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diff --git a/old/44392.txt b/old/44392.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..177ca2a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44392.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6442 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Arts and Crafts of Older Spain, Volume II +(of 3), by Leonard Williams + + +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: The Arts and Crafts of Older Spain, Volume II (of 3) + + +Author: Leonard Williams + + + +Release Date: December 10, 2013 [eBook #44392] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARTS AND CRAFTS OF OLDER +SPAIN, VOLUME II (OF 3)*** + + +E-text prepared by Chris Curnow, Jens Nordmann, Joseph Cooper, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 44392-h.htm or 44392-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44392/44392-h/44392-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44392/44392-h.zip) + + + Project Gutenberg has the other two volumes of this work. + Volume I: see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44391 + Volume III: see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44393 + + +Transcriber's note: + + Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + + The ligature oe is represented by [oe]. + + The signs cross and dagger have been marked as [cross] + and [dagger]. + + A carat character is used to denote superscription. A + single character following the carat is superscripted + (Comp^a). Multiple superscripted characters are + enclosed by curly brackets (example: DELINEAV^{it}). + + [=a] represents a letter (in this instance a lower case + "a") with a macron above it. + + + + + +[Illustration: _Frontispiece_ +SAINT FRANCIS] + + +The World of Art Series + +THE ARTS AND CRAFTS OF OLDER SPAIN + +by + +LEONARD WILLIAMS + +Corresponding Member of the Royal Spanish Academy, +of the Royal Spanish Academy of History, and of the +Royal Spanish Academy of Fine Arts; +Author of "The Land of the Dons"; "Toledo and Madrid"; "Granada," etc. + +In Three Volumes, Illustrated + +VOLUME II + + + + + + + +Chicago +A. C. McClurg & Co. +Edinburgh: T. N. Foulis +1908 + +American Edition +Published October 10, 1908 + + + + + CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO + + + PAGES + + FURNITURE 1-86 + + IVORIES 89-108 + + POTTERY 111-220 + + GLASS 223-263 + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + _VOLUME TWO_ + + + FURNITURE + + PLATE PAGE + + St Francis of Assisi; Toledo Cathedral _Frontispiece_ + + I. Mediaeval Chair 10 + + II. Gothic Chair 12 + + III. Spanish _Arcon_ or Baggage-Chest 16 + + IV. _Arca_ of Cardinal Cisneros 18 + + V. Armchair; Museum of Salamanca 20 + + VI. Chair and Table; Salamanca Cathedral 22 + + VII. Chairs upholstered with _Guadameciles_ 24 + + VIII. The Sala de la Barca; Alhambra, Granada 26 + + IX. Door of the Hall of the Abencerrajes; Alhambra, Granada 28 + + X. Moorish Door; Detail of Carving; Hall of the Two + Sisters, Alhambra, Granada 30 + + XI. Door of the Salon de Embajadores; Alcazar of Seville 32 + + XII. The same 34 + + XIII. Alcazar of Seville; Facade and Principal Entrance 36 + + XIV. Door of the Capilla de los Vargas, Madrid 38 + + XV. Mudejar Door; Palacio de las Duenas, Seville 40 + + XVI. _Celosia_; Alhambra, Granada 42 + + XVII. Carved _Alero_ 44 + + XVIII. Carved _Zapatas_; Casa de las Salinas, Salamanca 46 + + XIX. Carved _Zapatas_; Museum of Zaragoza 48 + + XX. _Alero_ and Cornice of Carved Wood; Cuarto de Comares, + Alhambra, Granada 50 + + XXI. "Elijah Sleeping"; Statue in Wood, by Alonso Cano 52 + + XXII. Saint Bruno, by Alonso Cano; Cartuja of Granada 54 + + XXIII. Saint John the Baptist; San Juan de Dios, Granada 56 + + XXIV. Choir-Stalls; Santo Tomas, Avila 58 + + XXV. Carved Choir-Stall; Toledo Cathedral 60 + + XXVI. Choir-Stalls; Burgos Cathedral 62 + + XXVII. Choir-Stalls; San Marcos, Leon 64 + + XXVIII. Detail of Choir-Stalls; Leon Cathedral 66 + + XXIX. Choir-Stalls; Plasencia Cathedral 68 + + XXX. Detail of Choir-Stalls; Convent of San Marcos, Leon 70 + + XXXI. "Samson"; Carved Choir-Stall; Leon Cathedral 72 + + XXXII. "Esau"; Carved Choir-Stall; Leon Cathedral 74 + + XXXIII. _Retablo_; Seville Cathedral 76 + + XXXIV. _Retablo_ of Seville Cathedral; Detail of Carving 78 + + XXXV. Detail of _Retablo_; Museum of Valladolid 80 + + XXXVI. Detail of _Retablo_; Chapel of Santa Ana; Burgos + Cathedral 82 + + + IVORIES + + XXXVII. Ivory Box; Madrid Museum 90 + + XXXVIII. Ivory Casket; Pamplona Cathedral 92 + + XXXIX. Ivory Box; Palencia Cathedral 94 + + XL. Hispano-Moresque Ivory Casket; Royal Academy of History, + Madrid 96 + + XLI. Ivory Crucifix; Madrid Museum 98 + + XLIA. Back View of same 98 + + XLII. Byzantine Crucifix 100 + + XLIII. "The Virgin of Battles"; Seville Cathedral 102 + + XLIV. Spanish Mediaeval _Baculus_ 104 + + XLV. "A Tournament" 106 + + XLVI. Ivory Diptych; The Escorial 108 + + + POTTERY + + XLVII. Amphoraic Vases and other Pottery; Museum of Tarragona 116 + + XLVIII. Dish; Museum of Granada 118 + + XLIX. Hispano-Moresque _Tinaja_ 120 + + L. Coarse Spanish Pottery (Modern) 126 + + LI. Door of the Mihrab; Cordova Cathedral 134 + + LII. Mosaic of the Patio de las Doncellas; Alcazar of Seville 138 + + LIII. Andalusian non-lustred Ware; Osma Collection 140 + + LIV. _Cuenca_ Tiles; Alcazar of Seville 142 + + LV. Altar of the Catholic Sovereigns; Alcazar of Seville 148 + + LVI. The Gate of Wine; Alhambra, Granada 154 + + LVII. Tiles of the Decadent Period 158 + + LVIII. Hispano-Moresque Lustred Plaque 168 + + LIX. Hispano-Moresque Lustred Vase; Alhambra, Granada 170 + + LX. Hispano-Moresque Lustred Vase; Madrid Museum 172 + + LXI. Lustred Tiles; Osma Collection 174 + + LXII. Hispano-Moresque Lustred Ware; Osma Collection 176 + + LXIII. Hispano-Moresque Lustred Ware; Osma Collection 178 + + LXIV. Hispano-Moresque Lustred Ware; Osma Collection 180 + + LXV. Hispano-Moresque Lustred Ware; Osma Collection 182 + + LXVI. Hispano-Moresque Lustred Ware; Osma Collection 184 + + LXVII. Hispano-Moresque Lustred Ware 186 + + LXVIII. Dish; Osma Collection 190 + + LXIX. An _Alfareria_ or Potter's Yard; Granada 192 + + LXX. Talavera Vase 198 + + LXXI. Ornament in Porcelain of the Buen Retiro 208 + + LXXII. Room decorated with Porcelain of the Buen Retiro; Royal + Palace of Aranjuez 214 + + LXXIII. Porcelain of the Moncloa Factory 218 + + + GLASS + + LXXIV. Vessels of Cadalso Glass 234 + + LXXV. Vessels of Catalan Glass 236 + + LXXVI. Glass of the Factory of San Ildefonso 254 + + LXXVII. Glass of the Factory of San Ildefonso 258 + + + + + FURNITURE + + +Whether the primitive Iberians ate as well as slept upon +their cave or cabin floor, or whether--as some classics call upon us to +believe--they used a kind of folding-chair (_dureta_) and (more advanced +and comfort-loving than the Andalusian rustics of this day) devoured +their simple meal from benches or supports constructed in the wall, is +not of paramount importance to the history of Spanish furniture. The +statements of those early authors may be granted or rejected as we +please; for not a single piece of furniture produced by prehistoric, or, +indeed, by Roman or by Visigothic Spain, has been preserved. But if we +look for evidence to other crafts, recovered specimens of her early gold +and silver work and pottery show us that Roman Spain grew to be +eminently Roman in her social and artistic life. This fact, together +with the statements of Saint Isidore and certain other writers of his +day, would seem to prove that all the usual articles of Roman furniture +were commonly adopted by the subjugated tribes, and subsequently by the +Visigoths;--the Roman eating-couch or _lectus triclinaris_, the +state-bed or _lectus genialis_, the ordinary sleeping-bed or _lectus +cubicularis_, made, in prosperous households, of luxurious woods inlaid +with ivory, or even of gold and silver; lamps or candelabra of silver, +copper, glass, and iron[1]; the _cathedra_ or chair for women, the +_bisellium_ or seat for honoured guests, the _solium_ or chair for the +head of the house, the simpler chairs without a back, known as the +_scabellum_ and the _sella_, and the benches or _subsellia_ for the +servants. Further, the walls were hung with tapestries or rendered +cheerful by mural painting; while the fireplace[2] and the brasier +(_foculus_) have descended to contemporary Spain. + + [1] Documents, quoted by the Count of Clonard, of Alfonso the Second, + San Genadio, Froylan, and the Infanta Urraca. + + [2] According to Miquel y Badia, the _focus_ of the Romans is the + present _clar de foch_ of Cataluna; "a square platform of brick or + stone raised somewhat from the ground, surrounded by a bench + (_esco_), and large enough to serve for roasting beasts entire." + +Swinburne wrote from Reus in 1775;--"we here for the first time saw a +true Spanish kitchen, viz., an hearth raised above the level of the +floor under a wide funnel, where a circle of muleteers were huddled +together over a few cinders." + +Advancing to a period well within the reach of history, we find that +early in the Middle Ages Spain's seigniorial mansions and the houses of +the well-to-do were furnished in a style of rude magnificence. Roman +models, derived from purely Roman and Byzantine sources through the +Visigoths, continued to remain in vogue until the tenth or the eleventh +century.[3] Then, as the fashion of these declined, the furniture of +Christian Spain was modified in turn by Moorish, Gothic, and Renaissance +art; or two of these would overlap and interact, or even all the three. + +During the Middle Ages the furniture of the eating, sleeping, and living +room which formed the principal apartment in the mansion of a great +seignior, was very much the same throughout the whole of Christian +Europe. Viollet-le-Duc has described it in the closest detail. The +dominant object, looming in a corner, was the ponderous bed, transformed +into a thing of beauty by its costly canopy and hangings.[4] Throughout +the earlier mediaeval times the Spanish bedstead was of iron or bronze. +Wood, plain at first, then richly carved, succeeded metal towards the +fourteenth century, and with this change the bed grew even vaster than +before. Often it rose so high above the level of the flooring that the +lord and lady required a set of steps to clamber up to it. These steps +were portable, and sometimes made of solid silver.[5] I quote herewith a +full description of a mediaeval Spanish bed, extracted from an inventory +of the Princess Juana which was made upon her marriage with the Count of +Foix, in 1392. The same bed had formerly belonged to Juana's mother, the +Princess Martha, at her marriage with King Juan the First. It had "a +velvet canopy with lions of gold thread, and a dove and a horse +confronting every lion. And each of the lions and doves and horses bears +a lettering; and the lettering of the lions is _Estre por voyr_, and +that of the doves and horses _aay_, and the whole is lined with green +cloth. _Item_, a counterpane of the said velvet, with a similar design +of doves and lions, and likewise lined with green cloth. _Item_, three +curtain-pieces of fine blue silk, with their metal rings and cords of +blue thread. _Item_, three cushion-covers of blue velvet, two of them of +large size, bearing two lions on either side, and four of them small, +with a single lion on either side, embroidered with gold thread; with +their linen coverings. _Item_, a cloth of a barred pattern, with the +bars of blue velvet and cloth of gold upon a red ground; which cloth +serves for a state-chair or for a window, and is lined with cloth. +_Item_, another cloth made of the said velvet and cloth of gold, which +serves for the small chair (_reclinatorio_) for hearing Mass, and is +lined with the aforesaid green cloth. _Item_, two large linen sheets +enveloping the aforesaid canopy and counterpane. A pair of linen sheets, +of four breadths apiece, bordered on every side with a handbreadth of +silk and gold thread decoration consisting of various kinds of birds, +leaves, and letters; and each of the said sheets contains at the +head-end about five handbreadths of the said decoration. _Item_, four +cushions of the same linen, all of them adorned all round with about a +handbreadth of the aforesaid decoration of birds, leaves, and letters. +_Item_, two leather boxes, lined with wool, which contained all these +objects. _Item_, five canvas-covered cushions stuffed with feather, for +use with the said six coverings of blue velvet bearing the said devices. +_Item_, three large pieces of wall tapestry made of blue wool with the +same devices of lions, horses, and doves, made likewise of wool, yellow +and of other colours. _Item_, five carpets made of the aforesaid wool, +bearing the same devices. _Item_, three coverlets of the same wool, and +with the same devices, for placing on the bed. _Item_, a coverlet of red +leather bearing in its centre the arms of the King and the Infanta. +_Item_, another coverlet made of leather bars and plain red leather. +_Item_, a woollen coverlet with the arms of the Infanta."[6] + + [3] The _Codex of the Testaments_, preserved in Oviedo Cathedral, + contains some valuable illustrations of Spanish furniture of the + tenth century. Greatly interesting, too, is the chair of San + Raimundo (12th century) preserved at Roda in Aragon. It is of the + "scissors" or folding form (_sella plicatilis_, Ducange), and the + arms are terminated by heads of animals. + + [4] The early nomenclature of the clothes and other fittings of a + Spanish bed is bewildering. We find in common use the canopy + (_almocalla_, _almuzala_; Arabic, _al-mokalla_, i.e. "haven of + refuge in all winds"--not always, possibly, a judicious term in the + case of a _cama de matrimonio_ or "marriage-bed"); the cloth-lined + skins for chilly weather (_alifafe_, _alifad_; Arabic _al-lifafh_), + such as King Juan the First of Aragon provided for his daughter + ("two leathers of Morocco for the bed." _Archive of the Crown of + Aragon; Registro 1906, fol. 42_); the parament or _dosal_; the + _galnape_ or topmost of the bedclothes proper ("_un lecho con + guenabe_"; Fuero of Caceres, A.D. 1229); the counterpane (_fatel_, + _fatol_, _alfatel_, _facel_, _farele_, _fateye_, _fatiro_; Arabic + _fatla_); the linen sheets (_izares_, _lentros_, _lentos_, _lintes_, + _lincas_, _linteaminas_, or _lencios_); and the mattress, pillow, + and bolster, called, all three of them, _plumazo_, _plumario_, or + _plumaco_. Nearly or quite identical in meaning with these last are + _culcita_ and _almadraque_. _Culcita_ is corrupted into _colcedra_, + _cocedra_, _conzara_, _colotra_, and other more or less barbaric + variations; while _almohada_, _almuella_, _travesera_, + _almofadinha_, _faseruelo_, and _aljamar_ also signify a pillow or + a cushion. + + [5] "E due haber encara hela entegrament, ses vestitz e ses joyes e un + leyt ben garnit del misllors apereylltz que sien en casa, e _una_ + _escala d'argent_ e una cortina." Fuero of Jaca, A.D. 1331, quoted + by Abad y la Sierra and the Count of Clonard. + + [6] Sanpere y Miquel; _Las costumbres catalanas en tiempo de Juan I._, + pp. 83, 84. + +Another corner of the room was occupied by the dining-table,[7] spread +at meal-times with a cloth denominated by Saint Isidore the _mappa_, +_mapula_, _mapil_, _mantella_, or _mantellia_; and laid with the +_mandibulas_ or "jaw-wipers" (_i.e._ napkins; see Du Cange), plates +(_discos_), dishes (_mensorios_, _messorios_, or _misorios_), spoons +(_cocleares_, _culiares_), though not as yet with forks,[8] cups of +various shapes and substances, with or without a cover (_copos_, +_vasculos_, and many other terms), the water-flagon (_kana_, _mikana_, +_almakana_), the cruet-stand (_canatella_), and the salt-cellar +(_salare_). + + [7] Miquel y Badia believes that the Spaniards abandoned the Roman + usage of reclining at their meals towards the sixth century. + + [8] Forks were not introduced till later. It has even been questioned + whether they were known in Spain as late as the sixteenth century. + But Ambrosio de Morales mentions one in 1591, while another is + recorded in 1607 as belonging to the monastery of San Jeronimo de + Valparaiso, near Cordova. (See vol. i., p. 84.) + +This table also served to write upon, while in its neighbourhood would +stand the massive sideboard, piled with gold and silver plate, and +vessels of glass or ivory, wood or alabaster. + +Besides the bed and table in their several corners, the chamber would +contain a suitable variety of chairs and stools, mostly surrounding the +capacious fireplace. Members of the household also sat on carpets spread +upon the floor. The great armchair of the seignior himself was more +ornate than any of the rest, and was provided somewhat later with a +lofty Gothic back (Plates i. and ii.). A chair with a back of moderate +height was destined for distinguished visitors. The back of ordinary +chairs reached only to about the sitter's shoulder, and coverings of +cloth or other stuffs were not made fast, but hung quite loosely from +the wooden frame. This usage lasted till the sixteenth century, when the +upholsterers began to nail the coverings of the larger chairs and +benches. + +Owing to the oriental influence brought back from the Crusades, the +furniture of Europe, not excluding Spain, grew ever more elaborate and +costly, while further, in the case of this Peninsula, the native Moorish +influence operated steadily and strongly from Toledo, Seville, Cordova, +Valencia, and elsewhere. Tapestries of Eastern manufacture (_alcatifas_) +were now in general use for decorating floors and walls. The bed grew +more and more gigantic, and its clothes and curtains more extravagantly +sumptuous, until the florid Gothic woodwork harmonized with canopies and +curtains cut from priceless skins, or wrought in gold and silver thread +on multicolor satin and brocade. And at the bed's head, like some jewel +marvellously set, rested, in every noble home, the diptych or the +triptych with its image of the Saviour or the Virgin Mary. + +Under the influence of the Renaissance this love of luxury continued to +increase among the royal and the noble families of Spain. In 1574 an +inventory of the estate of Dona Juana, sister of Philip the Second, +mentions a silver balustrade, weighing one hundred and twenty-one +pounds, for placing round a bed. The inventory (1560) of the Dukes of +Alburquerque contains a great variety of entries relative to the +furniture and chamber-fittings of the period. We find here mentioned, +Turkey carpets and the celebrated Spanish ones of Alcaraz, linens of +Rouen, green cloth of Cuenca, Toledo cloths, hangings of Arras and +elsewhere, tablecovers of damask and of velvet, gold-fringed canopies +(_doseles_) of green or crimson velvet or brocade, a "canopy for a +sideboard, of red and yellow Toledo cloth, with the arms of the La +Cuevas in embroidery, together with stripes and bows, and repetitions of +the letter I (for _Isabel Giron_, the duchess), also embroidered fringes +of the same cloth, and cords of the aforesaid colours." We also read of +a _sitial_ or state-chair of crimson satin brocade, and "a small walnut +table covered with silver plates, bearing the arms of my lord the duke +and of my lady the duchess, and edged with silver stripes."[9] The +bedstead, fitted with hangings of double taffeta and scarlet cloth, was +no less sumptuous than the other objects. + + [9] This kind of furniture was prohibited by a sumptuary pragmatic of + 1594. "No silversmith or other craftsman, or any person whatsoever, + shall make, or cause to be made, or sold, or sell himself or + purchase, whether openly or privately, buffets, writing-desks, + chests, brasiers, pattens, tables, letter-cases, _rejillas_ or + foot-warmers, images, or any other object that has silver fittings, + whether the silver be beaten, stamped, wrought in relief, carved, + or plain." _Suma de todas las leyes_ (A.D. 1628), p. 42. + + [Illustration: I + MEDIAEVAL CHAIR + (_Carved with the arms of Castile and Leon_)] + +A popular and even an indispensable piece of furniture in every mediaeval +Spanish household was the _caja de novia_ or "bride's chest." The +use of this, as well as of a smaller kind of box, was common both +to Moors and Christians. No matter of what size, these objects were +essentially the same. They served innumerable purposes; were made of +all dimensions--from the tiniest casket (_arcellina_, _capsula_, or +_pyxide_; see vol. i., p. 45 _et seq._) to the ponderous and vast +_arcon_,--and almost any substance--ivory or crystal, mother-of-pearl or +glass, gold, silver, copper, silver-gilt, jasper, agate, or fine wood; +and we find them in every part of the Peninsula, from the dawn of the +Middle Ages till very nearly the end of the eighteenth century. + + [Illustration: II + GOTHIC CHAIR + (_15th Century_)] + +According to the Marquis of Monistrol, the larger boxes or _arcones_ +constitute by far the commonest article of Spanish furniture all through +the earlier portion of this lengthy period. The same authority divides +them broadly into seven classes, thus:-- + + (1) Burial-chests. + + (2) Chests for storing chasubles, chalices, candelabra, and other + objects connected with the ceremonies of the church. + + (3) Archive-chests, for storing documents. + + (4) Chests for storing treasure (_huches_). + + (5) Brides' chests. + + (6) Chests for storing arms. + + (7) _Arcones-trojes_, or chests of common make, employed for storing + grain in country dwellings or _posadas_. + +The decorative richness of these quaint _arcones_ varies according to +their date of manufacture, or the purpose they were meant to serve. +Commonly, in the earliest of them, dating from the sixth or seventh +century, the iron clamps or fastenings form the principal or only +ornament. Such are reported to have been the two chests which the Cid +Campeador loaded with sand and foisted as filled with specie on his +"dear friends" Rachel and Vidas, the Jewish though trustful usurers of +Burgos, in return for six hundred marks of gold and silver. Tradition +says, moreover, that the chest now shown at Burgos as the "coffer of the +Cid" is actually one of these. It is certain that the archives of the +cathedral have been deposited in this chest for many centuries. +Evidently, too, it dates from about the lifetime of the Cid, while the +rings with which it is fitted show it to have been a kind of trunk +intended to be carried on the backs of sumpter-mules or horses. + +After the Roman domination in this country, the Latin term _capsa_ was +applied to every kind of chest; but at a later age sepulchral chests or +coffins were denominated _urns_, in order to distinguish them from +_arcas_ and _arcones_, which were used for storing clothes or jewellery. +Excellent examples of Spanish mediaeval burial-chests are those of Dona +Urraca, preserved in the Sagrario of the cathedral of Palencia, and of +San Isidro, patron of Madrid. The former, mentioned by painstaking Ponz, +and by Pulgar in his _Secular and Ecclesiastical Annals of Palencia_, is +of a plain design, and really constitutes a coffin. The sepulchral chest +of San Isidro, dating from the end of the thirteenth century, or the +early part of the fourteenth, and kept at Madrid in a niche of the +_camarin_ of the parish church of San Andres, is in the Romanic style, +and measures seven feet six inches in length. It has a gable top, and is +painted in brilliant colours on plaster-coated parchment, with miracles +effected by the saint, and other scenes related with his life; but much +of the painting is effaced. + +Another interesting sepulchral chest would probably have been the one +presented in 1052 by Ferdinand the First, together with his royal robe +and crown,[10] to the basilica of Saint John the Baptist at Leon, to +guard the remains of Saint Isidore. This chest was covered with thick +gold plates studded with precious stones, and bore, in enamel and +relief, the figures of the apostles gathered round the Saviour, and +medallions containing figures of the Virgin, saints, and martyrs. +According to Ambrosio de Morales, the gold plates were torn off by +Alfonso the First of Aragon, who replaced them by others of silver-gilt. +The same monarch, regardless of the church's fierce anathema pronounced +on all who dared to touch her property,[11] is accused by his chronicler +of having appropriated a box of pure gold studded with gems, enshrining +a crucifix made of the true Cross, and which was kept in some town or +village of the kingdom of Leon. Doubtless as a chastisement for +Alfonso's impiety, this precious box was captured from him by the Moors +at the battle of Fraga. + + [10] Describing how the monarch made these presents to the church when + lying at the point of death, the _Chronicle of the Monk of Silos_ + says: "_exuit regalem clamydem, qua induebatur corpus et deposuit + gemmatam coronam, qua ambiebatur caput_." + + [11] The formula is worded thus: "_Quisquis ille fuerit qui talia + commiserit, sit maledictus coram Deo et Angelis ejus, mendicitas + et lepra prosapiam teneat suam et extraneus persistat a sancta + communione, quatenus cum Juda, Christi proditore, ardendus + permaneat in aeterna damnatione._" + +Among the reliquary chests, the oldest specimen extant in Spain is the +_arca santa_ of Oviedo cathedral. This object, which is purely Byzantine +in its style, is believed to have been made at Constantinople. It was +improved by Alfonso the Sixth, who added _repousse_ plates to it, with +Arabic ornamentation in the form of meaningless inscriptions of a merely +decorative character, but which are interesting as showing the kinship +existing at this time between the Spanish Christians and the Spanish +Moors. + +Equally important is the coffer which was made by order of Don Sancho el +Mayor to enshrine the wonder-working bones of San Millan, and which is +now at San Millan de la Cogulla, in the province of La Rioja. The author +of this chest, which dates from A.D. 1033, is vaguely spoken of as +"Master Aparicio." The chest itself consists of a wooden body beneath a +covering of ivory and gold, further enriched with statuettes and studded +with real and imitation stones. It is divided into twenty-two +compartments carved in ivory with passages from the life and miracles of +the saint, and figures of "princes, monks, and benefactors," who had +contributed in one way or another to the execution of the reliquary. + +I have said that the "coffer of the Cid" was made for carrying baggage. +A very interesting Spanish baggage-chest, although more modern than the +Cid's by several centuries, is now the property of Senor Moreno +Carbonero (Plate iii.). This very competent authority believes it to +have belonged to Isabella the Catholic, and says that it was formerly +the usage of the sovereigns of this country to mark their baggage-boxes +with the first quartering of the royal arms and also with their +monogram. Such is the decoration, consisting of repeated castles and the +letter Y (for Ysabel), upon this trunk. The space between is painted red +upon a surface thinly spread with wax. Strips of iron, twisted to +imitate the girdle of Saint Francis, are carried over all the frame, +surrounding the castles and the letters. This box was found at +Ronda.[12] + + [12] To keep the dust or rain from entering these trunks, they were + covered, when on the march, with stout square cloths called + _reposteros_, which were often richly worked and bore the owner's + arms or monogram. The same word subsequently came to mean the + tapestried or other decorative cloths displayed in Spain on gala + days from balconies of public edifices, or the mansions of the + aristocracy; but dictionaries which were printed at the close of + the eighteenth century still define the _repostero_ as "caparison, + a square cloth with the arms of a prince or lord on it, which + serves to cover a led-horse, or sumpter-horse." + + [Illustration: III + _ARCON_ + (_15th Century_)] + +A handsome _arcon_, dating from the same period as this baggage-chest of +Isabella the Catholic, namely, the end of the fifteenth century, is +stated by its owner, Don Manuel Lopez de Ayala, to have belonged to +Cardinal Cisneros (Plate iv.). The material is wood, covered inside with +dark blue cloth, and outside with red velvet, most of the nap of which +is worn away. The dimensions are four feet six inches in length, two +feet in height, and twenty inches in depth. The chest, which has a +triple lock, is covered with _repousse_ iron plates representing twisted +columns and other architectural devices, combined with Gothic +thistle-leaves. A coat of arms is on the front. + +Such is an outline of the history of these Spanish chests. Most of the +earlier ones are cumbersome and scantily adorned. Then, as time +proceeds, we find on them the florid Gothic carving, unsurpassed for +purity and charm; then the Renaissance, with its characteristic ornament +of urns, and birds, and intertwining frond and ribbon; and finally, +towards, and lasting through the greater portion of, the eighteenth +century, the tasteless and decadent manner of Baroque. Yet even in the +worst and latest we descry from time to time a flickering remnant of the +art of Moorish Spain. + + [Illustration: IV + _ARCA_ OF CARDINAL CISNEROS] + +These Spanish Moors, obedient to the custom of their fellow-Mussulmans +throughout the world, employed but little furniture. They loved, +indeed, bright colours and ingenious craftsmanship, but rather in the +adjuncts to their furniture than in the furniture itself; in costly +carpets, or worked and coloured leather hung upon the wall,[13] or +spread upon their _alhamies_ and _alhanias_; in fountains bubbling in +the middle of their courts and halls; in doors, and ceilings, and +_celosias_ exquisitely carved, and joined with matchless cunning; in +flower-vases placed in niches; in bronze or silver perfume-burners +rolling at their feet; but not (within the ordinary limit of the term) +in furniture. Upon this theme the Reverend Lancelot Addison discourses +very quaintly. "The host here," he wrote of "West Barbary" in 1663, "is +one Cidi Caffian Shat, a grandee, reported to be an Andalusian, one of +the race of the Moors bansht (_sic_) Spain.... We were called to a +little upper Room, which we could not enter till we had put off our +shoes at the threshold: not for Religion, but Cleanliness, and not to +prevent our unhallowing the floor, but defiling the carpets wherewith it +was curiously spread. At the upper end of the Room was laid a Velvit +Cushion, as large as those we use in our Pulpits, and it denoted the +most Honourable part of the Room. After we had reposed about an hour, +there was brought in a little oval Table, about twenty Inches high, +which was covered with a long piece of narrow linnen; and this served +for Diaper.[14] For the Moors, by their law, are forbidden such +superfluous Utensils as napkins, knives, spoons, etc. Their Religion +laying down the general maxim, that meer necessaries are to be provided +for; which caused a precise Moor to refuse to drink out of my dish when +he could sup water enough out of the hollow of his hand." + + [13] The wood-carving and decorative leather-work of older Spain will + be described a little later on. As to the use of decorated leather + by the Moors, in the small chamber of the Alhambra opening into + the Mirador of Daraxa, and known as the Sala de los Ajimeces, is a + bare space about nine feet in height, which runs the whole way + round beneath the copious ornament of the remainder of the wall. + Contreras says that the Moorish sultans used to hang these spaces + with decorated leathers, tapestry, and armour. Sometimes the + tapestry or leather would be worked or painted with hunting-scenes + (_tardwahsh_--the chase of the lion, panther, or wild boar), or + even with portraits of the sultans. Among these latter is the + celebrated painting on the ceiling of the Hall of Justice, + executed, as are its companions at each side of it, upon a leather + groundwork with a plaster coating. + + [14] I think this shows why to this day a Spaniard who professes to be + an educated person will often wipe his or her mouth upon the + tablecloth. Not many weeks ago I saw the elegantly dressed daughter + of a Spanish member of Parliament perform this semi-oriental feat + in an hotel at Granada. Montaigne would judge this _senorita_ with + benevolence; not so, I fear, my compatriots. Similarly, it is + considered rude in Spain to stretch yourself; but not to spit upon + the dining-room floor, or pick your teeth at table. + +The same author proceeds to relate his experiences at bed-time. "Having +supp'd and solaced ourselves with muddy beverage and Moresco music, we +all composed ourselves to sleep: about twenty were allotted to lodge in +this small chamber, whereof two were Christians, three Jews, and the +rest Moors; every one made his bed of what he wore, which made our +English constitutions to wish for the morning." + + [Illustration: V + ARMCHAIR + (_17th Century. Museum of Salamanca_)] + +Among the Mussulmans all this has undergone no change. Do we not find +their present furniture to be identical with that of distant +centuries?--a characteristic scarcity of portable articles of wood; the +isolated box (_arqueta_ or _arcon_) which serves the purpose of our +clumsier chest of drawers or wardrobe;[15] carpets and decorated +leathers; the tiny, indispensable table; the lack of knives and spoons; +ornaments to regale the eye rather than commodities which the hand might +seize upon and utilize? Such was, and is, and will continue to remain +Mohammedan society throughout the world; and these descriptive passages +of life in seventeenth-century Morocco might have been penned with equal +truth in reference to the Spanish Muslim of a thousand years ago. + + [15] Mr. Cunninghame Graham, visiting a Caid's house in present-day + Morocco, noted, as the only furniture, "leather-covered cushions, + the cover cut into intricate geometric patterns; the room contained + a small trunk-shaped box." + +The furniture of the Moorish mosques was also of the scantiest. "They +are," to quote once more from Lancelot Addison's amusing little +brochure, "without the too easy accommodations of seats, pews, or +benches. The floor of the Giamma is handsomely matted, and so are the +walls about two feet high. If the roof be large and weighty, it is +supported with pillars, among which hang the lamps, which are kept +burning all the night." At one point of his expedition the reason for +such paucity of furniture was vividly expounded to our tourist. A Moor +indignantly exclaimed to him that it was "a shame to see women, dogs, +and dirty shoes brought into a place sacred to God's worship, and that +men ... should have chaires there to sit in with as much lascivious ease +as at home."[16] + + [16] _West Barbary_, p. 150. + +Nevertheless, a pulpit in the mosque, and a seat of some kind in the +palace or the private house, were not to be dispensed with. We learn +from Ibn-Khaldoun and many other writers, that the throne of the +Mussulman sultans was the _mimbar_, _takcht_, or _cursi_. Each of these +objects was a wooden seat. The first of the sultans to use a throne was +Moawia, son of Abu-Sofyan. The princes who came after him continued the +same usage, but displayed a constantly increasing splendour in the +decoration of the throne. This custom spread, in course of time, from +east to west throughout almost the whole dominion of the Muslims. The +Beni-Nasr princes of Granada are also known to have used a throne, but +this is believed to have consisted simply of some cushions piled one +upon another. This inference is drawn by Eguilaz Yanguas and other +Arabists from the old _Vocabulary_ of Fray Pedro de Alcala, who renders +a "throne" or "royal seat" by _martaba_, a word equivalent to "cushion." + + [Illustration: VI + CHAIR AND TABLE + (_17th Century. Salamanca Cathedral_)] + +Cushions, too, became symbolic, even with the Christian Spaniards, of a +seat of honour; both because they lent themselves to rich embroidery or +leather-work, and because they raised their occupant above the level of +the persons seated positively on the carpet or the floor. In the +painting on the ceiling of the Hall of Justice in the Alhambra, ten men +are congregated in Mohammedan costume, each of them seated on a +cushion. Some writers, including Argote de Molina, Diego Hurtado de +Mendoza, and Hernando del Pulgar, believed these figures to be actual +portraits of the sultans; others maintain that they depict the _Mizouar_ +or royal council. In either case, however, the cushion here is clearly +an honourable place. We have, besides, abundant evidence that the +Spanish Christians viewed the cushion with as marked a liking as their +rivals. Alvarez de Colmenar relates that at the very close of the +seventeenth century the Spanish women sat at meals in Moorish fashion. +"Un pere de famille est assis seul a table, et toutes les femmes, sans +exception, mangent par terre, assises sur un carreau avec leurs enfants, +et leur table dressee sur un tapis etendu." The same work says elsewhere +that "lorsque les dames se rendent visite, elles ne se donnent ni siege +ni fauteuil, mais elles sont toutes assises par terre, les jambes en +croix, sur des tapis ou des carreaux."[17] + + [17] _Annales d'Espagne et de Portugal_, vol. iii., pp. 324, 327. + +Therefore, until two centuries ago, the women of Christian Spain were +suffered to take their seat on cushions of brocade or damask. Only the +men made use of stools or chairs, according to their rank. To "give a +chair" (_dar silla_) to a visitor of the male sex was to pay him a +valued courtesy;[18] and even now the wife of a grandee of Spain goes +through the honourable though irksome ceremony, at the palace of Madrid, +of "taking the cushion." + + [18] "Honrale el Sr Roberto, alma del Rey, y _le ha dado Silla_, y le + tuvo a su lado." Lope de Vega's comedy, _The Key of Honour_. + + [Illustration: VII + CHAIRS UPHOLSTERED WITH _GUADAMECILES_ + (_17th Century_)] + +Another usage with the Spaniards of the seventeenth and immediately +preceding centuries was the "dais of honour" or _estrado de +cumplimiento_. This was a platform very slightly raised, and separated +by a railing from the rest of the room. The curious manuscript +discovered by Gayangos, descriptive of court-life at Valladolid in 1605, +contains the following account of one of the occasions when the Queen, +following a common custom of a Sunday, dined alone, in sight of all the +aristocracy. "The table was laid upon the dais (_estrado alto_), beneath +a canopy of brocade that overhung the whole of it. The queen sat at the +head of the table, and three ladies, standing, waited on her; two +uncovering the dishes as they came,[19] and the third carving. The +dishes were brought from the dining-room door by the _meninos_, who +handed them to the ladies. Other ladies of the royal household, wives or +daughters of grandees, stood leaning against the wall in company with +gentlemen who, on such occasions, sue for leave beforehand to attend on +Lady So and So, or So and So. Commonly there are two such cavaliers to +every dame. If the queen asks for water, one of these ladies takes it to +her, kneels, makes an obeisance, kisses the goblet, hands it to her +majesty, and retires to her appointed place. Behind the queen was one of +her chamberlains. Many of the Englishmen were witnessing the meal. They +always put the English first on such occasions; and as they are such +hulking fellows (God bless them!) I, who was at their back, scarce noted +anything of what was passing, and only saw that many plates went to and +fro." + + [19] The covers would be fastened by a lock and key, as a defence, not + against poison, but against theft. "A little afterwards Don + Federico de Cardona, who had gone out to see how matters were + proceeding, returned, bearing a large silver vessel, the cover of + which was secured by a lock and key, as is the custom in + Spain."