aspect of decayed architectural grandeur, which is presented by the
remains of this dilapidated Patio, rises a feeling of curiosity as to
the mode and manner of life of those whose wants such costly building
subserved. Privacy and coolness appear to have been the chief
desiderata, and those architectural ornaments seem to have been
preferred, which recall, at almost every step, the hereditary dignities
of the family tree. Madame d'Aulnois, whose Letters from Spain, written
in 1679,[13] give the liveliest possible picture of life in those days
in the Peninsula, gratifies our curiosity in the most agreeable manner,
and with that quickness of perception, as to domestic habits, by means
of which, none but a woman can seize at a glance, the telling details
essential to give completeness and reality to a sketch. Speaking of the
Spaniards of the upper and middle classes of the seventeenth century she
says:--"All their houses have a great many rooms on a floor; you go
through a dozen or fifteen parlours, or chambers, one after another.
Those which are the worst lodged have six or seven. The rooms are
generally longer than they are broad. The floors and ceilings are
neither painted nor gilt; they are made of plaister quite plain, but so
white that they dazzle one's eyes; for every year they are scraped, and
whited as the walls, which look like marble, they are so well polished.
The Court to their summer apartments is made of certain matter, which,
after it has ten pails of water thrown upon it, yet is dry in
half-an-hour, and leaves a pleasant coolness; so that in the morning
they water all, and a little while after they spread mats or carpets
made of fine rushes, which cover all the pavement. The whole apartments
are hung with the same small mat about the depth of an ell, to hinder
the coolness of the walls from hurting those which lean against them. On
the top of these mats there are hung pictures and looking-glasses. The
cushions, which are of gold and silver brocade, are placed upon the
carpet; and the tables and cabinets are very fine; and at little
distances there are set silver cases or boxes, filled with orange and
jessamine trees. In their windows they set things made of straw, to keep
the sun out; and in the evenings they work in their gardens. There are
several houses which have very fine ones, where you see grottoes and
fountains in abundance."
[Illustration: PLATE 25
AVILA THE CATHEDRAL. IRON PULPIT.
MDW 1869]
PLATE XXV.
_AVILA_.
IRON PULPIT IN THE CATHEDRAL.
MR. STREET'S illustrations and description of all that is left of the
old glories of Avila, previous to the epoch of the Renaissance, are so
complete, that I can feel no compunction in having gleaned only from
this delightful old city two specimens of the ability of the Spanish
smiths of the period he repudiates, and two others showing remains of
the domestic architecture of the same style.
Let it not be supposed, however, that it was only the school of the
Renaissance which produced masterly iron-work, and even masterly iron
pulpits, in Spain. Mr. Street has himself given us a beautiful woodcut
of the pulpit in the church of St. Gil, at Burgos. This exhibits no
other than Gothic details, while in the pulpit which forms the subject
of my twenty-fifth sketch, as will no doubt be observed, Renaissance
details are freely intermixed with Gothic ones. The whole, however
different in style in different parts, appeared to me to be
contemporaneous; and I, therefore, regard this pulpit as an interesting
example of a transitional style, later of course, than that followed in
the pulpit of Saint Gil, which Mr. Street describes as the earliest he
saw. In both, the primitive mode of working through thin plates
superposed to form tracery has been adhered to, and the whole of the
ironwork has been applied to a wooden framework. I regard the pulpit at
Burgos as likely to have been executed early in the fifteenth century,
and the one now under consideration as of the close of the same century;
and both may, I think, have been produced under the influence of the
masters from Cologne, who did such wonders, and set so many fashions, in
Burgos and its vicinity, especially at Miraflores.
[Illustration: PLATE 26
AVILA
THE CATHEDRAL
MDW 1869]
PLATE XXVI.
_AVILA_.
IRON PULPIT IN THE CATHEDRAL.
IN method of manufacture no less than in style of design this pulpit,
which forms a pendant to the one last given just outside the choir of
Avila Cathedral, offers a contrast to its predecessor. We no longer meet
with a superposition of perforated plates, but the operations of beating
and chasing, and, indeed, cutting the metal with chisels, files and
hammers; working in fact as the Italians term it "a massiccio." The
basis of the design is no longer Gothic, but strictly of the regular
Spanish Plateresque Renaissance with balustrade columns, figures in
niches, and Arabesques imitated from the Italians. From all these
details, we may fairly be justified in ascribing this work to about the
middle of the sixteenth century.
