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Transcriber's note:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
The ligature oe is represented by [oe].
The signs cross and dagger have been marked as [cross]
and [dagger].
A carat character is used to denote superscription. A
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[Illustration: _Frontispiece_
SAINT FRANCIS]
The World of Art Series
THE ARTS AND CRAFTS OF OLDER SPAIN
by
LEONARD WILLIAMS
Corresponding Member of the Royal Spanish Academy,
of the Royal Spanish Academy of History, and of the
Royal Spanish Academy of Fine Arts;
Author of "The Land of the Dons"; "Toledo and Madrid"; "Granada," etc.
In Three Volumes, Illustrated
VOLUME II
Chicago
A. C. McClurg & Co.
Edinburgh: T. N. Foulis
1908
American Edition
Published October 10, 1908
CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO
PAGES
FURNITURE 1-86
IVORIES 89-108
POTTERY 111-220
GLASS 223-263
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
_VOLUME TWO_
FURNITURE
PLATE PAGE
St Francis of Assisi; Toledo Cathedral _Frontispiece_
I. Mediæval Chair 10
II. Gothic Chair 12
III. Spanish _Arcón_ or Baggage-Chest 16
IV. _Arca_ of Cardinal Cisneros 18
V. Armchair; Museum of Salamanca 20
VI. Chair and Table; Salamanca Cathedral 22
VII. Chairs upholstered with _Guadameciles_ 24
VIII. The Sala de la Barca; Alhambra, Granada 26
IX. Door of the Hall of the Abencerrajes; Alhambra, Granada 28
X. Moorish Door; Detail of Carving; Hall of the Two
Sisters, Alhambra, Granada 30
XI. Door of the Salón de Embajadores; Alcázar of Seville 32
XII. The same 34
XIII. Alcázar of Seville; Façade and Principal Entrance 36
XIV. Door of the Capilla de los Vargas, Madrid 38
XV. Mudejar Door; Palacio de las Dueñas, Seville 40
XVI. _Celosía_; Alhambra, Granada 42
XVII. Carved _Alero_ 44
XVIII. Carved _Zapatas_; Casa de las Salinas, Salamanca 46
XIX. Carved _Zapatas_; Museum of Zaragoza 48
XX. _Alero_ and Cornice of Carved Wood; Cuarto de Comares,
Alhambra, Granada 50
XXI. "Elijah Sleeping"; Statue in Wood, by Alonso Cano 52
XXII. Saint Bruno, by Alonso Cano; Cartuja of Granada 54
XXIII. Saint John the Baptist; San Juan de Dios, Granada 56
XXIV. Choir-Stalls; Santo Tomás, Avila 58
XXV. Carved Choir-Stall; Toledo Cathedral 60
XXVI. Choir-Stalls; Burgos Cathedral 62
XXVII. Choir-Stalls; San Marcos, León 64
XXVIII. Detail of Choir-Stalls; León Cathedral 66
XXIX. Choir-Stalls; Plasencia Cathedral 68
XXX. Detail of Choir-Stalls; Convent of San Marcos, León 70
XXXI. "Samson"; Carved Choir-Stall; León Cathedral 72
XXXII. "Esau"; Carved Choir-Stall; León Cathedral 74
XXXIII. _Retablo_; Seville Cathedral 76
XXXIV. _Retablo_ of Seville Cathedral; Detail of Carving 78
XXXV. Detail of _Retablo_; Museum of Valladolid 80
XXXVI. Detail of _Retablo_; Chapel of Santa Ana; Burgos
Cathedral 82
IVORIES
XXXVII. Ivory Box; Madrid Museum 90
XXXVIII. Ivory Casket; Pamplona Cathedral 92
XXXIX. Ivory Box; Palencia Cathedral 94
XL. Hispano-Moresque Ivory Casket; Royal Academy of History,
Madrid 96
XLI. Ivory Crucifix; Madrid Museum 98
XLIA. Back View of same 98
XLII. Byzantine Crucifix 100
XLIII. "The Virgin of Battles"; Seville Cathedral 102
XLIV. Spanish Mediæval _Baculus_ 104
XLV. "A Tournament" 106
XLVI. Ivory Diptych; The Escorial 108
POTTERY
XLVII. Amphoraic Vases and other Pottery; Museum of Tarragona 116
XLVIII. Dish; Museum of Granada 118
XLIX. Hispano-Moresque _Tinaja_ 120
L. Coarse Spanish Pottery (Modern) 126
LI. Door of the Mihrab; Cordova Cathedral 134
LII. Mosaic of the Patio de las Doncellas; Alcázar of Seville 138
LIII. Andalusian non-lustred Ware; Osma Collection 140
LIV. _Cuenca_ Tiles; Alcázar of Seville 142
LV. Altar of the Catholic Sovereigns; Alcázar of Seville 148
LVI. The Gate of Wine; Alhambra, Granada 154
LVII. Tiles of the Decadent Period 158
LVIII. Hispano-Moresque Lustred Plaque 168
LIX. Hispano-Moresque Lustred Vase; Alhambra, Granada 170
LX. Hispano-Moresque Lustred Vase; Madrid Museum 172
LXI. Lustred Tiles; Osma Collection 174
LXII. Hispano-Moresque Lustred Ware; Osma Collection 176
LXIII. Hispano-Moresque Lustred Ware; Osma Collection 178
LXIV. Hispano-Moresque Lustred Ware; Osma Collection 180
LXV. Hispano-Moresque Lustred Ware; Osma Collection 182
LXVI. Hispano-Moresque Lustred Ware; Osma Collection 184
LXVII. Hispano-Moresque Lustred Ware 186
LXVIII. Dish; Osma Collection 190
LXIX. An _Alfarería_ or Potter's Yard; Granada 192
LXX. Talavera Vase 198
LXXI. Ornament in Porcelain of the Buen Retiro 208
LXXII. Room decorated with Porcelain of the Buen Retiro; Royal
Palace of Aranjuez 214
LXXIII. Porcelain of the Moncloa Factory 218
GLASS
LXXIV. Vessels of Cadalso Glass 234
LXXV. Vessels of Catalan Glass 236
LXXVI. Glass of the Factory of San Ildefonso 254
LXXVII. Glass of the Factory of San Ildefonso 258
FURNITURE
Whether the primitive Iberians ate as well as slept upon
their cave or cabin floor, or whether--as some classics call upon us to
believe--they used a kind of folding-chair (_dureta_) and (more advanced
and comfort-loving than the Andalusian rustics of this day) devoured
their simple meal from benches or supports constructed in the wall, is
not of paramount importance to the history of Spanish furniture. The