--Countess d'Aulnoy's _Travels_. As late as the year 1792, + Townsend, in his "Directions to the Itinerant in Spain," recommends + (vol. i., p. 2) that the vessel to boil the traveller's meat should + be provided with a cover and a lock. + +Solid and expensive furniture continued to be used in Spain throughout +the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries; the ponderous chest, the +ponderous brasier, ponderous stools, ponderous armchairs with massive +nails and coverings of velvet or of decorated leather (Plates v., vi., +and vii.). Upon the wall, the tapestry of earlier times was often +replaced by paintings of a sacred character, or family portraits. The +comedy titled _La Garduna de Sevilla_, written about the middle of the +seventeenth century by Alonso del Castillo Solorzano, describes the +interior of a rich man's dwelling of this period. "Upstairs Rufina noted +delicate summer hangings, new chairs of Moscovy cowhide, curiously +carved buffets, and ebony and ivory writing-desks; for Marquina, though +a skinflint towards others, was generous in the decoration of his own +abode.... When dinner was over, he took her to a room embellished with +fine paintings, and with a bed whose canopy was of some Indian +fabric.... Paintings by famous masters were plentifully hung about the +house, together with fine Italian hangings, various kinds of +writing-desks, and costly beds and canopies. When they had visited +nearly all the rooms, they opened the door of one which contained a +beautiful altar and its oratory. Here were a great array of costly +and elaborate Roman vessels, agnuses of silver and of wood, and flowers +arranged in various ways. This chamber, too, was full of books +distributed in gilded cases." + + [Illustration: VIII + THE _SALA DE LA BARCA_ + (_Before the fire of 1890. Alhambra, Granada_)] + +A characteristic piece of Spanish furniture was at this time the +solid-looking cabinet known as the _vargueno_, so denominated from the +little town of Vargas, near Toledo, formerly a well-known centre of +their manufacture. These cabinets, whose origin, according to the +Marquis of Monistrol, may be traced to a fifteenth-century form of +_huche_, or chest provided with drawers for guarding articles of value, +and which opened in the centre, are commonly made of walnut. The front +lets down upon a massive wooden rest supported by the legs, and forms a +folding writing-table containing at the back a number of drawers or +compartments for storing documents, or other things of minor bulk. + +The woodwork of these cabinets is often without carving; but generally +in such cases their bareness is relieved by massive and elaborately +ornamented iron fastenings and a decorative key. + +The Ordinances of Granada tell us that in 1616 the making of defective +furniture had grown to be a scandal in that town. The cause, it seems, +was partly in the wood itself, proceeding from the Sierra de Segura, +Pinar del Duque, and the Sierra de Gor. "Divers of our carpenters and +joiners cut their walnut and other woods while yet the moon is crescent, +whereby the wood decays and spoils. Others there be that make and sell +chairs, desks, beds, and other furniture of green unseasoned wood which +warps and loosens, insomuch that within some days the article is +worthless. Therefore we order that all walnut wood and other woods for +making furniture be only cut at the time of the waning moon, and be not +used until they shall have seasoned thoroughly, so as not to warp; and +that they be approved by the inspectors of this trade, under a penalty +of six thousand _maravedis_ for each of the aforesaid Ordinances that be +not complied with." + + [Illustration: IX + DOOR OF THE HALL OF THE ABENCERRAJES + (_Alhambra, Granada_)] + +The municipal laws of the same city relative to the "chair-makers who +make hip-chairs to sit in, and leather-covered chests," were cried, in +1515 and 1536, "in the street of the chairmakers and carpenters." +Fettered by irksome regulations of this kind, we cannot wonder that the +arts and crafts of Christian Spain were fated to decline.[20] Owing +to the "false and faulty workmanship" prevailing in Granada, it is +provided by these statutes that the wood employed in making chairs must +be bought by the manufacturers in public auction only, held "in the +little square where dwell the chairmakers." It must be thoroughly dry +and free from flaws, and of sufficient stoutness to sustain the +decorative marquetry. The chair which lacks these requisite conditions +must be seized and burnt. The four nails which fasten the seat of the +chair to the legs must traverse the frame completely and be hammered +back upon the other side, unless the surface of the chair be inlaid, in +which case they need not pass completely through. The leather for the +seats and backs of chairs must be good in quality and well prepared and +dressed, besides being strongly sewn with flaxen thread. Chairs of all +sizes must bear the official city mark, stamped by the authorities at a +charge of one _maravedi_ for each of the large chairs and a _blanca_ for +each of the small. + + [20] The purpose of these Spanish city laws was in its essence + unimpeachable; namely, to guard the intensely ignorant Christian + populace--the same which fugitive Moriscos of the kingdom of + Valencia had readily prevailed upon to barter tons of brass and + pewter trash for sterling gold and silver coin--from being imposed + upon by manufacturers and merchants. But the power of + discriminating between a genuine or well-made object and a piece + of counterfeit or worthless rubbish is, among all peoples, better + sought for and developed by experience than by legislation; and + there was something noxiously prosaic in a code of city ordinances + which forbade the craftsman to prepare his own design, or choose + his own material, or establish his own prices. How violently, or at + least how primitively, hostile to the sense of art must not have + been these Christian sons of Spain to need--or think they + needed--so impertinent and tyrannous a system of protection! + +Makers of the leather-covered chests are ordered to use the hides of +horses, mares, or mules, and not the hides of oxen, cows, or calves, +because, if covered with this latter, "the chests grow moth-eaten and +are destroyed much sooner." The craftsman who transgresses this command +must lose the faulty piece of furniture, and pay four hundred +_maravedis_, while under a further penalty of two hundred _maravedis_ +the hinges must be fixed inside the chest, and not to its exterior. + + [Illustration: X + MOORISH DOOR, DETAIL OF CARVING + (_Hall of the Two Sisters, Alhambra, Granada_)] + +I have omitted hitherto all mention of the furnishing of humbler Spanish +houses in the olden time. The following passage from the Ordinances of +Granada shows us, referring to an inn, an unpretentious lodging of about +four hundred years ago:-- + +"_Item._ If the innkeeper have a parlour or alcove that fastens with a +lock, and therein a bed of the better class, with hangings round about +it, and a canopy above, and on the bed a counterpane, friezed +blanket, and pillows; also a bench with its strip of carpet or striped +benchcloth, a table with its service of tablecloths and all that be +needful, besides a lamp of brass or ware, all of the best that he is +able to provide--for such a bed and room he may demand twelve +_maravedis_ each day; whether the room be taken by one guest, or two, or +more."[21] + + [21] _Ordenanza de Mesoneros_, titulo 54. + +Nor was the Spanish inn more comfortable in the seventeenth or +eighteenth centuries than in the sixteenth. "On entre d'ordinaire dans +les Hotelleries par l'ecurie, du moins dans de certaines Provinces; on +vous mene dans quelque chambre, ou vous trouvez les quatre parois, +quelquefois un bois de lit; pour chandelle on allume un grand nombre de +petites bougies, qui font assez de lumiere pour voir ce que vous mangez; +et afin que l'odeur and la fumee de tant de bougies n'incommode pas, on +vous apporte, si vous le souhaitez, un brasier de noyaux d'olives en +charbon. Quand on monte, on trouve au haut de l'escalier, la _Senora de +la Casa_, qui a eu le tems de prendre ses beaux habits de dimanche pour +vous faire honneur et s'en faire a elle-meme." (Alvarez de Colmenar, in +1715.) + +It is interesting to compare these passages with Lancelot Addison's +account of a Morocco inn towards the middle of the seventeenth century; +bearing in mind that _fonda_, the current Spanish term for _hostelry_, +is common both to Spain and to Morocco:-- + +"In later years, every town of traffic hath erected a sort of Inns +called _Alfandach_, which affords nothing but House-room for man and +beast, the market yielding provision for both. Those that farm these +_fandachs_ cannot exact above a Blankil a night both for man and beast, +which is in sterling money about two pence. The horses lodging costing +equally with his Rider's."[22] + + [22] _West Barbary_, p. 129. + +Similarly, the keeper of the older Spanish inn was not allowed by law to +traffic in provisions. "Nothing but house-room" was available for +wayfarers, and the weary visitor, as soon as ever he arrived, must sally +forth to do his marketing. + + [Illustration: XI + DOOR OF THE _SALON DE EMBAJADORES_ + (_Alcazar of Seville_)] + +"Quand on arrive aux Hotelleries, fut il minuit passe, l'on n'y trouve +rien de pret, non pas meme un pot sur le feu. L'hotel ne vous donne que +le couvert et le lit, pour tout le reste, il le faut envoyer chercher, +si vous ne voulez prendre la peine d'y aller vous-meme. On donne +l'argent necessaire, et l'on va vous chercher du pain, du vin, de la +viande, et generalement tout ce que l'on souhaite, si tant est qu'on le +puisse trouver. Il est vrai que cette coutume a son bon cote. + +"Le prix de toutes ces choses est regle, l'on sait ce qu'il faut payer, +et un hote ne peut pas friponner. On vous apprete votre viande, et l'on +donne une reale et demie, ou deux reaux pour le _servicio_, comme ils +parlent, et autant pour le lit, ce qui revient environ a quinze sous de +France. Si l'on se trouve dans quelque grande ville, on aura une nappe +grande comme une serviette, et une serviette grande comme un mouchoir de +poche; dans d'autres endroits il faut s'en passer. + +"Les lits ne sont pas fort ragoutans; quelque matelas, ou quelque +paillasse, ou tout au plus une couverture de coton; a la campagne il +faut passer la nuit sur le carreau, ou bien sur quelque botte de paille, +qu'on doit avoir soin de faire bien secouer, pour en chasser la +vermine." + +The statements in this passage relative to the lack of food in Spanish +hostelries are confirmed, nearly a century later, by Townsend, who +records that on reaching a certain village his first proceeding was to +turn his steps, not to the _fonda_ or _posada_ where he would engage +his bed, but to the butcher's, wine-seller's, and so forth, "to see what +was to be had, as I had travelled all day fasting." + +It is beyond the province of this work to dwell upon the foreign taste +in furniture which invaded Spain from France upon the advent of the +Bourbon dynasty, and so I limit my notice of the eighteenth century to +quoting from Laborde the following comprehensive passage:-- + +"If the Spaniards," this traveller wrote in 1809, "take many precautions +against heat, they take scarcely any against cold; it is very uncommon +to find doors or windows that shut close, and the rooms are very little +and very ill-warmed. The use of chimneys even is very uncommon, and only +prevails in the houses of such Spaniards as have travelled. Brasiers of +copper or silver are generally employed, which are set in the middle of +the apartment, filled with burning charcoal, and round which the family +place themselves. + + [Illustration: XII + DOOR OF THE _SALON DE EMBAJADORES_ + (_Alcazar of Seville_)] + +"The beds in Spain are hard. They are only made of mattresses, more or +fewer, laid on paillasses which rest upon a boarded bottom; for neither +sacking nor feather beds are known. No bolsters are used, but in +their place little, short, flat pillows are heaped up, sometimes to the +number of six or eight. The sheets are in general short and narrow; and +napkins scarcely as big as a small pocket handkerchief. + +"The furniture of the houses is usually very simple. The floor is +covered with a matting of _esparto_ in winter, and of rushes or palm +leaves in summer. A matting of the same kind, a painted cloth, or +painting in panels, covers the walls from the floor to the height of +four or five feet; above, the wall is bare, painted white, and adorned +with pictures of saints and a kind of ornamented metal chandeliers; +these are covered with a glass, surrounded with a border of gilt +ornaments; and a little branch of gilt copper proceeds from them forming +zig-zags or festoons, on which the candles are placed; they are called +cornucopias; they are from one to three feet in height, and give the +apartment the air of a coffee room, or billiard room. Mirrors are placed +between the windows, and a lustre of clear glass in imitation of crystal +is suspended from the middle of the handsomest saloons. The chairs have +straw bottoms; in some provinces, as Murcia, Andalusia, and Valencia, +they are of different heights; those on one side of the room being of +the common height, and the others one third lower. The latter are +intended for the ladies. In some of the principal cities one also sees +chairs and sofas of walnut wood, the backs of which are bare, and the +seats covered with damask; usually crimson or yellow. + +"Luxury begins, however, to show itself in these objects. In the chief +cities many hangings are of painted paper or linen; even hangings of +brocades, of one and of three colours, and of various other kinds of +silk; large and beautiful mirrors, and a number of sofas may be seen. +The houses of the grandees in Madrid are magnificently furnished, but +usually with more cost than taste. Hangings of silk, velvet, and damask, +adorned with rich fringes and gold embroidery, are very common, and the +seats are of corresponding magnificence. Many houses in Barcelona, +Cadiz, Valencia, and Madrid are decorated with equal study and elegance. + +"The custom of painting the walls is of late introducing itself into +Spain. They are covered with representations of men and animals, with +trees, flowers, landscapes, houses, urns, vases, or history pieces, +divided into compartments, adorned with pillars, pilasters, friezes, +cornices, and arabesques; the effect of the whole is often very +agreeable. This kind of decoration was imported from Italy."[23] + + [23] Vol. v., pp. 301-304. + + [Illustration: XIII + ALCAZAR OF SEVILLE + (_Facade and principal entrance_)] + +In this account we clearly trace each various and successive influence +that had permeated older Spain, leaving her, at the close of every +period, a nation that produced illustrious artists, but never a nation +deeply versed in, or devoted to, the arts. The beds and brasiers of +these modern Spaniards were derived from ancient Rome; their general +dearth of comfortable furniture, together with the lower, and therefore +more humiliating, seats for women, from the Spanish Moors; the typically +ponderous hangings from mediaeval Spain herself; the fresco +wall-paintings, such as may still be seen in many a Spanish country +home, from classic or Renaissance Italy; and the finicking gilt, rococo +cornucopias from France; while the use of mirrors and of lustres in +hideous combination with straw-bottomed chairs, almost reminds us of the +days of Visigothic barbarism. + + + LEATHER + +_Guadamacileria_, or the art of decorating leather with painting, +gilding, and impressions in relief, is commonly believed to have crossed +from Africa to Spain at some time in the Middle Ages. According to +Duveyrier, the word _guadameci_ or _guadamecil_ is taken from Ghadames, +a town in Barbary where the craft was practised long ago; but +Covarrubias gives it an origin directly Spanish, supposing that the +title and the craft alike proceeded from a certain town of Andalusia. +However this may be, the preparation of these leathers grew to be a most +important industry in various parts of Spain, and spread, as time went +on, to Italy, France, and other European countries.[24] + + [24] "Spain lays claim to the invention of the art of gilding leather; + it is asserted that, after being discovered there, the secret was + carried to Naples by Peter Paul Majorano."--Laborde, vol. v., + p. 231. + +In the Peninsula, the principal centres of this work were Cordova, +Seville, Lerida, Barcelona, Ciudad Real, and Valladolid. Cordova, +however, was so far ahead of all the rest that leathers decorated in +this style were known throughout the world as _cueros de Cordoba_, or +"Cordova leathers." Another name for them is said to have been +_cordobanes_; but possibly the application of this latter word was less +restricted. Bertaut de Rouen wrote in the seventeenth century of Ciudad +Real:--"C'est une ville situee dans une grande plaine, et dont +l'enceinte est assez grande, qui estoit mesme fort peuplee autrefois, +mais elle est quasi deserte a present. Il ne luy reste plus rien sinon +que c'est la ou l'on appreste le mieux les peaux de _Cordouan_, dont on +fait les gans d'Espagne. C'est dela aussi d'ou elles viennent pour la +pluspart a Madrid. J'en achetay quelques-unes." + + [Illustration: XIV + DOOR OF THE CAPILLA DE LOS VARGAS + (_Madrid_)] + +In 1197 Alfonso the Ninth presented the town of Castro de los Judios to +Leon Cathedral and its bishop, confirming at the same time the tribute +which the Jews who occupied that town were bound to render upon Saint +Martin's day in every year, and which consisted of two hundred +_sueldos_, a fine skin, and two _guadamecis_. This tribute had existed +since the reign of Ferdinand the First: that is, towards the middle of +the preceding century.[25] + + [25] Count of Clonard; _Memorias para la historia del traje espanol_. + +None of these primitive leathers now exist, and consequently the details +of their workmanship have perished with them. Ramirez de Arellano +mentions two small coffers in the Cluny Museum, which date from about +the fourteenth century and are decorated with the forms of animals cut +from leather and overlaid on velvet. Other _guadamecis_, though not of +the oldest, are in the South Kensington Museum. "The earliest +_guadamecileros_," says Ramirez de Arellano, speaking particularly of +this art at Cordova, "were accustomed to imitate brocade upon their +leathers, employing beaten silver together with the colours red, green, +blue, black, white, and carmine, applied in oils, or sometimes (although +the law prohibited this) in tempera. Gold was not used till 1529, when +Charles the Fifth confirmed the Ordinances of this industry. The +leather-workers tanned the hides themselves, stamping the pattern from a +wooden mould, and then (if we may call it so) engraving on them. The +hides were those of rams. The spaces between the decoration were either +coloured red or blue, or simply left the colour of the skin; or else the +pattern would be wrought in colours on the natural hide. Gold, which at +a later epoch almost totally replaces silver, was introduced between +1529 and 1543, and was applied as follows. The artists smeared with +oil the parts they wished to figure in raised or sunk relief, and laid +the beaten gold upon the oil. They then applied a heated iron or copper +mould; the pattern in relief was stamped; and the gold, superfluous +shreds of which were wiped away with lint, adhered upon the leather. The +irons required to be moderately hot, because if overheated they would +burn the hide, or, if not hot enough, the fixing of the gold would not +be permanent." + + [Illustration: XV + MUDEJAR DOOR + (_Palacio de las Duenas, Seville_)] + +The importance of this industry in Spain may be judged of from the fact +that towards the close of the Middle Ages the _guadamacileros_ of +Seville occupied nearly the whole of an important street--the Calle +Placentines. Similarly, at Cordova they filled the quarter of the city +known as the Ajerquia. "So many _guadamecies_ are made here," wrote +Ambrosio de Morales, "that in this craft no other capital can compare +with her; and in such quantities that they supply all Europe and the +Indies. This industry enriches Cordova and also beautifies her; for +since the gilded, wrought, and painted leathers are fixed upon large +boards and placed in the sun in order to be dried, by reason of their +splendour and variety they make her principal streets right fair to look +upon." + +We owe to Rafael Ramirez de Arellano most valuable and recent +information respecting this ancient Spanish-Moorish craft.[26] He has +discovered the names of nearly forty _guadamacileros_ who lived and +worked at Cordova, principally in the sixteenth century. It is not worth +while to repeat these names alone, but one or two particulars connected +with a few of them are interesting. In 1557 four of these artificers, +named Benito Ruiz, Diego de San Llorente, Diego de Ayora, and Anton de +Valdelomar, signed a contract to prepare the cut and painted +_guadamaciles_ for decorating a palace at Rome. This contract, which is +most precise and technical, is published in No. 101 of the _Boletin de +la Sociedad Espanola de Excursiones_. The only further notice which +Senor Ramirez de Arellano has discovered relating to any of these four +craftsmen, tells us that nine years after the signing of the document +just mentioned, Diego de Ayora leased some houses in the Calle de la +Feria for a yearly rental of twenty-two ducats and three pairs of live +hens. + + [26] _Boletin de la Sociedad Espanola de Excursiones_, Nos. 101, 102; + Art. _Guadamacies_. + +Another interesting contract is dated April 17th, 1587. By it the +_guadamacilero_ Andres Lopez de Valdelomar agreed, in company with +Hernando del Olmo of Marchena, and with Francisco de Gaviria and +Francisco Delgado, painters, of Cordova, to make a number of pieces of +_guadameci_ for the Duke of Arcos. The work was to be terminated by July +of the same year. Valdelomar was to receive from the duke's agent three +_reales_ for each piece, and the painters two _reales_ and a half; this +money to be paid them by instalments as the work proceeded. + + [Illustration: XVI + _CELOSIA_ + (_Alhambra, Granada_)] + +On August 26th, 1567, before the mayor of Cordova and the two inspectors +of this trade, Pedro de Blancas was officially examined and approved in +"cutting, working, and completing a _guadameci_ of red damask with gold +and silver borders on a green field, and a cushion with green and +crimson decoration and faced with silver brocade." + +The Ordinances of Cordova also tell us much about this industry. The +oldest of these city laws which deal with it are dated 1529. Those of +1543 were ratified by a Crown pragmatic early in the seventeenth +century, and at this later date we learn that the craft had much +declined, the leather being by now "of wretched quality, the colouring +imperfect, and the pieces undersized." The Ordinances published in the +sixteenth century provide that every applicant for official licence to +pursue this craft and open business as a _guadamacilero_, must prove +himself, in presence of the examiners, able to mix his colours and +design with them, and to make a canopy together with its fringe, as well +as "a cushion of any size or style that were demanded of him; nor shall +he explain merely by word of mouth the making of the same, but make it +with his very hands in whatsoever house or place shall be appointed by +the mayor and the overseers of the craft aforesaid." + +It was also provided by these Ordinances that the pieces of leather were +to be dyed, not with Brazil-wood, but with madder, and that their size, +whether the hide were silvered, gilt, or painted, was to be strictly +uniform, namely, "the size of the primitive mould," or "three-quarters +of a yard in length by two-thirds of a yard, all but one inch, in +width." The standard measures, made of iron and stamped with the city +seal, were guarded under lock and key; and the Ordinances of 1567 +establish the penalty of death for every _guadamacilero_ who shall seek, +in silvering his wares, to palm off tin for silver. + + [Illustration: XVII + CARVED _ALERO_] + +These leathers served a great variety of purposes, public or private, +sacred or profane. They were used upon the walls and floors of +palaces and castles, as table-covers, counterpanes, bed-hangings, +cushions, curtains for doors, linings for travelling-litters, coverings +of chests and boxes,[27] and seats and backs of chairs and benches +(Plate vii.). In churches and cathedrals, especially throughout the +sixteenth century, we find them used as tapestry and carpets,[28] +altar-fronts (such as one which is preserved in the chapel of San Isidro +in Palencia cathedral), or crowns for images of the Virgin.[29] As time +advanced, gold and a coat or so of colour was succeeded by elaborate +painting. Thus painted, they were often cut into the forms of columns, +pilasters, or friezes in the Plateresco or Renaissance style,[30] until +the growing popularity of wall-pictures, together with the importation +of French fashions at the death of Charles the Second, crippled and +ultimately killed the decorative leather industry of Spain. + + [27] The _Poem of the Cid_ tells us of the two chests, covered with red + _guadameci_, which the hero filled with sand to cheat the Jewish + money-lenders:-- + + "_Con vuestro consejo bastir quiero dos archas. + Incamosla d'arena, ca bien seran pesadas, + Cubiertas de guadameci e bien enclavadas; + Los guadamecis bermeios e los clavos bien dorados._" + + Nevertheless, the "coffer of the Cid" at Burgos (see p. 12) does + not appear to have been thus fitted. + + [28] The same usage obtained in Morocco. Lancelot Addison wrote in 1669 + that on the first day of their "Little Feast" the Moors across the + Strait "spread the floor of their Giammas with coloured + leather."--_West Barbary_, p. 213. + + [29] An inventory of effects belonging to the Hospital of San Jose at + Jerez de la Frontera mentions, in 1589, "clothes and trimmings for + the image of Our Lady. A crown of gilded _guadameci_."--Gestoso, + _Diccionario de Artifices Sevillanos_, vol. i., p. xxii, _note_. + + [30] A hall, says Ramirez de Arellano, would often be embellished by + surrounding it with arches wrought of leather in relief and + superposed on leather. As a rule the arches were gilt and silvered, + and rested upon pilasters or columns. When pilasters were used, + their centres would be ornamented with Italian devices such as + flowers, trophies, imitated cameos, and foliage. Landscapes with a + far horizon and no figures, known as _boscaje_ or _pintura verde_ + were painted on the space between the arches, so that the general + effect was that of a pavilion with arches on all sides, displaying + everywhere a wide expanse of fertile country. The arches rested on + a broad bordering of _guadamecies_, and running round the lower + part was a _zocalo_ or socle, commonly made of tiling. + +Such is the kind of decoration which was most in vogue in Spain +throughout the latter half of the sixteenth century; that which was +exported to Rome; and that which was commissioned by the Duke of Arcos. + + + CARPENTRY AND WOOD-CARVING + +The artistic carpentry of older Spain produced as its most typical and +striking monuments, three groups of objects which may be included +generally under Furniture. These are the _celosia_ or window-lattice, +the door of _lazo_-work, and the _artesonado_-ceiling which adorns a +hall or chamber, corridor or staircase. + + [Illustration: XVIII + CARVED _ZAPATAS_ + (_Casa de Salinas, Salamanca_)] + +These happy and effective styles of decoration came originally from the +East. Their passage may be traced along the coast of Africa from Egypt +into Spain; and they flourished in Spain for the same reason which had +caused them to flourish at Cairo. "When we remember," says Professor +Lane-Poole, "how little wood grows in Egypt, the extensive use made of +this material in the mosques and houses of Cairo appears very +remarkable. In mosques, the ceilings, some of the windows, the pulpit, +lectern or Koran desk, tribune, tomb-casing, doors, and cupboards, are +of wood, and often there are carved wooden inscriptions and stalactites +of the same material leading up to the circle of the dome. In the older +houses, ceilings, doors, cupboards, and furniture are made of wood, and +carved lattice windows, or meshrebiyas, abound. In a cold climate, such +employment of the most easily worked of substances is natural enough; +but in Egypt, apart from the scarcity of the material, and the +necessity of importing it, the heat offers serious obstacles to its +use. A plain board of wood properly seasoned may keep its shape well +enough in England, but when exposed to the sun of Cairo it will speedily +lose its accurate proportions; and when employed in combination with +other pieces, to form windows or doors, boxes or pulpits, its joints +will open, its carvings split, and the whole work will become unsightly +and unstable. The leading characteristic of Cairo wood-work is its +subdivision into numerous panels; and this principle is obviously the +result of climatic considerations, rather than any doctrine of art. The +only mode of combating the shrinking and warping effects of the sun was +found in a skilful division of the surfaces into panels small enough, +and sufficiently easy in their setting, to permit of slight shrinking +without injury to the general outline. The little panels of a Cairo door +or pulpit may expand without encountering enough resistance to cause any +cracking or splitting in the surrounding portions, and the Egyptian +workmen soon learned to accommodate themselves to the conditions of +their art in a hot climate."[31] + + [31] _The Art of the Saracens in Egypt_, pp. 124, 125. + + [Illustration: XIX + CARVED _ZAPATAS_ + (_Museum of Zaragoza_)] + +These valuable and interesting observations apply with equal justice +to the decorative woodwork of the Spanish Muslims. A further point of +interest lies in the fact that window-grilles and ceilings of the kind +referred to, grew to be extremely fashionable through the whole +Peninsula. Carried by Moorish or Mudejar craftsmen far beyond the +frontiers of the Mussulman sultans of this European land, we find to-day +surviving specimens in every part of Spain--most of them, it is true, in +sultry Andalus; but many also in the old seigniorial mansions of +Castile, or even in the cold and humid towns and cities of Cantabria. + +The man who did this kind of work was not a common carpenter. Such work +was largely practical and prosaic, but also it was largely decorative +and poetical. Probably, both in his own and in his customer's regard, +the decorative quality was set before the practical. Therefore, beyond +the dry, comparatively facile details of technique, this workman +studied, with an artist's reverence and zeal, the inner, subtler, +sweeter mysteries of line and form; harmonies of curve and angle; +patterns, now geometrical, now floral, now these two combined with magic +ingenuity; steeping himself in the aesthetic sense; making, indeed, his +work the literal fact or fitting of prosaic application that was +indispensable; but also, and as if upon some loftier initiative of his +own, a miracle of art for people of a later day to come and stand before +and wonder at. + + [Illustration: XX + _ALERO_ AND CORNICE OF CARVED WOOD + (_Cuarto de Comares, Alhambra, Granada_)] + +Indeed, whether because Our Lord had practised it, or from some other +motive, carpentry was always well esteemed among the Spaniards. The +Ordinances of Seville eulogize it, in conjunction with its sister-work +of masonry and building, as "a noble art and self-contained, that +increaseth the nobleness of the King and of his kingdom, that pacifieth +the people, and spreadeth love among mankind, conducing to much +good."[32] The same Ordinances divide these honourable craftsmen into +half a dozen classes and sub-classes; carvers or _entalladores_, +carpenters who kept a shop (_carpinteros de tienda_), _carpinteros de lo +prieto_, and _carpinteros de lo blanco_. The latter are the class we are +considering here, and these, in turn, were subdivided into _lazeros_ or +makers of _lazo_-work, _non-lazeros_ or those who did not make it, and +_jumetricos_ or _geometricos_. The statutory examination was severe +in all these branches. Thus, the _lazero_-carpenters of Seville were +required to make a chamber of octagonal _lazo_-work, including its +pendentives at the corners; while the wood-carvers of the same city were +required to be experienced draughtsmen and to make and carve "artistic +altar-screens with decorated columns, pedestals for images, and +tabernacles (_i.e._ the part of an altar where the cibory and the Host +are kept), as well as tombs and chambranles with their covering, +tabernacles of the utmost art (_de grande arte_), and rich +choir-stalls." + + [32] _"Es noble arte, complida en si; e acrescienta la nobleza del rey + y del reyno, si en ella pararen mientes, como deuen; e pone paz en + el pueblo y amor entre los omes, onde es carrera para muchos + bienes."_--_Ordenanzas de Sevilla_, Part 1, p. 141. + +Nor was the making of artistic ceilings, doors, and window-gratings +carried out exclusively by men of Moorish blood. Tutored by these, the +Christians practised it with great success. Prominent among these last +we find, early in the seventeenth century, the name of Diego Lopez de +Arenas, a Christian-Spaniard and a native of Marchena, who held the +licensed title of master-carpenter and lived for many years at +Seville.[33] In a lucky moment it occurred to Lopez de Arenas to write +and publish for the benefit of his fellow-craftsmen a book upon this +decorative oriental woodwork that had passed into the Spanish national +life. This book, _Carpinteria de lo Blanco_,[34] appeared at Seville in +1633, and fresh editions were printed at the same city in 1727, and at +Madrid in 1867. As in the Ordinances of Granada, Seville, and Toledo, +Arabic terms, too copious and too complicated for elucidation here, are +constantly repeated in this book.[35] Much of the general information +which we gather from it is, however, of great interest. Thus, we are +told that with the Spanish artists, as in Egypt, the wood most often +used, no doubt as being the cheapest, was pitch pine, parcelled and put +together in the most elaborate decorative schemes. Such was the +characteristic _alfarge_[36] ceiling of the Moorish, Morisco, and +Spanish-Christian _carpintero de lo blanco_. Its many fragments were +secured upon the frame by long, small-headed nails, or by these nails +combined with glue. If we observe the ceilings from close by, as when, +for instance, they are taken down to be restored, the workmanship +appears to be coarse, inaccurate, and hasty; the myriad pieces to be +clumsily and loosely joined; the nails to be driven in without method, +or even awry. Nevertheless, this false effect betrays the calculating +genius of the craftsman. He planned his work for contemplation by a +certain light and at a certain elevation; and therefore, as the ceiling +is removed again to its appointed distance, it seems to re-create itself +in proud defiance of an error of our own, and grows at once to its +habitual delicacy, harmony, and richness. + + [33] Gestoso finds no record of him in the city archives; but from a + rough portrait of Arenas prefixed to his treatise, we judge that + he was born about the year 1580. + + [34] Arenas himself defines a _carpintero de lo blanco_ as "he who + prepares and works upon the wood employed in building; also, he + who fashions tables, benches, etc., in his workshop." + + [35] "His language abounds in Arabic words and phrases of uncertain + origin, whose meaning (since he wrote for men familiar with this + work) he makes no effort to explain."--Editor's introduction to + the third edition of _Carpinteria de lo Blanco_. + + [36] Arabic _al-farx_, a carpet, piece of tapestry, or anything that + covers and adorns. + + [Illustration: XXI + "ELIJAH SLEEPING" + (_Statue in wood, by Alonso Cano_)] + +I have said that the decoration of these ceilings is sometimes floral, +sometimes geometrical, sometimes a combination of the two.[37] Sometimes +the wood is plain, or sometimes silvered, gilt, or painted. Sometimes it +is employed alone, or sometimes variegated and inlaid with plaster +points and patches. By far the commonest motive is the _lazo_--an +ornamental scheme composed of infinite strips that turn, and twist, and +intersect, describing in their mazy passage many polygons. One of these +polygons determines, in a way, the scheme of the entire ceiling, which +is denominated as consisting of "a _lazo_ of eight," "of ten," "of +twelve," etc., from this particular. The most attractive and most +frequent is the scheme "of eight." Among the decorative details used to +brighten and enhance the _lazo_ proper are _mocarabes_ or wooden lacery +for relieving cubes and joists or surfaces, and _racimos_ or "clusters"; +that is, hollow or solid wooden cones or prisms, disposed along the side +and centre panels of the ceiling like (in Arenas' ingenious phrase) the +buttons on a jacket, and contributing to the massive aspect of the +whole. These clusters, too, were sometimes in the stalactite and +sometimes in a simpler form, and show, both in the quantity and richness +of their ornament, a limitless diversity. + + [37] This mingled decoration is extremely common; and may be studied in + our country, in the carved panels at South Kensington which are + believed to proceed from the pulpit of the mosque of Kusun; or in + the thirteenth-century panels of the tomb of Es-salih Ayyub. + + [Illustration: XXII + SAINT BRUNO + (_By Alonso Cano. Cartuja of Granada_)] + +Magnificent Spanish-Moorish, Spanish, and Mudejar ceilings still exist +in Spain. Such are the marvellous domed ceiling in the Hall of Comares +(or of Ambassadors) in the Alhambra, those of the Castle of the +Aljaferia at Zaragoza and of the archbishop's palace at Alcala de +Henares, the Arab _alfarge_ ceilings in the churches of San Francisco +and Santiago of Guadix, that of the Hall of Cortes in the Audiencia of +Valencia, that of the Sala Capitular of Toledo Cathedral, that of the +Chapel of the Holy Spirit of the Cathedral of Cuenca (considered by many +to be the finest _artesonado_ ceiling in all Spain), or those of the +churches of Jesus Crucificado, El Carmen, and San Pablo at Cordova. The +ceiling of the Sala de la Barca, in the Moorish palace of the Alhambra, +was almost totally destroyed by fire in 1890, but a good photograph had +previously been taken, and I reproduce it here (Plate viii.). One of the +later _artesonado_ ceilings is at Cordova, in the parish church of +Santiago. Covered with a _boveda_ or vault of cane, it is in excellent +preservation, and was made in 1635 by the master-carpenter Alonso Munoz +de los Rios, who received for his labour fourteen thousand _reales_.[38] +The _artesonado_ ceilings which Diego Lopez de Arenas tells us in his +treatise that he made for the church, the choir, and the _sobreescalera_ +of the monastery of Santa Paula at Seville, as well as a ceiling which +he made for the church of Mairena, are all extant to-day. Other +remarkable examples of this craft are the ceilings of the rooms +constructed to the order of, and which were actually occupied by, +Charles the Fifth, within the precincts of the old Alhambra. Upon these +half-Italian, half-Morisco ceilings and their frieze we read the words, +"_Plus Oultre_"; and the inscription, "_Imperator Caesar Karolus V. +Hispaniarum rex semper augustus pius f[oe]lix invictissimus_." In one of +the same apartments, known as the "chamber of the fruits," the ceiling +has octagonal _artesones_ of superb effect, though even richer is that +of what is called the Second Sala de las Frutas, conspicuously +influenced by Italian art, and believed by Gomez Moreno to have been +designed by Pedro Machuca and executed by Juan de Plasencia. + + [38] Cordova was a famous centre of this craft for many centuries. + Ramirez de Arellano has found and published a notice relative to + Lope de Liano and Garcia Alonso, two artificers of this city who + signed, on January 7th, 1572, a contract with the prior of the + monastery of the Holy Martyrs to build a ceiling for one of the + chapels of the same. The document, which is quoted _in extenso_ in + the _Boletin de la Sociedad Espanola de Excursiones_ for November, + 1900, abounds in technical expressions, many of them partly or + entirely Moorish. + +The same writer publishes the names (hitherto completely unrecorded) of +thirteen other artist-carpenters who worked at Cordova in the latter +half of the sixteenth century and early in the seventeenth. The craft, +in fact, died hard, and ceilings of this kind, replete with Moorish +detail, were made in certain parts of Southern Spain until the closing +moments of the eighteenth century. + + [Illustration: XXIII + SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST + (_San Juan de Dios, Granada_)] + +Marvellous in conjunction with the thousand lighted lamps which served +to manifest its beauties, must have been the primitive ceiling +(_as-sicafes_) of the mosque of Cordova, of which an Arab poet sang; +"Look at the gold on it, like the kindled flame, or like the +lightning-stroke that darts across the heavens."[39] Our notices of this +ceiling, barbarously hacked to pieces by Christian architects, are +neither numerous nor clear. We are told, however, that it was nearly +finished in the reign of Abd-er-Rhaman the First, and terminated +altogether by his son Hixem. New ceilings were added on the enlarging of +the mosque by Abd-er-Rhaman the Second, while fresh additions were made +by Al-Hakem the Second and Al-Manzor. Ambrosio de Morales gives a quaint +description of the earliest, or an early, ceiling of this temple. "The +roof of the whole church, made of wood painted and adorned in divers +ways, is of incredible richness, as will be seen from what I am about +to say. It is of larch throughout, odorous, resembling pine, which is +not found in any part but Barbary,[40] whence it is brought by sea. And +every time that a part of this temple was thrown down for new +constructions to be added, the wood removed was sold for many thousand +ducats for making guitars and other delicate objects. The ceiling was +built across the church upon the nineteen naves thereof, and over it, +covered likewise with wood, the roofs, nineteen in number also, each +with its ridge atop, drooping to one and other side."[41] + + [39] That the Moors were proud of their mastery in woodwork is proved by + an inscription in the Torre de la Cautiva at Granada, saying; "In + the plaster and the tiles is work of extreme beauty, _but the + woodwork of the roof has vanquished them in elegance_." + + [40] Morales was probably mistaken. "On entering Aragon one sees whole + forests of 'Spanish Cedar' or _alerce_, some of the trees so thick + that they measure four feet in diameter."--Bowles' _Natural History + of Spain_, p. 102. + + [41] _Antiguedades de las ciudades de Espana_ (A.D. 1575), p. 123. + +Three pieces made of common pine, and which are thought to have belonged +to the original ceiling of this mosque or to an early replica, are now +in the National Museum at Madrid, but the carving of these fragments is +so simple that in the opinion of Rodrigo Amador de los Rios the +decoration of the wood itself was purposely subordinated in this +instance to the richness and variety of the painting. + + [Illustration: XXIV + CHOIR-STALLS + (_Santo Tomas, Avila_)] + +Three types of decorative doors were made in older Spain. In the +earliest and simplest (_laceria en talla_), the _laceria_ or _lazo_-work +is carved directly on and from the solid plank which forms the body of +the door. In the second type, the carver's art is delicately blended +with the joiner's--_lazo_-work with _ensamblaje_. In the third type the +_lazo_-work is _sobrepuesta_--that is, attached to, not elaborated from, +the planking.