glass-making, and is mentioned in connection with this craft by
Al-Makkari. The oriental shape of the older vessels which were made in
this locality is still preserved in certain objects such as jars, bowls,
flasks, and _aguardiente_-bottles, which are still manufactured, or were
so until quite recently, throughout a region extending from Almería to
the slopes of the Alpujarra. "All these objects," says Riaño, "are
decorated with a serrated ornamentation of buttons, trellis-work, and
the lines to which I have already alluded, which were placed there
after the object was made, in the Roman style. The paste is generally of
a dark green colour, and when we find these same features in vessels of
clear white glass, we may affirm that they are contemporary imitations
made at Cadalso or elsewhere, for they are very seldom to be met with in
the provinces of Almería and Granada, and are generally found at Toledo
and other localities; it is, moreover, a common condition of oriental
art that its general form complies with a geometrical tracery, and we
never find, as in Italian works of art, forms and capricious
ornamentations which interfere with the symmetry of the general lines,
and sacrifice them to the beauty of the whole."
None of the original Moorish glass of the Alhambra has survived till
nowadays. Most of it was destroyed by the explosion, in the year 1590,
of a powder factory which lay immediately beneath the palace and beside
the river Darro. In the Alhambra archives, particular mention is made of
the circular glass windows or "eyes," only the corresponding holes of
which remain, in the baths of the same palace. This glass, which may
have been in colour, was also destroyed by the explosion, as were the
windows, "painted in colour with fancy devices and Arabic lettering,"
of the Sala de Embajadores,[106] those of the Hall of the Two Sisters,
and certain windows, "painted with many histories and royal arms,"
belonging to the church of the Alhambra.
[106] Oliver, _Granada y sus monumentos árabes_.
Excellent glass, reported by some authors to have equalled that of
Venice, was made at Barcelona from as early as the thirteenth century.
An inventory of the Crown of Aragon, dated A.D. 1389 and quoted by
García Llansó, mentions as manufactured here, glass sweetmeat-vessels,
cups, and silver-mounted tankards blazoned with the royal arms. The
guild of Barcelona glassmakers was founded in 1455, and later in the
same century Jerónimo Paulo wrote that "glass vessels of varying quality
and shape, and which may well compete with the Venetian, are exported to
Rome and other places." Similar statements are made by Marineus Siculus
and Gaspar Barreyros.
Other centres of Spanish glass-making were Caspe in Aragon, Seville,
Valencia,[107] Pinar de la Vidriera, Royo Molino (near Jaen,) El
Recuenco (Guadalajara), Cebreros (Avila), Medina del Campo, Venta del
Cojo, Venta de los Toros de Guisando, and Castiel de la Peña in Castile.
The glass-works of Castiel de la Peña were founded by the intelligent
and indefatigable Hernando de Zafra, secretary to the Catholic
sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella. "It has been calculated," says
Riaño, "that about two tons of sand were used at these glass-works every
month."
[107] The inventory (A.D. 1560) of the Dukes of Alburquerque mentions "a
white box with four small bottles of Valencia glass containing
ointment for the hands." Other objects specified in this inventory
are "a large glass cup, with two lizards for handles, and two more
lizards on the cover"; "three glass cocoanuts, partly coloured and
with gold blown into them, together with their covers"; and "a
large glass cup, of Barcelona, blown with gold." The value of
these cups, if they existed now, would not be less than two or
three hundred pounds apiece.
More important than the foregoing was the famous factory of a village in
Toledo province called Cadalso, or sometimes, from the nature of its
only industry, Cadalso (or Cadahalso) de los Vidrios. The glass made
here is mentioned in terms of high praise by various writers of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, such as Marineus Siculus and Mendez
Silva. The former of these authors says in his work upon the _Memorable
Things of Spain_: "Glass was produced in several towns of Castile, the
most important being that of Cadalso, which supplied the whole kingdom."
Ewers and bottles of Cadalso glass are mentioned in the Alburquerque
inventory. Mendez Silva says that the number of ovens was originally
three, and that their coloured glass was equal to Venetian (Plate
lxxiv.). This was towards the middle of the seventeenth century. Larruga
tells us that by the end of the eighteenth this local industry was
languishing. One of the three ovens had been abandoned. The other two
produced inferior glass, as well as in diminished quantities.
