Mascort Foundation: art and popular devotion

The Mascort Foundation has been presenting, since November 30, an exhibition focused on a fragment of an altar frontal from Tossa de Mar and on the commemoration of the millennium of Montserrat, entitled 'Ceilings of saints on Catalan tiles: art and popular devotion'.

Curated by the doctor in History, Josep A. Cerdà , the new exhibition brings together a set of ceramic panels of popular devotion from the 17th to the 19th centuries, not only from the Mascort Collection , but also from other private collections, foundations and museums, such as the La Fontana Foundation and the Vicenç Ros Municipal Museum in Martorell .

Mare de Déu del Roser, santa Eulàlia i santa Madrona (1650). Col·lecció Ramon Mascort

In this exhibition, Casa Galibern offers a tour of ceramic production dedicated to popular devotion, with panels of saints, altar frontals and other exceptional sets, many of them unique or that have disappeared from their original context. The mainstay of the exhibition is the fragment of the altar frontal, dated from the late 17th or early 18th century, which possibly came from the old church of Sant Vicenç, in Tossa de Mar, and which presents the images of Sant Pere, Sant Sebastià and Sant Jaume, identified as the popular "pilgrim of Tossa". The work, of undoubted artistic value, is attributed to the best Barcelona ceramics workshop of the time, that of Jeroni Gual , standing out for the quality of its drawing.

For his part, Josep A. Cerdà has also wanted to pay tribute to the historical, artistic and spiritual role of the Montserrat monastery as a centre of devotion with a room dedicated to its millennium, which will be commemorated in 2025. You can see the ceramic panel with the representation of the oldest known moreneta; and also a small sample of the different iconographic representations of the many and diverse examples that are preserved. The rest of the exhibition is dedicated to the iconography of the saints, who occupy a good part of the rooms, where special emphasis has been placed on the patron saints of towns and cities, protector saints against the plague and patron saints of trades' brotherhoods.

This exhibition, which is free and can be seen at Casa Galibern, headquarters of the Mascort Foundation, can be visited until May 4, 2025.

Mare de Déu del Carme, Llorens Passoles (mitjans s.XVII). Col·lecció Ramon Mascort