gold. This altar-front Gelmirez melted down to steal from it some
hundred ounces of the precious metal for the Pope, donating in its
stead another front of gold and silver mixed, wrought from the remaining
treasure of the sanctuary. Aymerich tells us that the primitive frontal
bore the figure of the Saviour seated on a throne supported by the four
evangelists, blessing with his right hand, and holding in his left the
Book of Life. The four-and-twenty elders (called by quaint Morales
"gentlemen") of the apocalypse were also gathered round the throne, with
musical instruments in their hands, and golden goblets filled with
fragrant essences. At either end of the frontal were six of the
apostles, three above and three beneath, separated by "beautiful
columns" and surrounded by floral decoration. The upper part was thus
inscribed:--
HANC TABULAM DIDACUS PRÆSUL JACOBITA
SECUNDUS
TEMPORE QUINQUENNI FECIT EPISCOPI
MARCAS ARGENTI DE THESAURO JACOBENSI
HIC OCTOGINTA QUINQUE MINUS NUMERA.
And the lower part:--
REX ERAT ANFONSUS GENER EJUS DUX RAIMUNDUS
PRÆSUL PRÆFATUS QUANDO PEREGIT OPUS.
This early altar-front has disappeared like its predecessor; it is
not known precisely at what time; but both Morales and Medina saw and
wrote about it in the sixteenth century.
[Illustration: VII
THE "VIRGEN DE LA VEGA"
(_Salamanca_)]
Another ornament which Aymerich describes, namely, the _baldaquino_ or
_cimborius_, has likewise faded from the eyes of the profane, together
with three bronze caskets covered with enamel, and stated by Morales to
have contained the bones of Saints Silvestre, Cucufate, and Fructuoso.
One of these caskets was existing in the seventeenth century.
The silver lamps were greatly celebrated. Ambrosio de Morales counted
"twenty or more"; but Zepedano made their total mount to fifty-one. The
French invasion brought their number down to three. Three of the oldest
of these lamps had been of huge dimensions, particularly one, a present
from Alfonso of Aragon, which occupied the centre. The shape of it, says
Aymerich, was "like a mighty mortar." Seven was the number of its beaks,
symbolic of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost; and each beak contained a
lamplet fed with oil of myrtles, acorns, or olives.
All kinds of robberies and pilferings have thus been perpetrated with
the once abundant wealth of Santiago.[23] The jealous care which keeps
the copious archives inaccessible to all the outside world is in itself
of sinister significance. It has transpired, furthermore, that many of
the bishops have "exchanged," or simply stolen, portions of the holy
property. Besides these clerical dilapidations, a cartload, weighing
half a ton, was carried off by Marshal Ney, though some was subsequently
handed back, "because the spoilers feared the hostility of the
_Plateros_, the silversmiths who live close to the cathedral, and by
whom many workmen were employed in making little graven images,
teraphims and lares, as well as medallions of Santiago, which pilgrims
purchase."[24]
[23] A recent instance, not devoid of humour, is as follows. About three
years ago, a silly rogue removed and carried off the crown from
Santiago's head; but since the actual jewel is only worn on solemn
festivals, his prize turned out to be a worthless piece of tin. An
odd removal of the treasure of another Spanish church was noted by
the traveller Bowles. "The curate of the place, a worthy fellow who
put me up in his house, assured me that a detachment of a legion of
locusts entered the church, ate up the silk clothes upon the
images, and gnawed the varnish on the altars." Perhaps these
adamantine-stomached insects have assailed, from time to time, the
gold and silver plate of Santiago.
[24] Ford, _Handbook_, vol. ii. p. 671. I briefly notice, in Appendix B,
the Santiago jet-work, also practised by these craftsmen.
[Illustration: VIII
SAINT JAMES IN PILGRIM'S DRESS
(_Silver-gilt statuette; 15th Century. Santiago Cathedral_)]
Among the gifts of value which this temple yet preserves are the ancient
processional cross presented by the third Alfonso in the year of
grace 874,[25] and the hideous fourteenth-century reliquary shaped to
represent the head of James Alfeo, and containing (as it is believed)
this very relic (Pl. viii.). I make a reservation here, because the
Chapter have forbidden the reliquary to be opened. In either case,
whether the head be there or not, heads of the same apostle are affirmed
to be at Chartres, Toulouse, and other places. Similarly, discussing
these Hydra-headed beings of the Bible and the hagiology, Villa-amil y
Castro (_El Tesoro de la Catedral de Santiago_, published in the _Museo
Español de Antigüedades_) recalls to us the ten authenticated and
indubitable mazzards of Saint John the Baptist.