[Illustration: LXXIV
VESSELS OF SPANISH GLASS
(_South Kensington Museum_)]
The glass of Cataluña maintained its ancient reputation all through the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and part of the seventeenth, and at
this time was still compared with the Venetian by observant travellers
(Plate lxxv.). Besides the capital, the principal glass-works in this
province were at Almatret, Moncada, Cervelló, and Mataró. In 1489 a
Barcelonese, by name Vicente Sala, and his sons applied to the City
Council for leave to construct an oven at Moncada "in order to pursue
the craft of glass-making, _lo qual a present aci se obre axi bellament
e suptil com en part del mon_ (seeing that the glass we manufacture in
this neighbourhood competes with any in the world for subtlety and
beauty)."
A document is extant from which we learn that the City Councillors of
Barcelona made strenuous efforts to prevail upon Ferdinand the Catholic
to abolish a certain monopoly or other form of exclusive privilege which
he had conceded to a local glass-maker. The result of this appeal is not
recorded. In 1503 Ferdinand presented his consort with two hundred and
seventy-four glass objects made at Barcelona, and Philip the Second
possessed a hundred and nineteen pieces proceeding from the same
locality.
[Illustration: LXXV
VESSELS OF CATALAN GLASS
(_From Drawings by the Author_)]
An important development of this craft was the manufacture of coloured
glass for churches and cathedrals. In the Peninsula, the earliest
introducers of this branch of glass-making were principally natives of
Germany, France, and Flanders, who came to Spain at the beginning of the
fifteenth century.[108] Many of the oldest windows executed by these
foreigners, or by the Spaniards who were taught by them, are still
existing in the cathedrals of León, Toledo, Burgos, Barcelona, and
the Seo of Zaragoza. León has several windows which date from as far
back as the thirteenth century, and in which the glass is in small
pieces, arranged as though it were mosaic. Some of the later and larger
windows in the same cathedral are thirty-five feet high, and one, dating
from the sixteenth century, is believed to have been presented to this
temple by Mary of England, prior to her marriage with Philip the Second.
[108] Before this time, however, Aymerich had written, in or about the
year 1100, that sixty large windows in Santiago cathedral were
closed by glass, which probably was coloured. We also hear of
Francisco Socoma, who made or fitted windows of coloured glass at
Palma, in the island of Majorca, in 1380, and of Guillermo de
Collivella, who, in 1391, fitted at Lerida the glass which had
been coloured for the cathedral of that town by Juan de San-Amat.
It was, however, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that the custom
became general, in Spain as in other lands, of colouring the surface of
white glass by partial fusing--a process which is mentioned in the
treatise of Abolais, to which I have referred repeatedly. Between the
eleventh and the thirteenth centuries the coloured windows of Spanish
temples were still composed of pieces of glass united in the manner of
mosaic, forming ornamental patterns of stars and similar devices; but
subsequently to this period the decorative themes are said to be painted
_en caballete_, and consist of figures, or the representation of scenes
from Scripture. In Spain, and dating from the twelfth century, the
workshops for preparing this coloured glass were commonly situated
within the precincts of important temples, such as Toledo cathedral, or
else, as was the case at Burgos, in separate buildings and
_dependencias_. Here, in the square ovens characteristic of that age,
and before it was mounted in the ponderous leaden frame, the glass was
coloured with exquisite solicitude and patience by the hand of the
master-craftsman, sometimes with a colour upon one of its surfaces
alone, sometimes with the same colour upon both, or sometimes with a
different colour upon either surface. The cartoons from which such
windows were constructed, and which were often designed by painters of
renown, were usually three in number. The first contained, upon a
reduced scale, a coloured outline of the window; the second, drawn to
the exact scale of the window as it was to be, was composed of all the
pieces cut out and numbered according to the various colours; and the
third, also of the projected size of the window, was kept complete, to
serve as a pattern in case the window should suffer any accident, and
require to be restored or mended. Not one of these cartoons is known to
be preserved to-day, but Rico y Sinobas points out that from the strong
and simple character of their colouring and outline, the illuminated
illustrations of Spanish thirteenth century manuscripts, such as the
_Cantigas_, and the _Book of Chess_ of Alfonso the Learned, may well
have been utilized for, or else be copied from, glass windows of that
period.
As soon as the cartoon was finished, the window-painter traced it upon
the surface of the glass. This was in square pieces, fitted conveniently
together, with sufficient space between the pieces to allow the passage
of the leads. Before being laid upon the glass and being submitted to
the fixing action of fire, the colours were mixed with honey, urine,
vinegar, and other fluids or substances which served as mediums to
attach the colour to the glass. Thus prepared, and in the form of
powder, the colours were allowed to dry for two or three days before the
glass was placed in the oven. Yellow, which was the strongest colour,
and that which penetrated deepest beneath the surface of the glass, was
made from certain combinations of silver and nitrate of potash, while
oxides or other forms of copper, lead, iron, tin, silver, and manganese,
were used for making black, white, red, green, blue, purple, violet, or
flesh-colour. These colours penetrated the glass to the depth of about
half a millimetre; but sometimes, after the colour had been applied,
the craftsman would submit the glass to friction by a wooden polisher or
wheel, thus giving it an appearance of greater clearness and
transparency at any spot he might desire.
