2001-05-31T19:10:00.000-07:00

Thursday, March 8, 2001

After all the anticipation, packing, and classes we are finally at the Philadelphia airport and board our flight to Madrid. When we wake up we’ll be in Spain. Hola.

Friday, March 9, 2001

We arrive in Madrid and collect our baggage and continue to the Hotel Puerta de Toledo. On the way to the hotel the bus passes many large apartment buildings that are run down and the tour guides tells us that this housing is for immigrants from the south of Spain. My first impressions of Madrid are somber because of these apartments and also the graffiti that is on the walls. Monica and Charlene, who speak Spanish, translate the graffiti and inform us that it is political graffiti. After we check into the hotel and take nap we go on a city tour of Madrid.
The first stop on the city tour is to the main train station, Estacion de Atocha, in which the old train station (1851) was converted into a botanical garden with imported palm trees that are misted and kept warm. On the other side of this mystical rainforest is the working train station built in the 1980’s to accommodate the terminal for the high-speed AVE trains to Cordoba and Seville. From this new station on can go virtually anywhere in Europe. With the establishment of the European union, there are no boarder crossings/custom checkpoints that make travel within the European Union easy. The train station uses classical architecture along with the trussing structure of glass and iron.
The next stop is Plaza de Colon a large square dedicated to Christopher “Columbus. Inside the square are two monuments dedicated to the discovery of the Americas. The oldest column was sculpted in 1885 in a Neo-Gothic style that has a sauté of Columbus on the top. The other monument is a modernistic monument of four slabs of concrete representing the ships that Columbus sailed on during his journeys. Then slabs of concrete are representative of the ships by the forms made by the concrete and have cubic figures incised on them. The square is very unique because it has a monument in gothic style, across from a monument in a cubism style, back dropped against modern skyscrapers.
We then travel to the Plaza de Espana where there is a statue of the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes, built during the Franco period. This tall monument also has Don Quixote riding his horse Rocinante, and has his lover Dulcinea also alongside him. The figures are dressed in customary Spanish attire and show a woman dancing. The top of the column is a round sphere being held on the shoulders of mythical figures, a reference to the Greek god Atlas.
Our final stop on the way to the hotel is the Palacio Real, one of Madrid’s largest palaces used today for state occasions. We do not have a chance to go inside, but from the exterior white stonewalls one can see its immense size. Most of the interior rooms are in a Rococo style while the outside reflects Roman and Greek architects with the columns and use of statuary.
The city tour familiarizes us with the city and shows how the city is divided into the old and the new.

Saturday, March 10, 2001

Our day begins at the Reina Sofia Museum of Modern Art which houses one’s of Pablo Picasso’s greatest works, Guernica. Guernica is a cubist painting that shows the anguish of the bombing of the Basque city by Franco. Before its location in the Reina Sofia, the painting was in the Museum of Modern Art in New York and was returned to its Spanish homeland around 1990.
After the Reina Sofia we proceed to the Prado museum. The Prado houses the works of El Greco, Velazquez, Ribera, Goya, Bosch, Rubens, Titian along with many other artists. As an art history major I am interested in all of these artists cannot wait to see their works in person, to see the brush strokes against the canvases and the globs of paint. There are too many memorable works for me to name them all, but some of the paintings that I saw were:
Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights
Cladio Coello, The Triumph of St. Augustine
El Greco, Adoration of the Shepherds
Francisco Jose de Goya, The Naked “Maja”, The Clothed “Maja”, The Third of May 1808
Francisco de Herrera the Younger, The Triumph of St. Hermengild
Sir Peter Paul Rubens, The Three Graces
Diego Velazquez de Silva, Las Meninas
Rogier van der Weyden, The Descent from the Cross
My favorite painting form the Prado would be The Archduke Leopald Wilhem in his Gallery painted by David Teniers the Younger. The portrait shows a man showing his gallery to four other men. If a composing a painting is not challenging enough, Teniers exhibits his ability by painting 40 other portraits within the one painting. These 40 paintings are other well-known portraits. The canvas is breathtaking and shows extreme artistic ability.
After the Prado we go northwest of Madrid to El Escorial. It was built between 1563-1584 in honor of St. Lawrence. It contains a basilica, a monastery (run by Augustinian monks since 1885), the Royal Pantheon (which contain the funerary urns of Spanish monarchs), a library, and also a museum. The building was built by stones carried from the nearby foothills of Sierra de Guadarrama.
On the way back to Madrid we pass the gigantic cross of Santa Cruz del Valle de los Caidos (the Valley of the Fallen) built by Franco as a memorial to those who died in the Civil War. The cross stands 490 feet high.

