EARLY SCULPTURE BELONGING TO THE NATIVE IBERIAN, LATIN, BYZANTINE, AND
VISIGOTHIC PERIODS
The beginnings of sculpture in Spain take us back to the middle years of
the fifth century B.C. It is to this date, about 440 B.C., that the
beautiful sculptured bust of the Lady of Elche belongs. The figure was
discovered in August 1897 at Elche, one of the most ancient and
interesting of the old towns of Spain. Situated in the beautiful ravine
of the Vinalapó, twelve miles distant from Alicante, Elche still retains
almost unaltered its Arab character. It was the Roman Ilice, and
probably the Iberian Helike, where Hamilcar was defeated. The town is
especially fortunate in having possessed this treasure, which speaks so
splendidly of the power and strength of Spain’s ancient art. This is the
earliest and by far the most important of the antique statues of
Spain--the one supreme example of primitive Iberian work. But alas! the
Lady of Elche has been taken out of Spain and is now in the Louvre at
Paris.
It is a stone bust of a woman of life size. The lips and part of the
hair still retain traces of red colour. The expressive face, delicate
and yet strong, has suffered little. She wears enormous ear pendants of
Oriental style, and two great wheels frame her head. Around her neck
hangs a Greco-Phœnician necklace, such as women wore from the time of
the Peloponnesian War. It is this that fixes the date of the statue. It
would seem to be the work of a native artist who was under the combined
influences of Greece and Phœnicia. Only a Spanish artist could have thus
immortalised the character of Spanish womanhood. Indeed it is this
special Spanish quality which is the most interesting feature of this
remarkable work. Mr. Havelock Ellis has pointed out the resemblance
which the Lady of Elche bears to Velazquez’ “Woman with the Fan.” And
this is no fanciful idea. There is a strange likeness in all Spanish
art--a likeness which is at once its strength and also its weakness, and
which may be traced to the strong and persistent character of this race
that has altered so little in the passing of the centuries. It is this
marked individuality that speaks even more strongly in Spanish sculpture
than in Spanish painting. The Lady of Elche stands for all that is
Spain.
Apart from the Lady of Elche no important single example of Iberian art
remains to us. Statues have been found, such as the _Cirro de los
Santos_ and the _Llano de la Consolacion_, which certainly were painted.
M. Marcel Dieulafoy believes that this was also the case with the statue
of a bull facing a bearded man, in the Museum of Valencia; that of the
griffin and the anthropoid sarcophagus at Cadiz; and the interesting
heads of bulls in bronze, found at Costig, Majorca, which bear some
resemblance to the Susian bulls and Grecian bronzes, and, like them,
have some parts gilded. Then it will not do to neglect the strange stone
figures of bulls scattered in different places in Spain and Portugal,
one fine example being in the square of Avila. Little is known as to the
origin and purpose of these remarkable examples of Iberian art, but some
still bear traces of vermilion colouring. The existence of these works,
as well as many other notable fragments in different churches in Spain,
prove at least that the native Iberian carver had attained a skill
certainly remarkable at this early date.
But then followed, as is so often the case, a long night, of which
nothing of special interest is known. The Roman sculptures, which
follow chronologically those of the Iberian epoch, are not remarkable in
any way. They do not reveal any special character.
There are few sculptures left which can with any certainty be referred
to the Visigothic period. The fragments discovered at San Romano de
Hornija, at Toledo, and at Seville, though they bear vestiges of
Visigothic workmanship, belong in reality to the Christian period. It
would seem that the Visigoths for the most part limited their work to
restoring the Roman buildings and adapting them for Christian uses. The
ornamentation which they often added is usually of Byzantine origin, an
influence reaching Spain through France. Yet the sumptuous character of
their art is shown in the only important works of this period which
remain: the splendid votive crowns of Kings Recceswinth and Swenthila,
found in 1858 at Guarraza, near Toledo (Plate 1), and now in the Royal
Armoury, Madrid, and in the Musée de Cluny in Paris. But these crowns
are not Spanish works. Indeed many centuries separate the genuinely
Spanish carvings of the Iberian artists from any work that again
manifests the characters which belong to the native art.
It has been said by Professor Carl Justi, in a short but excellent
account of Spanish sculpture which is given in Baedeker’s “Guide to
Spain,” that “the existence of works in stone can hardly be proved
before the eleventh century.” This is a mistake. The early Christian
carvings are in stone; they must be sought in Asturias, the provinces
which first shook off the Moorish rule.
In 791 Alfonso II., known as the Chaste, made Oviedo the capital of the
then struggling kingdom of Asturias. He was a ruler of ability and
culture, and spent all his time when he was not fighting in building
both churches and palaces. On his return from his campaigns he
consecrated the spoils taken from the enemy to embellish his growing
city.
The most important of the buildings of Alfonso is the Cámara Santa of
the cathedral, once the Capilla San Miguel, which was part of the
original church of Alfonso, and was built in the eighth century by his
architect Favila. The room itself is small, without ornament, roofed
with low barrel vaulting, and lighted with one small window. But here
are guarded the relics in the Byzantine-Latin style, which are among the
most interesting examples that remain to us of the work of the period.
