works at the Escorial, to give the forms and proportions of the five
orders, and their application to every variety of silversmith's work,
recognised as suitable for employment in sacred offices and
ecclesiastical rites and ceremonies in his time.
[Illustration: PLATE 96
BARCELONA.
OLD HOUSE IN THE CALLE DE MONCARA.
MDW 1869]
PLATE XCVI.
_BARCELONA._
COURTYARD OF AN OLD HOUSE IN THE CALLE DE MONCARA.
IN noticing my ninety-first sketch I took occasion to comment on the
difference which existed between Spanish and Catalonian architecture,
and Spanish and Catalonian character. Both are pressed upon one's
attention in looking over a house which, like the one I have sketched in
the Calle de Moncara at Barcelona, appears to have been the comfortable
home of a well-to-do merchant, with roomy stores and warehouses on the
ground floor facing the entrance, domestic offices to the left, and
counting-house and living rooms on the first floor, with bedrooms above.
As is becoming in the house of one welcoming alike buyer and seller, we
find a total absence of that almost Asiatic privacy which the Spaniards
generally, and especially the Andalusians, appear in their homes to have
adopted from Moorish models. Under the old Counts of Barcelona the
architecture of the city had no doubt been mainly French. After the
annexation of the city to the crown of Aragon, the architecture became
tinctured with detail corresponding with much yet to be seen at
Saragossa and elsewhere in Aragon, and finally after the consolidation
of the whole monarchy by the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, and
the expulsion of the Moors, Barcelonese architecture fell under the
Plateresque revival and the subsequent Greco-Roman mania which affected
all Spain. The date of erection of the house of which I now give a
sketch, appears to have brought it under the second of these two sets of
conditions. In the twisted column, its cap and base, and some other
features, we may recognise the Aragonese style, while in the staircase
and some of the windows there is to be traced, I consider, a decided
French influence.
In spite of legislative assimilation, the Catalonians have never been
able to cordially adopt a Spanish nationality. They have never warmly
responded to the caresses of their monarchs. Even as late as 1802, when
Charles IV. paid a visit to Barcelona with the infamous Godoy, and a
retinue like an army, and drew some eighty thousand strangers to the
city, a visitor in the following year records that "the Catalans felt a
generous pride in observing that no accident or quarrel occurred on that
occasion, and no life was lost, _notwithstanding the enmity subsisting
between them and the Spaniards_."[63] Whittaker further illustrates this
mutual jealousy and spiteful feeling by the following characteristic
anecdote:--"This enmity," he says, "is carried to such a height that
when it was proposed to strike a medal in honour of the King's visit,
the Academy of Arts of St. Fernando, at Madrid, were requested to
superintend the execution; but this body, actuated by a most illiberal
and unworthy spirit, endeavoured to excuse themselves, and made every
possible delay, which so enraged the Catalans, that they withdrew the
business from their hands, and trusted it to their own academy. The
medal was produced in a month, and remains a record rather of their
loyal zeal, than of their ability in the fine arts."
[Illustration: PLATE 97
CALLE DE MONCARA.
MDW 1869]
PLATE XCVII.
_BARCELONA._
STAIRCASE OF AN OLD HOUSE IN THE CALLE DE MONCARA.
I AM induced to give this one little specimen of what the Spaniards call
"Churriguerismo" for these reasons: 1stly, because it is a prettier
example than usual of the style practised early in the eighteenth
century by the fashionable José Churriguerra--the William Kent of
Spanish architecture; 2ndly, because it affords a good specimen of the
comfortable house of a rich Barcelonese merchant of the last century;
and 3rdly, on account of the singular arrangement of the jointing of the
masonry, which converts the apparently double arch into very little else
than one tolerably stable spanning of the whole space.
In describing my eighty-fifth sketch I alluded to the fact that the
trade of Spain gradually fell into the hands mainly of foreigners, and
especially at first of the Genoese, the difference between them and the
native Spanish merchant being that while the former were crafty,
industrious and dishonest, the latter were stupid and lazy, but (except
in the matter of smuggling) strictly honest. Plenty of witness is borne
by different writers to both facts. Quevedo, for instance, abounds in
hits at the Genoese and other Italians. "Give an Italian to the Devil,"
he says in his "El Alguazil Endemoniado," "and the old gentleman won't
try to take him, for an Italian would take away the Devil himself."[64]
Elsewhere in the same satire he cautions his readers telling them that
they are bound to know "that in Spain the mysteries of the accounts of
the Genoese are disastrous for the millions that come from the Indies,
and that the cannons of their pens are batteries for purses. There are
no incomes which, if they once get into the strokes of their pens, and
the inkholders of their inkstands, escape without drowning."[65]
The poco-curante honesty of the Spaniard on the other hand, (the
"poco-curanteeism" at least an inheritance from the East,) kept business
in his hands which, but for his reliability, ought according to every
recognised law of probability in trade, to have left him before it did.
