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Title: The Story of Seville
Author: Hartley, C. Gasquoine (Catherine Gasquoine), 1867-1928
Language: English
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[Illustration: image of the book's cover]
_The Story of Seville_
"He who Seville has not seen,
Has not seen a marvel great."
"To whom God loves He gives a house in Seville."
_Popular Spanish Sayings._
[Illustration: _Saints Justa y Rufina_
_From the painting by Goya_]
_The Story of Seville
by Walter M. Gallichan_
_With Three Chapters on the Artists
of Seville by C. Gasquoine Hartley
Illustrated by Elizabeth Hartley_
[Illustration: colophon]
_London: J. M. Dent & Co.
Aldine House, 29 and 30 Bedford Street
Covent Garden, W.C._ * * 1903
_All Rights Reserved_
PREFACE
In the story of Seville I have endeavoured to interest the reader in the
associations of the buildings and the thoroughfares of the city.
I do not claim to have written a full history of Seville, though I have
sketched the salient events in its annals in the opening chapters of
this book. The history of Seville is the history of Spain, and if I have
omitted many matters of historical importance from my pages, it is
because I wished to focus attention upon the city itself. I trust that I
have succeeded in awaking here and there an echo of the past, and in
bringing before the imagination the figures of Moorish potentate or
sage, and of Spanish ruler, artist, priest and soldier.
Those who are acquainted with the history of Spain will appreciate the
difficulty that besets the historian in the matter of chronological
accuracy, and even in a narration of many of the main events. The
chronicles of the Roman, Gothic and Moorish epochs are hardly accepted
as reliable. Patriotic bias and religious enthusiasm are elements that
frequently mislead in the making of history, though the Spaniard is not
alone in the commission of error in this respect.
Seville abounds with human interest. The city may at the first glance
slightly disappoint the visitor, but he cannot wander far without a
growing sense of its fascination. Most of the noteworthy buildings are
hidden amidst narrow alleys, for the designers of the city have shown
great economy in utilising space. It is therefore difficult to gain
large general views of Seville, unless one ascends the Giralda, while
the obtrusion of modern dwelling-houses and stores often mars the view
of fine public edifices. But the modernity of Seville seldom strikes one
as wholly out of place and in sharp contrast to the ancient monuments.
The plan is Morisco, and the impression conveyed is partly Moorish and
partly mediæval. In a word, Seville brings us at every step closely in
touch with antiquity.
For the chapters on the Artists of Seville I am indebted to C. Gasquoine
Hartley (Mrs. Walter M. Gallichan), who has devoted much study to the
art of Spain. The drawings by Miss Elizabeth Hartley were prepared while
I was gathering material for the book in Seville, and the illustrations
will be found to refer to the text. I have also to thank my brother, Mr.
F. H. Gallichan, for his plan of the city.
The frontispiece photograph of Goya's picture of SS. Justa and Rufina
was reproduced in the _Art Journal_ as an illustration to an article on
"Goya" by C. Gasquoine Hartley. My thanks are due to Messrs. Virtue &
Company for permission to reproduce the picture in this book.
WALTER M. GALLICHAN.
THE CRIMBLES,
YOULGREAVE, BAKEWELL,
_August 20, 1903_.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
_Romans, Goths and Moors_ 1
CHAPTER II
_The City Regained_ 26
CHAPTER III
_Seville under the Catholic Kings_ 62
CHAPTER IV
_The Remains of the Mosque_ 73
CHAPTER V
_The Cathedral_ 85
CHAPTER VI
_The Alcázar_ 110
CHAPTER VII
_The Literary Associations of the City_ 129
CHAPTER VIII
_The Artists of Seville_ 146
CHAPTER IX
_Velazquez and Murillo_ 165
CHAPTER X
_The Pictures in the Museo_ 176
CHAPTER XI
_The Churches of the City_ 187
CHAPTER XII
_Some Other Buildings_ 201
CHAPTER XIII
_Seville of To-day_ 213
CHAPTER XIV
_The Alma Mater of Bull-fighters_ 242
CHAPTER XV
_Information for the Visitor_ 262
_Index_ 269
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
_SS. Justa and Rufina, from the painting by_
GOYA (_photogravure_) _Frontispiece_
_Roman Amphitheatre at Italica_ 1
_The Guadalquivir_ 3
_Roman Walls_ 8
_The Pillars of Hercules and Julius Cæsar_ 11
_Moorish Fountain in the Court of Oranges_ 23
_Roman Capital_ 25
_Old Walls of the Alcázar_ 41
_Sword of Isabella_ 49
_Plaza San Francisco_ 55
_Fountain in Bath, Alcázar_ 66
_Puerta del Perdón_ 75
_Stone Pulpit in Court of Oranges_ 78
_Cuerpo de Azucenas_ 79
_The Giralda_ 84
_Pinnacle of the Cathedral_ 87
_Puerta Mayor--The Central Door of the
Cathedral_ 89
_Pinnacle of the Cathedral_ 91
_Interior of the Cathedral_ 97
_Patio de las Doncellas_ 111
_In the Garden of the Alcázar_ 125
_Cancela of the Casa Pilatos_ 133
_The Guardian Angel_ (MURILLO) _facing_ 172
_The Conception_ (MURILLO) _facing_ 178
_The Road to Calvary_ (VALDÉS LEAL) _facing_ 180
_Saint Hugo in the Refectory_ (ZURBARAN) _facing_ 182
_The Crucifixion_ (MONTAÑES) _facing_ 186
_Minaret of San Marcus_ 190
_Puerta de Santa Maria_ 195
_Patio del Casa Murillo_ 203
_Amphora_ 212
_Patio del Colegio_, _San Miguel_ 215
_The Golden Tower_ 223
_A Roof Garden_ 238
_Arms of Seville_ 241
_Plan of City_ _facing_ 268
[Illustration: Roman Amphitheatre at Italica]
The Story of Seville
CHAPTER I
_Romans, Goths and Moors_
'The sound, the sight
Of turban, girdle, robe, and scimitar
And tawny skins, awoke contending thoughts
Of anger, shame and anguish in the Goth.'
ROBERT SOUTHEY, _Roderick_.
Seville the sunny, the gem of Andalusia, is a city in the midst of a
vast garden. Within its ancient walls, the vine, the orange tree, the
olive, and the rose flourish in all open spaces, while every _patio_, or
court, has its trellises whereon flowers blossom throughout the year.
Spreading palms overshadow the public squares and walks, and the banks
of the brown Guadalquivir are densely clothed with an Oriental verdure.
The surrounding country of the Province of Sevilla, _La Tierra de Maria
Santisima_, is flat, and in the neighbourhood of the city sparsely
wooded. On the low hills of Italica and San Juan de Aznalfarache, the
Hisn-al-Faradj of the Moors, olive groves cover many thousands of acres.
The plain is a _parterre_ of wide grain fields, and meadows of rife
grass, divided by straight white roads, with their trains of picturesque
mule teams and waggons, and their rows of tall, straight trees. Here and
there the cold grey cactus serves as a fence, but there is no other kind
of hedgerow.
Far away, across the yellow wheatfields, and beyond the vine-clad slopes
of the middle distance, rise the huge shoulders and purple peaks of wild
sierras.
The Guadalquivir, rolling and eddying in a wide bed, takes its tint from
the light soil and sand, and is always turbid, as though in spate. Below
Seville, on the left bank of the river, stretch the great salt marshes,
or Marismas, haunted by the stork, the heron, and innumerable wildfowl.
Here, among the arms of the tidal water, the cotton plant is cultivated.
Winter floods are a source of danger to Seville, especially when a
south-west wind is blowing and the tide ascending the river. Then the
Guadalquivir overflows its banks and deluges the town and the flat land,
drowning live stock and destroying buildings. In 1595 and 1626 occurred
two of the worst floods, or _avenidas_, on record. The flood of 1626
washed away the foundations of about three thousand houses.
[Illustration: The Guadalquivir]
It is probable that the southern kingdom of Andalusia derived its name
from the Vandals, who overran the country after the Roman occupation.
The region was then known as Vandalitia, or Vandalusia. Lower Andalusia
has been said to be the Tarshish of the Bible. The Phœnicians called
the land Tartessus, or Tartessii. Nowadays Andalusia includes the
provinces of Sevilla, Huelva, Cadiz, Córdova, Jaén, Granada and
Almeria, and has a population of over three millions. Seville is the
capital, the seat of an archbishop, and a university town. The traveller
from Northern Europe will feel the spirit of Spain upon him as he
approaches Seville from Cadiz or Córdova through a semi-tropical country
under a burning blue sky. He will note everywhere the influence of the
Arab in the architecture of modern public buildings, churches and
dwelling-houses, in the tortuous, narrow streets, in the features,
language, music and garb of the people, and in many of the customs of
the district. The character of the landscape is strange, the atmosphere
vivid, and the distant objects show sharply against the horizon. For
leagues he will traverse groves of olive, or vineyards, and pass across
wastes purple with the flower of the lavender or scarlet with poppies.
Seville of to-day is white, clean and bright. Gautier noted that the
shadows of the houses in the narrow thoroughfares are blue, in contrast
to the white of the dazzling buildings at noon. During the _siesta_ of
the hot months, the streets are deserted daily for about four hours,
shutters screen the rooms from the blinding sunshine, and awnings are
drawn across the roofs of the _patios_. In the evening the town awakens,
and the _plazas_ and alleys are thronged and gay until two in the
morning. Everyone endeavours to lead an _al fresco_ life, and to
conserve physical energy in this city of eternal sunshine. Unlike Toledo
and Avila, where the houses are sombre and the doors heavy and barred,
as though the towns were inhospitable, Seville opens wide the gates of
its beautiful courts so that the passer-by may peep within.
'Seville is a fine town,' wrote Lord Byron, in a letter, during his stay
in Spain in 1809. We may regret that he had so little to say about the
fascinating capital. George Borrow, who lived for a time in the Plazuela
de la Pila Seca, near the Cathedral, speaks in rapturous phrases of the
view of Seville and the Guadalquivir. 'Cold, cold must the heart be
which can remain insensible to the beauties of this magic scene, to do
justice to which the pencil of Claude himself were barely equal. Often
have I shed tears of rapture whilst I beheld it, and listened to the
thrush and the nightingale piping their melodious songs in the woods,
and inhaled the breeze laden with the perfume of the thousand orange
gardens of Seville.'
The city is rich in antiquities, in historic buildings associated with
illustrious names, in works of art and in sumptuous palaces. A great
company of the spirits of famous kings, warriors, explorers, authors,
painters and priests spring up in the imagination as one stands in the
aisles of the splendid Cathedral, or dreams amid the roses and the
tinkling fountains of the secluded gardens of the Alcázar. Here, to this
prized and fertile territory of southernmost Spain, came Publius
Cornelius Scipio and Cato. Trajan, Hadrian and Theodosius were born at
the municipium of Italica, a few miles from modern Seville. El Begi,
'the most accomplished scholar of Spain,' spent the greater part of his
life in the city.
San Isidoro and San Leandro lived here. Moorish monarchs and Christian
sovereigns ruled from the palace, and in their turn attacked and
defended the fair city. The figures crowd before the mind's
eye--Ferdinand III., who redeemed the town from the Moriscoes, Alfonso
(_El Sabio_) the Learned, Pedro I. the Cruel, and Ferdinand and Isabella
the Catholic. We see the fair, blue-eyed Genoese youth, Christoforo
Colombo, or Columbus, the maker of the modern prosperity of Seville,
who, after achieving fame, was alternately petted and punished by his
sovereigns. We picture the triumphant return of Hernando Pizarro to the
city, with half a million pesos of gold, and a great treasure of silver.
Lope de Rueda, 'the real father of the Spanish theatre,' a gold-worker
of Seville; Fernando de Herrera, the poet; the mighty Cervantes, who
spent three years of his life in the Andalusian capital; Velazquez,
Zurbaran, Roelas, Murillo and minor artists of note were either born in
the city or closely associated with it.
For the present we must take a look back into the dim and remote period
when the Phœnicians came to wrest the soil of Southern Spain from the
race of mingled Celtic and Iberian blood. It is at this uncertain date
that the history of Seville may be said to begin.
* * * * *
We learn from the historians of Phœnicia that the shrewd, practical
and industrious people of that marvellous ancient civilisation were
great colonisers. 'The south of Spain,' writes Professor George
Rawlinson, 'was rich in metallic treasures, and yielded gold, silver,
copper, iron, lead and tin.' In their quest for valuable metal, certain
Phœnician explorers discovered the Peninsula of Iberia, and in the
mineral-yielding region watered by the Guadalquivir they founded the
colony of Tartessii. Doubt exists whether Tartessii was the name given
to the plains of the Guadalquivir or to a town. Strabo, Mela and Pliny
state that the Phœnicians built a town and called it Tartessus. Was
this town the foundation of Seville? No one will attempt to give an
authoritative answer, though it has been stated that the town was not
Cadiz, the Gades of the Phœnicians. Two cities of considerable
importance appear to have been the marts of the Phœnician _Sephela_,
or plain, and it is not wholly improbable that Seville was one of them.
[Illustration: Roman Walls]
In the choice of new territory for the development of mining and
agriculture, the enterprising colonists displayed much intelligence.
They settled upon a soil that will bring forth richly without artificial
stimulation.
The hill ranges produced vines and olive trees, yielding fine wine and
ample oil. Tunny and other fish were plentiful in the sea, and the
rivers afforded large eels.
This is all that can be known of the Phœnician colony in Southern
Spain. We are beginning to tread upon firmer historic ground when
Hamilcar Barca landed at Cadiz in 237 B.C., after a series of victories
in Africa, and subdued Andalusia. Hasdrubal, son-in-law of the
conqueror, was the founder of Cartagena, or New Carthage, the centre of
Carthaginian rule in Spain, and the wealthiest city of the Peninsula.
But during the second Punic War the Romans invaded Iberia, and gained
all the eastern coast from New Carthage to the Pyrenees. Plutarch says
that Publius Cornelius Scipio came to Spain with eleven thousand
soldiers, seized Cartagena, reduced Cadiz, and founded the city of
Italica, near Seville. Hispalis was the Roman name given to the city on
the Guadalquivir until Cæsar changed the name to Julia Romula. The city
then became the capital of Roman Spain, a centre of industry, and a
fortress. A splendid aqueduct, which has partly endured to this day, was
constructed to bring a plentiful supply of water from the hills. The
aqueduct was extended by the Almohades in 1172, and forms one of the
interesting monuments of the Roman and Arab colonisers. Around the city
were reared high walls, with watch towers, and many strong gates. It is
said that the walls of Seville were five miles in length, and it has
been stated that they were once ten miles long. Within the gates were
palaces, temples to the honour of the Sun, Hercules, Bacchus and Venus,
and other fine edifices.
Under Augustus, Spain was part of the Roman Empire. In Seville the rule
of the conquerors was beneficent, and the original inhabitants were
fairly governed, while the city was extended and new crafts introduced.
Under the Romans, Christianity came to the Peninsula, and Seville was
made the seat of a bishop. The remaining portions of the great aqueduct,
the wall, the two high granite columns in the Alameda de Hercules, with
the statues of Julius Cæsar and Hercules upon them, the shafts of the
columns discovered in the Calle Abades, and the beautiful fragments of
capitals and statues in the Museo Arqælógico are the chief vestiges of
Seville in the days of the Romans. At Urbs Italica, 'the camp of the
Italians,' there still exists a grass-grown, mouldered amphitheatre, the
only remnant of a mighty town.
Built on the slopes once dotted with the tents of the aboriginal hamlet
of Sancios, Italica lies about five miles to the west of Seville, amid
olive gardens and wheatfields. The circus is a ruin; but the passages
can be followed below the tiers of seats, and one may peer into the dens
once tenanted by the lions and other fierce beasts. Bees hum amongst the
wild thyme, lizards creep on the worn stones, and a tethered ass grazes
in the arena. The glory of Rome has departed; the plaudits from those
deserted and grassy seats have not been heard for centuries; and blood
has ceased to redden the floor, where fragrant herbs now spring and
butterflies sun themselves on fallen masonry. Here is all that is left
of Italica, the home of Trajan and Hadrian, and the asylum for Scipio's
aged warriors. For a period the decaying town was known as Old Seville,
and tons of its masonry were removed to build Seville the New.
Rome fell, and the Silingi Vandals swarmed into the country, captured
Hispalis, and made it the seat of their empire. This period in the
history of Seville is dark, and beset with difficulty for the annalist.
About the year 520 a great horde of Goths spread over Andalusia. They
seized the Vandal capital, but afterwards established a new capital of
their own at Toledo.
[Illustration: The Pillars of Hercules and Julius Ceásar]
Amalaric was the first of the Gothic monarchs who sat on the throne in
Seville. He reigned probably from about the year 522. Theudis ruled in
Seville (531 to 548), and we read that he was murdered there after an
attempt to expel the Byzantine troops of Justinian from Africa.
Theudisel, or Theudigisel, was general to Theudis, whom he succeeded as
ruler at Seville. Theudisel shared the fate of his predecessor on the
throne. After a reign of eighteen months, he was killed by the
sword-thrusts of a dozen nobles of his retinue, while taking supper in
his palace. This 'monster of licentiousness' was wont to kill all women
who repelled his addresses, and his assassination was a work of
vengeance on the part of outraged fathers and husbands among his
courtiers.
Schlegel says the Goths were ready converts to Christianity, but 'in the
Arian form.' At a later period of their supremacy in Spain there came a
wider adherence to orthodox Catholicism, and the civil power was largely
in the hands of the bishops and clergy. The most influential bishop of
this day was Saint Isidore (San Isidoro) who held office in Seville. His
brothers, Leander and Fulgentius, were also prelates, and his sister,
Florentina, was made a saint. Saint Leander was the elder brother of
Isidore, and through him the youth received his education after the
death of his parents. The pupil was earnest and diligent in his studies,
and as he grew to manhood he zealously assisted his brother, who then
held the See of Seville, in converting the Goths from the heresy of
Arius.
Dissensions between the orthodox and the Arians caused great strife and
family bitterness among the ruling class. During the reign of King
Leovigild rebellions broke out in Castile and León. The leader of the
rebels was Leovigild's own son, Ermenigild, who had married Ingunda,
daughter of Brunichilda and of Sigebert. Ingunda professed the orthodox
faith, while Gosvinda, the second wife of Leovigild, was of the Arian
sect. A rivalry arose between the two dames. According to Gregory of
Tours, Gosvinda determined that Ingunda should be compelled to embrace
the heterodox creed. One day when the two disputants were together,
engaged in hot controversy, the fanatical Gosvinda gripped Ingunda by
the hair of her head, threw her to the ground, trod upon her, and bade
an Arian priest baptize the prostrate woman.
This incident not unnaturally brought about a quarrel between Leovigild
and his son. Ermenigild was then ruling in Seville, while Leovigild
maintained his court at Toledo. The trouble grew when Leander, the uncle
of Ermenigild, persuaded the young man to forsake Arianism. His father
was deeply angered, and vowed that the Gothic crown should never come to
an apostate. The Archbishop of Tours states that the father was the
first to take up arms after the rupture, but other historians suppose
that the turbulent Ermenigild began the hostilities.
This domestic difference led to serious warfare. Ermenigild was besieged
in Seville by his father's forces, after begging aid from Mir, King of
the Suevi, in Galicia. Mir started with an army to assist the rebellious
prince, but on the way he was defeated by Leovigild, and forced to aid
the monarch. For a year Ermenigild resisted the siege of Seville. The
people were on the point of starvation when he resolved upon
capitulation. Nothing remained but flight, and the prince made his
escape from the city and reached Córdova. There he was captured,
divested of his regal garments and authority, and banished to Valencia.
Very soon the strife was renewed. Ermenigild, panting for a reprisal,
solicited aid from the Greeks and rebels of the east coast, and invaded
Estremadura. His father went to meet him with a force of his bravest
men. The attack was made by Leovigild, who drove his son's army from
Merida into Valencia, and took the young man a prisoner.
The King was stern, but he could not act ungenerously towards his foe
and son. He offered Ermenigild pardon and favour on condition that he
would reject his heretical faith. The rebel refused the terms; he would
rather remain in his dungeon than practise hypocrisy. Again the father
besought the son, through an Arian priest, to renounce his false
doctrine, and again Ermenigild was resolute. In a passion, he cursed the
cleric, crying: 'As the minister of the devil, thou canst only guide to
hell! Begone, wretch, to the punishments which are prepared for thee!'
This was more than Leovigild could bear. He immediately sentenced his
son to death. The legend of Ermenigild's last days relates that on the
night of his execution a light from Paradise shone in his cell, and that
angels watched over the grave, singing hymns in his praise. Ermenigild
was sainted, and one of his bones is at Zaragoza.
It was in this time of religious stress and civil discord that Saint
Isidore of Seville began his labours. For about thirty-six years he
ruled as governor of the church in the city. His hand was open towards
the poor, and he preached with fervid eloquence. It is to the industry
of Isidore that Spain owes respect, for his writings are the only basis
for a history of the chief events during the Gothic epoch. He wrote the
_Historia de Regibus Gothorum, Wandalorum et Suevorum_, and one of the
celebrated books of study of mediævalism, _The Etymologies or Origins of
Things_.
San Isidore's philosophy was Platonic and Aristotelian. In theology he
followed the teaching of St. Gregory the Great. He was a puritan in his
attitude towards the play.
'What connection,' he writes, 'can a Christian have with the folly of
the circus games, with the indecency of the theatre, with the cruelty of
the amphitheatre, with the wickedness of the arena, or with the
lasciviousness of the plays? They who enjoy such spectacles deny God,
and, as backsliders in the faith, hunger after that which they renounced
at their baptism, enslaving themselves to the devil with his pomps and
vanities.'
The gift of oratory possessed by Saint Isidore was predicted in his
infancy by the issue of a swarm of bees from his mouth. His body was
laid to rest, in 636, in Seville.
When King Fernando decided to collect all the bones of martyrs and
saints that he could find in the cathedrals and burial grounds, he
raised an army and came to Seville, which was then under the Moors. Ibn
Obeid, the chief of the Moriscoes, favoured Fernando's scheme, and
allowed the King to enter the city to search for the remains of Justus.
These bones could not be found; but while the seekers were at their task
the spirit of Saint Isidore appeared to them, and said that the remains
of Justus could not be discovered, as it was ordained that they should
rest at Seville. Saint Isidore then offered his own remains for removal,
and his embalmed corpse was taken to the Church of John the Baptist, in
León, in 1063.
Until the time of Recared I. the Goths in Spain remained Arians. When
they forsook their early faith, they adopted a ritual which differed
from that of the Catholics. It was not until the reign of Alfonso VI.
that the Roman service was used throughout the land. The civil law of
the Goths was founded on the _Forum Judicum_ of the Romans. This lengthy
code became later the _Fuero Juzgo_, and was eventually adapted to the
community by Alfonso X. in 1258, and known as the _Siete Partidas_, or
Seven Sections. Under the Gothic code slavery was permitted, and great
power was vested in the hands of the nobility.
'The old Roman civilisation,' writes Mr. H. E. Watts, in his _Spain_,
'which the Celtiberians had been so quick to adopt, sat awkwardly on
these newer barbarians. It was a heritage to which they had not
succeeded of nature, and a burden too great for them to support? The
Romans had made one nation of Spain. The Visigoths were not much more
than an encampment.' When the Berbers, new converts to Mohammedanism,
began to cast envious eyes upon lovely Andalusia, the Goths were
demoralised through easy living in a southern clime. Spain had become a
nation of lords and serfs, and the slaves, the mass of the people, had
no heart to fight for the land that had been wrested from them.
When Tarik, lieutenant of Musa, came with a force of seven thousand
Berbers to battle for the Prophet and to conquer Spain, the Gothic King,
Roderic, hastily collected an army of defence and advanced towards
Xeres. Theodomir, Governor of Andalusia, had learned that the invaders
were marching from Algeciras, where they landed on the 30th of April
711. The Berbers had many horsemen, well-equipped and valiant, while
Roderic possessed only a small number of mounted men.
It was not until 19th July that the decisive and memorable battle was
fought. The Gothic King met his foes on the banks of the Guadalete
(_Wad-el-leded_) 'the river of delight.' It is said that the combat
lasted for seven days. The Goths, though enervated, had not wholly lost
their prowess, and they strove desperately with the fierce host of
Tarik. So bravely fought the defenders that the Moors grew disheartened;
but their leader, sword in hand, and calling upon Allah, told his troops
that they had no vessels with which to escape from the country. The
Berbers must win or perish. Spurring his steed, Tarik dashed into the
Gothic ranks, cleaving a way as he rode, and inspiring his followers to
a supreme effort. Roderic also rallied his soldiers to a last stand. His
army numbered more than that of the Berber general, but the men were
ill-trained, and no match for the desperate enemies who had battled in
many campaigns.
