THE FRIENDS OF GAUDÍ WANT TO CROWN LA PEDRERA WITH A SCULPTURE DESIGNED BY THE ARCHITECT

The sculptor Etsuro Sotoo shows a model of the work of art. The monumental sculpture, in gilded bronze, would be 4,5 metres in height. The current owners of the building do not view positively the addition of the work of art to the house. La Pedrera is an “unfinished building”. So stated yesterday the Amics de Gaudí (Friends of Gaudí), determined supporters of placing upon it an enormous sculpture which featured in the original design but never actually materialised.

The sculptor Etsuro Sotoo shows a model of the work of art.

The monumental sculpture, in gilded bronze, would be 4,5 metres in height | The current owners of the building do not view positively the addition of the work of art to the house

It consists of a Marian monumental sculpture (the Virgin with Child, surrounded by the Archangels Gabriel and Michael) which Gaudí had anticipated would crown the facade. The association has now begun a campaign to rescue the idea and yesterday presented a plaster model of the work created by the sculptor Etsuro Sotoo, who has been working on the Sagrada Familia for three decades with Josep Maria Subirachs.

“This sculpture is complementary to the building and, according to Gaudí, is the one that made sense. It may be argued that there is no need to put it in place, but no argument bears the force of the work of Gaudí himself”, stated the architect Joan Bassegoda, President of the Amics de Gaudí. “The Sagrada Família is also an unfinished work: the greater part of the building postdates Gaudí”, he reminds us.

Gaudí designed the Casa Milà in 1906 and planned for it to include the afore-mentioned monumental sculpture, a piece in gilded bronze standing 4,5 metres high. “Back then he worked with the sculptor Carles Mani, and they both built, on the main floor of la Pedrera, a life size model of the sculpture, but the work of art did not please Messrs Milà”, indicated Bassegoda. According to the sculptor Joan Matamala in his book “Mi itinerario con el arquitecto”, the building block “like a great wave of stone, would be a great base” for the monumental sculpture, whose central figure should be the Virgen del Rosario, as Mrs Milà was also called Roser. In fact, on the cornice of the house one can read, spaced out, the words Ave Gratia Plena Dominus Tecum.

“It was even said - added Bassegoda– that the sculpture was not put in place because the Milà would have feared erecting a religious image there after the events of the Tragic Week. But this was never proven. The fact is that in 1912 Carles Mani died and the matter was definitively shelved”.

The current owner of la Pedrera, does not approve of placing the sculpture on top of the building. It is a classic sculptural group which would contrast powerfully with the avant-garde lines of the building. Etsuro Sotoo created the model interpreting a drawing by Matamala, the only one currently existing of the work.