I admit, I’m not an art buff. We went to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, because I wanted to show the kids the Guernica (they were not impressed).
But a few rooms over I noticed a really striking sculpture. Except I failed to write down the title or the name of the artist, whom I never heard of before. Luckily, thanks to #AskACurator day on Twitter, I now know that it is a sculpture by Pablo Gargallo, titled Grand prophète (Great Prophet).
I did a bit of Googling about Gargallo, and apparently Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía is not the only one who has this sculpture.
There is a large version of it at an art park in Antwerp, Belgium, called the Middleheim Museum.
The featured image at the top of this post was taken by a photographer going by the name of Zoagli on Flickr. You can see on the right another photo by Zoagli showing the full sculpture.
Photographer Philippe Rose posted several very striking photographs of the sculpture in Middleheim to his blog post “Pablo Gargallo – The Prophet – Middleheim Antwerp.” Do click on the link and take a look at the photos.
The Middleheim Museum notes on their site that,
A total of seven casts were made of this work.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, in Baltimore, Maryland, has a large version this sculpture as well.
According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, Musée National d’Art Moderne (National Museum of Modern Art) in Paris, France, has a copy too, but the museum is nowadays called The Centre Pompidou.
Plus I found a very blurry photo someone posted of the same sculpture standing in the courtyard of Museo Pablo Gargallo in Zaragoza, Spain.
So where are the remaining two Great Prophets? I couldn’t find that information. Please do leave a comment, if you know.
The Antwerp’s sculpture seems to be the tallest, but Baltimore is the closest right now. Maybe we should take a road trip. 🙂 Or just wait till our travels take us to Belgium.
Invitation to the #WeekendWanderlust Link Up
#WeekendWanderlust, hosted by Chris & Heather from A Brit and a Southerner, Jessi & Tara from Outbound Adventurer, Ashley from A Southern Gypsy, Justin and Lauren from Justin Plus Lauren, and yours truly, is a collaborative effort to share travel blog posts, and to discuss all travel-related things.
The hosts organize each week a link up through which travel bloggers from around the world can promote their posts, in exchange for a promise to give some attention to other travel bloggers. (One of the rules for linking up is to comment on three linked up posts.)
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It’s funny how there’s are casts of the same work all over the globe (Like The Thinker)….
Thank you for reading, Lydia! From what I understand, those casts are different sizes. I’d love to see some of the big ones 🙂
Sorry, I don’t know where the two remaining Great Prophets currently reside. I do love checking out art and sculptures on our travels though, so I’ll let you know if I come across either of them 🙂
Lyndall @ Seize The Day Project recently posted…A rainy day in Venice
Thank you for reading and the promise, Lyndall! I’d love to see the large version of the sculpture some day.
There is a version at the open air sculpture park Hakone Japan. I first saw the one at the Pompadou centre