Some Spanish historians assert that the sons of Witiza, the King
dethroned by Roderic and sentenced to death, aided by other traitors,
deserted their companies and joined the Berbers. It has also been
recorded that Count Julian, whose daughter was dishonoured by Roderic,
had allied himself with the foe in Africa. These stories have not,
however, been accepted by later chroniclers.
The battle was to the Moors. Roderic was either killed on the field by
Tarik himself, or taken prisoner and released to spend the rest of his
days in a monastery. One account states that Tarik slew his opponent,
and sent the head to Musa, who had it conveyed to the Court at Damascus.
The beaten Goths retreated rapidly before the advancing army. Some
followed Theodomir into Murcia, others went to the Asturian mountains.
The band of the Andalusian Governor was pursued by the enemy and routed;
and Theodomir was compelled to surrender and to confess fealty to the
Khalif. Upon this condition the Governor was allowed to possess Murcia
and parts of Valencia and Granada, his territory being known as Tadmir.
Seville was soon in a state of siege. Envious of the good fortune of his
lieutenant, Musa came to Andalusia with eighteen thousand Arabs of
valour. He was assisted in command by his sons Abdelola and Meruan. His
eldest son, Abdelasis, remained in authority in Africa. The Sevillians
made a valiant defence of their beautiful city; but after several weeks
of siege Musa led his army through the gates. From that hour, until its
capture by Fernando III., the Andalusian capital was in the hands of the
Moors. Carmona and neighbouring towns were also seized by Musa.
After the subjection of Seville, the Arab general started upon a
campaign. It appears that Musa had not left an efficient force within
the city walls, for the inhabitants rose and attempted to expel their
victors. Hearing of the trouble, Musa sent his son Abdelasis into Spain
to quell the revolt in Seville. Abdelasis used suasion first; but the
natives were in arms and ardent to regain the city. They prepared for a
second siege. With much slaughter, the son of Musa put down the
rebellion of the newly-conquered citizens, and proceeded through the
south of Spain, winning battles everywhere. Musa was so gratified by his
son's successes that he appointed him ruler of the annexed territory.
Abdelasis had a reputation for humane conduct towards the vanquished
people. He fell in love with Egilona, widow of the unfortunate Roderic,
and made her first a member of his harem and afterwards his wife. That
he respected her is shown by the fact that her counsel was always sought
in affairs of government.
The Berber King of Seville was to learn that the throne is not the most
peaceful resting-place after war's alarms. Scandal was set abroad that
Abdelasis was scheming to become sole ruler of the Berber dominion, and
this report reached the ears of Suleyman, brother and heir of the
Khalif. There is no doubt that Suleyman resented the favour shown to
Musa and his sons, while he feared that Abdelasis might one day contest
with him for sovereignty. Seized by this fear, the heir to the crown
gave secret orders for the killing of the three sons of the great
commander, Musa.
One day, while Abdelasis was taking part in the devotions within the
Mosque of Seville, hired murderers crept up to him and stabbed him to
death. The two brothers of Abdelasis shared the like fate. The head of
the King was sent to the Khalif at Damascus, who caused it to be shown
to Musa. Then the brave general, gazing in anger upon his sovereign,
cried aloud: 'Cursed be he who has destroyed a better man than himself!'
The distracted Musa fell sick through grief, and soon died.
There is another account of the death of Musa. His jealousy of Tarik,
who conducted the first successful campaign in the Peninsula, led the
general to treat his inferior officer with indignity. The friends of
Tarik at Damascus, in the Court of the Khalif, breathed vengeance upon
Musa, and prevailed upon the monarch to punish his commander-in-chief. A
party of arrest seized Musa in his camp, and brought him before the
Khalif, who commanded that he should be degraded and publicly beaten.
The disgrace broke Musa's heart and caused his death.
Abdelasis was succeeded by Ayub, who acted as Viceroy of the Khalif. The
new ruler preferred Córdova to Seville, and thither he removed with his
retinue. For a long period the city was one of lesser importance; but it
gained greatness and independence under Abul Kâsein Mohammed in 1021. In
the time of Abbad and Al-Motamid II. the population of the town rose to
four hundred thousand, and the grandeur of the place rivalled, if it did
not exceed, that of Córdova. In 1078 proud Córdova was subject to
Seville, and the ancient metropolis of the Moors in Spain was falling
into decay, while 'the pearl of Andalusia' was shining in its chief
splendour.
Abderahman I., Emir of Córdova, in 777, made a bold stroke by
proclaiming himself Khalif and sole ruler of Spain. It is not necessary
to recount the victories of Abderahman. He came in triumph to Seville
and was bade welcome. 'His appearance, his station, his majestic mien,
his open countenance,' writes Dunham, 'won the multitude even more
perhaps than the prospect of the blessings which he was believed to have
in store for them.' Abderahman's rule in Seville laid the foundation of
the city's prosperity. He narrowed the channel of the Guadalquivir, and
made the river navigable; he built residences, and laid out gardens, and
transplanted the palm tree into Spain. We read that the Moorish King was
honourable, bold and generous, and possessed of a fine sense of justice.
He encouraged letters, and was a benefactor of educational institutions.
The King was also a poet, and loved the society of intellectual men.
Although the peaceful arts flourished in Seville at this period, the
city was frequently the scene of battle. Conspiracies, factions and
revolts constantly disturbed Spain, and during the reign of Abderahman
several rival chiefs made assault upon Seville. One of these was Yusuf,
who raised troops, took the fort of Almodovar, and moved towards Lorca.
There he was met by Abdelmelic, general of Abderahman, who overcame the
rebel force, killed the leader, and sent his head, after the Oriental
manner, to the King. The trophy was displayed at Córdova. But the
rebellion was not quelled by Abdelmelic's victory. Yusuf's three sons
gathered an army and made attacks upon Toledo, Sidonia, and Seville.
Another insurrection broke out at Toledo, under one of Yusuf's
relatives, Hixem ben Adri el Fehri.
Upon the advice of Abderahman's first minister, the King proposed an
amnesty, to last for three days. Hixem accepted the terms, and gained
pardon. But he abused the King's clemency at a later date, and came
with a body of troops to the gates of Seville. There was hard fighting,
but the Governor, Abdelmelic, preserved the city and drove away the foe.
Strife was again caused by the Wali of Mequinez, one Abdelgafar, who
came bent upon the capture of Seville. The Wali was encountered by
Cassim, young son of Abdelmelic. Fear seized the youthful officer, and
he fled with his soldiers. He was met by his father, who drew his dagger
and killed the young man, saying: 'Die, coward! thou art not my son, nor
dost thou belong to the noble race of Meruan!' The Governor then pursued
the enemy, but they escaped him, and came near again to Seville.
Abdelmelic hurried to the Guadalquivir, and in a night fight he was
overcome and received a wound. The troops of the Wali poured into the
city. But in spite of his injury the Governor entered Seville, and after
a furious combat expelled the host of Abdelgafar. The Wali was
afterwards caught and killed on the bank of the Xenil. In reward for his
bravery, the King made Abdelmelic Governor of Eastern Spain.
It is stated that, in 843, a fleet of ships, manned by Norman pirates,
sailed up the Guadalquivir. The pirates made a sudden raid upon Seville.
The inhabitants were taken by surprise, the town was robbed, and the
thieves made good their escape to the river.
Seville in the days of Moorish might was one of the fairest cities on
earth. Beautiful palaces were built upon the sites of the Roman halls,
gardens were shady with palms, and odorous with the blossom of orange
trees, and there were hundreds of public baths. The streets were paved
and lighted. In winter the houses were warmed, and in summer cooled by
scented air brought by pipes from beds of flowers.
Poetry, music and the arts were cultivated; the philosopher and the
artist were held in respect. There were halls of learning and great
libraries, which were visited by scholars from all parts of Europe.
[Illustration: Moorish fountain in the Court of Oranges]
The Alcázar, the Mosque, the lordly Giralda Tower and other remains
testify to the ancient splendour of Seville. It was the Moor who applied
the method of science to the cultivation of the plains, who bred the
cattle, introduced the orange tree, and planted the palm in the city.
Granada and Seville were centres of silk-growing. Here were manufactured
the damascened swords and other weapons, and beautiful metal work of
divers kinds, which was in demand all over Spain for centuries. Moorish
civilisation was unsurpassed for its handicrafts and architectural
decorations. Long after the Christian reclamation of Seville, the
_Mudéjar_, or Moor, living under the new rule, was employed by the State
to construct bridges and to build castles, to design houses, and to
decorate them with the wonderful glazed tiles and imperishable colours.
Among the learned Moors of Seville the most eminent was Abu Omar Ahmed
Ben Abdallah, known as El Begi. Abu Omar's father had spared no cost in
providing for his son's education. He employed as tutors the greatest
scholars of the time, and sent the lad to Africa, Syria, Egypt and
Khorassan in order to confer with sage men and doctors of repute. At the
age of eighteen years Abu Omar was wonderfully cultured, and as he grew
to middle age there was no man who could surpass him in knowledge of
arts and sciences. 'Even in his earliest youth, the Cadi of that city,
Aben Faweris,' says Condé, 'very frequently consulted him in affairs of
the highest importance.' El Begi, the Sage, was born in Seville and
lived there during most of his life.
Many philosophers must have mused in this cultured age amid the orange
trees of the court of the magnificent mosque. From the summit of the
Giralda, astronomers surveyed the spangled sky, making observations for
the construction of astronomical tables. Chemists questioned nature in
the laboratories by means of careful experiments, and mathematicians
taught in the schools. There were seventy public libraries in Andalusia;
the library of the State contained six hundred thousand volumes, and the
catalogue included forty-four tomes. Scholars also possessed large
private libraries. There was no censorship, no meddling with the works
of genius. Men of science were encouraged to investigate every problem
of human existence. Abu Abdallah wrote an encyclopædia of the sciences.
The theory of the evolution of species was part of the Arab education.
Moorish thought was destined to influence Spain for ages. The discovery
of the New World was due to the Mohammedan teaching of the sphericity
of the earth, and it was the work of Averroes that set Christopher
Columbus thinking upon his voyage of exploration.
The Moors in Seville were not only a cultured and devout community. They
were commercial and manufacturing, weavers of cotton, silk and wool,
makers of leather and paper, and growers of grain. In their hours of
recreation they played chess, sang and danced. Their dances have
survived to this day in the south of Spain, and may be witnessed in the
_cafés_ of Seville and Malaga.
[Illustration: Roman Capital.]
CHAPTER II
_The City Regained_
'All the intellect of the country which was not employed in the
service of the church was devoted to the profession of arms.'
BUCKLE, _History of Civilisation_.
In 1023 Abu el Kásim Mohammed, then Cadi of Seville, raised a revolt
against the Berber rulers of Andalusia. The rising was successful, and
the town once more became a capital. Under the Abbadid dynasty, and the
rule of Motadid and Motamid, Seville was secure and peaceful. Stirring
days came with the rise of the Almoravides in the eleventh century. In
Morocco, Yussuf, son of Tashfin, had been inspired to wage battle in the
name of a reformed religion. The Almoravides, or Mourabitins, _i.e._,
'those who are consecrated to the service of God,' were a fanatical sect
led by an intrepid warrior. They had made havoc in Northern Africa,
deposing sovereigns and seizing territory. Now they were to make history
in Spain.
Under Alfonso III. the Spaniards of the northern and central parts of
the Peninsula had prospered in their arduous task of stemming the
advance of the Moors northwards. Spain had won back Asturias, Galicia,
and part of Navarre, and in time León and Castile were restored to
Christian rule. But under Almanzor, a most redoubtable commander, León
fell, and the whole population of its capital was slaughtered. The death
of Almanzor, in 1002, brought about vast changes for the Moorish
kingdom in the south of Spain. There was no great leader to control the
fortunes of Islam. The territorial governors were in constant dispute,
and often at war one with the other. It was a golden opportunity for the
soldiers of the Cross.
In 1054 Fernando I., a sagacious ruler of León and Castile, made a
crusade against the Moors of Portugal, and brought the King of Toledo to
his knees. He besieged Valencia and brought his troops into Andalusia.
Under Alfonso VI., Toledo was recovered, amid the rejoicings of the
Christian host, who anticipated a speedy delivery from the Morisco
domination. The coming of Yussuf and his fierce Almoravides dashed the
hopes of Alfonso's army. Finding themselves encompassed with growing
dangers, the Moors of Spain begged the assistance of the powerful
Almoravides. A conference of the Moorish rulers was held at Seville, and
a message sent to Yussuf. The Almoravide King was astute. At first he
displayed but little sympathy for his brethren in Spain. But the offer
of Algeciras induced him to promise aid, and he came with a strong army
of Moors and Berbers. Alfonso was informed that a profession of belief
in the creed of Mahomet would spare him from certain death. The
Christian sovereign replied by allying himself with Sancho of Navarre,
and bringing a force to meet Yussuf. Between Badajoz and Merida the
armies met in a terrible conflict. Alfonso was forced to retreat, and
for the present Yussuf offered no further demonstration of his military
skill.
Next year the King of Morocco returned to Spain with his army, and
exhorted the Moors of Andalusia to unite with him in a war of
extinction. The petty sovereigns showed but little enthusiasm for a
campaign. Probably they distrusted Yussuf's motives. Such suspicion was
not without a basis, for when the Almoravides came for the third time,
the monarch plainly stated that he purposed to annex all the remaining
Mohammedan region. With a hundred thousand men, Yussuf took Seville and
Granada. Alfonso came to the assistance of the Sevillians with a force
of twenty thousand; but the Almoravides seized the city, and held it
until the days of the Almohades in 1147.
Alfonso then sought the alliance of France to assist his nation in
expelling the African invaders. But the power of the Almoravides grew.
Córdova was their seat of government, and Seville was one of their most
important cities. The Moriscoes in Spain were no longer an independent
race, but under the sway of Morocco. Motamid II. doubtless rued the hour
when he sought aid from Yussuf. Fair Seville had passed out of his
hands.
At this time there arose the famous Cid, the revered warrior and type of
Spanish chivalry. Many are the legends and ballads extolling the bravery
of this champion of Christendom. Some of the stories of his deeds are so
improbable that certain historians of Spain have regarded the hero as a
character of fable; but Professor Dozy has investigated the old
chronicles, both Spanish and Moorish, and reached the conclusion that
there _was_ a Cid, a mighty soldier and a devout Catholic, named Rodrigo
Diez de Bivar. There is no doubt that the Cid loved the field of battle
from his youth, and that he was ever ready to fight, sometimes for the
Christians, and sometimes for Moorish chieftains at war with one
another. In the end he became a valorous freebooter, with a following of
the sons of noble families. The Cid came at least on one occasion to
Seville as an emissary of King Alfonso to Motamid, to collect sums due
from the Arab ruler. Motamid was then at strife with Abdallah, King of
Granada, who was assisted by certain Christian _caballeros_, including
Garci Ordoñez, formerly standard-bearer to Fernando. The Cid endeavoured
to restrain the King of Granada from making war upon Motamid's city, but
Abdallah was not to be influenced for peace. He went forth and was met
by the combined armies of the Cid and Motamid of Seville, and defeated
with much loss. Ordoñez and the Christian cavaliers were taken
prisoners. The Cid took his tribute, and certain costly gifts for
Alfonso from Motamid, and departed. Soon after this episode in
Andalusia, Alfonso heard that Rodrigo, the Cid, had retained some of the
presents sent by the King of Seville. This report was set going by Garci
Ordoñez in revenge for his defeat at the hands of the Cid and Motamid,
and the tale was credited by King Alfonso. There was already prejudice
against the Cid in the royal mind, and Alfonso was still further
displeased when his general went to attack Abdallah without permission.
When he heard that, to crown all, the Cid had exhibited dishonesty,
Alfonso was wroth, and banished Rodrigo from the kingdom. But the Cid
gained immense power and homage as an independent sovereign, and when
Alfonso was in sore need of a general to fight for him against the
Almoravides, he approached the gallant Rodrigo with assurances of
friendliness, and solicited his aid. Perhaps the missive of Alfonso went
astray; at anyrate, the Cid did not at once respond to the King's call
for help. This apparent apathy incensed Alfonso. Again he sought to
punish the Cid, confiscating his estates and imprisoning his wife and
children. And again the invincible Rodrigo proclaimed himself a king on
his own account. He died in 1099, and at his death his territory was
taken by Yussuf, the Almoravide. The Cid's bridle, worn by his steed,
Babieca, hangs in the Capilla de la Granada, in the south-east corner of
the Court of the Oranges at Seville.
The Almoravides appear to have been an exceedingly energetic and
turbulent race. They were, indeed, too fond of warfare, for they were
constantly fighting amongst themselves when they were not at war with
the Christians. Under their dominion every ruler of a city who could
raise troops called himself sovereign, and made attack upon the governor
of the nearest wealthy centre. The Almoravide rule was not so just and
prudent as that of the Moors who preceded them, and the people groaned
under its despotism. Conquest by the Almohades came as a redemption from
the tyranny of the Almoravides.
In Northern Africa, the land of prophets and of new sects, Mohammed, son
of Abdalla, proclaimed himself the _Mehdi_, and gained the adherence of
a great horde of devotees. These Unitarians were even more fervent in
piety than the Almoravides. The _Mehdi's_ general, Abdelmumen, soon
became the victor of Moorish Spain. Seville was secured by the invaders
in 1147, and remained under the Almohade rule till 1248. The Almohades
built the great mosque, with its high minaret, part of the structure
being formed of stonework of the Roman period; the Alcázar, a huge
palace, which extended as far as the bank of the Guadalquivir to the
Golden Tower, and many other magnificent edifices. The palace of the
Moorish sovereigns at Seville was erected in the form of a triangle,
with the chief gate at the Torre de la Plata (Silver Tower), which stood
in the Calle de Ataranzas until 1821, when it was taken down.
Trade revived in the city after its capture by the Almohades; the
weavers, the metal-workers, and the builders and the decorators of
houses found constant employment under the new ruler, Abu Yakub Yussuf.
The Christian Spaniards saw a revival of the Mohammedan fortunes, and
lamented the influx of this vigorous infidel host. Earnest prayers were
addressed to the knights of the Cross in all the nations of Europe
beseeching succour for the faithful in Spain. Pope Innocent III.
declared a crusade, and called upon foreign Christian rulers to aid the
Spaniards, with the result that a number of French and English crusaders
travelled to Spain. A memorable battle was fought in the Sierra Morena,
the range dividing Castile from Andalusia, and the Almohade army was
almost destroyed. After this repulse the Moors never made a military
demonstration of any importance in Castile, but remained in Andalusia
and the southern districts. Seville and Córdova each had a different
governor; the Almohade unity was ruptured, and the empire was crumbling.
We have now reached the last days of the Morisco rule in Seville. The
deliverer, Fernando III., the adored Saint Fernando, came to the throne
at an auspicious hour, and upon his accession made ready for war upon
the Mohammedans. In 1235 Córdova was taken by Fernando, and Jaén and
other towns fell into his hands. Assisted by Aben Alhamar, King of
Granada, who had been compelled to yield allegiance to the victorious
Fernando, the Christian monarch marched upon Seville. The inhabitants
prepared for a stubborn defence. A Moorish fleet guarded the mouth of
the Guadalquivir, while the troops of the Almohades awaited attack
within the city. Fernando sent war vessels from the Biscayan coast to
San Lucar to attack the Moorish fleet. The navy was in the command of
Admiral Raymond Boniface (Ramon Bonifaz), and in an engagement the
Moorish ships were driven from their position. Bonifaz lived in Seville
after the capture of the town. On the front of a house in Placentines,
now the shop of a dealer in antiquities, there is this inscription in
Spanish and French: '_Esta casa fué cedida por el Santo Rey D. Fernando
III. à su almirante D. Ramon Bonifaz cuando conquesto à Sevilla
libertando del dominio Sarraceno_.'
The infidels next made a stand on land, but failed to overcome the army
of Fernando. For fifteen months Seville was besieged. Provisions were
brought into the town from the surrounding district of Axarafa, thirty
miles long, on the right bank of the Guadalquivir. This
highly-cultivated region is said to have contained a hundred fertile
farms. Seville was connected with the suburb of Triana (the town of
Trajan) by a bridge of boats and a chain bridge. The boat-bridge was
broken by Fernando during the siege by launching heavy vessels upon it.
But still the defenders held out behind their high, broad walls, driving
back the charges of the Christians against the sturdy gates, and raining
missiles from the towers. At length, when Triana and Alfarache were in
the hold of Fernando's force, and all food supplies cut off, the
defenders were forced to yield. On 23rd November Fernando made a
triumphal entry. The vanquished ruler, Abdul Hassan, who had proved a
most courageous defender, was offered territory and money if he would
continue to live in Seville, or in a city of the kingdom of Castile, as
a dependent officer of the King. The Moor proudly rejected these terms;
he preferred to leave the scene of his defeat, and with thousands of his
people he departed for Africa. It is stated that three or four hundred
thousand Moors had quitted Seville before its capture. If this is true,
only a few Almohades remained in the place. Those who elected to stay
were bade to render the same tribute to Fernando as they had been in the
habit of paying to their princes. Such as desired to return to their
country were offered the means of travelling and protection.
The triumphant King, escorted by his troops, the loyal inhabitants and
the clergy, proceeded to the mosque. Christian bishops purified the
temple, and dedicated it to the service of God and the Virgin, and a
high and imposing Mass was celebrated. Amid festivities and ceremonies,
Fernando took possession of Seville and all its rich treasure. He
occupied the Alcázar, then in its pristine splendour, and divided the
houses and land around the city among his knights.
The Christian King was brave, and his treatment of the conquered shows
that he had a strain of mercy in his nature. He was, however, an
intensely bigoted pietist, for at Palencia he set fire with his own
hands to the faggots to burn heretics. His austerities were excessive,
and fasting is said to have weakened his body. Fernando died from dropsy
at Seville, four years after his conquest of the town. On his deathbed
he called his son Alfonso, bade him farewell, and exhorted him to follow
justice and clemency. Then, amid deep sorrow in the city, the King took
the Mass, and passed away. In 1671 Fernando III. was canonised by Pope
Clement X.
The keys of Seville, which were given up by the Governor at the
surrender of the city, may be seen in the cathedral. One key is of
silver, and bears the inscription: 'May Allah grant that Islam may rule
for ever in this city.' The other key is made of iron-gilt, and is of
_Mudéjar_ workmanship. It is lettered: 'The King of Kings will open; the
King of the Earth will enter.' San Fernando's shrine is on view in the
cathedral on May 30, August 22 and November 23, when honour is paid to
the body of the sainted monarch by the soldiers of the Seville garrison,
who march past with the colours lowered.
In the collection of paintings in the house of Señor Don Joaquin
Fernandez Pereyra, 86, Calle Betis, Triana, there is a picture
attributed to Velazquez, and said to have been painted by him at the age
of twenty-eight, representing the Sultan of Seville handing the keys of
the city to San Fernando.[A] It is said that Velazquez painted himself
as model of the King. If the work is not that of the master, it is by an
artist of parts. The colour is good, and the horse well drawn and
painted.
Fernando III. was succeeded by his son Alfonzo X., _El Sabio_, 'the
Learned.' He occupied the Palace of the Alcázar, and devoted his leisure
to the study of geometry, ancient laws, history and poetry. The King
wrote verse to the Virgin in the Galician dialect, which resembles the
Portuguese tongue, and was, for his age, a versatile and accomplished
scholar. His ambition was great, and though he was called 'the Learned,'
he was prone to serious error in the conduct of the affairs of
government. He attempted to take Gascony, which was then in the
possession of Henry III. of England, and governed by Simon de Montfort.
The King's military enterprises were costly, and as they failed, the
people resented the increase of taxes, and especially the measure of
direct taxation. When Alfonso presented Algarve to the King of Portugal,
with his natural daughter, Beatrice de Guzman, the nobles rebelled under
the King's brother, Felipe, and were aided by the King of Granada.
Alfonso invited the malcontent party to a conference of arbitration at
Burgos. The knights were appeased; but the King was forced to yield his
ground, and to make many concessions. Upon the death of Alfonso's eldest
son, Fernando, a dispute arose concerning the heir to the crown.
Fernando left two sons, born to him by Blanche, sister of Philip IV. of
France. The second son of Alfonso, Sancho, was announced as rightful
successor, but this proclamation was a cause of offence to Philip IV.,
who claimed that the eldest child of his sister was the lawful heir to
the throne of Castile. The King of France demanded that Alfonso should
restore the dowry to Blanche, and allow her and the children to come to
France. Alfonso refused the request. War was then declared by Philip of
France; and further anxiety was caused by the disloyalty of Sancho, who
took the lead of the discontented party, and laid siege to Toledo,
Córdova, and other towns. The King was at his wit's end. He begged aid
from Morocco, from the infidels, while, at the same time, he desired the
Pope to excommunicate Sancho. Eventually the quarrel between King and
Prince was patched up. Alfonso appears to have cherished affection for
his unruly son, for upon hearing, soon after the reconciliation, that
Sancho was seriously ill, the King died of grief.
