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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 
 Research Library, The Getty Research Institute 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/architectsnoteboOOwyat 
 
AN 
 
 ARCHITECT'S NOTE-BOOK 
 
 IN 
 
 SPAIN 
 
 PRINCIPALLY ILLUSTRATING THE 
 
 DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE OF THAT COUNTRY. 
 
 BY 
 
 M. DIGBY WYATT, M.A. 
 
 SLADE PROFESSOR OF FINE ART IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, &C. 
 
 WITH ONE HUNDRED OF THE AUTHOR'S SKETCHES, 
 
 REPRODUCED BY THE AUTOTYPE MECHANICAL PROCESS. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 AUTOTYPE FINE ART COMPANY (Limited), 
 
 36, RATH BONE PLACE. 
 
TO 
 
 OWEN JONES, ESQ. 
 
 .KNIGHT OF THE ORDERS OF SAINTS MAURICE AND LAZARUS OF ITALY, AND OF LEOPOLD OF 
 BELGIUM, MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF SAINT FERDINAND OF SPAIN, &C, &C, &C. 
 
 My dear Owen, 
 
 The last book I wrote I dedicated to my 
 brother by blood ; the present I dedicate to you — 
 my brother in Art. Let it be a record of the value 
 I set upon all you have taught me, and upon your 
 true friendship. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 M. Digby Wyatt, 
 
 37, Tavistock Place, W.C. 
 October, 1872. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 BEFORE quitting England for a first visit to Spain in the Autumn 
 of 1869, I made up my mind both to see and draw as 
 much of the Architectural remains of that country as the time and 
 means at my disposal would permit ; and further determined so to 
 draw as to admit of the publication of my sketches and portions 
 of my notes on the objects represented, in the precise form in which 
 they might be made. I was influenced in this determination by 
 the consciousness that almost from day to day the glorious past 
 was being trampled out in Spain ; and that whatever issue, prosperous 
 or otherwise, the fortunes of that much distracted country might 
 take in the future, the minor monuments of Art at least which 
 adorned its soil, would rapidly disappear. Their disappearance would 
 result naturally from what is called " progress" if Spain should revive ; 
 while their perishing through neglect and wilful damage, or peculation, 
 would inevitably follow, if the ever smouldering embers of domestic 
 revolution should burst afresh into flame. Such has been the 
 invariable action of those fires which in all history have melted 
 away the most refined evidences of man's intelligence, leaving 
 behind only scanty, and often all but shapeless, relics of the richest 
 and ripest genius. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 It is difficult to realise the rapidity with which, almost under 
 one's eyes, the Spain of history and romance "is casting its skin." 
 Travelling even with so recent and so excellent a handbook as O'Shea's 
 of 1869, I noted the following wanton acts of Vandalism and 
 destruction, committed upon monuments of the greatest archaeological 
 and artistic interest since he wrote. At Seville, the Church of San Miguel, 
 one of the oldest and finest in the city, was senselessly demolished by the 
 populace as a sort of auto-da-fe, and by way of commemoration of the 
 revolution of September, 1867. In exactly the same way the fin« 
 Byzantine churches of San Juan at Lerida, and of "San Miguel at 
 Barcelona, have been " improved off the face of the earth." Church/ £ \ I 
 plate, Custodias and Virils of the D'Arfes, Becerrias, and other Aft ' 
 workmen, have vanished from the treasuries of all the great 
 ecclesiastical structures, whether sold, melted down, or only hidden, 
 " quien sabe ?" The beautiful Moorish decorations of the Alcazar 
 at Segovia had been all but entirely destroyed by fire, attributed to the 
 careless cigar-lighting of the Cadets to whom the structure had been 
 abandoned. The finest old mansion in .Barcelona, the Casa de Gralla/ / / 
 probably the masterpiece of Damian Forment, and dating from the 
 commencement of the fourteenth century, has been pulled down by 
 the Duke of Medina Celi to form a new street. The beautiful wooden 
 ceiling of the Casa del Infantado at Guadalaxara, the finest of its 
 kind in Spain, in the absence of its owner, who I was told lives in \ l 
 
 Russia, is coming down in large pieces, and once fallen, I scarcely 
 think it will be in the power of living workmen to make it good 
 again. The exquisite Moorish Palace of the Generalife at Granada, 
 second only to the Alhambra and the Alcazar at Seville, is never 
 visited by its proprietor, and is now one mass of white-wash, a 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 victim of the zeal for cleanliness of a Sanitary " Administrador." In 
 short to visit a Spanish city now, by the light shed upon its ancient 
 glories by the industrious Ponz, is simply to have forced upon one's 
 attention the most striking evidence of the " vanity of human 
 things," and man's inherent tendency to destroy. 
 
 One of the most painful sensations the lover of the Art of the 
 
 -Pas. cannot but experience in Spain, is the feeling cf its dissonance 
 
 from, and, irrcconcileability with, the wants and economical necessities 
 
 of tP day. The truth is that at the present moment, amongst the 
 
 many difficult problems which surround and beset the ruling powers, one 
 
 of the most puzzling is to find fitting uses for the many vast structures 
 
 which have fallen into the hands of the Government. Churches 
 
 in number and size out of all proportion to the wants of the 
 
 population, monasteries entirely without monks, convents with 
 
 scarcely any nuns, Jesuit seminaries without Jesuits, exchanges 
 
 without merchants, colleges without students, tribunals of the 
 
 Holy Inquisition with, thank God ! no Inquisitors, and palaces 
 
 without princes, are really " drugs in the market ;" too beautiful to 
 
 destroy, tco costly to properly maintain, and for the original purposes 
 
 . for which they were planned and constructed at incredible outlay they 
 
 stand now almost useless. For the most part, the grand architectural 
 
 monuments cf the country arrtb are now like Dickens' . " used-up 
 
 giants " kept only " to wait upon the dwarfs." Among a few instances 
 
 k . of such may be noticed, the magnificent foundation of the noblest 
 
 ', Spanish ecclesiastic Ximenez. His College at Alca'a de Heiiares 
 
 :vis turned into a young ladies' boarding-school ; the splendid Convent 
 
 • of the Knights of Santiago at Leon, the masterpiece of Juan de 
 
 Badajoz, dedicated to Saint Mark, and one of the finest buildings in 
 
 D 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Spain, is now in charge cf a solitary policeman and his wife, awaiting its 
 possible conversion into an agricultural college ; the grand Palace of 
 the Dukes cf Alva at Seville is let out in numerous small tenements 
 and enriched with unlimited whitewash ; the Colegiata of San Gregorio 
 at Valladolid, another of the magnificent foundations of Cardinal 
 Ximer.ez, and the old cathedral at Lerida, the richest Byzantine 
 monument in Spain, arc now both barracks ; — the vast exchanges of 
 Seville and Zaragoza are tenar.tlcss and generally shut up ; the 
 beautiful " Casa de les Abades " at Seville is converted into a boy's 
 school and lodg ng-house for numerous poor tenants, the Casa del Infante 
 at Zaragoza, containing the most richly sculptured Renaissance Patio in 
 Spain, is chiefly occupied as a livery stable-keeper's establishment ; 
 Cardinal Mcndoza's famous Hospital of the Holy Cross at Toledo 
 is now an Infantry Coibgc; the great monastery of the Cartuja 
 near Seville, with one of the finest Mudejar wooden ceilings in the 
 country, is turned into Pickman's china factory; the "Taller del 
 Moro " a model Moorish houre with its beautiful decorations, at 
 Toledo, is now only a carpenter's workshop and storehouse ; the 
 celebrated establishment cf Hi Cristo de la Victoria at Malaga, with 
 all its gler'o is associations with the " Reyes Cattolicos," is 
 occup'ed as a military hospital ; ar.d so on ' a.i infinitum.' 
 
 Every lecerd the pen and pencil cf any accurate observer 
 can preserve at this juncture of the fading glories of the past 
 in Spain i? ; as it were, snatching a brand from the inevitable 
 fire which hr.s ah cad y consumed inestimable treasures upon i:s 
 ■oil. It was to give a stamp of truth and authenticity to the 
 few such records 1 might be enabled to make, that I determined to 
 cemp'cte them in the. actual presence as it were of the object illustrated. 
 
PRE FA CE. 
 
 and to admit of no intervention between my own hand, and the eye of 
 any student willing to honour my work with his attention. My 
 sketches might no doubt have gained in beauty by being transcribed 
 on stone or wood by some artist more skilful than I am, but 
 as any such alteration would detract from their simple veracity, 
 I preferred to make them at once upon the spot with anastatic 
 ink, in order that they might be printed just as they were executed/ ££> 
 Working with such ink in the open air is difficult, and the 
 result capricious, I have therefore to ask for some indulgence, and 
 to express a hope that any shortcomings in the drawings may be 
 overlooked in the obvious interest of the subjects pourtrayed. Could 
 I but have known, on leaving England, that my sketches could have 
 been so successfully transferred to collodion, and printed therefrom 
 as they have been since my return, I might have spared myself much 
 extra trouble and anxiety, and have probably attained a much better 
 result with less effort. 
 
 I have further to ask corresponding indulgence for any literary in- 
 sufficiencies my text may present. Although for some years a not 
 inattentive student of Spanish art and literature, I could not, and 
 cannot but feel that my acquaintance with the country was/ d'nd is/. OL /. 
 insufficient for writing worthy notes even upon its architectural 
 monuments, after] the excellent works which have been already written 
 by such of my countrymen as Ford, Street, Stirling, and O'Shea. At 
 the same time, considering that to publish my sketches- altogether 
 without explanatory letter-press would greatly detract from their interest 
 and consequent usefulness, I have brought into their present shape 
 the scanty notes made upon the spot, more or less directly illustrative 
 of the subject supon which my pencil found occupation. 
 
 *tsut 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 It will be obvious, it is hoped, that in the selection of subjects for 
 illustration, an endeavour has been made to avoid in any wise trenching 
 upon or clashing with those already fully treated in the admirable work 
 on Spanish Ecclesiastical Architecture by Mr. G. E. Street. Whilst he 
 has turned from, I have turned towards, the Plateresque and lat.r styles 
 of Spain, and whilst he has apparently sought specially for what might 
 be useful to church-builders, my aim has been rather to collect hints 
 for house-builders. Thanks to him, and others like him, we have now 
 been left probably with more to learn in the latter direction than in 
 the former. 
 
 The following was my line of tour, and as it comprises most of 
 what is, I believe, best worth seeing in Spain in the way of Art, with 
 the notable exceptions of Santiago, Oviedo, Murcia, Cuenca, Placencia, 
 Alicante and Valencia, which want of time did not permit me to include, 
 I do not hesitate to commend it to those, desirous, as I was, of seeing 
 as much as possible of what was excellent or curious within a short space 
 of time. It was as follows, from London via Paris, Bordeaux, and Bayonne 
 to Spain, beginning with Burgos, then successively visiting Valladolid 
 (rail), Venta de Banos (rail), Leon (rail), Zamora and Salamanca, (by 
 " diligence " from Leon) Avila (by " diligence " from Salamanca) 
 Escorial (rail), Madrid (rail), Segovia (by " diligence " from Madrid and 
 back), Alcala de Heriares (by rail from Madrid and back), Toledo (by 
 rail from Madrid and back), Cordoba (rail), Sevilla (rail), Cadiz (by 
 the Guadalquivir steamer), Gibraltar (by steamer), Malaga (by steamer), 
 Granada (rail and "diligence,") Andujar ("diligence,") Madrid (railj, 
 a second time, Guadalajara (rail), Zaragoza (rail), Lerida (rail), 
 Barcelona (rail), and Gerona (rail), thence to the frontier by " diligence," 
 and home by rail, via Perpignan, Carcassonne, Toulouse and Paris. 
 
PRE F AC!'. 
 
 To preserve some sort of order, I have arranged my sketches as 
 they were executed in point of time, and thrown my notes into a 
 corresponding sequence. 
 
 To assert that Spain can teach the lessons to the architect which 
 may be gained from Italy, or even from France would, I think, be to 
 claim too much for her, but on the other hand, it should be remembered, 
 that it is a mine which has been very much less exhausted. To the 
 interest and grandeur of its Northern Gothic buildings, Mr. Street has 
 done a justice long denied to them ; while Girault de Prangey, and 
 above all Owen Jones, have helped us to a right appreciation of the 
 works of those masterly artificers, the Moors, who seem to have 
 possessed an intuitive love for the beautiful in structure. 
 
 It is with no small pleasure that I have laboured to direct attentiqn 
 to other monuments, than those they have so satisfactorily illustrated, 
 of a land from travelling in which I have derived great delight, and 
 much instruction. 
 
 If asked what predominant sensation Spanish Architecture had 
 produced in my mind, I think I should be inclined to say, that of the 
 manifestation of an entire indifference to expense. No one appears to 
 have counted the cost of the work upon which he engaged. Whether 
 it was a mediaeval architect entering upon the vast construction of 
 Cathedrals, such as Seville, Toledo or Leon, a Renaissance architect 
 dashing upon the immense laying out of buildings such as the Cathedrals 
 of Salamanca or Granada, or an Herrera plunging into such stone 
 quarries as the Escorial or the Cathedral at Valladolid, not a shadow 
 of doubt ever seems to have crossed the mind of the beginners, that some 
 one — never mind who — would complete what they began. 
 
 Such peculiarities of national character are apt to beget proverbs, and 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 we accordingly find the grave ponderosity, and at the same time, power 
 of the Spaniard in the undertakings of his palmy days, thus characterised 
 in comparison with those of the other peoples of Europe. 
 
 " In their undertakings," says " Der curieuse Antiquarius durch 
 Europam,"* the natives of different European countries are said by old 
 legends to proceed thus : — 
 
 " Der Frantzose wie ein Adler, 
 Der Deutsche wie ein Bar, 
 Der Italianer wie ein Fuchs, 
 Der Spanier wie ein Elephant, 
 Der Engellander wie ein Low.'f 
 
 To some, and but few, Spanish architects was it given to sec ended 
 what they commenced, and even such favourites of fortune generally 
 suffered from a curtailment of their too ambitious desigus. 
 
 I could not but feel, in looking at the works of Herrera, and indeed at 
 those of several other men, such as Diego de Siloe, Gil de Ontanon, 
 Henrique de Egas, Alonso Covarrubbias, and Juan de Badajoz, that there 
 exists for architecture a just mean between their frequent extravagance, 
 and the sordid andshabby spirit in which we from time to time approach 
 the question of expenditure upon " public works." The economy which 
 consists in sobriety and simplicity of parts, especially in structures 
 destined to subserve ordinary uses, is as much to be admired, as the 
 economy which aims at the combination of magnificence with " cheese- 
 paring" is to be deprecated and despised. 
 
 * Von P. L. Berckenmeyern. Hamburg, 173 1 . 
 
 f " The Frenchman like an eagle. The German like a bear. The Italian like a fox. The 
 •Spaniard like an Elephant. The Englishman like a lion." 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PLATE I. BURGOS. 
 The Arco de Santa Maria ...... i 
 
 PLATE II. BURGOS. 
 Patio of the Casa de Miranda ...... 3 
 
 PLATE III. VALLADOLID. 
 Colegio de San Gregorio ....... 7 
 
 PLATE IV. VALLADOLID. 
 Detail from the " Patio de San Gregorio " . . . .9 
 
 PLATE V. VALLADOLID. 
 Small Patio de San Gregorio . . . . . .11 
 
 PLATE VI. VALLADOLID. 
 Small Patio, Colegio de San Gregorio . . . . .13 
 
 PLATE VII. VALLADOLID. 
 La Casa del Infantado . . . . . . .15 
 
 PLATE VIII. VALLADOLID. 
 Church of San Isidro . . . . . . .17 
 
 PLATE IX. LEON. 
 Convent of San Marcos . . . . . . .19 
 
 PLATE X. LEON. 
 Cloister of the Convent of San Marcos . . . . .21 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PLATE XI. LEON. 
 Exterior of the Casa de Los Gusmanes . . . . .23 
 
 PLATE XII. LEON. 
 Patio of the Casa de Los Gusmanes ... . . .25 
 
 PLATE XIII. LEON. 
 Detail from a House in the Calle de La Tesoriera . . 29 
 
 PLATE XIV. SALAMANCA. 
 Exterior of the Casa de Las Conchas . . . . 31 
 
 PLATE XV. SALAMANCA. 
 Patio of the Casa de Las Conchas .... 
 
 33 
 
 PLATE XVI. SALAMANCA. 
 Staircase of the Casa de Las Conchas . . . . -35 
 
 PLATE XVII. SALAMANCA. 
 Window from the Casa de Las Conchas . . . . -37 
 
 PLATE XVIII. SALAMANCA. 
 Window in the Patio of the Casa de Las Conchas 
 
 39 
 
 PLATE XIX. SALAMANCA. 
 External Window of the Casa de Las Conchas . . . .41 
 
 PLATE XX. SALAMANCA. 
 Exterior of the Casa Monterey . . . . . -43 
 
 PLATE XXI. SALAMANCA. 
 Renaissance House opposite San Benito . . . . .45 
 
 PLATE XXII. SALAMANCA. 
 Renaissance House in the Calle del Aguila . . . -47 
 
 PLATE XXIII. AVILA. 
 Entrance Gateway of the Casa Polentina . . . .49 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PLATE XXIV. AVILA. 
 
 Page 
 
 The Patio of the Casa Polentina . . . . . .51 
 
 PLATE XXV. AVILA. 
 Iron Pulpit in the Cathedral . . . . . -53 
 
 PLATE XXVI. AVILA. 
 Iron Pulpit in the Cathedral . . . . . -55 
 
 PLATE XXVII. ESCORIAL. 
 General view of the Escorial . . . . . -57 
 
 PLATE XXVIII. SEGOVIA. 
 Gateway in the City Walls . . . . . .63 
 
 PLATE XXIX. SEGOVIA. 
 Archway in the Hall of the Kings . . . . .65 
 
 PLATE XXX. SEGOVIA. 
 Detail from the Alcazar . . . . . . .69 
 
 PLATE XXXI. SEGOVIA. 
 Exterior View of the Monastery of El Parral . . . 71 
 
 PLATE XXXII. ALCALA-DE-HENARES. 
 Exterior of the Colegio de San Udefonso . . . . * 73 
 
 PLATE XXXIII. ALCALA DE-HENARES. 
 Window of the Arzobispado . . . . • -75 
 
 PLATE XXXIV. ALCALA-DE-HENARES. 
 Detail from the Arzobispado . . . . . • 11 
 
 PLATE XXXV. TOLEDO. 
 View of the Remains of a Moorish Fortress on the River . . 79 
 
 PLATE XXXVI. TOLEDO. 
 Bridge of Alcantara . . . . • .81 
 
CO.XTENTS. 
 
 PLATE XXXVII. TOLEDO. 
 
 Page 
 
 Bridge of San Martin . . . . . • -83 
 
 PLATE XXXVIII. TOLEDO. 
 Moorish Gateway by the Bridge of Alcantara . . . -85 
 
 PLATE XXXIX. TOLEDO. 
 Entrance Archway of the Zocodover . . . . -87 
 
 PLATE XL. TOLEDO. 
 Interior of the " Taller del Moro." .... 89 
 
 PLATE XLI. TOLEDO. 
 Tower of the Church of La Magdalena . . . • • 9 1 
 
 PLATE XLII. TOLEDO 
 Moorish Tower of San Pedro Martire . . . . -93 
 
 PLATE XLIII. TOLEDO. 
 Tower of the Church of Sant' Iago de La Vega . . -95 
 
 PLATE XLIV. TOLEDO. 
 External View of the Hospital of the Holy Cross . . -97 
 
 PLATE XLV. TOLEDO. 
 Cortile of the Hospital of the Holy Cross . . . -99 
 
 PLATE XLVI. TOLEDO. 
 Doorway from the Hospital of the Holy Cross . . . .101 
 
 PLATE XLVII. TOLEDO. 
 Entrance Gateway to the Alcazar . . . . .103 
 
 PLATE XLVIII. TOLEDO. 
 Patio of the Hospital of Cardinal Tavera . . • . .105 
 
 PLATE XLIX. CORDOBA. 
 Exterior of the Casa Cahello . . . . . .107 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PLATE L. SEVILLE. 
 
 Page 
 
 Church of La Feria . . . . . . .109 
 
 PLATE LI. SEVILLE. 
 Church of San Marcos . . . . . . .111 
 
 PLATE LII. SEVILLE. 
 Remains of Mudejar House near La Feria . . . .113 
 
 PLATE LIII. SEVILLE. 
 Mudejar Window in the Fonda de Madrid . . . .115 
 
 PLATE LIV. SEVILLE. 
 View in the Upper Story of one of the Patios of the Casa de Pilatus . 117 
 
 PLATE LV. SEVILLE. 
 Detail from a Doorway in the Upper Floor of one of the Patios of the 
 
 House of Pilate . . . . . . .119 
 
 PLATE LVI. SEVILLE. 
 One of the Arches of the Patio of the Casa Alba . . .121 
 
 PLATE LVII. SEVILLE. 
 Detail from the Patio of the Casa Alba . . . . • 123 
 
 PLATE LVIII. SEVILLE. 
 Arches from the Casa de Los Abades . . . . .125 
 
 PLATE LIX. SEVILLE. 
 View in the Patio of the Casa de Los Abades . . . .127 
 
 PLATE LX. SEVILLE. 
 A Peep into an Ordinary Patio ...... 129 
 
 PLATE LXI. CADIZ. 
 Internal View of the Cathedral ...... 131 
 
 PLATE LX1I. MALAGA. 
 The Fountain of the Alameda . . . • • • J 33 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PLATE LXIII. MALAGA. 
 Renaissance House in the Calle Sant' Augustin . . . 135 
 
 PLATE LXIV. MALAGA. 
 Old Window of the Ospedale de Santo Tome . . . 137 
 
 PLATE LXV. MALAGA. 
 Knocker of the Monastery of Sant' Jago. . . 139 
 
 PLATE LXVI. GRANADA. 
 Remains of the Alhambra as seen from the Albaycin . . .141 
 
 PLATE LXVII. GRANADA. 
 Entrance to the Bosque del Alhambra ..... 143 
 
 PLATE LXVIII. GRANADA. 
 Puerta de Justicia . . . . . . . .149 
 
 PLATE LXIX. GRANADA.— THE ALHAMBRA. 
 Sala de Embajadores ....... 153 
 
 PLATE LXX. GRANADA.— THE ALHAMBRA. 
 Stucco Detail from the Hall of the Ambassadors . . . .157 
 
 PLATE LXXI. GRANADA.— THE ALHAMBRA. 
 Detail of Glass Inlay from the Hall of the Ambassadors . .161 
 
 PLATE LXXII. GRANADA.— THE ALHAMBRA. 
 Mosaic from the Hall of the Ambassadors . . . .165 
 
 PLATE LXXIII. GRANADA.— THE ALHAMBRA. 
 Niche in La Sala de Las dos Hermanas . . . . .16" 
 
 PLATE LXXIV. GRANADA.— THE ALHAMBRA. 
 Stucco Detail from the Sala del Tribunal. . . . .169 
 
 PLATE LXXV. GRANADA. 
 View of the Cathedral from the back of the High Altar . 171 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PLATE LXXVI. GRANADA. 
 The Reja of the Reyes Catolicos 
 
 PLATE LXXVII. GRANADA. 
 View of the Arzobispado .... 
 
 PLATE LXXVIII. GUADALAXARA. 
 Palacio de Los Duques del Infantado 
 
 PLATE LXXIX. GUADALAXARA. 
 Doorway of the Monastery of San Miguel 
 
 PLATE LXXX. GUADALAXARA 
 Casa del Duque de Ribas 
 
 PLATE LXXXI. GUADALAXARA 
 Door Handle from the Calle del Barrio Nuevo . 
 
 PLATE LXXXII. SARAGOSSA. 
 View of the Patio of the Palacio de La Infanta . 
 
 PLATE LXXXIII. SARAGOSSA. 
 Detail of the Arcading of the First Floor of the Casa de La Infanta 
 
 PLATE LXXXIV. SARAGOSSA. 
 Exterior of the Exchange ...... 
 
 PLATE LXXXV. SARAGOSSA. 
 Patio of the Casa de Comercio ..... 
 
 PLATE LXXXVI. SARAGOSSA. 
 Patio of the House of the Marquis of Monistol . 
 
 PLATE LXXXVII. SARAGOSSA. 
 Bronze Renaissance Knocker of a House in the Plazuela Aduana 
 
 PLATE LXXXVIII. LERIDA. 
 Tower of the Church of San Lorenzo .... 
 
 Page 
 175 
 
 *79 
 181 
 
 183 
 .85 
 187 
 189 
 191 
 
 193 
 r 95 
 199 
 
 201 
 203 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PLATE LXXXIX. BARCELONA. 
 
 ]':iL'i' 
 
 Old House in the Calle de Santa Lucia ..... 205 
 
 PLATE XC. BARCELONA. 
 Patio of the Casa de la Diputacion ..... 209 
 
 PLATE XCI. BARCELONA. 
 Detail from the Casa de la Diputacion . . . . .211 
 
 PLATE XCII. BARCELONA. 
 Window from the Casa de la Diputacion . . . .213 
 
 PLATE XCIII. BARCELONA. 
 Doorway in the Town Hall . . . . . .215 
 
 PLATE XCIV. BARCELONA. 
 Knocker of an old House in the Calle Santa Lucia . . .219 
 
 PLATE XCV. BARCELONA. 
 Knocker to an old House in the Calle Santa Lucia . . .221 
 
 PLATE XCVI. BARCELONA. 
 Courtyard of an old House in the Calle de Moncara . . . 225 
 
 PLATE XCVII. BARCELONA. 
 Staircase of an old House in the Calle de Moncara . . . 227 
 
 PLATE XCVIII. GERONA. 
 Old House near the Estrella de Oro 
 
 231 
 
 PLATE XCIX. GERONA. 
 Upper Part of an old House and Spire of the Church of San Feliu . 233 
 
 PLATE C. GERONA. 
 Old Walls near the Monastery of San Pedro .... 235 
 
.&VR&OV 
 
 ***&6 
 
PLATE I. 
 
 BURGOS, 
 
 THE ARCO DE SANTA MARIA. 
 
 IT is sad to notice how few traces beyond its magnificent 
 Cathedral are left in this, the capital of old Castile, of those 
 "Castellanos rancios y viejos," who once so splendidly represented the 
 pride and power of Spanish chivalry. Of the sixteen golden castles 
 the city bears upon its stately arms how insignificant are the relics ? 
 The remains of its walls and bastions attest the many centuries 
 during which it held its own against all comers, Christian or 
 Infidel. Of these walls, our sketch represents a portion in which 
 there is little doubt the Renaissance frontispiece and archway replaced 
 an older and sterner portal, better suited probably for defence than 
 decoration. The legend runs that this facade was executed by the 
 citizens, who had been exhibiting proclivities of far too Communistic 
 a character to be agreeable to so high handed a sovereign as 
 Charles V., in order to propitiate that potentate, and to commemorate 
 a visit, on his part at least, of a conciliatory character. It would 
 seem, however, that in spite of the loyalty which induced the 
 Burgalese to assign the post of honour (always under the invocation 
 of their crowning tutelary the " Virgen sin pecado concebida)" to 
 
THE ARCO DE SASTA MARIA. 
 
 the statue of the King, they took good care to give him for 
 companions Nutio Rasura, and Lain Calvo, whom they had 
 themselves elected in the tenth century to rule over them, and 
 protect their Communal rights. The maintenance of these had been 
 somewhat interfered with by the King of Leon, Fruela II., who had 
 invited the chief citizens to a banquet, and then quietly removed 
 them out of his royal way by summarily putting them all to death. 
 Amongst other statues which adorn this gateway are to be found 
 those of Don Diego Parcelos, the founder of the city in 884, of 
 the Cid — the pride of Spain and especially of Burgos, in which 
 city he was born, and where his bones still rest — and of Fernan 
 Gonzalez who redeemed the district from the yoke of the Kings 
 of Leon, to whom it had been tributary, and who constituted 
 himself and his family *fr-its protectors, under the style and title of 
 Condes de Castilla. 
 
 The architecture of this frontispiece which gains great importance 
 and much picturesque effect from its association with the bartizans 
 and turrets of the mediaeval gateway, has been attributed to Felipe 
 de Borgoiia, not apparently on any other grounds than the facts that 
 he was a iMilrra of the city in whom his fello\v-citizens felt great 
 pride, and / that he was employed upon the " Crucero " of the 
 cathedral at about the period when this grand portal was probably 
 erected. 
 
 a^ (/^a^l^O/HJ 
 
 ^w 
 
 
PLATE II. 
 
 BURGOS. 
 
 PATIO OF THE CASA DE MIRANDA. 
 
 THIS plate introduces us O onoi to the most striking feature 
 of all important Spanish houses, the Patio, or internal 
 courtyard, answering to and perpetuating^ the Atrium of Roman 
 architecture, with its impluvium and compluvium, and corresponding 
 with the ordinary Cortile of the Italians. It is usually rectangular 
 in plan, and n* entirely surrounded upon at least two stories 
 by arcading behind which run passages into which open the 
 doors of every principal set of apartments of the house. There are 
 rarely many windows in the walls of the Patios, as the rooms 
 generally occupy the whole width intervening between the Patio walls, 
 and the external walls of the house from which the light is mainly 
 derived. There are, however, usually more windows on the lower 
 story of the Patio than on the upper, since the chief saloons 
 requiring most light were on the first floor, while much of the 
 lower floor was occupied as was also usual in Italy, by retainers, 
 servants, poor guests, <ati n m iW and administradores — to say nothing 
 of mules, and horses, with stores and munitions of all sorts. 
 
PATIO OF THE CASA DE MIRAS'DA. 
 
 Nothing can be more picturesque or better suited to the climate 
 than these Patios, since owing to the deep arcades which surround 
 the open part (the Tciupluviu i it ) of the court-yard upon more stories 
 than one, there is always some portion of the arcade in which 
 shelter can be obtained from sun, rain, or wind, and in which 
 the occupants of the several apartments can sit and work, or 
 lounge and smoke, in abundant but not unbearable light, and 
 perfect comfort. This facility of outlet enables them, during the 
 hours when the sun shines most fiercely, to keep their living 
 and sleeping rooms dark and cool, and in exactly the state to 
 make the midday meal and subsequent siesta truly luxurious and 
 refreshing. 
 
 One open staircase usually connects the upper and lower arcades ; 
 admission is rarely given to the whole building at more than one 
 point, the great door, adjoining which is almost always to be found 
 the concierge, the janitor of the old Roman house, upon the model 
 of which the Spaniards probably founded their notion of a residence 
 at once noble and comfortable. 
 
 Little need be said concerning the particular house sketched. It 
 is one of the few left in Burgos to bear witness to the grandeur 
 of its old aristocracy. Though once the residence of the powerful 
 Condes de Miranda of the family of the Zunigas, it is now but a 
 half ruined and entirely dirt)' lodging-house for the lower classes 
 in a poor and neglected part of the city. A fine dedication to the 
 most illustrious " Seiior Don Francisco de $uniga y Avellaneda, Conde 
 de Miranda Sehor de la Villa Daca, y de la Casa de Avellaneda bv 
 Pedro Martinez the Printer of Seville, in 1565 sets forth the arms as 
 well as the style and title of the nobleman by whom, or by whose 
 
PATIO OF THE CASA DE MIRANDA. 
 
 next descendant the " Casa de Miranda " of Burgos was probably 
 built. 
 
 The present representative of this family is no other than the 
 Conde de Montijo, head of the house to which Her Majesty the 
 Empress of the French belongs. The remarkable " Casa solar " of 
 Penaranda de Duero, within an easy excursion from Burgos, once a 
 magnificent villa of the Zunigas, was one of the hereditary posses- 
 sions of her sister the Duchess of Alba. 
 
 There are some few other old houses remaining in Burgos, the 
 most remarkable, for oddity rather than beauty, being the " Casa del 
 Cordon ;" so called from its facade, which exhibits a gigantic rope 
 representing the " Cordon " of the Teutonic order, encircling and 
 uniting, the arms of the Velascos, Mendozas, and Figueras with those 
 of Royalty. It was erected by a Count Haro, Constable of Castile 
 at the end of the fifteenth century. It is now the residence of the 
 Capitan General of the Province, and the property of the Duca de 
 Frias, a descendant of Count Haro. 
 
 The Casa de Miranda is to be found in Burgos, in the " Calle 
 de la Calera," not far from the " Barrio de la Vega." No English 
 visitor to Burgos should omit to see the Convent of las Huelgas, 
 most interesting not only as founded by an English Princess, 
 (Leonora, daughter of Henry II, married to Alfonso VIII), in 1180; 
 but as evidencing in its design, which is exceptionally grave, simple, 
 and well proportioned, an unquestionably English architectural 
 influence. 
 
 Of the Cathedral, remains of the Castle, and the Convent of the 
 Cartuja it is needless to speak here, since they are certain not to 
 be overlooked by the traveller. Mr. Waring, who has so well drawn 
 
PATIO OF THE CASA DE MIRANDA. 
 
 the marvels of the last mentioned building,* has given some pretty 
 illustrations of ornamental detail from the fine Renaissance "Ospedal 
 del Rey," which may be found not far from the Convent of las 
 Huelgas.* 
 
 * Waring (John Burley) Architectural, Sculptural, and Picturesque Studies of Burgos 
 and its neighbourhood. Folio. London. 1851. 
 
 f Examples of Architectural Art in Italy and Spain. Folio. London. 1850. 
 

PLATE III. 
 
 VALLADOLID. 
 
 COLEGIO DE SAN GREGORIO. 
 
 FROM early in the fifteenth century, through the reigns of Juan 
 II. and his successors, until the elevation of Madrid into the 
 Capital by Charles the Fifth, and into the only and official seat of 
 the Court by Philip II. Valladolid was emphatically the Royal 
 city of Spain. It is there, accordingly, that the traveller would 
 naturally look for relics of Royal and courtly magnificence as displayed 
 in the stirring times during which the over-elaboration of Gothic Art 
 began to merge itself, in sympathy with the Medicean energies of 
 Rome and Florence, into the style of the Renaissance as practised 
 at a later date by many citizens of Valladolid, such as Antonio de 
 Arphe, and Juan de Arphe y Villafaiie, master-workers in gold and 
 silver; as Juan de Juni, and Hernandez, the marvellous wood-carvers 
 and sculptors, authors of the peculiar gilt painted groups for which the 
 city became so famous ; and as Alonzo Berruguete, Henrique de Egas, 
 and Macias Carpintero " masters of works " of no mean repute. Of all 
 the glorious woipfe&k these men and their disciples and contemporaries 
 produced in Valladolid a few " disjecta membra " alone remain. Of 
 the very building, an outlying fragment of which forms the subject 
 
COLEGIO DE SAN GREGORIO. 
 
 of the sketch under notice, all but the actual structure was destroyed 
 by the French under Napoleon I. in person, who in I 809 inaugurated 
 a reign of terror in the city. " No where/' in Spain, as Ford writes 
 in 1845, "has recent destruction been more busy (than in Valladolid) ; 
 witness San Benito, San Diego, San Francisco, San Gabriel, &c, 
 almost swept away, their precious altars broken, their splendid 
 sepulchres dashed to pieces ; hence the sad void created in the 
 treasures of" art and religion which are recorded by previous 
 travellers while now-a-days the natTCe 'in- this mania of modernising 
 is fast destroying those venerable vestiges of Charles V. and Philip 
 II. which escaped the Gaul." The situation of this city on the 
 direct line of railway communication between France and Madrid 
 has greatly helped forward this " modernising " and even as this is 
 written, numerous old streets are being pulled down to make way 
 for the convenient, but far from picturesque monotony in which the 
 nineteenth century usually writes its date upon its street architecture. 
 In one respect, especially, the glory of Valladolid has entirely departed. 
 In this, the city of the Arphes, in which as Navagiero* says, (writing 
 in 1525, "Sono in Valladolid assai artefeci di ogni sorte, e se vi 
 lavora benissimo dt tutte le arti, e sopra tutto d'argenti, e vi sono 
 tanti argenteri quanti non sono in due altre terre," no gold or 
 silversmith's work is to be found worthy a moment's attention. 
 The " Plateria " still remains, and the shops of the Plateros still 
 abound, but, with the exception of two or three little old fragments 
 saved from the melting pot, the elegant types of the "Varia com- 
 mensuracion " of Villafaiie have disappeared, giving place to poor 
 imitations of bad French work. 
 
 * " Viaggio in Spagna," quoted by O'Shea, page 498. 
 
I VALLA DOUG 
 
 'PATIO D! SAN 
 GREG0R10 
 
 
 -^\ l- - W/j 
 
 " ' -.=--•. f/ fir/'- 
 
IJfv 
 
 V 
 
 / 
 
 
 PLATE IV 
 
 V A LLADOLI D. 
 
