as Contreras points out, the Moorish workmen were beginning to
understand all the majesty and grandeur that Christian art stamped upon
the complicated and minute assemblage of Mussulman edifices; they began
to make rich coverings, with bolts or stays with apertures, and with
hollows in the form of an arch, and keystones imitating rhombus, stars,
and bow ornaments. The famous Gothic roofs and ceilings of the Bretonne
buildings of the ninth century have never been able to equal this one,
because here one finds more beautiful specimens than in the other
edifices, when the vaults with little stalactites had not yet acquired
their complete development. The perfectly-worked and carved designs of
the doors give a great relief to the palace. One remarks here that the
ceilings are less magnificent or luxurious, when the ornamentation is
less classic, and, as at Fez, the walls were covered with hangings
instead of reliefs in plaster; and then they used more gold in the
cornices, in the friezes, in the domes, in the lintels, and in the
crownings, whilst the walls remained bare, as in the Moz-Arabian
constructions. There was here such a mixture of styles, such a confusion
of ideas, and such a number of little quadrangular windows, which
interrupt the general line of the ornamentation, as one does not see
anywhere else. One sees, too, walls covered with arabesques, stretching
like pieces of tapestry or coverings of bright colours, and which
produce a rich effect, beautiful and varied, thought-out and
elegant--but not at all simple--which is the chief condition of art in
the epochs of great culture.
In going through this alcazar one sees nothing but square saloons, one
following the other, of the same shape and dimensions, occasionally
varied by the composition of the arabesques traced there. Symmetry has
been sacrificed to convenience, and the central arches to the alignment
of the doors. In the time of the Arabs the alcazar constituted a series
of constructions, flanked by the walls and the towers, which surrounded
the town, which had not the symmetrical form of the rectangular plan of
the buildings of the Renaissance. Neither does it resemble the palaces
of Egypt or of Syria. These quays, placed side by side, give this
edifice the appearance of a Christian house of the fifteenth century;
and one can only confidently give the name “Arab” to the Court of the
Damsels, the Hall of Ambassadors, and the apartments immediately
adjoining it.
The Court of the Banners, and of the Hunters, lead to the Court of the
Principal Façade, where one sees the first specimen of Mussulman
decoration! In all these divisions the monument is only revealed by the
vestiges of battlements of the towers and of the walls, in which the
original doors were opened, and where the sultans had the chambers for
judging the quarrels of their subjects,--a custom perpetrated by the
Christian monarchs. In the Court of the Hunters one can still see the
apartment named the Hall of Justice, where all writers suppose that the
audiences were held. Here Don Pedro held his tribunal; and the
traveller, Don Antonio Ponz, asserts that he saw one of the columns of
the memorable seat occupied by the monarch when he held those famous
audiences, which were an imitation of the
[Illustration: SEVILLE
ALCAZAR--THE LITTLE COURT.]
[Illustration: SEVILLE
ALCAZAR--VIEW IN THE LITTLE COURT.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXXI.
Cornice at Springing of Arch of Doorway at one of the Entrances.]
judgments of the East and of the feudal lords of the West, and which
magnified the idea of justice in the eyes of foolish and irreflective
people, but which were held by men of good sense to be a mere pretence
of equity, with which to mask his tyranny. The place where justice was
administered in the time of the Almohadan kings was in the Court of the
Monteria--a vast and beautiful apartment, one of the oldest
constructions in the alcazar, and of a more purely Moorish style.
The Court of the Hunters leads to another larger court, known as the
Princes’ Hall. This is more regular in form, and in it rises the chief
entrance, dazzling and richly ornamented with painting and gilding, from
its twin windows to the topmost moulding of its projecting eaves, of the
purest Almohadan style. How can one describe it? Not only the entrance,
but the whole façade is of precious marbles, the capitals of the columns
being in the most exquisite Moorish taste; and the facia of interlaced
arches above the doorway display the escutcheons of Castile and Leon;
while round another facia, running between the brackets over the twin
windows of the principal floor, there is a legend in Gothic characters,
which says: “The very high, and very noble, and very powerful, and very
victorious Don Pedro, King of Castile and Leon, commanded these
alcazars, and these palaces, and these doorways to be made, which was
done in the era of one thousand four hundred and two.” The cupola of the
Princes’ Hall rises above this façade, its outer walls being adorned
with little arches and blue tile work, in imitation of a pyramid, and
bearing at its summit, in the Oriental fashion, a weather-cock with
gilded spheres.
