according to numerous apocryphal gospels had been the father of four sons and two daughters from a marriage before his time with Mary, appears with a baby boy in his arms. Saint Joseph always took on a secondary role in the iconography of the baby Jesus, although his status as an adoptive, rather than biological father, allowed him at times to be represented taking care of the baby.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/4&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10622&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764588016874{margin-bottom: 36px !important;}&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc&#8221;]Kitagawa Utamaro, Yamauba and Kintar\u014d, c. 1804-1805, Original edition by Murataya Jirobei (reprint from 1912), Colour woodcut. Museu Abell\u00f3[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc&#8221;]One of the most popular depictions of motherhood in Japanese art is the representation of Yamauba with Kintar\u014d. According to legend, Yamauba, a mythical, wild mountain woman, half human, half demon, raised the orphan boy Kintar\u014d after he was abandoned on mount Ashigara by his father. Nurtured and nursed by Yamauba, Kintar\u014d became one of the most beloved heroes of Japanese folklore due to his bravery and superhuman strength. Among the many representations created by the <em>ukiyo-e<\/em> school of artists, and by Utamaro in particular, the scene from this stamp portrays Yamauba holding a stick with chestnuts and with her kimono open, showing her nude breasts, perhaps just about to breastfeed the still young Kintar\u014d.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765981836217{padding-top: 120px !important;padding-bottom: 120px !important;}&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10631&#8243; img_size=&#8221;716&#215;1099&#8243; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765981972956{margin-bottom: 36px !important;}&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/12&#8243;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;color-blanc&#8221;]Togores painted <em>Un borratxo<\/em> (A Drunk) at the beginning of his career, between late 1910 and early 1911. Around 1910 Togores created the oil painting <em>The madman of Cerdanyola<\/em>, which was acquired by the Belgian government after being unveiled at the Sala Par\u00e9s and displayed at the Brussels International Exposition. The praise he received from critics such as Joaquim Folch i Torres encouraged him to paint <em>Un borratxo<\/em> (A Drunk), which won an award at the 6th International Art Exhibition of Barcelona (1911). The work shows a family\u2019s masover (male sharecropper) dancing while drunk. Seated by his side as a counterpoint to the man\u2019s irresponsible attitude is his wife, a masovera, who as with many other women from the lower class, also worked as a wet-nurse, caring for a young child under the blazing sun. In contrast with the foreground that features this humble family, in the background Togores added several fair-haired children from bourgeois families on summer break all dressed in well-ironed white clothing, laughing at the peasants. The work was painted by Togores when he was only 18 years old, shortly after being introduced by Folch i Torres as an emerging talent: \u201ca young man; more than a young man he\u2019s a child. And despite that and his young age, he has started his career as a painter, as if he were a revolutionary master\u201d.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc&#8221;]Josep de Togores, Un borratxo (A Drunk), 1911, Oil on canvas. Museu d\u2019Art de Cerdanyola, MAC[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;row-reverse-res&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;color-blanc&#8221;]Throughout the 19th century and during the first half of the 20th century, paediatric clinics, medical offices for new mothers, spread to promote breastfeeding and help out the most vulnerable families. This photograph shows a stand advertising one of these centres, the Institut de Puericultura de Reus, created in 1917 and popularly known as \u201cLa Gota de Llet\u201d (the Milk Drop). Like most, this was a free clinic dedicated to breastfeeding infants. It dispensed sterilized milk, breastmilk and other nutritional foods in order to reduce infant mortality. The centre also organized community outreach activities and taught parents to care for their children in a healthy manner. The background of the image includes five illustrated posters that show the concerns for caring children and ensuring their health in the midst of the postwar period.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc&#8221;]Stand of Institut de Puericultura de Reus a la Primera Fira Oficial de Mostres de la Prov\u00edncia de Tarragona, 1942, Photograph. Museu de Reus (IMRC. MRF Frias Fund)[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/12&#8243;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10628&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765466120562{margin-bottom: 36px !important;}&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; use_row_as_full_screen_section=&#8221;no&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221; header_style=&#8221;light&#8221; angled_section=&#8221;no&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; background_image_as_pattern=&#8221;without_pattern&#8221; bg_type=&#8221;grad&#8221; z_index=&#8221;&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1741615915642{padding-top: 120px !important;padding-bottom: 94px !important;background-image: url(https:\/\/xma.iurisdoc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/background-2.jpg?id=8938) !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: cover !important;}&#8221; background_color=&#8221;#B3B3B300&#8243; bg_grad=&#8221;background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%, #E3E3E3), color-stop(100%, #FFFFFF));background: -moz-linear-gradient(top,#E3E3E3 0%,#FFFFFF 100%);background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top,#E3E3E3 0%,#FFFFFF 100%);background: -o-linear-gradient(top,#E3E3E3 0%,#FFFFFF 100%);background: -ms-linear-gradient(top,#E3E3E3 0%,#FFFFFF 100%);background: linear-gradient(top,#E3E3E3 0%,#FFFFFF 100%);&#8221;][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985425312{padding-bottom: 60px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;row-reverse-res&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;2\/3&#8243;]<div class=\"comissionariat-title color-negro orientation-false\" style=\"\" id=\"the-age-of-play-and-innocence\">\n        <h2 class=\"fade-in\">The age of play and innocence<\/h2><\/div>[vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;font-gran width-80 fade-in&#8221;]Erasmus of Rotterdam wrote in his <em>Joy of Folly<\/em> (1509): \u201cEveryone knows that by far the happiest and universally enjoyable age of man is the first.\u201d Although many children have been forced to work from a young age, the first stage of life has always been identified with boundless and limitless joyful times of play, as Pieter Bruegel the Elder immortalized in the oil painting <em>Children&#8217;s games<\/em> (1560, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). Many of the images of children between two and ten years old that we find in works of art recall those times of innocence and happiness, an age often dedicated to play and learning.  <\/p>\n<p>Distancing itself from the priestly nature of Romanesque art, which majestically enthroned the depictions of the Virgin Mary, Gothic art frequently includes the representation of figures that stand out for their humanism without rejecting religious symbolism, with a relatable and familiar Infant Jesus taken from episodes of apocryphal gospels. This is the case of the <em>Virgin with Child<\/em> by Berenguer Ferrer from Manresa (Museu Frederic Mar\u00e8s) or the majestic Virgin Mary from the monastery of Santa Maria de Bellpuig de les Avellanes. In images like these, the infant Jesus is being held in the arms of the Virgin Mary, playing with a goldfinch depicting one of the miracles narrated by the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas, which explains Christ\u2019s early years. According to this apocryphal tale, when Jesus was only five years old, he used to play by making models of birds using the mud from a stream bed, into which he breathed life by clapping his hands so that they could fly.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1739785784681{background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: contain !important;}&#8221;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10637&#8243; img_size=&#8221;274&#215;671&#8243; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985318414{margin-top: 64px !important;padding-bottom: 80px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda width-70 fade-in&#8221;]Attributed to Bartomeu de Robi\u00f3, Our Lady of Bellpuig de les Avellanes, Lleida school, 14th century<br \/>Polychrome stone. Museu de Lleida[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765982039220{padding-top: 120px !important;}&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10641&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764589037999{margin-bottom: 36px !important;}&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765982297313{padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda&#8221;]Plate from Alcora, Late 18th-Early 19th century, Pottery. Museu del Disseny de Barcelona, no. 18796  18.796[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765982315266{padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221;]This playful scene, where a boy and a girl have fun atop an improvised seesaw made out of a log and a wooden board, tells us of the new charming and bucolic aesthetic, albeit with a popular taste and sober style, which was commonplace in the neo-Classical era. The creamy colour of the ceramic earthenware pottery evokes the success of the English <em>creamware<\/em> or white pipe clay products that were imported in the late 18th century by the Count d\u2019Aranda to the Valencian manufacturers in Alcora. As production was exorbitantly expensive, a decision was often made to manufacture these types of decorative ceramic objects coated with a creamy-white enamel to imitate the luxurious original <em>creamware<\/em>.