Page 249 - The mystery of faith

Unfortunately, our appreciation of these works by both Joan and Francesc Grau has been severely
limited by the destruction and lootings suffered by the monastery, in particular after the
Desamortización. The cámaras and sepulchres were shattered and those pieces that were rescued
suffered severe damage when they were reconstituted into the fictional sepulchre of King Jaume I in the
Cathedral of Tarragona (1856). Other sculptures lay orphaned and forgotten within the cathedral
grounds. Eventually, a significant part of them were recovered and given back to the monastery, during
a long process of restoring and ‘refounding’ this institution. They are now exhibited in specific places,
like the Capilla de las Reliquias, the nave of Santa María de Poblet, and in the monastery museum.2

When one considers the vicissitudes suffered by Graus’s sculptures at Cardona and Poblet, it would
appear likely that the present work, with its obvious funerary theme, was originally connected to one
of these commissions. This hypothesis is further supported by the evidence – noted by Eduard Toda –
remarking on the fragments from the cámaras and royal sepulchres that surface on the art market.
However, this contended ‘evidence’, despite its apparent logic, has increasingly been doubted by more
recent scholars. Besides, we have only to look at the drawings made by the French antiquarian,
Alexandre de Laborde (1773–1842), which record the original configurations of the works at Poblet,
in order to obtain a vague idea of its original splendour. Moreover, the preserved fragments in the
monastery also give a clear idea of the original appearance of the majority of the sepulchral structures
carved by the Graus, the only exception being the tomb of the Infante Enrique, which is apparently lost
in its entirety. Looking at this evidence, therefore, it appears less likely that the present fragment fits
into any of these groups, and, for the time being at least, the precise origin of the present work remains
a mystery. However, the work does fit comfortably, both thematically and stylistically, with the
sculptures at Poblet, and with those connected with the ducal tomb at Sant Vicenç of Cardona, which
was dismantled and which eventually surfaced piecemeal on the antiquarian market.

1 For an overview of the biography, work and sculptural addition to Bosch’s general overview, one should also
language of Joan Grau, see the reference bibliography in J. examine studies that go to the root of this subject, including:
BOSCH BALLBONA, Els tallers d’escultura al Bages del segle R. DEL ARCO, Sepulcros de la Casa Real de Aragón, Madrid
XVII, Caixa d’Estalvis de Manresa, Manresa 1990, pp. 1945; C. MARTINELL, ‘La casa de Cardona y sus obras en
57–78, 178–229. Additionally, in the last few years various Poblet’, in Estudios históricos y documentos de los Archivos
authors have made enriching contributions towards our de Protocolos, 1949, vol. II, pp. 53–119; and J. M.
understanding of this artist, including C. SALA, El retaule de MADURELL I MARIMÓN, La obra de las cámaras sepulcrales
la Puríssima Concepció de Pujalt, Pujalt 1995; J. YEGUAS, de Poblet y la casa de Cardona, Barcelona 1955.
‘Martiri de sant Joan Baptista’, in J. BOSCH BALLBONa (ed.), 2 For a discussion of this monastery’s turbulent history, from
Alba Daurada. L’art del retaule a Catalunya: 1600–1792 its desamortización up to and including its restoration, see
ca., Museu d’Art de Girona, Generalitat de Catalunya, E. TODA, La destrucción de Poblet 1800–1900, Poblet 1935;
Barcelona 2006, pp. 186–189; and J. BOSCH BALLBONA, ‘Els J. BASSEGODA NONELL, La restauración de Poblet, Poblet
Grau i l’escultura del segle XVII a la Catalunya de Ponent’, 1983. For information on the dispersion and reconstitution
in Locus Amoenus, 2005–2006, vol. VIII, pp. 147–163. The of the rest of these works, see A. DURAN I SANPERE, ‘Les
bibliography refers to the interventions of Cardona in escultures de Poblet, a Poblet’, in Butlletí dels Museus d’Art
Poblet, a subject which deserves a chapter to itself. In de Barcelona, Barcelona 1934, vol. IV, pp. 153–163.

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