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diff --git a/33820.txt b/33820.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4a8fe46 --- /dev/null +++ b/33820.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7028 @@ +Project Gutenberg's An Architect's Note-book in Spain, by Matthew Digby Wyatt + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: An Architect's Note-book in Spain + principally illustrating the domestic architecture of that country. + +Author: Matthew Digby Wyatt + +Release Date: September 30, 2010 [EBook #33820] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN ARCHITECT'S NOTE-BOOK IN SPAIN *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images available at The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + +AN +ARCHITECT'S NOTE-BOOK +IN +SPAIN + +_PRINCIPALLY ILLUSTRATING THE_ +DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE OF THAT COUNTRY. + +BY + +M. DIGBY WYATT, M.A. + +SLADE PROFESSOR OF FINE ART IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, &C. + +WITH ONE HUNDRED OF THE AUTHOR'S SKETCHES, +REPRODUCED BY THE AUTOTYPE MECHANICAL PROCESS. + +LONDON: +AUTOTYPE FINE ART COMPANY (LIMITED), +_36, RATHBONE PLACE._ + +TO + +OWEN JONES, ESQ. + +KNIGHT OF THE ORDERS OF SAINTS MAURICE AND LAZARUS OF ITALY, AND OF +LEOPOLD OF BELGIUM, MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF SAINT FERDINAND OF +SPAIN, &C., &C., &C. + + + _My dear Owen, + + _The last book I wrote I dedicated to my brother by blood; the + present I dedicate to you--my brother in Art. Let it be a record of + the value I set upon all you have taught me, and upon your true + friendship._ + + _Ever yours,_ + + M. DIGBY WYATT. + + 37, Tavistock Place, W.C. + + October, 1872. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +Before quitting England for a first visit to Spain in the Autumn of +1869, I made up my mind both to see and draw as much of the +Architectural remains of that country as the time and means at my +disposal would permit; and further determined so to draw as to admit of +the publication of my sketches and portions of my notes on the objects +represented, in the precise form in which they might be made. I was +influenced in that determination by the consciousness that almost from +day to day the glorious past was being trampled out in Spain; and that +whatever issue, prosperous or otherwise, the fortunes of that much +distracted country might take in the future, the minor monuments of Art +at least which adorned its soil, would rapidly disappear. Their +disappearance would result naturally from what is called "progress" if +Spain should revive; while their perishing through neglect and wilful +damage, or peculation, would inevitably follow, if the ever smouldering +embers of domestic revolution should burst afresh into flame. Such has +been the invariable action of those fires which in all history have +melted away the most refined evidences of man's intelligence, leaving +behind only scanty, and often all but shapeless, relics of the richest +and ripest genius. + +It is difficult to realise the rapidity with which, almost under one's +eyes, the Spain of history and romance "is casting its skin." Travelling +even with so recent and so excellent a handbook as O'Shea's of 1869, I +noted the following wanton acts of Vandalism and destruction, committed +upon monuments of the greatest archaeological and artistic interest since +he wrote. At Seville, the Church of San Miguel, one of the oldest and +finest in the city, was senselessly demolished by the populace as a sort +of auto-da-fe, and by way of commemoration of the revolution of +September, 1867. In exactly the same way the fine Byzantine churches of +San Juan at Lerida, and of San Miguel at Barcelona, have been "improved +off the face of the earth." Church plate, Custodias and Virils of the +D'Arfes, Becerrias, and other Art workmen, have vanished from the +treasuries of all the great ecclesiastical structures; whether sold, +melted down, or only hidden, "quien sabe?" The beautiful Moorish +decorations of the Alcazar at Segovia had been all but entirely +destroyed by fire, attributed to the careless cigar-lighting of the +Cadets to whom the structure had been abandoned. The finest old mansion +in Barcelona, the Casa de Gralla, probably the masterpiece of Damian +Forment, and dating from the commencement of the fourteenth century, has +been pulled down by the Duke of Medina Celi to form a new street. The +beautiful wooden ceiling of the Casa del Infantado at Guadalaxara, the +finest of its kind in Spain, in the absence of its owner, who I was told +lives in Russia, is coming down in large pieces, and once fallen, I +scarcely think it will be in the power of living workmen to make it good +again. The exquisite Moorish Palace of the Generalife at Granada, second +only to the Alhambra and the Alcazar at Seville, is never visited by its +proprietor, and is now one mass of white-wash, a victim of the zeal for +cleanliness of a Sanitary "Administrador." In short to visit a Spanish +city now, by the light shed upon its ancient glories by the industrious +Ponz, is simply to have forced upon one's attention the most striking +evidence of the "vanity of human things," and man's inherent tendency to +destroy. + +One of the most painful sensations the lover of the Art of the Past +cannot but experience in Spain, is the feeling of its dissonance from, +and irreconcileability with, the wants and economical necessities of +to-day. The truth is that at the present moment, amongst the many +difficult problems which surround and beset the ruling powers, one of +the most puzzling is to find fitting uses for the many vast structures +which have fallen into the hands of the Government. Churches in number +and size out of all proportion to the wants of the population, +monasteries entirely without monks, convents with scarcely any nuns, +Jesuit seminaries without Jesuits, exchanges without merchants, colleges +without students, tribunals of the Holy Inquisition with, thank God! no +Inquisitors, and palaces without princes, are really "drugs in the +market;" too beautiful to destroy, too costly to properly maintain, and +for the original purposes for which they were planned and constructed at +incredible outlay they stand now almost useless. For the most part, the +grand architectural monuments of the country are now like Dickens' +"used-up giants" kept only "to wait upon the dwarfs." Among a few +instances of such, may be noticed the magnificent foundation of the +noblest Spanish ecclesiastic, Ximenez. His College at Alcala de Henares +(see etext transcriber note) is turned into a young ladies' +boarding-school; the splendid Convent of the Knights of Santiago at +Leon, the masterpiece of Juan de Badajoz, dedicated to Saint Mark, and +one of the finest buildings in Spain, is now in charge of a solitary +policeman and his wife, awaiting its possible conversion into an +agricultural college; the grand Palace of the Dukes of Alva at Seville +is let out in numerous small tenements and enriched with unlimited +whitewash; the Colegiata of San Gregorio at Valladolid, another of the +magnificent foundations of Cardinal Ximenez, and the old cathedral at +Lerida, the richest Byzantine monument in Spain, are now both +barracks;--the vast exchanges of Seville and Saragossa are tenantless +and generally shut up; the beautiful "Casa de los Abades" at Seville is +converted into a boy's school and lodging-house for numerous poor +tenants, the Casa del Infante at Saragossa, containing the most richly +sculptured Renaissance Patio in Spain, is chiefly occupied as a livery +stable-keeper's establishment; Cardinal Mendoza's famous Hospital of the +Holy Cross at Toledo is now an Infantry College; the great monastery of +the Cartuja near Seville, with one of the finest Mudejar wooden ceilings +in the country, is turned into Pickman's china factory; the "Taller del +Moro" a model Moorish house with its beautiful decorations, at Toledo, +is now only a carpenter's workshop and storehouse; the celebrated +establishment of El Cristo de la Victoria at Malaga, with all its +glorious associations with the "Reyes Cattolicos," is occupied as a +military hospital; and so on '_ad infinitum_.' + +Every record the pen and pencil of any accurate observer can preserve at +this juncture of the fading glories of the past in Spain is, as it were, +snatching a brand from the inevitable fire which has already consumed +inestimable treasures upon its soil. It was to give a stamp of truth and +authenticity to the few such records I might be enabled to make, that I +determined to complete them in the actual presence as it were of the +object illustrated, and to admit of no intervention between my own hand, +and the eye of any student willing to honour my work with his +attention. My sketches might no doubt have gained in beauty by being +transcribed on stone or wood by some artist more skilful than I am, but +as any such alteration would detract from their simple veracity, I +preferred to make them at once upon the spot with anastatic ink, in +order that they might be printed just as they were executed. Working +with such ink in the open air is difficult, and the result capricious, I +have therefore to ask for some indulgence, and to express a hope that +any shortcomings in the drawings may be overlooked in the obvious +interest of the subjects pourtrayed. Could I but have known, on leaving +England, that my sketches could have been so successfully transferred to +collodion, and printed therefrom by the beautiful Autotype mechanical +process, as they have been since my return, I might have spared myself +much extra trouble and anxiety, and have probably attained a much better +result with less effort. In order to retain as much "local colour" as +possible, I have preferred, even in the binding of this volume, to take +its ornament in fac-simile from a beautiful little Mudejar casket of +which I am the fortunate possessor, rather than to trust to my own +powers to design something specially characteristic. + +I have further to ask corresponding indulgence for any literary +insufficiencies my text may present. Although for some years a not +inattentive student of Spanish art and literature, I could not, and +cannot but feel that my acquaintance with the country was, and is +insufficient for writing worthy notes even upon its architectural +monuments, after the excellent works which have been already written by +such of my countrymen as Ford, Street, Stirling, and O'Shea. At the same +time, considering that to publish my sketches altogether without +explanatory letter-press would greatly detract from their interest and +consequent usefulness, I have brought into their present shape the +scanty notes made upon the spot, more or less directly illustrative of +the subjects upon which my pencil found occupation. + +It will be obvious, it is hoped, that in the selection of subjects for +illustration, an endeavour has been made to avoid in any wise trenching +upon or clashing with those already fully treated in the admirable work +on Spanish Ecclesiastical Architecture by Mr. G. E. Street. Whilst he +has turned from, I have turned towards, the Plateresque and later styles +of Spain, and whilst he has sought specially for what might be useful to +church-builders, my aim has been rather to collect hints for +house-builders. Thanks to him, and others like him, we have now been +left with more to learn in the latter direction than in the former. + +The following was my line of tour, and as it comprises most of what is, +I believe, best worth seeing in Spain in the way of Art, with the +notable exceptions of Santiago, Oviedo, Murcia, Cuenca, Placencia, +Alicante and Valencia, which want of time did not permit me to include, +I do not hesitate to commend it to those, desirous, as I was, of seeing +as much as possible of what was excellent or curious within a short +space of time. It was as follows, from London via Paris, Bordeaux, and +Bayonne to Spain, beginning with Burgos, then successively visiting +Valladolid (rail), Venta de Banos (rail), Leon (rail), Zamora and +Salamanca, (by "diligence" from Leon) Avila (by "diligence" from +Salamanca) Escorial (rail), Madrid (rail), Segovia (by "diligence" from +Madrid and back), Alcala de Henares (by rail from Madrid and back), +Toledo (by rail from Madrid and back), Cordoba (rail), Sevilla (rail), +Cadiz (by the Guadalquivir steamer), Gibraltar (by steamer), Malaga (by +steamer), Granada (rail and "diligence,") Andujar ("diligence,") Madrid +(rail), a second time, Guadalajara (rail), Saragossa (rail), Lerida +(rail), Barcelona (rail), and Gerona (rail), thence to the frontier by +"diligence," and home by rail, via Perpignan, Carcassonne, Toulouse and +Paris. + +To preserve some sort of order, I have arranged my sketches as they were +executed in point of time, and thrown my notes into a corresponding +sequence. + +To assert that Spain can teach the lessons to the architect which may be +gained from Italy, or even from France would, I think, be to claim too +much for her, but on the other hand, it should be remembered, that it is +a mine which has been very much less exhausted. To the interest and +grandeur of its Northern Gothic buildings, Mr. Street has done a justice +long denied to them; while Girault de Prangey, and above all Owen Jones, +have helped us to a right appreciation of the works of those masterly +artificers, the Moors, who seem to have possessed an intuitive love for +the beautiful in structure. + +It is with no small pleasure that I have laboured to direct attention to +other monuments, than those they have so satisfactorily illustrated, of +a land from travelling in which I have derived great delight, and much +instruction. + +If asked what predominant sensation Spanish Architecture had produced in +my mind, I think I should be inclined to say, that of the manifestation +of an entire indifference to expense. No one appears to have counted the +cost of the work upon which he engaged. Whether it was a mediaeval +architect entering upon the vast construction of Cathedrals, such as +Seville, Toledo or Leon, a Renaissance architect dashing upon the +immense laying out of buildings such as the Cathedrals of Salamanca or +Granada, or an Herrera plunging into such stone quarries as the Escorial +or the Cathedral at Valladolid, not a shadow of doubt ever seems to +have crossed the mind of the beginners, that some one would complete +what they began. + +Such peculiarities of national character are apt to beget proverbs, and +we accordingly find the grave ponderosity, and at the same time power, +of the Spaniard in the undertakings of his palmy days, thus +characterised in comparison with those of the other peoples of Europe. + +"In their undertakings," says "Der curieuse Antiquarius durch +Europam,"[1] the natives of different European countries are assumed by +old legends to proceed thus:-- + + "Der Frantzose wie ein Adler, + Der Deutsche wie ein Baer, + Der Italianer wie ein Fuchs, + Der Spanier wie ein Elephant, + Der Engellaender wie ein Loew."[2] + +To some, and but few, Spanish architects was it given to see ended what +they commenced, and even such favourites of fortune generally suffered +from a curtailment of their too ambitious designs. + +I could not but feel, in looking at the works of Herrera, and indeed at +those of several other men, such as Diego de Siloe, Gil de Ontanon, +Henrique de Egas, Alonso Covarrubbias, and Juan de Badajoz, that there +exists for architecture a just mean between their frequent extravagance, +and the sordid and shabby spirit in which we from time to time approach +the question of expenditure upon "public works." The economy which +consists in sobriety and simplicity of parts, especially in structures +destined to subserve ordinary uses, is as much to be admired, as the +economy which aims at the combination of magnificence with +"cheese-paring" is to be deprecated and despised. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PLATE I. BURGOS. + +The Arco de Santa Maria + +PLATE II. BURGOS. + +Casa de Miranda + +PLATE III. VALLADOLID. + +College of San Gregorio + +PLATE IV. VALLADOLID. + +Patio de San Gregorio + +PLATE V. VALLADOLID. + +Patio de San Gregorio + +PLATE VI. VALLADOLID. + +Small Patio, Colegio de San Gregorio + +PLATE VII. VALLADOLID. + +La Casa del Infantado + +PLATE VIII. VALLADOLID. + +Church of San Isidro + +PLATE IX. LEON. + +Convent of San Marcos + +PLATE X. LEON. + +Cloister of the Convent of San Marcos + +PLATE XI. LEON. + +Exterior of the Casa de Los Gusmanes + +PLATE XII. LEON. + +Patio of the Casa de Los Gusmanes + +PLATE XIII. LEON. + +Detail from a House in the Calle de La Tesoriera + +PLATE XIV. SALAMANCA. + +Exterior of the Casa de Las Conchas + +PLATE XV. SALAMANCA. + +Patio of the Casa de Las Conchas + +PLATE XVI. SALAMANCA. + +Staircase of the Casa de Las Conchas + +PLATE XVII. SALAMANCA. + +Window from the Casa de Las Conchas + +PLATE XVIII. SALAMANCA. + +Window in the Patio of the Casa de Las Conchas + +PLATE XIX. SALAMANCA. + +External Window of the Casa de Las Conchas + +PLATE XX. SALAMANCA. + +Exterior of the Casa Monterey + +PLATE XXI. SALAMANCA. + +Renaissance House opposite San Benito + +PLATE XXII. SALAMANCA. + +Renaissance House in the Calle del Aguila + +PLATE XXIII. AVILA. + +Entrance Gateway of the Casa Polentina + +PLATE XXIV. AVILA. + +The Patio of the Casa Polentina + +PLATE XXV. AVILA. + +Iron Pulpit in the Cathedral + +PLATE XXVI. AVILA. + +Iron Pulpit in the Cathedral + +PLATE XXVII. ESCORIAL. + +General view of the Escorial + +PLATE XXVIII. SEGOVIA. + +Gateway in the City Walls + +PLATE XXIX. SEGOVIA. + +Archway in the Hall of the Kings + +PLATE XXX. SEGOVIA. + +Detail from the Alcazar + +PLATE XXXI. SEGOVIA. + +Exterior View of the Monastery of El Parral + +PLATE XXXII. ALCALA-DE-HENARES. + +Exterior of the Colegio de San Ildefonso + +PLATE XXXIII. ALCALA-DE-HENARES. + +Window of the Arzobispado + +PLATE XXXIV. ALCALA-DE-HENARES. + +Detail from the Arzobispado + +PLATE XXXV. TOLEDO. + +View of the Remains of a Moorish Fortress on the River + +PLATE XXXVI. TOLEDO. + +Bridge of Alcantara + +PLATE XXXVII. TOLEDO. + +Bridge of San Martin + +PLATE XXXVIII. TOLEDO. + +Moorish Gateway by the Bridge of Alcantara + +PLATE XXXIX. TOLEDO. + +Entrance Archway of the Zocodover + +PLATE XL. TOLEDO. + +Interior of the "Taller del Moro." + +PLATE XLI. TOLEDO. + +Tower of the Church of La Magdalena + +PLATE XLII. TOLEDO. + +Moorish Tower of San Pedro Martire + +PLATE XLIII. TOLEDO. + +Tower of the Church of Sant' Iago de La Vega + +PLATE XLIV. TOLEDO. + +External View of the Hospital of the Holy Cross + +PLATE XLV. TOLEDO. + +Cortile of the Hospital of the Holy Cross + +PLATE XLVI. TOLEDO. + +Doorway from the Hospital of the Holy Cross + +PLATE XLVII. TOLEDO. + +Entrance Gateway to the Alcazar + +PLATE XLVIII. TOLEDO. + +Patio of the Hospital of Cardinal Tavera + +PLATE XLIX. CORDOBA. + +Exterior of the Casa Cabello + +PLATE L. SEVILLE. + +Church of La Feria + +PLATE LI. SEVILLE. + +Church of San Marcos + +PLATE LII. SEVILLE. + +Remains of Mudejar House near La Feria + +PLATE LIII. SEVILLE. + +Mudejar Window in the Fonda de Madrid + +PLATE LIV. SEVILLE. + +View in the Upper Story of one of the Patios of the Casa de Pilatus + +PLATE LV. SEVILLE. + +Detail from a Doorway in the Upper Floor of one of the Patios of the +House of Pilate + +PLATE LVI. SEVILLE. + +One of the Arches of the Patio of the Casa Alba + +PLATE LVII. SEVILLE. + +Detail from the Patio of the Casa Alba + +PLATE LVIII. SEVILLE. + +Arches from the Casa de Los Abades + +PLATE LIX. SEVILLE. + +View in the Patio of the Casa de Los Abades + +PLATE LX. SEVILLE. + +A Peep into an Ordinary Patio + +PLATE LXI. CADIZ. + +Internal View of the Cathedral + +PLATE LXII. MALAGA. + +The Fountain of the Alameda + +PLATE LXIII. MALAGA. + +Renaissance House in the Calle Sant' Augustin + +PLATE LXIV. MALAGA. + +Old Window of the Ospedale de Santo Tome + +PLATE LXV. MALAGA. + +Knocker of the Monastery of Sant' Jago + +PLATE LXVI. GRANADA. + +Remains of the Alhambra as seen from the Albaycin + +PLATE LXVII. GRANADA. + +Entrance to the Bosque del Alhambra + +PLATE LXVIII. GRANADA. + +Puerta de Justicia + +PLATE LXIX. GRANADA.--THE ALHAMBRA. + +Sala de Embajadores + +PLATE LXX. GRANADA.--THE ALHAMBRA. + +Stucco Detail from the Hall of the Ambassadors + +PLATE LXXI. GRANADA.--THE ALHAMBRA. + +Detail of Glass Inlay from the Hall of the Ambassadors + +PLATE LXXII. GRANADA.--THE ALHAMBRA. + +Mosaic from the Hall of the Ambassadors + +PLATE LXXIII. GRANADA.--THE ALHAMBRA. + +Niche in La Sala de Las dos Hermanas + +PLATE LXXIV. GRANADA.--THE ALHAMBRA. + +Stucco Detail from the Sala del Tribunal + +PLATE LXXV. GRANADA. + +View of the Cathedral from the back of the High Altar + +PLATE LXXVI. GRANADA. + +The Reja of the Reyes Catolicos + +PLATE LXXVII. GRANADA. + +View of the Arzobispado + +PLATE LXXVIII. GUADALAXARA. + +Palacio de Los Duques del Infantado + +PLATE LXXIX. GUADALAXARA. + +Doorway of the Monastery of San Miguel + +PLATE LXXX. GUADALAXARA. + +Casa del Duque de Ribas + +PLATE LXXXI. GUADALAXARA. + +Door Handle from the Calle del Barrio Nuevo + +PLATE LXXXII. SARAGOSSA. + +View of the Patio of the Palacio de La Infanta + +PLATE LXXXIII. SARAGOSSA. + +Detail of the Arcading of the First Floor of the Casa de La Infanta + +PLATE LXXXIV. SARAGOSSA. + +Exterior of the Exchange + +PLATE LXXXV. SARAGOSSA. + +Patio of the Casa de Comercio + +PLATE LXXXVI. SARAGOSSA. + +Patio of the House of the Marquis of Monistol + +PLATE LXXXVII. SARAGOSSA. + +Bronze Renaissance Knocker of a House in the Plazuela Aduana + +PLATE LXXXVIII. LERIDA. + +Tower of the Church of San Lorenzo + +PLATE LXXXIX. BARCELONA. + +Old House in the Calle de Santa Lucia + +PLATE XC. BARCELONA. + +Patio of the Casa de la Diputacion + +PLATE XCI. BARCELONA. + +Detail from the Casa de la Diputacion + +PLATE XCII. BARCELONA. + +Window from the Casa de la Diputacion + +PLATE XCIII. BARCELONA. + +Doorway in the Town Hall + +PLATE XCIV. BARCELONA. + +Knocker of an old House in the Calle Santa Lucia + +PLATE XCV. BARCELONA. + +Knocker to an old House in the Calle Santa Lucia + +PLATE XCVI. BARCELONA. + +Courtyard of an old House in the Calle de Moncara + +PLATE XCVII. BARCELONA. + +Staircase of an old House in the Calle de Moncara + +PLATE XCVIII. GERONA. + +Old House near the Estrella de Oro + +PLATE XCIX. GERONA. + +Upper Part of an old House and Spire of the Church of San Feliu + +PLATE C. GERONA. + +Old Walls near the Monastery of San Pedro + +FOOTNOTES + +ETEXT TRANSCRIBER NOTE + + + + +PLATE 1 + +BURGOS + +THE ARCO DE SANTA MARIA + +MDW 1869 + + +[Illustration: PLATE 1 + +BURGOS + +THE ARCO DE SANTA MARIA + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE I. + +_BURGOS._ + +THE ARCO DE SANTA MARIA. + + +IT is sad to notice how few traces beyond its magnificent Cathedral are +left in this, the capital of old Castile, of those "Castellanos rancios +y viejos," who once so splendidly represented the pride and power of +Spanish chivalry. Of the sixteen golden castles the city bears upon its +stately arms how insignificant are the relics? The remains of its walls +and bastions attest the many centuries during which it held its own +against all comers, Christian or Infidel. Of these walls, our sketch +represents a portion in which there is little doubt the Renaissance +frontispiece and archway replaced an older and sterner portal, better +suited probably for defence than decoration. The legend runs that this +facade was executed by the citizens, who had been exhibiting +proclivities of far too Communistic a character to be agreeable to so +high-handed a sovereign as Charles V., in order to propitiate that +potentate, and to commemorate a visit, on his part at least, of a +conciliatory character. It would seem, however, that in spite of the +loyalty which induced the Burgalese to assign the post of honour (always +under the invocation of the "Virgen sin pecado concebida)" to the statue +of the King, they took good care to give him for companions Nuno +Rasura, and Lain Calvo, whom they had themselves elected in the tenth +century to rule over them, and protect their Communal rights. The +maintenance of these had been somewhat interfered with by the King of +Leon, Fruela II., who had invited the chief citizens to a banquet, and +then quietly removed them out of his royal way by summarily putting them +all to death. Amongst other statues which adorn this gateway are to be +found those of Don Diego Parcelos, the founder of the city in 884, of +the Cid--the pride of Spain and especially of Burgos, in which city he +was born, and where his bones still rest--and of Fernan Gonzalez who +redeemed the district from the yoke of the Kings of Leon, to whom it had +been tributary, and who constituted himself and his family its +protectors, under the style and title of Condes de Castilla. + +The architecture of this frontispiece which gains great importance and +much picturesque effect from its association with the bartizans and +turrets of the mediaeval gateway, has been attributed to Felipe de +Borgona, not apparently on any other grounds than the facts that he was +an inhabitant of the city in whom his fellow-citizens felt great pride, +and that he was employed upon the "Crucero" of the cathedral at about +the period when this grand portal was probably erected. + +[Illustration: PLATE 2 + +BURGOS CASA DE MIRANDA + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE II. + +_BURGOS._ + +PATIO OF THE CASA DE MIRANDA. + + +THIS plate introduces us to the most striking feature of all important +Spanish houses, the Patio, or internal courtyard, answering to and +perpetuating the Atrium of Roman architecture, with its impluvium and +compluvium, and corresponding with the ordinary Cortile of the Italians. +It is usually rectangular in plan, and entirely surrounded upon at least +two stories by arcading, behind which run passages into which open the +doors of every principal set of apartments of the house. There are +rarely many windows in the walls of the Patios, as the rooms generally +occupy the whole width intervening between the Patio walls, and the +external walls of the house from which the light is mainly derived. +There are, however, usually more windows on the lower story of the Patio +than on the upper, since the chief saloons requiring most light were on +the first floor, while much of the lower floor was occupied as was also +usual in Italy, by retainers, servants, poor guests, mendicant friars +and administradores--to say nothing of mules, and horses with stores and +munitions of all sorts. + +Nothing can be more picturesque or better suited to the climate than +these Patios, since owing to the deep arcades which surround the open +part (the Cavaedium) of the court-yard upon more stories than one, there +is always some portion of the arcade in which shelter can be obtained +from sun, rain, or wind, and in which the occupants of the several +apartments can sit and work, or lounge and smoke, in abundant but not +unbearable light, and perfect comfort. This facility of outlet enables +them, during the hours when the sun shines most fiercely, to keep their +living and sleeping rooms dark and cool, and in exactly the state to +make the midday meal and subsequent siesta truly luxurious and +refreshing. + +One open staircase usually connects the upper and lower arcades; +admission is rarely given to the whole building at more than one point, +the great door, adjoining which is almost always to be found the +concierge, the janitor of the old Roman house, upon the model of which +the Spaniards probably founded their notion of a residence at once noble +and comfortable. + +Little need be said concerning the particular house sketched. It is one +of the few left in Burgos to bear witness to the grandeur of its old +aristocracy. Though once the residence of the powerful Condes de Miranda +of the family of the Zunigas, it is now but a half ruined and entirely +dirty lodging-house for the lower classes in a poor and neglected part +of the city. A fine dedication to the most illustrious "Senor Don +Francisco de cuniga y Avellaneda, Conde de Miranda, Senor de la Villa +Daca, y de la Casa de Avellaneda, by Pedro Martinez the Printer of +Seville, in 1565," sets forth the arms as well as the style and title of +the nobleman by whom, or by whose next descendant the "Casa de Miranda" +of Burgos was probably built. + +The present representative of this family is no other than the Conde de +Montijo, head of the house to which Her Majesty the Empress of the +French belongs. The remarkable "Casa solar" of Penaranda de Duero, +within an easy excursion from Burgos, once a magnificent villa of the +Zunigas, was one of the hereditary possessions of her sister the Duchess +of Alba. + +There are some few other old houses remaining in Burgos, the most +remarkable, for oddity rather than beauty, being the "Casa del Cordon;" +so called from its facade, which exhibits a gigantic rope representing +the "Cordon" of the Teutonic order, encircling and uniting, the arms of +the Velascos, Mendozas, and Figueras with those of Royalty. It was +erected by a Count Haro, Constable of Castile, at the end of the +fifteenth century. It is now the residence of the Capitan General of the +Province, and the property of the Duca de Frias, a descendant of Count +Haro. + +The Casa de Miranda is to be found in Burgos, in the "Calle de la +Calera," not far from the "Barrio de la Vega." No English visitor to +Burgos should omit to see the Convent of las Huelgas, most interesting +not only as founded by an English Princess, (Leonora, daughter of Henry +II, married to Alfonso VIII), in 1180; but as evidencing in its design, +which is exceptionally grave, simple, and well proportioned, an +unquestionably English architectural influence. + +Of the Cathedral, remains of the Castle, and the Convent of the Cartuja +it is needless to speak here, since they are certain not to be +overlooked by the traveller. Mr. Waring, who has so well drawn the +marvels of the last mentioned building,[3] has given some pretty +illustrations of ornamental detail from the fine Renaissance "Ospedal +del Rey," which may be found not far from the Convent of las +Huelgas.[4] + +[Illustration: PLATE 3 + +Valladolid. College of San Gregorio. + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE III. + +_VALLADOLID._ + +COLEGIO DE SAN GREGORIO. + + +FROM early in the fifteenth century, through the reigns of Juan II. and +his successors, until the elevation of Madrid into the Capital by +Charles the Fifth, and into the only and official seat of the Court by +Philip II. Valladolid was emphatically the Royal city of Spain. It is +there, accordingly, that the traveller would naturally look for relics +of Royal and courtly magnificence as displayed in the stirring times +during which the over-elaboration of Gothic Art began to merge itself, +in sympathy with the Medicean energies of Rome and Florence, into the +style of the Renaissance as practised at a later date by many citizens +of Valladolid, such as Antonio de Arphe, and Juan de Arphe y Villafane, +master-workers in gold and silver; as Juan de Juni, and Hernandez, the +marvellous wood-carvers and sculptors, authors of the peculiar gilt +painted groups for which the city became so famous; and as Alonzo +Berruguete, Henrique de Egas, and Macias Carpintero "masters of works" +of no mean repute. Of all the glorious objects these men and their +disciples and contemporaries produced in Valladolid a few "disjecta +membra" alone remain. Of the very building, an outlying fragment of +which forms the subject of the sketch under notice, all but the actual +structure was destroyed by the French under Napoleon I. in person, who +in 1809 inaugurated a reign of terror in the city. "No where," in Spain, +as Ford writes in 1845, "has recent destruction been more busy (than in +Valladolid); witness San Benito, San Diego, San Francisco, San Gabriel, +&c., almost swept away, their precious altars broken, their splendid +sepulchres dashed to pieces; hence the sad void created in the treasures +of art and religion which are recorded by previous travellers while +now-a-days the native in this mania of modernising is fast destroying +those venerable vestiges of Charles V. and Philip II. which escaped the +Gaul." The situation of this city on the direct line of railway +communication between France and Madrid has greatly helped forward this +"modernising" and even as this is written, numerous old streets are +being pulled down to make way for the convenient, but far from +picturesque monotony in which the nineteenth century usually writes its +date upon its street architecture. In one respect, especially, the glory +of Valladolid has entirely departed. In this, the city of the Arphes, in +which as Navagiero[5] says, (writing in 1525), "Sono in Valladolid assai +artefeci di ogni sorte, e se vi lavora benissimo di tutte le arti, e +sopra tutto d'argenti, e vi sono tanti argenteri quanti non sono in due +altre terre," no gold or silversmith's work is to be found worthy a +moment's attention. The "Plateria" still remains, and the shops of the +Plateros still abound, but, with the exception of two or three little +old fragments saved from the melting pot, the elegant types of the +"Varia commensuracion" of Villafane have disappeared, giving place to +poor imitations of bad French work. + +[Illustration: PLATE 4 + +VALLADOLID + +PATIO DE SAN GREGORIO. + +MDW 1869 + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE IV. + +_VALLADOLID._ + +DETAIL FROM THE "PATIO DE SAN GREGORIO." + + +THE portion of the great Dominican Convent of Valladolid which formed +the subject of the last sketch, is supposed to have been the +commencement of a second Patio, or courtyard, around which were to have +been arranged apartments, mainly intended for the reception of guests or +visitors, lay as well as ecclesiastic. The arcading, of which Plate IV +is a sketch, surrounds the great Patio of the monastic establishment of +which the "Colegio" proper is the Church. Around this noble courtyard +were grouped the apartments in which resided the powerful Black +Friars--so called from their dress--worthy adherents to the traditions +of the founder of the Order, himself an old Castilian, whose activity as +Preachers, and still more as Inquisitors, made them, perhaps, even more +powerful in controlling the destinies of the Peninsula than the +political heads of the State. The first stone of this great +establishment, dedicated to St. Gregory, and founded by Alonso of +Burgos, Bishop of Palencia, was laid in the year 1488. Some idea of the +rapid growth and elevation of the Dominicans about this period may be +derived from an observation of the fact that this splendid Church and +Monastery was the second great establishment of the Order in Valladolid +completed within the space of about ten years. Cean Bermudez tells us +that the Cardinal Don Juan Torquemada caused the Church of the Convent +of St. Paul to be erected, which, with its facade of excellent +architecture, was finished in the year 1463. + +The work at Saint Gregory lasted about eight years, a very short time, +considering not only the quantity and extent of labour involved in the +mere construction, but the amount of intricate and elaborate sculpture +which decorates the facade of the Church. Its architect, Macias +Carpintero, of Medino del Campo, is placed by Llaguno y Amirola upon a +footing, as to merit, with the celebrated architects Siloe and Cruz of +Cologne, who introduced extraordinary elaboration into the ornamental +carving of Spain. The fate of Macias was a sad one, since on the last +Saturday in July, in the year 1490, while working himself, and directing +this great architectural work, he committed suicide, infinitely to the +surprise and regret of the monks and their fellow-citizens. + +Some idea of the scale upon which the Patio of San Gregorio is worked +out, may be derived from a knowledge of the facts, that the lower arcade +is about twenty feet high, and the upper fifteen feet. The open space +enclosed by the arcading is very large, and the distance from centre to +centre of each of the pillars about nine feet. + +[Illustration: PLATE 5 + +VALLADOLID. + +PATIO DE SAN GREGORIO. + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE V. + +_VALLADOLID._ + +SMALL PATIO DE SAN GREGORIO. + + +IN that material--stucco--which we of the nineteenth century affect to +despise, and in the use of which both the Romans and the Great Masters +of the Renaissance, under Raffaelle's guidance, excelled, the Moors +delighted. By its use they were able, with speed and accuracy, to supply +the redundancy of conventional ornament essential to contrast with the +rigid geometrical setting out of lines and compartments which formed a +fundamental law of their beautiful style of design. Their aptitude in +the manipulation of this material did not desert them when their talents +were called into operation by their Christian Masters. Of this the +pretty window which forms the chief feature of the sketch under +consideration, offers an agreeable proof. At the first glance, one might +have fancied that this window was of earlier date than the gothic stone +arch beneath, and indeed a relic of the Moorish occupation of Valladolid +before the Christians reconquered the district, so different in style +are its details from those of the arch. To