Among the artists who produced the coloured windows of León cathedral
were Master Joan de Arge (A.D. 1424), Master Baldovín, and Rodrigo de
Ferreras. Those of Toledo date from early in the fifteenth century, and
were made by Albert of Holland, Vasco Troya, Luis Pedro Francés, Juan de
Campos, and others, including the eminent Dolfín, who, according to
Cean, began to work here in 1418, by order of the archbishop, Don Sancho
de Rojas. The documents collected and published for the first time by
Zarco del Valle tell us that on March 22nd, 1424, Dolfín received from
Alfonso Martinez, treasurer and superintendent of works, two hundred
gold florins and certain other moneys on account of his total payment of
four hundred gold florins for "the eighth window he is making for the
head of the cathedral." Other certificates of payment relating to
Maestre Dolfín (as he always signed himself) are included in the same
collection. By 1427 he was "defunct, God pardon him!" and the windows
he had left unfinished were terminated by his assistant Lois
(Louis).[109]
[109] _Documentos Inéditos para la Historia de las Bellas Artes en
España_, p. 282 _et seq._
In 1458, and also at Toledo, a friar named Pablo began to repair the
painted windows of the _crucero_. His pay was fixed by the "abbot and
superintendent of works" at fifty _maravedis_ each day, and that of "his
lads, Ximeno and Juanico," at one half of this amount. Other artists
engaged in the same work were Pablo (not the friar just referred to),
Peter, a German, and "Master Henry," who was also German. Pablo received
authority to purchase ten and a half _quintales_ and thirteen pounds of
coloured Flemish glass, at two thousand _maravedis_ for each _quintal_.
By a contract dated 1485 (he died between 1487 and 1493), Master Henry
was handed by the cathedral authorities a sum of 150,000 _maravedis_ "to
proceed to Flanders or any other part he may desire, and where good
glass is to be found, white, blue, green, scarlet, purple, yellow, or
blackish (_prieto_), equal in thickness to the sample which he bears,
and bring us thence such quantity as he has need of for the windows of
our cathedral."
It is evident from this notice that Spain was then unable to produce
the finest quality of glass. With such as he brought with him from
abroad, Henry engaged to fashion "every kind of figure, image, scroll,
and other object whatsoever be commanded him, according to the place it
is to fill; the colours of the glass to be well mingled and
distributed." He was also to make "the leaden casings stout and deep, so
as to embrace and hold the glass aforesaid, that it may resist the air
and wind." In return for this, he was to be supplied with an erected
scaffolding, with all the chalk and iron he might require, and with the
proper number of assistants, receiving, in payment of his labour, one
hundred and fifteen _maravedis_ for every square palm of glass the
preparation of which should satisfy the superintendent and examiners of
works.
One of the witnesses to this document was Henry's wife, María Maldonada,
who came forward to affix her signature "with the license and pleasure
of the aforesaid Master Enrique, her husband."
In 1433, Master Juan (perhaps the same as Joan de Arge, already
mentioned) began to work at the windows of Burgos, where, later in this
century, he was succeeded by Juan de Valdivieso and Diego de
Santillana. We learn from the _Documentos Inéditos_ (pp. 159, 160) that
Santillana lived at Burgos, and that, on May 31st, 1512, he contracted
to make three "historical windows" for the monastery of San Francisco,
at a price of ninety-five _maravedis_ for each palm of glass, this to be
"of good colours and shades," and "measured by the Burgos standard." Two
other contracts are preserved, signed by the same craftsman and both
relating to Palencia. By one of them Santillana is to receive for six
"storied windows," the subjects of which are specified, ninety-five
_maravedis_ the palm, besides the scaffolding and his house and coals.