The method of working this pulpit is no longer that of the simple smith,
but really corresponds much more closely with that of the armourer which
reached its zenith about this period. There can be no doubt that the
Spaniards gained much of their well-known skill in the manipulation of
iron and steel from the Moors, who had themselves obtained knowledge
from Damascus, and perhaps even improved upon the knowledge they had
derived from that source. From the times of the Carthaginians and
Romans, the Celt-Iberian mines had been known as amongst the richest
existing sources, from which iron could be procured. Many fragments of
finely wrought iron work, of the middle ages, still exist in Spain; but
for the most part in very fragmentary condition.[14] From the end of the
fifteenth century, however, in the Rejas, great seals and minor screens,
(such as that seen at the back of the pulpit in my sketch) of the
churches and cathedrals, and especially in the arms and armour of
Moorish and Christian Caballeros, (as attested by many splendid
specimens in the Real Armeria of Madrid), perfect examples are to be met
with of the skill of Spanish artificers in dealing with all the
metallurgical processes by which iron and steel can be made to assume
forms of grace and beauty. Charles V., Philip II., and Don Juan of
Austria, were boundless in their extravagance in the encouragement of
the best armourers, not of Toledo and Valladolid only, but of Milan and
Augsburg as well. There can be no doubt that the models of beauty bought
by these Sovereigns from artists in iron and steel, such as the Negroli
and Piccinini, tended to develope that perfection of workmanship, which
was attained in Spain in the reign of Philip III. The pains-taking
editors of the Catalogue of the Madrid Armoury cite Pamplona as at the
head of the trade at the close of the sixteenth and beginning of the
seventeenth centuries, and name as the chief rivals to Pamplona of the
cities of Spain, in the manufacture of splendid arms and armour, Tolosa,
Barcelona, and Calatayud.[15]
[Illustration: PLATE 27
J. ESCORIAL
MDW 1869]
PLATE XXVII.
_ESCORIAL_.
GENERAL VIEW OF THE ESCORIAL.
IN all Spain I saw nothing which so ill-agreed with my preconceptions as
the Escorial. As for beauty, I could find none whatever in it. The
building appeared to me thoroughly unsatisfactory alike as church,
palace, or monastery. Still, to omit it altogether from any series of
Spanish sketches with pen or pencil, would be to leave out the Monument
which reflects, probably, more perfectly than any other in the
Peninsula, the mixture of arrogant extravagance, and arid ascetism,
which characterized its most potent rulers in the plenitude of their
historical importance. In it, in my opinion, Herrera proved himself an
architect thoroughly worthy of the masters who employed him, formal,
pedantic, cold, extravagant to a degree, and yet mean. That the building
contains many most interesting works of art, is as true, as that a visit
to it should on no account be omitted by any one who would at all
attempt to realize what the Spanish Court may have been in the days of
Philip II.; but, after all, I am bound to confess that what most pleased
me in the vast edifice, with the exception of some few pictures and
illuminated books, was the work of Italians and not of Spaniards, viz.,
the marble crucifix of Benvenuto Cellini, the magnificent gilt bronze
statues of the Kings and Queens of Spain in the Church, by Pompeio
Leoni, and the decorations of the Library, principally by Pelegrino
Tibaldi. To such a judgment may be objected that the structure now is
not what it was, let us see what an acute observer says of it, writing
late in the seventeenth century:--
"A while after we went to the Escurial, which to give it no less than
its due, may in Spain pass for an admirable structure, but where
building is understood, would not be looked on as very extraordinary. In
a general consideration, it seems a mass of stone of great perfection;
but going to particulars, scarce any of them but falls very short of the
magnificence imagined, and that so much, that if Philip the Second, who
built it, and was called the Solomon of his age, did no more resemble
that wise king then this edifice does his Temple, to which it is often
compared, the copy comes very short of the original; in the meantime to
stretch the comparison they please themselves in saying, that Charles
the Fifth, like another David, only designed his holy work, which (being
a man of war and blood) God reserved for his son. Ignorant strangers are
entertained with this tale, but such as are versed in history tell us,
that after the battle of St. Quentin, Philip the Second made two vows,
one never to go in person to the wars, the other to build this cloyster
for the Order of St. Jerome instead of that which had been burnt, it
cost him near six millions of gold, though out of consideration of
parsimony and convenience of bringing stone, he made choice of the worst
situation in nature, for it is at the foot of a barren mountain, and
hard by a wretched village called Escurial, that can hardly lodge a man
of any fashion; this may seem very strange to those that know the Court
is there twice in a year: the place it stands on is, by transcendence,
called the Seat, because it was levelled in order to build on.