[25] To lend my censures further cogency, I leave this statement as I
set it down some weeks ago; since when, on picking up a Spanish
newspaper, I read the following telegram:--
"THEFT IN SANTIAGO CATHEDRAL
"SANTIAGO, _May 7th, 1906_ (9.15 _p.m._).
"This morning, when the canon in charge of the Chapel of the Relics
unlocked the door, he was surprised to observe that some of these
were lying in confusion on the floor. Fearing that a theft had been
committed, he sent for the dean and others of the clergy, who had
examination made, and found the following objects to be missing:--
_"A gold cross, presented by King Alfonso the Great, when he
attended the consecration of this temple in the year 874._
"Another cross, of silver, dating from the fifteenth century--a
present from Archbishop Spinola.
"An aureole of the fifteenth century, studded with precious stones
belonging to a statuette of the apostle Santiago.
"The authorities were summoned and at once began their search.
"They find that two of the thick iron bars of the skylight in the
ceiling of the cloister have been filed through. This cloister has
a skylight which opens upon the chapel.
"They have also found, upon the roof, a knotted rope. This rope was
only long enough to reach a cornice in the chapel wall. _The wall
itself affords no sign that anybody has attempted to descend by
it._"
The head-shaped reliquary is of beaten silver with enamelled visage, and
the hair and beard gilt.[26] The workmanship is French. The cross, which
hung till recently above the altar of the Relicario, but which now
requires to be placed upon the lengthy list of stolen wealth, was not
unlike the Cross of Angels in the Camara Santa at Oviedo, and had a
wooden body covered with gold plates in finely executed filigree,
studded with precious stones and cameos. Not many days ago, the wooden
core, divested of the precious metal and the precious stones, was found
abandoned in a field.
[26] This form of reliquary was not uncommon. Morales, in his _Viaje
Sacro_, describes another one, also preserved at Santiago, saying
that it was a bust of silver, life-size and gilded to the breast,
"with a large diadem of rays and many stones, both small and great,
all or most of them of fine quality, though not of the most
precious." Other bust-reliquaries belong, or have belonged, to the
Cathedrals of Burgos and Toledo.
Visitors to the shrine of Santiago seldom fail to have their curiosity
excited by the monster "smoke-thrower" (_bota-fumeiro_) or incensory,
lowered (much like the deadly sword in Poe's exciting tale) on each
_fiesta_ by a batch of vigorous Gallegos from an iron frame fixed into
the pendentives of the dome. "The calmest heart," says Villa-amil,
"grows agitated to behold this giant vessel descending from the apex of
the nave until it almost sweeps the ground, wreathed in dense smoke and
spewing flame." Ford seems to have been unaware that the real purpose of
this metal monster was not to simply scent the holy precincts, but to
cover up the pestilential atmosphere created by a horde of verminous,
diseased, and evil-smelling pilgrims, who, by a usage which is now
suppressed, were authorized to pass the night before the services within
the actual cathedral wall.
The original _bota-fumeiro_, resembling, in Oxea's words, "a silver
boiler of gigantic bulk," was lost or stolen in the War of Spanish
Independence. It was replaced by another of iron, and this, in 1851, by
the present apparatus of white metal.
Striking objects of ecclesiastical _orfebrería_ were produced in Spain
throughout the thirteenth and the fourteenth centuries. Among the finest
are the triptych-reliquary of Seville cathedral known as the _Alfonsine
Tables_; the _retablo_ and _baldaquino_ of the cathedral of Gerona; the
silver throne, preserved in Barcelona cathedral, of Don Martin of
Aragon; and the _guión_, at Toledo, of Cardinal Mendoza.
[Illustration: IX
MUDEJAR TRIPTYCH
(_Interior of one leaf of the door. 14th Century.
Royal Academy of History, Madrid_)]
Triptych-reliquaries, which had gradually expanded from the diptych
form--three leaves or panels thus replacing two,--were generally used in
Spain from the eleventh century, and varied in dimensions from a few
inches in height and width to several yards. We find them in the Gothic,
Mudejar,[27] Romanic, or Renaissance styles--wrought either in a single
style of these, or in effective combination of some two or more. The
Academy of History at Madrid possesses a richly ornamented Mudejar
triptych (Plate ix.) proceeding from the Monasterio de Piedra. It is
inferior, notwithstanding, to the _Tablas Alfonsinas_,[28] "a
specimen of Spanish silversmiths' work which illustrates the transition
to the new style, and the progress in the design of the figures owing to
the Italian Renaissance."[29] In or about the year 1274, this splendid
piece of sacred furniture was made by order of the learned king, to hold
the relics of certain saints and of the Virgin Mary. The maker is
thought by Amador to have been one "Master George," a craftsman held in
high esteem by the father of Alfonso and the conqueror of Seville,
Ferdinand the Third. Romanic influence is abundant in this triptych,
showing that, although exposed to constant changes from abroad, the
Spanish mediæval crafts adhered upon the whole with singular tenacity to
primitive tradition.