On entering the vestibule, one sees first the result of unfortunate
modern reformations, little rooms or recesses to right and left, now
almost stripped of their ancient ornamentation. On taking the corridor,
which is at the back of a sort of ante-chamber, nearly square, one
arrives at the chief inner court called the Court of the Damsels. There
is an unfounded tradition which says this court derives its name from
the disgraceful tribute of one hundred damsels levied by Mauregato, and
paid to the khalifs of Cordova, it being supposed that the throne upon
which the Moorish king sat when receiving this tribute was situated in
this court. In point of fact, as Pedro de Medrazo reminds us, there were
no Moorish kings in Spain, and neither was Seville the capital of the
Andalusian khalifate, nor can it be asserted that there was a Saracen
palace there before the eleventh century. Without any doubt this court
was part of the great restorations of the fourteenth century. Its plan
is a rectangle, with galleries of marble columns in couples and pointed
mitred arches; the central arches of each side are higher than the rest,
and instead of resting, as these do on the columns, they are supported
by small square pillars, which appear to be held up by the capitals.
These small pillars have beautiful little columns at their angles, which
at first sight seem to be a prelude to the caprices of the Renaissance,
which loved so much to surmount one style by another; but here it is
really an accident very characteristic of the Arabic-Granadian
architecture, such as is often to be noticed in the Courts of the
Alhambra.
These arches are only seen in the façade here, in the House of Pilate,
and in the buildings of the eighth century in the East. One could not
explain them unless there were hanging decorations, such as tapestries
attached to the walls, which were neither seen nor guessed in the
intercolumniations. It is a strange shape, which is elegant on account
of the lobules, the point, and the horseshoe-formed
[Illustration: SEVILLE
ALCAZAR--VIEW OF THE HALL OF AMBASSADORS FROM THE LITTLE COURT.]
[Illustration: SEVILLE
ALCAZAR--HALL OF AMBASSADORS.]
span, which at a later period regulated the arches of the palaces of
Fez, of Tunis, and of Cairo.
The second gallery of the Court of the Damsels, added to the ancient
construction, is an addition of little importance; but it is a fine
court, if one considers the modifications of its style, its socles
showing beautiful panels of decorated porcelain of admirable delicacy.
Different doors lead to the saloon of Charles V., to that of the
Ambassadors, and to those of the “Caracol,” or of Don Maria de Padilla.
They have scarfs cut into polygons, which cover them on both sides, but
this fine work has been badly restored with stucco barbarously painted.
The Hall of Ambassadors is a square apartment of a solemn aspect, with
four frontages composed of high arches, which enclose twin windows,
placed on slender columns, whose little arches are more than
semi-circular, without having the characteristic form of the
horse-shoe,--a curve which marks the decadent transition. The capitals
are degenerate Greco-Roman; but the great decorative arch with running
knots, although it has an Arab curve, has not the two squares in height
from the floor of the hall, and that deprives it of elegance in its
ornamentation. The spaces, or triangles, are not original, the work is
interrupted, as in the inner side of the wall of the frontage, by
shutters which open, as though escaping from the tympan of the twin
windows. A wide frieze of windows, or painted transparencies, stretches
above, in an admirable manner, and higher still there is a geometrical
band of ornaments in the form of knots, and then come architraves and
supports on which the roof rests. The sub-basements of porcelain are
adorned with arabesques, and the connecting doors are decorated with
almost exaggerated profusion. The open balconies, with the eagles on
their consols, are an eternal affront for him who had them made; and we
may say the same thing of the portraits with Gothic frames, placed under
the arch-like hollows of the walls, and also of the gilding, which has
not the fine ornamentation of blue, red, and black, which renders these
little vaults more graceful, when they are done by Arabs. The spherical
cupola, with rafters with arabesques forming stars of symmetrical
polygons, may have been constructed for stained glass windows at a
higher light, but later it was ineffectively decorated with little
mirrors. The mosaics have been restored with pieces larger than the
originals, and the jasper columns seem to be Roman and not Arab, as do
many others of the decadence; and the capitals too, without uniformity,
and unsuited to the columns, appear to be Moz-Arabian work, which is
seen in many of the Saracen mosques.
