03 — ARTWORK
Exterior view
BERENGUER DE MONTAGUT · 1384 →
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COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
The parish church of Santa María del Mar was considered the church of seafarers and merchants, who sailed the seven seas and conquered foreign lands under her patronage. The construction was begun in 1329 and the church was consecrated in 1384. The first architect was Berenguer de Montagut. He was succeeded by Ramon Despuig, then Guillem Metge, who died before the building was consecrated.
Like most churches of Catalan GothicGothic, which may well have originated with Alberti as a derogatory term and which certainly corresponds to Vasari's 'maniera tedesca' ('German style'), is properly the descriptive term for an artistic style which achieved its first full flowering in the Ile de France and the surrounding areas in the period between c. 1200 and c. 1270, and which then spread throughout northern Europe. It is characterized by the hitherto unprecedented integration of the arts of sculpture, painting, stained glass and architecture which is epitomized in the great cathedrals of Chartres, Amiens, and Reims or in the Sainte Chapelle in Paris. In all the arts the predominantly planar forms of the Romanesque are replaced by an emphasis on line. There is a transcendental quality, whether in the soaring forms of the pointed arches or in the new stress on the humanity of Christ, which similarly distinguishes it from the preceding Romanesque style. In thinking of Nicola (d. c. 1284) or Giovanni Pisano (d. after 1314) there is same danger of forgetting what had happened in French sculpture half a century or more earlier, and likewise it is hard to remember that the spectacular achievements of early Renaissance art are a singularly localized eddy in the continuing stream of late gothic European art. By northern European standards few Italian works of art can be called gothic without qualification, and the story of 13th and 14th century Italian architecture is as much one of resistance to the new style as of its reception, whether directly from France or through German or central European intermediaries. In sculpture and in painting, the Italian reluctance to distort the human figure, conditioned by a never wholly submerged awareness of the omnipresent antique heritage, gives a special quality to the work of even those artists such as Giovanni Pisano or Simone Martini who most closely approached a pure gothic style. Nevertheless, the vitalizing role of Northern gothic art throughout the early Renaissance and the period leading up to it should never be underestimated. The artistic, like the cultural and commercial, interaction was continuous and much of the Italian achievement is incomprehensible if seen in isolation. It is not merely at the level of direct exchanges between one artist and another, or the influence of one building; painting, manuscript or piece of sculpture upon another, that the effects are to be felt. The streaming quality of line which is so characteristic of Brunelleschi's early Renaissance architecture surely reflects a sensitivity to the gothic contribution which is entirely independent of, and lies much deeper than, the superficial particularities of form. The counterflow of influence and inspiration from South to North must likewise not be underrated. In particular, the contribution of Italian painters from Duccio and Simone Martini onwards is central to the evolution of the so-called International Gothic style developing in Burgundy, Bohemia and north Italy in the late 14th and early 15th centuries., the exterior of Santa María del Mar is compact and plain. The brick walls are articulated by only two off-sets and flying buttresses emerge from the heavy building only at the level of the upper story. Even the west front is sober, giving no indication that it conceals one of the grandest of Gothic interiors.
The interior is overwhelming, not least because of the striking contrast with the narrow alleys of the Barrio de la Ribera district of Barcelona where the church is located. Broad, harmonious proportions and subtle natural lighting lend the space an almost celestial sublimity. It is unadorned: plain octagonal piers support the vaultA roof or ceiling whose structure is based on the arch. There are a wide range of forms, including the barrel (or tunnel) vault, formed by a continuous semi-circular arch; the groin vault, formed when two barrel vaults intersect; and the rib vault, consistong of a framework of diagonal ribs supporting interlocking arches. The development of the various forms was of great structural and aesthetic importance in the development of church architecture during the Middle Ages., and the moldings are reduced to the minimum mass so that the architecture can speak for itself.
View the <a href="#" onClick="w=window.open ('/support/plans/b/berengue/del_mar.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=400,height=600');w.opener=this;w.focus();return false">ground plan</a> of Santa María del Mar, Barcelona.
OTHER WORKS BY BERENGUER DE MONTAGUT
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-r68a0ff5fc7f09c,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {Exterior view by BERENGUER DE MONTAGUT},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-13},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/berenguer-de-montagut-r44b9f63e8ff060/exterior-view-r68a0ff5fc7f09c},
urldate = {2026-09-13},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-13. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.