Great day in Girona

The Great Day of Girona, by the painter Ramon Martí Alsina, is exhibited in the Josep Irla Auditorium of the Generalitat de Catalunya, in the Antic Hospital de Santa Caterina. With exceptional dimensions (5.40 x 11.90 m), it is the largest painting painted in Catalonia. The work narrates the victory of the city of Girona over the Napoleonic army in September 1809. The painting becomes a tool to delve deeper into historical episodes and how they are interpreted and exalted by artists. This activity proposes an exercise in attentive observation and reflection around a single work of art. Through techniques such as slow looking (conscious or attentive observation) and visual thinking strategies (VTS), the students will be the protagonists of the activity and based on their deductions about what they see, the story will be built to discover the mysteries of the largest painting in Catalonia. Questions such as why it is preserved today in the Old Hospital of Santa Caterina, why it is not signed or what it was doing in the warehouses of the National Museum for years will be answered. But topics such as the events of the French War, the sieges of Girona and the plastic and compositional analysis of the work will also be discussed.