Sunday, March 11, 2001

We leave Madrid and take a flight to Barcelona, situated on the Mediterranean Sea. It is a free day so I take the time and explore the city on my own. I walked down the Las Ramblas to the Columbus statue overlooking the waterfront. The waterfront was built in 1992 when Barcelona hosted the summer Olympics. That night we eat at Hard Rock Café an American oasis placed in Europe.

Monday, March 12, 2001

Today we take a tour of Gaudi’s architecture in Barcelona. The first stop is Park Guell situated outside the city center. The park was designed by Gaudi and finished around 1914 and opened to the public in 1922. The park has a main square, modeled after Greek Architecture that has serpentine benches decorated with ceramic tiles. The park also implements the surrounding landscape into its architecture by using harsh natural stones to make caves and tunnels to walk through. From the top of the park we look out onto the crowded Barcelona skyline. The park was very peaceful and gives an escape to the hustle of city life. After Park Guell we went back into the city and went to El Temple de la Sagrada Familia a Catholic cathedral, which is still under construction. The cathedral was begun in 1882 and contains two facades, one designed by Gaudi and the other designed by Subirachs. This cathedral is based loosely on the Gothic style cathedral and contains many ceramic decorations and uses sea creatures that echo the sandcastle like design. After a general tour of the cathedral and tour of the museum, we climbed the stairs of the spirals, for a closer view of the decorated façade and a beautiful view of the city. Much controversy surrounds the cathedral because of the style of the facades and whether or not the cathedral should be finished or left alone because Gaudi died before the completion of the cathedral. After the cathedral a small group of us went to the Casa Mila. After a small lunch at an outdoor café, we toured the interior apartment building and then went to the roof. The roof of the building was a rolling maze of sculptures that echoes the outside wave like exterior of the pure white building. The center of the building contains a hollow core that allows sunlight to enter the lobby. From Casa Mila we walked down the street to view Casa Batllo, another brightly decorated building of Gaudi. At night, Margie and I went to the Placa d’Espanya to view the Font Magica but after our long subway ride there we now know that the fountains are only on during June and July.
With many highly decorated building by Gaudi in Barcelona, does the word gaudy have its origins from the Spanish Architect? This question was actually asked by the older woman from Oregon who sat next to me on the plan to Madrid. The word gaudy does not originate from the architect but has its root in the Latin word gaudium, referring to the joyful mysterious of the Virgin Mary. The Spanish pronunciation of Gaudi is also vastly different from gaudy.
The American Heritage Dictionary, 3rd edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997.

Tuesday, March 13, 2001

Our bus takes us two hours north of Barcelona to Figueres to see the Teatro-Museo Dali, which was opened in 1974 to celebrate Salvador Dali. Dali was Spanish in heritage and trained at the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Madrid and had his first exhibition at age fifteen. The museum contains his surrealist paintings and sculptures and the architecture of the building also depicts his surrealist style. The museum is has a brightly red exterior and has eggs on the roof. Part of the building has a futuristic dome, modeled after Fuller (that would remind one of Epcot Center at Disney World) and variously posed figures (similar to the Oscar statues) and other figures dressed in outrageous clothing. The outside prepares the viewer for what works are on exhibit in the museum. Dali adapts some of the most renowned sculptures and distorts it to his surrealist style. He takes the Venus de Milo and adds rectangular blocks to her body and distorts Nike to by placing two sculptures facing each other and adds grass growing form the bodice. Other subject matter used by Dali is the Virgin and child, The Three Graces, Leda and the Swan, and Velazquez’s Las Meninas. The most vivid image that I have from the museum is a ceiling painting where the largest item in the painting is Christ’s feet plunging from the bright yellow and orange sky. Dali also using repetition and paints the same subject many times or uses different forms of the objects.
After the museum we go to Perpignan, France to try to get another stamp in our passport, but because of the European Union there is no need for passport control when traveling within the European Union. After a short lunch, we return to Barcelona.

