Antoni Gaudi

I mentioned Antoni Gaudi yesterday but I think I need to tell you more about him. He was a pretty terrific architect with a style unlike anyone else.

Gaudi was born in Spain in 1852. He studied architecture in Barcelona, Spain at the Escola Tecnica Superior d’Arquitectura but he was not a very good student. After five years, in 1878, Gaudi officially became an architect.

He began designing small projects but soon met Eusebi Guell. Guell became Gaudi’s patron and the architect designed buildings and parks in his name. You saw a picture of Parque Guell yesterday. Go click through the photos at the main Palau Guell website. I especially like the chimneys that grow atop the building like colorful trees.

You can see the characteristics of Art Nouveau in Gaudi’s work. There are bright tile mosaics and curving lines. He was very influenced by nature as you can see in the chimneys at Palau Guell.

The building that Antoni Gaudi is best known for, though, is La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona (shown below). He began this huge church in 1882 and he worked on it until he died in 1926. It still has not been finished. Gaudi designed and redesigned this building. He was forever tinkering with the plans. Unfortunately, the last blueprint he drew was destroyed in 1938 so the architects who are currently working on the building don’t know exactly what Gaudi had in mind for the church. Click here for more pictures.
One of Gaudi’s buildings, Casa Vicens, is for sale. This means that you can go to the website and see pictures of the inside and outside. Make sure to look at the original blueprints, too. It’s neat to compare the blueprint for the facades (the outsides) of the building to the pictures shown.

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Spanish Architecture: Art Nouveau

You may remember the post about art nouveau. The style began in France but it spread to other places, including Spain. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Art Nouveau buildings were created in Spain.

Like the buildings in France, Spanish Art Nouveau buildings included curving lines and decorations, and mosaics and stained glass. The shapes imitated nature so they were not usually symmetrical.
One example is the Parque Guell (sounds like: par-kay gwel) by Antonio Gaudi (shown above). Below is a second example, also by Gaudi. It is the Casa Batllo.
They remind me of cartoon castles or bakery cakes. Quite different from the Mudejar style buildings and the Churrigueresque architecture.

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Spain: Churrigueresque

Yesterday you learned about the Mudejar style of architecture in Spain. Beginning in 1667, a new style took over. Like Mudejar it was very decorative, but it wasn’t so serious. The style was called Churrigueresque.

Churrigueresque buildings are very decorative with carvings and twisting columns. You may remember that Mudejar buildings are also often covered in carvings. Compare the pictures shown below. Notice the difference between the patterns carved on the Mudejar building (shown first) and the pictures carved on the Churrigueresque building (shown second).

Churrigueresque combined architecture with sculpture. The carvings are so detailed and stand out so much that they are almost little sculptures. Can you imagine how much work that must have taken?

The Churrigueresque style can still be seen in Spain. It spread to all the Spanish territories, too, so you can find this style in Central America and South America.

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Spain: Mudejar Style

Today begins a look at Spanish architecture. I haven’t written a lot about architecture and Spain seems the perfect place to start.

The Moors, Muslims from Northern Africa, began attacking Spain in the 600s. They continued their attacks for about 100 years until they were finally able to take over Spain. They remained in control of parts of Spain for nearly 800 years.
The Moors brought their culture with them and their architectural style began to show itself throughout Spain. The Mudejar style is a combination of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish styles. Buildings created in this style were made using inexpensive materials such as brick, tile, and plaster.
What makes these buildings special is the decoration. Often beautifully decorated tile was laid in patterns, wood and plaster was carved into complicated designs, and metals were twisted throughout to glint and gleam in the sunlight.

Buildings created in the Mudejar style can be seen in Spain, even today.

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Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Today will be the last post on the Renaissance, at least for awhile. There are still plenty of artists I haven’t told you about, though, so you can feel certain that there will be more about the Renaissance in the future.

Like Jan van Eyck, Pieter Bruegel the Elder was from the Netherlands and painted during the Renaissance. You’ll notice that he was very different from the other Renaissance painters you’ve learned about, though. Firstly, Bruegel didn’t paint portraits. You won’t find any close-ups of royalty among Bruegel’s works. Secondly, he didn’t focus on details. Bruegel preferred to paint people in motion so the shape of their bodies was more important than the way the fabric of their clothes draped around them. And thirdly, Bruegel loved to paint landscapes. Other Renaissance painters created landscapes too, but they usually did so as backdrops for religious paintings.
Bruegel was born sometime in the late 1520s. His name was originally spelled with an “h” (Brueghel) but he dropped it in 1559. There were many artists in his family and this made it easy to tell him apart. Bruegel served as apprentice to Pieter Coeck van Aelst until 1551 when he became a master painter.

For the next three years, Bruegel traveled through Italy and met many important artists of the time.
As you can see in the paintings shown here, Bruegel liked to paint peasants. He often dressed up as a peasant and wandered through towns looking for inspiration. This earned him the nickname “Peasant Bruegel”

Bruegel had two sons, Pieter Brueghel the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Elder. They both became painters.
Bruegel died in 1569.

The paintings shown above, in order, are Peasant Wedding, Netherlandish Proverbs, and Tower of Babel. In Netherlandish Proverbs, Bruegel illustrates more than 100 wise sayings. For example, there is a man swimming against the current. Many of the sayings don’t exist in English but there are some you’ll recognize. See if you can find any.

Have a great weekend!

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