Martí Castell Martí
10 December 2018 – 5 February 2019
Every year, during the Christmas period, we exhibit nativity-scene pieces from the museum's magnificent collection.
The Castells family workshop began with Martí Castells Martí (Barcelona, 1873-1937), who initially specialised in carpentry but soon applied himself to making Nativity scene figures that he later sold at the Santa Llúcia Fair, where he had his own stall.
For over fifty years, he created a huge number of figures of different types and sizes, using a technique known as “a palillo"; that is, hand crafted in very precise detail as a single piece. The polychrome of these pieces, done with oils, is also by the artist.
His figures radiate a realist classicism, as much in their proportions and detail as in the attention paid to their expressions and clothing. Biblical characters, in particular Hebrew shepherds, with their distinctive sheepskin jackets featuring the “palillo” working, are the artist’s trademark pieces.
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