picturesque by remnants of old Moorish use and ceremony, his mind is
naturally attracted to the days when the "mezquita" took the place of
the church, and was thronged by the worshippers of the "One God and
Mahomet his Prophet," by day and by night. The description given of the
comparatively modern Moors in the account of Commodore Stewart's embassy
to the Emperor of Morocco, in the year 1721, seems to carry us back to
the days when Toledo, and many other cities of Spain, owned no other
faith than that defined by the Koran. "The Moors," says the writer,[25]
"seem not (as we do) to observe the day for business, and the night for
sleep, but sleep and wake often in the four-and-twenty hours, going to
church by night as well as day, for which purpose their Talbs call from
the top of the mosques, (or places of worship) having no bells, every
three hours throughout the city. In going to church they observe no
gravity, nor mind their dress; but as soon as the Talb begins to bellow
from the steeple, the carpenter throws down his axe, the shoemaker his
awl, the tailor his shears, and away they all run like so many fellows
at football; when they come into church, they repeat the first chapter
of the _Alcoran_ standing, after which they look up, and lift up their
hands as much above their heads as they can, and as their hands are
leisurely coming down again, drop on their knees with their faces
towards the _Kebla_, (as they call it) or East and by South; then
touching the ground with their foreheads twice, sit a little while on
their heels muttering a few words, and rise up again. This they repeat
two or three times, after which, looking on each shoulder, (I suppose to
their guardian angels) they say, _Selemo Alikoon (i.e.,) Peace be with
you_; and have done. When there are many at prayers together, you would
think they were so many gally-slaves a rowing, by the motion they make
on their knees."
[Illustration: PLATE 42
TOLEDO
TOWER OF SAN PEDRO MARTIRE
MDW 1869]
PLATE XLII.
_TOLEDO_.
MOORISH TOWER OF SAN PEDRO MARTIRE.
PLATE Forty-two presents us with another type of Christiano-Moorish
Campanile from that given by the last sketch. In this case the usual
fashion of the mediæval church builders of dividing the total height of
the tower into several compartments, pierced with largish openings on
more than one floor, has been followed. The regular Arabian
praying-tower is generally simply the inclosure of a staircase, with a
gallery, or open chamber, only at the summit, from which "the faithful"
are duly summoned by the Imaum to their devotions. The conversion of one
or more stories into belfries, however, indicates (where the work is
clearly that of a Mahommedan artificer), that he has been working only
for the performance of the behests of a Christian, as in the case of the
Tower of San Pedro Martire at Toledo. The Church itself exhibits only a
clumsy and overgrown Palladian style of a thoroughly commonplace
description, gloomy and uninteresting.
[Illustration: PLATE 43
TOLEDO
SANT' JAGO DEL LA VEGA
MDW 1869]
PLATE XLIII.
_TOLEDO_.
TOWER OF THE CHURCH OF SANT' IAGO DE LA VEGA.
THIS Church appeared to me to retain more of the primitive "Mezquita,"
or mosque, than any other in Toledo, excepting the celebrated "Christo
de la Luz." Its aspect is most picturesque as one descends from the city
towards the Vega, or once rich and lovely plain. I could not help
recognizing in it how good an effect might be produced in our ordinary
street architecture by the use of common brick, provided that the masses
of the construction should be artistically disposed, and used without
the appearance of pinching here and paring off there, which spoils many
of our usually too ambitious efforts.
In all such work as this in Spain, one is reminded only of the "bottom
of the purse" when the work remains unfinished. With us the aspect of
the "fond-du-sac" begins generally with the beginning, with the first
lines of the disposition of the plan, and ends only with the end of the
whole. As far as appearances go in this structure, differences of style
from those of the rest of the building shown in my sketch in the belfry,
and in the apsidal end of the choir of the Church, and in one or two
other parts, seemed to point to those features of the design as being of
considerably later date than that of the rest of the building. If the
primitive Moorish work may have been of the middle of the eleventh
century, the Christiano-Moorish may have been of the end of the
thirteenth.
[Illustration: PLATE 44
TOLEDO
HOSPITAL OF THE HOLY CROSS]
PLATE XLIV.
_TOLEDO_.
EXTERNAL VIEW OF THE HOSPITAL OF THE HOLY CROSS.
