LATER WORK OF JOAO DE CASTILHO AND THE EARLIER CLASSIC
To Dom Manoel, who died in 1521, had succeeded his son Dom Joao III. The
father had been renowned for his munificence and his splendour, the son
cared more for the Church and for the suppression of heresy. By him the
Inquisition was introduced in 1536 to the gradual crushing of all
independent thought, and so by degrees to the degradation of his
country. He reigned for thirty-six years, a time of wealth and luxury,
but before he died the nation had begun to suffer from this very luxury;
with all freedom of thought forbidden, with the most brave and
adventurous of her sons sailing east to the Indies or west to Brazil,
most of them never to return, Portugal was ready to fall an easy prey to
Philip of Spain when in 1580 there died the old Cardinal King Henry,
last surviving son of Dom Manoel, once called the Fortunate King.
With the death of Dom Manoel, or at least with the finishing of the
great work which he had begun, the most brilliant and interesting period
in the history of Portuguese architecture comes to an end. When the
younger Fernandes died seven years after his master in 1538, or when
Joao de Castilho saw the last vault built at Belem, Gothic, even as
represented by Manoelino, disappeared for ever, and renaissance
architecture, taught by the French school at Coimbra, or learned in
Italy by those sent there by Dom Manoel, became universal, to flourish
for a time, and then to fall even lower than in any other country.
Except the Frenchmen at Coimbra no one played a greater part in this
change than Joao de Castilho, who, no doubt, first learned about the
renaissance from Master Nicolas at Belem; Thomar also, his own home,
lies about half-way between Lisbon and Coimbra, so that he may well
have visited his brother Diogo at Santa Cruz and seen what other
Frenchmen were doing there and so become acquainted with better
architects than Master Nicolas; but in any case, who ever it may have
been who taught him, he planned at Thomar, after his return there, the
first buildings which are wholly in the style of the renaissance and are
not merely decorated with renaissance details.
[Sidenote: Alcobaca.]
But before following him back to Thomar, his additions to the abbey of
Alcobaca must be mentioned, as there for the last time, except in some
parts of Belem, he allowed himself to follow the older methods, though
even at this early date--1518 and 1519--renaissance forms are beginning
to creep in.
On the southern side of the ambulatory one of the radiating chapels was
pulled down in 1519 to form a passage, irregular in shape and roofed
with a vault of many ribs. From this two doors lead, one on the north to
the sacristy, and one on the south to a chapel. Unfortunately both
sacristy and chapel have been rebuilt and now contain nothing of
interest, except, in the sacristy, some fine presses inlaid with ivory,
now fast falling to pieces. The two doors are alike, and show that Joao
de Castilho was as able as any of his contemporaries to design a piece
of extreme realism. On the jambs is carved renaissance ornament, but
nowhere else is there anything to show that Joao and Nicolas had met at
Belem some two years before. The head of the arch is wavy and formed
mostly of convex curves. Beyond the strip of carving there grows up on
either side a round tree, with roots and bark all shown; at the top
there are some leaves for capitals, and then each tree grows up to meet
in the centre and so form a great ogee, from which grow out many cut-off
branches, all sprouting into great curly leaves.
This is realism carried to excess, and yet the leaves are so finely
carved, the whole design so compact, and the surrounding whitewashed
wall with its dado of tiles so plain, that the effect is quite good.
(Fig. 83.)
The year before he had begun for Cardinal Henry, afterwards king, and
then commendator of the abbey, a second story to the great cloister of
Dom Diniz. Reached by a picturesque stair on the south side, the
three-centred arches each enclose two or three smaller round arches,
with the spandrils merely pierced or sometimes cusped. The mouldings
are simple but not at all classic. The shafts which support these round
arches are all carried down across the parapet through the rope moulding
at the top to the floor level, and are of three or more patterns. Those
at the jambs are plain with hollow chamfered edges, as are also a few of
the others. They are, however, mostly either twisted, having four round
mouldings separated by four hollows, or else shaped like a rather fat
baluster; most of the capitals with curious volutes at the corner are
evidently borrowed from Corinthian capitals, but are quite unorthodox in
their arrangement.
Though this upper cloister adds much to the picturesqueness of the whole
it is not very pleasing in itself, as the three-centred arches are often
too wide and flat, and yet it is of great interest as showing how Joao
de Castilho was in 1518 beginning to accept renaissance forms though
still making them assume a Manoelino dress.