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10761&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765375649007{margin-bottom: 36px !important;}&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985345583{padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda&#8221;]Emili Benlliure Morales, To the school, 1888, Bronze. Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya, no. 10567  10567[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765982308700{padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221;]With the bronze piece entitled <em>To the school<\/em>, Emili Benlliure revisited a theme as old as art history itself: representing laughter and joy through one of the most popular games of Ancient Greece, riding piggyback (<em>ephedrismos<\/em>). Benlliure, who in March 1886 had exhibited the sculpture of a young boy named <em>Swindler<\/em> at Sala Par\u00e9s, presented a series of terracotta sculptures named <em>A girl at school<\/em> at the Barcelona Universal Exposition. In parallel with the reproduction of the cover of <em>La Ilustraci\u00f3 Catalana <\/em>in February 1888 of a sculpture by Mariano Benlliure, entitled <em>To the water!,<\/em> where a playful little girl launches a small boy into the water against his will, Emili Benlliure modelled this other image of childhood and schooltime fun and games. <em>To the school <\/em>was cast in bronze in the<em> Viuda de Cabot e hijos <\/em>workshop a few months later and was presented at the Sala Par\u00e9s in June 1889. The legacy of Benlliure sculptors modelled, sculpted and successfully cast many images of children\u2019s games and shenanigans, like this one, at the end of the 1800s.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10644&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764589044975{margin-bottom: 36px !important;}&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985350514{padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda&#8221;]Torquat Tasso, <em>Lost bird, poor boy<\/em>!!, Barcelona, c. 1891 1891. Bronze with a black patina, lost-wax casting (Fundici\u00f3 F. Usich). Cau Ferrat, Sitges[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765982326982{padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221;]Childhood isn&#8217;t always depicted as fun and games or happy faces, it\u2019s also frequently represented as the fragile boundary between laughter and crying, and how quickly and starkly these moods can change in children\u2019s lives. Smiles and tears are equally intense sensations. In this case, however, the child isn\u2019t crying because he got caught breaking the rules, but rather due to losing his bird, whose body lies motionless at his feet. This is a realistic and tender portrait, following the trend in this genre of sculpture and the interest in images with a story to tell. The piece was initially presented in terracotta at the Exhibition of Fine Arts of the Sala Par\u00e9s in February 1884 and was subsequently cast in bronze. In addition to this example by Santiago Rusi\u00f1ol preserved at Cau Ferrat, a second copy of the sculpture was on display in spring 1891 at the First General Fine Arts Exhibition in Barcelona, where it was acquired by the Diputaci\u00f3 de Barcelona.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765982039220{padding-top: 120px !important;}&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10647&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764589054658{margin-bottom: 36px !important;}&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985363511{padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda&#8221;]N\u00faria Torres, Superheroes, 2017, Porcelain. Museu del Disseny. Photography: Guillem Fern\u00e1ndez-Huerta[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765982339109{padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221;]With the series <em>Superheroes<\/em>, N\u00faria Torres, who frequently works with both marble and porcelain sculptures, approached childhood from an adult\u2019s perspective, with complete admiration. The various childlike busts of boys and girls from the series were conceived by playing with the effects of the material\u2019s white colour and use of polychrome applied to porcelain, in this case with only masks and emblems in black. Thus, starting from the apparent oxymoron of a porcelain heroine (is anything more fragile than porcelain or more resistant and noble than a superhero?), the artist manages to portray the inexhaustible imagination of childhood and its worlds of dreams and fantasy.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10861&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765982521789{margin-bottom: 36px !important;}&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985368942{padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda fade-in&#8221;]Frontal of the Epiphany, Second half of the 15th century, Linen, silk, silver, gold and silver sequins<br \/>Museu Episcopal de Vic, MEV no. 1949. Photography: \u00a9 Museu Episcopal de Vic, photographer: Joan M. D\u00edaz[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764590842091{margin-bottom: 46px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in&#8221;]The description of the Epiphany in the Gospel of Matthew, as well as in other subsequent texts, quickly spread to become one of the most widely represented scenes of Christ\u2019s childhood. Later, it became the origin of one of the most highly anticipated Christmas traditions for children. The Museu Episcopal de Vic, which features one of the most important liturgical textile and garment collections in Catalonia, includes a valuable piece that reflects this: the Frontal of the Epiphany. From the monastery of Sant Joan de les Abadesses, the piece was commissioned in the mid-15th century by the priest Joan de Robia and Jaume Tenes. The piece stands out for the exquisite scene of the three kings embroidered on velvet with an incredible pictorial sense. In the manger we can see the Virgin Mary with the Baby Jesus sitting on her lap, accompanied by Saint Joseph, Salome, the midwife that the apocryphal gospels mention, the ox and the mule. In front of the Holy Family we find the three wise men dressed as 15th-century nobles: Melchior kisses the baby\u2019s feet, while Balthasar and Caspar, with the offerings in their hands, gaze at the star that has guided them to the manger.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; use_row_as_full_screen_section=&#8221;no&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221; angled_section=&#8221;no&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; background_image_as_pattern=&#8221;without_pattern&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1741615987226{margin-top: 120px !important;margin-bottom: 120px !important;}&#8221; z_index=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/4&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10653&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764590021409{margin-bottom: 36px !important;}&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985380332{padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda fade-in&#8221;]Miguel \u00c1ngel Gallardo, Untitled (Mar\u00eda), Gouache on paper, Museu Morera, Lleida, no. 4530 4530[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764590858875{margin-bottom: 46px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in&#8221;]Children excitedly await receiving gifts like nothing else, especially birthday gifts or holiday gifts from the Three Kings, Santa Claus or Father Christmas. Just as the Catalan visual industry helped make illustrated publications commonplace, the images of children with their wish lists for Three Kings Night became increasingly frequent, especially once the first kids\u2019 magazines started to appear, like <em>En Patufet<\/em> (1904) or, years later, Cavall Fort (1961). This imaginary has always been present since then, with endless representations of children with their favourite toys.