The type of the African inscriptions in the alcazar is not as fine or as
pure as are those in the Hall of Comares at Granada; but on the other
hand the classic character of the cufic inscriptions here is more
uniform and more simple. The ornaments, in the shape of leaves, of pine
cones, and of palms interlaced with ribbons, with geometrical outlines,
is a style that is no longer seen after the beginning of the Thirteenth
Century. The little windows, in parallelograms above the doors, the
Roman imposts, the Gothic carvings, and the escutcheons with broken
chiselings shown in this palace, are the work of several generations who
were wanting in the consciousness of art.
Yet the Hall of Ambassadors is beyond dispute the most splendid and
beautiful apartment of all the palaces of Moorish architecture belonging
to the Crown in Spain. The painting and gilding of arabesques, the
lovely carved wooden ceilings, now shaped like inverted bowls, now like
sections of a sphere, and now like capricious many-sided
[Illustration: SEVILLE
ALCAZAR--INTERIOR OF THE HALL OF AMBASSADORS.]
[Illustration: SEVILLE
ALCAZAR--HALL OF AMBASSADORS.]
figures, which reflect the light and shade with a marvellous effect; the
inscriptions in African characters; the rich doors of marquetry,
surrounded by Arabic invocations (a beautiful work done by artificers of
Toledo); the columns of various marbles with capitals of exquisite cut,
now primitive, now Almohadan, now Moorish; the variegated marble of the
pavement, the perforated stucco of the partitions, the ingenious work,
with birds introduced in the doorways; and finally this strange
combination of five different styles, which in theory is so impossible,
and in practice so harmonious--Arabic, Almohadan, Gothic, Granadian, and
Renaissance--to be seen in so many apartments of the alcazar, but more
especially in this hall, are things which the pen could never describe
satisfactorily, and which must be left to the impression produced by a
sight of the original, or to a contemplation of its pictured
representation. For this reason one may not endeavour to describe,
either technically or minutely, this magnificent hall, to the gradual
architectural composition of which overseers and workmen of so many
different times contributed. The Abbaditas made the bold horse-shoe
arches of the lower part; the Almohadans, and afterwards the school of
Christians of Granada which arose, carried out the work of ornamenting
the walls with the ornamental arches, the perforated windows, the facias
of little interlaced arches, and the inscriptions; and they covered the
hall with the marvellous dome shaped like an inverted bowl. It is
probable that the architects of the Catholic monarchs constructed the
third body in the pointed style, forming a series of corrupted trefoils
bordered with lilies, in whose centres the portraits of the kings of
Spain, from Chindasvinto, are reproduced; and, finally, the kings of the
House of Austria added the third body of the decoration, four balconies,
of great projection, which doubtless formerly were twin windows
(ajimeces) with one or more columns, supported by griffons gilded, and
of bold outline.
It was probably in this saloon that the ceremonious and perfidious
reception of Abu Said, King of Granada, by Don Pedro took place. The
usurper of the Throne of Granada presented himself to the owner of the
alcazar, thinking he had ensured his personal safety by the gifts he had
forwarded, and by his complete submission to the wishes of his host. But
after being entertained at a splendid supper, he was rewarded with
prison, and death, accompanied with the most horrible mockeries. Amongst
the jewels, with which the unhappy Abu Said is supposed to have hoped to
win the heart of his faithless enemy, was the immense ruby, which to-day
shines in the royal crown of Edward VII. It was given by Don Pedro to
the Black Prince; it later came into the possession of Queen Mary Stuart
of Scotland, and through her son, James I., returned once more to
England.
If the Hall of Ambassadors is rich, the Court of the Dolls is not less
so in its own style. This, with some other saloons, constituted one of
the remaining splendours of the alcazar which are associated with Don
Fadrique, Master of the Order of Santiago, the timid son of Alonso XI.
We cannot tell from what source this court has received its modern
denomination. In the old chronicles there is no trace of such a name;
but they, and tradition, have handed us down copious notes, all of which
make this part of the alcazar the theatre of that sanguinary drama of
the Fourteenth Century. After reading these chronicles and romances, one
imagines the ghosts of the actors moving about the apartments; one sees
Don Pedro, who has already planned his execrable plot, receiving, with
false expressions of interest, his half-brother Don Fadrique; one sees
the lovely Padilla,
[Illustration: SEVILLE
ALCAZAR--THRONE OF JUSTICE.]
[Illustration: ALCAZAR--HALL OF AMBASSADORS.]
[Illustration: SEVILLE
ALCAZAR--FAÇADE OF THE COURT OF THE VIRGINS.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXXII.
