relief. At the top of the foot there issue some leaves that fall down
over a small gold staple, and below this, about the narrowest part of
the foot, are leaves in relief and several dolphins. The broad part of
the foot is decorated with festoons. The lid of this cup is wrought with
leaves in relief, and on the crest thereof is a lion, crowned. The cup
weighs three hundred and fifty-one _castellanos_ and a half."
"A Castilian jar from which my lord the duke was wont to drink, weighing
two marks and five ounces."[58]
[58] The mark was a standard of eight ounces, and was divided into fifty
_castellanos_.
"A cup with a high foot, gilt all over, with the figure of a woman in
its midst, and decorated in four places in the Roman manner."
"A flagon of white silver, flat beneath the stem, with a screw-top
surmounted by a small lion; for cooling water."
"A small silver dish, of the kind they call meat-warmers."
"A large silver seal for sealing provisions, with the arms of my lord
the duke, Don Francisco."
"A large silver vessel, embossed, with a savage on top."
"A gold horse, enamelled in white upon a gold plate enamelled in green
and open at the top; also a wolf, upon another gold plate enamelled in
green, with lettering round about it; also a green enamelled lizard upon
blue enamel; and a gold toothpick with four pieces enamelled in green,
white, and rose; also a small gold column enamelled in black and rose."
"A silver lemon-squeezer, gilt and chiselled, with white scroll-work
about the mesh thereof, through which the lemon-juice is strained."
"A large round silver salt-cellar, in two halves, gilt all over, with
scales about the body, and two thick twisted threads about the flat
part. One side of it is perforated."
Among the property of the duchess, Doña Mencía Enriquez, we find "a
small gold padlock, which opens and closes by means of letters"; two
gold bangles; a gold necklace consisting of forty-two pieces "enamelled
with some B's";[59] a gold signet ring with the duchess's arms; and "a
gold and niello box with relics, for wearing round the neck." Also,
resting on a table covered with silver plates, "a box of combs; the said
box wrought in gold upon blue leather, containing five combs, a
looking-glass, a little brush, and other fittings; girt with a cord in
gold and blue silk."
[59] For Beltran de la Cueva, ancestor of this family.
The seventeenth century and a race of native Spanish kings declined and
passed away together. A dynasty of France succeeded to the throne of
Spain, and with the foreigner came a fresh reactionary movement towards
the neo-classic art, coupled with the canons of French taste. Henceforth
a century of slow political reform goes hand in hand with slow
suppression of the salient parts of Spanish character. Madrid transforms
or travesties herself into a miniature Versailles, and national arts and
crafts belong henceforward to a Frenchified society which found its
painter in Goya, just as the preceding and eminently Spanish society had
found its painter in Velazquez.
Another of the causes of the falling-off in Spanish _orfebrería_ at this
time, is stated to have been the craftsmen's overwhelming tendency to
substitute the slighter though venerable and beautiful gold or silver
filigree (Plate xviii.), for more artistic and ambitious, if less showy
work in massive metal. Thus, in 1699, a supplementary chapter of the
Ordinances of Seville complained in bitter phrases of this tendency,
denouncing it as "a source of fraud and detriment to the republic," and
deploring that "of the last few years we have forsaken our goodly usages
of older times, in the matter of the drawings entrusted to the
candidates who come before us for examination."
In the same year the goldsmiths' and the silversmiths' guild of Seville
enacted that none of its members were to work in filigree, unless they
were qualified to execute the other work as well. Such efforts to
suppress this evil were not new. More than a century before, on April
15th, 1567, the inspectors of the guild had entered the shop of Luis de
Alvarado, silversmith, and seized some filigree earrings "of the work
that is forbidden," breaking these objects on the spot, and imposing a
fine of half-a-dozen ducats on the peccant or oblivious Alvarado.[60]
[60] Gestoso, _Diccionario de Artífices Sevillanos_, vol. ii. p. 134.
The modern gold and silver work of Spain is thus exempted from a lengthy
notice, seeing that its typical and national characteristics have
succumbed, or very nearly so. I may, however, mention the giant silver
candelabra in the cathedral of Palma de Mallorca, which were made at
Barcelona, between 1704 and 1718, by Juan Matons and three of his
assistants. They measure eight feet high by four feet and a quarter
across, weigh more than eight thousand ounces, and cost 21,942 pounds,
15 _sueldos_, and 11 _dineros_ of Majorcan money. The State seized them
during the Napoleonic wars, in order to melt them down for money; but
the chapter of the cathedral bought them back for eleven thousand
dollars.