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/4&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10656&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764590027844{margin-bottom: 36px !important;}&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985386647{padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda fade-in&#8221;]Jos\u00e9 Nogu\u00e9, So happy!, 1901, Oil on canvas. Museu d\u2019Art Modern de Tarragona, no. 1260<br \/> 1260. Photography: Diputaci\u00f3 de Tarragona. Museu d\u2019Art Modern. Arxiu fotogr\u00e0fic (Lila Alberich Fotografia)[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764591025998{margin-bottom: 46px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in&#8221;]While boys often appear in action-packed games, whether riding piggyback or in the middle of the street, girls on the other hand are often represented in domestic spheres in less active situations, generally playing placidly with dolls at home. In large part, childhood games and toys, falsely considered innocent, established rules of behaviour and customs that adulthood would reinforce. In this way these games reproduced the gender stereotypes and roles that society upheld for them during adulthood, while the games themselves became a way of learning through trial and error: \u201cA girl without a doll is just as much a disgrace and as impossible as a mother without children\u201d, Victor Hugo wrote in <em>Les Mis\u00e9rables.<\/em> This was made evident in this painting by Jos\u00e9 Nogu\u00e9, a painter from Santa Coloma de Queralt who trained in Madrid, when representing a pensive, happy little girl sitting in a rocking chair with her doll on her lap.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/4&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10659&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764590035280{margin-bottom: 36px !important;}&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985391626{padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda fade-in&#8221;]<em>Napole\u00f3n e hijo<\/em>, Portrait of the young girl Concepci\u00f3 Salgado Mercader, c. 1880-1890  4864. Photography: \u00a9 Museu Frederic Mar\u00e8s[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764591072704{margin-bottom: 46px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in&#8221;]As advances in photography started spreading and especially after A.A.E. Disderi patented the <em>carte de visite<\/em> in 1854, photography became more democratic and turned into a widespread, affordable social practice to remember the family members in their different stages of life, including childhood. In this case, the girl was portrayed with one of the fancy toys that must have been in the studio of the renowned photographers <em>Napoleon e hijo<\/em> in Barcelona, posing in front of a goat with her hand on it to stay quite still and ensure that the image didn&#8217;t turn out blurry.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/4&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10662&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764590115293{margin-bottom: 36px !important;}&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985397959{padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda fade-in&#8221;]Fashion plate, c. 1880, Colour engraving. Museu Frederic Mar\u00e8s, MFM no. S-1062. Photography: \u00a9 Museu Frederic Mar\u00e8s[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764591125026{margin-bottom: 46px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in&#8221;]L\u2019aven\u00e7 de la tecnologia de la impressi\u00f3 i la difusi\u00f3 de la litografia van fer del segle XIX un segle marcat per l\u2019augment de les imatges, que es van difondre en gran quantitat i a baix cost entre tota la poblaci\u00f3. Cases d\u2019impressi\u00f3 franceses com les de  <em>Selle &amp; Ch\u00e2lon<\/em> o <em>Mome et Falconer<\/em> distributed a great number of illustrated colour prints throughout the second half of the 19th century that portrayed Parisian fashions and customs, many of which included in regular publications (<em>Les modes parisiennes, Le moniteur de la mode<\/em>,  <em>Journal des demoiselles<\/em>, etc.), along with others sold separately. These scenes were mostly dedicated to the latest changes in women\u2019s fashion, though they increasingly included images of childhood, like this Carnival stamp. Throughout the second half of the 19th century, masquerade balls and costume parties during Carnival progressively included costume contests, dances and parties intended for children, organized in some of the city\u2019s main theatres.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; use_row_as_full_screen_section=&#8221;no&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221; angled_section=&#8221;no&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; background_image_as_pattern=&#8221;without_pattern&#8221;][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1739802355172{padding-right: 0px !important;}&#8221;]<div class=\"comissionariat-card orientation-inferior color-blanco\" style=\"height: 900px; \"><div class=\"comissionariat-image background-center-center\" style=\"background-image: url('https:\/\/xarxa.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/41-371_4.jpg'); \"><\/div>\n            <div class=\"comissionariat-card-content-holder\">\n                <div class=\"comissionariat-card-content fade-in\">\n                    <\/p>\n<div class=\"v1elementToProof\">\n<p>Josep Palau i Oller, a multifaceted designer and artist, started his career as a cartoonist for the children\u2019s magazine <em>Papitu<\/em> and a few years later, when his son Josep Palau i Fabre was born, he also delved into the world of designing and manufacturing toys. Researching the latest trends in the world of foreign-made toys and after visiting several trade fairs held in Barcelona, in 1917 he designed an initial line of artisanal and artistic toys that were put on sale in two of the city\u2019s renowned art spaces: Galeries Laietanes and the Faian\u00e7 Catal\u00e0. Palau i Oller\u2019s toys were dynamic, they had a sort of device that allowed them to incorporate movement, and they may have had an influence on the creation of the famous wooden toys by Joaquim Torres-Garcia in subsequent years that were intended to be both constructive and educational.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n                <\/div>\n                <div class=\"comissionariat-card-caption llegenda fade-in\">\n                   <p> Josep Palau Oller, Toy Model, 1917, Ink and gouache on paper. Fundaci\u00f3 Palau<\/p>\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>[\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1739802364324{padding-left: 0px !important;}&#8221;]<div class=\"comissionariat-card orientation-inferior color-blanco\" style=\"height: 900px; \"><div class=\"comissionariat-image background-top-center\" style=\"background-image: url('https:\/\/xarxa.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/42Maria-Espinal-Figurins_02-scaled.jpg'); \"><\/div>\n            <div class=\"comissionariat-card-content-holder\">\n                <div class=\"comissionariat-card-content fade-in\">\n                    <\/p>\n<div class=\"v1elementToProof\">At the height of the Noucentisme movement, Mari\u00e0 Espinal approached the aesthetics of the new currents that revived classicism spreading throughout Catalan art with portraits like <em>Child and kite<\/em> (1915), preserved at the Museu d\u2019Art de Cerdanyola, which evoked the image of children as a pure soul, a symbol of peace and innocence. Years later, during the bombardments of Barcelona at the height of the Spanish Civil War, while his family was sealed off in the basement of their home in Cerdanyola, Espinal made this popular toy for his three daughters: cutouts of female figurines made of paper, models of women to dress up with different outfits, whether as peasants or in the art d\u00e9co fashion. As a Noucentista artist, Espinal had three daughters born within the movement\u2019s ideal who went to play music (Abundia), do theatre and translation (Adelaida) and play sport (N\u00faria). Of the three, only one ever got married. As the others always said, and as Laura Alb\u00e9niz would also say, they got bored with men.   <\/div>\n<p>\n                <\/div>\n                <div class=\"comissionariat-card-caption llegenda fade-in\">\n                   <p> Mari\u00e0 Espinal, Cutouts, c. 1936-1939, Pencil and colour on paper. Museu d\u2019Art de Cerdanyola, MAC <\/p>\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; use_row_as_full_screen_section=&#8221;no&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221; angled_section=&#8221;no&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; background_image_as_pattern=&#8221;without_pattern&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1741616004888{margin-top: 120px !important;margin-bottom: 120px !important;}&#8221; z_index=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10666&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764591547190{margin-bottom: 36px !important;}&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764597464158{margin-bottom: 46px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in llegenda&#8221;]Balls and token, Late Iron Age Iberia, 3rd-2nd century BC, Ceramic. Museu Dioces\u00e0 de Lleida, L-5682, L-5676, L-5678, L-5683, L-5684. Caixa 216.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764591425397{margin-bottom: 46px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in&#8221;]Archaeology offers a solid testament for grasping and documenting how play has formed part of the lives of children, youth and even adults throughout the centuries. Archaeologists have found traces of this through ceramic fragments, stones, along with other lasting materials such as wood and ivory, in the form of figures, game boards, pieces and, for example, marbles. This is the case of the rocking horses, the little figures and balls of clay decorated in the Iberian age located in Poblat del Gebut, Soses (Segri\u00e0).