The interiors of the house Calvet (1899)

The foyer has scaffoldings of blue cobalt ceramics with a drawing composed in the shape of whirlpool. Spending a glass door one enters the second foyer, with two attached banks of wood, made by Casas i Bardés. We come, across an arch with the inscription «Ave Maria Purisima, sens pecat fou concebuda», to the court of lights and to the stairs. In the walls, stucco-worked imitating a break-down of bricks, there is written in three shields the motto of the Floral Games: "Faith, Mother country, Love", that repeats itself in every floor. Four salomonic columns of artificial granite support the elliptical arches of the stairs, which rails of wrought iron compose concentric circles made by Lluís Badia. The elevator is in the center, protected by a balustrade turned by Salvador Boada. It is an incredible cage of iron and wood, worked by Casas i Bardés and for Badia, with movement by Cardellach. It is a fully baroque space. Gaudí demonstrates the party that he can extract to humble and vulgar materials (artificial granite, ceramic, stucco, involved irons, wood, gilded polichromy) to compose this pompous decoration. The disposition of the elements and the sense of "horror vacui" resembles very much the baldachines and altarpieces of the Catalan XVIIIth century. Gaudí designed also the pavements, the roofs and the papers of the walls of the flats. The most interesting elements are the drawers and the peepholes, of golden brass. He obtained its forms shaping mire up to adapting it perfectly to his own hands. As says professor Mireia Freixa, Gaudí begins to liberate himself and to show his personal language. For contrast, Gaudí did in the terrace of the principal, above the store, a few big flower-pot stands with a fountain of artificial stone. They are the most delirious and baroque forms never designed by the architect.

Josep Maria Tarragona, April 23, 2006
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