 DETAIL FROM THE "PATIO DE SAN GREGORIO." 
 
 THE portion of the great Dominican Convent of Valladolid which 
 formed the subject of the last sketch, is supposed to have been 
 the commencement of a second Patio, or courtyard, around which 
 were to have been arranged apartments, mainly intended for the 
 reception of guests or visitors, lay as well as ecclesiastic. The 
 arcading, of which Plate IV is a sketch, surrounds the great Patio of 
 the monastic establishment of which the " Colegio" proper is the 
 Church. Around this noble courtyard were grouped the apartments 
 in which resided the powerful Black Friars — so called from their dress — ■ 
 worthy adherents to the traditions of the founder of the Order, himself 
 an old Castilian, whose activity as Preachers, and still more as Inqui- 
 sitors, made them, perhaps, even more powerful in controlling the 
 destinies of the Peninsula than the political heads of the State. The 
 first stone of this great establishment, dedicated to St. Gregory, and 
 founded by Alonso of Burgos, Bishop of Palencia, was laid in the 
 year 1488. Some idea of the rapid growth and elevation of the 
 Dominicans about this period may be derived from an observation of 
 the fact that this splendid Church and Monastery was the second 
 
io DETAIL PROM THE PATIO DE SAN GREG0RI0. 
 
 great establishment of the Order in Valladolid completed within the 
 space of about ten years. Cean Bermudez tells us that the Cardinal 
 Don Juan Torquemada caused the Church of the Convent of St. 
 Paul to be erected, which, with its facade of excellent architecture, was 
 finished in the year 1463. 
 
 The work at Saint Gregory lasted about eight years, a very short 
 time, considering not only the quantity and extent of labour involved 
 in the mere construction, but the amount of intricate and elaborate 
 sculpture which decorates the facade of the Church. Its architect, 
 Macias Carp^ntero, of Medino del Campo, is placed by Llaguno y 
 Amirola upon a footing, as to merit, with the celebrated architects 
 Siloe and Cruz of Cologne, who introduced extraordinary elaboration 
 into the ornamental carving of Spain. The fate of Macias was a 
 sad one, since on the last Saturday in July, in the year 1490, while 
 working himself, and directing this great architectural work, he 
 committed suicide, infinitely to the surprise and regret of the monks 
 and their fellow-citizens. 
 
 Some idea of the scale upon which the Patio of San Gregorio 
 is worked out, may be derived from a knowledge of the facts, that 
 the lower arcade is about twenty feet high, and the upper fifteen 
 feet. The open space enclosed by the arcading is very large, and 
 the distance from centre to centre of each of the pillars about nine 
 feet. 
 
PATJO-nESAN-GRE 
 
PLATE V. 
 
 V A LLADOLID. 
 
 SMALL PATIO DE SAN GREGORIO. 
 
 IN that material — stucco — which we of the nineteenth century affect 
 to despise, and in the use of which both the Romans and the 
 Great Masters of the Renaissance, under Raffaelle's guidance, excelled, 
 the Moors delighted. By its use they were able, with speed and 
 accuracy, to supply the redundancy of conventional ornament essential 
 to contrast with the rigid geometrical setting out of lines and com- 
 partments which formed a fundamental law of their beautiful style 
 of design. Their aptitude in the manipulation of this material did 
 not desert them when their talents were called into operation by their 
 Christian Masters. Of this the pretty window which forms the chief 
 feature of the sketch under consideration, offers an agreeable proof. 
 At the first glance, one might have fancied that this window was of 
 earlier date than the gothic stone arch beneath, and indeed a relic of 
 the Moorish occupation of Valladolid before the Christians reconquered 
 the district, so different in style are its details from those of the arch. 
 To have encountered the difficulties of constructing such an arch 
 beneath, without destroying such a window, is, however, so contrary 
 to all ancient precedents in similar cases, that any such theory must 
 
SMALL PATIO DB SAN GREGORIO. 
 
 be dismissed on reflexion, and an explanation sought in some other 
 direction. It is to be found in the fact, that about the middle 
 of the fifteenth century, shortly after which date, both arch and 
 window were probably constructed, the Christians had plenty of 
 skilful artificers in stone, who possessed no aptitude for working in 
 stucco, whilst the Moors executed but little ornament in stone, but 
 much in brick and. plaster. Hence the marked difference in style 
 which is apparent between the window sketched, and the architectural 
 detail of the rest of this pretty little court, which is shown on this 
 sketch, and the one which follows it. 
 
 The rooms surrounding the Arcade of this Patio, and the Arcade 
 itself, are now used as a " Corps de Garde" in connection with the 
 Government offices of the great Patio of this " Colegio." They 
 naturally, therefore, rejoice in the rapidly accumulating whitewash, 
 which serves very generally in Spain, at once as a panacea against 
 cholera and fever, and the obliterator of all useless excrescences in 
 the nature of Architectural Ornament. 
 
PLATE VI. 
 
 V ALL A DO LI D. 
 
 SMALL PATIO, COLEGIO DE SAN GREGORIO. 
 
 THE stucco upper-storey from which the last sketch (Plate V) was 
 taken rests upon a lower open storey, forming the usual recessed 
 Arcade or Colonade of even very humble Patios. In this case, the 
 columns, on two sides, (the upper parts of one of which are shown) 
 including the coat-of-arms, are in stone ; while the brackets easing 
 the compression of the fibres, and shortening the bearing of the 
 beams, the beams themselves, and the row of brackets above, being 
 really only the moulded ends of the joists of the upper floor, are all 
 in wood. They thus illustrate the combination of materials in con- 
 struction so much affected by the Moors. At the same time the 
 architectural details shown both in this sketch, and in the one which 
 precedes it, exhibit certain ornamental features derived from Arabian 
 models. That there should be no question in this structure, however, 
 as to the ascendency of the Christian over the Moor, the proud 
 ^Atii i ua l has affixed his arms, in which the Church's sacred emblems 
 of the fleur-de-lys and cross forcibly express the favourite tenets of the 
 Spaniard. 
 
 Few cities of Spain more rejoiced in heraldic devices than did 
 
,4. SMALL PATIO, COLEGIO DE SAN GREGORIO. 
 
 1 
 
 Valladolid, the especial seat of the Castilian nobility, at least until its 
 removal to Madrid. Amongst all the beautiful fac-similes of finely 
 mantled, and well displayed escutcheons which adorn the works of 
 early printers, given to us by Sir Stirling Maxwell, few excel those 
 which issued from the presses of the Valladolid printers. The Germans 
 who followed in the train, or, at any rate under the auspices, of 
 Charles V., no doubt set the fashion at the commencement of the 
 century at Seville, which was taken up by Spaniards towards the 
 middle of the same century at Valladolid. Francesco Fernandez de 
 Cordova appears to have been the great master of the craft there, and 
 and splendid are the heraldic frontispieces of his books from 1548 
 onwards. His style, at any rate, was maintained in his family till near 
 the end of the century, as the title-page of the celebrated " Quilatador 
 de la Plata oro y piedras," by Joan Arphe, 1572, displays the arms 
 of the Cardinal Bishop of Siguenza, drawn by, and bearing the initials 
 of, no less an artist than Arphe y Villafahe himself. The imprint of 
 the volume bears no longer the name of Francisco, but the names of 
 Alonzo y Diego Fernandez de Cordova. 
 
 The finest specimen of Francisco's work, given by Sir Stirling 
 Maxwell, is the grand heading to a proclamation issued by Charles V, 
 in 1549. It exhibits not only the Royal and Imperial escutscheon, 
 Double-headed Eagle, and Columns, with the proud motto " plus 
 ultra," but a quantity of pure Renaissance ornament from which all 
 trace of Gothic has disappeared. 
 
 * Examples of Ornamental Heraldry of the sixteenth century. London, 1867. Privately 
 printed. 
 

 .LA-CAWUO^i*- 
 
PLATE VII. 
 
 V A LLA DOLID. 
 
 XA 
 
 LA CASA « PE BE INFANTADO. 
 
 S in Italy, r so in Spain, the architecture of the revival may be 
 divided into at least two great schools, viz., the early, in 
 which sculpture, and particularly sculptured arabesque, play a prominent 
 part ; and the late, in which regularity in the use of the orders and 
 a system of rigidly proportioned plain architectural members form 
 the main constituents of the most highly commended structures. 
 Both merged into the extravagance which follows when architects 
 learn to draw with facility rather than to think with steadfastness 
 and propriety. As Italy had its Borromini, so had Spain its 
 Churriguerfa. 
 
 The building from which my sketch has been taken belongs to 
 the second of these divisions of the architecture of the revival, as 
 may be seen by the grave simplicity of the Ionic columns which 
 support the massive but plain arches of both stories of a large and 
 pretentious Patio. In this sketch I have chosen the point of view 
 from the entrance loggia of the house, because looking from it I 
 could well see, and therefore illustrate, the way in which a grand 
 staircase, covered at the top, but open to the air upon one side, 
 
 <&£, 
 
i6 
 
 LA CASA ©/? EL INFANTA DO. 
 
 X 
 
 usually connects, in large houses, the upper and lower arcades of 
 the Patios, and consequently the upper and lower floors of the 
 mansion which open on to the two main arcades. The staircase is 
 very rarely closed in an y w*uj > , by iron-work or otherwise ; 
 consequently the visitor once obtaining access to the Patio was 
 and is at liberty to ramble nearly all over the house un- 
 checked. As front doors usually stand open from morning till 
 night, access to Patios may generally be freely obtained ; but where 
 the house is inhabited by one family only, or by more than one 
 family desiring privacy, iron or wooden doors usually close openings 
 to the Patio such as are shown in the sketch. It is only when in 
 answer to a bell, or knocker, attached to this or to an external 
 doorway, a servant has appeared and ascertained that the visitor is 
 an " amigo," that the door itself is opened, and access to the interior 
 afforded. 
 
 It is a popular prejudice that gravity in Spanish architecture 
 only came in with Herrera, after the middle of the fifteenth century 
 in Spain, but in reality there were several other men who before 
 him asserted their dissent from the plateresque redundancy of 
 ornament, and designed works upon a careful study of Italian models 
 of architectural proportion. ^Among such may be reckoned Pedro 
 Machuca who in 1526 designed the palace of Charles V. at Granada, 
 Alonzo Covarrubias who was architect for the noble staircase and c|rtile^ 
 of the Alcazar at Toledo, and Diego Siloe who a few years later created 
 the fine Cathedral* of Granada. 
 
9 
 
 •LEON- 
 
 
 5 JV'.v-.jft--Ji'' 
 
 Illlfl 
 
R>^' 
 
 PLATE VIII. 
 
 LEON. 
 
 CHURCH OF SAN ISIDRO. 
 
 THE antiquity of the city of Leon and its importance as a 
 Roman station are well shown by its picturesque and strong 
 walls, which in many places yet exhibit clearly Roman— masonry- 
 
 '&fc O, 
 
 in thj substructure and general form. ^fther places, subsequent U}l~ ( 
 
 generations of artificers have left unmistakeable autographs inscribed 
 
 in most legible and durable forms, attesting dates of construction, 
 
 dilapidation, restoration, and then again dilapidation, through centuries 
 
 of tempestuous existence. One of the most picturesque bastions of 
 
 these old walls is the one shown in my sketch which groups 
 
 exceedingly well with the fine Romanesque steeple of San Isidro, 
 
 which stands on the west of the Churchlaltogether detached-Jrom-ifc — 
 
 Both Church and steeple date from about the middle of the twelfth 
 
 century, and possess great historical and architectural interest. Their 
 
 historical interest is due to their association with the fervidly pious Queen 
 
 Sancha; and to the fact that in the Pantheon, or chapel dedicated 
 
 to Santa Catilina at the north-west end of the Church, probably 
 
 grouped around the body of the Saint, repose Kings and Queens of 
 
 Spain from Fernando I. and Doha Sancha the founders of the 
 
 Uh/ 
 
i8 CHURCH OF SAN ISIDRO. 
 
 Church, through eight generations. Their architectural interest is 
 derivable from the constructional and ornamental details dwelt upon by 
 Mr. Street, to whose excellent account of the building the reader 
 may be referred. 
 
PLATE IX. 
 
 LEON. 
 
 CONVENT OF SAN MARCOS. 
 
 ON the 3rd of September, 1512, a meeting took place between 
 certain ecclesiastics of the Chapter of Salamanca, and nine of /> (llyU^tlcj \ 
 the most famous architects of Spain, the minute or " proces verbale"/ ' / 
 
 of which would form a model for what might ofte n be donej^yith <^m*» ~hr — / 
 
 advantage to all concerned ^! this countr ffin the initiation of any great / 
 
 architectural work. The object of the Junta was to settle the principal 
 difficulties of the design of the new Cathedral of Salamanca, then about 
 to be begun. Interesting as are all the conclusions arrived at upon this 
 memorable occasion, it is not with them we have now to concern 
 ourselves, but with the circumstance only that, amongst the signatures 
 attached to the document* occurs that of Juan de Badajoz, the architect 
 of the noble facade of the celebrated Convent of the Knights of 
 Santiago at Leon, which forms the subject of our ninth sketch. In the 
 following year to that of the meeting at Salamanca, Juan de Badajoz 
 was summoned in concert with Juan Gil de Hontanon and 
 
 * Given at length under the No. XXXV in the Appendix to the First Volume of the 
 " Noticias de los Arquitectos y Architectura de Espafia, Sec," por Seiior D. Eugenio Llaguno 
 y Amirola, &c. Madrid, 1S29. 
 
20 
 
 CONVENT OF SAN MARCOS. 
 
 Juan de Alava to report on the repairs necessary to the Cathedral 
 
 at Seville. For this he was paid by the Chapter one hundred 
 
 ducats, no mean sum in those days. Called from Seville to Leon, 
 
 Badajoz seems to have immediately set in hand the Capilla Mayor 
 
 of the Church of San Isidro. In Leon and elsewhere he appears 
 
 to have been much employed, until in 1537 he commenced the 
 
 Convent of San Zoil at Carrion (about twelve leagues from Leon,') 
 
 for the Condes of that place. The taste for elaborate ornamental 
 
 sculpture greatly increasing at that time, Juan de Badajoz seems to 
 
 have taken pains to surround himself with the most skilful carvers 
 
 of his days, and on all occasions to have pushed them forwards as 
 
 their merits deserved. Hence, when called upon, shortly after setting 
 
 in hand the works at Carrion, to commence the even more elaborate 
 
 and. important ones of San Marcos, he was able to carry on the two 
 
 for a time concurrently, and ultimately to resign the charge of what 
 
 he began and advanced considerably single-handed, to his deputy, 
 
 Pedro di Castrillo. 
 
 On San Marcos Juan de Badajoz appears to have worked 
 pertinaciously, at any rate until the year 1543, when more than half 
 the whole work was completed. In the sculpture, of which there is 
 an enormous quantity, he had the assistance, as principal sculptor, of 
 Guillermo Doncel. The ornamental details^are excellent, far better 
 than those involving a knowledge of the proportions and forms of 
 the human figure. The size of the building is enormous, and its 
 general effect very picturesque. The works appear to have been 
 suspended while still far from complete. They were not resumed 
 until the year 17 15 
 
 
 ■aAocL 
 
><XH' 
 
PLATE X. 
 
 
 LEON. 
 
 CLOISTER OF THE CONVENT OF SAN MARCOS. 
 
 T used to be a proud old boast of the/Military Order of 
 Sant' Iago that their Palace, or Convent, call it which you will, 
 at Leon, was quite as fine and spacious as the palace occupied by 
 the Kings of Spain at Madrid. Knowing this, I visited it with a 
 certain amount of apprehension as to my reception by such 
 |"1> tfejfrniinnfn nf the magnates of old, as might still occupy the 
 building. My fears were groundless, for I found after much 
 knocking and ringing, that a solitary policeman was the only 
 occasional tenant of its vast halls, and almost numberless rooms. 
 It was indeed melancholy to see such a structure so evidently and 
 entirely "out of joint with fortune" and "the times," as to be 
 apparently inapplicable and inconvertible to any useful purpose. 
 
 With the impressions received from meeting with such a state 
 of things, the traveller naturally feels a difficulty in realising the 
 fact that the extent and splendour of this Convent actually 
 represented what was once a vital principle of first importance to 
 Spain. To her, until Mariolatry set in with full intensity, the name 
 of Sant' Iago was a tower of strength. Not only did the possession 
 
 HM&fo 
 
zz CLOISTER OF THE CONVENT OF SAN MARCOS. 
 
 YUrf! of It** shrine to which pilgrims flocked, even from beyond the seas 
 in thousands, bring wealth to the Church ; but the elevation of the 
 Saint into an actual soldier of the Faith, a leader to material as well 
 as to spiritual victory, supplied for Spain that fervour under arms 
 which, when passing under the form of devotion to " the Prophet " 
 had, as both Church and State in Spain wisely recognised, wrought such 
 marvels in the consolidation of the power of her natural enemies, 
 the Moors. By the creation of the religious orders of cavaliers, 
 or rather of the military orders of priests, Spain at once nourished 
 the spirit of chivalry and the Christian Faith, Avhich ultimately won 
 for her the reconquest of all that Mahommedan Chivalry and 
 Mahommedan Faith had conquered from her.* The very length 
 and pertinacity of the struggle only served to quicken the devotion 
 of the people to their "Gran Capitan," Sant' lago, and to induce 
 them to enrich to the utmost the order which bore his name. 
 
 Hence the magnificent scale of buildings, such as the Convent 
 of San Marcos, the stately cloisters of which once sheltered those 
 whose energy in council and skill in the field maintained that life 
 and action for the warlike, and protection and repose for the 
 peaceable, which were essential to the consolidation and upholding 
 of the monarchy of Spain, and its supposed indispensable and 
 inseparable adjunct the "Catholic Faith." 
 
 • See : " Historia de las ordenes Militates de S. Iago," por F. Caro de Torres. Madrid, 
 i r >z). Folio. 
 
PLATE XL 
 
 LEON. 
 
 EXTERIOR OF THE CASA DE LOS GUSMANES. 
 
 IN an ancient house which stood upon the site on which now 
 stands the Palace which forms the subject of our sketch, there 
 was born, in the year 1266, a "Cavalier," who, when arrived at 
 manhood, followed the fortunes of Sancho the Brave. After many 
 struggles, the King having taken Tarifa in Andalucia from the 
 Moors in 1292, looked round amongst his followers for one willing 
 to hold what he had won. All refused, owing to the danger of the 
 position, until Alonzo Perez de Guzman, the Cavalier in question, 
 offered to keep possession of the town for a year. The story is thus 
 condensed by Ford, from the " Romancero." The Moors beleaguered 
 it, aided by the Infante Juan, a traitor brother of Sancho's to whom 
 Alonso's eldest son, aged nine, had been entrusted previously as a 
 page. "Juan now brought the boy under the walls, and threatened 
 to kill him if his father would not surrender the place. Alonso 
 drew his dagger and threw it down exclaiming, ' I prefer honour 
 without a son, to a son with dishonour.' He retired, and the 
 Prince caused the child to be put to death. A cry of horror ran 
 through the Spanish battlements. Alonso rushed forth, beheld his 
 
-4 
 
 EXTERIOR OF THE CASA DE LOS CUSMAXES. 
 
 
 lb/ 
 
 son's body, and returning to his childless mother, calmly observed, 
 'I feared that the infidel hn.I gained the city.' Sancho, the King, 
 likened him to Abraham," from this parental sacrifice and honoured him 
 with the ' canting ' name ' El Bueno.' The good (Guzman, Gutman, 
 Goodman.) He became the founder of the princely Dukes ot 
 Medina Sidonia, now merged by marriage in the Villafrancas." From 
 this great head descended ultimately Her Majesty the Empress 
 Eugenie of France. Gaining strength, riches and power, the original 
 residence of El Bueno became too small for his aspiring family, and 
 in 1560, Don Juan Quinones y Guzman, Bishop of Calahorra, 
 determined upon the erection, on the same site, of the present fine 
 -\structure. The name of the architect does not seem to be known, 
 
 ut it is obviously the work of one who, rejecting the elaboration f-c(j£\ 
 the Plateresque style, followed the simpler and more chastened 
 proportions w ith wh k h they bo ea me acqu aint ed tin oug h^he-^*w 
 •«£ the early Italian writers on architecture, such as Alberti and Serlio/- •' ' ""4// 
 
 Alt is probable that the use of a large quantity of iron ex- 
 ternally, as in the balconieslof this Palace and eloowhei 1 * was somewhat 
 of a novelty at the date of construction, since the story runs " that 
 when Philip II. visited Leon, as his courtiers, some friends of the 
 Bishops, were praising the building, and were mentioning in a friendly 
 way the thousands of cv. is. of iron employed in it, the King severely- 
 observed, punningly by the way, * En verdad que ha sido mucho 
 yerrojpara un obispo./\ 
 
 l he pun turns upon the word yerro which means both iron, 
 and a mistake. The joke would have been unworthy of Philip II, 
 if it had not been grim. 
 
 * O'Shea. Page 236. 
 
fr~ 
 
 
 3-> 
 
 PLATE XII. 
 
 LEON. 
 
 PATIO OF THE CASA DE LOS GUSMANES. 
 
 PALACES, such as supply our twelfth illustration, ape-flow rarely 
 occupied in Spain by one family only. Insteaa of serving as 
 the place of general rendezvous for the f^Wm^ and intimate friends 
 only of the aristocratic proprietor, the Patios are now usually peopled 
 with men, women and children belonging to the numerous families, 
 between whom the occupation of the Palace, sadly fallen from its 
 high estate, is divided. 
 
 Instead of the mansion! being guarded by a 
 grand inquisitor in the shape of a porter, with armed servants within 
 hail, with almost more than Oriental jealousy, as in the old days, he 
 who will, may usually find entrance or exit unheeded, passing but 
 as one more or one less of the hundreds who go to and fro in the 
 course of the day to the various apartments which are frequently let 
 and sublet, at ridiculously low rents, to poor occupants who can afford 
 to pay no other. Poverty, in fact, revels in halls where magnificence 
 once reigned supreme. 
 
 It is no easy task for the imagination to repeople such . old) 
 .grand/residences with the stately Hidalgoes and Senoras, who once 
 occupied and maintained them with scrupulous care and princely dignity. 
 
 ■^**&*0 
 
 fS, 
 
«6 PATIO OF THE CASA DE LOS GUSMANES. 
 
 Happily, the Countess d'Aulnois comes to our aid with her lively 
 account of the dwelling at Madrid of the Duchess of Terra Nueva, 
 appointed Camerera- Mayor to the young Queen, in 1679; and her 
 picturesque sketch may be freely accepted as expressing the general 
 style in which families of dignity, such as the Guzmanes, magnates 
 of Leon, lived during the plenlitude of Spanish wealth and power. 
 " Or.e can hardly see anything," says she,* " that looks more 
 splendid than this house of theirs ; they use the upper apartments, 
 which are hung with tapestry, all_ done with raised work of gold. 
 In one great chamber, which is longer than it is broad, you may see 
 several glass doors, which go into closets, or little cells ; the first of 
 which is th^ Duchess of Terra Nova's, hung with grey, and a bed of 
 the same, and all oth;r things very plain. O.i one side lodges her. 
 daughter, the Duchess of Monteleon, who is a widow, and has her 
 room furnished like her mother's. Afterwards you come to the Princess 
 of Monteleon's chamber, which is not larger than the others ; but 
 her bed is of gold and green damask, lined with silver brocade, and 
 trimmed with Point-dc-Spain. The sheets were laced about with an 
 English lace of half an ell deep. Over against it were the chambers 
 of Monteleon and Hijar's children, which were furnished with white 
 damask. Next to these is the little chamber of the Duchess Hijar, 
 famished with crimson coloured velvet upon a gold ground. Their 
 rooms v/er.* no otherwise divided than by partitions of a certain sweet 
 wood; and they told me th it six of their women lay in their chambers 
 u^on beds brought thither at night. The ladies were in a great gallery, 
 spread with a veiy r'ch fcot-cloth. There were set round it crimson 
 
 I' '3 
 
 * I ■■ rsicv.s a: d Jlvtrtirg Ittteivcf "A Lady's Trr.v.U ir.to Spnir," I.m il n. 171c, Vol.1. 
 
 1 
 
PATIO OF THE CAS A DE LOS GUSMANES. 27 
 
 coloured velvet cushions embroidered with gold, and they are longer 
 than they are broad. There were also several great cabinets inlaid, 
 and adorned with precious stones ; but they are not made in Spain. 
 And between them were tables of silver, and admirable looking-glasses, 
 both for their largeness and rich frames, the worst of which were of 
 silver. But that which I thought finest, were their escaparates, which 
 is a certain sort of close cabinet with one great glass, and filled with 
 all the rarities which one can imagine, whether it be in amber, porcelain, 
 crystal, bezoar-stone, branches of coral, mother-of-pearl, filligreen 
 in gold, and a thousand other things of value." 
 
CMA-Ei i -j | - <\ 
 DELIA TESt>RIE.K.A 
 
 f0L 
 
PLATE XIIL 
 
 LEON. 
 
 DETAIL FROM A HOUSE IN THE CALLE DE LA 
 
 TESORIERA. 
 
 THIS pretty little keystone, with its acanthus leaf well drawn and 
 freely cut in good cinque-cento style occurs over the Portal 
 of an old house in one of the secondary streets of Leon. The pot 
 of lilies which surmounts it is a pretty little " impresa," quaintly 
 signifying the devotion of the owner of the house to the especial 
 object of every good Spaniard's worship, the most holy Virgin " sin 
 pecado concebida." The S shaped irons, which appear on the right 
 and left of the pot of lilies, serve to help to support the light balcony, 
 which generally occurs over entrance doors of minor importance in 
 Spain, and which often serves as a small open air addition to the 
 common sitting-room, in which the women of the house do much of 
 the usual needle work, spinning, &c. 
 
^^i 
 
 iSfeMffMmllMw ' ! 
 
PLATE XIV. 
 
 SALAMANCA. 
 
 EXTERIOR OF THE CASA DE LAS CONCHAS. 
 
 THIS is, upon the whole, the most complete house I met with of its 
 period, answering in Art, and nearly in point of time, to the 
 florid Burgundian style of the Low Countries, with which there was 
 much intercourse at the probable date of its construction — the close of the 
 fifteenth century. It stands almost opposite the great Church of the 
 Gesuitas, some of the columns of an unfinished porch or portico of 
 which may be seen upon the left hand side of the sketch. No doubt 
 this fine mansion does not possess its original roofing, as testified by 
 the comparatively modern windows of a portion of the top storey, 
 but with that exception it is fairly complete, both externally 
 and internally. 
 
 The little projections on the masonry looking like nail heads are, 
 really, as will be seen by the details given in Plates 17 and 19, 
 representations of shells, the heraldic badge of the owner of the house 
 from which, rather than from his name, the cognomen by which the 
 house is known, has been derived. It is difficult now to divine in what 
 way the top storey was originally constructed, but judging by analogy,- 
 with what was usual in such houses elsewhere in Spain at the time, 
 
3 s EXTERIOR OF THE CASA DE LAS CONCHAS. 
 
 it appears probable that it may have consisted of a light open arcading, 
 serving as a " look out" — " mirador" — and place for exercising for the 
 ladies of the household, at times when the streets may have been 
 neither safe nor agreeable. 
 

 V 
 
PLATE XV. 
 
 SALAMANCA. 
 
 PATIO OF THE CASA DE LAS CONCHAS. 
 
 THE Patio of this house is yet more perfect than its facade, and, 
 a rare circumstance in Spain, I found it both clean and well 
 kept. It is not upon a large scale, and did not, perhaps, look, the 
 less elegant on that account. The upper arcade produces a far better 
 effect than the lower, since in the latter the principle of the arch seems 
 fantastically and heedlessly lost sight of. With the exception in the 
 upper arcade of the way in which the wreaths and escutcheons are 
 placed, as though to conceal a confusion in the lines of the archivolt, 
 which the architect (or mason) did not seem quite to know how 
 to bring together comfortably over the capitals, the whole effect is 
 quiet and pretty. The open work parapet at the top is the only 
 motif in the design which appears to be borrowed from the architecture 
 of the Moors. 
 

 ■ a 
 
PLATE XVI. 
 
 SALAMANCA. 
 
 STAIRCASE OF THE CASA DE LAS CONCHAS. 
 
 ON the side of the Patio, opposite to the entrance, occurs the 
 archway through the wall which forms the back of the 
 arcade on that side of the Court, and beyond which is seen the staircase 
 which connects the upper and lower arcades. From its masonry 
 bonded in with the enclosing walls, it assumes even, while simple in 
 design, a thoroughly architectural character, while the depth of shade, 
 which almost invariably covers the back wall and parts of the side 
 wall, serve to throw the lower part of the staircase into brilliant 
 relief. The graceful and gay figures whic h, in the c haracteristic 
 costume of ^hc otw from time to time •£» up or down the staircase, 
 or linger upon it in groups chatting or smoking, or flirting, make 
 up occasional pictures^ wluiU am not rapidly .effaced from the 
 i's memory. 
 
 37 C a u/ 
 
 (X^77i>i-^d / 
 
L/fcS^corJc H^t> '■• 
 
 
PLATE XVII. 
 
 SALAMANCA. 
 
 WINDOW FROM THE CASA DE LAS CONCHAS. 
 
 ONE of the most agreeable features in the design of the Casa de 
 las Conchas, is the variety of detail of the different windows 
 throughout the house. On the sketch under consideration, and in 
 the two which follow it, evidence is afforded of the burning of < 
 " lamp of life," as Mr. Ruskin would call it. They are all of them' 
 conceived in a transitional and composite but very picturesque style, 
 and however different or possibly antagonistic the details of each 
 window may appear amongst themselves, as a whole they agree and 
 look exceedingly well. 
 
 This window occurs on the first floor of the facade, and possesses 
 an additional interest from showing us pretty clearly what kind of 
 windows may have been superseded in a similar situation by the 
 Italian windows so much to be regretted in the fine Palace of the 
 Duques del Infantado at Guadalajara. See Plate 78. 
 
JW£ 
 
PLATE XVIII, 
 
 WINDOW IN THE PATIO OF THE CASA DE LAS 
 
 CONCHAS. 
 
 THIS window with its heavy ironwork, gives light through the 
 back wall of the arcading of the Patio to a passage running 
 behind a room, which derives its light from the external wall of the 
 house. Such passages occur not unfrequently in Spanish houses, and 
 are convenient, as they serve to bring three rooms into a suite without 
 the necessity of having to pass through any one room to get to 
 another. Of course of the three rooms two may be of the full 
 width, extending from the external wall of the house to the back 
 wall of the arcading of the Patio, and one of that width less the width 
 of the passage, into which the three doors open, and which is lighte 
 by a window from the Patio* such as that sketched As the 
 Patio is a comparatively public part of the house, such windows 
 require, and usually have, the strong close iron work, which gives 
 security and a certain amount of privacy to j the external windows of 
 the ground-floor of the house. f^ — foXxLJ 
 
 

 
 
 ft 
 
 - CON O* A*. vA" '*/' ' 1 ^ ==s 
 
PLATE XIX. 
 
 SALAMANCA. 
 
 EXTERNAL WINDOW OF THE CASA DE LAS CONCHAS. 
 
 HE windows of the first-floors of Spanish houses -are always the/1 ^ 
 largest, airiest, and openest, of the wholej excepting in the 
 rare cases where there is a top story consisting or a large gallery, as 
 frequently at Genoa, serving for promenade and look, out — in fact 
 a species of Belvedere. The importance of the rooms lighted is 
 generally indicated by the relative richness of the window dressings. 
 The profusion with which heraldic insignia are used in the window 
 sketched, suffices, therefore, to show that with others of the same 
 kind it lighted the principal saloons of the house. Another point of 
 construction illustrated by the sketch, is the fact that the " conchas " 
 or carved stone shells have been applied after the general building 
 of the wall. This is proved by the regularity with which they are 
 placed, irrespective of the heights of the various courses of masonry, 
 and of the levels at which the joints occur. 
 
PLATE XX. 
 
 SALAMANCA. 
 
 EXTERIOR OF THE CASA MONTEREY. 
 
 OF the very picturesque specimen of domestic architecture illustrated 
 in Plate 20, and bearing the local name of the Casa de 
 Monterey, but little seems to be known. Escosura confesses himself 
 reduced to conjecture, and thus theorises on the subject. As to the exact 
 epoch at which the Casa de Monterey was built, the following 
 circumstances should be borne in mind. " The title of Conde de 
 Monterey was created in favour of Don Baltasar de Zuhiga, who 
 was Viceroy of Naples in the year 1626. This nobleman caused the 
 Church of the Convent of Nuns which bore his name, and which stands 
 opposite his palace, to be erected at his expense from the designs of 
 the fashionable Italian architect, Fontana. May it be unreasonable to 
 suppose that the Palace was designed at the same time by the same 
 architect ?" 
 
 To this question, the proper answer given by some better judge 
 of architectural style would (be " very," since it is difficult to perceive 
 any similarity between the modes of design, upon which the two bu' 1 '' 
 are based. The architecture of the Church of the Cc 
 ■angle of which appears on the left hand of the sketch 
 
44 EXTERIOR OF THE CASA MONTEREY. 
 
 florid manner of the post-Palladian Italians, while that of the Palace 
 is small in its ornamental parts, and instead of exhibiting Italian 
 features, seems throughout to show the peculiar reading of Italian 
 style adopted by the late Plateresque Spanish architects of the second 
 half of the sixteenth century. This is particularly noticeable in the 
 absence of a crowning balustrade, and in the substitution for it of 
 the elaborate pierced cresting which apparently the Spanish architects 
 adopted from Moorish rather than from any antique models. 
 
 The interior of this grand looking palace is said to have been all 
 but destroyed by the French. 
 
OPPOSITE • &AK-ft,ENtTO-" 
 
PLATE XXL 
 
 SALAMANCA. 
 
 RENAISSANCE HOUSE OPPOSITE SAN BENITO. 
 
 IN every ancient city the largest and most costly building ever 
 erected in it is usually the most enduring. The causes of this 
 are various — for instance, the construction in itself may have been 
 the most solid, the citizens may have taken such pride in it as to 
 bestow unusual pains upon its conservation, they may have retained 
 it for uses for which it may have become totally unfit (as is the case with 
 the majority of ancient Ecclesiastical buildings in Protestant countries), 
 rather than face the expense of re-erecting appropriate buildings, or 
 it may still be well suited for present purposes. Hence cathedrals, 
 churches, palaces, (rarely castles, owing to the combative propensities of 
 their owners), hospitals, great residences of ancient families, and in 
 Catholic countries, convents and monasteries, of almost all periods, may 
 remain to attest the changes of architectural style, &c. ; but the 
 ordinary residences of the middle classes, and of the numerous secondary 
 nobility, get swept away by the tides of history, or are so altered by them 
 as to leave scarcely any satisfactory land-marks to indicate what once 
 gave its predominant character to the streets of many an ancient city. 
 Such changes are effected almost equally by progress and by decay. 
 
 
 
 
4 5 RENAISSANCE HOUSE OPPOSITE SAX BEXITO. 
 
 By the former, all minor monuments become obliterated or transformed, 
 — they represent in fact old age, pushed aside to make way for 
 youth — while by the latter they descend in the social scale until 
 beggars break up what nobles once built up. How constantly 
 the traveller meets with some splendid old cathedral still " hale 
 id hearty," with the weight of half-a-dozen or more centuries 
 pon its head, around which he knows were once grouped/ 
 
 upon its head, around which he knows were once grouped /\ /" 
 / teeming population^ full of strength, life, and wealth, of which 
 ' not a w indication may be left extending backwards for more 
 " an a hundred years from the present date ? Any exceptions to such 
 illustrations of the way in which fortune turns her wheel become the 
 especially cherished haunts of the antiquary, who knows that from 
 day to day they become rarer, and consequently more precious. Hence 
 the enthusiasm with which the neglected quarters of every old town 
 arc visited in the hope of meeting with some relics of what may 
 therein at least appear, " remains of an extinct civilization." Some 
 such reward I met with in encountering, amidst much dirt and 
 apparent poverty in the quarter of San Benito, in Salamanca, the 
 pretty facades of old Renaissance houses which form the subjects of 
 this sketch and of the one which succeeds it. 
 
DRU-A&UILA- 
 
PLATE XXII. 
 
 SALAMANCA. 
 
 RENAISSANCE HOUSE IN THE CALLE DEL AGUILA. 
 