Wednesday, March 14, 2001

Today, Margie’s birthday, we go on a walking tour of the Gothic Quarter Barcelona and the Picasso museum. We begin the walking tour by our hotel and pass the Palau de la Generalitat, Catalonia’s parliament and then pass such buildings as, Palau Reial Major, and Museu d’Historia de la Ciutat. We then tour the inside of the Gothic cathedral which contained high pointed arches and an elaborate façade. The Temple Roma D’August contained a garden with twelve ducks (always 12, in honor of a saint) and a fountain. After the walking tour through the small narrow winding streets we go to the Picasso museum. The Picasso houses most of his works and is divided into collections:
The Formative Years, 1890-1899
Contact with the Catalan Avant-Garde, 1899-1900
Paris, 1900-1901
The Blue Period, 1901-1904
From the Rose Period to 1916
Between the Wars 1917-1940
Las Meninas, 1957
The Last Years 1958-1973
The Prints
Picasso the Ceramist

Picasso is known only by his last name and his full name is Pablo Ruiz Picasso. He lived from 1881-1973 and was the founder of Cubism.
After the museum, we were free top explore Barcelona so Margie and I went to the Parc Zoologic, built in the 1940’s where animals are separated by large moats, not bars. The most fascinating animal in the Zoo is the rare albino gorilla. On the entrance to the zoo we had to disinfect our feet because of the recent break out in England of Hoof and Mouth disease. In the Zoo, we also saw a fully spread peacock walking about. After the Zoo we proceed to Cuitadella Park to view the Parliament of Catalunya and the many statues. From here we went to see Gaudi and Josep Fontserre’s The Cascada Monumental, a building with a huge fountain with a full chariot on the top. The fountain had running water flowing over sculptures and wild growing grass. The fountain is very mystically and the sound of the water is very peaceful. After our walk through La Cuitadella to the subway and pass the L’arc de Triomph. That afternoon we meet Margie’s friends who take us to a popular café for coffee, which is across the street from our Hotel.

Thursday, March 15, 2001

With only five more hours to view Barcelona Margie and I had no other choice then to pay a cab driver to take us to a few sites that were in our tour book. We took a cab to a top of the mountain to see the Olympic Stadium for the summer 1992 Olympics. We drove past the Palau Sant Jordi and the Calatrava Tower. After I jumped out of the cab for a few pictures we went to see the monument to the Sardana in Mantua Park, which represents a Catalonia dance. The taxi then takes us back to our hotel and we go to the airport for our flight to Bilbao. We land in Bilbao at night to the newly designed airport and take a small bus to our four star hotel. That night we walk around the city and eat at a local restaurant, the city is smaller than Madrid and Barcelona and the people are friendlier. After dinner we walk over the lighted pedestrian bridge by the Guggenheim Museum.

Friday, March 16, 2001

Today we take a tour of the Guggenheim Museum. Unlike the other museums visited during our trip the Guggenheim allows for the viewers to be a part of the exhibits so I was not prepared for the experience in the museum, because I was excepting to see paintings and sculptures. The one exhibit Serpent allowed viewers to walk through a maze while another room of exhibits used lights for visual effects. The Guggenheim Museum was designed by Frank O. Gehry and takes the shape of a fish that is representative of the sea culture of Bilbao. The building is made of titanium and Gehry’s design was picked in a competition.
After the museum visit we took a small city tour and were shown the entrances to the subway that also resembled shrimp. We then traveled to the top of a mountain to see where Gehry looked down into the city to propose his spot for the new museum.
That afternoon, I took a subway and traveled 45 minutes outside of the city to a beach resort on the Bay of Biscay. The seaside town was not bustling and the water was very clear. The subway was brand new and ran quietly, softly, and fast. Parts of the ride I could see outside and see the rundown warehouses that were being fixed. The Guggenheim Museum alone allows for Bilbao to generate an economy and become a thriving city once again.