have encountered the +difficulties of constructing such an arch beneath, without destroying +such a window, is, however, so contrary to all ancient precedents in +similar cases, that any such theory must be dismissed on reflexion, and +an explanation sought in some other direction. It is to be found in the +fact, that about the middle of the fifteenth century, shortly after +which date, both arch and window were probably constructed, the +Christians had plenty of skilful artificers in stone, who possessed no +aptitude for working in stucco, whilst the Moors executed but little +ornament in stone, but much in brick and plaster. Hence the marked +difference in style which is apparent between the window sketched, and +the architectural detail of the rest of this pretty little court, which +is shown on this sketch, and the one which follows it. + +The rooms surrounding the Arcade of this Patio, and the Arcade itself, +are now used as a "Corps de Garde" in connection with the Government +offices of the great Patio of this "Colegio." They naturally, therefore, +rejoice in the rapidly accumulating whitewash, which serves very +generally in Spain, at once as a panacea against cholera and fever, and +the obliterator of all useless excrescences in the nature of +Architectural Ornament. + +[Illustration: PLATE 6 + +VALLADOLID + +MDW 1869 + +PATIO COLEGIO DE SAN GREGORIO] + + + + +PLATE VI. + +_VALLADOLID._ + +SMALL PATIO, COLEGIO DE SAN GREGORIO. + + +THE stucco upper-storey from which the last sketch (Plate V) was taken, +rests upon a lower open storey, forming the usual recessed Arcade or +Colonade of even very humble Patios. In this case, the columns, on two +sides, (the upper parts of one of which are shown) including the +coat-of-arms, are in stone; while the brackets easing the compression of +the fibres, and shortening the bearing of the beams, the beams +themselves, and the row of brackets above, being really only the moulded +ends of the joists of the upper floor, are all in wood. They thus +illustrate the combination of materials in construction so much affected +by the Moors. At the same time the architectural details shown both in +this sketch, and in the one which precedes it, exhibit certain +ornamental features derived from Arabian models. That there should be no +question in this structure, however, as to the ascendency of the +Christian over the Moor, the proud founder has affixed his arms, in +which the Church's sacred emblems of the fleur-de-lys and cross forcibly +express the favourite tenets of the Spaniard. + +Few cities of Spain more rejoiced in heraldic devices than did +Valladolid, the especial seat of the Castilian nobility, at least until +its removal to Madrid. Amongst all the beautiful fac-similes of +finely-mantled and well-displayed escutcheons which adorn the works of +early printers, given to us by Sir Stirling Maxwell, few excel those +which issued from the presses of the Valladolid printers. The Germans +who followed in the train, or, at any rate under the auspices, of +Charles V., no doubt set the fashion at the commencement of the century +at Seville, which was taken up by Spaniards towards the middle of the +same century at Valladolid. Francesco Fernandez de Cordova appears to +have been the great master of the craft there, and many and splendid are +the heraldic frontispieces of his books from 1548 onwards. His style, at +any rate, was maintained in his family till near the end of the century, +as the title page of the celebrated "Quilatador de la Plata oro y +piedras," by Joan Arphe, 1572,[6] displays the arms of the Cardinal +Bishop of Siguenza, drawn by, and bearing the initials of, no less an +artist than Arphe y Villafane himself. The imprint of the volume bears +no longer the name of Francisco, but the names of Alonzo y Diego +Fernandez de Cordova. + +The finest specimen of Francisco's work, given by Sir Stirling Maxwell, +is the grand heading to a proclamation issued by Charles V., in 1549. It +exhibits not only the Royal and Imperial escutcheon, Double-headed +Eagle, and Columns, with the proud motto "plus ultra," but a quantity of +pure Renaissance ornament from which all trace of Gothic has +disappeared. + +[Illustration: PLATE 7 + +VALLADOLID LA CASA DEL INFANTADO + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE VII. + +_VALLADOLID._ + +LA CASA DEL INFANTADO. + + +AS in Italy, so in Spain, the architecture of the revival may be divided +into at least two great schools, viz., the early, in which sculpture, +and particularly sculptured arabesque, play a prominent part; and the +late, in which regularity in the use of the orders and a system of +rigidly proportioned plain architectural members form the main +constituents of the most highly commended structures. Both merged into +the extravagance which follows when architects learn to draw with +facility rather than to think with steadfastness and propriety. As Italy +had its Borromini, so had Spain its Churriguera. + +The building from which my sketch has been taken, belongs to the second +of these divisions of the architecture of the revival, as may be seen by +the grave simplicity of the Ionic columns which support the massive but +plain arches of both stories of a large and pretentious Patio. In this +sketch I have chosen the point of view from the entrance loggia of the +house, because looking from it I could well see, and therefore +illustrate, the way in which a grand staircase, covered at the top, but +open to the air upon one side, usually connects, in large houses, the +upper and lower arcades of the Patios, and consequently the upper and +lower floors of the mansion which open on to the two main arcades. The +staircase is very rarely closed by iron-work or otherwise; consequently +the visitor once obtaining access to the Patio was and is at liberty to +ramble nearly all over the house unchecked. As front doors usually stand +open from morning till night, access to Patios may generally be freely +obtained; but where the house is inhabited by one family only, or by +more than one family desiring privacy, iron or wooden doors usually +close openings to the Patio such as are shown in the sketch. It is only +when in answer to a bell, or knocker, attached to this or to an external +doorway, a servant has appeared and ascertained that the visitor is an +"amigo," that the door itself is opened, and access to the interior +afforded. + +It is a popular prejudice that gravity in Spanish architecture only came +in with Herrera, after the middle of the fifteenth century in Spain, but +in reality there were several other men who before him asserted their +dissent from the plateresque redundancy of ornament, and designed works +upon a careful study of Italian models of architectural proportion. +Among such may be reckoned Pedro Machuca who in 1526 designed the palace +of Charles V. at Granada, Alonzo Covarrubias who was architect for the +noble staircase and cortile of the Alcazar at Toledo, and Diego Siloe +who a few years later created the fine Cathedral of Granada. + +[Illustration: PLATE 8 + +LEON + +SAN ISIDRO + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE VIII. + +_LEON._ + +CHURCH OF SAN ISIDRO. + + +THE antiquity of the city of Leon and its importance as a Roman station +are well shown by its picturesque and strong walls, which in many places +yet exhibit clearly Roman masonry in the substructure and general form. +On other places, subsequent generations of artificers have left +unmistakeable autographs inscribed in most legible and durable forms, +attesting dates of construction, dilapidation, restoration, and then +again dilapidation, through centuries of tempestuous existence. One of +the most picturesque bastions of these old walls is the one shown in my +sketch which groups exceedingly well with the fine Romanesque steeple of +San Isidro, which stands on the west of the Church but altogether +detached from it. Both Church and steeple date from about the middle of +the twelfth century, and possess great historical and architectural +interest. Their historical interest is due to their association with the +fervidly pious Queen Sancha; and to the fact that in the Pantheon, or +chapel dedicated to Santa Catilina at the north-west end of the Church, +probably grouped around the body of the Saint, repose Kings and Queens +of Spain from Fernando I. and Dona Sancha the founders of the Church, +through eight generations. Their architectural interest is derivable +from the constructional and ornamental details dwelt upon by Mr. Street, +to whose excellent account of the building the reader may be referred. + +[Illustration: PLATE 9 + +LEON SAN MARCOS + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE IX. + +_LEON._ + +CONVENT OF SAN MARCOS. + + +ON the 3rd of September, 1512, a meeting took place between certain +ecclesiastics of the Chapter of Salamanca, and nine of the most famous +architects of Spain, the minute or "proces verbal" of which would form a +model for what might often be done in this country with much advantage +to all concerned in the initiation of any great architectural work. The +object of the Junta was to settle the principal difficulties of the +design of the new Cathedral of Salamanca, then about to be begun. +Interesting as are all the conclusions arrived at upon this memorable +occasion, it is not with them we have now to concern ourselves, but with +the circumstance only that, amongst the signatures attached to the +document[7] occurs that of Juan de Badajoz, the architect of the noble +facade of the celebrated Convent of the Knights of Santiago at Leon, +which forms the subject of our ninth sketch. In the following year to +that of the meeting at Salamanca, Juan de Badajoz was summoned in +concert with Juan Gil de Hontanon and Juan de Alava to report on the +repairs necessary to the Cathedral at Seville. For this he was paid by +the Chapter one hundred ducats, no mean sum in those days. Called from +Seville to Leon, Badajoz seems to have immediately set in hand the +Capilla Mayor of the Church of San Isidro. In Leon and elsewhere he +appears to have been much employed, until in 1537 he commenced the +Convent of San Zoil at Carrion (about twelve leagues from Leon,) for the +Condes of that place. The taste for elaborate ornamental sculpture +greatly increasing at that time, Juan de Badajoz seems to have taken +pains to surround himself with the most skilful carvers of his days, and +on all occasions to have pushed them forwards as their merits deserved. +Hence, when called upon, shortly after setting in hand the works at +Carrion, to commence the even more elaborate and important ones of San +Marcos, he was able to carry on the two for a time concurrently, and +ultimately to resign the charge of what he began and advanced +considerably single-handed at Leon, to his deputy, Pedro di Castrillo. + +On San Marcos, Juan de Badajoz appears to have worked pertinaciously, at +any rate until the year 1543, when more than half the whole work was +completed. In the sculpture, of which there is an enormous quantity, he +had the assistance, as principal sculptor, of Guillermo Doncel. The +ornamental details[8] are excellent, far better than those involving a +knowledge of the proportions and forms of the human figure. The size of +the building is enormous, and its general effect very picturesque. The +works appear to have been suspended while still far from complete. They +were not resumed until the year 1715. + +[Illustration: PLATE 10 + +MDW 1869 LEON SAN MARCOS] + + + + +PLATE X. + +_LEON._ + +CLOISTER OF THE CONVENT OF SAN MARCOS. + + +IT used to be a proud old boast of the brothers of the Military Order of +Sant' Iago that their Palace, or Convent, call it which you will, at +Leon, was quite as fine and spacious as the palace occupied by the Kings +of Spain at Madrid. Knowing this, I visited it with a certain amount of +apprehension as to my reception by such successors to the magnates of +old, as might still occupy the building. My fears were groundless, for I +found after much knocking and ringing, that a solitary policeman was the +only occasional tenant of its vast halls, and almost numberless rooms. +It was indeed melancholy to see such a structure so evidently and +entirely "out of joint with fortune" and "the times," as to be +apparently inapplicable and inconvertible to any useful purpose. + +With the impressions received from meeting with such a state of things, +the traveller naturally feels a difficulty in realising the fact that +the extent and splendour of this Convent actually represented what was +once a vital principle of first importance to Spain. To her, until +Mariolatry set in with full intensity, the name of Sant' Iago was a +tower of strength. Not only did the possession of his shrine to which +pilgrims flocked, even from beyond the seas in thousands, bring wealth +to the Church; but the elevation of the Saint into an actual soldier of +the Faith, a leader to material as well as to spiritual victory, +supplied for Spain that fervour under arms which, when passing under the +form of devotion to "the Prophet" had, as both Church and State in Spain +wisely recognised, wrought such marvels in the consolidation of the +power of her natural enemies, the Moors. By the creation of the +religious orders of cavaliers, or rather of the military orders of +priests, Spain at once nourished the spirit of chivalry and the +Christian Faith, the union of which ultimately won for her the +reconquest of all that Mahommedan Chivalry and Mahommedan Faith had +conquered from her.[9] The very length and pertinacity of the struggle +only served to quicken the devotion of the people to their "Gran +Capitan," Sant' Iago, and to induce them to enrich to the utmost the +order which bore his name. + +Hence the magnificent scale of buildings, such as the Convent of San +Marcos, the stately cloisters of which once sheltered those whose energy +in council and skill in the field maintained that life and action for +the warlike, and protection and repose for the peaceable, which were +essential to the consolidation and upholding of the monarchy of Spain, +and its supposed indispensable and inseparable adjunct the "Catholic +Faith." + +[Illustration: PLATE 11 + +LEON CASA DE LOS GUSMANES + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XI. + +_LEON._ + +EXTERIOR OF THE CASA DE LOS GUSMANES. + + +IN an ancient house which stood upon the site on which now stands the +Palace which forms the subject of our sketch, there was born, in the +year 1266, a "Cavalier," who, when arrived at manhood, followed the +fortunes of Sancho the Brave. After many struggles, the King having +taken Tarifa in Andalucia from the Moors in 1292, looked round amongst +his followers for one willing to hold what he had won. All refused, +owing to the danger of the position, until Alonso Perez de Guzman, the +Cavalier in question, offered to keep possession of the town for a year. +The story is thus condensed by Ford, from the "Romancero." The Moors +beleaguered it, aided by the Infante Juan, a traitor brother of Sancho's +to whom Alonso's eldest son, aged nine, had been entrusted previously as +a page. "Juan now brought the boy under the walls, and threatened to +kill him if his father would not surrender the place. Alonso drew his +dagger and threw it down exclaiming, 'I prefer honour without a son, to +a son with dishonour.' He retired, and the Prince caused the child to be +put to death. A cry of horror ran through the Spanish battlements. +Alonso rushed forth, beheld his son's body, and returning to his +childless mother, calmly observed, 'I feared that the infidel had gained +the city.' Sancho, the King, likened him to Abraham, from this parental +sacrifice and honoured him with the 'canting' name 'El Bueno.' The good +(Guzman, Gutman, Goodman.) He became the founder of the princely Dukes +of Medina Sidonia, now merged by marriage in the Villafrancas." From +this great head descended ultimately Her Majesty the Empress Eugenie of +France. Gaining strength, riches and power, the original residence of El +Bueno became too small for his aspiring family, and in 1560, Don Juan +Quinones y Guzman, Bishop of Calahorra, determined upon the erection, on +the same site, of the present fine structure. The name of the architect +does not seem to be known, but it is obviously the work of one who, +rejecting the elaboration of the Plateresque style, followed the simpler +and more chastened proportions recommended by the early Italian writers +on architecture, such as Alberti and Serlio, and by the first Spanish +student of Vitruvius, Diego Sagredo in his "Medidas del Romano," +(Toledo, 1526.) + +It is probable that the use of a large quantity of iron externally, as +in the balconies and other parts of this Palace was somewhat of a +novelty at the date of construction, since the story runs "that when +Philip II. visited Leon, as his courtiers, some friends of the Bishops, +were praising the building, and were mentioning in a friendly way the +thousands of cwts. of iron employed in it, the King severely observed, +punningly by the way, 'En verdad que ha sido mucho _yerro_ para un +obispo.'"[10] The pun turns upon the word _yerro_ which means both iron, +and a mistake. The joke would have been unworthy of Philip II. if it had +not been grim. + +[Illustration: PLATE 12 + +LEON. + +CASA DE LOS GUSMANES + +MDW. 1869] + + + + +PLATE XII. + +_LEON._ + +PATIO OF THE CASA DE LOS GUSMANES. + + +PALACES, such as supply our twelfth illustration, are now rarely +occupied in Spain by one family only. Instead of serving as the place of +general rendezvous for the dependants and intimate friends only of the +aristocratic proprietor, the Patios are now usually peopled with men, +women and children belonging to the numerous families, between whom the +occupation of the Palace, sadly fallen from its high estate, is divided. +Instead of the mansions being guarded by a grand inquisitor in the shape +of a porter, with armed servants within hail, with almost more than +Oriental jealousy, as in the old days, he who will, may usually find +entrance or exit unheeded, passing but as one more or one less of the +hundreds who go to and fro in the course of the day to the various +apartments which are frequently let and sublet, at ridiculously low +rents, to poor occupants who can afford to pay no other. Poverty, in +fact, revels in halls where magnificence once reigned supreme. + +It is no easy task for the imagination to repeople such grand old +residences with the stately Hidalgoes and Senoras, who once occupied and +maintained them with scrupulous care and princely dignity. Happily, the +Countess d'Aulnois comes to our aid with her lively account of the +dwelling at Madrid of the Duchess of Terra Nueva, appointed +Camerera-Mayor to the young Queen, in 1679; and her picturesque sketch +may be freely accepted as expressing the general style in which families +of dignity, such as the Guzmanes, magnates of Leon, lived during the +plenitude of Spanish wealth and power. + +"One can hardly see anything," says she,[11] "that looks more splendid +than this house of theirs; they use the upper apartments, which are hung +with tapestry, all done with raised work of gold. In one great chamber, +which is longer than it is broad, you may see several glass doors, which +go into closets, or little cells; the first of which is the Duchess of +Terra Nova's, hung with grey, and a bed of the same, and all other +things very plain. On one side lodges her daughter, the Duchess of +Monteleon, who is a widow, and has her room furnished like her mother's. +Afterwards you come to the Princess of Monteleon's chamber, which is not +larger than the others; but her bed is of gold and green damask, lined +with silver brocade, and trimmed with Point-de-Spain. The sheets were +laced about with an English lace of half an ell deep. Over against it +were the chambers of Monteleon and Hijar's children, which were +furnished with white damask. Next to these is the little chamber of the +Duchess Hijar, furnished with crimson coloured velvet upon a gold +ground. Their rooms were no otherwise divided than by partitions of a +certain sweet wood; and they told me that six of their women lay in +their chambers upon beds brought thither at night. The ladies were in a +great gallery, spread with a very rich foot-cloth. There were set round +it crimson coloured velvet cushions embroidered with gold, and they are +longer than they are broad. There were also several great cabinets +inlaid, and adorned with precious stones; but they are not made in +Spain. And between them were tables of silver, and admirable +looking-glasses, both for their largeness and rich frames, the worst of +which were of silver. But that which I thought finest, were their +escaparates, which is a certain sort of close cabinet with one great +glass, and filled with all the rarities which one can imagine, whether +it be in amber, porcelain, crystal, bezoar-stone, branches of coral, +mother-of-pearl, filligreen in gold, and a thousand other things of +value." + +[Illustration: PLATE 13 + +LEON + +MDW 1869 + +CALLE DELLA TESORIERA. LEON.] + + + + +PLATE XIII. + +_LEON._ + +DETAIL FROM A HOUSE IN THE CALLE DE LA TESORIERA. + + +THIS pretty little keystone, with its acanthus leaf well drawn and +freely cut in good cinque-cento style occurs over the Portal of an old +house in one of the secondary streets of Leon. The pot of lilies which +surmounts it is a pretty little "impresa," quaintly signifying the +devotion of the owner of the house to the especial object of every good +Spaniard's worship, the most holy Virgin "sin pecado concebida." The S +shaped irons, which appear on the right and left of the pot of lilies, +serve to help to support the light balcony, which generally occurs over +entrance doors of minor importance in Spain, and which often serves as a +small open air addition to the common sitting room, in which the women +of the house do much of the usual needle work, spinning, &c. + +[Illustration: PLATE 14 + +SALAMANCA + +CASA DE LAS CONCHAS + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XIV. + +_SALAMANCA._ + +EXTERIOR OF THE CASA DE LAS CONCHAS. + + +THIS is, upon the whole, the most complete house I met with of its +period, answering in Art, and nearly in point of time, to the florid +Burgundian style of the Low Countries, with which there was much +intercourse at the probable date of its construction--the close of the +fifteenth century. It stands almost opposite the great Church of the +Gesuitas, some of the columns of an unfinished porch or portico of which +may be seen upon the left hand side of the sketch. No doubt this fine +mansion does not possess its original roofing, as testified by the +comparatively modern windows of a portion of the top storey, but with +that exception it is fairly complete, both externally and internally. + +The little projections on the masonry looking like nail heads are, +really, as will be seen by the details given in Plates XVII. and XIX., +representations of shells, the heraldic badge of the owner of the house, +from which, rather than from his name, the cognomen by which the house +is known, has been derived. It is difficult now to divine in what way +the top storey was originally constructed, but judging by analogy with +what was usual in such houses elsewhere in Spain at the time, it +appears probable that it may have consisted of a light open arcading, +serving as a "look out"--"mirador"--and place for exercising for the +ladies of the household, at times when the streets may have been neither +safe nor agreeable. + +[Illustration: PLATE 15 + +SALAMANCA, CASA DE LAS CONCHAS + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XV. + +_SALAMANCA._ + +PATIO OF THE CASA DE LAS CONCHAS. + + +THE Patio of this house is yet more perfect than its facade, and, a rare +circumstance in Spain, I found it both clean and well kept. It is not +upon a large scale, and did not, perhaps, look the less elegant on that +account. The upper arcade produces a far better effect than the lower, +since in the latter the principle of the arch seems fantastically and +heedlessly lost sight of. With the exception in the upper arcade of the +way in which the wreaths and escutcheons are placed, as though to +conceal a confusion in the lines of the archivolt, which the architect +(or mason) did not seem quite to know how to bring together comfortably +over the capitals, the whole effect is quiet and pretty. The open work +parapet at the top is the only _motif_ in the design which appears to be +borrowed from the architecture of the Moors. + +[Illustration: PLATE 16 + +CASA DE LAS CONCHAS + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XVI. + +_SALAMANCA._ + +STAIRCASE OF THE CASA DE LAS CONCHAS. + + +ON the side of the Patio, opposite to the entrance, occurs the archway +through the wall which forms the back of the arcade on that side of the +Court, and beyond which is seen the staircase which connects the upper +and lower arcades. From its masonry bonded in with the enclosing walls, +it assumes even, while simple in design, a thoroughly architectural +character, while the depth of shade, which almost invariably covers the +back wall and parts of the side wall, serve to throw the lower part of +the staircase into brilliant relief. The graceful and gay figures which, +in the characteristic costume of Salamanca, from time to time, went up +or down the staircase, or linger upon it in groups chatting or smoking, +or flirting, make up occasional pictures not rapidly to be effaced from +the author's memory. + +[Illustration: PLATE 17 + +SALAMANCA + +MDW 1869 + +CASA DE LAS CONCHAS.] + + + + +PLATE XVII. + +_SALAMANCA._ + +WINDOW FROM THE CASA DE LAS CONCHAS. + + +ONE of the most agreeable features in the design of the Casa de las +Conchas, is the variety of detail of the different windows throughout +the house. On the sketch under consideration, and in the two which +follow it, evidence is afforded of the burning of the "lamp of life," as +Mr. Ruskin would call it. They are all of them conceived in a +transitional and composite but very picturesque style, and however +different or possibly antagonistic the details of each window may appear +amongst themselves, as a whole they agree and look exceedingly well. + +This window occurs on the first floor of the facade, and possesses an +additional interest from showing us pretty clearly what kind of windows +may have been superseded in a similar situation by the Italian windows +so much to be regretted in the fine Palace of the Duques del Infantado +at Guadalajara. See Plate LXXVIII. + +[Illustration: PLATE 18 + +SALAMANCA + +CASA DE LAS CONCHAS + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XVIII. + +_SALAMANCA._ + +WINDOW IN THE PATIO OF THE CASA DE LAS CONCHAS. + + +THIS window with its heavy ironwork, gives light through the back wall +of the arcading of the Patio to a passage running behind a room, which +derives its light from the external wall of the house. Such passages +occur not unfrequently in Spanish houses, and are convenient, as they +serve to bring three rooms into a suite without the necessity of having +to pass through any one room to get to another. Of course of the three +rooms two may be of the full width, extending from the external wall of +the house to the back wall of the arcading of the Patio, and one of that +width less the width of the passage, into which the three doors open, +and which is lighted by a window from the Patio (such as that sketched), +and frequently approached also from the arcading by a doorway adjoining +the window. As the Patio is a comparatively public part of the house, +such windows require, and usually have, the strong close iron work, +which gives security and a certain amount of privacy to the external +windows of the ground-floor of the house. + +[Illustration: PLATE 19 + +SALAMANCA + +MDW 1869 + +CASA DE LAS CONCHAS] + + + + +PLATE XIX. + +_SALAMANCA._ + +EXTERNAL WINDOW OF THE CASA DE LAS CONCHAS. + + +THE windows of the first-floors of Spanish houses are always the +largest, airiest, and openest, of the whole of the windows of the house, +excepting in the rare cases where there is a top story consisting of a +large gallery, as frequently at Genoa, serving for promenade and look +out--in fact a species of Belvedere. The importance of the rooms lighted +is generally indicated by the relative richness of the window dressings. +The profusion with which heraldic insignia are used in the window +sketched, suffices, therefore, to show that with others of the same kind +it lighted the principal saloons of the house. Another point of +construction illustrated by the sketch, is the fact that the "conchas" +or carved stone shells have been applied after the general building of +the wall. This is proved by the regularity with which they are placed, +irrespective of the heights of the various courses of masonry, and of +the levels at which the joints occur. + +[Illustration: PLATE 20 + +SALAMANCA CASA MONTEREY. + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XX. + +_SALAMANCA_. + +EXTERIOR OF THE CASA MONTEREY. + + +OF the very picturesque specimen of domestic architecture illustrated in +Plate XX., and bearing the local name of the Casa de Monterey, but +little seems to be known. Escosura confesses himself reduced to +conjecture, and thus theorises on the subject. As to the exact epoch at +which the Casa de Monterey was built, the following circumstances should +be borne in mind. "The title of Conde de Monterey was created in favour +of Don Baltasar de Zuniga, who was Viceroy of Naples in the year 1626. +This nobleman caused the Church of the Convent of Nuns which bore his +name, and which stands opposite his palace, to be erected at his expense +from the designs of the fashionable Italian architect, Fontana. May it +be unreasonable to suppose that the Palace was designed at the same time +by the same architect?" + +To this question, the proper answer given by some better judge of +architectural style would, probably, be "very," since it is difficult to +perceive any similarity between the modes of design, upon which the two +buildings are based. The architecture of the Church of the Convent, one +angle of which appears on the left hand of the sketch, is in the large +florid manner of the post-Palladian Italians, while that of the Palace +is small in its ornamental parts, and instead of exhibiting Italian +features, seems throughout to show the peculiar reading of Italian style +adopted by the late Plateresque Spanish architects of the second half of +the sixteenth century. This is particularly noticeable in the absence of +a crowning balustrade, and in the substitution for it of the elaborate +pierced cresting which apparently the Spanish architects adopted from +Moorish rather than from any antique models. + +The interior of this grand looking palace is said to have been all but +destroyed by the French. + +[Illustration: PLATE 21 + +SALAMANCA + +MDW 1869 + +OPPOSITE SAN BENITO.] + + + + +PLATE XXI. + +_SALAMANCA_. + +RENAISSANCE HOUSE OPPOSITE SAN BENITO. + + +IN every ancient city the largest and most costly building ever erected +in it is usually the most enduring. The causes of this are various--for +instance--the construction in itself may have been the most solid, the +citizens may have taken such pride in it as to bestow unusual pains upon +its conservation, they may have retained it for uses for which it may +have become more or less unfit (as is the case with the majority of +ancient Ecclesiastical buildings in Protestant countries), rather than +face the expense of re-erecting appropriate buildings, or it may still +be well suited for present purposes. Hence cathedrals, churches, +palaces, (rarely castles, owing to the combative propensities of their +owners), hospitals, great residences of ancient families, and in +Catholic countries, convents and monasteries, of almost all periods, may +remain to attest the changes of architectural style, &c.; but the +ordinary residences of the middle classes, and of the numerous secondary +nobility, get swept away by the tides of history, or are so altered by +them as to leave scarcely any satisfactory land-marks to indicate what +once gave its predominant character to the streets of many an ancient +city. Such changes are effected almost equally by progress and by +decay. By the former, all minor monuments become obliterated or +transformed,--they represent in fact old age, pushed aside to make way +for youth--while by the latter they descend in the social scale until +beggars break up what nobles once built up. How constantly the traveller +meets with some splendid old cathedral still "hale and hearty," with the +weight of half-a-dozen or more centuries upon its head, around which he +knows were once grouped teeming populations full of strength, life, and +wealth, of which not a habitation may be left extending backwards for +more than a hundred years from the present date? Any exceptions to such +illustrations of the way in which fortune turns her wheel become the +especially cherished haunts of the antiquary, who knows that from day to +day they become rarer, and consequently more precious. Hence the +enthusiasm with which the neglected quarters of every old town are +visited in the hope of meeting with some relics of what may therein at +least appear, "remains of an extinct civilization." Some such reward I +met with in encountering, amidst much dirt and apparent poverty in the +quarter of San Benito, in Salamanca, the pretty facades of old +Renaissance houses which form the subjects of this sketch and of the one +which succeeds it. + +[Illustration: PLATE 22 + +SALAMANCA + +MDW 1869 + +CALLE DEL AGUILA] + + + + +PLATE XXII. + +_SALAMANCA_. + +RENAISSANCE HOUSE IN THE CALLE DEL AGUILA. + + +THE Renaissance house now presented to the reader, although richer in +its ornaments, is not as complete as the one given in the preceding +sketch, having apparently lost its original roof. Instead of the +overhanging eaves casting a constantly cool shade over the open +balustrading, through which light and air still pass to "a chamber +that's next to the sky;" in this case nothing is probably left over the +principal apartment, the window of which richly decorated with heraldry +and arabesque is shown over the strong doorway with its deep flat arch, +excepting a dark and scarcely habitable attic. I think it very likely +that the wreath, coat of arms, and boys, which still occupy their +original position over the principal window, once supported the sill of +a superior window, and that the house which now appears to have two +stories only, had once at least as many as three. + +Such houses as these of the ancient nobility, of which I could find only +two or three, must once have been common enough in the fashionable city +of Gil Blas, when the university numbered seven thousand students, and +eighty professors, with salaries of one thousand crowns each--a +bountiful payment in those days for the exercise of the noblest +talents--and swarms of assistants and "Pretendientes" on half-pay and +unattached.