THE CHURCHES OF THE ROMANESQUE AND EARLY GOTHIC PERIODS
At the close of the eleventh century a new and more vigorous life sprang
up in the art of Spain. The fresh impulse came from France; it expended
itself chiefly in building.
It is necessary to remember that the geographical barrier of the
Pyrenees forms no real ethnological separation between that country and
Spain; one and the same Iberian race dwells in Gascony, Navarre, and the
Basque provinces. Hence it is easy to understand that natural relations,
intimate and frequent, grew up between the two countries. Marriage
alliances united the two royal families, and the princes of France
crossed the frontier to fight against the Moors in Spain. With them came
priests and monks, more learned than their neighbours, many of whom
settled in the Peninsula. In this way the influence of the great orders
of Cluny and Citeaux spread and grew powerful. Then followed architects
and sculptors from Aquitaine, Languedoc, Toulouse, Burgundy, and
Normandy, to find work, and impress their separate influences on the
numerous churches that at this time were being built. The Romanesque
cathedrals are indeed the direct outcome of French mediævalism; and the
figure-statues of the numerous tombs and altars are full of
reminiscences, so that it is difficult to distinguish the native art.
Yet in the midst of these imported styles we shall find, do we seek
them, those distinct traits which belong to Spain.
It is in the province of Asturias that we find the greatest number of
Romanesque churches. These churches were of moderate size. Their style
was that of the basilica, with nave and aisles, a well-marked transept,
a trans-apsidal termination, and a lantern or dome over the crossing.
The roof was at first flat, but afterwards the nave was covered with
barrel vaulting, and the aisles with quadrant or semi-barrel vaulting.
The most important of the early Romanesque churches is Santiago de
Compostella (Plate 7), which was commenced and finished building during
the twelfth century. It is a somewhat simplified copy of St. Sernin at
Toulouse, and shows in its structure, as well as in its ornaments and
sculptures, very clearly marked, the influences of Cluny. This explains
the great excellence of the carvings (Plates 8 and 9); works that are
surprising at this period when so many figures are still barbaric. The
admirable Puerta de las Gloria, which was completed by the carver
Maestre Mateo in 1188, after twenty years’ work, is held by Mr. Street
to be “one of the greatest glories of Christian art.” It is a vestibule
or porch, divided into three sections, which extend across the entire
width of the nave. The quadri-partite vaulting of the roof is adorned
with elaborate carvings. Still more sumptuous are the carvings of the
doorways; one, the double doorway which opens on the nave, has
exquisitely delicate carvings. On the shaft dividing the doorway into
two is a seated figure of St. James, holding the _burdon_ or pilgrim’s
staff; while the shaft itself has carvings of the Tree of Jesse. The
shafts in the jambs have figures of the Apostles and Major-Prophets. The
main capital above represents the Temptation in the Garden and Angels
ministering to Christ. At the back of the middle pillar is a kneeling
figure, supposed to be the portrait of Maestre Mateo. Then in the
tympanum is a seated figure of Our Lord, with upraised hands; and round
Him are the Evangelists and eight angels with the symbols of the
Passion, while above are a company of the worshipping elect. The
archivolt shows figures of the twenty-four elders of the Apocalypse. The
general idea of the subject of the whole doorway is the Appearance of
Christ at the Last Judgment, but each of the series of small pictures is
in itself an independent work of art. The side doorways which lead into
the aisles are equally ornate. The shafts are adorned with figures of
the Apostles; above are representations of Purgatory and Hell. All the
figures are clearly painted. M. Marcel Dieulafoy does not think,
however, that the tones which now show are the original colours, but
that during the restoration in the seventeenth century some innovations
occurred.