Arnao de Flandes (Arnold of Flanders) was appointed master glass-painter
to Burgos cathedral in 1512. Other glass-painters who worked here in the
sixteenth century were Francisco de Valdivieso, Gaspar Cotin, Juan de
Arce, his son Juan and grandson Pedro, and, in the seventeenth century,
Valentin Ruiz, Francisco Alonso, Simon Ruiz, and Francisco Alcalde. Most
of the windows made by all these men have been destroyed by time and
weather, and have been replaced by barren panes of white; but a few fine
specimens of the original work may yet be seen in the chapels of the
Presentation, the Constable, and San Jerónimo. Perhaps the most
remarkable of any is the rose-window, above the Puerta del
Sarmental.[110]
[110] In the monastery of Miraflores, near this city, the queen of
Ferdinand the Catholic built, at her expense, a rich pantheon to
guard the ashes of her parents and her brother. The coloured glass
was made by Simon of Cologne. One day, while visiting Miraflores,
Isabella noticed upon the windows of this sanctuary the shield of
a gentleman named Martin de Soria. Furious at the liberty thus
taken with a fabric of her own, "afferte mihi gladium" she called
in Latin to one of her attendants, and, raising the sword, dashed
the offending window into a thousand pieces, crying that in that
spot she would allow no arms but those of her father.
Other good cathedral windows prior to the sixteenth century are those of
Avila, which date from about the year 1497, and were executed by Diego
de Santillana, Juan de Valdivieso, and other artists; those of the Seo
of Zaragoza, by the Catalans Terri and Jayme Romeu (1447); and some at
Barcelona, painted in 1494 by Gil Fontanet.
It is, however, in the sixteenth century that Spanish ecclesiastical
window-glass attains its highest grade of excellence.[111] Dating from
this century are windows in Toledo cathedral, painted in 1503 by Vasco
de Troya, in 1509 by Alejo Jiménez, in 1513 by Gonzalo de Córdoba (these
are considered by competent judges to be the finest of any), in 1515 by
Juan de la Cuesta, in 1522 by Juan Campos, in 1525 by Albert of Holland,
in 1534 by Juan de Ortega, and in 1542 by Nicolás Vergara the
elder.[112] In 1537 Ortega was engaged to repair the damaged or broken
panes at a yearly salary of 11,250 _maravedis_. Where the panes were
wanting, he was to replace them by new ones painted by his hand,
receiving, for each _palmo_ of new glass so painted, an extra payment of
ninety _maravedis_.[113]
[111] Señor Lázaro, who has recently made at Madrid windows for León
cathedral imitating those of the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, remarks that with the sixteenth century the process
grew more complicated, patterns composed with pieces of a single
colour being replaced by glass containing a variety of tints. He
has also discovered the following usage of the older Spanish
craftsmen: "By way of furnishing a key to their arrangement, all
the pieces used to be marked with the point of a diamond, and
this mark indicates the tone the glass requires for such and such
a part of the design. The signs most often employed were three,
namely X, L, and V, for red, blue and yellow respectively,
intermediate tones being shown by combinations of these
letters--XL, LV, XV, with "lines of unities" placed before or
after to indicate the necessary gradation in the tone."
[112] This artist painted a series of magnificent windows representing
scenes from the life of San Pedro Nolasco, for the convent of La
Piedad, at Valencia.
[113] Zarco del Valle, _Documentos Inéditos, etc._, pp. 339 _et seq._
In the same century the windows of Seville cathedral, begun some years
previously (Cean says in 1504) by Micer Cristóbal Alemán ("Master
Christopher the German"), were continued by Masters Jacobo, Juan Juan
Vivan, Juan Bernai, Bernardino de Gelandia, Juan Jaques, Arnold of
Flanders (1525), Arnao de Vergara (1525), Charles of Bruges, (1557), and
Vicente Menandro (1557).[114] In 1562 Diego de Valdivieso, and in 1570
Pedro de Valdivieso and Gerald of Holland, painted windows for Cuenca
cathedral. In 1542 the same work was done at Palencia by Diego de
Salcedo, and in 1533 George of Burgundy, "master in the art of glass,"
then resident at Burgos, proceeded to the same town and engaged to
renew the cathedral windows at a cost of a hundred _maravedis_ for every
palm of coloured glass, and fifty for every palm of plain.[115]
[114] According to Cean (_La Catedral de Sevilla_), Menandro painted in
1560 the conversion of Saint Paul on a window in the Chapel of
Santiago, in 1567 another window with the scene of the
Annunciation, over the gate of San Miguel, and in 1569 the
companion to it, representing the Visitation, over the Puerta del
Bautismo. "In all these windows," wrote Cean, prejudiced, as was
customary in his day, in favour of the strictly classic style,
"the drawing, pose, and composition are good, _although_ in the
draperies and figures we observe the influence of Germany."