[42] + +[42] Jose Amador de los Rios mentions, as a good example of the first of +these types, a thirteenth-century door of the _claustrilla_ in the +monastery of Las Huelgas at Burgos. Other doors in the same monastery +are illustrative of the second type; while all three types are +represented by the doors, described herewith, which close the principal +entrance to the misnamed Hall of Ambassadors in the Alcazar of Seville. + +As in the case of ceilings, many and excellent examples of these doors +exist to-day in Spain. Among the most remarkable are several in the +Moorish palace of the Alhambra, such as the two (dating from the end of +the fourteenth century or early in the fifteenth) belonging, +respectively, to the famous Hall of the Abencerrajes (Pl. ix.), and to +the Hall of the Two Sisters (Pl. x.). Apparently it was the former of +these doors which Bertaut de Rouen wrote of in the seventeenth century +as "une porte aussi grande et aussi epaisse comme celles de nos plus +grandes eglises. Elle s'ouvre des deux costez, et est toute de pieces +rapportees, et d'un bois de differentes couleurs, comme les beaux +cabinets et les belles tables qui coustent si cher."[43] + + [43] _Journal du Voyage en Espagne_, p. 85. + +An early Mudejar door proceeding from the church of San Pedro at Daroca +in Aragon is now in the National Museum. This door, which is of larch, +and measures nearly fourteen feet in height by nine in breadth, is of a +simple design and represents a horse-shoe door described within the door +itself. It was originally painted vermilion, with other decorative +painting of a simple character in black, white, and red, and is +fortified with massive iron braces. It is believed to date from earlier +than the fourteenth century. + + [Illustration: XXV + CARVED CHOIR-STALL + (_Toledo Cathedral_)] + +The mighty doors of the "Hall of Ambassadors," in the mediaeval royal +residence of Seville (Plates xi. and xii.), are quite the finest to be +seen in Spain. Although a widespread superstition assigns their +manufacture to a period close upon the Moorish conquest, it has been +proved conclusively that they were made by Mudejar craftsmen of Toledo +at the time when the whole Alcazar was erected more or less upon the +ruins of the old, by Pedro the First of Castile, denominated, according +to the prejudice with which we view his character, "the Cruel," or +"the Just."[44] + + [44] The following words record the date of the construction of this + place and its doors, and may be read (Plate xiii.) upon the scroll + of tiles or _alizares_ crowning the principal facade:-- + + [cross] EL | MUY | ALTO | ET | MUY | NOBLE | ET | MUY | + PODEROSO | ET | MUY | CONQUERIDOR | DON | PEDRO | POR | + LA | GRACIA | DE | DIOS | REY | DE | CASTIELLA | ET | + DE | LEON | MANDO | FACER | ESTOS | ALCAZARES | ET | + ESTOS | PALACIOS | ET | ESTAS | PORTADAS | QUE | FUE | + FECHO | EN | LA | ERA | DE | MILL | ET | QUATROCIENTOS | + Y | DOS | + +The observant Swinburne was not misled, like many travellers of to-day, +into believing the Alcazar to be of purely Moorish origin. "Having read +that the Moors built one part of this palace, I concluded I was admiring +something as old as the Mahometan kings of Seville; but upon closer +examination was not a little surprised to find _lions_, _castles_, and +other armorial ensigns of Castille and Leon, interwoven with Arabesque +foliages; and still more so, to see in large Gothic characters, an +inscription informing me that these edifices were built in the +fourteenth century, by the most mighty king of Castille and Leon, Don +Pedro." + +These doors, which under a pretence of restoration have been mutilated +more than once, are made of larch, and measure sixteen feet in height by +thirteen feet (including both the leaves) in width. The upper part of +either leaf consists of geometrical and floral ornament in exquisitely +tasteful combination, executed in the scheme known technically, from the +angles at the central polygon, as _lazo de a doce_--"_lazo_-work of +twelve." The decoration of the lower part is more minute, and in the +scheme of _lazo de a diez_--"_lazo_-work of ten." Inscriptions in Arabic +and Latin, many of which are quoted from the Psalms, are distributed on +both sides of the woodwork, and confirm our other evidence that the +doors were made during the reign and in obedience to the orders, of Don +Pedro. + +The Plateresco sixteenth-century doors of the Capilla de los Vargas at +Madrid (Plate xiv.) are attributed by Cean Bermudez and by Ponz to an +artist named Giralte, who carved them in walnut with various military +and other scenes from Scripture, alternating with shields and floral +ornament; the whole surrounded by an exquisitely delicate and tasteful +border. Lamperez remarks that the errors of perspective recall the +similar productions of Ghiberti. + + [Illustration: XXVI + CHOIR-STALLS + (_Burgos Cathedral_)] + +The _celosia_ or decorative wooden window-grating, imported by the +Mussulman conqueror from Egypt and the East, extended to all parts of +Christian Spain, and was particularly used in convents. These gratings, +identical in form and workmanship with those of Cairo,[45] were +attached to projecting windows, so that the women of a household +could look into the street without themselves being seen, a custom which +the Spanish woman still recalls to us by peering, for hours at a time, +between the lowered _persiana_ of her balcony.[46] By the seventeenth +century, which may truthfully be called the age of Spanish jealousy, and +when the "Othello-like revenge of the Moor" had eaten into the very +entrails of society, the _celosia_ had become as indispensable to houses +as the door or window. "La," wrote Bertaut de Rouen of a residence on +the outskirts of Madrid, and obviously alluding to these gratings, "il y +avoit bien des Dames dans l'appartement d'enhaut qui y demeurerent +cachees, se contentant de nous voir promener dans le jardin par les +fenetres." + + [45] "The windows, which are chiefly composed of curious wooden + lattice-work, serving to screen the inhabitants from the view of + persons without, as also to admit both light and air, commonly + project outwards, and are furnished with mattresses and + cushions."--Lane's _Arabian Nights_, vol. i., p. 192. + + [46] It is strange that Ford should have confounded the _reja_ with the + _celosia_ (_Handbook_, vol. i., p. 153). However, he opportunely + quotes the Spanish proverb, _Muger ventanera tuercela el cuello si + la quieres buena_ ("The remedy for a woman who is always thrusting + her head from the casement is to twist her neck"). + +We know from the stone coat of arms which is carved above the doorway of +the "House of Castril at Granada" that in the olden time the balconies +of the Hall of Comares in the Alhambra were fitted with projecting +wooden _celosias_; and Contreras says that in the Torre de los Punales +of the same palace there used to be "a kind of wooden _mirador_ or +_menacir_, covered with _celosias_ like those of Cairo, and many of +which were still to be seen in Granada early in the nineteenth century." + +I am not aware of any Moorish _celosia_ remaining to this day outside a +Spanish building. In such exposed positions weather and the natural +delicacy of the woodwork seem to have destroyed them all. As an interior +ornament, a single one (Pl. xvi.) exists in the Alhambra. Nevertheless, +I hesitate to call this _celosia_ purely Moorish. Perhaps it is the work +of a Morisco, or even of a Christian-Spaniard, for we know that +decorative wooden fittings for the Alhambra were made in the sixteenth +century by Antonio Navarro and other craftsmen. The grating, which is +well preserved, covers a window over the archway leading from the Hall +of the Two Sisters into the Sala de los Ajimeces and the Mirador de +Daraxa, and consists of minute prisms and turned pieces in the typical +Egyptian style. + + [Illustration: XXVII + CHOIR STALLS + (_San Marcos, Leon_)] + +Other fittings for a building, wrought in wood by Moorish artists and +by these communicated to the Christian-Spaniards, were balustrades and +cornices, _aleros_ (decorative bands beneath the eaves of a roof, Plate +xvii.) and _zapatas_ (gargoyle-looking figures, often in human form, +used to support a roof or gallery). In the so-called "Patio de las Asas" +of the convent of Santa Catalina de Zafra, at Granada, exists an +interesting Moorish balustrade[47] that seems almost untouched by time. +I reproduce an outline of it as the tailpiece to the present chapter, +and am glad to append the little sketch in question, copied from a +photograph I took upon the spot three years ago, because it is almost +impossible to obtain admission to this convent. Beautiful or uncouth and +quaint _zapatas_ may be seen in the Casa de los Tiros at Granada, and in +many other places (Plates xviii. and xix.). Much of the Moorish woodwork +of the palace of the Alhambra was destroyed by the fire of 1590, but +there yet remain the ample cornice and carved _alero_ of the facade of +the Cuarto de Comares (Plate xx.), which is often called in error the +Court of the Mezquita. This _alero_ bears the following inscription, +allusive to the Sultan Mohammed the Fifth:--"I am the place where the +crown is guarded, and on my doors being opened the regions of the west +believe the east to be contained within me. Algami Billah charged me to +keep guard upon the doorway." + + [47] Almagro Cardenas calls it "part of a _celosia_" (_Museo Granadino_, + p. 79); but as it can never have been a window-grating, this term + is incorrect. Gomez Moreno calls it, not too lucidly, "a wooden + balustrade forming squares and rectangular figures in the manner + of a _celosia_" (_Guia de Granada_, p. 421). Valladar (_Guia de + Granada_, edition of 1906, p. 117) calls it simply a balustrade, + and this, it seems to me, is the only term which truthfully + describes the object. + +Other remarkable _aleros_ are in the Generalife and in the Court of +Lions of the Alhambra, while, also in this last-named mansion, genuine +Moorish woodwork of elaborately inlaid ebony and larch is in two niches +near the entrance to the Sala de Embajadores. + + + SACRED STATUARY, _SILLERIAS_ OR CHOIR-STALLS, AND _RETABLOS_ + +The genius of the wood-carvers of older Spain is manifested chiefly in +three groups of objects--sacred statuary, choir-stalls, and _retablos_. +Among this people, and probably by reason of its cheapness, plain, or +gilt, or polychrome painted wood has always been a favourite material +for the statues of their temples, whether such statues were employed +alone, or as an accessory to a larger article of sacred furniture, such +as a pulpit, or a _silleria_, or an altar-screen. So powerful, in fact, +has been the vogue of this material here,[48] that even to-day the +Spanish people, making, in Symonds' happy phrase, "representation an +object in itself, independently of its spiritual significance," attempt +to elevate the most remarkable of their wooden, and by preference their +coloured wooden, statuary (typically defended by Pacheco's indigested +tome), to rank beside the noblest and the purest monuments of bronze and +marble; denoting, by this reckless and uneducated partiality, a +positively national misconception of the true domain of art. + + [48] My readers are no doubt aware that every Spanish hamlet has its + wooden image of the Virgin, badly executed as a rule, and rendered + doubly hideous by a gaudy gown. Most of these local images are + believed to hold the power of working miracles, or at least to + have been fashioned and conducted to their present shrine by + supernatural agency--on which account the populace and their + pastors call these latter _imagenes aparecidas_, as distinct from + _manufactured_ images. Such are the Virgins of Montserrat, Granada, + and numerous other cities, towns, or villages of this illiterate + and ill-starred Peninsula. The curious may refer for every kind of + detail to Villafane's _Compendious History of the Wonder-working + Images of Spain_, which numbered in this author's day (his book was + published in 1740) one hundred and eighty-nine. But the most + extraordinary miracle of all was that which is recalled, with pious + gravity, by Bertaut de Rouen. Speaking of the gilt-wood image of + Nuestra Senora del Pilar at Zaragoza, he says:--"On y void quantite + de lampes d'argent et on m'en raconta un miracle qu'il me fut + impossible de ne pas croire. C'est d'un pauvre homme qui ayant eu + la jambe coupee pour une blessure, et s'estant bien recommande a + _Nostra Senora del Pilar_, il se trouva un jour avec sa mesme jambe + qu'il avoit deja fait enterrer. Y'ay sceu l'histoire du chirurgien + mesme qui coupa cette jambe et de quantite de temoins de veue. Il + n'y a que quinze ans que cela est arrive, mais l'homme est mort + depuis peu."--_Journal du Voyage en Espagne_, p. 203. + + [Illustration: XXVIII + DETAIL OF CHOIR-STALLS + (_Leon Cathedral_)] + +It is outside the scope of such a work as this to deal at any length +with Spanish figure-sculpture. However, it is only fair to recognize +that Spain produced a couple of score or so of admirable carvers of +wood-statuary. Among the greatest of these craftsmen or _imagineros_ +were Becerra, Berruguete, Juan de Juni, author of the _Mater Dolorosa_ +("Our Lady of the Knives"), of Valladolid; Gregorio Hernandez the +Galician, author of "Simon the Cyrenian," "Santa Veronica," and "the +Baptism of our Lord"; Martinez Montanes, author of "San Jeronimo" and of +the "Cristo del Gran Poder";[49] Solis, Gaspar de Ribas, Juan Gomez, +author of the "Jesus" of Puerto de Santa Maria; Pedro Roldan, with whom, +according to Tubino, "the art of Seville closed its eyes"; and Alonso +Cano, master of Pedro and Alonso de Mena, Ruiz del Peral, Jose de Mora, +and Diego de Mora, and who carved the exquisite "Elijah Sleeping" (Pl. +xxi.) now at Toledo, and also (as it is believed) the famous statuette +(Frontispiece to the present volume) of Saint Francis of Assisi. + + [49] It is due to Martinez Montanes to mention that in many of his + contracts he stipulated that the painters of his statuary should + be chosen by himself, "so as not to corrupt the outline and the + sentiment of the figures." + + [Illustration: XXIX + CHOIR-STALLS + (_Plasencia Cathedral_)] + +The earliest centre of this branch of wood-carving was Valladolid, where +lived and laboured Juni and Hernandez. Nevertheless, although so popular +in every part of Spain, it had a short-lived prime, originating in the +two Castiles towards the reign of Philip the Second, declining steadily +(with Seville for its centre now) all through the seventeenth century, +and flickering out, despite the perseverance and the genius of the +Murcian Susillo, in the century succeeding. + +In decorative _sillerias_ or sets of choir-stalls, Spain has produced +examples worthy to be set beside the masterpiece of Vitry in the abbey +of Sainte-Claude, the best productions of Duerer and his followers in +Germany, or those of Donatello, Brunelleschi, Valdambrino, Vechietta, +and Verrochio in Italy. Nevertheless, her most distinguished +_silleria_-makers were at almost every moment inspired and directed by +the foreigner. Germans or Flemings were her first preceptors in this +craft. These artists had been sent for, or proceeded of their own +accord, to Spain, and settling in this country rapidly spread the +technics of their art among the Spaniards. In the Peninsula the origin +of this school or movement may be traced to Burgos. Here, just as the +fifteenth century was drawing to its close, and just before the breath +of the Renaissance crossed the Spanish frontier at its eastern side, was +gathered a small though influential group of eminent workers in more +crafts than one; painters and sculptors, architects, embroiderers, +carvers of wood, _reja_-makers, and painters of cathedral glass. +Prominent among them all was a foreigner named Philip Vigarny,[50] who +is described by Diego de Sagrado as "singular above all others in the +art of making statuary and sculpture; a man of vast experience, general +in his mastery of the liberal and mechanic arts, and no less resolute in +all that is related with the sciences of architecture." + + [50] In Spanish he is called Felipe de Borgona, but Marti y Monso says + that the proper spelling of the surname is Biguerny. + + [Illustration: XXX + DETAIL OF CHOIR-STALLS + (_Convent of San Marcos, Leon_)] + +Burgundy is said to have been the birthplace of Felipe de Borgona, but +of his early history we have no tidings. In documents which bear his +signature he styles himself "_imaginario_, resident at Burgos." Three +such documents exist. On August 1st, 1505, he agrees, for 130,000 +_maravedis_, to make "such images as may be necessary" for the altar of +the high chapel of Palencia cathedral, "he with his own hand to carve +the hands and faces, out of good smooth walnut, without painting." This +document is dated from Palencia. The other two are dated severally, +Burgos, December 6th, 1506, and Corcos, September 6th, without the +addition of the year.[51] We also know this craftsman to have made the +great _retablo_ of Burgos cathedral. Such, from the fragmentary +semblance we can trace of him, was Philip Vigarny, the pioneer of the +wood-carvers of older Spain, and who, aided by other craftsmen from +abroad, communicated all the secrets of his art to Spaniards such as Gil +de Siloe, Ruy Sanchez, Diego de la Cruz, Alonso de Lima, and Berruguete. + + [51] Zarco del Valle, _Documentos Ineditos para la Historia de las + Bellas Artes en Espana_, pp. 161, 162. + +The typical _silleria_ consists of two tiers; the _sellia_ or upper +seats, with high backs and a canopy, intended for the canons, and the +lower seats or _subsellia_, of simpler pattern and with lower backs, +intended for the _beneficiados_. At the head of all is placed the +presidential throne, larger than the other stalls, and covered, in many +cases, by a canopy surmounted by a tall spire. When the _silleria_ +belongs to a monastery, the higher stalls are for the _profesos_, and +the lower for the novices and _legos_. Commonly the part that forms the +actual seat is hinged and rises to a vertical position, being so +contrived that when the occupant rises to his feet, there remains a +narrow ledge projecting from the under surface. This ledge is called the +"seat of pity" or "of patience," because the worshipper is able to +incline himself on it and give his limbs some measure of repose without +appearing to be seated. There also is commonly another piece, intended +for him to rest his hands upon in rising, which projects from the sides +of the stall and forms a part of the decorative carving, as well as, +somewhat higher still, the carved support to rest his arms while he is +on his feet. + + [Illustration: XXXI + "SAMSON" + (_Carved Choir-stall of Leon Cathedral_)] + +The earliest Spanish _sillerias_ date from the fourteenth century; but +it is not until the century succeeding that we find them at their very +best. Gothic or Plateresco _sillerias_ of marvellous design and +workmanship are those of the Seo of Zaragoza (begun in 1412), the +Cartuja de Miraflores of Burgos (1489), the monastery of Ona, Santa +Maria de Najera (1495), the church of Santa Maria del Campo, in the +province of Burgos, Santo Tomas of Avila (finished in 1493), and the +cathedrals of Oviedo, Segovia (1461-1497), Ciudad Rodrigo, Tarragona +(1478), Tarazona, Toledo (begun in 1494), Zamora, Astorga, Barcelona +(1453-1483), and Seville (finished in 1478). + +The Gothic choir-stalls of the Seo of Zaragoza have lofty backs with +arabesque Mudejar ornamentation, small Gothic columns, and medallions +containing figures upon the arms of every stall. The material is Flemish +oak. The carving was begun in 1412 by the Moors Ali Arrondi, Muza, and +Chamar, who earned a daily wage of four _sueldos_. In 1446 Juan Navarro +and the brothers Antonio and Francisco Gomar were working at the same +stalls, and also, in 1449, Francoy. + +The stalls of the Cartuja de Miraflores at Burgos were carved by Martin +Sanchez, who received in 1486, and for the _mano de obra_ alone, the sum +of 125,000 _maravedis_. The material, which was presented by Luis de +Velasco, Senor of Belorado, is dark walnut. + +The _silleria_ of Santa Maria de Najera, the work of Maestro Andres and +Maestro Nicolas, is Gothic merging into the Renaissance. That of Santo +Tomas of Avila (late Gothic) consists of sixty oaken stalls, besides two +larger ones resembling thrones (Plate xxiv.), intended to be occupied by +Ferdinand and Isabella, founders of this monastery, and whose arms they +bear in lace-like carving. The rest of the decoration is composed of +thistles, vines, trefoils, and pomegranates. Owing to the fact that not +a single cross appears on any part of the _silleria_ (although this +circumstance is not unusual in sacred Gothic woodwork), there is a +superstition that these stalls were wrought anonymously by some Jew, +condemned to execute them by the Inquisition as a form of punishment. +This fable has no value. Although the author's name is not upon the +stalls, they are identical in nearly every detail with those of the +Cartuja de Miraflores at Burgos, known to have been carved by Martin +Sanchez in 1486. Hence it is extremely probable that this craftsman was +the author of both _sillerias_. + + [Illustration: XXXII + "ESAU" + (_Carved Choir-stall of Leon Cathedral_)] + +On many Spanish _sillerias_ we find most spirited reproductions of the +life and manners of their time; satirical allusions to contemporary +vices, allegories and caprices as fantastic, in the phrase of Vargas +Ponce, as "one of Bosch's nightmares," hunting-scenes or love-scenes, +banquets, tournaments, dances, battles, sieges, and even bull-fights. +Thus, on the stalls of the cathedrals of Zamora, Oviedo, Plasencia, +Astorga, and Leon are carved such subjects as the following. A fox +dressed as a friar, preaching to a group of hens but slyly abstracting +their chicks (Zamora), men fighting with their fists (Zamora), a hog +playing the bagpipes (Leon), the Devil in the garb of a confessor, +tempting a penitent (Leon), a woman suckling an ass (Leon), a man armed +with a lance, fighting a woman (Astorga), a bird of prey struggling with +a crocodile (Astorga), card-players (Astorga), a warrior on all-fours, +whipped by a woman (Plasencia), an _auto-de-fe_ (Plasencia), swine +praying and spinning (Ciudad Rodrigo), a fight between a tiger and a +bull (Ciudad Rodrigo), a monkey beating a drum (Ciudad Rodrigo), and a +monkey wearing a mitre (Ciudad Rodrigo). + +The style of the lower stalls of Toledo cathedral is good Plateresque. +They were begun in 1494 by Maese Rodrigo, one of the very best of +Spain's _entalladores_, and portray, in each successive stall, the +phases of the last campaign against Granada (Plate xxv.); the sieges or +battles of Altora, Melis, Xornas, Erefran, Alminia, Baza, Malaga (two +stalls), Salobrena, Almunecar, Comares, Beles, Montefrio, Moclin, +Illora, Loja, Cazarabonela, Coyn, Cartama, Marbella, Ronda, Setenil, +Alora, Alhama, Nixar, Padux, Vera, Huescar, Guadix, Purchena, Almeria, +Rion, Castil de Ferro, Cambril, Zagani, Castul, Gor, Canzoria, Moxacar, +Velez el Blanco, Gurarca, Velez el Rubio, Soreo, and Cabrera. + +The upper tier of the same stalls belongs to a later period, and will, +in consequence, be noticed subsequently. + +The _silleria_ of Barcelona cathedral was begun in the middle of the +fifteenth century by Matias Bonafe, at the same time that the German +Michael Locher and his pupil John Frederic worked at the canopies. It +was finished thirty years later. Upon the back (which otherwise is +plain) of every stall is a coat of arms distinct from all its +neighbours, marking the seat of one of the princes or nobles summoned by +Charles the Fifth to the Chapter of the Order of the Golden Fleece, +March 5th, 1519.[52] + + [Illustration: XXXIII + _RETABLO_ + (_Seville Cathedral_)] + +The splendid _silleria_ of Seville cathedral is a mingling of the Gothic +with the Mudejar and Plateresque. The material is oak and fir, and the +number of the seats one hundred and seventeen. The _sellia_ are +surmounted by a graceful running _guardapolvo_. Each seat is carved +distinctly from the rest, and further decorated in the Mudejar style +with inlaid woods of various kinds and colours, imitating stone mosaic. +Among this labyrinth of design are groups of people, angels, animals, +and scenes from Scripture, as well as, on the lower stalls, the Giralda +tower, which forms the arms of the cathedral. The _silleria_ is further +embellished with two hundred and sixteen statuettes, seventy-two of +which are ranged along the canopy or _dosel_, the remainder being +distributed between the seats. + + [52] "The stalls of the choir are neatly carved, and hung with + escutcheons of princes and noblemen, among which I remarked the + arms of our Henry the Eighth."--Swinburne. + +The authors of this splendid work of art (judiciously restored some +years ago by Boutelou, Fernandez, and Mattoni) were Nufio Sanchez, +Dancart, and several other craftsmen, concerning whom we know but very +little. Sanchez' name is carved upon the second stall of the upper row, +and on the side of the Evangelist, as follows:-- + + [Illustration] + +The above inscription states that "this choir was made by Nufio Sanchez, +_entallador_ (God guard him[53]), and finished in the year one thousand +four hundred and seventy-eight." + + [53] This kind of parenthetical remark or prayer is one of the many + Muslim phrases that have passed into the regular service of the + Spanish Christian. + +With the dawn of the sixteenth century, the Gothic style runs rapidly +into that of the Renaissance. At about this time, and as Baron Davillier +pointed out, we sometimes find a triple influence, namely, the +Burgundian, the Italian, and the native Spanish. Vigarny may be called +the champion of the first of these, Berruguete (who studied in Italy) +of the second, and Guillermo Doncel of the third. After this the purer +Renaissance gives place to the decadent, as in the stalls of Santiago, +Malaga, Cordova, and Salamanca. + + [Illustration: XXXIV + _RETABLO_ OF SEVILLE CATHEDRAL + (_Detail of Carving_)] + +Sixteenth-century _sillerias_ of note are those of Burgos cathedral +(Plate xxvi.), carved by Vigarny, Avila cathedral, the Pilar of +Zaragoza, the Minor Friars of the Cartuja of Burgos, Pamplona cathedral, +San Marcos of Leon, Huesca, the _alta silleria_ of Toledo, and the +walnut stalls--carved in 1526 by Bartolome Fernandez de Segovia, and now +in the Madrid Museum--of the Parral of Segovia. + +The _silleria_ of Avila cathedral is believed to have been begun in 1527 +by Juan Rodrigo, although the greater part of it was probably executed +between 1536 and 1547 by Cornelis de Holanda, who took for his model the +stalls of San Benito of Valladolid. The cost of the walnut wood and of +its workmanship amounted to 33,669 _reales_. + +The upper stalls of Toledo cathedral were carved by Vigarny and Alonso +Berruguete in collaboration, so that we find in them the northern and +Italian styles effectively and interestingly united. The +Plateresque-Renaissance _silleria_, described as "genuinely Spanish," of +the old convent of San Marcos of Leon, containing statuettes of biblical +personages and of fathers of the Church--Saint Isidore among them,--was +finished in 1542 by Guillermo Doncel, who added the inscription +"_Magister Guillermus Doncel me fecit MDXLII_" (Plate xxvii.). We know, +however, nothing more about this excellent Spanish artist, except that +(on the unsupported testimony of Cean) he worked at the facade of this +convent between the years 1537 and 1544. + +The intricate _silleria_ of the Pilar of Zaragoza, containing almost +every kind of subject--beasts, birds and fishes, allegories, incidents +of the chase, or scenes of popular life--was designed by Esteban de +Obray, a Navarrese, and executed by him and his assistants, Juan Moreto +Florentino and Nicolas de Lobato, between 1542 and 1548. That of the +Minor Friars of the Cartuja of Burgos was carved at a cost of eight +hundred and ten ducats by Simon de Bueras, in 1558. That of Pamplona +cathedral dates from about the middle of the century, and is the work of +one Ancheta, who had visited Italy and gathered inspiration from the +masterpieces of Siena. The material is English oak. The stalls of +Huesca, carved from oak proceeding from an older _silleria_ which had +been removed, were begun in 1587 and finished in 1594. The craftsmen +were Nicolas de Verastegui and Juan Verrueta de Sanguesa. + + [Illustration: XXXV + DETAIL OF _RETABLO_ + (_Late 15th century. Museum of Valladolid_)] + +Seventeenth-century _sillerias_ are those of Santiago, carved by Juan de +Vila in 1603; Salamanca, in 1651, by Alfonso Balbas; Orihuela, in 1692, +by Juan Bautista Borja; and Segorbe, carved in the same year by Nicolas +Camaron; while dating from the eighteenth century--a period of manifest +decadence in this beautiful but short-lived craft--are the stalls of +Lerida, by Luis Bonifar y Maso (born in 1730), and Cordova, executed +between 1748 and 1757, at a cost of 913,889 _reales_, by Pedro Ciriaco +Duque y Cornejo, a son of Seville and a pupil of the Sevillano Roldan. + +The least imperfect of these later and decadent _sillerias_ is that of +Malaga, whose author, Pedro de Mena, was, like his master, Alonso Cano, +a native of Granada. + +Mena's contract with two canons of the cathedral, nominated by the +bishop to prepare and sign the stipulations, will be found in No. 134 of +the _Boletin de la Sociedad de Excursiones_. + +The stalls of Malaga number a hundred and one, carved in walnut, larch, +cedar, and the heavy Indian wood called _granadillo_. As happens with +many of the _sillerias_ of this country, the costumes of the figures are +of great historical value. Among the saints is San Roque, in pilgrim's +garb, attended by the dog who brought him day by day a loaf of bread +while men refused to succour him. + +No less magnificent than these sets of choir-stalls are the carved +_retablos_ or altar-screens,[54] a gradual excrescence from the +primitive and unpretentious altar of the early days of Christianity. +Several kinds of craftsmen worked upon these altar-screens, such as +_tallistas_, _entalladores_, _imagineros_, and even architects. + + [54] Wood is the usual material for these altar-screens, though + sometimes marble was employed, or stone, or silver. Of Genoese + marble is the _retablo_ (end of the fourteenth or beginning of the + fifteenth century) of the Cartuja del Paular in the Lozoya valley; + of stone, those of the parish church of San Nicolas at Burgos (end + of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth century), and of the + "chapel of the tailors" in Tarragona Cathedral; while a silver + _retablo_, in the Renaissance style, was that of the church, now + demolished, of Santa Maria at Madrid. + +The Golden Age of the _retablo_ embraces the end of the fifteenth +century and the whole of the sixteenth. Notable examples belonging to +this period are the screens of the monastery of Santo Tomas at Avila, +San Martin of Segovia, the Cartuja de Miraflores, the Colegiata of +Covarrubias in the province of Burgos, the cathedrals of Avila, Toledo, +Tudela, and Tarazona; several in the churches of Toledo, two in the +church of San Lesmes (Burgos), two in Burgos Cathedral (Plate xxxvi.), +and three, including those of _Reyes_ and of _Buena Mariana_, in the +church of San Gil in the same city. Not one of these, however, has the +grandeur or variety of the altar-screen of Seville (Plates xxxiii. and +xxxiv.), which is carefully described in Cean's monograph. "The style is +Gothic; the material, undecaying larch; and the screen, which reaches +nearly to the vaulting, is the largest in the country, although at first +it spanned the presbytery only, not including either side. It was +designed in 1482 by Dancat or Danchart, who began work upon it as soon +as his sketches were approved, and worked at it till 1492, in which year +he seems to have died. + + [Illustration: XXXVI + DETAIL OF _RETABLO_ + (_Chapel of Santa Ana, Burgos Cathedral_)] + +"Dancat was succeeded by Master Marco and Bernardo de Ortega, whose +carving reached, by 1505, the canopy or _viga_, and who were followed in +their turn by Francisco, Bernardo's son, father and teacher of +Bernardino and Nufrio de Ortega, his assistants. Some of the statues +were carved by Micer Domingo. The rest of the _imagineria_ was finished +in 1526; and the gilding and painting were done by Alejo Fernandez, his +brother, and Andres de Covarrubias. + +"So the screen remained till 1550, when the Chapter decided to extend +it, without altering the style of decoration, to the sides of the +presbytery. By this time Spanish sculpture had improved, and many of our +best-known sculptors lent their aid, of whom the earliest were Roque +Balduc, Pedro Becerril, el Castellano, Juan de Villalva, Diego Vazquez, +and Pedro Bernal. In 1553 the Chapter appointed, to inspect the work of +these artists, Juan Reclid and Luis de Aguilar, both of whom lived at +Jaen. Henceforth the master-craftsmen working at the screen were Pedro +de Heredia, Gomez de Orozco, Diego Vazquez the younger, Juan Lopez, +Andres Lopez del Castillo, and his sons, Juan de Palencia, and Juan +Bautista Vazquez. By 1564 the screen was quite concluded. + +"The Gothic work is of incomparable richness. Ten groups of tall and +narrow columns, resting upon two pedestals or socles, divide the +_retablo_ into nine spaces, crossed by horizontal bands of complicated +carving, forming a series of thirty-six niches, in four rows. Statues a +little less than life-size represent, in the first row, the creation and +fall of our first parents, and the mysteries of the infancy of Christ; +in the second, His preaching and miracles; in the third, His passion and +death; and in the fourth, His resurrection, appearance to the disciples, +and ascension; also the coming of the Holy Ghost. Upon the altar-table, +and resting in its niche, is the statue, covered with silver plates, of +Nuestra Senora de la Sede, presented to this temple by Saint Ferdinand. +Above the _viga_, which has an _artesonado_ ceiling, rises a +frontispiece containing thirteen canopied niches with statues of the +apostles, and in the centre niche that of the Virgin Mary. Crowning the +whole _retablo_ are statues larger than life-size, and a Calvary +standing in free space."[55] + + [55] _Descripcion de la Catedral de Sevilla_, pp. 27, 28. + +Throughout these Spanish altar-screens the influence which predominates +is that of Germany. They are essentially distinguished by a Northern art +(Plates xxxv., xxxvi.), not sentimental but material, not tender but +robust, not (like the art of the Italians) retrospective or prospective, +but prosaic, realistic, actual. Curiously enough, their presence seems +incongruous in Spain, and yet they made themselves at home here; for +Spanish art was ever realistic, so probably on this account two widely +different nations found, at least in this particular craft, a common +bond of sympathy. Certainly the Renaissance, while it seemed to cherish +and encourage, really undermined and killed this branch of Spanish +wood-carving. A similar phenomenon attends the art of the Alhambra. In +either case the plenitude of power and of beauty is even more ephemeral +than the term of human life; and thus, deluded by so brilliant and +majestic a decay, we fail to apprehend, or seek to grow oblivious of, +the imminence of their ruin. + + [Illustration] + + + + + IVORIES + + +The story of Spanish ivory-work is shortly told, for probably +no craft, excepting glass, has been so little practised in this country. +The older Spanish writers rarely mention it, although from time to time +this substance may have been employed for carving diptyches and boxes, +and Roderick is stated to have entered the battle of the Guadalete in an +ivory car, by which is meant, perhaps, a chariot of Byzantine make or +pattern, covered with ivory plates. However, properly speaking, the +history of this art as exercised in Spain begins in the eleventh +century, attains its prime towards the fourteenth century, and ceases +altogether at the time of the Renaissance. + +Among the ivory objects now preserved in Spain, and which were wrought +by artists other than Mohammedan, none is more interesting or important +than the consular diptych of Oviedo cathedral. Although this valuable +diptych was not made in Spain, but manifests Byzantine art in all its +purity, it well deserves to be described. It consists of two ivory +tablets measuring sixteen inches and a half in height by twelve inches +and a half across both leaves. Each leaf has a simple border of a triple +form, and just inside each corner is a circular floral ornament in +relief, with a lion's head in the centre. Another ornament, also +circular, is in the centre of each leaf, and contains, carved within a +graceful S-shaped border, a half-length portrait of the Consul, who is +represented in the act of throwing down into the amphitheatre his +_mappa_ or handkerchief[56] with his right hand, while in his left he +holds the sceptre (_scipio imaginifer_), crowned with a small bust. His +hair is curled in the Byzantine fashion, and his costume is a richly +decorated toga. + + [56] _I.e._ as a signal to begin the sport. The same usage (except that + the handkerchief is waved, and not thrown down) is followed at + this moment in the Spanish bull-ring. + +An inscription runs along the top of either tablet, between the border +and the circular devices carved with flowers. It says:-- + +_Flavius Strategius Apion--Strategius Apion. Vir inlustris Comes +Devotissimorum Domesticorum et Consul ordinarius._ + + [Illustration: XXXVII + IVORY BOX + (_9th Century. Madrid Museum_)] + +We gather, therefore, that this magnate was a chamberlain at court, as +well as ordinary consul. + +Diptyches were used among the Romans for all kinds of purposes, such as +to convey love-messages, as invitations to a banquet, or to notify the +celebration of feasts and games. We find the diptych also used in +Christian temples from the time of Constantine, serving to record church +festivals or names of saints and martyrs, as covers for a copy of the +gospel (_diptycha evangeliorum_), or as reliquaries (_thecae +reliquiarum_). Sometimes these diptyches were wrought expressly for the +church, or sometimes they were consular diptyches that had been +preserved from former ages. This latter class, when cleansed from pagan +usage and devoted to the ceremonies of the Christian faith, was known as +_diptycha mixta_. + +Such early objects as were wrought in ivory by Spanish hands, consisting +as a rule of circular or oblong, square or oval caskets, were +principally carved by Moors or Mudejares. Among the Spanish-Moorish +boxes which are still preserved are several of the greatest interest and +beauty (Plates xxxviii., xxxix., xl.). One of them, made from pieces of +an older casket believed to date from earlier than the Moorish conquest, +is in the National Museum. The decoration in its present form consists +of Arabic inscriptions in relief, together with figures of the apostles. +This casket, which proceeds from the Colegiata of Saint Isidore at Leon, +measures seven inches in length by five in depth and six in height, and +has been used as a reliquary. + +Another, dating from the middle of the eleventh century and proceeding +from the same temple as the one just noticed, is also in the National +Museum. It was a present from the Emir Mohammed Almotamid-Aben-Abed to +his second wife, Al-Badir ("the Moon"), and includes among the +decoration dogs and doves, symbolic of affection and fidelity. The style +of carving is what is known as Persian-Arabic. We do not know, however, +whether the box was imported from the East, or whether it was made in +Spain by somebody of Persian parentage or skilled in Persian art. The +material is a delicate _taracea_ of sandal, aloe, and cypress woods +inlaid on larch. The box, which was used at Leon as a reliquary, has +bronze clasps, and is inscribed along the top with sentences from which +we learn that it was made by Aben-As-Serag. + + [Illustration: XXXVIII + IVORY CASKET + (_Moorish; 11th Century. Pamplona Cathedral_)] + +In the cathedral of Pamplona is a magnificent ivory box (Plate +xxxviii.) which was originally at Sanguesa in Navarre. It measures, says +Riano, fifteen inches long by nine and a quarter inches wide. "It is +completely covered with carvings in relief, within circular cusped +medallions, with figures in the centres representing different subjects; +men seated, hawking, or struggling with wild beasts, and numerous single +figures of lions, stags, and other animals. The intermediate spaces +contain an ornamentation of leaves and flowers which is accommodated to +the geometrical style of Saracenic art. Round the upper part of this box +appears an Arabic inscription in fine Cufic characters:--'In the name of +God. The blessing of God, the complete felicity, the happiness, the +fulfilment of the hope of good works, and the adjourning the fatal +period (of death), be with the Hagib Seifo daula (sword of the State), +Abdelmalek ben Almansur. This (box) was made by the orders (of the said +Hagib), under the inspection or direction of his chief eunuch, Nomayr +ben Mohammad Alaumeri, his slave, in the year of 395 (A.D. 1005).' + +"In the centre medallion, on the opposite side to the lock, is +represented the standing figure of a man who is attacked by two lions. +He holds on his arm a shield, upon which is engraved an inscription, +with the following religious formula: 'There is no god but God,' or a +similar one, for the characters are very illegible and confused. In the +centre of this shield may be read the words, 'Made by Hair,' undoubtedly +one of the artists who made the box. Another artist's name may be read +with difficulty in a similar inscription which appears on one of the +medallions on the left side; it is written on the thigh of a stag, which +is attacked by a lion: 'It was made by Obeidat.' Three other +inscriptions of a similar character appear in other parts of this box, +which probably give the names of other artists, but I have been unable +to decipher them." + +Other interesting boxes dating from the same period are that of Santo +Domingo de Silos at Burgos, and several which are in the National Museum +at Madrid. The box which is preserved at Burgos is made of ivory, and +measures thirteen inches and a quarter in length by seven inches and a +half in width and height. The decorative work consists of hunting +scenes, and also of an inscription in Cufic characters which says: +"Permanent felicity for the owner (of this box). May God lengthen +his days. It was made at Medina ...