[12] + +[Illustration: PLATE 23 + +AVILA + +ENTRANCE TO THE CASA POLENTINA + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XXIII. + +_AVILA_. + +ENTRANCE GATEWAY OF THE CASA POLENTINA. + + +THE Portal which forms the subject of my twenty-third sketch serves as +the entrance to the dilapidated old mansion of the Condes de Polentinos +at Avila, a view of the remains of the Patio of which will be found on +turning over this page. The architectural characteristics of this +striking gateway are certainly very singular. On catching a glimpse of +it from a distance, and seizing the aspect only of its ponderous masonry +and deep machicolations, I fully believed I was coming upon an old bit +of castellated construction of the fourteenth or fifteenth century at +latest. On nearer inspection, however, I found out my mistake, and +arrived at the conclusion that the Senor Conde, late in the sixteenth +century, who had caused the whole structure to be built, had probably +charged his architect, either to preserve the general form of some much +earlier portal of the old house, which he may have caused to be pulled +down, or to imitate the general aspect of some other aristocratic portal +of early date, which the Count may have admired elsewhere. Different as +the corbelling, &c., looks to the gateway, and the window over it, I +found that ornamental detail of a similar nature to, but somewhat +coarser style than that of the door and window dressings was worked over +most of the corbelling, and part of the upper gallery carried by the +corbels, but apparently by a provincial hand. The stone work of the door +and window had probably been left in the rough for awhile, possibly for +some fifty years, and then its carving entrusted to some superior +artist, working according to the latest lights of the fashion of the +close of the sixteenth century. Although the style of all this carving +is plateresque, there are many indications about it of an inclination to +Greco-Roman work. For instance, the griffins, the lions' heads of +antique type, and the arms and armour arranged as trophies, all indicate +acquaintance with the prevalent materials of Italian arabesque design of +late cinque-cento style. Indeed, the very form and fluting of the +corselets, brasses, vambrasses, and cuisses, would indicate that armour +of a date posterior to the middle of the sixteenth century had been +adopted as types for the making up of the trophies. + +[Illustration: PLATE 24 + +AVILA + +CASA POLENTINA + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XXIV. + +_AVILA_. + +THE PATIO OF THE CASA POLENTINA. + + +NEXT to the general feeling of interest excited by the picturesque +aspect of decayed architectural grandeur, which is presented by the +remains of this dilapidated Patio, rises a feeling of curiosity as to +the mode and manner of life of those whose wants such costly building +subserved. Privacy and coolness appear to have been the chief +desiderata, and those architectural ornaments seem to have been +preferred, which recall, at almost every step, the hereditary dignities +of the family tree. Madame d'Aulnois, whose Letters from Spain, written +in 1679,[13] give the liveliest possible picture of life in those days +in the Peninsula, gratifies our curiosity in the most agreeable manner, +and with that quickness of perception, as to domestic habits, by means +of which, none but a woman can seize at a glance, the telling details +essential to give completeness and reality to a sketch. Speaking of the +Spaniards of the upper and middle classes of the seventeenth century she +says:--"All their houses have a great many rooms on a floor; you go +through a dozen or fifteen parlours, or chambers, one after another. +Those which are the worst lodged have six or seven. The rooms are +generally longer than they are broad. The floors and ceilings are +neither painted nor gilt; they are made of plaister quite plain, but so +white that they dazzle one's eyes; for every year they are scraped, and +whited as the walls, which look like marble, they are so well polished. +The Court to their summer apartments is made of certain matter, which, +after it has ten pails of water thrown upon it, yet is dry in +half-an-hour, and leaves a pleasant coolness; so that in the morning +they water all, and a little while after they spread mats or carpets +made of fine rushes, which cover all the pavement. The whole apartments +are hung with the same small mat about the depth of an ell, to hinder +the coolness of the walls from hurting those which lean against them. On +the top of these mats there are hung pictures and looking-glasses. The +cushions, which are of gold and silver brocade, are placed upon the +carpet; and the tables and cabinets are very fine; and at little +distances there are set silver cases or boxes, filled with orange and +jessamine trees. In their windows they set things made of straw, to keep +the sun out; and in the evenings they work in their gardens. There are +several houses which have very fine ones, where you see grottoes and +fountains in abundance." + +[Illustration: PLATE 25 + +AVILA THE CATHEDRAL. IRON PULPIT. + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XXV. + +_AVILA_. + +IRON PULPIT IN THE CATHEDRAL. + + +MR. STREET'S illustrations and description of all that is left of the +old glories of Avila, previous to the epoch of the Renaissance, are so +complete, that I can feel no compunction in having gleaned only from +this delightful old city two specimens of the ability of the Spanish +smiths of the period he repudiates, and two others showing remains of +the domestic architecture of the same style. + +Let it not be supposed, however, that it was only the school of the +Renaissance which produced masterly iron-work, and even masterly iron +pulpits, in Spain. Mr. Street has himself given us a beautiful woodcut +of the pulpit in the church of St. Gil, at Burgos. This exhibits no +other than Gothic details, while in the pulpit which forms the subject +of my twenty-fifth sketch, as will no doubt be observed, Renaissance +details are freely intermixed with Gothic ones. The whole, however +different in style in different parts, appeared to me to be +contemporaneous; and I, therefore, regard this pulpit as an interesting +example of a transitional style, later of course, than that followed in +the pulpit of Saint Gil, which Mr. Street describes as the earliest he +saw. In both, the primitive mode of working through thin plates +superposed to form tracery has been adhered to, and the whole of the +ironwork has been applied to a wooden framework. I regard the pulpit at +Burgos as likely to have been executed early in the fifteenth century, +and the one now under consideration as of the close of the same century; +and both may, I think, have been produced under the influence of the +masters from Cologne, who did such wonders, and set so many fashions, in +Burgos and its vicinity, especially at Miraflores. + +[Illustration: PLATE 26 + +AVILA + +THE CATHEDRAL + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XXVI. + +_AVILA_. + +IRON PULPIT IN THE CATHEDRAL. + + +IN method of manufacture no less than in style of design this pulpit, +which forms a pendant to the one last given just outside the choir of +Avila Cathedral, offers a contrast to its predecessor. We no longer meet +with a superposition of perforated plates, but the operations of beating +and chasing, and, indeed, cutting the metal with chisels, files and +hammers; working in fact as the Italians term it "a massiccio." The +basis of the design is no longer Gothic, but strictly of the regular +Spanish Plateresque Renaissance with balustrade columns, figures in +niches, and Arabesques imitated from the Italians. From all these +details, we may fairly be justified in ascribing this work to about the +middle of the sixteenth century. + +The method of working this pulpit is no longer that of the simple smith, +but really corresponds much more closely with that of the armourer which +reached its zenith about this period. There can be no doubt that the +Spaniards gained much of their well-known skill in the manipulation of +iron and steel from the Moors, who had themselves obtained knowledge +from Damascus, and perhaps even improved upon the knowledge they had +derived from that source. From the times of the Carthaginians and +Romans, the Celt-Iberian mines had been known as amongst the richest +existing sources, from which iron could be procured. Many fragments of +finely wrought iron work, of the middle ages, still exist in Spain; but +for the most part in very fragmentary condition.[14] From the end of the +fifteenth century, however, in the Rejas, great seals and minor screens, +(such as that seen at the back of the pulpit in my sketch) of the +churches and cathedrals, and especially in the arms and armour of +Moorish and Christian Caballeros, (as attested by many splendid +specimens in the Real Armeria of Madrid), perfect examples are to be met +with of the skill of Spanish artificers in dealing with all the +metallurgical processes by which iron and steel can be made to assume +forms of grace and beauty. Charles V., Philip II., and Don Juan of +Austria, were boundless in their extravagance in the encouragement of +the best armourers, not of Toledo and Valladolid only, but of Milan and +Augsburg as well. There can be no doubt that the models of beauty bought +by these Sovereigns from artists in iron and steel, such as the Negroli +and Piccinini, tended to develope that perfection of workmanship, which +was attained in Spain in the reign of Philip III. The pains-taking +editors of the Catalogue of the Madrid Armoury cite Pamplona as at the +head of the trade at the close of the sixteenth and beginning of the +seventeenth centuries, and name as the chief rivals to Pamplona of the +cities of Spain, in the manufacture of splendid arms and armour, Tolosa, +Barcelona, and Calatayud.[15] + +[Illustration: PLATE 27 + +J. ESCORIAL + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XXVII. + +_ESCORIAL_. + +GENERAL VIEW OF THE ESCORIAL. + + +IN all Spain I saw nothing which so ill-agreed with my preconceptions as +the Escorial. As for beauty, I could find none whatever in it. The +building appeared to me thoroughly unsatisfactory alike as church, +palace, or monastery. Still, to omit it altogether from any series of +Spanish sketches with pen or pencil, would be to leave out the Monument +which reflects, probably, more perfectly than any other in the +Peninsula, the mixture of arrogant extravagance, and arid ascetism, +which characterized its most potent rulers in the plenitude of their +historical importance. In it, in my opinion, Herrera proved himself an +architect thoroughly worthy of the masters who employed him, formal, +pedantic, cold, extravagant to a degree, and yet mean. That the building +contains many most interesting works of art, is as true, as that a visit +to it should on no account be omitted by any one who would at all +attempt to realize what the Spanish Court may have been in the days of +Philip II.; but, after all, I am bound to confess that what most pleased +me in the vast edifice, with the exception of some few pictures and +illuminated books, was the work of Italians and not of Spaniards, viz., +the marble crucifix of Benvenuto Cellini, the magnificent gilt bronze +statues of the Kings and Queens of Spain in the Church, by Pompeio +Leoni, and the decorations of the Library, principally by Pelegrino +Tibaldi. To such a judgment may be objected that the structure now is +not what it was, let us see what an acute observer says of it, writing +late in the seventeenth century:-- + +"A while after we went to the Escurial, which to give it no less than +its due, may in Spain pass for an admirable structure, but where +building is understood, would not be looked on as very extraordinary. In +a general consideration, it seems a mass of stone of great perfection; +but going to particulars, scarce any of them but falls very short of the +magnificence imagined, and that so much, that if Philip the Second, who +built it, and was called the Solomon of his age, did no more resemble +that wise king then this edifice does his Temple, to which it is often +compared, the copy comes very short of the original; in the meantime to +stretch the comparison they please themselves in saying, that Charles +the Fifth, like another David, only designed his holy work, which (being +a man of war and blood) God reserved for his son. Ignorant strangers are +entertained with this tale, but such as are versed in history tell us, +that after the battle of St. Quentin, Philip the Second made two vows, +one never to go in person to the wars, the other to build this cloyster +for the Order of St. Jerome instead of that which had been burnt, it +cost him near six millions of gold, though out of consideration of +parsimony and convenience of bringing stone, he made choice of the worst +situation in nature, for it is at the foot of a barren mountain, and +hard by a wretched village called Escurial, that can hardly lodge a man +of any fashion; this may seem very strange to those that know the Court +is there twice in a year: the place it stands on is, by transcendence, +called the Seat, because it was levelled in order to build on. + +"The fabrick is very fair, with four towers at the four corners, but +coming to it, one knows not which way to enter, for as soon as out of +the great walk, in a kind of Piazza, you see only little doors, which, +when you are over it, lead into two pavilions, that contain offices and +lodgings for some of the Court; when you have well viewed this side of +the square, you come to that which is towards the mountain, where there +is a very large magnificent portal, on each side beautify'd with +pillars; by this stately gate you enter a quadrangle, where right over +against it stands the Church, ascended to it by a stair of five or six +steps, as long as the Court is large, extending from one side of it to +the other, very fair columnes support the porch, and on the top of the +wall stand six statues, the middlemost of which are David and Solomon, +by whom they would represent Charles the Fifth, and Philip the Second. +About the church are many pavillions, all comprehended in the exact +square which environs that building. Report mentions many Bascourts, but +we could not reckon above seven or eight. That this is a very fair +cloyster for Friers cannot be denied, neither can it be allowed to be a +pallace magnificent enough for such a monarch as Philip the Second, who +having built it in one-and-twenty years, and enjoyed it twelve or +thirteen, boasted, that from the foot of a mountain and his closet, with +two inches of paper, he made himself obeyed in the Old and New World. + +"The King and Queen's apartments have nothing in them that appears +roial, they are altogether unfurnished, and they say, when the King goes +to any of his houses of pleasure, they remove all to the very bedsteads; +the rooms are little and low; the roofs not beautiful enough to invite +the eyes to look up to them; its many pictures of excellent masters, and +especially of Titian, that wrought a great while there, are very much +vaunted, yet there are not so many as report gives out. The Spaniards +have so little understanding of pictures, they are alike taken with all, +and the Marquis Serragenovese, that accompanied us, sufficiently laughed +at the foolishness of a Castillian, who, willing to have us admire the +slightest and wretchedest landskipes of a gallery where we were, told us +nothing could equalize them, because in a place where their King +sometimes walked. There are yet in the vestry some good pieces, +especially a Christ, and Mary Magdalen; and in the Church others very +estimable. For paintings in fresco, the quire, done by Titian, is +doubtlessly an excellent work, and so is the library, I think by the +same hand, where amongst the rest is represented the ancient Roman +manner of defending criminals, who stand by bound hand and foot; Cicero +is also there pleading for Milo, or some other, I not being sufficiently +acquainted with his meen, to be positive, and without apprehension of +mistaking; this library is truly very considerable, as well for its +length, breadth, height, and light; the pictures and marble tables that +stand in the midst of it, as for its quantity of choice and rare books, +if we may believe the monks; they are certainly very well bound and +guilded, and if I mistake not, but seldom read. In the vestry, they show +priests' copes, where embroidery and pearl with emulation contend +whether art or matter renders them more rich and sumptuous; they showed +us a cross of very fair pearl, diamonds, and emeralds; it is a very +pretty knack, and would not become less such if it changed countreys, I +would willingly have undertaken for it if they would have suffered it to +pass the Pyreneans, had it been only to show my friends a hundred +thousand crowns in a nut-shell. The library I have spoken of, the high +altar and monument of their kings, which they call Pantheon (though I +know not why, unless because a single round arch like the Pantheon at +Rome), are certainly the best pieces of this magnificent fabrick. The +high altar is approached by steps of red marble, and invironed by +sixteen pillars of jasper, which reach the top of the quire, and cost +only a matter of fifty or sixty thousand crowns cutting, between these +are niches with statues of guilded brass, and so there are on the side +of the tables and praying places. The Pantheon is under the altar, and +descended by stairs, though narrow, very light; at the entrance of this +rich chappel, a marble shines, whose lustre is heightened by reflexion +of the gold, with which all the iron-work and part of that fair stone +are overlaid. In the middle of it, and right against the altar, is a +fair candlestick of brass, gilded, and in six several niches, +twenty-four sepulchres of black marble to receive as many bodies; above +the gate are two more. This stately monument is small, but sumptuous, it +was finished by the present King, who, about six months since placed +there the bodies of Charles the Fifth, Philip the Second, and Philip the +Third. The first was most intire; in the niches, on the left, lie the +Queens, and the last of them Queen Elizabeth of Burbon. He that preached +the day that these seven tombs or sepulchres had bodies laid in them, +began by his apprehension to speak in presence of so many kings who had +conquered the world, and expressed himself so well, and so highly +pleased the King that he got a yearly pension of a thousand crowns. +Nothing attaining such perfection as to secure it from the teeth of +criticks, the three pieces I have now mentioned, have been attacqued by +them. It is objected against the Library, that its entrance suits not +with its magnificence and grandeur, and that it stands as if stoln in, +and not of the same piece with the rest. + +"Over against the great altar, where all is so well proportioned, they +wish away a silver lamp, whose size corresponds not with that of the +place it burns in, which is vast and large. In the Pantheon they find +great fault, that all the steps by which it is descended are not marble, +and that the sides of the walls are not incrusted with it, the chappel +being all so, and a like magnificence requisite everywhere. In the +brazen candlestick, the inner part which is not guilded is discerned +amongst the black and foul branches that extend from it. It cost ten +thousand crowns, which is ten times more than it is worth; but it is +common in this country to boast things of excessive price, which they +would have admired on that account, as if because they are foolish +merchants, the ware they buy too dear, were therefore the more valuable. +These are my observations of the so famous Escurial, adorned only by +some small parterras and fountains; one side of it affords a handsome +prospect, but the ground near it is the greatest part rock or heath, +some walks and groves are planted about it, but being cold and windy, +trees thrive not. There are some deer in a kind of park, ill-designed, +and with very low walls, the way to it is nothing pleasant, and the King +who goes thither thrice every year, one of which times is in the winter, +cannot certainly find any great diversion in those journeys, for during +three months all is covered with snow." + +Nothing need be added, I think, to so graphic a "boutade" as this, +which, though somewhat satirical, would not appear to have been much too +highly coloured for the occasion. + +[Illustration: PLATE 28 + +SEGOVIA + +GATE IN WALLS + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XXVIII. + +_SEGOVIA_. + +GATEWAY IN THE CITY WALLS. + + +THERE is probably no city in all Spain, and few perhaps in any part of +the world, in which within a similar compass, so many good, although +fragmentary, materials could be found for illustrating styles and +inflections of style in building, from the days of the Romans through +those of the Moors and Christians, up to the period of the Renaissance, +than Segovia. Of this last named period, two of the greatest masters, +Gil de Ontanon and his son Rodrigo, have nobly left their mark in the +splendid Cathedral, a worthy rival to that of Salamanca, also executed +from the designs, and under the personal superintendence of the elder of +the two Ontanones. The city, probably, owes these varied monuments to +its merits, as a strong, as well as a beautiful position. Under these +circumstances, it is not to be wondered at that its old walls should +offer many features of interest as well as picturesqueness. In fact, to +the educated eye, the former is almost a necessary ingredient to making +up the latter. As I wended my way upwards, therefore, from the railway +station to the town, through this gateway, about which I caught +indications here of one style, and there of another, Roman, Moor, and +Christian doing here a jot and there a little, that I should linger on +my way for awhile; partly, perhaps, to cool myself, and partly to make +the little sketch I present herewith to my readers. + +I need, perhaps, only add that the rough but effective cornice of the +gateway is made up from its top to its bottom by different combinations +of common tiles, and that its little enriched frieze is a specimen of +the clever stucco-work, probably executed by workmen of Moorish descent +in Renaissance times. The whole, even to the painting of the Virgin, is +roughly executed, but is not the less graceful, perhaps, from the +apparent absence of all effort. An aspect of spontaneity in works of art +has its own particular charm, as has the semblance of the most careful +solicitude under appropriate circumstances. The true artist, heedful of +his "when" and "how," is master of both moods. + +[Illustration: PLATE 29 + +SEGOVIA + +MDW 1869 + +THE ALCAZAR. HALL OF THE KINGS.] + + + + +PLATE XXIX. + +_SEGOVIA._ + +ARCHWAY IN THE HALL OF THE KINGS. + + +DON Juan Alvarez de Colmenar,[16] writing at the commencement of the +eighteenth century, gives the following description of the Royal Palace +at Segovia-- + +"The Alcazar," he says, "is situated on a mountain in the highest part +of the city. It is entirely covered with lead; the access to it being by +means of a staircase cut in the rock. There is always a sentinel in the +towers, and on a platform may be seen many cannons of which the greater +number are pointed against the city and the residue towards the faubourg +and country. It contains sixteen richly tapestried chambers, one of +which has a fire-place of porphyry. Thence a descent may be made to +another platform smaller than the first mentioned, also furnished with +cannon. From this, access is obtained to a small chamber with gilt dado, +marble fire-place, and walls covered with mirrors up to the ceiling. +Near this room is the Royal Chapel, splendidly gilt and decorated with +very fine pictures, amongst which that of the Magi is of the highest +beauty. Issuing from the chapel is a magnificent hall gilt from top to +bottom. It is called the Sala de los Reyes, ("literally the Hall of the +Kings,") because therein are all the Kings of Spain from Pelayo to Jane, +mother of the Emperors Charles V. and Ferdinand. They are represented +seated on thrones under canopies, so artistically worked that they look +like agates. There is another hall lined with glasses of the height of +three feet, with marble seats and ceilings gilt with pure gold. All +these halls are differently ornamented, and with the exception of the +gilding there is not one like the others. The river which surrounds the +chateau forms its moat."[17] + +I have preferred quoting this old description to giving one of the +present aspect of this once splendid palace, since of all its +magnificence nothing is now left but its massive walls covered here and +there with elegant stucco-work, some of which is given in my sketches, +and its commanding and noble position which is one of very great natural +strength. Here it was that the Moors, who never failed to fortify such +spots, reared the great central tower around which, after its capture by +the Christians, the Spanish sovereigns built the palace which contained +the majority of the apartments described by Colmenares, employing the +subjugated Moorish artificers for many of the original decorations. In +1412, a splendid hall called, from its celebrated ceiling, the Sala del +Arteson, was completed, as testified by an inscription to that effect +given at length by Cean Bermudez.[18] Other inscriptions mark the work +executed by the king, Henry IV., in 1452, 1456, and 1458, who resided +in it amidst his treasures, and the glorious spoils taken in what one +inscription designates "la guerra de los Moros." Here dwelt Isabella la +Catolica, and at a later date Charles V. The decorations described by +Colmenares were probably for the most part those executed by command of +Philip II., the elegant stucco work given in the sketch (No. 29) being +clearly of the time of Henry IV. Here lodged our Charles I. in 1623. The +wretched Philip V. with congenial propriety converted it into a prison, +justifying Le Sage's amusing sketch of the committal to it of Gil Blas. +Many of the Algerine and Barbary pirates taken by the Spanish men-of-war +were here confined. At length it was converted into an academy for +artillery cadets, and made a miserable sort of Woolwich. Decorations +were torn down, old windows blocked up, and new ones made in the most +barbarous style. Stoves were placed in most dangerous situations, until +as a natural consequence a fire broke out, and the "coup de grace" was +given to the glories of this palatial fortress, which is now alike +useless for royal, military, or civic purposes. + +[Illustration: PLATE 30 + +MDW 1869 + +SEGOVIA. ALCAZAR.] + + + + +PLATE XXX. + +_SEGOVIA._ + +DETAIL FROM THE ALCAZAR. + + +In describing the last sketch (No. 29), some particulars were given of +the building from which both that and this (No. 30) were taken. It may +be well to note now the peculiar style of design illustrated by both. +This style is what is technically known in Spain as "Mudejar," _i.e._, +neither Gothic nor Moorish strictly, but a compound of both. The date of +these particular specimens happens to be well fixed by the inscriptions +to which allusion has been recently made, and of one of which a portion +is shown in the sketch (No. 30), as running horizontally between two +string courses on each side of the small quasi-rose windows. This +"Mudejar" work was certainly executed between the years 1452 and 1458, +in the reign of Enrique IV., King of Castille. It was the wise policy of +the most sagacious of the Spanish monarchs in their contests with the +Moors, to half-shut their eyes to what they could not eradicate, viz., +the secret Islamism of the race. They long continued this laudable +inclination to tolerate and use the skilful Arabian artificers, under +Christian guidance and superintendence, in the various localities in +which they successively planted the Standard of the Cross, tearing down +that of the Crescent. At last the inflation which followed their +ultimate conquests under Ferdinand and Isabella, led to the +establishment of the pernicious Inquisition, the "teterrima causa" of +infinite misery, and the subverter of tolerance and progress throughout +the country. From that period gradually disappeared--lingering, as we +shall have occasion to observe, much longer in the South than in the +North--the skilled artificer, learned in all the technicalities, and the +elaborate geometrical principles of the combination of ornamental form, +which Arabian genius had engrafted upon the traditions of Ancient Rome, +handed down to them through the medium of Byzantium. The very antagonism +of creed induced the Moor to avoid polluting his art with types of form +or processes borrowed from the Christian, as he would have avoided +polluting his faith with Catholic legend or tenets. Hence when he and +his became the spoil of the Christian, which, to a great extent, they +did, the Christian necessarily inherited no unimportant addition to his +repertory of beautiful, fresh, and valuable arts and industries. This +precious inheritance was not altogether appreciated by the Spaniards, as +it might have been by a people of greater producing energies; but in +spite of their comparative ineptitude, they gained greatly by the leaven +of Moorish skill and talent; and as one of the first and best fruits of +the gradual conquest and absorption of the race, we may certainly reckon +the leading features of the "Mudejar" style. + +[Illustration: PLATE 31 + +EL PARRAL. + +MDW 1869 + +SEGOVIA.] + + + + +PLATE XXXI. + +_SEGOVIA._ + +EXTERIOR VIEW OF THE MONASTERY OF EL PARRAL. + + +IN Mr. Street's work on "Gothic Architecture on Spain," so justly +praised by all who know anything of ancient Spanish Art will be found on +Plate VIII a sketch plan, and on pages 185 and 186 a full description of +this extensive old Convent, and especially of the Church of the Vera +Cruz to which it is attached. I felt, therefore, that my duty to the +student would be best fulfilled by simply laying before him a sketch of +the exterior to supplement Mr. Street's ground plan, referring the +student for all further information to his work. It would have been easy +to extract from Cean Bermudez the same historical details; but it could +only have resulted in a thrice-told tale. It may suffice to note that +the entrance to the Convent may be sought (with much but rarely +effectual knocking and ringing) through the curious old porch +represented in my sketch on the right hand of the Church, which should +be visited in the morning, on account of its beautiful arrangement of +lighting, mainly from the East. + +[Illustration: PLATE 32 + +ALCALA DE HENARES. COLEGIO DE SAN ILDEFONSO. + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XXXII. + +_ALCALA-DE-HENARES._ + +EXTERIOR OF THE COLEGIO DE SAN ILDEFONSO. + + +SUCH a man as Francis Ximenez de Cisneros--the founder of the University +at Alcala de Henares--would have been a man amongst men anywhere; but in +Spain, his union of prudence with strength, courage with calmness, +learning in the closet with action in the field, humility with aptitude +for supreme command, benevolence with the sternest energy, raised him +rapidly from poverty and insignificance to the Regency of that country. +So aggrandized, he ruled the kingdom for many years, until his death, in +1517, with far greater wisdom, and more to the benefit of the State, +than any Sovereign who has ever sat upon its throne. This is not the +place in which to dwell upon his life, intensely interesting as it was, +but only to briefly allude to the relics of his greatness as displayed +in Alcala de Henares, in which locality he himself commenced his +studies. Protected by Mendoza he became confessor to Isabella in 1492, +who made him Archbishop of Toledo in 1495. Three years afterwards he +founded his great University dedicated to Saint Ildefonso; but which, in +honour of his ever famous labour, the compilation of the Complutensian +Polyglot,[19] bears the distinguished name in Spain of the "Universidad +Complutense." + +The building, of which the main block of the facade shown in my sketch, +is about one hundred feet long, by about sixty-five feet high, contains +no less than three Patios of different styles. It was designed by Pedro +Gumiel, and, as originally planned, finished in 1533, by Rodrigo Gil. +The whole facade which is of marble, with the exception of the basement +of grey granite, was no doubt entirely the work of the last named +architect. The structure has been well illustrated, architecturally, in +the great government publication--the "Monumentos Arquitectonicos de +Espana"--to which the student may be referred for the details of this +immense establishment. About it, in the days of its full prosperity, +there were grouped no less than eleven thousand students, and nineteen +colleges. Nothing shows, perhaps, more clearly the "high estate" from +which the poor Spain of the present day has fallen, than a contrast +between the muster rolls of the University of Madrid of late years, and +those of Salamanca, and Alcala, in the sixteenth century. + +The visitor to the "Colegio" of Alcala should on no account omit to see +the chapel built by Gil de Ontanon, since within it rests the Wolsey of +Spain. Upon a monument of white marble, by the skilful hand of Domenico +of Florence, reposes an effigy of Cardinal Cisneros. A lithograph of +this and of the quasi-Mudejar style of the chapel is given in the work +of Villa Amil,[20] and we may well take to heart the concluding sentence +of the description of it by Patricio Escosura:--"Una pregunta, y +concluimos; ?Cuantos monumentos como el que acabamos de ejaminar +dejaremos nosotros en herencia a nuestros nietos?"[*] + +[Illustration: PLATE 33 + +ALCALA DE HENARES + +ARZOBISPADO + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XXXIII. + +_ALCALA-DE-HENARES._ + +WINDOW OF THE ARZOBISPADO. + + +THE Archi-episcopal Palace of Alcala de Henares is a building of many +periods and many styles. Founded upon the Old Alcazar, of which vestiges +remain, it contains several pretty mediaeval windows, one of which Mr. +Street thought not unworthy of his pencil. The late Plateresque details +of its double Patios arrested my attention, and I was pleased to observe +in them a more than usual elegance of moulding, and originality, with +propriety of style. On account of their possession of these qualities, +their invention and the execution of the medallion-heads and ornaments +have been ascribed to Alonzo Berruguete, whose studies in Florence have +been looked upon as the main agents in purifying the then prevalent +tendency to exuberance in Plateresque design to which he might have +surrendered himself, but for his opportunities of becoming acquainted +with the works of Michael Angelo and other great contemporary masters of +Italian Art. If Berruguete had no hand in this work, (and I have been +able to find no proof whatever that he had), it lends greater +probability to the theory I have ventured to broach in the description +of the next sketch, which is taken from another but contemporary part of +the same building. + +Another attribution of the design of these details has been to Alonso de +Covarrubias, but I can find no other authority for it than the fact that +Ponz considered them to resemble certain windows of the Alcazar at +Toledo which were known to have been designed by that master. + +[Illustration: PLATE 34 + +EL ARZOBISPADO + +ALCALA DE HENARES] + + + + +PLATE XXXIV. + +_ALCALA-DE-HENARES._ + +DETAIL FROM THE ARZOBISPADO. + + +ALTHOUGH commonly described as Plateresque, the architecture of the +Patio of the Archbishop's Palace at Alcala de Henares, of which my +sketch represents the detail of the upper story, excites a far more +forcible reminiscence of good cinque-cento work. It seems to have been +executed principally by Spaniards of the sixteenth century, but still to +have been founded on pure Italian models. This is particularly shown, as +it appeared to me, in the regular form of the bell and volutes of the +capitals of the columns with the well drawn and cut acanthus leaves, and +the regular eggs and tongues of the cornice. Recognising this, and +noticing the correspondence in style between the execution of this work, +and that of the architectural parts of the monument to Cardinal Cisneros +alluded to in the description of the last sketch but one, I could not +but fancy it possible that the same artist, Domenico of Florence, who is +allowed to have produced that monument, may, after its completion, have +been retained to work upon the Patios of the Archi-episcopal Palace; and +possibly also upon some portions of the facade of the University which +was not as we know set in hand until some time after the Cardinal's +death. + +[Illustration: PLATE 35 + +TOLEDO + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XXXV. + +_TOLEDO_. + +VIEW OF THE REMAINS OF A MOORISH FORTRESS ON THE RIVER. + + +THE situation of Toledo is most romantic, and presents as many charms +from its beauty to the architect, as the site for a commanding city, as +no doubt it offered from, its great natural strength, to the "man of +war" who must needs have regarded it as an almost heaven-born fortress. +It owes much, both of its beauty and its strength, to the clear and +abundant current of the Tagus, which more than half surrounds it. This +river has, as we shall have occasion to observe, been nobly spanned by +Roman, Moor, and Christian; and on its banks are yet traceable, in +architectural fragments, the handiwork of each of those races. + +Our sketch represents a passage of this river which has once been +commanded by the Moorish fortress, above the "tapia" or concrete remains +of which, some shade-loving Spaniard of to-day has planted his vines and +gourds, and reared his modest, but neither unpicturesque nor altogether +uncomfortable, tenement. A fortification of this kind was much affected +by the Moors for salient points, on account of the command it gave them +of the various directions from which attack might be apprehended, and +was called by them "Almodovar." + +Charles Didier has admirably described the charms of such a position, as +that occupied by the world-renowned capital of New Castille, in the +following passage of his "Annee en Espagne," "Tolede doit a sa +situation," says he,[21] "une inepuisable richesse de sites et de vues. +La montagne escarpee dont elle couvre les flancs est separee par le Tage +d'une autre montagne non moins escarpee, mais nue, deserte, abandonnee a +la sterilite et tombant a pic dans le fleuve. A micote est le chateau +ruine de Saint Cervantes. Un petit ermitage, _la Virgen del Valle_, est +egare au sommet; mais, bati au milieu des rochers, il s'en detache a +peine et se confond avec eux: des troupeaux de chevres sauvages errent a +l'entour, et, presque aussi sauvage qu'elles, le patre, vetu de peaux, +apporte au seuil de la ville les moeurs de la sierra. Ces contrastes +sont frappants, mais ce sont les vues surtout qui captivent; quoique +borne, le spectacle est varie; les masses granitiques dont la montagne +est formee s'adoucissent au-dessus du pont Saint Martin, et des villas, +appelees dans le pays _cigarrales_, etendent sur la pierre nue et +grisatre de frais tapis de verdure; c'est le seul point champetre du +paysage, tout le reste est sec et depouille. La montagne n'a pas un +arbre. La variete nait des mouvements du sol et des anfractuosites du +rocher; les perspectives sont courtes, mais frappantes; tantot l'oeil +plonge sur le Tage, qui serpente en meandres verdatres entre