graceful article of headwear, the _mantilla_, the use of which is
gradually dying out. At present we understand by this word a black or
white head-covering of lace alone (the white being more conspicuous and
dressy), but about a hundred years ago the _mantilla_ was made of a
variety of fabrics. Also, it was worn in an easier and more _negligé_
manner than nowadays, retaining a closer likeness to the _velo_ or
_manto_ with which the Spanish women of the seventeenth century were
able, at their pleasure, to completely mask their faces (Plates xxvi.
and xxvii.). Indeed, as late as the early part of the nineteenth century
the _mantilla_ was sometimes thrown over the face (Plates xxviii. and
xxix.). The same usage is referred to by Townsend, who describes the
_mantilla_ as "serving the double purpose of a cloak and veil."[54]
To-day it is worn, not hanging loose and open, but a good deal bunched
up at the bosom. The hair, too, is dressed to an unusual height, with a
tall comb, and over this the delicate lace covering should droop a
little to one side. A flower or two (roses or carnations by preference)
may be worn at one side of the head, and where the _mantilla_ is caught
up at the breast.
[54] "Pour les femmes, elles ne sortent point qu'emmantelées d'une mante
noire comme le deüil des dames de France, et elles ne se montrent
qu'un [oe]uil, et vont cherchant et agaçant les hommes avec tant
d'effronterie, qu'elles tiennent à affront quand on ne veut pas
aller plus loin que la conversation."--Bertaut de Rouen; _Journal
du Voyage d'Espagne_, p. 294.
The manuscript account of Spanish costumes early in the nineteenth
century, and which is prefixed to my copy of Pigal's coloured
lithographs, contains some excellent descriptions of the older Spanish
_mantilla_. We learn, for instance, that at Palma the women of the
well-to-do middle class wore a _mantilla_ of black taffeta, trimmed with
blonde (Plate xviii.).[55] In La Mancha, and among the peasants, it was
of white muslin; at Cordova, in cold weather, "en flanelle ou en bayette
fine: elle est garnie de rubans à l'extrémité desquels il y a deux gros
noeuds: en été elle est en mousseline." The small _mantilla_ or
"mantellina" of the wife of the smuggler of Tarifa was "en flanelle
blanche, ou noire, ou rose, brodée d'un ruban: elle en fait três souvent
un usage différent des autres femmes espagnoles, car au lieu de la
mettre sur la tête attachés avec des épingles, elle s'en sert de schal:
quelque fois elle la met en baudrier laissant flotter derrière elle les
deux extrémités qui sont ornées d'un noeud en ruban." The servant-girl
of Madrid wore a white _mantilla_ in summer, and a black one in winter.
The same author describes in greater detail the _mantillas_ of the fine
ladies. "La mantille et la basquigne," he says, "voila de quoi se
compose principalement le costume du beau sexe en Espagne. Ce costume,
quoique national, est susceptible de recevoir aussi bien que tout autre
les divers degrés de luxe que les femmes d'une riche classe et celles du
plus haut rang peuvent apporter dans leur parure: la classe la moins
aisée porte la mantille en laine noire ou blanche et la basquigne en
serge ou autre étoffe de laine noire. Pendant le jour, lorsque les dames
espagnoles se présentent en public, c'est toujours avec la mantille et
la basquigne, mais le soir si elles vont au spectacle ou ailleurs, elles
sortent três souvent habillées à la française."
[55] Blonde, I need hardly state, is silk-lace. It can always be
distinguished by the glossy surface.
[Illustration: XXIX
A LADY OF SORIA
(_About A.D. 1810_)]
Elsewhere he says: "Nous avons déjà dit qu'un simple ruban, un peigne,
ou une fleur, est la coiffure adoptée par les dames espagnoles, pour
faire usage de la mantille: celle-ci est dans l'hiver quelquefois en
serge de soie, taffetas, etc., noir, garnie en outre de blondes, ou d'un
large ruban de velours noir en échiquier (_cinta de terciopelo à
tablero_), mais ce ruban est toujours noir. Il y eut un temps où la
mode, qui ne fut pas de longue durée, prescrivait que les bouts de la
mantille se terminassent en trois pointes ornées chacune d'une houppe
(_borla_) noire, ou d'un lacet de ruban noir. Jamais les mantilles ne
sont doublées."