statements of those early authors may be granted or rejected as we
please; for not a single piece of furniture produced by prehistoric, or,
indeed, by Roman or by Visigothic Spain, has been preserved. But if we
look for evidence to other crafts, recovered specimens of her early gold
and silver work and pottery show us that Roman Spain grew to be
eminently Roman in her social and artistic life. This fact, together
with the statements of Saint Isidore and certain other writers of his
day, would seem to prove that all the usual articles of Roman furniture
were commonly adopted by the subjugated tribes, and subsequently by the
Visigoths;--the Roman eating-couch or _lectus triclinaris_, the
state-bed or _lectus genialis_, the ordinary sleeping-bed or _lectus
cubicularis_, made, in prosperous households, of luxurious woods inlaid
with ivory, or even of gold and silver; lamps or candelabra of silver,
copper, glass, and iron[1]; the _cathedra_ or chair for women, the
_bisellium_ or seat for honoured guests, the _solium_ or chair for the
head of the house, the simpler chairs without a back, known as the
_scabellum_ and the _sella_, and the benches or _subsellia_ for the
servants. Further, the walls were hung with tapestries or rendered
cheerful by mural painting; while the fireplace[2] and the brasier
(_foculus_) have descended to contemporary Spain.
[1] Documents, quoted by the Count of Clonard, of Alfonso the Second,
San Genadio, Froylan, and the Infanta Urraca.
[2] According to Miquel y Badía, the _focus_ of the Romans is the
present _clar de foch_ of Cataluña; "a square platform of brick or
stone raised somewhat from the ground, surrounded by a bench
(_escó_), and large enough to serve for roasting beasts entire."
Swinburne wrote from Reus in 1775;--"we here for the first time saw a
true Spanish kitchen, viz., an hearth raised above the level of the
floor under a wide funnel, where a circle of muleteers were huddled
together over a few cinders."
Advancing to a period well within the reach of history, we find that
early in the Middle Ages Spain's seigniorial mansions and the houses of
the well-to-do were furnished in a style of rude magnificence. Roman
models, derived from purely Roman and Byzantine sources through the
Visigoths, continued to remain in vogue until the tenth or the eleventh
century.[3] Then, as the fashion of these declined, the furniture of
Christian Spain was modified in turn by Moorish, Gothic, and Renaissance
art; or two of these would overlap and interact, or even all the three.
During the Middle Ages the furniture of the eating, sleeping, and living
room which formed the principal apartment in the mansion of a great
seignior, was very much the same throughout the whole of Christian
Europe. Viollet-le-Duc has described it in the closest detail. The
dominant object, looming in a corner, was the ponderous bed, transformed
into a thing of beauty by its costly canopy and hangings.[4] Throughout
the earlier mediæval times the Spanish bedstead was of iron or bronze.
Wood, plain at first, then richly carved, succeeded metal towards the
fourteenth century, and with this change the bed grew even vaster than
before. Often it rose so high above the level of the flooring that the
lord and lady required a set of steps to clamber up to it. These steps
were portable, and sometimes made of solid silver.[5] I quote herewith a
full description of a mediæval Spanish bed, extracted from an inventory
of the Princess Juana which was made upon her marriage with the Count of
Foix, in 1392. The same bed had formerly belonged to Juana's mother, the
Princess Martha, at her marriage with King Juan the First. It had "a
velvet canopy with lions of gold thread, and a dove and a horse
confronting every lion. And each of the lions and doves and horses bears
a lettering; and the lettering of the lions is _Estre por voyr_, and
that of the doves and horses _aay_, and the whole is lined with green
cloth. _Item_, a counterpane of the said velvet, with a similar design
of doves and lions, and likewise lined with green cloth. _Item_, three
curtain-pieces of fine blue silk, with their metal rings and cords of
blue thread. _Item_, three cushion-covers of blue velvet, two of them of
large size, bearing two lions on either side, and four of them small,
with a single lion on either side, embroidered with gold thread; with
their linen coverings. _Item_, a cloth of a barred pattern, with the
bars of blue velvet and cloth of gold upon a red ground; which cloth
serves for a state-chair or for a window, and is lined with cloth.
_Item_, another cloth made of the said velvet and cloth of gold, which
serves for the small chair (_reclinatorio_) for hearing Mass, and is
lined with the aforesaid green cloth. _Item_, two large linen sheets
enveloping the aforesaid canopy and counterpane. A pair of linen sheets,
of four breadths apiece, bordered on every side with a handbreadth of
silk and gold thread decoration consisting of various kinds of birds,
leaves, and letters; and each of the said sheets contains at the
head-end about five handbreadths of the said decoration. _Item_, four
cushions of the same linen, all of them adorned all round with about a
handbreadth of the aforesaid decoration of birds, leaves, and letters.
