Domènech i Montaner

Description:

"The architect Domènech i Montaner is considered together with Antoni Gaudí as the leading representative of Catalan Art Nouveau or Modernisme that had its beginnings in 1888. The more closely we examine the work of Domènech the more we see him as a 'modern architect' in the sense described by Professor Peter Collins. This architect-designer-historian-archaeologist-heraldist showed such concern for the many peripheral subjects that influenced the architecture of nineteenth-century Europe--historical allusion, analogy, meticulous detail, pictorial techniques, the oriental model, the use of wrought-iron and the incorporation of a variety of decorative arts--and drew on such varied sources as Viollet-le-Duc, Blondel, Choissy, Durand, Laugier, Owen-Jones, Ruskin, Schinkel and Hope, that we cannot fail to acknowledge him as one of that chain of figures whose ideas formed a dense, multi-disciplinary and at times contradictory discourse that was eventually to give rise to the phenomena of contemporary architecture. Domènech was perhaps the only one of his generation in Spain who had the courage to take up the challenge of his era, not by simplifying or resolving architectural problems on a provincial scale but by approaching them with the breadth of culture, spirit of exploration and discerning mind that have characterised our civilisation from the mid-eighteenth century onwards"--Publisher's description, p. [2] of dust jacket.

subjects: Buildings, structures,  Criticism and interpretation,  Eclecticism in architecture,  Modern Architecture,  Architecture,  History,  Architects

People: Lluís Domènech i Montaner (1849-1923)

Places: Catalonia,  Catalonia (Spain),  Spain

Times: 20th century