A new Greco in Barcelona

BarcelonaThe painter Santiago Rusiñol was a pioneer in the reappraisal of Doménikos Theotokópoulos, El Greco (1541-1614). In fact, he made history when, in November 1894, he carried in procession to the Cau Ferrat the two works by El Greco that he had bought in Paris from the industrialist Pau Bosch for 1,000 francs.The tears of Saint Peterand onePenitent MagdaleneNow, Greco is once again the protagonist of a major heritage news story, but with a very different tone. With their characteristic discretion, the husband-and-wife collector couple Fernando Casacuberta and Coty Marsans will present this Tuesday the acquisition of the first version of Christ on the cross del Greco (178 x 104 cm and dated between 1585 and 1590) at the headquarters of his collection, the old Sant Sever Hospital From Barcelona.

The purchase was made a couple of years after they themselves approached the owner, the Marquis of La Motilla, who had it on deposit at the Hospital de los Venerables in Seville, which is the headquarters of the Focus Foundation. During this time, they restored it, and the renowned framer Horacio Pérez Hita, who recently passed away, replaced the original frame with a much more austere black one, more appropriate to the character of the painting.

The first known reference to the existence of this painting dates from 1908, when Manuel B. Cossío published it in a monograph on El Greco. He had learned of it through the German art critic Julius Meier-Graefe, who years earlier had visited the Sevillian palace where it was located, accompanied by the jurist and educator José Castillejo, associated with the Institución Libre de la Enseñanza (Free Institution of Teaching). They then stated that "the owners have dusted off the El Greco painting they had stored in a dark corner of the chapel, but they still don't understand how it could have any value, with such a tiny head and such a long, long body."

The second presentation of the permanent collection

Coinciding with the presentation of Christ on the crossThe Casacuberta Marsans couple inaugurated the second presentation of their collection, which includes 46 works, most of which were previously unseen in this space. The most important work is the Christ on the cross, which is displayed in the apse of the chapel of the former San Severo hospital, where there was previously a 12th-century carving of Christ from Burgos. It is flanked by Our Lady of Sorrows, by Gutiérrez Solana, an icon of dark Spain, and the portrait ofJudge of ZamarramalaZuloaga, who was a pioneer in seeing El Greco as a model of a "national painter," owned a dozen of his works and encouraged Rusiñol to buy them. Penitent Magdalene and The tears of Saint PeterThe presentation is structured around two main themes: El Greco's own work and its impact on the Catalan Modernists, represented by Mir, Casas, and Rusiñol, and the artistic exchanges between Gothic painting and sculpture in the Iberian Peninsula and the major European cultural centers. In addition, the exhibition includes other exceptional pieces, such as an altar monstrance produced in Zaragoza in the 16th century and a crosier crafted in the workshop of the Abbey of Silos in the 12th century. Visits to the Casacuberta Marsans Collection require an appointment. on the headquarters website.