DESCENDING from the main Piazza of the city, through the gateway shown
by the thirty-ninth sketch, the great "Hospedal de la Santa Cruz" is
speedily reached. This is generally considered the finest example of
Plateresque (literally silversmith's) Architecture left in Spain. Its
founder was the all powerful Cardinal D. Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza,
"Tertius Rex," of Castile, Consolidator of the Monarchy, and Father of
the absolute supremacy of the Catholic Church in Spain. The style of
this building, and the circumstances of the birth and training of its
architect, raise the important question of the extent to which the
Plateresque style in Spain may, or may not, have been of national
origin? It appears that in 1459, a certain Anequin de Egas de Bruselas
(or Brussels) of the Cathedral of Toledo, in his capacity of "Maestro
Mayor," with his assistant Juan Fernandez de Liena, executed the façade
of the main southern transept of that Cathedral, and the entrance
familiarly known as "de los Leones." In this work, the architecture is
of florid Burgundian-Gothic, with scarcely a trace of Renaissance about
its original design. Anequin died in 1494, and his son Henrique was
appointed, by the Chapter of Toledo, to succeed his father as "Maestro
Mayor," the duties of which office he performed until his death in
1534. Henrique was the favourite architect of the King D. Fernando, and
of his son, the Archbishop D. Alonso, who actually disputed, in 1505, as
to which of them should for awhile avail themselves of his exclusive
services. He was called in to every important consultation of architects
of his time, and was evidently "au courant" of the great changes of
style which had been developed in Italy, and which were in course of
development in France, and in and about his father's native place. His
influence as a naturalizer of the exotic details of which models were
furnished to artists by the prints and portable works of the "petits
maîtres," is clearly manifested when we recognise the early dates at
which his florid Renaissance buildings were executed. For instance, in
those designed for Cardinal Mendoza, the dates of which are well known,
we find Renaissance features well carried out with scarcely any
admixture of Gothic. The earliest of these is the vast "Colegio Mayor"
de Sta. Cruz at Valladolid, which Henrique began in 1480 and completed
in 1492, and the second the splendid Hospital for Foundlings at Toledo
(1504 to 1514) from which the sketch, now under consideration, and the
two which follow it have been taken. In describing the second of these
sketches, we shall resume our consideration of the Plateresque style
generally from the point at which it is now left. It may be well,
however, with relation to this sketch, to state that it shows the
principal portal or great entrance to the Hospital, and that the top
story appears to be of later date and coarser execution than the portal
and the two elegant windows of the first floor. The carving in the
lunette of the doorway represents, in very good style, the "invention of
the Cross" with Sta. Helena and the Founder. The colour of the stone,
and the quality of the workmanship leave nothing to be desired.
[Illustration: PLATE 45
TOLEDO
SANTA CRUZ
MDW 1869]
PLATE XLV.
_TOLEDO_.
CORTILE OF THE HOSPITAL OF THE HOLY CROSS.
IT is in the interior rather than on the exterior of the Toledo
Foundling Hospital, that Henrique de Egas has best shown his command
over the Plateresque style. It was no longer in designing the former a
question of adding on ornament in fanciful door and window dressings, as
it was in the latter, but a necessity to adapt from existing models, or
originate essential parts of the structure, executing important
functions of use and stability. The columns, arches, and interspacing of
the arcading of the Patios evidence by their proportions, quite as much
as by their details, that Henrique's and his employer's backs had been
turned upon Gothic, and that a new style had been inaugurated for
Spanish architecture, as the successes of Ferdinand and Isabella, and
the discovery of America, had laid the foundations of an entirely new
era for Spain.
The construction of the building under notice was begun by Cardinal
Mendoza, under Henrique, in 1504; the year in which those Sovereigns
ascended the throne, and completed in the year 1514. Simultaneously with
the commencement of the great Hospital for the "Tertius Rex," Henrique
designed a still more extensive and magnificent Hospital which the
"Reyes Catolicos" proposed to construct at Santiago, and entered upon
many other great architectural works in other parts of Spain. Ford, who
was no mean judge, says of the Hospedal de la Santa Cruz, that its
"position overlooking the Tagus is glorious, and the building is one of
the gems of the world; nor can any chasing of Cellini surpass the
elegant Portal."