[Illustration: XVIII
EARLY CHALICE AND CROSS IN FILIGREE GOLD-WORK
(_Church of Saint Isidore, León_)]
During this century Riaño mentions several factories of silver articles
established at Madrid, including that of Isaac and Michael Naudin (1772)
and the Escuela de Platería (1778), protected by Charles the Third; but
since the work of these was purely in the French or English manner, they
call for no particular notice. The principal objects they produced were
"inkstands, dishes, dinner-services, chocolate-stands, cruets, knives
and forks, together with buckles, needle-cases, brooches, snuff-boxes,
frames for miniatures, and similar trinkets."
Early in the nineteenth century Laborde wrote that "the fabrication of
articles of gold and silver might become an important object in a
country where these metals abound; but it is neglected, and the demand
is almost entirely supplied from foreign markets. What little they do in
this branch at home is usually very ill executed, and exorbitantly dear.
Madrid, however, begins to possess some good workmen; encouragement
would increase their number and facilitate the means of improvement; but
manual labour is there excessively dear. Hence the Spaniards prefer
foreign articles of this kind, which, notwithstanding the expense of
carriage, the enormous duties that they pay, and the profits of the
merchants, are still cheaper than those made at home."
Several of the inherent characteristics of the national _orfebrería_ may
yet be noticed somewhat faintly in the ornaments and jewels of the
Spanish peasants, though even these are being discarded. A century ago
Laborde described the dress of the Mauregata women, near Astorga, in the
kingdom of León. "They wear large earrings, a kind of white turban, flat
and widened like a hat, and their hair parted on the forehead. They have
a chemise closed over the chest, and a brown corset buttoned, with
large sleeves opening behind. Their petticoats and veils are also brown.
Over all they wear immense coral necklaces, which descend from the neck
to the knee; they twist them several times round the neck, pass them
over the shoulders, where a row is fastened, forming a kind of bandage
over the bosom. Then another row lower than this; in short, a third and
fourth row at some distance from each other. The last falls over the
knee, with a large cross on the right side. These necklaces or chaplets
are ornamented with a great many silver medals, stamped with the figure
of saints. They only wear these decorations when not working, or on
festivals."
I have a manuscript account in French of Spanish regional costumes at
the same period. The dress of the peasant women of Valencia is thus
described: "Elle se coiffe toujours en cheveux, de la manière appelée
_castaña_, et elle y passe une aiguille en argent que l'on nomme
_rascamoño_; quelque fois elle se pare d'un grand peigne (_peineta_) en
argent doré. Son cou este orné d'une chaine d'or ou d'argent (_cadena
del cuello_) à laquelle est suspendue une croix ou un reliquaire." This
was the Valencian peasant's dress for every day. On festivals the same
woman would adorn her ears with "pendants (_arracadas_) de pierres
fausses; mais lorsque la jardinière est riche, elles sont fines. Une
relique (_relicario_) dans un petit médaillon en argent, est suspendue à
son cou; ainsi qu'un chapelet très mince (_rosario_) en argent doré."
The peasant women of Iviza, in the Balearics, are described in the same
manuscript as wearing "un collier en verre, quelque fois en argent, et
rarement en or"; while Laborde wrote of Minorca, another of these
islands, that "the ladies are always elegantly adorned; their ornaments
consist of necklaces, earrings, bracelets, rings, and chaplets. _The
peasants wear these also._" Of the women of Barcelona he said: "Silk
stockings are very common in every class; and their shoes are
embroidered with silk, gold, silver, pearls, and spangles."
But Spain, like Italy or Switzerland, or many another country, is
throwing off her regional costumes, of which these various jewels form a
prominent and even an essential feature. More rarely now we come across
the gold and seed-pearl necklaces of Salamanca, the Moorish filigree
silver-work of Cordova, the silver-gilt necklaces of Santiago, and the
heavy _arracadas_, hung with emeralds and sapphires, of Cataluña.
