captors. When envious Muza followed up the march of Tarik, his
lieutenant, he demanded from him all the spoil, and in particular the
ever-famous table. Tarik surrendered this forthwith, but after slyly
wrenching off a leg. Muza perceived the breakage, and inquired for the
missing piece. "I know not," said the other; "'twas thus that I
discovered it." Muza then ordered a new leg of gold to be made for the
table, as well as a box of palm leaves, in which it was deposited.
"This," says Ibn Hayyan, "is known to be one of the reasons why Tarik
worsted Muza in the dispute they had before the Caliph as to their
respective conquests." So it proved. Ibn Abdo-l-Haquem[16] relates that
Muza appeared before the Caliph Al-Walid and produced the table. Tarik
interposed and said that he himself had taken it, and not the other
leader. "Give it into my hands," the Caliph answered, "that I may see if
any piece of it be wanting," and found, indeed, that one of its feet was
different from the rest. "Ask Muza," interrupted Tarik, "for the missing
foot, and if he answer from his heart, then shall his words be truth."
Accordingly Al-Walid inquired for the foot, and Muza made reply that he
had found the table as it now appeared; but Tarik with an air of triumph
drew forth the missing piece which he himself had broken off, and said:
"By this shall the Emir of the Faithful recognize that I am speaking
truth; that I it was who found the table." And thereupon Al-Walid
credited his words and loaded him with gifts.
[16] _Account of the Conquest of Spain_, published, with an English
translation and notes, by John Harris Jones. London, 1858.
Comparing the statements of these writers, we may be certain that the
"table" was a kind of desk of Visigothic or, more probably, Byzantine
workmanship, for holding the gospels on the feast-days of the national
church. Probably, too, seeing that a palm-leaf box was strong enough to
keep it in, its size was inconsiderable. Its value, on the statement of
Ibn Abdo-l-Haquem, was two hundred thousand _dinares_.
The sum of my remarks upon the Visigothic jewel-work is this.
Distinguished by a coarse though costly splendour, we find in it a
mingled Roman and Byzantine source, although it was upon the whole
inferior to these styles, being essentially, as Amador observes, "an
imitative and decadent art." Yet it did not succumb before the Moors,
but lurked for refuge in the small Asturian monarchy, and later, issuing
thence, extended through the kingdom of León into Castile. We find its
clearest characteristics in such objects as the Cross of Angels and the
Cross of Victory. Then, later still, it is affected and regenerated by
the purely oriental art of the invader; and lastly, till the wave of the
Renaissance floods the western world, by Gothic influences from across
the Pyrenees.
A similar sketch may be applied to other arts and crafts of
Spain--particularly furniture and architecture.
[Illustration: II
THE CROSS OF ANGELS
_(Oviedo Cathedral)_]
The pious or superstitious kings and magnates of this land have always
taken pride in adding (at the instigation of the clergy) to the treasure
of her churches and cathedrals. Such gifts include all kinds of
sumptuous apparel for the priesthood; chasubles and dalmatics heavily
embroidered with the precious metals, gold or silver crowns and crosses,
paxes,[17] chalices and patines, paraments and baldaquinos, reliquaries
in every shape and style and size, and figures of the Virgin--such as
those of Lugo, Seville, Astorga, and Pamplona--consisting of elaborate
silver-work upon a wooden frame. Visitors to Spain, from leisurely
Rosmithal five hundred years ago to time-economizing tourists of our
century, have been continually astonished at the prodigal richness of
her sanctuaries. Upon this point I quote a typical extract from the
narrative of Bertaut de Rouen. "The treasure of this church," he said of
Montserrat, "is wonderfully precious, and particularly so by reason of
two objects that belong to it. The first is a crown of massive gold of
twenty pounds in weight, covered with pearls, with ten stars radiating
from it also loaded with large pearls and diamonds of extraordinary
value. This crown took forty years to make, and is valued at two
millions of gold money. The second object is a gold crown entirely
covered with emeralds, most of them of an amazing size. Many are worth
five thousand crowns apiece. The reliquary, too, is of extraordinary
richness, as also a service of gold plate studded with pearls, donated
by the late emperor for use in celebrating Mass."
[17] The pax or osculatory used in celebrating High Mass is commonly,
says Rosell de Torres, "a plate of gold or ivory, or other metal
or material, according to the time and circumstances of its
manufacture. The priest who celebrates the Mass kisses it after
the _Agnus Dei_ and the prayer _ad petendam pacem_, and the
acolytes present it, as a sign of peace and brotherly union, to
all the other priests who may be present. This usage springs from
the kiss of peace which was exchanged, prior to receiving the
communion, between the early Christians in their churches. The pax
has commonly borne an image of the Virgin with the Holy Infant,
the face of Christ, or else the Agnus Dei." Its Latin name was the
_deosculatorium_.
