Adel :D
A rather infrequent blogger who nags at other bloggers to update their blogs.
She loves colourful stuff but is often seen wearing black and white.
An office rat, she's often found chasing the sun during the weekends.
Her curent aim in life is to be able to whistle the entire tune of "Jingle Bells"
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Monday, September 24, 200711:18 PM
Ladies and Gentlemen.... i present to you........
SAGRADA FAMILIA (part 1)  "The construction of the Sagrada Familia is slow, because the Master of this work isn't in a hurry" - Antoni Gaudi, architect of Sagrada Familia- Following pics are promotional posters of the Sagrada Familia.     ** pls note: Pls note that this impressive work of architecture is a Roman Catholic Church. Hence, to bring u guys on a visual tour around this church, wud mean that i will need to narrate certain stuff relating to the Roman Catholic Church's beliefs. Just wanna make things clear before i start! ready???? And today, we shall stop at Sagrada Familia  Last sem, i had this teacher, Florence Lian, who would liven up her lectures by showing us photos of her (uber cool) vacation spots which wud include wonderful buildings. She showed us Sagrada Familia and informed us that they have been building the church for over a hundred years and they are still not done... We laughed accordingly and went on to the next slide. So, when i read all those tour books describing the Sagrada Familia to be "impressive", "awe-inspiring" blah blah blah, i would just shrug and go "ah wells... we'll see". Little did i know.. when you see the Sagrada Familia, the feeling is just..... i cant describe it and all of the sudden, those tour books' cheesy descriptions just seem to fit. Many try to find a word to describe Sagrada Familia and all will fail because it's.... just tough to find the right word that fits it. As we were staying in Eixample, we walked a few blocks down to Sagrada Familia. This is a view of it from far.  I tried taking artistic shots of it but the tree kept on insisting on being in the pic.   Stupid tree. If you squint hard enough, you can see a man sitting on the bridge between the towers.   i got really worried at first, thinkn that it was a construction worker who could not take the pressure of life anymore. that is, until i used my camera to zoom in and realised tt it was a bronze figure! Hmmm can you guess what it symbolises? :D  As we walked closer, we could see the statues on the towers on the Passion Facade.  LOOK OUT! Mission Hot Guy at work here! ahem and the passion facade of course.  While i was dilgently snapping away, my family was commenting on the large number of pigeons (Audrey's favourite bird btw.... HAHAHA!) and this is my dad's Operation Pigeon to prevent pigeon poop from droppin onto him!  One more Photo of the passion facade without the distraction of hot guys... "To convey this idea of desolation and pain, Gaudi fred the acade from any type of ornamentation. Likewise, he simplified its structure leaving it clean and hard bone-like forms, with no more adornment than the cold nudity of the steon. The reason for this absence of decoration is so the viewer pays all his attention to the monument's group of sculptures which describes the last days of Jesus"
One of the reasons why the Sagrada Familia took so long to build is that a lot of thought in put into it. The construction process includes a) Studying the skeleton (as Gaudi considered the skeleton to be the base of the structure) b) Photographing posed models in a system of mirrors which would show the image of the model from all angles. The photos would then be studied in greater detail and they would sketch out a picture on how they would like the sculptures to be. c) Casting in plaster. After choosing the model and the posture it should adopt, a direct plaster cast is cast from nude bodies of people and animals. d) Corrections in the casting. Gaudi increased the height of the figures high up so that they would be viewed the same as the figures low-down. e) Chipping. After making the amendments to the size of the model and then put in its final location for any last corrections, sculpting in stone would commence. Were all these proccesses worth it? You can be the judge. The sketch of the Passion Facade:
The plaster model:
The Passion Facade now:
So after a thousand and one photos from the outside, it was time to enter.
As the Passion facade describes the last days of Jesus, it faces West where the sun sets. The red line in the following picture shows you the sequence to follow when viewing the sculptures. "The sculptor made the order of the scenes from the Last Supper to the Burial, follow an "S" shape to reproduce the path that Jesus followed on the road to Calvary." Remember the man sitting on the bridge between the towers? That is the Ascension of Christ, sculpted in bronze, signifying the last station of the cross.
The Last Supper close up:  The Last Supper. It represents the moment when Jesus asks Judas to betray him as quickly as possible. The apostles are shown to be in distress. A sculpture of a dog is also found there.