Borders of Arches.]
sad and terrified in her room, in the “caracol” apartments, wishing to
reveal the danger which awaits him to the Master, but not daring to do
so; and one also seems to feel the impending doom of the eccentric
prince, when he is deprived of the help of his servants, whom the
porters force to leave the courtyard with their mules, where they were
waiting for their lord. And finally we see the return of Don Fadrique to
the presence of the irritated monarch, who has called him, and who has
ordered that his companions shall be detained outside the doors, whilst
the stewards of the king kill his unfortunate brother. Fadrique, after a
desperate struggle, manages to escape from the murderers and to reach
the court, looking for the postern of the corral, which he fancies is
open--all the time making unavailing efforts to draw his sword, the
handle of which has become entangled in the cords of his sash--and there
at last he falls, his head being crushed by a blow of a club. Other
accounts declare that when Fadrique returned to Don Pedro’s apartment,
after paying a courtesy visit to Maria de Padilla, he was met with the
sentence, shouted in the king’s voice, “Kill the Master of Santiago!”
Don Fadrique drew his sword and made a valorous defence, but was
overpowered and struck down by blows on the head. Seeing that his
half-brother was still breathing, the king handed his own drawn dagger
to an attendant and commanded him to kill the Master outright.
To-day we cannot say positively which was the “Palacio del Yeso,” or
“Palace of stucco or lime,” where Don Pedro received his unhappy
half-brother, nor yet which were the apartments of the “caracol.” It is
thought the court which has the chief façade of the alcazar was that
which in the chronicle is called the “caracol,” and that the “postern”
was that which led from this court to that of the “banderas.” It is
true that tradition persists in pointing out the Court of the Dolls and
the Hall of Ambassadors as the theatre of this horrible fraticide,
without taking into account the notes of the historian, who relates that
Don Fadrique, pursued by his murderers, ran in the direction of the
postern, where he had been warned that he could make a stand, but found
that all his escort had been driven out.
The King Don Pedro fills with his grand sinister figure the apartments
which he occupied, and even those added by later monarchs, just as the
whole gloomy pile of the Escurial seems to be haunted by the ambiguous
personality of Philip II. Sad privilege of despots; the terror which
they inspire in life, survives them, freezing the smile of happiness on
the lips of generations, who are free from their malevolent actions,
even in the very chambers which they dedicate to their pleasures.
The architecture of the Court of the Dolls is purely in the style of
Granada. The surface of the arches is covered with minute mosaic work,
and they rest upon beautiful brick pillars, sustained by marble columns
with delicate capitals, while the double partitions, covered with
perforated work, are of brick, wood, and stucco. Delicate tints cover
the ornamentation with a beautiful veil, which is like a lovely Persian
tapestry. This court is a rectangle with unequal sides; there is a great
arch in those looking towards the Hall of Ambassadors, somewhat
pear-shaped, between two smaller arches of the same form; in the other
two sides there is a large arch and a smaller one, all resting upon
graceful columns of different colours, in the capitals of which
(believed to belong to the primitive epoch, on account of their
resemblance with those of the primitive part of the Mosque of Cordova)
there is a freshness and delicacy of line which holds the imagination
captive. The
[Illustration: SEVILLE
ALCAZAR--INTERIOR OF THE COURT OF THE VIRGINS, MOORISH STYLE, BUILT
1369--1379.]
[Illustration: SEVILLE
ALCAZAR--GENERAL VIEW OF THE COURT OF THE HUNDRED VIRGINS.]
entablatures, which are borne by the columns, are finely decorated with
vertical borders, formed by inscriptions in cufic characters. The upper
part of this lovely court has been spoilt by bad restorations.
The Hall of Ambassadors, as well as the Court of the Dolls, is
surrounded by beautiful saloons, starting from the chief façade of the
alcazar, running round the north-east angle of the building, and forming
a series of mysterious and voluptuous rooms adjoining the galleries of
the “Gardens” of the “Princes” of the “Grotto” and of the “Dance,” till
they terminate at the other south-west corner of the Court of the
Damsels where the chapel used to be, and where it is believed the
luxurious apartments of the “caracol” stood. According to tradition they
were at the eastern side of the Court of the Damsels where the lower
chapel stands to-day; this space adjoins at its north-east corner the
baths, which still bear the name of the unhappy favourite, more worthy
of pity than of hatred; and they also lead, by a narrow and almost
hidden staircase,--the oldest in the alcazar,--to the bedroom of Don
Pedro, situated in the story above. Nothing remains of the dwelling
which the enamoured king prepared for the woman he loved most in his
distracted and changeful life.