Facts about the Basque region:

Basques invented their own language and their own shoes, espadrilles. (16)

Ample evidence exists that Basques are physically distinct group. There is a Basque type with a long straight nose, thick eyebrows, strong chin, and long earlobes. (19)

Though numerous attempts have been made, no one has found a linguistic relative of Euskera. It is an orphan language that does not belong to the Indo-European family of languages. Finnish, Estonian, and Hungarian are the only other living European languages not related to the Indo-European group. (23)

In 1729, when Manuel de Larramendi wrote the first book of Basque grammar ever published, he asserted that Euskera was one of the seventy-five languages to have developed out of the confusion at the Tower of Babel. (24)

The Basque attack of August 15, 778, was to be the only defeat Charlemagne’s army ever suffered in his long military career. (41)

The Santa Maria, one of the ships used for Columbus’s first voyage, in 1492, was probably built by the Basques. (61)

On August 15, 1534, Inigo and his group of seven founded their new order, the Society of Jesus, otherwise known as the Jesuits. Today, with some 25,000 Jesuits in the world, they are the largest Catholic order. (77-79)

Kurlansky, Mark. The Basque History of the World. New York: Penguin Books, 1999.

Saturday, March 17, 2001

Today we leave Bilbao and return to Madrid. It is our last free day in Madrid for activities because stores and museums are closed on Sundays. A group of us go to Parque del Retiro. After a lunch at an outdoor café we walk around and rent boats on the lake viewing the monument of Alfonso XII. The boat ride was very peaceful and rowing around the lake we saw happy couples and families enjoying the day together. We walked through more of the park and saw the Palacio de Cristal built by Velazquez. The palace had an exhibition that allowed the viewers to walk upon glass in a room that had no walls. The palace was magnificent and I could only imagine how beautifully it would be to see a rainstorm from the interior of the palace, with the rain falling in the glass.
We returned to the hotel early enough to go to El Corte Ingles a prominent department store that carried everything from Cuban cigars, clothing, cd’s, and furniture. That night I also attended a Flamenco show at the Corral de la Moreria.

Sunday, March 18, 2001

It is our last day in Spain and our group, small yet eager, travel to Toledo, the home of El Greco. The bus drops us off at the bottom of a hill and we take escalators to the hilly, small streeted medieval city and are famous for its melting pot of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim cultures. One of our stops on the tour is the Church of Santo Tome where El Greco’s the Burial of the Count of Orgaz is painted. After seeing this wall fresco in the environment it was painted I can know see where El Greco’s gathers his inspiration. After lunch we toured the Toledo Cathedral
which is in the gothic style. The interior was just as beautiful as the outside and the gothic interior had a baroque style added to it with a high wall letting in light, decorated with gold.
After the visit to the cathedral we walked back to our bus admiring the city and walking over San Martin Bridge.
To complete the Spanish cultural experience we went to a bullfight in Madrid at the Plaza de Torros De Las Ventas. The tickets were sold out so we were forced to by tickets from scalper and paid $25 for a ticket that sold for $5. We sat in the wood benches and watched 8 people torment a bull and finally the matador came and killed the bull. The dead bull was then dragged away by a chariot of horses. The arena was empty and 7 bulls were killed, normally eight are killed, but the last matador failed to kill the one.

Sunday, March 19, 2001

We arrived at the Madrid airport to find that our flight is cancelled and we are delayed in Miami for a night. We finally return to the Philadelphia on March 20th, exhausted.

Overview

I have traveled to many different countries and with each visit I see more artifacts and learn more culture. I was shocked with the trip to Madrid because of its poverty and never expected the streets of Barcelona to be lined with palm trees. Going to other countries I can see that Europeans have different values of time and family. It is not an unfamiliar site to see families walking around together on a Sunday or not having a waiter rushing you to finish dinner because the table is needed for other customers. I love those two European values, but after each trip I do miss America and my car even though the subways are very convenient and safe in Europe along with the railways. I would recommend anyone to visit Spain, but recommend that they spend most of their time in Barcelona, because I enjoyed that city the most. The trip with Rutgers allowed me to travel to Spain and see many great museums and architecture and learn the history of Spain.

All factual information found in my journal was taken from information from the tour guides and:

Inman, Nick, ed. Spain. London: Dorling Kindersley, Inc., 1996.

Supplements
With the courses I was enrolled in this semester I wrote two research papers on El Greco and Gaudi.

