海角大神

The Google homepage today depicts six stylized images of monumental Spanish architecture, including the聽Casa Batll贸, in Barcelona, and the Casa Mila, in the聽Eixample district of the same city. The doodle is an homage to the great Catalan architect 鈥� and pioneering modernist 鈥撀�Antoni 骋补耻诲铆, who was born on June 25, 1852, in Reus, Catalonia, exactly 161 years ago Tuesday.聽

It is hard to understate Gaudi's impact on the world of modern art. UNESCO, which has placed several of Gaudi's buildings on its World Heritage List, from the Casa Bellesguard to the Casa Batll贸, describes his contributions as helping shape 19th and 20th century聽architecture and building technology:聽

骋补耻诲铆鈥檚 work exhibits an important interchange of values closely associated with the cultural and artistic currents of his time, as represented in el Modernisme of Catalonia. It anticipated and influenced many of the forms and techniques that were relevant to the development of modern construction in the 20th century.

骋补耻诲铆 was apparently a relatively sickly child, but his convalescence, to one online biography,聽allowed him to spend "many hours contemplating nature, drawing lessons that he was to apply later in his architecture." In the late 1860s, he moved to Barcelona, initially to study teaching, but by 1873, he was enrolled in architecture school.聽

Upon his graduation in 1878, 骋补耻诲铆 established his own architecture firm, and set about creating the works that would make his name. Perhaps his most famous early work is the Casa Vicens, a private residence in聽the聽Gr脿cia聽district of Barcelona. In the 1880s, he also completed work on the聽, which was named after聽Eusebi G眉ell,聽骋补耻诲铆's most steadfast patron.聽

But as the website of the聽骋补耻诲铆 Experi猫ncia museum , it was in 1890 that 骋补耻诲铆 began to perfect "his understanding of architectural space and the applied arts, giving his work unique and unsuspected qualities that stood out from the other Modernist architecture of his day. These were 骋补耻诲铆's mature years in which a succession of master works appeared: Bellesguard Villa, Park G眉ell, the restoration of Mallorca Cathedral, the church of the Col貌nia G眉ell, Casa Batll贸, La Pedrera, and the Nativity fa莽ade of the Sagrada Familia."

骋补耻诲铆 a commission to work on the聽Sagrada Familia in 1883, and the grand church, with its sharp, perforated steeples and mosaic-dappled facade, became a kind of fixation for聽骋补耻诲铆, who labored over the building for more than 40 long years.聽

骋补耻诲铆 died on June 10, 1926, after being hit by a tram in聽Barcelona. Still, his legacy lives on, as does the Sagrada Familia, which even today, almost a century later. Earlier this year, in an interview with 60 Minutes, 骋补耻诲铆's聽biographer Gijs van Hensbergen was asked to define the one thing that made聽骋补耻诲铆 a great artist.聽

"The capacity to see space in a totally different way," Mr. van Hensbergen ,聽"to make space explode, to see a building as a sculpture rather than just as a place to live in or a roof over your head. He's someone who reinvented the language of architecture which no other architect has ever managed to do."聽

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