Panoramic view to Gaudí's World

As every man of vision, Antoni Gaudí, raised proportionally in his epoch the same level of reverie as of incomprehension. During all his life, the architect worked to make his dream come true: make the matter float and devote his work to his favorite model, nature.

Gaudí can stand as representative of certain finisecular modernity in which scientism and technological innovation converges with a reappraisal of nature and a "biological" or organic conception of the universe. Gaudí represents, at the same time, an assumption of the industrial revolution and at the same time an answer to the distancing of the nature of man. The architect devoted himself to studying the forms of nature, its isomorphies and their patterns, where he found the mark of a superior architect, in that case, God.

Although at the time many disregarded his work, Gaudí was supported by a wide variety of patrons and institutions. Among them stands a surname that is chained to the artist: the Güell family. For the order of this wealthy industrialist, Gaudí built the Palace and Park Güell, as well as the door of Finca Güell and the crypt of the church of the unfinished Colonia Güell. The name of the Güell accompanied the architect during most of his life, so that through his commissions one could have a panoramic view of all his work: from historical academicism to the naturalism of his last epoch.

Beyond natural forms, Gaudí used to sign his works with the "trencadís" technique and with the use of catenary arches. The trencadís is the technique with which the artist covered walls and figures (like the famous dragon of Park Güell), joining pieces of colored tiles. Gaudí, with the catenary arch, reached the perfection of the arch and the architectural subjection. This can be seen on the front of the Sagrada Familia or in the interiors of the Casa Batlló.

His last work, under construction since 1882, summarizes a trajectory of artistic depth and technical development. Of the Sagrada Familia, legacy of the author to the world and monumental atonement towards God, Gaudí could only see his façade and some of the bell towers finished. The architect, who was tragically killed by a tram in June 1926, knew he would never see his finished work. So when asked about the end date of the Basilica, he joked, saying, "my client [God] is not in a hurry." The Sagrada Familia will be completed by 2026, a century after the death of the architect.