[57] in the year four hundred +and seventeen (A.D. 1025). It is the work of his servant +Mohammed-ibn-Zeiyan. May God glorify him." + + [57] At this break in the inscription Riano professed to discover the + beginning of the word _Cuenca_. + +There is also in the provincial museum of Burgos a handsome ivory +diptych which was formerly at the convent of Santo Domingo de Silos. It +bears at each extremity--that is, four times repeated--the following +inscription:--"This was ordered to be made by the Iman, servant of God, +Abd-er-Rhaman, prince of believers." + + [Illustration: XXXIX + IVORY BOX + (_11th Century. Palencia Cathedral_)] + +Among the rectangular boxes in the National Museum is one of carved +ivory, with an inscription recording it to have been a gift from Prince +Ali to one of the favourites of his harem, and another of the same +material which was once upon a time at Carrion de los Condes, in the +province of Palencia. This box is painted with a decorative pattern in +carmine and dark green. The lid, which is imperfect, contains the +following inscription in Cufic characters, standing boldly out against a +green ground:--"In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. +The protection of Allah and an impending victory for the servant of +Allah ... and his wali Maad Abu-Temim--the Iman Al-Moez ... prince of +believers (the blessing of Allah be upon him and his sons the good). +(This) was commanded to be made for (celebrating) the fortunate victory. +It was made by ... Jorasani." The length of this box is eighteen inches, +and its height nine inches. + +A fine Moorish box (Plate xxxix.), now in the cathedral of Palencia, is +covered with elaborately engraved and perforated ivory plates upon a +ground of gilt leather backed by wood, and further ornamented with +enamel-work upon a copper surface. This box is fourteen inches long, and +has a gable top. The decoration on the sides and lid consists of +palm-leaves, birds, and men engaged in combating and chasing antelopes +and lions in the characteristic manner of Assyrian art. A lengthy Cufic +inscription tells us that the box was made at Cuenca (_Medina Cuenca_) +by Abd-er-Rahman ben Ziyan, to the order of the Moorish princes of +Toledo, and that it dates from the year 441 of the Hegira.[58] Vives has +pointed out that Cuenca was evidently a principal centre of this +industry, and that caskets executed here about this time exist in +Perpignan cathedral and in the provincial museum of Burgos. + + [58] Detailed accounts of this casket will be found in the _Boletin de + la Sociedad Espanola de Excursiones_ for June 1893, and in the + _Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia_, vol. xx. + +Riano mentions seven ivory boxes of particular interest, which were +probably made in Spain by Spanish Arabs, or else by Eastern craftsmen +who had emigrated to this country. "On all their carving," he adds, "the +names of Spanish historical persons appear, and it is hardly possible +that they were ordered in remote countries, especially as some of these +objects are small and comparatively unimportant." + + [Illustration: XL + HISPANO-MORESQUE IVORY CASKET + (_13th Century. Royal Academy of History, Madrid_)] + +Two of these boxes are in the South Kensington Museum. The one which is +cylindrical in shape and has a domed cover is thus described by Maskell +in his _Ivories, Ancient and Mediaeval, in the South Kensington +Museum_:--"This beautiful box is carved throughout, except the bottom of +it, with interlacing narrow bands forming quatrefoils, in which, on the +cover, are four eagles. These have spread wings and stand erect; well +designed and most delicately executed. A small knob serves to lift the +lid. + +"Round the side, each quatrefoil is filled with a star having a leaf +ornament. The same decoration is repeated in the spaces between the +larger quatrefoils on the cover." + +"The whole is carved in pierced work, except a band which forms the +upper upright portion of the box, round the side of the lid. This band +has an Arabic inscription: 'A favour of God to the servant of God, Al +Hakem al Mostanser Billah, commander of the faithful.' He was a Caliph +who reigned at Cordova, A.D. 961-976." + +The other box is oblong and rectangular. "The cover and sides are carved +with scroll foliated ornament; the hinges and clasp are of chased silver +inlaid with niello. Round the sides, immediately below the lid, is the +following Arabic inscription in Cufic characters:--'In the name of God. +This (box) was ordered to be made by Seidat Allah, the wife of +Abd-er-Rahman, prince of the believers. God be merciful and satisfied +with him.'" This inscription, adds Riano, "must allude to Abd-er-Rahman +the Third, the first Caliph of Cordova who bore the title of Emir, el +Mumenin. The formula 'God be merciful,' etc., denotes that he was dead +when it was written. He died A.D. 961." + + [Illustration: XLI + IVORY CRUCIFIX + (_11th Century. Madrid Museum_)] + +Another Spanish-Moorish casket, also at South Kensington, and dating +from the eleventh century, is described by Maskell as "richly +carved in deep relief with foliage and animals in scrolls interlacing +one another, and forming larger and smaller circles. The top and each +side is a single plaque of ivory; the sloping lid at the front and back +has two panels. On the two are two animals, like doves; a large bird +stands at the back of each, attacking it with his beak. The sloping +sides have, in the large circles, men on horseback, and animals +fighting. The intermediate spaces are completely filled with foliage, +and smaller beasts. Similar subjects are repeated in the circles on the +panels forming the lower sides of the casket, and among them are two +groups of men and women sitting; one blowing a horn, another playing on +a guitar, another holding a cup in one hand and a flower in the other." +Riano adds: "There is no inscription on this casket, but in one of the +medallions on the lid there is a bust, which is carried on the back of a +horse, and which is probably a representation of the prince for whom the +casket was made." + + [Illustration: XLI (_a_) + IVORY CRUCIFIX + (_11th Century. Back view. Madrid Museum_)] + +The _Letter of Testament_ setting forth the various objects bequeathed +by Ferdinand the First and his consort Sancha to the church of Saint +John the Baptist (or of Saint Isidore) at Leon, mentions an ivory cross +(which will be noticed presently), an ivory box fitted with gold, and +two ivory boxes fitted with silver, one of them containing three other +silver boxes, similarly decorated. + +One of these boxes is described by Ambrosio de Morales, and from his +words we conclude it to be the one which was adorned with gold, "of +which metal," he wrote in 1572, "it has even more than of ivory," adding +that it measured more than half a yard in length, and enshrined the body +of Saint Vincent of Avila. He also tells us that it bore the following +inscription, carved upon a golden frieze:-- + + ARCULA SANCTORUM MICAT HAEC SUB HONORE DUORUM + + BAPTISTAE SANCTI JOHANNIS SIVE PELAGII + + CEU REX FERNANDUS, REGINAQUE SANTIA, FIERI JUSSIT. + + ERA MILLENA SEPTENA SEU NONAGENA.[59] + + [59] A.D. 1059. + +This _arca_ has been much mutilated, and stripped of all the precious +metal. Morales' description is therefore of especial value, as are the +ivory tablets (eleventh century), carved with Christian themes, which +yet remain upon the body of the box. + + [Illustration: XLII + BYZANTINE CRUCIFIX] + +Dating from the thirteenth century is a Moorish casket (Plate xl.), +preserved in the Academy of History at Madrid, and proceeding from the +Carthusian monastery of Val de Cristo at Segorbe. It measures a foot in +length by eight inches in height and four and a half inches in depth. +The lid is deeply bevelled, and contains on each of the bevelled sides +shields with the bars which constitute the arms of Aragon, painted upon +a gold ground, together with imperial eagles painted in black upon a +carmine ground. A decorative device of leaves and stems is also painted +on the ivory. + +Rodrigo Amador de los Rios believes that this casket was captured in war +by Jayme the First of Aragon, remaining with successive princes of his +line until the reign of Don Martin, by whom it was presented to the +monastery. The shields would thus be added to the primitive Moorish +casket by some Christian-Spanish painter. + +The ivory crucifix (Plates xli. and xli. (_a_)), of Ferdinand the First +and Dona Sancha, made in the first half of the eleventh century, and +offered by these sovereigns to the church of Saint John the Baptist (or +of Saint Isidore) at Leon, measures twenty-one inches in length by +thirteen inches and a half in height. The figure of Christ recalls the +rigidness and rudeness of Byzantine craftsmanship, such as is found in +ancient crucifixes still preserved in Spain (Plate xlii.). The pupils of +the enormous, expressionless eyes are made of jet. We see the wound upon +each foot, with wavy marks to imitate the flowing blood, but no trace of +a nail. Nails, however, transfix the hands. The arms are separate from +the trunk, but the _suppedaneum_ on which the feet are resting is of a +single piece with the body of the figure. + +The surface of the cross, especially about the borders, contains +elaborate decoration, including animals and foliage. Above the Saviour's +head is the inscription:-- + + IHS NAZA + + RENVS REX + + IVDEORVM + +Above this is another figure of Christ seated, crowned with a cruciform +nimbus and holding a Greek processional cross. Beneath the feet of the +larger figure is Adam in an uncouth posture, turning his head to gaze +upward, and at the lower extremity of the cross are carved the words:-- + + FERDINANDVS REX + + SANCIA REGINA + +The lateral arms are carved with numerous devices forming an effective +whole, including animals upon a tessellated band which seems to imitate +a groundwork of mosaic. Other subjects represented are the Resurrection +of the Flesh, the ascent of the blessed to Heaven, and the fall of the +wicked to Hell. + + [Illustration: XLIII + "THE VIRGIN OF BATTLES" + (_13th Century. Seville Cathedral_)] + +Upon the obverse side are pairs of quadrupeds, birds, and serpents, +among a maze of foliage, together with the eagle, lion, lamb, and ox, as +symbols of the evangelists. The lion and the ox have wings, and at the +foot of the cross is an angel. + +The carving of the Saviour's form is clearly inferior to that of the +decoration which surrounds it. Amador de los Rios seeks to account for +this by declaring that "the difficulty from the point of view of art +increases in proportion as the size of the figure is required to be +larger"--a statement with which I wholly disagree. I believe, in fact, +that in this cross the figure of Christ and the surrounding +ornamentation are not by the same hand, and that the carver of the +decorative detail was simply the better craftsman of the two. + +Many of the statuettes of the Virgin which are preserved in Spain were +probably made in France. One that is typically and unquestionably +Spanish is the celebrated "Virgin of Battles" (Plate xliii.), now +guarded, together with other relics of Saint Ferdinand (see Vol. I., +Plate xi.), in the Chapel Royal of Seville cathedral. These statuettes, +the use of which originated with the Greek emperors, and which were +called by the Byzantines _socia belli_, consist of a seated figure of +the Virgin with a small door opening underneath her throne, and served +as reliquaries, and also as a kind of talisman. Boutelou says that the +Spanish warriors of the Middle Ages were accustomed to carry these +images to war with them, fitted upon a pin protruding from the left side +of the saddle-bow. The "Virgin of Battles," made in Spain in the early +part of the thirteenth century, was thus carried by King Ferdinand the +Saint, resting between his shield or _rodela_ and his left arm, and so +protected, and protecting, in the brunt of war. + + [Illustration: XLIV + SPANISH MEDIAEVAL _BACULUS_] + +The image is of ivory, and measures seventeen inches in height. The +style is primitive Gothic, not as yet emancipated from Romanic and +Byzantine art; and the expression of the Madonna and her Babe is marked +by an engaging sweetness. Through lapse of centuries, myriads of +diminutive cracks have opened on the surface of the ivory, and this has +turned, in colour, to a brightish yellow. The right arm of the Virgin +was broken off at some time prior to the sixteenth century, and has been +replaced by another one. Mother and Child wear crowns of silver-gilt +which probably were added later, and the hair, lips, and eyes have been +badly painted or repainted with discordant colouring. A four-sided hole +bored deep into the ivory served for holding the image to the _perno_ +which projected from the monarch's saddle-bow. + +A few elaborate _baculi_ or pastoral staves (Plate xliv.) exist in +Spain, including one of the fourteenth century, in ivory, which belonged +to the late Marquis of Monistrol, and is carved with the Crucifixion and +also with the Virgin contemplating the Holy Infant as He is offered cups +by angels. Another interesting Spanish baculus, though not of ivory, but +copper decorated with turquoises and bright blue enamel, belonged to +Bishop Pelayo de Cebeyra of Mondonedo (A.D. 1199-1218), and has been +preserved, together with that prelate's gilded shoes. In the celebrated +processions of Santiago, at which Alfonso the Sixth was personally +present, magnificent ivory _baculi_ were borne, not only by the +archbishop (_eburnea virga pontificali decoratus_), but even by the +choristers. + +Between the eleventh and the fifteenth centuries, Spanish craftsmen +produced a fair quantity of ivory boxes, reliquaries, diptyches, +triptyches, combs, and other less important objects. A fifteenth-century +ivory spoon, ten inches long, whose handle is carved with six +crocodiles, is in the National Museum, and may be Spanish work. In the +same collection are one or two ivory diptyches and leaves of diptyches, +and a wooden box (fourteenth century), with figures of carved ivory +representing passages from the life of Saint George upon the body of the +box, and from the Old Testament upon the lid. A carved Renaissance +temple of the same material, with the Virgin and Child in its interior, +is probably Italian. + + [Illustration: XLV + "A TOURNAMENT" + (_Carved lid of box in ivory; 14th Century_)] + +In the fortieth volume of _Espana Sagrada_ it is stated that four ivory +diptyches (_quatuor dictacos eburneos_) were offered in A.D. 897 to Lugo +cathedral by Alfonso the Third and his queen Jimena. Other ivory +diptyches were presented in A.D. 1063 by Ferdinand the Second to the +church of Saint Isidore at Leon. Jose Villa-amil, in his study of an +ivory statuette of the Virgin, belonging to the nuns of Allariz +(_Boletin de la Sociedad Espanola de Excursiones_; nos. 76 and 77), +mentions a carved ivory box (_capsa eburnea_) made in the year 1122 for +Santiago cathedral by order of Archbishop Gelmirez; another which +existed in the sixteenth century in the church of Santa Maria at +Finisterre; and a third, used as a reliquary, which in 1572 was opened +by the monks of Samos in presence of Ambrosio de Morales. + +During the Middle Ages portable altars (_altares portatiles_) were +widely used in Spain, and some were made of ivory. It was the custom to +open them at the time of prayer, and as a rule they rested upon +_reclinatorios_ or hung upon the wall. The _imagen abriente_ or "opening +image" was also popular in Spain throughout the twelfth and thirteenth +centuries. As the name implies, these images opened in the manner of a +triptych, and were very often used as reliquaries. Specimens are +preserved in many parts of Europe, but only one or two exist in Spain +and Portugal. That which belongs to the nuns of Allariz dates from the +end of the thirteenth century, and was a present from Queen Violante. It +is described fantastically by Morales, and accurately by Villa-amil, but +the quaintest account is by the chronicler Jacobo de Castro. It +measures, Castro tells us, "about half-a-yard in length and is one of +the fairest ever seen, since it opens downward from the neck, +discovering, on plates of half-relief, the principal mysteries of Christ +and of Our Lady. The devotion towards it of the people in this +neighbourhood exceeds description, and God has wrought a quantity of +miracles through the intercession thereof." + +A fourteenth-century triptych carved in bone with scenes from Scripture +is in the National Museum. It proceeds from Aragon, and is said to have +belonged to Jayme the Conqueror. The Escorial possesses a handsome ivory +diptych (Plate xlvi.) which is either Spanish or Italian--probably the +former. It measures exactly a foot in height by nine inches across both +leaves, and is deeply carved with passages from the life of Christ. The +style is late Romanic merging into Gothic, and points to the second half +of the thirteenth century. + + [Illustration: XLVI + IVORY DIPTYCH + (_13th Century. El Escorial_)] + + + + + POTTERY + + ANCIENT + + +Quantities of ancient common pottery have been, and are continually +being found in many parts of Spain. Prehistoric cups, shaped with the +fingers and dried and hardened by the sun, are preserved in the Museum +of History at Barcelona. They were discovered at Argar. Similar objects +have been extracted from the caves of Segobriga, Lobrega in Old Castile, +and El Tesoro in the province of Malaga. Those which were found at +Segobriga are divided by Capelle into six groups, one of which includes +a vessel resembling the ordinary Spanish pitcher of to-day. + +Villa-amil y Castro has described in the _Museo Espanol de Antiguedades_ +pieces of prehistoric sun-dried ware discovered in Galicia, roughly +decorated with patterns imprinted by the finger. In other instances a +double spiral has been described with a pointed instrument about the +vessel's neck. Similar fragments have been found by Gongora in +Andalusia. Celtic pottery was found in 1862 by Captain Brome on Windmill +Hill at Gibraltar, in 1866 by M. Lartet in the caves of Torrecilla de +Cameros, and by Casiano de Prado in a cave near Pedraza, as well as at +Navares de Ayuso and elsewhere. In central Spain, vessels of the +Celtiberian era have been found in tombs at Pradena, and pieces of red +Saguntine ware, with dark red decoration, at Otero de Herreros, close to +vestiges of a Roman mine. Lecea y Garcia describes in his work on _Old +Segovian Industries_ a Celtiberian plate of reddish clay covered with +black varnish, which was dug up some years ago in a garden at that town. +This plate, measuring no less than four feet in diameter, and containing +two inscriptions in characters believed to be Celtiberian, as well as +the figure of a warrior armed with a lance and three javelins, was +submitted to Heiss, who wrote of it in the _Gazette Archeologique_ and +pronounced it to be genuine. I have not seen the plate in question. I +have, however, met with cleverly executed forgeries, also varnished +black, of primitive Spanish pottery. + +In 1899 quantities of Celtic ware, believed to date from the time of the +Ph[oe]nicians, or even earlier, were unearthed by M. Bonsor from tumuli +in the Guadalquivir valley. These objects are ornamented in relief with +complicated patterns paler than the ground, obtained by using +lighter-coloured clay. "As similar Celtic pottery has been found in +Portugal, it will be understood that the Celtic influence, having +crossed the Pyrenees, reached the south by the western seaboard. It will +thus be seen that long before the arrival of the Romans a relatively +high degree of civilisation had been reached at least in the south of +Spain."[60] + + [60] Martin Hume, _The Spanish People_, p. 15 (note). + +In the summer of 1905 two German archaeologists, Messrs. Schulten and +Koenen, who had obtained permission from the Spanish Government to +explore the site of old Numancia, filled four large cases with the +Celtiberian pottery they extracted from the ruins. These cases were +forwarded to the University of Goettingen. I understand, however, that +they have been returned, or are to be returned immediately, to Spain. + +Long before the Christian era, Greek colonies existed on the Spanish +coast at Rhodas, Denia, Emporium (Ampurias), Saguntum (Murviedro), and +elsewhere. Pottery of good design and workmanship was manufactured at +these towns, and strongly influenced native art. Bowls and other objects +showing such an influence were discovered by M. Bonsor in his recent +excavations. Another powerful influence was that of Rome. Roman +potteries existed in the suburb of Seville called Triana, and in the +provinces of Caceres and Badajoz. Merida was also an important centre of +this industry, and vessels which were used in sacred rites, such as the +_aquiminarium_, the _prefericulum_, the _simpulum_, and the _urnula_, +were discovered here not long ago. The name "Saguntine ware" was given +by the Romans to a kind of pottery which seems to have been made along +the Spanish littoral extending southward from Saguntum. Fragments of +this pottery, which closely resembles the Arezzo ware,[61] are found in +shoals upon the sites of Roman towns, particularly Tarragona. These +_barros saguntinos_, or (as Huebner prefers to call them) _barros +tarraconenses_, have been divided into four classes, namely, white, +grey, red (covered with a dark red varnish),[62] and yellow striped with +red. This ware is commonly adorned with garlands, animals, +hunting-scenes, divinities, games, or religious ceremonies, and also +bears, in nearly every case, the potter's name or mark; _e.g._ ALBINVS F +("Albinus fecit") or OF. ALBIN ("officina Albini"). More than two +hundred marks have been discovered which were used by potters of +Ampurias alone. + + [61] "A ware exactly like that of Arezzo, called by some the red Roman + ware, and by others Samian, distinguished by its close grain + composed of a fine clay, and presenting, when broken, edges of an + opaque light red colour, whilst the inner and outer surfaces are + quite smooth, and of a brighter and darker red, is found in all + places of the ancient world to which the Roman arms or civilisation + reached. It is distinguished from the Aretine by its darker tone, + stronger glaze, and coarser ornamentation. Possibly, the whole + passage of Pliny in which he speaks of the earthenware of his day + refers to this red ware. Thus, for dishes he praises the Samian + and the Aretine ware; for cups, that of Surrentum, Asta and + Pollentia, Saguntum and Pergamus. Tralles and Mutina had their + manufactories. Cos was most esteemed; Hadria produced the hardest + ware. That one of these, that of Saguntum, was a red ware, is + clear; that of Cumae was also of the same colour.... That the red + ware is found amidst the dense forests of Germany and on the + distant shores of Britain, is a remarkable fact in the civilisation + of the old world. It was apparently an importation, being exactly + identical wherever discovered, and is readily distinguished from + the local pottery."--Birch, _History of Ancient Pottery_, + pp. 560, 561. + + [62] "It belongs to the class of tender lustrous pottery, consisting of + a bright red paste like sealing-wax, breaking with a close texture, + and covered with a siliceous, or, according to some, a metallic + glaze. This glaze is exceedingly thin, transparent, and equally + laid upon the whole surface, only slightly augmenting the colour + of the clay."--Birch, p. 561. + +There seems to be no doubt that Saguntum and Emporium were principal +centres of this industry, and possibly, since these towns were old Greek +settlements, the _barros saguntinos_ were of Grecian origin. Pella y +Forgas, describing in his _History of the Ampurdan_ the fine red ware of +this locality, says that parts of the decoration were fashioned on the +wheel, others directly by the potter's hand, and others from a mould, +while the ornament of dotted lines was made by the wheeled _roulette_. + +Among the commoner objects dating from this time are amphorae and small +earthen lamps (Pl. xlvii.). These lamps have been discovered in great +numbers, and, owing to the dryness of the Spanish soil, in excellent +preservation. They measure about the size of the hand, and have two +holes, one in the spout or beak, to hold the wick, and the other at the +top, for pouring in the oil. The top, which as a rule is slightly +concave, is often ornamented with devices in relief, such as a chariot +and its driver, or the emblem of a deity. + + [Illustration: XLVII + AMPHORAIC VASES AND OTHER POTTERY + (_Museum of Tarragona_)] + +The typical amphora was a long, narrow vessel (usually of earthenware; +less frequently of brass or glass), with an elongated handle at either +side of the neck, and tapering nearly to a point. It served for +storing honey, oil, or wine, and in order to keep it upright the pointed +lower end was stuck into the soil, or rested on a perforated wooden +stand. In the spring of 1893 some fishermen drew up in their nets, just +off the coast of Alicante, three large intact amphorae thickly cased with +shells, and sold them for eight dollars each. Other fine amphorae, now in +the collection of the Marquis of Cerralbo, were washed upon the beach at +Torrevieja, and many more are in museums. Vessels of this kind are known +to have been made at Rhodas (Rosas) and Saguntum, and their use +continued in Spain until the downfall of the second empire. + + + HISPANO-MORESQUE NON-LUSTRED POTTERY + +The statements of Saint Isidore, confirmed by one or two discoveries in +southern Spain, prove that the pottery in use among the Visigoths was +principally Roman. Probably in this, as in so many of her arts, the +Moorish conquest brought about a radical and rapid change. Remains of +pottery dating from this period are extremely rare. The provincial +museum of Granada contains some bowls and plates, all more or less +imperfect, which are ascribed by experts to about the year 1000. These +objects, which were dug up in 1878 on the slopes of the Sierra Elvira, a +few miles from Granada, are coloured black and green upon a white or +whitish ground. The most important is a dish which measures fourteen +inches in diameter, and is decorated with a falcon on a horse's back +(Plate xlviii.).[63] All of this pottery shows the double influence of +Byzantium and the East. Among the designs upon the other pieces are +hares and stags surrounded by a bordering of primitive arabesques. Riano +remarks that "it is almost impossible to assert whether this pottery was +made in or imported into Spain." Nevertheless, Persians are stated to +have settled in this region early in the days of Muslim rule, while +these dilapidated specimens of ancient ware are greatly similar in +colouring and substance to the common dishes and _barrenos_ which are +still produced throughout the province of Granada. + + [63] The falcon is one of the commonest devices on all Persian pottery, + and was, in fact, the national emblem of the chase. Its importance + for the purpose of pursuing and securing game is well described in + Sir John Malcolm's _Sketches in Persia_. + +Moorish potteries producing lustred or non-lustred ware existed from +an early date at Malaga, Valencia, Toledo, Calatayud, Murviedro, Murcia, +and Barcelona. Another centre of this craft was probably Granada; for +though she is not mentioned in this sense by any of the Moorish authors, +the late Senor Contreras discovered here the vestiges of two ancient +potteries, while one of the old entrances was known as Bab Alfajjarin, +or "the potters' gate." + + [Illustration: XLVIII + DISH + (_About A.D. 1000. Museum of Granada_)] + +The Ordinances of Granada contain provisions which were evidently copied +from the Spanish Moors, relating to the _almadraveros_ or tilemakers, +the _tinajeros_ or makers of _tinajas_, and the _olleros_ or potters +generally. The Ordinances which concern the tilemakers are dated between +1528 and 1540. The restrictions imposed upon these craftsmen were +irksome, foolish, and unnecessary. All bricks and tiles were to be +stamped in three places with the city mark, and were only permitted to +be made between the first of April and the thirty-first of October in +each year, "since what is made at other seasons is not good or perfect, +owing to the rain, and cold, and frost." + +Another Ordinance, illustrating the lawlessness prevailing at Granada in +the times succeeding the reconquest, complains that "many persons, +including labourers and hodmen, go forth into the roads and streets, +and seize the tiles and bricks by violence from those who are conveying +them, and bear them to their houses, or to the work which they are paid +to do." + +A picturesque, though cheap and unluxurious, vessel of a thoroughly +eastern character, and which was very largely manufactured by the +Spanish Moors, is the terra-cotta _tinaja_ or gigantic jar for storing +wine, or olive oil, or grain (Plate xlix.). The use of these receptacles +extended through the whole Peninsula, and has continued undiminished to +this day. The principal centres of _tinaja_-making were Toledo, Seville, +and Granada. The Ordinances of the latter town embody Moorish rules +relating to this branch of pottery. These laws, revived in 1526, provide +that all _tinajas_ must contain two kinds of earth, one red, the other +white, thoroughly compounded in a trough of water. Before the potter +removes the clay from the trough, he must call the city supervisor or +_veedor_ to look into the quality and mixing of the mass. The vessel as +it leaves the oven must be white; otherwise, even although it have no +flaw, the inspector is to break it. The potter is forbidden to coat his +_tinajas_ with a glaze composed of eggs, blood, chalk, and other +strange ingredients; nor may he fire the glaze with torches, "because +the smell of the smoke clings to the _tinaja_, and the wine or stum +deposited therein grows redolent of it, and it stays within the jar +perpetually." + + [Illustration: XLIX + HISPANO-MORESQUE _TINAJA_] + +Owing doubtless to their plain, domestic purpose and their trifling +market cost, early _tinajas_ are not often met with. A fine example in +excellent preservation is at South Kensington, and is described by Riano +as "a wine jar, amphora-shaped, and ornamented with an incised pattern +of vine leaves, and stamped diaper of a Gothic character." Several good +_tinajas_ have been discovered of late years at Seville. Gestoso +mentions six, five of which are glazed. The first of these was found in +1893, and has a bright green glaze upon a ground of reddish earth. Both +handles and nearly all the neck are wanting. The decoration consists of +various bands or _fajas_ round the body of the jar, a series of +archways, another of leaves, and a central band of stars, three deep, +strongly imprinted from a mould. In every ninth arch are stamped +symbolic hands, such as we see upon the Gate of Justice of the Alhambra. + +The second _tinaja_ is similar to the one just mentioned, except that +it has the neck. It was discovered in 1895, and is now in Seville +museum. + +The third _tinaja_ is also in this museum, and was discovered in 1901. +It is in a very poor condition, and Gestoso believes that it was +originally covered with a honey-coloured glaze. + +The fourth _tinaja_ was found in a drain, in the same year as the +preceding one, and is inscribed with words, including _Blessing_ and +_Felicity_, in Cufic characters. Gestoso is unable to decide whether +this vessel was made at Seville or elsewhere. + +The fifth _tinaja_ is in the collection of Don Jose Moron, and possesses +greater interest than the others, both because it is in excellent +condition, and also because the decoration is entirely in the +Spanish-Christian style, without a trace of Saracenic ornament. Small +Gothic-looking shields surround the body of this vessel, which is +stamped with pomegranates, and with the arms and emblems of the Ponce de +Leon and other families. Between each pair of shields is an oval-shaped +medallion containing human figures. + +The sixth _tinaja_ is unglazed. It was found in June of 1893, and is +adorned with repetitions of the words _Prosperity_ and _Blessing_, as +well as with a series of deer and other animals in the act of running; +some of them with birds upon their backs. These designs are very +uncommon, and Gestoso has seen no other _tinaja_, proceeding from this +region, similarly decorated. + +_Tinajas_ are still made in large quantities at Toboso, Lucena, Colmenar +de Oreja, and other Spanish towns and villages. + +Other large objects of a thoroughly oriental character were earthenware +glazed _brocales_ or brims of wells, which, like the _tinajas_, were +largely manufactured at Seville and Toledo. Specimens of these +_brocales_ exist in the museums of Toledo and Cordova. Riano describes +one which is at South Kensington. "It was bought at Toledo for three +guineas at a shoemaker's shop. It is made of glazed white and green +earthenware, with ornamental Cufic characters in high relief all round, +which appear to be of the fourteenth century. The inscription, which is +repeated, is imperfect, and all that I can decipher are the words 'the +power, the excellence, and the peace.'" + +Gestoso describes two _brocales_ and the fragments of a third. All these +objects were found at Seville. The two which are intact, or nearly so, +are cylindrical, and of a white ware. One of them has a simple leaf +decoration, and seems to have been covered with a green glaze. The +other, which was discovered in 1894, is surrounded by a triple band of +inscription in African characters which are illegible. + +Gestoso also describes some interesting baptismal fonts, a class of +object which he pronounces to have been the most important of all that +were produced in the potteries of Triana, by reason both of their large +dimensions and of their elaborate ornamentation. He states that three +methods were employed to decorate these fonts. The first consisted in +attaching to their surface small moulded plates which bore the likeness +of a saint, flowers, monograms, or other devices. By the second method +the decoration was moulded directly on the font; while the third method +consisted in a combination of the other two. + +Splendid examples of these Spanish fonts exist in various churches of +Andalusia and in private collections. One of the finest is in the parish +church of Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion, at Laguna, Tenerife. It is +suggested by Gestoso that this _pila_ of Laguna was made at Seville and +sent to the Canaries in the year 1479, when orders were issued by +Ferdinand and Isabella for the completion of the monasteries in those +islands. + +_Pilas_ were also manufactured at Toledo, although Gestoso says that the +workmanship of those produced at Seville was in every way superior. +Nevertheless, he has only found the maker's name upon a single font, +which is inscribed with that of Juan Sanchez Vachero, and is now +preserved in the church of San Pedro at Carmona. Another remarkable +_pila_ is that of the hospital of San Lazaro at Seville. + +In course of time the Spanish Church forbade the use of _pilas_ made of +glazed earthenware, and ordered their substitution by fonts of stone or +marble. One of these dispositions, included among the _Constituciones +Sinodales_ of the bishopric of Malaga, and dated 1671, is quoted by +Gestoso. It enacts that the _pila_ be of stone and not of earthenware, +and that if any of this latter class remain, they are to be "consumed" +(_i.e._ destroyed) within two months. + +Returning to the Ordinances of Granada, those which concern the potters +or _olleros_ generally are dated 1530, and inform us of the price of +glazed and unglazed articles in common use, such as _ollas_ or pots +(with and without glaze), _cazuelas_ or earthen vessels for cooking +meat, plates of many colours and dimensions, _jarros_ (jugs), _alcuzas_ +(vials), _cantaros castellanos_ (Castilian water-pitchers), _cantaros +moriscos_ (Moorish water-pitchers[64]), _morteros_ (mortars), +_lebrillos_ (earthen tubs), _candiles_ (lamps with a green, white or +yellow glaze), _orzas_ (gally pots), _botijas_ (narrow-necked jars), and +_salseras_ (saucers). + + [64] The watersellers' Ordinance of 1516 enacts that each of these + vendors shall carry a minimum load of six _cantaros_, and that the + cantaros themselves shall be "of the round shape, and not the + Moorish ones, as these have long spouts; each _cantaro_ to be + closed with a cork." The latter is the typical pitcher of Morocco. + "As we were talking, neighbours dropped in, in the familiar Eastern + way, and sat quiet and self-contained, occasionally drinking from + one of the two long-necked and porous water-jars, known as + 'Baradas' or the 'coolers,' which stand, their wooden stoppers tied + to them with a palmetto cord, on each side the divan."