Espona, Eulàlia

Vancells, Montserrat

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M U S E U M S  
THE VlRGlN OF BOlXADERES 
THE EPISCOPAL 
M U S E U M  
O F  V IC  
LOCATED IN THE CITY'S HISTORICAL CENTRE, THE MUSEU 
EPISCOPAL DE VIC, FOUNDED IN 189 1 ,  IS THE OLDEST 
ECCLESIASTICAL MUSEUM IN THE COUNTRY AND ONE OF 
THE MOST IMPORTANT IN EUROPE ON ACCOUNT OF THE 
WEALTH OF ITS COLLECTIONS, ESPECIALLY OF 
ROMANESQUE AND GOTHIC ART, AND THE GREAT VARIETY 
OF PIECES THEY CONTAIN. 
E U L A L I A  E S P O N A  A N D  M O N T S E R R A T  V A N C E L L S  G R A D U A T E S  I N  C A T A L A N  P H I L O L O G Y  A N D  J O U R N A L I S T S  
1 ounded in 1891, the Episcopal Museurn of Vic is one of the rnost representative in Europe on ac- 
count of the variety of its collections 
and the specific value of the iterns they 
contain, the great majority of which 
come from the Diocese of Vic, which 
covers an area of about 3,963 square 
kilometres. The fact that the works are 
largely of local origin is one of the most 
noteworthy features of this rnuseurn, 
which last year celebrated its cente- 
nary. 
In the centre of a rich plain, the city of 
Vic, capital of the Osona region and 
sorne sixty kilometres from Barcelona in 
the direction of the Pyrenees, has ap- 
proximately 30,000 inhabitants. The 
town, which was the capital of the Ibe- 
rian tribe of the Ausetani and later a 
Rornan township, has rernained an irn- 
portant centre to this doy. With the 
narne of Vic -frorn the Latin vicus, a 
district-, it becarne a county town, the 
seat of a vegueria and of a corregiment 
(districts under the authority of rnagis- 
trates appointed by the king), and an 
episcopal see frorn the fourth century 
on. The historical nucleus, which i s  rne- 
dieval in structure, preserves a Rornan 
temple, the walls, a Romanesque bridge 
and the bell-tower of the early Rornan- 
esque cathedral. The economy is a bal- 
anced one, based largely on agricul- 
ture, and as well as producing preserved 
meats, which has rnade the town fa- 
mous, it is  above al1 a cornmercial and 
service centre. Culturally, Vic has al- 
ways been a very lively city. 
The museum 
Vic played a decisive part in what is  
known as the Renaixen~a,  a social 
movement which retrieved Catalan na- 
tional identity and was particularly pro- 
minent in cultural spheres, and of which 
the Museurn is in fact an exarnple. 
Bishop Morgades and the Archdeacon 
Jaume Collell satisfied the aspirations 
of a group of citizens of Vic, rnernbers 
of the Cercle Literari de Vic, with the- 
creation of the museum. In 1877 the 
Cercle Literari de Vic set up a small 
perrnanent exhibition of archaeology in 
one of its halls. The discovery of the 
Rornan temple five years later rein- 
forced the collecting urge, which along 
with the revaluation of our post pro- 
pounded by the rornantics, culrninated 
in the creation of the museum and a 
growing interest in preserving and un- 
derstanding our history. 
Located in the city's historical centre, 
the Museu Episcopal de Vic, founded in 
1891, is the oldest ecclesiastical rnu- 
seum in the country and one of the most 
important in Spain and Catalonia, as 
recognized by UNESCO. The first contri- 
butions were from the Bishopric, the 
Cercle Literari, the city and private do- 
nations, and forrned the first catalogue, 
published in 1896 with a total of 3,000 
items. This number has been gradually 
increased to the 20,000 the rnuseum 
contains today. The museurn's rnost im- 
MUSEUMS 
THE DAVAIMMENT D'WILL-LA-VAL1 
portant collections are undoubtedly 
those of Romanesque and Gothic art, 
exhibited on the first floor of the build- 
ing. The second floor contains the col- 
lections of archaeology and prehistory, 
textiles, glass, leather, ceramics, 
medals, coins and gold and silver. The 
ground floor provisionally houses the 
lapidary museum, which contains, 
amongst other important items, mile- 
stones from the Roman road from Ausa 
to Barcino, remains of the Romanesque 
porch of Vic cathedral and stone tablets 
and mosaics from the Roman period. 
Romanesque art 
The museum's collection of frontals, 
