made. The style is pure Renaissance. Two tiers of equal height consist
of four-and-twenty ornamented rails or balusters disposed, above,
between four columns; below, between four pilasters. An attic is upon
the cornice, and contains two central, semi-naked, kneeling figures
which support a large, crowned shield. This is surmounted by a bust of
God the Father, enclosed in a triangular frame, and raising the hand to
bless. On either side of the attic are S-shaped crests sustaining
circular medallions with the likenesses, in bold relief, of Christ and
Mary. Along the friezes are the legends; EGO SUM ALPHA ET [Greek:
omega]; EGO SUM LUX VERA; and ECCE ANCILLA DOMINI, together with the
words, referring to the artist, AB ANDINO, and the date A.D. MDXXIII.
The decorative scheme is spirited and delicate at once, whether we
observe it on the railing, pilasters, and columns, or on the horizontal
parts and members of the _reja_. The attic which surmounts the double
tier and cornice is finally surmounted by a gilt Saint Andrew's cross;
and the entire screen is lavishly painted and gilded throughout.
Here is a thing--almost a being--created out of iron, so intensely
lovely that the eye would wish to contemplate it to the end of time;
and, as we linger in its presence, if perchance the dead are privileged
to hear their earthly praises echoed in the silence of the tomb, surely
from his marble sepulchre Cristóbal de Andino listens to such praises at
this hour. For yonder, in the neighbouring parish church of San Cosmé,
beside a wife devoted and well-loved the great artificer is laid to
rest, where Latin words (although of idle purport while the _reja_ of
the Constable remains) are deep engraved to thus remind us of his
worth:--
CHRISTOPHORUS ANDINO EGREGIUS
ARTIFEX ET IN ARCHITECTURA OMNIUM
SUI SECULI FACILE PRINCEPS
MONUMENTUM SIBI PONENDUM LE
GAVIT ET CATERINA FRIAS EJUS
UXOR HONESTISSIMA STATIM MARITI
VOTIS ET SUIS SATISFACIENDUM B
ENIGNE CHRISTIANEQUE CURAVIT URNAM CU
JUS LAPIDES SOLUM AMBORUM OSSA TEGUNT
SED ADMONET ETIAM CERTIS ANNUI HE
BDOMADE CUJUSQUE DIEBUS SACRIFICIA
PRO EIS ESSE PERPETUO FACIENDA
But if these splendid _rejas_ of her temples constitute to-day a special
glory of this nation, her private balconies and window-gratings were in
former times, though from profaner motives, almost or quite as notable.
Between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries, few of the
foreigners who visited Spain omitted to record their admiration of these
balconies, crowded upon a holiday with pretty women. "Il y avoit," wrote
Bertaut de Rouen in 1659, "autant de foule à proportion qu'à Paris; et
mesme ce qu'il y avoit de plus beau, c'estoit que comme il y avoit des
balcons à toutes les fenestres et qu'elles estoient occupées par
toutes les dames de la ville, cela faisoit un plus bel effet que les
échaffauts que l'on fait dans les rues de Paris en semblables
rencontres."
[Illustration: XXV
_REJA_
(_Casa de Pilatos, Seville_)]
Pinheiro da Veiga, in his queer _Pincigraphia_, or "Description and
Natural and Moral History of Valladolid," written earlier in the same
century, and published twenty years ago by Gayangos from a manuscript in
the British Museum, is more plain-spoken than the Frenchman on the
various merits and peculiarities of the Spanish balconies and _rejas_.
"All of these churches have the most beautiful iron balustrades and iron
open-work doors (_cancelas_) that can be found in Europe, for nowhere is
iron worked so skilfully as here in Valladolid. These objects are made
by the Moriscos with turned balusters, foliage, boughs, fruits,
war-material, trophies, and other contrivances, which afterwards they
gild and silver into the very likeness of these metals. I say the same
of window-balconies; for nearly every window has its balcony. There are
in Valladolid houses up which one might clamber to the very roof from
balcony to balcony, as though these were a hand-ladder. So too from
balcony to balcony (for the distance from one to other is never greater
than a palm's breadth) one might climb round the whole Plaza. By reason
of this, we Portuguese were wont to say that if there were as many
thieves or lovers in Valladolid as in Portugal, verily both one and
other of this kind of folks would have but little need of hand-ladders.
