Partial view of the Art Nouveau Hall. Photo by Orlando Barrial.
Art Nouveau proposed a total art that encompassed all the disciplines. With a clear international bent, it advocated for creative freedom, the revival of craftsmanship, the medieval and Oriental worlds and the exaltation of nature and the curved line. In Catalonia, it dovetailed with the Industrial Revolution, the rise of the bourgeoisie and the onset of the Renaixença. The dining room in the López house conserves part of the intervention by Eduard Maria Balcells, including the original hydraulic tile flooring and the stained glass windows known as the Dames de Cerdanyola (Ladies of Cerdanyola), a key piece in Catalan Art Nouveau. The Art Nouveau collection at the MAC also includes other original leaded stained glass windows from the house designed by Balcells, as well as a set of sculpture, ceramic and applied arts by some of the most famous artists and craftsmen of the period, including Josep Llimona, Lambert Escaler, Apel·les Mestres, Ramon Casas, Alexandre de Riquer, Lluís Domènech i Muntaner, Adrià Gual, Lluís Bru, Marian Burguès and Joan Vilatobà.