Gaudi: The Significance of His Buildings to the Development of Modern Architecture
The end of a century brings forth new techniques in architecture and inspires architects to create new forms with new materials and this is no exception for Antoni Gaudi. Gaudi, a Spanish architect, who lived from 1852-1926 was a part of this new architecture style and his use of brick, ceramic and cement to create poetic and mystical buildings leads Antoni Gaudi to become one of the leading architects of the twentieth century. His poetic designs are both unique and aesthetic but also constructively sound and adapt to the “hedonistic Mediterranean landscape and vegetation, as well as to the maritime character and traditions of Barcelona” (Curtis, 60). Gaudi’s architectural techniques contradict the linear and cantilevering techniques of buildings built during the same time period as Louis Sullivan’s Wainwright Building (1890-1891, St. Louis, Missouri), Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ward Willits House (1902, Chicago, Illinois) and Dana House (Springfield, Illinois, 1902-4) and Daniel Burnheim’s Flatiron Building (1909, New York), but by dismissing the ideals of other architects he create a style unique to Barcelona and of architecture. Gaudi’s large range of architecture types include, parks, apartments buildings, and cathedrals and designs each incorporating the environmental surroundings and style that reflects the attitudes and the purpose of the structure.
Gaudi’s La Pedrera (today known as Casa Mila) is a residential building in Barcelona that is suited on the corner of the Eixample. Gaudi designs La Pedrera without sharp linear angles and composes a building that “has three facades which, in reality, from one single frontage defined by the characteristic curved lines which evoke an improbable wave of stone” (Moix, 66). The stones are rough in texture and remind the viewer of the sand of the Mediterranean near the city. This white facade contains black twisting metal balconies near the curved rectangular windows. These black balconies are organic in shape and reflect leaves and nature and resemble Victor Horta’s Hotel Tassel (Brussels, 1892-1893).
The roof of La Pedrera contains large vertical twisted structures that can be seen form the street. These rooftop structures echo the techniques of the sixteenth century Andrea Palladio and his Villa Rotonda and San Giorgio Maggiore in which he places sculpture upon the roof, but Gaudi evolves Palladio architecture technique and has his twisted columns become part of a rooftop garden. From the street, these twisting columns appear to be used for decoration and it is not until one is on the roof that these columns become an active part of the building. The roof is a maze of sculpture and is also designed in a wave pattern reflecting the outside façade. Some sculptures resemble medieval knight’s helmets while others are freely shaped, but all designed with white or clay colored stones significant to the area of Barcelona.
From the roof there is an opening where one cans see the hollow core of the building. This hollow core allows for sunlight to enter and brings the building closer to nature. This natured themed interior contains the same black metal balconies on the windows along with the clay colored interior walls. The inside lobby also has brightly painted walls of flowers and leaves near the non-flat ceiling. Real plants are used in the lobby to decorate the staircase so the black metal balconies appear to be plants from the lobby. The interior rooms of the apartments can be reached after climbing a brightly colored staircase. The rooms are free flowing in design so there are no corners and boxed shaped rooms because these rooms reflect the freely designed outside facade.
Gaudi’s La Pedrera is unique because its free flowing and poetic design still allows for the building to be livable unlike Frank Lloyd’s Wright’s Johnson Wax Administration Center in which his lily pad pillars caused the building to have leaks and have impractical office spaces. Gaudi plans to design other livable structures in Park Guell, but the houses are never built because the park is located outside the heart of Barcelona, so Gaudi creates a park where ceramic and stones are used to reflect nature and create an enjoyable environment.
Park Guell is Gaudi’s dream of a “utopia or initial essay in the design of a perfect, if limited society” (Carandell, 12). Eusebi Guell and Gaudi “designed a park-cum colony, which was independent as possible” and modeled after the Sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi, a sacred shrine of antiquity. The park is composed of serpentine paths using “only materials taken from the land itself” (Carandell, 92). These paths have an angled colonnade that creates a vaulted, sloping dome over a walkway that resembles a wave “the type of wave that shielded and protested the Children of Israel, forming a tunnel when they were pursued by Pharaoh’s army, and the famous crossing of the Red Sea” (Carandell, 96). The stones of the columns resemble growing trees, while others resemble wine glasses, “for the toast proper to the Fest of Friendship” and other form caryatids. The colonnade, arcade, and caryatid structures are Greek architectural elements that are found in the Erechtheum (located on the west side of the Acropolis) and on other predominate Greek buildings. Gaudi chooses Greek architecture to be a model for his park because he wants to provide a mystical environment of old myths and legends.
