Fortuny’s mortuary wreath lay amongst papers within the MNAC archive | News from Catalonia | EUROtoday

Five laurel leaves that topped the painter Marià Fortuny who died in Rome on November 21, 1874, on the age of 36, have remained, for the final 92 years, among the many paperwork within the archive of the National Museum of Art of Catalonia (MNAC); particularly, amongst these linked to the artwork assortment of Ròmul Bosch i Catarineu. The dry leaves, however in excellent situation, are in a drawing folder with a label that reads: “Depòsit R. Bosch Catarineu. Brot de llor de la corona que cenyia la templa de Fortuny en el seu lli de mort” (Depòsit R. Bosch Catarineu. Laurel bud from the crown that surrounded Fortuny’s temple on his deathbed).

The demise of Fortuny, top-of-the-line painters of the nineteenth century, shocked your complete inventive group. The moments skilled after the demise have been recounted by artists and mates, who went to Villa Martinori, the painter’s Roman residence, after listening to the surprising information. Some immortalized them of their work and others wrote them of their correspondence and chronicles. According to the painter José Villegas, the day after the demise, the sculptor Jerónimo Suñol “proceeded to remove the corpse’s mask and a mold of the right hand.” Bernardo Ferrándiz, who attended the post-mortem, wrote: “In the house everyone came and went like automatons, fulfilling with resigned will the duties of those funeral preparations.” […] Some drew the form the coffin was to have; They wove a laurel wreath to take {a photograph} of the corpse.” According to Villegas: “We tied a few palms of laurel leaves from the garden of his estate on Fortuny’s forehead.”

On the twenty third, {a photograph} was taken of the physique, the writer being unknown. In it you may see how a laurel wreath rests on the top of the deceased painter; A sheet together with his initials hangs from the headboard of the mattress to the pillows, and one other darkish material covers his physique. The {photograph} was despatched by the painter Francisco Pradilla to the journal The Spanish and American Enlightenmentwhich printed it on its cowl on December 8, 1874 in an engraving signed by A. Perea. After the funeral, the painter Tomás Moragas additionally saved a lock of Fortuny’s hair and the laurel that topped the artist’s temple was distributed amongst his companions.

The assortment of Bosch i Catarineu (1889-1936), the place the leaves have been preserved, entered the Museu d’Art de Catalunya (present MNAC) in 1934, as a deposit of a assure for a mortgage to the textile corporations run by Bosch. Among the greater than 2,634 works, {a photograph} of Fortuny on his deathbed and a few laurel leaves from the wreath are registered with the quantity 35435. The piece was described as: “Photograph of Fortuny on his deathbed, crowned with laurel. I attach with the photograph a sprig of said laurel wreath.”

The Bosch assortment included 126 works attributed to Fortuny, of which 105 have been a part of the so-called Fortuny Album, which included the {photograph} and the bay leaves. In 1933 Fortuny Madrazo, the painter’s son, said: “The extremely kind Mr. Bosch showed me the many things he has from Fortuny; he has very good things and the series of drawings that belonged to my uncle Ricardo de Madrazo”; Therefore, the drawings had belonged to Fortuny’s brother-in-law since his spouse, Cecilia, was the daughter of Federico de Madrazo and sister of Ricardo.

In 1938 the critic Joan Merlí eliminated the album from the museum to organize a monograph on Fortuny. At the tip of the Civil War, observe of the album was misplaced and in 1942 the record of the lacking works was printed, which included the {photograph} and the sheets, and residents have been requested for assist to get better them; a request that has results as a result of, between 1951 and 1953, nameless residents delivered 80 of the drawings, however not the {photograph}.

The location of the bay leaves permits us to know that they by no means left the museum. What was stolen, and by no means recovered, was Fortuny’s {photograph} and the drawings and engravings within the album. When the picture disappeared, the bay leaves misplaced their stock reference and have been left as a doc of archive, from the Bosch and Catarineu assortment.

“I think that the discovery of the bay leaves is very good news, because it always enriches the character,” says Emiliano Cano, a researcher who has printed articles and directed a documentary on the demise of Fortuny, who claims to not know of the existence of extra fragments of the crown.

For his half, Eduard Vallès, head of collections on the MNAC, celebrates “that the archive collection, with great documentary wealth, is consulted and investigated, as in this case and in a rigorous manner, as it explains not only part of the history of our collections but also that of the country itself.” And he provides: “Aside from great works such as La Vicaria or The Battle of Tetuán, the MNAC also preserves elements of another nature such as this laurel wreath and even a painter’s palette by Fortuny himself.”

In 2007, the conservation-restoration space of ​​the MNAC intervened by inserting an acetate to guard the leaves, however the laurel remained amongst papers and paperwork, within the limbo of Fortuny’s historical past.