--Cunninghame + Graham, _Mogreb-el-Acksa_, p. 88. + +The shape and colouring of many of these common articles have been +continued till to-day, especially in Andalusia. I reproduce a photograph +of some (Plate l.), in which the influence of the East is unmistakable. +The smaller of the two unglazed jars is used for carrying and cooling +water, and is made at Loja. The other, which is often used for storing +honey, is from Guadalajara. The spherical vessel is a kind of bottle for +_aguardiente_. It is glazed a brightish green, and is made in various +parts of Andalusia, as are the gourd-shaped _calabazas_, which have a +yellow glaze. The smallest vessel, or that which has a funnel-shaped and +bulging mouth, is coated with a coarse metallic glaze coloured in white +and blue, and proceeds from Granada. + + [Illustration: L + COARSE SPANISH POTTERY + (_Modern_)] + +So is the influence of the Spanish Moors, linking the present intimately +to the past, and handed down by early craftsmen to the moderns, and from +Mussulmans to Christian Spaniards, maintained and kept alive, not only +by the city ordinances I have quoted, but also by the more occult yet no +less permanent and cogent force of local and unchronicled tradition. In +the historic quarter of Granada which is called the Albaycin, survive a +few _alfarerias_ to this hour (Plate lxix.). Here, on the potter's wheel +or ranged about his yard, may yet be seen the red Granada earth that is +believed to have inspired the vase of the Alhambra, applied to-day to +common crockery that notwithstanding has a subtle, unfamiliar charm. And +towards the time of sundown, when the master turns indoors to supper and +his workmen have gone home, when the last of the red light is colouring +the ancient city wall until it too looks like a mammoth monument of the +potter's art of old Granada, it is a strange experience to wander +through these desolate yards, among the files of ruddy Granadino ware +kindling with vivid memories of the vanished Mussulmans of Spain, and +bringing back to us that spirited old poet of the East who also sang of +pottery:-- + + "Listen again. One Evening at the Close + Of Ramazan, ere the better Moon arose, + In that old Potter's Shop I stood alone + With the clay Population round in Rows. + + And strange to tell, among that Earthen Lot + Some could articulate, while others not: + And suddenly one more impatient cried-- + 'Who _is_ the Potter, pray, and who the Pot?' + + Then said another--'Surely not in vain + My substance from the common Earth was ta'en, + That He who subtly wrought me into Shape + Should stamp me back to common Earth again.'" + + + MOSAIC-WORK AND TILES + +The art of colouring and glazing earthenware was practised by various +peoples of the ancient eastern world, and passed, in course of time, +through Egypt to Ph[oe]nicia, Greece, and Rome, and, later still, to +Mussulman peoples of north-western Africa. + +Glazed earthenware was possibly produced in Roman Spain, although the +specimens of it which have been discovered are singularly and, indeed, +significantly few. Their colour is commonly green or lightish yellow. +Gestoso makes particular mention of a small jar now preserved in the +museum of Seville, describing it as "of an ordinary shape, but finely +made." He admits, however, that no trace of glaze exists in any of the +broken Visigothic vessels (copied, as Saint Isidore tells us, from the +Roman-Spanish pottery) that were found some years ago among the ruins of +Italica. Thus it is not decided whether the Spanish potters learned to +glaze, or whether this development of their craft remained familiar to +the Spaniards of that period through imported objects merely. + +As with glazed earthenware, the origin of mosaic must be looked for in +the East. Greece, who had doubtless borrowed it from Egypt, communicated +it to Rome at least two centuries before the Christian era, and from +this time the Romans used it freely in the decoration of their +buildings. The Greek mosaic was composed exclusively of stone. The +Romans modified this usage by the introduction of diminutive cubes of +clay, painted and baked like porcelain; and later, in the reign of +Claudius, dyed these cubes with various colours. + +Roman mosaic-work (commonly in the tessellated style and not the _opus +sectile_) has been unearthed in many parts of the Peninsula. Such are +the two "mosaics of the Muses," discovered at Italica on December 12th, +1799, and June 12th, 1839;[65] other mosaics, to the number of some +thirty, discovered from time to time among the same ruins; another, +discovered at Majorca in 1833; that of the Calle Batitales at Lugo (the +Roman _Lucus Augusti_), discovered in 1842; those of Palencia, Gerona, +Merida, Milla del Rio (near Leon), Rielves (near Toledo), Duraton, +Aguilafuente, and Paradinas (near Segovia), and Carabanchel, three miles +from Madrid. The mosaic found at Lugo is believed to have formed part of +a temple dedicated to Diana. The decoration is partly geometrical, and +consists of the head of a man between two dolphins, with other fishes +swimming along the border. Laborde describes another mosaic which +existed, early in the nineteenth century, in a hall of the archbishop's +palace at Valencia. "The pavement of this hall demands particular +attention; it is formed of antique pavements, discovered in the month of +February, 1777, three hundred paces north-east of the town of Puch, +between Valencia and Murviedro; some were entire, others were only +fragments. They were separated with care, and placed on the floor of +this hall, where they are carefully preserved. They are different +mosaics, formed by little stones of three or four lines in diameter, +curiously enchased. They are distributed into seven squares in each of +which medallions and divers designs have been drawn: their compartments +are of blue on a white ground. We observe in one of these squares an +imitation of the pavement of Bacchus, discovered at Murviedro, and of +which there remained but very few vestiges; it was copied in a +drawing-book which a priest of this town had preserved; it is executed +with such art and exactness, that no difference can be observed between +this modern work and that of the Romans. In another we see Neptune +seated in a car, in one hand holding a whip, and in the other a trident +and the reins of the horses by which his car is drawn: these appear to +be galloping." + + [65] The latter, which was the finer of the two, was dug out by Don Ivo + de la Cortina. It has subsequently been allowed to go to pieces, + but a coloured plate depicting it will be found in the first volume + of the _Museo Espanol de Antiguedades_. + +"In the same hall are also seen other pavements, of which only fragments +could be preserved. Some serve for borders and ornaments to the +preceding pavements. On these are represented a tiger, fishes, birds, +houses, flowers, and garlands, well executed. There are particularly +five stuck on wood and shut up in a closet; on these are birds, fruits, +and flowers, figured in different colours, the execution of which is +very curious; they are perhaps the most precious of the whole." + +The same author says elsewhere: "In digging to make a road from Valencia +to Murviedro in 1755, at the entrance of the latter town a mosaic +pavement was discovered; it was entire, and of such beauty that it was +thought worthy of preservation. Ferdinand the Sixth caused it to be +surrounded with walls; but the king's intentions were not properly +fulfilled; the gates were suffered to remain open, and every one carried +away some part of the pavement, which consequently soon became +despoiled; it was rectangular, and measured twenty-four feet by +fourteen. There are still some fragments of it in several houses at +Murviedro. A priest of that town, Don Diego Puch, an antiquarian, took a +drawing of it, which he afterwards had painted at Valencia on the tiles +fabricated there, and paved an apartment of his house with them. It was +likewise copied with the greatest exactness, with small stones perfectly +similar, in an apartment of the library belonging to the archiepiscopal +palace, as we have already stated." + +Swinburne also mentions a mosaic pavement which he saw at Barcelona, +upon the site of what he believed to have been a temple of Neptune. In +it were represented "two large green figures of tritons, holding a shell +in each hand; between them a sea-horse, and on the sides a serpent and a +dolphin." + +In October of 1901 a very important and beautiful mosaic was discovered +at Italica. It is known as "the mosaic of Bacchus," the worship of which +deity, says Senor Quintero, was probably general in Andalusia, owing to +her wealth of vines. This mosaic was found at a depth of six feet six +inches below the surface of the soil, and measures twenty-one feet +square. It is believed to have formed the pavement of a Roman +dining-chamber. + +Mosaic in the manner of the Greeks and Romans seems in Spain to have +disappeared with the Visigoths. That it was known to these is told us by +Saint Isidore:--"Pavimenta originem apud graecos habent elaboratae arte +picturae, litostrata parvulis crustis ac tesselis tinctis in varios +colores."[66] + + [66] _Tessela_ and _crusta_ are defined by him as follows: "Tesselae + sunt e quibus domicilia sternuntur a tesseris nominata, id est + quadratis lapillis, per diminutionem." + + "Crustae sunt tabulae marmoris. Unde et marmorari parietes et + constati dicuntur. Qui autem marmora secandi in crustas rationem + excogitaverunt non constat. Fiunt autem arena et ferro serraque in + praetenui linea premente arenas, tractuque ipse secante: sed + crassior arena plus erodet marmoris. Nam tenuis fabricis et + polituris accomodata est." + + [Illustration: LI + DOOR OF THE MIHRAB + (_Showing mosaic-work. Cordova Cathedral_)] + +It is impossible to affirm with any confidence that glazed earthenware, +whether in the form of tiles or other objects, was manufactured by the +Spanish Moors during the Cordovese Caliphate, or the period of the +kinglings of Taifa. No trace of it has been discovered among the scanty +ruins of Medina Az-zahara[67] and Az-zahira--ancient palaces of +Cordova--or in the marvellous mosque. We know, however, that towards the +seventh century the Arabs borrowed from Byzantium the mosaic-work of +tessons known as _psephosis fsefysa_, and this, or something similar, +was used, though probably to a small extent, among the Muslims of the +Spanish Caliphate. Although, towards the middle of the thirteenth +century, the historian Aben-Said, a native of Granada, recorded that in +Al-Andalus "is made a kind of _mofassass_ which is called in the East +_alfoseifesa_," remains of this elaborate product only exist to-day at +Cordova, where patches may yet be seen lining the dome of the _mirhab_ +in the vast _aljama_ (Plate li.). The mosaic in question is stated to +have been a gift from the Byzantine emperor to the sultan Al-Hakem, and +was set in place by a skilled workman, a Greek, who, like the offering +itself, proceeded from Constantinople. + + [67] Among these ruins, at five miles' distance from the city, pieces + of common brick have come to light; but no glazed pottery of any + kind, whether as _foseifesa_, _azulejos_, or mosaic. + +During his stay at Cordova this Greek was helped by certain of the +Sultan's slaves, who thus acquired the secrets of the craft, and +practised it thereafter.[68] + + [68] Dozy's version of _The History of Almagreb_, by Ibn-Adzari the + Moor; p. 253. + +Rodrigo Amador de los Rios contends, however, that this decoration is +in no sense a true mosaic, but just a tempera painting executed on the +wall and overlaid with cubes of glass. In any case, no other specimen of +such work has been discovered in any part of the Peninsula. + +By the time of the Almohade invasion or very shortly after--that is, +towards the twelfth century,--the Spanish Moors had grown acquainted +with glazed earthenware. Indeed, the Almohades are believed by some +authorities to have actually introduced it. Gestoso, on the contrary, +suggests that Spain may have transmitted it to Africa. However this may +be, the Almohades used it largely in the decoration of their homes and +public buildings in Andalusia; first as _aliceres_ or bands composed of +smallish pieces running round a room, and subsequently in the more +effective and more useful form of _azulejos_ proper. The Spanish Moors +employed the word _almofassass_ to designate both _aliceres_ and +_azulejos_. Nevertheless, the two were not identical, although Riano +takes them to be so. He says: "The earliest tiles or _azulejos_ made in +Spain are composed of small pieces let into the wall, forming +geometrical patterns." These, in fact, were _aliceres_. It is not so +easy to define an _azulejo_. We read in Aben-Said, quoted by +Al-Makkari: "There is another kind of work employed for paving houses. +It is called _azzulechi_ and resembles _mofassass_. It has wonderful +colouring, and replaces the coloured marble used by the people of the +East to decorate their chambers." + +This definition is not completely clear. Those of the Christian-Spanish +writers are not more satisfactory. Covarrubias calls these objects +"small bricks, square and of other shapes, used for lining chambers in +the mansions of the wealthy, or in garden paths." Nebrija calls them +_tessela pavimenticia_, adding that they bear the name of _azulejos_ +because the earliest ones were of a blue colour--a statement which Dozy +supports by instancing the Persian-Arabic _zaward_ or "blue stone." + +Gestoso resolves the question sufficiently for our purpose by showing +that the term _azulejo_ is usually applied to square tiles of a largish +size, the length of whose sides varies between eleven centimetres and +eighteen centimetres, _aliceres_ being properly the smaller strips or +pieces (technically known as _cintas_ or _verduguillos_) used in a +bordering or frieze. Other decorative pieces of small dimensions, +invented in the fifteenth century, were called _olambres_ or +_olambrillas_, and served to lend variety to the red or yellow brickwork +of a pavement or a floor. + +The production of _azulejos_ in Spain may thus be traced to as far back +as the twelfth century. By far the most important centre of the craft +was Seville. Here, from the twelfth until the fourteenth century, was +made the glazed and decorative tiling which consisted of small pieces of +monochrome earthenware--black, white, green, blue, or yellow--cut one by +one, and pieced together in the manner of a true mosaic. This process, +says Gestoso, was lengthy, difficult, and dear. In the fourteenth and +fifteenth centuries the same mosaic would often take the form of a +series of narrow, white, ribbon-like strips, with coloured interspaces. +Specimens of this "ribbon-work tiling" exist to-day in the Patio de Las +Doncellas of the Alcazar (Plate lii.). Towards the sixteenth century the +Sevillano potters discovered a simpler way of making effective and +artistic _azulejos_, which they called the _cuerda seca_ process. This +novel method consisted in pressing a wood or metal mould upon the +unbaked tile, in such a manner that the outline of the pattern remained +in slight relief. This outline was next brushed over with a mixture +of manganese and grease, which turns, in baking, very nearly black. The +body of the pattern was then filled in with the various colours, which +the greasy line completely separated, and thus prepared, the tile was +rendered permanent by firing. + + [Illustration: LII + MOSAIC OF THE PATIO DE LAS DONCELLAS + (_Alcazar of Seville_)] + +This process, in which the patterns are nearly always geometrical, +remained in general use until about the year 1550, when it began to be +superseded by two others, known respectively as the processes of +"cuenca" and "Pisano". + +The _cuenca_ tile was simple and of excellent effect. The pattern, +stamped from a metal mould, remained in bas-relief,--a characteristic +which caused these objects to be also known as _azulejos_ "_de +relieve_". The shelving border of each hollow stamped into the tile thus +formed a kind of natural barrier which kept the colour there deposited +from mingling with its neighbours. When of a larger size, and joined in +pairs to form between each two a single motive (_ladrillo por tabla_), +these _azulejos_ were often employed for decorating roofs and ceilings. + +The tiles which bear the name of their inventor, Francesco Niculoso +Pisano the Italian, who lived and worked for many years at Seville, date +from about the same time as the "cuenca" _azulejos_. In the case of the +_Pisano_ tile, there is no indentation caused by the imprint of a mould, +the surface being merely coated with a monochrome glaze, painted upon +and fired, the decoration thus remaining flat all over. Commonly the +ground is white or yellow, with the colour of the pattern shaded blue, +or black, or deepish purple. This process, which lent itself to most +elaborate and effective schemes of ornament, remained in vogue until the +eighteenth century, and was practised, not only by Pisano himself, but +by a long succession of his pupils, followers, and imitators. + + [Illustration: LIII + ANDALUSIAN NON-LUSTRED WARE + (_A.D. 1480-1495. Osma Collection_)] + +Such were the processes in use among the _azulejo_-makers of old +Seville. Specimens of their craftsmanship which yet survive and +illustrate the various styles and epochs may be thus enumerated:-- + +(1) Mosaic tile-work, such as appears in Seville at the time of the +Almohade invasion. A fragment of this kind of work forms part of the +collection of Senor Osma, and proceeds from the church of San Andres. +Tiles and smaller pieces of mosaic-work, coloured in malachite green and +white, were also found in 1899 and 1900, in the upper walls of the +renowned Torre del Oro, or "Golden Tower," erected in the year 1220, +and which is popularly thought to derive its venerable title from the +sparkle of the sun upon its _azulejos_. Another piece of primitive +mosaic, measuring rather less than a yard square, and containing +star-shaped geometrical devices, was found in 1890 beneath the floor of +the cathedral; while mosaics of a later age, including the more +elaborate _laceria_ patterns that resemble ribbon, are preserved in the +Patio de las Doncellas of the Alcazar, in the Casa de Olea, and in the +parish churches of San Esteban, San Gil, and Omnium Sanctorum. + +(2) A small group of curious tiles, believed to be anterior to the reign +of Pedro the First, has come to light some years ago, in the churches of +San Andres and Santa Marina, and in the Claustro del Lagarto of the +cathedral. Those of San Andres are of white earthenware, glazed in the +same colour and stamped from a mould with the figures of two wolves in +fairly bold relief (see tailpiece to this chapter). Traces of a glaze of +malachite green are on the bodies of these wolves. The _azulejos_ of the +church of Santa Marina, also discovered recently, are examined by Senor +Osma in his pamphlet _Azulejos sevillanos del siglo xiii_ (Madrid, +1902). They measure about three and a half inches square, and bear +devices of a castle and an eagle, stamped in the diagonal direction of +the tile, showing that this was fixed upon the wall in lozenge fashion. +The tiles are bathed upon their surface with what is termed by Osma "the +semi-transparent, caramel-coloured glaze peculiar to the pottery of +Moorish Spain."[69] Upon this ground is stamped the decoration,--the +eagles in the blackish purple of baked manganese, the castles without +additional colour, so as to be distinguished only by their outline from +the yellowish surface of the tile. + + [69] According to Gestoso, the colours in use among the Almohades + consisted of green, black, caramel or honey, and deep purple. + These colours underwent no change until the sixteenth century. + +The _azulejos_ of the Claustro del Lagarto of the cathedral are three in +number, and were found in 1888. Two of them are stamped with a castle of +a single tower described within a shield, and the third with a Greek +cross. These are considered by Osma to be the only tiles existing at +this moment which date from the latter third of the thirteenth century. +In fact, he places their manufacture between the years 1252 and 1269. + + [Illustration: LIV + _CUENCA_ TILES + (_Alcazar of Seville_)] + +(3) _Cuerda seca_ tiles. Handsome _zocalos_ or dadoes of these tiles are +in the Casa de los Pinelos, and in the chapels of the palaces of the +Dukes of Alba and Medinaceli. Gestoso attributes them to the end of the +fifteenth century or the beginning of the sixteenth. Detached _cuerda +seca_ tiles are preserved in the municipal museum of archaeology, while a +fine pair (Plate liii.) of this class of _azulejos_ belongs to Senor +Osma, who considers they were made between 1480 and 1495. They are thus +coeval with the no less interesting dish of the time of Ferdinand and +Isabella, of which a reproduction is given opposite page 190. + +(4) _Cuenca_ tiles. Quantities of these, dating from the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries, may yet be seen in many parts of Seville; for +instance, in her churches or her convents, in her superb Alcazar, or in +the mansions of her old nobility. Probably the most remarkable of all +are those in the gardens of the Alcazar, and lining the walls of the +Pavilion of Charles the Fifth. The devices on these polychrome +_azulejos_ (16th century; Plate liv.) are very numerous, including men +and animals, centaurs and other monsters, the Pillars of Hercules, and +imitations of elaborate dress fabrics. + +(5) _Pisano_ tiles. Although some facts have been unearthed concerning +the Italian Francesco Niculoso Pisano, we do not know precisely in what +year he came to Seville, or in what year he died. Davillier thought it +probable that he had studied at Faenza or at Caffagiolo. At all events, +it was Pisano who broadly launched the art of the Sevillian potters on +the stream of the Renaissance.[70] I have stated that the tiles which +bear his name are painted on a white or yellow ground. Consequently +their surface is flat, without the ridges and depressions of the +_cuenca_ or the _cuerda seca_ methods. We find _Pisano_ tiles applied to +various objects, such as tombs, altars, friezes, and archivolts. This +artist, says Gestoso, further introduced the use of two new +colours,--violet and rose. Several of his best productions are still +intact, including the doorway of the church of the monastery of Santa +Paula (in which he was assisted by a Spanish master, Pedro Millan), and +the altar of the Catholic Sovereigns in the Alcazar. Both these +masterpieces were executed in the year 1504, and bear Pisano's +signature. The doorway of Santa Paula is described by Gestoso as +consisting of a single body of masonry, distinct from that of the +building itself, though resting against it, and constructed of bricks +of uniform size, which show us, by their perfect symmetry, how skilful +were the masons of that time, with whom the Moorish craftsmanship was +yet a living power. The doorway is formed by a series of concentric +Gothic arches resting on slender pillars. The space which forms the +outer archivolt is most remarkable. Upon a ground of _azulejos_ which +copy the colour of the brickwork, we see a number of Plateresque designs +of exquisite beauty, painted in white and blue, with occasional touches +of other colours. Among the devices are chimeras, war-trophies, volutes, +chaplets, parapegms, antelopes, masks, and others which are +characteristic of the Florentine Renaissance. Upon this ground, and +enclosed by circular garlands in high relief, consisting of polychrome +fruits and flowers, are seven medallions containing figures of male and +female saints, except the one which is upon the keystone, and which +represents the birth of Christ. In this medallion the figures are +enamelled in white upon a cobalt-blue ground, recalling, as also do the +garlands, the work of the celebrated della Robbia.[71] In the rest of +the medallions the figures are glazed in brilliant colours. In the +three medallions upon the left, beginning with the lowest one, we see, +upon the first, Saint Helen; upon the second, two saints in monkish +dress; and upon the third, Saint Peter and Saint Paul. On the medallions +of the other side are another saint dressed as a monk, San Cosme, San +Damian, and San Roque. The spaces on either side of the archivolt are +covered with tiles which represent a landscape. In each of the upper +angles is an angel holding a large tablet with IHS in ornamental Gothic +character upon a black ground. These letters, and also the angels and +the frames of the tablets, are enamelled in gold. Beneath each tablet is +an angel standing with extended wings upon a bracket of lustred +earthenware, and holding an open book. The brickwork of the door is +closed by a plain impost supporting a small battlement covered with +_cuenca_ tiles, and crowned with a cornice of flamboyant ornaments +alternating with the heads of cherubs glazed in white, and with a white +marble cross in the centre. The tympanum is embellished by a superb +shield carved in high relief upon white marble with the arms of Castile, +Leon, Aragon, and Sicily, surmounted by a royal crown and the eagle with +the nimbus. Beside this shield are two smaller ones of _azulejos_ +painted with the yoke and sheaf of arrows, and the motto T[=A]TO +M[=O]TA. The ground on which are executed these three shields occupies +the whole tympanum, and is covered with Plateresque devices including +two tablets, on one of which we read the letters S.P.Q.R., and on the +other, PISANO. Above the first of these tablets is another of an oval +shape, bearing the word NICULOSO. Lastly, at the base of the archivolt, +and on the left-hand side of the spectator, is a very small rectangular +tablet with this inscription:-- + + NICVLOSO + + FRANCISCO-I- + + TALIANO-MEF + + ECIT INELAGNO DEI + + . 154 . + + [70] Gestoso says that florid Gothic and Renaissance motives are found + occasionally in the older _cuenca_ tiles. This was, however, quite + exceptional. + + [71] A plaque belongs to Senor Gestoso which proceeds from the + demolished Mudejar church of San Miguel at Seville. It measures + fifteen inches high by ten wide, and is decorated with a + representation, in bas-relief, of the Coronation of the Virgin. The + eyebrows, eyelids, and lips of the figures are executed in cobalt + upon a thick layer of white glaze, and strongly recall the method + of Lucca della Robbia. Gestoso considers that this plaque was made + in the latter part of the fourteenth century. If so, it is + antecedent to the work of della Robbia (whose _Resurrection_ upon + one of the doors of the Duomo of Florence dates from 1438) by a + good many years. A similar example, also by an unknown hand and + representing the Coronation, is in the chapel of the Sagrario of + Seville Cathedral. + +The altar in the Alcazar of the same city, and which is known as that of +the Catholic Sovereigns (Plate lv.), is entirely covered with "Pisano" +_azulejos_ measuring sixteen centimetres square. Imbedded in the centre +is a picture, also of painted tiles, representing the visit of the +Virgin to Saint Elizabeth. This picture measures five feet in height by +three feet eight inches in breadth. Beneath it is the figure of a +patriarch resting his head upon his hand. Boughs with large flowers +issue from his breast, and among the flowers are half-length figures of +the prophets, together with those of Jesus and the Virgin, the whole of +this decoration forming a frame to the central picture. The rest of the +altar is profusely decorated with designs in the Renaissance style, +consisting of vases, animals, genii, and the emblems of Ferdinand and +Isabella. In the centre of the tiling which forms the altar-front is a +circular picture made of _azulejos_ surrounded by a garland of fruits +and laurel leaves, and representing the Annunciation, garland and +picture being supported by two monsters with the tails of dragons and +the upper parts of women. Large flaming torches rest between the +out-stretched arms of the monsters, and round about or springing from +them are flowers, animals, cornucopias, and other decoration. The +entire _retablo_ is painted lightish blue and white upon a yellow +ground, except the larger picture and its decorative border, which is of +a deeper blue. A small tablet beneath the Virgin's feet contains the +words NICULOSO FRANCESCO ITALIANO ME FECIT, and on the pilaster +represented on the left hand of the same picture is added the date, +1504. As Gestoso, Davillier, and others have remarked, it is evident +that while the rest of the altar is pure Renaissance-Plateresque, the +pictures copied on the tiles are of a northern school. Probably they +were designed for Niculoso by one of the various German or Flemish +masters who at that time were resident in Seville. + + [Illustration: LV + ALTAR OF THE CATHOLIC SOVEREIGNS + (_Alcazar of Seville_)] + +Another altar which was formerly in the same palace, but which has +disappeared, was also painted by this craftsman. It was described by +Cean Bermudez as containing scenes from the life of the Virgin, the +Trinity, and the two Saints John, and bore the same date as the altar +which is yet existing, namely, 1504. + +Among the other works of Niculoso are the altar of the church of +Tentudia, the tomb of Inigo Lopez in the church of Santa Ana in the +quarter of Triana, and a tile-picture representing, similarly to the +one which forms the centre of the altar in the Alcazar, the Virgin's +visit to Saint Elizabeth. This picture formerly belonged to the kings of +Portugal, and is now in the museum of Amsterdam.[72] + + [72] Certain _azulejos_, signed by Niculoso and dated 1500, were + formerly existing in the palace of the Counts of El Real de + Valencia in the city of this name. These tiles were executed in + relief, and proved that Niculoso did not work exclusively in the + Italian style. + +Such were the decorative _azulejos_ which made the potteries of Seville +famous throughout Europe, and which are known to have been exported to +Italy, Portugal, and even England.[73] The names of several hundred +mediaeval and post-mediaeval makers of these Seville tiles have been +exhumed and published by Gestoso. + + [73] In Portugal, tiles which Gestoso believes to have been made at + Seville, exist in Coimbra cathedral, the church of San Roque at + Lisbon, and the two palaces of Cintra. In our own country, Seville + tiles are stated by Marryat and Demmin to line the walls of the + Mayor's Chapel at Bristol, whither they were doubtless conveyed by + one of the numerous English merchants who traded between Spain and + England, and who are known to have made their home at Seville in + the sixteenth century. Another tile of Seville workmanship, + proceeding from Haccombe Church, Devonshire, is in the British + Museum. + +The general title of the Spanish potter was _ollero_, a comprehensive +term which reaches from the most ambitious _azulejero_ to the maker of +the meanest kitchen-ware. The _olleros_ of older Seville produced for +centuries, not only glazed and coloured tiling by the processes already +indicated, but countless other objects such as brims of wells, +apothecary's jars, baptismal fonts, and dishes of every shape and size. +They used a general mark (the tower of the Giralda) to stamp their +pottery; but private marks are nearly always absent. The facts that have +appeared in recent years concerning these artificers are seldom +interesting. The mere mention of a name is meaningless, or even +perplexing, seeing that a Moor or Mudejar would frequently assume the +name and surname of a Christian. Nevertheless, Gestoso has brought to +light important notices concerning one or two, and in particular a +document dating from the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, relating to a +celebrated potter of that period named Fernan Martinez Guijarro. This +document, which is dated 1479, describes Martinez as "a very great +master in the art of making _azulejos_, fonts, and all the things +pertaining to his trade, insomuch that none other in all this kingdom is +like unto him," and subsequently, "considering him to be so excellent a +craftsman that persons come hither from Portugal and other parts to +purchase and to carry off his ware." It is further stated that Martinez +Guijarro was in wealthy circumstances ("hombre rrico e de mucha rrenta e +fasyenda"). His _talleres_ or workshops were in the _barrio_ of Triana, +and included (as we learn from one of the documents copied by the same +investigator) a separate department for the manufacture or storage of +lustred ware. + +Unfortunately, even Gestoso is unable to point to any piece of tiling or +other pottery now existing, as being unquestionably executed by this +master. + +Another Sevillian potter of exceptional merit was Cristobal de Augusta, +who worked in the latter half of the sixteenth century, and left his +name upon the _azulejo_ dadoes of the Halls of Charles the Fifth in the +Alcazar. The style of these most brilliant tiles is pure Renaissance, +and forms a worthy continuation of the splendid work of Niculoso. +Augusta, indeed, is termed in the Archives of the Alcazar "master of +making tiles in the Pisano manner" (_del pisano_).[74] Some tilemakers +of little note succeeded him, but even the names of these are carefully +recorded by Gestoso. + + [74] The _pisano_ process is believed by Gestoso to have succumbed + before the _cuenca_. He says he is aware of no _pisano_ tiling + which can be dated from as late as the second half of the + seventeenth century. + +Seville was thus the principal centre of the craft of decorative +tile-making. _Azulejos_ were also made at Barcelona and other towns in +Cataluna, at Talavera de la Reina, Burgos, Toledo, Granada, and +Valencia, in several towns of Aragon, and probably at Cordova. Riano +quotes a letter written about the year 1422, from the wife of the +Admiral of Castile to the abbess of the nunnery of Santo Domingo at +Toledo, requesting that a number of _azulejos_ be sent to her. "She +alludes, in the same letter, to painted tiles, and says she was +expecting a master potter from Seville to place the tiles in their +proper places. This shows us" (continues Riano) "that it was only in the +province of Andalusia that the art was known of cutting these tiles into +geometrical sections and mosaic patterns." + +The meaning of this passage is obscure. Riano speaks of painted tiles +and _azulejos_ as though they were distinct objects, and yet they are +essentially the same. Again, if only Andalusia was able to produce such +tiles, why did the Almirante's wife order them from Toledo? Perhaps the +faulty English of Riano's handbook is responsible, but, as it stands, +this passage tells us practically nothing. In any case, abundant +evidence exists to show that large quantities of Mudejar and +Renaissance tiles were manufactured at Toledo. In general appearance, +they are similar to those of Seville. + +Ramirez de Arellano believes that decorative tiles were manufactured at +Cordova in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and quotes, in proof +of this, the names of "maestros de hacer vidriado" or makers of glazed +ware, who resided at this ancient capital. One of these craftsmen was +Alonso Rodriguez the younger, who, on June 7th, 1574, sold to a canon of +the cathedral ten thousand white and green tiles of a common kind +(_ladrillos_), probably employed for roofing. The price was three ducats +the thousand. On April 10th, 1598, Juan Sanchez engaged to supply the +same temple with the same quantity of glazed tiles (_tejas_) for +roofing, coloured white, green, and yellow, at sixteen _maravedis_ each +tile. + +_Azulejos_ were certainly made at Granada in the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries, and probably earlier. + + [Illustration: LVI + THE GATE OF WINE + (_Showing polychrome tiling. Alhambra, Granada_)] + +In a passage of the Alhambra palace leading from the Patio de la Alberca +to the Cuarto Dorado, a space was laid bare not many years ago, +containing the original _mostagueras_ or small tiles used for flooring, +glazed in two colours; and in the same building, although in +constantly diminishing quantities, are large numbers of tiles which date +from the time of the Spanish Moors. There has been a good deal of +discussion as to whether the roofs of the Alhambra were originally +covered with decorative tiles. Swinburne (who must not, however, be +taken as the safest of authorities) wrote that "in Moorish times the +building was covered with large painted and glazed tiles, of which some +few are yet to be seen." + +Indifferent Renaissance tiles, made in the reign of Philip the Fifth, +are still preserved in parts of the Alhambra. + +Excellent polychrome _cuerda seca_ tiles (fourteenth century), in white, +green, yellow, blue, and black, are over the horseshoe archway of the +Gate of Wine of the Alhambra (Plate lvi.). According to Gomez +Moreno,[75] they were manufactured here, as were the Moorish _azulejos_, +yellow, black, white, violet, and sky-blue, in the Mirador de +Daraxa.[76] The archives of the Moorish palace also state that towards +the close of the sixteenth century Antonio Tenorio, whose pottery was +situated in the Secano, and consequently within a stone's-throw of the +Casa Real, made several sets of _azulejos_ for the Hall of the +Abencerrajes. Good Morisco tiles, dating from the same period and +wrought by craftsmen such as Gaspar Hernandez, Pedro Tenorio, and the +members of the Robles family, are in the Sala de Comares, and in one of +the rooms of the Casa de los Tiros. + + [75] _Guia de Granada_; pp. 35, 36. + + [76] Pure red is the rarest of the colours employed in Moorish + tile-work. It is, however, found in a single part of the Alhambra; + namely, among the superb tile-decoration of the Torre de la + Cautiva. + + Gestoso says that red was practically unknown among the Seville + potters. Sometimes, however, in coats of arms, a space that should + have properly been gules was left uncoloured in the actual making + of the tile, and painted red with oil-colour after firing. + +From the thirteenth century until the eighteenth, excellent _azulejos_ +were made in Cataluna. Specimens of every period exist in the +collections of Don Francisco Rogent and Don Jose Font y Guma, of +Barcelona, and Don Luis Santacana, of Martorell. The tiles belonging to +these gentlemen proceed from the cathedral and other temples of +Barcelona, and from the monasteries or castles of Poblet, Santas Creus, +Montserrat, Marmella, San Miguel de Ervol, Centellas, Torre Pallaresa, +San Miguel del Fay, and Vallpellach.[77] + + [77] Coloured plates of Catalan and other Spanish _azulejos_ are + published with Garcia Llanso's text in the _Historia General del + Arte_; Vol. II. + +Another region which has long been celebrated for its _azulejeria_ is +the kingdom of Valencia. Even in the eighteenth century, when this craft +was generally in a state of great decadence, Valencian tiles were +thoroughly well made, although the patterns on them were defective. +Laborde pronounced them "the best executed and most elegant in Europe," +and further said of this locality; "the painted earthenware tiles or +_azulejos_ are used in the country, but only a small part of them; a +great many are sent into the interior of Spain as well as to Cadiz, +where they are shipped for Spanish America, and to Marseilles, whence +they are conveyed into Africa." + +The same writer inserts an interesting account of the manufacture of +these _azulejos_. "It is at Valencia that the tiles of earthenware are +made, with which they incrust walls and pave apartments: those tiles are +of a clayey earth, which is found in the territories of Quarte near +Valencia; they harden the earth long after soaking it in water; the +tiles are formed in moulds, and are dried in the sun; they are then +beaten with a piece of square wood of the dimensions of which they are +wanted. They are then put into the oven, where they undergo a slight +baking. As soon as they are done they are glazed, and are afterwards +painted in water colours with whatever subject is intended to be +represented. The tiles are then replaced in the oven so as not to touch +one another, and that the action of the fire may penetrate them all +equally: as the colours change by baking, the workmen apply them anew in +proportion to the changes that take place; the red alone alters +entirely. The varnish with which they are glazed is made with lead, tin, +and white sand. These three substances are ground in a mill to powder, +which is mixed with water, to form a paste, and baked in the oven; it is +again pounded and put into the oven, where it crystallises: being once +more reduced to powder and diluted with water, it becomes varnish. There +are two kinds of it; one is whiter than the other, though the same +materials are used: the mode of mixing alone makes the difference; the +whiter, the clearer the tiles. It takes a certain number of tiles to +form a picture: they are of different dimensions; the smallest are three +inches nine lines, the largest seven inches nine lines. The price varies +according to the size of the tile, the beauty of the varnish, and the +variety of the drawings: the lowest price is eight pesos (25s.) a +thousand, and the highest 100 pesos or L15, 12_s._ 6_d._ There is a +considerable demand for them; they are superior both in beauty and +strength to those used in Holland." + + [Illustration: LVII + TILES OF THE DECADENT PERIOD] + +Bourgoing, author of the _Nouveau Voyage en Espagne_, described, in +1789, the same product in the following terms: "L'industrie des +Valenciens tire d'ailleurs parti de toutes les productions de leur sol. +Il contient une espece de terre dont ils font ces carreaux de faience +coloree, connus sous le nom d'_Azulejos_, et qu'on ne fabrique qu'a +Valence. On en pave les appartements, et on en revet leurs lambris; on y +peint les sujets les plus compliques, tels par exemple qu'un bal masque, +une fete de taureaux. La couleur rouge est la seule qui ne puisse etre +fixee sur cette espece de faience; elle s'altere entierement par la +cuisson."[78] + + [78] Vol. iii., p. 56. + +For the amusement of my readers, I insert an illustration of common +Spanish tiles of the decadent period (Plate lvii.), displaying +considerable liveliness combined with reckless ignorance of +draughtsmanship. A class of these degenerate tiles, made in large +quantities at Seville in the eighteenth century, is known as _azulejos +de monteria_ or "hunting-tiles," since episodes of the chase form one +of the favourite themes of their design. + +Although it passed through a long period of prostration, embracing the +greater part of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, at no time has +the manufacture of decorative Spanish tiles succumbed completely. Of +recent years it has revived surprisingly at Seville, Barcelona, and +Segovia; and at the first of these cities the older _azulejos_, and +particularly those in the _cuenca_ style, are imitated to perfection. + +In the cheapest kinds of modern tiling, such as is used for corridors +and kitchens, a common device is a series of repeated curves and dots +which evidently has its source in Arabic lettering. Indeed, the +ornamental and attractive written characters of the Spanish Moors, +rendered familiar to their rivals through long centuries of intercourse, +seem to have constantly found favour with the Christian Spaniards. The +_fuero_ of Jaca, dated A.D. 1064, tells us that a Christian prince of +Spain, Don Sancho Ramirez, was accustomed to write his signature in +Arabic lettering. Meaningless inscriptions in the same language, and +evidently executed by a Christian hand, are engraved on objects in the +Royal Armoury; and Senor Osma describes in an interesting pamphlet +(_Los letreros ornamentales en la ceramica morisca del Siglo XV._) how, +in the pottery of older Spain, a word in Arabic such as _alafia_ +("prosperity" or "blessing") would often be corrupted by Morisco +craftsmen into a motive of a purely ornamental character, and which +would only in this sense be comprehended and appreciated by the +Christian.[79] + + [79] _Alafia_ is written in Neshki, [Illustration], which word, says + Senor Osma, by suppressing the diacritical points and prolonging + some of the lines, was converted by the potter into the + conventional and exclusively decorative device:-- + + [Illustration] + + + HISPANO-MORESQUE LUSTRED POTTERY + +Probably no pottery in the world possesses greater loveliness or +interest than the celebrated, yet even to this day mysterious, lustred +ware of Moorish Spain. Our knowledge of the early history of this ware +is still imperfect. In modern times, attention was first drawn to the +lustre process by M. Riocreux, of the Sevres Museum. In spite, however, +of the subsequent monographs and researches of Davillier and other +authorities, the origin of lustred pottery is yet a problem which awaits +solution. Until some years ago it was believed to have had its source in +Persia, where many specimens have been discovered in the form of tiles +and other objects; but this belief was afterwards shaken by Fouquet, who +unearthed at Fostat in Egypt, in the year 1884, specimens of lustred +ware which are known to date from the eleventh century. Saladin, too, +affirms that he has seen upon the mosque of Kairuan lustred plaques with +inscriptions recording them to have been presented, between A.D. 864 and +875, by the emir Ibrahim Ahmed-ibn-el-Aglab. + +Whatever these facts may signify, it appears from a statement by the +geographer Edrisi that lustred ware was made in Spain as early as the +twelfth century. "Here," said the writer, speaking of Calatayud, "is +produced the gold-coloured pottery which is exported to all countries." +The next allusion to it is by the traveller Ibn-Batutah, who visited +certain parts of Spain in the middle of the fourteenth century. "At +Malaga," he wrote, "is made the beautiful golden pottery which is +exported to the farthest countries." These passages refer respectively +to Aragon and Andalusia. The same ware was produced in Murcia. Ibn-Said, +quoted by Al-Makkari, mentions the "glazed and gilded porcelain" of +Murcia, Malaga, and Almeria, calling it "strange and admirable." It was +also manufactured, probably in larger quantities than in any other part +of Spain, in many towns and villages of the kingdom of Valencia, such as +Carcer, Alaquaz, Moncada, Quarte, Villalonga, Traiguera, and Manises. In +the _Excellencies of the Kingdom of Valencia_, written by Eximenes and +published in 1499, we find it stated that "surpassing everything else is +the ware of Manises, gilded and painted with such mastery that all the +world is enamoured thereof, insomuch that the pope, the cardinals, and +princes send for it, astonished that objects of such excellence can be +made of earth."