God’s Architect, Antoni Gaudí, appears to have designed this window to allow him to look down from the heavens and offer divine inspiration to those constructing his masterpiece.
Young Gaudí was a well groomed man with a penchant for expensive suits, gourmet food, and the theater. As he grew older, he became increasingly more devoted to his profession and less concerned with grooming and the fine life. He ate more frugally, dressed in old, worn-out suits, and neglected his appearance to the point where people thought he was a street beggar. In fact, on June 7th, 1926, Gaudí was taking his routine stroll to a local church when he was hit by a street car. People passing assumed from his appearance that he was homeless, and no authorities were contacted until it was too late. He later died after ultimately being transported by taxi to a local hospital.
Gaudí’s Sagrada Família Basilica
Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926), known as God’s Architect, was a Catalan (Spanish) architect and a critical player in the Catalan Moderistá architectural movement. Considered the Great Master of Catalan Modernism, he is Barcelona’s most famous Moderista artist.
Gaudí’s masterpice is Barcelona’s still-uncompleted Sagrada Famíia Basilica (Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família ), which he worked on from 1883 until his death in 1926. Describing Sagrada Família, art critic Rainer Zerbst said, “It is probably impossible to find a church building anything like it in the entire history of art” and called it, “The most extraordinary personal interpretation of Gothic architecture since the Middle Ages.”
Here is an HDR shot of the ceiling of the nave. Gaudi was inspired by the forms found in nature, as is evidenced in the columns seen here in the nave. They are designed to represent trees, with the upper portions dividing into branches as they form the vaults of the ceiling. The ceiling also contains numerous small windows which let light filter in like the canopy of a rain forest. The Sagrada Familia has been named a UNESCO World Heritage site. I consider this one of the most unique pieces of architecture that I have seen in all of Europe, and consider it a definite “must see”.
Il Duomo di Firenze, aka The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (St Mary of the Flower), as seen from the adjacent Giotto’s Campanile (standing bell tower). Construction began in 1296 and was completed in 1436. The basilica is topped by Brunelleschi‘s revolutionary dome, which is composed of more than 4 MILLION bricks!
This is an HDR image. Three handheld images were bracketed at 2 f stops and then merged with Photomatix and fine-tuned with Aperture.
This post is dedicated to my good friend James.