[Sidenote: Batalha, Santa Cruz.]
But in the door of the little parish church of Sta. Cruz at Batalha,
also built by Joao de Castilho, Manoelino and renaissance details are
used side by side with the happiest result. On each jamb are three round
shafts and two bands of renaissance carving; of these the inner band is
carried round the broken and curved head of the opening, while the outer
runs high up to form a square framing. Of the three shafts the inner is
carried round the head, the outer round the outside of the framing,
while the one in the centre divides into two, one part running round the
head, while the other forms the inner edge of the framing, and also
forms a great trefoil on the flat field above the opening. In the two
corners between the trefoils and the framing are circles enclosing
shields, one charged with the Cross of the Order of Christ, the other
with the armillary sphere.
The inner side of the trefoil is cusped, crockets and finials enrich the
outer moulding of the opening, while beyond the jambs are niches, now
empty. (Fig. 84.)
It is not too much to say that, except the great entrance to the
Capellas Imperfeitas, this is the most beautiful of all Manoelino
doorways; in no other is the detail so refined nor has any other so
satisfactory a framing. Unfortunately the construction has not been
good, so that the upper part is now all full of cracks and gaping
joints.
[Sidenote: Thomar.]
Since Dom Joao III. was more devoted to the Church than
[Illustration: FIG. 83.
ALCOBACA.
SACRISTY DOOR.]
[Illustration: FIG. 84.
W. DOOR, STA. CRUZ.
BATALHA.]
to anything else he determined in 1524 to change the great Order of
Christ from a body of military knights bound, as had been the Templars,
by certain vows, into a monastic order of regulars. This necessitated
great additions to the buildings at Thomar, for the knights had not been
compelled to live in common like monks.
Accordingly Joao de Castilho was summoned back from Belem and by 1528
had got to work.
All these additions were made to the west of the existing buildings, and
to make room for them Dom Joao had to buy several houses and gardens,
which together formed a suburb called Sao Martinho, and some of which
were the property of Joao de Castilho, who received for them 463$000 or
about L100.[150]
[Illustration: PLAN OF THOMAR]
These great additions, which took quite twenty-five years to build,
cover an immense area, measuring more than 300 feet long by 300 wide and
containing five cloisters. Immediately to the west of the Coro of the
church, then probably scarcely finished, is the small cloister of Sta.
Barbara; to the north of this is the larger Claustro da Hospedaria,
begun about 1539, while to the south and hiding the lower part of the
Coro is the splendid two-storied Claustro, miscalled 'dos Filippes,'
begun in its present form in 1557 by Diogo de Torralva some time after
de Castilho's death.
Further west are two other large cloisters, do Mixo or da Micha to the
north and dos Corvos to the south, and west of the Corvos a sort of
farmyard called the Pateo dos Carrascos--that is of the evergreen oaks,
or since Carrasco also means a hangman, it may be that the executioners
of the Inquisition had their quarters there.
Between these cloisters, and dividing the three on the east from the two
on the west, is an immense corridor nearly three hundred feet long from
which small cells open on each side; in the centre it is crossed by
another similar corridor stretching over one hundred and fifty feet to
the west, separating the two western cloisters, and with a small chapel
to the east.
North of all the cloisters are more corridors and rooms extending
eastwards almost to the Templars' castle, but there the outer face dates
mostly from the seventeenth century or later.
The first part to be begun was the Claustro da Micha, or loaf, so called
from the bread distributed there to the poor. Outside it was begun in
1528, but inside an inscription over the door says it was begun in 1534
and finished in 1546. Being the kitchen cloister it is very plain, with
simple round-headed arches. Only the entrance door is adorned with a
Corinthian column on either side; its straight head rests on well-carved
corbels, and above it is a large inscribed tablet upheld by small boys.
Under the pavement of the cloister as well as under the Claustro dos
Corvos is a great cistern. On the south was the kitchen and the oil
cellar, on the east the dispensary, and on the west a great oven and
wood-store with three large halls above, which seem to have been used by
the Inquisition.[151] The lodgings of the Dom Prior were above the
cloister to the north.
Like the Claustro da Micha, the Claustro dos Corvos has plain round
arches resting on round columns and set usually in pairs with a buttress
between each pair. On the south side, below, were the cellars, finished
in 1539, and above the library, on the west, various vaulted stores with
a passage above leading to the library from the dormitory.
