{"id":2558,"date":"2023-03-08T13:10:42","date_gmt":"2023-03-08T11:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xarxa.museunacional.cat\/tresors-de-terres-remotes\/"},"modified":"2024-08-06T11:51:38","modified_gmt":"2024-08-06T09:51:38","slug":"tresors-de-terres-remotes","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/xarxa.museunacional.cat\/en\/tresors-de-terres-remotes\/","title":{"rendered":"Treasures from Remote Lands"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Treasures from Remote Lands<\/span><\/h2>\n

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Medieval works in the Museums of the XMAC<\/span><\/h3>\n

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Curator: Alberto Velasco Gonz\u00e0lez<\/span><\/h4>\n

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The Middles Ages seem a long time ago to us. That\u2019s why when we hear someone talking about the 13th century we feel a sense of vertigo, a kind of insecurity around the facts and the knowledge arising from the temporal distance. However, that\u2019s not the only distance that determines our approach to the medieval centuries. How do we perceive the idea of physical distance in relation to the centuries of the Romanesque and Gothic styles? Can we really grasp what a long journey meant for the people of that time? Before the Covid-19 pandemic, we thought nothing of boarding a plane. Today, travelling to a far-off land is perhaps not as difficult as it was in the Middles Ages, but it still generates insecurity and uncertainty in us.<\/span><\/h4>\n

In the medieval centuries works of art also travelled accompanied by people. Their journeys involved the movement of objects, either because they were taken to be used during their sojourn far from home or \u2014and this interests us more\u2014 because in their displacement from one place to another they became something rare and difficult to find in those distant markets. In this respect, faith and commerce were behind the arrival in the Catalan territories of many goods and artistic productions from such exotic places as Al-Andalus, Egypt, Persia or Byzantium, as well as from those nearer to home, such as Italy, France or the Southern Netherlands. Often, especially in the case of those arriving from the Orient or North Africa, objects that had no religious use in their places of origin became part of the sacred treasures of Catalan churches, often as relic holders. And that has an explanation, which we will attempt to provide with this exhibition.<\/span><\/h4>\n

Today, more than ever, the temporal distance of the centuries and a curiosity to learn how the long-distance journeys of people and objects were approached engender in us an attraction and, above all, a series of questions. This virtual exhibition will attempt to provide answers through different concepts and ideas. The intention is to speak about a series of works of art assembled in the museums that make up the Art Museums Network of Catalonia. They testify to the circulation of merchandise and objects in the Middles Ages and demonstrate that those movements brought about the arrival of a series of artistic productions, some of them quite exotic, that people found fascinating then and we still marvel at today.<\/span><\/h4>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”80px”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”yes” type=”grid” angled_section=”yes” angled_section_position=”top” angled_section_direction=”from_left_to_right” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” z_index=”” background_color=”#000000″ el_id=”menu” css=”.vc_custom_1687426119750{padding-right: 10px !important;padding-left: 10px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”82px”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Index<\/span><\/h2>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”82px”][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”full_width” text_align=”left” css_animation=”element_from_fade” el_class=”enllacos” transition_delay=”30″][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]From east to west, via al-andalus<\/a>
\nEurope, a large art market<\/a>
\nThe embellishment of altars and homes<\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]Relics and adaptations<\/a>
\nImported for liturgy and devotion<\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space height=”172px”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”element_from_right” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”yes” angled_section_position=”top” angled_section_direction=”from_right_to_left” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” el_id=”orient” z_index=”” background_color=”#ffffff” css=”.vc_custom_1687426129655{padding-right: 10px !important;padding-left: 10px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”72px”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

From east to west, via al-andalus<\/h2>\n

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In a time of 5G, globalisation and Amazon, we need to ask ourselves why, at a 1500-year-old archaeological site in the Segri\u00e0 region we find a set of objects of Mediterranean and oriental origin. Likewise, it could seem surprising to us that chess pieces made in Egypt or Persia would have been bought by an 11th-century knight and his wife and would end up as part of the treasure of the abbacy of Sant Pere d\u2019\u00c0ger. They all have their own particular explanation, but there is something many have in common. It is that the relations between East and West have thrived since time immemorial and that this is reflected in the exchange of artistic objects and products. Catalan merchants have had\u00a0consulates<\/a>\u00a0in Tunisia, B\u00e9ja\u00efa (Algeria) and Alexandria since the 13th century. However, the movement was not just one way. For example, woven wool from Lleida reached beyond the farthest confines of Christianity and in\u00a0Saint Catherine\u2019s Monastery on the Sinai Peninsula<\/a>\u00a0(Egypt) there is a\u00a0painting<\/a>\u00a0donated in 1387 by Bernat Maresa, a citizen of Barcelona and the Catalan consul in Damascus. Mediterranean relations and trade with Al-Andalus facilitated the arrival of textiles and other luxury items that fascinated the Christian elites, as well as more modest works, such as the Byzantine icons that were acquired by the oligarchs of towns and cities. In this respect, we know that in 1404 several vessels arrived in the port of Barcelona with numerous icons from Byzantium among their cargos, as well as chairs, chests, carpets and other objects.<\/h4>\n

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