Amelia Cuñat Monleón

Amelia Cuñat Monleón (Valencia, 1878-1946)

Amelia Cuñat Monleón was a Valencian collector, drawing artist and ceramicist. The daughter of Vicente Luis Cuñat Caruana and Teresa Monleón Rimbau, she belonged to a family actively involved in culture and the arts in Valencia. Her maternal grandfather was Sebastián Monleón Estellés, the architect who designed the bullring in Valencia and owner of the San Pío V tiles factory. On the death of his first wife, Sebastián remarried with Rafaela Rimbau Sáez, a widowed actress from Madrid. Amelia Cuñat’s uncles, the offspring of Sebastián Monleón’s first marriage, were Juan Monleón Torres, owner of the aforementioned factory from 1878 to 1898, and Rafael Monleón Torres, a painter specialized in seascapes. Rafaela Rimbau, on the other hand, was the mother of the writer Enrique Gaspar, a son from her first marriage to Juan Gaspar. The cultural interests and activities of her stepbrothers surely influenced Teresa Monleón Rimbau who passed on to her own children, Rafael, the owner of the San Pío V factory from 1902 to 1904, and Amelia, her hobbies and intellectual pursuits. [1]

In fact, it was more than likely that it was Amelia Cuñat who conveyed her passion for ceramics to Manuel González Martí (1877-1972), both through study and collecting. The couple were married on 30 May 1904 in the basilica of Our Lady of the Forsaken in Valencia, with Teresa Monleón Rimbau, widowed since 1880, and Emilio González, father of the groom, as the sponsors. [2]

González Martí was a teacher, secretary (1916-1922) and finally the director of the Manises School of Ceramics from 1922 to 1947. As recounted in the entry in Guía de los Museos de España dedicated to the National Museum of Ceramics (1964), Amelia Cuñat accompanied her husband to the school every evening for night classes as yet another student. [3] In 1932 she was appointed as an assistant in the History of Ceramics class. [4] Amelia Cuñat built a small workshop at home where she made pieces of ceramics.

The museum possesses eleven works by Amelia Cuñat, one of which is co-authored with the sculptor José Capuz Mamano. Among these works are six shaped pieces (vases and plates), four plaque or tile panels and one relief work. Stylistically, Amelia Cuñat was inspired by the art movements of her time such as Art Deco, as one can see in the plate with the bird on view in the Modernismo room (CE1/04068), as well as by decorative styles and themes handed down through the Spanish ceramic tradition. At the same time, in one plate (CE1/08875) she depicts the oriental motif of the tree of life or hom with a central trunk and two birds on either side. The motif of the female figure used to decorate the vase on view on the first floor (CE1/08890) is inspired by medieval ceramics: a front-facing woman with a stylized body wearing a voluminous, striped skirt, her arms extended outward, at times reaching to her feet. She also used the ancient techniques within the historicist context of the production coming from Manises in the early-twentieth century. The use of metallic lustre, a hallmark of the golden age of fifteenth-century Manises ceramics, combined with cobalt blue, can be seen in this jug inspired by Malaga-style vessels from the fifteenth century. (CE1/03617). Technically speaking, Amelia Cuñat used traditional techniques such as cuerda seca (dry cord), arista (raised line), and cuenca (cupped), as well as entubado (tubat), a modern piping technique derived from those earlier methods.

Amelia Cuñat was also inspired by works by other artists such as Bust of Old Woman (Old Woman from Castile), 1935, a copy of the sculpture by Mateo Inurria and probably decorated by S. Rives, whose signature it bears. The scene of the ceramic plaque (CE1/08878) is a copy of El guitarrista, the print by Mariano Fortuny.

Cuñat Monleón’s talent for drawing is patent in the 394 drawings of tiles conserved at the museum, made to illustrate González Martí’s book Cerámica del Levante Español (1944), in which she actively collaborated. The Autograph book of Miss Amelia Cuñat Monleón, conserved in the museum’s library includes 172 signatures by authors, composers and artists with dedications to both the owner of the book and her husband González Martí.[5] Between 1897 and 1948, such well-known celebrities as Ignacio Pinazo, Miguel de Unamuno and Vicente Blasco Ibáñez left their mark on this wonderful document, bound in goatskin with gilt tooling, a raised bronze plaque on the cover and silk moiré endpapers. The book was on public view for many years at the museum, with its pages protected by clear plastic covers [6].

Amelia Cuñat died in 1946 and, in the absence of direct heirs, González Martí decided to donate to the Spanish State their joint collection, which became the cornerstone of the National Museum of Ceramics, founded on 7 February 1947.

[1] Mas Zurita, E. (2022). “Los ancestros de Amelia Cuñat y Monleón (Valencia, 1878-1946)”. Revista Descendientes, 7, p. 24.

[2] Mas Zurita, E. (2022). “Los ancestros de Amelia Cuñat y Monleón (Valencia, 1878-1946)”. Revista Descendientes, 7, p. 25.

[3] Coll Conesa, J. (2021). “Amelia Cuñat y Monleón (1878-1946), fundadora del Museo Nacional de Cerámica.” La Gaceta de Folchi, 44, p. 28.

[4] Mas Zurita, E. (2024). “En torno a Amelia Cuñat y Monleón”. Majòlica, 1, p. 205.

[5] Mas Zurita, E. (2024). “En torno a Amelia Cuñat y Monleón.” Majòlica, 1, p. 207.

[6] Estrela, T. (2004). “La biblioteca González Martí, secciones generales y la documentación de archivo para la historia del Palacio y del Museo Nacional de Cerámica de Valencia.” 50 años (1954-2004). Museo Nacional de Cerámica en el Palacio de Dos Aguas, Ministerio de Cultura, p. 274.

Liliane Inés Cuesta Davignon