climate, there being actually no "winter of its discontent," but it has
also enjoyed historically a splendid and long summer of prosperity, its
present state being comparatively autumnal. This "golden age" existed
under the Moors for many centuries preceding the dreadful siege laid to
the city by the Catholic kings, which ended on the 18th of August, 1487.
It has never altogether recovered from the christianising influences
then brought to bear upon it, though the charms of its position and
climate prevented its being altogether deserted at any time. They indeed
produced an after-crop of splendour, in the shape of fine residences of
powerful nobility, enriched many of them by the spoils of the Moors, and
yet more by the silver of America and the great profits of the foreign
trade, to say nothing of the smuggling carried on in its port. Of such
our sketch presents a specimen, more Italian in its character than would
be likely to be met with in Spain, in any other locality than a "Port de
Mer." The great establishment of the Genoese merchants, the "Casa de los
Genoveses," may have exercised a powerful local influence upon the arts
and especially the architecture of Malaga, as that of our "Merchants of
the Steleyard" did upon those of London.
In the distance is seen one of the cupola-covered towers of the vast
Cathedral--most promising and picturesque from a distance, but
unsatisfactory in its incompleteness, when visited by the
Ecclesiologist.
[Illustration: PLATE 64
MALAGA
OSPEDALE DE SANTO TOMÉ
MDW 1869]
PLATE LXIV.
_MALAGA._
OLD WINDOW OF THE OSPEDALE DE SANTO TOMÉ.
THIS pretty window of, as I believe, the early part of the sixteenth
century is evidently of Mudejar design with little of the Moorish
element left in it, excepting the obvious Orientalism of the workman.
Take away the engrailed intrados of the arch, and the little dove-tailed
break in the line of the archivolt, and all that is Moorish in the
design would disappear; but still the particular mode of combining the
brick and tile work would be left to show the disinclination of the Moor
to quit or alter his old technical habits as an operative.
This window is associated in my memory with some sad scenes of
suffering. It is situated, as it were, on the road to a sort of wicket
or buttery-hatch, at which aid is given daily to cripples out of the
funds of the great Hospital of Santo Tomé. At an early hour these poor
creatures, the halt, maimed, diseased, and blind, take up their stations
against the wall, and gradually creep onwards towards the spot at which
the distribution takes place. The "Ay de mis" and "Por l'amor de Dios,"
echo in a dismal strain, interrupted only by a few especially ferocious
oaths as one a little stronger or more active than the rest struggles
forwards to cheat the others of their turn. The whole scene would have
made an admirable subject for Callot's needle, Hurtado de Mendoza's pen,
or Van Obstal's chisel. Lazarillo de Tormes and his blind "Amo" sat
before me; and one could clearly recognise what it must have cost
noblemen, like D. Miguel de Manana[A] and his "cofrades" of the vast
Hospital of the "Caridad" at Seville (the great rival no doubt to the
Malagan Hospital), to carry on their works of mercy in the midst of a
dirt and squalor which should be seen to be realised.
[Illustration: PLATE 65
MALAGA DOOR OF SANT' JAGO
MDW 1869]
PLATE LXV.
_MALAGA._
KNOCKER OF THE MONASTERY OF SANT' JAGO.
TRAVELLERS in Spain rarely fail to observe and comment on the great
strength of ordinary entrance doors, the thick planks forming which are
frequently held together by iron bars, or plating, with ponderous bolts,
or nail-heads, often of very pretty design. Such doors have descended
apparently from Roman days, and the retention of the type, by Moor and
Christian down to the present day, has been regarded as an evidence of
the proverbially jealous temperament of the Spaniard. I think it bears a
much clearer testimony to the want of good police in the streets, and
the frequency of quarrels and rows, to say nothing of marauders and more
serious fighters in disastrous times. One is strengthened in this belief
by the inclination ever shown by the old Spaniards to have as few
external windows as possible on the ground floors of their houses, and
those few raised high above the pathway, and protected by close and
strong iron grilles and thick shutters. These may have been useful
restraints on the love-making propensities of the Spanish Lotharios; but
the difficulties they presented to pilferers and "Soldados de Fortuna,"
when a little out of luck, were, perhaps, of even greater importance to
the householder.
