objects which reveal the influence of Mohammedan Spain. A number of
artistic Spanish nails are in the South Kensington Museum. "Some doors,"
says Riaño, "still exist at the Alhambra, Granada, covered with enormous
heads of nails of a half-spherical form with embossed pattern. These
same nails are constantly to be found on old Spanish houses, to which
are added in the angles pieces of iron of a most artistic order" (Pl.
xix.A). In the same city, though not precisely in the Alhambra, I
have seen upon the doors of private houses nails of a decorative kind
which appear to consist of a single piece, but which are really formed
of two--an ornamental boss perforated through its centre, and the nail
proper, which fastens through it to the woodwork of the door behind.
Thus, when the nail is hammered tight upon the boss, the effect is
naturally that of a single piece of metal. Similar nails are on the door
of Tavera's hospital at Toledo.
[Illustration: XIX_a_
DECORATIVE NAIL-HEADS
(_Convent of San Antonio, Toledo_)]
The _Ordenanzas_ of Granada tell us minutely of the nails which were
produced there in the sixteenth century. They were denominated
_cabriales_, _costaneros_, _palmares_, _bolayques_, _vizcainos_,
sabetinos, and _moriscos_; of all of which I can only find that the
_cabriales_ and _costaneros_ were used for beams and rafters, and the
_moriscos_ for fixing horse-shoes. In Spain the custom of fastening down
the decorative coverings of chairs or benches dates from comparatively
late; and it was probably with this innovation that iron-workers began
to exercise their ingenuity upon the heads of nails.
Towards the close of the Middle Ages the city of Segovia was celebrated
for her locks and keys, her knockers, and her _rejas_. In 1892,
collections of iron objects, chiefly manufactured in this town, were
shown by the duke of Segovia, Don Nicolás Duque, and Don Adolfo Herrera
at the Exposición Histórico-Europea of Madrid. Segovia still preserves
an old door covered with extraordinary iron spikes, that once belonged
to the castle of Pedraza; many curious balconies, such as that in a
first floor of the Calle del Carmen; and the grilles--proceeding from
the old cathedral--of the chapel of the Cristo del Consuelo and the
chapel of the Piedad.
Another interesting collection of early decorative Spanish iron,
belonging to the well-known painter, Señor Rusiñol, is kept at the town
of Sitjes, in Cataluña. The late Marquis of Arcicollar possessed a
number of specimens of Spanish manufactured iron of the later Middle
Ages, such as boxes, candelabra, locks, nails, door-knockers,
_braseros_, and a rare and curious iron desk (fourteenth century), with
leather fittings.
The collection of the late Count of Valencia de Don Juan included four
door-knockers of Spanish iron, dating from late in the fifteenth century
or early in the sixteenth. I give a reproduction of these knockers (Pl.
xx.). The two which occupy the centre are evidently from a sacred
building; while the other pair are just as evidently _señoriales_, and
belonged to a noble house. In the former pair, the clumsy carving of the
saints, Peter and James, is attributed by Serrano Fatigati to the native
coarseness of the iron.
[Illustration: XX
DOOR-KNOCKERS
(_15th Century_)]
Proceeding from the same collection are a pair of ceremonial maces and a
ceremonial lantern, which I also reproduce (Pl. xxi.), since the Spanish
writer from whom I have just quoted pronounces them to be "excellent
specimens of the iron-work of our country at the close of the Middle
Ages." He says that, as we notice in the pinnacles, they show a tendency
to copy architectural detail, and are otherwise characteristic of the
period. Towards the fourteenth century the file replaced the hammer, and
the sheet of iron was substituted for the bar. These objects, dating
from the fifteenth century, duly reveal this change. Also, as was usual
at the time, they are composed of separate pieces stoutly riveted. In
the knockers with the figures of the saints "we notice the partial use
of the chisel, which became general in the sixteenth century, at the
same time that iron objects were loaded with images, forms of animals,
and other capricious figures. These may be said to belong to a period
of transition, culminating in the _rejas_."[66]
[66] Serrano Fatigati, in the _Boletín de la Sociedad Española de
Excursiones_.
The Madrid Museum contains a sixteenth-century cross of _repoussé_ iron,
in the Greek form, and which is certainly of Spanish make. According to
Villa-amil, it formerly had a gilded border and was painted black, which
leads this writer to suppose that it was used at funerals. Iron crosses
may be seen occasionally on churches and on other public buildings, and
Stirling has inserted cuts of several in his _Annals of the Artists of
Spain_. Crosses of large size were sometimes planted on the highway.