In Cean's own time--that is, towards the close of the eighteenth
century--the coloured windows of Seville Cathedral amounted to
ninety-three, five of which were circular, and the rest with the
pointed Gothic arch. The dimensions of the latter are twenty-eight
feet high by twelve feet broad, and the subjects painted on them
include the likenesses of prophets, patriarchs, martyrs,
confessors, and virgins, or scenes from the New Testament, such as
the rising of Lazarus, Christ driving the merchants from the
temple, the Last Supper, and the
anointing by Mary Magdalene.
[115] Zarco del Valle, _Documentos Inéditos_, p. 159
In 1544, sixty-two windows in the nave of Segovia cathedral were filled
with painted glass prepared chiefly at Valladolid and Medina del Campo,
though some was brought from Flanders. The remaining windows were left
unfilled till 1676, in which year a canon of the cathedral, named Tomás
de la Plaza Aguirre, succeeded in rediscovering a formula for the
practise of this craft, and the panes yet needed were made and coloured
at Valdequemada by Juan Danis, under Plaza Aguirre's supervision.
Thirty-three additional windows were completed from this factory.
According to Lecea y García, the chapter of Segovia cathedral possess,
or possessed for many years, two curious manuscripts relating severally
to _The painting of glass windows_, by Francisco Herranz, and
_Glass-making_, by Juan Danis--the same who owned and worked the factory
at Valdequemada. These interesting treatises were examined by Bosarte,
who has described them. He says that the one on glass-making consisted
of twenty-three sheets of clear writing, and the one on glass-painting
of eight sheets; both manuscripts being in quarto size. The latter
contained, distributed beside the text, sketches of the various
instruments required for this craft. The other and longer monograph
consisted of the following chapters:--(1) How to draw upon glass. (2)
How to cut glass. (3) How to paint and shade glass. (4) Of the
substances and ingredients for painting glass. (5) How to give a
flesh-colour to glass. (6) How to give a yellow or golden colour to
white or pale blue glass, but no other. (7) How to fire glass. (8) How
to make the glass-oven.
Windows were painted in the cathedral of Palma de Mallorca by Sebastián
Danglés in 1566 and by Juan Jordá in 1599, in that of Málaga by Octavio
Valerio in 1579, and in those of Tarragona and Avila respectively, by
Juan Guasch in 1571, and by Pierre de Chiberri in 1549. This craftsman
was undoubtedly a foreigner. The following entry which concerns him is
quoted by Rosell de Torres from the _Libro de Fábrica_ of Segovia
cathedral: "By order of the Canon Juan Rodriguez, on the twelfth day of
August, I paid to Pierre de Chiberri, master-maker of window-glass, the
sum of 56,560 _maravedis_, 34,960 for the casings of seven large
windows with their side-windows--in all twenty-one casings--besides ten
casings for the windows of the lower chapels, containing altogether
MMMCCCCXCVI palms, amounting at ten _maravedis_ the palm to the
aforesaid 34,960 maravedis: also 19,125 _maravedis_ for CCCLXXII palms
of glass for the said chapels at a _real_ and a half each palm, plus
2476 _maravedis_ for certain glass which had yet to be measured because
it was in the skylights. The total sum amounts to the aforesaid 56,560
_maravedis_."[116]
[116] Isidoro Rosell de Torres, _Las Vidrieras pintadas en España_
(published in the _Museo Español de Antigüedades_).
During the seventeenth century, glass-work of various kinds continued to
be produced upon a large scale at Barcelona, Mataró, Gerona, Cuenca,
Toledo, Valmaqueda, and Seville. In 1680 the Duke of Villahermosa
established a glass factory at San Martin de Valdeiglesias, and placed
it under the direction of a native of Namur named Diodonet Lambot, aided
by various other artists from the Netherlands. In 1683 Lambot was
succeeded by Santiago Vandoleto, who proved incompetent, and caused, in
1692, the total stoppage of the factory.
I have said that glass was made at Medina del Campo, in the province of
Valladolid. Pinheiro da Veiga's _Pincigraphia_, written at the beginning
of the seventeenth century, contains an interesting notice of this
glassware. "Really, the glass-work of Valladolid is most beautiful, and
worth going to see if only for the pleasure of its contemplation. There
are objects of considerable size, such as (glass) pitchers of every form
and colour. Others are called _penados_, and are of a syphon shape,
pouring out water in small quantities.[117] Besides this there are all
manner of cunningly contrived retorts such as we never see in Lisbon,
and yet in Valladolid their cost is only moderate.... The principal
shops for selling these and porcelain are two in number, and the prices
are the same as in Portugal."