Murcia, nevertheless, retains her Platería, a street of venerable aspect
and associations, where to this hour the oriental-looking silver
pendants of the neighbourhood are made and trafficked in.
[Illustration]
IRON-WORK
The ancient iron mines of Spain were no less celebrated than her mines
of silver and of gold. Nevertheless, the history of Spanish iron-work
begins comparatively late. Excepting certain swords and other weapons
which require to be noticed under _Arms_, and owing to the commonness
and cheapness of this metal, as well as to the ease with which it
decomposes under damp, few of the earliest Spanish objects made of iron
have descended to our time.[61] Even Riaño pays but little notice to
this craft in the Peninsula before the second half of the fifteenth
century. Henceforth, he says, "it continued to progress in the
sixteenth, and produced, undoubtedly, at that period works which were
unrivalled in Europe."
[61] A small collection, formed by Don Emilio Rotondo, of primitive iron
rings, bracelets, brooches, and other ornaments, is preserved in
the Schools of Aguirre at Madrid. Villa-amil y Castro
(_Antigüedades prehistóricas y célticas_, and _Castros y Mamoas de
Galicia_, published in the _Museo Español de Antigüedades_),
describes some iron objects of uncertain use discovered in Galicia,
together with spear-heads and other weapons or pieces of weapons
which will be noticed under _Arms_, and also an object which he
says may once have been a candlestick, or else a kind of flute. All
these are probably pre-Roman. Dating from the Roman period are an
iron ploughshare and some sickles, discovered at Ronda in
Andalusia, and now in the Madrid Museum. Góngora, however
(_Antigüedades prehistóricas de Andalucía_), inclines to think that
previous to the Roman conquest the occupants of Betica were
ignorant of this metal, though not of gold, from which they
fashioned diadems and other articles of wear. See also Caballero
Infante, _Aureos y barras de oro y plata encontrados en el pueblo
de Santiponce_, Seville, 1898.
The decorative iron-work of Spain may suitably be dealt with in three
classes: railings, screens, or pulpits of churches, chapels, and
cathedrals; balconies and other parts or fittings applied to public or
private buildings of a non-ecclesiastical character; and smaller, though
not necessarily less attractive or important objects, such as knockers,
locks and keys, and nail-heads.
The last of these divisions, as embracing Spanish-Moorish craftsmanship,
shall have, as far as order is concerned, our preferential notice.
Surely, in the whole domain of history, no object has a grander
symbolism than the key. In mediæval times the keys of cities, castles,
towns, and fortresses were held to be significant of ownership, or
vigilance, or conquest. Especially was this the case in Spain--a nation
incessantly engaged in war. Probably in no country in the world has the
ceremony of delivering up this mark of tenure of a guarded and defended
place occurred so often as here. Do we not read of it in stirring
stanzas of her literature? Do we not find it in her paintings, on her
stone and metal _rilievi_, or carved in wood upon the stalls of her
cathedrals? Therefore the key, just like the sword, seemed, in the warm
imagination of the Spaniards, to be something almost sacred. The
legislative codes of Old Castile are most minute in their relation of
its venerated attributes. Nor were the Spanish Muslims less alive to its
importance than their foe, taking it also for an emblem of their own,
and planting it in lordly eminence upon their gates and towers of
Cordova, and Seville, and Granada. For what was Tarik's Mountain but the
key of the narrow gate that led to their enchanted land, as sunny as,
and yet less sultry than, their sandy home; truly a land of promise to
the fiery children of the desert, panting for the paradise that smiled
at them across the storied strip of emerald and sapphire water?
So was it that both Moors and Spaniards made their keys of fortresses
and citadels almost into an object of their worship. In hearing or in
reading of such keys, the mind at once recurs to those of Seville (Plate
xix.), two in number, famed throughout the world of mediæval art, and
stored among the holiest relics in the sacristy of her cathedral. The
larger is of silver, in the style now known as Mudejar, and dates from
the second half of the thirteenth century. The length is rather more
than eight inches, and the whole key is divided into five compartments,
ornamented in enamels and in gold. Castles, ships, and lions adorn the
thicker portion of the stem between the barrel proper and the handle;
and on the rim of the latter is this inscription, in Hebrew
characters:--
"_The King of Kings will open; the king of all the land shall
enter._"[62]
[62] Riaño's reading was, "_the King of the whole Earth will enter_."