 THE Renaissance house now presented to the reader, although 
 richer in its ornaments, is not as complete as the one given 
 m the preceding sketch, having apparently lost its original roof 
 
 f 
 
 Instead of the overhanging eaves casting a constantly cool shade over 
 the open balustrading, through which light and air still pass to " a 
 chamber that's next to the sky ;" in this case nothing is probably 
 left over the principal apartment, the window of which richly decorated 
 with heraldry and arabesque is shown over the strong doorway with 
 its deep flat arch, excepting a dark and scarcely habitable attic. I 
 think it very likely that the wreath, coat of arms, and boys, which 
 still occupy their original position over the principal window, once 
 supported the sill of a superior window, and that the house which 
 now appears to have two stories only, had once at least as many 
 as three. 
 
 Such houses as these of the ancient nobility, of which I could 
 find only two or three, must once have been common enough in the 
 fashionable city of Gil Bias, whos« university innili rfiijj. seven thousand 
 students, and itp> eighty professors, with salaries of one thousand 
 
 tv-AjC^ 7Zk_ 
 
 -U2_ 
 
48 
 
 RENAISSANCE HOUSE IN THE CALLE DEL AGUILA. 
 
 — 
 
 crowns each, a bountiful payment in those days for the exercise of 
 the noblest talents, and swarms of assistants and " Pretendientes " on 
 half-pay and unattached.* 
 
 * See Colmenar's description of the condition of the University in 171 5. 
 
A VILA 
 
 ENTRANCE 
 
 C A S A 
 
PLATE XXIII. 
 
 AVILA. 
 
 ENTRANCE GATEWAY OF THE CASA POLENTINA. 
 
 THE Portal which forms the subject of my twenty-third sketch 
 serves as the entrance to the dilapidated old mansion of the 
 Condes de Polentinos at Avila, a view of the remains of the Patio of 
 which will be found on turning over this page. The architectural 
 characteristics of this striking gateway are certainly very singular. 
 On catching a gl**e» of it from a distance, and seizing the aspect 
 only of its ponderous masonry and deep machicolations, I fully 
 believed I was coming upon an old bit of castellated construction of 
 the fourteenth or fifteenth century at latest. On nearer inspection, 
 however, I found out my mistake, and arrived at the conclusion 
 that the Senor Conde, late in the sixteenth century, who had 
 caused the whole structure to be built, had probably charged his 
 architect, either to preserve the general form of some much earlier 
 portal of the old house, which he may have caused to be pulled down, 
 or to imitate the general aspect of some other aristocratic portal of 
 early date, which the Count may have admired elsewhere. Different 
 as the corbelling, &c, looks to the gateway, and the window over 
 it, I found that ornamental detail of a similar nature to, but somewhat 
 
50 ENTRANCE GATEWAY OF THE CASA POLENTINA. 
 
 coarser style than that of the door and window dressings was worked 
 over most of the corbelling, and part of the upper gal lery c arried by 
 the corbels, but apparently by a provincial hand. The stone work 
 of the door and window had probably been left in the rough for awhile, 
 possibly for some fifty years, and then its carving entrusted to some 
 superior artist, working according to the latest lights of the fashion of 
 the close of the sixteenth century. Although the style of all this 
 carving is plateresque, there are many indications about it of an 
 inclination to Greco-Roman work. For instance, the griffins, the lions' 
 heads of antique type, and the arms and armour arranged as trophies, 
 all indicate acquaintance with the prevalent materials of Italian arabesque 
 design of late Cinque Cento style. Indeed, the very form and fluting 
 of the corselets, brasses, vambrasses, and cuisses, would indicate that 
 armour of a date posterior to the middle of the sixteenth century 
 had been adopted as types for the making up of the trophies. 
 
PLATE XXIV. 
 
 AVILA. 
 
 THE PATIO OF THE CASA POLENTINA. 
 
 NEXT to the general feeling of interest excited by the 
 picturesque aspect of decayed architectural grandeur, which 
 is presented by the remains of this dilapidated Patio, rises a feeling 
 of curiosity as to the mode and manner of life of those whose 
 wants such costly building subserved. Privacy and coolness appear 
 to have been the chief desiderata, and those architectural ornaments 
 seem to have been preferred, which recall, at almost every step, the 
 hereditary dignities of the family tree. Madame d'Aulnois, whose 
 Letters from Spain, written in i679fgivethe liveliest possible picture of 
 life in those days in the Peninsula, gratifies our curiosity in the most 
 .agreeable manner, and with that quickness of perception, as to domestic 
 habits, by means of which, none but a woman can seize at a glance, 
 the telling details essential to give completeness and reality to a sketch. 
 Speaking of the Spaniards of the upper and middle classes of the 
 seventeenth century she says : — " All their houses have a great many 
 rooms on a floor ; you go through a dozen or fifteen parlours, or 
 chambers, one after another. Those which are the worst lodged have 
 
 * London 1771, Vol. II., page X4. 
 
 fr 
 
52 THE PATIO OF THE CAS A POLENTINA. 
 
 six or seven. The rooms are generally longer than they are broad. 
 The floors and ceilings are neither painted nor gilt ; they are made of 
 plaister quite plain, but so white that they dazzle one's eyes ; for ever] 
 year they are scraped, and whited as the walls, which look like marble, 
 they are so well polished. The Court to their summer apartments is 
 made of certain matter, which, after it has ten pails of water thrown 
 upon it, yet is dry in half-an-hour, and leaves a pleasant coolness; so th..t 
 in the morning they water all, and a little while after they spread mats 
 or carpets made of fine rushes, which cover all the pavement. The 
 whole apartments are hung with the same small mat about the depth 
 of an ell, to hinder the coolness of the walls from hurting those which 
 lean against them. On the top of these mats there are hung pictures 
 and looking-glasses. The cushions, which are of gold and silver 
 brocade, are placed upon the carpet ; and the tables and cabinets are 
 very fine ; and at little distances there are set silver cases or boxes, 
 filled with orange and jessamine trees. In their windows they set 
 things made of straw, to keep the sun out ; and in the evenings they 
 work in their gardens. There are several houses which have very 
 fine ones, where you see grotto's and fountains in abundance." 
 

 
PLATE XXV. 
 AVILA. 
 
 IRON PULPIT IN THE CATHEDRAL. 
 
 MR. STREET'S illustrations and description of all that is left 
 of the old glories of Avila, previous to the epoch of the 
 Renaissance, are so complete, that I can feel no compunction in having 
 gleaned only from this delightful old city two specimens of the ability of 
 the Spanish smiths of the period he repudiates, and two others showing 
 remains of the domestic architecture of the same style. 
 
 Let it not be supposed, however, that it was only the school 
 of the Renaissance which produced masterly iron-work, and even 
 masterly iron pulpits, in Spain. Mr. Street has himself given us a 
 beautiful woodcut of the pulpit in the church of St. Gil, at Burgos. 
 This exhibits no other than Gothic details, while in the pulpit which 
 forms the subject of my twenty-fifth sketch, as will no doubt be 
 observed, Renaissance details are freely intermixed with Gothic ones. 
 The whole, however different in style in different parts, appeared to 
 me to be contemporaneous ; and I, therefore, regard this pulp.t as an 
 interesting example of a transitional style, later of course, than that 
 followed in the pulpit of Saint Gil, which Mr. Street describes as the 
 earliest he saw. In both, the primitive mode of working through 
 
IRON PULPIT IN THE CATHEDRAL. 
 
 superposed) thin platesjto form tracery has been adhered to, and the 
 whole of the ironwork has been applied to a wooden framework. I 
 regard the pulpit at Burgos as likely to have been executed early in 
 the fifteenth century, and the one now under consideration as of the 
 close of the same century ; and both may, I think, have been produced 
 under the influence of the masters from Cologne, who did such 
 wonders, and set so many fashions, in Burgos and its vicinity, of ctm r9e f 
 especially at Miraflores. 
 
 D 
 
PLATE XXVI. 
 AVILA. 
 
 IRON PULPIT IN THE CATHEDRAL. 
 
 N method of manufacture no less than in style of design this pulpit, 
 which forms a pendant to the one last given just outside the 
 choir of Avila Cathedral, offers a contrast to its predecessor. We no 
 longer meet with a superposition of perforated plates, but the operations 
 of beating and chasing, and, indeed, cutting the metal with chisels, files 
 and hammers ; working in fact as the Italians term it " a massiccio." 
 The basis of the design is no longer Gothic, but strictly of the regular 
 Spanish Plateresque Renaissance with balustrade columns, figures in 
 niches, and Arabesques imitated from the Italians. From all these 
 details, we may fairly be justified in ascribing this work to about the 
 middle of the sixteenth century. 
 
 The method of working this pulpit is no longer that of the simple 
 smith, but really corresponds much more closely with that of the 
 armourer which reached its zenith about this period. There can be no 
 doubt that the Spaniards gained much of their well-known skill in 
 the manipulation of iron and steel from the Moors, who had themselves 
 obtained knowledge from Damascus, and perhaps even improved upon the 
 knowledge they had derived from that source. From the times of the 
 
5* 
 
 IRON PULPIT IN THE CATHEDRAL. 
 
 Carthaginians and Romans, the Celt-Iberian mines had be?n known as 
 amongst the richest existing sources, from which iron could be procured. 
 Many fragments of "finely wrought iron work, of the middle ages, still 
 exist in Spain ; but for the most part in very fragmentary condition.* 
 From the end of the fifteenth century, however, in the Rejas, great 
 sea^s anc 1 -«■« screens, (such as that seen at the back of the pulpit in my 
 sketch) of the churches and cathedrals, and especially in the arms and 
 armour of Moorish and Christian Caballeros^as attested by many 
 splendid specimens in the Real Armeria of MtdridJ perfect 
 examples are to be met with of the skill of Spanish artificers in dealing 
 with all the metallurgical processes by which iron and steel can be made 
 to assume forms of grace and beauty. Charles V., Philip II., and Don 
 Juan of Austria, were boundless in their extravagance in the encourage- 
 ment of the best armourers, not of Toledo and Valladolid only, but 
 of Milan and Augsburg as well. There can be no doubt that the 
 models of beauty bought by these Sovereigns from artists in iron and 
 steel, such as the Negroli and Piccinini, tended to develope that 
 perfection of workmanship, which was attained in Spain in the reign 
 of Philip III. The pains-taking editors of the Catalogue of the Madrid 
 Armoury cite/ Pamplona as at the head of the trade at the close of the 
 sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries, and name as the 
 chief rivals to Pamplona of the cities of Spain, in the manufacture of 
 splendid arms and armour, Tolosa, Barcelona, and Calatayud.* 
 
 * There is much in this very town of Avila in the beautiful old church of San Vicente, 
 t Catalogo de la Real Armeria— siendo Director General, &C. — el S. D. Jose' Maria Marches! 
 ■ — Madrid, 184.9, pages 188-89. 
 
 c 
 
 J 
 
 I 
 
PLATE XXVII 
 
 E SCO RIAL. 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF THE ESCORIAL. 
 
 IN all Spain I saw nothing which so ill-agreed with my preconceptions 
 as the Escorial. As for beauty, I could find none whatever in 
 it. The building appeared to me thoroughly unsatisfactory alike as 
 church, palace, or monastery. Still, to omit it altogether from any 
 series of Spanish sketches with pen or pencil, would be to leave out 
 the Monument which reflects, probably, more perfectly than any other 
 in the Peninsula, the mixture of arrogant extravagance, and arid 
 ascetism, which characterized its most potent rulers in the plenitude of 
 their historical importance. In it, in my opinion, Herrera proved 
 himself an architect thoroughly worthy of the masters who employed 
 him, formal, pedantic, cold, extravagant to a degree, and yet mean. 
 That the building contains many most interesting works of art, is as 
 true, as that a visit to it should on no account be omitted by any one 
 who would at all attempt to realize what the Spanish Court may have 
 been in the days of Philip II. ; but, after all, I am bound to confess that 
 what most pleased me in the vast edifice, with the exception of some few 
 pictures and illuminated books, was the work of Italians and not of 
 Spaniards, viz., the marble crucifix of Benvenuto Cellini, the magnificent 
 
58 GENERAL VIEW OE THE ESCORIAL. 
 
 gilt bronze statues of the Kings and Queens of Spain in the Church, 
 by Pompeio Leoni, and the decorations of the Library, principally by 
 Pelegrino Tibaldi. To such a judgment may be objected that the 
 structure now is not what it was, let us see what an acute observer says 
 of it, writing late in the seventeenth century : — 
 
 " A while after we went to the Escurial, which to give it no less 
 than its due, may in Spain pass for an admirable structure, but where 
 building is understood, would not be looked on as very extraordinary. 
 In a general consideration, it seems a mass of stone of great perfection ; 
 but going to particulars, scarce any of them but falls very short of 
 the magnificence imagined, and that so much, that if Philip the Second, 
 who built it, and was called the Solomon of his age, did no more 
 resemble that wise king then this edifice does his Temple, to which it 
 is often compared, the copy comes very short of the original ; jri the 
 meantime to stretch the comparison they please themselves in saying, 
 that Charles the Fifth, like another David, only designed his holy work, 
 which (being a man of war and blood) God reserved for his son. 
 Ignorant strangers are entertained with this tale, but such as are versed 
 in history tell us, that after the battle of St. Ouentin, Philip the Second 
 made two vows, one never to go in person to the wars, the other to build 
 this cloyster for the Order of St. Jerome instead of that which had 
 been burnt, it cost him near six millions of gold, though out of 
 consideration of parsimony and convenience of bringing stone, he made 
 choice of the worst situation in nature, for it is at the foot of a barren 
 mountain, and hard by a wretched village called Escurial, that can hardly 
 lodge a man of any fashion ; this may seem very strange to those that 
 know the Court is there twice in a year : the place it stands on is, by 
 transcendence, called the Scat, because it was levelled in order to build on. 
 
GENERAL VIEW OF THE ESCORIAL. 59 
 
 " The fabrick is very fair, with four towers at the four corners, but 
 coming to it, one knows not which way to enter, for as soon as out 
 of the great walk, in a kind of Piazza, you see only little doors, which, 
 when you are over it, lead into two pavilions, that contain offices and 
 lodgings for some of the Court ; when you have well viewed this side 
 of the square, you come to that which is towards the mountain, where 
 there is a very large magnificent portal, on each side beautify 'd with 
 pillars ; by this stately gate you enter a quadrangle, where right over 
 against it stands the Church, ascended to it by a stair of five or six 
 steps, as long as the Court is large, extending from one side of it to 
 the other, very fair columnes support the porch, and on the top of the 
 wall stand six statues, the middlemost of which are David and Solomon, 
 by whom thev would represent Charles the Fifth, and Philip the 
 Second. About the church are many pavillions, all comprehended in 
 the exact square which environs that building. Report mentions 
 many Bascourts, but we could not reckon above seven or eight. 
 That this is a very fair cloyster for Friers cannot be denied, neither 
 can it be allowed to be a pallace magnificent enough for such a monarch 
 as Philip the Second, who having built it in one- and-twenty years, 
 and enjoyed it twelve or thirteen, boasted, that from the foot of a 
 mountain and his closet, with two inches of paper, he made himself 
 obeyed in the Old and New World. 
 
 " The King and Queen's apartments have nothing in them that 
 appears roial, they are altogether unfurnished, and they say, when the 
 King goes to any of his houses of pleasure, they remove all to the very 
 bedsteads ; the rooms are little and low ; the roofs not beautiful enough 
 to invite the eyes to look up to them ; its many pictures of excellent 
 masters, and especially of Titian, that wrought a great while there, 
 
60 GENERAL VIEW OF THE ESCORIAL. 
 
 are very much vaunted, yet there are not so many as report gives out. 
 The Spaniards have so little understanding of pictures, they are alike 
 taken with all, and the Marquis Serragenovese, that accompanied us, 
 sufficiently laughed at the foolishness of a Castillian, who, willing to 
 have us admire the slightest and wretchedest landskipes of a gallery 
 where we were, told us nothing could equalize them, because in a 
 place where their King sometimes walked. There are yet in the vestry 
 some good pieces, especially a Christ, and Mary Magdalen ; and in 
 the Church others very estimable. For paintings in fresco, the quire, 
 done by Titian, is doubtlessly an excellent work, and so is the library, 
 I think by the same hand, where amongst the rest is represented the 
 ancient Roman manner of defending criminals, who stand by bound 
 hand and foot ; Cicero is also there pleading for Milo, or some other, 
 I not being sufficiently acquainted with his meen, to be positive, and 
 without apprehension of mistaking ; this library is truly very 
 considerable, as well for its length, breadth, height, and light ; the 
 pictures and marble tables that stand in the midst of it, as for its 
 quantity of choice and rare books, if we may believe the monks ; they 
 are certainly very well bound and guilded, and if I mistake not, but 
 seldom read. In the vestry, they show priests' copes, where embroidery 
 and pearl with emulation contend whether art or matter renders them 
 more rich and sumptuous ; they showed us a cross of very fair pearl, 
 diamonds, and emeralds ; it is a very pretty knack, and would not 
 become less such if it changed countreys, I would willingly have 
 undertaken for it if they would have suffered it to pass the Pyreneans, 
 had it been only to show my friends a hundred thousand crowns in 
 a nut-shell. The library I have spoken of, the high altar and 
 monument of their kings, which they call Pantheon (though I know 
 
GENERAL VIEW OF THE ESCORIAL. 61 
 
 not why, unless because a single round arch like the Pantheon at 
 Rome), are certainly the best pieces of this magnificent fabrick. The 
 high altar is approached by steps of red marble, and invironed by 
 sixteen pillars of jasper, which reach the top of the quire, and cost 
 only a matter of fifty or sixty thousand crowns cutting, between these 
 are niches with statues of guilded brass, and so there are on the side 
 of the tables and praying places. The Pantheon is under the altar, 
 and descended by stairs, though narrow, very light ; at the entrance 
 of this rich chappel, a marble shines, whose lustre is heightened 
 by reflexion of the gold, with which all the iron-work and part of 
 that fair stone are overlaid. In the middle of it, and right against 
 the altar, is a fair candlestick of brass, gilded, and in six several niches, 
 twenty-four sepulchres of black marble to receive as many bodies ; 
 above the gate are two more. This stately monument is small, but 
 sumptuous, it was finished by the present King, who, about six months 
 since placed there the bodies of Charles the Fifth, Philip the Second, and 
 Philip the Third. The first was most intire ; in the niches, on the left, 
 lie the Queens, and the last of them Oueen Elizabeth of Burbon. He 
 that preached the day that these seven tombs or sepulchres had bodies 
 laid in them, began by his apprehension to speak in presence of so 
 many kings who had conquered the world, and expressed himself so 
 well, and so highly pleased the King that he got a yearly pension of 
 a thousand crowns. Nothing attaining such perfection as to secure 
 it from the teeth of criticks, the three pieces I have now mentioned, 
 have been attacqued by them. It is objected against the- Library, that 
 its entrance suits not with its magnificence and grandeur, and that it 
 stands as if stoln in, and not of the same piece with the rest. 
 
 " Over against the great altar, where all is so well proportioned, 
 
62 GENERAL VIEW OF THE ESCORIAL. 
 
 they wish away a silver lamp, whose size corresponds not with that 
 of the place it burns in, which is vast and large. In the Pantheon 
 they find great fault, that all the steps by which it is descended are 
 not marble, and that the sides of the walls are not incrusted with it, 
 the chappel being all so, and a like magnificence requisite everywhere. 
 In the brazen candlestick, the inner part which is not guilded is 
 discerned amongst the black and foul branches that extend from it. 
 It cost ten thousand crowns, which is ten times more than it is worth ; 
 but it is common in this country to boast things of excessive price, 
 which they would have admired on that account, as if because they 
 are foolish merchants, the ware they buy too dear, were therefore the 
 more valuable. These are my observations of the so famous Escurial, 
 adorned only by some small parterras and fountains ; one side of it 
 affords a handsome prospect, but the ground near it is the greatest 
 part rock or heath, some walks and groves are planted about it, but 
 being cold and windy, trees thrive not. There are some deer in a 
 kind of park, ill-designed, and with very low walls, the way to it is 
 nothing pleasant, and the King who goes thither thrice every year, one 
 of which times is in the winter, cannot certainly find any great 
 diversion in those journeys, for during three months all is covered 
 with snow." 
 
 Nothing need be added, I think, to so graphic a " boutade " as 
 this, which, though somewhat satirical, would not appear to have 
 been much too highly coloured for the occasion. 
 
PLATE XXVIII. 
 
 SEGOVIA. 
 
 GATEWAY IN THE CITY WALLS. 
 
 THERE is probably no city in all Spain, and few perhaps in any 
 part of the world, in which within a similar compass, so many 
 good, although fragmentary, materials could be found for illustrating 
 styles and inflections of style in building, from the days of the Romans 
 through those of the Moors and Christians, up to the period of the 
 Renaissance, than Segovia. Of this last named period, two of the 
 greatest masters, Gil de Ontanon and his son Rodrigo, have nobly 
 left their mark in the splendid Cathedral, a worthy rival to that of 
 Salamanca, also executed from the designs, and under the personal 
 superintendence of the elder of the two Ontahones. The city, probably, 
 owes these varied monuments to its merits, as a strong, as well as a 
 beautiful position. Under these circumstances, it is not to be wondered 
 at that its old walls should offer many features of interest as well as 
 picturesqueness. In fact, to the educated eye, the former is almost a 
 necessary ingredient to making up the latter. As I wended my way 
 upwards, therefore, from the railway station to the town, through 
 this gateway, about which I caught indications here of one style, and 
 there of another, Roman, Moor, and Christian doing here a jot and 
 
64 GATEWAY IN THE CITY WALLS. 
 
 there a little, that I should linger on my way for awhile; partly, 
 perhaps, to cool myself, and partly to make the little sketch I present 
 herewith to my readers. 
 
 I need, perhaps, only add that the rough but effective cornice of 
 the gateway is made up from its top to its bottom by different combi- 
 nations of common tiles, and that its little enriched frieze is a specimen 
 of the clever stucco-work, probably executed by workmen of Moorish 
 descent in Renaissance times. The whole, even to the painting of the 
 Virgin, is roughly executed, but is not the less graceful, perhaps, from 
 the apparent absence of all effort. An aspect of spontaneity in works 
 of art has its own particular charm, as has the semblance of the 
 most careful solicitude under appropriate circumstances. The true 
 artist, heedful of his " when " and " how," is master of both 
 moods. 
 
tj 1 & ■ 
 
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c plat/ xxi/ . X ^ 
 
 SEGOVIA. 
 
 ARCHWAY IN THE HALL OF THE KINGS. 
 
 DON Juan Alvarez de Colmenar* writing at the commencement 
 of the eighteenth century gives the following description 
 of the Royal Palace at Segovia — 
 
 "The Alcazar," he says, "is situated on a mountain in the 
 highest part of the city. It is entirely covered with lead ; the access to 
 it being by means of a staircase cut in the rock. There is always 
 -a sentinel in the towers, and on a platform may be seen many 
 •cannons of which the greater number are pointed against the city, 
 and the residue towards the faubourg and country. It contains 
 sixteen richly tapestried chambers one of which has a fireplace of 
 porphyry. Thence a descent may be made to another platform 
 smaller than the first mentioned also furnished with cannon. From 
 this, access is obtained to a small chamber with gilt dado, marble 
 fireplace, and walls covered with mirrors up to the ceiling. Near this 
 room is the Royal Chapel splendidly gilt and decorated with very 
 fine pictures, amongst which that of the Magi is of the highest 
 beauty. Issuing from the chapel is a magnificent hall gilt from 
 
 * Lts Delices de l'Espagne et du Portugal— Leide chez Pierre van der Aa, no6 r 
 
66 ARCHWAY IN THE HALL OF THE KINGS. 
 
 top to bottom. It is called the Sala de los Reyes, " (literary the 
 Hall of the Kings,) " because therein are all the Kings of Spain 
 from Pelayo to Jane, mother of the Emperors Charles V. and 
 Ferdinand. They are represented seated on thrones under canopies 
 so artistically worked that they look like agates. There is another 
 hall lined with glasses of the height of three feet with marble 
 seats and ceilings gilt with pure gold. All these halls are differently 
 ornamented, and with the exception of the gilding there is not one 
 like the others. The river which surrounds the chateau forms 
 its moat."* 
 
 I have preferred quoting this old description to giving 
 one of the present aspect of this once splendid palace, since 
 of all its magnificence nothing is now left but its massive 
 walls covered here and there with the elegant stucco-work some of 
 which is given in my sketches, and its commanding and noble 
 position which is one of very great natural strength. Here it was 
 that the Moors, who never failed to fortify such spots, reared the 
 great central tower around which, after its capture by the Christians, 
 the Spanish sovereigns built the palace which contained the majority 
 of the apartments described by Colmenares, employing the sub- 
 jugated Moorish artificers for many of the original decorations. In 
 141 2, a splendid hall called, from its celebrated ceiling, the Sala 
 del Arteson, was completed, as testified by an inscription to that 
 effect given at length by Cean Bermudez.f Other inscriptions mark 
 the work executed by the king, Henry IV. in 1452, 1456, and 1458, 
 
 * See the true and topographical views given in the above work, and the artistic and 
 considerably embellished one by David Roberts in Jennings' Landscape Annual for 1837. 
 f " Documentos," Vol. I. of the " Not'cias" Appendix No. xxxviu. 
 
ARCHWAY IN THE HALL OF THE KINGS. 67 
 
 who resided in it amidst his treasures, and the glorious spoils taken 
 in what one inscription designates "la guerra de los Moros." 
 Here dwelt Isabella la Catolica, and at a later date Charles V. 
 The decorations described by Colmenares were probably for the 
 most part those executed by command of Philip II., the elegant stucco 
 work given in the sketch (No. 29) being clearly of the time of 
 Henry IV. Here lodged our Charles I. in 1623. The wretched 
 Philip V. with congenial propriety converted it into a prison, 
 justifying Le Sage's amusing sketch of the committal to it of Gil Bias. 
 Many of the Algerine and Barbary pirates taken by the Spanish 
 men-of-war were here confined. At length it was converted into 
 an academy for artillery cadets, and made a miserable sort of 
 Woolwich. Decorations were torn down, old windows blocked up, 
 and new ones made in the most barbarous style. Stoves were placed 
 in most dangerous situations, until as a natural consequence a fire 
 broke out, and the " coup de grace " was given to the glories of 
 this palatial fortress, which is now alike useless for royal, military, 
 or civic purposes. 
 
PLATE XXX. 
 
 SEGOVIA. 
 
 DETAIL FROM THE ALCAZAR. 
 
 IN describing the last sketch (No. 29), some particulars were given 
 of the building from which both that and this (No. 30) were 
 taken. It may be well to note now the peculiar style of design illustrated 
 by both. This style is what is technically known in Spain as 
 " Mudejar," i.e., neither Gothic nor Moorish strictly, but a compound 
 of both. The date of these particular specimens happens to be well 
 fixed by the inscriptions to which allusion has been recently made, and 
 of one of which a portion is shown in the sketch (No. 30), as running 
 horizontally between two string courses on each side of the small 
 quasi-rose windows. This " Mudejar " work was certainly executed 
 between the years 1452 and 1458, in the reign of Enrique IV., King 
 of Castille. It was the wise policy of the most sagacious of the 
 Spanish monarchs in their contests with the Moors, to half-shut their 
 eyes to what they could not eradicate, viz., the secret Islamism of the 
 race. They long continued this laudable inclination to tolerate and 
 use the skilful Arabian artificers, under Christian guidance and superin- 
 tendence, in the various localities in which they successively planted the 
 Standard of the Cross, tearing down that of the Crescent. At last the 
 
7 o DETAIL FROM THE ALCAZAR. 
 
 inflation which followed their ultimate conquests under Ferdinand and 
 Isabella, led to the establishment of the pernicious Inquisition, the 
 " teterrima causa " of infinite misery, and the subverter of tolerance 
 and progress throughout the country. From that period gradually 
 disappeared, lingering, as we shall have occasion to observe, much 
 longer in the South than in the North, the skilled artificer, learned in 
 all the technicalities, and the elaborate geometrical principles of the 
 combination of ornamental form, which Arabian genius had engrafted 
 upon the traditions of Ancient Rome, handed down to them through 
 the medium of Byzantium. The very antagonism of creed induced the 
 Moor to avoid polluting his art with types of form or processes 
 borrowed from the Christian, as he would have avoided polluting his 
 faith with Catholic legend or tenets. Hence when he and his became the 
 spoil of the Christian, which, to a great extent, they did, the Christian 
 necessarily inherited no unimportant addition to his repertory of 
 beautiful, fresh, and valuable arts and industries. This precious 
 inheritance was not altogether appreciated by the Spaniards, as it might 
 have been by a people of greater producing energies; but in spite of 
 their comparative ineptitude, they gained greatly by the leaven of 
 Moorish skill and talent ; and as one of the first and best fruits of the 
 gradual conquest and absorption of the race, we may certainly reckon 
 the leading features of the " Mudejar " style. 
 
^T\Sr^P 
 
PLATE XXXI. 
 
 SEGOVIA. 
 
 EXTERIOR VIEW OF THE MONASTERY OF. EL PARRAL. 
 
 N Mr. Street's work on " Gothic Architecture on Spain," so justly 
 praised by all who know anything of ancient Spanish Art will be 
 found on Plate VIII a sketch plan, and on pages 185 and 186 a full 
 description of this extensive old Convent, and especially of the Church 
 of the Vera Cruz to which it is attached. I felt, therefore, that my 
 duty to the student would be best fulfilled by simply laying before 
 him a sketch of the exterior to supplement Mr. Street's ground plan, 
 referring the student for all further information to his work. It would 
 have been easy to extract from Cean Bermudez the same historical 
 details ; but it could only have resulted in a thrice told tale. It may 
 suffice to note that the entrance to the Convent may be sought (with 
 much but rarely effectual knocking and ringing) through the curious 
 old porch represented in my sketch on the right hand of the Church, 
 which should be visited in the morning, on account of its beautiful 
 arrangement of lighting, mainly from the East. 
 
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.PLATE XXXII. 
 ALCALA-DE-HEN^RES. 
 
 EXTERIOR OF THE COLEGIO DE SAN ILDEFONSO. 
 
 v 
 
 SUCH a man as Francis Ximenez de Cisneros — the founder of the 
 University at Alcala de Henares — would have been a man 
 amongst men anywhere ; but in Spain, his union of prudence with 
 strength, courage with calmness, learning in the closet with action in 
 the field, humility with aptitude for supreme command, benevolence 
 with the sternest energy, raised him rapidly from poverty and 
 insignificance to the Regency of that country. So aggrandized/ he ruled / / 
 the kingdom for many years, until his death, in 1 517, with far greater 
 wisdom, and more to the benefit of the State, than any Sovereign who 
 has ever sat upon its throne. This is not the place in which to dwell 
 upon his life, intensely interesting as it was, but only to briefly allude 
 to the relics of his greatness as displayed in Alcala de Henares, in which 
 locality he himselF commenced his studies. Protected by Mendoza he 
 became confessor to Isabella in 1492, whomade him Archbishop of 
 Toledo in 1495. Three years afterwards he founded his great 
 University dedicated to Saint Ildefonso ; but which, in honour of his 
 ever famous labour, the compilation of the Complutensian Polyglot,* 
 
 * Printed at Alcala in 1 514-15 in 6 vols, tolio. 
 
74 EXTERIOR OF THE COLLEGIO DE SAN ILDEFONSO. 
 
 bears the distinguished name in Spain of the " Universidad 
 Complutense." 
 
 The building, of which the main block of the facade shown in 
 my sketch, is about one hundred feet long, by about sixty-five feet 
 high, contains no less than three Patios of different styles. It was 
 designed by Pedro Gumiel, and, as originally planned, finished in 1533, 
 by Rodrigo Gil. The whole facade which is of marble, with the exception 
 of the basement of grey granite, was no doubt entirely the work of the 
 last named architect. The structure has been well illustrated, 
 architecturally, in the great government publication — the " Monumenlos 
 Arquitectonicos de Espana" — to which the student may be referred 
 for the details of this immense establishment. About it, in the days of 
 its full prosperity, there were grouped no less than eleven thousand 
 students, and nineteen colleges. Nothing shows, perhaps, more clearly 
 the " high estate " from which the poor Spain of the present day has 
 fallen, than a contrast between the muster rolls of the University of 
 Madrid, of late years, and those of Salamanca, and Alcala, in the 
 Sixteenth Century. 
 
 The visitor to the " Colegio " of Alcala should on no account omit 
 to see the chapel built by Gil de Ontaiion, since within it rests the 
 Wolsey of Spain. Upon a monument of white marble, by the skilful 
 hand of Domenico of Florence, reposes an effigy of Cardinal C'.sneros. 
 A lithograph of this and of the quasi- Mudejar style of the chapel is 
 given in the work of Villa Amil,* and we may well take to heart the 
 concluding sentence of the description of it by Patricio Escosura : — 
 fna prcgunta, y concluimos ; ,; Cuantos monumentos como el que 
 acabamos de ejarninar dejaremos nosotros en herencia a nuestros nietos ?" 
 
 * Espana Artistica y monumental de Villa Amil y Escosura, Vol. I. page Sj. 
 
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 PLiTE XXXIII. 
 
 ^Lf. DE HEN^RES. 
 
 WINDOW OF THE ARZOBISPADO. 
 
 HE Archi-episcopal Palace of Alcala de Henares is a building of 
 many periods and many styles. Founded upon the Old Alcazar, of 
 which vestiges remain, it contains several pretty mediaeval windows, 
 one of which Mr. Street thought not unworthy of his pencil. 
 The late plateresque details of its double Patios arrested my attention, 
 and I was pleased to observe in them a more than usual elegance of 
 moulding, and originality, with propriety of style. On account of 
 their possession of these qualities, their invention and the execution of 
 the medallion-heads and ornaments have been' ascribed to Alpnzo 
 Berraguete, whose studies in Florence have beerTlooked upon as the 
 main agents in purifying the then prevalent tendency to exuberance in 
 Plateresque design to which he might have surrendered himself, but for 
 his opportunities of becoming acquainted with the works of Michael 
 Angelo and other great contemporary masters of Italian Art. If 
 Berruguete had no hand in this work, (and I have been able to find no 
 proof whatever that he had), it lends greater probability to the theory I 
 have ventured to broach in the description of the next sketch, which 
 is taken from another but contemporary part of the same building, 
 
 K 
 
76 WINDOW OF THE ARZ0B1SPAD0. 
 
 Another attribution of the design of these details has been to 
 Alonso de Covarrubias, but I can find no other authority for it than the 
 fact that Ponz considered them to resemble certain windows of the Alcazar 
 at Toledo which were known to have been designed by that master. 
 
PL^TE |XXIV. ^C J 4 
 
 ^LC^LX DE HENVRES. 
 
 DETAIL FROM THE ARYOBISPADO. 
 
 ALTHOUGH commonly described as Plateresque, the architecture 
 of the Patio of the Archbishop's Palace at Alcala de Henares, 
 of which my sketch represents the detail of the upper storey, excites 
 a far more forcible reminiscence of good Cinque-Cento, work. It seems 
 to have been executed no doubt principally, by Spaniards of the sixteenth 
 century, but still to have been founded on pure Italian models. 
 This is particularly shown, as it appeared to me, in the regular form 
 of the bell and volutes of the capitals of the columns with the well 
 drawn and cut acanthus leaves, and the regular eggs and tongues 
 of the cornice. Recognising this, and noticing the correspondence 
 in style between the execution of this work, and that of the 
 architectural parts of the monument to the Great Cardinal alluded 
 to in the description of the last sketch but one, I could not but 
 fancy it possible that the same artist, Domenico of Florence, who is 
 allowed to have produced that monument, may, after its completion, 
 have been retained to work upon the Patios of the Archi-episcopal 
 Palace; and possibly ajso upon some portions of the facade of the 
 University which was not as we know set in hand until some time 
 after the Cardinal's death. 
 

 cs 
 
ay PLy(TE 35- 
 
 TOLEDO. 
 
 VIEW OF THE REMAINS OF A MOORISH FORTRESS 
 
 ON THE RIVER. 
 
 HE situation of Toledo is most romantic, and presents as many 
 charms as the site for a commanding city, from its beauty to the 
 architect, as no doubt it offered from, its great natural strength, to the 
 " man of war" who naturally regarded it as an almost heaven-born fortress. 
 It owes much, both of its beauty and its strength, to the clear and abundant 
 current of the Tagus, which more than half surrounds it. This river 
 has, as we shall have occasion to observe, been nobly spanned by Roman, 
 Moor, and Christian ; and on its banks are yet traceable, in architectural 
 fragments, the handiwork of each of those races. 
 
 Our sketch represents a passage of this river which has once been 
 commanded by the Moorish fortress, above the " tapia " or concrete 
 remains of which, some shade-loving Spaniard of to-day has planted 
 his vines and gourds, and reared his modest, but neither unpicturesque 
 nor altogether uncomfortable, tenement. A fortification of this kind 
 was much affected by the Moors for salient points, on account of the 
 command it gave them of the various directions from which attack 
 might be apprehended, and was called by them " Almodovar." 
 
