In the small adjacent annexe, your eye will be caught by the large horizontal canvas depicting figures and features that are set against a Mediterranean background reminiscent of Roman mosaics. This work is by the Uruguayan painter, Joaquín Torres García. It was painted in 1911 and it is entitled “Philosphy presented by Pallas in Parnassus”.

In contrast to the Symbolist and Modernist painters, many of the artists from the generation that grew up artistically during the years immediately following the First World War tried to find inspiration by looking back to Classical Europe and the origins of Ancient Greece and Rome, with their taste for balance and beauty.

Known in Spain by the Catalan name of “Noucentisme”, or Mediterraneanism, this style was mainly developed in Catalonia. The artists who were part of this movement, but who never saw themselves as part of a group, chose to return to the technical difficulty of art for art’s sake, with paintings that boast an exquisitely complex, finished appearance, as you can see in the examples hanging around you in this room.

We can see proof of the syncretism and peaceful coexistence of various ways of understanding art in the oil painting entitled “Seated Peasant Woman”, by Julio González, who was better known as a sculptor. This canvas is more conventional and very different to the Avant-garde style. It has soft lines and blurred outlines, and is set in the Catalan countryside that was to be such a fundamental part of the artist’s creative universe. Later on, we shall be taking another look at the Noucentisme style, to see how it evolved during the period between the two world wars.

When you have finished seeing this room, we suggest that, on leaving it, you continue your visit towards the right, and Room 210.

(c) (R) 2012, MUSMon com S.L.