Figurative Sculpture: La Diosa (The Goddess) - Barcelona, Spain

La Diosa 

(The Goddess)

Barcelona, Spain

N 41° 23.188 E 002° 10.206

Short Description: 

The Goddess is displayed in a shallow pool on the south side of the Plaça de Cataluña in Barcelona, Spain.

Long Description:

The Goddess was created by the Catalan sculptor Josep Clarà i Ayats in 1909. A life size, white marble, seated figure of a nude woman rests on a square marble plinth on the north end of a shallow pool. The woman is seated on her left leg, which is folded back. Her right foot is on the plinth and her right knee is raise to support her left elbow. The top of her left hand is on her chin as she faces slightly up and to her left. Her right hand rests on the plinth by her side in front of her right foot.

In 1910 the sculpture was displayed at in the National Exhibition of Madrid and was awarded the first place medal for sculpture. In 1911 the sculpture was awarded the gold medal in an International Exhibition of Amsterdam.

La Diosa was originally located in the Plaça de Catalunya. It was was moved to the lobby of the Casa de la Ciudad de Barcelona and a copy of the original La Diosa by the sculptor Ricard Sala is now in the Plaça de Catalunya.

In 1940, José Francés,the Director General of the Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid, described the sculpture in a speech:

"The Goddess is the passionately sensual exaltation of form. All of it is as if gathered in a rapture of beauty, in sound paganism. It speaks of the classical canons with new words and unpublished criteria. The ancient world is latent in the sweet grace of the attitude, in that easy and clear line that insinuates and recovers the masses. In the pure face there is as the absorption of remote and happy evocations; In the intimate, voluptuous calm with which the members unite without the least anatomical violence, with the happy simplicity of the verses of a perfect stanza, awaits a future freedom of dance. In the torso, strong and delicate at the same time, with the pompous splendor of the breasts capable of breastfeeding demigods and heroes, life is felt to circulate."