The Greek style is also seen in the park’s marketplace, but is widely controversial because of Gaudi’s interpretation and modification to the style. Gaudi takes away some of the columns and replaces them with plafonds made form porcelain, stone and glass. He uses vibrant porcelain tiles and everyday objects (such s sea shells, bottles, light bubs) to decorate the plafonds. This building is one of Gaudi’s most controversial because:
While some praise it as a tribute to Greek or a revival of the past; others argue that its Helenic architecture is Vitruvain and baroque; still others see this as the least original feature of the Park, a wretched distortion of the Doric style, a cruel satire of classical art, a critique of nineteenth century architecture. (Carandell, 53-53)
I believe that Gaudi’s technique is brilliant because it incorporates Greek ideals using natural stones and evokes a time past and place distance. Gaudi himself argues, “I have made the archaic Doric colonnade of the Park Guell as Greeks in a Mediterranean colony would have done it” (Carandell, 54).
Above the market place is a serpentine bench that is also decorated with porcelain. The bench design allows for it to conform to the body and the cool tiles gives relief from the hot sun. Just below the base of the benches are lion heads that appear to be Gothic gargoyles and serve the purpose of storm drains. The benches are composed of collaged porcelain pieces of all shapes and sizes and “is a marvel, unequalled of its kind, in its shape, color, luminosity, imagination and contrasts, a blend of low and high art seldom achieved in other works of abstract collages” (Carandell, 78). The porcelain collages will be seen in later of Gaudi’s architecture and will become an identifying element of his architecture.
Guell Park has serenity and peace and evokes emotions to the user and took fourteen years to create from 1900-1914. While constructing Park Guell Gaudi was also constructing El Temple de la Sagrada Familia, which he began with the construction of the crypt in 1882. Gaudi modeled his cathedral after the gothic style of the Chartes and Reims Cathedrals in France. The gothic style uses a highly decorated façade where vertical towers extend towards the heavens and the dome is longer used.
Gaudi’s cathedral resembles a sandcastle and used “the optimization of structural forms which led him to the variations on the parabola” and also used spiritual order to design the cathedral. (Curtis, 60). There are three porticos on the façade of the church, which are dedicated to dogmas of the church. The facades contain sculpted important religious figures and biblical scenes combined in an intertwining of leaves and flowers, which add texture to the façade of the cathedral. There are also numerous sea creatures sculpted on the walls and at the bases because “during the first years of construction, Gaudi was little interested in religion and much more interested in social life” (Carandell, 16). The sea creatures are also apart of the natural sea environment of Barcelona and are used accordingly.
The apse of the cathedral has seven towers that are decorated in vibrant colors and also have collages on protruding organic shaped that resemble the serpentine benches of Park Guell. El Temple de la Sagrada Familia is unconventional compared to other simple and natural colored cathedrals. The facade of the Gaudi cathedral contains the same elements of gothic cathedral, but he adds numerous sculptures to fill the walls that would normally be left plane.
The towers of the cathedral contain spiral stairs and on top of the cathedral on can walk about and admire the city or the extreme details of the architecture of the cathedral. The spiral stairs “spiral around a very narrow space, so those climbing them get the impression they are rotating upon themselves” (Carandell, 58). Gaudi lived to see the Saint Barnabas tower finished and after his death, the architect Sugranes completed the other three towers, finishing in 1977. The towers contain geometric shapes protruding from the tall vertical structures. Gaudi’s Cathedral is unfinished as of 2001 and architects are studying plans of architecture and sculpture left by Gaudi to complete the sacred building.
Gaudi was an architect of Spain and all of his work is contained Spain, but his ideas and techniques can be found throughout the world. Gaudi was a versatile architect and designs a functional apartment building, an exotic, dreamful park, and a scared cathedral among many other numerous buildings. Gaudi is criticized for his extreme uses of color and his elaborated on simple architectural forms. A question arose whether the adjective gaudy was derived from Gaudi and his architecture, but gaudy has a Latin root, gaudium, referring to the joyful mysteries of the Virgin Mary. Gaudi implements the natural surroundings and uses natural material indigenous to Barcelona. While the beginnings of skyscrapers are beginning in America, Gaudi is experimenting with ancient and classical forms because he lived and studied in Europe and wanted to preserve a European tradition of building. Gaudi is one of the greatest architects of the Twentieth century because of his diversity and imagination and his determination to overcome controversies and build with his emotions.

