Josep Llimona

JOSEP LLIMONA BRUGUERA (Barcelona, 1864 - 1934)
"Catalunya i les Ciències" (model for the pediment of the Biblioteca de Catalunya), c. 1912
Patinated plaster
Model for the definitive stone sculptural ensemble that originally decorated the Biblioteca de Catalunya, headquarters of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans.
Measurements: 101 x 163 x 40 cm.
Exhibitions:
- Museu Europeu d'Art Modern (MEAM), "Un segle de escultura catalana", 2013. Reproduced in catalog, p. 95.
- Museu Europeu d'Art Modern (MEAM), "Somnis i tentacions. La escultura catalana en temps del Modernisme", 2025. Reproduced in catalog, p. 89.

A work of special relevance within Josep Llimona's monumental production, this remarkable plaster cast constitutes the preliminary model for the sculpted ensemble that presided over the Biblioteca de Catalunya, one of the institutional emblems of Catalan culture. Its status as a process piece linked to one of the most significant public commissions of his career makes it a rare and exceptionally attractive work on the market.
In the composition, Llimona articulates a group of five female figures that, with sober solemnity and serene rhythmic cadence, represent the allegory of Catalonia surrounded by the sciences. The careful pyramidal arrangement, the balance of masses and the refined elegance of the drapery are evidence of the sculptor's high degree of technical refinement, as well as his mastery of the classicist language reinterpreted from a modernist sensibility. The restrained treatment of the gesture, together with the noble serenity of the faces, reinforces the symbolic and civic dimension of the whole.
Executed around 1912, the work is part of a key moment in Llimona's career, when he alternated his intimate production with important institutional commissions that consolidated his role as the main reference in Catalan sculpture of his time. This model allows us to clearly appreciate the artist's creative process and his ability to transfer poetic sensibility to a monumental format destined for public architecture.

Josep Llimona, a central figure of Catalan sculptural modernism and author of some of the most emblematic works of the period, stood out for combining spirituality, formal elegance and a refined classicist purification. In addition to his famous funerary and intimate production, he developed an intense institutional activity, creating monuments and allegorical programs linked to the cultural construction of Catalonia. Works such as this model for the Biblioteca de Catalunya show his key role in the consolidation of a symbolic, cultured sculptural language, perfectly integrated into public architecture.