Antoni
Gaudí Cornet (1852-1926) was born in the region of el Baix Camp. Born into a
family of boilermakers, he spent his childhood in Tarragona and later moved to
Barcelona to study architecture.
Broadly
speaking, we can distinguish two phases in Gaudi’s work.
In the
earlier phase, in which he was inspired by Oriental art and the neo-Gothic, a
desire to break with formal established codes was already becoming obvious.
This urge to renew would culminate in Güell Palace, a work in which Gaudí
introduced most of the elements that would form the basis of his subsequent
repertoire.
The later,
the mature phase of his work coincides with the dawn o Art Nouveau in
Catalonia. It represents the final superseding of any reference to historicist
styles and the achievement of modeling and structural forms of his own, that
is, what would later be known as Gaudinian aesthetics.
In his own
personal style, Gaudí created works of
remarkable symbolism and spirituality.
Gaudí died
at the age of 74, in Barcelona as a result of injuries sustained when he was
run over by a tram.