Works Cited

Carandell, Josep. El Temple de la Sagrada Familia. Barcelona: Triangle Postals, 1997.

Carandell, Josep M. Park Guell: Gaudi’s Utopia. Barcelona: Triangle Postals, 1998.

Curtis, William J.R. Modern Architecture Since 1900. 3rd edition. London, Phaidon Press Limited, 1996.

Bibliography
Adams, Laurie Schneider. Art Across Time: Prehistory to the Fourteenth Century. Volume 1. Boston: McGraw Hill College, 1999.

Adams, Laurie Schneider. Art Across Time: The Thirteenth Century to the Present. Volume 2. Boston: Mc Graw Hill College, 1999.

Mitchell, Angus. Spain: The Best of Spanish Interiors, Gardens, Architecture, and Landscapes. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990.

Moix, Llatzer. Barcelona: the City of Gaudi. Barcelona: Triangle Postals, 1998.

Peel, Lucy. An Introduction to Twentieth Century Architecture. New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1998.

Pehnt, Wolfgang. Expressionist Architecture. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1973.

Zukowsky, John. Chicago Architecture 1872-1922: Birth of a Metropolis. Germany: Prestel-Verlag, 1987.

The Composition of El Greco’s The Burial of the Count of Orgaz
Located in a small church in Toledo, Spain is a 16th century canvas 4.80 meters long by 3.60 wide that can be considered one of the best compositions of art and be compared to Leonardo’s Last Supper and Raphael’s Madonna of the Rocks. The canvas depicts the burial of Senor de Orgaz and the legend and miracle that in 1312 along the way to the burial of the count that Saint Stephen and Saint Augustine appeared at his burial.
The canvas depicts the religious burial ceremonial and ascension but due to its composition El Greco makes a distinction between the heavenly and the earthly. The bottom of the painting shows the dead count embraced by two members of clergy with members of the elite Spanish society standing behind. Saint Stephen and Saint Augustine are shown in the bottom left-hand corner speaking amongst each other dressed on dark colored robes.
Slightly above the elite Spanish society, an angel floats and is surrounded by brightly colored clouds embracing Mary and Christ. This top section of the canvas is devoted to the divine. Under Christ’s right hand are saints, angels playing harps, and the key to heaven. The left hand of Christ shows numerous human figures staring towards Christ for his forgiveness.
El Greco separated the divine from the secular by an green clad angel who is embracing the soul of the count in his hands in his two hands Visually, the viewers’ eyes will be focused on the heavenly part and the angel's flowing cape forces the viewer to look towards the bottom of the canvas. The bottom, secular, is painted linear and orderly while the heavenly is painted freely and attempts to show a third dimension.
The bottom portion shows the Spanish elite society standing side-by-side gazing towards the heavens or toward each other. El Greco paints himself staring towards the viewer showing he is not involved in the funeral. He also paints Don Quixote easily identified by his large mustache standing directly behind the bishop’s hat. These figures are
Portrayed as humble, unaffected people who are willing to see themselves as the really are, and have reached a state of grace here. In each of these faces we can perceive that higher, platonic dimension peculiar to righteous men. Their features express a keen desire for knowledge, the pathos of intelligence, the force of the image transcending the senses. (Savir 31)
All these figures are dressed in black to mourn for the count. The figures are drawn standing around the count and compared to the size of the two bishops holding the count the black clothed men are drawn unproportional to achieve a third dimension. The feet of these men are not shown and therefore suggest that these men could be drawn proportionally. Their placement on the bottom of the canvas connects them to the secular.
The clergy in the bottom of canvas are drawn with elaborate details. The cloaks have elaborate golden patterning and also show figures from the bible. The cloak on the bottom left shows a detailed scene with naked human figures, stretching, showing their musculature. The priest wears a white cloak that is painted to look transparent and one can feel the softness and delicately of the fabric. The clergy’s bright colors associates their relationship with the divine and the same golden colors are found in the top portion of the canvas. The other color found in both sections of the canvas is the gray color of both the Counts’ and Christ faces. The count’s gray complexion represents the lost of his soul, while Christ’s gray face is used to draw attention to his figure.
