Verges wants to make a stained glass window that Masó designed for the parish church in 1925

Saturday, June 22, 2024

The project to realize a stained glass window devoted to Saint Peter designed by Masó a hundred years ago is unveiled

Next June 29, Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the project to make a stained glass window dedicated to St. Peter the Apostle that Rafael Masó left sketched but was never completed will be presented at the Sala Polivalent in Verges (11 am). After the presentation, a visit will be made to the church of Verges to see the window of the nave where the stained glass is to be placed and the other interventions that Masó made there in 1925. Precisely, the intention of the promoter group is to coincide the placement of the new stained glass window with the centenary of the remodeling of Masó, in 2025.

The project is coordinated by the historian Salvador Vega, the philologist Marta Geli and the art historian Clara Silvestre, and has the collaboration of the City Council of Verges, the parish of Verges, the Bishopric, the workshop of Can Pinyonaire stained glass windows and the Rafael Masó Foundation.

At the exhibition "A Noucentista Light: Masó's Stained Glass", held at Casa Masó in 2022, the art historian Núria Gil revealed that in Masó's project for the remodeling of the church of Sant Julià and Santa Basilissa in Verges (1924-1925) there are three drawings that correspond to stained glass windows for the side windows of the nave that were never completed. One represents Saint John the Baptist, and the other two, Saint Peter. Precisely, one of those dedicated to Saint Peter is a painting made to the actual size of the stained glass window, a fact that allows us to know the colors of the glass and the composition that the architect had planned. This painting on paper is what the designer delivers to the stained glass craftsman as a full-scale model for the realization of the stained glass window. From this painting the stained glass artist Anna Santolària, from the Can Pinyonaire stained glass workshop in Girona, was able to draw up a proposal for what the final stained glass window would look like. The painting was a donation from Nausica Masó, granddaughter of the architect, to the Rafael Masó Foundation.

With this event the promoters want to publicize the project, promote knowledge of Masó's work in the church of Verges and also find the necessary funding to make the stained glass window a reality. Masó designed a large number of stained glass windows throughout his career, but those in the church of Verges seem to be the only ones for a religious building. Of the three he designed, only the large rose window on the facade, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was completed. In addition to the stained glass windows, Masó reformed and restored the interior of the church with sgraffiti that decorate the vault ribs and other ornamental elements in stone and ceramics.