There is little doubt that Egas was stimulated to great exertion by the
rivalry of many competitors, few of whom, however, designed in exactly
his style. The work which most resembles his, I believe, will be found
in the detail of the wonderful Plateresque Town Hall at Seville, and
that of the Cathedral at Plasencia.
That so magnificent a Palace (for such it is) should have been thought
necessary, or at any rate should have been indulged in, for the
reception of foundlings, is to be partially accounted for by an old
assertion I have met with, that the Spaniards, not knowing the parentage
of the "niños perdidos," gave them "the benefit of the doubt," and
considered them all as children of Hidalgos, a questionable compliment
to the boasted morality, or at any rate austerity, of the upper
classes.
[Illustration: PLATE 46
TOLEDO
HOSPITAL OF THE HOLY CROSS.
MDW 1869]
PLATE XLVI.
_TOLEDO._
DOORWAY FROM THE HOSPITAL OF THE HOLY CROSS.
THE facts that Moorish workmen should have been found in Toledo,
Segovia, and elsewhere in Spain, to modify their national style, in
their Mudejar work, and to incorporate freely in it many features of
late mediæval work; while they scarcely ever lent themselves to any
expression of Renaissance form, although they occasionally laboured in
buildings of that style, have been supposed to imply a greater affinity
between Arabian and Gothic modes of design, than between the Arabian
style and Plateresque. This may, to some extent, account for the
presence of this Mudejar work, assimilating in no way with the
last-mentioned style, in a building of so distinctly a Renaissance
character as this one possesses. The fact is, however, rather thus--that
after the expulsion of the Moors, and the institution of the Inquisition
(the period of the construction of this Hospital), the Moorish
artificers diminished very rapidly in number, and lost their
individuality almost entirely in Northern and Central Spain; and that,
whereas, during several centuries they had lived there in cities in
which Gothic architecture was practised by Christians, and had thus made
themselves partially acquainted with its details, they had but a short
term of scarcely tolerated national existence wherein to learn the
novelties which were beginning to be taken up by the Spaniards, at the
commencement of the sixteenth century.
My sketch, while it indicates the elaboration of this late specimen of
Mudejar stucco-work, shows by the figures I have introduced (from life)
the class to whose tender mercies this gem is now confided. Let it be
hoped that the "Genius loci," may protect it, for the respectable
Spanish soldier of the nineteenth century can scarcely be regarded as a
satisfactory Conservative element.
[Illustration: PLATE 47
TOLEDO GREAT DOORWAY OF THE ALCAZAR
MDW 1869]
PLATE XLVII.
_TOLEDO._
ENTRANCE GATEWAY TO THE ALCAZAR.
THE Royal residence, for such is the meaning of the word "Alcazar," of
Toledo, is one of the two great Palaces which Charles V. caused to be
constructed in order that Spain might, for the first time, have "Royal
Residences" commensurate with her grandeur and wealth. He appears to
have chosen the same architect for both in the person of Alonso de
Covarrubbias. This distinguished artist was born in the locality, in the
diocese of Burgos, from whence he derived his name. At an early age he
allied himself with the family of the Flemish Egas, distinguished in the
highest degree as architects in the persons of Anequin and his son
Henrique. The wife of Alonso de Covarrubbias was a certain Maria
Gutierrez de Egas, and by her he became the father of several sons, who
in different ways (not in architecture) achieved great distinction and
consideration. To return to the architectural career of Covarrubbias.
Through the interest of Henrique de Egas, and probably in succession to
him, Alonso Covarrubbias was appointed "Maestro Mayor" of the Cathedral
of Toledo, whereupon he settled himself altogether in that city with his
brother Marcos. His great work in Toledo Cathedral was the famous Chapel
"de los Reyes nuevos," which he completed in the year 1534. He is then
said to have given some plans to Cardinal D. Alonso de Fonseca, for the
improvement of the Archbishop's Palace at Alcala de Heñares (see my
notes on that structure, Sketches, Nos. 33 and 34). He subsequently
occupied himself, until 1537, in designing and carrying out the splendid
entry to the Colegio Mayor (known as that of the Archbishop) in
Salamanca, and other works.
