Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Montaner also studied botany) and sculptures depicting characters from Catalan folklore
and the music world as well as everyday citizens of Barcelona. Inside, the hall leaves vis-
itors dazzled with delicate floral-covered colonnades, radiant stained-glass walls and ceil-
ing and a rolling, sculpture-packed proscenium referencing the epics of musical lore.
Trencadís
The Arabs invented the ancient technique of
trencadís
, but Gaudí was the first archi-
tect to revive it. The procedure involves taking ceramic tiles or fragments of broken
pottery or glass and creating a mosaic-like sheath on roofs, ceilings, chimneys,
benches, sculptures or any other surface. Noted art critic Robert Hughes even sugges-
ted that Gaudí's
trencadís
was undoubtedly influential on the development of Picasso's
fragmented forms in his Cubist period.
Puig i Cadafalch
Like Domènech, Puig i Cadafalch (1867-1956) was a polymath; he was an archaeologist,
an expert in Romanesque art and one of Catalonia's most prolific architects. As a politi-
cian - and later president of the Mancomunitat de Catalunya (Commonwealth of Catalo-
nia) - he was instrumental in shaping the Catalan nationalist movement.
One of his many Modernista gems is the Casa Amatller, a rather dramatic contrast to
Gaudí's Casa Batlló next door. Here the straight line is very much in evidence, as is the
foreign influence (the gables are borrowed from the Dutch). Puig i Cadafalch has de-
signed a house of startling beauty and invention blended with playful Gothic-style sculp-
ture.
Other important works by Puig i Cadafalch include the Casa Martí (better known as Els
Quatre Gats), which was one of Barcelona's first Modernista-style buildings (from 1896),
with Gothic window details and whimsical wrought-iron sculpture.
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