Archaeology, Archival Practices and National Identities in the Iconographic Repertoire of Spain (1915–1929)

Abstract

Archaeology was central to the research and public policies of the Mancomunitat de Catalunya, an administrative commonwealth that led Catalonia between 1914 and 1923. While some aspects of this connection, such as the interplay between archaeology and Catalan nationalism and the contribution of the archaeologist Pere Bosch Gimpera are well known, other key developments of the period remain largely unstudied. This is the case of the Iconographic Repertoire of Spain, an archive set up in 1915 by the architects and art historians Josep Puig i Cadafalch and Jeroni Martorell with the purpose of visually documenting Spain’s art history. This article fills this gap by exploring the political and epistemological significance of archaeological research and of archaeological “photo-objects” in the making of the Repertoire. In particular, it discusses the role of Iberian culture within the Repertoire; the setting up of a nation-wide archive from a peripheral location such as Barcelona; and the connection of the Repertoire to the utopia of the “total photo archive”.