So closed the troubled career of Alfonso el Sabio. He was a type of the
bookish student, a great reader, but without a knowledge of human
nature, and devoid of aptitude for governing a nation. In his fondness
for book-learning, and his incapacity for ruling, Alfonso may be
compared to James I. of England. It is claimed to the credit of the
learned monarch that he encouraged the arts and education in the royal
city of Seville, and founded the university. He loved the retirement of
his study in the beautiful Alcázar rather than the council seat; but, at
the same time, he had a craving for power and wished to extend his
realm. Alfonso the Learned presented a reliquary to the chapter of the
cathedral, which may be seen among the treasures. His body rests in the
Capilla Real (Royal Chapel), where it was interred in 1284.
There is but little of interest to record in the annals of Seville until
the time of Pedro I. Under Alfonso XI., a great council was held in the
city to discuss plans for defending Andalusia from the Emperor of
Morocco, who had landed in Spain with a powerful army. The King of
Portugal attended the conference and promised his support, and in a
battle fought near Tarifa the invading force was driven back. During the
reign of Alfonso XI., the Earl of Derby and the Earl of Salisbury came
to Spain, to fight for Christianity, and to offer amity to the martial
King.
With the death of Alfonso XI., we come to the days of his son, Pedro I.,
the most renowned of all the Christian sovereigns who made court at the
capital of Andalusia. The reign of Pedro el Cruel abounds with so much
'incident' from the story-teller's point of view, that many tales,
ballads and plays of Spain are concerned with the exploits of this
remarkable King. In some of the narratives he is portrayed as a
veritable monster of cruelty and perfidy; in others he is represented as
a severe, but just, monarch, with sympathy for the lower classes. Pedro
was sixteen when he came to the throne. Fearing an attempt on the part
of Enrique (son of Alfonso XI. by his mistress, Leonora de Guzman) to
seize the crown, Pedro contrived to lure Leonora to Seville, and to
imprison her in the Alcázar. From this dungeon the wretched woman was
sent to other prisons, until she was done to death. There was no limit
to Pedro's ferocity when his malignity was aroused. His deeds suggest an
insane lust for bloodshed, and a delight in the infliction of suffering.
He killed with his own hand, or by the aid of bravoes, all relatives,
rivals and dangerous persons who came within his power. His first wife
was Blanche of Bourbon, niece of King John of France; but he deserted
her in two days, to return to his mistress, the lovely Maria de Padilla.
When Pedro's fancy fell upon the handsome Juana de Castro, he declared
that his union with Blanche was invalid, and induced the Bishops of
Salamanca and Avila to perform a marriage service. Soon after the
wedding Pedro left his bride, and insolently avowed that he had only
experienced a passing passion for her.
One day Abu Said, King of Granada, wrote to Pedro of Seville, begging an
audience of him that he might seek his help in resisting an enemy,
Mahommed-ibn-Yussuff. To this request Pedro acceded. Abu Said, escorted
by three hundred of his court, and a number of menials, journeyed to
Seville, and was received most graciously by the King, who gave orders
that the visitor and his retinue should be well cared for in the
Alcázar. The Red King, Abu Said, possessed a splendid treasure of
jewels. Among the precious stones was the famous ruby which now
decorates the royal crown of England. It is possible that the Moorish
King intended to present certain of his gems to Pedro, for we read that
he brought his treasure with him to Seville. But his host, hearing how
fine a store of jewels lay within his reach, commanded a number of hired
murderers to purloin the treasures by force. The guest and his nobles
were surprised in their apartments; they were stripped of their
valuables and money, while the Red King was deprived of the very clothes
that he wore. Dressed in common raiment, and seated upon a donkey, the
unfortunate Abu was taken, amid the derision of the rabble, to a field
without Seville, and there executed with thirty-six of his courtiers.
Pedro's excuse for his treachery and cruelty was that the King of
Granada had betrayed him in his war with Aragon, a charge that could not
be founded.
Among the beauties of Seville of that date was the Señora Urraca Osorio.
When Pedro saw her, he vowed to bring her within his power. At first he
paid her compliments and endeavoured to win her favour by flattery and
gifts. Urraca was a proud woman. In all likelihood she recoiled from
this brutal flatterer and deceiver of women, and not even his kingly
rank could induce her to pay the least heed to his addresses. No one
dared to foil Pedro; the _señora_ doubtless surmised the revenge that
the King would plan against her. Yet she bravely refused to lend her ear
to his proposal, preferring death to the forfeiture of her self-respect.
Then Pedro threatened a terrible punishment. Urraca still refused.
Faggots were piled in the market square of the town, and the persecuted
lady was led forth and burned to death in public.
The people of Seville seem to have been hypnotised by their cruel
sovereign. For these horrible deeds they even offered pleas of
extenuation, and, according to some Spanish historians, Pedro was one of
the most popular of the kings that lived in the city after its
restoration to the Christians. A certain Bohemian strain in the King's
character no doubt appealed to a mass of his subjects. He was credited
with sympathy for the labouring class and a desire to protect the people
against the tyranny of the nobles. Where his own personal interests were
not concerned, Pedro the Cruel sometimes evinced that sense of equity
that led Felipe II. to describe him as 'the Just.' But in private
matters Pedro displayed no trait of justice and no hint of magnanimity.
Now and then Pedro would muffle himself in his _capa_, don his sword,
and wander from the palace after dark to the low quarters of Seville.
He liked to study the life of the _Mudéjares_, the Jews, and the
artisans, and to rub shoulders with his subjects when they were scarcely
likely to recognise him. One night the King was roaming in the alleys of
the city, keeping an eye upon all who passed by, and probably hoping
that he might find an unlucky watchman off his guard and neglecting his
duty. Suddenly a passing hidalgo pushed against the King. Pedro abused
the stranger; there was an altercation, and swords were whipped out of
their sheaths. In the dim light of the thoroughfare the combatants
clashed blades, and engaged in a duel to the death. Presently the King's
opponent received a thrust in a vital part of the body, and falling to
the pavement, he lay bleeding to death. A few weeks before this night's
encounter Pedro had forbidden street-fighting, on penalty of capital
punishment for the unwary custodians of order in the city.
With a grim smile, the King sheathed his weapon and went home to the
Alcázar, musing upon the consternation of the authorities when the
corpse of the _caballero_ was discovered. Next morning he sent for the
Alcalde, or Mayor of the city. 'Sir,' said Pedro, 'you fully understand
that I hold you accountable for any breach of the peace that occurs in
the streets of Seville?' The Mayor humbly responded that he knew the
fresh regulation which his majesty had been pleased to enforce. At that
moment a page brought word to the King that the dead body of a hidalgo
had been found, early that morning, in the plaza near where the Casa
Pilatos now stands. 'What means this?' demanded Pedro, turning to the
affrighted Alcalde. 'If the murderer of this gentleman is not found in
two days, understand that you will be hanged.' The Mayor's face was
white as he bowed himself from the royal chamber. With a sinking heart
he prepared himself for his fate. There was scarcely any hope of
tracking the assassin in forty-eight hours.
The wretched Mayor sat down in his room to meditate upon the best means
of tracing the criminal. Meanwhile the story of the murder was abroad,
and people were talking of the affair. The gossip reached the ears of an
old woman, who went at once to the Alcalde, telling him that she had
seen a fight from her bedroom window late during the previous night. The
combatants appeared to be gentlemen, but to make sure, she lit a candle
and leaned out of the window. One man had his back towards her, and she
could not see his face. But of the identity of his opponent she was
quite certain: _it was his majesty the King, and no other_. When she
saw, beyond a doubt, that it was the King who plunged his blade into the
hidalgo's breast, she felt terrified, blew out the candle, and withdrew
her head from the window.
'Thank God!' cried the Mayor, seizing the old woman's hand. Then he
hurried to the Alcázar, sought a hearing from the sovereign, and said
that he had found the murderer of the hidalgo. The King smiled. 'Indeed,
your majesty,' said the Alcalde, 'I can let you look him in the face
when he hangs on the gallows.' 'Good!' replied Pedro, still smiling
incredulously.
Hastening to the quarter of the Moorish artisans, the Mayor ordered them
to make a cunning effigy of the King, and to bring it to him without
delay. A few days after, the Alcalde requested his majesty to attend the
hanging of the criminal in the Plaza de San Francisco. Greatly curious,
Pedro came to the place of execution. And there, upon the gibbet, he saw
a dummy of himself dangling from the rope. Struck with the humour and
ingenuity of the Mayor's device, the King said: 'Justice has been done.
I am satisfied.' The street where Pedro fought with the hidalgo is
called the Calle della Cabeza del Rey Don Pedro, and the alley where the
old woman lived is known as the Calle del Candilejo, or 'street of the
candlestick.'
[Illustration: OLD WALLS OF THE ALCÁZAR.]
In visiting the Alcázar we shall have more to recall of the career of
Pedro the Cruel. The palace is haunted with memories of the King and of
Maria de Padilla. Pedro was fond of Seville and preferred the Alcázar to
any other residence. He made many alterations in the palace, built the
rooms around the Patio de la Monteria, and brought material for their
construction from the remains of Moorish edifices in Seville, Córdova,
and other places.
When Pedro caused his unfortunate wife, Blanche, to die in prison, from
the dagger, or by poison, his subjects were at length aroused to
indignation. The insensate ruler was bringing the nation to the verge of
ruin by his misdeeds. France resented the dastardly murder of Blanche of
Bourbon, and the King vowed revenge on Pedro. Enrique, brother of Pedro,
was fighting for the crown, and had been proclaimed Sovereign at Toledo;
while the Sevillians, who had long endured their King's severities and
condoned his cruelties, were up in arms and threatening the royal
palace. Pedro fled from Seville, and came eventually into Aquitaine, to
the court of the English Black Prince at Bordeaux. The chivalrous Black
Prince espoused the cause of Pedro against Enrique, pitying the fugitive
King who had been forced to leave his country. In return for his
support, Pedro offered his English ally a large sum of gold, and the
great ruby stolen from Abu Said in the Alcázar of Seville.
The campaign was decided in favour of the King of Spain, but its
hardships cost the Black Prince his life. Pedro was again acknowledged
King. His downfall was, however, fast approaching. Enrique conquered his
brother, soon after the departure of the English army, and came to see
him at Montiel in La Mancha. It is said that Pedro was treacherously
drawn into a trap. In any case, he fell by the dagger of his brother
Enrique; and so ended violently the life of one who had lived in
violence and bloodshed.
As our story is more concerned with the city of Seville than with the
fortunes of the rulers of Spain, we may resume the narration at the time
of Isabella and Fernando. No incidents of signal importance occurred in
Seville between the death of Pedro I. and the accession of the famous
Catholic Queen. With the reign of Isabella, the city became the theatre
of events that influenced the whole of the nation, and indeed the whole
of Christendom.
It was at this time that the arts and letters of Spain began to revive.
In Seville the year 1477 is the date of the first setting up of a
printing press, by one Theodoricus el Aleman (the German). Konrad
Haebler, in his work on _The Early Printers of Spain and Portugal_, says
that for fifteen years the only printers in the city were German
immigrants. One of the early important books printed in Seville was
Diego de Valera's _Cronica de España_. In 1490 a firm of printers, under
the title of Four German Companions, opened business, and in three years
published nine volumes, while two years later there was a rival press
owned by another German.
It was in 1493 that the city saw the return of the great Columbus from
his first voyage. For a long time the blue-eyed, dreamy Genoese,
Christoforo Colombo, had mused upon the scientific works of the
cultivated Moors, and speculated upon the existence of other lands far
away across the restless ocean. Sceptics laughed at the dreamer; the
clergy frowned at his impudent theories; but a few bold adventurers were
inspired by his enthusiasm.
The story of his setting forth has been often told. Let us welcome the
sunburnt explorer upon his return to Seville on Palm Sunday 1493. The
wondering people are all anxious to catch sight of Cristobal Colon, the
Italian, who claims to have discovered a New World. He passes down the
streets, a tall, brawny man, bronzed, with red hair, which became white
at the age of thirty. To those who question him he replies with dignity
and courtesy, becoming eloquent as he describes the marvels of the vast
country beyond the sea. The whole city is talking of the great news; the
foreign sailor is the hero of the hour. And now those who doubted
Colon's sanity are singing his praises in all the public meeting-places
of Seville. An office for the administration of this new country is
instituted in the city. From the Queen and her Consort to the seller of
water in the streets, everyone utters the name of the explorer with
admiration. The ecclesiastics, who declared that it was impious to
assert that the earth is a globe, are vexed that they have been found
wrong in their arrogant statements. They continue to quote from the
Pentateuch, and the writings of St. Chrysostom, St. Jerome and St.
Augustine to show that pious authority was on their side.
Queen Isabel had encouraged the Genoese sailor in his project, and the
wealthy Pinzon family, of Palos, had assisted him with means, some of
them also accompanying the explorer on his first voyage. Columbus was
made an admiral, and promised further support in his expeditions. In May
1493 he started again, having with him fifteen hundred men and a fleet
of fifty vessels. The crews of these ships were made up of adventurers,
gold-seekers, idlers and a sprinkling of scoundrels selected by the
Government. In the company there were priests, and it was through the
machinations of one of them, Father Boil, that Christopher Columbus
incurred the displeasure of Isabel and Fernando. By every ship that was
bound for Spain from the New World, Boil sent complaints of Columbus.
Unfortunately, Isabel lent her ear to these slanders, and sent Francisco
Bobadilla to dismiss Cristobal Colon, and to take his place. Bobadilla
took possession of Columbus's charts and papers, put him into chains,
and sent him, like a felon, in the hold of a ship to Spain.
It is pitiful to read of the degradation of this honest and brave man,
whose energies built up the prosperity of Spain, and made Seville one
of the busiest cities of Europe. He laid his case before the Queen and
Fernando, and vowed that he had in no sense neglected his duty towards
the country of his adoption. We know that he was 'forgiven,' but the
insult offered to him preyed upon the sensitive mind of the explorer.
Yet he again resolved to visit the land that he had discovered; and in
1503 he left Spain with four worn-out ships. A year later Columbus
returned for the last time. The people of San Lucar, at the mouth of the
Guadalquivir, welcomed back a captain in shattered health, and a crew
wearied by hardship and exposure.
Columbus now longed to settle quietly in Seville, and to end his days
there. He found that his popularity was waning, and that his rents had
not been collected properly during his absence. With the death of Isabel
he lost royal patronage. His last voyage had cost him much; but the
people of Seville believed him to be immensely rich, whereas his income
was now meagre. 'Little have I profited,' writes Columbus, in a letter,
'by twenty years of service, with such toils and perils; since, at
present, I do not own a roof in Spain. If I desire to eat or sleep I
have no resort but an inn; and for the most times have not wherewithal
to pay my bill.'
In his last days we picture Christopher Columbus bending over the
manuscripts, which may be seen in the Biblioteca Columbina, the library
at Seville founded by the natural son of Columbus. One of the
manuscripts treats upon biblical prophecy. It was written to appease the
Inquisitors, who, to the last, suspected the discoverer of heresy.
Writing of this Apologia, Washington Irving says that the title and some
early pages of the book are by Fernando Columbus; 'the main body of the
work is by a strange hand, probably by Friar Gaspar Gorricio, or some
other brother of his convent.' There are signs in the hand-writing that
Columbus was old and in poor health when he wrote the work. The
characters are, however, distinct. There are passages from the Christian
Fathers and the Bible, construed by the author into predictions of the
discovery of the New World.
The gallant voyager was now prematurely aged, though he had led an
abstemious life. Disappointment at the neglect of the world no doubt
preyed upon his spirits in these last days of his career, for it is said
that he possessed 'a too lively sensibility.' Upon the whole, Columbus
was ill-used by Spain, though his memory is revered. It is the old, sad
story of worth and genius. In 1506 Cristobal Colon died in a poor
lodging at Valladolid. He left a son, born to him by his mistress,
Beatrix Enriquez. In his will Columbus left money to Beatrix.
Great honour was paid to the body of the famous explorer. Columbus was
buried in the parish church of Santa Maria de la Antigua. Some years
later the Sevillians desired that the remains should be removed to their
city, and they were then carried to the Carthusian monastery of Las
Cuevas, to the Chapel of St. Ann, or of Santo Christo. The house of Las
Cuevas was a fine one, celebrated for its pictures and treasures, and
surrounded with orange and lemon groves. But the bones of Columbus were
not to remain in Seville. They were taken, in 1536, to Hispaniola, and
laid in the principal chapel of the Cathedral of San Domingo. Finally
the remains were removed to Havanna.
While paying due respect to Christopher Columbus, we must not forget the
great services rendered to the country generally, and to Seville, by
Fernando de Magallanes, or Magellan, who embarked at that port in August
1519 with five vessels. Passing the Canary Islands and Cape Verde, the
Portuguese explorer reached Brazil, and went south to Patagonia, 'the
land of giants,' arriving eventually at the dangerous straits which bear
his name. Magellan never returned to Spain. Only two of his ships
reached the Moluccas, and of the five that started but one came back to
Seville on the homeward journey.
These were the days when Seville was a bustling port of embarkation, and
a great storehouse for treasure from America and the Indies. A fever of
emigration seized the adventurous spirits of Andalusia; and Andrea
Navigiero, a Venetian ambassador, who journeyed through Spain in 1525,
says that the population of Seville was so reduced that 'the city was
left almost to the women.'
The discoveries and conquests of Pizarro, who came to Seville after his
first voyage, added to the enthusiasm for emigration. But Pizarro found
it a hard matter to raise money for the expenses of a second expedition.
He contrived, however, to man three ships, and was about to start, when
the Council of the Indies sought to inquire into the state of the
vessels. Fearing that he might be hindered from his scheme, the explorer
set sail at San Lucar, in great haste, and made for the Canary Islands.
It was in January 1534 that Hernando, brother of Francisco Pizarro, was
directed to return to Seville with a great hoard of treasure. The Custom
House was filled with ingots, vases and ornaments of gold, and the
inhabitants were much interested in the splendid spoil. Hernando Pizarro
came later under a charge of cruelty to the subject race of South
America. In his _Spanish Pioneers_, Mr Lummis tells us that 'Hernando
was for many years imprisoned at Medina del Campo, and that he died at
the age of a hundred. His brother, Francisco, who was born at Truxillo,
in Estremadura, was a swineherd in his boyhood. Fired with the spirit
of romance and adventure, the lad deserted his herd of pigs and ran away
to Seville, where he found scope for his restless energy, and was able
to influence seafaring men to accompany him on a cruise of discovery.
Seville was now at the height of its commercial prosperity. There was a
constant come and go of trading vessels; the silk trade was greatly
developed, and leather was made for the markets of Spain. Isabel took
much interest in the improvement of the commerce of the city. When she
ascended the throne, Seville was notorious for its gangs of thieves and
criminals of all kinds, while the surrounding country was insecure
through the numbers of bandits who waylaid and robbed traders and
farmers on the roads. The Queen determined to stamp out crime by
rigorous measures. She held a court in the _salon_ of the Alcázar, and,
in the Castilian custom, presided over the hearing of criminal charges.
Once a week, Isabel sat in her chair of state, on a daïs covered with
gold cloth. For two months she conducted a crusade against robbery in
the city, recovering a great amount of stolen property, and condemning
many offenders to severe penalties. Her severity struck alarm among the
vagabond and thieving population, and probably terrified a number of the
people who had reason to fear justice. Four thousand subjects left the
town. The respectable burghers grew concerned, dreading that this
depopulation would injure the city and deprive it of workmen. A
deputation of citizens waited upon Isabel and begged her to relax her
austerity. The Queen was therefore prevailed upon to offer an amnesty
for all offenders except those convicted of heresy.
Isabel's fortunes as a ruler were largely determined by her charms. The
Sevillians could not fail to worship the tall, fair young Queen, with
the frank and beautiful countenance and blue eyes. Her very
unconventionality delighted her court and the army; and when she rode at
the head of her troops, in a suit of mail, with a sword by her side,
every _caballero_ was ready to follow the fair commander through blood
and fire. Isabel's sword, a pretty little weapon, is to be seen in the
Real Armeria at Madrid.
The Queen was one of those magnetic personages to whom all things are
permissible. Even in modern times it is considered unseemly for a
Spanish woman to engage in field sports, or any kind of athletic
exercise; but the Spaniards of Isabel's day not only forgave, but
revered, the Queen who sat on the judicial bench, donned masculine
attire, carried weapons, and took a man's part in the government of her
state. Had it not been for the terrible taint of bigotry, which led
Isabel to sanction deeds of persecution and cruelty, her character would
have presented an example approaching the excellence with which
enthusiastic historians have credited it.
[Illustration: Sword of Isabella]
Four years after the accession of Isabel there began the reign of the
Inquisition in Seville. When Alfonso de Hoyeda, Prior of the city, and
Felipe de Barberis, Inquisitor of Sicily, persuaded Fernando that a
crusade against heresy would replenish his exchequer by means of
confiscation, the King was induced to listen to their proposal. At first
Isabel recoiled from this scheme of torture and plunder. But her woman's
mind and heart were not secure against the insidious influence of the
priests, who used their utmost powers of suasion to convince her that
Heaven approved of the destruction of heretics. Finally the Queen gave
way; and the 17th of September 1480 saw the setting up of the tribunal
of the Holy Office in the Dominican Convent of St. Paul at Seville.
M'Crie, in _The History of the Reformation in Spain_, states that 'in
the course of the first year in which it was erected, the Inquisition of
Seville, which then extended over Castile, committed two thousand
persons alive to the flames, burnt as many in effigy, and condemned
seventeen thousand to different penances.' We must note, however, that
according to Prescott these figures refer to several years and not to
the opening years of the institution of the Holy Office in Seville. By
the end of October 1481 it is recorded that three hundred persons had
been burned to death in Seville. In about thirty-six years, four
thousand victims went to the stake in the city, while many times that
number were condemned to slavery, to perpetual imprisonment, to short
terms, and to other punishments.
'The modern Inquisition,' writes M'Crie, 'stretched its iron arms over a
whole nation, upon which it lay like a monstrous incubus, paralysing its
exertions, crushing its energies, and extinguishing every other feeling
but a sense of weakness and terror.' Many of the Sevillians fled from
the city and sought the protection of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, the
Marquis of Cadiz, and the Count of Arcos.
At this period a frightful pestilence swept over Seville, reducing the
population by thirty thousand, and causing great suffering. The clergy
resorted to prayer; charms and relics of the saints were displayed in
the churches; but little or nothing was done in the way of preventing a
spread of the plague by sanitation, or of alleviating the malady by
medical science. It is a saddening picture--the people dying of the
disease, thousands languishing in dungeons, and a multitude filled with
fear lest they should succumb to the epidemic, or fall into the hands of
the Inquisitors. Puigblanch, author of _The Inquisition Unmasked_,
states that the number of the banished and the 'reconciled' in Andalusia
from 1480 to 1520 was a hundred thousand. He asserts that forty-five
thousand persons were done to death in the Archbishopric of Seville
during this period.
Without the city, on the Prado de San Sebastian, is the burning ground.
As we stand there, the imagination conjures a procession accompanying a
victim to the awful torture of the stake. The doomed man is an aged and
devout Morisco, who has saved money by his industry. He has been found
guilty of infidelity, and he has refused to partake of the Christian
sacrament. He is dressed in the sanbenito, a yellow garment, with
pictures of devils kindling a fire and burning faggots, and on his head
is a fantastic conical cap of pasteboard, called the _coroza_. First
comes a troop of soldiers to clear a path for the procession through the
jostling rabble. The soldiers are followed by several priests in
canonical vestments, and the boys of the College of Doctrine, who chant
the liturgy. Then comes the convicted heretic, with a familiar on either
side, and two friars, followed by the judges, ministers of government,
and hidalgoes on horseback. In another procession comes the Inquisitors,
and their standard of red, with the names and insignia of Pope Sixtus
IV. and King Fernando upon it. The members of the Holy Office are
escorted by esquires, and in the rear is a great mob of towns-people.
But enough: imagination is at this point repelled. We turn away from the
scene, and enter the shady gardens that stretch along the Guadalquivir,
to scent the flowers and to listen to the thrush and nightingale.
We cannot, however, close our perceptions to the fact that Seville
played an important part in the Inquisition. In roaming the streets of
the city, it is impossible to forget that this mighty instrument of
fanaticism has left its impress on Spain. We remember that every son of
Seville who dared to exercise his conscience in the matter of religious
belief ran the risk of ending his life upon the Prado de San Sebastian.
The terror of this institution must have blighted the lives of millions
of Spaniards. And we are moved to the reflection that the good which
Isabel performed with one hand was almost destroyed by the evil
inflicted by the other.