[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; use_row_as_full_screen_section=&#8221;no&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221; angled_section=&#8221;no&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; background_image_as_pattern=&#8221;without_pattern&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1741346385787{padding-top: 140px !important;background-color: #000000 !important;}&#8221; z_index=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985433383{padding-top: 46px !important;padding-bottom: 94px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;row-reverse-res&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;2\/3&#8243;]<div class=\"comissionariat-title color-blanco orientation-false\" style=\"\" id=\"society-as-a-guide-gender-and-education\">\n        <h2 class=\"fade-in\">Society as a guide: Gender and education<\/h2><\/div>[vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;font-gran color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]The notions of childhood and family have not always remained static throughout history, but in the European case, the Catholic Church and the entire structure of the <em>ancien r\u00e9gime<\/em> rigidly defined a single model of Christian family, married, monogamous and patriarchal, which was continuously reproduced in art. This fact established a clear and defined role both for men and women, as well as for boys and girls. It wasn\u2019t until the late 18th century that a modern conception of childhood development and growth started to appear, formed and understood per se based on Enlightenment thinking and the idea of freedom. In any case, despite the spread of modern educational and philosophical ideas, from the youngest age, boys and girls continued to be trained and guided through social institutions along a path marked by obedience, respect and submission within a rigidly pre-established hierarchical, authoritarian and sexist system. The family, the Church and social norms staked out a single destination for childhood that did not begin to crack until the 20th century thanks to the arrival of novel educational methodologies, the feminist struggle and the questioning of gender roles.    <\/p>\n<p>This poster, whose message remains relevant even today, captures the Noucentista ideal of the Mancomunitat de Catalunya to defend Catalan language and culture through one of its essential pillars, schools. The piece was commissioned by the Catalan Education Protection Association (APEC) with the goal of promoting childhood education in Catalan in a society and a country which, despite the attempts of cultural decimation, was still home to Catalan as the main language among the local population. The drawing by Josep Obiols, with vibrant tones, but also a tranquil spirit, shows the desire of so many Noucentista artists who, like Josep Aragay, sought out identity in the ideal representation of an eminently Mediterranean land, one that was civil, cultured, and for everyone, where people could live and grow up speaking Catalan from childhood.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10695&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765982807329{margin-bottom: 36px !important;}&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1768212070388{margin-bottom: 46px !important;padding-top: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in llegenda color-blanc&#8221;]Josep Obiols, Are you a member of the Catalan Education Protection Association?, 1921<br \/>Lithography in colour. Museu de Reus (IMRC, MR13305)[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;carrusel_comisariat_riure&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/5&#8243;]<div class=\"qode-info-card\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"qode-info-card-image\" style=\"background-color:#fff\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/xarxa.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/46-250313_3.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"qode-info-card-text-holder\" style=\"background-color:#fff\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h6 class=\"qode-info-card-title\" >\n\t\t\t\tJoan Brull, Girl knitting, 1890, Oil on canvas. Museu d\u2019Art de Girona, no. 250313. 250.313. Diputaci\u00f3 de Girona Art Fund. Photography: Rafel Bosch. \t\t\t<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"qode-info-card-text\" >\n\t\t\t\tOil paintings such as Girl sewing (c. 1720) by Antonio Amorosi, preserved at the Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya, highlight how paintings featuring children spread throughout Europe during the 18th century. These scenes could either have a mythological or religious basis or be allegorical portraits or images faithful to the modern world. This is the case of Girl knitting by Brull, two copies of which are preserved in the Xarxa de Museus d\u2019Art de Catalunya. Unlike the portraits of boys, who often appear drawing, reading, playing or engaging in other leisure-time activities, the painting Girl knitting shows the role of young girls, dedicated to learning how to serve and handle household chores. Modestly dressed, neither smiling nor looking at the viewer, the girl remains focused on her work, dedicated and obedient, knitting.   \t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>[\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/5&#8243;]<div class=\"qode-info-card\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"qode-info-card-image\" style=\"background-color:#fff\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/xarxa.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/48-DESANDRE_2.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"qode-info-card-text-holder\" style=\"background-color:#fff\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h6 class=\"qode-info-card-title\" >\n\t\t\t\tCigarette paper booklet: Beautiful little girl, she quickly makes her sock \/ Dedicated to her work, she sews with care, 19th century, Engraving, Museu Frederic Mar\u00e8s, MFM no. S-15368, S-15369&lt;br&gt;Photography: \u00a9 Pep Herrero  \t\t\t<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"qode-info-card-text\" >\n\t\t\t\tThe great oil painting portraits are not the only evidence of how gender roles spread to childhood. To the contrary, they are only the most elite representation and the tip of the iceberg of an imaginary that extended to all social strata and was thus reproduced in all sorts of images that affirmed and reinforced the social behaviours of feminine obedience, industriousness and docility. We can find this segmentation from childhood in both literature as well as in popular imagery, in cheap mass-produced engravings and woodcuttings that spread through households in the 18th and 19th centuries. This is the case of these two fragments of a 19th-century auca with verses that accompany the images of two girls learning how to sew: &lt;br&gt;Beautiful little girl, she quickly makes her sock &lt;br&gt;Dedicated to her work, she sews with care\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>[\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/5&#8243;]<div class=\"qode-info-card\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"qode-info-card-image\" style=\"background-color:#fff\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/xarxa.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/48-DESANDRE_1.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"qode-info-card-text-holder\" style=\"background-color:#fff\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h6 class=\"qode-info-card-title\" >\n\t\t\t\tJules Marie D\u00e9sandr\u00e9, Bonsoir, petit p\u00e8re, Paris, c. 1840-1860, Chromolithography by Claude R\u00e9gnier, E. Dardoize, \u00e9diteur. Museu d\u2019Art de Sabadell, no. 9813  9813\t\t\t<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"qode-info-card-text\" >\n\t\t\t\tThroughout the 18th and 19th centuries, illustrated references of virtuous behaviour imparted an idealized model of family representation based on a married couple and children, where everyone occupied a specific place in society. The father held a public role, working outside the home and acting as the authority and head of the family, while the mother had a role focused on the private sphere, the home and raising children. From Greuze\u2019s oil paintings that received praise at the Parisian Salons to the widespread engravings throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, such as the lithographs of works by Jules Marie D\u00e9sandr\u00e9, numerous channels appeared that depicted the same family model in line with the morality of the age and the dictates of the Catholic Church. The technical ability to reproduce images enabled the rapid spread of these kinds of lithographs that perpetuated gender roles as well as models of moral and social behaviour.  \t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>[\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/5&#8243;]<div class=\"qode-info-card\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"qode-info-card-image\" style=\"background-color:#fff\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/xarxa.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/48-nene.