Laborde, a writer by no means inclined to take too favourable a view of
the national character, confesses that "Spanish probity is proverbial,
and that it conspicuously shines in commercial relations. Good faith and
punctuality are generally prevalent among merchants, the instances of
deception, negligence, fraudulent dealing and non-fulfilment of
engagements, so general in the trading world, being unknown to and not
practised amongst them." As an illustration, Laborde mentions some
coined silver sent home in the year 1654, which was paid away by the
Spanish merchants, and was subsequently discovered to have been debased.
Not only were the Spanish merchants eager to make good the loss to those
who had dealt with them, but having discovered the culprit they obtained
his conviction, and the wretched man was publicly burnt alive. In spite
of honesty, however, trade and commerce will not thrive in any country
in which they are looked upon as degrading. A Catalonian might work,
since he was but half a Spaniard. A Castilian, however, was quite
willing to pay any one who would work for him, and as with his increase
of wealth his wants became more and more artificial and luxurious, the
swarms of foreigners he harboured about him to do his bidding, increased
to an unprecedented extent. The Countess D'Aulnois gives a capital
account of the state of things in this respect in her time (circâ 1679).
"Spain," she says,[66] "cannot well be without commerce with France, not
only on the frontiers of Biscai and Arragon, where it hath been almost
ever permitted, but through the whole country where it is prohibited,
for Provence hath ever had correspondencies in the kingdom of Valentia,
by its necessity of the others commodities; and for the same reason
Britaign, Normandy, and other parts on the ocean have continually sent
theirs to Cadiz and Bilbo. I speak not of corn and stuffs of all sorts
brought from that country, but even of ironwork and swords; by which it
appears a mistake to think that in these dayes the best come of Spain.
No more being now made at Toledo, few but forrain are used, unless a
very small quantity that come from Biscai, which are excessively dear.
"It is, moreover, hard to imagine how much Spain suffers for want of
manufactures. So few artificers remain in its towns, that native
commodities are carried abroad to be wrought in forrain countries. Wools
and silks are transported raw, and being spun and weaved in England,
France, and Holland, return thither at dear rates. The land itself is
not tilled by the people it feeds. In seed time, harvest, and vintage,
husbandmen come from Bearn and other parts of France, who get a great
deal of money by sowing and reaping their corn, and dressing and cutting
their vines. Carpenters and masons are (for the most part) also
strangers, who will be paid treble what they can get in their own
country. In Madrid there is hardly a waterbearer that is not a
foreigner, such are also the greatest part of shoomakers and taylors,
and it is believed the third of these come only to get a little money
and afterwards return home; but none thrive so much as architects,
masons, and carpenters. Almost every house hath wooden windows (here
being no glass), and a balcony jutting into the street."
[Illustration: PLATE 98
GERONA OLD HOUSE NEAR THE ESTRELLA DE ORO.
MDW 1869]
PLATE XCVIII.
_GERONA._
OLD HOUSE NEAR THE ESTRELLA DE ORO.
IF my last sketch illustrated the regular rich merchant's house of the
eighteenth century--symbol of peace and plenty, police and
protection--the kind of residence I now submit to the reader's attention
is cast in quite a different key. It is essentially a fighter's house,
the only kind of structure in which (before the use of gunpowder) a
family could hold its own for months of foreign siege or protracted
street fighting. Gerona has always been, as we shall have occasion to
recognize in examining its fine old walls, almost a frontier city,
struggled for repeatedly by Christian and by Moor. The house I have
sketched is one of the earliest and most complete of its class I have
ever seen, the lower half alone having been materially altered from its
original construction. It dates in all probability from the middle of
the twelfth century, and yet stands strong and stalwart in a quarter of
the city in which very little of anything not comparatively of yesterday
meets the wandering visitor's eye. On comparing this sketch with that
from a house at Barcelona (No. 96) erected at least three hundred years
later, it will be found that the type furnished by the earliest in date
had changed but little in the interval. Hence we may fairly infer that
the conditions of insecurity affecting domestic life had scarcely varied
in Catalonia during the whole of that term. In fact, it was not until
the invention of printing spread abroad the elements of education, and
brought about changes in social systems, that men began to dream of
peace and security ensured by other preservatives from danger than heavy
armour and fortress-like houses.