The portion of the door I have sketched, formed part of a solid defence
against a formidable class in Spain, bold in attack, and not easily cast
down even in retreat--the beggars. Much of the enormous sums given by
the devout to God in Catholic times, this class believed they had as
good right to scramble for as the monks; and it behoved the latter to
fortify themselves, as they never failed to do, pretty strongly against
the importunity of the former. No doubt the coronetted knocker of the
Monastery of Sant' Jago was intended to inspire the beggars with fitting
awe, and an intimation that it was not to be audaciously handled by
vulgarity. Some such scarecrow was certainly locally necessary, for I
well remember being driven away by clustering beggars no less than four
times before I could accomplish my very hasty sixty-fifth sketch.
[Illustration: PLATE 66
GRANADA THE ALHAMBRA FROM THE ALBAYCIN
MDW 1869]
PLATE LXVI.
_GRANADA._
REMAINS OF THE ALHAMBRA AS SEEN FROM THE ALBAYCIN.
NO one looking from the quarter of the city to which, after its conquest
by the Christians in 1480, the Moors who lingered behind the bulk of
their fellows, were relegated, (as the Jews by the Popes to the Ghetto
at Rome,) would be justified in supposing that the stern-looking and
dilapidated fortresses, and lines of walling of vast height and apparent
strength, which meet the eye, contained nearly complete specimens of the
loveliest and most elaborate system of ornamentation, both in form and
colour, which has ever existed. The position of the Alhambra is worthy
in every respect of the treasures of art it contains. It overlooks the
Vega, an extended plain, which in the days of the city's prosperity was
literally one vast garden, and even in the present day is, to most of
central Spain, pretty nearly what an oasis may be supposed to be to a
desert.
On the extreme left in this sketch is seen the great mass of the "Torre
de Comares," which contains the celebrated Hall of the Ambassadors; next
to it on the right are the ancient buildings of the Patio de la Mezquita
or Mosque. Behind these, and further to the right, rises the great
rectangular mass of the Palace of Charles V. The flat space, in front
and on the right of the Palace, is known as the Plaza de los "Algibes"
(of the tanks) and the mass of towers and buildings beyond are those of
the Alcazaba, (the fortress) with, conspicuous on the extreme right, the
Torre de la Vela, (the Watch-Tower,) from which a constant look-out was
kept far and wide over the city to the west, and the far spreading Vega
to the west and south. On the horizon stretched the great range of
snow-clad mountains, the Sierra Nevada.
The beauty of the view from this tower cannot be exceeded, and I never
shall forget the aspect of the scene upon one especially lovely
moonlight night. By such soft illumination, the desolation of which one
saw so much by day was passed over in the breadth of the great masses of
light and shade. As the moonlight caught the snow-clad peaks of the
Sierra Nevada and traced itself in the silver lines of the winding River
Genil, coming from the far off distance to the city beneath, and losing
itself in the thousands of twinkling lights of the suburbs in which its
silver threads seemed to get entangled and lost, everything was perfect;
and as one turned away towards the nearer mountain heights, and saw,
upon their hilly eastern slopes, the Generalife and the Alhambra, almost
close at hand, one felt inclined to forget the present in the past and
to think of ruin as perfection, and of death as life.
By day the illusion was destroyed, the young Alhambra of the night faded
away, and in its place one saw all the seams and stains and wrinkles age
had left upon its hoary head and face, all the more painfully perhaps
from the efforts one recognise as having been made here and there, by
loving and anxious hands, to mend and palliate conspicuous decay.
[Illustration: PLATE 67
GRANADA
ENTRANCE TO THE BOSQUÉ DEL ALHAMBRA
MDW 1869]
PLATE LXVII.
_GRANADA._
ENTRANCE TO THE BOSQUÉ DEL ALHAMBRA.
OUR sixty-seventh sketch illustrates the road by which the traveller
usually ascends from the City of Granada to the delights of the
Alhambra. On passing through the massive gateway, seen in the middle of
the sketch, he finds himself in a thickly-planted wood or "bosqué,"
cool, shady, refreshing, and beautiful. At several turns in the winding
road, fountains, abundantly supplied with crystal water, charm his eye
and ear at the same moment. With his pulse just quickened by the gradual
ascent, everything seems to conduce to ease of body, and to throw him
into a happy frame of mind for enjoying the feast of beauty which lies
in store for him. As a preparation for such a banquet, I know nothing
better calculated to insure a healthy digestion of the artistic
"pabulum" the Alhambra furnishes, than a thorough acquaintance with the
views of Owen Jones upon the subject of Moorish art generally.