In the last mentioned year he was appointed, by Charles V., with another
architect, Luis de Vega, to make plans for rebuilding the Royal Palaces
of Toledo and Madrid. This commission was subsequently modified, giving
to Covarrubbias the works of Toledo, and to de Vega those at Madrid. The
Alcazar of Toledo had been originally built by King Alonso VI., on the
highest point of the city, when he took it from the Moors in 1085. It
had been added to at various dates, chiefly by the powerful Alvaro de
Luna, and lastly by the Reyes Catolicos. What Charles V. caused to be
built, consisted of a façade of great extent, a magnificent vestibule,
court-yard and staircase, on all of which he placed his insignia. The
Portal I have sketched, is stated by Cean Bermudez, from whom most of
the above mentioned facts have been derived, to have been constructed by
Henrique de Egas,[26] under the direction of Covarrubbias who closed an
honourable life, much favoured by his Sovereign, in 1570.
The Spaniards are justly proud of the noble simplicity and grand style
of Covarrubbias, which has none of the coldness and heaviness of
Herrera's; and this is one of the rare cases in which they have made, of
late years, a really splendid and not over-loaded restoration. Upon the
whole, the Alcazar at Toledo is one of the few buildings existing in
Spain which reflects, particularly in its grand Cortile, the
"magnificenze" of the Italian Renaissance, in their completest form.
[Illustration: PLATE 48
TOLEDO HOSPEDAL DE TAVERA PATIO
MDW 1869]
PLATE XLVIII.
_TOLEDO._
PATIO OF THE HOSPITAL OF CARDINAL TAVERA.
THE great Cardinal Primate, whose name this gigantic Hospital still
bears, was a worthy successor to Mendoza and Cisneros. In 1542 he
employed the Architect Bartholomé de Bustamente to design and construct
the four façades of this enormous pile. Not particularly attractive from
without, internally the extent, fine proportions, and simplicity of its
great Patios are very striking. It is one of the most regular pieces of
Italian architecture I met with in Spain, and would have produced a
highly satisfactory effect if its upper arches had been semi-circular
instead of elliptic. The Hospital is dedicated to St. John the Baptist,
and is placed without the walls of the city, whence its cognomen of "a
fuera." The Church of the Hospital is older in style if not in date than
the rest of the structure. Here in the room beneath the clock died the
famous Berruguete in 1561, shortly after completing the portal of the
Church and the marble monument within it which commemorates the cardinal
virtues of the illustrious founder.
[Illustration: PLATE 49
CORDOBA
CASA CABELLO
MDW 1869]
PLATE XLIX.
_CORDOBA._
EXTERIOR OF THE CASA CABELLO.
THIS pretty entrance to a Spanish nobleman's house of the latter part of
the sixteenth century has, like most of its class, little story to tell,
and that little, could I but unravel it, would probably turn out to be
only of the dullest. Let us see, therefore, from a contemporary witness,
what manner of life was ordinarily led by the class of nobles for one of
whom it may have been fitted up in the fashion of the century succeeding
that in which it was built. "In the morning as soon as they are up they
drink water cooled with ice, and presently after chocolate. When dinner
time is come, the master sits down to table; his wife and children eat
upon the floor near the table; this is not done out of respect, as they
tell me, but the women cannot sit upon a chair, they are not accustomed
to it; and there are several ancient Spanish women who never sat upon
one in their whole life. They make a light meal, for they eat little
flesh; the best of their food are pigeons, pheasants, and their olios,
which are excellent; but the greatest lord has not brought to his table
above two pigeons, and some very bad ragoust, full of garlick and
pepper; and after that some fennel and a little fruit. When this little
dinner is over, every one in the house undress themselves and lie down
upon their beds, upon which they lay Spanish leather-skins for coolness;
at this time you shall not find a soul in the streets; the shops are
shut, all the trade ceased, and it looks as if every body were dead. At
two o'clock in the winter and at four in the summer they begin to dress
themselves again, then eat sweetmeats, drink either some chocolate or
water cooled in ice, and afterwards everybody goes where they think fit,
and indeed they tarry out till eleven or twelve o'clock at night; I
speak of people that live regularly; then the husband and wife go to
bed, a great table-cloth is spread all over the bed, and each fastens it
under their chin. The he and she-dwarfs serve up supper, which is as
frugal as the dinner, for it is either a pheasant-hen made into a
ragoust, or some pastry business, which burns their mouth it is so
excessively peppered; the lady drinks her belly full of water, and the
gentleman very sparingly of the wine; and when supper is ended each goes
to sleep as well as they can."