The story of Rodrigo de Valer, one of the first to embrace the Lutheran
faith in Seville, is of deep interest. In the fashionable resorts of the
town and at the jousts no youth was more popular than Rodrigo. He had
charming manners, sat a horse gracefully, and could break a lance with
the most skilful knights of the ring. His wealth procured him every
pleasure; he gratified a taste for dress and spent much money upon
horses. Suddenly he was missed from the dance and the tournament. His
friends could not account for this changed mode of life. A passion for
study had taken possession of the young man; and day after day he sat
pouring over the Vulgate, and improving his knowledge of Latin, so that
he might understand the book. In a few months Valer was able to quote
long passages of the Bible from memory. Then he left his study and went
back to his gay companions as an apostle of a new form of faith. He
approached the clergy and the monks, and by argument endeavoured to
convince them of the errors of their creed and ritual, appealing to the
Bible as the criterion of religious truth. The priests were little
inclined to listen to Rodrigo. But when they avoided him, the youth
sought them, engaging them in discussion in the streets and striving to
set forth his new doctrine. At length the indignant clerics of Seville
brought the heretic before the Holy Inquisition. So cogent were his
arguments that some of the members who secretly shared his opinions used
their influence to save him from punishment. Fortunately Valer was of
good family. He was declared to be insane, and spared from an extreme
penalty, but his estates were taken by the tribunal.
Rodrigo's relations now strove to dissuade him from renewing his
endeavours to reform the Church. What could one helpless man achieve
against the whole weight of authority? But Rodrigo was full of zeal. He
began again to denounce the teaching of the clerics, inspired by the
belief that others would soon follow him. For the second time he was
arrested on a charge of heresy and sentenced to imprisonment for life.
In the Church of St. Salvador, where Rodrigo was taken on days of
festival, the fervent youth would rise after the sermon and condemn the
teaching of the pulpit. Only his rank saved him from the flames. He was
eventually imprisoned in a monastery of San Lucar, where he died at the
age of fifty. Valer's sanbenito was displayed for a long time in the
metropolitan church of Seville. It was inscribed: 'Rodrigo de Valer, a
citizen of Lebrixia and Seville, an apostate, and false apostle, who
pretended to be sent of God.'
The teaching of Valer was not without fruit. He was the founder of a
small, but fervent, sect of Lutheran Christians in Seville, whose
doctrines gradually found acceptance among a number of the people. One
of the reformed party was Juan Gil, known as Doctor Egidius, preacher in
Seville Cathedral, who was joined by Vargas and the celebrated
Constantine Ponce de la Fuente. M'Crie says that 'the small society in
Seville grew insensibly, and became the parent stock, from which
branches were taken and planted in the adjacent country.' Persecution
was inevitable. Egidius was denounced and thrown into prison, while
Vargas was murdered, and Ponce de la Fuente banished. After a long
incarceration, Egidius returned to Seville; but he caught a fever, and
died in a few days. De Montes says that the writings of Egidius, which
were never printed, were worthy of praise. The Doctor wrote commentaries
on Genesis and the Psalms, and while in prison he composed an essay on
'Bearing the Cross.'
Protestantism spread in Seville at this time. There was a church under
the care of Doctor Christobal Losada, which met in the house of a lady
of rank, Isabel de Baena, and was attended by the nobles Don Juan Ponce
de León and Domingo de Guzman. In the Dominican Monastery of St. Paul,
in the Nunnery of St. Elizabeth, and especially in the Convent of San
Isidro del Campo, the new doctrines found disciples.
One of the victims of the Inquisition was Torrigiano, the Florentine
sculptor, whose statue of St. Jerome is in the Museo Provincial at
Seville. The monument of Henry VII. in Westminster Abbey is the work of
this artist, who ended his days in the cells of the Inquisitors' prison
in Seville, in 1552. There is no doubt that many of the hapless
prisoners died of diseases contracted in the insanitary dungeons of
Seville and Triana, for Olmedus, one of the sufferers, describes the
dens as vile in 'nastiness and stench.' The ordinary gaols were crowded,
and many persons were immured in the Castle of Triana, and in the
convents of the city.
[Illustration: Plaza San Francisco]
At Triana resided Gonzales-Munebrega, Archbishop of Tarragona, whose
name was coupled with that of Torquemada as a ruthless persecutor. This
officer of the Inquisition might be seen by the trembling populace
walking in the castle gardens, accompanied by a guard of servants.
Munebrega wore rich clothes of purple and silk, and maintained great
pomp. He exhibited extreme cruelty, and scoffed at the sufferings and
cries of the tortured.
Llorente and Bernaldez relate some sickening details of the savage modes
of torment imposed upon the victims of the Inquisition in Seville. It is
not necessary that the tales of horror should be retold here. The first
_auto-da-fé_ celebrated in the city was in 1559, when Don Juan Ponce de
León and several other apostates were committed to the flames in one of
the chief plazas. Ponce de León was described as 'an obstinate Lutheran
heretic.' The heroic Doctor Juan Gonzalez, of Moorish ancestry, was
burnt upon the same day for preaching Protestant doctrines. We see him
leaving the Triana gaol on the morning of execution, 'cheerful and
undaunted,' though he was accompanied by his two sisters, both of whom
were condemned to the stake, and had left behind in the prison his
mother and two brothers. The Doctor sang the 109th Psalm, and attempted
to console his sisters, whereupon a gag was thrust into his mouth.
'When they were brought to the place of execution,' writes M'Crie, 'the
friars urged the females, in repeating the creed, to insert the word
_Roman_ in the clause relating to the Catholic Church. Wishing to
procure liberty to him to bear his dying testimony, they said they
would do as their brother did. The gag being removed, Juan Gonzalez
exhorted them to add nothing to the good confession which they had
already made. Instantly the executioners were ordered to strangle them,
and one of the friars, turning to the crowd, exclaimed that they had
died in the Roman faith.' Doctor Christobal Losada, the pastor of the
Protestant church in Seville, suffered death courageously upon the same
day.
Isabel de Baena, who allowed meetings of the Protestants in her house,
and Maria de Bohorques were among the women of high birth who were
burned in Seville. The story of the last-named lady has been told in a
romance by a Spanish writer, entitled _Cornelia Bororquia_. Maria de
Bohorques came into the grip of the Holy Office before the age of
twenty-one. She was a pupil of Egidius, and a diligent student of the
Scriptures. When seized and tortured by the Inquisition, she refused to
name those of her friends who shared her belief. Doña Maria was then
sent to the stake.
Llorente recounts that two Englishmen were burned at one of the _autos_
of Seville. Nicholas Burton, a merchant of London, who traded with
Spain, arrived with his vessel at San Lucar while the persecution was
raging in Seville. Somewhat imprudently, Burton spoke contemptuously of
the Inquisition, though M'Crie states that the accusation of insolence
was false. Burton was burnt alive, together with William Burke, a seaman
of Southampton, and a Frenchman, named Fabianne. The Holy Office then
seized Burton's cargo; but a part of it belonged to a London tradesman,
who sent one John Frampton to Seville, with a power of attorney, to
recover the goods. Frampton failed to make good his claim after four
months of negotiation, and he returned to England to find greater
powers. When he landed again in Spain, the agent was arrested, put in
chains, and thrown into the dungeon of Triana. The charge against him
was that he had a volume of Cato in his bag. He was questioned as to his
creed, and ordered to repeat the Ave Maria. Subjected to the torture of
the rack, the wretched man was forced to confess anything that his
torturers desired. Frampton was imprisoned for two years, and then
granted his freedom. His 'Narrative' is to be found in Strype's
_Annals_.
The unfortunate Constantine Ponce de la Fuente, who was one of the most
active members of the reformed church in Seville, was seized by the
Inquisition, and confined in an underground cell for two years, when
dysentery put an end to his sufferings. In 1781 the last martyr perished
in the flames at Seville. 'I myself,' writes Blanco White, 'saw the pile
on which the last victim was sacrificed to human infallibility. It was
the unhappy woman whom the Inquisition of Seville committed to the
flames, under the charge of heresy, about forty years ago. She perished
on a spot where thousands had met the same fate.' A traveller in Spain,
named Wiffen, says: 'In the year 1842, whilst travelling in that
country, I found myself in the Alameda Vieja of Seville, in front of the
house formerly occupied by the Inquisition, where several of the
prisoners were confined who were burned at the _auto-da-fé_ of 1560.'
Such is the story of the Inquisition in Seville. I have not willingly
dwelt upon this dark page in the history of the fair city. But it has
been necessary to refer to the chronicles of this reign of terror; for
the institution of the Holy Office in Seville is a matter of historic
importance, and no record of the town could be in any sense complete if
the annals of the Inquisition were overlooked. And in changing to a
happier theme it is necessary that I should point out the repugnance
that masses of the people of Seville exhibited towards the introduction
of this engine of persecution in the city. Llorente, the Spanish
historian of the Inquisition, tells us that when Fernando and Isabel
commanded the Governors of the provinces to supply inquisitors and
assistants to the royal capital, the inhabitants regarded the arrival of
the agents of the Holy Office with extreme dissatisfaction, and that
difficulty was experienced in collecting together 'the number of persons
whose presence was necessary to the legal opening of their assembly.'
Let us view the city of Isabella the Catholic in a brighter aspect. In
the year 1490 an ambassador from Lisbon came to the Alcázar of Seville
to confer with the Queen concerning a proposed marriage between young
Alonso, heir to the Portuguese throne, and Isabel, the Infanta of
Castile, and the dearly-loved namesake of the royal mother. It was with
mingled sentiments of joy and sadness that Isabel consented to the
union. The month of April was chosen for the ceremony of betrothal, and
it was arranged that feasts and tournaments should succeed the official
celebration. Great preparations were made for the festivities. The lists
were constructed on the bank of the Guadalquivir; hangings of costly
material draped the galleries erected for the spectators of the jousts,
and the royal palace was prepared for the reception of noble guests,
knights of prowess, and their dames and daughters. On the first day of
the _fêtes_ a splendid procession passed through the streets to the
lists, where thousands of the nobility were seated, all anxious to
witness a combat in the arena between King Fernando and one of his most
accomplished knights. The charming Infanta delighted everyone as she
came with her seventy ladies-in-waiting, in court dress, and her hundred
gallant pages as bodyguard. It was a scene which the people long
recalled. All the rank and loveliness of Castile and Andalusia were
around the arena when the sports began; the mail and weapons of the
combatants glistened in the dazzling sunlight of the green meadow; and
loud were the plaudits when his majesty broke his first lance in a
furious and exciting tilt with a renowned esquire and champion of the
lists. Throughout the tournament, Fernando acquitted himself as a true
knight of the order of chivalry, displaying much courage and a great
knowledge of the art of the tourney. In the autumn Isabel bade adieu to
her daughter. A great retinue came to the Alcázar, to accompany the
Princess to Portugal, in charge of the Cardinal of Spain and the Grand
Master of St. James.
By the Sevillians, Isabel appears to have been feared as well as
worshipped. The aliens in the city, all except those who chose to
embrace the Catholic faith, had, indeed, good reason to fear their
Queen. Isabel's treatment of the Jews cannot be called humane, but she
enjoined just conduct towards her Indian subjects. The Queen was humble
in her obedience to the Chief Inquisitor, Torquemada, and ever ready to
listen to the counsels of her spiritual guides. Towards heresy she
showed no clemency, and her measures for dealing with bandits and other
criminal offenders were excessively severe. But the romantic personality
of Isabella the Catholic will always appeal to the imagination of the
Andalusians.
CHAPTER III
_Seville under the Catholic Kings_
'In her own interior Spain had an arduous problem to solve--she had
to overcome the old energetic resistance of a whole people--the
tolerably numerous descendants of the former lords and conquerors
of the country who still adhered to the Arabian manners and
language, and even in part professed the doctrines of the
Mohammedan.'--SCHLEGEL, _Philosophy of History_.
Seville in the sixteenth century was at the height of its prosperity. We
have seen how the discoveries of Columbus, Magellan, and the brothers
Pizarro enriched the city, brought vessels to the port with costly
store, and opened a vast foreign trade. In every quarter of the town the
hum of industry was heard. The Morisco artisans, who had become
'reconciled' to the Christian creed, laboured in stone and metal, and
there were silk weavers, leather workers, potters, and gold and silver
smiths. One hundred and thirty thousand persons worked at the looms,
which were numbered at sixteen thousand.
Learning and the arts benefited by the increase of the city's wealth.
The university, founded by Alfonso the Learned, was extended; the
cathedral library was enlarged, and Seville became famous for its poets,
historians, romance writers, and playwrights. Pacheco, painter and poet,
had his circle of gifted artists and men of letters; and the doors of
the Casa Pilatos, the beautiful mansion of the Dukes of Alcalá, were
open to all the lovers of learning and the students of art. Sculptors
and painters were constantly employed upon works of art for the royal
palace, the cathedral, and the churches. The _Mudéjar_ architects and
builders were engaged by rich dons, who had prospered by the discovery
of the New World, to design and erect sumptuous residences in the
Morisco style. Charitable institutions, such as the Hospital de la
Caridad, were founded and liberally endowed, and an asylum for foundling
children was built in the Calle de la Cuna. The highly ornate Casa de
Ayuntamiento, or City Hall, was designed by Diego de Riaño, and Hernan
Ruiz built the upper part of the Giralda.
The Emperor Charles V., one of the wisest rulers of Spain, occasionally
made his residence at the Alcázar during the palmy days of Seville,
though he favoured Segovia and Valladolid. The marriage of the monarch
with Isabella, daughter of Emanuel, King of Portugal, was celebrated in
the Alcázar of Seville with much splendour, and the ceremony was
followed by feasts and diversions. Isabella of Portugal was a gifted
woman, and extremely beautiful, and the union proved very happy. Charles
was at this time highly admired in the city; but at a later date even
the loyal Sevillians showed their displeasure with the Emperor. Certain
of the merchants of the town disregarded the royal command that all the
bullion brought in by the India fleet should be stored in the warehouse
of the Board of Trade, and kept there in case the Government required to
raise funds quickly for war expenses. The owners of the gold naturally
preferred their shipments to the Government bonds promising repayment.
They therefore secretly removed the bullion to their own houses. This
action angered Charles, as the same practice enraged Philip at a later
date, and the Emperor ordered the culprits to be put in chains, sent to
prison, and to be deprived of their possessions. The command was heeded
at once; and the merchants, and the officials who had connived at the
misdemeanour of removing the bullion, were conveyed under a strong guard
to Simancas. One of the offenders was put on the rack and died under
torture. The gold was, however, never recovered by the State.
The gorgeous Salón de Carlos V. was constructed in the royal palace
during the reign of the Emperor, who also laid out the gardens on a new
plan, and built the handsome pavilion in the grounds.
Philip II. had been on the throne for many years before he paid his
first visit to the southern metropolis. The King loved his mountain
palace, the Escorial, where he passed his days in writing records of his
reign, sending dispatches, and shooting with the gun and crossbow.
Prescott says: 'It was a matter of complaint in the Cortes that he thus
withdrew himself from the eyes of his subjects.' Even in his visits to
Madrid, Segovia and Seville, Philip avoided society, and shut himself up
in his closet with a great heap of papers on his table. When he
travelled, the King rode in a close carriage, and tried to avoid the
gaze of his subjects. As he grew older he developed a still stronger
aversion to being seen abroad.
In 1570, at the time of the preparations for the great war with the
Turks, the recluse-King came to Seville. His entry was made the occasion
of a splendid ceremonial and a demonstration of loyalty on the part of
the inhabitants. Philip came from Córdova, and was met on the outskirts
of the city by the officials and soldiery. Taking his oath to respect
the privileges of the city, the Sovereign rode through the crowded
streets in pomp, accompanied by knights and guards. A splendid canopy
was held by the chief justices over the King's head as he proceeded to
the Cathedral to take part in a solemn service. The monarch then took
up quarters in the Alcázar, which he occupied for a fortnight. During
his stay in Seville, Philip appeared at the _fêtes_ which had been
arranged for his entertainment. To show their homage to the King, the
people of the city subscribed a hundred thousand ducats as a donation
towards the cost of Philip's marriage with his fourth wife, Anne of
Austria.
The heavy expenses of the war in the Netherlands and with Turkey led to
a despotic method of obtaining pecuniary supplies. Philip needed money,
and to secure it as quickly as possible, he ordered that the officials
of the Casa de la Contratación at Seville should seize the cargoes of
gold and silver that had just arrived in the port. This action aroused
much indignation in the city, and the people grew incensed when the
command was again given to confiscate the bullion consigned to merchants
of Seville. When a number of treasure ships were on their homeward
journey, the King sent Admiral Alvaro de Bazán to the Azores to
intercept the vessels; and immediately upon the arrival of the fleet at
San Lucar, the whole of the shipment was sent to Santander, and from
that port to Flanders.
Under Philip II. the Church in Seville rose to great power, and
increased in wealth. The Archbishop of the city received an income of
eighty thousand ducats a year, and the minor clergy profited by the
King's patronage of the Church. It is not surprising that many of the
sons of families of rank and position crowded into the profession of
priest, and that the number of persons in holy orders soon swelled
enormously. Arts and handicrafts were not considered gentlemanlike
pursuits; the industry of the city was relegated to Spaniards of low
birth, to the _Mudéjares_, and to aliens. The _caballero_ of Seville
aspired to join the Church Militant, or to enter the army. When Philip
III., the Good, came to the throne there were no less than fourteen
thousand chaplains in the diocese, while a hundred clerics were on the
staff of the Cathedral alone.
[Illustration: FOUNTAIN IN BATH, ALCÁZAR.]
The oppression of the Moriscoes in the city became severer in the days
of Philip II. Doubt was cast upon the genuineness of belief among the
'reconciled' Moors, and they were bidden to cease reading books in the
Arabic language, to abandon their ceremonies, to change their mode of
dress, and to speak in Spanish. The public baths, built by the cleanly
Moriscoes, were destroyed in every city, and the _Mudéjares_ were even
forbidden to bathe in their own houses. These mandates exasperated the
Moriscoes throughout Andalusia. They rebelled and fought desperately;
but after frightful bloodshed and suffering, they were quelled and
broken down, never to regain their ancient sway. The suppression of the
heretics was complete by the time of Philip III. And at this time began
the decline of Seville's prosperity.
When Philip V. reigned, the sixteen thousand looms of the city had been
reduced to less than three hundred, and the population was thinned to 'a
quarter of its former number of inhabitants.' In the fruitful district
around Seville the vineyards and olive gardens were in a state of
neglect, and fields once fertile became wastes. Trade declined rapidly
with the extirpation of heresy. The industrial population was deprived
of its most skilful and industrious members when the last band of
Moriscoes quitted the city. In the seventeenth century Andalusia
suffered fearful poverty. Whole villages were deserted, the land was
going out of cultivation, and the tax-collectors were enjoined to seize
the beds and such wretched furniture as the indigent peasants possessed
in their cheerless houses.
When Philip II. died, loyal Seville honoured the departed King by a
magnificent funeral service in the Cathedral. A monument, forty-four
feet square, and forty-one feet in height, was designed by Oviedo, at a
cost of fifteen thousand ducats. Montañes, the famous sculptor, whose
work is to be seen in several of the Seville churches, produced some of
the statuary to adorn the monument, and the young Pacheco, then unknown,
assisted in the decoration. On November 25, 1598, the mourning multitude
flocked to the dim Cathedral. While the people knelt upon the stones,
and the solemn music floated through the long aisles, there was a
disturbance among a part of the congregation. A man was charged with
deriding the imposing monument, and creating a disorder in the holy
edifice. He was a tax-gatherer and ex-soldier of the city, named Don
Miguel de Servantes Saavedra. Some of the citizens took his side, for
there was a feud between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of
Seville, and the tax-gatherer had merely shown public spirit. The
brawler, whom we know as Cervantes, was expelled from the Cathedral with
his companions, and order was restored. But he had his revenge. He went
to his room and composed a satirical poem upon the tomb of the King,
which was soon published and read everywhere in the city. Here is one of
the English translations of the poem:--
TO THE MONUMENT OF THE KING AT SEVILLE.
'I vow to God I quake with my surprise!
Could I describe it, I would give a crown--
And who, that gazes on it in the town,
But starts aghast to see its wondrous size;
Each part a million cost, I should devise;
What pity 'tis, ere centuries have flown,
Old Time will mercilessly cast it down!
Thou rival'st Rome, O, Seville, in my eyes!
I bet the soul of him who's dead and blest,
To dwell within this sumptuous monument
Has left the seats of sempiternal rest!
A fellow tall, on deeds of valour bent,
My exclamation heard. "Bravo!" he cried,
"Sir Soldier, what you say is true, I vow!
And he who says the contrary has lied!"
With that, he pulls his hat upon his brow,
Upon his sword hilt he his hand doth lay
And frowns--and--nothing does, but walks away.'
The discovery of the New World, with its opulence of treasure, and the
expulsion of the Moriscoes, did not yield a permanent prosperity to
Seville. Even before the death of Philip II., the few far-sighted and
reflective men doubted whether a great influx of gold and silver, and
the annihilation of freedom of thought, were likely to benefit Spain,
either in the material or spiritual sense. The gold fever seized like a
frenzy upon the avaricious, and the early colonisers turned their backs
upon any country that lacked precious minerals. Nothing save gold and
silver was considered valuable. As a consequence these minerals became
redundant, and in the meantime the cultivation of the land at home and
abroad, and the development of manufactures, were neglected. No one had
the enterprise to prevent the silting up of the tidal waters of the
Guadalquivir, and so Seville lost its importance as a busy port.
While nobles were fighting for gold, and harrying heretics, briars and
weeds were spreading over the fields that the patient Moors had tilled
and made marvellously fertile. The establishment of the _alcavala_ tax
upon farming produce and manufactured articles hastened the decline of
agriculture and of crafts in Andalusia. Finally, under the Bourbons,
Cadiz became the rival of Seville, and the Council of the Two Indies was
removed to the southern port in 1720. In good or ill fortune Seville
remained loyal, winning for itself the title of: _Muy noble, muy leal,
muy heroica é invicta, i.e._, 'Very noble, very loyal, very brave and
invincible.'
Some interesting pictures of Seville at the close of the eighteenth and
beginning of the nineteenth centuries are to be found in the _Letters
from Spain_, by D. Leucadio Doblado, written in 1824. Doblado is the
pseudonym of Blanco White, son of the British Vice-Consul at Seville in
those days. White was born in the city in 1775, brought up as a
Spaniard, and sent to the University. His parents were very austere
Catholics, but reading and study developed a sceptical tendency in young
White's mind, and he subsequently came to England and was well-known in
Unitarian circles.
In his _Life_, Blanco White describes the quaint ceremony of entrance
into the University of Seville. 'Every day of the week preceding the
admission, the candidate was obliged to walk an hour in the principal
quadrangle of the college, attended by one of the servitors, and his own
servant or page--a needy student who, for the sake of board, lodgings
and the cast-off clothes of his master, was glad in that humble capacity
to go through the course of studies necessary for the profession--Divinity,
Law or Medicine--which he intended to follow.' The custom of the
_caravanas_ was a trying ordeal for the student. He was compelled to run
the gauntlet of the gibes of a mob of spectators, as a trial of his
patience. No physical violence was permitted, except when a candidate
lost his temper. An irascible victim was speedily ducked in the basin of
the fountain of the quadrangle. Ladies came to see the sport. When White
passed through this ordeal, he was dressed in fantastic garments, and
led by his tormentors by a rope.
In 1800, Blanco White saw the outbreak of yellow fever that ravaged the
city. The plague began in Triana, and the infection was said to have
been brought from Cadiz by seamen. As in previous instances of
pestilence, there was no enforced isolation of the diseased, and no
relief of the suffering poor. Prayers were offered for succour in the
Cathedral and the churches, and a special service of the Rogativas, used
in the times of severe affliction, was performed on nine days after
sunset. One of the choicest relics of the Cathedral, a piece of the True
Cross, or _Lignum Crucis_, was exhibited as a charm on the Giralda
Tower. Many persons advised that a wooden crucifix, in one of the
chapels of the suburbs, should be also employed. It had been of great
service in the plague of 1649, staying the epidemic after half of the
inhabitants had been destroyed. A day was fixed for the solemn ceremony
of blessing the four winds of heaven with the True Cross from the
Cathedral treasury. The great fane was crowded with supplicants. As the
priest made the sign of the Cross, with the golden casket containing the
_Lignum Crucis_, a frightful clap of thunder made the Cathedral tremble.
In forty-eight hours the deaths increased tenfold. The heat, the
polluted air of the Cathedral, the infection that spread among the
worshippers, and the fatigue of the service caused a great spread of the
fever in the city. Eighteen thousand persons perished from the
pestilence.