les deux +collines; tantot la ville apparait herissee de ses innombrables +clochers, puis le rideau retombe, et enferronne dans une gorge deserte +et muette, on pourrait se croire tout d'un coup transporte dans quelque +solitude primitive. Ces brusques alternatives ont un grand charme; elles +impriment a ce paysage austere et melancolique un profond cachet +d'originalite." + +[Illustration: PLATE 36 + +TOLEDO + +BRIDGE OF ALCANTARA + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XXXVI. + +_TOLEDO_. + +BRIDGE OF ALCANTARA. + + +The brief words in which Ford gives the chronology of this "Bridge of +Bridges," carries one to the long series of Lords and Masters who have +made of Toledo a perfect mine of Archaeological interest. "The Roman +one," he says, "was repaired in 687 by the Goth Sala; destroyed by an +inundation, it was rebuilt in 871, by the Alcaide Halaf, repaired in +1258 by Alonzo el Sabio,[22] restored by Archbishop Tenorio about 1380, +and fortified in 1484 by Andres Manrique." To crown the whole and make +it safe for ever, Philip II. placed it, by solemn dedication, under the +especial protection of San Ildefonso, who certainly appears to have done +his duty hitherto, as I saw few signs of repair or want of it from the +middle of the sixteenth century till now. I need scarcely say, that it +crosses the River Tagus in one noble and most lofty span, and connects +the walled city with its dependencies "across the water." Nothing can be +more picturesque than this bridge, or indeed than the whole aspect of +the position of the city placed upon seven hills, forming one lofty and +rocky eminence, around which, on more than two sides, tears the Tagus. +Conspicuous in my sketch is the lofty Tower controlling access from the +Bridge to the City on the side of the commanding "Alcazar," as literally +the "royal residence," as Alcantara is in Arabic "the Bridge." Cean +Bermudez[23] tells us, that one Mateo Paradiso was the architect, who in +1217 constructed a tower (probably, in at least the greatest part, the +same which now remains) upon this famous bridge. In support of his +opinion, he cites Estevan de Garibay, who in the ninth volume of his +"unedited Works" fol. 512 tit. 6º, speaking of the Memorabilia of +Toledo, says with reference to this Bridge, "that the river suddenly +rising destroyed one of its pillars in the month of February, 1211, +placing the bridge in peril of falling. As soon as it had been repaired, +Henrique I. caused a tower to be built upon it for the greater security +of it and of the city, as appears by an original inscription which once +existed upon the tower in these words. + + "Henry, son of the King Alfonso, caused this tower to be built in + honour of God, by the hand of Matheo Paradiso in the year 1255." + +Another tower of the time of Charles V. guards the access to the Bridge +from the side farthest from the city, that from which my sketch has been +taken. + +[Illustration: PLATE 37 + +TOLEDO + +PUENTE DE SAN MARTIN + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XXXVII. + +_TOLEDO_. + +BRIDGE OF SAN MARTIN. + + +AMIROLA[24] has given us an excellent account of the origin of this +noble mediaeval bridge, upon which the following short statement is +mainly based. Near to the site on which the bridge of St. Martin now +stands at Toledo, there was formerly a fine Roman bridge. This having +been entirely destroyed for useful purposes, by a tremendous flood which +rose, according to the most ancient annals of Toledo, in the year 1212, +the city determined upon building another bridge upon a better site. +Having erected abutments of vast strength, which were ultimately crowned +and weighted with two towers for defence, and having bedded two solid +piers in the line of the stream, their master of the works, Rodrigo +Alfonso, proceeded to span it with one of three lofty arches, two of +which are shown in my sketch. This magnificent arch of one hundred and +forty Spanish feet in width, and ninety-five in height was destroyed in +the terrible struggle between the King Don Pedro, and his brother Don +Henrique, in the year 1368. It was shortly after rebuilt, and the bridge +generally repaired by the great Don Tenorio, Archbishop of Toledo. Villa +Franca, Alcala de Henares, and the neighbourhood of Alamin, all boasted +of bridges put up by the same Rodrigo Alfonso, who designed the bridge +of San Martin at Toledo. + +Beyond the bridge, in my sketch, appears on the crest of the hill the +mass of the beautiful, though somewhat over florid church, San Juan de +los Reyes. Having been erected by Ferdinand and Isabella, in a period as +late as 1476, it fails to enlist the sympathies and approbation of some; +others have praised it enthusiastically, and certain it is, that if it +may have possessed faults when complete, scarcely anything can be more +picturesque as a ruin. + +[Illustration: PLATE 38 + +TOLEDO + +MOORISH GATEWAY BY THE BRIDGE OF ALCANTARA. + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XXXVIII. + +_TOLEDO_. + +MOORISH GATEWAY BY THE BRIDGE OF ALCANTARA. + + +Near to the bridge of Alcantara (sketch No. 36) on the road leading up +from it to the city, stands the celebrated Moorish gateway of the +"Puerta del Sol." This strong, large, and well fortified approach to the +city, I found to labour under two marked disadvantages for my +sketch-book, viz., it had been too often illustrated, and its curious +details had been so vigorously "restored" (when Spaniards do "restore" +there is no mistake about it), as to have lost in a great degree its +original and authentic characteristics. I looked about, therefore, in +the immediate vicinity of the bridge, for other vestiges of the +antiquity of the city. These I soon came upon in the old gateway of +which I give a sketch, and to the construction of which, both Roman and +Moor have contributed. As the poor heavily laden mules laboured up the +dusty stony road, with the patience of, in Spain, a much-abused race, it +was impossible not to speculate upon the generations upon generations +which had followed in the same track up the same road, on the same duty, +through every vicissitude of occupation of the Gateway, through which +they swayed monotonously from side to side. + +[Illustration: PLATE 39 + +TOLEDO + +ARCO DEL ZOCODOVER + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XXXIX. + + +TOLEDO. + +ENTRANCE ARCHWAY OF THE ZOCODOVER. + + +ALTHOUGH as appears from the steps shown in my sketch rising up through +this archway, which is known as that of the Zocodover, or more properly +Zocodober, which means in Arabic, according to Cean Bermudez, "a place +upon a lower level," the archway is situated upon _an ascent_, it by no +means follows that there may not be a higher plane to which it may still +be a _descent._ Such is the case in the Zocodover of Toledo, which is +really the "Place" of the city in the usual French, or the "Piazza" in +the Italian, sense. It is reached from without the walls by the steps +shown, and is yet literally the "lower Place" when compared with the +platform of the Alcazar or "Royal Residence." Of great strength, it must +in its time have been the scene of terrible struggles, and blood +shedding, as it dates from the days when Moors ruled in the North of +Spain, and had to be wrested from the descendants of its builders only +by many a tussle between the upholders of the Crescent and the Cross. On +the inside of the city to the market place it has been modified, and +Italianised, but to the thousands who pass up it daily from the lower +parts of the outskirts, it wears its original Oriental aspect. + +Ford gives to the word "Zocodover" quite another meaning and derivation. +He explains it as "the square market." Whether he or Bermudez may be +right, I know not, but, certain it is that either meaning may be aptly +fitted to describe the spot to which our gateway leads--a spot of no +comfortable memories--since it still reeks with the cruelties of genuine +Spanish diversions, "Autos da Fe," and "Fiestas de Toros." + +[Illustration: PLATE 40 + +TOLEDO + +TALLER DEL MORO + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XL. + +_TOLEDO_. + +INTERIOR OF THE "TALLER DEL MORO." + + +FROM the spring of the year 712, when Tarik, with his renegade Jews and +Berbers, wrested the city from its Gothic rulers, to the spring of the +year 1085, when Alfonso VI.--the Emperor as he styled himself after +having won his laurels--reconquered the city for the Christians, Toledo +remained altogether an Oriental city. As such, it was inhabited by +Berbers, strict Mahommedans and Jews, the last named being occasionally +tolerated and occasionally persecuted as they had been by the Goths, and +subsequently were by the Castilian Christians. The duration of this +tenure of power has to be borne in mind continually, in the endeavour to +assign dates to the Moorish monuments of this city, of which there are a +great number. It is of course true that long after the date of Alfonso's +conquest the Moorish artificers worked for the Christians, but such was +their constant condition of subjection that it is not to be credited +that any one of them could have been allowed to live in the wealth and +luxury, in which the inhabitants of such a Moorish house, as that known +as the "Taller del Moro," a beautiful fragment of which forms the +subject of the fortieth sketch, must have lived. I can, therefore, have +no hesitation in repudiating for the date of its origin, as late a +period as 1350, which has been assigned to it. On the other hand, I am +no less confident that Senor Escosura, who has written of it as of +"between the ninth and tenth centuries," is also in error. What I +believe is, that this elegant set of chambers was really one of the +latest works in the city immediately preceding its capture by Alfonso, +in 1085. The style of its work is certainly later than any of that +executed under the Khalifate of Corduba while in the hands of the +Ummeyah family. It belongs, I believe, to the school of the Almohades, +and reflects some of the novelties in complicated geometry introduced by +the Arabs of Damascus, in advance of the Ummeyahs. They held to earlier +types, as may be seen in all the works at Corduba, including even those +ascribed to the author of the splendid Mih-rab or sanctuary, the Sultan +Al-Hakem II., who completed the "cubba," or Cupola of the Mih-rab (the +most complicated piece of design in all Cordova) in the year A.D., 965. + +All that is left at present of this once sumptuous mansion consists of a +central chamber, (fifty-four feet long by twenty-three feet wide), +approached from a court-yard, the usual Moorish Alfagia, (no doubt, by +the doorway shown on the right hand side of my sketch), and of two +chambers, one at each end of the central one. Traces of colour and +gilding have almost entirely disappeared, but the stucco ornamentation, +where not wilfully or heedlessly destroyed, retains all its original +sharpness and beauty. I found the "Taller del Moro" in full use, or +rather abuse, as a carpenter's workshop. + +[Illustration: PLATE 41 + +TOLEDO + +LA MAGDALENA + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XLI. + +_TOLEDO_. + +TOWER OF THE CHURCH OF LA MAGDALENA. + + +TOLEDO is, or rather has been, a city of peculiar devotion. Its +Christian mediaeval architecture Mr. Street has fully illustrated, but he +has passed hurriedly over some of the remains of that peculiar mixed +style in which Christians usually gave the order, and Moors did the +work. I have, accordingly, sketched two Christiano-Moorish campaniles +which he has not given, and one which he has, but from a different point +of view. + +The steeple of La Magdalena is, I fancy, of two periods, the +construction from the ground to the base of the belfry being of one +class, and the belfry itself of another. It has all the appearance of +having been the old tower of a mosque previous to the conquest of Toledo +by King Alfonso, and of having been subsequently taken down to a certain +level, and the belfry chamber and bells added, on the christianising of +the structure. + +It is built almost entirely of brick, and although simple to the extent +of rudeness, its mass yet groups well with the long roof lines of the +convents by which it is as it were hemmed in. + +As the student wanders through these old streets of Toledo, rendered so +picturesque by remnants of old Moorish use and ceremony, his mind is +naturally attracted to the days when the "mezquita" took the place of +the church, and was thronged by the worshippers of the "One God and +Mahomet his Prophet," by day and by night. The description given of the +comparatively modern Moors in the account of Commodore Stewart's embassy +to the Emperor of Morocco, in the year 1721, seems to carry us back to +the days when Toledo, and many other cities of Spain, owned no other +faith than that defined by the Koran. "The Moors," says the writer,[25] +"seem not (as we do) to observe the day for business, and the night for +sleep, but sleep and wake often in the four-and-twenty hours, going to +church by night as well as day, for which purpose their Talbs call from +the top of the mosques, (or places of worship) having no bells, every +three hours throughout the city. In going to church they observe no +gravity, nor mind their dress; but as soon as the Talb begins to bellow +from the steeple, the carpenter throws down his axe, the shoemaker his +awl, the tailor his shears, and away they all run like so many fellows +at football; when they come into church, they repeat the first chapter +of the _Alcoran_ standing, after which they look up, and lift up their +hands as much above their heads as they can, and as their hands are +leisurely coming down again, drop on their knees with their faces +towards the _Kebla_, (as they call it) or East and by South; then +touching the ground with their foreheads twice, sit a little while on +their heels muttering a few words, and rise up again. This they repeat +two or three times, after which, looking on each shoulder, (I suppose to +their guardian angels) they say, _Selemo Alikoon (i.e.,) Peace be with +you_; and have done. When there are many at prayers together, you would +think they were so many gally-slaves a rowing, by the motion they make +on their knees." + +[Illustration: PLATE 42 + +TOLEDO + +TOWER OF SAN PEDRO MARTIRE + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XLII. + +_TOLEDO_. + +MOORISH TOWER OF SAN PEDRO MARTIRE. + + +PLATE Forty-two presents us with another type of Christiano-Moorish +Campanile from that given by the last sketch. In this case the usual +fashion of the mediaeval church builders of dividing the total height of +the tower into several compartments, pierced with largish openings on +more than one floor, has been followed. The regular Arabian +praying-tower is generally simply the inclosure of a staircase, with a +gallery, or open chamber, only at the summit, from which "the faithful" +are duly summoned by the Imaum to their devotions. The conversion of one +or more stories into belfries, however, indicates (where the work is +clearly that of a Mahommedan artificer), that he has been working only +for the performance of the behests of a Christian, as in the case of the +Tower of San Pedro Martire at Toledo. The Church itself exhibits only a +clumsy and overgrown Palladian style of a thoroughly commonplace +description, gloomy and uninteresting. + +[Illustration: PLATE 43 + +TOLEDO + +SANT' JAGO DEL LA VEGA + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XLIII. + +_TOLEDO_. + +TOWER OF THE CHURCH OF SANT' IAGO DE LA VEGA. + + +THIS Church appeared to me to retain more of the primitive "Mezquita," +or mosque, than any other in Toledo, excepting the celebrated "Christo +de la Luz." Its aspect is most picturesque as one descends from the city +towards the Vega, or once rich and lovely plain. I could not help +recognizing in it how good an effect might be produced in our ordinary +street architecture by the use of common brick, provided that the masses +of the construction should be artistically disposed, and used without +the appearance of pinching here and paring off there, which spoils many +of our usually too ambitious efforts. + +In all such work as this in Spain, one is reminded only of the "bottom +of the purse" when the work remains unfinished. With us the aspect of +the "fond-du-sac" begins generally with the beginning, with the first +lines of the disposition of the plan, and ends only with the end of the +whole. As far as appearances go in this structure, differences of style +from those of the rest of the building shown in my sketch in the belfry, +and in the apsidal end of the choir of the Church, and in one or two +other parts, seemed to point to those features of the design as being of +considerably later date than that of the rest of the building. If the +primitive Moorish work may have been of the middle of the eleventh +century, the Christiano-Moorish may have been of the end of the +thirteenth. + +[Illustration: PLATE 44 + +TOLEDO + +HOSPITAL OF THE HOLY CROSS] + + + + +PLATE XLIV. + +_TOLEDO_. + +EXTERNAL VIEW OF THE HOSPITAL OF THE HOLY CROSS. + + +DESCENDING from the main Piazza of the city, through the gateway shown +by the thirty-ninth sketch, the great "Hospedal de la Santa Cruz" is +speedily reached. This is generally considered the finest example of +Plateresque (literally silversmith's) Architecture left in Spain. Its +founder was the all powerful Cardinal D. Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, +"Tertius Rex," of Castile, Consolidator of the Monarchy, and Father of +the absolute supremacy of the Catholic Church in Spain. The style of +this building, and the circumstances of the birth and training of its +architect, raise the important question of the extent to which the +Plateresque style in Spain may, or may not, have been of national +origin? It appears that in 1459, a certain Anequin de Egas de Bruselas +(or Brussels) of the Cathedral of Toledo, in his capacity of "Maestro +Mayor," with his assistant Juan Fernandez de Liena, executed the facade +of the main southern transept of that Cathedral, and the entrance +familiarly known as "de los Leones." In this work, the architecture is +of florid Burgundian-Gothic, with scarcely a trace of Renaissance about +its original design. Anequin died in 1494, and his son Henrique was +appointed, by the Chapter of Toledo, to succeed his father as "Maestro +Mayor," the duties of which office he performed until his death in +1534. Henrique was the favourite architect of the King D. Fernando, and +of his son, the Archbishop D. Alonso, who actually disputed, in 1505, as +to which of them should for awhile avail themselves of his exclusive +services. He was called in to every important consultation of architects +of his time, and was evidently "au courant" of the great changes of +style which had been developed in Italy, and which were in course of +development in France, and in and about his father's native place. His +influence as a naturalizer of the exotic details of which models were +furnished to artists by the prints and portable works of the "petits +maitres," is clearly manifested when we recognise the early dates at +which his florid Renaissance buildings were executed. For instance, in +those designed for Cardinal Mendoza, the dates of which are well known, +we find Renaissance features well carried out with scarcely any +admixture of Gothic. The earliest of these is the vast "Colegio Mayor" +de Sta. Cruz at Valladolid, which Henrique began in 1480 and completed +in 1492, and the second the splendid Hospital for Foundlings at Toledo +(1504 to 1514) from which the sketch, now under consideration, and the +two which follow it have been taken. In describing the second of these +sketches, we shall resume our consideration of the Plateresque style +generally from the point at which it is now left. It may be well, +however, with relation to this sketch, to state that it shows the +principal portal or great entrance to the Hospital, and that the top +story appears to be of later date and coarser execution than the portal +and the two elegant windows of the first floor. The carving in the +lunette of the doorway represents, in very good style, the "invention of +the Cross" with Sta. Helena and the Founder. The colour of the stone, +and the quality of the workmanship leave nothing to be desired. + +[Illustration: PLATE 45 + +TOLEDO + +SANTA CRUZ + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XLV. + +_TOLEDO_. + +CORTILE OF THE HOSPITAL OF THE HOLY CROSS. + + +IT is in the interior rather than on the exterior of the Toledo +Foundling Hospital, that Henrique de Egas has best shown his command +over the Plateresque style. It was no longer in designing the former a +question of adding on ornament in fanciful door and window dressings, as +it was in the latter, but a necessity to adapt from existing models, or +originate essential parts of the structure, executing important +functions of use and stability. The columns, arches, and interspacing of +the arcading of the Patios evidence by their proportions, quite as much +as by their details, that Henrique's and his employer's backs had been +turned upon Gothic, and that a new style had been inaugurated for +Spanish architecture, as the successes of Ferdinand and Isabella, and +the discovery of America, had laid the foundations of an entirely new +era for Spain. + +The construction of the building under notice was begun by Cardinal +Mendoza, under Henrique, in 1504; the year in which those Sovereigns +ascended the throne, and completed in the year 1514. Simultaneously with +the commencement of the great Hospital for the "Tertius Rex," Henrique +designed a still more extensive and magnificent Hospital which the +"Reyes Catolicos" proposed to construct at Santiago, and entered upon +many other great architectural works in other parts of Spain. Ford, who +was no mean judge, says of the Hospedal de la Santa Cruz, that its +"position overlooking the Tagus is glorious, and the building is one of +the gems of the world; nor can any chasing of Cellini surpass the +elegant Portal." + +There is little doubt that Egas was stimulated to great exertion by the +rivalry of many competitors, few of whom, however, designed in exactly +his style. The work which most resembles his, I believe, will be found +in the detail of the wonderful Plateresque Town Hall at Seville, and +that of the Cathedral at Plasencia. + +That so magnificent a Palace (for such it is) should have been thought +necessary, or at any rate should have been indulged in, for the +reception of foundlings, is to be partially accounted for by an old +assertion I have met with, that the Spaniards, not knowing the parentage +of the "ninos perdidos," gave them "the benefit of the doubt," and +considered them all as children of Hidalgos, a questionable compliment +to the boasted morality, or at any rate austerity, of the upper +classes. + +[Illustration: PLATE 46 + +TOLEDO + +HOSPITAL OF THE HOLY CROSS. + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XLVI. + +_TOLEDO._ + +DOORWAY FROM THE HOSPITAL OF THE HOLY CROSS. + + +THE facts that Moorish workmen should have been found in Toledo, +Segovia, and elsewhere in Spain, to modify their national style, in +their Mudejar work, and to incorporate freely in it many features of +late mediaeval work; while they scarcely ever lent themselves to any +expression of Renaissance form, although they occasionally laboured in +buildings of that style, have been supposed to imply a greater affinity +between Arabian and Gothic modes of design, than between the Arabian +style and Plateresque. This may, to some extent, account for the +presence of this Mudejar work, assimilating in no way with the +last-mentioned style, in a building of so distinctly a Renaissance +character as this one possesses. The fact is, however, rather thus--that +after the expulsion of the Moors, and the institution of the Inquisition +(the period of the construction of this Hospital), the Moorish +artificers diminished very rapidly in number, and lost their +individuality almost entirely in Northern and Central Spain; and that, +whereas, during several centuries they had lived there in cities in +which Gothic architecture was practised by Christians, and had thus made +themselves partially acquainted with its details, they had but a short +term of scarcely tolerated national existence wherein to learn the +novelties which were beginning to be taken up by the Spaniards, at the +commencement of the sixteenth century. + +My sketch, while it indicates the elaboration of this late specimen of +Mudejar stucco-work, shows by the figures I have introduced (from life) +the class to whose tender mercies this gem is now confided. Let it be +hoped that the "Genius loci," may protect it, for the respectable +Spanish soldier of the nineteenth century can scarcely be regarded as a +satisfactory Conservative element. + +[Illustration: PLATE 47 + +TOLEDO GREAT DOORWAY OF THE ALCAZAR + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XLVII. + +_TOLEDO._ + +ENTRANCE GATEWAY TO THE ALCAZAR. + + +THE Royal residence, for such is the meaning of the word "Alcazar," of +Toledo, is one of the two great Palaces which Charles V. caused to be +constructed in order that Spain might, for the first time, have "Royal +Residences" commensurate with her grandeur and wealth. He appears to +have chosen the same architect for both in the person of Alonso de +Covarrubbias. This distinguished artist was born in the locality, in the +diocese of Burgos, from whence he derived his name. At an early age he +allied himself with the family of the Flemish Egas, distinguished in the +highest degree as architects in the persons of Anequin and his son +Henrique. The wife of Alonso de Covarrubbias was a certain Maria +Gutierrez de Egas, and by her he became the father of several sons, who +in different ways (not in architecture) achieved great distinction and +consideration. To return to the architectural career of Covarrubbias. +Through the interest of Henrique de Egas, and probably in succession to +him, Alonso Covarrubbias was appointed "Maestro Mayor" of the Cathedral +of Toledo, whereupon he settled himself altogether in that city with his +brother Marcos. His great work in Toledo Cathedral was the famous Chapel +"de los Reyes nuevos," which he completed in the year 1534. He is then +said to have given some plans to Cardinal D. Alonso de Fonseca, for the +improvement of the Archbishop's Palace at Alcala de Henares (see my +notes on that structure, Sketches, Nos. 33 and 34). He subsequently +occupied himself, until 1537, in designing and carrying out the splendid +entry to the Colegio Mayor (known as that of the Archbishop) in +Salamanca, and other works. + +In the last mentioned year he was appointed, by Charles V., with another +architect, Luis de Vega, to make plans for rebuilding the Royal Palaces +of Toledo and Madrid. This commission was subsequently modified, giving +to Covarrubbias the works of Toledo, and to de Vega those at Madrid. The +Alcazar of Toledo had been originally built by King Alonso VI., on the +highest point of the city, when he took it from the Moors in 1085. It +had been added to at various dates, chiefly by the powerful Alvaro de +Luna, and lastly by the Reyes Catolicos. What Charles V. caused to be +built, consisted of a facade of great extent, a magnificent vestibule, +court-yard and staircase, on all of which he placed his insignia. The +Portal I have sketched, is stated by Cean Bermudez, from whom most of +the above mentioned facts have been derived, to have been constructed by +Henrique de Egas,[26] under the direction of Covarrubbias who closed an +honourable life, much favoured by his Sovereign, in 1570. + +The Spaniards are justly proud of the noble simplicity and grand style +of Covarrubbias, which has none of the coldness and heaviness of +Herrera's; and this is one of the rare cases in which they have made, of +late years, a really splendid and not over-loaded restoration. Upon the +whole, the Alcazar at Toledo is one of the few buildings existing in +Spain which reflects, particularly in its grand Cortile, the +"magnificenze" of the Italian Renaissance, in their completest form. + +[Illustration: PLATE 48 + +TOLEDO HOSPEDAL DE TAVERA PATIO + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XLVIII. + +_TOLEDO._ + +PATIO OF THE HOSPITAL OF CARDINAL TAVERA. + + +THE great Cardinal Primate, whose name this gigantic Hospital still +bears, was a worthy successor to Mendoza and Cisneros. In 1542 he +employed the Architect Bartholome de Bustamente to design and construct +the four facades of this enormous pile. Not particularly attractive from +without, internally the extent, fine proportions, and simplicity of its +great Patios are very striking. It is one of the most regular pieces of +Italian architecture I met with in Spain, and would have produced a +highly satisfactory effect if its upper arches had been semi-circular +instead of elliptic. The Hospital is dedicated to St. John the Baptist, +and is placed without the walls of the city, whence its cognomen of "a +fuera." The Church of the Hospital is older in style if not in date than +the rest of the structure. Here in the room beneath the clock died the +famous Berruguete in 1561, shortly after completing the portal of the +Church and the marble monument within it which commemorates the cardinal +virtues of the illustrious founder. + +[Illustration: PLATE 49 + +CORDOBA + +CASA CABELLO + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XLIX. + +_CORDOBA._ + +EXTERIOR OF THE CASA CABELLO. + + +THIS pretty entrance to a Spanish nobleman's house of the latter part of +the sixteenth century has, like most of its class, little story to tell, +and that little, could I but unravel it, would probably turn out to be +only of the dullest. Let us see, therefore, from a contemporary witness, +what manner of life was ordinarily led by the class of nobles for one of +whom it may have been fitted up in the fashion of the century succeeding +that in which it was built. "In the morning as soon as they are up they +drink water cooled with ice, and presently after chocolate. When dinner +time is come, the master sits down to table; his wife and children eat +upon the floor near the table; this is not done out of respect, as they +tell me, but the women cannot sit upon a chair, they are not accustomed +to it; and there are several ancient Spanish women who never sat upon +one in their whole life. They make a light meal, for they eat little +flesh; the best of their food are pigeons, pheasants, and their olios, +which are excellent; but the greatest lord has not brought to his table +above two pigeons, and some very bad ragoust, full of garlick and +pepper; and after that some fennel and a little fruit. When this little +dinner is over, every one in the house undress themselves and lie down +upon their beds, upon which they lay Spanish leather-skins for coolness; +at this time you shall not find a soul in the streets; the shops are +shut, all the trade ceased, and it looks as if every body were dead. At +two o'clock in the winter and at four in the summer they begin to dress +themselves again, then eat sweetmeats, drink either some chocolate or +water cooled in ice, and afterwards everybody goes where they think fit, +and indeed they tarry out till eleven or twelve o'clock at night; I +speak of people that live regularly; then the husband and wife go to +bed, a great table-cloth is spread all over the bed, and each fastens it +under their chin. The he and she-dwarfs serve up supper, which is as +frugal as the dinner, for it is either a pheasant-hen made into a +ragoust, or some pastry business, which burns their mouth it is so +excessively peppered; the lady drinks her belly full of water, and the +gentleman very sparingly of the wine; and when supper is ended each goes +to sleep as well as they can." + +[Illustration: PLATE 50 + +SEVILLE + +LA FERIA] + + + + +PLATE L. + +_SEVILLE._ + +CHURCH OF LA FERIA. + + +"LA FERIA" in Seville, has been time out of mind the essence of all that +is most "Picaresque" in the city. Not quite so thronged with Gitanos and +Gitanas as the suburb of Triana, it makes up for shortcomings in that +element of rascality and picturesqueness, by majos and majas, rustic +beaux and belles, bull-fighters and beggars, dogs and donkeys, mules and +muleteers, rags and tatters, and abundance of the most gloriously +coloured fruits under the sun--and, above all, there reign such a sun +and such a sky as denizens of the North have really little or no notion +of. As if these elements of the picture were not enough, by way of +background, stands a church in which the "battle of the Styles" seems to +have been fairly fought out, with the victory now inclining to Moor, and +now to Christian, while over all is seen a little of the Renaissance, +with more than a suspicion, in the heavy scrolls of the highest belfry, +of "Churriguerismo." + +While I sat on a door-step making this poor little sketch, I think I +must have seen Murillo's by the dozen, and John Phillips' by the +hundred, not on canvas, but glowing with Nature's own light, and life, +and colour. + +[Illustration: PLATE 51 + +SEVILLE SAN MARCOS + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LI. + +_SEVILLE._ + +CHURCH OF SAN MARCOS. + + +SOME notion of the richness of Seville, in the remains of old Moorish +mosques converted into Christian churches, may be formed from the fact +that this edifice, in which we trace the two styles blended in the most +interesting way, finds no mention in the pages of Ford, O'Shea, Mellado, +or any other guide books of Spain I have been able to meet with, except +Bradshaw's. In that, Dr. Charnock thus briefly alludes to San Marcos. +"Note," says he, "its beautiful western facade which has served as a +model for several churches; the Retablo of the Altar de las Animas, +contains a painting by D. Martinez; the tower rising to the left of the +Church in imitation of the Giralda, is a fine monument of Arabian +architecture." It is, of course, to the grand portal, rather than to the +whole facade, that Dr. Charnock alludes, since the former from the +purity of its apparently late fifteenth century work, merits his praise, +while the latter cannot certainly be regarded as other than a +"barbarismo." + +The tower, particularly pleasing in the style of its Mudejar additions, +has been engraved in elevation in "los Monumentos Arquitectonicos." It +is about seventy-five feet high by ten feet wide. + +[Illustration: PLATE 52 + +SEVILLE LA FERIA + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LII. + +_SEVILLE._ + +REMAINS OF MUDEJAR HOUSE NEAR LA FERIA. + + +THE habit of the Moors was almost universally to make their exterior +architecture plain, and to reserve richness and elaboration for the +interiors of their houses. The fact that what is commonly internal +architecture has been used by Moorish workmen on the external facade of +the little house, which forms the subject of this fifty-second sketch, +would be sufficient of itself to prove that it had not been executed for +a Moor, even if the Gothic mouldings and ornaments of the buttresses, +imposts, cornices, and string courses failed to assert the Christianity +of those for whom the house may have been built. The date of its +construction, judging from style, was probably about the middle of the +fifteenth century, at which period, in Spain, Renaissance features had +in nowise affected the integrity of either Gothic or Moorish +architecture. In this case all the mason's work is Gothic, and all the +stucco-work is Moorish; and this distinction of style, according to the +technical mode of construction, is not an uncommon feature of Mudejar +work. It was not only in stucco that the traditions of Moorish +art-workmanship enriched all Spain, since both in metal-work and +wood-work, the Moors continued to be employed long after their +subjugation, preserving very many of their old and excellent types of +form throughout many phases of transition. To this subject I may have +occasion to recur. I was myself fortunate enough to meet with a +beautiful little walnut-wood box, covered with Mudejar ornament, in the +midst of which a Moorish workman of the sixteenth century had carved the +I.H.S. of Christianity, and the sword of Sant' Iago. + +[Illustration: PLATE 53 + +SEVILLE FONDA DE MADRID + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LIII. + +_SEVILLE._ + +MUDEJAR WINDOW IN THE FONDA DE MADRID. + + +THIS window which is of the class known as "Ajimez," or literally +"through which the sun shines," _i.e._ in an external wall, is a +specimen of Mudejar work left as a "waif" in a part of Seville which, +with this exception, has been entirely modernised. It belongs to exactly +the house where one would least expect to find it, viz., one of the best +hotels, if not the best hotel, in Seville, the "Fonda de Madrid." All of +this pretty window is made of brickwork, once covered apparently in +Moorish fashion with thin plaster, excepting the column which is of +white marble. The room it lights is an ordinary nineteenth century inn +bedroom, with square casements, and not a vestige of the fifteenth +century left about it. I could learn nothing about this relic, or +perfect reproduction of the past, from any one in the hotel, so that all +I could do was to sketch it. While doing so, I