Such was the elaborate but ugly iron cross, measuring three yards in
height, made by Sebastian Conde in 1692 for the Plazuela de la
Cerrajeriá in Seville, and now preserved in her Museum.
The iron balustrade or _verja_ of the marble tomb of Cardinal Cisneros
is finely wrought in Plateresque-Renaissance, with elaborate designs of
gryphons, foliage, urns, birds, masks, sheep's heads, swans, coats of
arms, dolphins, and other ornament in great profusion. The craftsman was
Nicolás de Vergara the elder. Lesser in size, though not less
striking in its execution, is the railing, by Francisco de Villalpando,
which surrounds the _Altar de Prima_ in the choir of Toledo Cathedral.
[Illustration: XXI
CEREMONIAL MACES AND LANTERN
(_15th Century_)]
"Iron pulpits," says Riaño, "have been made in Spain with great
success." He mentions five: two in Avila Cathedral (Plate xxii.); two at
Seville; and one at the church of San Gil at Burgos. The latter is
described by Street, who says: "It is of very late date, end of the
fifteenth century, but I think it quite worthy of illustration. The
support is of iron, resting on stone, and the staircase modern. The
framework at the angles, top and bottom, is of wood, upon which the
iron-work is laid. The traceries are cut out of two plates of iron, laid
one over the other, and the iron-work is in part gilded, but I do not
think that this is original. The canopy is of the same age and
character, and the whole effect is very rich at the same time that it is
very novel. I saw other pulpits, but none so old as this."
The iron pulpits of Salamanca, "covered with bas-reliefs representing
the Evangelists and subjects taken from the Acts of the Apostles and the
apocalypse," were made at the same time as the _reja_ by Fray Francisco
de Zalamea or Salamanca, Fray Juan, and other artists. The two at Avila
are stationed one on either side of the Capilla Mayor, and are of gilded
iron, hexagonal in form, and measuring about ten feet in height.
Gryphons or other beasts support the pulpit on its stem or column. The
body of each pulpit bears the arms of the cathedral, namely, the _Agnus
Dei_, a lion, and a castle--the whole surmounted by a crown--and is
divided lengthways by a central band into a double tier, closed by a
richly decorated cornice at the upper and the lower border. Otherwise
the pulpits are quite dissimilar. In one the decorative scheme is almost
purely geometrical, while in the other it consists of foliage, birds and
beasts, and niches containing statuettes of saints. The stair-railings
are modern; but the primitive carving still adorns the end of every
step.[67]
[67] For a detailed account of these pulpits see Villa-amil y Castro's
article in the _Museo Español de Antigüedadess_.
[Illustration: XXII
IRON PULPIT
(_Avila Cathedral_)]
We do not know who was the maker of these pulpits. Some believe him to
have been a certain Juan Francés, to whom our notice will again be
called as figuring among the earliest masters of this eminently Spanish
craft, and who, on strongish evidence, is thought to be the author of
the _rejas_ in the same cathedral which enclose the choir, and the
front and sides of the Capilla Mayor. This is the only reason for
supposing him to have made the pulpits also. One of these, however, is
in the Flamboyant, and the other in the Renaissance style; so it may
well be doubted whether both were produced by the same hand, or even at
exactly the same period.[68]
[68] Payments made to "Master Juan Francés" are recorded by Zarco del
Valle, _Documentos Inéditos para la Historia de las Bellas Artes
en España_, pp. 320, 321.
It is, however, in the _rejas_ that the craftsmanship of older Spain
attains its loftiest pinnacle. They consist, says Banister Fletcher, of
"rich and lofty grilles in hammered and chiselled iron ... strongly
characteristic of the national art. The formality of the long and
vertical bars is relieved by figures beaten in _repoussé_, in
duplicates, attached back to back, and by crestings and traceries
adapted to the material, and freely employed. Few things in Spain are
more original and artistic."[69]
[69] _History of Architecture_, p. 303. They possess, too, the
advantage, from their ponderous solidity and fixedness, that most
of them are still extant and in the best of preservation, although
Napoleon's Vandals rooted up the chapel _rejas_ of the Church of
Santo Domingo at Granada, and turned them into bullets; just as
their general, Sebastiani, threw down the tower of San Jerónimo to
make a trumpery bridge across the trickling stream of the Genil.
Scores of thousands of such crimes, not to forget the blowing up
of the gate and tower of the Siete Suelos, were perpetrated by the
French all over Spain; yet Washington Irving, in a strangely
infelicitous passage of his _Tales of the Alhambra_, congratulates
the invaders for their reverential treatment of the noblest
monuments of Spanish art!