"The fabrick is very fair, with four towers at the four corners, but
coming to it, one knows not which way to enter, for as soon as out of
the great walk, in a kind of Piazza, you see only little doors, which,
when you are over it, lead into two pavilions, that contain offices and
lodgings for some of the Court; when you have well viewed this side of
the square, you come to that which is towards the mountain, where there
is a very large magnificent portal, on each side beautify'd with
pillars; by this stately gate you enter a quadrangle, where right over
against it stands the Church, ascended to it by a stair of five or six
steps, as long as the Court is large, extending from one side of it to
the other, very fair columnes support the porch, and on the top of the
wall stand six statues, the middlemost of which are David and Solomon,
by whom they would represent Charles the Fifth, and Philip the Second.
About the church are many pavillions, all comprehended in the exact
square which environs that building. Report mentions many Bascourts, but
we could not reckon above seven or eight. That this is a very fair
cloyster for Friers cannot be denied, neither can it be allowed to be a
pallace magnificent enough for such a monarch as Philip the Second, who
having built it in one-and-twenty years, and enjoyed it twelve or
thirteen, boasted, that from the foot of a mountain and his closet, with
two inches of paper, he made himself obeyed in the Old and New World.
"The King and Queen's apartments have nothing in them that appears
roial, they are altogether unfurnished, and they say, when the King goes
to any of his houses of pleasure, they remove all to the very bedsteads;
the rooms are little and low; the roofs not beautiful enough to invite
the eyes to look up to them; its many pictures of excellent masters, and
especially of Titian, that wrought a great while there, are very much
vaunted, yet there are not so many as report gives out. The Spaniards
have so little understanding of pictures, they are alike taken with all,
and the Marquis Serragenovese, that accompanied us, sufficiently laughed
at the foolishness of a Castillian, who, willing to have us admire the
slightest and wretchedest landskipes of a gallery where we were, told us
nothing could equalize them, because in a place where their King
sometimes walked. There are yet in the vestry some good pieces,
especially a Christ, and Mary Magdalen; and in the Church others very
estimable. For paintings in fresco, the quire, done by Titian, is
doubtlessly an excellent work, and so is the library, I think by the
same hand, where amongst the rest is represented the ancient Roman
manner of defending criminals, who stand by bound hand and foot; Cicero
is also there pleading for Milo, or some other, I not being sufficiently
acquainted with his meen, to be positive, and without apprehension of
mistaking; this library is truly very considerable, as well for its
length, breadth, height, and light; the pictures and marble tables that
stand in the midst of it, as for its quantity of choice and rare books,
if we may believe the monks; they are certainly very well bound and
guilded, and if I mistake not, but seldom read. In the vestry, they show
priests' copes, where embroidery and pearl with emulation contend
whether art or matter renders them more rich and sumptuous; they showed
us a cross of very fair pearl, diamonds, and emeralds; it is a very
pretty knack, and would not become less such if it changed countreys, I
would willingly have undertaken for it if they would have suffered it to
pass the Pyreneans, had it been only to show my friends a hundred
thousand crowns in a nut-shell. The library I have spoken of, the high
altar and monument of their kings, which they call Pantheon (though I
know not why, unless because a single round arch like the Pantheon at
Rome), are certainly the best pieces of this magnificent fabrick. The
high altar is approached by steps of red marble, and invironed by
sixteen pillars of jasper, which reach the top of the quire, and cost
only a matter of fifty or sixty thousand crowns cutting, between these
are niches with statues of guilded brass, and so there are on the side
of the tables and praying places. The Pantheon is under the altar, and
descended by stairs, though narrow, very light; at the entrance of this
rich chappel, a marble shines, whose lustre is heightened by reflexion
of the gold, with which all the iron-work and part of that fair stone
are overlaid. In the middle of it, and right against the altar, is a
fair candlestick of brass, gilded, and in six several niches,
twenty-four sepulchres of black marble to receive as many bodies; above
the gate are two more. This stately monument is small, but sumptuous, it
was finished by the present King, who, about six months since placed
there the bodies of Charles the Fifth, Philip the Second, and Philip the
Third. The first was most intire; in the niches, on the left, lie the
Queens, and the last of them Queen Elizabeth of Burbon. He that preached
the day that these seven tombs or sepulchres had bodies laid in them,
began by his apprehension to speak in presence of so many kings who had
conquered the world, and expressed himself so well, and so highly
pleased the King that he got a yearly pension of a thousand crowns.