could not but wonder how +with so sensible, and, at the same time, so pretty a window ready to +their hands as a model, the builders of the Fonda could have been +contented to execute the regular expressionless square-headed windows I +found everywhere else. After a few minutes moralising in this vein, I +began to ask myself whether, as an Englishman, I was not assiduously +"plucking the mote from my brother's eye," with a beam all the time in +my own? + +[Illustration: PLATE 54 + +CASA DE PILATUS SEVILLE + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LIV. + +_SEVILLE._ + +VIEW IN THE UPPER STORY OF ONE OF THE PATIOS OF THE CASA DE PILATUS. + + +THE principal monument of Moorish magnificence still left in Seville, +is, of course, the "Royal Residence," the "Alcazar," commenced in 1181, +by Jalubi, the architect of Toledo. Next to it in importance is the +"Casa de Pilatus," as it is called, from which this sketch, and the +succeeding one have been taken. From the first named of these buildings +I did not sketch at all, feeling myself entirely baffled by the extreme +elaboration of all that was most interesting and admirable in the old +Moorish, Mudejar and Plateresque work. Such a building can be in no wise +now satisfactorily illustrated, excepting by one who may be in a +position to devote much time and study to the task. "Restoration," and +the adaptation of the structure to the necessities of nineteenth century +life have so mystified the work and intention of the original designers, +that although one may readily admire, it becomes exceedingly difficult +to analyse, all that meets the eye. I have, therefore, preferred giving +my attention, so far as this publication is concerned, to other, +although less noteworthy, specimens of the domestic architecture of +Seville. + +The student of the Fine Arts, and even the ordinary traveller, are sure, +without any urging on my part, to visit and enjoy the Alcazar, as a +Royal Palace; but may possibly, and, indeed, unless advised on the +subject, probably, may overlook the great beauty and curiosity of the +old, and now sadly neglected, Moorish and cinque-cento garden which lies +in the rear of the building. How to make a garden a delight the +Mahommedans learnt from the Persians, and taught by example, if not by +precept, to the Christians. Throughout these antique, orange, lemon, +box, and myrtle, groves, the Moors carried their system of irrigation. +Fountains and fishponds, baths and open water channels, even in the +hottest summer, still cool the favourite haunts. Many of these, Pedro +"el Cruel" caused to be formed in 1364 by architects specially brought +from Granada to rebuild a large portion of the Palace, for his +accommodation and that of his celebrated and beautiful mistress, Maria +de Padilla. Much more modern, and far less beautiful, gardening was done +by Charles V, but it is to the Moors the spot owes all its great charm. + +To return to the "Casa de Pilatus," so called from an old tradition, +that it was intended as a reproduction of the house of Pilate at +Jerusalem. It was built in 1533, by Fadrique Henriquez de Ribera, after +his return from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1519. From him the Palace, +for such it was, has descended (and, oh, how much descended!) to its +present owner, who is said to rarely visit it, a Duke of Medina Coeli. +From the Senor Duque, it has again _descended_ to his Administrador, who +does his best to keep it (for Spain) clean, and in tolerable order. My +sketch has been taken in the upper gallery of the third Patio. + +[Illustration: PLATE 55 + +SEVILLE HOUSE OF PILATUS + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LV. + +_SEVILLE._ + +DETAIL FROM A DOORWAY IN THE UPPER FLOOR OF ONE OF THE PATIOS OF THE +HOUSE OF PILATE. + + +THIS sketch represents, to a larger scale, a portion of the doorway +shown upon a small scale in the preceding sketch. It illustrates two of +the special points of architectural value in this fine old Palace, viz., +the entirely Moresque character of the stucco-work at a comparatively +late date, and the profuse use of "Azulejos" or coloured tiles. Some of +these may be recognized, although in a sketch in black and white, it is +not easy to make them apparent, in the coverings of the lower part of +the door jamb. It is, however, in and about the splendid staircase, that +this charming tile lining, of the use of which we have here of late +years commenced a very satisfactory revival, asserts its value as a +beautiful mode of introducing clean and permanent polychromatic +decoration--the only mode, indeed, as I believe, suitable for our +changeful climate, and smoky ways. + +I regret that my sketch is not sufficiently minute to show a favourite +habit of the Moors of Granada and Seville, in the technical working of +their stucco, by the use of which they give an appearance of +extraordinary elaboration to their decorations. It consists in working +different patterns on different planes of the same piece of stucco-work. +At a distance the dominant lines of the pattern only are apparent, on a +nearer approach the pattern comes into sight which fills up the bold +openings left between the dominant lines of the top pattern; and on a +still closer inspection, a third series of forms running counter to the +main lines of the pattern on the second plane and filling up the +interstices of it may be traced. I am inclined to believe, from their +peculiar sharpness, that few, or none, of the repeats of these patterns +were done from moulds by the operation of casting, but that wire, or cut +metal stencils, were used as guides for the pointed tools and knives, by +which superfluous plaster was removed, whilst the whole was yet in a +plastic state. + +This method of shaping semi-plastic stucco with sharp tools, was, I have +no doubt, derived by the Arabs from Roman tradition, as I have seen many +examples of a similar mode of working at Rome, Pompeii, Naples, and +elsewhere in Italy. + +[Illustration: PLATE 56 + +SEVILLE CASA ALBA + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LVI. + +_SEVILLE._ + +ONE OF THE ARCHES OF THE PATIO OF THE CASA ALBA. + + +"HOW are the Mighty fallen," is the predominant sensation, as one +wanders through these "banquet halls deserted." One may fairly +paraphrase Byron, and declare that "in Seville Alba's echoes are no +more." Ford and O'Shea, whose notes on the relics of domestic edifices +in Spain are invaluable, both tell us that this still beautiful, though +sadly destroyed, whitewashed, and dilapidated, old Palace, once +"contained eleven patios, nine fountains, and one hundred marble +columns." Of the elaboration of its workmanship, my sketch may serve to +give some idea. It was probably next to the Alcazar, the most important +residence in the City, far surpassing in extent the "Casa de Pilatus." + +This house presents one of the rare instances in Spain, in which the +Moorish stucco-workers have lent themselves to the rendering of +Renaissance details. For these, no doubt, they were furnished with +drawings or models, since in other parts of the same building, and +especially in many beautiful rooms in the interior, where they have +apparently been left to themselves, they have reverted partly to Mudejar +work, and partly to the old types of geometrical enrichment, which may +be regarded as specifically their own. Much of this is almost reduced to +a flat surface by repeated coats of whitewash. I was very much pleased, +however, to meet with one Spanish gentleman, occupying a suite of rooms +in the house, who was fully alive to the beauty of the Palace he lived +in; and who had, with his own hands, cleared off some of the whitewash, +and restored much of the fine ornamental detail of his rooms to its +original sharpness. Would that there were more like him in Spain! + +[Illustration: PLATE 57 + +SEVILLE + +MDW 1869 + +CASA ALBA] + + + + +PLATE LVII. + +_SEVILLE._ + +DETAIL FROM THE PATIO OF THE CASA ALBA. + + +TURNING from a consideration of the grand scale upon which the houses of +the old Spanish nobility have been usually constructed, and the +elaboration with which, as in the present sketch, the profuse ornamental +detail has been combined with heraldic insignia to set forth the +splendour and dignity of the family and its alliances, to the ruin and +dilapidation which seem to have fallen alike upon the architecture and +the families, one naturally wonders at the causes of the almost total +wreck. Some may, no doubt, be found in active assailment from without, +invasion, revolution, "y otras cosas de Espana;" but it is from within +that the real main enemy--pride--has undermined all. During the latter +part of the sixteenth, and early part of the seventeenth century, this +national infirmity reached its acme. Witness emphatically the sketch +given by an eye-witness towards the close of the last named century. + +"It would grieve a body to see the ill-management of some great lords; +there are divers who will never go to their estates (for so they call +their lands, their towns, and castles) but pass all their lives at +Madrid, and trust all to a steward, who makes them believe what he +judges most for his own interest. They will not so much as vouchsafe to +inquire whether he speaks true or false; this would be too exact, and by +consequence below them. This, methinks, is one considerable fault; the +strange profusion of vessels only for an egg and a pigeon is another. +But it is not only in these things which they fail, but it is also in +the daily expences of their houses. They know not what it is to lay up +stores, or make provision of anything; but every day they fetch in what +they want, and all upon trust, at the bakers, cooks, butchers, and all +other trades; they are even ignorant what they set down in their books, +and they put down what price they will for every thing they sell; this +matter is neither examined into nor contradicted. There are often fifty +horses in a stable, without either corn or straw, and they perish with +hunger. And when the master is in bed, if he should be taken ill in the +night, he would be at a great loss, for they let nothing remain in his +house, neither wine nor water, charcoal nor wax-candle, and in a word +nothing at all; for though they do not take in provisions so near that +there is nothing left, yet his servants have a custom of carrying the +overplus away to their own lodgings, and the next day they furnish +themselves with the same things again. They observe no better rules with +the tradesmen. A man or woman of quality had rather die than to haggle +for, or ask the price of a stuff, or lace, or any other thing, or to +take the remainder of a piece of gold; they rather chuse to give it the +tradesman, for his pains of having sold them for ten pistoles that which +was not worth five. If there is a reasonable price made, he that sells +to them is so honest not to take the advantage of their easiness to give +whatever is asked them; and as they have credit given them for ten years +together, without even thinking of paying, so at last they find +themselves under great difficulties with their debts." + +[Illustration: PLATE 58 + +SEVILLE CASA DE LOS ABADES + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LVIII. + +_SEVILLE._ + +ARCHES FROM THE CASA DE LOS ABADES. + + +THE architectural style of this very pretty house, No. 9, in the Calle +de los Abades, is much purer, that is more Italian in its Plateresque, +than is usual in other houses in Seville in which the hand of the +skilful Moorish operative is to be distinctly perceived. This is to be +accounted for by the fact, that although the mansion existed as a house +of importance at the commencement of the fifteenth century,[27] the +architectural features which now meet the eye were all executed for the +rich Genoese family of the Pinedos about 1533. If it were not for the +peculiar engrailed double edging to the arches, the thinness of the +marble central window shaft, and a few oriental turns here and there +given to the foliage, and enrichments of the mouldings, one could almost +believe that this architecture was regular Genoese cinque-cento. It is +possible however, that although here in the midst of ordinary Spanish +Plateresque one is tempted to cry out "Oh! how Italian this is!" if one +could only meet with a precisely similar building in Genoa; one would be +quite as much tempted to exclaim, "Oh! how Spanish this is!" The fact +of course is, that it exhibits a mixture of the two styles, produced +under the exceptional circumstances to which I have alluded. + +After passing from its Genoese owners, it was inhabited by certain +Abades, rich members of the Cathedral Staff, who left behind them their +name, but no very popular odour of sanctity, + + "En la calle de los Abades, + Todos han Tios, y ningunos Padres."[28] + +So runs the jingle Ford quotes, with manifest glee, adding as a sequel +to bring the matter home to the right offenders, + + "Los Canonigos, Madre, no tienen hijos; + Los que tienen en casa, son sobrinicos."[29] + +Possibly it may have been some of these very "sobrinicos" who hindered +my sketching by many small practical "chistes," for as the Patio served +as a play-ground to a tumultuous little boys' school, I found it by no +means conducive to that state of mind which facilitates elaborate +sketching. I fear also that such an occupation of its graceful galleries +may not prove conducive to the preservation of the noses, and possibly +even of the heads, of the "Caballeros de mucha consideracion," who fill +the medallions of the spandrels of the principal arches of the Patio. + +[Illustration: PLATE 59 + +CASA DE LOS ABADES + +SEVILLE. + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LIX. + +_SEVILLE._ + +VIEW IN THE PATIO OF THE CASA DE LOS ABADES. + + +IN spite of all the habits of reckless extravagance, in the days when +America poured its countless riches into the mother-country, described +by travellers; and in spite of the quantity of money which must have +been lavished on building by nobles and superior ecclesiastics, (as in +the case of the extremely elegant Renaissance "Casa de los Abades" which +forms the subject of our fifty-eighth sketch,) the home-life of Spain +never approached the contemporary plenty and comfort which obtained in +Italy, France, and England. In spite of the occasional prodigality of +wedding feasts, such as that of Camacho in Don Quixotte, and in spite, +perhaps, of a little occasional "gourmanderie" on the part of the +"Senores Abades" of this Calle, neither cooking nor service appear to +have been carried to much perfection. It is in fact very curious, in +wandering over any fine old Spanish house, to observe how little +provision appears to have been made in them architecturally for the +kitchen and its service. Ornament appears to have been much more general +in the public parts of the richest houses than good fare in the interior +and private parts. Nor was there any such movement towards excess in +this particular, as usually accompanies the passage of a wealthy and +powerful people from wealth and power, through laziness, to poverty and +weakness. + +So late as 1775, the year in which Philip Thicknesse[30] travelled +through part of Spain, and whilst it was yet a comparatively unbroken-up +country, domestic luxury had reached but a little way beyond the +satisfaction of the simplest wants of nature in the simplest way. "The +people of fashion in general," he says, "have no idea of serving their +tables with elegance, or eating delicately; but rather, in the style of +our forefathers, without spoon or fork, they use their own fingers, and +give drink from the glass of others; foul their napkins and cloaths +exceedingly, and are served at table by servants who are dirty, and +often very offensive. I was admitted, by accident, to a gentleman's +house, of large fortune, while they were at dinner; there were seven +persons at a round table, too small for five; two of the company were +visitors; yet neither their dinner was so good, nor their manner of +eating it so delicate, as may be seen in the kitchen of a London +tradesman. The dessert (in a country where fruit is so fine and so +plenty) was only a large dish of the seeds of pomegranates, which they +eat with wine and sugar. In truth, Sir, an Englishman who has been the +least accustomed to eat at genteel tables, is, of all other men, least +qualified to travel into other kingdoms, and particularly into Spain." + +[Illustration: PLATE 60 + +SEVILLE + +MDW 1869 A PEEP INTO AN ORDINARY PATIO] + + + + +PLATE LX. + +_SEVILLE._ + +A PEEP INTO AN ORDINARY PATIO. + + +IN several previous notices, I have described the uses of the Patios in +olden times, and on a large scale, and the degree to which they have +been made, as architectural contrivances, to fall in with popular +manners and customs. It remains to notice the extent to which the +Spaniards of to-day sympathise in this respect with their forefathers, +and how essential the Patio still is to the happiness of domestic life. +It is at once cool and airy, and may be made quite private or +semi-public at pleasure. With its iron gate to the street closed, and a +screen drawn across it, it becomes private, and with its door opened it +occupies in modern life exactly the position which the "Atrium" used to +occupy in ancient classical life. An awning, drawn across from side to +side of the Patio, answers to the Roman Velarium, closing the Impluvium, +and gives shade and softened light during the glare of mid-day, allowing +the court of the house to be used as the ordinary sitting-room of the +family. Theophile Gautier[31] gives a pretty picture of the facility +with which the Patio may be converted at night into the "Salon," in +which what answers to the Soiree of the French is usually given by the +Spaniards. "The Tertullia," he says, "is held in the Patio which is +surrounded by columns of alabaster, and ornamented with a fountain, the +basin of which is encircled with flowers and masses of foliage, on the +leaves of which the trickling drops fall in small showers. Six or eight +lights are suspended against the walls, chairs and sofas of straw or +cane furnish the arcades; guitars are laid about here and there, and the +piano occupies one angle and a whist-table another. The guests, on +entering, salute the master and mistress of the house, who never fail, +after the usual compliments, to offer a cup of chocolate, which may or +may not be refused, and a cigarette which is generally accepted. These +duties fulfilled, the visitor may attach himself to whichever group in +the corners of the Patio he may consider most attractive. The family and +the elderly guests play cards. The young gentlemen talk to the young +ladies, and in fact, if they are so minded while away the time in +innocent flirtation, or perhaps less innocent gossip and tittle-tattle." +The Patio thus becomes the stage on which the elegant senoritas display +their most winning fascinations, and "spin cobwebs to catch flies" in +the shape of "novios." + +It is principally in those cities in which classical and oriental +tradition is still strongest, such as Segovia, Toledo, Granada, and +Seville, that the use of the Patio, as the Romans and Moors used their +open air Cortiles, is chiefly affected. Our sketch was taken in Seville, +but hundreds of similar sketches might readily be taken there, or +elsewhere. There is nevertheless a special charm about these Seville +houses, in spite of their remorseless whitewash, which makes life in +them most pleasant. This has no doubt justified the old proverb, quoted +in German, Latin and Italian by Berckenmeyern[32] "Wen Gott lieb hat, +dem giebt er ein Haus in Sevilia." (To whom God loves he gives a house +in Seville). + +[Illustration: PLATE 61 + +CADIZ CATHEDRAL + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXI. + +_CADIZ._ + +INTERNAL VIEW OF THE CATHEDRAL. + + +SWINBURNE,[33] who visited Cadiz in January, 1775, and who certainly +possesses the merit (so far as I can find out) of being the first +Englishman who made any drawings from the remains of ancient +architecture in Spain, found the Cathedral of that city, "la nueva," +(intended to supersede the mean "la vieja," built in 1597,) in course of +construction, and the following is his description of what he then saw. +"On the shore stands the Cathedral, a work of great expense, but carried +on with so little vigour, that it is difficult to guess at the term of +years it will require to bring it to perfection; I think fifty have +already elapsed since the first stone was laid, and the roof is not yet +half finished. The vaults are executed with great solidity. The arches +that spring from the clustered pilasters to support the roof of the +church are very bold; the minute sculpture bestowed upon them seems +superfluous, as all the effect will be lost from their great height, and +from the shade that will be thrown upon them by the filling up of the +interstices. From the sea, the present top of the church resembles the +carcase of some huge monster cast upon its side, rearing its gigantic +blanched ribs high above the buildings of the city. The outward casings +are to be of white marble, the bars of the windows of bronze; but I fear +the work will be coarsely done, if one may draw inference from the +sample of a small chapel, where the squares are so loosely jointed and +ill fitted, that in a few years the facing will be quite spoilt. It is +unfair to prejudge a piece of architecture in such an imperfect state, +but I apprehend the style of this will be crowded and heavy." + +In spite of all Swinburne's forebodings the real effect of this +Cathedral is now, internally at least, vast and stately, although in too +florid a style as to detail to be quite satisfactory. The true cause of +much of the delay, culminating in total stoppage in 1769, of which +Swinburne complains, was the cupidity of certain Commissioners who +appropriated to themselves the funds (a tax on American imports) +allotted by the government for the work. To give a cover to their gross +dishonesty, they laid blame on the designs of the architect, Vicente +Acero,[34] which could not, as they averred, be completed. At last, in +1832, the scandal was wiped out by the zeal and liberality of Bishop +Domingo de Silos Moreus who caused the interior to be completed, and the +exterior partially so, mainly out of his privy purse. + +[Illustration: PLATE 62 + +MALAGA + +THE FOUNTAIN OF THE ALAMEDA + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXII. + +_MALAGA._ + +THE FOUNTAIN OF THE ALAMEDA. + + +IN almost every Spanish town there exists a feature, too often wanting, +under similar circumstances, in England, in the shape of a public walk, +or "paseo." In these popular airing places in the summer-heats the +inhabitants turn out, take exercise, meet and chat with one another, the +poor with the rich (by mutual consent) under the shade of green trees, +usually within compass of the scent of flowers, and almost invariably +within hearing of the pleasant trickle of some pretty fountain. Such +places, which, as their name imports, the Spaniards have inherited, with +almost all that makes life pleasant, from the Moors, are called +"Alamedas." In this particular Malaga is especially favoured, for not +only is her Alameda, which forms the principle Plaza of the city, cooled +by refreshing breezes from the sea, + + "La que bana dulce el mar + Entre Jazmin y Azahar," + +but it is adorned by one of the prettiest fountains in the world. It is +made of pure white marble, and of such exquisite workmanship that it +would betray its Italian origin at a glance, even if it did not possess +a history of its own which places the fact beyond a doubt. + +Ordered originally at Genoa by Charles V. for his Palace at Granada, it +was shipped, on its completion for conveyance thither, on board a +Spanish galleon.[35] On the voyage the vessel was captured by +Barbarossa, and recovered by Don Bernardino de Mendoza, General de +Galeras. Ford remarks that the costume (_a la_ fig leaf) of the nymphs +and Amorini which adorn it is somewhat too slight for Spanish ideas of +propriety, and O'Shea caps his observation by commenting on its perfect +suitability to the Malagan climate. + +[Illustration: PLATE 63 + +MALAGA + +RENAISSANCE HOUSE IN THE CALLE SANT' AUGUSTIN + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXIII. + +_MALAGA._ + +RENAISSANCE HOUSE IN THE CALLE SANT' AUGUSTIN. + + +NOT only is Malaga endowed with an "eternal summer" by its lovely +climate, there being actually no "winter of its discontent," but it has +also enjoyed historically a splendid and long summer of prosperity, its +present state being comparatively autumnal. This "golden age" existed +under the Moors for many centuries preceding the dreadful siege laid to +the city by the Catholic kings, which ended on the 18th of August, 1487. +It has never altogether recovered from the christianising influences +then brought to bear upon it, though the charms of its position and +climate prevented its being altogether deserted at any time. They indeed +produced an after-crop of splendour, in the shape of fine residences of +powerful nobility, enriched many of them by the spoils of the Moors, and +yet more by the silver of America and the great profits of the foreign +trade, to say nothing of the smuggling carried on in its port. Of such +our sketch presents a specimen, more Italian in its character than would +be likely to be met with in Spain, in any other locality than a "Port de +Mer." The great establishment of the Genoese merchants, the "Casa de los +Genoveses," may have exercised a powerful local influence upon the arts +and especially the architecture of Malaga, as that of our "Merchants of +the Steleyard" did upon those of London. + +In the distance is seen one of the cupola-covered towers of the vast +Cathedral--most promising and picturesque from a distance, but +unsatisfactory in its incompleteness, when visited by the +Ecclesiologist. + +[Illustration: PLATE 64 + +MALAGA + +OSPEDALE DE SANTO TOME + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXIV. + +_MALAGA._ + +OLD WINDOW OF THE OSPEDALE DE SANTO TOME. + + +THIS pretty window of, as I believe, the early part of the sixteenth +century is evidently of Mudejar design with little of the Moorish +element left in it, excepting the obvious Orientalism of the workman. +Take away the engrailed intrados of the arch, and the little dove-tailed +break in the line of the archivolt, and all that is Moorish in the +design would disappear; but still the particular mode of combining the +brick and tile work would be left to show the disinclination of the Moor +to quit or alter his old technical habits as an operative. + +This window is associated in my memory with some sad scenes of +suffering. It is situated, as it were, on the road to a sort of wicket +or buttery-hatch, at which aid is given daily to cripples out of the +funds of the great Hospital of Santo Tome. At an early hour these poor +creatures, the halt, maimed, diseased, and blind, take up their stations +against the wall, and gradually creep onwards towards the spot at which +the distribution takes place. The "Ay de mis" and "Por l'amor de Dios," +echo in a dismal strain, interrupted only by a few especially ferocious +oaths as one a little stronger or more active than the rest struggles +forwards to cheat the others of their turn. The whole scene would have +made an admirable subject for Callot's needle, Hurtado de Mendoza's pen, +or Van Obstal's chisel. Lazarillo de Tormes and his blind "Amo" sat +before me; and one could clearly recognise what it must have cost +noblemen, like D. Miguel de Manana[A] and his "cofrades" of the vast +Hospital of the "Caridad" at Seville (the great rival no doubt to the +Malagan Hospital), to carry on their works of mercy in the midst of a +dirt and squalor which should be seen to be realised. + +[Illustration: PLATE 65 + +MALAGA DOOR OF SANT' JAGO + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXV. + +_MALAGA._ + +KNOCKER OF THE MONASTERY OF SANT' JAGO. + + +TRAVELLERS in Spain rarely fail to observe and comment on the great +strength of ordinary entrance doors, the thick planks forming which are +frequently held together by iron bars, or plating, with ponderous bolts, +or nail-heads, often of very pretty design. Such doors have descended +apparently from Roman days, and the retention of the type, by Moor and +Christian down to the present day, has been regarded as an evidence of +the proverbially jealous temperament of the Spaniard. I think it bears a +much clearer testimony to the want of good police in the streets, and +the frequency of quarrels and rows, to say nothing of marauders and more +serious fighters in disastrous times. One is strengthened in this belief +by the inclination ever shown by the old Spaniards to have as few +external windows as possible on the ground floors of their houses, and +those few raised high above the pathway, and protected by close and +strong iron grilles and thick shutters. These may have been useful +restraints on the love-making propensities of the Spanish Lotharios; but +the difficulties they presented to pilferers and "Soldados de Fortuna," +when a little out of luck, were, perhaps, of even greater importance to +the householder. + +The portion of the door I have sketched, formed part of a solid defence +against a formidable class in Spain, bold in attack, and not easily cast +down even in retreat--the beggars. Much of the enormous sums given by +the devout to God in Catholic times, this class believed they had as +good right to scramble for as the monks; and it behoved the latter to +fortify themselves, as they never failed to do, pretty strongly against +the importunity of the former. No doubt the coronetted knocker of the +Monastery of Sant' Jago was intended to inspire the beggars with fitting +awe, and an intimation that it was not to be audaciously handled by +vulgarity. Some such scarecrow was certainly locally necessary, for I +well remember being driven away by clustering beggars no less than four +times before I could accomplish my very hasty sixty-fifth sketch. + +[Illustration: PLATE 66 + +GRANADA THE ALHAMBRA FROM THE ALBAYCIN + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXVI. + +_GRANADA._ + +REMAINS OF THE ALHAMBRA AS SEEN FROM THE ALBAYCIN. + + +NO one looking from the quarter of the city to which, after its conquest +by the Christians in 1480, the Moors who lingered behind the bulk of +their fellows, were relegated, (as the Jews by the Popes to the Ghetto +at Rome,) would be justified in supposing that the stern-looking and +dilapidated fortresses, and lines of walling of vast height and apparent +strength, which meet the eye, contained nearly complete specimens of the +loveliest and most elaborate system of ornamentation, both in form and +colour, which has ever existed. The position of the Alhambra is worthy +in every respect of the treasures of art it contains. It overlooks the +Vega, an extended plain, which in the days of the city's prosperity was +literally one vast garden, and even in the present day is, to most of +central Spain, pretty nearly what an oasis may be supposed to be to a +desert. + +On the extreme left in this sketch is seen the great mass of the "Torre +de Comares," which contains the celebrated Hall of the Ambassadors; next +to it on the right are the ancient buildings of the Patio de la Mezquita +or Mosque. Behind these, and further to the right, rises the great +rectangular mass of the Palace of Charles V. The flat space, in front +and on the right of the Palace, is known as the Plaza de los "Algibes" +(of the tanks) and the mass of towers and buildings beyond are those of +the Alcazaba, (the fortress) with, conspicuous on the extreme right, the +Torre de la Vela, (the Watch-Tower,) from which a constant look-out was +kept far and wide over the city to the west, and the far spreading Vega +to the west and south. On the horizon stretched the great range of +snow-clad mountains, the Sierra Nevada. + +The beauty of the view from this tower cannot be exceeded, and I never +shall forget the aspect of the scene upon one especially lovely +moonlight night. By such soft illumination, the desolation of which one +saw so much by day was passed over in the breadth of the great masses of +light and shade. As the moonlight caught the snow-clad peaks of the +Sierra Nevada and traced itself in the silver lines of the winding River +Genil, coming from the far off distance to the city beneath, and losing +itself in the thousands of twinkling lights of the suburbs in which its +silver threads seemed to get entangled and lost, everything was perfect; +and as one turned away towards the nearer mountain heights, and saw, +upon their hilly eastern slopes, the Generalife and the Alhambra, almost +close at hand, one felt inclined to forget the present in the past and +to think of ruin as perfection, and of death as life. + +By day the illusion was destroyed, the young Alhambra of the night faded +away, and in its place one saw all the seams and stains and wrinkles age +had left upon its hoary head and face, all the more painfully perhaps +from the efforts one recognise as having been made here and there, by +loving and anxious hands, to mend and palliate conspicuous decay. + +[Illustration: PLATE 67 + +GRANADA + +ENTRANCE TO THE BOSQUE DEL ALHAMBRA + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXVII. + +_GRANADA._ + +ENTRANCE TO THE BOSQUE DEL ALHAMBRA. + + +OUR sixty-seventh sketch illustrates the road by which the traveller +usually ascends from the City of Granada to the delights of the +Alhambra. On passing through the massive gateway, seen in the middle of +the sketch, he finds himself in a thickly-planted wood or "bosque," +cool, shady, refreshing, and beautiful. At several turns in the winding +road, fountains, abundantly supplied with crystal water, charm his eye +and ear at the same moment. With his pulse just quickened by the gradual +ascent, everything seems to conduce to ease of body, and to throw him +into a happy frame of mind for enjoying the feast of beauty which lies +in store for him. As a preparation for such a banquet, I know nothing +better calculated to insure a healthy digestion of the artistic +"pabulum" the Alhambra furnishes, than a thorough acquaintance with the +views of Owen Jones upon the subject of Moorish art generally. + +If in his noble work on the Alhambra he has described the system "no +work so fitted to illustrate a grammar of ornament as that in which +every ornament contains a grammar in itself. Every principle which we +can derive from the study of the ornamental art of any other people is +not only ever present here, but was by the Moors universally and truly +obeyed." + +"We find in the Alhambra the speaking art of the Egyptians, the natural +grace and refinement of the Greeks, the geometrical combinations of the +Romans, the Byzantines, and the Arabs. The ornament wanted but one +charm, which was the peculiar feature of the Egyptian ornament, +symbolism. This the religion of the Moors forbade; but the want was more +than supplied by the inscriptions, which, addressing themselves to the +eye by their outward beauty, at once excited the intellect by the +difficulties of deciphering their curious and complex involutions, and +delighted the imagination when read, by the beauty of the sentiments +they expressed and the music of their composition. To the artist and +those provided with minds to estimate the value of the beauty to which +they gave a life, they repeated _Look and Learn_." + +It is not, of course, from the study of the monuments of one period, or +of one locality, that any accurate idea is to be formed of the +Architecture of any races, whose national history and whose dominion +have extended for many centuries over many lands. Nor, indeed, is a just +appreciation of the artistic value of the system of Art, sectionally +studied, to be arrived at until the student has compared it with its +antecedents in its own and other localities. Such works, therefore, as +offer to the inquirer means for instituting studies of the nature +alluded to, acquire peculiar value, although necessarily incomplete for +sectional study. The student of Oriental Architecture, from this point +of view, has been laid under a debt of gratitude by M. Girault de +Prangey,[36] whose works enable him to obtain a fair idea of the +varieties of style practised by the Mahommedan races in Asia Minor, +Syria, Egypt, Spain, Sicily and Barbary. Through all these there +evidently runs a harmony of system, but not the less clearly have we to +recognize an endless variety of detail, and an incessantly changeful +development--reaching its climax certainly in the Alhambra at +Granada. + +[Illustration: PLATE 68 + +GRANADA. PUERTA DE JUSTICIA. + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXVIII. + +_GRANADA._ + +PUERTA DE JUSTICIA. + + +WENDING his way upwards through the beautiful "Bosque," it is on +arriving at the celebrated "Gate of Justice"[37] that the traveller +first finds himself face to face with the Moor, and his wise and +patriarchal habits, as well as his inherent love for the beautiful. +Within these venerable walls once sat the Monarch, as Solomon sat, to +administer justice to the poorest, as to the richest, of his subjects. +On the side shown to the outer world the archway wears the stern +features of the fortress; while on the inner side, the one shown in my +sketch, there are traces of a beauty and richness suitable to the Palace +to which it led. What is most remarkable architecturally about this +Gateway is, firstly, the ingenuity of its plan for resisting surprise in +attack; and, secondly, the beauty of the coloured tiles by which its +inside elevation is decorated. + +First, with respect to its plan. This, so far as the passage way from +gate to gate (carried between walls of great thickness and massive +construction) is concerned, assumes the form of two letters L placed in +contact with one another, thus, + + __ B + | __| + A , + +the gate of entry from without being at A, and the gate of exit at B. +The consequence is that no assailant entering from A can form any idea +of what preparations for resistance may exist in the interior of the +gateway. Neither can he gain anything by a rush, as the impetus of any +attack would be broken by the necessities of having to stop, turn round +and start in another direction for too short a distance, before having +to check and turn again, to acquire any momentum or "elan." Even after +fighting his way from gate to gate, the assailant would only find +himself in a narrow gallery between high walls and upper platforms +through which it would be most difficult to advance, exposed to missiles +from every direction. While attacking the outer gate and intermediate +obstacles, the besieger would, of course, be liable to the amenities of +molten lead, &c., from the upper chambers of the Gateway. + +Secondly, with respect to the beauty of the coloured tiles. These are +unlike, both in colour and texture, as well as I could see, any other +tiles existing in the Alhambra, or any left at Cordova, Seville or +Toledo. My impression is, that they may have been a present from +Damascus, Cairo, or from Persia proper. The peculiar deep granulated +blue which is conspicuous in them, I have only seen in fragments from +ancient Mosques, which have been brought from the East. The mode of +manufacture is not that either of the usual Moorish and Spanish +Azulejos, with raised outlines forming compartments for the separate +colours; nor is it like that of the Majorca tiles and dishes, and the +usual flat tiles of the Alhambra, which, with their fine white surfaces +for painting on, formed the basis of Majolica. It is, however, quite +like that of the half-encaustic, half-painted tiles of the early +Mahommedan buildings in India, Persia, and especially Arabia proper. + +A long inscription occurs in two lines over the inner gateway, towards +the exterior. The following is from the translation of the distinguished +Arabic student and historian, Don Pasqual de Gayangos. + +"This gate, called Babu-sh-shari'ah (the Gate of the Law)--may God +prosper through it the law of Islam, and He made this a lasting monument +of His glory--was built at the command of our Lord, the Commander of the +Moslems, the warlike and just Sultan Abu-l-walid Ibu Naor, (may God +remunerate his good deeds in the observance of religion, and accept of +his valorous performances in support of the faith). And it was closed +for the first time in the glorious month of the birth of our Prophet, in +the year 749. May the Almighty make this gate a protecting bulwark, and +write down its erection among the imperishable actions of the Just." + +[Illustration: PLATE 69 + +GRENADA. THE ALHAMBRA SALA DE EMBAJADORES + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXIX. + +_GRANADA.