The Venetian glass tiles of the Sagrada Familia Cathedral

Summer 1889. A young Catalan architect walks the pavilions of the Universal Exposition of Paris. In his eyes is wonder at the newly raised Eiffel Tower and the memory of 11 years before, when he first met Mr. Guell, at the Parisian exposition of 1878. In his heart is pride for the palace he had designed for him in the Carrer Nou de la Rambla and excitement for the project he had just undertaken, inspired by Padre Manyanet’s journal Sagrada familia. An expiatory temple to the Holy Family.

While strolling the pavilions, he comes across a mind-boggling display: a panel assembling a variety of glass tiles, or a library of colors, as its Venetian artist called it to promote his newly founded business. “Angelo Orsoni, Venezia,” Antoni notes his name in his memory, marveling at the excellence of his craft, and likening his ingenuity to the infinite creativity and patience of God, the client of his Sagrada Familia que no tiene prisa, who is in no hurry, as he used to say.

As 30-year-old Gaudí approached Angelo Orsoni, they immediately clicked. Like Gaudí, the Venetian artist obviously saw glass tiles not as shiny surfaces but as living stones. Animated matter revealing an inner light. Color projecting an unfading life. It was in that moment, near Orsoni’s library of colors, that Gaudì decided he would use his smalti for the Sagrada Familia.

35 years later, as the Nativity Façade was taking shape, an older Gaudì recalled that early encounter, and reached out to Orsoni again, to source the smalti and tiles for the cathedral from his furnace. By then – it was 1924 – Angelo was already dead, but ever since, even after Gaudi’s death in 1926, and until our present, Orsoni tiles and smalti would adorn with unparalleled beauty the mosaics, spires, and pinnacles of Barcelona’s most celebrated masterpiece.

Here is the entire story of the Venetian mosaic and glassmaker Orsoni 1888

👉 bit.ly/innovators-orsoni