The heavenly portion of the canvas has a pyramidal composition of the Virgin and Christ. They are suspended in the air floating on blue clouds. Mary is robbed in a red dress with a blue shawl. Christ is painted in a white robe with his muscular showing. Christ is drawn in a smaller size, compared to Mary but his white robe and gray colored face signifies his importance.
This El Greco altarpiece does not contain a normal subject mater, but it allows the artist show his artist abilities. Many elements are similar to other religious paintings, but the subject matter allows for El Greco to show both the heavenly and earthly in one painting and their relationships with one another. The painting also exemplifies the mannerist style of painting by its subject manner and style of painting. The Burial of the Count Orgaz follows the manneristic style by having a single light source illuminating the canvass. This light is shown illumination Christ, but the source of this light is unknown. The light is subtle compared to Jacopo Tintoretto’s the Last Supper, but is still a significant element of the painting. Another element of Mannerist style seen in the painting is the elongated figures. The necks of the figures are very long and the faces are lengthened in every figure. The eyes of the figures are also circular and expressive. Unlike the humanly and proportionally perfect figures of the Renaissance, El Greco uses different standards for his perfection. El Greco’s proportions are not as extreme as Parmigianino’s Madonna and Child with Angels, but they are not the perfect Renaissance form.
The composition of the figures is unlike most paintings and can only be compare to Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment, painted on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel, painted between 1534-1541. The Last Judgment has Christ in the center of the fresco surrounded by Mary and other biblical figures suspended on clouds. This closeness in composition suggests that it is “part of new mannerist developments” (Adams, 564). Michelangelo’s figures are very muscular and use very distorted figures while El Greco choices linear position. The color palette used by the two artists also distinguishes the different eras in which they were painted. El Greco uses paints with vibrant reds, yellows, and blue while Michelangelo’s are softer in hue.
This painting was never removed from its original location in Toledo Spain and its form takes the shape of the wall of the church. The subject matter depicts a miracle and it is in fact “a Spanish dream dreamt in Toledo” because “El Greco made the city rise into Heaven and heaven descend into the city, for he was anxious to elevate matter to spirit” (Savir, 6). The composition of this altarpiece shows this descendation of the heavens into the city and the city into the heaven. The spirit of the count is held in the hands of the angel to also show this relationship of the city and heaven. The wispy brush strokes and figures floating also allude to a dream sequence. The orderly figures on the bottom half of the altarpiece suggests the realities of everyday life. The figures stiff positions and bland colors also illustrate this reality. The dream of Heaven is desired and because of the altar’s position to the viewer, the viewer first sees heaven and then follows the angels green cloak to see the lower half of the altarpiece.
In a time of illiteracy, visualizations of heaven and earth are needed to remind people of the rewards of heaven and the follies of earth. This altarpiece illustrating this miracle to a count exemplifies the idea of nobility being rewarded for their good deeds on earth. The men dressed in black suggest other people who will also return to the heavens because of their status. Very few altarpieces before El Greco used non-religious figures with religious events, and were only included to show that an influential family donated money for the altarpiece. Masaccio’s Holy Trinity is one altarpiece that paints the donors on his holy fresco, but paints them on the edges of the painting blending the figures into the columns. El Greco places his numerous non-religious figures in the middle of the altarpiece but clothes them in black to draw the viewer’s eye to the important religious figures clothed in gold.
El Greco exemplifies Mannerist techniques and shows his understanding of art techniques in his The Burial of the Count of Orgaz. The figures may not be of aesthetic quality and perfection of Renaissance figures, but still there is beauty in his altarpiece. This altarpiece remains in Toledo, Spain and should not be removed from its location because the painting is an important part of the city and the city beauty and surrounding environment elevates the meaning and interpretation of this altarpiece.

Works Cited

Adams, Laurie Schneider. Art Across Time. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1999.
Savir, Ediciones. The Burial of the Count of Orgaz: Message and Technique. Barcelona: Imdeart, 1999.

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