_Item_, two leather boxes, lined with wool, which contained all these
objects. _Item_, five canvas-covered cushions stuffed with feather, for
use with the said six coverings of blue velvet bearing the said devices.
_Item_, three large pieces of wall tapestry made of blue wool with the
same devices of lions, horses, and doves, made likewise of wool, yellow
and of other colours. _Item_, five carpets made of the aforesaid wool,
bearing the same devices. _Item_, three coverlets of the same wool, and
with the same devices, for placing on the bed. _Item_, a coverlet of red
leather bearing in its centre the arms of the King and the Infanta.
_Item_, another coverlet made of leather bars and plain red leather.
_Item_, a woollen coverlet with the arms of the Infanta."[6]
[3] The _Codex of the Testaments_, preserved in Oviedo Cathedral,
contains some valuable illustrations of Spanish furniture of the
tenth century. Greatly interesting, too, is the chair of San
Raimundo (12th century) preserved at Roda in Aragon. It is of the
"scissors" or folding form (_sella plicatilis_, Ducange), and the
arms are terminated by heads of animals.
[4] The early nomenclature of the clothes and other fittings of a
Spanish bed is bewildering. We find in common use the canopy
(_almocalla_, _almuzala_; Arabic, _al-mokalla_, i.e. "haven of
refuge in all winds"--not always, possibly, a judicious term in the
case of a _cama de matrimonio_ or "marriage-bed"); the cloth-lined
skins for chilly weather (_alifafe_, _alifad_; Arabic _al-lifafh_),
such as King Juan the First of Aragon provided for his daughter
("two leathers of Morocco for the bed." _Archive of the Crown of
Aragon; Registro 1906, fol. 42_); the parament or _dosal_; the
_galnapé_ or topmost of the bedclothes proper ("_un lecho con
guenabe_"; Fuero of Cáceres, A.D. 1229); the counterpane (_fatel_,
_fatol_, _alfatel_, _facel_, _farele_, _fateye_, _fatiro_; Arabic
_fatla_); the linen sheets (_izares_, _lentros_, _lentos_, _lintes_,
_lincas_, _linteáminas_, or _lencios_); and the mattress, pillow,
and bolster, called, all three of them, _plumazo_, _plumario_, or
_plumaco_. Nearly or quite identical in meaning with these last are
_cúlcita_ and _almadraque_. _Cúlcita_ is corrupted into _colcedra_,
_cocedra_, _conzara_, _colotra_, and other more or less barbaric
variations; while _almohada_, _almuella_, _travesera_,
_almofadinha_, _faseruelo_, and _aljamar_ also signify a pillow or
a cushion.
[5] "E due haber encara héla entegrament, ses vestitz é ses joyes é un
leyt ben garnit del misllors apereylltz que sien en casa, é _una_
_escala d'argent_ é una cortina." Fuero of Jaca, A.D. 1331, quoted
by Abad y la Sierra and the Count of Clonard.
[6] Sanpere y Miquel; _Las costumbres catalanas en tiempo de Juan I._,
pp. 83, 84.
Another corner of the room was occupied by the dining-table,[7] spread
at meal-times with a cloth denominated by Saint Isidore the _mappa_,
_mápula_, _mapil_, _mantella_, or _mantellia_; and laid with the
_mandíbulas_ or "jaw-wipers" (_i.e._ napkins; see Du Cange), plates
(_discos_), dishes (_mensorios_, _messorios_, or _misorios_), spoons
(_cocleares_, _culiares_), though not as yet with forks,[8] cups of
various shapes and substances, with or without a cover (_copos_,
_vásculos_, and many other terms), the water-flagon (_kana_, _mikana_,
_almakana_), the cruet-stand (_canatella_), and the salt-cellar
(_salare_).
[7] Miquel y Badía believes that the Spaniards abandoned the Roman
usage of reclining at their meals towards the sixth century.
[8] Forks were not introduced till later. It has even been questioned
whether they were known in Spain as late as the sixteenth century.
But Ambrosio de Morales mentions one in 1591, while another is
recorded in 1607 as belonging to the monastery of San Jerónimo de
Valparaiso, near Cordova. (See vol. i., p. 84.)
This table also served to write upon, while in its neighbourhood would
stand the massive sideboard, piled with gold and silver plate, and
vessels of glass or ivory, wood or alabaster.
Besides the bed and table in their several corners, the chamber would
contain a suitable variety of chairs and stools, mostly surrounding the
capacious fireplace. Members of the household also sat on carpets spread
upon the floor. The great armchair of the seignior himself was more
ornate than any of the rest, and was provided somewhat later with a
lofty Gothic back (Plates i. and ii.). A chair with a back of moderate
height was destined for distinguished visitors. The back of ordinary
chairs reached only to about the sitter's shoulder, and coverings of
cloth or other stuffs were not made fast, but hung quite loosely from
the wooden frame. This usage lasted till the sixteenth century, when the
upholsterers began to nail the coverings of the larger chairs and
benches.
Owing to the oriental influence brought back from the Crusades, the
furniture of Europe, not excluding Spain, grew ever more elaborate and
costly, while further, in the case of this Peninsula, the native Moorish
influence operated steadily and strongly from Toledo, Seville, Cordova,
Valencia, and elsewhere. Tapestries of Eastern manufacture (_alcatifas_)
were now in general use for decorating floors and walls. The bed grew
more and more gigantic, and its clothes and curtains more extravagantly
sumptuous, until the florid Gothic woodwork harmonized with canopies and
curtains cut from priceless skins, or wrought in gold and silver thread
on multicolor satin and brocade. And at the bed's head, like some jewel
marvellously set, rested, in every noble home, the diptych or the
triptych with its image of the Saviour or the Virgin Mary.