The Cruz de los Angeles, a work of the eighth century and the gift of
Alfonso II., and the Cruz de la Victoria, supposed to have belonged to
Pelayo, both resemble very closely the crowns of Guarraza; like them,
they are not typically Spanish work. That of the Angeles is of filigree
work of exquisite delicacy, and enriched in the centre with rare
encrusted rubies and other precious stones; while that of the Victory is
made of wood, but Alfonso III. had it overlaid with gold and ornamented
with jewels. A third relic, the cash-box of St. Eulalia, has its chief
interest in the inscription in Arabic and Cufic characters which
surrounds the cover. A special historical interest belongs to the relic
known as the Arca de los Santos. The cover, on which is engraved the
figures of the Apostles, and the Latin inscriptions belong, by the
character of the vestments, which are those described by St. Isidore,
and by the letters used, to the sixth or seventh centuries; while the
Saviour and angels on the box itself, the inscriptions in Cufic
lettering, as well as the general style of reliquary, have the
characters which belong to the Spanish works of the eleventh and early
years of the twelfth centuries. The explanation, of course, is that the
casket was restored and its character altered at a later date, and
probably in the reign of Alfonso VI. This mingling of different styles
and periods in one work of art meets us continually in Spain. It is due
in large measure to the custom by which the Spaniards used and borrowed
the arts of the Moors, even for long after they had conquered them.
There are a few works in the Madrid Archæological Museum which are in
the Latin-Byzantine style, and should be compared with the treasure of
the Cámara Santa, and to the same period belong other relics now in
different churches in the Peninsula.
In the reign of Alfonso the Chaste were built the churches of San Tirso
and San Tulliano or Julian, which, though unfortunately much restored,
may still be visited in Oviedo. Belonging to an even earlier date was
the Church of Santa Cruz de Canjas, which was built by the royal
architect Favila, in Alfonso’s reign, and which was the original church
on the Monte Santo, the site where the cathedral of Oviedo now stands.
This church was rebuilt by Alfonso II. in 830, and surrounded by
protecting walls. The ancient Spanish chroniclers expatiate on the
magnificence of these buildings of Alfonso, speaking of their columns of
marble, and wealth of decorations of gold and silver. Doubtless they
exaggerate; to-day there is very little of interest to be seen remaining
in the edifices.
Much more important are the buildings erected by Alfonso’s successor,
Ramiro I. (843-850), a king of unusual culture, who, in spite of
continual wars with the Moors, found time to carry further the
improvement of the royal city of Oviedo. During this reign, writes M.
Marcel Dieulafoy, “there was a veritable renaissance of the plastic
arts.” Two of these buildings that we owe to Ramiro I. are still in
existence, and though sadly neglected and disfigured by alterations,
they should be visited by all who take an interest in early Spanish
work. They stand together on the summit of the low mountain Naranco,
which is situated one and a quarter miles from Oviedo. The first, the
Church of San Miguel, is a basilica with nave and aisles. We recognise
in the heavy pillars with splayed capitals and massive polygonal bases,
as also in the frequently used cord and twisted fringe, so
characteristic of the period, a marked Byzantine character. Many
sculptured subjects occur among the foliage which decorates both the
bases and capitals of the columns. These heads must be attributed either
to the Roman traditions or, as is more likely, to the early French
schools. The other church is even more interesting. Santa Maria de
Naranco probably formed part of Ramiro’s palace, but the building was
converted into a church about the year 905. It consists of a
cellar-like nave, with waggon vaulting, opening by three arches into a
choir at one end and a presbytery at the other. Below is a crypt. Here
the work shows strong Roman influence, and most precious details of
ornament occur.
Another church of great interest belonging to this early period is that
of San Pedro in the ancient city of Zamora. True bas-reliefs are here
introduced among the leafy decorations of the capitals: one, still in
excellent preservation, represents the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham.
This is very remarkable--one of those surprises that meet the student so
often in Spanish art--for the Byzantine sculptors did not customarily
use the human figure in such circumstances.
This bas-relief brings us to the very few Spanish statues of this
period, when all the skill of the artists seems to have been spent in
buildings. There is the small ivory crucifix, formerly painted and
encrusted with gems, in the Museum of Leon (Plate 2), and the crucifix
of the Cid, now at Salamanca (Plate 3). Both are Byzantine in character.
The little-known statue of the Virgin and Child, preserved in the
sanctuary of Ujué, is a work of greater interest. The figure is
ninety-one centimetres in height, and dates, M. Marcel Dieulafoy
thinks, from the eleventh, or even the end of the tenth century. The
colouring, and also the primitive character of the work, has been
spoiled to some extent by added ornaments, and by the silver throne on
which the figure now sits. But there is real strength in the face of the
Virgin, and more individuality than is common in the Byzantine figures;
again we have a hint of Spanish work.
Figures in stone, dating back to the eleventh century, and earlier, may
be found on the portals, fonts, and tombs of many Spanish churches,
especially in the N.W. and in the district of the Pyrenees. Most of them
are of barbaric workmanship, but many are interesting. A painted
sculpture of the Saviour seated in the act of blessing, in the Byzantine
manner, was discovered in 1895 at Santander. M. Marcel Dieulafoy, who
mentions this work, places it in the tenth or the eleventh century.
These few statues, then, are all that we have of Latin-Byzantine art in
Spain. Rude as the figures undoubtedly are, falling far below the works
of the native Iberian art which preceded them, it will not do to neglect
them. Christian Spain was convulsed with ceaseless warfares, which gave
little time for the development of the arts. Native talent slept.
Christian monarchs employed Moorish sculptors, architects, decorators,
and goldsmiths. So it happened that there was developed in Spain a sort
of pseudo-Mozarabic style in which, for a time, the characteristic
Spanish work seemed lost.