the building from which both that and this (No. 30) were taken. It may
be well to note now the peculiar style of design illustrated by both.
This style is what is technically known in Spain as "Mudejar," _i.e._,
neither Gothic nor Moorish strictly, but a compound of both. The date of
these particular specimens happens to be well fixed by the inscriptions
to which allusion has been recently made, and of one of which a portion
is shown in the sketch (No. 30), as running horizontally between two
string courses on each side of the small quasi-rose windows. This
"Mudejar" work was certainly executed between the years 1452 and 1458,
in the reign of Enrique IV., King of Castille. It was the wise policy of
the most sagacious of the Spanish monarchs in their contests with the
Moors, to half-shut their eyes to what they could not eradicate, viz.,
the secret Islamism of the race. They long continued this laudable
inclination to tolerate and use the skilful Arabian artificers, under
Christian guidance and superintendence, in the various localities in
which they successively planted the Standard of the Cross, tearing down
that of the Crescent. At last the inflation which followed their
ultimate conquests under Ferdinand and Isabella, led to the
establishment of the pernicious Inquisition, the "teterrima causa" of
infinite misery, and the subverter of tolerance and progress throughout
the country. From that period gradually disappeared--lingering, as we
shall have occasion to observe, much longer in the South than in the
North--the skilled artificer, learned in all the technicalities, and the
elaborate geometrical principles of the combination of ornamental form,
which Arabian genius had engrafted upon the traditions of Ancient Rome,
handed down to them through the medium of Byzantium. The very antagonism
of creed induced the Moor to avoid polluting his art with types of form
or processes borrowed from the Christian, as he would have avoided
polluting his faith with Catholic legend or tenets. Hence when he and
his became the spoil of the Christian, which, to a great extent, they
did, the Christian necessarily inherited no unimportant addition to his
repertory of beautiful, fresh, and valuable arts and industries. This
precious inheritance was not altogether appreciated by the Spaniards, as
it might have been by a people of greater producing energies; but in
spite of their comparative ineptitude, they gained greatly by the leaven
of Moorish skill and talent; and as one of the first and best fruits of
the gradual conquest and absorption of the race, we may certainly reckon
the leading features of the "Mudejar" style.
[Illustration: PLATE 31
EL PARRAL.
MDW 1869
SEGOVIA.]
PLATE XXXI.
_SEGOVIA._
EXTERIOR VIEW OF THE MONASTERY OF EL PARRAL.
IN Mr. Street's work on "Gothic Architecture on Spain," so justly
praised by all who know anything of ancient Spanish Art will be found on
Plate VIII a sketch plan, and on pages 185 and 186 a full description of
this extensive old Convent, and especially of the Church of the Vera
Cruz to which it is attached. I felt, therefore, that my duty to the
student would be best fulfilled by simply laying before him a sketch of
the exterior to supplement Mr. Street's ground plan, referring the
student for all further information to his work. It would have been easy
to extract from Cean Bermudez the same historical details; but it could
only have resulted in a thrice-told tale. It may suffice to note that
the entrance to the Convent may be sought (with much but rarely
effectual knocking and ringing) through the curious old porch
represented in my sketch on the right hand of the Church, which should
be visited in the morning, on account of its beautiful arrangement of
lighting, mainly from the East.
[Illustration: PLATE 32
ALCALA DE HENARES. COLEGIO DE SAN ILDEFONSO.
MDW 1869]
PLATE XXXII.
_ALCALA-DE-HEÑARES._
EXTERIOR OF THE COLEGIO DE SAN ILDEFONSO.
SUCH a man as Francis Ximenez de Cisneros--the founder of the University
at Alcala de Heñares--would have been a man amongst men anywhere; but in
Spain, his union of prudence with strength, courage with calmness,
learning in the closet with action in the field, humility with aptitude
for supreme command, benevolence with the sternest energy, raised him
rapidly from poverty and insignificance to the Regency of that country.
So aggrandized, he ruled the kingdom for many years, until his death, in
1517, with far greater wisdom, and more to the benefit of the State,
than any Sovereign who has ever sat upon its throne. This is not the
place in which to dwell upon his life, intensely interesting as it was,
but only to briefly allude to the relics of his greatness as displayed
in Alcala de Heñares, in which locality he himself commenced his
studies. Protected by Mendoza he became confessor to Isabella in 1492,
who made him Archbishop of Toledo in 1495. Three years afterwards he
founded his great University dedicated to Saint Ildefonso; but which, in
honour of his ever famous labour, the compilation of the Complutensian
Polyglot,[19] bears the distinguished name in Spain of the "Universidad
Complutense."