Under the influence of the Renaissance this love of luxury continued to
increase among the royal and the noble families of Spain. In 1574 an
inventory of the estate of Doña Juana, sister of Philip the Second,
mentions a silver balustrade, weighing one hundred and twenty-one
pounds, for placing round a bed. The inventory (1560) of the Dukes of
Alburquerque contains a great variety of entries relative to the
furniture and chamber-fittings of the period. We find here mentioned,
Turkey carpets and the celebrated Spanish ones of Alcaraz, linens of
Rouen, green cloth of Cuenca, Toledo cloths, hangings of Arras and
elsewhere, tablecovers of damask and of velvet, gold-fringed canopies
(_doseles_) of green or crimson velvet or brocade, a "canopy for a
sideboard, of red and yellow Toledo cloth, with the arms of the La
Cuevas in embroidery, together with stripes and bows, and repetitions of
the letter I (for _Isabel Giron_, the duchess), also embroidered fringes
of the same cloth, and cords of the aforesaid colours." We also read of
a _sitial_ or state-chair of crimson satin brocade, and "a small walnut
table covered with silver plates, bearing the arms of my lord the duke
and of my lady the duchess, and edged with silver stripes."[9] The
bedstead, fitted with hangings of double taffeta and scarlet cloth, was
no less sumptuous than the other objects.
[9] This kind of furniture was prohibited by a sumptuary pragmatic of
1594. "No silversmith or other craftsman, or any person whatsoever,
shall make, or cause to be made, or sold, or sell himself or
purchase, whether openly or privately, buffets, writing-desks,
chests, brasiers, pattens, tables, letter-cases, _rejillas_ or
foot-warmers, images, or any other object that has silver fittings,
whether the silver be beaten, stamped, wrought in relief, carved,
or plain." _Suma de todas las leyes_ (A.D. 1628), p. 42.
[Illustration: I
MEDIÆVAL CHAIR
(_Carved with the arms of Castile and León_)]
A popular and even an indispensable piece of furniture in every mediæval
Spanish household was the _caja de novia_ or "bride's chest." The
use of this, as well as of a smaller kind of box, was common both
to Moors and Christians. No matter of what size, these objects were
essentially the same. They served innumerable purposes; were made of
all dimensions--from the tiniest casket (_arcellina_, _capsula_, or
_pyxide_; see vol. i., p. 45 _et seq._) to the ponderous and vast
_arcón_,--and almost any substance--ivory or crystal, mother-of-pearl or
glass, gold, silver, copper, silver-gilt, jasper, agate, or fine wood;
and we find them in every part of the Peninsula, from the dawn of the
Middle Ages till very nearly the end of the eighteenth century.
[Illustration: II
GOTHIC CHAIR
(_15th Century_)]
According to the Marquis of Monistrol, the larger boxes or _arcones_
constitute by far the commonest article of Spanish furniture all through
the earlier portion of this lengthy period. The same authority divides
them broadly into seven classes, thus:--
(1) Burial-chests.
(2) Chests for storing chasubles, chalices, candelabra, and other
objects connected with the ceremonies of the church.
(3) Archive-chests, for storing documents.
(4) Chests for storing treasure (_huches_).
(5) Brides' chests.
(6) Chests for storing arms.
(7) _Arcones-trojes_, or chests of common make, employed for storing
grain in country dwellings or _posadas_.
The decorative richness of these quaint _arcones_ varies according to
their date of manufacture, or the purpose they were meant to serve.
Commonly, in the earliest of them, dating from the sixth or seventh
century, the iron clamps or fastenings form the principal or only
ornament. Such are reported to have been the two chests which the Cid
Campeador loaded with sand and foisted as filled with specie on his
"dear friends" Rachel and Vidas, the Jewish though trustful usurers of
Burgos, in return for six hundred marks of gold and silver. Tradition
says, moreover, that the chest now shown at Burgos as the "coffer of the
Cid" is actually one of these. It is certain that the archives of the
cathedral have been deposited in this chest for many centuries.
Evidently, too, it dates from about the lifetime of the Cid, while the
rings with which it is fitted show it to have been a kind of trunk
intended to be carried on the backs of sumpter-mules or horses.
After the Roman domination in this country, the Latin term _capsa_ was
applied to every kind of chest; but at a later age sepulchral chests or
coffins were denominated _urns_, in order to distinguish them from
_arcas_ and _arcones_, which were used for storing clothes or jewellery.
Excellent examples of Spanish mediæval burial-chests are those of Doña
Urraca, preserved in the Sagrario of the cathedral of Palencia, and of
San Isidro, patron of Madrid. The former, mentioned by painstaking Ponz,
and by Pulgar in his _Secular and Ecclesiastical Annals of Palencia_, is
of a plain design, and really constitutes a coffin. The sepulchral chest
of San Isidro, dating from the end of the thirteenth century, or the
early part of the fourteenth, and kept at Madrid in a niche of the
_camarín_ of the parish church of San Andrés, is in the Romanic style,
and measures seven feet six inches in length. It has a gable top, and is
painted in brilliant colours on plaster-coated parchment, with miracles
effected by the saint, and other scenes related with his life; but much
of the painting is effaced.
Another interesting sepulchral chest would probably have been the one
presented in 1052 by Ferdinand the First, together with his royal robe
and crown,[10] to the basilica of Saint John the Baptist at León, to
guard the remains of Saint Isidore. This chest was covered with thick
gold plates studded with precious stones, and bore, in enamel and
relief, the figures of the apostles gathered round the Saviour, and
medallions containing figures of the Virgin, saints, and martyrs.