The same author remarks of the lady of Madrid; "La mantille de tulle
brodé ne se porte que dans la belle saison ... elle ne dépasse jamais
la ceinture"[56]; and of the lady of Granada: "si la mantille est
blanche, elle est en tulle parsemé de petits bouquets et garnie de
larges et riches dentelles. Si elle est noire, comme cela arrive plus
ordinairement, elle est alors en blonde: il y a de ces mantilles qui
coutent cinq cent, mille, et jusqu'à deux mille francs."
[56] This is incorrect. It was sometimes worn longer.
[Illustration: XXX
HANDKERCHIEF OF CATALAN LACE
(_Presented to Queen Victoria of Spain, on her marriage_)]
A good deal of lace, principally of the less elaborate and cheaper
kinds, was formerly manufactured in the kingdom of Valencia. Cabanillas
wrote in 1797 that at Novelda, a small town of this region, more than
two thousand women and children worked at making laces, which were
hawked about the country by others of the townspeople. Swinburne remarks
upon the same industry, and Ricord tells us in his pamphlet (1791) that
cotton lace was made in six factories at Torrente, Alicante, and
Orihuela.[57] The total product of these factories for the said year was
1,636,100 yards, which sold at from nine to twelve _reales_ the yard.
Laborde wrote some years later, in the first volume of his book, that
lace, and gold and silver fringes were then made at Valencia, and in the
fourth volume; "Gold and silver laced stuffs, and velvets of all colours
brocaded and flowered with the same metals, are made at Toledo,
Barcelona, Valencia, and Talavera de la Reina; and the manufacture at
the last-named city annually consumes four thousand marks of silver, and
seventy marks of gold.
[57] A letter from Vargas y Ponce to Cean Bermudez, dated 1797, says
that in this year there existed at Murcia a school for making
blondes, owned by one Castilla. "He does good work, teaches well,
and has executed blondes for the Queen, which are well spoken of."
"At Barcelona, Talavera de la Reina, and Valencia are also manufactured
gold and silver edgings, lace, and fringes, though not in a sufficient
quantity to answer the demands of Spain; and the gold is very badly
prepared, having too red a cast."
Lace-making was an ancient and important industry of every part of
Cataluña. Lace articles for ladies' headwear are known to have been made
throughout this region at least as far back as the fifteenth century,
and Capmany reminds us that by a _cedula_ dated from the Cortes of
Monzón, December 16th, 1538, the Emperor Charles the Fifth confirmed the
Ordinances of the guild, established long before, of the _tejedores de
velos_ of Barcelona. Technical provisions are embodied in this code,
concerning various articles of lace employed as headwear, such as
_alfardillas_, _quiñales_, and _espumilla_, all of which were largely
exported to America.
The attention of foreigners who travelled in Cataluña towards the
eighteenth century was constantly attracted by the lace-makers.
Swinburne mentions "Martorell, a large town, where much black lace is
manufactured," and "Espalungera (Esparraguera?), a long village, full of
cloth and lace manufacturers," and wrote of Sarriá and its surroundings,
close to Barcelona: "The women in the little hamlets were busy with
their bobbins making black lace, some of which, of the coarser kind, is
spun out of the leaf of the aloe. It is curious, but of little use, for
it grows mucilaginous with washing."
[Illustration: XXXI
CURTAIN OF SPANISH LACE
(_Point and Pillow Work. Modern_)]
"Martorell," wrote Townsend in 1786, "is one long, narrow street, in
which poverty, industry, and filth, although seldom seen together, have
agreed to take up their abode. The inhabitants make lace, and even the
little children of three and four years old are engaged in this
employment." Laborde wrote that at the beginning of the eighteenth
century seventeen manufactories of blondes were established at Mataró,
and adds of Barcelona province generally at that time: "Laces and
blondes constitute the employment of women and children. The work is
principally done at Pineda, Malgrat, San Celoni, Tosa, Canet, Arenys,
Callela, San-Pol, Mataró, Esparraguera, Martorell, and Barcelona.... The
laces are almost all shipped for the New World."
The most observant and most entertaining of all these tourists was
Arthur Young, who wrote, in 1787, of the towns upon the coast of
Cataluña: "The appearance of industry is as great as it can be: great
numbers of fishing-boats and nets, with rows of good white houses on the
sea-side; and while the men are active in their fisheries, the women are
equally busy making lace." Of Mataró he says: "It appears exceedingly
industrious; some stocking-frames; lace-makers at every door.... I am
sorry to add that here also the industry of catching lice in each
other's heads is well understood.