Nothing attaining such perfection as to secure it from the teeth of
criticks, the three pieces I have now mentioned, have been attacqued by
them. It is objected against the Library, that its entrance suits not
with its magnificence and grandeur, and that it stands as if stoln in,
and not of the same piece with the rest.
"Over against the great altar, where all is so well proportioned, they
wish away a silver lamp, whose size corresponds not with that of the
place it burns in, which is vast and large. In the Pantheon they find
great fault, that all the steps by which it is descended are not marble,
and that the sides of the walls are not incrusted with it, the chappel
being all so, and a like magnificence requisite everywhere. In the
brazen candlestick, the inner part which is not guilded is discerned
amongst the black and foul branches that extend from it. It cost ten
thousand crowns, which is ten times more than it is worth; but it is
common in this country to boast things of excessive price, which they
would have admired on that account, as if because they are foolish
merchants, the ware they buy too dear, were therefore the more valuable.
These are my observations of the so famous Escurial, adorned only by
some small parterras and fountains; one side of it affords a handsome
prospect, but the ground near it is the greatest part rock or heath,
some walks and groves are planted about it, but being cold and windy,
trees thrive not. There are some deer in a kind of park, ill-designed,
and with very low walls, the way to it is nothing pleasant, and the King
who goes thither thrice every year, one of which times is in the winter,
cannot certainly find any great diversion in those journeys, for during
three months all is covered with snow."
Nothing need be added, I think, to so graphic a "boutade" as this,
which, though somewhat satirical, would not appear to have been much too
highly coloured for the occasion.
[Illustration: PLATE 28
SEGOVIA
GATE IN WALLS
MDW 1869]
PLATE XXVIII.
_SEGOVIA_.
GATEWAY IN THE CITY WALLS.
THERE is probably no city in all Spain, and few perhaps in any part of
the world, in which within a similar compass, so many good, although
fragmentary, materials could be found for illustrating styles and
inflections of style in building, from the days of the Romans through
those of the Moors and Christians, up to the period of the Renaissance,
than Segovia. Of this last named period, two of the greatest masters,
Gil de Ontañon and his son Rodrigo, have nobly left their mark in the
splendid Cathedral, a worthy rival to that of Salamanca, also executed
from the designs, and under the personal superintendence of the elder of
the two Ontañones. The city, probably, owes these varied monuments to
its merits, as a strong, as well as a beautiful position. Under these
circumstances, it is not to be wondered at that its old walls should
offer many features of interest as well as picturesqueness. In fact, to
the educated eye, the former is almost a necessary ingredient to making
up the latter. As I wended my way upwards, therefore, from the railway
station to the town, through this gateway, about which I caught
indications here of one style, and there of another, Roman, Moor, and
Christian doing here a jot and there a little, that I should linger on
my way for awhile; partly, perhaps, to cool myself, and partly to make
the little sketch I present herewith to my readers.