[Illustration: PLATE 99
GERONA. UPPER PART OF OLD HOUSE. NEAR SAINT FELIX
MDW 1869]
PLATE XCIX.
_GERONA._
UPPER PART OF OLD HOUSE AND SPIRE OF THE CHURCH OF SAN FELIU.
THE west front of the Cathedral at Gerona stands at the top of a noble
flight of eighty-six steps, and these ascended, platforms are reached on
the west and south of the splendid pile from which fine views over the
city and its environs are obtained. The sketch now under notice was
taken from the southern platform, the wall enclosing which upon the west
cuts off something like thirty feet in height of the fine old house
which forms the principal object in the sketch. Its uppermost story,
with its continuous arcade, has a symmetrical and agreeable effect, and
appears to have been the only portion of the building really suitable
for habitation according to modern views as to the value of abundant
light and air. On the right is seen the cathedral well, the waters of
which have no doubt alike served for the bodily and spiritual ablutions
of Mahommedan and Christian, since cathedral, mosque, and then again
cathedral, have existed in turn upon the same site from the days of
Charlemagne to the present time. During the Moorish occupation in the
eighth century the Christians were permitted to worship in the original
church of San Feliu (Felix) the truncated spire of the successor to
which appears in my sketch between the old house, and the south-west
angle of the cathedral, shown on the extreme right. The present church,
dedicated to San Feliu, dates probably from the early part of the
fourteenth century. Its history has been clearly traced by Mr. Street
from a comparison of the building with the particulars given and
documents quoted in the "España Sagrada." "The steeple is said to have
been finished in 1392. Pedro Zacoma having acted as architect as late as
A.D. 1376." It was struck by lightning in the year 1581, and has
remained ever since shorn of its fair proportions, as we now see it.
San Feliu, as he is popularly called, was an early Spanish Christian,
deacon to San Narciso, the Martyr, Protector and "Generalissimo" of the
See of Gerona.
[Illustration: PLATE 100
GERONA OLD WALLS NEAR SAN PEDRO
MDW 1869]
PLATE C.
_GERONA._
OLD WALLS NEAR THE MONASTERY OF SAN PEDRO.
FROM the date at least on which Charlemagne captured Gerona from the
Moors, it has been a victim to the horrors of war; manned through all
history, and under every circumstance of siege and occupation, by men
and women of the sternest courage and determination it has been held
with the utmost tenacity, as really even more than Figueras (the actual
frontier town), the key to the easiest line of advance from France into
Spain. Hence the strength and interest of its fine old walls, which in
spite of every ancient and modern vicissitude, still retain more curious
features of middle age defence than, to the best of my belief, any other
city of Spain, with the exception of Avila. As will be seen from my
sketch, the apse of the fine old Romanesque church of San Pedro, which
actually forms a bulwark, has been raised so as to bring it into
practical fighting order; and the covered galleries for marksmen, with
bow and cross bow, matchlock and firelock, still extend from it to the
north and to the south in easily to be recognised, and still fairly
complete, galleries of well-sheltered communication. The present aspect
of the north of Gerona forms a fair pendant to the description Charles
Didier gives of its sister fortress to the side of France, Figueras. He
says, "Tout a un air d'abandon et de désolation; les casernes sont
magnifiques, mais désertes; les casemates spacieuses, mais vides; les
longues herbes de la solitude croissent partout, et la seule partie des
bâtiments qui soit aujourd'hui de première nécessité, l'infirmerie,
n'est point terminée; les pierres à moitié taillées jonchent le sol et
sont couvertes de mousse. J'errai longtemps seul dans ce silencieux
désert sans rencontrer personne; de loin en loin seulement, j'apercevais
quelque sentinelle perdue à la pointe d'une demi-lune et nonchalamment
appuyée contre les canons et les mortiers; de gros rats rongeaient en
paix les affuts; ils se sont si bien emparés du lieu, que mon approche
les dérangeait à peine; je n'avais pas fait trois pas, qu'ils se
remettaient à l'oeuvre. Voilà sous quels traits l'Espagne apparaît au
voyageur qui vient de France, triste et frappante image d'une chute sans
exemple et d'une misère sans terme."[67]
One would have preferred receiving from any other than a Frenchman so
dreary a picture of the desolation mainly wrought by Frenchmen.
