Step Back in Time: Exploring the Mev's Romanesque and Archaeological Collections

This Egyptian artwork is a collection of religious spells arranged in chapters, intended to guide the deceased in the afterlife. These spells are compiled in various books, with the 'Book of Coming Forth by Day' being the most widely used.

The central scene depicts a charioteer preparing to depart, waving goodbye to a young man: A charioteer, on the right, dressed in a long tunic, standing on the chariot pulling on the reins of the horses, is getting ready to leave; on the left, a naked young man with a spear is waving goodbye.

The stela shows the warlike nature of the Ausetan elites before the Roman conquest. We see here a figured scene framed on either side by three vertical baguette mouldings that separate three registers where inclined incisions make up a herringbone motif.

The type of female figure and the accessories, the treatment of the volume with the shading, plus the arrangement of the tesserae that follow the direction of the frame and not of the figure, characterise the work as a type from the local workshops in the reign of Severus.

These five reliefs, which were part of the ancient Romanesque cathedral of Vic, represent the winged lion, symbol of the Evangelist Mark; the angel, symbol of the Evangelist Matthew; the Agnus Dei; Christ conferring primacy on St Peter; and the Resurrection of Tabitha.

It is one of the most important ensembles of 12th century European Romanesque woodcarving, given its exceptional artistic quality and the fact that not too many monumental woodcarvings of this size have been conserved.

The style of this baldachin corresponds to the Romanesque geometric current, whose greatest exponent was the Master of Sant Climent in Taüll. Because of its balanced formal composition it is considered to be the masterpiece of Catalan Romanesque panel painting.

The painter of this mural group is known by the name of the Master of Osormort. The paintings are characterized by the expressions on the faces of the figures, with very large eyes and a penetrating gaze. The presentation of the new museum building has for the first time enabled us to exhibit all the fragments of the mural paintings from the apse of Sant Sadurní in Osormort.

The presence of this altarpiece at an exhibition in 1868 marked the beginning of the rediscovery and revaluation of Catalan Romanesque painting. It was originally from the church of the convent of Santa Margarida de ViIlaseca and certainly brought to Vic in the 14th century,

The figure of Christ appears dressed in the blue tunic, his eyes open with a serene expression, out of his suffering, typical of the iconography of Christ in Majesty developed in Catalonia from the second half of the 12th century onwards.

The Italo-Byzantine movement that arrived in Catalonia around the year 1200 was developed in this country until the mid-13th century, and has in the altar from Lluçà the most significant example of the last period of this style. On this altar appears a new iconographic scene: The Coronation of the Virgin.

These two side panels from a church in the Ribes Valley are the work of this painter, characterised by the use of backgrounds of very bright colours, generally reds, yellows and greens, on which he draws the figures heavily outlined in black.