[80] + + [80] "_Sobre tot es la bellessa de la obra de manizes daurada e + maestriuolment pintada que ja tot lo mon ha enamorat ent[=a]t que + lo papa, e los cardenals e lo princeps del mon per special gracia + la requeren e stan marauellats que d'terra se puxa fer obra axi + excellent e noble._" + +Other writers on the same locality, such as Diago and Escolano, author +of the _Historia de la insigne y coronada ciudad y reino de Valencia_ +(Valencia, 1610, 1611), confirm this eulogy of Eximenes. According to +Escolano, Valencian ware was "of such loveliness that in return for that +which the Italians send us from Pisa, we send them boatloads of it from +Manises." One of the most recent of authorities on lustred ware remarks +that "in the fifteenth century ornamental vases in the (Spanish-Moorish) +wares appear to have been commanded from Spain by wealthy Florentines, +as is evident from the Medici arms and impresa in fig. 40; others +bearing the Florentine lily (fig. 41) seem to have been ordered from the +same city." The illustrations to which the author of this monograph[81] +refers, depict a vase and a boccale, both in lustred ware, and which it +is extremely probable were manufactured at Manises. + + [81] Wallis, _The Oriental Influence on Italian Ceramic Art_. London; + 1900. + +The same ware was also possibly made in Cataluna, where pieces of it +have been found among the ruins of the village of Las Casas. _La +Alhambra_, a small magazine which is published at Granada, contains, in +the number dated September 30th, 1901, an account of these fragments by +their finder, Joaquin Vilaplana. + +Some years ago the Balearic Islands were also thought to have produced +this pottery. One of the earliest and most fervent champions of this +theory, now definitely shown to be erroneous, was Baron Davillier. This +gentleman, in some respects an excellent authority on Spanish ceramics, +relied too strongly on certain assurances made him by a Senor Bover, and +ended by declaring that in the museums of Paris and London he had +himself seen lustred plates which bore the arms of Ynca in the +Balearics, proving them to have been manufactured at that town. + +However, a Majorcan archaeologist, named Alvaro Campaner, refuted one by +one Davillier's points of argument, and showed beyond all question that +both the plates of Ynca and the arms which decorated them were simply +nonexistent, and that the term _Majolica_, deriving from _Majorica_, +applies to pottery in general, and not with any preference to lustred +ware. Campaner also suggested very ingeniously that the word _Majolica_ +was probably applied by the Italians to Catalan or Valencian pottery +conveyed to Italy in vessels themselves belonging to the Balearics, and +which were in the habit of completing their cargoes in the ports of +Barcelona and Valencia, and he added that this suggestion is supported +by the fact that specimens of lustred ware are far more often met with +on the Balearic coast than in the towns and villages of the interior. It +is only fair to state that Davillier frankly and fully recognized the +value of Campaner's refutation. + +As to the methods of producing lustred pottery, the chemical +investigations practised by Riocreux, Brogniart, Carand, and others, +have shown that the metals used to produce the characteristic reflex +which gives the ware its name were copper and silver, entering into the +composition of an extremely thin glaze extended over the surface of the +pottery, and employed, sometimes together, and sometimes separately. It +is obvious that the lustre produced by copper would be deeper, redder, +and less delicate than that produced by silver, while varying gradations +would be obtainable by the mixture of both metals. It is also beyond +doubt that the oldest specimens of this pottery extant to-day are those +which contain the palest and most pearly lustre, and consequently the +largest quantity of the costlier metal. In those of later date there is +an evident inferiority, both in colour, lustre, and design. In fact, two +separate, or nearly separate, epochs of this branch of Spanish pottery +are pointed out by Senor Melida, who gives the name of _Mudejar_ to +lustred objects manufactured at an earlier time by Moorish artists +working in the cities captured by the Christians, and that of _Morisco_ +to the second or inferior class produced by Morisco craftsmen after the +reconquest, and distinguished by the coarser and degenerate lustre, +colouring, and draughtsmanship. + +The rarest and most beautiful examples of this ware are naturally those +which belong to the former class, and consist of various kinds of plates +and other objects in which elaborate devices such as lions, antelopes, +and shields of heraldry, often combined with foliage and inscriptions in +Gothic lettering, are coloured in bistre or pale blue,[82] and rendered +doubly beautiful by the delicate nacreous lustre. + + [82] In lustred pottery these colours, and particularly blue, are far + the commonest. It has been found that other colours, such as green + and black, were ill adapted to the lustre process. + +In nearly every case it is extremely difficult to determine with any +certainty the date of manufacture of these objects, as well as the +locality. Wallis says he is aware of "no example of Spanish lustre +pottery antecedent to those in the class to which the large Palermo jar +belongs, and they are not likely to be much earlier than the end of the +fourteenth century. Happily the celebrated plaque (Plate lviii.) +formerly belonging to Fortuny, and now in the possession of Excmo Sr. +Don G. J. de Osma, furnishes an early date, which, according to its +owner, is between May 1408 and November 1417. Those who know the +original will remember that it is no less remarkable for the quality of +its golden lustre than for the grace and elegance of its fanciful +Oriental design." It is also believed by Senor Osma that this plaque was +manufactured in the kingdom of Granada; _i.e._ either at Granada or +Malaga. + + [Illustration: LVIII + HISPANO-MORESQUE LUSTRED PLAQUE + (_Early 15th Century. Osma Collection_)] + +A specimen of Spanish lustred ware more celebrated even than Fortuny's +plaque is the "vase of the Alhambra" (Plate lix.), which rests to-day in +a corner of the Sala de las Dos Hermanas. The history of this mighty jar +is interesting. Popular superstition affirms it to have been discovered, +filled to the brim with gold, by the Marquis of Mondejar, first of the +Christian governors of the fortress of Granada. Exposed for many years +to every stress of weather and to every mutilation at the hands of +passers-by, it stood, in company with other vases of enormous size, +upon a rampart which is now the garden terrace known as the Adarves. +Several of the older travellers have described these vessels or alluded +to them. Marmol wrote of them as far back as the sixteenth century, +while the journal of Bertaut de Rouen contains the following +notice;--"Sur la premiere terrasse par ou l'on entre, et d'ou l'on a de +la peine a regarder en bas sans estre eblouy, il y a deux fontaines +jaillissantes, et tout du long des murs du chasteau, des espaliers +d'orangers et de grenadiers, avec de grands vases de terre peinte, aussi +belle que la porcelaine, ou il n'y avoit pour lors, sinon quelques +fleurs en quelques-uns: mais ou l'on dit que le Marquis de Mondejar +trouva quantite d'or que les Mores avaient cache dans la terre, quand il +y fut estably par Ferdinand." The priest Echeverria, who forged the +relics of the ancient Alcazaba of Granada,[83] was careful to repeat +this fable in the twenty-sixth chapter of his _Paseos por Granada_. The +first edition of this work was published in 1764, under the assumed name +of Joseph Romero Yranzo. There were then two vases and part of a third, +all "lacerated, peeled, and maltreated." The Englishman Swinburne wrote +in 1776 that below the Towers of the Bell, "on the south-side, on a slip +of terrace, is the governor's garden, a very pleasant walk, full of fine +orange and cypress trees and myrtle hedges, but quite abandoned. The +view it commands is incomparable. Two large vases enamelled with gold +and azure foliages and characters are the only ornaments left: these +were taken out of the vaults under the royal apartments." In the second +edition of Echeverria's _Paseos_, which was republished in 1814, it is +added in a footnote that only a single vase remained, "in a room that +overlooks the Court of Myrtles." Lozano, however, in his _Antiguedades +Arabes_, mentions two vases as existing at the same period. Argote de +Molina (_Nuevos Paseos por Granada_, published about 1808) describes, +together with the wretchedly executed marble statues in the Sala de las +Ninfas, the "two or three great porcelain jars whereof some pieces only +now remain," and reminds us that according to the old tradition these +statues looked continually towards the vases, which were full of +treasure. Argote, nevertheless, takes Echeverria sharply to task for his +absurdities upon this theme; and Washington Irving, a diligent gleaner +in Echeverria's somewhat scanty field, makes use of the same material +for his well-known story. + + [83] I have fully described these forgeries in Chapters II and III of + _Granada: Memories, Adventures, Studies, and Impressions_. + + [Illustration: LIX + HISPANO-MORESQUE LUSTRED VASE + (_Alhambra, Granada_)] + +In the time of Owen Jones the one surviving vase, now standing with a +wooden rail before it in a corner of the Hall of the Two Sisters, still +occupied the "room that looks upon the Court of Myrtles." Jones wrote of +it in 1842:--"This beautiful vase was discovered, it is said, full of +gold in one of the subterranean chambers of the Casa Real. It is at +present to be seen in a small chamber of the Court of the Fish-pond, in +which are deposited the archives of the palace. It is engraved in the +Spanish work by Lozano, _Antiguedades Arabes de Espana_, with another of +the same size, which was broken a few years ago, and the pieces sold to +a passing traveller. The vase is executed in baked clay, with enamelled +colours and gold similar to the mosaics." + +A more precise description is the following. The vase, which measures +four feet six inches in height by eight feet two inches and a half in +circumference, is of common earthenware painted with intricate devices +fired after painting. This was a difficult operation in a vessel of such +size; and here, in consequence, the colours have slightly run and +mingled. Besides these technical flaws, the belly of the vase is broken +clean in half, and one of the handles is missing. The shape is +amphoraic, with a moderate downward curve. About the middle, surrounded +by leaf and stem and geometrical devices effectively intertwined, are +two antelopes. The vase is coloured blue and caramel upon a delicate +yellow ground, and has a faint metallic lustre.[84] An Arabic +inscription is repeated several times, and consists of the words +"Felicity" and "Welcome." + + [84] This lustre is faint but quite distinguishable, and Rada y Delgado + was clearly in error in supposing that there is none. + +This vase is believed to date from the fourteenth century; and if we +judge from the colour and composition of the earth employed, it appears +probable that it was made at Granada. Together with the other vases +which have disappeared,[85] it was doubtless meant to serve as a +receptacle for water, and for decorating the chambers of the palace, +where it would rest in amphora-fashion on a perforated stand, while +smaller vases containing flowers would fill the niches which may yet +be seen in various inner walls of the Alhambra. The belief of Argote[86] +and many other writers that these niches were intended to receive the +slippers of the Moors is utterly unfounded. + + [85] The lost jar mentioned by Owen Jones, of which a drawing has been + made, was of the same shape as the one which now remains; but in + its decoration were included the arms of the Nasrite dynasty of + Granada. It is this circumstance which has induced Gomez Moreno to + suppose that these vases were the work of Granadino artists. + + [86] "_Los nichos para chinelas_," as he calls them, in describing the + Sala de Comares. + +Until quite recently all published illustrations of the great _jarron de +la Alhambra_ were inaccurate, and as a rule grotesquely so. Among the +very worst are those inserted in the handbooks of Riano and Contreras. I +am glad to be able to reproduce an excellent photograph, which both +corrects the atrocious cuts I have observed elsewhere, and relieves me +from giving a prolix and possibly a wearisome description of the +decoration on the vase. + + [Illustration: LX + HISPANO-MORESQUE LUSTRED VASE + (_Madrid Museum_)] + +Several other lustred vases of large size are still preserved in Spain +and other countries. One, proceeding from a Sicilian church, is in the +museum of Palermo. Wallis, who inserts an illustration, describes it as +"amphora-shaped, with two large flat handles; pear-shaped body, long +neck, ribbed at lower part, canellated above, moulded lip. Whitish body, +tin glaze. Ornament painted in gold lustre on white ground, the pattern +in parts almost obliterated. Hispano-Moresque. Height, one metre, +seventeen centimetres." + +Another of these great vases belonged to the painter Fortuny, and was +sold at his death to Prince Basilewsky, for thirty thousand francs. It +was found by Fortuny at the village of Salar, near Granada, and +purchased by him at a low price. "The neck and mouth resemble those of +the Alhambra vase. The ornamentation is distributed about the body of +the vase in four zones; one of the two central zones has tangent +circles, and the other an inscription." + + [Illustration: LXI + LUSTRED TILES + (_Osma Collection_)] + +Another large lustred vase is in the museum of Madrid (Plate lx.). It +was found by a labourer at Hornos in the province of Jaen, and passed +into the hands of the village priest, who placed it in his church to +support the font of holy water. In course of time a dealer in +antiquities, by name Amat, happened to pass that way, observed the vase, +and made an offer for it to the _padre_. This latter at first refused, +but subsequently, stimulated by an ignorant though well-intentioned and +disinterested zeal for bettering the temple, he stipulated that if the +dealer provided a new support of marble for the font, and paid for white +washing the church, he might bear off the coveted _jarron_. +Fulfilling these conditions at all speed, he mounted the precious vessel +on an ass, and briskly strode away. When he had gone a little distance +the villagers, missing their cherished vase, though unaware, of course, +of its artistic worth, swarmed angrily about the purchaser, flourished +their knives and sticks at him, and pelted him with stones. At this he +called upon the mayor for protection; the mayor provided him with two +armed men for bodyguard, and, thus defended, the indomitable dealer +reached Madrid and sold his jar to government for fifteen hundred +dollars. Its present value is estimated at not less than thirty +thousand.[87] + + [87] J. R. Melida, _Jarrones arabigos de loza vidriada_; published in + the _Boletin de la Sociedad Espanola de Excursionistas_. + +One of the earliest and most interesting notices relating to the +preparation of this lustred ware is contained in a description by one of +the royal archers, named Henry Cock, of the progress, performed in 1585, +of Philip the Second from the court of Spain to Zaragoza.[88] Cock wrote +of Muel, in Aragon:--"Almost all the inhabitants of this village are +potters, and all the earthenware sold at Zaragoza is made in the +following manner. The vessels are first fashioned to the required shape +from a certain substance extracted from the earth of this locality. They +are next baked in a specially constructed oven, and when removed from +this are varnished with white varnish and polished, after which they are +washed with a mixture of twenty-five pounds of lead, three or four +pounds of tin, and as many pounds of a certain sand which is found +there. All these ingredients are mixed into a paste resembling ice, +which is broken small, pounded like flour, and kept in powder. This +powder is mixed with water, the dishes are passed through it, and after +being rebaked they keep their lustre. Next, in order to gild the +pottery, they take the strongest vinegar mixed with about two _reales_ +of powdered silver, vermilion, and red ochre, and a little wire. When +all is thoroughly mixed they paint the patterns on the dishes with a +feather, bake them again, and their gold colour is now quite permanent. +I was told all this by the potters themselves."[89] + + [88] _Relacion del viaje hecho por Felipe II. en 1585._ Madrid, 1876. + + [89] The village of Muel continued to be a centre of this craft. + Townsend, who travelled in Spain in 1786 and 1787, wrote of + it:--"There are many potters, who turn their own wheels, not by + hand, but with their feet, by means of a larger wheel concentric + with that on which they mould the clay, and nearly level with the + floor." + + [Illustration: LXII + HISPANO-MORESQUE LUSTRED WARE + (_A.D. 1460-1480. Osma Collection_)] + +Another most interesting account of the manufacture of lustred ware +was discovered in manuscript by Riano in the British Museum, and, +although it belongs to a later date (1785), is well worth quoting fully. +It consists of a report upon the later gilded pottery of Manises, and +was drawn up by order of the Count of Floridablanca:-- + +"After the pottery is baked, it is varnished with white and blue, the +only colours used besides the gold lustre; the vessels are again baked; +if the objects are to be painted with gold colour, this can only be put +on the white varnish, after they have gone twice through the oven. The +vessels are then painted with the said gold colour and are baked a third +time, with only dry rosemary for fuel. + +"The white varnish used is composed of lead and tin, which are melted +together in an oven made on purpose; after these materials are +sufficiently melted, they become like earth, and when in this state the +mixture is removed and mixed with an equal quantity in weight of sand: +fine salt is added to it, it is boiled again, and when cold, pounded +into powder. The only sand which can be used is from a cave at +Benalguacil, three leagues from Manises. In order that the varnish +should be fine, for every _arroba_, twenty-five pounds of lead, six to +twelve ounces of tin must be added, and half a bushel of finely-powdered +salt: if a coarse kind is required, it is sufficient to add a very small +quantity of tin, and three or four _cuartos_ worth of salt, which in +this case must be added when the ingredient is ready for varnishing the +vessel. + +"Five ingredients enter into the composition of the gold colour: copper, +which is better the older it is; silver, as old as possible; sulphur; +red ochre; and strong vinegar, which are mixed in the following +proportions: of copper three ounces, of red ochre twelve ounces, of +silver one _peseta_ (about a shilling), sulphur three ounces, vinegar a +quart; three pounds (of twelve ounces) of the earth or scoriae, which is +left after this pottery is painted with the gold colour, is added to the +other ingredients. + + [Illustration: LXIII + HISPANO-MORESQUE LUSTRED WARE + (_A.D. 1460-1480. Osma Collection_)] + +"They are mixed in the following manner: a small portion of sulphur in +powder is put into a casserole with two small bits of copper, between +them a coin of one silver _peseta_; the rest of the sulphur and copper +is then added to it. When this casserole is ready, it is placed on the +fire, and is made to boil until the sulphur is consumed, which is +evident when no flame issues from it. The preparation is then taken +from the fire, and when cold is pounded very fine; the red ochre and +scoriae are then added to it; it is mixed up by hand and again pounded +into powder. The preparation is placed in a basin and mixed with enough +water to make a sufficient paste to stick on the sides of the basin; the +mixture is then rubbed on the vessel with a stick; it is therefore +indispensable that the water should be added very gradually until the +mixture is in the proper state. + +"The basin ready prepared must be placed in an oven for six hours. At +Manises it is customary to do so when the vessels of common pottery are +baked; after this the mixture is scratched off the sides of the basin +with some iron instrument; it is then removed from there and broken up +into small pieces, which are pounded fine in a hand-mortar with the +quantity of vinegar already mentioned, and after having been well ground +and pounded together for two hours the mixture is ready for decorating. +It is well to observe that the quantity of varnish and gold-coloured +mixture which is required for every object can only be ascertained by +practice." + +Nevertheless, the gilded ware of the kingdom of Valencia had by this +time deteriorated very greatly. Formerly, from as far back as the reign +of Jayme the Conqueror, the other towns or villages of this region which +produced the lustred and non-lustred pottery were Jativa, Paterna, +Quarte, Villalonga, Alaqua, Carcer, and Moncada. Early in the fourteenth +century fourteen potteries were working in the town of Biar, and +twenty-three at Traiguera. Manises, however, maintained the lead for +many years. The notices of Eximenes and other writers concerning the +pottery of this town have been already quoted. The same ware is +mentioned in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by Diago (1613), +Francisco Javier Borrell, Beuter, and Martin de Viciana. Marineus +Siculus, the chronicler of Ferdinand and Isabella, adds that similar or +identical pottery ("_desta misma arte_") was made in Murcia, whose +manufacture of it had been praised in earlier times by Ibn-Said. Toledo +also manufactured gilded ware with blue or bistre colouring. Garcia +Llanso says that in the sixteenth century this capital produced plates +which contain the arms of Spain in the centre, the rest of the plate +being completely covered with minute geometrical or floral +ornamentation. + + [Illustration: LXIV + HISPANO-MORESQUE LUSTRED WARE + (_A.D. 1460-1480. Osma Collection_)] + +It is certain that during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries +large quantities of lustred pottery were produced in many parts of +Andalusia, Castile, Aragon, and Valencia. The oldest and most valuable +specimens of this pottery are those which have the palest and most +purely golden lustre, combined with blue or bluish decoration in the +form of animals, coats of arms, or foliage. The lustred ware of Manises +began to deteriorate about the time of the expulsion of the Moriscos, +when the leaves and fronds of a clean gold tone upon a lightish ground +are replaced by commoner and coarser patterns, and the gold itself by +the coppery lustre which is still employed. + +After the seventeenth century the further decline of this once famous +industry may be traced from the accounts of travellers. Towards the +middle of this century Bowles wrote that "two leagues from the capital +(Valencia) is a fair-looking town of only four streets, whose occupants +are nearly all potters. They make a _copper-coloured_ ware of great +beauty, _used for common purposes and for decorating the houses of the +working-people of the province_. They make this ware of an argillaceous +earth resembling in its colour and composition that portion of the soil +of Valencia which produces native mercury.... The objects they fashion +of this earth possess a glitter and are very inexpensive, since I +purchased half a dozen plates for a _real_. Nevertheless, _this is not +the ware which has the highest reputation in the kingdom of Valencia_. +The factory which the Count of Aranda has established at Alcora is not +surpassed in Europe, and is ahead of many in fineness of substance, +hardness of the varnish, and elegance of form. It would be perfect of +its kind if the varnish did not crack and peel off so easily." + +According to Laborde, early in the nineteenth century Manises contained +two potteries "of considerable extent, which employ seventy workmen. The +people occupied in these possess the art of producing a gold _bronze_ +colour which they carefully keep a secret, never communicating it to any +person." Elsewhere in the same book Laborde is more explicit. "Manises +is a village situated a league and a quarter north of Valencia. It is +seen on the left coming from New Castile. It is noted for its +manufactories of earthen ware, which employ thirty kilns, and occupy a +great part of the inhabitants. The women are employed in forming the +designs and applying the colours. There are two large manufactories of a +superior kind, the earthen ware of which is tolerably fine, of a +beautiful white, and a moderate price. They also make here vases +worked with a great degree of delicacy." + + [Illustration: LXV + HISPANO-MORESQUE LUSTRED WARE + (_Late 15th Century. Osma Collection_)] + +"The society of these workmen possess the secret of the composition of a +colour which in the fire takes the tint and brightness of a beautiful +gilt _bronze_. It has been unsuccessfully attempted to be imitated; the +heads of the society compose the colour themselves, and distribute it to +the masters who take care of it; it is a liquid of the colour of Spanish +tobacco, but a little deeper." + +The quantity of Hispano-Moresque lustred pottery preserved in the public +and private collections of various countries is far from small, although +to classify it according to the place and date of its production is +nearly always a matter of extreme difficulty. + +Among the earliest specimens are the vase of the Alhambra, those which +are now in the museums of Palermo and Madrid, that which belonged to +Fortuny, and the plaque which once was also his, and now forms part of +the Osma collection. Lustred Spanish tiles are scarce. A few exist at +Seville[90] and Granada, chiefly in altar-fronts, along the archivolts +of doorways, or, with heraldic motives, on the inner walls of houses of +the aristocracy. Invariably, says Gestoso, such tiles are coloured with +combinations of white, blue, and gold, since in the lustre process other +colours--black, or green, or deepish yellow--proved unsatisfactory. +Other lustred tiles of exquisite beauty are owned by Senor Osma, (Plate +lxi.), and seem to have even gained in brilliance by the centuries that +have passed over them. Riano gives a list of the specimens of this +pottery which are at South Kensington, consisting of bowls, vases, and +plates. One of the vases is particularly beautiful. It dates from the +fifteenth century, and is described by Fortnum as having "a spherical +body on a trumpet-shaped base, with a neck of elongated funnel form, +flanked by two large wing-shaped handles perforated with circular holes. +The surface, except the mouldings, is entirely covered with a +diaper-pattern of ivy or briony leaves, tendrils, and small flowers in +brownish lustre and blue on the white ground." + + [90] No direct proof has been found that lustred ware was ever made at + Seville; but a document copied by Gestoso, and which I have already + mentioned (p. 152), records that the famous _ollero_ of the time of + Ferdinand and Isabella, named Fernan Martinez Guijarro, reserved a + department ("_tiendas del dorado_") of his premises for making or + for storing lustred pottery. + + [Illustration: LXVI + HISPANO-MORESQUE LUSTRED WARE + (_Late 15th Century. Osma Collection_)] + +Through the courtesy of Senor Osma I am able to give illustrations of +a few of the finest specimens of lustred ware in his magnificent +collection (Plates lxii.-lxvi.). The three small vessels facing pages +176, 178, and 180 are of Valencian workmanship, and date, according to +their owner, from between 1460 and 1480. The two plates are also +Valencian. The one with a bull in the centre dates from between 1480 and +1500; and that which has a greyhound from slightly earlier--say 1470 to +1490. + + +POTTERY OF SEVILLE, PUENTE DEL ARZOBISPO, TALAVERA DE LA REINA, TOLEDO, +AND BARCELONA; POROUS WARE; PORCELAIN OF ALCORA AND THE ROYAL FACTORY OF + THE BUEN RETIRO. + +We have seen that Seville was an early and important centre of the +potter's craft in Spain. Her potteries were celebrated even with the +Romans, and probably have at no moment been inactive. Fifty, established +in the suburb of Triana, were mentioned in the sixteenth century by +Pedro de Medina, and documents which tell of many more have recently +been discovered by Gestoso. The excellence of the Seville tiles has been +described in a preceding section of this chapter. Their production +still continues upon a large scale; and the ware of the Cartuja factory, +which reached the zenith of its fame towards the end of the eighteenth +century, is considered by Jacquemart and other authorities to rival with +the Italian wares of Savona. + +Pottery made in other parts of the Peninsula--particularly that of +Talavera de la Reina--is known to have been imitated by the Seville +potters with embarrassing perfection. In the case of the so-called "loza +de Puente del Arzobispo," it is the Seville ware itself which seems to +have been imitated. Puente del Arzobispo is a small village near Toledo. +Mendez wrote of it in the seventeenth century:--"Fine pottery is +manufactured in about eight kilns, which produce more than 40,000 ducats +yearly." "In 1755," says Riano, "thirteen pottery kilns existed at this +place; they still worked in 1791, but their productions were very +inferior in artistic merit." + + [Illustration: LXVII + HISPANO-MORESQUE LUSTRED WARE] + +Not many years ago the name of Puente del Arzobispo was connected by +Baron Davillier with certain polychrome non-lustred plates and other +vessels which are greatly esteemed for their rarity, and of which a few +specimens exist in the South Kensington and other museums, as well as in +one or two private collections, such as that of Senor Osma. + +Gestoso says that the usual diameter of these plates is either +twenty-three centimetres or forty-two centimetres. "Their decoration, +betraying at a glance the Saracenic influence, consists of leaves and +flowers, together with animals of a more or less fantastic character: +lions, rabbits, and birds. In other specimens the centre is occupied by +a heart, fleurs-de-lis, or other fancy devices, or yet, in some few +cases, with the head of a man or woman. These central designs are +surrounded with leaves and flowers. The draughtsmanship upon these +plates is of the rudest, and the process of their colouring was as +follows. The figures were drawn upon the unfired surface in manganese +ink mixed with a greasy substance; and after this the aqueous enamel or +glaze was allowed to drop from a hogshair brush into the spaces which +the black had outlined." + +This will be recognized as the _cuerda seca_ process, so extensively +employed in making Seville tiles. Nevertheless, judging by certain marks +upon this pottery, Baron Davillier declared it to proceed from Puente +del Arzobispo. The marks in question consist in one or two examples of +what appears to be the letters A.P. or P.A.[91] Davillier, however, +affirmed that he had seen a plate fully inscribed as follows:-- + + [Illustration] + + [91] These, says Senor Osma, are doubtful in every case, and are only + found on plates which bear the figure of a lion. Two plates in this + gentleman's possession are thus marked [Illustration], and another + [Illustration]. + +The existence of this plate is now discredited; at least, no trace of it +can be discovered at this day. Upon the other hand, Gestoso points to +various objects manufactured by the _cuerda seca_ method, and which +undoubtedly proceed from Seville. Among them are three shields, one of +which, containing the arms of Ferdinand and Isabella, is of exceptional +interest, for it is accompanied by an inscribed slab, evidently coeval +with the shield itself, recording it to have been made in the year 1503, +and by Jeronimo Suarez. This shield and slab were removed from a +courtyard of the old Alhondiga to Seville Museum, where they now remain. +Of the two other shields, one belongs to Senor Osma, and the second, +which is still at Seville, adorns the tomb of Don Leon Enriquez in the +church of Santa Paula; and since it is unquestionable that all these +_cuerda seca_ shields, as well as quantities of _cuerda seca_ tiles, +were made at Seville, Gestoso prudently suggests that we should +designate as "_cuerda seca_ ware" that pottery which has hitherto passed +as specially belonging to Puente del Arzobispo. In fact, towards the end +of the fifteenth century this pottery is found extending northward from +Seville to Toledo, and Senor Osma assures me that Toledo specimens are +of a somewhat later manufacture than those which were produced at +Seville. One of the rarest and most interesting _cuerda seca_ plates in +this gentleman's collection is reproduced herewith (lxviii.). No other +plate of similar pattern is known to exist. Its date may be placed +between 1480 and 1495, and it gives a curious illustration of the +masculine headdress and headwear in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. + +The pottery of Talavera de la Reina was at one time much esteemed. The +earliest mention of it, says Riano, occurs in 1560, in a manuscript +history of this town, while another notice, dated 1576, says that here +was produced "fine white glazed earthenware and other pottery, which +supplied the country, part of Portugal, and India." More explicit are +the observations of Father Alonso de Ajofrin, who wrote, in 1651, a +history of Talavera. He says that "her pottery is as good as that of +Pisa, while quantities of _azulejos_ are made here to adorn the front of +altars, churches, gardens, alcoves, saloons, and bowers, and large and +small specimens of every kind. Two hundred workmen work at eight +separate kilns. Four other kilns produce the commoner kinds of ware. Red +porous clay vessels and drinking-cups are baked in two other kilns in a +thousand shapes to imitate birds and other creatures; also +_brinquinos_ for the use of ladies, so deliciously flavoured that after +drinking the water they contained, they eat the cup in which it was +brought them." + + [Illustration: LXVIII + DISH + (_Andalusian non-lustred ware in the_ Cuerda seca _style. + A.D. 1480-1495. Osma Collection_)] + +The following most interesting notice relating to this town is also +quoted by Riano: "The earthenware pottery made here has reached a great +perfection; it is formed of white and red clay. Vases, cups, _bucaros_ +and _brinquinos_ are made of different kinds, dishes and table centres, +and imitations of snails, owls, dogs, and every kind of fruits, olives, +and almonds. These objects are painted with great perfection, and the +imitations of porcelain brought from the Portuguese Indies are most +excellent. Everyone is surprised that in so small a town such excellent +things should be made. The varnish used for the white pottery is made +with tin and sand, and is now found to be more acceptable than coloured +earthenware; so much so, that persons of importance who pass by this +town, although they have in their houses dinner-services of silver, buy +earthenware made at Talavera, on account of its excellence. The sand +which was used to make the white varnish was brought from Hita, and is +now found at Mejorada, near Talavera. This sand is as fine and soft as +silk. + +"The red pottery made at Talavera is much to be commended, for besides +the great variety of objects, and the different medals which they place +upon them, they have invented some small _brinquinos_ of so small and +delicate a kind, that the ladies wear them. Rosaries are also made of +the same material. A certain scent is added in the manufacture of this +pottery which excites the appetite and taste of the women, who eat the +pottery so frequently that it gives great trouble to their confessors to +check this custom." + + [Illustration: LXIX + AN _ALFARERIA_ OR POTTER'S YARD + (_Granada_)] + +This porous pottery for keeping water cool had been imported from +America, and was chiefly made in Andalusia, Portugal, and Extremadura. +It is still produced at Andujar and elsewhere. Nearly all travellers in +Spain describe it, and insist upon the curious circumstance that it was +eaten by the Spanish women. "I have mentioned elsewhere," wrote Countess +d'Aulnoy, "the longing many women feel to chew this clay, which often +obstructs their bodies internally. Their stomachs swell, and grow as +hard as stone, while their skin turns yellow as a quince. I also felt a +curiosity to taste this ware, that is so highly yet so undeservedly +esteemed; but I would devour a grindstone rather than put it in my mouth +again. Nevertheless, if one wants to be agreeable to the Spanish ladies, +one has to present them with some _bucaros_, which they themselves call +_barros_, and which, as many deem, possess such numerous and admirable +qualities, since they claim for the clay that it cures sickness, and +that a drinking vessel made of it betrays the presence of a poison. I +possess one which spoils the taste of wine, but greatly improves water. +This liquid seems to boil and tremble when it is thrown into the cup in +question; but after a little while the vessel empties--so porous is the +clay of which it is composed--and then it has a fragrant odour." + +Similar accounts are given by travellers of a later time. "I wish," +wrote Swinburne, "I could contrive a method of carrying you some of the +fine earthen jars, called _buxaros_, which are made in Andalusia. They +are remarkably convenient for water-drinkers, as they are light, smooth, +and handy; being not more than half-baked, they are very porous, and the +outside is kept moist by the water's filtering through; though placed in +the sun, the water in the pots remains as cold as ice. The most +disagreeable circumstance attending them is, that they emit a smell of +earth refreshed by a sudden shower after a long drought."[92] + + [92] _Travels through Spain_; p. 305. Swinburne could have been no + lover of nature to speak in such terms of the smell of earth. + +Laborde, who wrote a few years later, seems to have copied some of his +information from Bowles. "The Murcians," he said, "use in their houses +little jars called _Bucaros_, the same as those which in some parts of +Andalusia are called Alcarrazas.[93] They have handles open at the top, +are smaller at the bottom than above, and bulge in the middle; they are +slight, porous, smooth, and half-baked; they are made of a peculiar kind +of clay. When water is put into them, they emit a smell like that sent +up by the earth after a shower of rain in summer. The water makes its +way very slowly through the pores, and keeps them constantly moist on +the outside; they are used to cool water for drinking. The windows and +balconies of all the houses have large iron rings, with a flat surface, +on which they are placed at night, and the water, oozing incessantly, +becomes very cool.[94] In Andalusia some of these jars are white, and +others red; in Murcia they have only white ones. They appear to be in +every respect of the same nature as the evaporating vases of Africa, +Egypt, Syria, and India, of which so much has been said by travellers, +and on which the learned have made so many dissertations." + + [93] One of the prettiest of the popular Spanish _coplas_ has the + _alcarraza_ for its theme;-- + + "Alcarraza de tu casa + chiquilla, quisiera ser, + para besarte los labios + cuando fueras a beber." + + "Dearest, I would be the _alcarraza_ in your house; so should I + kiss your lips each time you drank from me." + + [94] Laborde's translator adds: "These jars are very common in Jamaica; + they are of different sizes, from a pint to three pints. A number + of them are ranged at night in the balconies, to furnish a supply + of cool water. Coolers of a similar kind have been lately + introduced in England." + +The same vessels are noticed by Ford in his description of a Spanish +_posada_. "Near the staircase downstairs, and always in a visible place, +is a gibbous jar, _tinaja_, of the ancient classical amphora shape, +filled with fresh water; and by it is a tin or copper utensil to take +water out with, and often a row of small pipkins, made of a red porous +clay,[95] which are kept ready filled with water, on, or rather in, a +shelf fixed to the wall, and called _la tallada, el taller_. These +pots, _alcarrazas_, from the constant evaporation, keep the water +extremely cool. They are of various shapes, many, especially in Valencia +and Andalusia, being of the unchanged identical form of those similar +clay drinking-vessels discovered at Pompeii. They are the precise +_trulla_. Martial speaks both of the colour and the material of those +made at Saguntum, where they still are prepared in great quantities; +they are not unlike the _ckool'lehs_ of Egypt, which are made of the +same material and for the same purposes, and represent the ancient +Canobic [Greek: statika]. They are seldom destined to be placed on the +table; their bottoms being pointed and conical, they could not stand +upright. This singular form was given to the _vasa futilia_, or cups +used at the sacrifices of Vesta, which would have been defiled had they +touched the ground. As soon, therefore, as they are drunk off, they are +refilled and replaced in their holes on the shelf, as is done with +decanters in our butlers' pantries."