[27] The Mudejares were the Mussulmans who submitted, in the conquered
cities, to the Spanish-Christian rule. The word _Mudejar_ is of
modern growth, nor can its derivation be resolved with certainty.
From the thirteenth century onwards, and formed by the fusion of
the Christian and the Saracenic elements, we find Mudejar influence
copiously distributed through every phase of Spanish life and art,
and even literature.
[28] Amador prefers to call these Tables "the triptych of the learned
king," in order to distinguish them by this explicit title from the
_Astronomical Tables_ prepared by order of the same monarch.
[29] Riaño, _Spanish Arts_, p. 16.
The triptych is of larch, or some such undecaying wood, and measures,
when the leaves are opened wide, forty inches over its entire breadth,
by twenty-two in height. Linen is stretched upon the wood, and over that
the silver-gilt _repoussé_ plates which form the principal adornment of
the reliquary. "The outside is decorated with twelve medallions
containing the arms of Castile and Aragon, and forty-eight others in
which are repeated alternately the subjects of the Adoration of the Magi
and the Annunciation of the Virgin, also in _repoussé_. In the centres
are eagles, allusive, it is possible, to Don Alfonso's claim to be
crowned Emperor.... The ornamentation which surrounds the panels belongs
to the sixteenth century" (Riaño). The arms here spoken of contain the
crowned lion and the castle of three towers; and the interesting fact is
pointed out by Amador that the diminutive doors and windows of these
castles show a strongly pointed Gothic arch. The sixteenth-century
bordering to the panels is in the manner known as Plateresque.[30] The
clasps are also Plateresque, and prove, together with the border,
that the triptych was restored about this time.
[30] So named because the silversmiths (_plateros_) of this country used
it in their monstrances (_custodias_) and in many other objects or
utensils of religious worship. The most refined and erudite of
Spanish silver-workers, Juan de Arfe, thus referred to it in
rhyme:--
_"Usaron desta obra los plateros
Guardando sus preceptos con zelo;
Pusiéronle en los puntos postrimeros
De perfección mi abuelo."_
[Illustration: X
THE "TABLAS ALFONSINAS"
(_View of Interior; 13th Century. Seville Cathedral_)]
Inside (Plate x.), it consists of fifteen compartments, "full of minute
ornamentation, among which are set a large number of capsules covered
with rock crystal containing relics, each one with an inscription of
enamelled gold, _cloisonné_. Several good cameos with sacred subjects
appear near the edge of the side leaves" (Riaño). These cameos,
handsomely engraved with figures of the Virgin and other subjects of
religious character, are fairly well preserved; but the designs upon
enamel are almost obliterated. Eight precious stones, set in as rude a
style as those upon the ancient crowns and crosses of the Visigoths,
have also fallen out, or been removed, from the interior.
The _retablo_ of Gerona cathedral and its baldachin date from the
fourteenth century. "The Retablo is of wood entirely covered with silver
plates, and divided vertically into three series of niches and canopies;
each division has a subject, and a good deal of enamelling is introduced
in various parts of the canopies and grounds of the panels. Each panel
has a cinq-foiled arch with a crocketed gablet and pinnacles on either
side. The straight line of the top is broken by three niches, which
rise in the centre and at either end. In the centre is the Blessed
Virgin with our Lord; on the right, San Narciso; and on the left, St
Filia. The three tiers of subjects contain figures of saints, subjects
from the life of the Blessed Virgin, and subjects from the life of our
Lord."[31]
[31] Street, _Gothic Architecture in Spain_.
San Narciso is patron of the city of Gerona; which explains the presence
of his image here. From the treasury of the same cathedral was stolen,
during the War of Spanish Independence, a magnificent altar-front of
wrought gold and mosaic, a gift of Countess Gisla, wife of Ramón
Berenguer, count-king of Barcelona. It had in the centre a bas-relief
medallion representing the Virgin, another medallion with a portrait of
the donor, and various saints in niches, interworked with precious
stones.