The whole of the east side is occupied by the refectory, about 100 feet
long by 30 wide. On each of the long sides there is a pulpit, one
bearing the date 1536, enriched with arabesques, angels, and small
columns. At the south end are two windows, and at the north a hatch
communicating with the kitchen.
The Claustro da Hospedaria, as its name denotes, was where strangers
were lodged; like the Claustro dos Corvos each pair of arches is divided
by a buttress, and the round columns have simple but effective capitals,
in which nothing of the regular Corinthian is left but the abacus, and a
large plain leaf at each corner. Still, though plain, this cloister is
very picturesque. Its floor, like those of all the cloisters, lies deep
below the level of the church, and looking eastward from one of the cell
windows the Coro and the round church are seen towering high above the
brown tile roofs of the rooms beyond the cloister and of the simple
upper cloister, which runs across the eastern walk. (Fig. 85.)
This part of the building, begun about 1539, must have been carried on
during Joao de Castilho's absence, as in 1541 he was sent to Mazagao on
the Moroccan coast to build fortifications; there he made a bastion 'so
strong as to be able not only to resist the Shariff, but also the Turk,
so strong was it.'[152]
The small cloister of Santa Barbara is the most pleasing of all those
which Joao de Castilho was able to finish. In order not to hide the west
front of the church its arches had to be kept very low. They are
three-centred and almost flat, while the vault is even flatter, the bays
being divided by a stone beam resting on beautifully carved brackets.
The upper cloister is not carried across the east side next the church;
but in its south-west corner an opening with a good entablature, resting
on two columns with fine Corinthian capitals, leads to one of those
twisting stairs without a newel of which builders of this time were so
fond. Going up this stair one reaches the cloister of the Filippes which
Joao did not live to carry out.
More interesting than any of these cloisters are the long dormitory
passages. The walls for about one-third of the height are lined with
tiles, which with the red paving tiles were bought for about L33 from
one Aleixo Antunes. The roofs are throughout of dark panelled wood and
semicircular in shape. The only windows--except at the crossing--are at
the ends of the three long arms. There is a small round-headed window
above, and below one, flat-headed, with a column in the centre and one
at each side, the window on the north end having on it the date 1541,
eight years after the chapel in the centre had been built.
On this chapel at the crossing has been expended far more ornament than
on any other part of the passages. Leading to each arm of the passage an
arch, curiously enriched with narrow bands which twice cross each other
leaving diamond-shaped hollows, rests on Corinthian pilasters, which
have only four flutes, but are adorned with niches, whose elegant
canopies mark the level of the springing of the chapel vault. This
vault, considerably lower than the passage arches, is semicircular and
coffered. Between it and the cornice which runs all round the square
above the passage arches is a large oblong panel, in the middle of which
is a small round window. Beautifully carved figures which, instead of
having legs, end in great acanthus-leaf volutes with dragons in the
centre, hold a beautifully carved wreath round this window. In the
middle of the architrave below, a tablet, held by exquisite little
winged boys, gives the date, 'Era de 1533.' Above the cornice there
rises a simple vault with a narrow round-headed window on each side.
This carving over the chapel is one of the finest examples of
renaissance work left in the country. It is much bolder than any of the
French work left at Coimbra, being in much higher relief than was usual
in the early French renaissance, and yet the figures and leaves are
carved with the utmost delicacy and refinement. (Fig. 86.)
The same delicacy characterises such small parts of the cloister dos
Filippes as were built by Joao de Castilho before he retired in 1551.
These are now confined to two stairs leading from the upper to the lower
cloister. These stairs
[Illustration: FIG. 85.
THOMAR.
CONVENT OF CHRIST.
CLAUSTRO DA HOSPEDARIA.]
[Illustration: FIG. 86.
THOMAR.
CHAPEL IN DORMITORY PASSAGE.]
are adorned with pilasters or thin columns against the walls, delicate
cornices, medallions, figures, and foliage; in one are square-headed
built-up doors or doorlike spaces, with well-moulded architraves, and
always in the centre above the opening small figures are carved, in one
an exquisite little Cupid holding a torch. At the bottom of the eastern
stair, which is decorated with scenes from the life of St. Jerome and
with the head of Frei Antonio of Lisbon, first prior of the reformed
order, a door led into the lower floor of the unfinished chapter-house.