I need, perhaps, only add that the rough but effective cornice of the
gateway is made up from its top to its bottom by different combinations
of common tiles, and that its little enriched frieze is a specimen of
the clever stucco-work, probably executed by workmen of Moorish descent
in Renaissance times. The whole, even to the painting of the Virgin, is
roughly executed, but is not the less graceful, perhaps, from the
apparent absence of all effort. An aspect of spontaneity in works of art
has its own particular charm, as has the semblance of the most careful
solicitude under appropriate circumstances. The true artist, heedful of
his "when" and "how," is master of both moods.
[Illustration: PLATE 29
SEGOVIA
MDW 1869
THE ALCAZAR. HALL OF THE KINGS.]
PLATE XXIX.
_SEGOVIA._
ARCHWAY IN THE HALL OF THE KINGS.
DON Juan Alvarez de Colmenar,[16] writing at the commencement of the
eighteenth century, gives the following description of the Royal Palace
at Segovia--
"The Alcazar," he says, "is situated on a mountain in the highest part
of the city. It is entirely covered with lead; the access to it being by
means of a staircase cut in the rock. There is always a sentinel in the
towers, and on a platform may be seen many cannons of which the greater
number are pointed against the city and the residue towards the faubourg
and country. It contains sixteen richly tapestried chambers, one of
which has a fire-place of porphyry. Thence a descent may be made to
another platform smaller than the first mentioned, also furnished with
cannon. From this, access is obtained to a small chamber with gilt dado,
marble fire-place, and walls covered with mirrors up to the ceiling.
Near this room is the Royal Chapel, splendidly gilt and decorated with
very fine pictures, amongst which that of the Magi is of the highest
beauty. Issuing from the chapel is a magnificent hall gilt from top to
bottom. It is called the Sala de los Reyes, ("literally the Hall of the
Kings,") because therein are all the Kings of Spain from Pelayo to Jane,
mother of the Emperors Charles V. and Ferdinand. They are represented
seated on thrones under canopies, so artistically worked that they look
like agates. There is another hall lined with glasses of the height of
three feet, with marble seats and ceilings gilt with pure gold. All
these halls are differently ornamented, and with the exception of the
gilding there is not one like the others. The river which surrounds the
château forms its moat."[17]
I have preferred quoting this old description to giving one of the
present aspect of this once splendid palace, since of all its
magnificence nothing is now left but its massive walls covered here and
there with elegant stucco-work, some of which is given in my sketches,
and its commanding and noble position which is one of very great natural
strength. Here it was that the Moors, who never failed to fortify such
spots, reared the great central tower around which, after its capture by
the Christians, the Spanish sovereigns built the palace which contained
the majority of the apartments described by Colmenares, employing the
subjugated Moorish artificers for many of the original decorations. In
1412, a splendid hall called, from its celebrated ceiling, the Sala del
Arteson, was completed, as testified by an inscription to that effect
given at length by Cean Bermudez.[18] Other inscriptions mark the work
executed by the king, Henry IV., in 1452, 1456, and 1458, who resided
in it amidst his treasures, and the glorious spoils taken in what one
inscription designates "la guerra de los Moros." Here dwelt Isabella la
Catolica, and at a later date Charles V. The decorations described by
Colmenares were probably for the most part those executed by command of
Philip II., the elegant stucco work given in the sketch (No. 29) being
clearly of the time of Henry IV. Here lodged our Charles I. in 1623. The
wretched Philip V. with congenial propriety converted it into a prison,
justifying Le Sage's amusing sketch of the committal to it of Gil Blas.
Many of the Algerine and Barbary pirates taken by the Spanish men-of-war
were here confined. At length it was converted into an academy for
artillery cadets, and made a miserable sort of Woolwich. Decorations
were torn down, old windows blocked up, and new ones made in the most
barbarous style. Stoves were placed in most dangerous situations, until
as a natural consequence a fire broke out, and the "coup de grâce" was
given to the glories of this palatial fortress, which is now alike
useless for royal, military, or civic purposes.
[Illustration: PLATE 30
MDW 1869
SEGOVIA. ALCAZAR.]
PLATE XXX.
_SEGOVIA._
DETAIL FROM THE ALCAZAR.