[Illustration: PLATE 50
SEVILLE
LA FERIA]
PLATE L.
_SEVILLE._
CHURCH OF LA FERIA.
"LA FERIA" in Seville, has been time out of mind the essence of all that
is most "Picaresque" in the city. Not quite so thronged with Gitanos and
Gitanas as the suburb of Triana, it makes up for shortcomings in that
element of rascality and picturesqueness, by majos and majas, rustic
beaux and belles, bull-fighters and beggars, dogs and donkeys, mules and
muleteers, rags and tatters, and abundance of the most gloriously
coloured fruits under the sun--and, above all, there reign such a sun
and such a sky as denizens of the North have really little or no notion
of. As if these elements of the picture were not enough, by way of
background, stands a church in which the "battle of the Styles" seems to
have been fairly fought out, with the victory now inclining to Moor, and
now to Christian, while over all is seen a little of the Renaissance,
with more than a suspicion, in the heavy scrolls of the highest belfry,
of "Churriguerismo."
While I sat on a door-step making this poor little sketch, I think I
must have seen Murillo's by the dozen, and John Phillips' by the
hundred, not on canvas, but glowing with Nature's own light, and life,
and colour.
[Illustration: PLATE 51
SEVILLE SAN MARCOS
MDW 1869]
PLATE LI.
_SEVILLE._
CHURCH OF SAN MARCOS.
SOME notion of the richness of Seville, in the remains of old Moorish
mosques converted into Christian churches, may be formed from the fact
that this edifice, in which we trace the two styles blended in the most
interesting way, finds no mention in the pages of Ford, O'Shea, Mellado,
or any other guide books of Spain I have been able to meet with, except
Bradshaw's. In that, Dr. Charnock thus briefly alludes to San Marcos.
"Note," says he, "its beautiful western façade which has served as a
model for several churches; the Retablo of the Altar de las Animas,
contains a painting by D. Martinez; the tower rising to the left of the
Church in imitation of the Giralda, is a fine monument of Arabian
architecture." It is, of course, to the grand portal, rather than to the
whole façade, that Dr. Charnock alludes, since the former from the
purity of its apparently late fifteenth century work, merits his praise,
while the latter cannot certainly be regarded as other than a
"barbarismo."
The tower, particularly pleasing in the style of its Mudejar additions,
has been engraved in elevation in "los Monumentos Arquitectonicos." It
is about seventy-five feet high by ten feet wide.
[Illustration: PLATE 52
SEVILLE LA FERIA
MDW 1869]
PLATE LII.
_SEVILLE._
REMAINS OF MUDEJAR HOUSE NEAR LA FERIA.
THE habit of the Moors was almost universally to make their exterior
architecture plain, and to reserve richness and elaboration for the
interiors of their houses. The fact that what is commonly internal
architecture has been used by Moorish workmen on the external façade of
the little house, which forms the subject of this fifty-second sketch,
would be sufficient of itself to prove that it had not been executed for
a Moor, even if the Gothic mouldings and ornaments of the buttresses,
imposts, cornices, and string courses failed to assert the Christianity
of those for whom the house may have been built. The date of its
construction, judging from style, was probably about the middle of the
fifteenth century, at which period, in Spain, Renaissance features had
in nowise affected the integrity of either Gothic or Moorish
architecture. In this case all the mason's work is Gothic, and all the
stucco-work is Moorish; and this distinction of style, according to the
technical mode of construction, is not an uncommon feature of Mudejar
work. It was not only in stucco that the traditions of Moorish
art-workmanship enriched all Spain, since both in metal-work and
wood-work, the Moors continued to be employed long after their
subjugation, preserving very many of their old and excellent types of
form throughout many phases of transition. To this subject I may have
occasion to recur. I was myself fortunate enough to meet with a
beautiful little walnut-wood box, covered with Mudejar ornament, in the
midst of which a Moorish workman of the sixteenth century had carved the
I.H.S. of Christianity, and the sword of Sant' Iago.
[Illustration: PLATE 53
SEVILLE FONDA DE MADRID
MDW 1869]
PLATE LIII.
_SEVILLE._
MUDEJAR WINDOW IN THE FONDA DE MADRID.