The _reja_ generally was not, as many have supposed, of late invention.
It existed from the earliest days of Christianity; but it was only in
the Gothic and Renaissance ages that Spain converted it into a vehicle
for decorative art. The growth of these ornamental _rejas_ may be traced
in cities of Old Castile, together with Seville, Salamanca, Cuenca, and
Toledo. Spain, it is idle to observe, was at no moment so appreciative
of her craftsmen as was Italy, so that our information as to mediæval
Spanish craftsmen and the process of their lives and labours is, upon
the whole, deplorably deficient. Nevertheless, among the oldest of her
artists known in Spanish as _rejeros_, or (a finer and more venerable
term) _"reja_-masters"--_maestros de rexas_--appears Juan Francés,
working in 1494 in Toledo Cathedral and, in the same capacity (for he
seems to have been an armourer besides, and to have held the title of
"master-maker of iron arms in Spain")[70] at Alcalá de Henares, as well
as, in 1505, at Osma, in whose cathedral he made the _rejas_ of the
choir and high chapel.[71]
[70] So, in Spain, does war appear to have been connected even with the
peaceful _reja_. Similarly, in 1518, the contractors for the grille
of the Chapel Royal of Granada were Juan Zagala and Juan de
Cubillana, "master-artillerymen to their highnesses." Valladar,
_Guía de Granada_, 1st ed., p. 302, note.
[71] A quaint but somewhat tautological and prosy letter
concerning matters of his craft, addressed by Francés to the
cardinal-archbishop of Toledo, is published in the _Museo Español
de Antigüedades_, article _Los Púlpitos de la Catedral de Avila_,
by Villa-amil y Castro. The _reja_ of the presbytery at Burgo de
Osma is thus inscribed: "_Izo esta obra maestre Joan Francés
maestre mayor._" The top consists of repetitions of a shield
containing five stars and supported by angels, lions, and gryphons.
Two iron pulpits project from the lower part of the grille, and a
swan of the same metal, with extended wings, rests upon either
pulpit.
Although the craftsman's name has rarely been recorded, we know that
excellent _rejería_ was made at Barcelona in the fifteenth century. Also
dating from the fifteenth century, and therefore prior to the
Plateresque, is the _reja_, ornamented with leaves and figures of
centaurs and other creatures, mythical and real, enclosing the sepulchre
of the Anayas in the old cathedral of Salamanca. During the first
quarter of the sixteenth century much work in decorative _rejería_ was
completed in Seville Cathedral by Fernando Prieto, Fray Francisco de
Salamanca,[72] Sancho Muñoz, Diego de Adrobo, and others (_vide_
Frontispiece). Taught by these, while yet belonging to a slightly later
time, and linking in this way the riper and decadent Gothic with the new
Renaissance and the Plateresque, were Pedro de Andino, Antonio de
Palencia, and Juan Delgado. Rosell observes that without doubt these
artists, excepting only Juan Francés--the pioneer of them all--were
Spanish-born; and they in their turn were succeeded by other Spaniards
who worked most regularly at Toledo; such as Bartolomé Rodriguez, Luis
de Peñafiel, and Francisco de Silva.
[72] A Dominican friar, summoned to Seville in 1518, to make her
cathedral _rejas_. He also made the pulpits of the high altar in
1531, and was working in this city as late as 1547. Account-sheets
penned by his hand were still extant a century ago, and Cean
conveys to us some knowledge of Fray Francisco, receiving as the
wages of his labour, now a score or so of ducats, now a bushel or
two of corn. The friar, whom the canons spoke of with affection for
his many virtues, seems to have been a handy man, seeing that
between his spells of _reja_-making he put the clock of the Giralda
into trim, and built an alarum apparatus to rouse the cathedral
bell-ringer at early morning.
For the sums paid to Fray Francisco and to Sancho Muñoz for their
work, see Gestoso, _Diccionario de Artífices Sevillanos_, vol. ii.
pp. 365 _et seq._
An excellent _rejero_ named Hernando de Arenas completed the grille of
Cuenca Cathedral in 1557. Three years before, a Cordovese, Fernando de
Valencia, had made the intricate Renaissance _reja_ of the Chapel of the
Asunción in the mosque of that most ancient capital--a noble piece of
work, which still exists. Other _rejeros_ who were either natives of, or
who resided in, this city were Pedro Sanchez, Alonso Perez, Pedro
Sanchez Cardenosa, Francisco Lopez, Juan Martinez Cano, and Diego de
Valencia.