[96] + + [95] "Those of the finest quality," adds Ford, "are called _Bucaros_; + the best come from South America--the form is more elegant, the + clay finer, and often sweet-scented; many women have a trick of + biting, even eating bits of them." + + [96] _Handbook_; Vol. I., p. 26. + +I am only aware of one author who derides the statement that this porous +clay was eaten by the Spanish women. According to Bowles, who certainly +describes and comments on it with intelligence and scholarship, the +neighbourhood of Andujar contains "large quantities of the white argil +of which are made the jars or _alcarrazas_ which serve in many parts of +Spain for cooling water in the summer-time. In other parts of Andalusia +is found a red variety of this clay, employed in making the vessels +known as _bucaros_, which serve to freshen the water as well as for +drinking it out of--a thing the Spanish ladies love greatly. Both the +white _alcarrazas_ and the _bucaros_ as red as the blood of a bull are +thin, porous, smooth, and half-baked. When filled with water they emit a +pleasant smell like that of dry earth rained upon in summer, and as the +water filters through the outer surface, remain continually damp." The +same writer adds that at that time (1752) the _bucaros_ proceeding from +the Indies were of finer workmanship, and had a more agreeable smell +than those of Spanish manufacture. "In the Encyclopaedia," he continues, +"and in the Dictionary of Natural History, we read that Spanish ladies +are for ever chewing _bucaro_, and that the hardest penance their +confessors can inflict upon them is to deprive them for a single day of +this enjoyment." Bowles, however, quotes these observations in a +scornful tone, and deprecates the habit of "believing writers who +without inquiring into things, concoct and publish novels to divert the +populace and rid them of their money." + +Turning our attention once again to the finer kinds of Talavera ware, +Gestoso adduces proofs that this as well as Chinese porcelain was +faultlessly and freely imitated in the potteries of Seville. Here, +therefore, is a source of fresh confusion; and probably a great +proportion of the polychrome ware which goes by the name of Talaveran is +really of Sevillian origin. It is further known that at one period, +which seems to begin with the second half of the sixteenth century, +potters who were natives of Talavera were hired to work in Seville. + + [Illustration: LXX + TALAVERA VASE] + +It has not been ascertained when Talavera herself grew celebrated for +this industry. Garcia Llanso supposes that at first, before it felt the +influence of Italy and France, her pottery was partly Mudejar, and +vestiges of oriental art survive in fairly late examples. The +characteristic colour-scheme was either blue on white, or else the +decoration is more variegated. Riano says:--"Although we find by the +remarks we have quoted from contemporary authors that earthenware of +every description was made at Talavera, the specimens which are more +generally met with may be divided into two groups, which are painted on +a white ground, either in blue, or in colours, in the manner of Italian +maiolica. The most important examples which have reached us consist of +bowls of different sizes, dishes, vases (Plate lxx.), _tinajas_, +holy-water vessels, medicine jars, and wall decoration. Blue oriental +china was imitated to a vast extent: the colouring was successful, but +the design was an imitation of the baroque school of the time, and the +figures, landscapes, and decoration follow the bad taste so general in +Spain in the eighteenth century. The imitations of Italian maiolica are +effective. The colours most commonly used are manganese, orange, blue, +and green." + +Talavera maintained her reputation for pottery till nearly the middle of +the eighteenth century, supporting more than six hundred workmen +employed in eight large potteries.[97] From then onwards the trade +declined, and by the close of the same century was practically dead, +owing, Larruga tells us, to the constantly increasing cost of prime +materials. Nevertheless, the Crown made efforts to revive the craft, and +met with some success till 1777, in which year four establishments +(locally known as _barrerias_) for making common pottery were opened in +the same town, and speedily crushed their rivals. "The potteries of +Talavera," wrote Laborde soon after this, "were greatly celebrated for +many years, and supplied a lucrative and important branch of commerce. +They are evidently on the decline. The manufactories are reduced to +seven or eight. These productions no longer exhibit the same delicacy of +execution. Their designs are also lamentably defective. The material +employed in them is a certain earth which is found near Calera, three +leagues from Talavera." + + [97] "On y fait," wrote Alvarez de Colmenar, "des ouvrages vernisses + d'une facon ingenieuse, avec des peintures variees de bon gout; on + estime ces ouvrages autant que ceux de Pise et des Indes + Orientales, et on en fournit plusieurs provinces. Ce negoce rend + plus de cinquante mille ducats par an."--_Annales d'Espagne et de + Portugal_; Vol. II., p. 187. This work is dated 1740, but my copy + is reprinted from another edition published earlier in the century. + +The older Talavera ware, decorated, as a rule, with horses, birds, +hunting-scenes, or coats of arms, is seldom met with nowadays. Although +it is not particularly choice, the drawing is firm, and the colouring +vigorous and agreeable. + +I have said that pottery continued to be made in Aragon, at Muel, +Villafeliche, and other places. In course of time these local +industries were also suffered to decay. Laborde says that early in the +nineteenth century the Villafeliche factory employed thirty-eight +workmen. "The ware is of a very inferior sort. This article might be +carried to a greater extent. In several parts of the province, earth is +found of an excellent quality for earthenware, particularly in Zaragoza +and in Tauste; the latter affords the best, which is very fine, and of +three colours, and would answer for the making of porcelain." + +In the eighteenth century Toledo, upon the initiative of Don Ignacio +Velasco, produced good imitations of Genoese ware, while other kinds of +pottery were made at Teruel, Valladolid, Jaen, Zamora, Segovia, Puente +del Arzobispo, and in the Balearic Islands. Another region which +continued to be a most important centre of the potter's craft was +Cataluna, where it had always been encouraged by this thrifty and +art-loving people. As early as the year 1257 two potters occupied a +place upon the municipal council of Barcelona, while the potters' guild +was strictly regulated from the beginning of the fourteenth century.[98] +At the same time two whole streets in the centre of the town, as well +as others in the suburbs, were occupied by potters. The ancient names of +these streets are yet retained in the Calles Escudillers, Escudillers +Blancs (white varnished pottery), Obradors (where many of the potteries +were situated), and Tallers (_i.e._ the potteries for producing common +ware). + + [98] For a sketch of the origin and growth of the Spanish trade guilds, + see Appendix H. + +The pottery of Cataluna generally was largely exported to Sicily, +Alexandria, and other parts. Among the places in this region which +produced it were Tarragona, Tortosa, and Villafranca. In 1528 the +municipal council of the capital herself forbade, as a protective +measure, the introduction into Barcelona of local pottery made at +Malgrat, La Selva, and other towns and villages of this neighbourhood. +In 1546 the Portuguese Barreyros declared in his work _Chorografia de +algunos lugares_ that the Barcelona ware surpassed all other classes +made in Spain, including the Valencian. She continued to produce good +pottery all through the sixteenth century, and excellent common ware +until considerably later.[99] + + [99] _Historia General del Arte._--Vol. II.: _Ceramica_, by Garcia + Llanso. + +About the beginning of the eighteenth century Laborde mentioned as +working centres of this craft "manufactories of delf-ware at Aviles, +Gijon, Oviedo, Nava, and Cangas de Onis, in the Asturias; at Segovia in +Old Castile; at Puente del Arzobispo and Talavera de la Reina in New +Castile; at Seville in the kingdom of that name; at Villafeliche in +Aragon; at Onda, Alcora, and Manises, in the kingdom of Valencia; at San +Andero in Biscay; and at Tortosa in Cataluna.... The most important of +these potteries is the one at Alcora, the delf of which is tolerably +fine, though not of the first quality. No china is made, except at +Alcora and Madrid: that of the former place is very common, and +inconsiderable as to quantity. The china manufactured at Madrid is +beautiful, and without exaggeration may be considered as equalling that +of Sevres. It is a royal pottery; but it is impossible to give any +description of its state, because admission to the interior of the +manufactory is strictly prohibited." + +Ricord states in his pamphlet relative to Valencian industries that in +1791 factories of high-class pottery were working in the kingdom of +Valencia, at Onda, Alcora, Ribesalves, Manises, Eslida, and Bechi; and +of common ware at San Felipe, Morella, Manises, Murviedro, Alicante, +Moncada, Orihuela, Segorbe, and other towns and villages of this +locality. In all, there were throughout the province eighty-seven of +these latter potteries, besides two hundred and twenty tileries, and +four factories of artistic tiles or _azulejos_ established at Valencia. +The yearly output of these _azulejerias_ was 150,000 tiles, 20,000 of +which were exported to Andalusia and Castile. + +Although the pottery of Alcora only achieved distinction at a later age, +this craft had long been practised in the neighbourhood. This +circumstance induced the Count of Aranda to found here, in 1726, a large +factory for producing costly and artistic ware. Riano obtained +permission to examine the archives of the family of Aranda, with their +mass of documents relating to this enterprise. His notice of Alcora ware +is therefore most complete and valuable, and has been copied, frequently +without acknowledgment, by almost every writer on the subject. + +It appears from these archives that the cost of building and opening the +factory of Alcora amounted to about L10,000. The works were placed +beneath the supervision of Don Joaquin Joseph de Sayas, at the same time +that a Frenchman named Ollery was engaged at a good salary and brought +from Moustiers to act as principal draughtsman. A couple of years later +Count Aranda paid Ollery the high compliment of saying that "the fine +and numerous models which he has designed, have contributed to make my +manufacture the first in Spain." He seems to have retired in 1737, when +the Count rewarded him with a yearly pension of five hundred francs +besides the amount of his salary, "for his especial zeal in the +improvement of the manufactory, and his great skill in directing the +construction of every kind of work." Riano adds that from this date +until the manufacture of porcelain in 1764, only Spanish artists worked +at Alcora. + +The products of this factory continued to improve, and reached, in +course of time, a yearly total of about three hundred thousand objects. +The ordinances, which are dated between 1732 and 1733, tell us that "in +these works of ours no pottery should be made except the very finest, +similar to the Chinese, and of as fine an earth. The models and wheels +should be perfect, the drawing first-rate, the varnish and colours +excellent, and the pottery light and of the highest quality, for it is +our express wish that the best pottery should only be distinguished +from that of an inferior kind by the greater or less amount of painting +which covers it." + +Not less interesting are certain communications, copied by Riano, which +passed in 1746 between the Spanish Tribunal of Commerce and the Count of +Aranda, in which it is stated that "the perfection of the earthenware of +Alcora consists in the excellent models which have been made by +competent foreign artists, as well as in the quality of the earth and +the recipes brought at great cost from abroad." We learn from the same +document that "from the earliest period of the manufacture, pyramids +with figures of children, holding garlands of flowers and baskets of +fruits on their heads, were made with great perfection; also brackets, +centre and three-cornered tables, large objects, some as large as five +feet high, to be placed upon them, chandeliers, cornucopias, statues of +different kinds, and animals of different sorts and sizes. The entire +ornamentation of a room has also been made here; the work is so perfect +that nothing in Spain, France, Italy, or Holland could equal it in +merit." + +It is not necessary to follow in close detail all the modifications and +vicissitudes (extending over quite a hundred years) which affected the +Alcora factory. I therefore only take some general notices from Riano. +In 1750 Count Aranda transferred the works to a private company, which +remained in possession of them until 1766. In 1741 a Frenchman named +Francois Haly was engaged for ten years, and with a yearly salary of +rather more than a thousand francs, under the following conditions:-- + +"That the travelling expenses of his wife and children should be given +him, and that his salary should be paid as soon as he made before the +Director and two competent judges the different kinds of porcelain which +he had undertaken to make." Haly agreed to surrender his recipes, and it +was promised him that he should have two modellers and one painter +working by his side, and that if in one year his porcelain were +satisfactory, the Count would make him a present of a thousand +_tornoises_.[100] + + [100] Riano; _Handbook_; pp. 182, 183. + +Porcelain was first produced at Alcora towards the middle of the +eighteenth century. A contract was drawn up on March 24th, 1764, with a +German called John Christian Knipfer, who had already worked there in +the pottery section. By the original agreement, which exists in the +archives, we find he was to prepare works of "porcelain and painting +similar to those made at Dresden, during a period of six years, under +the following conditions:-- + +"That the said Knipfer obliges himself to make and teach the apprentices +the composition and perfection of porcelain paste, its varnishes, and +colours, and whatever he may know at the present time, or discover +during this period of six years; he is not to prevent the Director of +the Works from being present at all the essays made. + +"The said Knipfer offers to make and varnish porcelain, and to employ +gold and silver in its decoration, and in that of the ordinary wares; +likewise the colours of crimson, purple, violet, blues of different +shades, yellow, greens, browns, reds, and black. + +"That Knipfer will give up an account of his secrets, and the management +and manner of using them, in order that in all times the truth of what +he has asserted may be verified." + + [Illustration: LXXI + ORNAMENT IN PORCELAIN OF THE BUEN RETIRO] + +In 1774 a Frenchman named Francois Martin was engaged to make "hard +paste porcelain, Japanese faience, English paste (pipeclay), and +likewise to mould and bake it: the necessary materials to be provided +by the Count of Aranda." Riano says that the combined assistance of +Knipfer and Martin went far to better the products of the factory. + +Martin died in 1786, and Knipfer left soon afterwards. A Frenchman was +now engaged, whose services proved also beneficial to the works. This +was Pierre Cloostermans, "a skilful man, well versed in the manufacture +of porcelain pastes, as well as in painting and decorating them." +Cloostermans, however, was much molested by the envy of the Spanish +workmen at Alcora, as well as by their typical intolerance in matters of +religion, although the Count, his master, behaved towards him with the +utmost kindness. Under his supervision, the quality of Alcora ware was +notably improved. Figures and groups of many kinds were attempted, and +even Wedgwood jasper ware was creditably imitated. In 1789, among other +pottery that was sent to Madrid were "two hard paste porcelain cups, +adorned with low relief in the English style." The most important one +was moulded by Francisco Garces, the garlands and low reliefs by Joaquin +Ferrer, sculptor, the flowers on the covers by an apprentice, helped by +Cloostermans. + +Dated in the same year (1789), Riano quotes an interesting letter from +the Count of Aranda to Don Pedro Abadia, his steward. "I wish," he said, +"to export the porcelain of my manufactory, but chiefly in common +objects, such as cups of different kinds, tea and coffee services, etc. +These may be varied in form and colour, the principal point being that +the paste should bear hot liquids, for we Spaniards above everything +wish that nothing we buy should ever break. By no means let time be +wasted in making anything that requires much loss of time. The chief +object is that the pastes should be of first-rate excellence and +durability." + +In 1793 Cloostermans was driven from the country by political +disturbances; but he was allowed to return in 1795, and resumed his +duties at the factory. All through these years Alcora continued to make +most excellent pottery. Essays were made with foreign earths, as well as +with the best that could be found in Spain. About this time kaolin was +discovered in Cataluna, and the Count was particularly anxious that this +native product should be utilised at Alcora. "The kaolin of Cataluna," +he wrote in 1790, "may be good or bad, but it is acknowledged to be +kaolin, and if we do not employ it I must close my works." + +The Count of Aranda and Pierre Cloostermans both died in 1798, and in +1800 the Duke of Hijar became the manager and proprietor of the +potteries. "Two hundred workmen were employed, and pottery of every +description was made, common earthenware, pipeclays in imitation of the +English ones, and porcelain in small quantities; common wares were made +in large quantities; the pipeclays were pronounced superior to the +English in brilliancy, but were so porous that they were easily stained. +A large number of snuff-boxes and other small objects belong to this +period."--(Riano.) + +In the early years of the nineteenth century Alcora ware deteriorated +not a little. This decline was further aggravated by the French +invasion; and although an attempt was subsequently made to revive the +industry by bringing craftsmen from the porcelain factory of Madrid, it +suffered fresh relapses and produced henceforward little but the +commonest kinds of ware. "This system," says Riano, "continued until +1858, when the Duke of Hijar sold the manufactory to Don Ramon Girona, +who brought over English workmen from Staffordshire in order to improve +the wares. Many imitations of the older styles have also been made at +Alcora of late years." + +Riano appends instructive tables, which I copy in Appendix I, of every +kind of pottery manufactured at Alcora. He also believes that a great +deal of pottery which was formerly thought to proceed from French or +English factories is really of Alcora make, including "a great quantity +of objects of white pipeclay porcelain which have been found of late +years in Spain. They have hitherto been classified by amateurs as Leeds +pottery. We find, in papers relating to Alcora, that a decided +distinction is made between white and straw-coloured pottery. This +indication may be sufficient to distinguish it from English wares." + +The celebrated Royal Porcelain Factory of the Buen Retiro at Madrid, +formerly situated in the public gardens of that name and popularly known +as the "Fabrica de la China," was founded in 1759 by Charles the Third, +who erected a vast edifice for this purpose, and filled it with a +multitude of workmen and their families, including two hundred and +twenty-five persons whom he brought over from his other factory of +Capo-di-Monte in Italy. He also transferred a great part of the +material.[101] The cost of the new works amounted to eleven and a half +millions of _reales_, and they were terminated in 1764. The cost of +keeping up the factory is stated by Larruga to have amounted to three +millions of _reales_ yearly. The first directors were Juan Tomas +Bonicelli and Domingo Bonicelli, and the first modellers-in-chief and +superintendents, possessing the secrets of the fabrication +(_secretistas_), were Cayetano Schepers and Carlos Gricci. + + [101] On September 11th, 1759, the king wrote to his Secretary of + State, Richard Wall:--"The workmen and utensils of the Royal + Porcelain Manufactory of Capo-di-Monte must also be sent from + Naples to Alicante, in the vessels prepared for this purpose, in + order to proceed from Alicante to Madrid. The necessary + conveyances are to be provided, and the expenses to be charged to + his Majesty's account." + +Riano says that every kind of porcelain was made at the Buen Retiro, +"hard and soft paste, white china, glazed or unglazed, or painted and +modelled in the style of Capo-di-Monte." A great many objects existed +imitating the blue jasper ware of Wedgwood, and they also made flowers, +coloured and biscuit, groups (Pl. lxxi.), and single figures, and +painted porcelain of different kinds. Great quantities of tiles for +pavements were also made there, which may still be seen at the Casa del +Labrador at Aranjuez: they are mentioned in the accounts which exist at +the Ministry of Finance for 1807 and 1808. We find in these same +accounts interesting details of the objects made monthly. In January, +1808, a large number of figures were made, including 151 heads for the +table centre which was made for the king, 306 objects ornamented with +paintings, 2506 tiles, 577 objects of less artistic importance, such as +dishes, plates, etc. The finest specimens which exist are in the +Neapolitan style, and are two rooms at the palaces of Madrid and +Aranjuez, of which the walls are completely covered with China plaques +and looking-glasses, modelled in the most admirable manner with figures, +fruits, and flowers. The room at Aranjuez is covered with a bold +ornamentation of figures in the Japanese style, in high relief, painted +with colours and gold with the most exquisite details. The figures unite +the fine Italian modelling with the Japanese decoration. The chandelier +is in the same style (Plate lxxii.). Upon a vase on the wainscot to the +right of the entrance door is the following inscription:-- + + JOSEPH + + GRICCI + + DELINEAV^{it} + + ET + + SCUL^{it} + + 1763. + +This same date is repeated in the angles, and in some shields near the +roof we find, + + "ANO + + 1765; + +probably the year the work was terminated." + + [Illustration: LXXII + ROOM DECORATED WITH PORCELAIN OF THE BUEN RETIRO + (_Royal Palace of Aranjuez_)] + +The earliest mark upon the Buen Retiro porcelain was a blue +fleur-de-lis, to which were subsequently added the letter M and a royal +crown. Still later, in the reign of Charles the Fourth, the mark used +was a fleur-de-lis with two crossed C's. + +The object of the Buen Retiro Factory was almost wholly to supply the +Crown with costly ware, and would-be visitors were jealously excluded. +Townsend wrote in 1786: "I tried to obtain admission to the china +manufacture, which is likewise administered on the king's account, but +his Majesty's injunctions are so severe, that I could neither get +introduced to see it, nor meet with anyone who had ever been able to +procure that favour for himself. I was the less mortified upon this +occasion, because from the specimens which I have seen, both in the +palace at Madrid and in the provinces, it resembles the manufacture of +Sevres, which I had formerly visited in a tour through France." + +Laborde also complained that the factory was "wholly inaccessible: all +entrance to it is interdicted, and its existence is only ascertained by +the exhibition which is made of its productions in the royal palace." +The same writer refers to another class of work which was produced here, +namely, stone mosaic. "The process by which stone is wrought into +pictures is as delicate as it is curious: a selection is made from +marble fragments of various shades and dimensions, which are found, by +judicious assimilation, to produce no bad resemblance to painting." Jean +Francois de Bourgoing, French Minister at Madrid, was lucky enough, in +1782, to penetrate into the factory and view the process. "Le Monarque +actuel," he wrote, "a etabli dans leur interieur une fabrique de +porcelaine, dont l'entree est jusqu'a present interdite a tout le monde. +On veut sans doute que ses essais se perfectionnent dans le silence, +avant de les exposer aux regards des curieux. Ses productions ne peuvent +encore se voir que dans les Palais du Souverain, ou dans quelques Cours +d'Italie, auxquelles il les envoie en presens. On travaille dans le meme +edifice a certains ouvrages de marqueterie, qui sont encore peu connus +en Europe. J'y penetrai un jour, sous les auspices d'un etranger +distingue en faveur duquel le Roi avoit leve la prohibition rigoureuse, +qui en exclut tout le monde. Je suis temoin de la patience and de +l'adresse avec lesquelles on taille and on rapproche divers petits +morceaux de marbre colore, pour en former des tableaux assez compliques, +qui en faisant a-peu-pres le meme effet que la peinture, ont sur elle +l'avantage de braver par leur couleur immortelles les ravages du temps, +qui n'epargnent pas les plus belles productions de cet art."[102] + + [102] _Nouveau Voyage en Espagne_; Vol. I., pp. 232, 233. + +This factory was not long-lived. Until 1803 it followed the styles of +the older establishment at Capo-di-Monte, uniting neo-classic motives +with the manner of Baroque. In that year it began to produce porcelain +imitating that of Sevres, and two Frenchmen, Vivien and Victor Perche, +were brought from Paris to superintend this change. "Among the finest +specimens of this period," says Riano, "are a splendid clock and four +vases, two metres high, with porcelain flowers, which exist in one of +the state rooms of the Palace of Madrid. The vases are placed in the +four corners of the room. The clock is ornamented with large biscuit +figures. A large number of vases of Retiro china exist at the royal +palaces of Madrid, Aranjuez, and the Escorial. They are often finely +mounted in gilt bronze with muslin or porcelain flowers. The blue of the +imitations of Wedgwood is not so pure, nor is the biscuit work so fine +as the English. Gold is often added to these specimens." + + [Illustration: LXXIII + PORCELAIN OF THE MONCLOA FACTORY] + +Nevertheless, this manufacture was by now decadent. It had suffered +severely from the death of Charles the Third, and upon the French +invasion in 1808 was seized by the enemy and occupied by them for +several months. During the reign of the "_intruso_," Joseph Buonaparte, +porcelain was still produced to some extent; but by the time of the +Peninsular campaign the works had practically ceased. "Near this +quarter," wrote Ford, describing the Retiro gardens, towards the middle +of last century, "was _La China_, or the royal porcelain manufactory, +that was destroyed by the invaders, and made by them into a +fortification, which surrendered, with two hundred cannon, August 14th, +1812, to the Duke. It was blown up October 30th, by Lord Hill, when the +misconduct of Ballesteros compelled him to evacuate Madrid. Now _La +China_ is one of the standing Spanish and _afrancesado_ calumnies +against us, as it is stated that we, the English, destroyed this +manufactory from commercial jealousy, because it was a rival to our +potteries. 'What can be done (as the Duke said) with such libels but +despise them. There is no end of the calumnies against me and the army, +and I should have no time to do anything else if I were to begin either +to refute or even to notice them?' (Disp., Oct. 16, 1813.) These china +potsherds and similar inventions of the enemy shivered against his iron +power of conscious superiority. + +"The real plain _truth_ is this. The French broke the _ollas_, and +converted this Sevres of Madrid into a Bastile, which, and not the +pipkins, was destroyed by the English, who now, so far from dreading any +Spanish competition, have actually introduced their system of pottery; +and accordingly very fair china is now made at Madrid and Seville, and +by English workmen. At the latter place a convent, also converted by +Soult into a citadel, is now made a hardware manufactory by our +countryman, Mr Pickman. Ferdinand the Seventh, on his restoration, +re-created _La China_, removing the workshops and warerooms to La +Moncloa, once a villa of the Alva family on the Manzanares." + +This factory of La Moncloa was founded in 1816, and it continued working +until 1849. A specimen of the Moncloa ware is reproduced in Plate +lxxiii. + +Outside the royal palaces of Spain, the Buen Retiro porcelain is scarce. +The choicest collections which are not the property of the Crown belong, +or have belonged till recently, to the Marquis of Arcicollar, the Count +of Valencia de Don Juan, and Don Francisco Laiglesia. + + [Illustration] + + + + + GLASS + + +Small vessels of uncoloured glass, belonging to the Celtic +period, have been discovered in Galicia; so that the origin of this +industry in Spain is possibly pre-Roman. After the conquest glass was +made here by the Romans,[103] who built their ovens with a celebrated +argil (potter's earth) extracted from the neighbourhood of Valencia or +Tortosa. The Roman glass was doubtless imitated by the native Spaniards: +at least we know from observations by Saint Isidore that this substance +was quite familiar to the Visigoths. "Olim fiebat et in Italia, et per +Gallias, et Hispaniam arena alba mollissima pila mola qua terebatur." +The same author speaks with admiration of coloured glass-work imitating +precious stones. "Tingitur etiam multis modis, ita ut hyacinthos, +saphirosque et virides imitetur et oniches vel aliarum gemmarum +colores"; and again; "Fingunt enim eas ex diverso genere nigro, candido, +minioque colore. Nam pro lapide pretiosissimo smaragdo quidam vitrum +arte inficiunt, et fallit oculos sub dolo quadam falsa irriditas +quoadusque non est qui probet simulatum et arguat: sic et alia alio +atque alio modo. Neque enim est sine fraude ulla vita mortalium." We +gather from these statements that coloured glass in imitation of the +genuine precious stone was freely manufactured by the Visigoths. Such +imitations, justifying by their excellence Saint Isidore's assertion +that "vera a falsis discernere magna difficultas est," may still be seen +upon the crowns and other ornaments discovered at Guarrazar (see Vol. +I., pp. 15-29), as well as upon triptyches and weapons. Indeed, a taste +for imitation jewels forms an inherent trait of Spanish character, and +is discoverable at all moments of the national history. Travellers have +constantly observed it, and the remarks, already quoted, of Countess +d'Aulnoy, are confirmed by other authors. "In the broken banks south of +the river," wrote Swinburne of the Manzanares at Madrid, "are found +large quantities of pebbles, called Diamonds of Saint Isidro. They cut +them like precious stones, and ladies of the first fashion wear them in +their hair as pins, or on their fingers as rings. They have little or no +lustre, and a very dead glassy water. The value of the best rough stone +does not exceed a few pence." + + [103] "Jam vero et per Gallias Hispaniasque simili modo harenae + temperantur."--Pliny, Bk. xxxvi; Chap. 66. + + The chief centres of glass-making were Tarragona, several towns of + Betica (Andalusia), and the Balearic Islands. + +It is chiefly in the form of imitation gems that specimens of the +earliest Spanish glass have been preserved until our time,[104] although +the characteristic of old Roman glass which is known in Italian as the +_lattocinio_ or "milk-white" ornament, in the form of a thread or line +carried all over the surface of a vessel, remains until this day a +common feature of the glass of Spain, besides being found in +Spanish-Moorish glass-work. + + [104] The distinction which Riano attempts to draw between glass and + glass paste is unsatisfactory. He remarks, too, that the + manufacture of glass _may_ have existed in Spain at an earlier + period than the last three centuries, but continues: "The earliest + mention of glass-works in Spain will be found in Pliny, who, while + explaining the proceedings which were employed in this industry, + says that glass was made in a similar manner in France and Spain." + +Rico y Sinobas says that the rules for cutting glass by means of a +diamond or _naife_ (as it was once called) are embodied in a treatise +titled _El Lapidario_, originally written (perhaps in the fourth, fifth, +or sixth century) in Hebrew, and which was brought to Spain some two or +three hundred years later. This treatise was translated into Arabic by +one Abolais, who lived at some time previous to the thirteenth century, +and subsequently (in the year 1248, and by command of Alfonso the +Learned) into the Castilian language. + +Mixed up with a great deal of fabulous and fantastic matter, this +treatise contains instructive and interesting notices of the composition +and the colouring of old glass, including that of Spain. One of such +notices is the following. "Of the eleventh degree of the sign of +Sagittarius is the glass stone, containing a substance which is a body +in itself (sand), and another which is added to it (salt), and when they +clean these substances and draw them from the fire, they make between +the two a single body. The stone thus made (glass) has many colours. +Sometimes it is white (and this is nobler and better than the others), +or sometimes it is red, or green, or _xade_ (a dark, burnt colour), or +purple. It is a stone which readily melteth in the fire, but which, when +drawn therefrom, turneth again to its former substance: and if it be +drawn from the flame unseasonably, and without cooling it little by +little, it snappeth asunder. And it receiveth readily whatever colour +be placed upon it. And if an animal be hurt therewith, it openeth as +keen a wound as though it were of iron." + +The treatise also describes a stone called _ecce_, which was used in +glassmaking, saying that it was found in Spain, "in a mountain, not of +great height, which overlooks the town of Arraca, and is called +Secludes. And the stone is of an intense black colour, spotted with +yellow drops. It is shiny and porous, brittle, and of light weight ... +and if it be ground up with honey, and the glass be smeared with it and +submitted to the fire, it dyes the glass of a beautiful gold colour, and +makes it stronger than it was before, so that it does not melt so +readily, or snap asunder with such ease." + +I have said that the power of a diamond to cut glass is referred to in +the same work, which further tells us that this gem "breaketh all other +kind of stones, boring holes in them or cutting them, and no other stone +is able to bruise it; nay more, it powdereth all other stones if it be +rubbed upon them ... and such as seek to cut or perforate those other +stones take portions of a diamond, small and slender and sharp-pointed, +and mount them on slips of silver or of copper, and with them make the +holes or cuttings they require. Thus do they grave and carve intaglios." + +All these branches of glassmaking were therefore practised by the +Spaniards from an early period of their history. This people were also +familiar with the use of emery powder, of talc applied to covering +windows, and of rock crystal. We read in the translation of Abolais that +crystal at that time was "found in many parts, albeit the finest is that +of Ethiopia. The substance which composes it is frozen water, petrified. +And the proof of this is that when it is broken, small grains are +discovered to be within, that made their entry as it was becoming stone +(crystallizing); or again, in some of it is found what seems to be clear +water. And it possesses two qualities in which it is distinct from every +other stone: for when crystal is heated it receiveth any colouring that +is applied to it, and is wrought with greater ease, besides being melted +by fire; insomuch that it can be made into any shape desired; and if +this shape be round, and the stone be set in the sun, it burneth +anything inflammable that be set before it: yet does it not effect this +by any virtue of its own, but by _the clearness of its substance_, and +by the sunbeams which beat upon it, and by the roundness of its form." + +We seem to foreshadow here, clearly enough, the application of this +substance to making glasses to assist the sight, especially when the +author of the treatise adds that on looking through the crystal, the +human eye discovers "details of the greatest beauty, and things that are +secreted from the simple (_i.e._ the unaided) vision." + +Rico y Sinobas (who possessed a fine collection of antique glass, +Spanish and non-Spanish) inclined to think that in the time of the +Romans the finest and strongest glass, as well as the costliest and the +most sought after, was that which was manufactured in Spain. In early +times the chief centres of Spanish glass-making were situated in the +heart of the Peninsula (where now is New Castile), in the neighbourhood +of Tortosa, and in certain districts lying between the Pyrenees and the +coast of Cataluna, though subsequently the practice of this craft +extended through the kingdoms of Valencia and Murcia, and the valleys of +Olleria, Salinas, Busot, and the Rio Almanzora, forming a zone which +reached from Cape Creus to Cape Gata. Other regions in which the craft +was introduced, apparently at a later epoch, were those of the +Mediterranean littoral, Cuenca, Toledo, Avila, Segovia, and other parts +of New Castile, as far as the slopes of the Sierra de Guadarrama. In the +rest of the Peninsula there is not the slightest indication (excepting +an obscure reference by Strabo, to vessels and receptacles of _wax_) +that glass was made during the Roman domination of the country, either +in Andalusia, Lusitania (Portugal), or in the northern regions of +Cantabria. + +Rico y Sinobas has described a Spanish glass-oven of those primitive +times. He says that such as were used for making objects of a fair size +consisted of three compartments resting one upon the other; the lowest +cylindrical, to hold the fire and ashes, the next with a domed top, for +concentrating the heat, and the third and uppermost, which also had a +domed top, for holding the pieces of glass that were set to cool by slow +degrees. The wall of the oven contained a number of openings, which +served, according to the level at which they were situated, for +controlling the fire, adjusting the crucibles, or extracting, by means +of metal rods, the lumps of molten glass, previously to submitting them +to the action of the blowpipe. The dimensions of such of these +primitive ovens as have been found in Spain or Italy, are nine feet in +height by six feet in diameter, and the material of which they are built +is argil, of a kind insensible to heat, and carefully freed by washing +from all foreign, soluble, or inflammable substances. The crucibles, +which were fitted in the oven two, four, or at most six at a time, were +of this argil also, wrought and purified with even greater care. Ovens +and crucibles of a smaller size were used for making diminutive objects +such as beads and imitation precious stones.