The entrance to the famous and regal baths of Doña Maria de Padilla is
in the garden of the “Dance,” below the saloons constructed in the time
of Charles V. It is supposed they were used by the sultanas, whilst the
Saracen court was at Seville. They are surrounded by orange and lemon
trees, and not enclosed by those massive walls which give the appearance
of a gloomy dungeon. At the eastern extremity of the garden of the
“Dance” there is a tank or fountain. It is said that one day the king,
being much preoccupied with the choice of a judge to whom to confide a
very complicated and obscure case, drew near this tank, and cutting an
orange in two, threw one half on the surface of the water, where it
floated. He then sent for one of his judges and asked him what he saw
floating on the water. “An orange, Sire,” was the reply. He received the
same answer from several other judges whom he summoned; but finally came
one who, when asked the question, broke off a branch of one of the trees
near by, and with it drew the fruit floating on the water to the edge,
when he answered, “Half an orange, Sire.” Whereupon the monarch decided
to entrust him with the conduct of the case.
The strange character of Don Pedro, and his manner of administering
justice, take us now to the upper floor of the alcazar, to the
south-east corner, where, at the end of a series of saloons of little
interest, with rich bowl-shaped ceilings and cornices of mosaic, there
is the king’s sleeping chamber, whose walls still preserve the high
socle of inlaid tile work, the stucco ornaments with borders of
inscriptions in African characters, and the recessed windows with
shutters, the frieze with stalactites, the ceiling of good design and
beautiful gilding, and an alcove with a mosaic arch. Near one of the
corners there is a bas-relief in one of the walls, representing a man
seated with his body twisted towards the entrance door, and his head
turned upwards, as though contemplating the skull which is to be seen
above the facia of African characters. It appears that this horrible
emblem was placed there by order of Don Pedro, in order to perpetuate
the memory of his summary punishment of some deceitful judges.
The Princes’ Hall and the Oratory are the only upper apartments, prior
to the Renaissance, which are left for us to examine,--a fire in the
year 1762 having destroyed many of the rooms of the upper story. But we
must first
[Illustration: SEVILLE
ALCAZAR--COURT OF THE HUNDRED VIRGINS.]
[Illustration: SEVILLE
ALCAZAR--COURT OF THE VIRGINS.]
take note of the external objects which surround us. Don Pedro’s bedroom
looks on the south over the gardens; the Princes’ Hall looks north, and
occupies the upper floor of the chief façade, whose elegant “ajimeces”
illuminate it. The oratory is in the east wall. In the bedroom there is
a balcony, which leads to a wide gallery, with other little balconies,
with seats running round them, at the end of which there is a sort of
turret, with three semi-circular arches, supported by pairs of marble
columns, with capitals of the purest Arab style. The spacious gardens
stretch at our feet, forming a delightful spectacle. From the Princes’
Hall one can perceive, above the watch-towers of the alcazar, the
innumerable perforated weather-cocks of the cathedral; and, towering
over all, like a gigantic sentinel, the Giralda, crowned with the sacred
sign of the conversion to the faith of Christ.
In the Princes’ Hall and in the Oratory the influence of the pointed
style of architecture is very noticeable; and yet in studying the arches
of the Oratory and the little pillars, which surmount the columns in the
centre, the influence of Moorish architecture on the Gothic or pointed
architecture of the third period is most striking. The columns of the
Princes’ Hall, and of the other adjoining apartments, are of marble,
with very rich capitals. According to Jeronimo Zurita, these columns
were in the royal palace of Valencia, and were removed after the defeat
of Don Pedro, King of Aragon, by the King of Castile. There are
luxurious divans all round the hall, and everything is rich except the
ceiling, now destroyed, and the floor, which is poor and in very bad
repair. The Oratory was built by order of the Catholic monarchs in 1504;
its altar screen has a picture in the centre, representing the
Visitation, with the signature, “Niculoso Francisco Italiano,” _me
fecit_, which is notable for the mixture of the pure Italian school,
and the realistic Dutch school in its design. The blue tile plaques of
this oratory are purely Italian, and perhaps they are the most beautiful
examples of this class of Christian ornamentation in Andalusia.