I'm writing this after my third visit over a fifteen-year period to one of Gaudi's earliest big commissions, Palau Guell, built as the personal residence of his major patron, the industrialist Eusebi Guell.
The relatively compressed dimensions of the house are clear in the model.
In a way, the building occupies a crossing point in Gaudi's career; he was still young, in his 30s, and just establishing his visionary reputation. It shows many innovative aspects, but is also not as 'free' as some of his later buildings. It's also the first where he turned the building's chimneys into fantastic sculptures.
And, to my surprise, it is actually the only major project he was able to see all the way to completion in his lifetime, and—because the Guell family occupied it into the middle of the 20th century—the most intact.
The ornate front gates lead into a stone-paved courtyard, from which ramps run to the basement for carriages. Stables for the horses were there, too.
But first my confession: At first, I didn't really like it. On my first visit to Barcelona, I found myself with very mixed feelings about the Gaudi's work, although everything I read, everyone I spoke to, assured me that it was all genius. Gaudi is, if nothing else, one of Barcelona's most cherished icons.
Open space at the core of the building provides an 'acoustic dome' for the organ, originally built with wooden pipes.
Perhaps I found some aspects of his buildings too intense, too 'over-the-top' or just so busy I sometimes felt I couldn't grasp it. I found the more restrained, if you could really call it that, work of other Catalan modernistes such as Lluis Domenech i Montaner, more to my taste. But Gaudi's rich use of color and texture, and beautiful materials... they grow on you, too!
But, things grow on you, and things that make a strong impression, even if not the most favorable one, come to mind as you look at other work, as you try to understand more. I won't say Gaudi is my favorite architect of all time, but in a way, looking at the changes over time in his work, I feel as if we've grown together.
The Guell commission must have taken a lot of thought; most of his other well-known commissions were for buildings in new areas such as the Eixample, Barcelona's expansion from its medieval core, or were projects for new neighborhoods.
But the Guell Palace is shoehorned into a site on an old, narrow street, just off the Ramblas, near the Guell family's old house. Not a lot of space to work with! Even today, its neighbors are not mansions or imposing buildings; ordinary neighbors hang their wash across the courtyard from the house.
The Guell family's taste, not to mention its elaborately constructed monogram, is evident in many aspects of the house, and most of it is intact, although over the years, family members added bits here, and moved other bits to other family houses.
That shifting is clearest in the case of the furnishing of the house. With a few exceptions, the rooms are without much furniture, although over the years a few pieces have returned from other houses, and similar pieces sourced from elsewhere. The main furnishings that stem from Eusebi Guell's time are the ornate dining room, and Guell's desk and office.
Some of the furniture was designed by Gaudi himself, while other pieces were commissioned by him from some of the leading Catalan designers of the time. The idea was to reflect not only the wealth of Guell and his fellow 'captains of industry' but to support a revival of Catalan art and culture.
In the end, I find myself, as I've written elsewhere, a strong believer in going back and seeing again. That goes for museums as well as palaces, gardens and parks, because each time, we see with different eyes, sometimes with different companions—and often enough, especially for museums, things do change!
Comments (0)