The building, of which the main block of the façade shown in my sketch,
is about one hundred feet long, by about sixty-five feet high, contains
no less than three Patios of different styles. It was designed by Pedro
Gumiel, and, as originally planned, finished in 1533, by Rodrigo Gil.
The whole façade which is of marble, with the exception of the basement
of grey granite, was no doubt entirely the work of the last named
architect. The structure has been well illustrated, architecturally, in
the great government publication--the "Monumentos Arquitectonicos de
España"--to which the student may be referred for the details of this
immense establishment. About it, in the days of its full prosperity,
there were grouped no less than eleven thousand students, and nineteen
colleges. Nothing shows, perhaps, more clearly the "high estate" from
which the poor Spain of the present day has fallen, than a contrast
between the muster rolls of the University of Madrid of late years, and
those of Salamanca, and Alcala, in the sixteenth century.
The visitor to the "Colegio" of Alcala should on no account omit to see
the chapel built by Gil de Ontañon, since within it rests the Wolsey of
Spain. Upon a monument of white marble, by the skilful hand of Domenico
of Florence, reposes an effigy of Cardinal Cisneros. A lithograph of
this and of the quasi-Mudejar style of the chapel is given in the work
of Villa Amil,[20] and we may well take to heart the concluding sentence
of the description of it by Patricio Escosura:--"Una pregunta, y
concluimos; ¿Cuantos monumentos como el que acabamos de ejaminar
dejarémos nosotros en herencia à nuestros nietos?"[*]
[Illustration: PLATE 33
ALCALA DE HENARES
ARZOBISPADO
MDW 1869]
PLATE XXXIII.
_ALCALA-DE-HEÑARES._
WINDOW OF THE ARZOBISPADO.
THE Archi-episcopal Palace of Alcala de Heñares is a building of many
periods and many styles. Founded upon the Old Alcazar, of which vestiges
remain, it contains several pretty mediæval windows, one of which Mr.
Street thought not unworthy of his pencil. The late Plateresque details
of its double Patios arrested my attention, and I was pleased to observe
in them a more than usual elegance of moulding, and originality, with
propriety of style. On account of their possession of these qualities,
their invention and the execution of the medallion-heads and ornaments
have been ascribed to Alonzo Berruguete, whose studies in Florence have
been looked upon as the main agents in purifying the then prevalent
tendency to exuberance in Plateresque design to which he might have
surrendered himself, but for his opportunities of becoming acquainted
with the works of Michael Angelo and other great contemporary masters of
Italian Art. If Berruguete had no hand in this work, (and I have been
able to find no proof whatever that he had), it lends greater
probability to the theory I have ventured to broach in the description
of the next sketch, which is taken from another but contemporary part of
the same building.
Another attribution of the design of these details has been to Alonso de
Covarrubias, but I can find no other authority for it than the fact that
Ponz considered them to resemble certain windows of the Alcazar at
Toledo which were known to have been designed by that master.
[Illustration: PLATE 34
EL ARZOBISPADO
ALCALA DE HENARES]
PLATE XXXIV.
_ALCALA-DE-HEÑARES._
DETAIL FROM THE ARZOBISPADO.
ALTHOUGH commonly described as Plateresque, the architecture of the
Patio of the Archbishop's Palace at Alcala de Heñares, of which my
sketch represents the detail of the upper story, excites a far more
forcible reminiscence of good cinque-cento work. It seems to have been
executed principally by Spaniards of the sixteenth century, but still to
have been founded on pure Italian models. This is particularly shown, as
it appeared to me, in the regular form of the bell and volutes of the
capitals of the columns with the well drawn and cut acanthus leaves, and
the regular eggs and tongues of the cornice. Recognising this, and
noticing the correspondence in style between the execution of this work,
and that of the architectural parts of the monument to Cardinal Cisneros
alluded to in the description of the last sketch but one, I could not
but fancy it possible that the same artist, Domenico of Florence, who is
allowed to have produced that monument, may, after its completion, have
been retained to work upon the Patios of the Archi-episcopal Palace; and
possibly also upon some portions of the façade of the University which
was not as we know set in hand until some time after the Cardinal's
death.
[Illustration: PLATE 35
TOLEDO
MDW 1869]
PLATE XXXV.
_TOLEDO_.
VIEW OF THE REMAINS OF A MOORISH FORTRESS ON THE RIVER.