During the Peninsular War, Soult's troops did considerable damage to
parts of Seville. The church that contained the bones of Murillo was
pillaged by the soldiers, and the tomb of the great painter was
destroyed. On February 1, 1810, the city surrendered with all its stores
and arsenal, and Joseph marched in. The French force had appeared before
Seville in January 1810. 'In Seville all was anarchy,' writes Sir W. F.
P. Napier, in his _History of the War in the Peninsula_; 'Palafox and
Montijo's partisans were secretly ready to strike, the ancient Junta
openly prepared to resume their former power.' It was a time of revolt
in the city; mobs went through the streets, calling for the deposition
of the Junta, and vowing violence against the members. Seville was
besieged for the last time in 1843, at the time of Espartero's regency.
An account of the siege is given in _Revelations of Spain_, by an
English Resident, who writes: 'I saw full twenty houses in different
parts of the city--this was about the entire number--which Van Halen's
shells had entirely gutted. The balls did limited damage--a mere crack
against the wall, for the most part a few stones dashed out, and there
an end. But the bombs--that was indeed a different matter! Wherever they
fell, unless they struck the streets, and were buried in the ground,
they carried destruction. Lighting on the roof of a house, they
invariably pierced through its four or five floors, and bursting below,
laid the building in ruins.' Probably not more than twenty lives were
lost through the bursting of the shells. Most of the men of the city
were defending the walls, and the women took refuge in the churches. The
Cathedral sheltered a large number of women and children, who slept and
cooked there. The Junta of Seville occupied the Convent of San Paolo
during the siege.
Edward VII. of England, when Prince of Wales, paid a visit to Seville,
and spent several days in the city, in 1876.
We have now briefly surveyed the more interesting events in the history
of the city and noted incidents in the lives of eminent Sevillians from
the time of the Goths until the present century.
CHAPTER IV
_The Remains of the Mosque_
'I have never entered a mosque without a vivid emotion--shall I
even say without a certain regret in not being a
Mussulman?'--ERNEST RENAN, _Islamism and Science_.
In the year 1171, Abu Yakub Yûsuf, the conquering Moor, began the
building of a mighty _mezquita_, or mosque, in the captured city of
Seville. The important work was given into the hands of a famed
architect, one Gever, Hever, or Djâbir, the correct spelling of whose
name has puzzled the historians. Gever is said to have been 'the
inventor of Algebra.' Whether he really designed the Mosque is difficult
to determine. Some Spanish writers have asserted that the first stage of
the Giralda Tower was commenced in the year 1000 of the Christian era
'by the famous Moor, Herver.' From the discovery, at a great depth, of
certain pieces of Roman masonry, it is supposed that an amphitheatre
once occupied the ground now covered by the Cathedral, the Giralda, and
the Court of the Oranges.
There is no doubt that the Mosque of the Almohade ruler was a vast and
noble building, resembling in most of its characters that of Córdova.
The minaret, now called the Giralda, is certainly one of the most
ancient buildings in the city. It is recorded that the Moorish
astronomers used the tower as an observatory. Probably the minaret
served the double purpose of praying-tower and astronomical outlook. In
building the tower the remains of ruined Roman and Gothic structures
were used by the Moors, just as the Christians afterwards employed
portions of the mosques and palaces for building their temples. The
original minaret was about two hundred and thirty feet in height. At
each corner of the minaret stood four huge brass balls, which were
thrown down in the earthquake of 1395.
If we enter the precincts of the old Mosque by the Puerta del Perdón, in
the Calle de Alemanes, we shall see the bronze-covered doors which may
have formed one of the entrances to the building. The bronze has been
spoilt by paint, but one can note the distinctly Moorish character of
these great doors. This gate was reconstructed by Alfonso XI. after the
victory of Salado. In its present state it dates from 1340. Bartolomé
López added the plateresque ornamentations about 1522. The sculptures
over the doorway are statues of St. Peter and St. Paul, an Annunciation
and the Expulsion of the Money Changers from the Temple. Before the
Lonja was built, the merchants of Seville used the court within as an
exchange. Hence the relief of the Expulsion, a fine piece of carving by
the Italian, Miguel, representing Christ chastising the money changers
from the Temple. Miguel of Florence was one of the early Renaissance
sculptors who came to Spain.
Under the archway of the Gate of Pardon is a modern shrine. At almost
all hours of the day sin-stricken supplicants, chiefly women, may be
seen kneeling on the stones before the altar.
[Illustration: Puerta del Perdón]
Through the gateway we enter the quiet retreat of the Patio de los
Naranjas, or the Court of the Oranges, which formed the courtyard of the
ancient Morisco temple. The lofty Cathedral is before us; on the left
towers the imposing Giralda, and to the right hand is the Sagrario,
or parish church. There is a beautiful Moorish fountain in the centre of
the court, with an octagonal basin. Every Morisco _patio_ had its
fountain, orange and lemon trees, and marble seats. In the walls of the
Sacristry of the Sagrario, we shall find further traces of the Moorish
decoration in the form of _azulejos_ which belonged to the original
Mosque.
The _patio_ is smaller than that of the _mezquita_ of Córdova, and with
the exception of the few relics which I have described, there is not
much suggestion of former grandeur.
But imagination calls forth the figure of a Mueddjin upon the minaret,
chanting the _Adyân_, or call to prayer, as the sun tints the sky at its
setting. The worshippers repair to the baths to purify themselves for
devotion by washing their bodies. 'Regularly perform thy prayer at the
declension of the sun,' says the Sura, 'at the first darkness of the
night and the prayer of daybreak; for the prayer of daybreak is borne
witness unto by the angels.' Five times during the day the pious
Mohammedans spread their mats here, and prayed to Allah.
The Crescent has vanished from the Giralda. A figure of Christian faith
stands there in its stead, and from the Cathedral issue the strains of
the choristers and the swelling of the organ. For long centuries this
spot in the heart of Seville has been dedicated to worship. Romans,
Visigoths, Moors and Catholic Christians each in their day of power have
bent the knee to their deities upon the ground which we are now
treading. It is a strange, composite fane! The lower part of the Giralda
is Moorish, the upper part Christian. In the middle of the Court of the
Oranges we have the Moslem fountain; and in the wall is a stone pulpit
from which many eminent Catholic divines have preached against heresy.
The Giralda, incorporated with the Cathedral, dominates all, but it is
the most Moorish feature of the great pile.
[Illustration: Stone Pulpit in Court of Oranges.]
We must now inspect the minaret. Our way is through the Capilla de la
Granada of the Cathedral. Here we may see one more monument of the
Moors, a horseshoe arch, once a part of the Mosque. Within, suspended
from the roof, is a huge elephant's tusk, a bridle, said to have
belonged to the Cid's steed, and a stuffed crocodile, a present from the
Sultan of Egypt, who sent it to Alfonso el Sabio, with a request for the
King's daughter as wife.
The ascent of the Giralda is not laborious. We can walk up the inclined
plane without losing breath; and at each window of the stages there are
lovely peeps of the city and the vast plain of the Guadalquivir. From
these windows there are fine outlooks upon the Cathedral, and the
details of its wonderful buttresses can be well studied as we ascend
stage by stage. The stages, or _cuerpos_, of the tower are all named.
We soon arrive at the Cuerpo de Campanas, where there is a peal of
bells. Santa Maria is a ponderous bell which cost ten thousand ducats.
It was set up in the year 1588 by the order of the Archbishop Don
Gonzalo de Mena. This bell is vulgarly called 'the plump' by reason of
its great bulk and weight. Its note is deep and resonant, and can be
heard all over the city, and far away in the country, when the wind is
favourable.
[Illustration: Cuerpo de Azucenas]
Another _cuerpo_ is that of the Azucenas, or white lilies, so called on
account of its architectural urns, with ironwork flower decorations. El
Cuerpo del Reloj (the Clock Tower) contained the first tower-clock made
in Spain. It was put in its place in the presence of King Enrique III.
The present clock was the work of José Cordero, a monk, and it dates
from 1765. It is said that portions of the old clock were used by
Cordero.
Around the more modern part of the Giralda is an inscription in Latin:
_Turris Fortisima Nomen Domini_. Each word of the motto occupies one of
the faces of the tower. The Cuerpo de Estrellas, or Stage of the Stars,
is so named in allusion to the decorations of its faces. Notice the
_ajimez_ windows as you ascend the tower. The fourth and last _cuerpo_
is the Corambolas, or billiard balls, referring to the globes of stone
in the decoration.
We emerge upon a gallery below the great statue of La Fé, thirteen feet
in height, and made out of bronze by Bartolomé Morel, in 1568. This
figure of a woman is a vane, which moves with every wind in spite of its
size and weight. It is a wonderful piece of workmanship. The head of the
Faith is crowned with a Roman helmet, and in the woman's right hand is
the great standard of Rome in the time of the Emperor Constantine. In
the left hand the figure holds a palm branch, a symbol of conquest. The
true name of the statue is La Fé Triumfante; but in the common speech of
Seville it is spoken of as Victoria, Giraldillo, Santa Juasma, and El
Muñeco.
Don Alfonso Alvarez-Benavides, in his little book on _La Giralda_,
published in Seville, tells us that the statue of the Faith has suffered
several lightning strokes. One of these attacks severely scorched the
upper section of the tower. In the afternoon of April 26, 1884, during a
terrific thunder-storm, a shower of sparks fell upon the Giralda and
caused much damage. Again, on the 18th of June 1885, lightning assailed
the building. The work of restoration began in the year 1885, and was
completed in 1888, under the direction of Fernandez Casanova.
It was in 1568 that Hernan Ruiz erected the highest _cuerpo_ of the
minaret by order of the Cathedral authorities. Ruiz was often employed
by the Church, and his work may be seen in the restored _mezquita_ of
Córdova.
The Giralda is about three hundred feet in height. As the surrounding
country is level, we can command a very wide expanse from the gallery
below the statue of the Faith. Looking over the roofs and dome of the
Cathedral, we see the Plaza de Toros, and the suburb of Triana, on the
opposite bank of the Guadalquivir. Among the low hills beyond the
Cartuja, to the right of Triana, is the ancient Roman amphitheatre of
Italica, while in the extreme distance are blue mountains.
Beyond the Alcázar we note the Parque, the Delicias, the Prado de San
Sebastian, and the red clay hills of Coria on the right bank of the
broad river. Further away are the interminable marshes bordering the
estuary, and beyond is San Lucar. Below us is the Archbishop's Palace
and the gardens of the Alcázar. Seville is spread beneath us like a huge
map. We look down on roof gardens, into _patios_, along the white,
narrow _calles_, into the _plazas_, and across the housetops to the
fertile land beyond the Roman walls.
It is a prospect that inspires the spectator. Fair, sunny, fruitful
Andalusia stretches around for league upon league, under a burning blue
sky. The air is clear; there is scarcely a trace of smoke from the
myriad chimneys of the city. No town could be brighter and cleaner. We
are above the brown hawks that nest in the niches of the Cathedral. They
float on outspread wings over the buttresses. The passengers in the
streets are like specks; the trees in the Court of the Oranges are but
shrubs. It is one of the finest panoramas in Spain. One is reluctant to
descend from this breezy platform, and to turn one's back upon the fine
bird's-eye view of Seville and the surrounding landscape.
It is a misfortune that sun, wind and rain have almost expunged the
frescoes that decorate the niches of the Giralda. They were the work of
Luis de Vargas, who painted the altar-piece in the Chapel of the
Nativity in the Cathedral. Vargas was a pupil of Perino del Vaga in
Italy. One of the paintings on the Giralda represented the Saints of
Seville, St. Justa and St. Rufina, who protect the tower from harm, and
other subjects were scenes in the lives of saints and martyrs. Vargas
also executed the fresco of Christ bearing the Cross, or the _Calle de
Amargura_, on the outside of Patio de los Naranjas. The picture was
restored by Vasco Pereyra, in 1594. We read of Luis de Vargas that he
was extremely devout. He practised austerities and mortifications, and
slept with a coffin by his bedside, to remind him of the insecurity of
this earthly life. The ascetic artist was born in Seville, in 1502, and
died there about the year 1568.
Like the monument of London, and many other high towers, the Giralda has
often been used by suicides. A number of despairing persons have thrown
themselves from its summit.
[Illustration: The Giralda]
CHAPTER V
_The Cathedral_
'How reverend is the face of this tall pile,
Whose ancient pillars rear their marble heads
To bear aloft its arched and ponderous roof,
By its own weight made steadfast and immovable,
Looking tranquillity.'--WILLIAM CONGREVE.
'Let us build such a huge and splendid temple that succeeding
generations of men will say that we were mad.' So said the pious
originators of Seville Cathedral, in the year 1401. After one hundred
years, the temple was still unfinished, and to this day masons are at
work upon the dome.
When San Fernando captured the city of Seville from the Moors, and made
it his capital, the Mosque, which stood on the site of the Cathedral,
was consecrated to the service of the Christian faith. It was used for
Catholic worship until its disrepair became a reproach. Then the Chapter
decided to erect a worthier fane, one which would astonish posterity.
The Cathedral should be huge and magnificent, rivalling in its area all
the other cathedrals of Spain. Toledo Cathedral is 'rich'; Salamanca,
'strong'; León, 'beautiful.' The Cathedral of Seville is called the
'great.'
In point of size the edifice ranks third among the cathedrals of Europe.
It is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, larger than Cologne and
Milan. The superficial areas of the great cathedrals are as follows:--
St. Peter's 230,000 feet square
Córdova 160,000
Seville 125,000
Milan 110,000
St. Paul's 84,000
In 1511, five years after the practical completion of the building, the
dome gave way. It was re-erected by Juan Gil de Hontañon, an architect
who subsequently designed the new Cathedral of Salamanca (1513). The
original architects are supposed to have been of German nationality.[B]
Earthquake shocks endangered a part of the structure at a later date,
and Casanova, who restored the Giralda Tower, superintended the
renovation, which was begun in 1882. Six years after Casanova's
restoration, the dome again collapsed, and from that time until to-day
the work of repair has proceeded.
Théophile Gautier, writing of this splendid pile, states:
'The most extravagant and most monstrously prodigious Hindoo pagodas are
not to be mentioned in the same century as the Cathedral of Seville. It
is a mountain scooped out, a valley turned topsy-turvy; Notre Dame at
Paris might walk erect in the middle nave, which is of frightful height;
pillars as large round as towers, and which appear so slender that they
make you shudder, rise out of the ground or descend from the vaulted
roof, like stalactites in a giant's grotto.'
In Caveda's description of the Cathedral, we read: 'The general effect
is truly majestic. The open-work parapets which crown the roofs; the
graceful lanterns of the eight winding stairs that ascend in the
corners to the vaults and galleries; the flying buttresses that spring
lightly from aisle to nave, as the jets of a cascade from cliff to
cliff; the slender pinnacles that cap them, the proportions of the arms
of the transept and of the buttresses supporting the side walls; the
large pointed windows that open between them, one above another, just as
the aisles and chapels to which they belong rise over each other; the
pointed portals and entrances--all these combine in an almost miraculous
manner, although these are lacking the wealth of detail, the airy grace,
and the delicate elegance that characterise the cathedrals of León and
Burgos.'
[Illustration: Pinnacle of the Cathedral]
It was during the long and exhausting endeavours of the Castilian Kings
to expel the Moors from Spain, that gold and treasure was paid into the
coffers of the Chapter for the cost of erecting the marvellous
Cathedral of Seville. Bishops, deans and clergy forfeited one half of
their stipends to meet the heavy charges of architects, artists, stained
glass designers, masons, carvers, and innumerable craftsmen and
labourers. An army of artists and mechanics was employed upon the vast
work. During the century of construction, the Catholic kings who resided
in the Alcázar, showed great interest in the undertaking, while the
noble families subscribed liberally towards the cost, and the poor gave
of their slender store of pesetas.
The exterior of the Cathedral is a type of the finest Spanish Gothic
architecture, though the incorporated Giralda Tower is distinctly
Morisco, and much older in style. Within the consecrated precincts, we
may see traces of the _Mudéjar_ handicraftsmen amid early Gothic and
Renaissance architectural details.
The Cathedral consecrated ground contains within its confines the
Moorish Patio de los Naranjas, the high minaret, the Columbus Library,
offices of the Chapter, and the Church of the Sagrario. There are nine
doors to the Cathedral proper, and a gateway with doors, leading to the
Patio de los Naranjas, or Court of the Oranges.
THE EXTERIOR OF THE CATHEDRAL.
From the Calle del Gran Capitan, on the west side of the Cathedral, one
may gain a conception of the extent and the magnificence of the
building. It is best to begin our inspection of the doors from this
side. Here we shall find three entrances, or _puertas_. The chief door
is in the centre. It is elaborately decorated, and is in fine
preservation. Thirty-two figures stand in niches. Over the door is a
beautiful relief of the Assumption by Ricardo Bellver.
[Illustration: Puerta Mayor.
THE CENTRAL DOOR OF THE CATHEDRAL]
Puerta del Bautismo, or San Juan, is embellished with sculptures by
Pedro Millan, which deserve careful inspection. The third doorway is the
Puerta del Nacimiento, or San Miguel. This is also adorned by the
sculpture of Pedro Millan. The upper part of the Cathedral viewed from
this side is not of much beauty. It is modern, dating from 1827.
[Illustration: Pinnacle of the Cathedral]
At the south side of the Cathedral is the Puerta de San Cristóbal, or de
la Lonja, added by Casanova in 1887. As we make the circuit of the
edifice, we shall see the turrets and numerous pinnacles of the roof.
The effect is impressive and bewildering. Centuries of labour are here
represented in noble form and beauty of outline. The flying buttresses
are especially graceful and the great dome is majestic in its
proportions. Cean Bermudez compares the Cathedral with 'a high-pooped
and beflagged ship, rising over the sea with harmonious grouping of
sails, pennons and banners.'
In the east façade are the Puerta de los Campanillas and the Puerta de
los Palos. These doors are magnificently decorated with sculptures by
Lope Marin, executed in the year 1548. There are three entrances on the
north side. That leading from the Court of the Oranges is named the
Puerta del Lagarto, from the stuffed crocodile which hangs from the
ceiling. The Puerta de los Naranjas is in the centre of the court. This
door is kept closed except on days of festival. The third door is the
unfinished one bearing the name of the Puerta del Sagrario.
* * * * *
As we survey this immense monument of the Christian faith, we are led to
muse upon the power of the early Catholic Church in Spain. It was no
half-hearted belief that urged men of all ranks of society to deny
themselves in contributing to the huge outlay that went to the planning,
erection and decoration of this mighty Cathedral.
The dictates of the Chapter ruled the councils of the State and the
conferences of kings and courtiers. When the throne lost power, the
bishop's chair gained in authority. In the reign of Philip III. the
Cathedral of Seville had no less than one hundred clergy on its staff.
Dunham, in his _History of Spain_, states that 'half a dozen could
assuredly have been sufficient for the public offices of devotion.' But
there was no question of restricting the number of ministers and
confessors in these days of perfervid devotion. It was considered
heretical to even speak of stinting the wealth that was freely poured
into the coffers of the hierarchy. To this devotion and liberality we
owe the great treasure-house of art beneath whose broad shadow we stand.
The painters, sculptors and craftsmen were under the patronage of the
Church; they could not have subsisted without such patronage. And in
most cases they gave their services gladly, for their heart was in their
labours, and devotion inspired them. Few desired any other kind of
employment; the highest service was that of holy religion.
A great faith, such as the Romish, inspires its devotees to the building
of resplendent temples. The Christians would not merely imitate the
Moors in the beauty and richness of their churches. They pledged
themselves to excel the magnificence of the _mezquitas_, and to show
mankind that God is honoured most devoutly by those who spare neither
wealth nor industry in the setting up of fanes dedicated to His worship.
We cannot grasp the Spanish character until we realise that its keynote
in the past was profound piety and deep loyalty towards the Church and
the Crown. The cathedrals of Spain are testimony to this devotion to the
Christian creed. They are solemn historic memorials of faith.
Worshippers in the Seville Cathedral are reverential; there is no
apparent insincerity in their responses and genuflexions. In Italy and
France there is a less manifest reverence during divine services. But
the Spanish temperament has remained religious through all the stress of
heretical days and the changing fortunes of its dynasties. It is not
only the women who are devout, for many men are present at the
celebrations in the cathedrals and churches. Very imposing are these
Spanish services in the half-light of the _capillas_:
'Dim burn the lamps like lights on vaporous seas;
Drowsed are the voices of droned litanies;
Blurred as in dreams the face of priest and friar.'
The organ music is often superb, and the choristers are highly trained.
Besides the organ, reed and string instruments are used to accompany the
singing during important festivals. The smoke of incense mounts in the
lofty naves and aisles; the altars glow with candle-lights, and the
sweet, rich voices of the boys hover under the vaulted roofs. Rich and
poor alike sit or stand upon the flagged floors. The preachers are often
very eloquent, and they preach in the purest form of the Castilian
language.
The dim light of the interior of the Cathedral is a hindrance to the
full enjoyment of the very numerous works of art that adorn the chapels.
This gloom is characteristic of the Spanish cathedrals and churches. The
best time in the day to inspect the pictures in Seville Cathedral is
before eight in the morning. It is an early hour; but the light is then
fairly good, and the chapels are usually quiet. I advise the visitor to
spend several hours in the Cathedral, if he desires to study the inner
architecture, carvings, pictures and statues. A mere ramble through the
naves and a peep into one or two of the _capillas_ will not suffice. It
is well to select a portion of the interior for each day's inspection.
Shun the loafers who offer their services as guides. They have no
knowledge of the art treasures, and they possess a faculty of invention.
I trust that my description will assist the stranger in his tour of the
Cathedral. The chief objects of art are indicated, or briefly described,
in the remaining part of this chapter. The account is not to be taken as
exhaustive. A thorough treatise on the architecture of the building
alone would require more space than I have at my command, and it might
prove somewhat tedious to the reader who is not acquainted with the
technical terminology of architecture.
THE INTERIOR OF THE CATHEDRAL.
Enter by the Puerta del Lagarto, in the Patio de los Naranjas. One's
first impression when within the Cathedral is that of its magnitude and
the 'frightful height,' which struck Théophile Gautier. The length,
exclusive of the Capilla Real, is three hundred and eighty feet; the
width is two hundred and fifty feet. The nave is one hundred and
thirty-two feet in height, and over fifty feet in width.
There is great dignity in the lofty columns, and a sense of vastness
possesses us as we gaze upwards. The floor is of fine marble. It was
laid in the years 1787 to 1795.
_The Capilla de los Evangelistas_ is the first chapel near to the
_puerta_. It has a fine altar piece in nine parts, the work of Hernando
de Sturmio, containing a picture of the ancient Giralda. The paintings
are on panel, and the brown tints are characteristic of the early
Sevillian School of Art.
By the Puerta de los Naranjas, the great door on this side of the
Cathedral, there are two altars. One is the Altar de la Asunción, and
the other is dedicated to La Virgen de Belén. The Assumption picture as
executed by Carlo Maratta. The face of the Virgin is clear, but somewhat
dark in tone, and the light is not favourable for viewing the picture.
On the other side of the doorway the light is better. The altar is
adorned by a painting of the Virgin, from the brush of the famous Alonso
Cano. It is a rather conventional presentment of Holy Mother, but the
features are not without beauty. On the whole, the painting is not
equal in merit to most of the works of the last Andalusian master. The
hands and feet of the figure are finished with the care characteristic
of Cano's art.
Alonso Cano has been called the 'Michelangelo of Spain.' He studied in
Seville under Pacheco and Juan de Castillo, and painted pictures for
some of the religious houses. Cano was also a sculptor and architect. He
was forced to leave the city after wounding an antagonist in a duel. In
1651 he was appointed a Canon of Granada, and during his residence in
the old Moorish city, Cano painted works for the churches. The artist
was of an irritable disposition; but he spent the latter part of his
life in religious exercises, and gave freely to the poor. He died in
poverty, in 1667, and received alms from the Church.
Writing of Alonso Cano, in his _Spanish and French Painters_, Mr Gerard
W. Smith says: 'Although he was never in Italy, his fine feeling for
form, and the natural charm and simplicity of his composition, suggest
the study of the antique, while in painting, the richness and variety of
his colouring could hardly be surpassed.'
_The Capilla de San Francisco_ is next to the altar of Alonso Cano. Here
we may try to see a painting of the Glorification of St. Francis by
Herrera el Mozo, and one of the Virgin and San Ildefonso, by Juan Valdés
Leal. Herrera's picture is not of value. He was a much less capable
artist than his father, Francisco Herrera el Viejo (the elder), from
whose roof the mozo ran away to Italy. Upon his return to Seville, the
young man was so conceited and affected in his painting that he failed
to produce any fine work. The Glorification of St. Francis and the
picture by Leal can be scarcely seen in the sombre shadows of the
chapel.