Yet here the thieves content themselves with stealing by the light of
day, while as for the women (crafty creatures that they are!), they
perpetrate their thefts away from home; and, having all the day at their
disposal, prefer to thieve while daylight lasts, rather than pass the
night uncomfortably. To this I heard a lady of Castile declare, when one
of my friends, a Portuguese, petitioned her for leave to speak with her
at night across her _reja_: 'That would be tantamount to passing from
one _hierro_ to another _yerro_;[83] and in my house (which is also your
worship's) it would not look well for you to seem a window-climbing
thief.'"
[83] _Hierro_ means _iron_; _yerro_, a _fault, faux pas_. Thus glossed,
the somewhat feeble pleasantry or pun is able to explain itself.
[Illustration: XXVI
_REJA_ OF THE _CASA DE LAS CONCHAS_
(_Salamanca_)]
It is curious, in the foregoing narrative, to read of Morisco craftsmen
working as late as 1600, and as far north as Castile. Perhaps the notice
of Moriscos doing Spanish iron-work may be traced to certain
Ordinances of Granada, published about three-quarters of a century
before. On October 14th, 1522, the councillors of that town confabulated
very lengthily and seriously as to the damage caused by "balconies and
_rejas_ in the streets, fixed in the basements and the lower rooms of
houses, or projecting portals which extend beyond the level of the wall.
For we have witnessed, and do witness daily, numerous mishaps to
wayfarers, alike on horseback and on foot, whether by day or night,
because the highways, narrow in themselves, are rendered yet more narrow
by such balconies and _rejas_. Whereas in winter persons seeking to
escape the filth by keeping to the wall are thwarted, or at night-time
injured, by these _rejas_. Or yet in summer, when the waters swell, and
conduits burst and overflow the middle of the street, then neither can
they keep the middle of the way, nor pass aside (by reason of the
balconies aforesaid) to its edges."
Having regard to all these grievances, the councillors decreed that
"none of whatsoever order or condition shall dare henceforth to place,
or cause to be placed, about the lower floors or entrance of their
dwelling, _rejas_ or iron balconies, or anything projecting much or
little from the level of the wall. But all projections shall be set
three yards, not any less, above the street. If not so much, they shall
be set within the wall, on pain of a fine of ten thousand _maravedis_,
and five thousand _maravedis_ to the mason and the carpenter that shall
repair their fixing. Further, we order that all balconies and _rejas_
now at a height of less than the aforesaid three yards be taken away
within three days from the crying in public of these Ordinances."[84]
[84] These laws affecting balconies were not, or not as time went on,
restricted to Granada. "Nobody," prescribes the general Spanish
code in force in 1628, "shall make a balcony or oversailing part
to fall upon the street, nor yet rebuild or repair any that shall
fall."--Pradilla, _Suma de Todas las Leyes Penales, Canonicas,
Civiles, y destos Reynos_.
For this deplorable state of things a double influence was to blame;
namely, the oriental narrowness of the street, and also the elaborate
ornamentation, proceeding very largely from a northern Gothic and
non-Spanish source, of these annoying yet impressive gratings. Some of
them, sweeping the very soil, and boldly and fantastically curved, may
yet be seen at Toro. Those of Granada are no more. Indeed, not only have
the _rejas_ of the Spanish private house long ceased to show the
decorative cunning of the craftsman, but even in their present
unartistic form are largely limited to Andalusia. Yet even thus, they
seem to guard a typical and national air, mixed with a subtle,
semi-Mussulmanic poetry. Across them, while the term of courtship lasts,
the lover whispers with his mistress, oblivious of the outer world,
fixing his gaze within, until his sultaness emerges from the gloom, and
holds his hand, and looks into his eyes, and listens to his vow.
Therefore, in "April's ivory moonlight," beneath the velvet skies of
Andalusia, one always is well pleased to pass beside these children of
romantic Spain, warming the frigid iron with the breath of youth, and
hope, and happiness, and telling to each other a secret that is known
unto us all--at once the sweetest and the saddest, the newest and the
oldest story of all stories.
BRONZES
The earliest objects of bronze discovered in this country are
comparatively few. As in other parts of Europe, they consist mostly of
weapons, such as spear-heads and hatchets (which will be noticed under
_Arms_), or bracelets, necklaces, and clasps or brooches. Earrings
(_inaures_), brooches (_fibulæ_), and other objects of a similar purpose
dating from the Roman period have been discovered in Galicia, while
plates of the same alloy[85] which imitate a shell were used as personal
ornaments by the men and women of the ancient Spanish tribes.
[85] Le Hon reminds us, in _L'homme fossile_, that before the Iron Age
all bronzes of our western world contained one part of tin to nine
of copper.
The province of Palencia is a fertile field for archæological discovery.