THE situation of Toledo is most romantic, and presents as many charms
from its beauty to the architect, as the site for a commanding city, as
no doubt it offered from, its great natural strength, to the "man of
war" who must needs have regarded it as an almost heaven-born fortress.
It owes much, both of its beauty and its strength, to the clear and
abundant current of the Tagus, which more than half surrounds it. This
river has, as we shall have occasion to observe, been nobly spanned by
Roman, Moor, and Christian; and on its banks are yet traceable, in
architectural fragments, the handiwork of each of those races.
Our sketch represents a passage of this river which has once been
commanded by the Moorish fortress, above the "tapia" or concrete remains
of which, some shade-loving Spaniard of to-day has planted his vines and
gourds, and reared his modest, but neither unpicturesque nor altogether
uncomfortable, tenement. A fortification of this kind was much affected
by the Moors for salient points, on account of the command it gave them
of the various directions from which attack might be apprehended, and
was called by them "Almodovar."
Charles Didier has admirably described the charms of such a position, as
that occupied by the world-renowned capital of New Castille, in the
following passage of his "Année en Espagne," "Tolède doit à sa
situation," says he,[21] "une inépuisable richesse de sites et de vues.
La montagne escarpée dont elle couvre les flancs est séparée par le Tage
d'une autre montagne non moins escarpée, mais nue, déserte, abandonnée à
la stérilité et tombant à pic dans le fleuve. A micôte est le château
ruiné de Saint Cervantes. Un petit ermitage, _la Virgen del Valle_, est
égaré au sommet; mais, bâti au milieu des rochers, il s'en détache à
peine et se confond avec eux: des troupeaux de chèvres sauvages errent à
l'entour, et, presque aussi sauvage qu'elles, le pâtre, vêtu de peaux,
apporte au seuil de la ville les moeurs de la sierra. Ces contrastes
sont frappants, mais ce sont les vues surtout qui captivent; quoique
borné, le spectacle est varié; les masses granitiques dont la montagne
est formée s'adoucissent au-dessus du pont Saint Martin, et des villas,
appelées dans le pays _cigarrales_, étendent sur la pierre nue et
grisâtre de frais tapis de verdure; c'est le seul point champêtre du
paysage, tout le reste est sec et dépouillé. La montagne n'a pas un
arbre. La variété naît des mouvements du sol et des anfractuosités du
rocher; les perspectives sont courtes, mais frappantes; tantôt l'oeil
plonge sur le Tage, qui serpente en méandres verdâtres entre les deux
collines; tantôt la ville apparaît hérissée de ses innombrables
clochers, puis le rideau retombe, et enferronné dans une gorge déserte
et muette, on pourrait se croire tout d'un coup transporté dans quelque
solitude primitive. Ces brusques alternatives ont un grand charme; elles
impriment à ce paysage austère et mélancolique un profond cachet
d'originalité."
[Illustration: PLATE 36
TOLEDO
BRIDGE OF ALCANTARA
MDW 1869]
PLATE XXXVI.
_TOLEDO_.
BRIDGE OF ALCANTARA.
The brief words in which Ford gives the chronology of this "Bridge of
Bridges," carries one to the long series of Lords and Masters who have
made of Toledo a perfect mine of Archæological interest. "The Roman
one," he says, "was repaired in 687 by the Goth Sala; destroyed by an
inundation, it was rebuilt in 871, by the Alcaide Halaf, repaired in
1258 by Alonzo el Sabio,[22] restored by Archbishop Tenorio about 1380,
and fortified in 1484 by Andres Manrique." To crown the whole and make
it safe for ever, Philip II. placed it, by solemn dedication, under the
especial protection of San Ildefonso, who certainly appears to have done
his duty hitherto, as I saw few signs of repair or want of it from the
middle of the sixteenth century till now. I need scarcely say, that it
crosses the River Tagus in one noble and most lofty span, and connects
the walled city with its dependencies "across the water." Nothing can be
more picturesque than this bridge, or indeed than the whole aspect of
the position of the city placed upon seven hills, forming one lofty and
rocky eminence, around which, on more than two sides, tears the Tagus.
Conspicuous in my sketch is the lofty Tower controlling access from the
Bridge to the City on the side of the commanding "Alcazar," as literally
the "royal residence," as Alcantara is in Arabic "the Bridge." Cean
Bermudez[23] tells us, that one Mateo Paradiso was the architect, who in
1217 constructed a tower (probably, in at least the greatest part, the
same which now remains) upon this famous bridge. In support of his
opinion, he cites Estévan de Garibay, who in the ninth volume of his
"unedited Works" fol. 512 tit. 6º, speaking of the Memorabilia of
Toledo, says with reference to this Bridge, "that the river suddenly
rising destroyed one of its pillars in the month of February, 1211,
placing the bridge in peril of falling. As soon as it had been repaired,
Henrique I. caused a tower to be built upon it for the greater security
of it and of the city, as appears by an original inscription which once
existed upon the tower in these words.