Similar accounts to the above exist in quantities, relating to every
part of Spain and every period of her history.
Reverting to the earlier Middle Ages, a few conspicuous objects thus
presented to the Spanish Church require to be briefly noted here. Famous
chalices are those of Santo Domingo de Silos (eleventh century), made to
the order of Abbot Domingo in honour of San Sebastian, and showing the
characteristic Asturian filigree-work; and of San Isidoro of León, made
in 1101 by order of Urraca Fernandez, sister of the fourth Alfonso. The
latter vessel, inscribed with the dedication of _Urraca Fredinandi_, has
an agate cup and foot. A remarkably handsome silver-gilt chalice and
patine (thirteenth century) belong to Toledo cathedral. The height of
this chalice is thirteen inches, and the diameter of its bowl, which has
a conical shape, eight and a half inches. Inside and out the bowl is
smooth, but midway between the bowl and the foot is a massive knot or
swelling in the stem, and on the knot the emblematic lion, eagle, bull,
and angel are chiselled in high relief. Below the knot is a ring of
graceful rosettes. The patine which accompanies this chalice measures
twelve inches in diameter. It has upon it, thinly engraved within a
slightly sunk centre with a scalloped edge, the figure of Christ upon
the cross, between the Virgin and St John. This central group of figures
and the border of the plate are each surrounded with a narrow strip of
decoration.
The cathedral of Valencia has a beautiful and early cup asserted to be
the veritable Holy Grail (_greal_, _garal_, or _gradal_, in the old
Castilian), "of which," wrote Ford with his accustomed irony, "so many
are shown in different orthodox _relicarios_." However this may be, the
chalice of Valencia is particularly handsome. According to Riaño it
consists of "a fine brown sardonyx which is tastefully moulded round the
lip. The base is formed of another inverted sardonyx. These are united
by straps of pure gold. The stem is flanked by handles, which are inlaid
with delicate arabesque in black enamel. Oriental pearls are set round
the base and stem, which alternate with rubies, sapphires, and emeralds.
This chalice is a work of the Roman imperial epoch, and the mounts are
of a later date."
A series of Spanish chalices, beginning chronologically with specimens
which date from the early Middle Ages, and terminating with the chalice,
made in 1712, of Santa María la Blanca of Seville, was shown in 1892 at
the Exposición Histórico-Europea of Madrid. Among the finer or most
curious were chalices proceeding from the parish church of Játiva, Las
Huelgas, and Seville cathedral, and the Plateresque chalices of
Calatayud, Granada, and Alcalá de Henares. Another chalice which is
greatly interesting because of the date inscribed on it, is one which
was presented to Lugo cathedral by a bishop of that diocese, Don Garcia
Martinez de Bahamonde (1441-1470). The workmanship, though prior to the
sixteenth century, is partly Gothic. An article by José Villa-amil y
Castro, dealing with all these chalices, will be found in the _Boletín
de la Sociedad Española de Excursiones_ for April, 1893.
A small exhibition was held at Lugo in August 1896. Here were shown
sixteen chalices, nearly all of them of merit from the point of view of
history or art. Such are the chalice of San Rosendo, proceeding from the
old monastery of Celanova; the Gothic chalices of Tuy cathedral, Lugo
cathedral, Santa María del Lucio, Santa Eulalia de Guilfrei, San Pedro
de Puertomarín, and the Franciscan friars of Santiago; and the chalice
and patine of Cebrero (twelfth century), in which it is said that on a
certain occasion in the fifteenth century the wine miraculously turned
to actual blood, and the Host to actual flesh, in order to convince a
doubting priest who celebrated service.
The Cross of Angels and the Cross of Victory--presents, respectively,
from Alfonso the Chaste and Alfonso the Great--are now preserved at
Oviedo, in the Camara Santa of that stately temple. The former of these
crosses, fancied by credulous people to be the handiwork of
angels--whence its title[18]--was made in A.D. 808. It consists of four
arms of equal length, radiating from a central rosette (Pl. ii.). The
core or _alma_ is of wood covered with a double plate of richly
decorated gold, chased in the finest filigree (indicative already of the
influence of Cordova) and thickly strewn with sapphires, amethysts,
topazes, and cornelians. Other stones hung formerly from six small rings
upon the lower border of the arms. The cross is thus inscribed:--
_"Susceptum placide maneat hoc in honore Dei
Offeret Adefonsus humilis servus Xti
Hoc signo tuetur pius
Hoc signo vincitur inimicus._
_Quisquis auferre presumpserit mihi
Fulmine divino intereat ipse
Nisi libens ubi voluntas dederit mea
Hoc opus perfectum est in Era DCCXLVI."_
[18] This marvel is related by the Monk of Silos. A quotation from
another of my books is applicable here. "Last year," I wrote in
1902--(pp. 64, 65 of _Toledo and Madrid: Their Records and
Romances_)--"the young King Alfonso the Thirteenth paid a visit to
Oviedo cathedral, and was duly shown the relics and the jewels.