But is not this contradicted by the other inscription on the same
key?
The wards are also beautifully carved into the following legend,
distributed in two rows, one superposed upon the other, of two words
and of ten letters apiece:--
"_Dios abrirá; Rey entrará._"
"_God will open; the king shall enter._"
The iron key is purely Moorish, smaller than its fellow, and measures
just over six inches. Like the other, it consists of five divisions, and
the wards are in the form of an inscription in African Cufic characters,
which Gayangos and other Arabists have variously interpreted. Five of
the commonest readings are as follows:--
(1) "_May Allah permit that the rule (of Islam) last for ever in this
city._"
(2) "_By the grace of God may (this key) last for ever._"
(3) "_May peace be in the King's mansion._"
(4) "_May God grant us the boon of the preservation of the city._"
(5) "_To God (belongs) all the empire and the power._"
Our earliest tidings of this iron key are from the Jesuit Bernal, who
wrote in the seventeenth century. It was not then the property of the
cathedral chapter, for Ortiz de Zúñiga says that it belonged, in the
same century, to a gentleman of Seville named Don Antonio Lopez de Mesa,
who had inherited it from his father. Tradition declares that both this
key and its companion were laid at the feet of Ferdinand the Third by
Axataf, governor of Seville, when the city capitulated to the Christian
prince on November 23rd, 1248. But Ortiz is careful to inform us that he
neither countenances nor rejects the popular notion that the iron key
was thus delivered as the token of surrender, "although," he says, "the
owners of it are strongly of this judgment." What we do know is that on
June 16th, 1698, the iron key was presented to the cathedral by Doña
Catalina Basilia Domonte y Pinto, niece of the Señor Lopez de Mesa
aforesaid; and that the chapter forthwith accepted it with solemn
gratitude as "one of the keys delivered by the Moors to the Rey Santo on
the conquest of the city," ordering it to be guarded in a special box.
Such is the popular fancy still accepted by the Sevillanos. However,
Amador de los Ríos has sifted out a good deal of the truth, showing that
the iron and the silver key are wrought in different styles, and were
intended for a different purpose. He places the iron instrument among
the "keys of conquered cities," and its silver neighbour among the "keys
of honour, or of dedication"; and he declares as certain (although the
reasons he adduces do not quite convince me) that this iron key is
actually the one which figured in the ceremony of surrender. The other
he considers to have been a gift from the Sevillians to the tenth
Alfonso, son of Ferdinand the saint and conqueror, as a loyal and a
grateful offering in return for his protection of their industries and
commerce. However this may be, the decorative aspect of the larger key,
together with the choice material of which it is made, appears to prove
that it was not associated with the rigours of a siege, but served in
some way as a symbol of prosperity and peace. It was a common custom at
a later age for Spanish cities to present their sovereign, when he came
among them, with a richly ornamented key. Such keys were offered to
Charles the Fifth and Philip the Second when, in 1526 and 1570,
respectively, they visited Seville; while Riaño reminds us that "even in
the present day the ceremony is still kept up of offering a key to the
foreign princes who stay at the royal palace of Madrid." Similarly, as
an ordinary form of salutation, does the well-bred Spaniard place his
house at your disposal.
Five Moorish keys--one of bronze and four of iron--are in the Museum of
Segovia, and bear, as Amador observes, a general resemblance to the iron
key of Seville. The wards of four of them are shaped into the following
inscriptions: the first key, "_In Secovia_ (Segovia)"; the second,
"(_This_) _key was curiously wrought at Medina Huelma, God protect
her_"; the third, "_Open_"; and the fourth, "_This work is by
Abdallah._"
The first and smallest of these keys informs us, therefore, that it was
manufactured at Segovia. The third key is that which is of bronze, and
bears the word "_Open_," probably addressed to Allah. The second, which
is also the largest and the most artistic and ornate, belonged, we read
upon its wards, to Huelma, a fortress-town upon the frontiers of the
kingdom of Granada. This town was wrested from the Moors on April 20th,
1438, by Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza, first Marquis of Santillana, who
possibly sent this key to Castile as a present to his sovereign, Juan
the Second, in company with the usual papers of capitulation.
