of Sagrada Familia, Details of architectural decoration forms.
Gaudí’s buildings for Güell illustrate the religious and utopian vision that the architect and his patron shared. The medieval world view evoked by Gaudí’s work is also encountered in the allusions to palaces and castles of his domestic architecture for his wealthy patrons, the factory and the warehouse having become the modern fiefdoms. Although today discussion of such utopian ideals might appear naïve to modern visitors, their evocation in stone, space and light remains powerful. Another aspect of Gaudí’s traditional outlook is noted in the way he organised his workshop with its many craftsmen. In addition to the emphasis placed on the use of manual skills, Gaudí maintained long working relationships with a range of architects such as Berenguer or Jujol, who both went on to become important independent architects in their own right.
As well as his equals in terms of education, Gaudí commanded respect from all of his team of assistants and he is recorded as being a strict but fair overseer. His paternalistic attitudes are noted for example in his encouragement of the workers not to drink alcohol and the allotting of lighter duties for the elder workers. A detailed study of the religious circles Gaudí frequented during his life remains to be undertaken. An additional association he was connected with was the Cercle Artístic de Sant Lluc. St Luke is the traditional patron saint of painters and this group, founded in 1894 by the sculptor Josep Lilmona, sought to promote Catholic art, as well as to counter the immoral avant-garde activities of Barcelona’s modernista artists, such as Picasso. Gaudí became a member in 1899.
It is apparent that art was a fiercely contested space in Barcelona between those wanting to preserve tradition and their adversaries wanting to overthrow it. A number of caricatures explicitly parody Gaudí’s religious beliefs, including a drawing by Picasso. In any case, a cautious approach is required to focus more closely on the relationships between Gaudí and Barcelona’s Catholic intellectual fraternity.
Gaudí’s famed individualism and his artistic vision mediated his contact with ideas. Firstly, he took his personal devotion very seriously, especially on reaching middle age. In 1894, during Lent, he subjected himself to a complete fast and was confined to bed. By then his fame as an architect was such that the local newspapers carried reports of his progress. In addition, accounts suggest that his conservative views could also be critical and his personal austerity, combined with his benevolent concern for the poor, prompted a critical stance of the Church.
Thus Gaudí’s own independent thought serves to remind us that it was in his workshop with his architects and craftsmen that he designed, forged and carved his response to theology as well as to the nationalistic concerns of Catalan culture.
Gaudí’s Death and Barcelona’s Tributes to his Life
One way to measure Gaudí’s public recognition is the response to his death. He was killed as a result of an accident. On Monday 7 June 1926, after a day’s work in the workshop of the Sagrada Familia, he set off on foot, as was his custom, across the city to the Church of San Felipe Neri to attend confession. He was never to arrive. In the inquiry into his death the driver of a tram reported that he had hit a man who appeared to be a tramp, and that he had been unable to slow down.
The tramp-like figure was none other than Gaudí! After the accident he was assisted by two passers-by and the Guardia Civil, who eventually took him to a nearby dispensary. This after being refused assistance from several taxi drivers due to the appearance of the victim.
As a result of being knocked over by the tram Gaudí suffered fractured ribs, cerebral contusions and hemorrhaging in his ear. He was taken to hospital, yet he remained unidentified. The failure to identify Gaudí may be explained by the fact that his personal austerity had become such that he rarely changed his clothes, which were recognisable to his peers.
Although his appearance and clothes had been the subject of caricatures in the press, when seen in the grave context of a hospital and not set against the backdrop of the Sagrada Familia, his image rendered him anonymous.
However, Gaudí had not been forgotten. His friend Mossèn Gil Parés became concerned by his absence and that evening began looking for the architect in Barcelona’s hospitals. He was found in the Santa Cruz hospital.
After he was recognised he was moved to a private room and the following day he regained consciousness. The news spread and Gaudí was visited by friends, official representatives of Church and State and others who wanted to show their respect for the architect.
As well as these displays of recognition for the man and his work, Gaudí’s final days were also a display of his faith and political sentiments. He was given the sacrament of the Last Rites, and as he lay in bed awaiting death he held a crucifix. He had been offered a private clinic rather than the public hospital. Nevertheless he insisted that he remain and end his life amongst the people.
Gaudí died on Thursday 10 June. His passing was marked by a funeral that honoured his contribution to the traditions and faith of the Catalan people. Papal permission was acquired to bury him in the crypt of the Sagrada Familia, and the funeral took place on the Saturday.
The procession that followed his coffin to its final resting place testified to the architect’s importance and recognition among the different areas of society: it included politicians from Barcelona as well as his native town of Reus; representatives of the Church; members of the religious and cultural associations to which he had belonged and to which he had contributed to, and many of the craftsmen from the city-workers’ guilds also attended.
In this way the passion and commitment that Gaudí had shown in the different aspects of his life and work were all commemorated.
19. Güell Crypt, Stained glass window.
Gaudí’s Barcelona
Gaudí and the Architecture of his Day
20. Casa Vicens, Tower detail.
Gaudí’s support for Catalan nationalism combined with his dedication to the Catholic faith, were important social and cultural factors that informed his work as an architect. These aspects of Gaudí’s work can be examined in more detail, through an analysis of the development of a modern discourse and practice of architecture in Barcelona. Integral to these developments was Barcelona’s national and spiritual identity. Both had evolved over the course of long histories spanning centuries, however in the nineteenth-century they were given renewed vigour and, what is more, became closely linked.
At the heart of this cultural change was the growing industrial strength and economic wealth of Barcelona and Catalonia as a whole. Architecture provided a key medium for individuals and the city to define a modern identity and express the new found optimism the modern era promised. This chapter locates Gaudí and his work amidst his contemporaries, and seeks to view him less as an isolated genius, instead as a man of his times whose work sought to embody many of the ideals of Barcelona as an historical, spiritual and modern city.
The following discussion combines discussion of historical and theoretical themes with an analysis of a series of works by Gaudí. Some of these are designs on paper and were never built or are now lost, while others are completed buildings. The intention is to provide a general introduction to Gaudí and Barcelona as the nineteenth-century merged into the twentieth, however it is also centred around the statement of Juan Bassegoda Nonell that,
“When discussing Gaudí one cannot distinguish the concepts of architect, interior decorator, designer, painter or artisan. He was all of these things