On this same stair there is a date 1545, so the work was probably going
on till the very end of Joao's tenure of office, and fine as the present
cloister is, it is a pity that he was not able himself to finish it, for
it is the chief cloister in the whole building, and on it he would no
doubt have employed all the resources of his art. (Fig. 87.)
It is not without interest to learn that, like architects of the present
day, Joao de Castilho often found very great difficulties in carrying
out his work. Till well within the last hundred years Portugal was an
almost roadless country, and four centuries ago, as now, most of the
heavy carting was done by oxen, which are able to drag clumsy carts
heavily laden up and down the most impassable lanes. Several times does
he write to the king of the difficulty of getting oxen. On 4th March
1548 he says:
'I have written some days ago to Pero Carvalho to tell him of the want
of carts, since those which we had were away carrying stone for the
works at Cardiga and at Almeirim'--a palace now destroyed opposite
Santarem--'the works of Thomar remaining without stone these three
months. And for want of a hundred cart-loads of stone which I had worked
at the quarry--doors and windows--I have not finished the students'
studies'--probably in the noviciate near the Claustro da Micha. 'The
studies are raised to more than half their height and in eight days'
work I shall finish them if only I had oxen, for those I had have died.
'I would ask 20$000 [about L4, 10s.] to buy five oxen, and with three
which I have I could manage the carriage of a thousand cart-loads of
worked stone, besides that of which I speak of to your Highness, and
since there are no carts the men can bring nothing, even were they given
60 reis [about 3d.] a cartload there is no one to do carting....
' ... And if your Highness will give me these oxen I shall finish the
work very quickly, that when your Highness comes here you may find
something to see and have contentment of it.'
Later he again complains of transport difficulties, for the few carts
there were in the town were all being used by the Dom Prior; and in the
year when he retired, 1551, he writes in despair asking the king for 'a
very strong edict [Alvara] that no one of any condition whatever might
be excused, because in this place those who have something of their own
are excused by favour, and the poor men do service, which to them seems
a great aggravation and oppression. May your Highness believe that I
write this as a desperate man, since I cannot serve as I desire, and may
this provision be sent to the magistrate and judge that they may have it
executed by their officer, since the mayor [Alcaide] here is always away
and never in his place.'[153]
These letters make it possible to understand how buildings in those days
took such a long time to finish, and how Joao de Castilho--though it was
at least begun in 1545--was able to do so little to the Claustro dos
Filippes in the following six years.
The last letter also seems to show that some at least of the labour was
forced.
Leaving the Claustro dos Filippes for the present, we must return to
Batalha for a little, and then mention some buildings in which the early
renaissance details recall some of the work at Thomar.
[Sidenote: Batalha.]
The younger Fernandes had died in 1528, leaving the Capellas Imperfeitas
very much in the state in which they still remain. Though so much more
interested in his monastery at Thomar, Dom Joao ordered Joao de Castilho
to go on with the chapels, and in 1533 the loggia over the great
entrance door had been finished. Beautiful though it is it did not
please the king, and is not in harmony with the older work, and so
nothing more was done.
In place of the large Manoelino window, which was begun on all the other
seven sides, Joao de Castilho here built two renaissance arches, each of
two orders, of which the broader springs from the square pilasters and
the narrower from candelabrum shafts. In front there run up to the
cornice three beautiful shafts standing on high pedestals which rest
[Illustration: FIG. 87.
THOMAR.
CONVENTO DE CHRISTO.
STAIR IN CLAUSTRO DOS FILIPPES.]
[Illustration: FIG. 88.
THOMAR.
CHAPEL OF THE CONCEICAO.]
on corbels; the frieze of the cornice is carved much after the manner of
the window panel in the dormitory corridor at Thomar, and with long
masks where it projects over the shafts.
Below, the carved cornice and architrave are carried across the opening
as they are round the whole octagon, but the frieze is open and filled
with balusters. Behind, the whole space is spanned by a three-centred
arch, panelled like the passage arches at Thomar.
All the work is most exquisite, but it is not easy to see how the
horizontal cornice was to be brought into harmony with the higher
windows intended on the other seven sides, nor does the renaissance
detail, beautiful though it is, agree very well with the exuberant
Manoelino of the rest.