If in his noble work on the Alhambra he has described the system "no
work so fitted to illustrate a grammar of ornament as that in which
every ornament contains a grammar in itself. Every principle which we
can derive from the study of the ornamental art of any other people is
not only ever present here, but was by the Moors universally and truly
obeyed."
"We find in the Alhambra the speaking art of the Egyptians, the natural
grace and refinement of the Greeks, the geometrical combinations of the
Romans, the Byzantines, and the Arabs. The ornament wanted but one
charm, which was the peculiar feature of the Egyptian ornament,
symbolism. This the religion of the Moors forbade; but the want was more
than supplied by the inscriptions, which, addressing themselves to the
eye by their outward beauty, at once excited the intellect by the
difficulties of deciphering their curious and complex involutions, and
delighted the imagination when read, by the beauty of the sentiments
they expressed and the music of their composition. To the artist and
those provided with minds to estimate the value of the beauty to which
they gave a life, they repeated _Look and Learn_."
It is not, of course, from the study of the monuments of one period, or
of one locality, that any accurate idea is to be formed of the
Architecture of any races, whose national history and whose dominion
have extended for many centuries over many lands. Nor, indeed, is a just
appreciation of the artistic value of the system of Art, sectionally
studied, to be arrived at until the student has compared it with its
antecedents in its own and other localities. Such works, therefore, as
offer to the inquirer means for instituting studies of the nature
alluded to, acquire peculiar value, although necessarily incomplete for
sectional study. The student of Oriental Architecture, from this point
of view, has been laid under a debt of gratitude by M. Girault de
Prangey,[36] whose works enable him to obtain a fair idea of the
varieties of style practised by the Mahommedan races in Asia Minor,
Syria, Egypt, Spain, Sicily and Barbary. Through all these there
evidently runs a harmony of system, but not the less clearly have we to
recognize an endless variety of detail, and an incessantly changeful
development--reaching its climax certainly in the Alhambra at
Granada.
[Illustration: PLATE 68
GRANADA. PUERTA DE JUSTICIA.
MDW 1869]
PLATE LXVIII.
_GRANADA._
PUERTA DE JUSTICIA.
WENDING his way upwards through the beautiful "Bosqué," it is on
arriving at the celebrated "Gate of Justice"[37] that the traveller
first finds himself face to face with the Moor, and his wise and
patriarchal habits, as well as his inherent love for the beautiful.
Within these venerable walls once sat the Monarch, as Solomon sat, to
administer justice to the poorest, as to the richest, of his subjects.
On the side shown to the outer world the archway wears the stern
features of the fortress; while on the inner side, the one shown in my
sketch, there are traces of a beauty and richness suitable to the Palace
to which it led. What is most remarkable architecturally about this
Gateway is, firstly, the ingenuity of its plan for resisting surprise in
attack; and, secondly, the beauty of the coloured tiles by which its
inside elevation is decorated.
First, with respect to its plan. This, so far as the passage way from
gate to gate (carried between walls of great thickness and massive
construction) is concerned, assumes the form of two letters L placed in
contact with one another, thus,
__ B
| __|
A ,
the gate of entry from without being at A, and the gate of exit at B.
The consequence is that no assailant entering from A can form any idea
of what preparations for resistance may exist in the interior of the
gateway. Neither can he gain anything by a rush, as the impetus of any
attack would be broken by the necessities of having to stop, turn round
and start in another direction for too short a distance, before having
to check and turn again, to acquire any momentum or "élan." Even after
fighting his way from gate to gate, the assailant would only find
himself in a narrow gallery between high walls and upper platforms
through which it would be most difficult to advance, exposed to missiles
from every direction. While attacking the outer gate and intermediate
obstacles, the besieger would, of course, be liable to the amenities of
molten lead, &c., from the upper chambers of the Gateway.
Secondly, with respect to the beauty of the coloured tiles. These are
unlike, both in colour and texture, as well as I could see, any other
tiles existing in the Alhambra, or any left at Cordova, Seville or
Toledo. My impression is, that they may have been a present from
Damascus, Cairo, or from Persia proper. The peculiar deep granulated
blue which is conspicuous in them, I have only seen in fragments from
ancient Mosques, which have been brought from the East. The mode of
manufacture is not that either of the usual Moorish and Spanish
Azulejos, with raised outlines forming compartments for the separate
colours; nor is it like that of the Majorca tiles and dishes, and the
usual flat tiles of the Alhambra, which, with their fine white surfaces
for painting on, formed the basis of Majolica. It is, however, quite
like that of the half-encaustic, half-painted tiles of the early
Mahommedan buildings in India, Persia, and especially Arabia proper.