The Colegiata de San Isidoro at Leon (Plate 10), an early Romanesque
edifice, resembles in many respects Santiago de Compostella. The actual
date of the building is difficult to establish. It was founded by
Ferdinand I. of Castile in 1065 as a royal mausoleum; and the building
is said to contain the tombs of eleven kings and twelve queens. It was
altered and rebuilt by Maestro Pedro Vitambeu, and was not consecrated
until 1149, while even then much of its decoration was probably
incomplete. Some subjects of sculpture and ornamentation are very
analogous to St. Sernin, Toulouse. The main façade is decorated with
quaint old reliefs in stone; above the right portal are the Descent from
the Cross (Plate 11) and the Deposition in the Tomb, with St. Paul on
the right hand and St. Peter on the left. Then in the tympanum of the
left portal is a very interesting Sacrifice of Abraham, placed under a
zodiacal frieze. But perhaps the most interesting parts of the building
are the chapel and cloisters of the eastern aisle, where the groined
vaults are covered with fresco paintings of admirable effect and
preservation. The paintings show strongly the influence of France,
curiously interpreted by the native art. C. Gasquoine Hartley writes, in
“A Record of Spanish Painting”: “In colour and certain peculiarities of
outline they are strongly French, but they are executed with a rugged
and original force which is entirely Spanish.... The Bible narratives
are executed with a direct and almost brutal baldness that at once marks
the frescoes as the work of a Spaniard.” We are, however, chiefly
interested with their colourisation, which is very important where so
much of the colourisation of statuary has disappeared. As M. Marcel
Dieulafoy points out, these frescoes give the range of tones usual to
this epoch in France and in Spain. We find red-brown, indigo,
yellow-ochre, and white; the black seems to have been obtained by a
mixture of three of these colours. It is interesting to note that these
are the colours, and of about the same shade, that we find used by the
Persian artists in their decorations.
San Vicente of Avila (Plate 13) is another admirable example of the
Romanesque churches. The nave, with its triforium and clerestory, is in
a pure Romanesque style; while the transept, choir, and three
semicircular apses are in the Transition style. Though the building was
begun in the twelfth century it was not finished until three hundred
years later, and for this reason it shows a more advanced art. M. Marcel
Dieulafoy holds it to be “the most beautiful specimen and the purest
example of Burgundian architecture in Spain.” The west portal (Plate 14)
is decorated with admirable statuettes in terra-cotta, unfortunately
much mutilated, whose style recalls that of St. Landre of Avallon. Very
curious are the heads of bulls, decorating the base of the pilaster by
which the tympanum is sustained. Here the analogy with the bicephalous
capitals of the Achemenide is very marked.
Romanesque churches are found in other provinces of Spain. One of the
most ancient is San Pedro of Huesca, which was begun in the eleventh
century and consecrated in 1241. The church is roofed with barrel
vaulting, and terminates in three semicircular apses. It contains many
sculptures characteristic of this period.
The cloisters of the Cathedral of Gerona, and those of the Monastery of
Santo Domingo at Silos, and of San Pedro, and the churches of Santa
Maria and Santiago at Corunna, are additional examples of the same
style.
The Cathedral of Zamora (Plate 15) is a more important edifice. This
ancient city had in succession two French archbishops--Bernard and
Jerome de Perigneaux. It is probable that the church was erected during
the episcopate of Jerome, who died in 1126. It was consecrated in 1174,
as is now known from that date discovered in an old epitaph during the
restoration in the eighteenth century. This makes impossible the old
belief that the church was built by Bernard de Perigneaux. M. Marcel
Dieulafoy believes that it is the work of an Aquitaine architect. Both
the exterior of the building, with its square tower, graceful cupolas,
richly decorated, and the interior are interesting, with a character
very rare in Spain. Of the carvings of this church M. Marcel Dieulafoy
writes: “From the sculptural point of view I would signalise in the
portal, the corinthian columns and niches, which both seem to come down
from a monument of the decadence of the Roman age. One will notably
remark the busts, bezel set in a sort of window, which has been seen in
the monuments of Roman Gaul, on the northern slope of the Pyrenees, and
which became a most common feature in the architecture of the Spanish
renaissance; also the laurelled flying-arch, and the bas-relief of the
spandril which crowns the busts.”
Two Romanesque churches, one belonging to the same period, the other to
a later date, with a more advanced art, are the church and fine
cloisters of San Pablo del Campo of Barcelona (Plate 16) and the
Cathedral of Sigüenza. This last church, which was begun in 1102 and
consecrated in 1123, was not completed until the thirteenth century. It
is the most important example of the late-Romanesque Transition style.