8o VIEW OF THE REMAINS OF A MOORISH FORTRESS. 
 
 Charles Didier has admirably described the charms of such a 
 position, as that occupied by the world-renowned capital of New 
 Castille, in the following passage of his '" Annee en Espagne,' 
 " Tolede doit a sa situation," says he,* " une inepuisable richesse de 
 sites et de vues. La montagne escarpee dont elle couvre les flancs est 
 separee par le Tage d'une autre montagne non moins escarpee, mais nue> 
 deserte, abandoneee a la sterilite ettombant a, pic dans le fleuve. A mi- 
 . cote est le chateau ruine de Saint Cervantes. Un petit ermitage, la 
 lirgen del Valle, est egare au sommet ; mais, bati au milieu des rochers, 
 il s'en detache a peine et se confond avec eux : des troupeaux de chevres 
 sauvages errent a l'entour, et, presque aussi sauvage qu'elles, le patre, 
 vetu de peaux, apporte au seuil de la ville les mceurs de la sierra. Ces 
 contrastes sont frappants, mais ce sont les vues surtout qui captivent ; 
 quoique borne, le spectacle est varie ; les masses granitiques dont la 
 montagne est formee s'adoucissent au-dessus du pont Saint Martin, et 
 des villas, appelees dans le pays cigarrales, etendent sur la pierre nue 
 et grisatre de frais tapis de verdure ; c'est le seul point champetre du 
 paysage, tout le reste est sec et depouille. La montagne n'a pas un 
 arbre. La variete nait des mouvements du sol et des anfractuosites du 
 rocher ; les perspectives sont courtes, mais frappantes ; tantot l'ceil 
 plonge sur'le Tage, qui serpente en meandres verdatres entre les deux 
 collines ; tantot la ville apparait heriss^e de ses innombrables clochers, 
 puis le rideau retombe, et enferronne dans une gorge deserte et muette. 
 on pourrait se croire tout d'un coup transport^ dans quelque solitude 
 primitive. Ces brusques alternatives ont un grand charme ; elles 
 impriment a ce paysage austere et melancolique un profond cachet 
 .d'originaliteV' 
 
 * Tome I., page 2Z2. Bruxelles, 1837. 
 
■^T<jL«DO 
 
PLATE XXXVI. 
 
 TOLEDO. 
 
 BRIDGE OF ALCANTARA. 
 
 I HE brief words in which Ford gives the chronology of this 
 " Bridge of Bridges " carries one to the long series of Lords 
 and Masters who have made of Toledo a perfect mine of Archaeological 
 interest. "The Roman one," he says, "was repaired in 687 by 
 the Goth Sala; destroyed by an inundation, it was rebuilt in 871, 
 by the Alcaide Halaf, repaired in 1258 by Alonzo el Sabio,* restored 
 by Archbishop Tenorio about 1380, and fortified in 1484 by Andres 
 Manrique." To crown the whole and make it safe for ever, Philip 
 II. placed it, by solemn dedication, under the especial protection of 
 San Udefonso, who certainly appears to have done his duty hitherto, 
 as I saw few signs of repair or want of it from the middle of the 
 sixteenth century till now. I need scarcely say, that it crosses the 
 River Tagus in one noble and most lofty span, and connects the 
 walled city with its dependencies "across the water." Nothing can 
 be more picturesque than this bridge, or indeed the whole aspect of 
 
 * The greater part of the above facts are verified by the inscription which was placed upon 
 the bridge by Alonzo the Wise, in 1252, and the original of which is given by Cean Bermudez 
 in his " Documentos" Vol. I. Number xxiv. 
 
82 BRIDE OF ALCANTARA. 
 
 fr 
 
 the position of the city placed upon seven hills, forming one lofty and 
 rocky eminence, around which on more than two sides, tears the 
 Tagus. Conspicuous in my sketch is the lofty Tower controlling 
 access from the Bridge to the City on the side of the commanding 
 " Alcazar " as literally (thel^royal residence," as Alcantara is in Arabic 
 " the Bridge." Cer.i Bcrmudez* tells us, that one Mateo Paradiso 
 was the architect, who in 12 1 7 constructed a tower (probably, in at 
 least the greatest part, the same which now remains) upon this famous 
 bridge. In support of his opinion, he cites Estevan de Garibay, who 
 in the ninth volume of his " unedited Works " fol. 5 1 2 tit. 6", speaking 
 of the Memorabilia of Toledo, says with reference to this Bridge, 
 " that the river suddenly rising destroyed one of its pillars in the 
 month of February, 1211, placing the bridge in peril of falling. As 
 soon as it had been repaired, Henrique I. caused a tower to be built 
 upon it for the greater security of it and of the city as appears by an 
 original inscription which once existed upon the tower in these 
 words." 
 
 " Henry, son of ths King Alfonso, caused this tower to b; built in honour of Gcd, by the 
 hand of Matheo Faradiso in the year 1255." 
 
 Another tower of the time of Charles V. guards the access to 
 the Bridge from the side farthest from the city, that from which my 
 sketch has been taken. 
 
 * Noticias d; los Arquitectos, &c. Par Amiro'.a v BennuJsZj Madrid, 1829. Vol. I page 41. 
 
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PJ.ATE XXXVI-I. 
 
 to/edo. 
 
 BRIDGE OF SAN MARTIN. 
 
 AMIROLA* has given us an excellent acount of the origin of this 
 noble mediaeval bridge, upon which the following short 
 statement is mainly based. Near to the site on which the bridge of 
 St. Martin now stands at Toledo, there was formerly a fine Roman 
 bridge. This having been entirely destroyed for useful purposes, by 
 a tremendous flood which rose, according to the most ancient annals of 
 Toledo, in the year 121 2, the city determined upon building another 
 bridge upon a better site. Having erected abutments of vast strength, 
 which were ultimately crowned and weighted with two towers for 
 defence, and having bedded two solid piers in the line of the stream, 
 their master of the works, Rodrigo Alfonso, proceeded to span it with 
 one of three lofty arches, two of which are shown in my sketch. 
 This magnificent arch of one hundred and forty Spanish feet in width, 
 and ninety-five in height was destroyed in the terrible struggle between 
 the King Don Pedro, and his brother Don Henrique, in the year 1368. 
 It was shortly after rebuilt, and the bridge generally repaired by the 
 great Don Tenorio, Archbishop of Toledo. Villa Franca, Alcala de 
 
 * Noticias &c. Vol. I. page 79. 
 
0*1 
 
 84 BRIDGE OF SAN MARTIN. 
 
 Henares, and the neighbourhood of Alamin, all boasted of bridges 
 put up by the same Rodrigo Alfonso, who designed the bridge of San 
 Martin at Toledo. 
 
 Beyond the bridge, in my sketch, appears on the crest of the hill 
 the mass of the beautiful, though somewhat over florid church, San 
 Juan de los Reyes. Having been erected by Ferdinand and Isabella, 
 in a period as late as 1476, it fails to enlist the sympathies and 
 approbation of some; tyier writers have praised it enthusiastically, 
 and certain it is, that if it may have possessed faults when complete, 
 scarcely any thing can be more picturesque as a ruin. 
 
•mW^ 
 
 
PLATE XXXVIII. 
 
 TOLEDO. 
 
 MOORISH GATEWAY BY THE BRIDGE OF ALCANTARA. 
 
 N' EAR to the bridge of Alcantara (sketch No. 2>&) on tne road 
 leading up from it to the city, stands the celebrated Moorish 
 gateway of the " Puerta del Sol." This strong, large, and well fortified 
 approach to the citv, I found to labour under two marked disadvantages 
 for my sketch-book, viz., it had been too often illustrated, and its 
 curious details had been so vigorously " restored " (when Spaniards do 
 "restore" there is no mistake about it), as to have lost in a great degree 
 the characteristics of originality and dependability. I looked about, 
 therefore, in the immediate vicinity of the bridge, for other vestiges of 
 the antiquity of the city. These I soon came upon in the old gateway of 
 which I give a sketch, and to the construction of which, both Roman 
 and Moor have contributed. As the poor heavily laden mules laboured 
 up the dusty stony road, with the patience of, in Spain, a much-abused 
 race, it was impossible not to speculate upon the generations upon 
 generations which had followed in the same track up the same road, on 
 the same duty, through every vicissitude of occupation of the Gateway, 
 through which they swayed monotonously from side to side. 
 
i t 
 
55 '-TOLEPO- .V' v i;j.ijc k --ij^JiJJv£^ 
 
 a_ ^ <"- 
 
 
PLATE XXXIX. 
 
 TO /EDO. 
 
 ENTRANCE ARCHWAY OF THE ZOCODOVER. 
 
 -> 
 
 ALTHOUGH as appears from the steps shown in my sketch 
 rising up through this archway, which is known as that of 
 the Zocodover, or more properly Zocodober, which means in 
 Arabic,*^ according to Cean Bermudez, "a place upon a lower level," 
 the archway is situated upon an ascent, it by no means follows 
 that there may not be a higher plane to which it may be still a descent. 
 Such is the case in the Zocodover of Toledo, which is really the 
 "Place" of the city in the usual French, or the "Piazza" in the 
 Italian / sense. It is reached from without the walls by the steps 
 shown, and is yet literally tha " lower Place " when compared with 
 the platform of the Alcazar or " Royal Residence." Of great strength, 
 it must in its time have been the scene of terrible struggles, and 
 blood shedding, as it dates from the days when Moors ruled in the 
 North of Spain, and had to be wrested from the descendants of its 
 builders only by many a tussle between the upholders of the Crescent 
 and the Cross. On the inside of the city to the market place it has 
 been modified, and Italianised, but to the thousands who pass up it 
 daily from the lower parts of the outskirts, it wears its original Oriental 
 aspect. 
 
88 ENTRANCE ARCHWAY TO THE ZOCODOVER. 
 
 Ford gives to the word " Zocodover " quite another meaning 
 and derivation. He explains it as " the square market." Whether 
 he or Bermudez may be right, I know not, but, certain it is that 
 either meaning may be aptly fitted to describe the spot to which our 
 gateway leads — a spot of no comfortable memories — since it still reeks 
 with the cruelties of genuine Spanish diversions, " Autos da Fe," and 
 " Fiestas de Toros." 
 

 
 PLATE XL 
 
 TOLEDO. 
 
 INTERIOR OF THE "TALLER DEL MORO." 
 
 FROM the spring of the year 712, when Tarik, with his renegade 
 Jews and Berbers, wrested the city from its Gothic rulers, to the 
 spring of the year 1085, when Alfonzo VI. — the Emperor as he styled 
 himself after having won his laurels — reconquered the city for___the_ 
 Christians, Toledo remained altogether an Oriental city/rH+lwbilcd by 
 Berbers, strict Mahommedans and Jews, the last named being occasionally 
 tolerated and occasionally persecuted as they had been by the Goths, and 
 subsequently were by the Castilian Christians. The duration of this 
 tenure of power has to be borne in mind continually, in the endeavour to 
 assign dates to the Moorish monuments of this city, of which there are a 
 great number. It is of course true that long after the date of Alfonso's 
 conquest the Moorish artificers worked for the Christians, but such was 
 their constant condition of subjection that it is not to be credited- that any 
 one of them could have been allowed to live in the wealth and luxury, 
 var lived ia thn biauliful fiagmeftt of/a Moorish house, 
 known' as the " Tallerdel Moro," /which forms the subject of the fortieth' ClUZu^X^C'f 
 must havelived. 
 
 SiAch,/ 
 
 sketch, must havelived. I can, therefore, have no hesitation in 
 repudiating for the date of its origin, as late a period as 1350, which 
 
 fraj*A>*dbu^t~oQr-i 
 
 CutflfrH 
 
9 o INTERIOR OF THE TALLER DEL MORO. 
 
 i 
 
 has been assigned to it. On the other hand,. I am no less confident 
 
 that Seiior Escosura, who has written of it as of " between the ninth 
 
 and tenth centuriesSis also in error. What I believe is, that 
 
 this elegant set of chambers, was really one of the latest works 
 
 in the city immediately preceding its capture by Alfonso, in 
 
 1085. The style of its work is certainly later than any of that 
 
 executed under the Khaffate of Corduba while in the hands 'of 
 
 the Ummeyah family. It belongs, I believe, to the school of the 
 
 Almohades, and reflects some of the novelties in complicated geometry 
 
 introduced by the Arabs; of Damascus, in advance of the Ummeyahs. 
 
 They held to earlier types, as may be seen in all the works at Corduba, 
 
 including even those ascribed to the author of the splendid Mih-rab 
 
 or sanctuary, the Sultan Al-Hakem II., who completed the " cubba," 
 
 or Cupola of the Mih-rab (the most complicated' piece of design in all 
 
 Cordova) in the year a.d., 965. 
 
 All that is left at present of this once sumptuous mansion consists 
 
 of a central chamber, (fifty-four feet long by twenty-three feet wide), 
 
 approached from a court-yard, the usual Moorish Alfagia, (no doubt, 
 
 by the doorway shown on the right hand side of my sketch), and of two 
 
 chambers, one at each end of the central one. Traces of colour and 
 
 gilding have almost entirely disappeared, but the stucco ornamentation, 
 
 where not wilfully or heedlessly destroyed, retains all its original sharpness 
 
 and beauty. I found if in full use, or rather abuse, as a carpenter's 
 
 workshop. 
 
 a 
 
 /hi y^UUy (&X. ^(cryv V 
 
:U/\ MAWJ/\LHWA. 
 
 to aw" ! 
 
*> 
 
 PLATE XLI. 
 
 TOLEDO. 
 
 TOWER OF THE CHURCH OF LA MAGDALENA. 
 
 / OLEDO is, or rather has been, a city of peculiar devotion. Its 
 Christian mediaeval architecture Mr. Street has fully illustrated, 
 but he has passed hurriedly over some of the remains of that peculiar 
 mixed style in which Christians usually gave the order, and Moors did 
 the work. I have, accordingly, sketched two Christiahl-Moorish 
 campaniles which he has not given, and one which he has, but from 
 a different point of view. 
 
 The steeple of La Magdalena is, I fancy, of two periods, the 
 construction from the ground to the base of the belfry being of one class, 
 and the belfry itself of another. It has all the appearance of having been 
 the old tower of a mosque previous to the conquest^Toledo by King 
 ~&£ Alfonso, and of having been subsequently taken down to a certain 
 level, and the belfry chamber and bells added, on the christianising 
 of the structure. 
 
 It is built almost entirely of brick, and although simple to the 
 extent of rudeness, its mass yet groups well with the long roof lines of 
 the convents by which it is as it were hemmed in. 
 
 As the student wanders through these old streets of Toledo, 
 rendered so picturesque by remnants of old Moorish use and ceremony, 
 
tfjfcct-ttkd 
 
 ! 
 
 92 TOWER OF THE fHURCH OF LA MAGDALENA. 
 
 his mind is naturally aai 'i- i e a baelt to the days when the " mer.quiu " 
 took the place of the church, and was thronged by the worshippers of 
 the "One God and Mahomet his Prophet," by day and by night. 
 The description given of the comparatively modern Moors in the 
 account of Commodore Stewart's embassy to the Emperor of Morocco, 
 in the year 1721, seems to carry us back to the days when 
 
 Toledo, and many other cities of Spain, owned / Jkf no other faith 
 than that defined by the Koran. " The Moors," says the writer, • 
 " seem not (as we do) to observe the day for business, and the night 
 for sleep, but sleep and wake often in the four-and-twenty hours, going 
 to church by night as well as day, for which purpose their Talbs 
 call fiom the top of the mosques, (or places of worship) having no 
 bells, every three hours throughout the city. In going to church they 
 observe no gravity, nor mind their dress ; but as soon as the Talb 
 begins to bellow from the steeple, the carpenter throws down his axe, 
 the shoemaker his awl, the tailor his shears, and away they all run like 
 so many fellows at football ; when they come into church, they repeat 
 the first chapter of the Alcoran standing, after which they lock up, and 
 lift up their hands as much above their heads as they can, and as their 
 hands are leisurely coming down again, drop on their knees with their 
 faces towards the Kebla, (as they call it) or East and by South ; then 
 touching the ground with their foreheads twice, sit a little while 611 
 their heels muttering a few words, and rise up again. This they repeat 
 two cr three times, after which, looking on each shoulder, (I suppose 
 to their guardian angels) they say, Helemo Alikcm {i.e.,) Peace be with 
 you; and have done. When there are many at prayers together, you 
 wcu!d think they were so many (Sally-s'aves a rowing, by the motion 
 they make on their knees." ' 
 
 * A Journey to Me<juir.c z. Lender, Jaccb Tor.scn, 1725. 
 
PLATE XLII, 
 
 TOLEDO. 
 
 MOORISH TOWER OF SAN PEDRO MARTIRE. 
 
 PLATE Foirty-two presents us with another type of Christian- 
 Moorish Campanile from that given by the last sketch. In this 
 case the usual fashion of the mediaeval church builders of dividing the 
 total height of the tower into several compartments, pierced with largish 
 openings on more than one floor, has been followed. The regular Arabian 
 praying-tower is generally simply the inclosure of a staircase, with a 
 gallery, or open chamber, only at the summit, from which "the faithful" 
 are duly summoned by the Imaum to their devotions. The conversion of 
 one or more stories into belfries, however, indicates (where the work 
 is clearly that of a Mahommedan artificer), that he has been 
 working only for the performance of the behests of a Christian, as in 
 the case of the Tower of San Pedro Martire at Toledo. The Church 
 itself exhibits only a clumsy and overgrown Palladian style of a 
 thoroughly commonplace description, gloomy and uninteresting. 
 
■ 
 
 
 *M 
 
 I jiff's 
 
"> 
 
 / 
 
 PLATE XLI1I. 
 
 TOLEDO. 
 
 TOWER OF THE CHURCH OF SANTIAGO DE LA VEGA. 
 
 HIS Church appeared to me to retain more of the primitive 
 " Mezquita " or mosque than any other in Toledo, excepting the 
 celebrated " Christo de la Luz." Its aspect is most picturesque as 
 one descends from the city towards the Vega J or once rich and lovely 
 plain. I could not help recognizing in it how good an effect might 
 be produced in our ordinary street architecture by the use of common 
 brick, provided that the masses of the construction should be artistically 
 disposed, and used without the appearance of pinching here and paring 
 off there, which spoils many of our usually too ambitious efforts. 
 
 In all such work as this in Spain, one is reminded only of the 
 " bottom of the purse " when the work remains unfinished. With us 
 the aspect of the " fond-du-sac " begins generally ]with*the beginning, /L y/ 
 with the first lines of the disposition of the plan,~and"ehds only with 
 the end of the whole. As far as appearances go in this structure, 
 differences of style from those of the rest of the building shown in my 
 sketch* in thejbelfry, and in the apsidal end of the choir of the Church, ^C 
 and in one or two other parts, seemed to point to those features of the 
 design as being of considerably later date than that of the rest of the 
 
iJ 77^ 
 
 / 
 
 96 TOWER OF THE CHURCH OF SAXUAGO DP. LA VEGA 
 /V 
 
 building. If the primitive Moorish work may have been of the middle 
 of the eleventh century, the Christiano-Moorish mav have been of the 
 end of the thirteenth. 
 

T0LE-130 
 HOSPITAL OFTHE 
 HOLY CR.033- 
 
.K 
 
 ^ 
 
 w 
 
 [V 
 
 PLATE XLIV. 
 
 TOLEDO. 
 
 "EXTERNAL VIEW OF THE HOSPITAL OF THE 
 
 HOLY CROSS. 
 
 DESCENDING from the main Piazza of the city, through 
 the gateway shown by the thirty-ninth sketch, the great 
 " Hospedal de la Santa Cruz " is speedily reached. This is generally ^ 
 considered the finest example of Plateresquef Architecture left in V^t^vUA^ 
 Spain^-^F-prebabry — eve r erec t ed in - th a t c o u ntry. Its founder was 
 the all powerful Cardinal D. Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, 
 "Tertius Rex," of Castile, Consolidator of the Monarchy, and 
 Father cff the absolute supremacy of the Catholic Church in Spain. 
 The style of this building, and the circumstances of the birth and training 
 of its architect, raise the important question of the extent to which 
 the plateresque style in Spain may, or may not, have been of national 
 origin ? It appears that in 1459, a certa i n Anequin de Egas de Bruselas 
 (or Brussels) of the Cathedral of Toledo, in his capacity of " Maestro 
 Mayor'!, with his assistant Juan Fernandez de Liena, executed the 
 facade of the main southern transept of that Cathedral, -with- the 
 entrance familiarly known as "de los Leones." In this work, the 
 architecture is of florid Burgundian-Gothic with scarcely a trace of 
 Renaissance about its original design. Anequin died in 1494, and 
 his son Henrique was appointed, by the Chapter of Toledo, to 
 succeed his father as " Maestro Mayor," the duties of which office 
 
93 
 
 EXTERNAL VIEW OF THE HOSPITAL OF THE HOLY CROSS. 
 
 
 
 *) 
 
 *) 
 
 he performed until his death in 1534. Henrique was the favourite 
 architect of the King D. Fernando, and of his son, the Archbishop 
 D. Alon^o, who actually disputed, in 1505, as to which of them should 
 for awhile avail themselves of his exclusive services. He was called 
 in to every important consultation of architects of his time, and was 
 evidently, " au courant " of the great changes of style which had been 
 developed in Italy, and which were in course of development in France, 
 and in and about his father's native place. His influence asanaturalizer 
 of the exotic details of which models were furnished to artists bv the 
 printslof the " pctits maitres," is clearly manifested when we recognise 
 the early dates at which his florid Renaissance buildings were executed. 
 For instance, in the -two -great-wc«4t» he designed for Cardinal Mendoza, 
 the dates of which are well known, we find Renaissance fixtures £-&^7 
 well carried out with scarcely any admixture cf Gothic. The earliest of 
 these is the vast " Colegio Mayor " de Sta. Cruz at Valladolid, which 
 Henrique began in 1480 and completed in 1492, and the second the 
 splendid Hospital for Foundlings/ at Toledo] from which the sketch^ 
 now under consideration, and the two which follow it have been taken. 
 In describing the second of these sketches, we shall resume our con- 
 sideration of the Plateresque style generally from the point at which it is 
 now left. It may be well, however, with relation to this sketch, to 
 state that it shows the principal portal or great entrance to the Hospital, 
 and that the top storey appears to be of later date, and coarser 
 execution, than the portal and the two elegant windows of the first 
 floor. The carving in the lunette of the doorway, represents, in very 
 good style, the "invention of the Cross" with Sta. Helena and the 
 Founder. The colour of the stone, and the quality of the work- 
 manship leave nothing to be desired. 
 
PLATE XLV. 
 
 jr 
 
 TOLEDO. 
 
 CORTILE OF THE HOSPITAL OF THE HOLY CROSS. 
 
 T is in the interior rather than on the exterior of the Toledo 
 
 Foundling Hospital, that Henrique de Egas has best shown his 
 
 command over the Plateresque style. It was no longer in. the former a 
 
 question of adding on ornament in fanciful door and window dressings, 
 
 (^) as it was in the latter, but a necessity to adopt or originate essential parts 
 
 of the structure, executing important functions of use and stability.jfZ^ 
 The columns, arches, and interspacing of the arcading of the Patiosy 
 evidence by their proportions, quite as much as by their details, that 
 Henrique's, and his employer's backs had been turned upon Gothic, 
 and that a new style had been inaugurated for Spanish architecture, as 
 the successes of Ferdinand and Isabella, and the discovery of America, 
 had laid the foundations of an entirely new era for Spain. 
 
 The construction of the building under notice, was begun by Cardinal 
 Mendoza, under Henrique, in 1504; the year in which those 
 Sovereigns ascended the throne, and completed in the year 15 14. 
 Simultaneously, with the commencement of the great Hospital for 
 the " Tertius Rex," Henrique designed a still more extensive and 
 magnificent Hospital which the " Reyes Catolicos " proposed to 
 
CORTILE OF THE HOSPITAL OF THE HOLY CROSS. 
 
 construct at Santiago, and entered upon many other great architectural 
 works in other parts of Spain. Ford, who was no mean judge, says 
 of the Hcspedal de la Santa Cruz, that its " position overlooking the 
 Tagus is glorious, and the building is one of the gems of the world ; 
 nor can any chasing of Cellini surpass the elegant Portal." 
 
 There is little doubt that Egas was stimulated to great exertion 
 by the rivalry of many competitors, few of whom, however, des'gned 
 in exactly his style. The work which most resembles his, I believe, will 
 be found in the detail of the wonderful Plateresque Town Hall at 
 Seville, and that of the Cathedral at Plasencia. 
 
 That so magnificent a Palace (for such it is) should have been 
 thought necessary, or at any rate should have been indulged in, for the 
 reception of foundlings, is to be partially accounted for by an old 
 assertion I have met with, that the Spaniards, not knowing the parentage 
 of the " nifios perdidos," gave them " the benefit of the doubt," and 
 considered them all as children of Hidalgos, a questionable compliment 
 to the boasted morality, orjany rate austerity, of the upper classes. 
 
 A 
 

 
 
,Xv J - 
 
 J5 
 
 - 
 
 1 6 f 
 
 ' HOSVlTAl. OF T"HE.-ViOlv^03Sa 
 
 :~- 
 
PLATE XLVI. 
 
 ay 
 
 TOLEDO. 
 
 DOORWAY FROM THE HOSPITAL OF THE HOLY CROSS. 
 
 HE fact that Moorish workmen should have been found in 
 
 J\ 
 
 Toledo, Segovia, and elsewhere in Spain, to modify their national 
 
 style, in their Mudejar work, and to incorporate freely in it many 
 
 features of late mediasval work ; while they scarcely ever lent themselves 
 
 to any expression of Renaissance form, although they occasionally 
 
 laboured in buildings of that style, ha$ been supposed to imply a 
 
 greater affinity between Arabian and Gothic modes of design, than 
 
 between the Arabian style and Plateresque. This may, to some 
 
 ' extent account for the presence of this Mudejar work, assimilating 
 
 in no way with the last-mentioned style, in a building of so distinctly 
 
 Renaissance character as this one possesses. The fact is, however, 
 
 rather thus — that after the expulsion of the Moors, and the institution 
 
 of the Inquisition (the period of the construction of this Hospital), 
 
 the Moorish artificers diminished very rapidly in number, and lost 
 
 their individuality almost entirely, in Northern and Central Spain; and 
 
 that, whereas, during several centuries they had lived there in cities in 
 
 which Gothic architecture was practised by Christians, and had thus 
 
 made themselves acquainted with its details, they had but a short term 
 
ioi DOORWAY FROM THE HOSPITAL OF THE HOLY CROSS. 
 
 of scarcely tolerated national existence wherein to learn [the novelties 
 which were beginning to be taken up by the Spaniards, at the 
 commencement of the sixteenth century. 
 
 My sketch, while it indicates the elaboration of this late specimen 
 of Mudejar stucco-work, shows by the figures I have introduced (from 
 life) the class to whose tender mercies this gem is now confided. Let 
 it be hoped that the " Genius loci," may protect it, for the respectable 
 Spanish soldier of the nineteenth century can scarcely be regarded 
 as a satisfactory Conservative element 
 
LIE DO 
 
 F THE 
 
 < 1 = 
 
PLATE XLVII. 
 
 TOLEDO. 
 
 ENTRANCE GATEWAY TO THE ALCAZAR. 
 
 The Royal residence, for such is the meaning of the word 
 " Alcazar," of Toledo, is one of the two great Palaces which 
 
 Charles V. caused to be constructed in order that Spain might, for the 
 first time, have « Royal Residences" commensurate with her grandeur 
 and wealth. He appears to have chosen the same architect for both 
 in the person of Alonso de Covarrubbias. This distinguished artist was 
 
 l^Tm^^r*^ locality in the diocese of Burgos, from whence he 
 derived his name. At an early age, he allied himself with the family 
 of the Flemish Egas, distinguished in the highest degree as architects 
 in the persons of Anequin and his son Henrique. The wife of Alonso 
 de Covarrubbias was a certain Maria Gutierrez de Egas, and by her he 
 became the father of several sons, who in different ways (not in 
 architecture) achieved great distinction and consideration. To return 
 to the architectural career of Covarrubbias. Through the interest of 
 Henrique de Egas, and probably in succession to him, Alonso 
 Covarrubbias was appointed " Maestro Mayor " of the Cathedral of 
 Toledo, whereupon he settled himself altogether in that city with his 
 brother Marcos. His great work in Toledo Cathedral was the famous 
 Chapel " de los Reyes nuevos," which he completed in the year 1534. 
 
104 
 
 ENTRANCE GATEWAY TO THE ALCAZAR. 
 
 <Ht, 
 
 cdl4 
 
 He is then said to have given some plans to Cardinal D. Alonso de Fonscca, 
 for the improvement of the Archbishop's Palace at Alcala de Heiiares 
 (see my notes on that^-^tructure^Sketches, Nos. 33 and 34). He 
 subsequently occupied himself, until 1537, in designing and carrying 
 out the splendid entry to the Colegio Mayor (known as that of the 
 Archbishop) in Salamanca, and other works. 
 
 In the last mentioned year he was appointed, by Charles V., with 
 another architect, Luis de Vega, to make plans for rebuilding the 
 Royal Palaces of Toledo and Madrid. This commission was 
 subsequently modified, giving to Covarrubbias the works of Toledo, 
 and to de Vega those at Madrid: The Alcazar 6t Toledo had 
 teen originally built by King Alonso VI , on the highest point 
 of the city, when he took it from the Moors in 1085. It had 
 been added to at various dates, chiefly by the powerful Alvaro de 
 Luna, and lastly by the Reyes Catolicos. What Charles V. caused 
 to be built, consisted of a facade of great extent, a magnificent vestibule, 
 court-yard and staircase, tjpe«. which he placed his - arms in — many C 
 •places. The Portal I have sketched, is stated by Cean Bermudez, from 
 whom most of the above mentioned facts have been derived, to have 
 been constructed by Henrique de Egas, under the direction of 
 Covarrubbias who closed an honourable life, much favoured by his 
 Sovereign, in 1570. — 
 
 The Spaniards are justly proud of the noble simplicity>-a«4 grand 
 style of Covarrubbias, which has none of the coldness and heaviness of 
 Herrera's ; and this is one of the rarejcases in which they have made of 
 late years, a really splendid and not over-loaded restoration. Upon the 
 whole, the Alcazar at Toledo, is one of the few buildings existing in 
 Spain which reflects, particularly in its grand Cortile, the " magnificenze" 
 of the" Italian Renaissance, in their completest form. 
 
 Cvi.4 
 
 t 
 
 f 
 

-P/-STIO- 
 
PLATE XLVIII. 
 
 / 
 
 TO/ EDtf 
 
 PATIO OF THE HOSPITAL OF CARDINAL TAVERA. 
 
 HE great Cardinal Primate, whose name this gigantic Hospital 
 still bears was a worthy successor to Mendoza and Cisneros. In 
 1542 he employed the Architect Bartholome de Bustamente to design 
 and construct the four facades of this enormous pile. Not particularly 
 attractive from without, internally the extent, fine proportions, and 
 simplicity of its great Patios are very striking. It is one of the most 
 regular pieces of Italian architecture I met with in Spain, and would 
 have produced a highly satisfactory effect if its upper arches had 
 been semi-circular instead of elliptic. The Hospital is dedicated to 
 St. John the Baptist, and is placed without the walls of the city, 
 whence its cognomen of "a fuera." The Church of the Hospital is 
 older in style if not in date than the rest of the structure. Here in the 
 room beneath the clock died the famous Berruguete in 1561, shortly after 
 completing the portal of the Church and the marble monument within it 
 which commemorates the cardinal virtues of the illustrious founder. 
 


PLATE XLIX. 
 
 CORDOBA. 
 EXTERIOR OF THE CASA CABELLO. 
 
 HIS pretty entrance to a Spanish nobleman's house of the latter 
 
 part of the sixteenth century has, like most of its class, rnighty^^T L^^O \^ 
 little story to tell, and that little, could I but unravel it, would 
 probably turn out to be only of the dullest. Let us see, therefore, from 
 a contemporary witness, what manner of life was ordinarily led by 
 the class v for one of whom it wao no doub t- fitted up in the fashion of 
 the fsucce edingTcelitury? " In the morning as soon as they are up they 
 drink water cooled with ice, and presently after chocolate. When | 
 dinner time is come, the master sits down to table ; his wife and 
 children eat upon the floor near the table ; this is not done out of respect, 
 as they tell me, but the women cannot sit upon a chair, they are not 
 accustomed to it ; and there are several ancient Spanish women who 
 never sat upon one in their whole life. They make a light meal, for they 
 eat little flesh ; the best of their food are pigeons, pheasants, and their 
 olios, which are excellent ; but the greatest lord has not brought to 
 his table above two pigeons, and some very bad ragoust, full of garlick 
 and pepper ; and after that some fennel and a litde fruit. When this 
 little dinner is over, every one in the house undress themselves an^ 1 
 
 /\ 
 
EXTERIOR OE THE CASA CABELLO. 
 
 lie down upon their beds, upon which they lay Spanish leather-skins 
 for coolness; at this time you shall not find a soul in the streets; the 
 shops are shut, all the trade ceased, and it looks as if every body 
 were dead. At two o'clock in the winter and at four in the summer 
 they begin to dress themselves again, then eat sweetmeats, drink either 
 some chocolate or water cooled in ice, and afterwards everybody 
 goes where they think fit, and indeed they tarry out till eleven cr 
 twelve o'clock at night ; I speak of people that live regularly ; then 
 the husband and wife go to bed, a great table-cloth is spread all over 
 the bed, and each fastens it under their chin. The he and she-dwarfs 
 serve up supper, which is as frugal as the dinner, for it is either a 
 pheasant-hen made into a ragoust, or some pastry business, which burns 
 their mouth it is so excessively peppered ; the lady drinks her belly 
 full of water, and the gentleman very sparingly of the wine ; and 
 when supper is ended each goes to sleep as well as they can," 
 

 fpff 
 
 -"%;• ._ r - k 
 
 
PLATE L. 
 
 \ 
 
 SEVILLE. 
 
 CHURCH OF LA FERIA. 
 
 " " A FERIA " in Seville, has been time out of mind the essence 
 
 J j of all that is most "Picaresque" in the city. Not quite so 
 
 thronged with Gitanos and Gitanas as the suburb of Triana, it makes 
 up for shortcomings in that element of rascality and picturesqueness, by 
 majos and majas, rustic beaux and belles, bull-fighters and beggars, 
 dogs and donkeys, mules and muleteers, rags and tatters, and abundance 
 of the most gloriously coloured fruits under the sun — and, above all, there 
 reign such a sun and such a sky as denizens of the North have 
 really little or no notion of. As if these elements of the picture were 
 not enough, by way of background, stands a church in which the 
 " battle of the Styles " seems to have been fairly fought out, with the 
 victory now inclining to Moor, and now to Christian, while over 
 all is seen a little of the Renaissance, with more than a suspicion 
 in the heavy scrolls of the highest belfry, of " Churriguerismo." 
 
 While I sat on a door-step making this poor little sketch, I think 
 I must have seen Murillof^/ by the dozen, and John Phillips' by the 
 hundred, not on canvas, but glowing with Nature's own light, and life, 
 and colour. 
 
-. 
 
 J : 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 ■* 
 
 '0^ 
 
 
PLATE LI. 
 
 JObU 
 
 SEVILLE. 
 CHURCH OF SAN MARCOS. 
 
 SOME notion of the richness of Seville, in the remains of old 
 Moorish mosques converted into Christian churches, may be 
 formed from the fact that this edifice, in which we find the two styles 
 blended in the most interesting way, finds no mention in the pages of 
 Ford, O'Shea, Mellado, or any other guide-books of Spain I have 
 been able to meet with, except Bradshaw's. In that, Dr. Charnock thus 
 briefly alludes to San Marcos. " Note," says he, " its beautiful 
 western facade which has served as a model for several churches ; the 
 Retablo of the Altar de las Animas, contains a painting by D. 
 Martinez ; the tower rising to the left of the Church in imitation of the 
 Giralda, is a fine monument of Arabian architecture." It is, of course, 
 
 7 
 
 to the grand portal, rather, to the whole facade, that Dr. Charnock 
 alludes, since the former from the purity of its apparently late 
 fifteenth century work, merits his praise, while the latter cannot 
 certainly be regarded as other than a " barbarismo." 
 
 The tower ~i& particularly pleasing in the style of its Mudejar 
 additions, *«*} has been engraved in elevation in - i ho grea t Government 
 ■w orii , " los Monumentos Arquitectonicos." It is about seventy-five 
 feet high by ten feet wide. 
 
ft 
 
 /I ; 
 
 PLATE LII. 
 
 SEVILLE. 
 REMAINS OF MUDEJAR HOUSE NEAR LA FERIA. 
 