Returning to Gerona, to which Didier's description applies (as I have
already stated) nearly as well as to Figueras, in sight of which he may
have written it, we shall find Mr. Street no less strongly impressed
than I was with what Spain owes to France in the matter. "All this havoc
and ruin is owing," he says, "like so much that one sees in Spain, to
the action of the French troops during the Peninsular War." It is
however but just to the French to add that the Spaniards are not, like
them, endowed with wonderful recuperative energy.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Von P. L. Berckenmeyern. Hamburg, 1731.
[2] "The Frenchman like an eagle. The German like a bear. The Italian
like a fox. The Spaniard like an elephant. The Englishman like a lion."
[3] Waring (John Burley) Architectural, Sculptural, and Picturesque
Studies of Burgos and its neighbourhood. Folio. London. 1851.
[4] Examples of Architectural Art in Italy and Spain. Folio. London.
1850.
[5] "Viaggio in Spagna," quoted by O'Shea, page 498.
[6] Examples of Ornamental Heraldry of the sixteenth century. London,
1867. Privately printed.
[7] Given at length under the No. XXXV in the Appendix to the First
Volume of the "Noticias de los Arquitectos y Architectura de España,
&c.," por Señor D. Eugenio Llaguno y Amirola, &c. Madrid, 1829.
[8] Carefully illustrated geometrically in the "Monumentos
Arquitectonicos." Madrid. Folio.
[9] See: "Historia de las ordenes Militares de S. Iago," por F. Caro de
Torres. Madrid, 1629. Folio.
[10] O'Shea. Page 236.
[11] Ingenious and diverting letters of "A Lady's Travels into Spain,"
London, 1720, Vol. I, page 308.
[12] See Colmenar's description of the condition of the University in
1715.
[13] London 1771, Vol. II., page 24.
[14] There is much in this very town of Avila in the beautiful old
church of San Vicente.
[15] Catálogo de la Real Armeria--siendo Director General, &c.--el S. D.
José Maria Marchesi--Madrid, 1849, pages 188-89.
[16] Les Délices de l'Espagne et du Portugal--Leide chez Pierre van der
Aa, 1706.
[17] See the true and topographical views given in the above work, and
the artistic and considerably embellished one by David Roberts in
Jennings' Landscape Annual for 1837.
[18] "Documentos," Vol. I. of the "Noticias" Appendix No. XXXVIII.
[19] Printed at Alcala in 1514-15 in 6 vols. folio.
[20] España Artistica y monumental de Villa Amil y Escosura, Vol. I.
page 82.
[21] Tome I., page 222. Bruxelles, 1837.
[22] The greater part of the above facts are verified by the inscription
which was placed upon the bridge by Alonzo the Wise, in 1252, and the
original of which is given by Cean Bermudez in his "Documentos" Vol. I.
Number XXIV.
[23] Noticias de los Arquitectos, &c. Par Amirola y Bermudez, Madrid,
1829. Vol. I. page 41.
[24] Noticias &c. Vol. I. page 79.
[25] A Journey to Mequinez. London, Jacob Tonson, 1725.
[26] Probably a son of the great Henrique de Egas, who died in 1534.
[27] O'Shea states (page 410) that the Infante Don Fernando, uncle of
Juan II., lodged in it in 1407.
[28] In the Street of the Abbots, all have _uncles_ none _fathers_.
[29] The Cathedral Canons have no _sons_, those they keep at home are
_little nephews_.
[30] "A Year's Journey through France and Part of Spain," by Philip
Thicknesse. Bath, 1777. Vol. I. pages 260-1.
[31] In his amusing "Tra los Montes." Bruxelles, 1843. Vol. II. page 44.
[32] Neu-vermehrter Curieuser Antiquarius. Hamburgh. 1731.
[33] Travels through Spain in the year 1775 and 1776, in which several
monuments of Roman and Moorish architecture are illustrated by accurate
drawings taken on the spot by Henry Swinburne, Esq. London. 4to. 1779.
[34] O'Shea adds the name of Cayon to that of Acero, describing the two
as descending from the Salamanca school, founded by Churriguera and
Tomé.
[35] There is a little discrepancy between Ford's and O'Shea's accounts,
the former says that it was given by the Republic of Genoa to Charles
V., the latter gives the facts as I have stated them.
[A] Miguel Mañara Vicentelo de Leca (1627-1679). Note of etext
transcriber.
[36] See, especially for Spain, his "Monuments Arabes et Moresques de
Cordoue, Séville et Grenade." Paris, 1832-3, and its
continuation--"Monuments Arabes d'Egypte de Syrie et d'Asie Mineure,"
1842-5, Paris. The above are essentially pictorial works, but in his
"Essai sur l'Architecture des Arabes et des Maures," &c., Paris, 1841,
he has discussed the whole subject historically with much ability.
