 | Panel 8 |
The originality of Gaudí
“Originality is not to be sought in extravagance. From the original models of nature comes a complex and original work of art.”
Antoni Gaudí
One of the obsessions of the architect, Antoni Gaudí, was returning to his roots to obtain the inspiration he sought for his works.
The Prades and Montsant Mountains give him the shapes of limestone rock eroded over millennia, with neither the surfaces being thin, nor the structures straight. The façade of La Pedrera is like the cliffs of those places where nature has modelled marvels.
Water erosion. When a stream of water reaches a difference in level, it rushes down and washes away the weakest parts of the stone. A drop falling over millennia in the same place pierces the hardness of the slab and forms incredible shapes.
The ventilation openings may be inspired by these small holes that Gaudí observed in the red sandstone of the Prades Mountains and Bai Camp.
A margin, a hut, a dry stone oven: the precise assembly of stones forming a construction without any cohesive material. The anarchy of their placement enhances the beauty of the whole.
A spherical surface prevents the rain from splashing down. Gaudí had seen how peasants had made a haystack and crowned it with mud.
The Gaudí Family and Riudoms
Josep Gaudí Coll married several times, the last time to Maria Figures Roca. With the lesson learned from an embezzling father, his son, Francesc Gaudí Figures, became a fortunate gentleman and a wealthy landowner. He married the first-born Antonia Salvany Serra in 1767, the daughter of coppersmiths from Vilafranca del Penedès, established in Riudoms before 1726. He was the last peasant in the family.