The great armchair of Don Martin, called by Baron Davillier a "beau
faudesteuil gothique," which possibly served that monarch as a throne,
and was presented by him to the cathedral of Barcelona, dates from the
year 1410. The wooden frame is covered with elaborately chiselled plates
in silver-gilt. This most imposing object is carried in procession
through the streets upon the yearly festival of Corpus Christi.
[Illustration: XI
"THE CUP OF SAN FERNANDO"
(_13th Century. Seville Cathedral_)]
[Illustration: XII
SHIP
(_15th Century. Zaragoza Cathedral_)]
The _guión de Mendoza_, now in Toledo cathedral, is a handsome
later-Gothic silver-gilt cross, and is the same which was raised upon
the Torre de la Vela at Granada on January 2nd, 1492, when the fairest
and most storied city in all Spain surrendered formally to Ferdinand and
Isabella. Many other interesting crosses, of the character known as
processional, are still preserved in various parts of the Peninsula, at
South Kensington, and elsewhere. The more remarkable are noticed under
various headings of this book. Their workmanship is generally of the
fifteenth or the sixteenth century.
The Seo or cathedral of Zaragoza possesses a handsome ship (Plate xii.),
presented to this temple, towards the end of the fifteenth century, by
the Valencian corsair, Mosén Juan de Torrellas. The hull is a large
shell resting on a silver-gilt dragon of good design, with a large
emerald set in the middle of its forehead, and a ruby for each eye.
Ships of this kind were not uncommon on a Spanish dining table of the
time, or in the treasuries of churches and cathedrals. Toledo owns
another of these vessels (in both senses of the word), which once
belonged to Doña Juana, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella.
Hitherto I have confined my notice almost wholly to the treasure of the
Spanish temples. Turning from ecclesiastical to secular life, we find,
all through the Middle Ages, the humbler classes kept by constant penury
and war aloof from every form of luxury. Jewellery and gold and silver
work were thus essentially the perquisite or, so to speak, the privilege
of princes, nobles, and the Church. The mediæval kings and magnates of
this land were smitten inveterately with a passion for display, and
chronicles and inventories of the time contain instructive details of
the quantities of gems and precious metals employed by them to decorate
their persons and their palaces. The richness of their bedsteads will be
noticed under Furniture. Quantities of jewellery and plate belonged to
every noble household. For instance, the testament of the Countess of
Castañeda (A.D. 1443) includes the mention of "a gilded cup and cover to
the same; a silver vessel and its lid, the edges gilt, and in the centre
of both lid and vessel the arms of the said count, my lord; a silver
vessel with a foot to it; a diamond ring; a silver vessel with gilt
edges and the arms of the count, companion to the other vessels; a
jasper sweetmeat-tray with silver-gilt handles and feet; four coral
spoons; a gilt enamelled cup and lid; a small gilt cup and lid; two
large silver porringers; two French cups of white silver; two large
plates of eight marks apiece; two middling-sized silver vessels; two
silver-gilt barrels with silver-gilt chains."[32]
[32] Count of Clonard.
On each occasion of a court or national festivity, the apparel of the
great was ponderous with gold and silver fringe, or thickly strewn with
pearls--the characteristic _aljofar_ or _aljofar_-work (Arabic _chawar_,
small pearls), for which the Moors were widely famed. Towards the
thirteenth century unmarried Spanish women of high rank possessed
abundant stores of bracelets, earrings, necklaces, gold chains, rings,
and gem-embroidered pouches for their money. Their waist-belts, too,
were heavy with gold and silver, and _aljofar_.[33] The poem of the
Archpriest of Hita (1343) mentions two articles of jewellery for female
wear called the _broncha_ and the _pancha_. The former was an ornament
for the throat; the other, a plate or medal which hung to below the
waist. An Arabic document quoted by Casiri, and dating from the reign
of Henry the First of Castile, specifies as belonging to an aristocratic
lady of that time, "Egyptian shirts of silk and linen, embroidered
shirts, Persian shirts with silk embroidery, Murcian gold necklaces,
ear-pendants of the same metal, set with gems; finger-rings and
bracelets, waist-belts of skins, embroidered with silk and precious
stones; cloaks of cloth of gold, embroidered mantles of the same,
coverings for the head, and kerchiefs."
[33] _Ibid_.
