Hortus conclusus
The hortus conclusus, or closed garden, is the subject of the new installation of works from the Permanent Collection in the Museum’s Balcony Gallery on the first floor. Curated by Tomàs Llorens, this exhibition brings together twelve works that reveal the echo of this concept in the history of European painting.
From early Medieval works, based on the Christian interpretation of the Song of Songs, to the diverse artistic movements of the 19th century, this literary concept has been expressed in a range of different ways. Sixteenth-century depictions of the Garden of Eden, the depiction of gardens, which reached its high point in the nineteenth century with Monet and Frieseke, and the variety of still-life and floral paintings to be found throughout the history of painting all share this echo of the original closed garden, the lost Garden of Eden.