Other Moorish keys are scattered over Spain in various of her public and
private collections, though none are so remarkable as those of Seville
and Segovia. The town of Sepúlveda possesses seven early iron keys,
several of which are Moorish. Others are at Burgos, Valencia, Palma,
Jaen, and Granada. At the last-named city the following key, dating
undoubtedly from the period of the Muslim domination, was discovered, in
1901, among the débris of the Palace of Seti Meriem.[63]
[63] _La Alhambra_ (from which this sketch is taken) for September 30th,
1901; article on the Palace of Seti Meriem, by F. de Paula
Valladar.
[Illustration]
Keys of awe-inspiring magnitude are still preferred among the Spaniards
to a handier and slighter instrument, this people seeming to believe
that the bigger the key the more inviolable is the custody which it
affords--a theory not at all upheld by modern experts in this venerable
craft. Perhaps this singular and local preference is derived from
Barbary. At any rate it still obtains across the Strait. "Our host,"
wrote Mr Cunninghame Graham in _Mogreb-El-Acksa_, "knocks off great
pieces from a loaf of cheap French sugar with the key of the house,
drawing it from his belt and hammering lustily, as the key weighs about
four ounces, and is eight or nine inches long." Of such a length are
nearly all the house-keys of contemporary Spain; and with this apparatus
bulging in his belt the somnolent _sereno_ or night-watchman of this
sleepy, unprogressive, Latino-Mussulmanic land prowls to this hour along
the starlit streets of Barcelona, Seville, or Madrid.
The city Ordinances of Granada form a valuable and interesting link
between the Spanish-Moorish craftsmanship and that of Spaniards
Christian-born. The _Ordenanzas de Cerrageros_, or Locksmiths'
Ordinances, though not voluminous, are curious and informative beyond
the rest, and show us that a general rascality was prevalent in Granada
after her reconquest from the Moor. Locksmiths were forbidden now to
make a lock the impression of which was put into their hands in wax,
even if the order should be sweetened by "a quantity of maravedis,"
since the effect of such commissions, whose very secrecy betrayed
illicit and improper ends in view, was stated to be "very greatly
perilous and mischief-making."
Another Ordinance reveals the Christian locksmiths of Granada as arrant
scoundrels, almost as troublesome to deal with as the pestering little
shoeblacks of to-day. "Word is brought us," groaned the aldermen, "how
many locksmiths, foreigners that dwell within this city as well as
naturals that go up and down our thoroughfares, in taking locks and
padlocks to repair, do, at the same time that they set the keys in
order, contrive to fit them with new wards inferior to the older ones,
so as to be able to open and close them with the keys they have
themselves in store, wherein is grave deceitfulness, seeing that the
aforesaid locks and padlocks may be opened in such wise without a key at
all."[64]
[64] _Ordenanzas de Granada_, p. 191.
If we except the vast dimensions of the common keys of houses, this
branch of Spanish craftsmanship has now no quality to point it from the
rest of Europe, having become, in Riaño's words, "simply practical and
useful." Laborde observed in 1809 that "locks and various iron utensils
are made in divers places. Locksmiths are numerous at Vega de Ribadeo in
Galicia, at Helgoivar in Biscay, at Vergara in Guipuscoa, at Solsona and
Cardona in Catalonia. Different kinds of iron goods are manufactured at
Vergara, Solsona, and Cardona. The articles made of iron and steel at
Solsona are in high estimation, notwithstanding they are destitute of
taste and elegance, badly finished, and worse polished; and can by no
means be put in competition with similar articles introduced from other
countries."[65]
[65] Those of my readers who have visited Spain will probably have seen
the inlaid iron-work of Eibar and Toledo. The objects chiefly
manufactured in this style are brooches, bracelets, scarf and hat
pins, photograph frames, jewel and trinket boxes, watches, and
cigarette cases. The workmanship is often elaborate and costly, nor
can it be denied that the red or greenish gold has an effective
look against the jet-black surface of the polished or unpolished
iron. Upon the other hand, the taste displayed in the design is
seldom good; while in a climate with the slightest tendency to
damp, the iron is apt to rust and tarnish, and the fine inlay to
loosen.