Exceptional discovery of 14th-century wall paintings at the monastery of Sant Cugat

BarcelonaThe restoration of the chapel of Santa Escolàstica at the monastery of Sant Cugat del Vallès has yielded an exceptional surprise. After removing the Baroque altarpiece for restoration, a mural painting of a Calvary, dating from the mid-14th century, has come to light on the back wall. At the moment of removing the altarpiece, Christ's knees were exposed. Afterwards, the restorer Beatriz de Colmenares continued removing pieces of plaster until the figure of Christ was revealed, and on either side, the figures of Saint John (on the right) and the holy women (on the left), among whom are the Virgin Mary, fainting, and Mary Magdalene lamenting.

The Calvary is full of holes, as it was chipped away so that the plaster with which it was covered would adhere better to the wall. Despite the poor state of conservation, the painter's talent can be appreciated in the representation of Christ's pained expression, the wood grain of the cross, and its bark. Furthermore, above the cross there is part of another scene and, further down, on the wall, a fragment of another scene. Thus, it is possible that the mural painting extended across the entire wall, which would make the discovery even more spectacular.

Stylistically, the Calvary is inscribed within painting of an Italianizing character and dates back to the period before the great Gothic altarpieces imposed themselves on mural painting and it entered a phase of decline. The egg tempera technique with which it was painted suggests that the author was "a native Italianizing Catalan painter," as stated by Rafael Cornudella, professor of art history and member of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans.

The chapel of Santa Escolàstica is at the entrance of the church, next to the right side nave. It had never been restored until now. The altarpiece was removed from the chapel about three months ago, and during these weeks studies have been carried out on the hangings. The scaffolding was removed on Tuesday. Although there is still a lot of work to do, for Cornudella, who insists that caution must be exercised, the “nearer reference” for the Calvari of Sant Cugat is the one in the abbey space of the monastery of Pedralbes. He does not rule out that the two paintings are the work of the same painter.

The Calvari of Pedralbes was discovered by Agustí Duran i Sanpere under the whitewash when the room was used as an archive deposit during the Civil War. In these paintings, there are hangings with fantastic animals that cover the entire room. The hangings and the Calvari are by two different painters. The way the crucifixion is painted resembles a tapestry surrounded by a border of geometric motifs combined with the monastery's coat of arms. In this painting of Pedralbes, to the left of Christ are St. John the Evangelist, St. Clare, and St. Eulalia; and to the right, the Three Maries with St. Louis of Toulouse and St. Francis of Assisi.

Experts date the Calvari of Pedralbes between the 1330s and 1340s. “It is then that a change occurs in the Catalan painting scene, which consists basically of the exhaustion of the French-inspired model that had prevailed since the end of the 13th century and the arrival of a wave of Italianism, led by native Catalan painters, such as the Ferrers and Arnau Bassa, and by Italian painters present in Catalonia”, such as the painter of the chapel of Sant Miquel de Pedralbes and the Master of the Coronation of the Virgin of Bellpuig, points out Cornudella.

Regarding the chronology of the Calvari of Sant Cugat, the chapel was finished in 1337 during the Gothic period. Before being dedicated to Saint Scholastica, the chapel had been dedicated to Corpus Christi. In this regard, Cornudella recalls that in 1333 Abbot Galseran Solà founded a benefice of Corpus Christi, that is, he endowed an altar. “It was at that time that the construction of the church was completed. This date gives us a reference: the paintings could be from around 1333 or slightly later”, says Cornudella. The theme of Corpus is related to a moment of apogee. "At that time, the Corpus Christi festival gained a lot of strength in Barcelona", explains the parish priest, Emili Marlés. "The Corpus Christi festival went out into the streets in 1323 –he adds–. Corpus Christi is the Eucharist, which always has a connection with the crucifixion: 'This is my body, which is given for you'. So from a theological point of view, the Eucharist and the crucifixion illuminate each other".

Later, in the 17th century, with the new religious practices of the Baroque era; the south nave of the church of Sant Cugat was divided into three spaces separated by walls. The space corresponding to the altar of Corpus Christi was assigned to the new chapel of Santa Escolàstica, sister of Saint Benedict and patron saint of the Benedictine nuns.

The altarpiece of the chapel of Saint Scholastica

Traditionally, the first chapel of parish churches is dedicated to baptism, and in it is preserved a 16th-century baptismal font from the old church of Sant Pere. The vault and arches are decorated with 18th-century mural paintings, with religious scenes of Saint Scholastica and other Benedictine saints and abbesses. The altarpiece is a large work (nearly 6 meters high and 5 and a half meters wide), with a painting of the scene of the saint's glorification in the center.

The altarpiece was damaged in 1938, when the chapel was used as a bar for the deputies, as the last courts of the Republic were held in the monastery church. The restoration is being carried out at the Centre de Restauració de Béns Mobles de Catalunya (CRBMC), in Valldoreix. The total cost of the project is 86,264 euros, of which 72,257 euros will be allocated to the restoration of the altarpiece. The parish of Sant Pere d’Octavià will assume 64,843 euros, while there is a subsidy from the Generalitat of 21,421 euros. To obtain the rest, the parish has launched a patronage campaign. And the budget to continue removing the plaster to know if there are more murals is 22,000 euros. The Government has subsidies so that the CRBMC can take care of cases like this. The monastery of Sant Cugat is owned by the Sant Cugat City Council.