Stained glass windows

When you study the structure of Gaudí's temple and compare it with the functioning of Gothic cathedrals, you can understand the master's intention to surpass this style. And he really managed to eliminate the exterior elements, such as buttresses and buttresses, which he considered to be like crutches.

This same spirit of overcoming the Gothic is what we capture when the glassmaker Joan Vila-Grau explains to us the stained glass windows he has created for the Basilica, so important for defining an environment that transcends, an interior space of meditation and introspection. In short, a temple.

Often, in Gothic cathedrals the most colorful part is the highest part of the stained glass windows, where, from the outside, there is a more direct impact of the sun's rays and without too many obstructions. On the other hand, in lower areas, where trees or other buildings can provide shade, the color filter is less. This distribution tends to seek internal compensation for one effect by the other, a balance, in such a way that in the points where less sun arrives there are fewer filters and vice versa.

However, in the Sagrada Familia the opposite is expected: Gaudí seeks maximum contrast. The lightest stained glass windows are located in the highest parts, so that light can enter and illuminate the mosaics and gilding of the vaults that characterize the naves. On the other hand, the figurations and texts in the stained glass windows are located in the lower area, so that they are more visible to visitors and they can read or view them better.

In this sense we see parallelism between the distribution of the stained glass windows and Gaudí's recurring concept of overcoming Gothic.

Gaudí worked very intensely on stained glass, as on all the subjects that occupied him, and, in this case, the cathedral of Palma de Mallorca served as a test bed to test a truly novel system: trichrome. It was a composition with four layers of superimposed glass, one for each primary color (yellow, cyan blue and magenta) and a fourth transparent closing glass. By conveniently grading the color and moving the drawing in each of the three colored layers, I wanted to achieve the effect of generating a relief drawing, as if it were in three dimensions. Thus, it was intended that the continuous colored surface would mutate progressively, as color does when the incidence of light on a relief varies.

It is believed that Gaudí got the idea from a poorly detailed article that was published at the time on Tiffany glass, and that he immersed himself in research and testing, but ultimately did not achieve the desired result. However, we have two stained glass windows left in Mallorca and another in Montserrat made according to this system.

On the other hand, the option chosen for the Sagrada Familia was leaded glass, with more than six hundred years of experience behind it.