The centenary stone of the Sant Jordi hall begins to breathe once the works to remove the paintings from the walls and the vault have begun, and the prognosis of the committee of experts that endorsed the project has been fulfilled. Under these works commissioned by the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera and which have no relation to the Renaissance architecture of the room, the first remains of the original decoration have been found. It is a small treasure with an artistic and heritage value far superior to that of current paintings, the Government explains. And more vestiges of Renaissance decoration than expected are appearing.
“It was known that there were remnants of the original paintings because tests had been carried out prior to the start of the works, but now the magnitude of these paintings is being discovered”, says Josep Girabal, Deputy General Director of Works and Services of the Department of the Presidency.
Girabal indicates that it will be up to the technicians to assess what to do with the original decoration, which needs restoration, and whose author is still unknown. “The importance of these paintings is that they are the ones that accompanied the Sant Jordi hall when it was conceived four centuries ago and that in itself has value. In addition, the Renaissance is not a period from which we have many works in Catalonia, which gives it more relevance”, he adds.
The restorer Rudi Ranesi, coordinator of the team in charge of the mural and stone painting, underlines the exceptional character of the find, and assures that it has exceeded expectations: “We did not know that we would find so much ancient painting. Now we need to rethink the intervention, because the process is slow and difficult”. Ranesi details that the decorations that have started to appear “have a grotesque style, a technique used at that time, very interesting because it is quite unique in Catalonia and is contemporary with the building”.
The Sant Jordi hall was built between 1598 and 1616 by the Barcelona architect Pere Blai, who designed the space as a large chapel, with three naves, spacious and bright, intended to solve the space needs of the chapel of Sant Jordi, located in the Gothic gallery of the Palau de la Generalitat itself. “The Sant Jordi hall is a very special room, as there is very little Renaissance architecture in Catalonia, and less than a renowned author like Pere Blai”, explains Júlia Roca, architect responsible for the heritage of the Palau de la Generalitat.
Before the start of the work to remove the murals, which began on May 2 and will continue for fifteen months, it was not known exactly what was under these paintings, explains Roca. That’s why it was already planned to survey the wall.
Yes, it was known that, in addition to the remains found of the Renaissance decoration, on four of the walls there were sketches of the work commissioned at the beginning of the 20th century by Prat de la Riba to the painter Joaquim Torres García, who was to decorate the whole Sant Jordi hall and could not complete the work. Some of these sketches have also started to appear now. As for the frescoes that Torres García painted between 1912 and 1918, that is another story. When Prat de la Riba died, Puig i Cadafalch covered them with curtains, until in 1968 they were removed to be exhibited in another room of the Palau de la Generalitat that bears the painter’s name.
The murals that have begun to be removed from the Sant Jordi hall – there are 69 of them and occupy 860 m2 – will be preserved with technical guarantees in a deposit of the Generalitat.
Originally, when it was a chapel, this noble room was spacious and bright, with plastered stone walls. Once the murals have been removed, a temporary adjustment will be made with a felt coating in a light tone that will return it to its original appearance.