San Pablo was originally a Benedict convent, erected in 914 by Count
Guitardo, but the building was restored in 1117 by Guiberto Guitardo,
and is an excellent specimen of early Catalan architecture. Like San
Pedro of Huesca, it has three parallel apses. The nave and transept are
covered with barrel vaulting, and above the crossing rises an octagonal
cupola. On the chief portal are carved figures of St. John and St.
Matthew; and especially interesting are the carved capitals of the
columns, both those in the church itself and even more those in the
cloisters, where we find cusped arches in the Saracenic style, coupled
shafts, and richly decorated capitals.
In all the Romanesque churches the greatest wealth of the carver’s art
is lavished on the capitals of the columns. Here we see Bible scenes and
purely decorative designs, alternating, often very strangely, with
fantastic monsters, fables, and scenes from daily life. Almost all of
these carvings are truly Spanish in their sentiment, though the foreign
influences are always visible.
The Romanesque period lasted longer in Spain than in France; we do not
find the Pointed or Gothic style before the twelfth century, when the
Cistercian order introduced the severe and noble Burgundian type of
church. But many old churches, though begun in the Romanesque period,
assumed a Gothic character before their completion; we find this at
Tarragona, in the old Cathedral of Salamanca, and in those of Londa and
Tudela, as well as in many other churches. In the Monastery of Las
Huelgas, Burgos, celebrated as the church where Edward I. of England was
knighted by Alonso the Learned, the church, dating from 1279, is in
severe Gothic style; the cloisters, too, are Gothic, but in the earlier
Claustreo (Plate 17) there are fine Romanesque capitals and arches.
Again, the older and less-known Cistercian Abbey at Verula is a
Transition building, while the beautiful cloisters of the fourteenth
century are Gothic.
This mingling of styles, owing to the difference in time between the
building of different parts of the same church, has a real advantage to
the student of Spanish architecture and sculpture. The Cathedral of
Tarragona (Plate 18) especially furnishes an almost complete series of
examples of all the Spanish art-styles. For the church, built on the
site of a mosque, was begun about the year 1118, and dates mainly from
the end of the twelfth and first half of the thirteenth centuries, but
additions were made from the fourteenth century onwards as late as the
eighteenth century. Thus we have examples of early Christian art in a
sarcophagus of the façade, and that in the ancient window of the Capilla
Mayor with the three Byzantine columns. The main building is a brilliant
example of the developed Romanesque Transition style; the beautiful
cloisters, among the most perfect in Spain, and the earliest of the
side chapels are Gothic; the other chapels, added later, date from the
sixteenth to the eighteenth century, and are in the Renaissance and
baroque styles. Even Moorish art is represented in the _azulejo_ roofing
of the N.W. lateral chapels, and in the small Moorish window, said to be
a prayer niche or _mihrab_, with its Cufic inscription dating from the
year of the Hegira 347--that is, 958 A.D.--in the ancient Capilla de
Santa Maria Magdalena. The splendid doorway, with elaborate carvings,
which gives entrance to the cloisters is the most notable pre-Gothic
work in marble in Spain (Plate 19). But of this work we shall speak in
the next chapter.
Following these early Gothic buildings we have the developed French
cathedral style of the thirteenth century introduced into Spain. It is
first seen in the great cathedrals of Burgos and Toledo (Plates 20 and
21), and a little later in that of Leon (Plate 22), the most perfect of
the Gothic cathedrals in Spain. Very little of the national Spanish art
is visible in these buildings; built for the most part by French
architects, they recall in turn the cathedrals of Rheims, Beauvais,
Bayonne, and Amiens; some see in Leon a copy of the great cathedral at
Chartres. The truth is that the style of these buildings is eclectic;
they are all distinguished by the romantic magnificence of their
ornamentation. The elaborately carved choir-stalls of Leon Cathedral
(Plates 23-29) furnish a splendid example of the power of carving. They
are the masterpiece of John of Malines and the Dutch artist Copin. It
was from carvings such as these that the native artists drew their
inspiration.