Here have been found some curious clasps, intended, it would seem, to
represent the old Iberian mounted warrior, sometimes brandishing the
typical Iberian lance. The following is a sketch in outline of an
object of this kind, fashioned as clumsily and crudely as the cheapest
wooden plaything of our time:--
[Illustration]
Two parts--the figure of the horseman, and a four-wheeled stand on which
the warrior's steed is resolutely set--compose this comical antiquity.
The rider's only article of clothing is a helmet; while the horse,
without a saddle or a bridle, is completely nude. This toy, or table
ornament, or whatever it may be, was found not far from Badajoz, where
other prehistoric bronzes are preserved in the museum of the
province;[86] and Mr E. S. Dodgson says that in possession of an
Englishman at Comillas he has seen another bronze rider of primitive
workmanship, with the head of a wild boar under his left arm. Those who
are interested in the meaning of these early bronzes should consult
an article, _El jinete ibérico_, by Señor Mélida, published in Nos.
90-92 of the _Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Excursiones_.
[86] See Romero de Castilla, _Inventarios de los objetos recogidos en
el Museo Arqueológico de la Comisión de Monumentos de Badajoz_.
Badajoz, 1896. Plate xxvii. represents another of these objects.
[Illustration: XXVII
"MELEAGER'S HUNT"
(_Primitive Spanish Bronze_)]
We know that the use of Roman lamps grew to be general in this land--a
fact which justifies my noticing the specimens preserved in the museum
of Madrid; and more particularly so because their shape and general
character have been perpetuated through the Spanish Moors and Christians
of the Middle Ages till this very moment.
The Roman lamp, shaped somewhat like a boat by reason of the _rostrum_
or beakish receptacle for the wick, consisted of an earthenware or metal
vessel with a circular or oblong body and a handle, together with at
least one hole for pouring in the oil. The commonest material was
earthenware, and next to this, bronze. The lamp was either suspended by
a chain or chains, or else was rested on a stand. Plato and Petronius
tell us that the stand was borrowed from the rustic makeshift of a
stick, or the stout stem of a plant, thrust into the ground. As time
went on, the stem or stick in imitative metal-work was rendered more or
less artistic and ornate. But there was more than a single kind of
lampstand. The _lychnuchus_ ([Greek: lychnouchos]), invented by the
Greeks, held various lamps suspended from its branches, while, on the
other hand, the Roman _candelabrum_ supported but a solitary lamp upon
the disc or platform at its top extremity.[87] The island of Egina was
famed for the production of these discs, and Pliny tells us that the
decorated stem or _scapus_ was chiefly manufactured at Tarentum.
[87] Undoubtedly the use of the Roman _candelabrum_ was continued by the
Spanish Visigoths. "_Candelabrum_," says Saint Isidore, "_a
candelis dictum, quasi candela feram, quod candelam ferat_"
(_Originum_, book xx., chap. x.). The Spanish word _candela_ is
loosely used to-day for almost any kind of light or fire, or even
for a match; but an ordinary candle is generally called a _vela_ or
_bugía_ (_bougie_).
The Roman lampstands also varied in their height. When the stem was long
they stood upon the ground--a fashion we have seen revived in recent
years, and even where electricity replaces oil. When, on the contrary,
the stem was short, the stand was known as a _candelabrum humile_, and
rested on a table or a stool.
The Madrid Museum contains a remarkable bronze lamp in the form of an
ass's head adorned with flowers and with ivy. The ass is holding in its
mouth the _rostrum_ for the wick. The hole for the oil is shaped like a
flower with eleven petals, under one of which is the monogram M[dagger]R.
The back of this lamp consists of an uncouth human male figure, in a
reclining posture, wearing a Phrygian cap and holding the ass's head
between his legs.
[Illustration: XXVIII
A _CANDIL_
(_Modern_)]
Other lamps of bronze, including several of an interesting character,
are in the same collection. One of these represents a sea-deity; another
has its handle shaped like a horse's head and neck; and in a third the
orifice for the oil is heart-shaped, while the handle terminates in the
head of a swan.
There is also a series of three pensile lamps--two in the likeness of
the head and neck of a griffin, and the third in that of a theatrical
mask; as well as a candelabrum fourteen inches high, terminating beneath
in three legs with lions' claws (foreshadowing or repeating oriental
motives), and above in a two-handled vessel on which to place the lamp.
This vessel supports at present a fine _lucerna_ in the form of a
peacock.
