The Corpus Christi Procession Leaving the Church of Santa Maria del Mar

The Corpus Christi Procession Leaving the Church of Santa Maria del Mar is an oil painting by Ramon Casas painted in 1898 in Barcelona and currently in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona.

The Corpus Christi Procession Leaving the Church of Santa Maria del Mar
Artist	Ramon Casas
Year	1896-1898
Type	Oil painting
Dimensions	115.5 cm × 196 cm (45.5 in × 77 in)
Location	Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona

In 1896, an anarchist attacked the Corpus Christi procession, which had left the Church of Santa Maria del Mar of Barcelona, killing twelve people and created panic in the city. The fact was part of the turbulent social landscape in the Catalonia of the early 20th century, dominated by anarchist bombings like this or that had taken place in Gran Teatre del Liceu four years earlier.

Casas chooses to paint the time of departure of the procession from the church, before passing on the Canvis Nous street, where the attack took place.

Style

As in his work El garrot vil, the scene is framed from a perspective of height and the painter delights in the play of colors and festive banners, apricots hung from balconies and the veils of girls dressed in their first Communion gowns accompanying the procession, alluding elliptically shaped into chaos and despair that will occur soon after and what their characters are outsiders. The technique, very loose, rapid brushwork and lightly loaded material, is typical of small format paintings, but it is much more difficult to implement in a painting of this size. Casas applies, once again, with great daring, the resources of modern painting in a genre that seemed forbidden.

References

• Doñate, Mercè; Mendoza, Cristina: Ramon Casas. El pintor del modernisme. MNAC. 2001. ISBN 84-8043-077-X
• The Corpus Christi Procession Leaving the Church of Santa Maria