According to Ambrosio de Morales, the gold plates were torn off by
Alfonso the First of Aragon, who replaced them by others of silver-gilt.
The same monarch, regardless of the church's fierce anathema pronounced
on all who dared to touch her property,[11] is accused by his chronicler
of having appropriated a box of pure gold studded with gems, enshrining
a crucifix made of the true Cross, and which was kept in some town or
village of the kingdom of León. Doubtless as a chastisement for
Alfonso's impiety, this precious box was captured from him by the Moors
at the battle of Fraga.
[10] Describing how the monarch made these presents to the church when
lying at the point of death, the _Chronicle of the Monk of Silos_
says: "_exuit regalem clamydem, qua induebatur corpus et deposuit
gemmatam coronam, qua ambiebatur caput_."
[11] The formula is worded thus: "_Quisquis ille fuerit qui talia
commiserit, sit maledictus coram Deo et Angelis ejus, mendicitas
et lepra prosapiam teneat suam et extraneus persistat a sancta
communione, quatenus cum Juda, Christi proditore, ardendus
permaneat in æterna damnatione._"
Among the reliquary chests, the oldest specimen extant in Spain is the
_arca santa_ of Oviedo cathedral. This object, which is purely Byzantine
in its style, is believed to have been made at Constantinople. It was
improved by Alfonso the Sixth, who added _repoussé_ plates to it, with
Arabic ornamentation in the form of meaningless inscriptions of a merely
decorative character, but which are interesting as showing the kinship
existing at this time between the Spanish Christians and the Spanish
Moors.
Equally important is the coffer which was made by order of Don Sancho el
Mayor to enshrine the wonder-working bones of San Millan, and which is
now at San Millan de la Cogulla, in the province of La Rioja. The author
of this chest, which dates from A.D. 1033, is vaguely spoken of as
"Master Aparicio." The chest itself consists of a wooden body beneath a
covering of ivory and gold, further enriched with statuettes and studded
with real and imitation stones. It is divided into twenty-two
compartments carved in ivory with passages from the life and miracles of
the saint, and figures of "princes, monks, and benefactors," who had
contributed in one way or another to the execution of the reliquary.
I have said that the "coffer of the Cid" was made for carrying baggage.
A very interesting Spanish baggage-chest, although more modern than the
Cid's by several centuries, is now the property of Señor Moreno
Carbonero (Plate iii.). This very competent authority believes it to
have belonged to Isabella the Catholic, and says that it was formerly
the usage of the sovereigns of this country to mark their baggage-boxes
with the first quartering of the royal arms and also with their
monogram. Such is the decoration, consisting of repeated castles and the
letter Y (for Ysabel), upon this trunk. The space between is painted red
upon a surface thinly spread with wax. Strips of iron, twisted to
imitate the girdle of Saint Francis, are carried over all the frame,
surrounding the castles and the letters. This box was found at
Ronda.[12]
[12] To keep the dust or rain from entering these trunks, they were
covered, when on the march, with stout square cloths called
_reposteros_, which were often richly worked and bore the owner's
arms or monogram. The same word subsequently came to mean the
tapestried or other decorative cloths displayed in Spain on gala
days from balconies of public edifices, or the mansions of the
aristocracy; but dictionaries which were printed at the close of
the eighteenth century still define the _repostero_ as "caparison,
a square cloth with the arms of a prince or lord on it, which
serves to cover a led-horse, or sumpter-horse."
[Illustration: III
_ARCÓN_
(_15th Century_)]
A handsome _arcón_, dating from the same period as this baggage-chest of
Isabella the Catholic, namely, the end of the fifteenth century, is
stated by its owner, Don Manuel Lopez de Ayala, to have belonged to
Cardinal Cisneros (Plate iv.). The material is wood, covered inside with
dark blue cloth, and outside with red velvet, most of the nap of which
is worn away. The dimensions are four feet six inches in length, two
feet in height, and twenty inches in depth. The chest, which has a
triple lock, is covered with _repoussé_ iron plates representing twisted
columns and other architectural devices, combined with Gothic
thistle-leaves. A coat of arms is on the front.
Such is an outline of the history of these Spanish chests. Most of the
earlier ones are cumbersome and scantily adorned. Then, as time
proceeds, we find on them the florid Gothic carving, unsurpassed for
purity and charm; then the Renaissance, with its characteristic ornament
of urns, and birds, and intertwining frond and ribbon; and finally,
towards, and lasting through the greater portion of, the eighteenth
century, the tasteless and decadent manner of Baroque. Yet even in the
worst and latest we descry from time to time a flickering remnant of the
art of Moorish Spain.
[Illustration: IV
_ARCA_ OF CARDINAL CISNEROS]
These Spanish Moors, obedient to the custom of their fellow-Mussulmans
throughout the world, employed but little furniture. They loved,
indeed, bright colours and ingenious craftsmanship, but rather in the
adjuncts to their furniture than in the furniture itself; in costly
carpets, or worked and coloured leather hung upon the wall,[13] or
spread upon their _alhamies_ and _alhanías_; in fountains bubbling in
the middle of their courts and halls; in doors, and ceilings, and
_celosías_ exquisitely carved, and joined with matchless cunning; in
flower-vases placed in niches; in bronze or silver perfume-burners
rolling at their feet; but not (within the ordinary limit of the term)
in furniture. Upon this theme the Reverend Lancelot Addison discourses
very quaintly. "The host here," he wrote of "West Barbary" in 1663, "is
one Cidi Caffian Shat, a grandee, reported to be an Andalusian, one of
the race of the Moors bansht (_sic_) Spain.... We were called to a
little upper Room, which we could not enter till we had put off our
shoes at the threshold: not for Religion, but Cleanliness, and not to
prevent our unhallowing the floor, but defiling the carpets wherewith it
was curiously spread. At the upper end of the Room was laid a Velvit
Cushion, as large as those we use in our Pulpits, and it denoted the
most Honourable part of the Room. After we had reposed about an hour,
there was brought in a little oval Table, about twenty Inches high,
which was covered with a long piece of narrow linnen; and this served
for Diaper.[14] For the Moors, by their law, are forbidden such
superfluous Utensils as napkins, knives, spoons, etc. Their Religion
laying down the general maxim, that meer necessaries are to be provided
for; which caused a precise Moor to refuse to drink out of my dish when
he could sup water enough out of the hollow of his hand."