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"qode-info-card-text-holder\" style=\"background-color:#fff\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h6 class=\"qode-info-card-title\" >\n\t\t\t\tFrederic Masriera Vila, Portrait of a boy reading, c. 1910, Oil on canvas. Museu Abell\u00f3 \t\t\t<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"qode-info-card-text\" >\n\t\t\t\tFrederic Masriera Vila (Masvila), the son of Frederic Masriera Manovens and Antonia Vila, and thus the cousin of the jeweller Llu\u00eds Masriera Roses, formed part of the legacy of Masriera artists by training at the Escola de Llotja, working in the family jewellery shop and also dedicating himself to painting. With an interest in the genre of portraiture and in childhood and youth, evident among others in the illustrations for magazines such as En Patufet, he worked on numerous depictions of motherhood and portraits like this one. In this case, Masriera selected a canonical image of a middle class, bourgeois boy who, as an educated and literate child, calmly reads a book with curiosity on his face, eager to learn, grow up and mature.  \t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>[\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/5&#8243;]<div class=\"qode-info-card\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"qode-info-card-image\" style=\"background-color:#fff\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/xarxa.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/50-MCFS-81_2.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"qode-info-card-text-holder\" style=\"background-color:#fff\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h6 class=\"qode-info-card-title\" >\n\t\t\t\tTeacher punishing a student, Tile, 18th century, Polychrome pottery. Cau Ferrat, Sitges \t\t\t<\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"qode-info-card-text\" >\n\t\t\t\tStarting in the mid-17th century and throughout the 18th and the first half of the 19th century, a new type of highly peculiar ceramic pieces started to spread in Catalonia: tiles with motifs that represented the common people, often representing arts and trades, but also showing unique scenes of the everyday lives of men, women and children in all kinds of daily behaviours. There is often only a single step between playing around and making mischief. Just as art has represented some of the vices and naughtiness, these tiles also sometimes represented the corporal punishment of children in schools as a corrective measure. Corporal punishment at school was practised until the 20th century and all sorts of recent artistic and literary testimonies have borne witness to this, some of them as explicit as in Roald Dahl\u2019s Boy: Tales of Childhood.  \t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>[\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; use_row_as_full_screen_section=&#8221;no&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221; angled_section=&#8221;no&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; background_image_as_pattern=&#8221;without_pattern&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765464760255{padding-top: 120px !important;padding-bottom: 94px !important;background: #000000 url(https:\/\/xarxa.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/51-treball_2.jpg?id=10807) !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: contain !important;}&#8221; z_index=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;background-top-center&#8221;][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765983437004{padding-top: 80px !important;}&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;]<div class=\"comissionariat-title color-blanco orientation-false\" style=\"\" id=\"work-and-interrupted-childhoods\">\n        <h2 class=\"fade-in\">Work and interrupted childhoods<\/h2><\/div>[vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765464413158{margin-top: 24px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;font-gran color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]Although childhood is typically associated with fun and games, happiness is made up of fleeting moments. Like everyone else, children have had to cope with poverty, disease, despair and injustice. These experiences of childhood, as commonplace as they are unwanted, were reflected in drawing, painting and sculpture, starting from the moment that art started to be humanized through a modern, free-thinking perspective. From this standpoint, children, those who express themselves without fear, taboos or lies, have also served as a reflection of societies that have had to endure child labour, indigence and disease.  <\/p>\n<p>Starting in the 17th and 18th centuries, during the Baroque era, images of private life started to spread with a naturalist perspective that allowed previously unknown scenes to be depicted, including representations of poverty and marginalization. In this case, the scene depicts children begging. The scene shows two hapless boys dressed in rags, the nearest one with crutches and his arm outstretched, begging for alms. The theme and the style of the painting have allowed us to attribute the work to an anonymous late-17th century painter from the north of Italy known as the \u201cMaster of blue jeans\u201d, thus named due to the fact that the natural portraits attributed to him represent family scenes with children often dressed in patches of poorly sewn clothing dyed with a <em>blue jean<\/em> colour.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764600201048{margin-top: 48px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc width-80 fade-in&#8221;]Master of the blue jeans, <em>Children begging<\/em>, 1680-1700, Oil on canvas. Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya, no. 24245  24245[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;120px&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765376304948{padding-top: 60px !important;}&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/4&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10698&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985549489{padding-bottom: 20px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;color-blanc fade-in llegenda&#8221;]Llu\u00eds Perich, <em>Shucking corn<\/em>, 1895, Oil on canvas. Museu d\u2019Art de Girona, no. 250329.  250.329. Diputaci\u00f3 de Girona Art Fund. Photography: Rafel Bosch[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985556891{margin-top: 24px !important;padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]Family life in the 19th-century peasant and working class was vastly different from the bourgeois family models. Their living conditions were structured by a day-to-day existence in which all the members of the family, including the children, acted collaboratively in the fields. In these families, children started to take on responsibilities and chores from an early age. These class realities were often reflected in the art of the time through a social realism and costumbrista painting, with scenes of peasant families, children included, helping and working on the same activity. Starting from the last quarter of the 19th century, this new realism, both costumbrista and uncritical, was predominant among the most successful commercial paintings at salons and in contests.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/4&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10701&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985494789{margin-top: 24px !important;padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]Miquel Blay, <em>Preparatory sculpture of the First Cold<\/em>, 1892, Terracotta. Museu d\u2019Art de Girona, no. 026547.  026.547. Diputaci\u00f3 de Girona Art Fund. Photography: Rafel Bosch[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985567274{margin-top: 24px !important;padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]In line with the naturalist realism trend dominant in 19th-century Catalan statues, during his time as a student living off a grant in Rome, in 1892 Miquel Blay modelled this piece which over the years became one of his most important creations: The First Cold. This first preparatory work in terracotta, preserved in Girona, shows how at the beginning the sculpture was made up of an old man sitting on a bench together with a little girl nestled in his arms. In subsequent versions both figures are represented nude, with a more modern modelling style, to provide a rawer evocation of the helplessness and suffering of the poor pair facing the arrival of the cold. The first version was presented at the International Exhibition of Fine Arts of Madrid in 1882, where it earned high praise and a gold medal. Concerning this piece, considered one of the defining sculptures of Modernisme, we have numerous copies preserved in terracotta, plaster, marble and bronze in the Xarxa de Museus d\u2019Art de Catalunya.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/4&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10767&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985506047{margin-top: 24px !important;padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]Isidre Nonell, <em>L\u2019Anunciata. (The Annunciation). Gloria in excelsis  <\/em>c. 1896, Charcoal, lithographic pencil and Chinese ink on paper. Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya, no. 026881-D[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985576100{margin-top: 24px !important;padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]In the midst of major social conflict marked by the tension brought on by class differences, Nonell selected eminently social topics, portraying and denouncing the misery, injustice and life of the poor in industrial cities. Humble, helpless, orphaned, destitute and otherwise needy people, including children, became the central characters and the hallmark of many of his works. This drawing, reproduced in the new year\u2019s supplement of <em>La Vanguardia<\/em> in 1897, shows Nonell\u2019s concern for the marginalized through the children who lived or barely scraped by in the factory towns around Barcelona. The faces, which recall the downtrodden people that he had discovered in the Vall de Bo\u00ed the previous summer, and the misery that the entire scene evokes critically and deliberately contrasts with the unreal presence of an angel announcing the good news of the birth of the Son of God.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/4&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10704&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985515295{margin-top: 24px !important;padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]Julio Antonio (Antonio Rodr\u00edguez Hern\u00e1ndez), <em>Figures of children<\/em>, 1908, Charcoal and sanguine drawing. Museu d\u2019Art Modern de Tarragona, no. 600.  600. Photography: Diputaci\u00f3 de Tarragona Museu d\u2019Art Modern. Arxiu fotogr\u00e0fic (Lila Alberich Fotografia)[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985581414{margin-top: 24px !important;padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]Born in M\u00f3ra d\u2019Ebre in 1889 and passing away at a tender age in 1919, Julio Antonio was one of the most renowned Catalan sculptors of his time. This drawing may have been one of the different preparatory notes in charcoal and sanguine made between Toledo and Madrid exhibited in 1908 in Tarragona. Julio Antonio was interested in the most vulnerable classes, gypsies, the poor and miserable, occasionally seeking an expressionism that recalls The Degenerates by Cales Mani. In this case, the drawing, featuring an unclothed girl who seems to have fainted, could refer to preparatory notes for a previous set of sculptures before the Monument to the heroes of Tarragona project, which he started working on between 1909 and 1910. That piece depicts a woman holding a dead hero along with a wounded one.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765983582171{padding-top: 80px !important;}&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10770&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/12&#8243;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764600837390{margin-top: 24px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]As with many large urban areas, the main cities in 18th- and 19th-century Japan had their own red-light districts that offered prostitution services, as was the case of courtesans in the Yoshiwara neighbourhood of Edo, today\u2019s Tokyo. They had the help of the <em>kamuro<\/em>, girls between 7 and 9 years old who assisted high-end courtesans. The courtesans were in turn training the kamuro to take their place in the brothels in the future. In many cases the kamuro were brought to the brothels by poor families who had no other resources yet held hope that in the future the girls could be freed, bought or even married off. This stamp shows the courtesan Sakie, of the Sanotsuchiya house, in Shin-Yoshiwara (Edo), luxuriously dressed and accompanied by her two <em>kamuro<\/em> assistants, named Tayori and Ayano, dressed in matching kimonos, to celebrate the popular parade held once a year under the neighbourhood\u2019s cherry blossoms.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764600742644{margin-top: 24px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;color-blanc fade-in llegenda&#8221;]Keisai Eisen, The courtesan Sakie, of the Sanotsuchiya house, with the kamuro Tayori and Ayano <br \/>c. 1830, Publisher Yorozuya Kichibei, Colour woodcut. Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya, Gabinet de Dibuixos i Gravats[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; use_row_as_full_screen_section=&#8221;no&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221; angled_section=&#8221;no&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; background_image_as_pattern=&#8221;without_pattern&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765983685755{padding-top: 180px !important;padding-bottom: 94px !important;background-color: #000000 !important;background-position: 0 0 !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;}&#8221; z_index=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;]<div class=\"comissionariat-title color-blanco orientation-false\" style=\"\" id=\"stolen-childhoods\">\n        <h2 class=\"fade-in\">Stolen childhoods<\/h2><\/div>[vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765983848689{margin-top: 24px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;font-gran color-blanc fade-in width-80&#8243;]Until the modern era, and practically until the 20th century, child mortality, danger and disease were a common constant. We should be aware that estimations calculate that half of the children who were born died before the age of eight in the 18th century. The high birth rate, thus, went hand-in-hand with a high child mortality rate, children whose lives were cut short, mostly by disease and health problems, but also due to abandonment, abortion or even infanticide. Consequently, emotional bonds with newborns were often not as close as they would be with the change of mindset at the end of the ancien r\u00e9gime. Furthermore, in more modern times, starting from the moment in which artists understood that the images of children easily lent themselves to creating allegories, as they were the most vulnerable to violence, the relationship between childhood and death in art also became a powerful and emotional resource to represent pain, injustice, fragility, suffering, hunger, horror and war.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765983866465{margin-top: 24px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;font-gran color-blanc fade-in width-80 llegenda&#8221;]The commission for this altarpiece, intended for the central apse of the convent of Santa Clara of Vic, was made during the time of the abbess Margarida Jofre. The piece was painted between 1414 and 1415 by Llu\u00eds Borrass\u00e0, one of the leading representatives of International Gothic, following a new stylistic current with a more harmonious and naturalist aesthetic that came from Europe and reached Catalonia around 1375. This altarpiece is considered one of the best known works by Borrass\u00e0, painted with the help of a well-documented and trained workshop to create a highly original and detailed iconic piece. This scene depicts the massacre of the innocents perpetrated by King Herod the Great, one of the most commonly represented themes in Christian art in terms of the death of children, which is commemorated every 28 December. We often find infanticide in art represented through religious or mythological stories, such as Cronus devouring his children and the story of the children of Jason and Medea.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10882&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765983801720{margin-top: 48px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]Llu\u00eds Borrass\u00e0, <em>Massacre of the innocents<\/em>, Franciscan altarpiece, from the convent of Santa Clara de Vic, 1414-1415, Tempera and gold leaf on wood, Museu Episcopal de Vic, MEV no. 718. Photography: \u00a9 Museu Episcopal de Vic, file: The Mad Pixel Factory[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765984015000{padding-top: 120px !important;padding-bottom: 120px !important;}&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10715&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;m1-top-res&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985615476{padding-bottom: 20px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]Nesi the Mummy, 20th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt (1186-1070 B.C.). Biblioteca Museu V\u00edctor Balaguer, Vilanova i la Geltr\u00fa[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764663725435{margin-top: 36px !important;margin-bottom: 26px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]As a method to preserve the body and ensure the life beyond, child mummification has been practiced by numerous cultures. We can find highly diverse examples of it including mummies from Pre-Colombian cultures in Peru, mummies in the catacombs of the Capuchins in Palermo and, obviously, the mummies in Ancient Egypt. Among the latter group, here in Catalonia we have the mummy Nesi from the tomb of Sennedjem in Deir al-Madinah, which was acquired by Eudald Toda during his time in Cairo as the Spanish consul between 1884 and 1886. This body of a five-year-old boy or girl was mummified and wrapped in linen. The child did not suffer from any apparent diseases that allow us to know the causes of death, although death was often caused by disease or health issues, such as anaemia. In the upper part, the mummy Nesi preserves two pads with hieroglyphics, with words of protection from the goddess Nut.