[Illustration: Interior of the cathedral]
_The Capilla de Santiago_ adjoins the last chapel. There are two
paintings here; one by Juan de las Roelas of St. James (Santiago) and
one of St. Lawrence (San Lorenzo) by Valdés Leal. Roelas was painting in
Seville at the time of Herrera the Elder. He is said to have studied art
in Venice. The finest work of this artist is to be seen in the Church of
San Isidoro.[C] In the Capilla de Santiago there is a dilapidated tomb
of Archbishop Gonzalo de Mena, who died in 1401.
_The Capilla de Escalas_ contains two pictures of note by Luca Giordano,
strong in character, drawing, and colour. Over the tomb of Bishop
Baltasar del Rio, who died in 1540, is an altar relief of the Day of
Pentecost by a Genoese artist.
_The Capilla del Bautisterio_ has one of Murillo's finest works,
representing St. Anthony of Padua's Vision of the Child Jesus. Part of
this picture was cut out and stolen in 1874. It was traced to New York,
and restored to the Cathedral a few months later. The picture was
originally painted for the Capuchin Convent in 1656, and afterwards came
into the possession of the Chapter. A Baptism of Christ, also the work
of Murillo, is above this painting. In this chapel is the font of holy
oil, which is consecrated in Holy Week. This _pila_, or monument, was
made by Antonio Florentin in 1545-1546. It is used for the exposition of
the Host, and is exhibited near the Puerta Mayor in Easter Week.
Originally the _pila_ was a tall construction of three storeys on
columns, with a large cross. Between the columns were coloured figures
of saints. Some of the effigies were modelled in clay, and others were
carved from wood. They were beautifully designed. In 1624 the building
was altered and spoiled by the addition of another storey of the
composite order. 'Its effect in the midnight service is superb,' writes
Sir Stirling Maxwell, 'when blazing with church plate and myriads of
waxen tapers it seems a mountain of light, of which the silver crest is
lost in the impenetrable gloom of the vaults above.'
On the west side of the Cathedral, which we have now reached, is the
Altar de la Visitación, with pictures by Marmolejo and Jerónimo
Hernandez. By the principal door is another altar, that of Nuestra
Señora del Consuelo, with a painting by one of Murillo's pupils, Alonso
Miguel de Tobar. Close to the Puerta del Nacimiento we shall find some
fine works by Luis de Vargas, the celebrated fresco artist. There are
three _capillas_ on this side of the building, called the Capilla de los
Jácomes, the Capilla de San Leandro, and the Capilla de San Isidoro.
They may be passed by, as they contain no important works of art.
At the Puerta del Nacimiento we reach the south aisle, and come to
_The Capilla de San Laureano_, with a tomb of Archbishop Alonso de Exea,
who died in 1417.
_The Capilla de Santa Ana_ is the next chapel on the south side. Here
there is an interesting old altar, with several pictures painted in the
early part of the fifteenth century.
_The Capilla de San José_ contains a notable work by Juan Valdés Leal,
the Marriage of the Virgin, and a poor picture by Antolinez.
_The Capilla de San Hermenegildo_ is noteworthy for the image of the
saint by Montañez, and the tomb of Archbishop Juan de Cervantes by
Lorenzo de Bretaña. The marble of the tomb is much worn.
_The Capilla de la Antigua_ is a larger chapel, with fourteenth-century
decorations of the altar. There is also a fine monument to Cardinal
Mendoza, executed in 1509 by the Italian Miguel. The figures are very
quaint. Adjoining this chapel is the Altar de la Gamba, with the
Generacion by Luis de Vargas, a famous picture described in the art
chapters of this book. The immense painting opposite is St. Christopher,
by Mateo Perez de Alesio, painted in 1584.
For painting the San Cristobal Alesio received four thousand ducats. The
saint is quaintly clad in hose, and the figure is gigantic. Sir Stirling
Maxwell draws attention to the fine colouring of the parrot seen in the
distance. Mateo de Alesio, who was an Italian by birth, died in the year
1600.
Passing through the _Capilla de los Dolores_, which is unimportant, we
come to the splendid _Sacristía de los Cálices_, built by Riaño and
Gainza in the years from 1530 to 1537. Diego de Riaño, sculptor and
designer, was often employed by the Cathedral authorities. He delighted
in lavish and fantastic embellishment, and introduced the Italian
methods of ornamentation. Martin Gainza was of the same school. He was
an architect and sculptor of great repute, and he assisted Riaño in much
of his work.
The Crucifix is the work of Montañez. It was removed from the Cartuja
Convent. Murillo's _Angel de la Guarda_, or Guardian Angel, is in this
sacristy. This picture was presented to the Cathedral by the Capuchins
in 1814. It is one of the best of Murillo's works. Borrow much admired
the _Guarda_, and Sir Stirling Maxwell describes the diaphanous drapery
of the child's dress in terms of praise. The angel holds a child by the
hand, and points to heaven. Notice the rich colouring of purple and
yellow in the vesture of the angel.
On the same wall are the _Ecce Homo_, the Virgin, and St. John, the work
of Morales; St. Dorothy by Murillo; a painting of Fernando de Contreras
by Luis de Vargas; Pietà and Death of the Virgin by a German artist, and
a picture by Juan Nuñez of the fifteenth century.
Goya's fine painting of St. Justa and St. Rufina is here. Elsewhere in
this book I have told the legend of these guardian saints of the
Giralda. Goya's conception of them is unconventional, and unlike that of
Murillo, who represents the two maidens with halos around their heads.
We have the figures of two charming potter-girls in Goya's picture, two
creatures of earth, lovely, but not ethereal. The Holy Trinity of 'El
Greco' (the Greek) is one of the interesting examples of this great
Toledan artist's work. Zurbaran is represented in the Sacristía by his
painting of St. John.
_The Sacristía Mayor_ is in the Renaissance style. It was built by the
designers of the Sacristía de los Cálices about the year 1532. Campaña's
admirable Descent from the Cross is here, but the picture has been
indifferently restored. There is also a work of Murillo, SS. Leandro and
Isidoro.
The Cathedral Treasury is in this sacristy. One of the principal objects
of interest is the splendid _custodia_, used for carrying the Host. It
is the work of Juan d'Arphe, a celebrated gold-worker, who was born in
Avila in 1535. In 1564 he constructed the _custodia_ of that city, and
in 1580 began a work of a similar character for Seville Cathedral. Many
designs were submitted for the inspection of the Chapter, but Juan
d'Arphe's was chosen as one unequalled in Spain. The _custodia_ is about
twelve feet high, round in form, with four storeys, each one supported
by twenty-four columns. Some of the columns are Ionic; the rest are
Corinthian and composite in design. Between the columns are a number of
statuettes, and the base and cornices are profusely adorned with
bas-reliefs. In the first storey there was originally seated a figure of
Faith, but it was changed in 1668 for one of the Virgin of the
Conception, when the _custodia_ was restored by Juan Segura. The second
storey is the repository of the Host, and in the third and fourth
storeys are figures of the Church Triumphant and the Holy Trinity.
Crowning the edifice was a small dome and cross, which was replaced in
1668 by a statue of the Faith. The _custodia_ is of beautiful and simple
design.
The _Tablas Alfonsinas_, a reliquary, given to the Church in 1274 by
Alfonso el Sabio, are in the Treasury. Crosses, plate and sacerdotal
vestments are among the treasures. The canonical robes date from the
fourteenth century. The keys of Seville, yielded to Fernando el Santo on
the day of conquest, are also shown here.
_The Capilla del Mariscal_ adjoins the Sacristía Mayor. In this chapel
is the great altar-piece of Pedro Campaña, restored in 1880. The work is
in ten parts, representing scenes in the life of Christ, and containing
portraits of Marshal Pedro Caballero and his family.
_The Sala Capitular_ was the work of Riaño and Gainza. It was begun in
1530 and finished in 1582. The plateresque decorations are very
beautiful. Note the fine ceiling, the marble medallions, and the
pavement. Murillo's Conception is here, and the Four Virtues of Pablo de
Céspedes. There is a picture of San Fernando by Pacheco, the
father-in-law and instructor of Velazquez. The ovals between the windows
were the work of Murillo. This _sala_ is close to the Puerta de los
Campanillas, and beyond this entrance, on the east side of the
Cathedral, is
_The Capilla de la Concepción Grande_, containing a monument to
Cardinal Cienfuego, a modern work. The other small chapel on this side
is that known as
_The Capilla de San Pedro_. Here are nine pictures by Zurbaran, well
worthy of notice, and a tomb of Archbishop Diego Deza, restored in 1893.
_The Capilla Real_ is between the two smaller chapels of the east end.
In design this chapel is Renaissance. The decorations are luxuriant and
there is a high dome. Gainza began to build the chapel in 1541, and his
work was carried on by Hernan Ruiz, who planned the choir of Córdova
Cathedral, and afterwards by Juan de Maeda.
On the chief altar is a figure of the Virgin of the Kings, dating from
the thirteenth century. It was presented to San Fernando by St. Louis of
France. The fair hair is real; the crown that adorned the head was
stolen in 1873. On each side of the doorway are tombs. One is that of
Alfonso el Sabio, and the other is the tomb of his mother.
The shrine of the adored San Fernando is in front of an altar. In the
Panteón are the coffins of Pedro el Cruel, his mistress Maria de
Padilla, the Princes Fadrique, Alonso and Pedro, and others. Over San
Fernando's coffin is the ivory figure of the Virgin of Battles, which
the King carried upon his saddle when he went to the wars. The monarch's
pennant and sword are also displayed.
Murillo's Mater Dolorosa is in the sacristy of this _capilla_. There are
portraits of St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier, by Pacheco.
In the later styles of the Capilla Real we may see examples of the
Grotesque, or _Estilo Monstruoso_, with which the buildings of Seville
abound. Diego de Riaño's work in the Ayuntamiento, or City Hall, is full
of instances of this development of fanciful design and bizarre effect.
Gainza, the collaborator of Riaño, is responsible for the articulations
and curious, lavish adornment of the Royal Chapel of the Cathedral. The
sacristy of the _capilla_ was built and decorated by Gainza after plans
by Riaño. We may now inspect the stained-glass windows, in which we
shall find the influence of Italian artists. It must be noted that art
in Spain has been profoundly influenced by Italy. Michelangelo is
reverenced by Spanish artists. Many of the early Spanish painters went
to Italy to study, and brought back with them new ideas and fresh
methods of painting. 'Spanish artists,' writes Professor Carl Justi,
'did their best to Italianize themselves in the studios of Roman and
Florentine masters.'
Cristobal Micer Aleman was the first to introduce the art of staining
glass into Seville. Until 1504 stained glass windows had not been seen
in the city, and Aleman was the designer of the first painted window of
the Cathedral. Sir Stirling Maxwell states that in 1538 the Church paid
Arnao of Flanders, Carlos of Bruges, and other artists the sum of ninety
thousand ducats for staining the windows of Seville Cathedral. The work
was not completed until twenty years later. The chief window pictures
are the Ascension, Jesus and Mary Magdalen, the Awakening of Lazarus,
and the Entry into Jerusalem. The Resurrection is the work of Carlos,
and other pictures are by the two brothers Arnao.
The isolated _Capilla Mayor_ has an altar-piece of wood, and a silver
image of the Virgin by Alfaro. The painted scenes are from the
Scriptures. Crowning the retablo are a crucifix and large statues of the
Virgin and St. John. Dancart, the designer of the retablo, was of the
Flemish school of decorative carvers. The work was begun about 1482 and
finished in 1526.
Between the _Coro_ (choir) and the Chief Chapel an enormous candelabrum
is displayed during Semana Santa, or Holy Week. It is called the
Tenebrario, and it was constructed by Bartolomé Morel, a
sixteenth-century sculptor. The structure is twenty-six feet high, and
it is ornamented with several small images. During the imposing
celebrations of Semana Santa, the candelabrum is lit by thirteen
candles. Twelve of these lights represent the apostles who deserted
their Master; the thirteenth candle stands for the Virgin, and when the
twelve have been extinguished, the thirteenth still burns as a symbol of
Mary's fealty to the Saviour.
_The Coro_ was much injured by the collapse of the dome. Two grand
organs were destroyed at this time. One of the most interesting objects
preserved in the choir is the facistol, or choristers' desk, of
Bartolomé Morel, adorned with highly-finished carvings. The choir stalls
were decorated by Nufro Sanchez, a sculptor of the fifteenth century,
whose work suggests German influence. They are beautiful examples of
carving.
_The Coro_ is entered by either of the two doors of the front or
_Trascoro_. There is a handsome marble façade; a painting of the Virgin
by an unknown hand, and a picture said to be from the brush of Francisco
Pacheco, the artist, author and inquisitor. The white marble frontage is
adorned with bas-reliefs of the Genoese school, exhibiting fine feeling.
Italian influence is manifest in the picture of the Holy Mother, which
is highly decorative in style.
Close to the _Coro_, near the chief entrance on that side of the
Cathedral, is the tomb of Fernando Colón, son of Cristobal Colón
(Columbus). The slab is engraved with pictures of the discoverer's
vessels. An inscription runs: '_Á Castilla y á León mundo nuebo dié
Colon:_' _i.e._, 'To Castile and León Columbus gave the New World.'
The student of architecture and painting will find ample examples of
varied styles of art in this great repository of sculpture, frescoes and
panel pictures. He will be able to trace the development of
architectural design from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, both
in the exterior and interior of the immense Cathedral. The art of the
_Mudéjar_, the Fleming, the Italian, the German and the Spaniard are
here represented in masonry, decoration, stained glass, and upon canvas.
Wandering designers and craftsmen of the Middle Ages looked upon Spain
as a land of plenty. They came from Flanders, Italy and Genoa, and found
favour with the wealthy Chapter of Seville. The artists employed to
adorn the Cathedral range from Juan Sanchez de Castro, 'the morning star
of Andalusia,' in 1454, to Francisco Goya, the last great painter of
Spain.
Many of the so-called Spanish school of artists were aliens who settled
in the country. Pedro Campaña was, for example, a native of Brussels.
For twenty years he studied in Italy, and his Purification of the Virgin
shows the Italian influence. Sturmio was probably a German named Sturm.
Doménico Theotocópuli, called '_El Greco_,' was a Greek. Mateo Perez de
Alesio was an Italian, who lived in Seville, and died at Rome in 1600.
Luis de Vargas, the painter of the Nativity picture in the Cathedral,
whose fresco work is to be seen elsewhere in the city, was a student of
the Italian method. Vargas was a man of profound piety. He was born in
Seville in 1502. After his death, scourges used for self-inflicted
penance were found in his room, and by his bed was a coffin in which
the ascetic painter used to lie in order to meditate seriously upon
life.
The religious devotion of Luis de Vargas is exhibited in the spirit of
his work. This reverential treatment of sacred subjects is
characteristic of all the Sevillian painters. In their art they
worshipped. Martinez Montañez, or Montañes, the sculptor, was a zealous
Catholic. In his coloured statues we perceive a melancholy reflection of
his sombre mind, a pathos expressing itself in realistic conceptions of
a suffering Christ and a sorrowful St. Francis Xavier. These tinted
statues appeal powerfully to the imagination of the Sevillian populace.
Many of the images were made for the solemn processions of Semana Santa.
Among the artists employed in adorning the Cathedral there was not one
more devoted to the Church than Pacheco. He was censor of art for the
Inquisition, and in his writings we find precise counsels upon the
fitting method of painting sacred pictures. To Pacheco the faith was of
far greater moment than art. He was a close friend of Montañez, whose
statues he sometimes coloured.
_The Sagrario_ adjoins the Cathedral, and may be entered from the Court
of the Oranges. The building serves as a parish church, and occupies the
ground of the old _Sagrario_. It was begun in 1618 by Miguel Zumárraga,
and completed in 1662 by Lorenzo Fernandez. The vaulted roof is
remarkable. Pedro Roldan painted the retablo, which was formerly in the
Francisan Convent. The convent stood in the Plaza de San Fernando, or
Plaza Nueva, as it is sometimes called. Roldan was a contemporary and
follower of Montañez. There is an important image of St. Clement by
Pedro Duque Cornejo. The statue of the Virgin is the work of the devout
Martinez Montañez.
Beneath the church is the vault of the Archbishops of Seville. The
terra-cotta altar is exceedingly decorative. In the sacristy there are
some splendid _azulejos_, which formed part of the old Morisco mosque.
CHAPTER VI
_The Alcázar_
'How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp
Abode his destined Hour, and went his way.'
RUBÁIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYÁM.
The richest monument of Almohade might in Seville is the beautiful
Alcázar, or 'Castle,' which stands at but a stone's-throw from the
remains of the great mosque. It is a palace of dreams, encompassed by
lovely perfumed gardens. Its courts and salons are redolent of Moorish
days, and haunted by the spirits of turbaned sheiks, philosophers,
minstrels, and dark-eyed beauties of the harem. As we loiter under the
orange trees of quiet gardens, we picture the palace as it was when
peopled by the chiefs and retinues of swarthy skin in the time of
Abdelasis, and contrast what remains of the primitive structure and
Morisco decoration with the successive additions by Christian kings.
The nightingales still sing among the odorous orange bloom, and in the
tangles of roses birds build their nests. Fountains tinkle beneath
gently moving palms; the savour of Orientalism clings to the spot. Here
wise men discussed in the cool of summer nights, when the moon stood
high over the Giralda, and white beams fell through the spreading boughs
of the lemon trees, and shivered upon the tiled pavements.
[Illustration: Patio de las Doncellas]
In this garden the musicians played, and the tawny dancers writhed and
curved their lissome bodies, in dramatic Eastern dances. _Ichabod!_
The moody potentate, bowed down with the cares of high office, no longer
treads the dim corridor, or lingers in the shade of the palm trees, lost
in cogitation. No sound of gaiety reverberates in the deserted courts;
no voice of orator is heard in the Hall of Justice. The green lizards
bask on the deserted benches of the gardens. Rose petals strew the paved
paths. One's footsteps echo in the gorgeous _patios_, whose walls have
witnessed many a scene of pomp, tragedy and pathos. The spell of the
past holds one; and before the imagination troops a long procession of
illustrious sovereigns, courtiers, counsellors and menials.
* * * * *
The historians of the Alcázar suppose that the original structure was
erected in 1181 for Abu Yakub Yûsuf. Between the Puerta del León, in the
Plaza del Triunfo, and the Sala de Justicia there are parts of the wall
which are said to date back to the Roman times. It is generally asserted
that the Moorish palace was reared on the ruins of a Roman prætorium,
and that the original work was undertaken in the eleventh century. In
its pristine form the Alcázar was of triangular design, and the
buildings and gardens occupied a much greater space than they cover at
the present day. The chief _puerta_ was originally at the Torre de la
Plata, formerly standing in the Calle de Ataranzas, but pulled down in
recent years; while another point of the triangle was at the Torre del
Oro, on the bank of the Guadalquivir. Within these precincts there were
vast halls, council rooms, dormitories, baths and gardens. The remaining
portions of the walls and the towers show that the ancient fortress was
very strong; and one can understand the difficulty experienced by
Fernando the Good during his long siege of the citadel.
In the Plaza de Santo Tomas is the Tower of Abdelasis, which was once
part of the palace. It was from this tower that Fernando floated the
Christian standard after the capture of the Alcázar. The chief entrance
in our day is in the Plaza del Triunfo. It is called the Gate of the
Lion (Puerta del León). We pass through, and come into the Patio de las
Banderas (Court of the Banners), so called because a flag was hoisted
here during the residence of the sovereign in the palace. The _patio_ is
surrounded by modern offices, and planted with orange trees. A roofed
passage on the right side of the court leads to the wonderful _Mudéjar_
halls and the salons of the Catholic kings. The passage is the Apeadero,
or 'halting-place.' It was built by Philip V. The façade is in the
Baroque style.
Turning to the right from the Apeadero, we follow a corridor to the
Court of Doña Maria Padilla, the mistress of Pedro the Cruel. The court
is planted with orange and lemon trees and big palms. Arched galleries
of a modern character seem out of place here. But in a moment we come
into the Patio de la Monteria with its beautiful Moorish façade. The
_ajimez_ windows, the cusped arches, and the decorations of this doorway
are fine examples of Almohade art. There is an inscription in early
Gothic characters, over the door, stating that 'the most noble and
powerful Don Pedro, by the grace of God, King of Castile and León,
caused these fortresses and palaces to be built in the era of _de mill
et quatrocientios y dos_' (of Cæsar). The date is 1364 A.D.
We follow a passage to the Patio de las Doncellas (Court of the
Maidens). This large and lofty hall has twenty-four beautiful Morisco
arches, and singularly rich ornamentations. The fifty-two marble columns
are of the Renaissance period, and were substituted between the years
1540 and 1564 for the original pillars. Notice the glazed tiling
decorations of brilliant colouring. These date from the time of Pedro
the Cruel, who added to the ancient palace until little of the original
remained. Notwithstanding, the style is distinctly Moorish, and the
decoration was the work of _Mudéjares_, whose quaint _azulejos_ may be
here studied to advantage.
The Salón de Embajadores adjoins the Court of the Maidens. This was the
Hall of the Ambassadors. It is about thirty-three feet square. The dome
is of the _media naranja_ or 'half orange' shape, the favourite design
of the Moorish architects. On the walls are portraits of the monarchs of
Spain. This is the most sumptuous of the salons of the Alcázar; the
walls veritably dazzle the spectator with their richness of colouring.
Not one inch of space on the arches, walls and doorways is left without
an ornate pattern. The doors of the salon are massive and finely
decorated. In this hall Charles V. was married to Isabella of Portugal.
The Comedor, or dining-room, opens out of the Hall of Ambassadors on the
west side. We find in this room the latest restorations of the palace.
Here, on September 21, 1848, was born the Infanta Doña Maria Isabel de
Orleans y Borbón, Condesa de Paris. The bedroom of Isabella the Catholic
adjoins the Comedor.
Returning to the Hall of the Ambassadors, we enter the room of Philip
II., and pass through it to the small Patio de las Muñecas. Note the
pigmy figures in the ornamentation, which give the name of the Dolls'
Court to this chamber. The upper parts of the gallery are modern, and
were constructed in the years 1855 and 1856, at the time of the last
extensive restoration of the Alcázar.
The Salón of the Princes, approached from the Patio de las Muñecas, is a
spacious hall, in the mixed styles of the _Mudéjar_ and the plateresque.
The Dormitory of the Moorish Kings should be inspected. Then cross the
Patio de las Doncellas to the Salón de Carlos V. This chamber has a
remarkably fine ceiling, and beautiful decorations of _azulejos_, made
by Cristobal de Augusta, an Italian, who worked in Triana in 1577. From
the salon we may enter the room of Maria de Padilla.
The upper apartments of the Alcázar can be viewed by special permission.
I would strongly urge the visitor to obtain this permission. If he
applies to the _conserje_ at the Palace of Pedro, he will be informed
that admission is impossible without an order from the King of Spain.
Such was my experience. I then asked for an order at the offices in the
Patio de las Banderas, but the courteous officials were firm in their
refusal, stating that 'no one but the King can give permission to visit
the upper part of the Alcázar.' Still determined, I ventured to address
His Majesty by letter, and in a few days I received a reply from the
Intendencia General de la Real Casa y Patrimonio at Madrid. The letter
was written by the royal secretary, and is a beautiful example of the
ornate caligraphy in which educated Spaniards delight. I was told that
'the Señor Marqués de Irún, Alcaide of the Reales Alcázares, would grant
me the desired permission.'
At the hotel I inquired where the Marqués de Irún resided. No one knew.
My host searched through a Seville directory. The name of the Marqués de
Irún was not to be found in its pages. Finally, armed with the letter
from the royal palace, I presented myself at the offices in the Patio de
las Banderas, and displayed the missive.
The effect was magical. The officials were even more polite than before.
One of them wrote a note, which he asked me to give to the _conserje_,
and I was bowed out of the office. The _conserje_ in the Patio de la
Monteria scanned the open-sesame. And at last I gained entrance to the
upper apartments of the Royal Alcázar.
The visitor who has secured his permit will be rewarded. There is much
to see in these chambers. Notice, first of all, the fine staircase
constructed at the end of the sixteenth century. The seventeenth-century
tapestries in the salons are magnificent examples of this art. Most of
the subjects are Dutch; some are copies of pictures by David Teniers. In
the first hall, at the head of the principal staircase, there is some
handsome artesonada ceiling decoration of the fifteenth century.
In the Oratory of the Catholic Kings there is the most notable specimen
of ceramic art to be seen in Spain. It is a lovely retablo of
_azulejos_, designed by Franciso Niculoso, an Italian, in 1504. Niculoso
introduced this kind of _azulejo_ painting into Seville. The central
picture represents the Visitation of the Virgin to St. Isabella. A
smaller subject is the Annunciation, and there is a curious genealogical
tree of the Saviour. The decorations are fantastic.
