The traces of the beginnings of art can be seen clearly in the oldest cultures and societies in which their gradual aesthetic development can be clearly traced. The history of floral ornamentation alone bears this out: exotic plants such as the lotus and papyrus served as models for the ancient Egyptians, whether in painting or on column capitals. Palm trees, vine leaves and grapes, laurel, acanthus, roses, lilies, camellias and pomegranate were added – as well as peacocks, brightly colored birds and fishes, and all sorts of four-legged animals. Art is grounded in nature – indeed, made possible solely by it. After all, a human being is also a being of nature who desires to develop freely and who reveals his free creative spirit above all in art.

It is no coincidence that only “free art” counts as art! Although derived from nature, it is far from being a true-to-life representation. The thought generated through the senses and possessing an enlivening quality gives rise to an idea that is both ensouled and soul-stirring. It is an idea that beautifies and from it emerges a free product of the artistic spirit – and thus a true work of art. What comes into being is the idealized, sensuous beautiful – the supreme living harmony, which is, at bottom, always grounded in nature or derived from the richness of its forms and colors, whether consciously or unconsciously.

Art and nature with Antoni Gaudí and Daniel Defoe

To cite another famous example, we would also like to return to our book “Art in Dialogue with Nature” (In memory of Antoni Gaudí and Daniel Defoe), vol. 7 from the LOUNGE 2 book series:

Antonin Gaudí’s noble goal was to dissolve the boundaries between life, art, and nature. The main entrance of the Nativity façade on the Eastern side of the Sagrada Familia resembles the mouth of a gigantic cave. Gaudí wanted the entrance colorful like the originally colored temples of Ancient Greece. (These had originally been wooden structures.). A green cypress made of glass symbolizes nature, his most respected teacher. Typically, Gaudí’s crucial finding that paraboloid structures with tilted pillars could withstand the downward pressure of large vaults, was taken from nature itself: His model was the eucalyptus tree.

On Sunday afternoons, he strolled along the beach to soak up the inspiring shapes of the waves. Nothing in his architecture is straight or edgy – everything seems to flow. The most striking example of this are the serpentine benches at Park Güell. Gaudí‘s Casa Batlló has much in common with Barcelona’s giant aquarium. Ceilings contain whirlpools, facades glitter like the foam of the sea, and the roof resembles a giant reptile.

Gaudí’s organic architecture also brought forth a range of new techniques. Paraboloid structures featuring tilted pillars suddenly enabled people to place walls inside rooms wherever they wished. The jewel of his artistic and architectural career is the spiritual forest, a prayer and meditation room inside the Sagrada Familia. The number of visitors his architectural work attracted to the church exceeded all expectations. The wall paintings in Cappadocia’s caves and the Catalonian tradition of building Castellers – human towers – also inspired him. Gaudí’s pillars, vaults, and ceilings resemble tree trunks, branches, and twigs. With technical innovations that made pillars and flying buttresses superfluous, he perfected traditional Gothic architecture.

Gaudí had also studied natural sciences and was adept at botany. It was his closeness to nature that made his style different from Art Nouveau. His ideal structure was an organic, seemingly living body. He always designed structures on site, following a constant spontaneous influx of inspiring moments, they kept them “sprouting” in all kinds of unexpected directions throughout the construction process. Inside the Krypta Güell, which served as an initial source of inspiration for the Sagrada Familia, visitors encounter what seems like a brushwood of pillars taking up the structure of a nearby pine forest. The stairs leading to the entrance were built around an ancient pine tree. The inside of the church resembles a cave made higher by smashing out rocks – another analogy to Defoe’s novel. No pillar resembles the next, like no tree looks exactly like any other. The natural stone facade resembles pine bark. Even the windows imitate specific shapes of nature including flowers, butterfly wings, and spider webs for grilles.

The Sagrada Familia features its own cornucopia of stone flora and fauna. Eighteen different plants can be found on the Portal of Mercy. The vaults inside the church resemble a canopy of leaves, the baldachin brims with grapevines. Various animals grace the Nativity façade, the apse wall seems alive with critters and greenery. Looking at Park Güell, the viaducts resemble the paths nature has built through caves. Gaudí’s Pedrera townhouse with its honeycomb balconies is a sandstone-colored monolithic structure remindful of the Stone Age.

Please find more information in our blog category “DIALOGUE WITH NATURE (Special)” (right column of the website / upper menu “Blog”)!