[13] The wood-carving and decorative leather-work of older Spain will
be described a little later on. As to the use of decorated leather
by the Moors, in the small chamber of the Alhambra opening into
the Mirador of Daraxa, and known as the Sala de los Ajimeces, is a
bare space about nine feet in height, which runs the whole way
round beneath the copious ornament of the remainder of the wall.
Contreras says that the Moorish sultans used to hang these spaces
with decorated leathers, tapestry, and armour. Sometimes the
tapestry or leather would be worked or painted with hunting-scenes
(_tardwahsh_--the chase of the lion, panther, or wild boar), or
even with portraits of the sultans. Among these latter is the
celebrated painting on the ceiling of the Hall of Justice,
executed, as are its companions at each side of it, upon a leather
groundwork with a plaster coating.
[14] I think this shows why to this day a Spaniard who professes to be
an educated person will often wipe his or her mouth upon the
tablecloth. Not many weeks ago I saw the elegantly dressed daughter
of a Spanish member of Parliament perform this semi-oriental feat
in an hotel at Granada. Montaigne would judge this _señorita_ with
benevolence; not so, I fear, my compatriots. Similarly, it is
considered rude in Spain to stretch yourself; but not to spit upon
the dining-room floor, or pick your teeth at table.
The same author proceeds to relate his experiences at bed-time. "Having
supp'd and solaced ourselves with muddy beverage and Moresco music, we
all composed ourselves to sleep: about twenty were allotted to lodge in
this small chamber, whereof two were Christians, three Jews, and the
rest Moors; every one made his bed of what he wore, which made our
English constitutions to wish for the morning."
[Illustration: V
ARMCHAIR
(_17th Century. Museum of Salamanca_)]
Among the Mussulmans all this has undergone no change. Do we not find
their present furniture to be identical with that of distant
centuries?--a characteristic scarcity of portable articles of wood; the
isolated box (_arqueta_ or _arcón_) which serves the purpose of our
clumsier chest of drawers or wardrobe;[15] carpets and decorated
leathers; the tiny, indispensable table; the lack of knives and spoons;
ornaments to regale the eye rather than commodities which the hand might
seize upon and utilize? Such was, and is, and will continue to remain
Mohammedan society throughout the world; and these descriptive passages
of life in seventeenth-century Morocco might have been penned with equal
truth in reference to the Spanish Muslim of a thousand years ago.
[15] Mr. Cunninghame Graham, visiting a Caid's house in present-day
Morocco, noted, as the only furniture, "leather-covered cushions,
the cover cut into intricate geometric patterns; the room contained
a small trunk-shaped box."
The furniture of the Moorish mosques was also of the scantiest. "They
are," to quote once more from Lancelot Addison's amusing little
brochure, "without the too easy accommodations of seats, pews, or
benches. The floor of the Giámma is handsomely matted, and so are the
walls about two feet high. If the roof be large and weighty, it is
supported with pillars, among which hang the lamps, which are kept
burning all the night." At one point of his expedition the reason for
such paucity of furniture was vividly expounded to our tourist. A Moor
indignantly exclaimed to him that it was "a shame to see women, dogs,
and dirty shoes brought into a place sacred to God's worship, and that
men ... should have chaires there to sit in with as much lascivious ease
as at home."[16]
[16] _West Barbary_, p. 150.
Nevertheless, a pulpit in the mosque, and a seat of some kind in the
palace or the private house, were not to be dispensed with. We learn
from Ibn-Khaldoun and many other writers, that the throne of the
Mussulman sultans was the _mimbar_, _takcht_, or _cursi_. Each of these
objects was a wooden seat. The first of the sultans to use a throne was
Moawia, son of Abu-Sofyan. The princes who came after him continued the
same usage, but displayed a constantly increasing splendour in the
decoration of the throne. This custom spread, in course of time, from
east to west throughout almost the whole dominion of the Muslims. The
Beni-Nasr princes of Granada are also known to have used a throne, but
this is believed to have consisted simply of some cushions piled one
upon another. This inference is drawn by Eguilaz Yanguas and other
Arabists from the old _Vocabulary_ of Fray Pedro de Alcalá, who renders
a "throne" or "royal seat" by _martaba_, a word equivalent to "cushion."
[Illustration: VI
CHAIR AND TABLE
(_17th Century. Salamanca Cathedral_)]
Cushions, too, became symbolic, even with the Christian Spaniards, of a
seat of honour; both because they lent themselves to rich embroidery or
leather-work, and because they raised their occupant above the level of
the persons seated positively on the carpet or the floor. In the
painting on the ceiling of the Hall of Justice in the Alhambra, ten men
are congregated in Mohammedan costume, each of them seated on a
cushion. Some writers, including Argote de Molina, Diego Hurtado de
Mendoza, and Hernando del Pulgar, believed these figures to be actual
portraits of the sultans; others maintain that they depict the _Mizouar_
or royal council. In either case, however, the cushion here is clearly
an honourable place. We have, besides, abundant evidence that the
Spanish Christians viewed the cushion with as marked a liking as their
rivals. Alvarez de Colmenar relates that at the very close of the
seventeenth century the Spanish women sat at meals in Moorish fashion.
