The courtyard of the Dalmases house impresses right from the start due to the elegant balance between what has been built there and the void that enhances it. It follows the same style that had already started in many of the houses that contributed to giving class to Carrer Montcada.
A not-so-ordinary detail that enhances and gives personality to this patio is the sculptural work that stylishly highlights the railing and columns of the staircase. No other street in Montcada exhibits anything similar, quite the opposite.
In the history of architecture, the scale has been an extraordinary contribution in several aspects, even outside of this art. Suffice it to emphasize that the ladder facilitates the exercise of climbing in an effective, practical and tempting way. Since this discovery broke out, it perpetuated itself and allowed the architects a most tempting display; until recently, since Óscar Tusquets dedicated a well-deserved and suggestive requiem to him. His colleague David Mackay, when he set the fair price of modern Barcelona architecture, dedicated a well-deserved praise to Lluís Domènech i Montaner’s double staircase, which marks an initiatory access and an exciting arrival to the Palau’s concert hall of Music.
The staircase of honor of the Dalmases palace has been described as a jewel of Baroque architecture, a distinction awarded by Joan Ainaud, nothing given to the adjective. Alexandre Cirici Pellicer is more enthusiastic, since he describes it as a Baroque masterpiece. It is ventured that it can be attributed to the master chisel of the workshop of the Claperós family.
Whether it is or not, it is an eye-catching set and it is important to note that the vase theme was certainly suggested by the owner, and not chosen at random by the artist. It is therefore interesting to add the comment made to me by the historian Miquel Batllori: it is a representation intended to enhance and ennoble the importance of the merchant in the remarkable and constant historical expansion of the city.
This is how this celebration of a maritime theme inspired by classical mythology should be interpreted, either through the evocation of Neptune’s chariot or the historic abduction of Europe. There is no shortage of naiads or tritons mixed with mischievous children, all this surrounded in an atmosphere of joyful dance embodied by musicians and young people.