 7 
 
 HE habit of the Moors was almost universally to make their 
 exterior architecture plain, and to reserve richness and 
 elaboration for the interiors of their houses. The fact that what is 
 commonly internal architecture has been used by Moorish workmen on 
 the external facade of the little house which forms the subject of this 
 fifty-second sketch would be sufficient of itself to prove that it had 
 not been executed for a Moor, even if the Gothic mouldings and 
 ornaments of the buttresses, imposts, cornices, and string courses failed 
 to assert the Christianity of those for whom the house may have been 
 built. The date of its construction, judging from style, was probably 
 about the middle of the fifteenth century, at which period, in Spain, 
 Renaissance features had in nowise affected the integrity of either 
 Gothic or Moorish architecture. In this case all the mason's work 
 is Gothic, and all the stucco-work is Moorish ; and this distinction of 
 style, according to the technical mode of construction, is not an 
 uncommon feature of Mudejar work. It was not only in stucco^ 
 that the traditions of Moorish art-workmanship enriched 
 all Spain, since both in metal-work and wood-work tb«y continued 
 
„6 REMAINS OF MUDEJAR HOUSE NEAR LA FLRIA. 
 
 to be employed long after their subjugation, preserving very many <^Lij,«/<l£. ' 
 their old and excellent types of form throughout many «feek« ot 
 transition. To this subject I may have occasion to recur. I wr.s_ /^Q 
 myself fortunate enough to meet with a beautiful little walnut-wccd 
 box covered with Mudejar ornament, in the midst of which *h*-'~ 
 Moorish workman had carved the I. H. S. of Christianity, and the 
 sword of Sant' Iago. 
 
 
 

PLATE LIII. 
 
 SEVILLE. 
 
 -^fc©- WINDOW IN THE FONDA DE MADRID. 
 
 HIS window which is of the class known as " Ajimez," or literally 
 " through which the sun shines," i.e. in an external wall, is a 
 specimen of Mudejar work left "t high and dry T**-~as a "waif" in a 
 part of Seville which, with this exception, has been entirely- 
 modernised. It belongs to exactly the house where one would least 
 expect to find it, one of the best hotels, if not the best hotel, in Seville, 
 the "Fonda de Madrid." All of this pretty window is made of 
 brickwork, once covered apparently in Moorish fashion with thin 
 plaster, excepting the column which is of white marble. The room 
 it lights is an ordinary nineteenth century inn bedroom, with square 
 casements, and not a vestige of the fifteenth century left about it. I 
 could learn nothing about this relic, or perfect reproduction of the 
 past, from my-good host in the hotel, so that all I could do was to 
 sketch it. While doing so, I could not but wonder how with so sensible, 
 and, at the same time,! pretty a window ready to their hands as a 
 model, the builders of the Fonda could have been contented to execute_ 
 the regular expressionless square-headed windows I found everywhere 
 else. After a few minutes moralising in this vein, I began to ask 
 
)ir&> WINDOW IN THE FONDA DE MADRID. 
 
 myself whether, as an Englishman, I was not assiduously " plucking ^ 
 the mote from my brother's eye," with a beam all the time in my owny ; / 
 
m 7 
 
 
 5 s 
 5? 
 
 
 '&. 
 
 -1^ - lis .-c^r^-^^rci^i: 
 
 II* 
 
 
 
 1 '• ^"^-" 
 
 •I '£'-.s> 
 
 
 71 
 
 
 - -* . iff? 1 *sr 1S^ : 
 
 ^&fe. ra 
 
 fig 
 
 -" >*Dti- 
 
 
LATE LIV. 
 
 SEVILLE. 
 
 VIEW IN THE UPPER STORY OF ONE OF THE PATIOS 
 OF THE CASA DE PILATUS. 
 
 HE principal monument of Moorish magnificence still left in 
 Seville, is, of course, the " Royal Residence," the " Alcazar," 
 commenced in 1181, by Jalubi, the architect of Toledo. Next to it in 
 importance is the " Casa de Pilatus," as it is called, from which this 
 sketch, and the succeeding one have been taken. From the first 
 named of these buildings I did not sketch at all, feeling myself entirely 
 baffled by the extreme elaboration of all that was most interesting and 
 admirable in the old Moorish, Mudejar and Plateresque work. Such 
 a building can be in no wise now satisfactorily illustrated, excepting 
 by one who may be in a position to devote much time and study to 
 the task. " Restoration," and the adaptation of the structure to the 
 necessities of nineteenth century life have so mystified the work 
 and intention of the original designers, that although one may readily 
 admire, it becomes exceedingly difficult to analyse, all that meets 
 the eye. I have, therefore, preferred giving my attention, so far as 
 this publication is concerned, to other, although less noteworthy, 
 specimens of the domestic architecture of Seville. 
 
THE PATIO OF THE CASA DE PILATUS. 
 
 The student of the Fine Arts, and even the ordinary traveller, 
 are sure, without any urging on my part, to visit and enjoy the 
 Alcazar^as a Royal Palace; but may possibly, and, indeed, unless 
 advised on the subject, probably overlook the great beauty and curiosity 
 of the old, and now sadly neglected, Moorish and cinque/cento Garden 
 which lies in the rear of the building. How to make a garden a delight 
 the Mahommedans learnt from the Persians, and taught by example, 
 if not by precept, to the Christians. Throughout these antique, orange, 
 lemon, box, and myrtle, groves, the Moors carried their system of 
 irrigation. Fountains and fishponds, baths and open water channels, 
 even in the hottest summer, still cool the favourite haunts. Many 
 of these, Pedro " el Cruel" caused to be formed in 1364 by architects 
 specially brought from Granada to rebuild a large portion of the 
 Palace, for his accommodation and that of his celebrated and beautiful 
 mistress, Maria de Padilla. Much more modern, and far less 
 beautiful, gardening was done by Charles V, but it is to the Moors 
 the spot owes all its great charm. 
 
 To return to the " Casa de Pilatus," so called from an old 
 tradition, that it was intended as a reproduction of the house of 
 Pilate at Jerusalem. It was built in 1533, by Fadrique Henriquez 
 de Ribera, after his return from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1 5 1 9. 
 From him the Palace, for such it was, has descended (and, oh, how 
 much descended !) to its present owner, who is said to rarely visit it, 
 a Duke of Medina Coeli. From the Seiior Duque, it has again 
 descended to his Administrador, who does his best to keep it (for 
 Spain) clean, and in tolerable order. My sketch has been taken in 
 the upper gallery of the third Patio. 
 
S 2 J> _*. 
 
j^LATE LV 
 
 SEVILLE. 
 
 DETAIL FROM A DOORWAY IN THE UPPER FLOOR OF 
 ONE OF THE PATIOS OF THE HOUSE OF PILATE. 
 
 HIS sketch represents, to a larger scale, a portion of the doorway 
 shown upon a small scale in the preceding sketch. It illustrates 
 two of the special points of architectural value in this fine old Palace, 
 viz., the entirely Moresque character of the stucco-work at a com- 
 paratively late date, and the profuse use of « Azulejos " or coloured 
 tiles. Some of these may be recognized, although in a sketch in black 
 and white, it is not easy to make them apparent, in the coverings ot 
 the lower part of the door jamb. It is, however, in and about the 
 splendid staircase, that this charming tile lining, of the use of which we 
 have here of late years commenced a very satisfactory revival, asserts 
 its value as a beautiful mode of introducing clean and permanent 
 polychromatic decoration— the only mode, indeed, as I believe, suitable 
 for our changeful climate, and smoky ways. 
 
 I regret that my sketch is not sufficiently minute to show 
 a favourite habit of the Moors of Granada and Seville, in the 
 technical working of their stucco, by the use of which they give an 
 appearance of extraordinary elaboration to their decorations. It consists 
 
122 
 
 DETAIL FROM A DOORWAY IN THE HOUSE OF PILATE. 
 
 in working different patterns on different planes of the same piece of 
 stucco-work. At a distance the dominant lines of the pattern only 
 are apparent, on a nearer approach the pattern comes into sight which 
 fills up the bold openings left between the dominant lines of the top 
 pattern ; and on a still closer inspection, a third series of forms running 
 counter to the main lines of the pattern on the second plane and filling 
 up the interstices of it may be traced. I am inclined to believe, from 
 their peculiar sharpness, that few, or none, of the repeats of these 
 patterns were done from moulds by the operation of casting, but 
 that wire, or cut metak] stencilsS were used as guides for the pointed 
 tools and knives, by which superfluous plaster was removed, whilst 
 the whole was yet in a plastic state. 
 
 This method of shaping semi-plastic stucco with sharp tools, was, 
 I have no doubt, derived by the Arabs from Roman tradition, as 
 I have seen many examples of a similar mode of working at Rome 
 
 Pompeii.Naples and elsewhere in Italy. 
 
8EVIU.B* ^^T&ATt LftA^-T^ - VS = \ A 
 
 I 
 
ir 
 
 /* 
 
 
 PLATE LVL 
 
 SEVILLE. 
 
 ONE OF THE ARCHES OF THE PATIO OF THE CASA 
 
 ALBA. 
 
 OW are the Mighty fallen," is the predominant sensation, as : 
 
 one wanders through these " banquet halls deserted." One f 
 
 may fairly paraphrase Byron, and declare that " in Seville Alba's echoes I 
 
 are no more." Ford and O'Shea, whose notes on the relics of domestic 
 edifices in Spain are invaluable, both tell us that this still beautiful, 
 though sadly destroyed, whitewashed, and dilapidated, old Palace, once Lj^LaX 
 
 " contained eleven patios, nine fountains, and one hundred marble / u • outijujt 
 columns." Of the elaboration of its workmanship, my sketch may 
 serve to give some idea. It was probably next to the Alcazar^ 
 " Casa de Pilatus," (The most important residence in the Cityy ]This^ 
 house presents one of the rare instances in Spain, in which the Moorish ^n ^f^. 
 stucco-workers have lent themselves to the rendering of Renaissance 
 details. For these, no doubt, they were furnished with drawings or 
 models, since in other parts of the same building, and especially in many 
 beautiful rooms in the interior, where they have apparently been left 
 to themselves, they have reverted partly to Mudejar work, and partly 
 to the old types of geometrical enrichment, which may be regarded as 
 
122 ONE OF THE ARCHES OF THE PATIO OF THE CAS A ALBA. 
 
 specifically their own. Much of this is almost reduced to a flat surface 
 yfcuAoWttt / by -ffwkt tud cs uf coats of whitewash. I was very much pleased, 
 
 / however, to meet with one Spanish gentleman occupying a suite of 
 
 rooms in the house, who was fully alive to the beauty of the Palace 
 he lived in ; and who had, with his own hands, cleared off some of the 
 whitewash, and restored much of the fine ornamental detail of his 
 rooms to its original sharpness. Would that there were more like him 
 in Spain ! 
 
 Thio hou s e wa s formerly known- a s " dc los Pincdos." ' *~ 
 
• 2>£.V 
 
P/ATE LVIL 
 
 SEVILLE. 
 DETAIL FROM THE PATIO OF THE CASA ALBA. 
 
 URNING from a consideration of the grand scale upon which 
 the houses of the old Spanish nobility have been usually 
 constructed, and the elaboration with which, as in the present sketch, 
 the profuse ornamental detail has been combined with heraldic insignia 
 to set forth the splendour and dignity of the family and its alliances, to 
 the ruin and dilapidation which seem to have fallen alike upon the 
 architecture and the families, one naturally wonders at the causes of 
 the almost total wreck. Some may, no doubt, bs found in active 
 assailment from without, invasion, revolution, " y otras cosas de 
 Espaiia ;" but it is from within that the real main enemy — pride — has 
 undermined all. During the latter part of the sixteenth, and early part 
 of the seventeenth century, this national infirmity reached its acme. 
 Witness emphatically the sketch given by an eye-witness towards the 
 close of the last named century. 
 
 " It would grieve a body to see the ill-management of some great 
 lords ; there are divers who will never go to their estates (for so they 
 call their lands, their towns, and castles) but pass all their lives at 
 Madrid, and trust all to a steward, who makes them believe what he 
 
■^ 
 
 .24 DETAIL FROM THE PATIO OF THE CAS A ALBA. 
 
 judges most for his own interest. They will not so much as vouchsafe 
 to inquire whether he speaks true or false ; this would be tco exact, 
 and by consequence below them. This, methinks, is one considerable 
 fault ; the strange profusion of vessels only for an egg and a pigeon 
 is another. But it is not only in these things which they fail, but it 
 is also in the daily expences of their houses. They know not what it 
 is to lay up stores, or make provision of anything ; but every day they 
 fetch in what they want, and all upon trust, at the bakers, cooks, 
 butchers, and all other trades ; they are even ignorant what they set 
 down in their books, and they put down what price they will for every 
 thing they sell ; this matter is neither examined into nor contradicted. 
 There are often fifty horses in a stable, without either corn cr straw, 
 and they perish with hunger. And when the master is in bed, if he 
 should be taken ill in the night, he would be at a great loss, for they 
 let nothing remain in his house, neither wine nor water, charcoal nor 
 wax-candle, and in a word nothing at all ; for though they do not take 
 in provisions so near that there is r.othirg left, yet his servants have a 
 custom of carrying the overplus away to their own lodgings, and the 
 next day they furnish themselves with the same things again. They 
 observe no better rules with the tradesmen. A man or woman of 
 quality had rather die than to haggle for, or ask the price of a stuff, 
 or lace, or any other thing, or to take the remainder of a piece of 
 gold ; they rather chusc to give it the tradesman, for his pains of 
 i having sold them for ten pistoles) which was not worth five. If there 
 is a reasonable price made, he that sells to them is so honest not to 
 take the advantage of their easiness to give whatever is asked them ; 
 and as they have credit given them for ten years together, without even 
 thinking of paying, so at last they find themselves under great difficulties 
 Xvith their debts." 
 

P^ATE LVIII. 
 
 SEVILLE. 
 
 ARCHES FROM THE CASA DE LOS ABADES. 
 
 HE architectural style of this very pretty house^No. 9, in the / 
 Calle de los Abades, is much purer, that is more Italian, in its 
 plateresque, than is usual in other houses in Seville in which the hand 
 cf the skilful Moorish operative is to be distinctly perceived. This 
 is to be accounted for by the fact, that although the mansion existed as a 
 house of importance at the commencement of the fifteenth century,* 
 the architectural features which now meet the eye were all executed 
 for the rich Genoese family of the Pinedos about 1533. If it were not 
 for the peculiar engrailed double edging to the arches, the thinness of 
 the marble central window shaft, and a few oriental turns here and 
 there given to the foliage, and enrichments of the mouldings, one could 
 almost believe that this architecture was regular Genoese cinque-cento. 
 It is possible however, that although here in the midst of ordinary 
 Spanish Plateresque one is tempted to cry out " Oh ! how Italian this 
 is!" if one could only meet with a precisely similar building in Genoa; 
 one would be quite as much tempted to exclaim, " Oh ! how Spanish 
 
 * O'Shta states (page 410) that the Infante Don Fernando, uncle of Juan II., lodged in it 
 in 1407. 
 
\26 ARCHES FROM THE CASA DE LOS ABADES. 
 
 this is!" The fact of course is, that it exhibits a mixture of the twd 
 styles, produced under the exceptional circumstances to which I have" 
 alluded. 
 
 After passing from its Genoese owners, it was inhabited by certain 
 Abades, rich members of the Cathedral Staff, who left behind them 
 their name, but no very popular odour of sanctity, 
 
 " En la calle cL- los Abades, 
 Todos han Tios, y ningunos Padres."* 
 
 So runs the jingle Ford quotes, with manifest glee, adding as a 
 sequel to bring the matter home to the right offenders, 
 
 "Los Canonigos Madre, no tienen nijos; 
 Los que tienen en casa, son sobrinicos."f 
 
 Possibly it may have been some of these very " sobrinicos " who 
 hindered my sketching by many small practical "chistes," for as the 
 Patio served as a play-ground to a tumultuous little boys' school, I 
 found it by no means conducive to that state of mind which facilitates 
 elaborate sketching. I fear also that such an occupation of its 
 graceful galleries may not prove conducive to the preservation of 
 the noses, and possibly even of the heads, of the " Caballeros de 
 mucha consideracion," who fill the medallions of the spandrels of the 
 principal arches of the Patio. 
 
 * In the Street of the Abbots, all have uncles none fa Hi e is. 
 
 f The Cathedral Canons have no sons, those they keep at home are little nephews. 
 
j^-.-^WlUf. IS„>? 
 
z/y 
 
 SEVIL 
 
 VIEW IN THE PATIO OF THE CASA DE LOS ABADES. 
 
 N spite of all the habits of reckless extravagance 'in the days 
 when America poured its/ countless riches into the mother- 
 
 JL wnen America pourea its/ 
 
 country described by travellers/ and in spite of the quantity' of money rf f r J A ) A .c 
 
 which must have been lavished I by nobles and superior ecclesiastics, (f 
 
 (jas in the case of the extremely elegant Renaissance " Casa de los A 
 
 Abades," which forms the subject of our fifty-eighth sketch^ the 
 home-life of Spain never approached the contemporary plenty and 
 comfort which obtained in Italy, France, and England. In spite 
 of the occasional prodigality of wedding feasts, such as that of 
 Camacho in Don Quixotte, and in spite, perhaps, of a little 
 occasional " gourmanderie " on the part of the " Senores Abades " 
 of this Calle, neither cooking nor service appear to have been 
 carried to much perfection. It is in fact very curious, in wandering 
 over any fine old Spanish house, to observe how little provision 
 appears to have been made in them architecturally for the kitchen 
 and its service. Ornament appears to have been much more general 
 in the public parts of the richest houses than good fare in the 
 interior and private parts. Nor was there any such movement 
 
i*8 VIEW IN THE PATIO OF THE CASA DE LOS ADADES. 
 
 towards excess in this particular, as usually accompanies the passage 
 of a wealthy and powerful people from wealth and power, through 
 laziness, to poverty and weakness. 
 
 So late as 1775, the year in which Philip Thicknesse* travelled 
 through part of Spain, and whilst it was yet a comparatively 
 unbroken-up country, domestic luxury had reached but a little way 
 beyond the satisfaction of the simplest wants of nature in the 
 simplest way. "The people of fashion in general," he says, "have 
 no idea of serving their tables with elegance, or eating delicately ; 
 but rather, in the style of our forefathers, without spoon or fork, 
 they use their own fingers, and give drink from the glass of 
 others ; foul their napkins and cloaths exceedingly, and are served 
 at table by servants who are dirty, and often very offensive. I 
 was admitted, by accident, to a gentleman's house, of large fortune, 
 while they were at dinner ; there were seven persons at a round 
 table, too small for five ; two of the company were visitors ; 
 yet neither their dinner was so good, nor their manner of eating 
 it so delicate, as may be seen in the kitchen of a London 
 tradesman. The dessert (in a country where fruit is so fine and 
 so plenty) was only a large dish of the seeds of pomegranates, 
 which they eat with wine and sugar. In truth, Sir, an Englishman 
 who has been the least accustomed to eat at genteel tables, is, 
 of all other men, least qualified to travel into other kingdoms, 
 and particularly into Spain ; ocpceially ; — if — wha t — Swift — says be 
 ■ tru e; — that — ft — n\cr man ia a man — o f dirty — rdra»>' 
 
 * " A Year's Journey through France and Part of Spain," by Philip Thicknesse. Bath, 
 •777. Vol. I. pages 260-1. 
 
r ^MM. 
 
 I 
 
 X H<v I 
 
 To? • A. 
 
 PEiEP- iMTO Ai< ' OROiNHHY frATIO 
 
/ 
 
 Htr^c e*-^ / 
 
 P L ATE LX. 
 SEVILLE. 
 
 A PEEP INTO AN ORDINARY PATIO. 
 
 N several previous dcaciip t iono, I have described the uses of the 
 Patios in olden times, and on a large scale, and the degree to 
 which they have been made, as architectural contrivances, to fall in 
 with popular manners and customs. It remains to notice the extent 
 to which the Spaniards of to-day sympathise in this respect with their 
 forefathers, and how essential the Patio still is to the happiness of 
 domestic life. It is at once cool and airy, and may be made quite 
 private or semi-public at pleasure. With its iron gate to the street 
 closed, and a screen drawn across it, it becomes private, and with 
 its door opened it occupies in modern life exactly the position which 
 the " Atrium " used to occupy in ancient classical life. An awning^lrawn_ 
 across from side to side of the Patio answers to the Roman Velarium, 
 closing the Impluvium ; and gives shade and softened light during the 
 glare of mid-day, allowing the court of the house to be used as the 
 ordinary sitting-room of the family. Theophile Gautier* gives a pretty 
 picture of the facility with which the Patio may be converted at night 
 into the " Salon," in which, what answers to the Soiree of the French, 
 is usually given by the Spaniards. " The Tertullia," he says, " is held 
 
 * In his amusing "Tra los Montes." Bruxelles, 18+3. Vol. II. page 44. 
 
130 A PEEP INTO AN ORDINARY PATIO. 
 
 • n the Patio which is surrounded by columns of alabaster, ar.d 
 ornamented with a fountain, the basin of which is encircled with flowers 
 and masses of foliage, on the leaves of which the trickling drops fall in 
 small showers. Six or eight lights are suspended against the walls, chairs 
 and sofas of straw or cane furnish the arcades ; guitars are laid about 
 here and there, and the piano occupies one angle and a whist-table 
 another. The guests, on entering, salute the master and mistress of 
 the house, who never fail, after the usual compliments, to offer a cup 
 of chocolate, which may or may not be refused, and a cigarette which 
 is generally accepted. These duties fulfilled, the visitor may attach 
 himself to whichever group in the corners of the Patio he may consider 
 most attractive. The family and the elderly guests play cards. The 
 young gentlemen talk to the young ladies, and in fact, if they are 
 so minded while away the time in innocent flirtation, or perhaps less 
 innocent gossip and tittle-tattle." The Patio thus becomes the stage 
 on which the elegant senoritas display their most winning fascinations, 
 and "spin cobwebs to catch flies " in the shape of "novios." 
 
 It is principally in those cities in which classical and oriental 
 tradition is still strongest, such as Segovia, Toledo, Granada, and 
 Seville, that the use of the Patio, as the Romans ar.d Moors used 
 their open air Cortiles, is chiefly affected. Our sketch was taken in 
 Seville, but hundreds of similar sketches might readilv be taken there, 
 or elsewhere. There is nevertheless a special charm about these Seville 
 houses, in spite of their remorseless whitewash, which makes lite in 
 them most pleasant. This has no doubt justified the old proverb, 
 fj/ quoted in GcrmtnlLatin and Italian by Berckenmeyern* "Wen Gott 
 lieb hat, Jem giebt er ein Haus in Sevilia." (To whom God loves he 
 gives a house in Seville). 
 
 * Neu-vcrnivhrter Curieuser Antiquarius. Hamburgh. 17JI. 
 

P/ATE LXI. 
 
 1 
 
 CADIZ. 
 
 INTERNAL VIEW OF THE CATHEDRAL. 
 
 SWINBURNE,* who visited Cadiz in January, 1775, and who 
 certainly possesses the merit (so far I can find out) of being 
 the first Englishman who made any drawings from the remains of 
 ancient architecture in Spain, found the Cathedral of that city, " la 
 nueva,"^ intended to supersede the mean "la vieja," built in 1597,) 
 in course of construction, and the following is his description of 
 what he then saw. " On the shore stands the Cathedral, a work of 
 great expense, but carried on with so little vigour, that it is difficult 
 to guess at the term of years it will require to bring it to per- 
 fection ; I think fifty have already elapsed since the first stone was 
 laid, and the roof is not yet half finished. The vaults are executed 
 with great solidity. The arches that spring from the clustered 
 pilasters to support the roof of the church are very bold ; the minute 
 sculpture bestowed upon them seems superfluous, as all the effect 
 will be lost from their great height, and from the shade that will 
 
 * Travels through Spain in the year 1775 and 1776, in which several monuments of Roman 
 and Moorish architecture are illustrated by accurate drawings taken on the spot by Henry 
 Swinburne, Esq. London. 4-to. 1779. 
 
132 
 
 INTERNAL VIEW OF THE CATHEDRAL. 
 
 A^x ^ 
 
 «L 
 
 be thrown upon them by the filling up of the interstices. From the 
 sea, the present top of the church resembles the carcase of some huge 
 monster cast upon its side, rearing its gigantic blanched ribs high 
 above the buildings of the city. The outward casings are to be of 
 white marble, the bars of the windows of bronze ; but I fear the 
 work will be coarsely done, if one may draw inference from the sample 
 of a small chapel, where the squares are so loosely jointed and ill 
 fitted, that in a few years the facing will be quite spoilt. It is 
 unfair to prejudge a piece of architecture in such an imperfect state, 
 but I apprehend the style of this will be crowded and heavy." 
 
 In spite of all Swinburne's forebodings the real effect of this 
 Cathedral is now, internally at least, vast and stately, although in too florid 
 a style as to detail to be quite satisfactory. The true cause of much 
 of the delay, culminating in total stoppage in 1769, of which Swinburne 
 complains, was the cupidity of certain Commissioners who appropriated 
 to themselves the funds (a tax on American imports) allotted by the 
 government for k^ee^em To give a cover to their gross dishonesty, 
 they laid blame on the designs of the architect, Vicente Accra,* 
 which could not, as they averred, be completed. At last, in 1S32, the 
 scandal was wiped out by the zeal and liberality of Bishop Domingo 
 de Silos Moreus who caused the interior to be completed, and the 
 exterior partially so, mainly out of his ©w^privy purse. 
 
 * O-Shea adJ. the name ofCayon to that of Aceto, d rail , the two as chscending from 
 the Salamanca school, founded by Churriguera and I' >mfi. 
 
k 
 
.MALAGA 
 
 •THE l-3«NTA\lh'-0I"-THK-.il-MMfPM ' 
 

 P/-ATE LXII. 
 MALAGA. 
 
 THE FOUNTAIN OF THE ALAMEDA. 
 
 IN almost every Spanish town there exists a feature, too often 
 wanting, under similar circumstances, in England, in the shape 
 of a public walk, or "paseo." In these popular airing places in the 
 summer heats the inhabitants turn out, take exercise, meet and chat with 
 one another, the poor with the rich (by mutual consent) under the 
 shade of green trees, usually within compass of the scent of flowers, 
 and almost invariably within hearing of the pleasant trickle ot 
 some pretty fountain. Such places, which, as their name imports, 
 the Spaniards have inherited, with almost all that makes life 
 pleasant, from the Moors, are called « Alamedas." In this particular 
 Malaga is especially favoured, for not only is her Alameda, which 
 forms the principle Plaza of the city, cooled by refreshing breezes 
 from the sea, 
 
 " La que bafia duke el mar 
 Entre Jazmin y Azahar." 
 
 but it is adorned by one of the prettiest fountains in the world. 
 It is made of pure white marble, and of such exquisite workmanship that 
 
i U THE FOUNTAIN OF THE ALAMEDA. 
 
 LJk. it would betray its Italian origirkt a glance, even if it did not possess 
 a history of its own which places the fact beyond a doubt. 
 
 Ordered originally at Genoa by Charles V. for his Palace at 
 Granada, it was shipped on its completion for conveyance thither 
 on board a Spanish galleon.* On the voyage the vessel was 
 captured by Barbarossa, and recovered by Don Bernardino de Mendoza, 
 General de Galeras. Ford remarks that the costume (a la fig 
 leaf) of the nymphs and Amorini which adorn it is somewhat 
 too slight for Spanish ideas of propriety, and O'Shea caps his 
 observation by commenting on its perfect suitability to the Malagan 
 i climate. 
 
 1/ I * There is a little discrepancy be/ween Ford's and O'Shea's accounts, the former says 
 
 that it was given by the Republic of Genoa to Charles V., the latter gives the facts as I have stated 
 them. 
 
PLATE LIII. 
 
 MALAGA. 
 
 RENAISSANCE HOUSE IN THE CALLE SANT AUGUSTIN. 
 
 NOT only is Malaga endowed with an " eternal summer" by its 
 lovely climate, there being actually no " winter of its 
 discontent," but it has also enjoyed historically a splendid and long 
 summer of prosperity, its present state being comparatively a twiligh tr LAaa-aaaamaaa. <aX. 
 This " golden age " existed under the Moors for many centuries / 
 
 preceding the dreadful siege laid to the city by the Catholic kings, which 
 ended on the 1 8th of August, 1487. It has never altogether recovered 
 from the christianising influences then brought to bear upon it, though the 
 charms of its position and climate prevented its being altogether 
 deserted at any time. They indeed produced an after-crop of splendour, 
 in the shape of fine residences of powerful nobility, enriched many of 
 them by the spoils of the Moors, and yet more by the silver of 
 America and the great profits of the foreign trade, to say nothing of 
 the smuggling carried on in its port. Of such our sketch presents a 
 specimen, more Italian in its character than would be likely to be met 
 with in Spain, in any other locality than a " Port de Mer." The great 
 establishment of the Genoese merchants, the " Casa de los Genoveses," 
 may have exercised a powerful local influence upon the arts, and 
 
136 RENAISSANCE HOUSE IN THE CALLE SANT AUGUSTIN. 
 
 especially the architecture of Malaga, as that of our " Merchants of 
 the Steleyard " did upon those of London. 
 
 In the distance is seen one of the cupola-covered towers of the 
 vast Cathedral — most promising and picturesque from a distance, but 
 unsatisfactory in its incompleteness, when visited by the Ecclesiologist. 
 

 

 p/.ATE LTV. 
 
 X 
 
 MALAGA. 
 
 OLD WINDOW OF THE OSPEDALE DE SANTO TOME. 
 
 HIS pretty window of, as I believe, the early part of the 
 sixteenth century is evidently of Mudejar design with little 
 of the Moorish element left in it, excepting the obvious Orientalism 
 of the workman. Take away the engrailed intrados of the arch., 
 and the little dove-tailed break in the line of the archivolt, and 
 all that is Moorish in the design would disappear; but still the 
 particular mode of combining the brick and tile work would be 
 left to show the disinclination of the Moor to quit or alter his 
 old technical habits as an operative. 
 
 This window is associated in my memory with some sad 
 scenes of suffering. It is situated, as it were, on the road to a 
 sort of wicket or buttery-hatch, at which aid is given daily to 
 cripples out of the funds of the great Hospital of Santo Tome. At 
 an early hour these poor creatures, the halt, maimed, diseased, and 
 blind, take up their stations against the wall, and gradually creep 
 onwards towards the spot at which the distribution takes place. 
 The " Ay de mis " and " Por l'amor de Dios," echo in a 
 dismal strain, interrupted only by a few especially ferocious oaths 
 
 \ 
 
138 OLD WINDOW OF THE OSPEDALE DE SAMO TOME. 
 
 as one a little stronger or more active than the rest struggles 
 forwards to cheat the others of their turn. The whole scene 
 would have made an admirable subject for Callot's needle, Hurtado de 
 Mendoza's pen, or Van Obstal's chisel. Lazarillo de Tormes and 
 his blind " Amo " sat before me ; and one could clearly recognise 
 what it must have cost noblemen, like D. Miguel de Manana and 
 his " cofrades " of the vast Hospital of the " Caridad " at Sevillej </S 
 (the prototype no doubt ^f the Malagan Hospital), to carry on their 
 works of mercy in the midst of a dirt and squalor which should 
 be seen to be realised. 
 
 ^_ 
 
-,;^p|-k^^^-- ;7 ^-^; 
 
 
 
P L ATE LXV. 
 MALAGA. 
 
 KNOCKER OF THE MONASTERY OF SANT' JAGO- 
 
 TRAVELLERS in Spain rarely fail to observe and comment 
 on the great strength of -^entrance doors, the thick planks forming 
 which are frequently held together by iron bars, or plating, with 
 ponderous bolts, or nail-heads, often of very pretty design. Such 
 doors have descended apparently from Roman days, and the retention 
 of the type, by Moor and Christian down to the present day, has been 
 regarded as an evidence of the proverbially jealous temperament of 
 the Spaniard. I think it bears a much clearer testimony to the want 
 of good police in the streets, and the frequency of quarrels and rows, 
 to say nothing of marauders and more serious fighters in disastrous 
 times. One is strengthened in this belief by the inclination ever shown 
 by the old Spaniards to have as few external windows as possible on 
 the ground floors of their houses, and those few raised high above 
 the pathway, and protected by close and strong iron grilles and thick 
 shutters. These may have been useful restraints on the love-making 
 propensities of the Spanish Lotharios; but the difficulties they presented 
 to pilferers and " Soldados de Fortuna," when a little out of luck, 
 were, perhaps, of even greater importance to the householder. 
 
140 KNOCKER OF THE MONASTERY OF S/NV J AGO. 
 
 The portion of the door I have sketched, formed part of a solid 
 defence against a formidable class in Spain, bold in attack, and not 
 easily cast down even in retreat — the beggars. Much of the enormous 
 sums given by the devout to God in Catholic times, this class 
 believed they had as good right to scramble for as the monks ; and 
 it behoved the latter to fortify themselves, as they never failed to do, 
 pretty strongly against the importunity of the former. No doubt the 
 coronetted knocker of the Monastery of Sant' Jago was intended to 
 inspire the beggars with fitting awe, and an intimation that it was 
 not to be audaciously handled by vulgarity. Some such scarecrow 
 was certainly locally necessary, for I well remember being driven away 
 by clustering beggars no less than four times before I could accomplish 
 my very hasty sixty-fifth sketch. 
 

 
 u. 
 
 < 
 
 ■ 
 < 
 
p/ate lxvi. 
 
 // 
 
 GRANADA. 
 
 REMAINS OF THE ALHAMBRA AS SEEN FROM THE 
 
 ALBAYCIN. 
 
 T O one looking from the quarter of the city to which, after its 
 conquest by the Christians in 1480, the Moors who lingered 
 behind the bulk of their fellows, were relegated/as the Jews by the 
 Popes to the Ghetto at RomeJ would be justified in supposing that the 
 stern-looking and dilapidated fortresses, and lines of walling of vast 
 height and apparent strength, which meet the eye, contained nearly 
 complete specimens of the loveliest and most elaborate system ot 
 ornamentation, both in form and colour, which has ever 
 existed. The position of the Alhambra is worthy in every respect of 
 the treasures of art it contains. It overlooks the Vega, an extended 
 plain, which in the days of the city's prosperity was literally one vast 
 garden, and even in the present day is, to most of central Spain, pretty 
 nearly what an oasis may be supposed to be to a desert. 
 
 On the extreme left in this sketch is seen the great mass of the 
 "Torre de Comares," which contains the celebrated Hall of the 
 Ambassadors^ next to it on the right are the ancient buildings of the 
 Patio de la Mezquita or Mosque. Behind these, and further to the right, 
 
142 REMAINS OF THE ALHAMDRA AS SEEN FROM THE ALBAYCIN. 
 
 
 rises the great rectangular mass of the Palace of Charles V. The flat 
 space, in front and on the right of the Palace, is known as the Plaza de 
 los " Algibcs " (of the tanks) and the mass of towers and buildings beyond 
 are those of the Alcazaba, (the fortress) with, conspicuous on the 
 extreme right, the Torre de la Vela/the Watch-Tower) from which 
 a constant look-out was kept far and wide over the city to the west, 
 and the far spreading Vega to the west and south. On the horizon 
 stretched the great range of snow-clad mountains, the Sierra Nevada. 
 
 The beauty of the view from this tower cannot be exceeded, and 
 I never shall forget the aspect of the scene upon one especially lovely 
 moonlight night. By such soft -illumination, the desolation of which 
 one -sees so much by day /is passed over in the breadth of the great 
 masses of light and shade. As the moonlight caught the snow-clad 
 peaks of the Sierra Nevada, and traced itself in the silver lines of the 
 winding River Genii, -until coming from the far off distance to the 
 city beneath,, in the thousands of twinklng lights ofYwhich its silver 
 threads got tangled and lost, everything seemed perfect ; and as one 
 turned away towards the nearer mountain heights, and saw upon their 
 
 UnzJj 
 
 ■Mi 
 
 
 ) hilly eastern slopes, the Generali%, and the Alhambra, almost close at 
 hand, one felt inclined to forget the present in the past and to 
 / think of ruin as perfection, and of death as life. 
 
 By day the illusion was destroyed, the young Alhambra of the 
 night faded away, and in its place one saw all the seams and 
 stains and wrinkles age had left upon its hoary head/ and face/'all the 
 more painfully perhaps from the efforts one recognises as having been 
 made here and there, by loving and anxious hands, to mend and 
 palliate conspicuous decay. 
 

KAN AD A. 
 
 
 
P/ATE LXVIIi 
 
 GRANADA. 
 