[105] + + [105] Rico y Sinobas, _Del Vidrio y de sus artifices en Espana + (Almanaque del Museo de la Industria_, 1870). + +Almeria was probably the most important centre of Spanish-Moorish +glass-making, and is mentioned in connection with this craft by +Al-Makkari. The oriental shape of the older vessels which were made in +this locality is still preserved in certain objects such as jars, bowls, +flasks, and _aguardiente_-bottles, which are still manufactured, or were +so until quite recently, throughout a region extending from Almeria to +the slopes of the Alpujarra. "All these objects," says Riano, "are +decorated with a serrated ornamentation of buttons, trellis-work, and +the lines to which I have already alluded, which were placed there +after the object was made, in the Roman style. The paste is generally of +a dark green colour, and when we find these same features in vessels of +clear white glass, we may affirm that they are contemporary imitations +made at Cadalso or elsewhere, for they are very seldom to be met with in +the provinces of Almeria and Granada, and are generally found at Toledo +and other localities; it is, moreover, a common condition of oriental +art that its general form complies with a geometrical tracery, and we +never find, as in Italian works of art, forms and capricious +ornamentations which interfere with the symmetry of the general lines, +and sacrifice them to the beauty of the whole." + +None of the original Moorish glass of the Alhambra has survived till +nowadays. Most of it was destroyed by the explosion, in the year 1590, +of a powder factory which lay immediately beneath the palace and beside +the river Darro. In the Alhambra archives, particular mention is made of +the circular glass windows or "eyes," only the corresponding holes of +which remain, in the baths of the same palace. This glass, which may +have been in colour, was also destroyed by the explosion, as were the +windows, "painted in colour with fancy devices and Arabic lettering," +of the Sala de Embajadores,[106] those of the Hall of the Two Sisters, +and certain windows, "painted with many histories and royal arms," +belonging to the church of the Alhambra. + + [106] Oliver, _Granada y sus monumentos arabes_. + +Excellent glass, reported by some authors to have equalled that of +Venice, was made at Barcelona from as early as the thirteenth century. +An inventory of the Crown of Aragon, dated A.D. 1389 and quoted by +Garcia Llanso, mentions as manufactured here, glass sweetmeat-vessels, +cups, and silver-mounted tankards blazoned with the royal arms. The +guild of Barcelona glassmakers was founded in 1455, and later in the +same century Jeronimo Paulo wrote that "glass vessels of varying quality +and shape, and which may well compete with the Venetian, are exported to +Rome and other places." Similar statements are made by Marineus Siculus +and Gaspar Barreyros. + +Other centres of Spanish glass-making were Caspe in Aragon, Seville, +Valencia,[107] Pinar de la Vidriera, Royo Molino (near Jaen,) El +Recuenco (Guadalajara), Cebreros (Avila), Medina del Campo, Venta del +Cojo, Venta de los Toros de Guisando, and Castiel de la Pena in Castile. +The glass-works of Castiel de la Pena were founded by the intelligent +and indefatigable Hernando de Zafra, secretary to the Catholic +sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella. "It has been calculated," says +Riano, "that about two tons of sand were used at these glass-works every +month." + + [107] The inventory (A.D. 1560) of the Dukes of Alburquerque mentions "a + white box with four small bottles of Valencia glass containing + ointment for the hands." Other objects specified in this inventory + are "a large glass cup, with two lizards for handles, and two more + lizards on the cover"; "three glass cocoanuts, partly coloured and + with gold blown into them, together with their covers"; and "a + large glass cup, of Barcelona, blown with gold." The value of + these cups, if they existed now, would not be less than two or + three hundred pounds apiece. + +More important than the foregoing was the famous factory of a village in +Toledo province called Cadalso, or sometimes, from the nature of its +only industry, Cadalso (or Cadahalso) de los Vidrios. The glass made +here is mentioned in terms of high praise by various writers of the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, such as Marineus Siculus and Mendez +Silva. The former of these authors says in his work upon the _Memorable +Things of Spain_: "Glass was produced in several towns of Castile, the +most important being that of Cadalso, which supplied the whole kingdom." +Ewers and bottles of Cadalso glass are mentioned in the Alburquerque +inventory. Mendez Silva says that the number of ovens was originally +three, and that their coloured glass was equal to Venetian (Plate +lxxiv.). This was towards the middle of the seventeenth century. Larruga +tells us that by the end of the eighteenth this local industry was +languishing. One of the three ovens had been abandoned. The other two +produced inferior glass, as well as in diminished quantities. + + [Illustration: LXXIV + VESSELS OF SPANISH GLASS + (_South Kensington Museum_)] + +The glass of Cataluna maintained its ancient reputation all through the +fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and part of the seventeenth, and at +this time was still compared with the Venetian by observant travellers +(Plate lxxv.). Besides the capital, the principal glass-works in this +province were at Almatret, Moncada, Cervello, and Mataro. In 1489 a +Barcelonese, by name Vicente Sala, and his sons applied to the City +Council for leave to construct an oven at Moncada "in order to pursue +the craft of glass-making, _lo qual a present aci se obre axi bellament +e suptil com en part del mon_ (seeing that the glass we manufacture in +this neighbourhood competes with any in the world for subtlety and +beauty)." + +A document is extant from which we learn that the City Councillors of +Barcelona made strenuous efforts to prevail upon Ferdinand the Catholic +to abolish a certain monopoly or other form of exclusive privilege which +he had conceded to a local glass-maker. The result of this appeal is not +recorded. In 1503 Ferdinand presented his consort with two hundred and +seventy-four glass objects made at Barcelona, and Philip the Second +possessed a hundred and nineteen pieces proceeding from the same +locality. + + [Illustration: LXXV + VESSELS OF CATALAN GLASS + (_From Drawings by the Author_)] + +An important development of this craft was the manufacture of coloured +glass for churches and cathedrals. In the Peninsula, the earliest +introducers of this branch of glass-making were principally natives of +Germany, France, and Flanders, who came to Spain at the beginning of the +fifteenth century.[108] Many of the oldest windows executed by these +foreigners, or by the Spaniards who were taught by them, are still +existing in the cathedrals of Leon, Toledo, Burgos, Barcelona, and +the Seo of Zaragoza. Leon has several windows which date from as far +back as the thirteenth century, and in which the glass is in small +pieces, arranged as though it were mosaic. Some of the later and larger +windows in the same cathedral are thirty-five feet high, and one, dating +from the sixteenth century, is believed to have been presented to this +temple by Mary of England, prior to her marriage with Philip the Second. + + [108] Before this time, however, Aymerich had written, in or about the + year 1100, that sixty large windows in Santiago cathedral were + closed by glass, which probably was coloured. We also hear of + Francisco Socoma, who made or fitted windows of coloured glass at + Palma, in the island of Majorca, in 1380, and of Guillermo de + Collivella, who, in 1391, fitted at Lerida the glass which had + been coloured for the cathedral of that town by Juan de San-Amat. + +It was, however, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that the custom +became general, in Spain as in other lands, of colouring the surface of +white glass by partial fusing--a process which is mentioned in the +treatise of Abolais, to which I have referred repeatedly. Between the +eleventh and the thirteenth centuries the coloured windows of Spanish +temples were still composed of pieces of glass united in the manner of +mosaic, forming ornamental patterns of stars and similar devices; but +subsequently to this period the decorative themes are said to be painted +_en caballete_, and consist of figures, or the representation of scenes +from Scripture. In Spain, and dating from the twelfth century, the +workshops for preparing this coloured glass were commonly situated +within the precincts of important temples, such as Toledo cathedral, or +else, as was the case at Burgos, in separate buildings and +_dependencias_. Here, in the square ovens characteristic of that age, +and before it was mounted in the ponderous leaden frame, the glass was +coloured with exquisite solicitude and patience by the hand of the +master-craftsman, sometimes with a colour upon one of its surfaces +alone, sometimes with the same colour upon both, or sometimes with a +different colour upon either surface. The cartoons from which such +windows were constructed, and which were often designed by painters of +renown, were usually three in number. The first contained, upon a +reduced scale, a coloured outline of the window; the second, drawn to +the exact scale of the window as it was to be, was composed of all the +pieces cut out and numbered according to the various colours; and the +third, also of the projected size of the window, was kept complete, to +serve as a pattern in case the window should suffer any accident, and +require to be restored or mended. Not one of these cartoons is known to +be preserved to-day, but Rico y Sinobas points out that from the strong +and simple character of their colouring and outline, the illuminated +illustrations of Spanish thirteenth century manuscripts, such as the +_Cantigas_, and the _Book of Chess_ of Alfonso the Learned, may well +have been utilized for, or else be copied from, glass windows of that +period. + +As soon as the cartoon was finished, the window-painter traced it upon +the surface of the glass. This was in square pieces, fitted conveniently +together, with sufficient space between the pieces to allow the passage +of the leads. Before being laid upon the glass and being submitted to +the fixing action of fire, the colours were mixed with honey, urine, +vinegar, and other fluids or substances which served as mediums to +attach the colour to the glass. Thus prepared, and in the form of +powder, the colours were allowed to dry for two or three days before the +glass was placed in the oven. Yellow, which was the strongest colour, +and that which penetrated deepest beneath the surface of the glass, was +made from certain combinations of silver and nitrate of potash, while +oxides or other forms of copper, lead, iron, tin, silver, and manganese, +were used for making black, white, red, green, blue, purple, violet, or +flesh-colour. These colours penetrated the glass to the depth of about +half a millimetre; but sometimes, after the colour had been applied, +the craftsman would submit the glass to friction by a wooden polisher or +wheel, thus giving it an appearance of greater clearness and +transparency at any spot he might desire. + +Among the artists who produced the coloured windows of Leon cathedral +were Master Joan de Arge (A.D. 1424), Master Baldovin, and Rodrigo de +Ferreras. Those of Toledo date from early in the fifteenth century, and +were made by Albert of Holland, Vasco Troya, Luis Pedro Frances, Juan de +Campos, and others, including the eminent Dolfin, who, according to +Cean, began to work here in 1418, by order of the archbishop, Don Sancho +de Rojas. The documents collected and published for the first time by +Zarco del Valle tell us that on March 22nd, 1424, Dolfin received from +Alfonso Martinez, treasurer and superintendent of works, two hundred +gold florins and certain other moneys on account of his total payment of +four hundred gold florins for "the eighth window he is making for the +head of the cathedral." Other certificates of payment relating to +Maestre Dolfin (as he always signed himself) are included in the same +collection. By 1427 he was "defunct, God pardon him!" and the windows +he had left unfinished were terminated by his assistant Lois +(Louis).[109] + + [109] _Documentos Ineditos para la Historia de las Bellas Artes en + Espana_, p. 282 _et seq._ + +In 1458, and also at Toledo, a friar named Pablo began to repair the +painted windows of the _crucero_. His pay was fixed by the "abbot and +superintendent of works" at fifty _maravedis_ each day, and that of "his +lads, Ximeno and Juanico," at one half of this amount. Other artists +engaged in the same work were Pablo (not the friar just referred to), +Peter, a German, and "Master Henry," who was also German. Pablo received +authority to purchase ten and a half _quintales_ and thirteen pounds of +coloured Flemish glass, at two thousand _maravedis_ for each _quintal_. +By a contract dated 1485 (he died between 1487 and 1493), Master Henry +was handed by the cathedral authorities a sum of 150,000 _maravedis_ "to +proceed to Flanders or any other part he may desire, and where good +glass is to be found, white, blue, green, scarlet, purple, yellow, or +blackish (_prieto_), equal in thickness to the sample which he bears, +and bring us thence such quantity as he has need of for the windows of +our cathedral." + +It is evident from this notice that Spain was then unable to produce +the finest quality of glass. With such as he brought with him from +abroad, Henry engaged to fashion "every kind of figure, image, scroll, +and other object whatsoever be commanded him, according to the place it +is to fill; the colours of the glass to be well mingled and +distributed." He was also to make "the leaden casings stout and deep, so +as to embrace and hold the glass aforesaid, that it may resist the air +and wind." In return for this, he was to be supplied with an erected +scaffolding, with all the chalk and iron he might require, and with the +proper number of assistants, receiving, in payment of his labour, one +hundred and fifteen _maravedis_ for every square palm of glass the +preparation of which should satisfy the superintendent and examiners of +works. + +One of the witnesses to this document was Henry's wife, Maria Maldonada, +who came forward to affix her signature "with the license and pleasure +of the aforesaid Master Enrique, her husband." + +In 1433, Master Juan (perhaps the same as Joan de Arge, already +mentioned) began to work at the windows of Burgos, where, later in this +century, he was succeeded by Juan de Valdivieso and Diego de +Santillana. We learn from the _Documentos Ineditos_ (pp. 159, 160) that +Santillana lived at Burgos, and that, on May 31st, 1512, he contracted +to make three "historical windows" for the monastery of San Francisco, +at a price of ninety-five _maravedis_ for each palm of glass, this to be +"of good colours and shades," and "measured by the Burgos standard." Two +other contracts are preserved, signed by the same craftsman and both +relating to Palencia. By one of them Santillana is to receive for six +"storied windows," the subjects of which are specified, ninety-five +_maravedis_ the palm, besides the scaffolding and his house and coals. + +Arnao de Flandes (Arnold of Flanders) was appointed master glass-painter +to Burgos cathedral in 1512. Other glass-painters who worked here in the +sixteenth century were Francisco de Valdivieso, Gaspar Cotin, Juan de +Arce, his son Juan and grandson Pedro, and, in the seventeenth century, +Valentin Ruiz, Francisco Alonso, Simon Ruiz, and Francisco Alcalde. Most +of the windows made by all these men have been destroyed by time and +weather, and have been replaced by barren panes of white; but a few fine +specimens of the original work may yet be seen in the chapels of the +Presentation, the Constable, and San Jeronimo. Perhaps the most +remarkable of any is the rose-window, above the Puerta del +Sarmental.[110] + + [110] In the monastery of Miraflores, near this city, the queen of + Ferdinand the Catholic built, at her expense, a rich pantheon to + guard the ashes of her parents and her brother. The coloured glass + was made by Simon of Cologne. One day, while visiting Miraflores, + Isabella noticed upon the windows of this sanctuary the shield of + a gentleman named Martin de Soria. Furious at the liberty thus + taken with a fabric of her own, "afferte mihi gladium" she called + in Latin to one of her attendants, and, raising the sword, dashed + the offending window into a thousand pieces, crying that in that + spot she would allow no arms but those of her father. + +Other good cathedral windows prior to the sixteenth century are those of +Avila, which date from about the year 1497, and were executed by Diego +de Santillana, Juan de Valdivieso, and other artists; those of the Seo +of Zaragoza, by the Catalans Terri and Jayme Romeu (1447); and some at +Barcelona, painted in 1494 by Gil Fontanet. + +It is, however, in the sixteenth century that Spanish ecclesiastical +window-glass attains its highest grade of excellence.[111] Dating from +this century are windows in Toledo cathedral, painted in 1503 by Vasco +de Troya, in 1509 by Alejo Jimenez, in 1513 by Gonzalo de Cordoba (these +are considered by competent judges to be the finest of any), in 1515 by +Juan de la Cuesta, in 1522 by Juan Campos, in 1525 by Albert of Holland, +in 1534 by Juan de Ortega, and in 1542 by Nicolas Vergara the +elder.[112] In 1537 Ortega was engaged to repair the damaged or broken +panes at a yearly salary of 11,250 _maravedis_. Where the panes were +wanting, he was to replace them by new ones painted by his hand, +receiving, for each _palmo_ of new glass so painted, an extra payment of +ninety _maravedis_.[113] + + [111] Senor Lazaro, who has recently made at Madrid windows for Leon + cathedral imitating those of the fourteenth and fifteenth + centuries, remarks that with the sixteenth century the process + grew more complicated, patterns composed with pieces of a single + colour being replaced by glass containing a variety of tints. He + has also discovered the following usage of the older Spanish + craftsmen: "By way of furnishing a key to their arrangement, all + the pieces used to be marked with the point of a diamond, and + this mark indicates the tone the glass requires for such and such + a part of the design. The signs most often employed were three, + namely X, L, and V, for red, blue and yellow respectively, + intermediate tones being shown by combinations of these + letters--XL, LV, XV, with "lines of unities" placed before or + after to indicate the necessary gradation in the tone." + + [112] This artist painted a series of magnificent windows representing + scenes from the life of San Pedro Nolasco, for the convent of La + Piedad, at Valencia. + + [113] Zarco del Valle, _Documentos Ineditos, etc._, pp. 339 _et seq._ + +In the same century the windows of Seville cathedral, begun some years +previously (Cean says in 1504) by Micer Cristobal Aleman ("Master +Christopher the German"), were continued by Masters Jacobo, Juan Juan +Vivan, Juan Bernai, Bernardino de Gelandia, Juan Jaques, Arnold of +Flanders (1525), Arnao de Vergara (1525), Charles of Bruges, (1557), and +Vicente Menandro (1557).[114] In 1562 Diego de Valdivieso, and in 1570 +Pedro de Valdivieso and Gerald of Holland, painted windows for Cuenca +cathedral. In 1542 the same work was done at Palencia by Diego de +Salcedo, and in 1533 George of Burgundy, "master in the art of glass," +then resident at Burgos, proceeded to the same town and engaged to +renew the cathedral windows at a cost of a hundred _maravedis_ for every +palm of coloured glass, and fifty for every palm of plain.[115] + + [114] According to Cean (_La Catedral de Sevilla_), Menandro painted in + 1560 the conversion of Saint Paul on a window in the Chapel of + Santiago, in 1567 another window with the scene of the + Annunciation, over the gate of San Miguel, and in 1569 the + companion to it, representing the Visitation, over the Puerta del + Bautismo. "In all these windows," wrote Cean, prejudiced, as was + customary in his day, in favour of the strictly classic style, + "the drawing, pose, and composition are good, _although_ in the + draperies and figures we observe the influence of Germany." + + In Cean's own time--that is, towards the close of the eighteenth + century--the coloured windows of Seville Cathedral amounted to + ninety-three, five of which were circular, and the rest with the + pointed Gothic arch. The dimensions of the latter are twenty-eight + feet high by twelve feet broad, and the subjects painted on them + include the likenesses of prophets, patriarchs, martyrs, + confessors, and virgins, or scenes from the New Testament, such as + the rising of Lazarus, Christ driving the merchants from the + temple, the Last Supper, and the + anointing by Mary Magdalene. + + [115] Zarco del Valle, _Documentos Ineditos_, p. 159 + +In 1544, sixty-two windows in the nave of Segovia cathedral were filled +with painted glass prepared chiefly at Valladolid and Medina del Campo, +though some was brought from Flanders. The remaining windows were left +unfilled till 1676, in which year a canon of the cathedral, named Tomas +de la Plaza Aguirre, succeeded in rediscovering a formula for the +practise of this craft, and the panes yet needed were made and coloured +at Valdequemada by Juan Danis, under Plaza Aguirre's supervision. +Thirty-three additional windows were completed from this factory. +According to Lecea y Garcia, the chapter of Segovia cathedral possess, +or possessed for many years, two curious manuscripts relating severally +to _The painting of glass windows_, by Francisco Herranz, and +_Glass-making_, by Juan Danis--the same who owned and worked the factory +at Valdequemada. These interesting treatises were examined by Bosarte, +who has described them. He says that the one on glass-making consisted +of twenty-three sheets of clear writing, and the one on glass-painting +of eight sheets; both manuscripts being in quarto size. The latter +contained, distributed beside the text, sketches of the various +instruments required for this craft. The other and longer monograph +consisted of the following chapters:--(1) How to draw upon glass. (2) +How to cut glass. (3) How to paint and shade glass. (4) Of the +substances and ingredients for painting glass. (5) How to give a +flesh-colour to glass. (6) How to give a yellow or golden colour to +white or pale blue glass, but no other. (7) How to fire glass. (8) How +to make the glass-oven. + +Windows were painted in the cathedral of Palma de Mallorca by Sebastian +Dangles in 1566 and by Juan Jorda in 1599, in that of Malaga by Octavio +Valerio in 1579, and in those of Tarragona and Avila respectively, by +Juan Guasch in 1571, and by Pierre de Chiberri in 1549. This craftsman +was undoubtedly a foreigner. The following entry which concerns him is +quoted by Rosell de Torres from the _Libro de Fabrica_ of Segovia +cathedral: "By order of the Canon Juan Rodriguez, on the twelfth day of +August, I paid to Pierre de Chiberri, master-maker of window-glass, the +sum of 56,560 _maravedis_, 34,960 for the casings of seven large +windows with their side-windows--in all twenty-one casings--besides ten +casings for the windows of the lower chapels, containing altogether +MMMCCCCXCVI palms, amounting at ten _maravedis_ the palm to the +aforesaid 34,960 maravedis: also 19,125 _maravedis_ for CCCLXXII palms +of glass for the said chapels at a _real_ and a half each palm, plus +2476 _maravedis_ for certain glass which had yet to be measured because +it was in the skylights. The total sum amounts to the aforesaid 56,560 +_maravedis_."[116] + + [116] Isidoro Rosell de Torres, _Las Vidrieras pintadas en Espana_ + (published in the _Museo Espanol de Antiguedades_). + +During the seventeenth century, glass-work of various kinds continued to +be produced upon a large scale at Barcelona, Mataro, Gerona, Cuenca, +Toledo, Valmaqueda, and Seville. In 1680 the Duke of Villahermosa +established a glass factory at San Martin de Valdeiglesias, and placed +it under the direction of a native of Namur named Diodonet Lambot, aided +by various other artists from the Netherlands. In 1683 Lambot was +succeeded by Santiago Vandoleto, who proved incompetent, and caused, in +1692, the total stoppage of the factory. + +I have said that glass was made at Medina del Campo, in the province of +Valladolid. Pinheiro da Veiga's _Pincigraphia_, written at the beginning +of the seventeenth century, contains an interesting notice of this +glassware. "Really, the glass-work of Valladolid is most beautiful, and +worth going to see if only for the pleasure of its contemplation. There +are objects of considerable size, such as (glass) pitchers of every form +and colour. Others are called _penados_, and are of a syphon shape, +pouring out water in small quantities.[117] Besides this there are all +manner of cunningly contrived retorts such as we never see in Lisbon, +and yet in Valladolid their cost is only moderate.... The principal +shops for selling these and porcelain are two in number, and the prices +are the same as in Portugal." + + [117] "_Penado._ A narrow-mouthed vessel that affords the liquor with + scantiness and difficulty." Connelly and Higgins' Dictionary; + A.D. 1798. + +Two very important Spanish glass factories were founded in the +eighteenth century. The first, which was under Crown protection, was +established by Don Juan Goyeneche in the year 1720 at a place called +Nuevo Baztan, in the province of Toledo. The royal privilege allowed +this factory to produce "all articles of glass up to a height of twenty +inches, working and polishing the same, embellishing, and coating them +with metal; to make looking-glasses and similar ornaments, glass vessels +of all descriptions, white glass for window-panes, and glass objects of +any kind or shape, whether already known to us, or that may be invented +in the future." + +The factory of Nuevo Baztan continued working for some years, and turned +out excellent glass for exportation to America and other parts; but it +was killed eventually by the rising price of fuel, and above all by +competition from abroad. "When the foreigners," says Larruga in his +_Memorias politicas y economicas_, "saw that the factory was in full +swing, they conspired to bring about its ruin, and begged their +ambassadors to communicate against it with the ministers; but finding +this of no avail, and recognising the importance to themselves of +overthrowing this manufacture, they decided to sell glassware at a price +at which it would be impossible to sell the products of Nuevo Baztan. +The amount of this reduction was the one-third part of the entire value. +By this means the foreigners made it impossible for the factory to +support itself, since the objects it produced were laid away and found +no purchaser for years. This, and the cost of the wood required to keep +the ovens burning day and night, not excepting feast-days (for to stop +the fires for a moment would have meant the spoiling of the oven), +induced the downfall of this celebrated factory, as soon as the fuel of +all the neighbouring forests had been consumed." + +Nevertheless, upon the closing of these works, one of the experts who +had been employed there, a Catalan named Ventura Sit, attracted by the +forests of Valsain and the excellent and abundant sand obtainable in +this locality--principally from near the villages of Espirdo and Bernuy +de Porreros--decided to open another glass-works at La Granja. Here is +the royal summer residence of San Ildefonso, and Sit was fortunate +enough to secure at the outset--that is, in 1728--the firm protection of +Philip the Fifth and of his consort, Isabel Farnese. Instructed by the +sovereigns to make some mirrors, he produced these objects of a moderate +size at first, increasing it, after the year 1734, to a maximum length +of 145 inches by 85 in breadth. Larruga says that these mirrors were the +largest produced anywhere at that time, and they continued to be made +until very nearly the end of the century. They are often referred to in +the narratives of travellers. Swinburne wrote in 1776: "Not far from +Carthagena is a place called Almazaron, where they gather a fine red +earth called Almagra, used in the manufactures of Saint Ildephonso, for +polishing looking-glasses. In Seville, it is worked up with the tobacco, +to give it a colour, fix its volatility, and communicate to it that +softness which constitutes the principal merit of Spanish snuff." + +Describing the royal palace at Madrid, the same author says that the +walls of the great audience-chamber "are incrustated with beautiful +marble, and all round hung with large plates of looking-glass in rich +frames. The manufactory of glass is at Saint Ildefonso, where they cast +them of a very great size; but I am told they are apt to turn out much +rougher and more full of flaws than those of France." + +According to Townsend (1786), "The glass manufacture is here carried to +a degree of perfection unknown in England. The largest mirrors are made +in a brass frame, one hundred and sixty-two inches long, ninety-three +wide, and six deep, weighing near nine tons. These are designed wholly +for the royal palaces, and for presents from the king. Yet even for such +purposes the factory is ill-placed, and proves a devouring monster in a +country where provisions are dear, fuel scarce, and carriage exceedingly +expensive." + +Laborde wrote of the same factory a few years later: "There is also a +glass-house, in which bottles are wrought of a superior quality; and +white glasses, which are carved with much ingenuity (Plates lxxvi. and +lxxvii.). Near this glass-house has been founded a manufactory for +mirrors, in a large and well-arranged edifice. There are two furnaces, +and a considerable number of stoves, in which the plates are left to +cool after they have been precipitated. They are of all dimensions, and +the largest that have yet been fabricated. They are sometimes from a +hundred, a hundred and thirty, or a hundred and thirty-five inches in +height, to fifty, sixty, or sixty-five inches in breadth: they are +expanded in the hand. The process for polishing them is performed by a +machine;[118] they are then transported to Madrid, for the purpose of +being metallised. It is not uncommon to see tables of bronze, on which +mirrors are extended, a hundred and sixty inches in length, and ninety +in breadth." + + [118] This machine was invented by a Catalan named Pedro Fronvila. + +These tables are described by Bowles: "The largest measures a hundred +and forty-five inches in length by eighty-five in breadth, and weighs +four hundred and five _arrobas_. The smallest measures a hundred and +twenty inches in length, and seventy-five in breadth, and weighs three +hundred and eighty _arrobas_." + + [Illustration: LXXVI + GLASS OF THE FACTORY OF SAN ILDEFONSO] + +The best account of any is contained in the _Nouveau Voyage en Espagne_ +(1789) of Bourgoing. This author wrote: "A cote de cette Fabrique +naissante de premiere necessite" (_i.e._ the royal linen factory at La +Granja) "il y en a une de luxe qui remonte au regne de Philippe V; c'est +une Manufacture de glaces, la seule qu'il y ait en Espagne. On s'etoit +d'abord borne a une Verrerie qui subsiste encore, et donne des +bouteilles d'une assez bonne qualite, et des verres blancs qu'on y +cisele avec assez d'adresse. J'en ai rapporte quelques-uns ou l'on a +grave des chiffres, des lettres, et jusqu'a de jolis paysages. Cette +Verrerie etoit un acheminement a une entreprise plus brillante. La +Manufacture de glaces de Saint Ildephonse est comparable aux plus beaux +etablissements de ce genre; on en peut voir les dessins dans les +Planches de l'Encyclopedie. L'edifice est vaste et tres bien distribue; +il contient deux fourneaux et une vingtaine de fours ou l'on fait +refroidir lentement les glaces apres les avoir coulees. On y en coule +dans toutes les dimensions depuis les carreaux de vitres jusqu'aux plus +grands trumeaux. Elles sont moins blanches et peut-etre moins bien +polies que celles de Venise et de St-Gobin; mais nulle part on n'en a +encore coule d'aussi grandes. L'operation du coulage s'y fait avec +beaucoup de precision et d'ensemble. Monseigneur Comte d'Artois eut la +curiosite d'y assister; la glace qu'on y coula devant lui avoit, autant +que je puis m'en souvenir, cent trente-trois pouces de long, sur +soixante-cinq de large, et l'on m'a assure qu'il y en avoit encore de +plus grandes. On les degrossit a mains d'hommes dans une longue galerie +qui est attenante a la Fabrique, et il y a a un quart de lieue une +machine que l'eau fait mouvoir, et ou on acheve de les polir; on les +porte ensuite a Madrid pour les etamer. Le Roi consacre les plus belles +a la parure de ses appartements; il en fait des cadeaux aux Cours qui +ont des relations intimes avec lui. En 1783, S.M.C. en fit joindre +quelques-unes aux presens qu'il envoyoit a la Porte Ottomane, avec +laquelle elle venoit de conclure un traite. C'est une idee agreable pour +un cosmopolite tolerant, de penser qu'en depit des prejuges de religion +et de politique qui divisoient autrefois les Nations, la main des arts a +etabli entr'elles un echange de jouissances d'un bout de l'Europe a +l'autre, et que les beautes du serrail se mirent dans les glaces coulees +a Saint-Ildefonse, tandis que les tapis de Turquie sont foules par des +pieds Francois. Ce qui sort d'ailleurs de la Manufacture de +Saint-Ildefonse est vendu, pour le compte du Roi, a Madrid et dans les +provinces; mais on sent bien que ce profit est trop mince pour couvrir +les frais d'un etablissement aussi considerable qui, le bois excepte, +est eloigne de toutes les matieres premieres qu'il employe, qui est +situe fort avant dans l'interieur des terres, au sein des montagnes, et +loin de toute riviere navigable; aussi doit il etre compte parmi ces +fondations de luxe qui prosperent a l'ombre du Trone, et qui ajoutent a +son eclat."[119] + + [119] Vol. I., pp. 144-147. + +A few more details are added by Swinburne: "Below the town is the +manufactory of plate-glass belonging to the crown, carried on under the +direction of Mr Dowling; two hundred and eighty men are employed. The +largest plate they have made is one hundred and twenty-six Spanish +inches long; the small pieces are sold in looking-glasses all over the +kingdom; but I am told the king makes no great profit by it; however, it +is a very material point to be able to supply his subjects with a good +commodity, and to keep in the country a large sum of money that +heretofore went out annually to purchase it from strangers. They also +make bottles and drinking-glasses (Plates lxxvi., lxxvii.); and are now +busy erecting very spacious new furnaces to enlarge the works. To +provide fuel for the fires, they have put the pinewoods under proper +regulations and stated falls; twenty-seven mule-loads of fir-wood are +consumed every day; and four loads cost the king, including all the +expenses of cutting and bringing down from the mountains, about forty +reals." + + [Illustration: LXXVII + GLASS OF THE FACTORY OF SAN ILDEFONSO] + +In 1736, the first factory which had been established at San Ildefonso +was nearly destroyed by fire; but the damage was repaired, and the +factory placed under state control. Its finances were at no time +prosperous. In 1762 Charles the Third granted a privilege reserving to +it the exclusive sale of glass within a radius of twenty leagues from +Madrid and Segovia; but the sales did not improve. In spite of this, the +monarch, a few years later, erected a new and costly factory from +designs by Villanueva and Real. There were two departments in this ample +building. One, for the manufacture of the plainest glass, was +directed by a Hanoverian, named Sigismund Brun; and the other, devoted +to smaller and more elaborate articles, by Eder, a Swede. "The greater +number of the objects made at these important works were of transparent, +colourless glass, possessing a marked French style, and were either +richly engraved and cut, or gilded, or sometimes (though less often) +they were made of coloured and enamelled glass. At this time, too, were +manufactured mirrors for the royal palaces, as well as candlesticks and +chandeliers of great beauty, following the Venetian method, and +embellished with coloured flowers."[120] + + [120] Brenosa and Castellarnau; _Guide to San Ildefonso_ (1884), p. 53. + Rico y Sinobas observes that in the objects produced at the + factory of La Granja, the glass itself is inferior to the + engraving or cutting with which it is adorned. This leads him to + infer that the foreigners brought over by the kings of Spain to + superintend the factory, were cutters and engravers of glass, + rather than skilled glass-makers. He also draws attention to the + fact that the Spanish monarchs chose these foreign craftsmen from + too limited a class, entrusting the most important posts at all + the royal factories to Frenchmen who were stated to descend from + the old nobility of their native country. In this manner the + progress and welfare of the craft itself was sacrificed to an + insane prejudice in favour of the aristocratic origin of the + craftsman. + +In spite of all these efforts, the works at the dawn of the nineteenth +century were in a moribund condition. In 1829 they passed into the +hands of private persons, who also failed to make them pay, and +subsequently, owing to the ineptitude of Spanish governments and the +severity of foreign competition, have definitely closed their doors. + +"In Catalonia," wrote Laborde, towards the year 1800, "are two glass +houses; but the glass blown in them is dark, and destitute of lustre. +Aragon has four, one at Alfamen, one at Penalva, one at Utrillas, and +one at Jaulin, which is the largest; but the quality of the glass is not +superior to that of Catalonia. The glass-house at Utrillas produces both +flint and common glass. Glass houses are also established at Pajarejo +and at Recuenco in Castile, which manufacture the most beautifully white +and transparent glass." + +In 1791 there were six glass-ovens in the kingdom of Valencia, situated +at Valencia, Alicante, Salines, Olleria, and Alcira. They turned out +2100 pieces in this year, some of which were exported to Castile and +Aragon.[121] + + [121] Ricord; _Noticia de las varias y diferentes Producciones del + Reyno de Valencia, etc.: segun el estado que tenian en el + ano 1791._ Valencia, 1793. + +Early in the eighteenth century the glass of Barcelona was praised by +Alvarez de Colmenar ("Il s'y fait de belles verreries"), and we know +that all through this period her _forns de vidre_ continued to produce +good work, including holy-water vessels of uncoloured glass relieved +with blue or with the fine white _latticinio_, the local _arruixadors_ +or _borrachas_, and the typical _porron_. The former of these vessels is +of small size, and has several spouts. Commonly it is filled with +scented water for gallants to sprinkle on girls at dances in the public +square. The _porron_ invariably excites the curiosity of +foreigners,[122] and is often thought to be of purely Spanish origin. +This is not so. Upon a Roman lampstand in Naples museum is a figure of +Bacchus riding on a tiger and "holding in his hand the horn from which +the ancients drank, using it as, among some other peoples, do the modern +Catalans--that is, not placing the vessel in their mouth, but holding it +aloft and thus imbibing it; a method which requires no small amount of +practice." In fact, there is reason to believe that the _porron_ is +derived from a similar vessel in use among the ancient Persians, who +poured their liquor from it into the hollow of the hand, and thence +imbibed it in the fashion called, in Cataluna and Valencia, _al gallet_. +For just as a certain class of American displays his marksmanship in +spitting, so does the Catalan who is accomplished in the art, amuse +himself and others by causing the ruby wine to spout from his _porron_ +on to the very apex of his nose, continuing from this point, in the form +of a fine and undulating rivulet, over his upper lip and down his +throat. + + [122] "The mode of drinking in this country is singular; they hold a + broad-bottom'd glass bottle at arm's length, and let the liquor + spout out of a long neck upon their tongue; from what I see, + their expertness at this exercise arises from frequent practise; + for the Catalans drink often and in large quantities, but as yet + I have not seen any of them intoxicated."--Swinburne. + +Windows of Spanish houses were seldom glazed until about one hundred +years ago. When Bertaut de Rouen travelled here in 1659, this fact +impressed him disagreeably. Even in the royal palace at Madrid he found +that there were chambers "qui n'ont point du tout de fenestres, ou qui +n'en ont qu'une petite, et d'ou le jour ne vient que d'enhaut, le verre +estant fort rare en Espagne, et la pluspart des fenestres des maisons +n'ayant pas de vitres." In 1787, Arthur Young was no less horrified at +the glassless condition of the houses in Cataluna. "Reach Scullo; the +inn so bad that our guide would not permit us to enter it, so he went to +the house of the Cure. A scene followed so new to English eyes, that we +could not refrain from laughing very heartily. Not a pane of glass in +the whole town, but our reverend host had a chimney in his kitchen; he +ran to the river to catch trout; a man brought us some chickens which +were put to death on the spot.... This town and its inhabitants are, to +the eye, equally wretched, the smoke-holes instead of chimneys, the +total want of glass windows--the cheerfulness of which, to the eye, is +known only by the want." + +However, as an exception to this doleful rule, the town of Poeblar had +"some good houses with glass windows, and we saw a well-dressed young +lady gallanted by two monks." + + + + + PRINTED BY + + NEILL AND COMPANY, LIMITED, + + EDINBURGH. + + + + + * * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +The original spelling and minor inconsistencies in the spelling and +formatting have been maintained. + +Inconsistent hyphenation and accents are as in the original if not marked +as an misprint. + +The table below lists all corrections applied to the original text. + + p. x: LIX -> LIX. + p. 20: Mr Cunninghame Graham -> Mr. + p. 23: avec leurs enfans -> enfants + p. 32: feu. L'hote -> L'hotel + p. 33: choses est regle -> regle + p. 39: fort peuplee autresfois -> autrefois + p. 71: pp. 161, 162 -> pp. 161, 162. + p. 72: Leon Cathedral_ -> Leon Cathedral_) + p. 96: peintures variees de bon gout -> gout + p. 98: on the cover. -> on the cover." + p. 104: (see Vol. I. Plate xi.) -> (see Vol. I., Plate xi.) + p. 132: appear to be galloping. -> galloping." + p. 139: and "Pisano." -> and "Pisano". + p. 139: "_de relieve_." -> "_de relieve_". + p. 159: les plus compliques -> compliques + p. 159: qu'un bal masque -> masque + p. 169: the journal of Bertant -> Bertaut + p. 180: Quarte, Vilallonga -> Villalonga + p. 183: degree of delicacy. -> delicacy." + p. 188: says Senor Osmo -> Osma + p. 188: and another [Illustration] -> [Illustration]. + p. 213: style of Capo-di-Monte. -> Capo-di-Monte." + p. 225: in France and Spain. -> Spain." + p. 228: albeit the the -> albeit the + p. 236: VESSELS OF CATALAN GLASS -> LXXV VESSELS OF CATALAN GLASS + p. 254: GLASS OF THE -> LXXVI GLASS OF THE + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARTS AND CRAFTS OF OLDER SPAIN, +VOLUME II (OF 3)*** + + +******* This file should be named 44392.txt or 44392.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/4/3/9/44392 + + + +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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