"Un père de famille est assis seul à table, et toutes les femmes, sans
exception, mangent par terre, assises sur un carreau avec leurs enfants,
et leur table dressée sur un tapis étendu." The same work says elsewhere
that "lorsque les dames se rendent visite, elles ne se donnent ni siège
ni fauteuil, mais elles sont toutes assises par terre, les jambes en
croix, sur des tapis ou des carreaux."[17]
[17] _Annales d'Espagne et de Portugal_, vol. iii., pp. 324, 327.
Therefore, until two centuries ago, the women of Christian Spain were
suffered to take their seat on cushions of brocade or damask. Only the
men made use of stools or chairs, according to their rank. To "give a
chair" (_dar silla_) to a visitor of the male sex was to pay him a
valued courtesy;[18] and even now the wife of a grandee of Spain goes
through the honourable though irksome ceremony, at the palace of Madrid,
of "taking the cushion."
[18] "Hónrale el Sr Roberto, alma del Rey, y _le ha dado Silla_, y le
tuvo á su lado." Lope de Vega's comedy, _The Key of Honour_.
[Illustration: VII
CHAIRS UPHOLSTERED WITH _GUADAMECILES_
(_17th Century_)]
Another usage with the Spaniards of the seventeenth and immediately
preceding centuries was the "dais of honour" or _estrado de
cumplimiento_. This was a platform very slightly raised, and separated
by a railing from the rest of the room. The curious manuscript
discovered by Gayangos, descriptive of court-life at Valladolid in 1605,
contains the following account of one of the occasions when the Queen,
following a common custom of a Sunday, dined alone, in sight of all the
aristocracy. "The table was laid upon the dais (_estrado alto_), beneath
a canopy of brocade that overhung the whole of it. The queen sat at the
head of the table, and three ladies, standing, waited on her; two
uncovering the dishes as they came,[19] and the third carving. The
dishes were brought from the dining-room door by the _meninos_, who
handed them to the ladies. Other ladies of the royal household, wives or
daughters of grandees, stood leaning against the wall in company with
gentlemen who, on such occasions, sue for leave beforehand to attend on
Lady So and So, or So and So. Commonly there are two such cavaliers to
every dame. If the queen asks for water, one of these ladies takes it to
her, kneels, makes an obeisance, kisses the goblet, hands it to her
majesty, and retires to her appointed place. Behind the queen was one of
her chamberlains. Many of the Englishmen were witnessing the meal. They
always put the English first on such occasions; and as they are such
hulking fellows (God bless them!) I, who was at their back, scarce noted
anything of what was passing, and only saw that many plates went to and
fro."
[19] The covers would be fastened by a lock and key, as a defence, not
against poison, but against theft. "A little afterwards Don
Federico de Cardona, who had gone out to see how matters were
proceeding, returned, bearing a large silver vessel, the cover of
which was secured by a lock and key, as is the custom in
Spain."--Countess d'Aulnoy's _Travels_. As late as the year 1792,
Townsend, in his "Directions to the Itinerant in Spain," recommends
(vol. i., p. 2) that the vessel to boil the traveller's meat should
be provided with a cover and a lock.
Solid and expensive furniture continued to be used in Spain throughout
the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries; the ponderous chest, the
ponderous brasier, ponderous stools, ponderous armchairs with massive
nails and coverings of velvet or of decorated leather (Plates v., vi.,
and vii.). Upon the wall, the tapestry of earlier times was often
replaced by paintings of a sacred character, or family portraits. The
comedy titled _La Garduña de Sevilla_, written about the middle of the
seventeenth century by Alonso del Castillo Solorzano, describes the
interior of a rich man's dwelling of this period. "Upstairs Rufina noted
delicate summer hangings, new chairs of Moscovy cowhide, curiously
carved buffets, and ebony and ivory writing-desks; for Marquina, though
a skinflint towards others, was generous in the decoration of his own
abode.... When dinner was over, he took her to a room embellished with
fine paintings, and with a bed whose canopy was of some Indian
fabric.... Paintings by famous masters were plentifully hung about the
house, together with fine Italian hangings, various kinds of
writing-desks, and costly beds and canopies. When they had visited
nearly all the rooms, they opened the door of one which contained a
beautiful altar and its oratory. Here were a great array of costly
and elaborate Roman vessels, agnuses of silver and of wood, and flowers
arranged in various ways. This chamber, too, was full of books
distributed in gilded cases."
[Illustration: VIII
THE _SALA DE LA BARCA_
(_Before the fire of 1890. Alhambra, Granada_)]
A characteristic piece of Spanish furniture was at this time the
solid-looking cabinet known as the _vargueño_, so denominated from the
little town of Vargas, near Toledo, formerly a well-known centre of
their manufacture. These cabinets, whose origin, according to the
Marquis of Monistrol, may be traced to a fifteenth-century form of
_huche_, or chest provided with drawers for guarding articles of value,
and which opened in the centre, are commonly made of walnut. The front
lets down upon a massive wooden rest supported by the legs, and forms a
folding writing-table containing at the back a number of drawers or
compartments for storing documents, or other things of minor bulk.
The woodwork of these cabinets is often without carving; but generally
in such cases their bareness is relieved by massive and elaborately
ornamented iron fastenings and a decorative key.