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10718&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;m1-top-res&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985622262{padding-bottom: 20px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]Virgin of Pont\u00f3s, 15th century, Alabaster. Museu d\u2019Art de Girona, no. 130753.  130.753. Diputaci\u00f3 de Girona Art Fund. Photography: Rafel Bosch[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764663763934{margin-top: 36px !important;margin-bottom: 26px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]Aware of the high child mortality rates in preindustrial society, where only half of the population that was born managed to survive childhood, the use of apotropaic objects or materials as protection during both pregnancy and childbirth as well as during the first years of life remained a constant over time. Death was omnipresent at every age and the grief that this entailed for families encouraged the use of red coral. Since Antiquity, authors such as Pliny the Elder (<em>Natural History<\/em>) had claimed that red coral was ideal to ward off evil and provide protection from danger. This practice was upheld over the following centuries and became Christianized. In many images of the Infant Jesus starting in the 14th and 15th centuries, we can see how the child has a protective red coral amulet hanging around his neck, like many children from the era. This long-standing practice had notable examples such as the portrait of the infanta Ana Mauricia of Austria, the first-born daughter of Philip III, painted in 1602 by Juan Pantoja de la Cruz and preserved in the Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales in Madrid.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10773&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;m1-top-res&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985628548{padding-bottom: 20px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]Verg\u00f3s Family Workshop, <em>Replacement of the newborn Saint Stephen by the devil,<\/em> a table from the altarpiece of the church of Sant Esteve de Granollers, Tempera and gold leaf on wood, 1495-1500. Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya, no. 015876  015876[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764663879064{margin-top: 36px !important;margin-bottom: 26px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]In the late Mediaeval era, at a time when literature about marvels and demons proliferated throughout Catalonia, apocryphal stories started to spread, often associated with saints, like Stephen and Bartholomew, of children who were stolen and replaced by diabolical creatures. These abductions would be used to explain certain illnesses or behaviours. This tradition also reached the field of images painted on Gothic altarpieces where a newborn saint was sometimes replaced by a tiny devil. This is the case of one of the tables from the altarpiece of Saint Esteve de Granollers where, recalling the tale told in the <em>Vita fabulosa sancti Stephani protomartyris<\/em>. The piece represents how a demon kidnapped the newborn Saint Stephen and exchanged him for a small demon that looked like the saint after his nanny had fallen asleep.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764664267137{padding-top: 60px !important;padding-bottom: 60px !important;}&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10780&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;m1-top-res&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985676023{padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]Anonymous tapestry, <em>Death of David and Bathsheba\u2019s son<\/em>, c.1530-1540. Museu de Lleida[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765984029236{margin-top: 36px !important;margin-bottom: 26px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]This tapestry, from the extraordinary series of fifteen tapestries woven in Brussels and intended for la Seu Vella de Lleida, shows the last episode in the story of David and Bathsheba, the parents of King Solomon. The scene, taken from the Book of Samuel (2 Sa, 11-12), shows the death of the couple\u2019s first-born son. Bathsheba, who was married to Uriah, had an affair with King David. Blinded by lust for Bathsheba, David committed the crime of killing her husband by deliberately sending him to the front line of the war. The child\u2019s death is portrayed as divine retribution for his parents\u2019 adulterous behaviour as announced by the prophet Nathan. The series of tapestries dedicated to the story of David and Bathsheba were donated by the bishop Ferran de Loaces in 1548 to decorate the main chapel in la Seu Vella.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10724&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;m1-top-res&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985785033{margin-top: 24px !important;padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;color-blanc fade-in llegenda&#8221;]Bernat Martorell, Compartment of an altarpiece with the flagellation of Saint Eulalia, 1427-1437<br \/>Tempera and gilded with gold leaf on wood. Museu Episcopal de Vic, MEV no. 10738  10738[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765984033981{margin-top: 36px !important;margin-bottom: 26px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]The hagiography of Saint Eulalia tells us of a Christian girl who was condemned to be martyred thirteen times, the same number as her age in years, until she died by crucifixion in Barcino around the year 304 A.D. Eulalia joined a large group of Christian martyrs who died during early childhood (<em>infantia<\/em>, 0-7 years old) or as a young child (<em>pueritia<\/em>, 7-14 years). This was the legendary case of Saint Simon (Simonet) of Trento, a child martyred between the age of 2 and 3. Over time, Saint Simon became venerated and beatified making him the patron saint of child kidnapping victims. This compartment, likely from an altarpiece of the Cathedral of Vic, shows one of the various martyrdoms of Saint Eulalia, who is being violently flagellated by the Romans. The scene, which is preserved along with a second image of martyrs, was painted by Bernat Martorell shortly after the death of Llu\u00eds Borrass\u00e0.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764664267137{padding-top: 60px !important;padding-bottom: 60px !important;}&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10783&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;m1-top-res&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]Kim Manresa, Ablation of the child Kadi in a Sub-Saharan country, 1997, Photograph. Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya, no. 205741   205741[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1764664518848{margin-top: 36px !important;margin-bottom: 26px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]Clitoral ablation, also known as female genital mutilation, is an excruciating process particularly widespread in Sub-Saharan Africa which is considered a human rights violation by international organizations. The process consists of removing female genitalia at a young age in order to eliminate women\u2019s future sexual pleasure. Attracted to photojournalism from a young age, Kim Manresa has made photography a weapon for social activism capable of stirring people\u2019s consciences to advocate for human rights around the world. Among his projects, the 1997 photo series he created in Burkina Faso stands out, where he documented the tragedy of genital mutilation that he had previously seen on an earlier trip to Africa. The few photographs that Manresa was able to take of the mutilation of the young girl Kadi, who was only five years old, were selected by The Associated Press as one of the best photojournalism reports of the 20th century.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10727&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;m1-top-res&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]Joaquim Mart\u00ed-Bas, <em>Contribute to the work of the Children&#8217;s Aid Committee,<\/em> 1936-1937<br \/>Print by J. Horta &amp; Cia, Colour lithography. Museu del Disseny, GAGB 15\/08, Photography: Xavi Padr\u00f3s[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985707846{margin-top: 36px !important;margin-bottom: 26px !important;padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]In war, children are the first victims, the most innocent and unprotected. That&#8217;s why, in addition to being a symbol of injustice, they have also been a source of particular concern. This poster shows one of the many republican initiatives promoted in the midst of the Spanish Civil War to help children through the Children\u2019s Aid Committee of the Autonomous Centre for the dependents of Commerce and Industry Workers (CADCI), founded in 1903. Aware of how important posters were in terms of wartime propaganda and as a means of communication, Mart\u00ed-Bas, one of the most prolific republican and anti-fascist poster artists involved in the war, drew a boy gazing at the swallows in the sky as they fly over a background that features a senyera estalada (Catalan flag) to raise money intended to help children. Mart\u00ed-Bas was also the artist behind many other posters such as    <em>Education Workers. For Socialist Schools! <\/em>(1936) and Help the children behind the front lines. <em>Make a contribution<\/em> (1937), made before he was expelled from the Union of Professional Illustrators in January 1937.