With the beginning of the Claustro dos Filippes the work of Joao de
Castilho comes to an end. He had been actively employed for about forty
years, beginning and ending at Thomar, finishing Belem, and adding to
Alcobaca, besides improving the now vanished royal palace and even
fortifying Mazagao on the Moroccan coast, where perhaps his work may
still survive. In these forty years his style went through more than one
complete change. Beginning with late Gothic he was soon influenced by
the surrounding Manoelino; at Belem he first met renaissance artists, at
Alcobaca he either used Manoelino and renaissance side by side or else
treated renaissance in a way of his own, though shortly after, at Belem
again, he came to use renaissance details more and more fully. A little
later at Thomar, having a free hand--for at Belem he had had to follow
out the lines laid down by Boutaca--he discarded Manoelino and Gothic
alike in favour of renaissance.
In this final adoption of the renaissance he was soon followed by many
others, even before he laid down his charge at Thomar in 1551.
In most of these buildings, however, it is not so much his work at
Thomar which is followed--except in the case of cloisters--but rather
the chapel of the Conceicao, also at Thomar. Like it they are free from
the more exuberant details so common in France and in Spain, and yet
they cannot be called Italian.
[Sidenote: Thomar, Conceicao.]
There is unfortunately no proof that the Conceicao chapel is Joao's
work; indeed the date inscribed inside is 1572, twenty-one years after
his retirement, and nineteen after his death. Still this date is
probably a mistake, and some of the detail is so like what is found in
the great convent on the hill above that probably it was really designed
by him.
This small chapel stands on a projecting spur of the hill half-way down
between the convent and the town.
Inside the whole building is about sixty feet long by thirty wide, and
consists of a nave with aisles about thirty feet long, a transept the
width of the central aisle but barely projecting beyond the walls, a
square choir with a chapel on each side, followed by an apse; east of
the north choir chapel is a small sacristy, and east of the south a
newel-less stair--like that in the Claustro de Sta. Barbara--leading up
to the roof and down to some vestries under the choir. Owing to the
sacristy and stair the eastern part of the chancel, which is rather
narrower than the nave, is square, showing outside no signs of the apse.
The outside is very plain: Ionic pilasters at the angles support a
simple cornice which runs round the whole building; the west end and
transepts have pediments with small semicircular windows. The tile roofs
are surmounted by a low square tower crowned by a flat plastered dome at
the crossing and by the domed stair turret at the south-east corner. The
west door is plain with a simple architrave. The square-headed windows
have a deep splay--the wall being very thick--their architraves as well
as their cornices and pediments rest on small brackets set not at right
angles with the wall, but crooked so as to give an appearance of false
perspective.
The inside is very much more pleasing, indeed it is one of the most
beautiful interiors to be found anywhere. (Fig. 88.)
On each side of the central aisle there are three Corinthian columns,
with very correct proportions, and exquisite capitals, beautifully
carved if not quite orthodox. Corresponding pilasters stand against the
walls, as well as at the entrance to the choir, and at the beginning of
the apse. These and the columns support a beautifully modelled
entablature, enriched only with a dentil course. Central aisle,
transepts and choir are all roofed with a larger and the side aisles
with a smaller barrel vault, divided into bays by shallow arches. In
choir and transepts the vault is coffered, but in the nave each bay is
ornamented with three sets of four square panels, set in the shape of a
cross, each panel having in it another panel set diagonally to form a
diamond. At the crossing, which is crowned by a square coffered dome,
the spandrils are filled with curious winged heads, while the semi-dome
of the apse is covered with narrow ribs. The windows are exactly like
those outside, but the west door has over it a very refined though plain
pediment.
So far, beyond the great refinement of the details, there has been
nothing very characteristic of Joao de Castilho, but when we find that
the pilasters of the choir and apse, as well as the choir and transept
arches, are panelled in that very curious way--with strips crossing each
other at long intervals to form diamonds--which Joao employed in the
passage arches in the Thomar dormitory and in the loggia at Batalha, it
would be natural enough to conclude that this chapel is his work, and
indeed the best example of what he could do with classic details.
Now under the west window of the north aisle there is a small tablet
with the following inscription in Portuguese[154]:--'This chapel was
erected in A.D. 1572, but profaned in 1810 was restored in 1848 by L. L.
d'Abreu,' etc.
