Christ reclining
Christ reclining
In the collections of the Frederic Marès Museum, Catalan sculpture of the 19th century is also represented, from neoclassicism to the works of the brothers Venanci and Agapit Vallmitjana -whose museum preserves numerous sketches of the apostolates of the Cathedral of Barcelona and the Monastery of Montserrat- or Rossend Nobas, artists very popular for their historical and realistic productions.
Agapit Vallmitjana is also considered one of the most important Spanish sculptors of his time.
This Christ, along with two terracottas that are also preserved in the museum, is a model for the final work in marble, which dates from 1872 and is in the Prado Museum. Vallmitjana, heir to the Spanish sculptural tradition of reclining Christs, expresses in this work the romantic vision of the defeated Christ-man. We know that the model was his good friend the painter Eduardo Rosales, who at that time was a young man threatened by illness, whose anatomy corresponded perfectly to that of the crucified.
At the time it was so well received that Vallmitjana repeated it on different occasions. This work dates from 1869. The marble sculpture was first awarded in Vienna in 1873 and again in Madrid in 1876, which confirms the quality of the work. Isabel II, on the occasion of the visit she made to the sculptor's workshop, commissioned a marble group of the queen herself presenting her son, the future Alfonso XII, which is currently preserved in the gardens of the Palau de Pedralbes in Barcelona.