[37] Plan section and elevation of the outer side of this Gateway, to a
large scale, will be found on Plate II. of Owen Jones's great work on
the Alhambra. I sketched the interior of this Gateway, mainly because
that was the only part of it which he had not given.
[38] A pretty coloured view from this very point will be found in M.
Girault de Prangey's "Choix d'Ornements moresques de l'Alhambra," Paris,
1842. Plate No. 3.
[39] An alabaster fountain probably occupied the centre of the Sala de
Embajadores.
[40] It is but just to Señor Contréras to remark that the Poet's picture
was sketched before the date of his admirable conservatorship. He is a
true artist, and has done wonders in the way of restoration, completing
and as little as possible interfering with the marvellous picturesque
character of the noble old Palace.
[41] Calcutta, 1821.
[42] "A Journey to Mequinez, the residence of the present Emperor of Fez
and Morocco, on the occasion of Commodore Stewart's Embassy thither for
the redemption of the British Captives in the year 1711." London, Jacob
Tonson. 1725. A very interesting old book, the descriptions in which
carry the mind forcibly back to the Moorish occupation of Spain.
[43] For full information on the Glass of the Romans, the
Byzantine-Greeks, and the Arabs, of Damascus especially, see Mr.
Augustus Franks' account in Mr. J. B. Waring's beautiful work on the
Manchester Exhibition, Mr. Alexander Nesbitt's "Historical Notice"
Introductory to the Catalogue of Mr. Felix Slade's collection, M.
Bontemps' "Guide du Verrier," and M. Labarte's "Histoire des Arts
Industriels au moyen-âge et à l'Epoque de la Renaissance."
[44] Of course alluding to the ceiling, which is even more beautiful in
the same style, than that of the Hall of the Abencerrages, which, my
colleague, Mr. Owen Jones so perfectly reproduced in the Crystal Palace
at Sydenham.
[45] "The Kiblah is the point in the horizon towards which Mahommedans
turn in their prayers marking the place where Mecca stands. The Mihrab
is the enclosure before the Kiblah."
[46] See Mr. J. B. Waring's masterly sketches of the details of these
works of art.
[47] Who also states that in his time the drawings of the design by
Diego Siloe were yet extant, "Noticias de los Arquitectos y Arquitectura
de España." Madrid. 1829. Vol. I. page 199.
[48] "History of the Modern Styles of Architecture," by James Fergusson.
London. 1862. page 135.
[49] Mr. Street in referring to the usual practice in good mediæval iron
screens observes that in such "the ornament is reserved for open
traceried crestings, with bent and sharply cut crockets, for traceried
rails, and for the locks and fastenings." He mentions a very fine iron
screen, thirty feet high, as existing at Pamplona, the general design of
which seems to have a good deal in common with that of the "Reja de los
Reyes" at Granada. It appears, however, to be of earlier date, and
consequently more decidedly Gothic in character.
[50] "Varia Commensuracion." Sixth Edition, pages 221-222.
[51] Casts of these sculptures I caused to be placed in the surbase of
the Renaissance Court of the Crystal Palace.
[52] Viage de España. Vol. XV. page 79.
[53] "Gothic Architecture in Spain," page 270.
[54] "Marcos Obregon por el Maestro Vicente Espinel." Madrid. 1804.
Pages 40-41. (note of etext transcriber: sagon should read razón.)
[55] "History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic." New
York. 1845. Page cxi.
[56] Navagiero--"Il Viaggio fatto in Spagna." Venice. 1563. Page 3.
[57] "Recuerdos y Bellezas de España," por F. J. Parcerisa escrita y
documentada, por P. Piferrer y J. Pi y Margall. Cataluña. Tome II., page
222.
[58] "Travels through Spain and Part of Portugal." Sherwood Collection.
London, 1818, page 281.
[59] Ponz, Antonio, "Viage de España." Third Edition. Madrid. 1787. Vol.
I. page 54.
[60] "A View of Spain." Translated from the French of Alexandre de
Laborde. London, 1809. Vol. IV., pp. 371-3.
[61] Even better known as "El Vandolino."
[62] "Varia Commensuracion para la escultura y Arquitectura, sexta
impresion." Madrid, 1773. Page 222.
[63] "Travels through Spain and Part of Portugal," by the Rev. G. D.
Whittaker in 1803. Sherwood's Collection, London, 1813, page 279.
[64] "Days al Diablo un Italiano, y no le toma el Diablo, por que ay
Italiano que tomara al Diablo."