Of course in 1572 Joao de Castilho had been long dead, but the
inscription was put up in 1848, and it is quite likely that by then L.
L. d'Abreu and his friends had forgotten or did not know that even as
late as the sixteenth century dates were sometimes still reckoned by the
era of Caesar, so finding it recorded that the chapel had been built in
the year 1572 they took for granted that it was A.D. 1572, whereas it
may just as well have been E.C. 1572, that is A.D. 1534, just the very
time when Joao de Castilho was building the dormitory in the convent and
using there the same curious panelling. Besides in 1572 this form of
renaissance had long been given up and been replaced by a heavier and
more classic style brought from Italy. It seems therefore not
unreasonable to claim this as Joao de Castilho's work, and to see in it
one of the earliest as well as the most complete example of this form of
renaissance architecture, a form which prevailed side by side with the
work of the Frenchmen and their pupils for about fifteen years.
Now in some respects this chapel recalls some of the earlier renaissance
buildings in Italy, and yet no part of it is quite Italian, nor can it
be called Spanish. The barrel vault here and in the dormitory chapel in
the convent are Italian features, but they have not been treated exactly
as was done there, or as was to be done in Portugal some fifty years
later, so that it seems more likely that Joao de Castilho got his
knowledge of Italian work at second-hand, perhaps from one of the men
sent there by Dom Manoel, and not by having been there himself.
No other building in this style can be surely ascribed to him, and no
other is quite so pleasing, yet there are several in which refined
classic detail of a similar nature is used, and one of the best of these
is the small church of the Milagre at Santarem. As for the cloisters
which are mentioned later, they have much in common with Joao de
Castilho's work at Thomar, as, for instance, in the Claustros da Micha,
or the Claustro da Hospedaria; in the latter especially the upper story
suggests the arrangement which became so common.
This placing of a second story with horizontal architrave on the top of
an arched cloister is very common in Spain, and might have been
suggested by such as are found at Lupiana or at Alcala de Henares,[155]
but these are not divided into bays by buttresses, so it is more likely
that they were borrowed from such a cloister as that of Sta. Cruz at
Coimbra, where the buttresses run up to the roof of the upper story and
where the arches of that story are almost flat.
[Sidenote: Santarem, Milagre.]
The Milagre or Miracle church at Santarem is so called because it stands
near where the body of St. Irene, martyred by the Romans at Nabantia,
now Thomar, after floating down the Nabao, the Zezere, and the Tagus,
came to shore and so gave her name to Santarem.
The church is small, being about sixty-five feet long by forty wide. It
has three aisles, wooden panelled roofs, an arcade resting on Doric
columns, and at the east a sort of transept followed by an apse. The
piers to the west side of this transept are made up of four pilasters,
all of different heights. The highest, the one on the west side, has a
Corinthian capital and is enriched in front by a statue under a canopy
standing on a corbel upheld by a slender baluster shaft. The second in
height is plain, and supports the arch which crosses the central aisle.
The arches opening from the aisles into the transept chapel are lower
still, and rest, not on capitals, but on corbels. Like the nave arch, on
their spandrels heads are carved looking out of circles. Lowest of
all--owing to the barrel vault which covers the central aisle at the
crossing--are the arches leading north and south to the chapels. They
too spring from corbels and are quite plain.
[Sidenote: Santarem, Marvilla.]
Up in the town on the top of the hill the nave of the church of the
Marvilla--whose Manoelino door and chancel have already been
mentioned--is of about the same date. This nave is about one hundred
feet long by fifty-five wide, has three aisles with wooden ceilings; the
arcades of round arches with simple moulded architrave rest on the
beautiful Ionic capitals of columns over twenty-six feet high. These
capitals, of Corinthian rather than of Ionic proportions, with simple
fluting instead of acanthus leaves, have curious double volutes at each
angle, and small winged heads in the middle of each side of the abacus.
Altogether the arcades are most stately, and the beauty of the church is
further enhanced by the exceptionally fine tiles with which the walls as
well as the spandrels above the arches are lined. Up to about the height
of fifteen feet, above a stone bench, the tiles, blue, yellow, and
orange, are arranged in panels, two different patterns being used
alternatively, with beautiful borders, while in each spandrel towards
the central aisle an Emblem of the Virgin, Tower of Ivory, Star of the
Sea, and so on, is surrounded by blue and yellow intertwining leaves.