 ENTRANCE TO THE BOSQUE DEL ALHAMBRA* 
 
 OUR sixty-seventh sketch illustrates the road by which the traveller 
 usually ascends from the City of Granada to the delights of 
 the Alhambra. On passing through the massive gateway, seen in the 
 middle of the sketch, he finds himself in a thickly-planted wood ot 
 " bosque," cool, shady, refreshing, and beautiful. At several turns 
 in the winding road^fountains, abundantly supplied with crystal water, 
 charm his eye and ear at the same moment. With his pulse just 
 quickened by the gradual ascent, everything seems to conduce to ease 
 of body, and to throw him into a happy frame of mind for enjoying the 
 feast of beauty which lies in store for him. As a preparation for such 
 a. banquet, I know nothing better calculated to insure a healthy 
 digestion of the artistic " pabulum " the Alhambra furnishes, than a 
 thorough acquaintance with the views of Owen Jones upon the subject 
 of Moorish art generally. 
 
 If in his noble work on the Alhambra he has described the svstem 
 
144 ENTRANCE TO THE BOSQUE DEL ALHAMBRA. 
 
 of decoration of the Moors, it is in his " Grammar of Ornament " that 
 he has weighed its sterling metal, against all the various alloys which 
 have in history, at d'fferent times, been more or less confounded with 
 it. For instance as compared with Arabian Art the following is his 
 verdict : " Generally, the main differences that exist between the 
 Arabian and Moresque styles may be summed up thus, the constructive 
 features of the Arabs possess more grandeur, and those of the Mccrs 
 more refinement and elegance."* 
 
 The art of the Turks he places on a lower platform than that 
 of the Arab, and therefore far below the Moorish. Their system of 
 ornamentation he says "Is a modification of the Arabian, bearing 
 about the same relation to this style as Elizabethan does to Italian 
 Renaissance. 
 
 " When the art of one people is adopted by another having the 
 same religion, but differing in natural character and instincts, we 
 should expect to find a deficiency in all those qualities in which the 
 borrowing people are inferior to their predecessors. And thus it is 
 with the Art of the Turks as compared with the Art of the Arabs : 
 there is the same difference in the amount of elegance and refinement 
 in the Art of the two people as exists in their national character." 
 While he acknowledges the extent to which Arabian, and consequently 
 Moorish Art may have been originally indebted to Persian, he considers 
 that the former ever maintained a superiority over the latter. This 
 he accounts for by observing that, " the Persians, unlike the Arabs 
 and the Moors, were free to introduce animal life, and this mixing 
 
 * A comparatively new light has been thrown upon the refinement of Arabian work by the 
 exquisite illustrations contained in the fine «wk, "L'Art Arabe," by M. Prisse d'Avennes. 
 Paris, 1871. Morel, 
 
 (ACc<iyfe?x-y 
 
ENTRANCE TO THE BOSQUE DEL ALHAMBRA. 145 
 
 ■ up of subjects drawn from real life in their decoration led to a much 
 * less pure style of ornament. With the Arabs and Moors, ornaments 
 with their inscriptions had to supply every want, and reached a 
 higher point of elaboration. Persian ornament is a mixed style; 
 combining the conventional, which is similar to the Arabian, and 
 probably derived from a common origin, with an attempt at the 
 natural which sometimes has influenced both the Arabian and Turkish 
 styles, and is even felt in portions of the Alhambra. The great 
 attention paid to the illuminating of manuscripts in Persia, which, 
 doubtless, were widely disseminated in Mohammedan countries, would 
 readily spread the influence of this mixed style. The decorations of 
 the houses of Cairo and Damascus, the mosques and fountains of 
 Constantinople, more especially, exhibit this mixed style ; groups of 
 natural flowers are constantly found growing from a vase and enclosed 
 in panels of conventional Arabian ornament. The ornament of modern 
 India also feels this ever present influence of the Persian mixed 
 style." These words are not, it should be remembered, those of a 
 casual observer, of a traveller who records the fleeting impression of 
 the hour, but of the man who better, I believe, than any other 
 living man understands the subject upon which he is speaking. His 
 knowledge too is not that of the theorist only ; as a practical designer 
 he has tested the applicability of the lessons he has derived from his 
 studies^ and shown that such studies lead to certain and foreknown 
 results of great beauty, applicable to the Arts and Industries of the 
 Present, as he traced their perfect harmony in days of old with the 
 Arts and Industries of the Past. 
 
 Of the Alhambra itself as the culminating point of Moorish Art, 
 as the Parthenon is of Greek Art, he declares his belief that there is 
 
i-t'J ENTRANCE TO THE BOSQUE DEL ALHAMBRA. 
 
 " no work so fitted to illustrate a grammar of ornament as that in 
 which every ornament contains a grammar in itself. Every principle 
 which we can derive from the study of the ornamental art of any 
 other people is not only ever present here, but was by the Moors 
 universally and truly obeyed." 
 
 " We find in the Alhambra the speaking art of the Egyptians, the 
 natural grace and refinement of the Greeks, the geometrical combina- 
 tions of the Romans, the Byzantines, and the Arabs. The ornament 
 wanted but one charm, which was the peculiar feature of the Egyptian 
 ornament, symbolism. This the religion of the Moors forbade ; but 
 the want was more than supplied by the inscriptions, which, addressing 
 themselves to the eye by their outward beauty, at once excited the 
 intellect by the difficulties of deciphering their curious and complex 
 involutions, and delighted the imagination when read, by the beauty 
 of the sentiments they exprecced and the music of their composition. 
 To the artist and those provided with VmincL to estimate the value of 
 the beauty to which they gave a life, they repeated Look and Learn." 
 
 It is not, of course, from the study of the monuments of one 
 | id, or of one locality, that any accurate idea is to be formed cf 
 the Architecture of any races, whose national history and whose 
 dominion have extended for many centuries over many lands. Nor, 
 indeed, is a just appreciation of the art'stic value of the system of 
 Art, scctionally studied, to be arrived at until the student has compared 
 it with its antecedents in its own and other localities. Such works, 
 therefore, as offer to the inquirer means for instituting studies of the 
 nature alluded to, acquire peculiar value, although necessarily incomplete 
 for sectional study. The student of Oriental Architecture, from this 
 point of view, has been laid under a debt of gratitude by M. Girault 
 
ENTRANCE TO THE BOSQUE DEL ALHAMBRA. 147 
 
 de Prangey,* whose works enable him to obtain a fair idea of the 
 varieties of style practised by the Mahomedan races in Asia Minor, 
 Syria, Egypt, Spain, Sicily and Barbary. Through all these there 
 evidently runs a harmony of system, but not the less clearly have we to 
 recognize an endless variety of detail, and an incessantly changeful 
 development — reaching its climax certainly in the Alhambra at Granada. 
 
 * See especially for Spain, his " Monuments Arabes et Moresques de Cordoue, Seville et 
 Grenade." Paris, 1832-3, and its continuation— " Monuments Arabes d'Egypte de Syrie et 
 d'Asie Mineure," 1S42-5, Paris. The above are essentially pictorial works, but in his " Essai 
 sur ['Architecture des Arabes et des Maures," &c, Paris, 1841, he has discussed the whole 
 subject historically with much ability. 
 


 g • ^: 
 
 
 
 ryis^fs^r. — • ;isB:J^uM- >»ue^TA-»g-JUSTiCiA 
 
'/ 
 
 P/ AT^- LXVIII. 
 
 GRANADA. 
 
 PUERTA DE JUSTICIA. 
 
 WENDING his way upwards through the beautiful " Bosque," it 
 is on arriving at the celebrated " Gate of Justice "* that the 
 traveller first finds himself face to face with the Moor, and his wise and 
 patriarchal habits, as well as his inherent love for the beautiful. Within 
 these venerable walls once sat the Monarch, as Solomon sat, to 
 administer justice to the poorest, as to the richest, of his subjects. On 
 the side shown to the outer world the archway wears the stern features 
 of the fortress; while on the inner side, the one shown in my sketch, 
 there are traces of a beauty and richness suitable to the Palace to which 
 it led. What is most remarkable architecturally about this Gateway is, 
 firstly, the ingenuity of its plan for resisting surprise in attack ; and, 
 secondly, the beauty of the coloured tiles by which its inside elevation 
 is decorated. 
 
 First, with respect to its plan. This, so far as the passage way 
 from gate to gate (carried between walls of great thickness and 
 massive construction) is concerned, assumes the form of two letters L 
 
 * P!an section and elevation of the outer side of this Gateway, to a large scale, will be 
 found on Plate II. of Owen Jones's great work on the Alhambra. I sketched the interior of this 
 Gateway, mainly because that was the only part of it he had not given. 
 
 ml<M^I 
 
 K 
 
i 5 o PVERTA DE JUST1CIA. 
 
 placed in contact with one another, thus, 4 f J B , the gate of entry 
 from without being at A, and the gate of exit at B. The consequence 
 is that no assailant entering from A can form any idea of what 
 preparations for resistance may exist in the interior of the gateway. 
 Neither can he gain anything by a rush, as the impetus of any attack 
 would be broken bv the necessities of having to stop, turn round and 
 start in another direction for too short a distance, before having to 
 check and turn again, to acquire any momentum or " elan." Even 
 after fighting his way from gate to gate, the assailant would only find 
 himself in a narrow gallery between high walls and upper platforms 
 through which it would be most difficult to advance, exposed to 
 missiles from every direction. While attacking the outer gate and 
 intermediate obstacles, the besieger would, of course, be liable to the 
 amenities of molten lead, Sec, from the upper chambers of the Gateway. 
 Secondly, with respect to the beauty of the coloured tiles. These 
 are unlike, both in colour and texture, as well as I could see, any other 
 tiles existing in the Alhambra, or any left at Cordova, Seville or Toledo. 
 My impression is, that they may have been a present from Damascus, 
 Cairo, or from Persia proper. The peculiar deep granulated blue which 
 is conspicuous in them, I have only seen in fragments *& ancient 
 Mosques i which have been brought from the East. The mode of 
 manufacture is not that either of the usual Moorish and Spanish 
 Azulejos, with raised outlines forming compartments for the separate 
 colours ; nor is it like that of the Majorca tiles and dishes, and the usual 
 
 flat tiles of the Alhambra, which, with their fine white surfaces for 
 
 ... 
 paintings on, formed the basis of Majolica. It is, however, quite like 
 
 that of the half-encaustic, half-painted tiles of the early Mahommedan 
 
 buildings in India, Persia, and especially Arabia proper. 
 

 PU1 Kl I DJ , USTICIA. 
 
 A long inscription occurs in two lines over the inner gateway, 
 towards the exterior. The following is from the translation of the 
 distinguished Arabic student and historian, Don Pasqual de 
 Gayangos. 
 
 " This gate, called Babu-sh-shari'ah (the Gate of the Law) — may 
 God prosper through it the law of Islam, and He made this a lasting 
 monument of His glory— was built at the command of our Lord, 
 the Commander of the Modems, the warlike and just Sultan Abu-1- 
 walid Ibu Naor, (may God remunerate his good deeds in the observance 
 of religion, and accept of his valorous performances in support of the 
 faith). And it was closed for the first time in the glorious month of 
 the birth of our Prophet, in the year 749. May the Almighty make 
 this gate a protecting bulwark, and write down its erection among the 
 imperishable actions of the Just." 
 

 

 PLATE LXIX. 
 GRANADA. THE ALHAMBRA, 
 
 SALA DE EMBAJADORES. 
 
 TO describe the progress of the visitor through the Courts and 
 
 apartments of the " Casa Real," as the Palace of the Alhambra 
 
 is called, would be to echo a more than thrice-told tale. For present 
 
 purposes, it may suffice to say, that in the Hall of the Ambassadors 
 
 he reaches the acme of Moorish magnificence. My sketch represents 
 
 one of the nine" windows by which the hall is lighted on the level of 
 
 the floor. The space from the single arch, which is on the internal 
 
 face of the apartment, to the coupled arches which are on the external 
 
 face of the building, represents the thickness, no less than about eight 
 
 feet, of the wall of the Tower of Comares. The window I have chosen 
 
 'for sketching, looks towards a Renaissance addition to the Alhambra, 
 
 ' made by Charles V. for the accommodation of his Queen. 
 
 This elegant pavilion, from which is obtained a view of almost 
 unparallelled loveliness over the Vega, is known as the " Tocador de 
 la Reina," or, Boudoir of the Queen. 
 
 The Hall of Ambassadors occupies the whole of the internal area 
 on plan of the Tower, and is an apartment thirty-seven feet square 
 and seventy-five feet high. It is entered from the Court of the 
 
SALA DE EMBAJADORES. 
 
 Blessing^ as Mr. O'Shea considers the Patio de la Berkah to be 
 more properly called, than the Coiirt of the Fish Pond) cr " de la 
 
 1/ 
 
 *s 
 
 Alberca," the title by which it is usually known / Advancing from the 
 Patio, the vistor traverses the Sala. Opposite to the dcor of entrance to Y 
 
 the Hall are three windows+ ^m o sf . pr n ; ifie ly Ji ko th tty: «La rw giW . I n the 
 central one appears to have been placed the throne of the Sultan. In each 
 of the walls, c:i the right and left of the entrar.ee, are three nearly- 
 similar windows : the one I have selected for representation bci:;g__the 
 middle one of the three in the wall on the right upon entering 
 dado which runs round the whole of the splendid Hall, is made of Mosaic 
 and Azulejos for a height of about four feet from the pavement ; 
 and above it run bands with inscriptions and medallions. Over the: r, 
 the walls, covered with lace-like diapers in stucco, to a he ; ght of about 
 seven and twenty feet from the floor, run up to a second tier of 
 windows, five on a side, lighting the upper portion of the Hall. JAt 
 a height of about forty feet, occurs a beautiful stalactite cornice from 
 which starts a noble dome, or " Artesonado" ceiling, most ingeniously 
 made in inlaid wood, /gcrgcously(and) -mes* — ha rro < aiti« usW decorated. 
 This ceiling, splendid as it is, occupies the plr.ee only of one yet more 
 marvellous, which fell down. The original ceiling, or rather hollow 
 cone, was of the same description as the existing stalactite, or 
 pendentive, ceilings of the Hallj'of " the Abencerrages," of " Justice" 
 and of " the two Sisters ;" but larger and finer. Mr. Owen Jones 
 has given us, in Plate VII of his magnificent work, a long section, 
 to a large scale, passing from the window in which the throne of the 
 Sultan was placed, through the Hall of the Ambassadors with its 
 arch of entrance, through the Sala de la Barca, the splendid anteroom, 
 as it were, to the Throne room, through the Loggin, or Arcad.e, of 
 
 
 
SALA DE EMBAJADORES. x 55 
 
 // 
 
 the Patio of the Alberca, through the Patio itself, and through the 
 end Loggia of the Court with its exquisite Pavilion on the first floor. 
 From this section can be admirably realised, what must have been the 
 View, or " colpo d'occhio," of the Sultan, as he sat upon his throne to 
 receive foreign Ambassadors.* It seems impossible to conceive of 
 any position more imposing, or better calculated to impress the 
 imagination particularly of Eastern magnates. Even now, bereft of so 
 much that must once have added -rmnrensely to its charm, the view is 
 one of exquisite and most romantic beauty. It is, indeed, a sight to 
 stir a poet's heart, although 
 
 ' Lonely and still are now thy marble halls, 
 
 Thou fair Alhambra ! there the feast is o'er ; 
 And with the murmur of thy fountain falls,f 
 
 Blend the wild tones of minstrelsy no more. 
 Hushed are the voices, that in years gone by, 
 
 Have mourn'd, exulted, menaced, through thy towers, 
 Within thy pillar'd courts the grass waves high, 
 
 And all uncultured bloom thy fairy bowers. 
 Unheeded there the flowering myrtle blows, 
 
 Through tall arcades unmark'd the sunbeam smiles, 
 And many a tint of soften'd brilliance throws 
 
 O'er fretted walls and shining peristyles. "% 
 
 42, 
 
 * A pretty coloured view from this very point will be found in M. Girault de Prangey's 
 
 " Choix d'Ornements moresques de 1' Alhambra," Paris, 18*1^ Plate No. 3. 
 
 + It ic bclii-H >^-—» alabaster fountain «nc^. occupied the centre of the Sala de , 
 
 J. A V_ __ 
 
 Embajadores. 
 
 + It is but just to Sefior Contre'ras to remark that the Poet's picture was sketched before the 
 date of his admirable conservatorship. He is a true artist, and has done wonders in the way of 
 restoration, completing and as little as possible interfering with the marvellous picturesque 
 pharacter of the noble old Palace. 
 
PIE <c 
 
PLATE LXX. 
 
 /. 
 
 GRANADA.— THE A£ HAMBRA. 
 
 STUCCO DETAIL FROM THE HALL OF THE 
 AMBASSADORS. 
 
 N describing the subject of the last sketch, our theme was the 
 general aspect of the " Sala de los Embajadores." I have 
 chosen to let this minute specimen of its detail follow the statement 
 of its large dimensions, in order the more forcibly to convey an 
 idea of its wonderful elaboration. The elegant morsel of stucco- 
 work now presented to the student has been actually traced from 
 a portion of the stucco-work of one of the window recesses 
 immediately above the dado. It affords an admirable illustration of 
 two principles constantly followed by the Moors in their treatment 
 of decoration — viz., to preserve the continuity of all scroll 
 work from root to fully developed foliation — a principle entirely 
 disregarded in all previous ornamentation based upon classical practice — 
 and to care first for larger surfaces to satisfy the eye with 
 harmonious relations of those surfaces to one another, and to the 
 spaces they have to enrich, from a distance ; and then to 
 provide minor fillings and intersections so as to supply adequate 
 elaboration for close inspection. In addition to the decorative effect 
 
S 8 STUCCO DETAIL FROM THE HALL OF THE AMBASSADORS. 
 
 produced by variations in relief, still greater refinement was obtained 
 by patterns in colour, painted upon the surfaces of the modelled 
 ornaments. Although almost everywhere the colour has either been 
 rubbed off, or rubbed into confusion, the abrasion has affected for the 
 most part only the pigment and its albuminous vehicle, leaving the 
 surface of the stucco bare, and showing the outline of the delicate 
 ornament which has been drawn in by the pencil of the artist. 
 
 It is on the nature "of the stucco itself I think it may be yveU to 
 offer here a few remarks. It certainly appears to be harder, closer in 
 texture, tougher, and much less absorbent, than gypsum or plaster of 
 Paris when set' in the usual manner. Lime alone, as ordinarily slacked, 
 would not I believe give any such texture, even if it could be 
 manipulated into similar ornamental forms. I believe the Moorish 
 Stucco to be almost if not quite identical with the Indian " Chunara," 
 and that in its turn to be a substance produced much in the same 
 way that the fine Stucco of the Romans was ordinarily wrought by that 
 / people. In the /treatment of all of these substances, I believe four 
 peculiarities to have been generally used in commo n, Firstly — to 
 employ the finest lime only. Secondly — to mix it with pounded earthen 
 ware. Thirdly — to beat it thoroughly. Fourthly — to use saccharine 
 substances to retard the setting and keep the mass plastic under 
 the tool. 
 , The present is scarcely a fitting occasion upon which to state in 
 
 v) y / any details! the ground, upon which I have been led to this conclusion, 
 ' but I have little doubt that any student will be struck by the identity 
 
 of practice of Roman, Indian, and Moor, who will refer to the 
 practical descriptions of the various modes of the formation of terraces 
 given by Vitruvius, by Captain Phipps, in " The Barrackmaster's 
 

 
 c 
 
 STUCCO DETAIL FROM THE HALL OF THE AMBASSADORS. 159 
 
 Assistant,"* and by John Windus, in his " Journey to Mequinez."f 
 I have elsewhere noticed the command the descendants of the 
 Moors seemed to retain over all operations of plaster and lime work 
 throughout Spain, as evidenced by the beauty and elaboration of the 
 Mudejar style in those materials, long after they ceased to be the 
 dominant race in the localities in which thify continued to practice 
 their old technical arts. 
 
 * Calcutta, 18 21. 
 
 f " A Journey to Mequinez, the residence of the present Emperor of Fez and Morocco, 
 on the occasion of Commodore Stewart's Embassy thither for the redemption of the British 
 Captives in the veer 1 72 1." London, Jacob Tonson. 1725. Avery interesting old book, the 
 descriptions in which carry the mind forcibly back to the Moorish occupation of Spain. 
 

£#' 
 
f 
 
 
 i 
 
 • / 
 
 ;f 
 
 PLATE LXXI 
 
 GRANADA —THE ALHAMBRA. 
 
 , DETAIL OF GLASS INLAY. FROM THE HALL OF THE 
 
 AMBASSADORS. 
 
 HIS little pattern which forms the centre, or eye— the point of 
 departure in fact-of an elaborate geometrical mosaic has been 
 most carefully traced and copied from the original, which yet remains 
 in the centre of the dado on the side of the window on the right of 
 the Sultan's throne in the Hall of the Ambassadors. It may thus be said 
 to occupy an especial post of honour and so to challenge, as it were, 
 curiosity and admiration. Both these a close inspection thoroughly 
 justifies, since in all the history of the manufacture of vitrified 
 Substances I know nothing more curious and puzzling. The pattern 
 is in bluish-black on a white ground/ and both ground and inlay are 
 made apparently in two separate pieces of, glass, and in two only. The 
 most minute inspection shows no joint whatever on the surface of 
 either coloured material/ at the same time it establishes the fact that 
 the ground has been made with the whole pattern sunk "en creux," and 
 that the inlay has been made in one piece-practically a specimen of 
 glass lace-and fixed into the cavity of the ground with a very fine 
 calcareous cement, made probably of lime and white of egg. To inlay 
 
i62 DETAIL FROM THE HALL OF THE AMBASSADORS. 
 
 glass in glass involves little difficulty, if ground and inlay are as it were 
 fused together ; but to produce a ground apparently in glass, and to 
 inlay it with so fine a pattern, both " au froid," is a perfect marvel in 
 
 vitreous manufacture. 
 
 The only way in which I can imagine that such an effect could 
 be produced is as follows, but in offering any such explanation I desire 
 to do so with all due deference to practical glass-workers. I believe 
 that two metal-moulds were made^one with the ornament in relief, and 
 the other with the same ornament sunk in intaglio. From each mould, 
 glass reproductions having been made of about equal substances (so as 
 to contract equally in cooling), and, with the exception of a black 
 film in one case, of the same glass, the two reproductions were stuc 
 together firmly by the calcareous cement. The black glass in " cr.mco " 
 would then be encased within the white glass, in " intaglio," and the 
 pattern would of course be invisible, the two reproductions being firmly 
 stuck together face to face, making apparently one white glass tessera 
 of double the requisite thickness. The back of the cameo side would 
 then have to be ground away, probably at a lapidary's wheel, until the 
 back of the black pattern in cameo should be reached. At the same 
 moment the face of the white intaglio would be exposed/ and the tessera, 
 being reduced to its proper thickness for insertion with the rest of the 
 adjoining glass mosaic, would be fit to permanently combine with it ; 
 showing an elaborate black pattern held in by calcareous cement, on a 
 white face, exactly as it now appears. 
 
 Any such resolution of a difficult technical problem exhibits the 
 Moors to us as excelling in two of their favourite Arts, viz., inlaying 
 and glass manufacture. 
 
 For much of their knowledge of both of these arts there is no doubt 
 

 a 
 
 ;/ 
 
 DETAIL FROM THE HALL OF THE AMBASSqDORS. 163 
 
 that the Moors were indebted to the Arabians. The Arabians were in 
 their turn inheritors from the Byzantine Greeks of many of the traditions 
 of manufacturing excellence once practised by the Romans. Amongst 
 these were, no doubt, almost every process of glass-working and 
 mosaic* Considerable doubts exist as to .either the inheritance by 
 the Greek of the lower empire of the process of inlaying from the 
 Romans, -er their originality in adapting the process to their architecture. 
 The first building in which it appears to have been freely used by the 
 Greeks was the Mosque of Santa Sofia, built by Justinian. For that 
 building he is known to have invoked the assistance of Persian 
 designers and artificers/ and from the divergence in the patterns of those 
 inlays from any patterns usual in Roman cotemporary work, I am inclined 
 to believe that they represent the foreign element to which I have 
 alluded. A most interesting comparison may be made^by the student.of_ 
 the patterns from the Aya Sofia given in Salzenburg's great work, with 
 those of the principal of the Cairene Mosques drawn by Mr. James 
 Wild and given in the " Grammar of Ornament." 
 
 * For full information on the Glass of the Romans, the Byzantine-Greeks, and the Arabs, 
 of Damascus especially, see Mr. Augustus Franks' account in Mr. J. B. Waring's beautiful work 
 on the Manchester Exhibition, Mr. Alexander Nesbitt's " Historical Notice " Introductory to the 
 Catalogue of Mr. Felix Slade's collection, M. Bontemps' "Guide du Verrier," and M. Labarte's 
 ■' Histoire des Arts Industriels au moyen-age et a TEpoque de la Renaissance." 
 

PLATE LXXII. 
 
 GRANADA.— THE ALHAMBRA. 
 
 MOSAIC FROM THE HALL OF THE AMBASSADORS. 
 
 f"N the description of the last sketch I alluded to the sources whence 
 -L the Moors derived much of their knowledge of glass-making 
 and mosaic-working. In the specimen now given, the full size of the 
 original, on the opposite page, a considerable advance is shown upon 
 what was usual in the contemporary, " Opus Grecanicum," as 
 executed, either in Italy or in Greece itself. The advance is principally 
 J shewn in this particular, that whereas in the last mentioned work, every 
 J complicated pattern is made up out of tessera;, or glass strips cut into 
 squares, oblongs, triangles, or other simple figures; in the Moorish 
 work, arbitrary shapes of considerable geometrical complexity are given 
 to each separate piece of mosaic. When these tessera-, so shaped, are 
 brought together, their combination immediately results in the formation 
 of perfect patterns, such as the one now illustrated. Tessera; of this 
 description were no doubt formed by squeezing plastic clay into metal 
 moulds, and almost perfect identity was obtained between the tessera; 
 obtained from the same mould. These, were then apparently covered 
 with coloured vitreous glazes by a subsequent operation. 
 
 In illustration of the advantages possessed by the Moors over the 
 
 
1 66 MOSAIC IN THE HALL OF THE AMBASSADORS. 
 
 Greeks, in working such mosaics as the one I have sketched, it may 
 be noted,that while a Greek would have required, to make up what is 
 shown,' one hundred and nineteen separate pieces} the Moor wanted only 
 forty-nine. Moreover, instead of having to chip every one of the one 
 hundred and nineteen pieces to a definite size and shape, and then to 
 place them slowly so as to ensure the truth of his angles of forty-five 
 and twenty-two and a half degrees, as the Greek or Italian had/ the 
 Moor had only to place one of his forty-nine pieces with precision^ 
 and, provided he never took any of the eleven patterns, of which his 
 repeats are composed, out of their right turn, his mosaic would work 
 itself with scarcely any other attention on his part. Another source 
 of anxiety was saved to him ; viz., constant needfulness as to the 
 working of the interlacement of his lines — /. e. their running, as it 
 were, under and over one another. The result, in this particular, is 
 far clearer and more effective in the Moorish, than according to the 
 Greco-Italian method; since, while in the former there are no joints 
 which do not help to define an interlacement, according to the latter, 
 the joints occurring on the line of mitre of every angle become 
 confused with the joints which express interlacement. A comparison 
 of the Sicilian, with the Alhambrese, geometrical mosaics A would show. 
 
 r. — * — >*-> A y 
 
 the superiority of the last mentioned methodun a moment^ 
 
 No people, except perhaps the Chinese, have ever equalled the 
 Moors in devising patterns of most complicated appearance, in which 
 colours were, as it were, counterchanged by combining tiles, or 
 "tesserae, of similar geometrical forms, but made indifferent tints or tone. 
 Beautiful examples are given in profusion in the works of Mr. 
 Owen Jones, M. Girault de Prangey, Herr Hessemer, M. Coste 
 and/others. 
 
 

THE.- ALHAmsfCPi 
 
PLATE LXXIII. 
 
 a -A. 
 
 GRANADA— THE ALH^MBR^. 
 
 NICHE IN LA SALA DE LAS DOS HERMANAS. 
 
 7 HAT the Moors themselves were fully conscious that in creating 
 the Alhambra they were creating types of beauty for all 
 ./ generations would be clearly manifest from the inscriptions of the 
 Hall of the two Sisters, (from which our illustration is taken), even 
 if every other of the hundreds of inscriptions the building contains in 
 other apartments were destroyed. 
 
 " I am the garden, and every morning do I appear decked out in 
 beauty. Look attentively at my elegance, and thou wilt reap the benefit 
 of a commentary on decoration." 
 
 " Indeed, we never saw a palace more lofty than this in its exterior, 
 or more brilliantly decorated in its interior ; or having more extensive 
 apartments— markets they are, where those provided with money are 
 paid in beauty, and where the judge of elegance is perpetually sitting 
 to pronounce sentence. 
 
 " Here is the wonderful cupola, at sight of whose beautiful 
 proportions, all other cupolas vanish and disappear." 
 
 Such inscriptions are not all of them of this hyperbolic stamp, since 
 some of them serve to record the names of illustrious founders, and to 
 
>L 
 
 M: 
 
 N Lp sJ)L/) DE I.ls DOS HERMdNES. / 
 
 explain the uses of various parts of the structure. To an inscription 
 we are indebted for an accurate knowledge of the uses of 
 such niches as the one represented in my sketch. Many travellers 
 and writers had supposed that their purpose had been to hold the 
 slippers of the visitors, but this theory was entirely dispelled .when 
 M. Pasqual de Gayangos read the inscription of the left niche or" the / 
 
 Hall de las dos Herrhanas. 
 
 " Praise to God ! With my ornaments and tiara* I surpass be:' 
 itself, nay the iuminaries in the Zodiac out of envy descend to me. 
 
 " The water vase within me, they sav, is like a devout man 
 standing towards the Kiblah of the Mihrab,f ready to begin his 
 prayers." | 
 
 The idea that these niches were used £as- water-bottles is further 
 strengthened^s Mr. Owen Jones has justly remarked, by the existence 
 of the mosaic linings amid the plaster work by which they were 
 surrounded/ as well as by the white marble slabs which serve for their 
 base or floor. The wall and pier dados, which extend from these 
 marble slabs to the beautiful Azulejos floor, are all made in elegant mosaic. 
 Above the niche in the sketch appears the ingenious pendentive impost 
 from which spring the great arches carried by the piers, with the 
 characteristic ingrailed fringe work which was almost always retained 
 even as we see at Seville, in the latest Renaissance Mudejar work. 
 
 * Ot course alluding to the ceiling, which is even more beautiful in the same style, than 
 'that nl the Hall of the Abencerrages . which I Mr. Owen Jones so perfectly reproduced, at 
 Sydenham. " /*, 
 
 
 f " The Kibiah is the point in tne horizon towards which Mahomedans turn in their prayers 
 "marking the place where Mecca stands. The Mihrab is the enclosure before the Kiblah 
 
 >Jf 
 
 



 7 
 
 STUCCO DETAIL FROM THE SALA DEL TRIBUNAI . 
 
 H E correctness of this sketch, as to dimension at least, has been 
 ensured by the mode in which it was obtained, viz., by gently 
 pressing a piece of paper against the surface of the piece of ornament 
 (so as to obtain a slight impression of its outline,) then marking it faintly 
 with pencil, pressing it out again quite flat, and finishing it in ink on 
 the spot. It may be looked upon, therefore, as giving, as nearly 
 as is possible on a plane surface, an accurate transcript of the 
 elegant ornament from the Sala del Tribunal selected for illus- 
 tration. My reason for this selection was, chiefly because I desired 
 to show the minute scale and extreme delicacy of much of the decora- 
 tion in relief with v/hich the walls of the principal apartments 
 of the Alhambra are covered. It was partly also because this 
 particular specimen retained faint tracing lines drawn, most likely 
 with a silver or lead point, and a free hand, upon the flat surfaces 
 of certain parts of the ornament in relief. These served as guide 
 lines for the yet more delicate labour of the painter, who carried 
 the subdivision of parts, by means of the application of contrasting 
 colours and gilding, into yet more microscopic superficial enrichment. 
 
i/o STUCCO DETAIL FROM THE SALA DEL TRIBUNAL. 
 
 As this is the last illustration I have to offer of the Alhambra, it 
 may be well to direct the reader's attention briefly to the general 
 system upon which such Art as the Moors practised, and most dearly 
 loved, was based. Those who would know " all about it," must give 
 themselves diligently to a study of all Owen Jones' works; from the 
 ponderous " Alhambra," with its magnificent illustrations, to the little 
 guide to the " Alhambra Courts of the Crystal Palace," not forgetting 
 to test his theory by his practice in the beautiful reproductions of 
 Moorish Art he has created for their edification at Sydenham. In the 
 pages of the smaller volume they will find the system epitomised simply 
 and delightfully in nine propositions under the following heads. 
 
 First, to decorate construction, never to construct decoration. 
 
 Second, to let all lines grow out of each other in gradual 
 undulations — always so as to conduce to repose. 
 
 Third, to care first for general forms and then for harmonious 
 subdivisions and fillings. 
 
 Fourth, to balance straight, inclined, and curved forms so as to 
 produce harmony and repose by contrast. 
 
 Fifth, to let all lines flow out of a parent stem, traceable 
 throughout its course, 
 
 Sixth, either radially (as in nature with the human hand or in a 
 chestnut leaf.) 
 
 Seventh, or tangentially, — as stems from branches. 
 
 Eighth, to avoid the the simpler curves and use only those of a 
 higher order. 
 
 Ninth, to treat all ornament conventionally, i.e., not in direct 
 imitation of Nature, but in a mode of imitation subordinated to the 
 architectural conditions of the surface or form to be ornamented. 
 
m jR/Vu, F.vow-nre ^AiKviP r TH^cfff^i^,T 
 
VIEW OF THE CATHEDRAL FROM THE BACK OF TFIE 
 
 HIGH ALTAR 
 
 IT is always interesting to watch the first rays of light which 
 dissipate clouds of darkness or prejudice ; and this, by the aid of 
 the annals of the early printing press, we are enabled to do (with 
 comparative certainty as to chronology) in the case of the dawn of the 
 revival of classical architecture in every country of Europe except 
 Italy. In that favoured land, the sacred fire of Roman tradition 
 was never quite extinguished, and in its great cit : es the renascent 
 flame was already lambent, and gaining strength, before Sweynheim 
 and Pannarz started their celebrated press at Subiaco. 
 
 The first edition of the ten books of Vitruvius printed by G. 
 Herolt at Rome, circa i486, was immediately followed by the ed : t ; on 
 of Florence, under the editorship of Leon Bapt : sta Alberti, bearing the 
 imprint of the previous year. At least two other editions were 
 exhausted in Italy before the close of the century, and succeeded by 
 many more previous to the middle of the sixteenth century. 
 
 Alberti's own admirable writings on Architecture and the other 
 Fine Arts moved all Italy, giving a thoroughly practical direction to 
 
i 7 2 VIEW OF THE CATHEDRAL. 
 
 the lesions somewhat obscurely inculated by Vitruvius ; whose writings, 
 without Alberti's comments, would have been of little practical use in 
 countries in which ample remains of classical art were not at hand 
 for reference and study. 
 
 The first French edition of the text of Vitruvius is of 1523; the 
 first German is of 1543. The first French translation dates from 1547 ; 
 the first German from 1548, published at Nuremburg. It was 
 " volgarizzato " in Italy from 1521. 
 
 The Latin text was translated into Spanish by Miguel de Urrea 
 and printed after his death at Alcala de Heiiares in 1587. Its 
 publication had however been long preceded in Spain by the digest of 
 the views of Vitruvius under the title of " las Medidas del Romano 
 o Vitruvio," published by Diego de Sagrecio in 1526. Sagredo had no 
 doubt been stimulated to such studies, (as Alberti had previously been) 
 by his admiration of the vestiges of Roman architectural greatness, still 
 abounding on the soil of his native land. 
 
 What oral tradition could teach previous to the publication of 
 these texts in Spain, no doubt the architect of the Cathedral of Granada, 
 D.cgo de Siloe, had learnt from his father, Gil, the even more 
 celebrated Sculptor of Burgos ; whose monuments to Don Juan II., his 
 Queen, Donna Isabel, and the Infante Don Alonso, and whose 
 " Retablo " in the Cartuja of Miraflores in the outskirts of that 
 city, have never been surpassed in tasteful elaboration.* From 
 whatever source Diego de Siloe may have obtained his knowledge, 
 certain it is that he must share with Alonso Covarrubbias, the 
 honour of having been the earliest revivers of clas' : cal architecture in 
 Spain : not in its details only as had been attempted by the early 
 Mr. j. ;;. VVaring's rr.asterlj sketches of the detail- of these works of art. 
 