Among these latter was the 'Cross of the Angels.'
"'Why is it so called?' inquired the king.
"'Because,' replied the bishop of the diocese, 'it is said that the
angels made it to reward King Alfonso the Chaste.'
"'Well, but,' insisted the young monarch, 'what ground is there for
thinking so?'
"'Señor,' replied the prelate, 'none whatever. _The time for
traditions is passing away._'"
[Illustration: III
THE CROSS OF VICTORY
(_Oviedo Cathedral_)]
The other cross (Pl. iii.) is more than twice as large, and measures
just one yard in height by two feet four and a half inches in width.
Tradition says that the primitive, undecorated wooden core of this cross
was carried against the Moors by King Pelayo. The ornate casing, similar
to that upon the Cross of Angels, was added later, and contains 152 gems
and imitation gems. The following inscription tells us that this casing
was made at the Castle of Gauzon in Asturias, in the year 828:--
_"Susceptum placide maneat hoc in honore Dei, quod offerent
Famuli Christi Adefonsus princeps et Scemaena Regina;
Quisquis auferre hoc donoria nostra presumpserit
Fulmine divino intereat ipse.
Hoc opus perfectum et concessum est
Santo Salvatori Oventense sedis.
Hoc signo tuetur pius, hoc vincitur inimicus
Et operatum est in castello Gauzon anno regni nostri._
XLII. _discurrente Era_ DCCCLXVI."
These crosses are processional. Others which were used for the same
purpose are those of San Sebastián de Serrano (Galicia), San Munio de
Veiga, Santa María de Guillar (Lugo), San Mamed de Fisteos, and Santa
María de Arcos. The five preceding crosses are of bronze; those of
Baamorto and San Adriano de Lorenzana are respectively of silver, and of
wood covered with silver plates, and all were shown at the Lugo
exhibition I have spoken of.
Besides the Cross of Victory or Pelayo, and the Cross of Angels,
interesting objects preserved at Oviedo are a small diptych presented by
Bishop Don Gonzalo (A.D. 1162-1175), and the _Arca Santa_ used for
storing saintly relics. This beautiful chest, measuring three feet nine
inches and a half in length by twenty-eight inches and a half in height,
is considered by Riaño to be of Italian origin, and to date from between
the tenth and twelfth centuries.
Another handsome box belonging to the cathedral of Astorga was once upon
a time the property of Alfonso the Third and his queen Jimena, whose
names it bears--ADEFONSVS REX: SCEMENA REGINA. The workmanship is
consequently of the close of the ninth or the beginning of the tenth
century. The material is wood covered with _repoussé_ silver plates on
which are figured angels and birds, together with the eagle and the ox
as emblems of the evangelists John and Luke, whose names are also to be
read upon the casket.
Next to the sword, no object in the history of mediæval Spain was more
profoundly popular or venerated than the _relicario_. This in its
primitive form was just a small receptacle, such as a vase or urn of
gold or silver, ivory or crystal, used by the laity or clergy for
treasuring bones, or hairs, or other relics of the Virgin, or the
Saviour, or the saints. In private families a holy tooth, or toe, or
finger thus preserved would often, as though it were some Eastern
talisman, accompany its credulous possessor to the battlefield.
As time went on, the urn or vase was commonly replaced by chests or
caskets made by Moorish captives, or by tranquil and respected Moorish
residents within the territory of the Christian,[19] or wrested from
the infidel in war and offered by the Spanish kings or nobles to their
churches. Here they were kept on brackets, or suspended near the altar
by a chain[20] of silver, gold, or iron. Among the Moors themselves such
chests and caskets served, according to their richness or capacity, for
storing perfumes, clothes, or jewels, or as a present from a bridegroom
to his bride; and since the sparsely-furnished Oriental room contains no
kind of wardrobe, cabinet, or chest of drawers, their use in Moorish
parts of Spain was universal.
[19] In many towns a hearty friendship sprang up between the Spaniard
and the Moor. This was a natural consequence in places where the
vanquished had a better education than the victor. The warrior
population of both races might be struggling on the field at the
same moment that their craftsmen were fraternizing in the workshop.