Above these, as above the panels on the walls, the whole is covered with
dark and light tiles arranged in checks, and added as stated by a date
over the chancel arch in 1617. The lower tiles are probably of much the
same date or a little earlier.
Against one of the nave columns there stands a very elegant little
pulpit. It rests on the Corinthian capital of a very bulbous baluster,
is square, and has on each side four beautiful little Corinthian
columns, fluted and surrounded with large acanthus leaves at the bottom.
Almost exactly like it, but round and with balusters instead of
columns, is the pulpit in the church of Nossa Senhora dos Olivaes at
Thomar. (Fig. 89.)
[Sidenote: Elvas, Sao Domingos.]
The most original in plan as well as in decoration of all the buildings
of this time is the church of the nunnery of Sao Domingos at Elvas, like
nearly all nunneries in the kingdom now fast falling to pieces. In plan
it is an octagon about forty-two feet across with three apses to the
east and a smaller octagonal dome in the middle standing on eight white
marble columns with Doric capitals. The columns, the architrave below
the dome, the arches of the apses and their vaults, are all of white
marble covered with exquisite carved ornament partly gilt, while all the
walls and the other vaults are lined with tiles, blue and yellow
patterns on a white ground. The abacus of each column is set diagonally
to the diameter of the octagon, and between it and the lower side of the
architrave are interposed thin blocks of stone rounded at the ends.
Like the Conceicao at Thomar this too dates from near the end of Dom
Joao's reign, having been founded about 1550.
[Sidenote: Cintra, Penha Longa and Penha Verde.]
Capitals very like those in the nave of the Marvilla, but with a ring of
leaves instead of flutes, are found in the cloister of the church at
Penha Longa near Cintra, and in the little round chapel at Penha Verde
not far off, where lies the heart of Dom Joao de Castro, fourth viceroy
of India. Built about 1535, it is a simple little round building with a
square recess for the altar opposite the door. Inside, the dome springs
from a cornice resting on six columns whose capitals are of the same
kind.
Others nearly the same are found in the house of the Conde de Sao
Vicente at Lisbon, only there the volutes are replaced by winged
figures, as is also the case in the arcades of the Misericordia at
Tavira, the door of which has been mentioned above.
[Sidenote: Vizeu, Cloister.]
Still more like the Marvilla capitals are those of the lower cloister of
the cathedral of Vizeu. This, the most pleasing of all the renaissance
cloisters in Portugal, has four arches on each side resting on fluted
columns which though taller than usual in cloisters, have no entasis.
The capitals are exactly like those at Santarem, but being of granite
are much coarser, with roses instead of winged heads on the unmoulded
abaci. At the angles two columns are placed together and a shallow strip
is carried up above them all to the cornice. Somewhere in the lower
cloister are the arms of Bishop Miguel da Silva, who is
[Illustration: FIG. 89.
SANTAREM.
CHURCH OF THE MARVILLA.]
[Illustration: FIG. 90.
VIZEU.
CATHEDRAL CLOISTER.]
said to have built it about 1524, but that is an impossibly early date,
as even in far less remote places such classical columns were not used
till at least ten years later. Yet the cloister must probably have been
built some time before 1550. An upper unarched cloister, with an
architrave resting on simple Doric columns, was added, _sede vacante_,
between 1720 and 1742, and greatly increases the picturesqueness of the
whole. (Fig. 90.)
[Sidenote: Lamego, Cloister.]
A similar but much lower second story was added by Bishop Manoel
Noronha[156] in 1557 to the cloister of Lamego Cathedral. The lower
cloister with its round arches and eight-sided shafts is interesting, as
most of its capitals are late Gothic, some moulded, a few with leaves,
though some have been replaced by very good capitals of the Corinthian
type but retaining the Gothic abacus.[157]
[Sidenote: Coimbra, Sao Thomaz.]
[Sidenote: Carmo.]
[Sidenote: Cintra, Penha Longa.]
[Sidenote: Faro, Sao Bento.]
[Sidenote: Lorvao.]