"Henry, son of the King Alfonso, caused this tower to be built in
honour of God, by the hand of Matheo Paradiso in the year 1255."
Another tower of the time of Charles V. guards the access to the Bridge
from the side farthest from the city, that from which my sketch has been
taken.
[Illustration: PLATE 37
TOLEDO
PUENTE DE SAN MARTIN
MDW 1869]
PLATE XXXVII.
_TOLEDO_.
BRIDGE OF SAN MARTIN.
AMIROLA[24] has given us an excellent account of the origin of this
noble mediæval bridge, upon which the following short statement is
mainly based. Near to the site on which the bridge of St. Martin now
stands at Toledo, there was formerly a fine Roman bridge. This having
been entirely destroyed for useful purposes, by a tremendous flood which
rose, according to the most ancient annals of Toledo, in the year 1212,
the city determined upon building another bridge upon a better site.
Having erected abutments of vast strength, which were ultimately crowned
and weighted with two towers for defence, and having bedded two solid
piers in the line of the stream, their master of the works, Rodrigo
Alfonso, proceeded to span it with one of three lofty arches, two of
which are shown in my sketch. This magnificent arch of one hundred and
forty Spanish feet in width, and ninety-five in height was destroyed in
the terrible struggle between the King Don Pedro, and his brother Don
Henrique, in the year 1368. It was shortly after rebuilt, and the bridge
generally repaired by the great Don Tenorio, Archbishop of Toledo. Villa
Franca, Alcala de Heñares, and the neighbourhood of Alamin, all boasted
of bridges put up by the same Rodrigo Alfonso, who designed the bridge
of San Martin at Toledo.
Beyond the bridge, in my sketch, appears on the crest of the hill the
mass of the beautiful, though somewhat over florid church, San Juan de
los Reyes. Having been erected by Ferdinand and Isabella, in a period as
late as 1476, it fails to enlist the sympathies and approbation of some;
others have praised it enthusiastically, and certain it is, that if it
may have possessed faults when complete, scarcely anything can be more
picturesque as a ruin.
[Illustration: PLATE 38
TOLEDO
MOORISH GATEWAY BY THE BRIDGE OF ALCANTARA.
MDW 1869]
PLATE XXXVIII.
_TOLEDO_.
MOORISH GATEWAY BY THE BRIDGE OF ALCANTARA.
Near to the bridge of Alcantara (sketch No. 36) on the road leading up
from it to the city, stands the celebrated Moorish gateway of the
"Puerta del Sol." This strong, large, and well fortified approach to the
city, I found to labour under two marked disadvantages for my
sketch-book, viz., it had been too often illustrated, and its curious
details had been so vigorously "restored" (when Spaniards do "restore"
there is no mistake about it), as to have lost in a great degree its
original and authentic characteristics. I looked about, therefore, in
the immediate vicinity of the bridge, for other vestiges of the
antiquity of the city. These I soon came upon in the old gateway of
which I give a sketch, and to the construction of which, both Roman and
Moor have contributed. As the poor heavily laden mules laboured up the
dusty stony road, with the patience of, in Spain, a much-abused race, it
was impossible not to speculate upon the generations upon generations
which had followed in the same track up the same road, on the same duty,
through every vicissitude of occupation of the Gateway, through which
they swayed monotonously from side to side.
[Illustration: PLATE 39
TOLEDO
ARCO DEL ZOCODOVER
MDW 1869]
PLATE XXXIX.
TOLEDO.
ENTRANCE ARCHWAY OF THE ZOCODOVER.
ALTHOUGH as appears from the steps shown in my sketch rising up through
this archway, which is known as that of the Zocodover, or more properly
Zocodober, which means in Arabic, according to Cean Bermudez, "a place
upon a lower level," the archway is situated upon _an ascent_, it by no
means follows that there may not be a higher plane to which it may still
be a _descent._ Such is the case in the Zocodover of Toledo, which is
really the "Place" of the city in the usual French, or the "Piazza" in
the Italian, sense. It is reached from without the walls by the steps
shown, and is yet literally the "lower Place" when compared with the
platform of the Alcazar or "Royal Residence." Of great strength, it must
in its time have been the scene of terrible struggles, and blood
shedding, as it dates from the days when Moors ruled in the North of
Spain, and had to be wrested from the descendants of its builders only
by many a tussle between the upholders of the Crescent and the Cross. On
the inside of the city to the market place it has been modified, and
Italianised, but to the thousands who pass up it daily from the lower
parts of the outskirts, it wears its original Oriental aspect.