"Pass Arrengs (Arenys), a large town ... making thread lace universal
here. They have thread from France; women earn ten to sixteen _sous_ at
it. Great industry, and in consequence a flourishing appearance. Canet,
another large town, employed also in ship-building, fishing, and making
lace.... Pass Malgrat, which is not so well built as the other towns,
but much lace made in it.... Reach Figueras, whose inhabitants seem
industrious and active. They make lace, cordage, and mats, and have many
potteries of a common sort."[58]
[58] Tour in Catalonia in 1787; Vol. I., p. 644, etc.
Lace-making prevails to-day all through this region of north-eastern
Spain, particularly in the strip or zone of it including the valley of
the Llobregat as far as Martorell, and which extends from Palamós to
Barcelona. The towns which produce the greatest quantities of lace are
Arenys de Mar, Malgrat, San Pol, Canet, and Arenys de Munt. In the last
of these places an important Regional Exhibition of Lace was held in
July of last year, the number of exhibitors amounting to one hundred and
twenty-five. Due to the increasing production of underlinen and woven
fabrics generally, or to other causes, lace-making has declined at
Blanes, Pineda, Calella, and one or two other places. At San Celoni,
Vallgorguina, San Vicente, San Andrés de Llevaneras, Argentona, Caldeta,
and San Acisclo de Vilalta, lace is made by women who combine this work
with dirtier and rougher labour in the field. Most of the lace made in
these towns is therefore black.
[Illustration: XXXII
POINT LACE FAN, OF MUDEJAR DESIGN
(_Modern_)]
In the spring of last year, an elaborate lace pocket-handkerchief (Plate
xxx.), designed by Señor Riquer, and executed in a traditional style of
Cataluña, denominated locally the _ret Catalá_, was made in the
old-established lace-factory of the widow of Mariano Castells in the
town of Arenys de Mar, and offered by the Agricultural Institute of San
Isidro as a wedding-present to Princess Ena of Battenberg. Two
_encajeras_ worked at this handkerchief under the personal direction of
the widow Castells, and the time employed by them in making it was two
months.
Plate xxxi. represents a small portion of a very original and beautiful
lace curtain, ten feet high, designed by Señor Aguado, and executed,
partly by Señorita Pilar Huguet (who superintended the work throughout),
and partly by seventeen of this lady's pupils, at the School of Arts and
Industries, Toledo. Although it is a hackneyed trope to declare that the
ornamentation of the Spanish-Moors, whether in ivory, wood or metal,
stone or plaster, was "delicate enough to seem of lacework," I believe
this to be the first occasion when such intricate and graceful motives
have been actually reproduced in lace. The result of the experiment has
proved surprisingly effective. The design is Spanish-Arabic in its
purest form, recalling various arabesques upon the walls of the
Alhambra, and includes thirty-three medallions which constitute the
principal decorative scheme, a hundred and forty-eight palms or
_alharacas_, and the Arabic expression "God is all-powerful," repeated
sixty-six times. The centre of the curtain consists in all of four
hundred and forty-eight pieces. The broad cenefa or bordering, which
runs right round the whole, contains, in Arabic, the following
inscription: "This curtain was begun in the _curso_ (course or series of
classes) of the year 1903-1904, and terminated in the _curso_ following,
(Art) School of Toledo." The style adopted throughout is that of
Brussels, known erroneously as English point, although upon a coarser
scale than is considered to be proper to this lace, the ground being
executed by the needle, or in point-work, and the rest by bobbins.
Plate xxxii. represents a covering for a fan, also executed by Señorita
Huguet, and also in the Brussels style. The design is a combination of
Mudejar motives, such as conventional foliage and geometrical bordering,
with a Spanish scutcheon and the double-headed eagle of the Emperor
Charles the Fifth.
At the present day, and largely owing to the initiative and the skilled
tuition of Señor Salvi, excellent lace is manufactured at Madrid,
including reproductions--which have been generally admired in Great
Britain and elsewhere--of the finest point or bobbin work of Malines,
Manchester, and Venice.