Probably no people in the world have kept extant, or rather, kept alive,
their oldest forms of pottery or instruments for giving light more
steadfastly or more solicitously than the Spaniards. Their iron
_candil_[88] and brass _velón_ of nowadays (Pls. xxviii. and
xxix.)--the one of these the primitive lamp that hangs; the other, the
primitive lamp that rests upon a table or the ground--are borrowed with
but a minimum of alteration from the lighting apparatus of the ancient
Greeks and Romans, and possess, for all their coarse and cheap and
unpretentious workmanship, a subtle interest and elegance attributable
only to the inspiration of antiquity.
[88] "A small open lamp with a beak, and a hook to hang it, within which
is another of the same make that contains oil and a wick to give
light, commonly used in kitchens, stables, and inns."--Fathers
Connelly and Higgins, _Spanish-English and English-Spanish
Dictionary_. Swinburne wrote of these _candiles_:--"The Spaniards
delight in wine that tastes strong of the pitched skin, and of oil
that has a rank smell and taste; indeed, the same oil feeds their
lamp, swims in their pottage, and dresses their salad; in inns the
lighted lamp is frequently handed down to the table, that each man
may take the quantity he chooses."
[Illustration: XXIX
A _VELÓN_
(_Modern_)]
More than the shape of these old objects seems to have passed to modern
Spain--if any phase at all of Spanish life can ever justly be accounted
modern. The ancients had an almost superstitious reverence for a lighted
lamp, and were accustomed to declare that "_lucerna, cum extinguitur,
vocem emittit, quasi necata_"; "a lamp, on being put out, utters
a sound as though it were being murdered." Now, it may be a
coincidence--although I cannot but regard it as distinctly more than a
coincidence--that even at this day a large proportion of the
Andalusian people are markedly averse to blowing out a kindled match;
nor do they think it of good augury to be in a room where three
lights--candles, matches, or whatever they may be--are simultaneously
aflame. I have noticed, too, that, whether from utter carelessness or
whether from ancestral superstition handed down from Rome, one rarely
sees upon the staircase or the doorstep of a Spanish public building a
vesta that has been (if I may be allowed the term) extinguished
_artificially_.[89]
[89] Perhaps it is not foreign to my theme to add that the current name
in Spanish for an oil lamp is _quinqué_, from Quinquet, the
Parisian chemist who invented the _tuyau-cheminée_ a hundred and
odd years ago. The same word passes also into Spanish slang,
"_tener quinqué_"--_i.e._ to be quick-witted and perceptive.
In the Madrid Museum are several military bronze _signa_ which were
found in Spain and date from the Roman era, as well as a _vexillum_, or
one of the T-shaped frames on which the warriors of that people used to
hang their standards. One of these _signa_ is in the form of a wild
boar; another in that of a saddled and bridled horse. Beneath this
latter is the word VIVA and a cross, which shows that the object dates
from a period not earlier than the reign of Constantine.
It is strange--or rather, would be strange in any country that had been
less constantly afflicted both with civil and external warfare--that
hardly anything remains of all the bronze artistic objects manufactured
by the Spanish Moors. Poets of this race have sung of gold and silver
fountains, door-knockers, and statues that adorned the buildings of
Cordova. In many of these instances the hyperbolic gold and silver of
the writers would undoubtedly be bronze. Al-Makkari quotes an Arab poet
who extols in passionate terms Almanzor's dazzling mansion of Az-zahyra.
"Lions of metal," sang this poet, "bite the knockers of thy doors, and
as those doors resound appear to be exclaiming _Allahu akbar_" ("God is
great"). Another bard describes the fountains of the same enchanted
palace. "The lions who repose majestically in this home of princes,
instead of roaring, allow the waters to fall in murmuring music from
their mouths. _Their bodies seem to be covered with gold_, and in their
mouths crystal is made liquid.
"Though in reality these lions are at rest, they seem to move and, when
provoked, to grow enraged. One would imagine that they remembered their
carnage of past days, and bellowing turned once more to the attack.
"When the sun is reflected from their _bronze_ surface, they seem to be
of fire, with tongues of flame that issue from their mouths.
"Nevertheless, when we observe them to be vomiting water, one would
think this water to be swords which melt without the help of fire, and
are confounded with the crystal of the fountain."
[Illustration: XXX
BRONZE LION
(_Found in the Province of Palencia_)]
Figures in bronze, of eagles, peacocks, swans, stags, dragons, lions,
and many other creatures were set about in garden and in hall, to
decorate these splendid palaces of ancient Cordova.
A specimen of this class of objects is a bronze lion of small dimensions
(Plate xxx.) found not many years ago in the province of Palencia, and
believed to date from the reign of Al-Hakem the Second of Cordova. It
belonged for some time to the painter Fortuny--a diligent and lucky
hunter of antiquities,--and was subsequently purchased in 1875 by M.