--THE ALHAMBRA._ + +SALA DE EMBAJADORES. + + +TO describe the progress of the visitor through the Courts and +apartments of the "Casa Real," as the Palace of the Alhambra is called, +would be to echo a more than thrice-told tale. For present purposes, it +may suffice to say, that in the Hall of the Ambassadors he reaches the +acme of Moorish magnificence. My sketch represents one of the nine +windows by which the hall is lighted on the level of the floor. The +space from the single arch, which is on the internal face of the +apartment, to the coupled arches which are on the external face of the +building, represents the thickness, no less than about eight feet, of +the wall of the Tower of Comares. The window I have chosen for +sketching, looks towards a Renaissance addition to the Alhambra, made by +Charles V. for the accommodation of his Queen. + +This elegant pavilion, from which is obtained a view of almost +unparallelled loveliness over the Vega, is known as the "Tocador de la +Reina," or, Boudoir of the Queen. + +The Hall of Ambassadors occupies the whole of the internal area on plan +of the Tower, and is an apartment thirty-seven feet square and +seventy-five feet high. It is entered from the Court of the "Blessing," +(as Mr. O'Shea considers the Patio de la Berkah to be more properly +called, than the Court of the Fish Pond,) or "de la Alberca," the title +by which it is usually known. Advancing from the Patio, the visitor +traverses the Sala. In the wall opposite to the door of entrance to the +Hall are three windows. In the central one appears to have been placed +the throne of the Sultan. In each of the walls, on the right and left of +the entrance, are three nearly-similar windows: the one I have selected +for representation being the middle one of the three in the wall on the +right upon entering. + +The dado which runs round the whole of the splendid Hall, is made of +Mosaic and Azulejos for a height of about four feet from the pavement; +and above it run bands with inscriptions and medallions. Over these, the +walls, covered with lace-like diapers in stucco, to a height of about +seven and twenty feet from the floor, run up to a second tier of +windows, five on a side, lighting the upper portion of the Hall. + +At a height of about forty feet, occurs a beautiful stalactite cornice +from which starts a noble dome, or "Artesonado" ceiling, most +ingeniously made in inlaid wood, and gorgeously decorated. This ceiling, +splendid as it is, occupies the place only of one yet more marvellous, +which fell down. The original ceiling, or rather hollow cone, was of the +same description as the existing stalactite, or pendentive, ceilings of +the Hall of "the Abencerrages," of "Justice," and of "the two Sisters;" +but larger and finer. Mr. Owen Jones has given us, in Plate VII of his +magnificent work, a long section, to a large scale, passing from the +window in which the throne of the Sultan was placed, through the Hall of +the Ambassadors with its arch of entrance, through the Sala de la Barca, +the splendid anteroom, as it were, to the Throne room, through the +Loggia, or Arcade, of the Patio of the Alberca, through the Patio +itself, and through the end Loggia of the Court with its exquisite +Pavilion on the first floor. From this section can be admirably +realised, what must have been the view, or "colpo d'occhio," of the +Sultan, as he sat upon his throne to receive foreign Ambassadors.[38] It +seems impossible to conceive of any position more imposing, or better +calculated to impress the imagination particularly of Eastern magnates. +Even now, bereft of so much that must once have added to its charm, the +view is one of exquisite and most romantic beauty. It is, indeed, a +sight to stir a poet's heart, although + + "Lonely and still are now thy marble halls, + Thou fair Alhambra! there the feast is o'er; + And with the murmur of thy fountain falls,[39] + Blend the wild tones of minstrelsy no more. + Hushed are the voices, that in years gone by, + Have mourn'd, exulted, menaced, through thy towers, + Within thy pillar'd courts the grass waves high, + And all uncultured bloom thy fairy bowers. + Unheeded there the flowering myrtle blows, + Through tall arcades unmark'd the sunbeam smiles, + And many a tint of soften'd brilliance throws + O'er fretted walls and shining peristyles."[40] + +[Illustration: PLATE 70 + +GRANADA. + +THE ALHAMBRA FROM THE HALL OF THE AMBASSADORS. + +IN STUCCO FULL SIZE. + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXX. + +_GRANADA.--THE ALHAMBRA._ + +STUCCO DETAIL FROM THE HALL OF THE AMBASSADORS. + + +IN describing the subject of the last sketch, our theme was the general +aspect of the "Sala de los Embajadores." I have chosen to let this +minute specimen of its detail follow the statement of its large +dimensions, in order the more forcibly to convey an idea of its +wonderful elaboration. The elegant morsel of stucco-work now presented +to the student has been actually traced from a portion of the +stucco-work of one of the window recesses immediately above the dado. It +affords an admirable illustration of two principles constantly followed +by the Moors in their treatment of decoration--viz., to preserve the +continuity of all scroll work from root to fully developed foliation--a +principle entirely disregarded in all previous ornamentation based upon +classical practice--and to care first for larger surfaces to satisfy the +eye with harmonious relations of those surfaces to one another, and to +the spaces they have to enrich, from a distance; and then to provide +minor fillings and intersections so as to supply adequate elaboration +for close inspection. In addition to the decorative effect produced by +variations in relief, still greater refinement was obtained by patterns +in colour, painted upon the surfaces of the modelled ornaments. Although +almost everywhere the colour has either been rubbed off, or rubbed into +confusion, the abrasion has affected for the most part only the pigment +and its albuminous vehicle, leaving the surface of the stucco bare, and +showing the outline of the delicate ornament which has been drawn in by +the pencil of the artist. + +It is on the nature of the stucco itself I think it may be well to offer +here a few remarks. It certainly appears to be harder, closer in +texture, tougher, and much less absorbent, than gypsum or plaster of +Paris, when set in the usual manner. Lime alone, as ordinarily slacked, +would not I believe give any such texture, even if it could be +manipulated into similar ornamental forms. I believe the Moorish Stucco +to be almost if not quite identical with the Indian "Chunam," and that +in its turn to be a substance produced much in the same way that the +fine Stucco of the Romans was ordinarily wrought by that people. In the +native treatment of all of these substances, I believe four +peculiarities to have been generally used. Firstly--to employ the finest +lime only. Secondly--to mix it with pounded earthen-ware. Thirdly--to +beat it thoroughly. Fourthly--to use saccharine substances to retard the +setting and keep the mass plastic under the tool. + +The present is scarcely a fitting occasion upon which to state in any +detail the grounds upon which I have been led to this conclusion, but I +have little doubt that any student will be struck by the identity of +practice of Roman, Indian, and Moor, who will refer to the practical +descriptions of the various modes of the formation of terraces given by +Vitruvius, by Captain Phipps, in "The Barrackmaster's Assistant,"[41] +and by John Windus, in his "Journey to Mequinez."[42] + +I have elsewhere noticed the command the descendants of the Moors seemed +to retain over all operations of plaster and lime work throughout Spain, +as evidenced by the beauty and elaboration of the Mudejar style in those +materials, long after they ceased to be the dominant race in the +localities in which they continued to practice their old technical +arts. + +[Illustration: PLATE 71 + +GRANADA. + +THE ALHAMBRA. FROM THE HALL OF THE AMBASSADORS. + +BLACK ON WHITE. + +FULL SIZE GLASS INLAY. + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXXI. + +_GRANADA.--THE ALHAMBRA._ + +DETAIL OF GLASS INLAY FROM THE HALL OF THE AMBASSADORS. + + +THIS little pattern which forms the centre, or eye--the point of +departure in fact--of an elaborate geometrical mosaic has been most +carefully traced and copied from the original, which yet remains in the +centre of the dado on the side of the window on the right of the +Sultan's throne in the Hall of the Ambassadors. It may thus be said to +occupy an especial post of honour and so to challenge, as it were, +curiosity and admiration. Both these a close inspection thoroughly +justifies, since in all the history of the manufacture of vitrified +substances I know nothing more curious and puzzling. The pattern is in +bluish-black on a white ground; and both ground and inlay are made +apparently in two separate pieces of glass, and in two only. The most +minute inspection shows no joint whatever on the surface of either +coloured material; at the same time it establishes the fact that the +ground has been made with the whole pattern sunk "en creux," and that +the inlay has been made in one piece--practically a specimen of glass +lace--and fixed into the cavity of the ground with a very fine +calcareous cement, made probably of lime and white of egg. To inlay +glass in glass involves little difficulty, if ground and inlay are as it +were fused together; but to produce a ground apparently in glass, and to +inlay it with so fine a pattern, both "au froid," is a perfect marvel in +vitreous manufacture. + +The only way in which I can imagine that such an effect could be +produced is as follows, but in offering any such explanation I desire to +do so with all due deference to practical glass-workers. I believe that +two metal-moulds were made, one with the ornament in relief, and the +other with the same ornament sunk in intaglio. From each mould, glass +reproductions having been made of about equal substances (so as to +contract equally in cooling), and, with the exception of a black film in +one case, of the same glass, the two reproductions were stuck together +firmly by the calcareous cement. The black glass in "cameo" would then +be encased within the white glass in "intaglio;" and the pattern would +of course be invisible, the two reproductions being firmly stuck +together face to face, making apparently one white glass tessera of +double the requisite thickness. The back of the cameo side would then +have to be ground away, probably at a lapidary's wheel, until the back +of the black pattern in cameo should be reached. At the same moment the +face of the white intaglio would be exposed; and the tessera, being +reduced to its proper thickness for insertion with the rest of the +adjoining glass mosaic, would be fit to permanently combine with it; +showing an elaborate black pattern held in by calcareous cement, on a +white face, exactly as it now appears. + +Any such resolution of a difficult technical problem exhibits the Moors +to us as excelling in two of their favourite Arts, viz., inlaying and +glass manufacture. + +For much of their knowledge of both of these arts there is no doubt +that the Moors were indebted to the Arabians. The Arabians were in their +turn inheritors from the Byzantine Greeks of many of the traditions of +manufacturing excellence once practised by the Romans. Amongst these +were, no doubt, almost every process of glass-working and mosaic.[43] +Considerable doubts exist as to the inheritance by the Greek of the +lower empire of the process of inlaying from the Romans, and to their +originality in adapting the process to their architecture. The first +building in which it appears to have been freely used by the Greeks was +the Mosque of Santa Sofia, built by Justinian. For that building he is +known to have invoked the assistance of Persian designers and +artificers; and from the divergence in the patterns of those inlays from +any patterns usual in Roman contemporary work, I am inclined to believe +that they represent the foreign element to which I have alluded. A most +interesting comparison may be made, by the student, of the patterns from +the Aya Sofia given in Salzenburg's great work, with those of the +principal of the Cairene Mosques drawn by Mr. James Wild and given in +the "Grammar of Ornament." + +[Illustration: PLATE 72 + +GRANADA + +THE ALHAMBRA + +HALL OF THE AMBASSADORS + +MOSAIC FULL SIZE + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXXII. + +_GRANADA.--THE ALHAMBRA._ + +MOSAIC FROM THE HALL OF THE AMBASSADORS. + + +IN the description of the last sketch I alluded to the sources whence +the Moors derived much of their knowledge of glass-making and +mosaic-working. In the specimen now given, the full size of the +original, on the opposite page, a considerable advance is shown upon +what was usual in the contemporary, "Opus Grecanicum," as executed, +either in Italy or in Greece itself. The advance is principally to be +seen in this particular, that whereas in the last mentioned work, every +complicated pattern is made up out of tesserae, or glass strips cut into +squares, oblongs, triangles, or other simple figures; in the Moorish +work, arbitrary shapes of considerable geometrical complexity are given +to each separate piece of mosaic. When these tesserae, so shaped, are +brought together, their combination immediately results in the formation +of perfect patterns, such as the one now illustrated. Tesserae of this +description were no doubt formed by squeezing plastic clay into metal +moulds, and almost perfect identity was obtained between the tesserae +obtained from the same mould. These, after firing, were then apparently +covered with coloured vitreous glazes by a subsequent operation. + +In illustration of the advantages possessed by the Moors over the +Greeks, in working such mosaics as the one I have sketched, it may be +noted, that while a Greek would have required one hundred and nineteen +separate pieces to make up what is shown, the Moor wanted only +forty-nine. Moreover, instead of having to chip every one of the one +hundred and nineteen pieces to a definite size and shape, and then to +place them slowly so as to ensure the truth of his angles of forty-five +and twenty-two and a half degrees, as the Greek or Italian had, the Moor +had only to place one of his forty-nine pieces with precision; and, +provided he never took any of the eleven patterns, of which his repeats +are composed, out of their right turn, his mosaic would work itself with +scarcely any other attention on his part. Another source of anxiety was +saved to him; viz., constant heedfulness as to the working of the +interlacement of his lines--_i. e._, their running, as it were, under +and over one another. The result, in this particular, is far clearer and +more effective in the Moorish, than according to the Greco-Italian +method; since, while in the former there are no joints which do not help +to define an interlacement, according to the latter, the joints +occurring on the line of mitre of every angle become confused with the +joints which express interlacement. A comparison of the Sicilian, with +the Alhambrese, geometrical mosaics, would show in a moment the +superiority of the last mentioned method. + +No people, except perhaps the Chinese, have ever equalled the Moors in +devising patterns of most complicated appearance, in which colours were, +as it were, counterchanged by combining tiles, or tesserae, of similar +geometrical forms, but made in different tints or tones. + +Beautiful examples are given in profusion in the works of Mr. Owen +Jones, M. Girault de Prangey, Herr Hessemer, M. Coste and many others. + +[Illustration: PLATE 73 + +THE ALHAMBRA + +LA SALA DE LAS DOS HERMANAS + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXXIII. + +_GRANADA.--THE ALHAMBRA._ + +NICHE IN LA SALA DE LAS DOS HERMANAS. + + +THAT the Moors themselves were fully conscious that in creating the +Alhambra they were creating types of beauty for all generations, would +be clearly manifest from the inscriptions of the Hall of the two +Sisters, (from which our illustration is taken), even if every other of +the hundreds of inscriptions the building contains in other apartments +were destroyed. + +"I am the garden, and every morning do I appear decked out in beauty. +Look attentively at my elegance, and thou wilt reap the benefit of a +commentary on decoration." + +"Indeed, we never saw a palace more lofty than this in its exterior, or +more brilliantly decorated in its interior; or having more extensive +apartments--markets they are, where those provided with money are paid +in beauty, and where the judge of elegance is perpetually sitting to +pronounce sentence." + +"Here is the wonderful cupola, at sight of whose beautiful proportions, +all other cupolas vanish and disappear." + +Such inscriptions are not all of them of this hyperbolic stamp, since +some of them serve to record the names of illustrious founders, and to +explain the uses of various parts of the structure. To an inscription of +this kind we are indebted for an accurate knowledge of the uses of such +niches as the one represented in my sketch. Many travellers and writers +had supposed that their purpose had been to hold the slippers of the +visitors, but this theory was entirely dispelled, when M. Pasqual de +Gayangos read the inscription of the left niche of the Hall de las dos +Hermanas. + +"Praise to God! With my ornaments and tiara[44] I surpass beauty itself, +nay the luminaries in the Zodiac out of envy descend to me. + +"The water vase within me, they say, is like a devout man standing +towards the Kiblah of the Mihrab,[45] ready to begin his prayers." + +The idea that these niches were used to hold water-bottles is further +strengthened, as Mr. Owen Jones has justly remarked, by the existence of +the mosaic linings amid the plaster work by which they were surrounded; +as well as by the white marble slabs which serve for their base or +floor. The wall and pier dados, which extend from these marble slabs to +the beautiful Azulejos floor, are all made in elegant mosaic. Above the +niche in the sketch appears the ingenious pendentive impost from which +spring the great arches carried by the piers, with the characteristic +ingrailed fringe work which was almost always retained even, as we see +at Seville, in the latest Renaissance Mudejar work. + +[Illustration: PLATE 74 + +MDW 1869 + +GRANADA + +THE ALHAMBRA SALA DEL TRIBUNAL + +BORDER FULL SIZE] + + + + +PLATE LXXIV. + +_GRANADA.--THE ALHAMBRA._ + +STUCCO DETAIL FROM THE SALA DEL TRIBUNAL. + + +THE correctness of this sketch, as to dimension at least, has been +ensured by the mode in which it was obtained, viz., by gently pressing a +piece of paper against the surface of the piece of ornament (so as to +obtain a slight impression of its outline,) then marking it faintly with +pencil, pressing it out again quite flat, and finishing it in ink on the +spot. It may be looked upon, therefore, as giving, as nearly as is +possible on a plane surface, an accurate transcript of the elegant +ornament from the Sala del Tribunal selected for illustration. My reason +for this selection was, chiefly because I desired to show the minute +scale and extreme delicacy of much of the decoration in relief with +which the walls of the principal apartments of the Alhambra are covered. +It was partly also because this particular specimen retained faint +tracing lines drawn, most likely with a silver or lead point, and a free +hand, upon the flat surfaces of certain parts of the ornament in relief. +These served as guide lines for the yet more delicate labour of the +painter, who carried the subdivision of parts, by means of the +application of contrasting colours and gilding, into yet more +microscopic superficial enrichment. + +As this is the last illustration I have to offer of the Alhambra, it may +be well to direct the reader's attention briefly to the general system +upon which such Art as the Moors practised, and most dearly loved, was +based. Those who would know "all about it," must give themselves +diligently to a study of all Owen Jones' works; from the ponderous +"Alhambra," with its magnificent illustrations, to the little guide to +the "Alhambra Courts of the Crystal Palace," not forgetting to test his +theory by his practice in the beautiful reproductions of Moorish Art he +has created for their edification at Sydenham. In the pages of the +smaller volume they will find the system epitomised simply and +delightfully in nine propositions under the following heads. + +First, to decorate construction, never to construct decoration. + +Second, to let all lines grow out of each other in gradual +undulations--always so as to conduce to repose. + +Third, to care first for general forms and then for harmonious +subdivisions and fillings. + +Fourth, to balance straight, inclined, and curved forms so as to produce +harmony and repose by contrast. + +Fifth, to let all lines flow out of a parent stem, traceable throughout +its course. + +Sixth, either radially (as in nature with the human hand or in a +chestnut leaf.). + +Seventh, or tangentially,--as stems from branches. + +Eighth, to avoid the simpler curves and use only those of a higher +order. + +Ninth, to treat all ornament conventionally, _i.e._, not in direct +imitation of Nature, but in a mode of imitation subordinated to the +architectural conditions of the surface or form to be ornamented. + +[Illustration: PLATE 75 + +GRANADA + +MDW 1869 + +CATHEDRAL FROM THE BACK OF THE HIGH ALTAR] + + + + +PLATE LXXV. + +_GRANADA._ + +VIEW OF THE CATHEDRAL FROM THE BACK OF THE HIGH ALTAR + + +IT is always interesting to watch the first rays of light which +dissipate clouds of darkness or prejudice; and this, by the aid of the +annals of the early printing press, we are enabled to do (with +comparative certainty as to chronology) in the case of the dawn of the +revival of classical architecture in every country of Europe except +Italy. In that favoured land, the sacred fire of Roman tradition was +never quite extinguished, and in its great cities the renascent flame +was already lambent, and gaining strength, before Sweynheim and Pannarz +started their celebrated press at Subiaco. + +The first edition of the ten books of Vitruvius printed by G. Herolt at +Rome, _circa_ 1486, was immediately followed by the edition of Florence, +under the editorship of Leon Baptista Alberti, bearing the imprint of +the previous year. At least two other editions were exhausted in Italy +before the close of the century, and succeeded by many more previous to +the middle, of the sixteenth century. + +Alberti's own admirable writings on Architecture and the other Fine Arts +moved all Italy, giving a thoroughly practical direction to the lessons +somewhat obscurely inculated by Vitruvius; whose writings, without +Alberti's comments, would have been of little practical use in countries +in which ample remains of classical art were not at hand for reference +and study. + +The first French edition of the text of Vitruvius is of 1523; the first +German is of 1543. The first French translation dates from 1547; the +first German from 1548, published at Nuremburg. It was "volgarizzato" in +Italy from 1521. + +The Latin text was translated into Spanish by Miguel de Urrea and +printed after his death at Alcala de Henares in 1587. Its publication +had however been long preceded in Spain by the digest of the views of +Vitruvius under the tide of "las Medidas del Romano o Vitruvio," +published by Diego de Sagredo in 1526. Sagredo had no doubt been +stimulated to such studies, (as Alberti had previously been) by his +admiration of the vestiges of Roman architectural greatness, still +abounding on the soil of his native land. + +What oral tradition could teach previous to the publication of these +texts in Spain, no doubt the architect of the Cathedral of Granada, +Diego de Siloe, had learnt from his father, Gil, the even more +celebrated Sculptor of Burgos; whose monuments to Don Juan II., his +Queen, Donna Isabel, and the Infante Don Alonso, and whose "Retablo" in +the Cartuja of Miraflores in the outskirts of that city, have never been +surpassed in tasteful elaboration.[46] From whatever source Diego de +Siloe may have obtained his knowledge, certain it is that he must share +with Alonso Covarrubbias, the honour of having been the earliest +revivers of classical architecture in Spain: not in its details only as +had been attempted by the early Plateresque architects, but in its +structural proportions and in its symmetrical arrangements of great +leading features. The following is the account of the construction of +this Cathedral given by Amirola.[47] + +"It was begun," he says, "on the 15th of March, 1529, and consists of +three naves, the principal of which terminates in the choir after the +Gothic manner. It is four hundred and twenty-five feet (Spanish) long, +and two hundred and forty-nine wide. The order is Corinthian, but +defective in its true proportions, since the principal nave is only +forty-five feet wide, its height is one hundred and twenty." It would +profit us but little to follow Amirola through his straight-laced +criticisms on a design the beauty of which he was unable to apprehend; +and it may be well to take a larger and juster view of its merits. The +following which, I heartily endorse, is the verdict of a far better +judge.[48] "Looking at its plan only, this is certainly one of the +finest churches in Europe. It would be difficult to point out any other +in which the central aisle leads up to the dome, so well proportioned to +its dimensions, and to the dignity of the high altar which stands under +it, or one where the side aisles have a purpose and a meaning so +perfectly appropriate to the situation, and where the centre aisle has +also its functions as perfectly marked out and so well understood. All +this being so, it is puzzling to know how it has been so neglected." + +My sketch has been taken from the "Ambulatory" at the back of, and +surrounding, the choir. Its dimensions, as will be at once apparent, are +enormous. The arches, which separate the choir from the ambulatory, and +through one of which in my sketch the high altar is seen, are of very +great interest. They form the earliest examples I have ever seen (out of +Italy) of artificial perspectives, "guocchi di prospettiva." The arches +next to the choir are narrower and lower than those next to the +ambulatory; the distance between the two, owing to the necessities of +supporting and distributing the weights of the vast cupola, being very +considerable. The two archways are connected by falling lines of impost +mouldings and converging lines of coffering. The consequence is that, as +appears in the sketch, the archways, which really occupy only about five +and twenty feet in depth, look at least double that dimension. + +[Illustration: PLATE 76 + +GRANADA + +THE REJA OF THE REYES CATOLICOS + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXXVI. + +_GRANADA._ + +THE REJA OF THE REYES CATOLICOS. + + +I WAS tempted to sketch this magnificent screen for four reasons:-- + +Firstly, because it is, I believe, entirely of iron, which most of the +Spanish Rejas are not. + +Secondly, because it is, I also believe, the earliest specimen of +anything like equal importance in Spain. + +Thirdly, because of its historical interest in enclosing the tombs of +"the Catholic Sovereigns" on the spot before which the greatness of +their lives had been achieved. + +Fourthly, because I considered it to be the best in design of all I saw. + +It is by no means the richest, but it appeared to me to be arranged upon +the justest principles. Its chief merits, as compared with many others, +I considered to be as follows:-- + +Firstly, its _transparency_. One of the most important qualities any +such screen should possess, is that of due subordination to the great +architectural features of the locality in which it is placed. Where +ornament is spread all over the surface of a screen, or where the main +lines wander about in capricious directions, the eye is arrested by the +metal work as a plane surface; and if not actually stopped by it, is at +least led off in wayward directions, and fails to pass beyond it. In +this case, the rectangularity of the whole gives great repose; the plain +vertical bars almost disappear; while the splendidly ornamented portions +of the screen seem as if suspended in mid air, and in no wise injure the +effect of the architecture,[49] or diminish the apparent space of the +locality they decorate. + +Secondly, its _stability_ without heaviness. The subdivision of the +whole surface into regular compartments allows of a concentration of +strength in the skeleton lines, and gives great constructional stiffness +without too much formality. + +Thirdly, its _propriety of design_. Its author has simply, as it were, +asserted the principle of "serve God and honour the King;" instead of, +as is usual, "look at me, and see what a fine fellow I am." At the +summit of his design he has represented the Crucifixion; immediately +beneath, the leading incidents of Gospel history, making conspicuous (in +compliment no doubt to the triumph of the Church in the entry into +Granada of his sovereigns), Christ's entry into Jerusalem. As the +central object, not much less than twenty feet square, he has grouped in +masterly style the full heraldic insignia of those whose remains are +deposited in the chapel beyond. The lower portion of his design has +evidently been intended simply to give stability to the upper part, and +to close the access to the magnificent marble and alabaster monuments +of Ferdinand and Isabella, and of Philip of Burgundy and "Juana la +Loca," without interfering with the facilities for seeing them of those +who might gain access to the Antechapel, but be refused it to the +Mausoleum itself. + +The name of the admirable artist, "el Maestre Bartholome," who wrought +this Reja in the year 1522, is inscribed upon it, near to the keyhole of +the great central gates. + +[Illustration: PLATE 77 + +GRANADA L'ARZOBISPADO + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXXVII. + +_GRANADA._ + +VIEW OF THE ARZOBISPADO. + + +A CAREFUL contrast of this stately old mansion in which, if not the +hand, at least the influence of the architect, Henrique de Egas, (son of +Anequin de Egas de Bruselas, so greatly patronized by the celebrated +Cardinal Mendoza,) may be clearly traced, with the great Palace of +Charles V., ascribed to the artist Machuca, (both at Granada,) may +afford a useful lesson to the architectural student. In the earliest of +the two monuments--the Arzobispado--a window of which I now offer a +slight sketch, the florid Plateresque style, as exemplified by the +celebrated Hospedal de la Santa Cruz, at Toledo, (Sketches 44, 45, 46) +is at once recalled to the memory. In the latest, we find a marked +sympathy with the symmetrical style of the then fashionable Italian +architects. The Circular Cortile of Vignola's masterpiece at Caprarola, +is exceeded in dimension, and indeed in dignity of style, by the vast +round Patio of the Palace of Charles V., with which it is probably +nearly contemporary. + +Such sober architecture, though enriched by the chisel of sculptors who, +like Berruguete, had been ardent admirers of Florentine and Roman +models, was the form of Plateresque which, intervening between the +first form of Renaissance, founded on French and Burgundian models, and +the austere Italian of Herrera, found special favour in the eyes of the +most judicious critics in Spain. + +How far the best designers of Spain, amongst whom must certainly be +reckoned Juan de Arfe y Villafane, acknowledged their dependence upon +the great Italian masters for all they considered most excellent in +style, may be gathered from the curious account of the development of +good art in his time[50] that he gives in his celebrated Treatise on +Sculpture and Architecture. After dwelling upon what he curiously enough +calls the "obra moderna," with which the great cathedrals of Spain had +been, as he considers, built, he observes, "This _barbarous work_, +having arrived at its end, its disuse having commenced in our times, +gave place to the ancient styles of the Greeks and Romans. Although this +style of work had been revived at an earlier period in Italy by the +diligence and study of Bramante, Master of the Works of St. Peter's at +Rome, Baldassare Perruzzi and Leon Baptista Alberti, celebrated +architects, it also began to flourish in Spain through the industry of +the excellent Alonso de Covarrubbias, Master of the Works of the +Cathedral at Toledo, and of the Royal Palace, father of the most famous +doctor, Don Diego Covarrubbias, President of the Supreme Council of his +Majesty and Bishop of Segovia, and of Diego Siloe, Master of the Works +of the Cathedral and Palace of Granada. These masters began to use this +kind of work in many places wherever they built, although always with +some admixture of the modern work (Gothic or early Plateresque) which +they could never entirely forget." + +[Illustration: PLATE 78 + +GUADALAXARA + +PALACE OF THE DUQUE DEL INFANTADO + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXXVIII. + +_GUADALAXARA._ + +PALACIO DE LOS DUQUES DEL INFANTADO. + + +THIS is unquestionably one of the most important of the Palaces of the +ancient nobility left in Spain, worthy of the renown of the Mendozas, +long Seigneurs of Guadalaxara. In spite of its present picturesque +aspect, however, architecturally speaking, it is a strange jumble of +incongruities; and offers but a ghost of the beauty it must have +possessed upon its first construction towards the end of the fifteenth +century from 1461 onwards. Splendour it must have possessed in +perfection at the date at