Art profà i vida quotidiana entorn a 1400: els inventaris barcelonins

Abstract

Based on the detailed analysis of a series of Barcelona house inventories from the XV century, the aim of this work is to establish the artistic preferences of that society of the advanced Gothic. The selected inventories have been those from rich houses, most of them belonging to merchants, since they accumulate the greatest richness of objects with decoration. The description of coffers and caskets of different size and use often appears in these inventories, as well as, that of tapestry and paintings with profane subjects in their decoration. Literary subjects, historical and mainly those extracted from the daily life (gallant scenes, hunting, music) were the preferred ones. Most of the tapestry came from the North of France and from the Low Countries, mainly from the city of Arrás. Coffers and caskets were made by local workshops but some of them were imported from Italy or France. These objects, located in the richest houses from Barcelona, have allowed a deeper knowledge of an artistic world from which, however, its materiality has been lost. Likewise, the verification of the object existence through the consulted inventories allows the diffusion of the international Gothic to be corroborated.