One of these men, Alonso Perez, a native of Jaen, contracted, on April
13th, 1576, to make the _rejas_ of the Capilla Mayor in the church of
the convent of the Trinity at Cordova. He was to finish them within one
year, at a cost of fifty-one _maravedis_ for every pound of iron, of
sixteen ounces to the pound. Ramírez de Arellano, who has extracted
these notices of Cordovese artists from the city archives[73], says that
the _reja_ in question is no longer standing; but a document of the time
informs us that it was of an elaborate character, and carried
architraves, cornices, and the usual decorative detail of the Spanish
Renaissance.
[73] Consult his valuable studies, _Artistas exhumados_, published in
various numbers of the _Boletín de la Sociedad Española de
Excursionistas_.
In 1593 Pedro Sanchez agreed to make, within four years, a grille for
the old chapel of the Concepción, also in Cordova, at a cost of
forty-nine maravedis for every pound of iron that the finished _reja_
should contain; and a year later the same artist signed a contract for
what is thought to be his masterpiece--the _reja_ of the chapel of the
Holy Cross, in the nave of the _sagrario_ of the same temple. The
stipulated time was two years only; but the cost amounted in this
instance to one hundred maravedis for every pound of the completed
_reja_.
Marvels of power and of patience are among the _rejas_ of this land. In
them, obedient to the genius of the craftsman, the ponderous metal
assumes the gossamer lightness of the finest gauze, now seeming to be
breathed rather than built across the entrance to some side-chapel, now
tapering skyward till we fancy it to melt away, like vapour, on the
surface of the lofty roof. Such are the screens--which here demand a
brief description--of Toledo and Palencia and Granada; that of Cuenca,
where Arenas plied his master-hand; and, first in merit of them all,
the peerless _reja_, royal in magnificence and faultless taste, that
closes in at Burgos the no less royal-looking chapel of a Count of Haro,
sometime Constable of all Castile.
The _reja_ of the Capilla Mayor of Toledo Cathedral is twenty-one feet
high by forty-six in breadth. "Armies of workmen," wrote Méndez Silva,
referring to this screen and to its neighbour, that of the _coro_, "were
toiling at them for ten years, nor would their cost have been greater
had they been of founded silver." The cost of which he speaks was more
than a quarter of a million _reales_, although the workmen's daily wage
was only two _reales_ and a half, or, in the case of the particularly
skilled, four _reales_.
The author of this admirable screen was Francisco de Villalpando, whose
plans and estimate were approved by Cardinal Tavera in 1540. "The _reja_
consists of two tiers resting on different kinds of marble. Attic
columns ornamented with handsome _rilievi_ and terminated by bronze
caryatides, divide these tiers into several spaces. The upper tier is
formed by seven columns of ornate pattern, containing, on a frieze of
complicated tracery, figures of animals and angels, and other
delicately drawn and executed objects in relief. Upon the cornice are
coats of arms, angels, and other decoration; and in the centre, the
imperial arms of Charles the Fifth, together with a large crucifix
pendent from a massive gilded chain. On the frieze of the second tier
are the words, ADORATE DOMINUM IN ATRIO SANCTO EJUS KALENDAS APRILIS
1548, and on the inner side, PLUS ULTRA." [74]
[74] Rosell y Torres; _La Reja de la Capilla del Condestable en la
Catedral de Burgos_, published in the _Museo Español de
Antigüedades_.
[Illustration: XXIII
_REJA_ OF CHAPEL ROYAL
(_Granada Cathedral_)]
The other of the larger _rejas_ in this temple--that of the choir--is
not inferior in a great degree to Villalpando's masterpiece. It was made
by "Maestre" Domingo (de Céspedes),[75] who, in his estimate of June
18th, 1540, engaged to finish it at a total cost of 5000 ducats, "he to
be given the necessary gold and silver for the plating" (_Archives of
Toledo Cathedral_, quoted by Rosell). This Maestre Domingo was
aided by his son-in-law, Fernando Bravo, and both of them, says de la
Rada y Delgado, were probably natives of Toledo.[76] In the same city
they also made the _rejas_ for the Baptismal Chapel, and for the chapels
of the Reyes Viejos and Reyes Nuevos.
[75] He is called Domingo de Céspedes by Cean Bermudez, although, as
Zarco del Valle remarks, the surname does not appear in any of the
documents relating to this craftsman which are yet preserved in the
archives of Toledo cathedral. These documents merely tell us that
Domingo was his Christian name, that his own signature was _Maestre
Domingo_, and that he and Fernando Bravo were required to find
surety to the value of 375,000 _maravedis_ for the faithful and
expert performance of their work, which they were to complete
within two years, receiving for it the sum of six thousand ducats.