For all the frequency with which they framed and iterated sterile and
exasperating sumptuary pragmatics for their people, the Spanish kings
themselves went even beyond the nobles in their craze for ostentatious
luxury. Upon the day when he was crowned at Burgos, Alfonso the Eleventh
"arrayed himself in gold and silver cloth bearing devices of the castle
and the lion, in which was much _aljofar_-work, as well as precious
stones innumerable; rubies, emeralds, and sapphires." Even the bit and
saddle of the monarch's charger were "exceeding precious on this day,
for gems and gold and silver covered all the saddle-bows, and the sides
of the saddle and its girths, together with the headstall, were
curiously wrought of gold and silver thread."
Similar relations may be found at every moment of the history of
mediæval Spain. Another instance may be quoted from the reign of
Ferdinand and Isabella. When these sovereigns visited Barcelona in 1481,
the queen was dressed as follows:--"She advanced riding upon a fine
mule, and seated on cushions covered with brocade, rising high above the
saddle. Her robe was of gold thread and jewel-work, with a rich brocade
skirt. Upon her head she wore a crown of gold adorned with richest
diamonds, pearls, rubies, balas rubies, and other stones of passing
price." During the same visit, a royal tournament was given in the Plaza
del Born, in presence of the aristocracy and wealthy townspeople, "the
counts, viscounts, deputies, councillors, _caballeros_, _gentiles
hombres_, burgesses, and others without number." Ferdinand, who "with
virtue and benignity" had deigned to break a lance or two in tourneying
with the Duke of Alburquerque, the Count of Benavente, and several
gentlemen of Cataluña, was wearing "over his harness a jacket all of
gold brocade. His horse's coverings and poitral also were of thread of
gold, richly devised and wrought, and of exceeding majesty and beauty.
And on his helm he wore a crown of gold, embellished with many pearls
and other stones; and above the crown a figure of a large gold bat,
which is the emblem of the kings of Aragon and counts of Barcelona, with
white and sanguine bars upon the scutcheon.[34] The queen and the
cardinal of Spain were in a window of the house of Mossen Guillem
Pujades, conservator of the realm of Sicily. Her highness wore a robe of
rich gold thread with a collar of beautiful pearls; and the trappings of
her mule were of brocade."[35]
[34] Four pallets gules, on a field or; which were the arms of Cataluña
and subsequently of Aragon.
[35] _Archives of the Crown of Aragon._
Eleven years later the youthful prince, Don Juan, son of these rulers,
appeared before the citizens of Barcelona dressed in "a robe of
beautiful brocade that almost swept the ground, and a doublet of the
same material; the sleeves of the robe thickly adorned with fine pearls
of large size." He carried, too, "a gold collar of great size and beauty,
wrought of large diamonds, pearls, and other stones."[36]
[36] _Ibid_.
It was an ancient usage with the people of Barcelona to present a silver
service to any member of the royal family who paid a visit to their
capital. The service so presented to Ferdinand the Catholic cost the
corporation a sum of more than twelve hundred pounds of Catalan money,
and included "a saltcellar made upon a rock. Upon the rock is a castle,
the tower of which contains the salt.... Two silver ewers, gilt within
and containing on the outside various enamelled devices in the centre,
together with the city arms. Also a silver-gilt lion upon a rustic
palisade of tree-trunks, holding an inscription in his right paw, with
the arms of the city, a flag, and a crown upon his head. This object
weighs thirty-four marks."[37] The service offered on the same occasion
to Isabella, though less in weight, was more elaborately wrought, and
cost on this account considerably more. It included "two silver ewers,
gilt within and enamelled without, bearing the city arms, and chiselled
in the centre with various designs of foliage. Also a silver saltcellar,
with six small towers, containing at the foot three pieces of
enamel-work with the arms of the city in relief. This saltcellar has its
lid and case, with a pinnacle upon the lid, and is of silver-gilt inside
and out."[38]
[37] Sanpere y Miquel, _Revista de Ciencias Históricas_, art. _La
Platería catalana en los siglos XIV. y XV._, vol. i. p. 441.
[38] _Ibid_.
From about the fifteenth century the goldsmiths and the silversmiths of
Barcelona enjoyed considerable fame. Among their names are those of
Lobarolla, Roig, Berni, Belloch, Planes, Mellar, Corda, Fábregues,
Farrán, Perot Ximenis, Rafel Ximenis, Balagué, and Antonio de Valdés.
Riaño quotes the names of many more from Cean's dictionary. The most
important facts relating to these artists were brought to light some
years ago by Baron Davillier, who based the greater part of his research
upon the _Libros de Pasantía_ or silversmiths' examination-books (filled
with excellent designs for jewel-work) of Barcelona. These volumes,
formerly kept in the college of San Eloy, are now the property of the
Provincial Deputation of this city.