A long inscription occurs in two lines over the inner gateway, towards
the exterior. The following is from the translation of the distinguished
Arabic student and historian, Don Pasqual de Gayangos.
"This gate, called Bábu-sh-shari'ah (the Gate of the Law)--may God
prosper through it the law of Islám, and He made this a lasting monument
of His glory--was built at the command of our Lord, the Commander of the
Moslems, the warlike and just Sultan Abú-l-walid Ibu Naor, (may God
remunerate his good deeds in the observance of religion, and accept of
his valorous performances in support of the faith). And it was closed
for the first time in the glorious month of the birth of our Prophet, in
the year 749. May the Almighty make this gate a protecting bulwark, and
write down its erection among the imperishable actions of the Just."
[Illustration: PLATE 69
GRENADA. THE ALHAMBRA SALA DE EMBAJADORES
MDW 1869]
PLATE LXIX.
_GRANADA.--THE ALHAMBRA._
SALA DE EMBAJADORES.
TO describe the progress of the visitor through the Courts and
apartments of the "Casa Real," as the Palace of the Alhambra is called,
would be to echo a more than thrice-told tale. For present purposes, it
may suffice to say, that in the Hall of the Ambassadors he reaches the
acmé of Moorish magnificence. My sketch represents one of the nine
windows by which the hall is lighted on the level of the floor. The
space from the single arch, which is on the internal face of the
apartment, to the coupled arches which are on the external face of the
building, represents the thickness, no less than about eight feet, of
the wall of the Tower of Comares. The window I have chosen for
sketching, looks towards a Renaissance addition to the Alhambra, made by
Charles V. for the accommodation of his Queen.
This elegant pavilion, from which is obtained a view of almost
unparallelled loveliness over the Vega, is known as the "Tocador de la
Reina," or, Boudoir of the Queen.
The Hall of Ambassadors occupies the whole of the internal area on plan
of the Tower, and is an apartment thirty-seven feet square and
seventy-five feet high. It is entered from the Court of the "Blessing,"
(as Mr. O'Shea considers the Patio de la Berkàh to be more properly
called, than the Court of the Fish Pond,) or "de la Alberca," the title
by which it is usually known. Advancing from the Patio, the visitor
traverses the Sala. In the wall opposite to the door of entrance to the
Hall are three windows. In the central one appears to have been placed
the throne of the Sultan. In each of the walls, on the right and left of
the entrance, are three nearly-similar windows: the one I have selected
for representation being the middle one of the three in the wall on the
right upon entering.
The dado which runs round the whole of the splendid Hall, is made of
Mosaic and Azulejos for a height of about four feet from the pavement;
and above it run bands with inscriptions and medallions. Over these, the
walls, covered with lace-like diapers in stucco, to a height of about
seven and twenty feet from the floor, run up to a second tier of
windows, five on a side, lighting the upper portion of the Hall.
At a height of about forty feet, occurs a beautiful stalactite cornice
from which starts a noble dome, or "Artesonado" ceiling, most
ingeniously made in inlaid wood, and gorgeously decorated. This ceiling,
splendid as it is, occupies the place only of one yet more marvellous,
which fell down. The original ceiling, or rather hollow cone, was of the
same description as the existing stalactite, or pendentive, ceilings of
the Hall of "the Abencerrages," of "Justice," and of "the two Sisters;"
but larger and finer. Mr. Owen Jones has given us, in Plate VII of his
magnificent work, a long section, to a large scale, passing from the
window in which the throne of the Sultan was placed, through the Hall of
the Ambassadors with its arch of entrance, through the Sala de la Barca,
the splendid anteroom, as it were, to the Throne room, through the
Loggia, or Arcade, of the Patio of the Alberca, through the Patio
itself, and through the end Loggia of the Court with its exquisite
Pavilion on the first floor. From this section can be admirably
realised, what must have been the view, or "colpo d'occhio," of the
Sultan, as he sat upon his throne to receive foreign Ambassadors.[38] It
seems impossible to conceive of any position more imposing, or better
calculated to impress the imagination particularly of Eastern magnates.