Ferdinand the First and Alfonso the Sixth were particularly lenient
in their usage of the dominated Muslim. Thus, the former of these
princes recognised the Moorish townspeople of Sena as his vassals,
while those of Toledo were freely allowed by Alfonso to retain
their worship and their mosque.
[20] "_Fallaron ay de marfil arquetas muy preçiadas
Con tantas de noblezas que non podrian ser contadas
Fueron para San Pedro las arquetas donadas;
Están en este dia en el su altar asentadas._"
Poem of FERRAN GONZALVEZ (13th century).
A typical Moorish casket of this kind (Plate iv.) is now in the
cathedral of Gerona. It measures fifteen inches in length by nine
across, fastens with a finely ornamented band and clasp of bronze, and
is covered with thin silver-gilt plates profusely decorated with a bead
and floral pattern superposed upon a box of non-decaying
wood--possibly larch or cedar. A Cufic inscription along the lower
part of the lid was formerly interpreted as follows:--
"In the name of God. (May) the blessing of God, prosperity and fortune
and perpetual felicity be (destined) for the servant of God, Alhakem,
Emir of the Faithful, because he ordered (this casket) to be made for
Abdul Walid Hischem, heir to the throne of the Muslims. It was finished
by the hands of Hudzen, son of Bothla."
[Illustration: IV
MOORISH CASKET
(_Gerona Cathedral_)]
It is supposed, however, that the part of this inscription which
contains the maker's name was rendered incorrectly by Riaño, who
followed, on this point, Saavedra, Fita, and other archæologists; and
that the casket was made to the order of Djaudar, as a gift to the heir
to the throne, Abulwalid Hischem, the actual workmen being two slaves,
Bedr and Tarif. That is to say, the name Hudzen is now replaced by
Djaudar, whom Dozy mentions in his history of the Mussulman domination
in Spain, and who is known to have been a eunuch high in favour with
Alhakem, Hischem's father. These princes ruled at Cordova in the latter
half of the tenth century and the beginning of the eleventh.
Spanish-Moorish caskets (_arquetas_) of ivory, silver, or inlaid work,
are also preserved in the South Kensington Museum, the Archæological
Museum at Madrid, and the cathedrals of Braga, Tortosa, and Oviedo.
There is no reason to doubt that all these boxes were made in Spain,
although an Eastern and particularly Persian influence is very
noticeable in their scheme of decoration.
Two silver caskets which were once in the church of San Isidoro at León
are now in the Madrid Museum. The smaller and plainer of the two,
elliptical in shape and measuring five inches in length by two inches
and a half in depth, is covered with a leaf and stem device outlined in
black enamel. A Cufic inscription of a private and domestic import, also
picked out with black enamel, runs along the top. The lid is ornamented,
like the body of the box, with leaves and stems surrounded by a Grecian
border, and fastens with a heart-shaped clasp secured by a ring.
The other, more elaborate, and larger box measures eight inches long by
five in height. In shape it is a parallelogram, with a deeply bevelled
rather than--as Amador describes it--a five-sided top. Bands of a simple
winding pattern outlined in black enamel on a ground of delicate
niello-work run round the top and body of the casket. The central band
upon the lower part contains a Cufic inscription of slight interest.
Some of the letters terminate in leaves. The bevelled lid is covered
with groups of peacocks--symbolic, among Mohammedans, of eternal
life--outlined in black enamel. These birds are eight in all, gathered
in two groups of four about the large and overlapping hinges. Four
leaves, trifoliate, in _repoussé_, one beneath the other, decorate the
clasp, which opens out into a heart containing, also in _repoussé_, two
inverted peacocks looking face to face. Between the birds this heart
extremity is pierced for the passage of a ring.
Amador de los Ríos considers that both caskets were made between the
years 1048 and 1089.
The use of coloured enamel in the manufacture of these boxes dates, or
generally so, from somewhat later. Although the history of enamelling in
Spain is nebulous and contradictory in the extreme, we know that caskets
in _champlevé_ enamel on a copper ground, with figures either flat or
hammered in a bold relief, became abundant here. Two, from the convent
of San Marcos at León, and dating from the thirteenth century, are now
in the Madrid Museum. Labarte says that the lids of these enamelled
reliquaries were flat until the twelfth century, and of a gable form
thenceforward.
