Clients, colleagues, assistants, friends...

Anton Gaudí lived intensely his epoch: the Renaixença, Catalonia's renaissance and the development of Barcelona like the national capital; the new artistic styles, of which he was a protagonist; the social, economic and political transformations; the cultural and intellectual activity; and the efforts of the Catholic Church for evangelizing the new realities. He treated many people: clients, colleagues, assistants, friends … In this drawing of Opisso we see Gaudí explaining the frontage of the Nativity of the Holy Family to his two great friends Eusebi Güell i Bacigalupi and Josep Torras i Bages. Güell, rich textile manufacturer, was his principal client and patron of art. Torras i Bages, bishop of Vic, he was the "spiritual patriarch of Catalonia" who was heading the modern clergy of the country. Güell, Gaudí and Torras represent the emergent upper middle class, the artists and the illustrated clergy, the three estates that formed Catalonia's Christian Renaissance, the small boat where Gaudí furrowed the sea of the history.