In the Comedor there is a splendid laced ceiling of _Mudéjar_
workmanship, dating from the fifteenth century. The walls are covered
with interesting tapestry pictures.
Step on to the balcony of the Hall of the Ambassadors, and admire the
roofing, the columns, and wealth of Oriental ornamentation. In the rooms
of the Infantas there are _Mudéjar_ ceilings of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries. The portraits of princes and other royal personages
are not of much artistic importance. There is a picture by Goya, a very
spirited portrait of Doña Maria, wife of Don Carlos IV. Goya was the
last of the great painters of Spain. A number of his works are in a
gallery of the Prado Museum at Madrid, but very few of his paintings are
preserved in Seville. This example in the Alcázar deserves the visitor's
notice.
One of the most interesting apartments on the upper floors of the royal
palace is the bedroom of Pedro el Cruel. The _dormitorio_ is sumptuous
with _Mudéjar_ decorations of the sixteenth century. Near the doorway
are four heads painted upon the wall. They are the heads of four
disloyal justices who incurred the anger of their sovereign, and were
condemned to death. The paintings throw a light upon the character of
Pedro, who, no doubt, surveyed them with satisfaction whenever he
entered the chamber. It is probable that the King feared assassination,
for from this part of the palace there is a staircase descending to the
quarters formerly occupied by the guards and royal bowmen. The story
runs that Pedro had this stairway made in order to communicate with his
faithful servant Juan Diente, a famous marksman with the bow.
In the Dormitory of Queen Isabel there is a copy of Murillo's _Ecce
Homo_, and various portraits of monarchs. The Salón Azul (Blue Room) is
so named on account of the colour of its silk tapestries. The pastel
paintings in this apartment are by A. Muraton, representing Queen Doña
Isabel, the Infanta Doña Isabel, King Alfonso XII., and the Marquesa de
Novaliches. There are also eighteen miniatures painted upon ivory.
The modern bedroom has a Coronation of the Virgin, the work of Vicente
López, a copy of a Murillo, and another of Raphael's Holy Family.
Let us saunter now in the sunny gardens of the Alcázar. We can reach
them through the Apeadero, and by the steps leading from the tank at the
entrance. The reservoir is full of carp, some of them of corpulent
proportions. A few small fish may be seen basking near the surface of
the water, but the bigger and warier carp do not often show themselves.
Roses cluster about the steps, and twine on all the railings. We come to
a tree-grown court, with a gallery running on one side, and an arched
entrance to the Baths of Maria de Padilla. This garden is called El
Jardin del Crucero. The underground bath is cool, and it is a rest to
the eyes to escape for a few minutes from the dazzling sunlight of the
gardens. Here the lovely Maria, faithful mistress of the ferocious
Pedro, was wont to bathe in warm weather.
To show their homage to the monarch's consort, the chivalrous courtiers
came hither when the fair bather had taken her bath, and drank of the
water in which she had washed her white limbs. It is said that these
devoted servitors used sometimes to carry away some of the water in
vessels 'to drink it with enjoyment.'
Pedro el Cruel, of all the Christian sovereigns who lived in the
Alcázar, was the most attached to the palace. He lavished money upon the
building of the apartments which we have just inspected, and employed
the cleverest _Mudéjar_ designers and craftsmen. In the Hall of Justice
he heard charges against criminal offenders; in the gorgeous salons he
received illustrious guests, discoursed with his officers, and played at
draughts with his courtiers. His image arises before the imagination as
we stray under the lemon and orange trees of his quaint and charming
pleasure-grounds. Coming to the throne in his sixteenth year, Don Pedro
decided upon making Seville his capital.
We have read in the historical sections of our account of the city how
he earned the title of 'El Cruel.' But the story of his treachery
towards his half-brothers has not been related.
Don Fadrique, Master of the Order of Santiago, and half-brother of Pedro
el Cruel, having confessed allegiance to the King, came one day to
Seville, after a campaign with rebels in Murcia. The Master of Santiago
went to the Alcázar with the intention of paying a visit to his
half-brother, the King. Pedro was playing at backgammon in his private
apartment of the palace when Don Fadrique came to him.
The monarch received his general with genial courtesies, and bade him
stay in the Alcázar. Leaving Pedro for a while, the Master went to the
rooms of Maria de Padilla. He found her agitated and pale, but the
sadness of her beautiful countenance did not cause him to suspect what
lay upon her mind. Maria knew that Pedro longed to rid himself of all
possible claimants to the throne. His eldest half-brother Enrique was in
France, plotting against the Castilian throne. Pedro still dreaded a
rising under Fadrique. He apparently doubted his professed fealty, and
he had planned his murder. It is said that the Master of Santiago
received hints of the fate that awaited him. But he returned to the
quarters of the King, who was in company with several members of his
court.
Pedro had shut himself in an inner room, which had a wicket to it. From
the wicket he shouted to his soldiers: 'Kill the Master of Santiago!'
The bowmen obeyed. Fadrique drew his sword and made a stand, but he was
soon overpowered, and struck down by blows on the head. The Master's
servants were next seized and slaughtered. One of the train ran to the
room of Maria de Padilla, pursued by his assailants, and threw himself
behind Doña Beatrice, one of Maria's daughters. Pedro was among the
pursuers. He tore the man from the arms of Beatrice, stabbed him, and
gave him into the hands of his assassins. Returning to the room where
Don Fadrique was expiring, Pedro saw that his half-brother was still
breathing. Drawing his dagger, the King gave it to an attendant, and
commanded him to kill the Master outright.
During the siege of Seville by Fernando el Santo, the fortified palace
was the chief point of attack. The massive walls of the Alcázar long
resisted the assault of the besiegers. But the beleaguered Moors were at
length compelled to offer surrender to the knights of the Cross. On the
day of St. Clement the gates were thrown open, and San Fernando rode
into the courtyard. In the King's hand was a sword; on his saddle the
ivory image of the Holy Virgin. By his side rode Don Garcia de Varga and
his brother Don Diego, the Condé Lorenzo, Pelago, and other brave
cavaliers. The Khalif of the Alcázar escaped by the gate near the
Hospital del Sangre. Henceforward, the palace was to be the residence of
the kings of Castile.
In 1379 Juan I. lived in the Alcázar. The King ascended the throne
without opposition. Trouble arose soon with Portugal, and Juan marched
at the head of thirty-four thousand soldiers into the enemy's territory.
The Portuguese had a small force of only ten thousand men, including a
few Englishmen. Near the village of Aljubarrota the armies met. There
was a great battle, in which the Portuguese troops fought valiantly, and
drove back the invaders.
Don Juan was ill and weak during the engagement. He was carried on a
litter by his knights, and in the retreat, the King was put on a mule,
and hurried from the scene of action to the Tagus. Here the monarch
embarked in a small boat for Lisbon, whence he returned to Seville to
mourn his defeat in the seclusion of the Alcázar.
Isabel and Fernando often sought the tranquil paths of this garden. The
Catholic Queen and her Consort lived here in great state, in the palmy
days of Seville, dispensing justice, listening to the counsels of
Torquemada and the officers of the Holy Inquisition, and consulting with
Columbus regarding the expansion of their realm and the development of
trade with the New World. Many were the hours passed by the blue-eyed,
fair-haired Queen in the private chapel.
The pious Philip II. came here, though he preferred his mountain palace
of the Escorial. He ordered the portraits of the Kings of Spain to be
painted in the Hall of the Ambassadors. As we have read, Philip incurred
the resentment of the Sevillian merchants by his confiscation of their
ingots. But the prelates and clergy of the city honoured the sovereign,
who always supported the Church and favoured the priests. In his reign
the Primate of Spain was almost as wealthy as the Pope. The Archbishop
of Seville received an income of eighty thousand ducats a year.
Philip spent his time at the Alcázar in his usual daily labours, writing
like a clerk in his private room until the small hours of the morning.
Every morning he attended Mass. The King lived simply, for he feared the
gout. But in spite of this form of frugality, Philip spent his revenue
freely in maintaining a large household. In his retinue there were
fifteen hundred persons, including forty pages, all of noble family.
In the Queen's train there were twenty-six ladies-in-waiting, and four
physicians were in constant attendance on Her Majesty. We may picture
Philip moodily roaming in the gardens, dressed in black velvet, with a
plumed cap. From his neck was suspended the fine jewel of the Golden
Fleece. He wore sober clothes, and changed his suits once every month
for new ones. His wear, like the cast of his mind, was sombre. A dread
of society possessed the King, and in his later days he became more
taciturn and morose.
'I am absolute King,' was the boast of the despotic Philip. His ambition
was to attain power, to extend his kingdom beyond the seas, and to crush
out heresy. Yet Tennyson's love-dazzled Mary is made to ask, as she
gazes upon the face of the Spanish King, in a miniature painting:
'Is this the face of one who plays the tyrant?
Peruse it; is it not goodly, ay, and gentle?'
These gardens evoke reflections upon the ever-changing fate of Spain. We
gaze at relics of the Moors, and remember the eight hundred years of
that sanguinary history of the expulsion of the infidels. Yet everywhere
there are traces of that mighty civilisation built up by Morisco
knowledge and industry. The _Mudéjar_ has touched the palace and the
gardens with his magic wand. Fernando, Pedro, Philip, Carlos--all the
Catholic sovereigns--preserved the Moorish style of decoration, and
borrowed from the art of the hated race.
Passing under a handsome gateway, represented in one of our
illustrations, we come to a fountain surrounded by a tiled pavement, and
overshadowed by trees. Before us is the Pavilion of Carlos Quinto, with
a fine ceiling and _azulejos_. This summer-house was built by Juan
Hernandez in 1543. Turn to the left, and inspect the archway in the
wall, and the curious mural paintings. We may then retrace our steps to
the pavilion, and pass another tank and a grotto till we reach the maze
and a tangled garden beyond it. This is the Garden of the Labyrinth.
Further, we may not ramble.
In 1626 a theatre stood in the large _patio_ near the Puerta del León,
by which gate we must leave the Alcázar. The playhouse was of oval form,
with three balconies, and one part of the theatre was reserved for
ladies. The travelling actors who visited Seville preferred this theatre
to any other in the city, as is shown by the archives of the palace. In
the year 1691 the theatre was entirely destroyed by a great fire, and
not a stone of the old building remains.
The singular mingling of Christian and Moorish architecture and
adornment in the modern Alcázar is characteristic of Seville. We find
the same mixture of styles in the Casa Pilatos and in other mansions of
the city. Even the railway station at the termination of the Córdova
line affords an example of the perpetuation of Morisco design and
decoration. It is this Moorish influence that lends a strange interest
to Seville. Some writers have declared that these mixed styles of
architecture are anomalous. There is certainly an air of the grotesque
in the combination of _Mudéjar_ windows, cusped arches, columns, and
_azulejos_, and Renaissance and Gothic features. But despite the element
of incongruity, the effect is often pleasing, while the mingling of the
styles is especially interesting from the historical point of view.
In our inspection of the Sevillian monuments we are able to estimate the
enormous sway that the Moors exercised upon the Andalusian mind. That
influence will probably endure for very many centuries to come.
Spaniards may abhor the faith of Allah, and detest the children of
Mahomet; but they have never refused to learn the arts of the Moors, nor
to apply them to the building of sacred and secular edifices. In the
poorest villages of Southern Spain we rarely fail to notice some trace
or another of the Moorish builder.
[Illustration: In the Garden of the Alcázar.]
The Orientalism of the Alcázar remains in spite of the pseudo-Moorish
restorations and the Renaissance additions. It is perhaps an atmosphere,
a suggestion, rather than the reality. Still, the pile is a very
remarkable monument, and every stone of it has its tale to tell of
memorable scenes and great events. One is tempted to linger hour after
hour in the dreamy gardens, watching the gaudy butterflies and the
peering, green lizards, and thinking of the bygone greatness of Seville.
Let us conjure one more illustrious figure to the view before we quit
the palace grounds. Here the Emperor Charles V. roamed with his young
bride, Isabella of Portugal. The portraits of Charles show a well-knit
figure, and a good forehead, with the projecting lower jaw
characteristic of his family. He was fond of music, and was accounted
well cultured. Mr. Edward Armstrong tells us, however, in his _Emperor
Charles V._, that the sovereign was a 'singularly bad linguist.' He knew
only a few words of Spanish after he had ruled Castile and Aragon for
two years. 'French was his natural language, but he neither spoke nor
wrote it with any elegance.' The Emperor's knowledge of theology was
scanty; and though he was a stern defender of the Catholic faith, he
could scarcely read the Vulgate.
Isabella was but twenty-three years of age at the time of her marriage
with Charles. She was, however, no child. Her intelligence was quick.
The Princess was short, spare in body, with a clear white skin. The
wedding was celebrated in Seville, in March 1526. For the honeymoon the
Emperor and his bride visited Córdova and Granada.
Charles liked the seclusion of his palace in Seville. 'Not greedy of
territory, but most greedy of peace and quiet,' was the description of
the monarch by Marcantonio Contarini, in 1536. He was strongly attached
to his wife; he was fond of children, and kept pet animals, 'including a
parrot and two Indian cats.' The Emperor was interested in gardening,
and he introduced the carnation into Spain. At table he was a glutton,
and unable to exercise self-control over his greedy appetite. It was
said that Charles five times drained a flagon, containing nearly a quart
of Rhenish wine, during a single meal. We need not be surprised that he
suffered from severe attacks of gout. Yet he would not forego the
pleasures of the table, and when his physician warned him that beer was
injurious to his constitution, the Emperor refused to give up drinking
it.
In dress Charles was economical. He went to Italy in a shabby suit,
hoping by his example to check the tendency to extravagance displayed by
his courtiers and the nobles of Spain. His servants were sometimes in
tattered clothes.
'A fine taste for art seemed inborn in Charles,' writes Mr. Armstrong.
'Before he ever set foot in Italy he had summoned Italian architects and
sculptors to build the splendid Renaissance palace at Granada, which was
destined to remain unfinished.... Music was a passion from boyhood. The
Emperor's choir was the best in Europe. To his choristers he was most
generous, for when their voices broke he would educate them for three
years, and afterwards, if they recovered voice, he would give them the
preference for places in his chapel.'
CHAPTER VII
_The Literary Associations of the City_
'Among no other people did the spirit and character of the middle
age, in its most beautiful and dignified form, so long continue and
survive in manners, ways of thinking, intellectual culture, and
works of imagination and poetry, as among the
Spaniards.'--SCHLEGEL, _Philosophy of History_.
We have noted that in the Visigoth and Moorish periods Seville was a
centre of literature and the arts. The Christians had their St. Isidore,
a famed historian and theological writer, and the Moriscoes acclaimed
the sagacious El Begi, 'whose knowledge was a marvel.' Many Moorish
scribes laboured in the city before San Fernando regained it for the
Spaniards; but very few of their names have lived through the stress of
turbulent times, when every man was for fighting, and art and letters
languished.
When we reach the fifteenth century, we find that certain enterprising
German printers set up presses in Seville, and that books, such as Diego
de Valera's _Cronica de España_, were printed and published.
The printing press gradually destroyed the wonderful art of the
illuminated missal, in which the monks excelled, and letterpress began
to supersede manuscript. In the Cathedral Library of Seville is the
great Bible of Pedro de Pampeluna, in two volumes. It was transcribed
for Alfonso the Learned, and the work is perhaps unmatched. Rich
illuminations abound in the pages, testifying to the skill and the
patience of the artist.
But this industry, followed with such zeal by the clergy, was soon
lost. With the advent of machinery more books were produced, and they
came into the hands of the people, who in the pre-printing days were
unable to purchase the costly volumes of manuscript.
At this time also secular dramas began to take the place of mystery
plays. The theatre has remained one of the favourite recreations of the
Spanish people, and on the modern stage serious plays, dealing with
social problems, are often produced. Among the playwrights of Spain the
name of Lope de Rueda is held in reverence, for it was he who opened the
way for them. 'The real father of the Spanish theatre' was a native of
Seville, and by trade a goldsmith. From 1560 to 1590, the dramas of Lope
de Rueda were performed in Seville. Cervantes may have been influenced
by this pioneer of dramatic art, for, as a youth, he saw Lope de Rueda
act.
In his zenith, the player's stage consisted of half-a-dozen planks, laid
upon four benches. There was no scenery. Old blankets served as curtain
and 'back sheet.' Between the acts a few singers sang without any
instrumental accompaniment. With such primitive paraphernalia this
Thespian travelled about with his company of mummers, writing his own
dramas, and acting in them. He died about the year 1567.
Contemporary with Lope de Rueda and Cervantes was Domingo de Bercerra,
who was born in the city in 1535. During the campaign with the Turks, he
was seized by Moorish pirates and taken prisoner with Cervantes to
Algiers. De Bercerra is known for his translation of Giovanni della
Casa's _Il Galateo_. Hieronimo Carranza, who wrote _Philosophia y
destreza de las Armas_, and Juan de la Cueva, writer of plays and poems,
lived in Seville at this time.
We now enter upon an era memorable in the literary annals of the city.
This is the period when Seville could boast of her scholars, poets,
dramatists and historians, and lay claim to distinction as possessing
the most cultured circle of writers and artists in the whole of Spain.
Fernando de Herrera, born in 1534, in Seville, holds a high position
among Spanish poets. His _Canción á Lepanto_, a poem in celebration of
the victory of Lepanto, 'deserves,' says Mr. Butler Clarke, 'to be
placed side by side with the first eclogue of Garcilaso as one of the
noblest monuments of the Spanish tongue.'
Rodrigo Caro, the historian, and one of the Sevillian authors, says in
his _Illustrious Men, Natives of Seville_, that Herrera 'understood
Latin perfectly, and wrote several epigrams in that language, which
might rival the most famous ancient authors in thought and expression.
He possessed a moderate knowledge of Greek.' The prose writings of 'the
divine Herrera' are marked with the same beauty as his poetry. He wrote
a great general history of his country, up to the reign of Carlos V.,
and earned from Lope de Vega the title of 'the Learned.'
We learn that Fernando de Herrera was a tall man, with a handsome
countenance, thick curling hair, and a beard. The love of his life
appears to have been 'spiritual'; he was enamoured of Eliodora, Countess
of Gelves. This adoration was of the nature of that manifested by Dante
for Beatrice. The poet calls his divinity 'Love,' 'Sun,' and 'Star,' but
there is an unreality in his odes to the Countess. We read, too, that
Herrera was well read in philosophy, and expert in mathematics.
At this time there were two resorts in Seville for authors, artists, and
men of culture. One was the house of the refined and versatile Pacheco,
Canon of the Cathedral; the other was the Casa Pilatos, the mansion of
the Duques de Alcalá. In the circle of Francisco Pacheco we shall find
all the notable painters and poets of Seville; Céspedes, Cervantes, and
Velazquez, who married Pacheco's daughter, were frequenters of the
Canon's hospitable house. It was Pacheco who collected and published
Herrera's poems, under the patronage of the Condé d'Olivarez, and to him
we owe the preservation of some wonderful fragments of a poem on the art
of painting, composed by Pablo de Céspedes. These selections were quoted
by Pacheco in his treatise on art, and one of the finest passages is
that of counsel to an artist in painting a horse. Except for these
portions, nothing remains of the poem of Céspedes, which was a work of
high merit, written in the purest form of the Castilian language. The
author was a man of conspicuous ability. He painted, wrote, carved
statuary, and designed buildings.
The genial Pacheco is perhaps better known as a writer upon painting,
and a maker of Latin verse, than as an artist with the brush. His great
book on art, _Arte de la Pintura_, was published in 1649. It is
anecdotal, technical and historical, and displays the credulity of the
writer in regard to the miraculous. He had the honour of training
Velazquez, his future son-in-law, and the satisfaction of discovering
the power of his young pupil.
We will now take our way to the Casa Pilatos, which stands in the
_plaza_ of that name. Passing under a gateway, we enter a court. On the
right is a very beautiful ironwork door in the _Mudéjar_ form. An
attendant opens it, and we pass into an inner _patio_, surrounded by
busts, portions of antique sculpture, and two statues of Athena. In the
centre is a fountain. The _casa_ was designed by Moorish artists, early
in the sixteenth century, for Don Pedro Enriquez, and his wife Doña
Catalina de Ribera. A descendant, Don Fadrique, who had travelled in
Palestine, added the so-called Prætorium, and probably named the mansion
after Pontius Pilate. There are unlettered persons in Seville who will
assure you that Pilate lived in the house.
[Illustration: Cancela of the Casa Pilatus.]
The third Duke of Alcalá, Fernando Enriquez de Ribera, established a
great library here, and the Casa Pilatos was the rendezvous of a
polished coterie. The Duke collected pictures, procured Roman relics
from Italica, and had cabinets of coins and medals, and cases containing
manuscripts. He was an amateur painter, a patron of the fine arts, and
the encourager of struggling genius. Pedro de Madrazo, in his _Sevilla y
Cadiz_, states that 'the Casa Pilatos is an august representation of the
architectural genius of the sixteenth century; memorable for the
reunions of Pacheco, Céspedes, the Herreras, Góngora, Jauregui, Baltasar
de Alcázar, Rioja, Juan de Arguizo, and Cervantes.'
Other writers describe the architecture of the palace as pseudo-Moorish.
It is indeed a mixture of Gothic, Moorish, and Renaissance designs,
adorned with _azulejos_, the decorations being _Mudéjar_ for the greater
part. Pacheco, the friend of the Duke de Alcalá, painted the salon.
Mr. M. Digby Wyatt, in his valuable work, _An Architect's Note Book in
Spain_, describes the Casa Pilatos as possessing two special 'points of
architectural value,' _i.e._, 'the entirely Moresque character of the
stucco work at a comparatively late date, and the profuse use of
_azulejos_ or coloured tiles. It is ... 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.'
In the principal garden there are remains from Italica. The orange,
lemon and jasmine grow profusely in this sunny, sheltered corner of the
city. Here the cultured Duke Fernando Enriquez de Ribera discoursed with
his illustrious guests, when the stars twinkled and the air was sweet
with the odour of the jasmine and rose. No doubt Francisco Pacheco
brought his pupil Velazquez to the symposia. We can picture Cervantes
relating the story of his imprisonment in Algiers, or diverting the
company with anecdotes of the thieves and sharpers of Seville, whose
exploits are recorded in his novel of _Rinconete y Cortadillo_. Góngora,
the poet, whose affectations and 'Gongorisms' offended George Henry
Lewes, probably read his verses to a critical audience in the salon. Wit
vied with wit, scholar discussed with scholar, and artists discoursed
upon the new methods of painting. This was the intellectual centre of
Seville, where kindred souls uttered their deepest thoughts, assured of
sympathy and of comprehension. When the courtly owner of the palace
died, his library, his treasures and curiosities were removed to Madrid,
and Sevillian men of letters and painters lost a true friend.
In 1588, Miguel de Servantes Saavedra, otherwise Cervantes, lived in the
city. In his twenty-first year, while at Madrid, he had written a
pastoral poem called _Filena_, some sonnets and canzonets. A few years
later he obtained a position as chamberlain to Cardinal Julio Aquaviva
at Rome; but he was not long in Italy. The love of adventure inspired
him to enlist in the expedition force sent by Philip II. against Selim
the Grand Turk. At the famous battle of Lepanto the young soldier
received a wound in the left hand, which necessitated amputation. The
surgeons bungled, and Cervantes lost the use of his arm. Still, he
continued to serve as a private soldier in the ranks.
In 1575, Cervantes was aboard a galley called the _Sun_, and when
journeying from Naples to Spain, he and the entire crew were captured,
and borne to Algiers as prisoners. For five years he lay in a dungeon
until a sum was paid in ransom. Upon returning to his native land, he
joined his mother and sister at Madrid, and there he led a studious
life for three years. His fighting days were at an end. He had seen
strange things in foreign lands, and greatly enriched his store of
experience of life. Henceforward he gave of his knowledge of the world,
and toiled as a writer of poetry, dramas and marvellous romances. His
struggle with fortune was severe. He wrote thirty comedies without
gaining recognition. At this time he married Doña Catalina de Solazar y
Palacios y Vozmediano.
In Seville there lived two relatives of the soldier-dramatist. They were
merchants, with a large business, and it is said that they offered
Cervantes employment. Mr. J. Fitz-Maurice Kelly tells us that the author
obtained a post in the Real Audencia in Seville, probably that of
tax-gatherer. Cervantes himself relates that 'he found something better
to do than writing comedies.' Whether he sat on a stool in the
mercantile office of his relations, or travelled as a tax-collector in
Andalasia, is perhaps not quite certain. At anyrate, the dramatist
continued to produce plays. He sought an appointment as
Accountant-General of the new kingdom of Granada, or as Governor of
Secomusco in Guatemala, or as Paymaster of the galleys at Cartagena, or
as Corregidor in La Paz. His application was unnoticed, and it was not
until 1808 that the document was unearthed. It is a story of hardship,
neglect and disappointment. The soldier who had lost an arm in combat
with his country's foes, the genius whose name was to reach the far ends
of the civilised world, was forced to go begging for situations, which
were refused to him. He still plied his pen for poor returns in the way
of money. For Rodrigo Osorio he agreed to write six comedies at fifty
ducats each. The price was not to be paid unless each play was 'one of
the best ever presented in Spain.' Was there ever a more arbitrary
contract? It is doubtful whether Cervantes received anything for this
work. Then came the quarrel between the Church and the Stage.