[76] Conde de Cedillo, _Toledo en el Siglo XVI_. Reply to the Count's
address, by J. de Dios de la Rada y Delgado.
[Illustration: XXIV
_REJA_ OF CHAPEL ROYAL
(_View from interior. Granada Cathedral_)]
Excellent Plateresque _rejas_ are those of the Capilla Mayor and Coro of
Palencia Cathedral--the latter from the hand of Gaspar Rodriguez of
Segovia, who finished it in 1571 at a cost of 3400 ducats. In the same
city is the _reja_ of the chapel of Nuestra Señora la Blanca, finished
in 1512 by Juan Relojero, a Palencian, who received for his labour
25,000 _maravedis_ and a load and a half of wheat.
The noble and colossal gilt and painted[77] _reja_ of the Chapel Royal
of Granada Cathedral was wrought between the years 1518 and 1523 by one
Master Bartholomew, whose name is near the keyhole. This was a person of
obscure life though mighty powers as a craftsman. We know that he
resided at Jaen, and, from a document which still remains,[78] that he
petitioned Charles the Fifth for payment (sixteen hundred ducats) of
this grille, because the clergy had continually refused to liquidate it.
He made, besides the work I herewith describe, the _reja_ of the
presbytery for Seville cathedral,[79] and possibly, as Sentenach
suggests, the iron tenebrarium, ten feet high by five across, for the
cathedral of Jaen.
[77] The painting of a _reja_ was commonly executed by the
"image-painter" (_pintor de imaginería_). As the term implies, it
was this artist's business to gild or colour sacred furniture,
such as altars, panels, images, and decorative doors and ceilings.
[78] Archives of Simancas. _Descargos de las R.C._; _Legajo 23 prov._
Valladar, _Guía de Granada_ (1st ed.), p. 302, note.
[79] "To Master Bartholomew, _rexero_, twenty gold ducats for the days
he took in travelling from Jaen, and for those on which he was at
work upon the _reja_ of the high altar here in Seville." On
March 18th, 1524, the same craftsman was paid 13,125 _maravedis_
for making the "samples and other things belonging to the _reja_
of the high altar."--_Libro de Fábrica_ of Seville Cathedral.
Gestoso, _Sevilla Monumental y Artística_, and _Diccionario de
Artífices Sevillanos_, vol. xi. p. 362.
The _reja_ of the Chapel Royal of Granada, "of two faces, the finest
that was ever made of this material," [80] has three tiers. "The first
tier contains six Corinthian pilasters and a broad frieze covered with
Plateresque ornamentation, as are the pedestals on which the pilasters
rest. In the second tier are the arms of Ferdinand and Isabella within
a garland supported by two lions, and other crowns together with the
yoke and arrows;[81] all intertwined with stems, leaves, and little
angels of an exquisite effect. Before the pilasters of this tier and of
the one immediately above it are figures of the apostles on Gothic
brackets--a style we also notice on the fastening of the gate and on the
twisted railing; but every other detail of the grille is Plateresque.
Upon the top are scenes of martyrdoms and of the life of Christ, the
whole surmounted by a decorative scheme of leaves and candelabra, and,
over this, a crucifix together with the figures of the Virgin and Saint
John. The designing of the figures is only moderately good, but all
remaining detail and the craftsmanship are admirable" [82] (Plates
xxiii. and xxiv.).
[80] Pedraza, _Historia de Granada_ (1636), p. 40.
[81] The yoke and sheaf of arrows were the emblems of these princes--the
yoke, of Ferdinand; the arrows, of his queen. Shields of their
reign, whether employed in architecture or on title-pages, almost
invariably include these emblems and the well-known motto,
_Tanto Monta_.
[82] Gómez Moreno, _Guía de Granada_, p. 291.
Last on my list of Spanish _reja_-makers I place the greatest and most
honoured of them all--Cristóbal de Andino, who, as a modern writer has
expressed it, "uttered the last word in the matter of giving shape to
iron." Cristóbal, son of Pedro de Andino--himself an artist of no mean
capacity--excelled in architecture, sculpture, _rejería_, and probably
in silver-work as well. "Good craftsmen," wrote his contemporary, Diego
de Sagredo, "and those who wish their work to breathe the spirit of
authority and pass without rebuke, should follow--like your
fellow-townsman, Cristóbal de Andino--ancient precepts, in that his
works have greater elegance and beauty than any others that I witnessed
heretofore. If this (you think) be not the case, look at that _reja_ he
is making for my lord the Constable, which _reja_ is well known to be
superior to all others of this kingdom."