The Kiss of Judas:
For the uninitiated, Judas is well known to be the dude who betrayed Jesus by pointing him out to the soldiers. He had told the soldiers that he would kiss Jesus to identify him to the soldiers, hence the well known scene of "The Kiss of Judas". "Because this scene took place at night, hence the undefined outlines of the sculptures suggested how these people would have been viewed in the dark." Not captured in this photo is a sculpture of a serpent placed behind the figure of Judas. As it is traditionally associated with evil, it represents the devil's symbol that inspired the disciple to betray Jesus. The Cryptogram:
Behind the sculptures of the "Kiss of Judas" is placed a cryptogram which contains 16 numbers. The sum of these, in 310 combinations, always adds up to 33, Jesus's age when he died. Care to try figure out a few of the combinations? Here's a better view of it!
Group of sculptures no 4: The denial of Peter The sketch:
Group of sculptures No. 5 :Ecce Homo After being beaten, Jesus is presented to the people wearing a crown of thorns.
Group of sculptures no. 6: The trial of Jesus Pilate, the governer then, washes his hands to abstain himself of the responsbility of Jesus's death sentence.
The main doors and the flagellation of Christ
See the words carved out on the door? It is the gospel text narrating the last 2 days of Jesus. 8,000 bronze characters were cast to write the text on the door! There is a mini cryptogram found on it too. As for the flagellation of Jesus, the sculpture is 5 m tall. The column is divided into 4 parts to symbolise the 4 arms of the cross. "Its juxtaposition recalls the endof the ancient world." a) knot: symbolises the physical torture suffered by Jesus b) Cane: reflects the ridicule suffered by Jesus when the soldiers gave him a cane instead of a sceptre which symbolises royalty. The Middle level: represents the path to crucifixion Sculpture no 11: Longinus the soldier that crossed his lance across Jesus's side, on the cross. Afterwards, he converted to Christianity and ended up as a Church martyr. ABove Longinus, you can see group of sculptures no 14 : Soldiers playing dice. In that station, the soldiers play for Jesus clothes (after they had stripped him).
Group of sculptures no 12: The "Veronica" and the evangelist. "Shows Jesus's 2nd falter on the Calvary path. In the middle of the scene, Veronica appears showing the veil on which Jesus's face is marked. Her figure has no face in order that more attention is paid to Jesus's face. The sketch before they sculpted it:
Notice the sculpture at the far left of the picture? That is a sculpture of Gaudi, meant as a tribute, as the evangelist who would tell the story of Jesus. Also in this group of sculpture is the roman soldiers helmets which copies Gaudi design of the Casa Mila house (visited on day 9!) Present day sculptures:
Group of Sculptures no. 13 : The 3 Marys and Simon the Cyrene
The 3 crying women represent the Virgin, Mary of Cleophas and Mary Magdalene. Above them is the Group no. 17 the burial . It is the last scene where Jesus' body is wrapped in a sheet and is deposited in a sheet that is deposited in a tomb by Joseph of Arimatea helped by Nicodemus. Mary kneels down. I think from this pic u can see a round thingy... Its supposed to be an egg above Mary. The egg is the symbol of saintliness and resurrection.
Group of Sculptures no. 15: The crucifixion of Jesus
Arrghhh from this pic, you cant really see the whole scene of the crucifixion. But the 3 Marys are there. The cross is made of 2 iron bars. The front part of the start is painted the colour red to highlight an "I", the first letter of the inscription I.N.R.I. Can you see a flat round thing? That's the moon to represent the night.
The Torn veil:
Interesting so far? :) And this is just the Passion facade! I'm gonna stop here so do wait for my part 2! But here's a preview of what you might find! What awaits you beyond the doors of Sagrada Familia???
The interior of Sagrada Familia! This is the plaster model they did before the construction work started!
Hope you enjoyed my virtual tour of the Passion facade! :D we should totally go back one day! |
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Do you see a cockerel in the pic? The story behind it was that Jesus had predicted before that Peter would deny knowing Jesus 3 times before the cockerel cries annoucing the dawn of a new day. The 3 women in this group of sculptures symbolise the 3 times Peter denied knowing Jesus and apostle appears wrapped in a sheet (a metaphor of denial), ashamed of his cowardness.
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If you can see from the picture, the following symbols are found:.JPG)
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This bronze structure represents the veil which sepersteed the most sacred place in the Temple of Jerualem from the rest of the large rooms. In order to achieve a simiar effect to fabric, the bronse veil forms different creases. Beyonf the veil is a brighly coloured ceramic work, depicting a lamb to symbolise the resurrection of Jesus.
see the little man there? He has been put there to show u the scale of the church.