-
The good eye of the photographer Pere Vivas allows us to discover in a warehouse a head lost a century, the work of Rossend Nobas, which crowned a Gaudí fountain
-
Instead of the piece, perhaps hidden after the civil war, a bust of the Roman emperor was placed that rested in a basement of the old Finca Güell
The photographer Pere Vivas On May 31, he participated in a visit to the warehouses of the municipal maintenance center that bears the name of the former Barcelona councilor Josep Maria Serra Martí. Vivas went to the place with other people to check the state of the doors that the architect Antoni Gaudí designed for the Larrard House, in Park Güell. Strolling among those objects of the past, uncovered a bust and immediately realized that it was identical to what he had seen in a photo of one of the fountains that Gaudí built in the old Finca Güell, the current Palau de Pedralbes: the Fountain of Hercules.
In fact, the piece that will return to its initial location will be a reproduction; the real one will stay at the MNAC
It is considerably commendable that Vivas identified that face so quickly, that by the way it could be that of Gaudí himself, but that’s another story, which will come to an end. It is meritorious because only a photo of the original source was preserved, with Hercules leading it.
The head and the photo
That is what the Barcelona City Council tells when it presents, including a very complete text by the urban geographer, professor and writer Josep Liz, the story of a head that has disappeared for at least almost a century. Joan Bassegoda, the one who was director of the Reial Càtedra Gaudí, who died in 1992, explained that the person who provided the photo was the son of a former Güell butler, surnamed Arbestain. In the image a girl appears next to the fountainWho knows if he was a member of the Güell family, owner of the estate until it was handed over to the Royal Family, at the beginning of the 20s of the 20th century. Later, after the proclamation of the Second Republic and the exile of Alfonso XIII, it became public property.
Bassegoda did not refer to the author of the statue: neither in the photo nor in other documentation did his name appear. For its part, Carme Hosta, technical architect and responsible for the conservation of public art in Barcelona, verified that the head bore the signature of the sculptor Rossend Nobas, and the date of 1884. But even though these data were known, it was not known that this Hercules came from the Palau Reial.
Although it is not clear, Hercules’ head may have been removed at the end of the Civil War, in 1939, like so many other statues that ended up in a warehouse or earlier, when the Government of the Republic, evacuated from Madrid, temporarily installed its headquarters there where the Güells had their farm. Along with many other pieces, the head ended up in a warehouse on Wellington Street, from which all exits were bricked up. Over the years, this content was transferred to another location, on Calle del Ciervo, to end up at the aforementioned Serra Martí Maintenance Center.
From the hero to the depraved
It is somewhat striking, in the past bull, that someone, in 1984, decided to use a replacement. According to the council, Gaudí’s own fountain was forgotten until 1983, 99 years after it was built: the municipal architect Ignasi Serra restored it. And a year later, it was decided to crown it with a bust that was in a basement of the Palau Reial, of the Roman Emperor Caligula.
It is not a matter of simplification, but taking into account the fame that posterity has brought them, with the potential weight of fiction that is in it, the operation supposed trade a mythical hero for a sexual depraved friend of assassinating his political rivals and relatives, worth the redundancy.
After being found, the bust was analyzed by Alex Mesalles, restorer of the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC), who concluded that the piece measures 103 centimeters high, 67 wide and 46 deep, and weighs 476 kilos. It is made of red stoneware, of the Buntsandstein type, which matches the side medallions on the base that has been holding Caligula for 37 years. It is in good condition, except for the missing helmet visor and some features of the face. The bust has been restored last October by the company Arcovaleno Restauro SL.
The bust of Hercules, the original, will not return to the Palau Reial. Will stay at the MNAC, where it can be seen in the context of an exhibition on Gaudí. A reproduction will be taken to the old land of the Güells, which takes Caligula away from where it should not have been placed, third Roman emperor, son of Germanicus and Agrippina, died 1980 years ago, in 41, and succeeded by his uncle Claudio.
Related news
The face of the architect
The story has one last unknown that, reports the city council, is being investigated with photogrammetry techniques. From the analysis made by Mesalles it has been concluded that to make the bust of Hercules a figure was first made in plaster from which the stone copy was made. That opens the door for a human model to be used. Liz says in her text that Gaudí, who used workers and collaborators to act as models in other cases, could be the face that served as the basis for Nobas to make his Hercules. It is an interesting debate, in which the study made on one of his photographs as a young man, from 1878, six years before the Hercules of the Palau Reial was sculpted, should be taken into account.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com