Appendices
APPENDIX A
THE LEGEND OF SAN MIGUEL IN EXCELSIS
Towards the year A.D. 707, when Witiza was king of Spain, there dwelt at
the castle of Goñi, not far from the city of Pamplona in Navarre, a
cavalier named Don Theodosio, whose wife, Doña Constanza de Viandra, was
a lady of remarkable beauty. On one occasion Don Theodosio found himself
obliged to quit his native country for a time, in order to command a
military expedition against the Berbers, and before his departure he
begged his father and mother to cheer his wife's loneliness while he
should be away, by taking up their residence at his castle. They came
accordingly, and as a special mark of honour to the parents of her lord,
Doña Constanza gave up to them her own chamber, together with the
nuptial couch. After a time, when Theodosio's enterprise was concluded,
and the warrior, safe and sound, was returning to Navarre, the Devil,
disguised as a hermit, one evening lay in wait for him at a spot called
Errotavidea, situated at a few miles' distance from Goñi castle, in the
wooded and romantic valley of the Ollo. Stepping up to the cavalier's
side, Satan assured him, in a tone of smooth hypocrisy, that during his
absence the lady Constanza had been seduced by one of Theodosio's own
servants. Upon the knight's demanding proof, "proceed," replied the
Devil, "to your castle, enter your nuptial chamber, and there you will
find your consort in the very arms of her paramour." Frantic with
apprehension, the warrior spurred home, broke into his chamber at the
dead of night, and, passing his hand over the bed, encountered, as Satan
had malignantly foretold, two bodies; whereupon he drew his sword and,
in this moment of fatal and irreflective haste, murdered his own father
and mother. Then, just as he was rushing from the room, he met, carrying
a lighted lamp, the lady Constanza herself, returning from the chapel in
which, as was her custom every night, she had been praying for his safe
return.
Smitten with deep repentance for the crime, whose enormity had been
discovered by the impetuous lord in so dramatic and dreadful a fashion,
Theodosio journeyed to Rome, and related what had happened to the Pope,
who sentenced him to wear a heavy iron collar round his neck, and chains
about his body, and to wander, in a state of rigorous penance, through
the loneliest regions of Navarre, without setting foot in any town,
until, as a sign that divine justice was satisfied, the chains should
fall from off him. Wherever this should come to pass, he was instructed
to build a temple in honour of the archangel Michael.
The sentence was patiently performed, and Theodosio had spent some years
in solitary wandering, when on a day a single link dropped from his
ponderous chains. This happened on the top of a high mountain called
Ayedo, in the Sierra de Andía, and accordingly the penitent erected on
the spot a simple fane in the archangel's honour, known by the name of
San Miguel de Ayedo, and which, in the form of a little hermitage, still
exists.
This proof of heavenly grace presaged a further and a more complete
deliverance. When Theodosio's wandering had lasted seven years, he
reached one day the summit of Mount Aralar, at two leagues' distance
from his own castle, and was there met by a ferocious dragon of
appalling size. Being, as a penitent, unarmed, as well as encumbered by
his massive chains, the miserable man fell helpless to his knees, and
called to God to succour him. The prayer was heard. Suddenly the form of
his patron the archangel flashed out against the sky, the dragon fell
dead, and all of Theodosio's chains were shattered, and dropped from
him. Here, therefore, he built another and a larger temple in honour of
his guardian, and, accompanied by Doña Constanza, passed the remainder
of his life in peaceful and secluded piety.
The castle of Goñi, which was also called "Saint Michael's palace," and
"the palace of the cavalier to whom Saint Michael revealed himself," was
standing as late as the year 1685, but, according to Padre Burgui, by
the close of another century the walls were crumbling fast. Until about
the year 1715 there also stood an ancient wooden cross to mark the spot
where Satan, in a hermit's garb, had appeared to Don Theodosio.
APPENDIX B
JET-WORK OF SANTIAGO
In former times the art of carving jet was largely practised at this
town. The characteristic form was the _signaculum_ or image of Saint
James; that is, a more or less uncouth representation of the apostle in
full pilgrim's dress. The height of these images, which are now
dispersed all over Europe, varies between four and seven inches. They
are fully described in Drury Fortnum's monographs, _On a signaculum of
Saint James of Compostela_, and _Notes on other signacula of Saint James
of Compostela_, as well as in Villa-amil y Castro's _La azabachería
compostelana_. These objects were sold in quantities to the pilgrims
visiting Santiago, who nevertheless were often cheated by the
substitution of black glass for jet.[59]
[59] The following passage from Townsend's Journey through Spain (Vol.
