The rise of mass consumption would forever transform the concept of art. Until the 1940s, avant-garde art had been associated with conceptual or expressive depth, and was destined for the delight of an elite cultured. Despite wanting to be anti-bourgeois, many breakthrough movements end up being highly elitist, an art for initiates.

Pop Art, although it was born in England (the starting gun was given by Richard Hamilton with his humorous collage “What makes today’s homes so different, so funny?”), It was in the USA that it found its ideal habitat to grow.

The entry of televisions into homes, the economic boom that made the middle class prosper, the hedonistic worlds that Hollywood cinema and advertising inoculated at all hours to leave behind the aftermath of World War II …, they were the broth cultivation for a new artistic trend to triumph as no other had done: deep down, Pop Art would oppose the banal, against the artisan it would vindicate mass production, and against the philosophical seriousness it would opt for light-hearted humor.

Many of the key figures of this trend had been trained in the world of advertising: Warhol He was an illustrator for Glamor magazine and a shoe designer, James Rosenquist painted billboards… The comic book aesthetic would occupy a stellar place (as in Lichtenstein painting ), Marilyn and Jackie Kennedy would replace the painting virgins and martyrs of yesteryear, gas stations and supermarkets would be the new temples, and their tin cans their sacred icons.

The borders between high and low culture were dissolved, and since then the breakdown of hierarchies between the high and the popular continues completely in force, like so many other concepts introduced in the fifties of the last century. The current neo-pop, however, logically has its own connotations because the time is different: globalization, problems with immigration, hypercapitalism… they have given the pop aesthetic a more committed tone. The paradigmatic example of this is Banksy, who uses advertising language to criticize the stereotypes that advertising itself imposes, but also to laugh at the art world and to bring institutional violence or the drama of refugees to the table.

The creation of the Masriera firm in the mid-nineteenth century was a before and after in the field of artistic jewelry. Behind its exquisite results, materialized in exceptional jewels, there was a long journey carried out by its founder, Luis Masriera, who focused his intense training on investigating the new technical possibilities of materials, as well as exploring new creative channels to transfer the modernist movement to jewelry.

After training as an apprentice in the family workshop and expanding his studies at the Geneva School of Fine Arts, where he specialized in enamelling metals, Masriera met the goldsmith René Lalique, a powerful source of inspiration that led him to join modernism with contemporary French Art Nouveau. This is how the talent of the Catalan, added to the opportunities offered by Barcelona at the end of the century, converged in the creation of one of the most iconic jewelery firms in the world.

The delicate and masterful Masriera jewels reflected the world of fantasy and the color of modernism. His designs, inspired by the Mediterranean, the female figure and the world of dreams, ranged from floral, to mythological or animal forms. The figure of the dragonfly, the nymph or the fantastic animals became inexhaustible sources of inspiration, key in the artistic imagination of the house, always worked with exceptional techniques such as “pliqué a jour” or “basse taille”.

Saint Stephen He was a deacon and protomartyr of the Christian church, condemned to die by stoning for blasphemy. His iconography represents him during his sentence. Sometimes he simply portrays him holding stones or with a palm, both allusions to martyrdom.

For the Christian church, Saint Cecilia She is the patroness of music, instrumentalists and singers, curiously, due to a translation error from Latin. Its attributes are usually the scores and small musical instruments, the organ being the most represented.

San Lorenzo he was one of the “favorite” saints in pictorial representations. According to Christian tradition, he was sentenced to atrocious martyrdom: the young man was slowly burned on the grill.

So his infallible attributes are the embers, the grill and his youthful beardless features. It is also usually accompanied by a purse, since it is said that it distributed the church’s treasure to the poor. The phrase that is said to have been pronounced over the embers, immovable by suffering, is famous: “They have roasted me around here, turn me around.”

St Geronimo can boast of being one of the most popular sacred subjects for artists, whose myriad attributes make it extremely easy to recognize. He led his life as an anchorite (and that is why he is portrayed in the desert) dedicating himself to the translation and transcription of the Holy Scriptures (books are essential in performances). The lion is probably his best known attribute. He is generally represented as “San Jerónimo penitente”: thin, with a long beard and only a cloth on. Other times he is immortalized beating his chest with stones. He is often seen accompanied by a skull -symbol of the memento mori- and of the cardinal habit (although decidedly anachronistic).

San Francisco , of noble origin, he chose to renounce all his earthly riches to give them to the most needy. He has many attributes: the Franciscan habit, which alludes to the monastic order he founded; the crucifix and the cord of the habit (often represented with three knots, like the three vows cast by the saint) or the stigmata on the hands and feet. His humble and penitent attitude is also an identifying trait.

Saint John Baptist After a period of anacoresis, eating only honey and locusts, he embraced the path of preaching and instituted the sacrament of baptism on the banks of the Jordan River. Its most recurrent attribute is a very thin cross made of sticks and reeds and, at times, it is depicted dressed in furs. At his side there is always a lamb, in allegorical allusion to the passion of Christ, to the sacrifice of the agnus Dei.