Most, however, of the cloisters of this period do not have a continuous
arcade like that of Vizeu, but have arches set in pairs in the lower
story with big buttresses between each pair. Such is the cloister of the
college of Sao Thomaz at Coimbra, founded in 1540, where the arches of
the lower cloister rest on Ionic capitals, while the architrave of the
upper is upheld by thin Doric columns; of the Carmo, also at Coimbra,
founded in 1542, where the cloister is almost exactly like that of Sao
Thomaz, except that there are twice as many columns in the upper story;
of Penha Longa near Cintra, where the two stories are of equal height
and the lower, with arches, has moulded and the upper, with horizontal
architrave, Ionic capitals, and of Sao Bento at Faro, where the lower
capitals are like those in the Marvilla, but without volutes, while the
upper are Ionic. In all these the big square buttress is carried right
up to the roof of the upper cloister, as it was also at Lorvao near
Coimbra. There the arches below are much wider, so that above the number
of supports has been doubled.[158]
[Sidenote: Amarante.]
In one of the cloisters of Sao Goncalvo at Amarante on the
Tamega--famous for the battle on the bridge during the French
invasion--there is only one arch to each bay below, and it springs from
jambs, not from columns, and is very plain. The buttresses do not rise
above the lower cornice and have Ionic capitals, as have also the rather
stout columns of the upper story. The lower cloister is roofed with a
beautiful three-centred vault with many ribs, and several of the doors
are good examples of early renaissance.
[Sidenote: Santarem, Sta. Clara.]
More like the other cloisters, but probably somewhat later in date, is
that of Sta. Clara at Santarem, fast falling to pieces. In it there are
three arches, here three-centred, to each bay, and instead of projecting
buttresses wide pilasters, like the columns, Doric below, Ionic above.
[Sidenote: Guarda, Reredos.]
On first seeing the great reredos in the cathedral of Guarda, the
tendency is to attribute it to a period but little later than the works
of Master Nicolas at Sao Marcos or of Joao de Ruao at Coimbra. But on
looking closer it is seen that a good deal of the ornament--the
decoration of the pilasters and of the friezes--as well as the
appearance of the figures, betray a later date--a date perhaps as late
as the end of the reign of Dom Joao III. (Fig. 91.)
Though the reredos is very much larger and of finer design, the figures
have sufficient resemblance to those in the chapel of the Holy Sacrament
in the Se Velha at Coimbra, put up in 1566, to show that they must be
more or less contemporary, the Guarda reredos being probably the
older.[159]
Filling the whole of the east end of the apse of the Capella Mor, the
structure rises in a curve up to the level of the windows. Without the
beautiful colouring of Master Vlimer's work at Coimbra, or the charm of
the reredos at Funchal, with figures distinctly inferior to those by
Master Nicolas at Sao Marcos, this Guarda reredos is yet a very fine
piece of work, and is indeed the only large one of its kind which still
survives.
It is divided into three stories, each about ten feet high, with a
half-story below resting on a plain plinth.
Each story is divided into large square panels by pilasters or columns
set pretty close together, the topmost story having candelabrum shafts,
the one below it Corinthian columns, the lowest Doric pilasters, and the
half-story below pedestals for these pilasters. Entablatures with
ornamental friezes divide each story, while at the top the centre is
raised to admit of an arch, an arrangement probably copied from Joao de
Ruao's altar-piece.
In the half-story at the bottom are half-figures of the twelve Apostles,
four under each of the square panels at the sides, and one between each
pair of pilasters.
Above is represented, on the left the Annunciation, on the right the
Nativity; in the centre, now hidden by a hideous wooden erection, there
is a beautiful little tabernacle between two angels. Between the
pilasters, as between the columns above, stand large figures of
prophets.
In the next story the scenes are, on the left the Magi, on the right the
Presentation, and in the centre the Assumption of the Virgin.
The whole of the top is taken up with the Story of the Crucifixion, our
Lord bearing the Cross on the left, the Crucifixion under the arch, and
the Deposition on the right.
Although the whole is infinitely superior in design to anything by
Master Nicolas, it must be admitted that the sculpture is very inferior
to his, and also to Joao de Ruao's. The best are the Crucifixion scenes,
where the grouping is better and the action freer, but everywhere the
faces are rather expressionless and the figures stiff.
As everything is painted, white for the background and an ugly yellow
for the figures and detail, it is not possible to see whether stone or
terra cotta is the material; if terra cotta the sculptor may have been a
pupil of Filipe Eduard, who in the time of Dom Manoel wrought the Last
Supper in terra cotta, fragments of which still survive at Coimbra.