II., p. 56), is curious as showing where jet was formerly found in
this Peninsula. "When I returned to Oviedo, a gentleman gave me a
collection of amber and of jet, of which there is great abundance
in this province: but the two most considerable mines of it are in
the territory of Beloncia, one in a valley called Las Guerrias, the
other on the side of a high mountain in the village of Arenas, in
the parish of Val de Soto. The former is found in slate, and looks
like wood: but when broke, the nodules discover a white crust,
inclosing yellow amber, bright and transparent. Jet and a species
of kennel coal, abounding with marcasites, universally accompany
the amber."
Specimens of this work are in the British and Cluny Museums, and in the
Archæological Museum at Madrid. An interesting jet figure of the apostle
on horseback belonged to the late Count of Valencia de Don Juan. Jet
processional crosses (twelfth and thirteenth century), studded with
enamel, and which were used at funerals, are preserved in the cathedrals
of Oviedo and Orense. Rings, rosaries, and amulets were also carved from
this material.
As to Spanish processional crosses generally (the use of which was
undoubtedly borrowed from the standard borne at the head of pagan
armies), I may say that they are commonly fitted with a handle, called
the _cruz baja_ or "lower cross," though sometimes this handle is
dispensed with, as, for instance, at the funerals of infants. According
to Villa-amil y Castro, the typical shape of the Spanish processional
cross has always been that denominated the _immissa_, consisting of four
arms terminating in straight edges. The same authority says that within
this broader definition the primitive form was the Greek cross, that is,
having four arms of equal length. Another early form was the "Oviedo"
cross (see Vol. I., Plate II.), with the four arms in the shape of
trapezia, united at the centre by a disc. Of this latter shape are, or
were, the crosses of Guarrazar and those which were presented by Alfonso
the Second and Alfonso the Third to the cathedrals of Oviedo and
Santiago.
A later form was the _potenzada_ cross, which had a cross-piece fixed at
the extremity of each arm. As time advanced, this T-shaped termination
to the arms assumed such decorative and capricious forms as the trefoil
and the fleur-de-lis. Early in the history of the Spanish church the
processional cross consisted often of a wooden core, covered with more
or less profusely ornamented silver plates, and having, between the
handle and the upper part, an enamelled bulb or _n[oe]ud_. The image of
Christ, converting the cross into the crucifix, was not attached until a
later period, because, as Villa-amil y Castro has remarked, the
primitive Christians considered the essential glory of their faith,
rather than, as yet, the perils and the pains to which they were exposed
by clinging to that faith. The cross was thus the symbol of the
Christian's glory; the crucifix, of his suffering.[60]
[60] As for the clothing of sacred images in Spain, even these are
subject to changes in the fashion of costume. Ford makes merry over
"the Saviour in a court-dress, with wig and breeches." Swinburne
wrote in 1775, from Alicante: "We have been all the morning in
great uneasiness about Sir T. G.'s valet de chambre, who, till
within this hour, was not to be found in any of the places he
usually frequents. His appearance has quieted our apprehensions;
and it seems he has been from sunrise till dinner-time locked up
in the sacristy of the great church, curling and frizzling the
flaxen periwig of the statue of the Virgin, who is to-morrow to be
carried in solemn procession through the city."
A similar passage occurs in one of the letters of Lady Mary Wortley
Montagu. "I was particularly diverted," she wrote from Nuremberg in
1716, "in a little Roman Catholic church which is permitted here,
where the professors of that religion are not very rich, and
consequently cannot adorn their images in so rich a manner as their
neighbours. For, not to be quite destitute of all finery, they have
dressed up an image of our Saviour over the altar in a fair,
full-bottomed wig, very well powdered."
APPENDIX C
DESCRIPTION OF THE _CUSTODIAS_ OF SEVILLE AND CORDOVA
The _custodia_ of Seville cathedral is described by its author, Juan de
Arfe, in the following terms:--
The shape is circular, with projecting friezes and bases. The _custodia_
is four yards high, and is divided into four orders of symmetrical
proportions, the second order being smaller by two-fifths than the
first, the third smaller by the same fraction than the second, and the
fourth than the third. Each order rests upon four-and-twenty columns,
twelve of which are of a larger size, and wrought in relief. The other
and the smaller twelve are striated, and serve as imposts to the arches.
All these orders are of open work, containing twelve _vistas_
(prospects) apiece. Six are of full dimensions, and the other six spring
from half-way up the larger ones, as is shown in the appended design,
which I will not explain further, as the proportion and harmony can be
judged of from the plan (see Vol. I., Plate xvii.).
FIRST ORDER