[Illustration: V
ALTAR-FRONT IN ENAMELLED BRONZE
(_11th Century. Museum of Burgos_)]
Other old objects--boxes, triptyches, statuettes, incensories,
book-covers, crucifixes, and processional crosses--partly or wholly
covered with enamel, belong or recently belonged to the Marquises of
Castrillo and Casa-Torres, the Count of Valencia de Don Juan, and Señor
Escanciano. All, or nearly all, of these are thought to have proceeded
from Limoges (Pl. v.). _Champlevé_ enamel is also on the tiny "Crucifix
of the Cid" (Pl. vi.) at Salamanca, as well as on the Virgin's throne in
the gilt bronze statuette of the Virgin de la Vega at San Esteban in the
same city.[21] Of this image, although it properly belongs to another
heading of my book, I think it well to give a reproduction here (Plate
vii.). I will also mention, in spite of its presumably foreign origin,
the enamelled altar-front of San Miguel de Excelsis in Navarre--a small
sanctuary constructed by a mediæval cavalier who, by an accident
occasioned by the dark, murdered his father and mother in lieu of his
wife.[22] This altar-front, conspicuously Byzantine in its style,
measures four feet three inches high by seven feet five inches long, and
is now employed as the _retablo_ of the little church which stands in
solitary picturesqueness on the lofty mountain-top of Aralar. The
figures, coloured in relief upon a yellowish enamel ground, are those of
saints, and of a monarch and his queen--possibly King Sancho the Great,
who is believed to have been the donor of the ornament. If this surmise
be accurate, the front would date from the eleventh century.
[21] Together with the statuette of Ujué in Navarre, the Virgen de la
Vega of Salamanca may be classed as one of the earliest "local
Virgins" of this country. Sometimes these images are of wood alone,
sometimes of wood beneath a silver covering, sometimes, as that of
the Claustro de León, of stone. But whatever may be the substance,
the characteristics are the same:--Byzantine rigidness and
disproportion, the crude and primitive anatomy of artists only just
emerging from the dark. The Virgin and Child of Santa María la Real
of Hirache in Navarra may be instanced as another of the series.
This image dates from late in the twelfth or early in the
thirteenth century, although a crown and nimbus have been added
subsequently. It measures rather more than a yard in height, and
consists of wood covered with silver plates, except the hands and
face, which are painted. The Virgin, seated, holds the Infant with
her left arm; in her right hand is an apple. A kind of stole
bearing the following inscription in Gothic letter falls upon the
Infant's breast; "_Puer natus est nobis, venite adoremus. Ego sum
alpha et omega, primus et novissimus Dominus._" Before this
statuette the King Don Sancho is stated to have offered his
devotion.
[22] I quote this legend in Appendix A.
I have said that the history of Spanish enamel-work is both confused and
scanty. The subject in its general aspects has been studied by M.
Roulin, whose judgments will be found in the _Revue de l'Art Ancien et
Moderne_, and in his article, "Mobilier liturgique d'Espagne," published
in the _Revue de l'Art Chrétien_ for 1903. M. Roulin believes the
altar-front of San Miguel in Excelsis to be a Limoges product, not
earlier than the first half of the thirteenth century.
Ramírez de Arellano declares that no enamelling at all was done in Spain
before the invasion of the Almohades. López Ferreiro, who as a priest
had access to the jealously secreted archives of Santiago cathedral,
gives us the names of Arias Perez, Pedro Martinez, Fernan Perez, and
Pedro Pelaez, Galician enamellers who worked at Santiago in the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries. Martin Minguez says that enamelling was done
at Gerona in the fourteenth century, and Moorish enamels were certainly
produced at Cordova and Cuenca from comparatively early in the Middle
Ages. A few obscure workers in enamel are mentioned by Gestoso, in his
_Diccionario de Artistas Sevillanos_, as living at Seville in the
fifteenth century, though, in the entries which refer to them, little is
told us of their lives and nothing of their labours. In the sixteenth
century we obtain a glimpse of two enamellers of Toledo--Lorenzo Marqués
and Andrés Ordoñez, and dating from the same period the Chapter of the
Military Orders of Ciudad Real possesses a silver-gilt _porta-paz_ with
enamelling done at Cuenca. However, our notices of this branch of
Spanish art have yet to be completed.
[Illustration: VI
"THE CRUCIFIX OF THE CID"
(_Salamanca Cathedral_)]
A long array of royal gifts caused, in the olden time, the treasure of
Santiago cathedral to be the richest and most varied in the whole
Peninsula, although at first this see was merely suffragan to Merida.
But early in the twelfth century a scheming bishop, by name Diego
Gelmirez, intrigued at Rome to raise his diocese to the dignity of an
archbishopric. The means by which he proved successful in the end were
far from irreproachable. "Gelmirez," says Ford (vol. ii. p. 666) "was a
cunning prelate, and well knew how to carry his point; he put Santiago's
images and plate into the crucible, and sent the ingots to the Pope."