CHASING ILLUSION, Miquel Blay 1902

CHASING ILLUSION, Miquel Blay 1902

In this masterpiece, Miquel Blay wanted to represent the sculptor’s struggle with inspiration to achieve his artistic ideal. To differentiate the real world from the symbolic, the sculptor has chosen to combine two different materials in a single work. Thus, the figure of the artist, who appears naked and with a vigorous anatomy, has been molded with a very dark bronze that contrasts with the almost transparent whiteness of the marble with which Blay has cut the female figure that represents the inspiration. To highlight that this figure represents an ideal, a dream, and not a real woman, the author finished it with the sfumatto technique, which gives it an unfinished and evanescent appearance.

Chasing Illusion is one of the most original works of Catalan art of the time, since the combination of materials as disparate as bronze and marble was not an unusual solution.