The Museu de les Arts Decoratives, in English Decorative Arts Museum, is a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

opened in 1932 and located in the Palau Reial de Pedralbes in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. Created in 1932, this historic museum contains a rich and diverse collection of European decorative arts, from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution. In 1995, the museum extended its boundaries with the incorporation of design, thus converting it into the first and only statewide museum concerned with the preservation and exhibition of Spanish industrial design. The collections of the Museu de les Arts Decoratives were created from an important resource of industrial design and decorative art objects, that included salvers, carriages, furniture, wallpaper, clocks, tapestries and glasswork. Together with

Museu Tèxtil i d'Indumentària The Museu Tèxtil i d'Indumentària, in English Textile and Clothing Museum, is a museum opened on 1982 and located in the Palau Reial de Pedralbes in Barcelona. The museum possesses countless objects and pieces of major artistic and historical va ...

and the Gabinet de les Arts Gràfiques is part of the

Disseny Hub Barcelona The Museu del Disseny de Barcelona (Catalan, English: "Barcelona Design Museum"), is a center for Barcelona's Institute of Culture, which works to promote better understanding and good use of the design world, acting as a museum and laboratory. It ...

Palau Reial de Pedralbes

The palace has its origins in the old Masia ( mas or farmer's house) de Can Feliu, from the 17th century.Jardins del Palau de Pedralbes
/ref> The corresponding land was acquired by the count

Eusebi Güell Eusebi Güell i Bacigalupi, 1st Count of Güell (; 15 December 1846 – 8 July 1918) was a Catalan entrepreneur who profited greatly from the industrial revolution in Catalonia in the late 19th century. He married Luisa Isabel Lopez y Bru —a d ...

, along with the neighbouring Can Cuiàs de la Riera. Together they formed the Finca Güell, an extensive parcel of land (30,000 m²). The Can Feliu building was remodeled by the architect Joan Martorell i Montells, who built a Caribbean-style small palace, together with a Gothic-style chapel and surrounded by magnificent gardens. Later the building remodeling was given to Antoni Gaudí, together with the construction of a surrounding perimeter wall and the side entry pavilions. Gaudí also partially designed the gardens surrounding the palace, placing two fountains and a pergola and planted many Mediterranean plants like

palm tree The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm ...

cypress tree Cypress is a common name for various coniferous trees or shrubs of northern temperate regions that belong to the family Cupressaceae. The word ''cypress'' is derived from Old French ''cipres'', which was imported from Latin ''cypressus'', the la ...

s, magnolias,

pine trees A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garde ...

and

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as e ...

. The Font d'Hércules (

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the ...

fountain) still exists today on site, restored in 1983;Font Hércules by Gaudí
/ref> it has a bust of Hercules on top of a pillar with

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...

's shield and a spout in the shape of a

Chinese dragon The Chinese dragon, also known as ''loong'', ''long'' or ''lung'', is a legendary creature in Chinese mythology, Chinese folklore, and Chinese culture at large. Chinese dragons have many animal-like forms such as turtles and fish, but are most ...

. In the Palau Reial de Pedralbes (

Diagonal In geometry, a diagonal is a line segment joining two vertices of a polygon or polyhedron, when those vertices are not on the same edge. Informally, any sloping line is called diagonal. The word ''diagonal'' derives from the ancient Greek δ� ...

, 686) are placed the DHUB Museums, and you can visit the permanent exhibitions of

and a permanent exhibition of the Museu de les Arts Decoratives which later will be passed to the building of Glòries.

History

The museum opened in 1932 at the Palau Reial de Pedralbes. Its origin, however, dates back to 1888, following the

Exposition Exposition (also the French for exhibition) may refer to: *Universal exposition or World's Fair * Expository writing ** Exposition (narrative) * Exposition (music) *Trade fair A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade e ...

held in

. Upon completion of this event, the city council thought of bringing together different collections of cultural and museum open several centers.museos/museo-de-las-artes-decorativas DHUB
Museo de las Artes Decorativas Thus, in 1902 created the Museu d'Art Decoratiu i Arqueològic in the old arsenal of the Ciutadella, consisting of a set of heterogeneous collections. The Barcelona architect and councilor at the time, Josep Puig, designed and planned the museum at all levels, from assembly to the windows museofràfic containing objects. In 1932, the Museum of Decorative Art and Archaeological underwent a complete restructuring and was dismantled. The collections were moved to

Montjuïc Montjuïc () is a hill in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Etymology Montjuïc translates to "Jewish Mountain" from medieval Latin and Catalan, and remains of a medieval Jewish cemetery have been found there. Some sources suggest that Montjuïc ...

to constitute, on the one hand, the

National Art Museum of Catalonia The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (, English: "National Art Museum of Catalonia"), abbreviated as MNAC, is a museum of Catalan visual art located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Situated on Montjuïc hill at the end of Avinguda de la Reina Ma ...

and the other, the Museum of Archaeology of Catalonia. Objects not included either in the category of Fine Arts or the archaeological material, were taken to the Palace of Pedralbes by decision of the Junta de Museus, a board decision committee, thus forming the current Museum Decorative Arts. In 1936, with the outbreak of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

, the museum was closed and moved his background in Olot to ensure its protection during the conflict. After the war, the Pedralbes Palace became the residence of Barcelona's new head of state,

Francisco Franco Bahamonde Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War and thereafter ruled over Spain from 193 ...

, so that the Museum of Decorative Arts lost his seat. In 1949, the museum reopened in a new location, the Palace Virreina, which organized the exhibition spaces in a similar way as they were in the previous location. During this period, the museum collection grew considerably with the addition of various collections, as the lot of furniture from the collection of Matias Muntadas, or furniture work of Francesc Vidal from the collection Bertrand i Mata. In 1985, however, it was decided a new municipal use for Virreina, and the Museum of Decorative Arts had to shut the doors again. The collections were moved back to the Palace of Pedralbes and stored in this building reserves for a decade. In 1995, the museum reopened to the public, recovering the exhibition spaces of the Palace of Pedralbes and incorporating as an important new collection of industrial design Spanish. Currently, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Pedralbes share its location with

and the Gabinet de les Arts Gràfiques, an office of Graphic Arts, with which it forms part of the

. These collections are expected to move to a new headquarters being built in the Plaça de les Glòries of Barcelona.

Exhibits

; From the One-off Object to Product Design The permanent exhibition of the Museu de les Arts Decoratives presents a chronological itinerary in two parts. The first part demonstrates the evolution of objets d'art from the Romanesque to

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

, and with an emphasis on

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

production, it also shows the birth of product design during the Industrial Revolution in Occidental Europe. The majority of objects in the exhibition were designed for personal use and as such, have been presented in a way that illustrates everyday life and production processes (both artisanal and industrial), from the 19th century onward. At the museum, you will find furniture from wealthy, affluent homes, including wedding chests, beds, chairs and vanities, as well as a variety of common-use objects such as tableware, fans and watches. The second part of the exhibit focuses on the development of product design, with the presentation of 442 pieces that form a representative sample of industrial design in Spain. Conceptually the exhibition follows the journey of a designed product by socially contextualizing it in Barcelona, specifically and more generally throughout Spain.From the One-off Object to Product Design

Palau Reial de Pedralbes

History

Exhibits

References

Further reading