Ford gives to the word "Zocodover" quite another meaning and derivation.
He explains it as "the square market." Whether he or Bermudez may be
right, I know not, but, certain it is that either meaning may be aptly
fitted to describe the spot to which our gateway leads--a spot of no
comfortable memories--since it still reeks with the cruelties of genuine
Spanish diversions, "Autos da Fe," and "Fiestas de Toros."
[Illustration: PLATE 40
TOLEDO
TALLER DEL MORO
MDW 1869]
PLATE XL.
_TOLEDO_.
INTERIOR OF THE "TALLER DEL MORO."
FROM the spring of the year 712, when Tarik, with his renegade Jews and
Berbers, wrested the city from its Gothic rulers, to the spring of the
year 1085, when Alfonso VI.--the Emperor as he styled himself after
having won his laurels--reconquered the city for the Christians, Toledo
remained altogether an Oriental city. As such, it was inhabited by
Berbers, strict Mahommedans and Jews, the last named being occasionally
tolerated and occasionally persecuted as they had been by the Goths, and
subsequently were by the Castilian Christians. The duration of this
tenure of power has to be borne in mind continually, in the endeavour to
assign dates to the Moorish monuments of this city, of which there are a
great number. It is of course true that long after the date of Alfonso's
conquest the Moorish artificers worked for the Christians, but such was
their constant condition of subjection that it is not to be credited
that any one of them could have been allowed to live in the wealth and
luxury, in which the inhabitants of such a Moorish house, as that known
as the "Taller del Moro," a beautiful fragment of which forms the
subject of the fortieth sketch, must have lived. I can, therefore, have
no hesitation in repudiating for the date of its origin, as late a
period as 1350, which has been assigned to it. On the other hand, I am
no less confident that Señor Escosura, who has written of it as of
"between the ninth and tenth centuries," is also in error. What I
believe is, that this elegant set of chambers was really one of the
latest works in the city immediately preceding its capture by Alfonso,
in 1085. The style of its work is certainly later than any of that
executed under the Khalifate of Corduba while in the hands of the
Ummeyàh family. It belongs, I believe, to the school of the Almohades,
and reflects some of the novelties in complicated geometry introduced by
the Arabs of Damascus, in advance of the Ummeyàhs. They held to earlier
types, as may be seen in all the works at Corduba, including even those
ascribed to the author of the splendid Mih-ráb or sanctuary, the Sultan
Al-Hakem II., who completed the "cubba," or Cupola of the Mih-ràb (the
most complicated piece of design in all Cordova) in the year A.D., 965.
All that is left at present of this once sumptuous mansion consists of a
central chamber, (fifty-four feet long by twenty-three feet wide),
approached from a court-yard, the usual Moorish Alfagia, (no doubt, by
the doorway shown on the right hand side of my sketch), and of two
chambers, one at each end of the central one. Traces of colour and
gilding have almost entirely disappeared, but the stucco ornamentation,
where not wilfully or heedlessly destroyed, retains all its original
sharpness and beauty. I found the "Taller del Moro" in full use, or
rather abuse, as a carpenter's workshop.
[Illustration: PLATE 41
TOLEDO
LA MAGDALENA
MDW 1869]
PLATE XLI.
_TOLEDO_.
TOWER OF THE CHURCH OF LA MAGDALENA.
TOLEDO is, or rather has been, a city of peculiar devotion. Its
Christian mediæval architecture Mr. Street has fully illustrated, but he
has passed hurriedly over some of the remains of that peculiar mixed
style in which Christians usually gave the order, and Moors did the
work. I have, accordingly, sketched two Christiano-Moorish campaniles
which he has not given, and one which he has, but from a different point
of view.
The steeple of La Magdalena is, I fancy, of two periods, the
construction from the ground to the base of the belfry being of one
class, and the belfry itself of another. It has all the appearance of
having been the old tower of a mosque previous to the conquest of Toledo
by King Alfonso, and of having been subsequently taken down to a certain
level, and the belfry chamber and bells added, on the christianising of
the structure.
It is built almost entirely of brick, and although simple to the extent
of rudeness, its mass yet groups well with the long roof lines of the
convents by which it is as it were hemmed in.