which it excited warm admiration in the breast +of the captive sovereign, Francis I. of France, who was here +magnificently entertained by the then Duque del Infantado. The top story +with its remains of continuous arcading and balconies, the walls, the +splendid doorway, and above all the Patio, with the exception probably +of the top cornice and the Doric columns of the ground-floor arcade, all +belong to the original construction. These remains afford sufficient +indication of what has been destroyed to make way for Italian decoration +and barbarous repair, to enable the practised eye to see the whole as it +once existed; before a vulgar desire for novelty, and especially for +foreign novelty induced the desecration of the integrity of the design. +One might have fancied that every true Spaniard would have regarded this +palace almost as a holy place, from its having received the last breath +of the great Cardinal Mendoza--the "Rex tertius," whom Felipe Vigarny, +or some other dextrous sculptor, portrayed in the carvings of the +Cathedral at Granada,[51] riding with Ferdinand and Isabella, and +receiving the keys of the Alhambra from the hands of the unfortunate +"Boabdil el Chico." + +The interior of this Palace is fully as rich and remarkable as the +exterior. The Patio which is about eighty feet long by fifty-six wide, +(about two-thirds of the size of the court-yards of the Royal Exchange +and the India Office), is surrounded by arcades of two stories, each +about twenty feet in height. Both series of arches are of a Gothic and +fantastic form, with spandrels filled in on the lower story with lions, +and on the upper with winged griffins. Between each arch are columns, +surmounted with armorial bearings, eagles, and grouped finials. The +whole, if coarsely, is very spiritedly carved, and produces a stately +and simple, though rich effect. The saloons are large and lofty, with +remains of beautiful half Moorish ceilings, and much effective Italian +fresco decoration of good colour and enriched with harmonious Arabesque +ornament. + +The state of this once splendid structure is unfortunately as +dilapidated as the national finances. What more can or need be said? +Everything going to pieces for want of that "stitch in time," which +nowhere, and in nothing, in Spain, seems ever likely "to save nine." + +[Illustration: PLATE 79 + +GUADALAXARA SAN MIGUEL + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXXIX. + +_GUADALAXARA._ + +DOORWAY OF THE MONASTERY OF SAN MIGUEL. + + +IN and about Guadalaxara may be found many indications of the +traditional preservation, long after the expulsion of the Moors, not +only from New Castille, but from Spain generally as well, of their +excellence in the technical arts, amongst which brick-making, combining, +and laying were conspicuous. Hence, especially throughout the two +Castilles, Aragon, and Andalucia, the common method of using brick-work +is peculiarly Oriental and effective. The entrance doorway to the +Monastery of San Miguel, which forms the subject of our seventy-ninth +sketch, illustrates this mixture; as well it may, since traces are yet +to be found of the structure having been originally a mosque converted, +probably, shortly before the year 1500 to Christian uses. The round +instead of square buttresses, with conical terminations, the segmental +arch, with its ponderous archivolt, the great strength and almost +heaviness given by the regular rectangular setting out of the +woodwork--and a coarseness and yet spirit in the execution of carving, +are marked features of Aragonese style; the echoes of which may not +unfrequently be met with at Naples, especially in the entrance gateways +to many an old house. I well remember being puzzled by several of those +which I sketched there, and which appeared to me to differ from ordinary +contemporary Italian architecture in other localities. I subsequently +recognized similar features in Palermo, and elsewhere in Sicily. + +[Illustration: PLATE 80 + +GUADALAXARA CASA DEL DUQUE DE RIBAS + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXXX. + +_GUADALAXARA._ + +CASA DEL DUQUE DE RIBAS. + + +THE traveller who takes his seat for an hour or so before some old +portal of a Spanish provincial mansion, garnished with heraldic +insignia, proclaiming the rank, if not the dignity, of the possible +owner, can scarcely fail to be struck by the usual incongruity between +the assumption of the structure, and the modesty, not to say meanness, +of those who pass in and out of it generally at long intervals. The +sketcher's operations naturally, after a little while, attract the +attention of some few, and "their name is legion" throughout Spain, of +those who have nothing to do; or who, at any rate, do nothing, but +wander lazily but restlessly up and down to while away the time. After a +compliment or two, and probably a request that the spectators will not +stand exactly between the artist and the object he may be drawing, an +inquiry very generally follows as to "whose house that may be?" If the +answer extends beyond the usual "Quien sabe Caballero?" it may chance to +be "del Senor Duque," or "del Senor Marques," something or other, or at +any rate of a "Senor somebody," "somebody," "somebody." To the next +inquiry, as to where the Hidalgo, if he be such, may be? the usual +answer will be "Madrid" or "Paris," or at any rate the "chef-lieu" of +the Province. The next demand may likely enough be, "Who lives there +then, now?" If the answer is not the usual "No puedo decir a Usted," it +may possibly be, "El Senor Administrador," the Steward, or "Algunos +Pobres," or "Don Manoel, the shoemaker," or "Don Juan, the carpenter." + +Where the nobility live, if they are not all absentees, it seems very +difficult to find out; and hence it is that instead of ladies and +gentlemen, and liveried servants, who pass in and out of these grand +looking "portone," the sketcher usually sees only extremely picturesque +poverty. Sometimes this presents itself in the shape of a ragged girl or +two, carrying antique-shaped earthen water-jars, sometimes an old woman +with a heap of long-haired unkempt children sitting down to spin, or +reel off yarn, or lolling against the wall, distaff in hand; and +sometimes, possibly, two or three boys or young men assemble, who, after +smoking out some cigarrilos or stumps of cigars, coil themselves up on +the threshold, and go off into a comatose condition closely resembling +sleep. + +Such were my experiences whilst trying to gain some local information as +to the mansion of the very noble, the Duque de Ribas at Guadalaxara. + +[Illustration: PLATE 81 + +GUADALAXARA DOOR HANDLE + +CALLE DEL BARRIO NUEVO Nº 10 + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXXXI. + +_GUADALAXARA._ + +DOOR HANDLE FROM THE CALLE DEL BARRIO NUEVO. + + +THE outskirts of Guadalaxara are very picturesque, and the traveller who +wanders about in quest of beauty, old or new, cannot fail to be +rewarded; not only by glimpses of scenery, but by the discovery of many +quaint little fragments of art which have escaped the attention of the +many despoiling locusts--native as well as foreign--who have done their +best at different times to "devour the land." Of such, a specimen is +given in the "knowing" little knocker, or door-handle illustrated in my +eighty-first sketch. It is no doubt a joke on the part of some cunning +smith, of the last century, mindful of the still greater cunning of his +handicraft, traditions of which may have descended to him, from the days +when the armourers of Spain rivalled those of Milan and Augsburg. + +[Illustration: PLATE 82 + +SARAGOSSA + +PALACIO DELLA INFANTA + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXXXII. + +_SARAGOSSA._ + +VIEW OF THE PATIO OF THE PALACIO DE LA INFANTA. + + +PONZ speaks with great complacency of the sumptuousness of the houses of +Saragossa--particularly those with columns, (such as that of the Marques +de Monistol) and those the Patios of which are adorned with +sculptures--"such costly and sumptuous works," he says, "as no one +undertakes now a days." Amongst these he particularises the house which +forms the subject of the present sketch. Before his time it appears to +have belonged to the Citizen Gabriel Zaporta, "muy distinguido y rico," +as Ponz calls him. From him it was bought by the widow of a certain Don +Gabriel Franco. At the close of the last century it was the home of the +Infante Don Luis, (uncle of Charles IV. of Spain), a Cardinal and +Archbishop of Toledo! who married "La Vallabriga," earning exile to +Saragossa for his pains. She lived here with him, and procured for the +house its popular and best known name, la Casa de la Infanta. Their +eldest daughter was bestowed, as an Infanta of Spain, upon the +detestable Godoy--"Prince of Peace,"--the recognised lover of her first +cousin by marriage, the Queen, wife of Charles IV., thus crowning a +double mesalliance. + +"On the ground floor," says Ponz,[52] "of the Patio are twelve arches +supported on columns wrought with a thousand fancies, as are those also +of the first floor. On the lower floor of this house is a painter's +studio. Both floors are enriched with medallions representing kings, +fanciful foliage, and infinite labour in cornices, mouldings, &c." +Similar elaboration, now much defaced, is to be seen in the staircase +with vaulting, and handrail with medallions recalling those of the first +floor. + +Amongst the most important palaces, next to the house of Zaporta or de +la Infanta, and that of the Marques de Monistol, were those known as the +"Castel-Florit," which belonged in Ponz's time to the Count Aranda--and +another the property of the Duque de Hijar. The "Casa de Comercio" which +forms the subject of my eighty-fifth sketch was less important as to +quantity, but more important as to quality, than those last mentioned +appear to have been. As a general rule, the Saragossan houses appear +very large but coarsely treated as to detail, even in the richest, such +as those with showy windows behind the Seminario, in the Plazuela de San +Carlos. + +My sketch sufficiently shows the "base uses" to which the truly palatial +Casa de Zaporta, or de la Infanta, has "come at last." It is well that +as many as possible of the rising generation of art-students should see +it, for it is not likely that any of it will be left for their +children. + +[Illustration: PLATE 83 + +CASA DE LOS INFANTES ZARAGOZA + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXXXIII. + +_SARAGOSSA._ + +DETAIL OF THE ARCADING OF THE FIRST FLOOR OF THE CASA DE LA INFANTA. + + +THIS sketch gives to an enlarged scale some of the architectural +features represented in little in the preceding sketch. Many of the +arches which were once open in a beautiful arcading are now closed up in +lath and plaster; with a heartless indifference to everything else than +getting as much room as possible to let to the poor lodgers who swarm in +this once splendid Palace. The whitewash brush goes recklessly over any +surfaces with which it is brought into contact at the command of +sanitary inspectors, who enforce perfunctory cleansings from time to +time of at least the "outside of the platter." As I sat sketching and +"poking about" for some hours in this apparent "rabbit warren" of a +house, I could not but become conscious that the Arragonese had by no +means lost their old character for devotion, not to say bigotry. "Our +Lady of the pillar," the tutelary of Saragossa in spite of all alleged +pilferings from her shrine, seemed still at a premium in popular +estimation; and casts of her in the poorest plaster were multiplied even +in the poorest tenements. In fact, this seemed to be the very place for +meeting with the truly Spanish couple of the lower middle class, so well +sketched by the German Fischer in his travels at the close of the last +century. "I cannot conclude this letter," says he, "without saying a +word or two of my hosts. Both the man and his wife are originals not to +be met with but in Catholic countries; both bigots to excess, but each +in a different way. In the husband, this disposition has assumed a +silent and gloomy cast of character, while in his wife it bears all the +symptoms of tenderness. The husband has filled the whole house, and +especially his own apartment, with images of saints, resembling an +entire collection of the little Augsburg toys so well known in Germany. +In fulfilment of a vow, he mutters his prayers three times a day before +these idols, an occupation which daily employs two full hours. He also +imposes on himself very painful mortifications, talks very little, reads +gloomy books, and remains whole hours with his eyes shut, so that he is +on the high road to become either a madman or a saint. The wife's +fanaticism is much more social, and her pious imaginations bear the +stamp of the mildness and softness of her sex. She has got herself +received a "slave of the Holy Trinity" (esclava de la Santissima +Trinidad), of which she has obtained a certificate in form from her +confessor, and in consequence of which she is bound every day to +decorate a large picture with flowers and tapers, to repeat a certain +number of prayers before it, and to pay a certain sum weekly to her +confessor, an agent of the Trinity; yet all this does not seem to her +sufficient for salvation, and she has besides an image of the Holy +Virgin, which she very punctually supplies with all the necessary +habiliments, both for day and night, besides tapers, flowers and all +that can contribute to ornament the happy idol. + +"This devout esclava is a little woman very affable and complaisant, +whose religious sentiments do not at all interfere with other +terrestrial feelings, while her impassive husband seems to have arrived +at all the spirituality of the blessed." + +[Illustration: PLATE 84 + +SARAGOZA LA LONJA + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXXXIV. + +_SARAGOSSA._ + +EXTERIOR OF THE EXCHANGE. + + +THERE is something about the exterior of this fine building essentially +Florentine in style. The bold overhanging and crowning cornice, the +Ricardi-Palace kind of windows, the simplicity of the Mezzanine, and +indeed the introduction of a Mezzanine at all, associated with the +severity of the rectangular structure, massive in a noble simplicity, +rather recall the work of the grand masters of Tuscan Architecture at +the end of the fifteenth century, than any styles, Plateresque or +Greco-Roman, one recognises as peculiarly Spanish. + +The name of the architect appears to have been lost, but there is no +question as to the date of its erection, which is given by an +inscription which runs beneath a cornice in the interior, and states +that it was completed in "1551, reynando Donya Jona y Don Carlos su +hijo." + +The "Lonjas," or Exchanges, of Spain, constitute an important and +interesting class of buildings, dating, from mediaeval times in the most +commercial of the towns on the seaboard, and from the Renaissance period +in those of the interior. The term Lonja, originally only implied a +"long place" or platform, the sort of spot in a town on which merchants +would meet, as on "the flags" at Liverpool. In process of time the +Lonjas came to be covered in, and converted into handsome "Exchanges." +The earliest structure of this class is, or rather was, at Barcelona. +All the fine old building of 1383, Mr. Street tells us, has "been +completely destroyed, with the one exception of its grand Hall, which +still does service as of old. This consists of three naves, divided by +lofty and slender columns, which carry stilted semi-circular arches. The +ceiling is flat ... and the dimensions about one hundred feet by +seventy-five." The "Casa Lonja" of Valencia, which Mr. Street has also +fully illustrated[53] is one of the prettiest of the late Gothic +buildings in Spain. It was erected between 1482 and the close of the +fifteenth century. The next important Lonja in point of date was the +Saragossan of 1551. The last was that of Seville built by Herrera +between 1585 and 1598, and certainly one of his best works. It was +avowedly built in rivalry with Gresham's Royal Exchange--completed in +1571. + +To the interior of the fine building under notice I could not obtain +access, and have therefore to trust to Ponz's description of it. "It +forms," he says, "a splendid saloon with an internal double gallery of +Doric columns and arches, to the number of fifty." Within it are erected +an altar to, and statue of, the guardian angel, in fact the building had +its Lararium. Ponz mentions, further, many paintings. These appear no +longer to exist, since all I could learn by personal inquiry on the spot +was that the place, having long been used as a carpenter's shop and +warehouse was now absolutely empty and unused. I fear therefore that the +"Angelo Custode" has had too much to do, and has broken down under his +task. + +[Illustration: PLATE 85 + +SARAGOZA CASA DE COMERCIO + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXXXV. + +_SARAGOSSA._ + +PATIO OF THE CASA DE COMERCIO. + + +THIS house, originally a Gothic one, in some of its earliest details, +still acknowledges its allegiance to the noble family of the Torrellas, +its founders. Their arms, with a lion, and the three little towers which +pun heraldically upon their name, as charges, still exist upon a Gothic +escutcheon over one of the doorways. The house is locally stated, I know +not on what authority, to have been occupied, and altered by a company +of Genoese merchants, whence, no doubt, its popular name "de Comercio." +It is situated in the Calle de Sant' Jago, and is now the property of +the Marquis de Ayerve. + +Although retaining the usual Saragossan bracket-capitals and "Anillos," +in the shape of quasi bases and dies or pedestals united, the symmetry +of the plan and the regularity of the cinque-cento ornament and +Arabesque of the panels and pilasters certainly bear out the tradition +of the Genoese occupation and alteration of an original mediaeval +structure early in the sixteenth century. + +At that time, and for nearly a couple of centuries afterwards, the bulk +of the commercial transactions of Spain were administered by foreigners, +principally at first Italians, and subsequently Flemings and Frenchmen. +The expulsion of the Moors, the persecutions of the Jews, and the +pouring in of American silver opened up a splendid field in Spain, +during this period, for the trafficking talents of people endowed with +greater activity and commercial genius than the Spaniards themselves +possessed. Their function was to despise trade, and use, but detest, the +foreigners, whose aptitude for work supplied the wants engendered by one +of their besetting sins--laziness. "Ociedad, raiz de los vicios, y +sepulchro de las virtudes," as Marcos Obregon exclaims. "En quatro +cosas," he continues, "gasta la vida el ocioso, en dormir sin tiempo, en +comer sin sagon, en solicitar quietas, en murmurar de todos."[54] + +The following are the Countess d'Aulnois' comments on the effects of the +mixed jealousy and laziness of the Spaniards in her time--the latter +part of the seventeenth century. + +"All strangers," she says, "what services soever they may have done, the +Spaniards ought to fear them, they considering themselves and interests +only, in such a manner that the Italians and Flemings, that are this +king's subjects, are used no more favourably than if born under another +master. If they pretend to imployments, either at Court or in the +armies, they are told they are not natural Spaniards who engross all, as +well to keep up the glory of the nation, as out of diffidence of others, +whom they in a manner declare incapable of all trust because not born in +Spain; this country, nevertheless, abounds in strangers, but they are +only artificers and mercenaries invited by gain, and that meddle with +nothing but their peddling traffick. It is thought that there are above +forty thousand French in Madrid, who, wearing the Spanish habit, and +calling themselves Burgundinians, Walloons and Lorraines, keep up +commerce and manufacture; it concerns them to conceal their country, +for if it be discovered, they are obliged to pay a daily Pole-money of +about a penny to the town, and, any bad success happening to the +publick, appearing in the streets, are liable to a thousand insolencies, +even to blows. + +"They that know what number of strangers are in this town, report, that +would they undertake it, they might make themselves masters, and drive +out the Spaniards." + +[Illustration: PLATE 86 + +1869 MDW + +SARAGOSSA HOUSE OF THE MARQUIS OF MONISTOL] + + + + +PLATE LXXXVI. + +_SARAGOSSA._ + +PATIO OF THE HOUSE OF THE MARQUIS OF MONISTOL. + + +THE great dimensions of this house, and its massive strength and +solidity are no bad emblems of the old sturdiness, wealth, and pride of +the Aragonese nobility, whose Plateresque architecture "differed" as Mr. +O'Shea justly remarks, "in many points from its countertype the Seville +Moro-Italian, or strictly Andalusian style, applied to private +dwellings." Although apparently far ruder in execution than either of +the other two houses I sketched--that of the Infanta and that known as +de Comercio--in the same city, I have little doubt that this is of +considerably later date. The florid Spanish Plateresque of the former, +and the cinque-cento carving of the latter, took precedence of the more +regular Greco-Roman architecture aimed at by the architect of the house +now under notice. The retention of the bracket capital in lieu of either +arches or a lengthened column, and of the "anillo" or ring dividing the +shaft into two heights, illustrate the way in which local habits +interfered with the adoption of the rigid rules prescribed by the +writers on architecture, and practised by contemporary architects, of +the Herrera type. + +Considering the terrible "fortunes of war," to which Saragossa has been +exposed, and its frightful hand to hand fighting in the heart of the +city, it is only wonderful that so much of the past should still linger +within the lines of defence. If the ruinous sieges have left Saragossa +poorer than they found her, they certainly do not appear to have left +her weaker or less fierce. She struck me as being poorer and prouder +than any other city I visited in Spain. At the same time, both men and +women show a hardy activity and lively inclination to pugnacity I did +not see elsewhere. The only answer I got from a Madrileno to my question +as to "why the Saragossans did not work?" was, that "they preferred +fighting," adding that "while they would look hard at a peseta before +they would undertake even a trifling job for it, they would at any time +do a good day's fighting for one half of that coin." + +[Illustration: PLATE 87 + +SARAGOZA + +PLAZUELA ADUANA + +MDW 1869 + +BRONZE RENAISSANCE KNOCKER] + + + + +PLATE LXXXVII. + +_SARAGOSSA._ + +BRONZE RENAISSANCE KNOCKER OF A HOUSE IN THE PLAZUELA ADUANA. + + +THE quaint little animal, or rather conventionalised notion of an +animal, which I found in an out of the way "Plazuela," or "little +place," of Saragossa, doing duty as a knocker, furnishes a good +illustration of the ready dexterity in his craft of the old Spanish +smith and brazier. Of splendid bronze work (in spite of the intrinsic +value of the material which has no doubt led to the fusion of thousands +of treasures of Art all over the Peninsula) Spain yet possesses +invaluable treasures. Amongst these the most salient which occur to my +memory as single pieces, are the magnificent eleven gilt life-size +portrait statues of the greatest of the Spanish Royal Family from +Charles V. to Philip II. with which Pompeio Leoni decorated the +"Entierros Reales" of the Escorial--and the same sculptor's still finer +statues of the celebrated prime minister and favourite, the Duque de +Lerma, and his Duqueza, founders of the Convent of San Pablo, at +Valladolid, whence they have been transferred to the museum of that +city. As semi-architectural, semi-sculpturesque works in bronze, +occasionally with an admixture of iron upon a large scale, of course the +most important and abundant are the late Rejas, or metal screens, of +the great Spanish churches and cathedrals. Of these, ample notices are +given by both Ford and O'Shea--authorities, at once so excellent, and so +readily accessible, as to render unnecessary any more on my part than a +passing reference to them. + +Another form in which copper and bronze have been well and plentifully +used by the Spaniards is in the shape of coverings and strengthenings to +doors. In this guise the models have been mainly derived from the Moors +whose doors may generally, whether in wood or metal, be regarded as +perfection itself, for beauty, strength, and fitness for the +circumstances under which they have been used. The Spaniards (at Toledo +Cathedral for example) have produced many admirable doors in which, by +the judicious strengthening of the joiner's work with embossed and +occasionally perforated bronze plates, they have combined strength with +moderate substance, and the appearance of great richness with fairly +simple and not costly labour. + +[Illustration: PLATE 88 + +LERIDA SAN LORENZO. + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXXXVIII. + +_LERIDA._ + +TOWER OF THE CHURCH OF SAN LORENZO. + + +THE interest of every other building in Lerida altogether pales before +that of its noble, but now much desecrated Cathedral. Its ancient +glories may be well studied in Mr. Street's pages, but its present +humiliation can only be appreciated upon the spot. Toiling up from the +city through streets and open platforms on the hill-side, thronged with +soldiers, gipsies, beggars, and ragged boys innumerable, the traveller +at last arrives, not at a church, but at a monster-barrack. In lieu of a +sacristan he has to engage the services of a corporal as Cicerone, and +with the consent of, I am bound to say, an exceedingly polite Spanish +officer, he is free to examine, at his leisure, a Cathedral which, as +Mr. Street says, "is in itself worth the journey from England." Its +construction, and that of its splendid cloister, occupied almost the +whole of the thirteenth century, and the vastness and regularity of its +plan, its solid and perfect execution, and the just proportion of its +structural and ornamental details certainly, to my mind, justify the +praise bestowed upon them by that accomplished architect. + +It was sad to see such a building cut about by the insertion of floors +and partitions, and to hear the piquant, not to say ribald, jokes, +"refranes, seguidillas" and songs of the soldiers, echoing from vaulting +which once rang only with peals from the organ, and chants and hymns +from the priests and people. + +As my stay was bound to be short in Lerida, and I remembered that Mr. +Street had done full justice to the Cathedral, I looked elsewhere for a +subject for my note-book, and found it in the picturesque tower of the +Church of San Lorenzo, given by my eighty-eighth sketch. + +The legend runs that this Church, and that of San Juan, were originally +mosques; and that after the taking of the city from the Moors in 1149, +they were applied to Christian uses. I am inclined to think this +probable, although the detail is not anywhere Mahommedan, so far as the +darkness of the interior would allow me to form any opinion. The great +thickness of the walls, the mode of lighting, the form and proportions +of the entrance archways (shown in my sketch) and the materials and mode +of building of the base of the tower all seem to favour the supposition +of an original Moorish construction. The octagonal form of tower is a +favourite feature of this district, and occurs on a grand scale in the +old Cathedral. The upper portion, at least, of this tower of San +Lorenzo, may probably date from early in the fifteenth century. + +[Illustration: PLATE 89 + +BARCELONA + +OLD HOUSE CALLE DE SANTA LUCIA MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE LXXXIX. + +_BARCELONA._ + +OLD HOUSE IN THE CALLE DE SANTA LUCIA. + + +AS Prescott[55] observes, "The City of Barcelona, which originally gave +its name to the county of which it was the capital, was distinguished +from a very early period by ample municipal privileges. After the union +with Aragon in the twelfth century, the monarchs of the latter kingdom +extended towards it the same liberal legislation; so that by the +thirteenth, Barcelona had reached a degree of commercial prosperity +rivalling that of any of the Italian Republics. She divided with them +the lucrative commerce with Alexandria; and her port thronged with +foreigners from every nation, became a principal emporium in the +Mediterranean for the spices, drugs, perfumes, and other rich +commodities of the East, whence they were diffused over the interior of +Spain and the European Continent." + +Amongst its other merits was that of having established in 1401 the +first bank of Exchange and deposit in Europe--as well as of having +compiled the first written code amongst the Moderns of Maritime law. Her +great merchants were "magnificos" ennobled, not degraded as in Castile, +by connection with trade. + +The long civil war which began in 1462 and ended with the surrender of +the city to King Juan in 1472 was the first great check the city +received in its splendid career of prosperity. + +The house I have sketched was doubtless well adapted to such troublous +times, affording comparative safety on its lower floors and comparative +air and comfort as its occupants mounted higher and higher. It was +probably built shortly after the middle of the fifteenth century, +revealing here and there traces of a French mason's handicraft. It +follows the type, not of the merchant's, but of the cavalier's house. +Such towers, half residence, half fortress, were, especially in the +south of Europe, far more numerous than one may now be justified in +supposing; and the more frequently Italian street views in pictures and +illuminated manuscripts are studied, the more natural and usual appears +what we now fancy to be strange and rare. With the introduction of +Renaissance architecture, the character of these quasi-mediaeval +structures changed altogether. + +Navagiero[56] writing of the condition of Barcelona in 1524, says that +"the houses are good and commodious, built of stone and not of earth, as +are those of the rest of Catalogna. Although lying on the sea it has no +port, but an arsenal, in which many galleys were wont to be constructed, +now there are none. Bread and wine are scarce, but of every kind of +fruit there is abundance. The cause is said to be that the land is +stripped of men through the war with King John on account of his son Don +Carlos." + +Depopulated the city may have been, and its commerce may, no doubt, have +suffered in consequence, but the Catalonian character was energetic, and +the city still preserved much of its previously accumulated wealth. +Merchants too have a knack of prospering in troublous times, especially +those who thrive on profits upon imports. Hence we still find merchants' +houses of great comfort, although evidently constructed during the evil +days of Barcelona. Of one of these I furnish (in my ninety-sixth sketch) +a good example, offering an interesting theme for comparison with the +sketch now given. + +[Illustration: PLATE 90 + +CASA DE LA DIPUTACION + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XC. + +_BARCELONA._ + +PATIO OF THE CASA DE LA DIPUTACION. + + +WITHIN the ancient "Palacio de la Diputacion" is preserved the elaborate +late Gothic Chapel of St. George (protector of Catalonia) with a small +but highly wrought entrance from the arcading on the first floor of the +Patio de la Audiencia, represented in my sketch. This Patio is so called +because its arcades, in which habitually sit many lawyers, and saunter +many clients, lead to the Courts of Justice, in which causes are tried. +The existence of this Chapel has, for ages, given a sort of prescriptive +right to the public to invade the Patio, the Chapel, and its precincts, +upon St. George's day. Of the gay scene which then takes place +Parcerisa[57] has given an animated lithograph, showing the very +different aspect it then wears to any it habitually presents. + +Under any circumstances, however, its architecture, which is bold, even +to the verge of rashness, gives it a permanent interest. It is a subject +for wonder, that any structure in which the main supports of a heavy +third story appear so insignificant as do the little marble columns +(about two inches in diameter only) of the first floor of this Patio +should have existed from mediaeval days to our times. The truth, no +doubt, is that the main weight of the walls of the top story, and of the +roof, is carried by means of massive beams, acting as cantilevers, back +to the walls which form the internal faces of the arcades, a device not +quite maintaining that beautiful "lamp of truth" we are taught to look +for in all mediaeval designs. The users of the arcades have lately +procured the building up of many of the arches, leaving windows to light +the arcades. I have taken the liberty of omitting all of these but one, +as I was desirous of showing, not what the lawyers have done, but what +the original architects devised, no doubt as a "tour de force." + +I was told upon the spot that this building up of the arches, the +supports of which certainly appeared to my eye far too fragile for +beauty, was a matter not of choice but of necessity. + +[Illustration: PLATE 91 + +BARCELONA + +CASA DE LA DEPUTACION + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XCI. + +_BARCELONA._ + +DETAIL FROM THE CASA DE LA DIPUTACION. + + +IF Catalonian architecture differs from ordinary Spanish, and it is +quite manifest from my sketch that it does in detail, as I have already +shown that it does in system, the character of the Catalonian men and +women differs even more markedly from that of the Spanish. While one of +the latter in his laziness, as Marcos Obregon says, "ni come con gusto, +ni duerme con quietud, ni descansa con reposo," the former, on the +contrary, eat with appetite, sleep with tranquillity, and throw off +their cares healthily in rest. The latter, in fact, chew but scarcely +digest the bread of idleness, while the former thrive on that of +industry. As a natural consequence, there is no love lost between the +two races. The Castilian regards as mean and debasing the cultivation of +the very mechanical arts, excellence in which the Catalonian well knows +to be the source, not only of wealth, but of power and honour as well. +To Barcelona belongs the credit of having been one of the first cities +in the world, out of France, to establish gratuitous schools of design +in which poor youths were taught specially to design for manufactures. +Both Laborde and Whittaker[58] testify to the extent and excellence of +these schools at the end of the last century and beginning of the +present. The latter, writing in 1803, says, "we visited the Academy of +Arts instituted in the Palace of Commerce, and supported in the most +magnificent manner by the merchants of Barcelona. We were conducted +through a long suite of apartments, in which seven hundred boys were +employed in copying and designing; some of them, who display superior +talents, are sent to Rome, and to the Academy of St. Fernando at Madrid; +the others are employed in different ways by the merchants and +manufacturers. The rooms are large and commodious, and are furnished +with casts of celebrated statues and every proper apparatus. We observed +a few drawings of considerable merit, produced by the scholars; but the +grand picture before us of liberality and industry, amply rewarded our +visit; and was the more striking to us, for having of late been +continually accustomed to lament the traces of neglect and decay, so +visibly impressed on every similar institution in the impoverished +cities of Italy." + +[Illustration: PLATE 92 + +BARCELONA + +CASA DE LA DEPUTACION + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XCII. + +_BARCELONA._ + +WINDOW FROM THE CASA DE LA DIPUTACION. + + +THIS quaint and very late specimen of Gothic, although Ecclesiastical +enough in its sculpture, is purely domestic in its architecture. The +latter is in its character rather French or Burgundian than Spanish, +while the former was, I have little doubt, the work of a native of the +Peninsula. So far as I could see, no preparation had ever been made for +glazing this window, and the wooden shutters, both in their form and +mode of joinery, were rather Moorish than Spanish. No one can be +surprised at such symptoms of internationality, in works executed at a +sea-port like Barcelona--in which the Arts, like the prevalent language, +may have had a "lingua franca" of cosmopolitan freedom from prejudice. +In most of such Gothic work, and indeed in every kind of building in +Spain, however fantastic and not unfrequently over intricate the detail +may be, we scarcely ever observe any flimsiness, or want of due +substance in the constructional parts. In this matter the Spanish +architects merit, for attention to the erection of permanent structures +in all their styles, the praise bestowed by Mr. Street upon those mainly +who wrought in the mediaeval ones. Of those last, the Spanish critics, +who have been sometimes accused of overduly estimating what they call +Greco-Roman