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10730&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;m1-top-res&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]Apel\u00b7les Fenosa, <em>Lleida<\/em>, 1938, Bronze, Fundaci\u00f3 Apel\u00b7les Fenosa, El Vendrell[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1768212256913{margin-top: 36px !important;padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]In scenes of war, women often appear together with their children as helpless victims. Since ancient times, artists have often resorted to these images to fight against injustice and pain. This is the case of the oil painting <em>Mother in front of her dying son<\/em> (c. 1937) by Fernando Garc\u00eda Alegr\u00eda, preserved at the Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya, along with the sculpture <em>Lleida<\/em>, by Apel\u00b7les Fenosa, among others. That same impulse that moved Picasso to paint <em>Guernica<\/em> spurred Fenosa to model this sculpture in commemoration of and as a response to the aerial bombardments that the city of Lleida suffered on 2 November 1937. This attack by the Condor Legion caused more than three hundred deaths, most of whom were children from the city\u2019s Liceu Escolar. The Museu Morera de Lleida preserves the terrifying photographs taken by Agust\u00ed Centelles of this human drama featuring children at the centre.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10801&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;m1-top-res&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;llegenda color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]Francesc Juventeny, sculptor and mayor in Franco\u2019s regime, Head of a dead child, c. 1930<br \/>Marble, Museu d\u2019Art de Cerdanyola, MAC[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985737422{margin-top: 36px !important;margin-bottom: 26px !important;padding-bottom: 40px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;color-blanc fade-in&#8221;]Following a tradition that dates back to Antiquity, many artists in the last quarter of the 19th century created paintings that resorted to the symbol of an empty cradle to represent an infant\u2019s death. In parallel to the typical commissions for adult mortuary masks, throughout the second half of the 1800s <em>postmortem<\/em> portraits of children started to spread. These were mostly photo portraits of children in their deathbed, though sometimes they were also sculpted by artists. This was the case of the son of Jaume Mim\u00f3, the first republican mayor of Cerdanyola del Vall\u00e8s, who during his youth had frequented Els Quatre Gats and had become friends with Manuel Humbert and Josep Gimeno. Mim\u00f3, an art lover and collector, commissioned the sculptor Francesc Juventuny, the future mayor of Cerdanyola during Franco\u2019s regime, to create a portrait of one of his young children.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; use_row_as_full_screen_section=&#8221;no&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221; angled_section=&#8221;no&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; background_image_as_pattern=&#8221;without_pattern&#8221; z_index=&#8221;&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765984478038{padding-top: 94px !important;padding-bottom: 120px !important;background-image: url(https:\/\/xma.iurisdoc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/background-2.jpg?id=8938) !important;}&#8221;][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1741024882824{padding-top: 46px !important;padding-bottom: 94px !important;}&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;]<div class=\"comissionariat-title color-negro orientation-true\" style=\"\" id=\"epilogue-dreams-and-memories\">\n        <h2 class=\"fade-in\">Epilogue: Dreams and memories<\/h2><\/div>[\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/2&#8243;][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10804&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;m1-top-res&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765985806961{margin-top: 36px !important;margin-bottom: 26px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in llegenda&#8221;]Maria Llu\u00efsa Malibran, Untitled, undated, Oil on canvas. Museu d\u2019Art de Cerdanyola, MAC[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765984409369{margin-top: 36px !important;margin-bottom: 26px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in&#8221;]Maria Llu\u00efsa Malibarn was one of the many 20th-century women who were born into well-educated families that were passionate about art and culture. She later decided to delve into artistic practice and intimate painting. Although she worked as a dressmaker during the postwar period, some of her pieces have reached us today, like this symbolic and melancholic scene of a woman looking back on her childhood, with its looming shadow always there throughout her entire life. Despite its multiple meanings, through the discarded doll and the clock on the wall, Malibarn seemed to have evoked the passage of time and the memory of a distant childhood, always idealized as a happy time and a paradise lost that is projected until adulthood, perhaps as a vanitas.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10734&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;m1-top-res&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765984425395{margin-top: 36px !important;margin-bottom: 26px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in llegenda&#8221;]Toni Prim Ort\u00eds, Excitement. Lleida, 1977, Photography. Museu Morera, Lleida. Long-term loan from Col\u00b7lecci\u00f3 Nacional de Fotografia 2020[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765984438858{margin-top: 36px !important;margin-bottom: 26px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in&#8221;]In 1977, Toni Prim, a renowned photographer from Lleida, portrayed this solitary, smiling child, with excitement written on her face, in front of a wall with the word Democracy scrawled on it. The dictator Francisco Franco had died only two years before and the country was in the midst of its democratic transition. Prim immortalized the little girl&#8217;s innocent and pure gaze as an authentic symbol of society&#8217;s longing for change, a reflection of the dreams of an entire generation.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;10885&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; css=&#8221;&#8221; qode_css_animation=&#8221;element_from_fade&#8221; el_class=&#8221;m1-top-res&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765984431521{margin-top: 36px !important;margin-bottom: 26px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in llegenda&#8221;]Francesc Gimeno, Girl sleeping, 1895-1898, Oil on canvas. Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya, no. 113135 113135[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1765984446194{margin-top: 36px !important;margin-bottom: 26px !important;}&#8221; el_class=&#8221;fade-in&#8221;]Francesc Gimeno was one of the most brilliant Catalan painters of his time, although he developed a free language far removed from the trends of Modernisme, frequently dominated by an earthy colour palette and a wide, loose and expressive brushstroke able to capture life&#8217;s most intimate vibrations. The girl in the work looks tired and resigned with her head and her tender hands resting on the pages of a book. To us, she looks as if she\u2019s sleeping, far away from the noise of the world, evoking a dreamlike childhood that knows nothing of suffering.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; use_row_as_full_screen_section=&#8221;no&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221; angled_section=&#8221;no&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; background_image_as_pattern=&#8221;without_pattern&#8221; bg_type=&#8221;bg_color&#8221; z_index=&#8221;&#8221; bg_color_value=&#8221;#000000&#8243; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1746632125762{background-color: #000000 !important;}&#8221; anchor=&#8221;hero&#8221;][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column_inner][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;368px&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;grid&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;2\/3&#8243;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;color-blanc m3-bottom-res&#8221;] The eternal promise: Childhood in art [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221; text_align=&#8221;left&#8221; css_animation=&#8221;&#8221;][vc_column_inner][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;190px&#8221;][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; row_type=&#8221;row&#8221; use_row_as_full_screen_section=&#8221;no&#8221; type=&#8221;full_width&#8221;&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/page-comissionariat.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10989","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The eternal promise: Childhood in art - Xarxa de Museus d\u2019Art de Catalunya<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/xarxa.museunacional.cat\/en\/the-eternal-promise-childhood-in-art\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The eternal promise: Childhood in art - Xarxa de Museus d\u2019Art de Catalunya\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[vc_row css_animation=&#8221;&#8221; 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