VIEW OF THE CATHEDRAL. 173 
 
 Plateresque architects, but in its structural proportions and in its 
 symmetrical arrangements of great leading features. The following 
 is the account of the construction of this Cathedral given by 
 Amirola.* 
 
 "It was begun," he says, "on the 15th of March, 1529, and 
 consists of three naves, the principal of which terminates in the choir 
 after the Gothic manner. It is four hundred and twenty-five feet 
 (Spanish) long, and two hundred and forty-nine wide. The order 
 is Corinthian, but defective in its true proportions, since the principal 
 nave is only forty-five feet wide, its height is one hundred and twenty." 
 It would profit us but little to follow Amirola through his straight- 
 laced criticisms on a design the beauty of which he was unable to 
 apprehend ; and it may be well to take a larger and juster view of its 
 merits. The following which, I heartily endorse, is the verdict of a 
 far better judge. f " Looking at its plan only, this is certainly one of 
 the finest churches in Europe. It would be difficult to point out any 
 other in which the central aisle leads up to the dome, so well 
 proportioned to its dimensions, and to the dignity of the high altar 
 which stands under it, or one where the side aisles have a purpose and 
 a meaning so perfectly appropriate to the situation, and where the 
 centre aisle has also its functions as perfectly marked out and so well 
 understood. All this being so, it is puzzling to know how it has been 
 so neglected." 
 
 My sketch has been taken from the "Ambulatory" at the back 
 
 * Who also states that in his time the drawings of the design by Diego Siloe were yet 
 extant, " Noticias de los Arquitectos y Arquitectura de Espana." Madrid. 1829. Vol. I. 
 page 199. 
 
 f " History of the Modern Styles of Architecture," by James Fergusson. London. 1S62. 
 page 135. 
 
i 74 VIEW OF THE CATHEDRAL. 
 
 of, and surrounding, the choir. Its dimensions, as will be at once 
 apparent, are enormous. The arches, which separate the choir from 
 the ambulatory, and through one of which in my sketch the high 
 altar is seen, are of very great interest. They form the earliest examples 
 I have ever seen (out of Italy) of artificial perspectives, " guocchi di 
 prospettiva." The arches next to the choir are narrower and lower 
 than those next to the ambulatory ; the distance between the two, owing 
 to the necessities of supporting and distributing the weights of the 
 vast cupola, being very considerable. The two archways are connected 
 by falling lines of impost mouldings and converging lines of coffering. 
 The consequence is that, as appears in the sketch, the archways, which 
 really occupy only about five and twenty feet in depth, look at least 
 double that dimension. 
 

 
 
_j,m - -^ha 
 
 no .».. Srrt 
 
SlC<^7^LCtC/<X_ , 
 
 THE REJA OF THE REYES CATOLICOS. 
 
 I WAS tempted to sketch this magnificent screen for four 
 reasons : — 
 
 Firstly, because it is, I believe, entirely of iron, which most of the 
 Spanish Rejas are not. 
 
 Secondly, because it is, I also believe, the earliest specimen of 
 anything like equal importance in Spain. 
 
 Thirdly, because of its historical interest in enclosing the tombs 
 of " the Catholic Sovereigns " on the spot before which the greatness of 
 their lives had been achieved. 
 
 Fourthly, because I considered it to be the best in design of 
 all I saw. 
 
 It is by no me.xns the richest, but it appeared to me to be 
 arranged upon the justest principles. Its chief merits, as compared with 
 many others, I considered to be as follows : — 
 
 Firstly, its transparency. One of the most important qualities any 
 such screen should possess, is that of due subordination to the great 
 architectural features of the locality in which it it is placed. Where 
 ornament is spread all over the surface of a screen, or where the 
 
i;5 THE REJA OF THE RIALS CATOLICOS. 
 
 main lines wander about in capricious directions, the- eye is arrested by 
 the metal work as a plane surface ; and if not actually stopped by it, is at 
 least led off in wayward directions, and fails to pass bevond it. In this 
 case, the rectangularity of the whole gives great repose ; the plain vertical 
 bars almost disappear ; while the splendidly ornamented portions of the 
 screen seem as if suspended in mid air, and in no wise injure the effect of 
 the architecture,* or diminish the apparent space of the locality they 
 decorate. 
 
 Secondly, its stability without heaviness. The subdivision of the 
 whole surface into regular compartments allows of a concentration of 
 strength in the skeleton lines, and gives great constructional stiffness 
 without too much formality. 
 
 Thirdly, its propriety of design. Its author has simply, as it were, 
 
 asserted the principle of " serve God and honour the King ;" instead ot, 
 
 as is usual, " look at me, and see what a fine fellow I am." At the 
 
 summit of his design he has represented the Crucifixion; immediately 
 
 beneath, the leading incidents of Gospel history, making conspicuous (in 
 
 compliment no doubt to the triumph of the Church in the entry into 
 
 Granada of his sovereigns), Christ's entry into Jerusalem. As the 
 
 central object, not much less than twenty feet square, he has grouped in 
 
 masterly style the full heraldic insignia of those whose remains are 
 
 deposited in the chapel beyond. The lower portion of his design has 
 
 evidently been intended simply to give stability to the upper part, and to 
 
 * Mr. Street i:i i the usual practice in good med creens observes that in 
 
 such " the ornament is reserved for open traceried cresting*, with bent and sharply cut crockets, 
 
 fur traceried rails, ami tor the lock-, and fastenings." He mentions a very thirty 
 
 feet high, as existing at Pamplona, the general tLsign of which seeins to have a good deal in 
 common with that of the " Reja de los Reyes" at Granada. It appears, however, to be of earlier 
 date, amle decidedly Gothic in character. 
 
THE RE J A OF THE REYES CATOLICOS. 177 
 
 close the access to the magnificent marble and alabaster monuments 
 of Ferdinand and Isabella, and of Philip of Burgundy and " Juana 
 la Loca," without interfering with the facilities for seeing them of 
 those who might gain access to the Antechapel, but be refused it to 
 the Mausoleum itself. 
 
 The name of the admirable artist, " el Maestre Bartholome," who 
 wrought this Reja in the year 1522, is inscribed upon it, near to 
 the keyhole of the great central gates. 
 

 VIEW OF THE ARZOBISPADO. 
 
 A CAREFUL contrast of this stately old mansion in which, if 
 not the hand, at least the influence of the architect, Henrique 
 de Egas, (son of Anequin de Egas de Bruselas, so greatly patronized 
 by the celebrated Cardinal Mendoza,) may be clearly traced, with the 
 great Palace of Charles V., ascribed to the artist Machuca, (both at 
 Granada,) may afford a useful lesson to the architectural student. In the 
 earliest of the two monuments — the Arzobispado — a window of which 
 I now offer a slight sketch, the florid Plateresque style, as exemplified by 
 the celebrated Hospedal de la Santa Cruz, at Toledo, (Sketches 44, 45, 46) 
 is at once recalled to the memory. In the latest, we find a marked 
 sympathy with the symmetrical style of the then fashionable Italian 
 architects. The Circular Cortile of Vignola's masterpiece at Caprarola, 
 is exceeded in dimension, and indeed in dignity of style, by the vast 
 round Patio of the Palace of Charles V., with which it is probably 
 nearly contemporary. 
 
 Such sober architecture, though enriched by the chisel of sculptors 
 who, like Berruguete, had been ardent admirers of Florentine and 
 Roman models, was the form of Plateresque which, intervening 
 
180 VIEW OF THE ARZOBISPADO. 
 
 between the first form of Renaissance, founded on French and 
 Burgundian models, and the austere Italian of Herrera, found special 
 favour in the eyes of the most judicious critics in Spain. 
 
 How far the best designers of Spain, amongst whom must certainly be 
 reckoned Juan de Arfe y Villafaiie, acknowledged their dependence upon 
 the great Italian masters for all they considered most excellent in style, 
 may be gathered from the curious account of the development of good 
 art in his time* that he gives in his celebrated Treatise on Sculpture and 
 Architecture. After dwelling upon what he curiously enough calls 
 the " obra moderna," with which the great cathedrals of Spain had 
 been, as he considers, built, he observes, " This barbarous work, having 
 arrived at its end, its disuse having commenced in our times, 
 gave place to the ancient styles of the Greeks and Romans. 
 Although this style of work had been revived at an earlier period 
 in Italy by the diligence and study of Bramante, Master of the Works 
 of St. Peter's at Rome, Baldassaie Perruzzi and Leon Baptista Albcrti, 
 celebrated architects, it also began to flourish in Spain through the 
 industry of the excellent Alonso de Covarrubbias, Master of the 
 Works of the Cathedral at Toledo, and of the Royal Palace, father of 
 the most famous doctor, Don Diego Covarrubbias, President of the 
 Supreme Council of his Majesty and Bishop of Segovia, and of Diego 
 Siloe, Master of the Works of the Cathedral and Palace of Canada. 
 These masters began to use this kind of work in many places wherever 
 they built, although always with some admixture of the modern woi k 
 (Gothic or early Plateresque) which they could never entirely 
 forget." 
 
 * "Vaii:i C immensuracion." Sixth Edition, pa^.'s x\\ — 222. 
 
rt/> 
 
 Atta/la//^^ 6 * 
 
 PALACIO DE LOS DUQUES DEL INFANTADO. 
 
 THIS is unquestionably one of the most important of the Palaces 
 of the ancient nobility left in Spain, worthy of the renown of 
 the Mendozas, long Seigneurs of Guadalaxara. In spite of its present 
 picturesque aspect, however, architecturally speaking, it is a strange 
 jumble of incongruities ; and offers but a ghost of the beauty it must 
 have possessed upon its first construction towards the end of the 
 fifteenth century from 1461 onwards. Splendour it must have 
 possessed in perfection at the date at which it excited warm admiration 
 in the breast of the captive sovereign, Francis I. of France, who 
 was here magnificently entertained by the then Duque del Infantado. 
 The top story with its remains of continuous arcading and balconies, 
 the walls, the splendid doorway, and above all the Patio, 
 with the exception probably of the top cornice and the Doric 
 columns of the ground-floor arcade, all belong to the original 
 construction. These remains afford sufficient indication of what has 
 been destroyed to make way for Italian decoration and barbarous repair, 
 to enable the practised eye to see the whole as it once existed ; 
 before a vulgar desire for novelty, and especially for foreign novelty 
 
PALACIO DE LOS DUQUES DEL ISFAXTADO. 
 
 induced the desecration of the integrity of the design. One might have 
 fancied that every true Spaniard would have regarded this palace 
 almost as a holy place, from its having received the last breath of the 
 great Cardinal Mendoza — the " Rex tertius," whom Felipe Vigarny, or 
 some other dextrous sculptor, portrayed in the carvings of the Cathedral 
 at Granada,* riding with Ferdinand and Isabella, and receiving the 
 keys of the Alhambra from the hands of the unfortunate " Boabdil el 
 Chico." 
 
 The interior of this Palace is fully as rich and remarkable as the 
 exterior. The Patio which is about eighty feet long by fifty-six wide, 
 (about two-thirds of the size of the courtyards of the Royal Exchange 
 and the India Office), is surrounded by arcades of two stories, each 
 about twenty feet in height. Both series of arches are of a Gothic 
 and fantastic form, with spandrels filled in on the lower story with 
 lions, and on the upper with winged griffins. Between each arch 
 are columns, surmounted with armorial bearings, eagles, and grouped 
 finials. The whole, if coarsely, is very spiritedly carved, and produces 
 a stately and simple, though rich effect. The saloons are large and 
 lofty, with remains of beautiful half Moorish ceilings, and much 
 effective Italian fresco decoration of good colour and enriched with 
 harmonious Arabesque ornament. 
 
 The state of this once splendid structure is unfortunately as 
 dilapidated as the national finances. What more can or need be said ? 
 Everything yomg to pieces for want of that " stitch in time," which 
 nowhere, and in nothing, in Spain, stems ever likely "to save nine." 
 
 Casts i I i-ulptui [ sed to be placed in the su rbase of the Renaissance Court of 
 
 . Pa 
 

 
/^ac/^(asY£>lL6i , 
 
 DOORWAY OF THE MONASTERY OF SAN MIGUEL. 
 
 IN and about Guadalaxara may be found many indications of the 
 traditional preservation, long after the expulsion of the Moors, 
 not only from New Castille, but from Spain generally as well, of their 
 excellence in the technical arts, amongst which brick-making, combining, 
 and laying were conspicuous. Hence, especially throughout the two 
 Castilles, Aragon, and Andalucia, the common method of using brick- 
 work is peculiarly Oriental and effective. The entrance doorway to the 
 Monastery of San Miguel, which forms the subject of our seventy- 
 ninth sketch, illustrates this mixture ; as well it may, since traces are yet 
 to be found of the structure having been originally a mosque converted, 
 probably, shortly before the year 1500 to Christian uses. The round 
 instead of square buttresses, with conical terminations, the segmental arch, 
 with its ponderous archivolt, the great strength and almost heaviness 
 given by the regular rectangular setting out of the woodwork — and a 
 coarseness and yet spirit in the execution of carving, are marked features 
 of Aragonese style ; the echoes of which may not unfrequently be met 
 
i8 4 DOORWAY OF THE MONASTERY OF SAN MIGUEL. 
 
 with at Naples, especially in the entrance gateways to many an old house. 
 I well remember being puzzled by several of those which I sketched 
 there, and which appeared to me to differ from ordinary contemporary 
 Italian architecture in other localities. I subsequently recognized 
 similar features in Palermo, and elsewhere in Sicily. 
 

PLATE LXXX. 
 
 GUADALAXARA. 
 
 CAS A DEL DUQUE DE RIBAS. 
 
 THE traveller who takes his seat for an hour or so before some 
 old portal of a Spanish provincial mansion, garnished with 
 heraldic insignia, proclaiming the rank, if not the dignity, of the 
 possible owner, can scarcely fail to be struck by the usual incongruity 
 between the assumption of the structure, and the modesty, not to say 
 meanness, of those who pass in and out of it generally at long intervals. 
 The sketcher's operations naturally, after a little while, attract the 
 attention of some few, and " their name is legion " throughout Spain, 
 of those who have nothing to do ; or who, at any rate, do nothing, but 
 wander lazily but restlessly up and down to while away the time. After 
 a compliment or two, and probably a request that the spectators will not 
 stand exactly between the artist and the object he may be drawing, an 
 inquiry very generally follows as to " whose house that may be ?" If 
 the answer extends beyond the usual " Quien sabe Caballero ?" it may 
 chance to be " del Senor Duque," or "del Senor Marques," something or 
 other, or at any rate of a " Senor somebody," "somebody," "somebody." 
 To the next inquiry, as to where the Hidalgo, if he be such, may be ? 
 the usual answer will be " Madrid" or " Paris," or at any rate the " chef- 
 
186 CASA DEL DUQUE DE RIB AS. 
 
 lieu " of the Province. The next demand may likely enough be, " Who 
 lives there then, now?" If the answer is not the usual " No puedo decir 
 a Usted," it may possibly be, " El Seiior Administrador," the Steward, or 
 " Algunos Pobres," or " Doii Manoel, the shoemaker," or " Don Juan, the 
 carpenter." 
 
 Where the nobility live, if they are not all absentees, it seems 
 very difficult to find out ; and hence it is that instead of ladies 
 and gentlemen, and liveried servants, who pass in and out of these 
 grand looking " portone," the sketcher usually sees only extremely 
 picturesque poverty. Sometimes this presents itself in the shape of a 
 ragged girl or two, carrying antique-shaped earthen water-jars, some- 
 times an old woman with a heap of long-haired unkempt children 
 sitting down to spin, or reel off yarn, or lolling against the wall, distaff 
 in hand; and sometimes, possibly, two or three boys or young men 
 assemble, who, after smoking out some cigarrilos or stumps of cigars, 
 coil themselves up on the threshold, and go off into a comatose 
 condition closely resembling sleep. 
 
 Such were my experiences whilst trying to gain some local informa- 
 tion as to the mansion of the very noble, the Duque de Ribas at 
 Guadalaxara. 
 
. 
 
 CAU^-DEL-&)\KRlO-NUEvb. H *' 
 
 
 10- 
 
 
PLATE LXXXI. 
 GUADALAXARA. 
 
 DOOR HANDLE FROM THE CALLE DEL BARRIO NUEVO. 
 
 THE outskirts of Guadalaxara are very picturesque, and the 
 traveller who wanders about in quest of beauty, old or new, 
 cannot fail to be rewarded ; not only by glimpses of scenery, but by the 
 discovery of many quaint little fragments of art which have escaped the 
 attention of the many despoiling locusts — native as well as foreign — 
 who have done their best at different times to "devour the land." Of 
 such, a specimen is given in the " knowing " little knocker, or door- 
 handle illustrated in my eighty-first sketch. It is no doubt a joke on 
 the part of some cunning smith, of the last century, mindful of the 
 still greater cunning of his handicraft, traditions of which may have 
 descended to him, from the days when the armourers of Spain rivalled 
 those of Milan and Augsburg. 
 
PLATE LXXXII. 
 
 SARAGOSSA, 
 
 VIEW OF THE PATIO OF THE PALACIO DE LA INFANTA. 
 
 PONZ speaks with great complacency of the sumptuousness ot 
 the houses of Saragossa — particularly those with columns, (such 
 as that of the Marques de Monistol) and those the Patios of which are 
 adorned with sculptures — " such costly and sumptuous works," he says, 
 " as no one undertakes now a days." Amongst these he particularises 
 the house which forms the subject of the present sketch. Before his 
 time it appears to have belonged to the Citizen Gabriel Zaporta, " muy 
 distinguido y rico," as Ponz calls him. From him it was bought by the 
 widow of a certain Don Gabriel Franco. At the close of the last century 
 it was the home of the Infante Don Luis, (uncle of Charles IV. of Spain), 
 a Cardinal and Archbishop of Toledo ! who married " La Vallabriga," 
 earning exile to Saragossa for his pains. She lived here with him, 
 and procured for the house its popular and best known name, la Casa 
 de la Infanta. Their eldest daughter was bestowed, as an Infanta of 
 Spain, upon the detestable Godoy — " Prince of Peace," — the recognised 
 lover of her first cousin by marriage, the Oueen, wife of Charles IV., 
 thus crowning a double mesalliance. 
 
 "On the ground floor," says Ponz,* "of the Patio are twelve 
 * Viage de Espafia. Vol. XV. page 79. 
 
igo VIEW OF THE PATIO OF THE PALACIO DE LA IXFASTA. 
 
 arches supported on columns wrought with a thousand fancies, as are 
 those also of the first floor. On the lower floor of this house is a 
 painter's studio. Both floors are enriched with medallions representing 
 kings, fanciful foliage, and infinite labour in cornices, mouldings, &c." 
 Similar elaboration, now much defaced, is to be seen in the staircase 
 with vaulting, and handrail with medallions recalling those of the first 
 floor. 
 
 Amongst the most important palaces, next to the house of Zaporta 
 or de la Infanta, and that of the Marques de Monistol, were those 
 known as the " Castel-Florit," which belonged in Ponz's time to the Count 
 Aranda — and another the property of the Duque de Hijar. The "Casa 
 de Comercio" which forms the subject of my eighty-fifth sketch was 
 less important as to quantity, but more important as to quality, than 
 those last mentioned appear to have been. As a general rule, the 
 Saragossan houses appear very large but coarsely treated as to detail, 
 even in the richest, such as those with showy windows behind the 
 Seminario, in the Plazuela de San Carlos. 
 
 My sketch sufficiently shows the " base uses " to which the truly 
 palatial Casa de Zaporta, or de la Infanta, has " come at last." It is well 
 that as many as possible of the rising generation of art-students should 
 see it, for it is not likely that any of it will be left for their children. 
 
PLATE LXXXIII. 
 
 SARAGOSSA. 
 
 DETAIL OF THE ARCADING OF THE FIRST FLOOR OF 
 THE CAS A DE LA INFANTA. 
 
 THIS sketch gives to an enlarged scale some of the architectural 
 features represented in little in the preceding sketch. Many of 
 the arches which were once open in a beautiful arcading are now closed 
 up in lath and plaster ; with a heartless indifference to everything else 
 than getting as much room as possible to let to the poor lodgers who 
 swarm in this once splendid Palace. The whitewash brush goes 
 recklessly over any surfaces with which it is brought into contact at the 
 command of sanitary inspectors, who enforce perfunctory cleansings from 
 time to time of at least the " outside of the platter." As I sat sketching 
 and " poking about " for some hours in this apparent " rabbit warren " 
 of a house, I could not but become conscious that the Arragonese had by 
 no means lost their old character for devotion, not to say bigotry. " Our 
 Lady of the pillar," the tutelary of Saragossa in spite of all alleged 
 pilferings from her shrine, seemed still at a premium in popular 
 estimation ; and casts of her in the poorest plaster were multiplied even in 
 the poorest tenements. In fact, this seemed to be the very place for 
 meeting with the truly Spanish couple of the lower middle class, so well 
 sketched by the German Fischer in his travels at the close of the last 
 
i 92 ARCADIXG OF THE CASA DE LA INFANTA. 
 
 century. " I cannot conclude this letter," says he, " without saying a 
 word or two of my hosts. Both the man and his wife are originals not 
 to be met with but in Catholic countries ; both bigots to excess, but 
 each in a different way. In the husband, this disposition has assumed 
 a silent and gloomy cast of character, while in his wife it bears all 
 the symptoms of tenderness. The husband has filled the whole house, 
 and especially his own apartment, with images of saints, resembling 
 an entire collection of the little Augsburg toys so well known in Germany. 
 In fulfilment of a vow, he mutters his prayers three times a day before 
 these idols, an occupation which daily employs two full hours. He also 
 imposes on himself very painful mortifications, talks very little, reads 
 gloomy books, and remains whole hours with his eyes shut, so that 
 he is on the high road to become either a madman or a saint. The 
 wife's fanaticism is much more social, and her pious imaginations 
 bear the stamp of the mildness and softness of her sex. She has got 
 herself received a " slave of the Holy Trinity " (esclava de la 
 Santissima Trinidad), of which she has obtained a certificate in form 
 from her confessor, and in consequence of which she is bound every 
 day to decorate a large picture with flowers and tapers, to repeat a 
 certain number of prayers before it, and to pay a certain sum weekly to 
 her confessor, an agent of the Trinity; yet all this does not seem 
 to her sufficient for salvation, and she has besides an image of the Holy 
 Virgin, which she very punctually supplies with all the necessary 
 habiliments, both for day and night, besides tapers, flowers and all that 
 can contribute to ornament the happy idol. 
 
 " This devout esclava is a little woman very affable and complaisant, 
 whose religious sentiments do not at all interfere with other terrestrial 
 feelings, while her impassive husband seems to have arrived at all 
 the spirituality of the blessed." 
 
PLATE LXXXIV. 
 
 SARAGOSSA. 
 EXTERIOR OF THE EXCHANGE. 
 
 THERE is something about the exterior of this fine building 
 essentially Florentine in style. The bold overhanging and 
 crowning cornice, the Ricardi-Palace kind of windows, the simplicity 
 of the Mezzanine, and indeed the introduction of a Mezzanine at all, 
 associated with the severity of the rectangular structure, massive in a 
 noble simplicity, rather recall the work of the grand masters of Tuscan 
 Architecture at the end of the fifteenth century, than any styles, 
 Plateresque or Greco-Roman, one recognises as peculiarly Spanish. 
 
 The name of the architect appears to have been lost, but there is 
 no question as to the date of its erection, which is given by an 
 inscription which runs beneath a cornice in the interior, and states that 
 it was completed in "1551, reynando Donna Joana y Don Carlos su 
 hijo." 
 
 The "Lonjas," or Exchanges, of Spain, constitute an important 
 and interesting class of buildings, dating, from mediaeval times in the 
 most commercial of the towns on the seaboard, and from the 
 Renaissance period in those of the interior. The term Lonja, originally 
 only implied a " long place " or platform, the sort of spot in a town 
 
19+ EXTERIOR OF THE EXCHANGE. 
 
 on which merchants would meet, as on " the flags " at Liverpool. In 
 process of time the Lonjas came to be covered in, and converted into 
 handsome " Exchanges." The earliest structure of this class is, or 
 rather was, at Barcelona. All the fine old building of 1383, Mr. 
 Street tells us, has " been completely destroyed, with the one exception 
 of its grand Hall, which still does service as of old. This consists of 
 three naves, divided by lofty and slender columns, which carry stilted 
 semi-circular arches. The ceiling is flat .... and the dimensions 
 about one hundred feet by seventy five." The " Casa Lonja " of 
 Valencia, which Mr. Street has also fully illustrated* is one of the 
 prettiest of the late Gothic buildings in Spain. It was erected between 
 1482 and the close of the fifteenth century. The next important 
 Lonja in point of date was the Saragossan of 1 5 5 1 . The last 
 was that of Seville built by Herrera between 1585 and 1598, and 
 certainly one of his best works. It was avowedly buil: in rivalry with 
 Gresham's Royal Exchange — completed in 1571. 
 
 To the interior of the fine building under notice I could not 
 obtain access, and have therefore to trust to Ponz's description of it. 
 " It forms," he says, " a splendid saloon with an internal double gallery 
 of Doric columns and arches, to the number of fifty." Within it 
 are erected an altar to, and statue of, the guardian angel, in fact the 
 building had its Lararhim. Ponz mentions, further, many paintings. 
 These appear no longer to exist, since all I could learn by persona! 
 inquiry on the spot was that the place, having long been used as a 
 carpenter's shop and warehouse was now absolutely emptv and unused. 
 I fear therefore that the "Anrjclo Custode " has had too much to do, 
 and has broken down under his task. 
 
 * "Gothic Architecture in Spain," page 270. 
 
PLATE LXXXV. 
 
 SARAGOSSA. 
 PATIO OF THE CASA DE COMERCIO. 
 
 THIS house, originally a Gothic one, in some of its earliest details, 
 still acknowledges its allegiance to the noble family of the 
 Torrellas, its founders. Their arms, with a lion, and the three little 
 towers which pun heraldically upon their name, as charges, still exist 
 upon a Gothic escutcheon over one of the doorways. The house is 
 locally stated, I know not on what authority, to have been occupied, 
 and altered by a company of Genoese merchants, whence, no doubt, 
 its popular name " de Comercio." It is situated in the Calle de Sant, 
 Jago, and is now the property of the Marquis de Ayerve. 
 
 Although retaining the usual Saragossan bracket-capitals, and 
 " Anillos " in the shape of quasi bases and dies or pedestals united, 
 the symmetry of the plan, and the regularity of the cinque-cento 
 ornament and Arabesque of the panels and pilasters, certainly bear out 
 the tradition of the Genoese occupation and alteration of an original 
 mediaeval structure, early in the sixteenth century. 
 
 At that time, and for nearly a couple of centuries afterwards, the bulk 
 of the commercial transactions of Spain were administered by foreigners, 
 principally at first Italians, and subsequently Flemings and Frenchmen. 
 
i 9 6 PATIO OF THE CAS A DE COMERCIO. 
 
 The expulsion of the Moors, the persecutions of the Jews, and the 
 pouring in of American silver opened up a splendid field in Spain, during 
 this period, for the trafficking talents of people endowed with greater 
 activity and commercial genius, than the Spaniards themselves possessed. 
 Their function was to despise trade, and use, but detest, the foreigners, 
 whose aptitude for work supplied the wants engendered by one of their 
 besetting sins — laziness. " Ociedad, raiz de los vicios, y sepulchro de 
 las virtudes," as Marcos Obregon exclaims. " En quatro cosas," he 
 continues, " gasta la vida el ocioso, en dormir sin tiempo, en comer 
 sin sagon, en solicitar quietas, en murmurar de todos."* 
 
 The following are the Countess d'Aulnois' comments on the effects 
 of the mixed jealousy and laziness of the Spaniards in her time — the 
 latter part of the seventeenth century. 
 
 " All strangers," she says, " what services soever they may ■ have 
 done, the Spaniards ought to fear them, they considering themselves 
 and interests only, in such a manner that the Italians and Flemings, 
 that are this king's subjects, are used no more favourably than if born 
 under another master. If they pretend to imployments, either at Court 
 or in the armies, they are told they are not natural Spaniards who 
 engross all, as well to keep up the glory of the nation, as out of 
 diffidence of others, whom they in a manner declare incapable of all 
 trust because not born in Spain ; this country, nevertheless, abounds in 
 strangers, but they are only artificers and mercenaries invited by gain, 
 and that meddle with nothing but their peddling traffick. It is thought 
 that there are above forty thousand French in Madrid, who, wearing 
 the Spanish habit, and calling themselves Burgundinians, Walloons and 
 Lorraines, keep up commerce and manufacture ; it concerns them to 
 
 * " Marcos Obregon por el Maestro Vicente Espincl." Madrid. 1804. Pages 40— 41. 
 
PATIO OF THE CASA DE COMERCIO. 197 
 
 conceal their country, for if it be discovered, they are obliged to pay 
 a daily Pole-money of about a penny to the town, and, any bad 
 success happening to the publick, appearing in the streets, are liable to 
 a thousand insolencies, even to blows. 
 
 " They that know what number of strangers are in this town, 
 report, that would they undertake it, they might make themselves 
 masters, and drive out the Spaniards." 
 
p/ate lxxxvi 
 
 SARAGOSSA. 
 
 PATIO OF THE HOUSE OF THE MARQUIS OF 
 
 MONISTOL. 
 
 THE great dimensions of this house, and its massive strength 
 and solidity are no bad emblems of the old sturdiness, wealth, 
 and pride of the Aragonese nobility, whose Plateresque architecture 
 " differed " as Mr. O'Shea justly remarks, "in many points from its 
 countertype the Seville Moro-Italian, or strictly Andalusian style, applied 
 to private dwellings." Although apparently far ruder in execution than 
 either of the other two houses I sketched — that of the Infanta and that 
 known as de Comercio — in the same city I have little doubt that this is of 
 considerably later date. The florid Spanish Plateresque of the former, 
 and the cinque-cento carving of the latter, took precedence of the more 
 regular Greco-Roman architecture aimed at by the architect of the house 
 now under notice. The retention of the bracket capital in lieu of either 
 arches or a lengthened column, and of the "anillo ; ' or ring dividing the 
 shaft into two heights, illustrate the way in which local habits interfered 
 with the adoption of the rigid rules prescribed by the writers on 
 architecture, and practised by contemporary architects, of the Herrera 
 type. 
 
200 PATIO OF THE HOUSE OF THE MARQUIS OF M0XIST0L. 
 
 Considering the terrible " fortunes of war," to which Saragossa has 
 been exposed, and its frightful hand to hand fighting in the heart of the 
 city, it is only wonderful that so much of the past should still linger 
 within the lines of defence. If the ruinous sieges have left Saragossa 
 poorer than they found her, they certainly do not appear to have left 
 her weaker or less fierce. She struck me as being poorer and prouder 
 than any other city I visited in Spain. At the same time, both men and 
 women show a hardy activity and lively inclination to pugnacity I did 
 not see elsewhere. The only answer I got from a Madrileno to my 
 question as to "why the Saragossans did not work?" was, that "they 
 preferred fighting," adding that " while they would look hard at a 
 peseta before they would undertake even a trifling job for it, they would 
 at any time do a good day's fighting for one half of that coin." 
 

 - - 
 
•/ate l a ii. JXSJ^ 
 
 SARAGOSSA. 
 
 BRONZE RENAISSANCE KNOCKER OF A HOUSE IN THE 
 PLAZUELA ADUANA. 
 
 THE quant little animal, or rather conventionalised notion of an 
 animal, . which I found in an out of the way "Plazuela," or 
 " little place," of Saragossa, doing duty as a knocker, furnishes a good 
 illustration of the ready dexterity in his craft of the old Spanish smith 
 and brazier. Of splendid bronze work (in spite of the intrinsic value 
 of the material which has no doubt led to the fusion of thousands of 
 treasures of Art all over the Peninsula) Spain yet possesses invaluable C/J 
 treasures. Amongst these the most salient which occur to my 
 memory as single pieces, are the magnificent eleven gilt life-size portrait 
 statues of the greatest of the Spanish Royal Family from Charles V. to 
 Philip II. with which Pompeio Leoni decorated the " Entierros Reales " 
 of the Escorial — and the same sculptor's still finer statues of the 
 celebrated prime minister and favourite, the Duque de Lerma, and 
 his Duqueza, founders of the Convent of San Pablo, at Valladolid, 
 whence they have been transferred to the museum of that city. As 
 great semi-architectural, semi-sculpturesque works in bronze, occa- 
 sionally with an admixture of iron, of course the most important and 
 
;o> BROSZE KSOCKER IN THE PLAZUELA ADUANA. 
 
 abundant are the late Rejas, or metal screens, of the great Spanish 
 churches and cathedrals. Of these ample notices are given by both 
 Ford and O'Shea — authorities, at once so excellent, and so readily 
 accessible, as to render unnecessary any more on my part than a passing 
 reference to them. 
 
 Another form in which copper and bronze have have been well and 
 plentifully used by the Spaniards is in the shape of coverings and 
 strengthenings to doors. In this shape the models have been mainly 
 derived from the Moors whose doors mav generally, whether in wood 
 or metal, be regarded as perfection itself, for beauty, strength, and 
 fitness for the circumstances under which thev have been used. 
 The Spaniards (at Toledo Cathedral for example) have produced 
 many admirable doors in which, by the judicious strengthening of 
 the joiner's work with embossed and occasionally perforated bronze 
 plates, they have combined strength with moderate substance, and 
 the appearance of great richness with fairly simple and not costly 
 labour. 
 
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p/ate *. lWVM 
 
 • LERJDA. 
 TOWER OK THE CHURCH OF SAN LORENZO. 
 
 THE interest of every other building in Lerida altogether pales 
 before that of its noble, but now much desecrated Cathedral. Its 
 ancient glories may be well studied in Mr. Street's pages, but its present 
 humiliation can only be appreciated upon the spot. Toiling up from 
 the city through streets and open platforms on the hill-side, thronged 
 with soldiers, gipsies, beggars, and ragged boys innumerable, the 
 traveller at last arrives, not at a church, but at a monster-barrack. In 
 lieu of a sacristan he has to engage the services of a corporal as 
 Cicerone, and with the consent of, I am bound to say, an exceedingly 
 polite Spanish officer, he is free to examine, at his leisure, a Cathedral 
 which, as Mr. Street says, " is in itself worth the journey from 
 England." Its construction, and that of its splendid cloister, occupied 
 almost the whole of the thirteenth century, and the vastness and 
 regularity of its plan, its solid and perfect execution, and the just 
 proportion of its structural and ornamental details certainly, to my 
 mind, justify the praise bestowed upon them by that accomplished 
 architect. 
 
 It was really sad to see such a building cut about by the insertion 
 
2o 4 TOWER OF THE CHURCH OF SAN LORENZO. 
 
 of floors and partitions, and to hear the piquant, not to say ribald, 
 jokes, " refranes, seguidillas" and songs of the soldiers, echoing frcm 
 vaulting which once rang only with peals from the organ, and chants 
 and hymns from the priests and people. 
 
 As my stay was bound to be short in Lenda, and I remembered that 
 Mr. Street had done full justice to the Cathedral, I looked elsewhere 
 for a subject for my note-book, and found it in the picturesque tower 
 of the Church of San Lorenzo, given by my eighty-eighth sketch. 
 
 The legend runs that this Church, and that of San Juan, were 
 originally mosques ; and that after the taking of the city from the 
 Moors in 1149, they were applied to Christian uses. I am inclined 
 to think this probable, although the detail is not anywhere Mahom- 
 medan, so far as the darkness of the interior would allow me to form 
 any opinion. The great thickness of the walls, the mode of lighting, 
 the form and proportions of the entrance archways (shown in my 
 sketch) and the materials and mode of building of the base of the 
 tower all seem to favour the supposition of an original Moorish 
 construction. The octagonal form of tower is a favourite feature 
 of this district, and occurs on a grand scale in the old Cathedral. 
 The upper portion, at least, of this tower of San Lorenzo, may 
 probably date from early in the fifteenth century. 
 
PLATE 8^ 
 
 .AjaARCELONA- 
 
 UUO ■ HUUSR.' C AULV-- DE ■ SJ-\N 7A- LVJGlA ■ 
 
p/ate -±r LWMK 
 
 BARCELONA. 
 OLD HOUSE IN THE CALLE DE SANTA LUCIA. 
 
 AS Prescott* observes, "The City of Barcelona, which originally 
 gave its name to the county of which it was the capital, was 
 distinguished from a very early period by ample municipal privileges. 
 After the union with Arragon in the twelfth century, the monarchs of 
 the latter kingdom extended towards it the same liberal legislation ; so 
 that by the thirteenth, Barcelona had reached a degree of commercial 
 prosperity rivalling that of any of the Italian Republics. She divided 
 with them the lucrative commerce with Alexandria; and her port 
 thronged with foreigners from every nation, became a principal 
 emporium in the Mediterranean for the spices, drugs, perfumes, and 
 other rich commodities of the East, whence they were diffused over 
 the interior of Spain and the European Continent." 
 