architecture, early showed what I regard as a fair +appreciation. Antonio Ponz, for instance, in the last century certainly +praised Berruguete, Covarrubbias, and even Herrera in very glowing +terms, but I know few writers who have better expressed an opinion as to +the fitness of the mediaeval styles, and especially the old Spanish +system of the sturdiest construction, for ecclesiastical purposes. + +Of this "Arquitectura Gotica," he says,[59] "nadie puede con razon +decir, que falta en la majestad y el decoro: al contrario parece +inventada para darselo a los Templos, y casas del Senor. Los mas +insignes Arquitectos han confessado su solidez, y han tenido mucho que +admirar en el capricho de sus adornos, y en la prolixidad con que estan +acabadas todas sus partes. Muchos paises de Europa se precian de sus +monumentos, y en Espana los hay magnificos, como son la Catedral de +Burgos, la de Sevilla, Valencia, y otras." + +[Illustration: PLATE 93 + +BARCELONA + +THE TOWN HALL + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XCIII. + +_BARCELONA._ + +DOORWAY IN THE TOWN HALL. + + +THE mission to Spain of the Count de Laborde on the part of the French +Government at the moment when Napoleon I. thought he had the whole +country within his grasp, was essentially economic in its object. Hence +his accounts of, and investigations into, its past, present and future +capabilities for trade are of far greater value than his topographical +and archaeological investigations, most of which are founded on the +writings of Ponz and other well known authorities. While Spain was at +the height of its prosperity, Seville and subsequently Cadiz commanded +the South American trade, but Barcelona remained as it had been from a +very early date, the great maritime means of communication and +interchange of commodities between Spain and the rest of Europe. The +business transactions carried on at its Lonja, or Bourse, and its Town +Hall were very extensive, and these buildings were of commensurate +importance. Our present sketch represents an internal doorway of the +last named building, and the cosmopolitan character of its architecture, +of probably the commencement of the sixteenth century, will be manifest +at a glance. The following is Laborde's[60] epitome of the history of +that great foreign trade of which Barcelona once shared with Valencia +and Almeria almost a complete monopoly. + +"The state of Spanish manufactures, in the fifteenth and sixteenth +century, will form a tolerably accurate clue to that of commerce at the +same period. The latter was then in a most flourishing condition, and +its ramifications extended to all parts of Europe. The cities of Medina +del Campo, Rio Seco, Burgos, Segovia, Toledo, Cuenca, Granada, Almeria, +Cordova, Jaen, Seville, Barcelona, Valencia, Ciudad Real, and Sant' +Jago, carried on a very extensive commerce. Almeria, Valencia and +Barcelona pushed their commercial concerns into Syria, Egypt, Barbary, +and the Archipelago. These cities were equally important, in a +mercantile view, with the Hanseatic towns. Barcelona had a very great +foreign trade; after the commencement of the fourteenth century; under +the Kings of Aragon it equipped and maintained armed ships for the +defence of the Catalonian coast and the protection of its trade. It +established factories in the extreme parts of Europe and Asia, as far as +the river Tanais; kept a consul, who represented the city, and who was +presented to Tamerlane the Great in the year 1397, when he returned in +triumph from his military expedition into Muscovy and the Kipzac, a +country lying east and west of the Caspian Sea and the river Volga. + +"Spain at that period had a large navy, and its shipping trade was +immense. If the account of Thome Cano in his 'Arte de construir Naves' +be admitted, it possessed a thousand merchant vessels at a time when +the European marine was far less extensive than it is at present." + +To return for a moment to the picturesque doorway I have sketched. Its +sculpture, which in execution is very good of its kind, is as completely +Renaissance in character as its architecture is still Gothic; it in fact +corresponds to Mudejar work, with this difference, that the admixture +with the Gothic in this case is Plateresque, while in the Mudejar work +it is Moorish. + +[Illustration: PLATE 94 + +BARCELONA + +KNOCKER TO OLD HOUSE CALLE SANTA LUCIA. + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XCIV. + +_BARCELONA._ + +KNOCKER OF AN OLD HOUSE IN THE CALLE SANTA LUCIA. + + +IN the vicinity of the old church of Sta. Lucia yet exist at Barcelona +several interesting stone houses of the fifteenth century. Upon the +doors of these are to be still found specimens of excellent iron work of +the same period. It is not however to be supposed that the Barcelonese +possessed any very special gifts in this line, since evidences of almost +equal dexterity are to be found scattered over the whole extent of the +Peninsula. In the north and south alike, the "Rejas," or vast screens, +sometimes of iron only, sometimes of brass and bronze, and sometimes of +mixed metals, are yet to be found of great importance and interest. The +most famous of the "Rejeros," as they were called, or makers of Rejas, +were Francesco de Salamanca who flourished in 1533; Christobal Andino of +1540; Francesco de Vilalpando of 1561; and Juan Bautista Celma of 1600. +Because these men's names have become "household words" amongst all +students of Spanish Art, it should not be forgotten that great men "to +fortune and to fame unknown" lived before those whose good deeds and +works encountered fitting record. By some of these were executed many of +the various admirable specimens of metal work commented upon in terms +of high praise by Ford, Street, O'Shea and other writers. The finest +metal worker who really startled his contemporaries by the beauty and +splendour of his workmanship, its "elaboracion y prolixedad," was the +celebrated Henrique de Arfe, gold and silversmith of Leon, founder of a +family which for several generations supplied artist-workmen in the +precious metals whose fame rests upon the same platform as that of +Cellini and Caradosso di Milano. His principal works were, according to +the account given to us of them by his grandson Juan, in the "Varia +Commensuracion," the custodias (or "ciboria" for holding the sanctified +wafer) of the Cathedrals of Leon, Cordova, Toledo, and Sahagun. Of +crosses, paxes, censers, pixes, feretories, candelabra, monstrances, +lamps, &c., he scattered specimens broadcast throughout Spain. In all of +them he showed, as his descendant declared, "El valor de su ingenio +raro, con mayor efecto que puede escribirse." + +As the present is the last occasion on which, in this volume at least, I +may have to speak of mediaeval metal work, and especially iron work, I +may be allowed to allude very briefly to the two principal tools by +which it was worked, viz.: the hammer and the pliers. In England and in +France the first was used in preference at least to the last; while in +Germany, Burgundy and the Low Countries, the last was specially +affected, and by its means foliage, both natural and conventional, was +rendered with great skill, facility and taste. The Spaniards, as is +proved by the present sketch, and that which follows it, were at an +early period dexterous in the use of both tools; uniting the massive +style engendered by the predominant use of the hammer with the more +florid and fanciful manner springing out of the light and convoluted +forms created by a more liberal use of the pliers. + +[Illustration: PLATE 95 + +BARCELONA KNOCKER TO OLD HOUSE IN THE CALLE SANTA LUCIA. + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XCV. + +_BARCELONA._ + +KNOCKER TO AN OLD HOUSE IN THE CALLE SANTA LUCIA. + + +IN this fanciful little object we meet with another illustration of the +spirit of humour as well as of dexterity in their craft, manifested in +abundance by the excellent old ironworkers of Spain. Still good as the +blacksmiths unquestionably were, the triumphs of Spanish metal working +were chiefly embodied in the precious metals. It is rather in the +cabinets of connoisseurs than in the churches of the country that +specimens should be sought for to justify the splendid reputation those +artist-workmen enjoyed in the palmy days of the Spanish Court and +Church. Everywhere the traveller comes now only upon exhausted +treasuries and emptied sacristies. Even since the days of Ford's +inimitable handbook the spoiler has been rampant, and of the custodias +and virus, the "blandones" and "portapaces" in which he delighted, so +far as my perquisitions extended, scarcely a vestige was to be met with. +Even since my sketches were made, the contents of the treasury of +"Nuestra Senora del Pilar" have been brought to the hammer; and the +pressure of other engagements alone prevented my return to Saragossa +empowered to secure a share of those artistic curiosities for our +National collection. + +No doubt many beautiful specimens of Gothic precious metal work once +adorned the principal mediaeval ecclesiastical structures of Spain, but +it was not till a later date that the most important and famous works, +other than those already noticed (by Henrique de Arfe,) were produced. A +brief notice of some of these from the pen of a contemporary may not be +altogether uninteresting. + +"Although Renaissance architecture was introduced in Spain in a fully +developed form before the middle of the sixteenth century, it was never +thoroughly understood and adopted, we are told by Juan de Arphe y +Villafane,[61] in ecclesiastical plate, 'until my father, Antonio de +Arfe, began to use it in the Custodia of Santiago in Galicia and in that +of Medina de Rioseco, and in the portable shrine of Leon.' + +"In all his work he evidenced an imperfect knowledge of good style, +introducing fanciful columns of irregular proportions according to his +own fancy. Juan Alvarez, who was a native of Salamanca, died in the +prime of his life in the service of Don Carlos of Austria. For this +reason he left no evidence of his rare talent in any public performance. +Alonso Beceril obtained reputation in his turn on account of having made +in his studio the Custodia of Cuenca. This work secured the approbation +of every artist in Spain who at that time was really learned in Art. +Juan de Orna was an excellent plate-worker in Burgos. Juan Rinz,[62] a +disciple of my grandfather, made the Custodias of Jaen, Baza, and that +of San Pablo of Seville. He was the first who used the lathe for +forming plate in Spain; he set the fashion for the principal pieces of +silver services for the table, and instructed workmen throughout +Andalusia. All the above artists, and others, began to give elegant +shapes to the principal objects made in silver and gold for the use of +the church, each one improving in symmetry and general excellence upon +the works of his predecessors until those types became established which +I am now about to describe." + +Juan de Arphe proceeds, after complimenting Philip II. on his majestic +works at the Escorial, to give the forms and proportions of the five +orders, and their application to every variety of silversmith's work, +recognised as suitable for employment in sacred offices and +ecclesiastical rites and ceremonies in his time. + +[Illustration: PLATE 96 + +BARCELONA. + +OLD HOUSE IN THE CALLE DE MONCARA. + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XCVI. + +_BARCELONA._ + +COURTYARD OF AN OLD HOUSE IN THE CALLE DE MONCARA. + + +IN noticing my ninety-first sketch I took occasion to comment on the +difference which existed between Spanish and Catalonian architecture, +and Spanish and Catalonian character. Both are pressed upon one's +attention in looking over a house which, like the one I have sketched in +the Calle de Moncara at Barcelona, appears to have been the comfortable +home of a well-to-do merchant, with roomy stores and warehouses on the +ground floor facing the entrance, domestic offices to the left, and +counting-house and living rooms on the first floor, with bedrooms above. +As is becoming in the house of one welcoming alike buyer and seller, we +find a total absence of that almost Asiatic privacy which the Spaniards +generally, and especially the Andalusians, appear in their homes to have +adopted from Moorish models. Under the old Counts of Barcelona the +architecture of the city had no doubt been mainly French. After the +annexation of the city to the crown of Aragon, the architecture became +tinctured with detail corresponding with much yet to be seen at +Saragossa and elsewhere in Aragon, and finally after the consolidation +of the whole monarchy by the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, and +the expulsion of the Moors, Barcelonese architecture fell under the +Plateresque revival and the subsequent Greco-Roman mania which affected +all Spain. The date of erection of the house of which I now give a +sketch, appears to have brought it under the second of these two sets of +conditions. In the twisted column, its cap and base, and some other +features, we may recognise the Aragonese style, while in the staircase +and some of the windows there is to be traced, I consider, a decided +French influence. + +In spite of legislative assimilation, the Catalonians have never been +able to cordially adopt a Spanish nationality. They have never warmly +responded to the caresses of their monarchs. Even as late as 1802, when +Charles IV. paid a visit to Barcelona with the infamous Godoy, and a +retinue like an army, and drew some eighty thousand strangers to the +city, a visitor in the following year records that "the Catalans felt a +generous pride in observing that no accident or quarrel occurred on that +occasion, and no life was lost, _notwithstanding the enmity subsisting +between them and the Spaniards_."[63] Whittaker further illustrates this +mutual jealousy and spiteful feeling by the following characteristic +anecdote:--"This enmity," he says, "is carried to such a height that +when it was proposed to strike a medal in honour of the King's visit, +the Academy of Arts of St. Fernando, at Madrid, were requested to +superintend the execution; but this body, actuated by a most illiberal +and unworthy spirit, endeavoured to excuse themselves, and made every +possible delay, which so enraged the Catalans, that they withdrew the +business from their hands, and trusted it to their own academy. The +medal was produced in a month, and remains a record rather of their +loyal zeal, than of their ability in the fine arts." + +[Illustration: PLATE 97 + +CALLE DE MONCARA. + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XCVII. + +_BARCELONA._ + +STAIRCASE OF AN OLD HOUSE IN THE CALLE DE MONCARA. + + +I AM induced to give this one little specimen of what the Spaniards call +"Churriguerismo" for these reasons: 1stly, because it is a prettier +example than usual of the style practised early in the eighteenth +century by the fashionable Jose Churriguerra--the William Kent of +Spanish architecture; 2ndly, because it affords a good specimen of the +comfortable house of a rich Barcelonese merchant of the last century; +and 3rdly, on account of the singular arrangement of the jointing of the +masonry, which converts the apparently double arch into very little else +than one tolerably stable spanning of the whole space. + +In describing my eighty-fifth sketch I alluded to the fact that the +trade of Spain gradually fell into the hands mainly of foreigners, and +especially at first of the Genoese, the difference between them and the +native Spanish merchant being that while the former were crafty, +industrious and dishonest, the latter were stupid and lazy, but (except +in the matter of smuggling) strictly honest. Plenty of witness is borne +by different writers to both facts. Quevedo, for instance, abounds in +hits at the Genoese and other Italians. "Give an Italian to the Devil," +he says in his "El Alguazil Endemoniado," "and the old gentleman won't +try to take him, for an Italian would take away the Devil himself."[64] +Elsewhere in the same satire he cautions his readers telling them that +they are bound to know "that in Spain the mysteries of the accounts of +the Genoese are disastrous for the millions that come from the Indies, +and that the cannons of their pens are batteries for purses. There are +no incomes which, if they once get into the strokes of their pens, and +the inkholders of their inkstands, escape without drowning."[65] + +The poco-curante honesty of the Spaniard on the other hand, (the +"poco-curanteeism" at least an inheritance from the East,) kept business +in his hands which, but for his reliability, ought according to every +recognised law of probability in trade, to have left him before it did. +Laborde, a writer by no means inclined to take too favourable a view of +the national character, confesses that "Spanish probity is proverbial, +and that it conspicuously shines in commercial relations. Good faith and +punctuality are generally prevalent among merchants, the instances of +deception, negligence, fraudulent dealing and non-fulfilment of +engagements, so general in the trading world, being unknown to and not +practised amongst them." As an illustration, Laborde mentions some +coined silver sent home in the year 1654, which was paid away by the +Spanish merchants, and was subsequently discovered to have been debased. +Not only were the Spanish merchants eager to make good the loss to those +who had dealt with them, but having discovered the culprit they obtained +his conviction, and the wretched man was publicly burnt alive. In spite +of honesty, however, trade and commerce will not thrive in any country +in which they are looked upon as degrading. A Catalonian might work, +since he was but half a Spaniard. A Castilian, however, was quite +willing to pay any one who would work for him, and as with his increase +of wealth his wants became more and more artificial and luxurious, the +swarms of foreigners he harboured about him to do his bidding, increased +to an unprecedented extent. The Countess D'Aulnois gives a capital +account of the state of things in this respect in her time (circa 1679). + +"Spain," she says,[66] "cannot well be without commerce with France, not +only on the frontiers of Biscai and Arragon, where it hath been almost +ever permitted, but through the whole country where it is prohibited, +for Provence hath ever had correspondencies in the kingdom of Valentia, +by its necessity of the others commodities; and for the same reason +Britaign, Normandy, and other parts on the ocean have continually sent +theirs to Cadiz and Bilbo. I speak not of corn and stuffs of all sorts +brought from that country, but even of ironwork and swords; by which it +appears a mistake to think that in these dayes the best come of Spain. +No more being now made at Toledo, few but forrain are used, unless a +very small quantity that come from Biscai, which are excessively dear. + +"It is, moreover, hard to imagine how much Spain suffers for want of +manufactures. So few artificers remain in its towns, that native +commodities are carried abroad to be wrought in forrain countries. Wools +and silks are transported raw, and being spun and weaved in England, +France, and Holland, return thither at dear rates. The land itself is +not tilled by the people it feeds. In seed time, harvest, and vintage, +husbandmen come from Bearn and other parts of France, who get a great +deal of money by sowing and reaping their corn, and dressing and cutting +their vines. Carpenters and masons are (for the most part) also +strangers, who will be paid treble what they can get in their own +country. In Madrid there is hardly a waterbearer that is not a +foreigner, such are also the greatest part of shoomakers and taylors, +and it is believed the third of these come only to get a little money +and afterwards return home; but none thrive so much as architects, +masons, and carpenters. Almost every house hath wooden windows (here +being no glass), and a balcony jutting into the street." + +[Illustration: PLATE 98 + +GERONA OLD HOUSE NEAR THE ESTRELLA DE ORO. + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XCVIII. + +_GERONA._ + +OLD HOUSE NEAR THE ESTRELLA DE ORO. + + +IF my last sketch illustrated the regular rich merchant's house of the +eighteenth century--symbol of peace and plenty, police and +protection--the kind of residence I now submit to the reader's attention +is cast in quite a different key. It is essentially a fighter's house, +the only kind of structure in which (before the use of gunpowder) a +family could hold its own for months of foreign siege or protracted +street fighting. Gerona has always been, as we shall have occasion to +recognize in examining its fine old walls, almost a frontier city, +struggled for repeatedly by Christian and by Moor. The house I have +sketched is one of the earliest and most complete of its class I have +ever seen, the lower half alone having been materially altered from its +original construction. It dates in all probability from the middle of +the twelfth century, and yet stands strong and stalwart in a quarter of +the city in which very little of anything not comparatively of yesterday +meets the wandering visitor's eye. On comparing this sketch with that +from a house at Barcelona (No. 96) erected at least three hundred years +later, it will be found that the type furnished by the earliest in date +had changed but little in the interval. Hence we may fairly infer that +the conditions of insecurity affecting domestic life had scarcely varied +in Catalonia during the whole of that term. In fact, it was not until +the invention of printing spread abroad the elements of education, and +brought about changes in social systems, that men began to dream of +peace and security ensured by other preservatives from danger than heavy +armour and fortress-like houses. + +[Illustration: PLATE 99 + +GERONA. UPPER PART OF OLD HOUSE. NEAR SAINT FELIX + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE XCIX. + +_GERONA._ + +UPPER PART OF OLD HOUSE AND SPIRE OF THE CHURCH OF SAN FELIU. + + +THE west front of the Cathedral at Gerona stands at the top of a noble +flight of eighty-six steps, and these ascended, platforms are reached on +the west and south of the splendid pile from which fine views over the +city and its environs are obtained. The sketch now under notice was +taken from the southern platform, the wall enclosing which upon the west +cuts off something like thirty feet in height of the fine old house +which forms the principal object in the sketch. Its uppermost story, +with its continuous arcade, has a symmetrical and agreeable effect, and +appears to have been the only portion of the building really suitable +for habitation according to modern views as to the value of abundant +light and air. On the right is seen the cathedral well, the waters of +which have no doubt alike served for the bodily and spiritual ablutions +of Mahommedan and Christian, since cathedral, mosque, and then again +cathedral, have existed in turn upon the same site from the days of +Charlemagne to the present time. During the Moorish occupation in the +eighth century the Christians were permitted to worship in the original +church of San Feliu (Felix) the truncated spire of the successor to +which appears in my sketch between the old house, and the south-west +angle of the cathedral, shown on the extreme right. The present church, +dedicated to San Feliu, dates probably from the early part of the +fourteenth century. Its history has been clearly traced by Mr. Street +from a comparison of the building with the particulars given and +documents quoted in the "Espana Sagrada." "The steeple is said to have +been finished in 1392. Pedro Zacoma having acted as architect as late as +A.D. 1376." It was struck by lightning in the year 1581, and has +remained ever since shorn of its fair proportions, as we now see it. + +San Feliu, as he is popularly called, was an early Spanish Christian, +deacon to San Narciso, the Martyr, Protector and "Generalissimo" of the +See of Gerona. + +[Illustration: PLATE 100 + +GERONA OLD WALLS NEAR SAN PEDRO + +MDW 1869] + + + + +PLATE C. + +_GERONA._ + +OLD WALLS NEAR THE MONASTERY OF SAN PEDRO. + + +FROM the date at least on which Charlemagne captured Gerona from the +Moors, it has been a victim to the horrors of war; manned through all +history, and under every circumstance of siege and occupation, by men +and women of the sternest courage and determination it has been held +with the utmost tenacity, as really even more than Figueras (the actual +frontier town), the key to the easiest line of advance from France into +Spain. Hence the strength and interest of its fine old walls, which in +spite of every ancient and modern vicissitude, still retain more curious +features of middle age defence than, to the best of my belief, any other +city of Spain, with the exception of Avila. As will be seen from my +sketch, the apse of the fine old Romanesque church of San Pedro, which +actually forms a bulwark, has been raised so as to bring it into +practical fighting order; and the covered galleries for marksmen, with +bow and cross bow, matchlock and firelock, still extend from it to the +north and to the south in easily to be recognised, and still fairly +complete, galleries of well-sheltered communication. The present aspect +of the north of Gerona forms a fair pendant to the description Charles +Didier gives of its sister fortress to the side of France, Figueras. He +says, "Tout a un air d'abandon et de desolation; les casernes sont +magnifiques, mais desertes; les casemates spacieuses, mais vides; les +longues herbes de la solitude croissent partout, et la seule partie des +batiments qui soit aujourd'hui de premiere necessite, l'infirmerie, +n'est point terminee; les pierres a moitie taillees jonchent le sol et +sont couvertes de mousse. J'errai longtemps seul dans ce silencieux +desert sans rencontrer personne; de loin en loin seulement, j'apercevais +quelque sentinelle perdue a la pointe d'une demi-lune et nonchalamment +appuyee contre les canons et les mortiers; de gros rats rongeaient en +paix les affuts; ils se sont si bien empares du lieu, que mon approche +les derangeait a peine; je n'avais pas fait trois pas, qu'ils se +remettaient a l'oeuvre. Voila sous quels traits l'Espagne apparait au +voyageur qui vient de France, triste et frappante image d'une chute sans +exemple et d'une misere sans terme."[67] + +One would have preferred receiving from any other than a Frenchman so +dreary a picture of the desolation mainly wrought by Frenchmen. +Returning to Gerona, to which Didier's description applies (as I have +already stated) nearly as well as to Figueras, in sight of which he may +have written it, we shall find Mr. Street no less strongly impressed +than I was with what Spain owes to France in the matter. "All this havoc +and ruin is owing," he says, "like so much that one sees in Spain, to +the action of the French troops during the Peninsular War." It is +however but just to the French to add that the Spaniards are not, like +them, endowed with wonderful recuperative energy. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Von P. L. Berckenmeyern. Hamburg, 1731. + +[2] "The Frenchman like an eagle. The German like a bear. The Italian +like a fox. The Spaniard like an elephant. The Englishman like a lion." + +[3] Waring (John Burley) Architectural, Sculptural, and Picturesque +Studies of Burgos and its neighbourhood. Folio. London. 1851. + +[4] Examples of Architectural Art in Italy and Spain. Folio. London. +1850. + +[5] "Viaggio in Spagna," quoted by O'Shea, page 498. + +[6] Examples of Ornamental Heraldry of the sixteenth century. London, +1867. Privately printed. + +[7] Given at length under the No. XXXV in the Appendix to the First +Volume of the "Noticias de los Arquitectos y Architectura de Espana, +&c.," por Senor D. Eugenio Llaguno y Amirola, &c. Madrid, 1829. + +[8] Carefully illustrated geometrically in the "Monumentos +Arquitectonicos." Madrid. Folio. + +[9] See: "Historia de las ordenes Militares de S. Iago," por F. Caro de +Torres. Madrid, 1629. Folio. + +[10] O'Shea. Page 236. + +[11] Ingenious and diverting letters of "A Lady's Travels into Spain," +London, 1720, Vol. I, page 308. + +[12] See Colmenar's description of the condition of the University in +1715. + +[13] London 1771, Vol. II., page 24. + +[14] There is much in this very town of Avila in the beautiful old +church of San Vicente. + +[15] Catalogo de la Real Armeria--siendo Director General, &c.--el S. D. +Jose Maria Marchesi--Madrid, 1849, pages 188-89. + +[16] Les Delices de l'Espagne et du Portugal--Leide chez Pierre van der +Aa, 1706. + +[17] See the true and topographical views given in the above work, and +the artistic and considerably embellished one by David Roberts in +Jennings' Landscape Annual for 1837. + +[18] "Documentos," Vol. I. of the "Noticias" Appendix No. XXXVIII. + +[19] Printed at Alcala in 1514-15 in 6 vols. folio. + +[20] Espana Artistica y monumental de Villa Amil y Escosura, Vol. I. +page 82. + +[21] Tome I., page 222. Bruxelles, 1837. + +[22] The greater part of the above facts are verified by the inscription +which was placed upon the bridge by Alonzo the Wise, in 1252, and the +original of which is given by Cean Bermudez in his "Documentos" Vol. I. +Number XXIV. + +[23] Noticias de los Arquitectos, &c. Par Amirola y Bermudez, Madrid, +1829. Vol. I. page 41. + +[24] Noticias &c. Vol. I. page 79. + +[25] A Journey to Mequinez. London, Jacob Tonson, 1725. + +[26] Probably a son of the great Henrique de Egas, who died in 1534. + +[27] O'Shea states (page 410) that the Infante Don Fernando, uncle of +Juan II., lodged in it in 1407. + +[28] In the Street of the Abbots, all have _uncles_ none _fathers_. + +[29] The Cathedral Canons have no _sons_, those they keep at home are +_little nephews_. + +[30] "A Year's Journey through France and Part of Spain," by Philip +Thicknesse. Bath, 1777. Vol. I. pages 260-1. + +[31] In his amusing "Tra los Montes." Bruxelles, 1843. Vol. II. page 44. + +[32] Neu-vermehrter Curieuser Antiquarius. Hamburgh. 1731. + +[33] Travels through Spain in the year 1775 and 1776, in which several +monuments of Roman and Moorish architecture are illustrated by accurate +drawings taken on the spot by Henry Swinburne, Esq. London. 4to. 1779. + +[34] O'Shea adds the name of Cayon to that of Acero, describing the two +as descending from the Salamanca school, founded by Churriguera and +Tome. + +[35] There is a little discrepancy between Ford's and O'Shea's accounts, +the former says that it was given by the Republic of Genoa to Charles +V., the latter gives the facts as I have stated them. + +[A] Miguel Manara Vicentelo de Leca (1627-1679). Note of etext +transcriber. + +[36] See, especially for Spain, his "Monuments Arabes et Moresques de +Cordoue, Seville et Grenade." Paris, 1832-3, and its +continuation--"Monuments Arabes d'Egypte de Syrie et d'Asie Mineure," +1842-5, Paris. The above are essentially pictorial works, but in his +"Essai sur l'Architecture des Arabes et des Maures," &c., Paris, 1841, +he has discussed the whole subject historically with much ability. + +[37] Plan section and elevation of the outer side of this Gateway, to a +large scale, will be found on Plate II. of Owen Jones's great work on +the Alhambra. I sketched the interior of this Gateway, mainly because +that was the only part of it which he had not given. + +[38] A pretty coloured view from this very point will be found in M. +Girault de Prangey's "Choix d'Ornements moresques de l'Alhambra," Paris, +1842. Plate No. 3. + +[39] An alabaster fountain probably occupied the centre of the Sala de +Embajadores. + +[40] It is but just to Senor Contreras to remark that the Poet's picture +was sketched before the date of his admirable conservatorship. He is a +true artist, and has done wonders in the way of restoration, completing +and as little as possible interfering with the marvellous picturesque +character of the noble old Palace. + +[41] Calcutta, 1821. + +[42] "A Journey to Mequinez, the residence of the present Emperor of Fez +and Morocco, on the occasion of Commodore Stewart's Embassy thither for +the redemption of the British Captives in the year 1711." London, Jacob +Tonson. 1725. A very interesting old book, the descriptions in which +carry the mind forcibly back to the Moorish occupation of Spain. + +[43] For full information on the Glass of the Romans, the +Byzantine-Greeks, and the Arabs, of Damascus especially, see Mr. +Augustus Franks' account in Mr. J. B. Waring's beautiful work on the +Manchester Exhibition, Mr. Alexander Nesbitt's "Historical Notice" +Introductory to the Catalogue of Mr. Felix Slade's collection, M. +Bontemps' "Guide du Verrier," and M. Labarte's "Histoire des Arts +Industriels au moyen-age et a l'Epoque de la Renaissance." + +[44] Of course alluding to the ceiling, which is even more beautiful in +the same style, than that of the Hall of the Abencerrages, which, my +colleague, Mr. Owen Jones so perfectly reproduced in the Crystal Palace +at Sydenham. + +[45] "The Kiblah is the point in the horizon towards which Mahommedans +turn in their prayers marking the place where Mecca stands. The Mihrab +is the enclosure before the Kiblah." + +[46] See Mr. J. B. Waring's masterly sketches of the details of these +works of art. + +[47] Who also states that in his time the drawings of the design by +Diego Siloe were yet extant, "Noticias de los Arquitectos y Arquitectura +de Espana." Madrid. 1829. Vol. I. page 199. + +[48] "History of the Modern Styles of Architecture," by James Fergusson. +London. 1862. page 135. + +[49] Mr. Street in referring to the usual practice in good mediaeval iron +screens observes that in such "the ornament is reserved for open +traceried crestings, with bent and sharply cut crockets, for traceried +rails, and for the locks and fastenings." He mentions a very fine iron +screen, thirty feet high, as existing at Pamplona, the general design of +which seems to have a good deal in common with that of the "Reja de los +Reyes" at Granada. It appears, however, to be of earlier date, and +consequently more decidedly Gothic in character. + +[50] "Varia Commensuracion." Sixth Edition, pages 221-222. + +[51] Casts of these sculptures I caused to be placed in the surbase of +the Renaissance Court of the Crystal Palace. + +[52] Viage de Espana. Vol. XV. page 79. + +[53] "Gothic Architecture in Spain," page 270. + +[54] "Marcos Obregon por el Maestro Vicente Espinel." Madrid. 1804. +Pages 40-41. (note of etext transcriber: sagon should read razon.) + +[55] "History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic." New +York. 1845. Page cxi. + +[56] Navagiero--"Il Viaggio fatto in Spagna." Venice. 1563. Page 3. + +[57] "Recuerdos y Bellezas de Espana," por F. J. Parcerisa escrita y +documentada, por P. Piferrer y J. Pi y Margall. Cataluna. Tome II., page +222. + +[58] "Travels through Spain and Part of Portugal." Sherwood Collection. +London, 1818, page 281. + +[59] Ponz, Antonio, "Viage de Espana." Third Edition. Madrid. 1787. Vol. +I. page 54. + +[60] "A View of Spain." Translated from the French of Alexandre de +Laborde. London, 1809. Vol. IV., pp. 371-3. + +[61] Even better known as "El Vandolino." + +[62] "Varia Commensuracion para la escultura y Arquitectura, sexta +impresion." Madrid, 1773. Page 222. + +[63] "Travels through Spain and Part of Portugal," by the Rev. G. D. +Whittaker in 1803. Sherwood's Collection, London, 1813, page 279. + +[64] "Days al Diablo un Italiano, y no le toma el Diablo, por que ay +Italiano que tomara al Diablo." + +[65] "Y haveys de saber que en Espana los misterios de las cuentas de +los Ginoveses, son dolorosos para los millones que vienen de las Indias, +y que los canones de sus plumas son de bateria contra las bolsas, y no +ay renta que si la cogen en medio el tajo de sus plumas, y el jarama de +su tinta no la ahoguen." (The reader will observe the double meaning +which points Quevedo's sarcasm--"canones" express at the same time +quills and cannons.)--"Suenos y Discursos por Don Francisco de Quevedo +Villegas Zaragoza." 1627. Page 19. + +[66] "Letter of a Lady's Travels into Spain." London. Ninth Edition. + +[67] "Une Annee en Espagne," par Charles Didier. 1837. + +[*] This should read: "?Cuantos monumentos como el que acabamos de examinar +dejaremos nosotros en herencia a nuestros nietos?" (note of etext +transcriber.) + +[Etext transcriber note:] + +Vicente Acera was corrected to Vicente Acero + +The name of the city Alcala (acute accent) de Henares is very often +printed ALCALA DE HENARES. (tilde on the N) + +Duque is consistently printed Duque (acute accent) + +Guadalajara and Guadalaxara are used + +Mih-rab (grave accent) and Mih-rab (acute accent) are used + +Bosque (forest/woods) is printed bosque (acute accent) + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Architect's Note-book in Spain, by +Matthew Digby Wyatt + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN ARCHITECT'S NOTE-BOOK IN SPAIN *** + +***** This file should be named 33820.txt or 33820.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/8/2/33820/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images available at The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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