The Ordinances of Granada tell us that in 1616 the making of defective
furniture had grown to be a scandal in that town. The cause, it seems,
was partly in the wood itself, proceeding from the Sierra de Segura,
Pinar del Duque, and the Sierra de Gor. "Divers of our carpenters and
joiners cut their walnut and other woods while yet the moon is crescent,
whereby the wood decays and spoils. Others there be that make and sell
chairs, desks, beds, and other furniture of green unseasoned wood which
warps and loosens, insomuch that within some days the article is
worthless. Therefore we order that all walnut wood and other woods for
making furniture be only cut at the time of the waning moon, and be not
used until they shall have seasoned thoroughly, so as not to warp; and
that they be approved by the inspectors of this trade, under a penalty
of six thousand _maravedis_ for each of the aforesaid Ordinances that be
not complied with."
[Illustration: IX
DOOR OF THE HALL OF THE ABENCERRAJES
(_Alhambra, Granada_)]
The municipal laws of the same city relative to the "chair-makers who
make hip-chairs to sit in, and leather-covered chests," were cried, in
1515 and 1536, "in the street of the chairmakers and carpenters."
Fettered by irksome regulations of this kind, we cannot wonder that the
arts and crafts of Christian Spain were fated to decline.[20] Owing
to the "false and faulty workmanship" prevailing in Granada, it is
provided by these statutes that the wood employed in making chairs must
be bought by the manufacturers in public auction only, held "in the
little square where dwell the chairmakers." It must be thoroughly dry
and free from flaws, and of sufficient stoutness to sustain the
decorative marquetry. The chair which lacks these requisite conditions
must be seized and burnt. The four nails which fasten the seat of the
chair to the legs must traverse the frame completely and be hammered
back upon the other side, unless the surface of the chair be inlaid, in
which case they need not pass completely through. The leather for the
seats and backs of chairs must be good in quality and well prepared and
dressed, besides being strongly sewn with flaxen thread. Chairs of all
sizes must bear the official city mark, stamped by the authorities at a
charge of one _maravedi_ for each of the large chairs and a _blanca_ for
each of the small.
[20] The purpose of these Spanish city laws was in its essence
unimpeachable; namely, to guard the intensely ignorant Christian
populace--the same which fugitive Moriscos of the kingdom of
Valencia had readily prevailed upon to barter tons of brass and
pewter trash for sterling gold and silver coin--from being imposed
upon by manufacturers and merchants. But the power of
discriminating between a genuine or well-made object and a piece
of counterfeit or worthless rubbish is, among all peoples, better
sought for and developed by experience than by legislation; and
there was something noxiously prosaic in a code of city ordinances
which forbade the craftsman to prepare his own design, or choose
his own material, or establish his own prices. How violently, or at
least how primitively, hostile to the sense of art must not have
been these Christian sons of Spain to need--or think they
needed--so impertinent and tyrannous a system of protection!
Makers of the leather-covered chests are ordered to use the hides of
horses, mares, or mules, and not the hides of oxen, cows, or calves,
because, if covered with this latter, "the chests grow moth-eaten and
are destroyed much sooner." The craftsman who transgresses this command
must lose the faulty piece of furniture, and pay four hundred
_maravedis_, while under a further penalty of two hundred _maravedis_
the hinges must be fixed inside the chest, and not to its exterior.
[Illustration: X
MOORISH DOOR, DETAIL OF CARVING
(_Hall of the Two Sisters, Alhambra, Granada_)]
I have omitted hitherto all mention of the furnishing of humbler Spanish
houses in the olden time. The following passage from the Ordinances of
Granada shows us, referring to an inn, an unpretentious lodging of about
four hundred years ago:--
"_Item._ If the innkeeper have a parlour or alcove that fastens with a
lock, and therein a bed of the better class, with hangings round about
it, and a canopy above, and on the bed a counterpane, friezed
blanket, and pillows; also a bench with its strip of carpet or striped
benchcloth, a table with its service of tablecloths and all that be
needful, besides a lamp of brass or ware, all of the best that he is
able to provide--for such a bed and room he may demand twelve
_maravedis_ each day; whether the room be taken by one guest, or two, or
more."[21]
[21] _Ordenanza de Mesoneros_, titulo 54.
Nor was the Spanish inn more comfortable in the seventeenth or
eighteenth centuries than in the sixteenth. "On entre d'ordinaire dans
les Hôtelleries par l'écurie, du moins dans de certaines Provinces; on
vous mène dans quelque chambre, où vous trouvez les quatre parois,
quelquefois un bois de lit; pour chandelle on allume un grand nombre de
petites bougies, qui font assez de lumière pour voir ce que vous mangez;
et afin que l'odeur and la fumée de tant de bougies n'incommode pas, on
vous apporte, si vous le souhaitez, un brasier de noyaux d'olives en
charbon. Quand on monte, on trouve au haut de l'escalier, la _Señora de
la Casa_, qui a eu le tems de prendre ses beaux habits de dimanche pour
vous faire honneur et s'en faire à elle-même." (Alvarez de Colmenar, in
1715.)
It is interesting to compare these passages with Lancelot Addison's
account of a Morocco inn towards the middle of the seventeenth century;
bearing in mind that _fonda_, the current Spanish term for _hostelry_,
is common both to Spain and to Morocco:--
"In later years, every town of traffic hath erected a sort of Inns
called _Alfándach_, which affords nothing but House-room for man and
beast, the market yielding provision for both. Those that farm these
_fandáchs_ cannot exact above a Blankil a night both for man and beast,
which is in sterling money about two pence. The horses lodging costing
equally with his Rider's."[22]
[22] _West Barbary_, p. 129.
Similarly, the keeper of the older Spanish inn was not allowed by law to
traffic in provisions. "Nothing but house-room" was available for
wayfarers, and the weary visitor, as soon as ever he arrived, must sally
forth to do his marketing.
[Illustration: XI
DOOR OF THE _SALON DE EMBAJADORES_
(_Alcázar of Seville_)]