Barcelona’s National Art Museum of Catalonia, MNAC, is showing a 14th-century Christ head from Berga as part of a temporary exhibition on artworks recovered during the Spanish Civil War.
The piece was made by Jaume Cascalls for the Sant Agustí Vell convent. The exhibition, titled Recovered from the Enemy (Recuperado del enemigo), runs until the end of the month and focuses on the path taken by paintings, statues and other works during the conflict.
Although the full sculpture has not survived, the Christ head remains a notable example of Catalan Gothic art. It is normally associated with MNAC’s Gothic art rooms, but for this exhibition it is displayed in the modern art galleries because of its recovery story.
The survival of the head is described as a matter of chance, which gives visitors a direct link to the wider history of art preservation in wartime. More on the museum can be found on the official MNAC website.
For readers following Catalonia’s cultural coverage, see our news tag page for more updates. The exhibition also sits within MNAC’s wider programme of temporary shows, listed on the museum’s exhibitions page.