Piot. The modelling and decoration of this beast, especially the
mannered and symmetrical curls which are supposed to form its mane, are
quite conventional and strongly reminiscent of Assyrian art, such as
pervades the various lions rudely wrought in stone and still existing at
Granada; whether the celebrated dozen that support and guard the
fountain in the courtyard of the Moorish palace,[90] or else the
greater pair of grinning brutes proceeding from the ruins of the palace
of Azaque (miscalled the Moorish Mint), which may be noticed squatting
with their rumps towards the road, beside the garden entrance to the
Carmen de la Mezquita.
[90] Swinburne fell into a comical error concerning these. "In the
centre of the court are twelve ill-made lions _muzzled_, their
fore-parts smooth, their hind-parts rough, which bear upon their
backs an enormous bason, out of which a lesser rises."--_Travels
through Spain_, p. 180.
This little bronze lion measures about twelve inches high by fourteen
inches long. The legs and part of the body are covered with a pattern
representing flowers. The mane is described by comma-shaped marks. The
tail, bent not ungracefully along the animal's back, is decorated with a
kind of plait through nearly all its length. The eyes are now two
cavities, but seem in other days to have contained two coloured stones
or gems. Upon the back and flanks is a Cufic inscription which says,
"_Perfect blessing. Complete happiness._"
[Illustration: XXXI
BRONZE STAG
(_Moorish. Museum of Cordova._)]
Mussulman historians have described, in terms of cloying praise, the
"red gold animals contrived with subtle skill and spread with precious
stones" which Abderrahman placed at Cordova upon the fountains of his
palaces. "Rivers of water issued from the mouth of every animal, and
fell into a jasper basin." The words "red gold" are patently an oriental
term for bronze. In view of this, and of the fact that the lion of
Palencia is hollow-bellied, with his mouth wide open for ejecting water,
and with a tail of cunning craftsmanship, which would avail, on being
rotated, to produce or check the current of the "liquid crystal," we may
conclude that it was intended both to form a part of, and to decorate a
Moorish fountain of old days, and is the kind of beast "with precious
stones for eyes" so often and so ecstatically lauded by the Muslim
writers.
Similar to the foregoing object, and dating from about the same period,
is a small bronze stag (Pl. xxxi.) in the provincial museum of Cordova.
It is believed to proceed originally from the famous palace (tenth
century) of Az-zahra, and used to be kept, some centuries ago, in the
convent of San Jerónimo de Valparaiso.
The museum of Granada contains some interesting Moorish bronzes, found
on the site of the ancient city of Illiberis, abandoned by its occupants
on their removal to Granada at the beginning of the eleventh century.
The most remarkable of these discoveries are pieces of a fountain, a
small temple (Plate xxxii.), an _almirez_ or mortar (Plate xxxiii.),
similar to one (not mentioned by Riaño) which was discovered at Monzón,
and a few lamps. The fragments of a fountain end in the characteristic
Assyrian-looking lions' heads, with lines in regular zones to represent
the eyes and other features. One of the lamps (Pl. xxxiii.) is far
superior to the rest. Notwithstanding Riaño's assertion that all of
these antiquities are "incomplete and mutilated," this lamp is well
preserved, and still retains, secured by a chain, the little metal
trimming-piece or _emunctorium_ of the Romans. The small bronze temple
is sometimes thought (but this hypothesis seems rather fanciful) to be a
case, or part of a case, designed for keeping jewellery. The height of
it is two-and-twenty inches, and the form hexagonal, "with twelve small
columns supporting bands of open work, frescoes, cupola, and turrets; in
the angles are birds" (Riaño).
[Illustration: XXXII
BRONZE TEMPLE
(_Moorish. Museum of Granada_)]
The most important object in this substance now extant in any part of
Spain is probably the huge and finely decorated lamp of Mohammed the
Third of Granada (Pl. xxxiv.), called sometimes "the lamp of Oran,"
from a mistaken belief that it had formed part of the booty yielded by
this city after her capture in 1509 by Cardinal Jimenez de Cisneros.
The material of this lamp is bronze, possibly provided by the bells of
Christian churches taken and pillaged by the Moors. It has four parts or
tiers of varying shape, delicately wrought in open-work, and reaching a
height of nearly seven feet in all. The third and largest tier,
corresponding to the shade, is in the form of a truncated pyramid, and
shows a different design on each of its four sides. The lamp bears
several inscriptions, interrupted here and there through breakage of the
metal. The longest of these legends is interpreted as follows:--