Even now, bereft of so much that must once have added to its charm, the
view is one of exquisite and most romantic beauty. It is, indeed, a
sight to stir a poet's heart, although
"Lonely and still are now thy marble halls,
Thou fair Alhambra! there the feast is o'er;
And with the murmur of thy fountain falls,[39]
Blend the wild tones of minstrelsy no more.
Hushed are the voices, that in years gone by,
Have mourn'd, exulted, menaced, through thy towers,
Within thy pillar'd courts the grass waves high,
And all uncultured bloom thy fairy bowers.
Unheeded there the flowering myrtle blows,
Through tall arcades unmark'd the sunbeam smiles,
And many a tint of soften'd brilliance throws
O'er fretted walls and shining peristyles."[40]
[Illustration: PLATE 70
GRANADA.
THE ALHAMBRA FROM THE HALL OF THE AMBASSADORS.
IN STUCCO FULL SIZE.
MDW 1869]
PLATE LXX.
_GRANADA.--THE ALHAMBRA._
STUCCO DETAIL FROM THE HALL OF THE AMBASSADORS.
IN describing the subject of the last sketch, our theme was the general
aspect of the "Sala de los Embajadores." I have chosen to let this
minute specimen of its detail follow the statement of its large
dimensions, in order the more forcibly to convey an idea of its
wonderful elaboration. The elegant morsel of stucco-work now presented
to the student has been actually traced from a portion of the
stucco-work of one of the window recesses immediately above the dado. It
affords an admirable illustration of two principles constantly followed
by the Moors in their treatment of decoration--viz., to preserve the
continuity of all scroll work from root to fully developed foliation--a
principle entirely disregarded in all previous ornamentation based upon
classical practice--and to care first for larger surfaces to satisfy the
eye with harmonious relations of those surfaces to one another, and to
the spaces they have to enrich, from a distance; and then to provide
minor fillings and intersections so as to supply adequate elaboration
for close inspection. In addition to the decorative effect produced by
variations in relief, still greater refinement was obtained by patterns
in colour, painted upon the surfaces of the modelled ornaments. Although
almost everywhere the colour has either been rubbed off, or rubbed into
confusion, the abrasion has affected for the most part only the pigment
and its albuminous vehicle, leaving the surface of the stucco bare, and
showing the outline of the delicate ornament which has been drawn in by
the pencil of the artist.
It is on the nature of the stucco itself I think it may be well to offer
here a few remarks. It certainly appears to be harder, closer in
texture, tougher, and much less absorbent, than gypsum or plaster of
Paris, when set in the usual manner. Lime alone, as ordinarily slacked,
would not I believe give any such texture, even if it could be
manipulated into similar ornamental forms. I believe the Moorish Stucco
to be almost if not quite identical with the Indian "Chunam," and that
in its turn to be a substance produced much in the same way that the
fine Stucco of the Romans was ordinarily wrought by that people. In the
native treatment of all of these substances, I believe four
peculiarities to have been generally used. Firstly--to employ the finest
lime only. Secondly--to mix it with pounded earthen-ware. Thirdly--to
beat it thoroughly. Fourthly--to use saccharine substances to retard the
setting and keep the mass plastic under the tool.
The present is scarcely a fitting occasion upon which to state in any
detail the grounds upon which I have been led to this conclusion, but I
have little doubt that any student will be struck by the identity of
practice of Roman, Indian, and Moor, who will refer to the practical
descriptions of the various modes of the formation of terraces given by
Vitruvius, by Captain Phipps, in "The Barrackmaster's Assistant,"[41]
and by John Windus, in his "Journey to Mequinez."[42]
I have elsewhere noticed the command the descendants of the Moors seemed
to retain over all operations of plaster and lime work throughout Spain,
as evidenced by the beauty and elaboration of the Mudejar style in those
materials, long after they ceased to be the dominant race in the
localities in which they continued to practice their old technical
arts.
[Illustration: PLATE 71
GRANADA.
THE ALHAMBRA. FROM THE HALL OF THE AMBASSADORS.
BLACK ON WHITE.
FULL SIZE GLASS INLAY.
MDW 1869]
PLATE LXXI.
_GRANADA.--THE ALHAMBRA._
DETAIL OF GLASS INLAY FROM THE HALL OF THE AMBASSADORS.