 Amongst its other merits was that of having established in 1401 the 
 first bank of Exchange and deposit in Europe — as well as of having 
 compiled the first written code amongst the Moderns of Maritime law. 
 Her great merchants were " magnificos " ennobled, not degraded as in 
 Castile, by connection with trade. 
 
 * "History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic." New York. 1845. 
 Pa^e c xi. 
 
206 OLD HOUSE IS THE CALLE DE SANTA LUCIA. 
 
 The long civil war which began in 1462 and ended with the 
 surrender of the city to King Juan in 1472 was the first great check 
 the city received in its splendid career of prosperity. 
 
 The house I have sketched was doubtless well adapted to such 
 troublous times, affording comparative safety on its lower floors and 
 comparative air and comfort as its occupants mounted higher and higher. 
 It was probablv built shortly after the middle of the fifteenth centurv, 
 revealing here and there traces of a French mason's handicraft. It 
 follows the type, not of the merchant's, but of the cavalier's house. 
 Such towers, half residence, half fortress, were, especially in the 
 south of Europe, far more numerous than one may row be justified in 
 supposing ; and the more frequently Italian street views in pictures 
 and illuminated manuscripts are studied, the more natural and usual 
 appears what we now fancy to be strange and rare. With the 
 introduction of Renaissance architecture, the character of these quasi- 
 mediasval structures changed altogether. 
 
 Xavagiero* writing of the condition of Barcelona in 1524, says that 
 " the houses are good and commodious, built of stone and not of earth, 
 as are those of the rest of Catalogna. Although lying on the sea it has 
 no port, but an arsenal, in which many galleys were wont to be 
 constructed, now there are none. Bread and wine are scarce, but of 
 every kind of fruit there is abundance. The cause is said to be that the 
 land is stripped of men through the war with King John on account 
 of his son Don Carlos." 
 
 Depopulated the city may have been, and its commerce may no 
 doubt, have suffered in consequence, but the Catalonian character was 
 energetic and the city still preserved much of its previously accumulated 
 ' ' Navagiero- l\\ fal S| \ nice. 1 5 '> 3 . Pag; 3. 
 
^/ OLD HOUSE IN THE ck 
 
 OLD HOUSE IN THE CfLLE DE SANTA LUCIA. 207 
 
 ^ 
 
 wealth. Merchants too have a knack of prospering in troublous times, 
 especiallythose who thrive on profits upon imports. Hence we still 
 find merchant's houses of great comfort, although evidently constructed 
 during the evil days of Barcelona. Of one of these I furnish a good 
 example, offering an interesting theme for comparison with the sketch 
 now given, in my ninety-sixth sketch. 
 
PLATE XC. 
 
 BARCELONA. . 
 
 PATIO OF THE CASA DE LA DIPUTACION. 
 
 WITHIN the ancient " Palacio de la Diputacion " is preserved 
 the elaborate late Gothic Chapel of St. George (protector or' 
 Catalonia) with a small but highly wrought entrance from the arcading 
 on the first floor of the Patio de la Audiencia, represented in my 
 sketch. This Patio is so called because its arcades, in which habitually 
 sit many lawyers, and saunter many clients, lead to the Courts or 
 Justice, in which causes are tried. The existence of this Chapel has, 
 for ages, given a sort of prescriptive right to the public to invade the 
 Patio, the Chapel, and its precincts, upon St. George's day. Of the 
 gay scene which then takes place Parcerisa* has given an animated 
 lithograph, showing the very different aspect it then wears to any it 
 habitually presents. 
 
 Under any circumstances, however, its architecture, which is bold, 
 even to the verge of rashness, gives it a permanent interest. It is a 
 subject for wonder, that any structure in which the main supports of a 
 heavy third story appear so insignificant as do the little marble columns 
 
 * " Recuerdos y Bellezas de Espaiia," por F. J. Parcerisa escrita y documentada, por P. 
 Piferrer y J. Pi y Margall. Catalaiia. Tome II., page 222. 
 
fATIO OF THE CASA DE LA D1EITAC10S. 
 
 (about two inches in diameter only) of the first floor of this Patio 
 should have existed from mediaeval days to oui\ times. The truth, no 
 doubt, is that the mam weight of the walls of the top story, and of 
 the roof, are carried by means of massive beams, acting as cantilevers, 
 back to the walls which form the internal faces of the arcades, a device 
 not quite maintaining that beautiful " lamp of truth" we are taught to 
 look for in all mediaeval designs. The users of the arcades have lately 
 procured- the building up of many of the arches, leaving windows to 
 light the arcades. I have taken the liberty of omitting all of these 
 but one, as. I was desirous of showing, not what the lawyers have done, 
 but what the original architects devised, no doubt as a " tour de 
 force." 
 
 I was told upon the spot that this building up of the arches, 
 the supports ot which certainly appeared to my eye far too fragile for 
 beauty, was a matter not of choice but of necessity. 
 
PLATE XCI. 
 
 -BARCELONA, 
 
 DETAIL FROM THE CASA DE LA DIPUTACION. 
 
 IF Catalonian architecture differs from ordinary Spanish, and it is 
 quite manifest from my sketch that it does in detail, as I have already 
 shown that it does in system, the character of the Catalonian men and 
 women differs even more markedly from that of the Spanish. While one 
 of the latter in his laziness, as Marcos Obregon says, " ni come con gusto, 
 ni duerme con quietud, ni descansa con reposo," the former, on the 
 contrary, eat with appetite, sleep with tranquillity, and throw off their 
 cares healthily in rest. The latter, in fact, chew- but scarcely digest the 
 bread of idleness, while the former thrive on that of industry. As a 
 natural consequence, there is no love lost between the two races. The 
 Castilian regards as mean and debasing the cultivation of the very 
 mechanical arts, excellence in which the Catalonian well knows to be the 
 source, not only of wealth, but of power and honour as well. To 
 Barcelona belongs the credit of having been one of the first cities in the 
 world, out of France, to establish gratuitous schools of design in which 
 poor youths were taught specially to design for manufactures. Both 
 
 * " Travels through Spain ami Pail of Portugal.'' Sherwood Collection. London, 
 iS iS, page aS i. 
 
aia DETAIL FROM THE CASA DE LA DIPUTACIO.X. 
 
 Laborde and Whittaker* testify to the extent and excellence of these 
 schools at the end of the last century and "beginning of the present. The 
 latter, writing in 1803, says, "we visited the Academy of Arts instituted 
 in the Palace of Commerce, and supported in the most magnificent 
 manner by the merchants of Barcelona. We were conducted through a 
 long suite of apartments, in which seven hundred boys weie employed 
 in copying and designing ; some of them, who display superior talents, 
 are sent to Rome, and to the Academy of St. Fernando at Madrid ; 
 the others are employed in different ways by the merchants and 
 manufacturers. The rooms are large and commodious, and are 
 furnished with casts of celebrated statues and every proper apparatus. 
 We observed a few drawings of considerable merit, produced by the 
 scholars ; but the grand picture before us of liberality and industry 3 
 amply rewarded our visit ; and was the more striking to us, for having 
 of late been continually accustomed to lament the traces of neglect 
 and decay, so visibly impressed on every similar institution in 
 the impoverished cities of Italy." 
 
 M 
 
 ■ -co*-^ i^r-ti/r- 
 
■"■DW-llfDJ .!.!■ iTlEPUTACini.'. 
 
PLATE XCII. 
 
 BARCELONA. 
 
 WINDOW FROM THE CASA DE LA DIPUTACION. 
 
 THIS quaint and very late specimen of Gothic, although Eccle- 
 siastical enough in its sculpture, is purely domestic in its 
 architecture. The latter is in its character rather French or Burgundian 
 than Spanish, while the former was, I have little doubt, the work of a 
 native of the Peninsula. So far as I could see no preparation had ever 
 been made for glazing this window, and the wooden shutters, both in 
 their form and mode of joinery, were rather Moorish than Spanish. 
 No one can be surprised at such symptoms of internationally, in works 
 executed at a sea-port like Barcelona — in which the Arts, like the 
 prevalent language may have had a " lingua franca " of cosmopolitan 
 freedom from prejudice. In all such Gothic work, and indeed 
 in all building in Spain, however fantastic and not ^infrequently over 
 intricate the detail may be, we scarcely ever observe any flimsiness, or 
 want of due substance in the constructional parts of any building. In 
 this matter the Spanish architects merit for attention to the erection of 
 permanent structures in all their styles the praise bestowed by Mr. 
 Street upon those mainly who wrought in the mediasval ones. Of those 
 last, the Spanish critics, who have been sometimes accused of overduly 
 
2i 4 UI.XDOW FROM THE CASA DE LA DIPPTACIOS. 
 
 estimating what they call Greco-Roman architecture, early showed what 
 I regard as a fair appreciation. Antonio Ponz, for instance, in the 
 last century certainly praised Berruguete, Covarrubias, and even 
 Herrera in very glowing terms, but I know few writers who have 
 better expressed an opinion as to the fitness of the mediaeval styles, 
 and especially the old Spanish system of the sturdiest construction, for 
 ecclesiastical purposes. 
 
 Of this " Arquitectura Gotica," he says,* " nadie puede con razon 
 decir, que falta en la majestad y el decoro : al contrario parece inventada 
 para darselo a los Templos, v casas del Sehor. Los mas insignes 
 Arquitectos han confessado su solidez, y han tenido mucho que 
 admirar en el capricho de sus adornos, y en Ja prolixidad con que estan 
 -arabadas todas sus partes. Muchos paises de Europa se precian de sus 
 m monumentos, y en Espana los hay magnificos, como son la Catedral 
 de Burgos, la de Sevilla, Valencia, y otras." 
 
 * Ponz, Antonio, "Viage de E^pafn." Third Edition. Madrid. 178-. Vol. I. page 54. 
 
T y to*' 
 
 y 
 
 : lit 
 
 
 --^2i!<fc5 
 
 •Ti-»E..ToVv/K-HAuv-- 
 
PLATE XCII1. 
 
 BARCELONA. 
 
 DOORWAY IN THE TOWN HALL. 
 
 THE mission to Spain of the Count de Laborde on the part 
 of the French Government at the moment when Napoleon I. 
 thought he had the whole country within his grasp, was essentially 
 economic in its object. Hence his accounts of, and investigations into, 
 its past, present and future capabilities for trade are of far greater 
 value than his topographical and archaeological investigations, most of 
 which are founded on the writings of Ponz and other well known 
 authorities. While Spain was at the height of its prosperity, Seville 
 and subsequently Cadiz commanded the South American trade, but 
 Barcelona remained as it had been from a very early date, the great 
 maritime means of communication and interchange of commodities 
 between Spain and the rest of Europe. The business transactions 
 carried on at its Lonja, or Bourse, and its Town Hall were very 
 extensive, and these buildings were of commensurate importance. Our 
 present sketch represents an internal doorway of the last named 
 building, and the cosmopolitan character of its architecture^ pf probabj^. 
 
DOORWAY IN THE TOWS U : 
 
 the commencement of the sixteenth century, will be manifest at a. 
 giance. The following is Laborde's* epitome of the history of that 
 great foreign trade of which Barcelona once shared with Valencia and 
 Almeria almost a complete monopoly. 
 
 " The state of Spanish manufactures, in the fifteenth and sixteenth 
 century, will form a tolerably accurate clue to that of commerce at the 
 same period. The latter was then in a most flourishing condition, and 
 its ramifications extended to all parts of Europe. The cities of Medina 
 del Campo, Rio Seco, Burgos, Segovia, Toledo, Cuenca, Granada, 
 Almeria, Cordova, Jaen, Seville, Barcelona, Valencia, Ciudad Real, 
 and Sant' Jago, carried on a very extensive commerce. Almeria, 
 Valencia and Barcelona pushed their commercial concerns into Syria, 
 Egypt, Barbary, and the Archipelago. These cities were equally 
 important, in a mercantile view, with the Hanseatic towns. Barcelona 
 had a very great foreign trade ; after the commencement of the 
 fourteenth century ; under the Kings of Aragon it equipped and 
 maintained armed ships for the defence of the Catalonian coast and 
 the protection of its trade. It established factories in the extreme parts 
 of Europe and Asia, as far as the river Tanais ; kept a consul, who 
 represented the city, and who was presented to Tamerlane the Great 
 in the year 1397, when he returned in triumph from his military 
 expedition into Muscovy and the Kipzac, a country lying east and west 
 of the Caspian Sea and the river Volga. 
 
 " Spain at that period had a large navy, and its shipping trade 
 was immense. If the account of Thome Cano in his ' Arte de 
 constru;r Naves ' be admitted, it possessed a thousand merchant vessels 
 
 * « 
 
 1 A View of Spain." Translated from the French of Alexander de Laborde. Lor 
 
 1809. Vol. IV., pp. ■--_-; 
 
K' 
 
 DOORWAY IN THE TOWN HALL viy 
 
 at a time when the European marine was far less extensive than it is at 
 present." 
 
 To return for a moment to the picturesque doorway I have 
 sketched. Its sculpture, which in execution is very good of its kind, 
 is as completely Renaissance in character as its architecture is still 
 Gothic ; it in fact corresponds exactly to Mudejar work, with this 
 difference, that the admixture with the Gothic in this case is Plateresque, 
 while in the Mudejar work it is Moorish. 
 
SAKCEUONA- 
 
 •K MOCKER." rG-Ql-0'MOU.&E 
 
 -UE,^.ANTA\-L0C1A- 
 
 
 
 
 
PLATE XCIV. 
 
 BARCELONA. 
 
 KNOCKER OF AN OLD HOUSE IN THE CALLE SANTA 
 
 LUCIA. 
 
 IN the vicinity of the old church of Sta. Lucia yet exist at Barcelona 
 several interesting stone houses of the fifteenth century. Upon 
 the doors of these are to be still found specimens of excellent iron 
 work of the same period. It is not however to be supposed that the 
 Barcelonese possessed any very special gifts in this line, since evidences 
 of almost equal dexterity are to be found scattered over the whole 
 extent of the Peninsula. In the north and south alike, the " Rejas," 
 or vast screens, sometimes of iron only, sometimes of brass and bronze, 
 and sometimes of mixed metals, are yet to be found of great importance 
 and interest. The most famous of the " Rejeros," as they were called, 
 or makers of Rejae, were Francesco de Salamanca who flourished in 
 1533; Christobal Andino of 1540; Francesco de Vilalpando of 1561 ; 
 and Juan Bautista Celma of 1600. Because these men's names have 
 become " household words" amongst all students of Spanish Art, it should 
 not be forgotten that great men " to fortune and to fame unknown " 
 lived before those whose good deeds and works encountered fitting 
 record. By some of these were executed many of the various admirable 
 
2!-i KXOCKER OF AS OLD HOUSE IN THE CALLA SANTA LUCIA. 
 
 specimens of metal work commented upon in terms of high praise by 
 Ford, Street, O'Shea and other writers. The finest metal worker who 
 really starded his contemporaries by the beauty and splendour of his 
 workmanship, its " elaboracion v prolixedad," was the celebrated 
 Henrique de Arfe, gold and silversmith of Leon, founder of a family 
 which for several generations supplied artist-workmen in the precious 
 metals whose fame rests upon the same platform as that of Cellini and 
 Caradosso di Milano. His principal works were, according to the 
 account given to us of. them by his grandson Juan, in the " Varia 
 Commensuracion," the custodias (or " ciboria " for holding the sanctified 
 wafer) of the Cathedrals of Leon, Cordova, Toledo, and Sahagun. Of 
 crosses, paxes, censers, pixes, feretories, candelabra, monstrances, lamps, 
 &c, he scattered specimens broadcast throughout Spain. In all of 
 them he showed, as his descendant declared, "El valor de su ingenio 
 raro, con mayor efecto que puede escribirse." 
 
 As the present is the last occasion on which, in this volume at 
 least, I may have to speak of medixval metal work, and especially 
 iron work, I may be allowed to allude very briefly to the two principal 
 tools by which i; was worked, viz. : the hammer and the pliers. In 
 Higiand and in France the first was used in preference at least to 
 the last; while in Germany, Burgundy and the Low Countries, the last, 
 was specially affected, and by its means foliage, both natural and 
 conventional, was rendered with great skill, facility and taste. The 
 Spaniards, as is proved by the piesent sketch, and that which follows 
 »:, w.-rc ;r an early period dexterou-- in the use of both tools; uniting 
 the .massive style engendered by the predominant use of the hammer 
 vith jh'j.more .florid and fanciful manner springing out of the light and 
 uj.jva!-i;ed forms created by a mbre liberal use of the pliers. 
 
CMkut- :^\<i*TA\ Wtl/\- 
 
 Ik ! 
 
1 
 
 PLATE XCV. 
 
 BARCELONA. 
 
 KNOCKER TO AN OLD HOUSE IN THE CALLE SANTA 
 
 LUCIA. 
 
 IN this fanciful little object we meet with another illustration of 
 the spirit of humour as well as of dexterity in his craft, 
 manifested in abundance by the excellent old ironworkers of Spain. 
 Still good as the blacksmiths unquestionably were, the triumphs of 
 Spanish metal working were chiefly embodied in the precious metals. 
 It is rather in the cabinets cf connoisseurs than in the churches of the 
 country that specimens should be sought for to justify the splendid 
 reputation those artist-workmen enjoyed in the palmy days of the Spanish 
 Court and Church. Everywhere the traveller comes only now upon 
 exhausted treasuries and emptied sacristies. Even since the days of 
 Ford's inimitable handbook the spoiler has been rampant, and of the 
 custodias and virils, the "blandones" and " portapaces " in' which he 
 delighted, so far as my perquisitions extended, scarcely a vestige was 
 to be met with. Even since my sketches were made, the contents of the 
 treasury of "Nuestra Senora del Pilar" have been brought to the 
 hammer , and "the pressure of other engagements alone prevented my 
 

 
 nz KNOCKER TO AN OLD HOUSE IX THE CALLA SANTA LVClA. 
 
 return to Saragossa empowered to secure a share of those artistic 
 curiosities for cur National collection. 
 
 No doubt many beautiful specimens of Gothic precious metal work 
 once adorned the principal mediaeval ecclesiastical structures of Spain, 
 but it was not till a later date that the most important and famous /\ 
 
 works, other than those already noticed (by Henrique de Arft?,) were <- I , 
 produced. A brief notice of some of these from the pen of a / 
 cotemporary may not be altogether uninteresting. 
 
 "Although Renaissance architecture was introduced in Spain in a 
 fully developed form before the middle of the sixteenth century, it was 
 never thoroughly understood and adopted, we are told by Juan de 
 Arphe y Villafane,* in ecclesiastical plate, " until my father, Antonio 
 de Arfe, began to use it in the Custodia of Santiago in Galicia and in 
 that of Medina de Rioseco, and in the portable shrine of Leon." 
 
 " In all his work he evidenced an imperfect knowledge of good 
 style, introducing fanciful columns of irregular proportions according 
 to his own fancy. Juan Alvarez, who was a native of Salamanca, died 
 in the prime of his life in the service of Don Carlos of Austria. For 
 this reason he left no evidence of his rare talent in any publie 
 performance. Alonso Beccril obtained reputation in his turn on accot 
 of having made in his studio the Custodia of Cuenca. This work 
 secured the approbation of every artist in Spain who at that time was 
 really learned in Art. Juan de Orna was an excellent plate-worker 
 in Bulges. Juan Rinz,| a disciple of my grandfather, made the 
 Custodias of Jaen, Baza, and that of San Pablo of Seville. He was the 
 
 * Even bcltrr known as " El Vasdolico." 
 
 ■(" "Varia Commensuracion pr.ra la escultura y Arquitectura, «\a iir.pres.ion/' MadriJ, 
 • --;. p. i3i. 
 
KNOCKER TO AN OLD HOUSE IN THE CALLA SANTA LUCIA. zz* 
 
 nrst who used the lathe for forming plate in Spain ; he set the fashion 
 for the principal pieces of silver services for the table, and instructed 
 workmen throughout Andalusia. All the above artists, and others, 
 began to give elegant shapes to the principal objects made in silver 
 and gold for the use of the church, each one improving in symmetry 
 and general excellence upon the works of his predecessors until those 
 types became established which I am now about to describe." 
 
 Juan de Arphe proceeds, after complimenting Philip II. on his 
 majestic works at the Escorial, to give the forms and proportions of the 
 five orders, and their application to every variety of silversmith's work, 
 recognised as suitable for employment in sacred offices and ecclesiastical 
 rites and ceremonies in his time. 
 

 ■jig A- 
 
 
 3-r 
 
PLATE XCVI. 
 
 BARCELONA. 
 
 COURTYARD OF AN OLD HQUSE IN THE CALLE DE 
 
 MONCARA. 
 
 IN noticing my ninety-first sketch I took occasion to comment on 
 the difference which obtained between Spanish and Catalonian 
 architecture, and -Spanish and Catalonian character. Both are pressed 
 upon one's attention in looking over a house which, like the one I have 
 sketched in the Calle de Moncara at Barcelona, appears to have been 
 the comfortable home of a well-to-do merchant, with roomy stores and 
 warehouses on the ground floor facing the entrance, domestic offices 
 to the left, and counting-house and living rooms on the first floor, 
 with bedrooms above. As is becoming in the house of one welcoming 
 alike buyer and seller, we find a total absence of that almost Asiatic 
 privacy which the Spaniards generally, and especially the Andalusians, 
 appear in their homes to have adopted from Moorish models. Under 
 the old Counts of Barcelona the architecture of the city had no doubt 
 been mainly French. After the annexation of the city to the crown 
 of Aragon, the architecture became tinctured with detail corresponding 
 with much yet to be seen at Saragossa and elsewhere in Aragon, and 
 finally after the consolidation of the whole monarchy by the. marriage., 
 
226 COURTYARD OF AX OLD HOUSE IN THE CALLE DE MONGARA 
 
 VGa 
 
 c 
 
 & 
 
 of Ferdinand and Isabella, and the expulsion of the Moors, Barcelonese 
 architecture fell under the Plateresque revival and the subsequent Greco- 
 Roman mania which affected all Spain. The date of erection of the 
 house of which I now give a sketch, appears to have brought it 
 under the second of these two sets of conditions. In the twisted 
 column, its cap and base, and some other features, we may recognise 
 the Aragonese style, while in the staircase and some of the windows 
 there is to be traced, I consider, a decided French influence. 
 
 In spite of legislative assimilation, the Catalonians have never 
 been able to cordially adopt a Spanish nationality. They have never 
 warmly responded to the caresses of their monarchs. Even as late 
 as 1802, when Charles IV. paid a visit to Barcelona with the infamous 
 Godoy, and a retinue like an army, and drew some eighty thousand 
 strangers ^he city, a visitor in the following year records that " the 
 Catalans felt a generous pride in observing that no accident or quarrel 
 occurred on that occasion, and no life was lost, notwithstanding the enmity 
 subsisting between them and the Spaniards."* Whittaker further illustrates 
 this mutual jealousy and spiteful feeling by the following characteristic 
 anecdote : — " This enmity," he says, " is carried to such a height that 
 when it was proposed to strike a medal in honour of the King's 
 visit, the Academy of Arts of St. Fernando, at Madrid, were requested 
 to superintend the execution ; but this body, actuated by a most 
 illiberal and unworthy spirit, endeavoured to excuse themselves, and 
 made every possible delay, which so enraged the Catalans, that they 
 withdrew the business from their hands, and trusted it to their own 
 academy. The medal was produced in a month, and remains a record 
 rather of their loyal zeal, than of their ability in the fine arts." 
 
 * "Travels through Spain and Part of Portugal," by the Rev. G. D. Whittaker in 1803 
 Sherwood's Collection, London, 181 3, page 279. 
 
M^^^^^MIMiLLL^^^M • 
 
PLATE XCVII. 
 
 BARCELONA. 
 
 STAIRCASE OF AN OLD HOUSE IN THE CALLE DF_ y 
 
 monc/ara. 
 
 I AM induced to give this one little specimen of what the Spaniards 
 call " Churriguerismo " for these reasons: istly, because it is 
 a prettier example than usual of the style practised early in the 
 eighteenth century by the fashionable Jose Churriguerra-the William 
 Kent of Spanish architecture; sndly, because it afforded a good 
 specimen of the comfortable house of a rich Barcelonese merchant 
 of the last century; and 3 rdly, on account of the singular arrangement 
 of the jointing of the masonry, which converts the apparently double 
 arch into very little else than one tolerably stable spanning of the 
 
 whole space. 
 
 In describing my eighty-fifth sketch 1 alluded to the fact that 
 the trade of Spain gradually fell into the hands mainly of foreigners, 
 and especially at first of the Genoese, the difference between them 
 and the native Spanish merchant being that while the former were 
 crafty industrious and dishonest, the latter were stupid and lazy, but 
 (except in the matter of smuggling) strictly honest. Plenty of witness 
 is borne by different writers to both facts. Quevedo, for instance, 
 
228 STAIRCASE OF AN OLD HOUSE IN THE CALLE DE MOKjf.ARA. 
 
 abounds in hits at the Genoese and other Italians. " Give an Italian 
 to the Devil," he says in his " El Alguazil Endemoniado," " and the 
 old gentleman won't try to take him, for an Italian would take away 
 the Devil himself,"* Elsewhere in the same satire he cautions his 
 readers telling them that they are bound to know " that in Spain 
 the mysteries of the accounts of the Genoese are disastrous for the 
 millions that come from the Indies, and that the cannons of their 
 pens are batteries for purses. There are no incomes which, if they 
 once get into the strokes of their pens, and the inkholders of their 
 inkstands, escape without drowning."! 
 
 The poco-curante honesty of the Spaniard on the other hand, 
 the " poco-curanteeism " at least an inheritance from the East, kept 
 business in his hands which, but for his reliability, ought according 
 to every recognised law of probability in trade, to have left him 
 before it did. Laborde, a writer by no means inclined to take 
 too favourable a view of the national character, confesses that 
 " Spanish probity is proverbial, and it conspicuously shines in 
 commercial relations. Good faith and punctuality are generally 
 prevalent among merchants, the instances of deception, negligence, 
 fraudulent dealing and non-fulfilment of engagements, so generally 
 in the trading world, being unknown to and not practised amongst 
 
 * "Days al Diablo un Italiano, y no le torna cl Diablo, por que ay Italiano que tomara 
 al Diablo." 
 
 t " Y haveys A. sab r qui en Espana los misterios At las cuentas At los Ginoveses, son 
 dolorcsos para los millones que vuntn A; las Indlas, y que los canoncs de sus plumas son de 
 bateria contra las bolsas, y no ay renla que si la cogen en medio el tajo de sus p'.umas, y el 
 jarama de su tinta no la ahogucn." (The reader will observe the double meaning whieh point? 
 Quevedo's sarcasm — " cauones " express at the same time quills and cannons.) — "Suefios 
 Discursos por Dun Francisco de Quevedo Villegas Zaragoza." 1627. Page 19. 
 
STAIRCASE IN AN OLD HOUSE IN THE CALLE DE MONfiARA. 229 
 
 )nL 
 
 them." As an illustration, Laborde mentions some coined silver 
 sent home in the year 1654, which was paid away by the Spanish 
 merchants, and was subsequently discovered to have been debased. Not 
 only were the Spanish merchants eager to make good the loss to those 
 who had dealt with them, but having discovered the culprit they 
 obtained his conviction, and the wretched man was publicly burni 
 alive. In spite of honesty, however, trade and commerce will not 
 thrive in any country in which they are looked upon as degrading. 
 Catalonia might work, since he was but half a Spaniard. Spain proper, 
 however, was quite willing to pay any one who would work for him, 
 and as with his increase of wealth his wants became more and more 
 artificial and luxurious, the swarms of foreigners he harboured about 
 him to do his bidding, increased to an unprecedented extent. The 
 Countess D'Aulnois gives a capital account of the state of things in 
 this respect in her time (circa 1679). 
 
 " Spain," she says,* " cannot well be without commerce with France, 
 not only on the frontiers of Biscai and Arragon, where it hath been 
 almost ever permitted, but through the whole country where it is 
 prohibited, for Provence hath ever had correspondencies in the kingdom 
 of Valentia, by its necessity of the others commodities ; and for the 
 same reason Britaign, Normandy, and other parts on the ocean have 
 continually sent theirs to Cadiz and Bilbo. I speak not of corn and 
 stuffs of all sorts brought from that country, but even of ironwork 
 and swords ; by which it appears a mistake to think that in these dayes 
 the best come of Spain. No more being now made at Toledo, few 
 but forrain are used, unless a very small quantity that come from 
 Biscai, which are excessively dear. 
 
 *'• Letter of a Lady's Travels into Spain." London. Ninth Edition, 
 
2 3 o STAIRCASE IN AX OLD HOUSE IN THE CALLE DE MON 
 
 J.AR. 
 
 " It is, moreover, hard to imagine how much Spain suffers for 
 want of manufactures. So few artificers remain in its towns, that 
 native commodities are carried abroad to be wrought in forrain 
 countries. Wools and silks are transported raw, and being spun and 
 weaved in England, France, and Holland, return thither at dear rates. 
 The land itself is not tilled by the people it feeds. In seed time, 
 harvest, and vintage, husbandmen come from Beam and other parts 
 of France, who get a great deal of money by sowing and reaping 
 their corn, and dressing and cutting their vines. Carpenters and 
 masons are (for the most part) also strangers, who will be paid treble 
 what they can get in their own country. In Madrid there is hardly 
 a waterbearer that is not a foreigner, such are also the greatest part 
 of shoomakers and taylors, and it is believed the third of these come 
 only to get a little money and afterwards return home ; but none thrive 
 so much as architects, masons, and carpenters. Almost every house 
 hath wooden windows (here being no glass), and a balcony jutting into 
 the street. 
 

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C/ PLATE XrJVIII. 
 
 f 
 
 GERONA . 
 
 OLD HOUSE NEAR THE ESTRELLA DE ORO. 
 
 IF my last sketch illustrated the regular rich merchant's house of 
 the eighteenth century — symbol of peace and plenty, police and 
 protection, the kind of residence I now submit to the reader's attention 
 is cast in quite a different key. It is essentially a fighter's house, the 
 only kind of structure in which (before the use of gunpowder) a 
 family could hold its own for months of foreign siege or protracted 
 street fighting. Gerona has always been, as we shall have occasion to 
 recognize in examining its fine old walls, almost a frontier city, 
 struggled for repeatedly by Christian and by Moor. The house I 
 have sketched is one of the earliest and most complete of its class 
 I have ever seen, the lower half alone having been materially altered 
 from its original construction. It dates in all probability from the 
 middle of the twelfth century, and yet stands strong and stalwart 
 in a quarter of the city in which very little of anything not 
 comparatively of yesterday meets the wandering visitor's eye. On 
 comparing this sketch with that from a house at Barcelona (No. 96) 
 erected at least three hundred years later, it will be found that 
 the type furnished by the earliest in date had changed but little in 
 
2 3 « OLD HOUSE NEAR THE ESTRELLA DE ORO. 
 
 the interval. Hence we may fairly infer that the conditions of 
 insecurity affecting domestic life had scarcely varied in Catalonia during 
 the whole of that term. In fact, it was not until the invention of 
 printing spread abroad the elements of education, and brought about 
 changes in social systems, that men began to dream of peace and 
 security ensured by other preservatives from danger than heavy 
 armour and fortress-like houses. 
 
/C^r Y'vf- y\ . y . 
 
PLATE XrfjIX 
 
 f 
 
 GERONA . 
 
 UPPER PART OF OLD HOUSE AND SPIRE OF THE 
 CHURCH OF SAINT "FELIU." 
 
 THE west front of the Cathedral at Gerona stands at the top of 
 a noble flight of eighty-six steps, and these ascended, platforms 
 are reached on the west and south of the splendid pile from which 
 fine views over the city and its environs are obtained. The sketch 
 now under notice was taken from the southern platform, the wall 
 enclosing which upon the west cuts ofF something like thirty feet in 
 height of the fine old house which forms the principal object in the 
 sketch. Its uppermost story, with its continuous arcade, has a 
 symmetrical and agreeable effect, and appears to have been the only 
 portion of the building really suitable for habitation according to 
 modern views as to the value of abundant light and air. On the 
 right is seen the cathedral well, the waters of which have no doubt 
 alike served for the bodily and spiritual ablutions of Mahommedan 
 and Christian, since cathedral, mosque, and then again cathedral, have 
 existed in turn upon the same site from the days of Charlemagne to 
 the present time. During the Moorish occupation in the eighth 
 century the Christians were permitted to worship in the original church 
 
234 PART OF OLD HOUSE AND SPIRE OF CHURCH OF SAIN1 FELIU. 
 
 of San Feliu (Felix) the truncated spire of the successor to which 
 appears in my sketch between the old house, and the south-west 
 angle of the cathedral, shown on the extreme right. The present 
 church, dedicated to San Feliu, dates probably from. the early part of the 
 fourteenth century. Its history has been clearly traced by Mr. Street- 
 from a comparison of the building with the particulars given and 
 documents quoted in the " Espafia Sagrada." " The steeple is said 
 to have been finished in 1392. Pedro Zacoma having acted as 
 architect as late as a.d. 1376." It was struck by lightning in the year 
 1-5&1, and has remained ever since shorn of its fair proportions, as- we 
 now see it. 
 
 San Feliu, as he is popularly called, was an early Spanish Christian, 
 deacon to San Narciso, the Martyr, Protector and " Generalissimo " of 
 the See of Gerona. 
 
•GER0NA-OU3-WAU.*5-N£MR-SAN-P£DfcQ- 
 
PLATE 
 
 <p. 
 
 GERONA . 
 
 OLD WALLS NEAR THE MONASTERY OF SAN PEDRO. 
 
 FROM the date at least on which Charlemagne captured Gerona 
 from the Moors, it has been an essentially righting city ; manned 
 through all history, and under every circumstance of siege and 
 occupation, by men and women of the sternest courage and deter- 
 mination it has been held with the utmost tenacity, as really even more 
 than Figueras (the actual frontier town), the key to the easiest line of 
 advance from France into Spain. Hence the strength and interest 
 of its fine old walls, which in spite of every ancient and modern 
 vicissitude, still retain more curious features of middle age defence 
 than, to the best of my belief, any other city of Spain, with the 
 exception of Avila. As will be seen from my sketch, the apse of 
 the fine old Romanesque church of San Pedro, which actually forms 
 a bulwark, has been raised so as to bring it into practical fighting 
 order, and the covered galleries for marksmen, with bow and cross bow, 
 matchlock and firelock, still extend from it to the north and to the 
 south in easily to be recognised, and still fairly complete, galleries of 
 well-sheltered communication. The present aspect of the north of 
 Gerona forms a fair pendant to the description Charles Didier gives of 
 
236 OLD WALLS NEAR THE MONASTERY OF SAX PEDRO. 
 
 its sister fortress to the side of France, Figueras. He says, " Tout a 
 un air d'abandon et de desolation les casernes sont magnifiques, mais 
 desertes ; les casemates spacieuses, mais vides ; les longues herbes de 
 la solitude croissent partout, et la seule partie des batiments qui soit 
 aujourd'hui de premiere necessite, l'infirmerie, n'est point terminee ; 
 les pierres a moitie taillees jonchent le sol et sont couvertes de mousse. 
 J'errai longtemps seul dans ce silencieux desert sans rencontrer personnc; 
 de loin en loin seulement, j'apercevais quelque sentinelle perdue a 
 la pointe d'une demi-lune et nonchalamment appuyee contre les 
 canons et les mortiers ; de gros rats rongeaient en paix les affuts; ils 
 se sont si bien empares du lieu, que mon approche les derangeait a 
 peine ; je n'avais pas fait trois pas, qu'ils se remettaient a l'ceuvre. 
 Voila sous quels traits l'Espagne apparait au voyageur qui vient de 
 France, triste et frappante image d'une chute sans exemple et d'une 
 misere sans terme."* 
 
 One would have preferred receiving from any other than a 
 Frenchman so dreary a picture of the desolation mainly wrought by 
 Frenchmen. Returning to Gerona, to which Didier's description 
 applies (as I have already stated) nearly as well as to Figueras, in sight 
 of which he may have written it, we shall find Mr. Street no less 
 strongly impressed than I was with what Spain owes to France in the 
 matter. " All this havoc and ruin is owing," he says, " like so much 
 that one sees in Spain, to the action of the French troops during the 
 Peninsular War." It is however but just to the French to add that the 
 Spaniards are not like them, endowed with wonderful recuperative 
 energy. 
 
 ' ' I i« \iiiir- ■ i par ( liarlcs Didier. 1837. 
 
115 37 
 
 LIBRA p V