Astronomer

Lluís M. Saumells (Gironella, 1915 - Tarragona, 1999) gave astronomers’ names to a series of figures he produced from 1954, which were characterised by the representation of a male figure, standing and looking at the sky, abstracted in the infinite. The torso is configured in regressive ascension, with full and muscular lower limbs, while the head and shoulders are smaller in dimension.

Thales refers to the Greek sage, Thales of Miletus (Miletus, 635 BC - c. 545 BC), the astronomer who acted in a pre-scientific way, in other words, without the use of apparatus such as a telescope for his studies, instead using his own eyes to observe the firmament.

This flamboyant sculpture, in the way that its svelte and elongated torso ascends towards the sky, has a markedly spiritual character, with a connection with the sublime. Thales observed the firmament trying to understand the laws that governed it and, without any artifice, faced the universe with his own means, longing to discover its hidden secrets.

Saumells projects himself in this work and it is worth noting the physical similarities the author possesses with his sculptures.

The sculptor produced several different versions of the astronomer figure, sometimes represented alone and sometimes in a group. In the Gardens of Reconciliation in Tarragona, we can find the Monumento a Thales (Monument to Thales), a bronze sculpture 3.5m in height which Saumells produced in 1977 as a commission for a company from Alcalá de Henares, now owned by BASF, who donated it to this city.