The baroque period

Catalonia was not then a centre of power but, although it did not generate a cultural avant-garde similar to those existing in other European territories, it did engender an artistic production full of vitality that has left us with valuable heritage, later decimated by the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).

The visual arts of the time had a mainly religious theme and fulfilled a devotional function because they were linked to showing and celebrating the Catholic doctrine and beliefs.

It was an art intended to form part of worship and ritual and to play a mediating role in the relations between the faithful, the Church and the afterlife.

Saints could be recognised easily by their identifying attributes or by the narration of the miracles of their life and death.

Here we have San Jacinto, who has on his left arm an image of the Virgin and in his right hand a ciborium with the Eucharist.

They became models of Catholic virtues and heroic and superhuman examples, capable of enduring the most horrifying martyrdoms and perform fabulous miracles and, in case of need, comfort and protect the faithful who worshipped them. In the image we have Saint Joseph.

There were also those who occupied a more distinguished position in the Catholic hierarchy, such as Saint Peter, Saint Paul, Saint John the Baptist (in the image) or the Evangelists.

The iconographies could be highly varied. The most common evoked the grandeur of the Mother of God holding the Baby Jesus in her arms.

On other occasions, she adopted forms of great symbolic substance such as the Immaculate Conception, standing on the crescent moon and treading upon the serpent of sin, to recall the belief or dogma that freed her from original sin.

In all cases the portrayals of the Mother of God played a major role in the communication between the faithful and the afterlife: as an intercessor with the divinity and as the supernatural presence closest to the human being, especially in moments of affliction, sickness or when the time of death approached.

Given the significance of the Trinity, its images were usually accompanied by child angels or cherubs who also played a decisive role in turning the altarpiece into a lively and imaginative evocation of the celestial glory.

The use of silver –gold was not usually within reach of meagre parish economies– was almost imperative for everything that had to come into contact with the supernatural, be it the holy species –bread and wine– or relics.

For Catalan silversmithing, the baroque was an outstanding period, prolific in terms of the craftsmen and the rate of production of the workshops and the large number of notable objects, the result of the revival of parish life derived from the application of the Counter-Reformation doctrine.

The examples and testimonies displayed here come from humble workshops that modestly interpreted typologies quite common throughout Catholic Europe based on the combination of floral elements, cherub heads or ornamental motifs produced with the chisel or embossed techniques.