characteristic Romanesque items, is the 
most important in the world. However, i f  
the overall collection of Romanesque 
works of art is so highly valued, it is also 
because it contains a particularly repre- 
sentative and extensive sarnple of all 
the artistic techniques of the period, 
made up of a total of 400 pieces. 
Amongst the frontals, the most note- 
worthy are those of Sant Marti, Santa 
Margarida and that of the Mare de Déu 
del Coll, al1 three painted on wood, 
since they come from poor parish chur- 
ches which used the painting technique 
to imitate the cathedral frontals worked 
in silver and gold. The museum also 
possesses the finest Catalan frontal of 
carved polychrorne wood, that of Sant 
Pere de Ripoll. 
The rooms devoted to Romanesque art 
provide a large sample of the decor- 
ative elements of the Romanesque 
church. As well as the frontals, we can 
find canopies, murals, figures of Christ 
and of the Virgin, and various carvings. 
The best-preserved apse murals are 
those from Sant Marti del Brull and Sant 
Sadurní d'osormort (Osona), and there 
are also fragments from other places. 
Amongst the carved figures of Christ, 
one of the boldest and most outstand- 
ing is the Majestat de Les Planes ( 1 160- 
1190), which is  especially well pre- 
served. The abundant collection of Virgins 
contains 127 Romanesque and Gothic 
figures. The Davallament dlErill-la-Val1 
(1  120-1 150) i s  a very representative 
piece consisting of a sculptural group in 
white wood originally formed by seven 
life-size figures, two of which are pre- 
served at the Museu d'Art de Catalu- 
nya. 
Gothic art 
Of the 140 Gothic items in the first 
room, the sculptures, most of which are 
- -  - 
M U S E U M S  
in alabaster, stand out. There are a 
large number of Virgins which provide a 
clear illustration of the evolution of 
Gothic sculpture. In this room, which- 
also contains a large variety of portals, 
sarcophagi and other iterns of great 
value, we find rernains of frontals and mu- 
rals reflecting the passage from Roman- 
esque to Gothic. One exarnple i s  the 
altarpiece of Bernat Saulet, which nar- 
rates the Passion of Christ. 
The collection of Gothic painting, mainly 
on wood, is  one of the iewels of the 
Museu Episcopal de Vic and contains 
the best works by different artists, both 
of the ltalianate Gothic -Ferrer Bassa, 
Pere Serra, Mestres d'Estimariu and Ru- 
bió- and the international Gothic -Lluís 
Borrassu, Jaume Ferrer, Bernat Marto- 
rell and Jaurne Huguet-, and is set out 
in this floor's eight remaining rooms. 
The most important example of interna- 
tional Gothic kept in the museum i s  Lluis 
Borrassu's altarpiece of Santa Clara, 
the culmination of the Gothic expressive 
capacity. 
But the museurn's collections of Rornan- 
esque and Gothic art do not end on the 
first floor; on the second floor there are 
more roorns with material from these 
periods: Rornanesque fabrics and em- 
broidery, gold and silver ware, iron- 
work, crosses, caskets, censers, reli- 
quaries, also from the Romanesque 
period; and, frorn the Gothic period, 
medals, gold and silver ware, pottery, 
crosses, pyxes, censers, etc. 
Other collections 
The second floor is  the rnost varied in 
the museurn, housing the local archae- 
ology series -from the neolithic to the 
Romanesque- and collections of items 
imported from the Egyptian, Greek, 
Etruscan, Carthaginian and lberian cul- 
tures. It also contains pottery -chemist's 
jars, tiles de~icting trades-, gold and 
silver ware, fabrics and embroidery, 
painted leather, glass, medals and 
coins and especially the old ironware. 
Each of these collections contains items 
of great value -particularly worth not- 
ing are the lslamic Tclpís de les Bruixes 
and the cape of Bishop Ramon de Be- 
Ilera. 
All the material exhibited on the second 
floor is the fruit of the collecting spirit 
of the beginning of this century, and 
it would be fair to say that the repre- 
sentativity of the collection, on 
account both of its size and of its 
variety, rnake it a unique museum in Ca- 
talonia. ¤ 


The Episcopal Museum of Vic

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