Sculpture:
Evangelists
(Together with
his brother Agapit
Vallmitjana 1854)
Sant Jordi (Saint
George 1861)
Portrait of Lord Stanley and his
wife (1872)
The Agriculture (Ciutadella
Park in Barcelona 1886)
The Marine (Ciutadella
Park
in Barcelona 1886)
The Tradition (1890)
Alphonse X the Wise (Barcelona
University)
Averroes (Barcelona University)
Baby
Bust of Benet Mercadé i Fàbregas (Catalonian
Parliament in Barcelona)
Diana fountain (Gran
Via/Llúria in Barcelona)
Fígaro
Lions (2) (Hall
of Catalonian Government
Palace)
Lluís Vives (Barcelona
University)
Manola
Monastery of Montserrat façade
(Together with his brother Agapit)
Old lady
portrait
(Barcelona City Hall first floor)
Ramon Llull (Barcelona
University)
Saint Isidor (Barcelona
University)
Saint Venanci
Sketch for a statue to the queen Maria Cristina
Statue of Antoni López i López
-
Marquis of Comillas - (P.Colom
/
Via Laietana in Barcelona)
The Muse of music (Gran
Teatre
del
Liceu - Opera house - in Barcelona)
The Pietá
The Trinity
Virgin
standing with the Christ-child
Virgin lifting the Crist-child
Women (2)
(Urban Police building in Barcelona -
attributed)
Young woman at the source
Life:
Born in
Barcelona in 1826.
He studied together with his brother
Agapit in the School
of Llotja in Barcelona, as a disciple of the famous Catalonian sculptor
Damià Campeny. Being one of the school's most brilliant students, he
received the prize of Llotja in 1844.
At the outset of his artistic career, he produced small nativity scene
figures in clay in the Baroque style in collaboration with his brother
Agapit, both of whom worked from an atelier in Tapinería Street in
Barcelona.
By 1853, he had produced the statues of the evangelists for the Church of
Sant Just in Barcelona, and in 1856, he became a Professor at the School of
Llotja. A little later, he executed statues for the facade of the Bank of
Barcelona.
Having established his reputation as a sculptor, his atelier in the chapel
of Saint Àgata was visited by the most famous personalities of the day,
which resulted in him receiving further important commissions .
In 1872, together with its brother Agapit, he travelled to Manchester,
England, where they carried out the portraits of Lord and Lady Stanley. They
also visited Paris, where their work was also well received in artistic
circles.
A significant amount of his mature work was carried out in collaboration
with his brother, and it is at times difficult to identify their individual
contributions. Nevertheless, it is acknowledged that in Venanci's work there
is a greater sense of the spectacular. However, although it has general
thought by historians and commentators that his work is of a higher quality
than that of his brother, this opinion is currently being revised as a
result of the greater appreciation that is now being given to the more
formal perfection that is evident in Agapit's work.
Although the Vallmitjana brothers should be considered as academic sculptors
working in a realistic style, and therefore predating
modernism (Catalan Art Nouveau),
because the majority of their work was carried out before this style
emerged, the fact that both were teachers of famous modernist sculptors,
such as Llimona, Gargallo and
others, gives them a special importance as precursors of the style.
After the death of his younger brother Agapit in 1905, which broke the
fertile bond that ensured their collaborative success, Venanci Vallitjana i
Barbany continued to live and work in Barcelona until his death in 1919.
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| The Marine 1886 | The Agriculture 1886 | Diana |
Pantheón in Arenys de Mar Cemetery