Playwrights and actors were banned, and four months before the death of
Philip II. all the theatres were closed.
The clouds lifted slightly. In 1595 'Miguel Cervantes Saavedra of
Seville' won the prize offered by the Dominicans of Zaragoza for a
series of poems in honour of St. Hyacinthus. He appears to have earned
his living at this period as a tax-gatherer. Sometimes he was to be
found at Pacheco's house, and at the Casa Pilatos. Cervantes discerned
the genius of Herrera, and the two poets became friends. A sonnet in
praise of Herrera was written by Cervantes.
Fresh trouble beset the unfortunate author. 'About this period Cervantes
fell into the first of his money troubles,' writes Mr. Watts, in his
_Miguel de Cervantes_, 'in connection with his office. Having to remit a
sum of 7,400 _reals_ from Seville to Madrid, he entrusted it to the
hands of one Simon Freire, as his agent. Freire became bankrupt, and
fled from Spain. This involved Cervantes in a debt to the crown, for
which, being unable to pay, he was thrown into prison. Having reduced
the amount by what he recovered from the bankrupt estate of Freire to
2,600 _reals_, Cervantes was released after a detention of three months.
Neither then, nor at any time afterwards--although the affair hung over
him to trouble him for many years--was there any charge implicating his
own personal rectitude.'
Cervantes' pictures of the seamy side of Sevillian life were drawn
vividly in his _picaresco_ novels. The tales contain phrases in
_Germania_, or thieves' argot, showing that the author closely observed
his types of low life. It was not until he had reached his fifty-seventh
year that he finished the first part of _Don Quixote de la Mancha_. The
great romance was partly written during Cervantes' imprisonment in La
Mancha. There are three versions of the circumstances that brought about
his confinement. One account is that Cervantes made himself unpopular as
a tax-gatherer. But could that be made a felony or misdemeanour meriting
gaol? Another story relates how he became a factory-owner, and polluted
the Guadiana with waste matter; while a third report ascribes his
punishment to the offence of uttering satires upon a lady.
In 1605 _Don Quixote_ was published, in a quarto volume, by Juan de la
Cuesta of Madrid. Within seven months the book had reached its fourth
edition. W. H. Prescott, in his essay on 'Cervantes,' states that two
editions were issued in Madrid, one in Valencia, and one in Lisbon. Yet
the author was not relieved of the burden of poverty. Fame sounded his
name far and wide. But he had sold the copyright of his romance. And
although his reputation was established beyond all doubt, he does not
appear to have been in a position to obtain worthier remuneration for
his labours. What is perhaps more strange, the leading incidents of his
life were scarcely known in Spain when his first biographer, Mayans y
Siscar, essayed a history of the great writer's career. Seven towns
claimed him as a native when Tonson, in London, issued the first English
edition in 1738.
'If Cervantes, like his great contemporary, Shakespeare, has left few
authentic details of his existence,' writes Prescott, 'the deficiency
has been diligently supplied in both cases by speculation and
conjecture.'
In 1616 Cervantes fell sick of a dropsy. He was then in the sixty-ninth
year of his age. After a brief illness, the genius expired, receiving
the extreme unction as a devout Catholic.
In the Calle de Santa Clara in Seville is the Casa de los Marqueses de
Castromonte, a house mentioned by Cervantes in his novel, _La Española
Inglesa_ ('The Spanish-English Lady'). This _novela_ relates the
adventures of a Cadiz maiden, who was carried to England by one of the
Earl of Essex's captains in 1596.
We must now quit the stately Casa Pilatos, with its great literary
traditions, and briefly note a few more of the writers who are
associated with Seville. One of these is the novelist Cecilia Boehl von
Faber, of German descent, who wrote under the _nom de plume_ of Fernán
Caballero. This gifted authoress wrote several novels of social life in
Spain, in which she did not flinch from attacking faulty institutions.
She had even the courage to condemn the national pastime of
bull-fighting, an institution that very few Spaniards have ventured to
call in question. Fernán Caballero lived in the street that bears her
pen-name, and a tablet will be found upon the house which she occupied.
Mateo Aleman, author of _Guzman de Alfarache_, who is sometimes ranked
next to Cervantes, lived in the parish of San Nicolas. Alberto Lista,
the poet, also resided in Seville.
Lord Byron was here in August 1809. In a letter he writes:--
'We lodged in the house of two Spanish unmarried ladies, who possess
_six_ houses in Seville, and gave me a curious specimen of Spanish
manners. They are women of character, and the eldest a fine woman, the
youngest pretty, but not so good a figure as Donna Josepha. The freedom
of manner, which is general here, astonished me not a little; and in the
course of further observation, I find that reserve is not the
characteristic of the Spanish belles, who are, in general, very
handsome, with large black eyes, and very fine forms.' ...
The elder of the two ladies presented Byron with a tress of her hair,
measuring about three feet in length, and begged a lock of his
lordship's hair in return.
I have already mentioned Blanco White, who was born in Seville, and
wrote _Letters from Spain_, in the name of Leucadio Doblado. His
reminiscences should be read for the pictures of Sevillian society, in
the early part of this century. White's _Life_, by J. H. Thorn, was
published in London, in 1845.
Théophile Gautier spent some time in the city, and related his
impressions in his _Voyage en Espagne_, which is the most ably written
of all books upon Spanish places and people. The author of _Mademoiselle
de Maupin_ excels in his descriptions of Seville, its monuments,
paintings, and its life and character. He praises the charms of
Sevillian _doñas_, declaring that they 'quite deserve the reputation for
beauty which they enjoy.'
The eccentric George Borrow came to Seville to distribute the
Scriptures, as an agent of the Bible Society. His experiences with the
clerical authorities of the city are recounted in _The Bible in Spain_.
It is not strange that the priests of 'the Spanish Rome' resented the
intrusion of the English Protestant missionary, and it was fortunate for
Borrow that the Inquisition days were of the past. Otherwise, he would
have suffered in the manner of the hapless Lutherans of Ponce de León's
time. As it was, the heretical _colporteur_ had seventy-six copies of
the New Testament confiscated. The books had been placed in the keeping
of a bookseller. Borrow was never timid. He went straight to the
ecclesiastical governor, and asked why the Testaments had been seized.
The dignitary's reply was that the books were 'corrupting,' and he
soundly reproved the audacious Protestant for venturing to disseminate
such dangerous literature in orthodox Seville.
George Borrow does not write in flattering terms of the Andalusians. He
says: 'I lived in the greatest retirement during the whole time that I
passed at Seville, spending the greater part of each day in study, or in
that half-dreamy state of inactivity which is the natural effect of the
influence of a warm climate. There was little in the character of the
people around to induce me to enter much into society. The higher class
of the Andalusians are probably upon the whole the most vain and foolish
of human beings.' ...
Such was Borrow's opinion of the society of Seville. He appeared to be
quite as contemptuous of the frivolous rich class as he was of most
scholars and literary men. Fashionable London was never able to
'lionise' Bohemian Borrow. He loved 'the wind on the heath,' the song of
the waves on the Norfolk coast, the purple _sierras_ of Spain, and the
company of those children of nature, the _Kaulos_ of Britain and the
_Zincalis_ of Castile. Elsewhere, however, in his writings, George
Borrow speaks highly of the Spaniards in general. It was the pretensions
of 'respectability,' whether in Spain or England, that called forth his
pungent sarcasms.
We must not forget that a famous prelate of the Roman Catholic Church,
Cardinal Wiseman, was born at Seville, in 1802.
It is perhaps not out of place in this chapter to allude to the
attraction that Seville has possessed for three great musical composers.
Mozart laid the scene of his _Don Juan_ and _Figaro_ in the city.
Bizet's _Carmen_ is concerned with Seville; and most famous of all in
local interest is Rossini's _Barber_. Rossini's opera is still popular
in Spain. I saw it acted by an excellent company at Córdova, in May
1902.
The dispersal of the cultured circle of Casa Pilatos would seem to mark
the hour of the beginning of the decline of literature and the arts in
Seville. We may feel astonishment that the writers of the Inquisition
times were able to publish any works save those of theology, church
history, or devotion. But we must remember that Pacheco was a cleric,
that Góngora was a priest, and that Rioja held a post in the Holy
Office. Antonio, the bibliographer, was a canon of the Cathedral, and
Cervantes was a staunch Catholic. These authors were safe; they were
either priests of the Church or sworn defenders of the faith.
Philosophers, scientific writers, and heterodox thinkers were unable to
survive their environment. New thought was stamped out as soon as it was
uttered, and it was seldom indeed that bold spirits dared to express
innovating opinion. The greatest writer could scarcely subsist upon the
earnings of his pen. He was forced, as in the case of Cervantes,
Calderon, and Lope de Vega, among many other authors, to enter the army.
The choice lay between the military and the ecclesiastic professions.
Outside of these no man possessed a status.
With the decline of literature in Spain, the teaching that science is an
evil spread everywhere. In the seventeenth century, on the authority of
Spanish historians, the arts had fallen into decay. At the same time the
trade of Seville greatly suffered. The city was reaping the harvest of
trouble sown by the Inquisition, with its disastrous proscriptions of
scientific inquiry, and its taboos upon learning and the arts. Not only
were Bibles burnt publicly in Seville and elsewhere, but secular books,
treating upon many subjects, were thrown to the flames, in the height of
the Inquisition fanaticism. At the end of the fifteenth century six
thousand volumes were thus destroyed at Salamanca. Such wanton acts
contributed to the causes that brought the downfall of Spain. When
Córdova, Granada and Seville were under the Saracen rule, the conquered
Christians were protected in their religious rights, and there was no
restraint upon knowledge. These cities possessed excellent schools and
huge libraries. The Arabic and Spanish languages were both spoken, and
there was an Arabian translation of the Bible. Unfortunately, the
Christians failed to profit by this example of rational tolerance when
they again came into power.
Classical learning was fostered in Seville by Antonio de Lebrixa, who
lectured in the University, about 1473. Lebrixa had studied for ten
years in Italy. He was opposed by the Sevillian clergy, who claimed sole
authority in instruction; but fortunately Lebrixa found favour with
influential persons, and so contrived to save himself from persecution.
Queen Isabella had lessons from the learned Lebrixa, who may be called
the Erasmus of Spain. But the royal tutor narrowly escaped the awful
punishments of the Holy Tribunal, under Deza, Archbishop of Seville, and
successor of Torquemada. The Inquisitor-General commanded the
manuscripts of Lebrixa to be seized, and accused him of heresy for
making corrections on the text of the Vulgate, and for his exposition of
passages of Scripture.
'The Archbishop's object,' wrote Lebrixa in an Apologia, 'was to deter
me from writing. He wished to extinguish the knowledge of the two
languages on which our religion depends; and I was condemned for
impiety, because, being no divine but a mere grammarian, I presumed to
treat of theological subjects. If a person endeavour to restore the
purity of the sacred text, and points out the mistakes which have
vitiated it, unless he will retract his opinions, he must be loaded with
infamy, excommunicated and doomed to an ignominious punishment!'
'Is it not enough that I submit my judgment to the will of Christ in the
Scriptures? Must I also reject as false what is as clear and evident as
the light of truth itself? What tyranny! to hinder a man, under the most
cruel pains, from saying what he thinks, though he express himself with
the utmost respect for religion! to forbid him to write in his closet or
in the solitude of a prison! to speak to himself, or even to think! On
what subject shall we employ our thoughts, if we are prohibited from
directing them to those sacred oracles which have been the delight of
the pious in every age, and on which they have meditated by day and by
night.'
Lebrixa here eloquently announces the right of the layman to translate
the Scriptures and to expound religion. He claims that liberty of
inquiry and of speech which belongs to every man. His case is typical of
the vast difficulties that encompassed all thinkers of his age.
Science and letters were not only hindered by the Church. Some of the
kings of Spain were hostile towards learning, while others were
apathetic. Carlos IV. instructed his Prime Minister to inform the heads
of universities that 'what His Majesty wanted was not philosophers, but
loyal subjects.' It was no uncommon custom of the inquisitors to enter
private libraries, and to carry away such books as they considered
heretical or dangerous.
In Seville, therefore, as elsewhere throughout Spain, institutions
tended to crush out the genius of authors, and to discourage philosophy
and science. We cannot wonder that Emilia Pardo Bazan, a modern Spanish
writer, should say: 'Perhaps our public is indifferent to literature,
especially to printed literature, for what is represented on the stage
produces more impression.' It has also been said that the upper classes
of Madrid would rather spend their money on fireworks or on oranges than
on a book.
But Spain possesses to-day four or five gifted novelists, who give their
readers true pictures of modern life and manners. Valdes and Galdos are
social influences. Their books are eagerly read and discussed by the
young intellectual spirits in whose earnestness lies the hope of Spain.
CHAPTER VIII
_The Artists of Seville_
BY C. GASQUOINE HARTLEY
'Beauty, like all other qualities presented to human experience, is
relative.'--WALTER PATER.
'The art of Spain was, at the outset, wholly borrowed, and from various
sources: we see heterogeneous, borrowed elements assimilated sometimes
in a greater or less degree, frequently flung together in illogical
confusion, seldom, if ever, fused into a new harmonious whole by that
inner welding fire which is genius; and we see in the sixteenth century
a foreign influence received and borne as a yoke, because no living
generative force was there to throw it off; and finally we meet this
strange freak of nature--a soil without artistic initiative bringing
forth the greatest initiator in modern art--Diego Velazquez.'
These words, which form a portion of the address delivered by the late
Lord Leighton to the students of the Royal Academy Schools, in the year
1889, epitomise the salient points in the artistic history of Seville.
An almost impenetrable gloom shadows the early records of her art. Only
one work remains to testify to the skill of her artists, during the
thirteenth century. This is a rare old Bible, written on vellum and
richly illuminated. It was transcribed for Alfonso, the Wise, by Pedro
de Pampeluna, in the thirteenth century, and its numerous miniatures
represent the pristine efforts of the Sevillian school of painting.
During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the artists of Seville
were wholly dominated by the Flemish school. The great master of the Low
Countries, Jan van Eyck, visited the Peninsula, and from that time the
Flemish influence continued to increase in potency. Flemish works of art
were largely imported into Spain, and three Flemish artists, according
to Professor Carl Justi, were employed in the court of Isabella la
Catolica. The Gothic characteristics of the Northern school are manifest
in all the pictures of this period. They may be readily recognised by
their long lean figures, their definite, almost harsh outlines, and
their rich colours, which are frequently embellished with gold.
The pictures painted during these years bear little trace of Italian
influence, although we know that in the year 1466 a Florentine painter,
Dello, who belonged to the school of Giotto, was living in Seville. No
authentic works from his hand remain, but he amassed great wealth, as a
proof of which we are told that he always painted in an apron of stiff
silk brocade.
Many of these paintings, dating to the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, bear no signature. They are classified without distinction as
the _Escuela Flamenca_, and the Spaniards apparently regard them with
scant reverence. They are all interesting, while many of them possess
great charm, and reveal well-developed artistic power. The Gothic
influence is dominant, but a distinctly Spanish tendency can frequently
be discerned. Local dress and customs are often depicted, and the
pictures are executed with the relentless vigour, which is the specific
characteristic of the early Spanish school. Examples of these
Hispano-Flemish pictures will be found in the Museo, in the _Cap de
Santa Ana_ and the _Cap de la Antigua_, in the Cathedral, and in many of
the churches.
The earliest Sevillian artist of whom we have any distinctive record is
Juan Sanchez de Castro, who lived in the city from 1454 to 1516. Sir W.
Stirling-Maxwell calls him 'the morning star of the school of
Andalusia.' He quickly absorbed the Flemish influence, and his works are
wholly Gothic, both in conception and manner of treatment. No details of
his life are extant, but the wreckage of time has spared his work, and
we can still study both a fresco and a panel painting executed by his
hand.
In the Church of San Julian, situated in the _plaza_ of that name, is a
giant San Cristobal, painted by Sanchez in 1484. It is executed in
tempera upon the wall of the church, close to the principal entrance.
The figure of the saint is of enormous size, entirely subordinating the
remainder of the composition, thus producing an effect of exaggeration
and lack of proportion. The fresco has unfortunately been repainted, and
little of the old master's work remains, except his signature and the
date 1484.
Of infinitely greater value is his painting on panel, preserved among
the pictures collected by the late Señor D. Manuel López Cepero, which
may now be seen in the house of Murillo, described elsewhere in these
pages. The picture is painted upon a panel of wood, covered with canvas
and carefully prepared plaster, as was the manner of the early masters,
who did none of their work hurriedly, and devoted much time to the
painstaking preparation of their materials. The picture may be regarded
as a typical instance of the Hispano-Flemish manner. The conventional
grief, symbolised by the drooping eyelids, falling tears and set
countenances of the women; the harsh outlines; the extreme length of the
reclining figure of the Christ, all bear the imprint of the Gothic
school. The picture deserves much study. Its decorative proportions,
extreme simplicity and harmony of colour can hardly be praised too
highly. It is a meritorious herald of the work of the Sevillian artists.
Juan Nuñez, the pupil of Sanchez, continued to imitate the manner of his
master. His finest work is a composition, representing the _Piéta_. It
was painted for the Chapter of the Cathedral, during the latter half of
the fifteenth century, and now hangs in the _Sacristía de los Cálices_,
where many of the choicest treasures of art are preserved. The Virgin
supports the dead body of the Christ; St. Michael and St. Vincent are at
her side, while kneeling ecclesiastics pray below. The Flemish manner
still prevails, and the Gothic stiffness of the Saviour's figure bears a
strong resemblance to the work of Sanchez. Cean Bermudez praises the
picture very highly, and states that it is not inferior to Albert Dürer
in colour and arrangement of the drapery. Like many of the early
religious painters, Nuñez appears to have been destitute of a sense of
humour, and in a picture of St. Michael and St. Gabriel, painted for the
Chapter of the Cathedral, he depicted the saints adorned with
gaily-coloured peacocks' wings.
The Hispano-Flemish manner was perfected by Alezo Fernandez, who came
from Córdova, in 1525, to work in Seville Cathedral. Lord Leighton
considers him 'the most conspicuous among the Gothic painters,' and
without doubt, his work marks a further advancement in the development
of the Andalusian school. It bears testimony to advancing knowledge. For
the first time we perceive clearly the growth of a distinctive Spanish
style. The Flemish manner is still strongly visible, but from out of
this eclecticism emerges that forceful effort after truth and natural
expression, which is the conspicuous characteristic of the Spanish
school. His finest picture is the Virgen de la Rosa, in the Church of
Santa Ana, at Triana. The charm of this work is very great. The mellow
splendour of its tones, and the lofty spirit in which it is conceived
render it a study of high merit. Other pictures by this master may be
seen in the Palacio Arzobiscopal, where hang the Conception, the Birth
of the Virgin, and the Purification, three works of great interest; and
in the Church of San Julian, where there is a fine altar-piece. The
figure of San Pedro depicted upon the left of the composition is one of
the ablest; beside him is San Antonio, while San Julian and San Josef
stand upon the left. Over the altar are representations of the
Incarnation and the Crucifixion.
During the opening years of the sixteenth century a new influence from
without was imposed upon the Spanish school of painting. The Italian
Renaissance extended to Spain, and this movement, which in Italy
produced the brilliant group of the _quatrocentisto_, fell upon the
artistic genius of Spain as a deadening blight. It was alien to the
temper of the Spanish nation. The simple, truthful directness of their
early mode was forgotten; gradually their art became steeped in a
hopeless mannerism.
Luis de Vargas, who was born in Seville in 1502, was the first
Andalusian artist, whose work testifies to the Italian influence. He
spent many years studying in Italy. He was a devout Catholic, and like
all the artists of Seville was supported by the munificence of the
Chapter of the Cathedral. Unfortunately his frescoes, upon which his
reputation, according to Cean Bermudez, largely rested, have been almost
entirely obliterated. Dim traces of them may be seen upon the Giralda
Tower, and upon the outer wall which encloses the Court of the Oranges;
but it is impossible to appraise the work of De Vargas from these
time-spoilt relics.
Of his panel paintings only a small number have been preserved. They are
simple, yet powerful in design; the colour is fresh, and the drawing is
good. They are specially noteworthy for the charm with which women are
portrayed, a characteristic unusual among the artists of Spain. The
earliest known work of De Vargas was The Nativity, which was painted for
the Chapter of the Cathedral, in 1555, and placed over the Altar del
Nacimiento, where it still hangs. Sir W. Stirling-Maxwell says that the
figure of the Virgin, as she stands gazing upon her babe, 'bears a
simple dignity not unworthy of Raphael.' The grouping of the figures is
admirable. Notice especially the peasant, as he kneels and offers his
basket of young doves. The care bestowed upon the execution of the
details shows that De Vargas had not yet forgotten the example of the
early masters. The goat, the sheaf of corn, the Spanish pack-saddle, all
the accessories are painted with Flemish accuracy.
The Temporal Generation of our Lord, in the south transept of the
Cathedral, adjacent to the colossal figure of San Cristobal, is
generally considered the masterpiece of Luis de Vargas. It is an
allegorical composition, representing Adam and Eve adoring the infant
Christ, who rests in the arms of the Virgin. The picture is lacking in
charm, but the figures are finely conceived, and executed with power.
Indeed, the life-like drawing of Adam's leg has given the picture its
name of _La Gamba_ (the leg). It is reported that the Italian Perez de
Alesio, the painter of the giant San Cristobal, exclaimed when gazing
upon his handiwork, 'The whole of my figure is of less merit than the
leg of Adam.'
Greater than Luis de Vargas was the Flemish painter Pedro Campaña, who
came to Spain and settled in Seville in the year 1548. He had spent many
years in Italy, studying in Rome, and his pictures bear the impress of
a combined Flemish-Italian influence. He stayed in Seville for
twenty-four years, and is always identified with the artists of
Andalusia. His finest picture, The Descent from the Cross, was painted
for the Church of Santa Cruz in the year he came to Seville, 1548. The
strength and realism of this work are truly majestic. It is, without
doubt, the finest picture painted by the Italian mannerists in Seville.
It exerted great influence upon the artists of a later day. Pacheco
declared that its realism was so overmastering that he did not care to
be left alone with it in the dimly-lighted chapel. Murillo spent long
hours in earnest contemplation of the picture. He was wont to perform
his devotions before it, and once, when asked why he sat watching the
picture so intently, he is reported to have answered, 'I am waiting
until those men have brought the body of our Blessed Lord down the
ladder.' It was beneath this picture that the favourite master of
Seville chose to be buried. The picture now hangs in the _Sacristía
Mayor_ of the Cathedral. It was rescued from the Courts of the Alcázar,
where it had been wantonly flung by the French, during the War of
Independence, and tolerably restored by Joaquin Cortes, in 1882.
Seville contains many other works by the Flemish master. In the _Cap de
Mariscal_, in the Cathedral, is a very beautiful Purification of the
Virgin. The charm and simple grace of the fair-haired maiden, who stands
upon the left of the picture, contrasts vividly with the form of the
beggar beneath. The half-length portraits of the Mariscal Don Pedro
Cabellero and family, which also hang in the chapel, are individual and
life-like. There is little trace of Italian influence in the rendering
of these figures; they are all painted with Flemish carefulness. Other
works of Campaña may be seen in the Church of San Pedro and the Church
of Santa Ana, at Triana. The individuality of Campaña can hardly be too
strongly emphasised. His pictures possess many of the essential and
distinctive attributes, which characterise the work of the greatest of
the Sevillian artists.
Contemporary with Luis de Vargas and Pedro Campaña--the masters of the
early Italian mannerists--worked a group of artists of lesser fame.
Antonio de Arfian, 1537-1587, a native of Triana, painted frescoes for
the parish church of St. Mary Magdalen. Juan Bautista Vasquez, in 1568,
executed an altar-piece for the Church of Our Lady of the Pomegranate,
in the Court of the Oranges; and other works since destroyed, for the
Cathedral. Alonso Vasquez painted many pictures for the Cathedral and
the Convents of St. Francis and St. Paul. The few of these works which
remain may be seen in the Museo, where they hang neglected, fast rotting
in their frames. These artists closely imitated the style of De Vargas.
More individuality is revealed in the works of Pedro Villegas Marmolego,
1520-1597, an artist whose pictures are extremely rare. The Virgin
visiting Elizabeth, which hangs over the _Altar de la Visitación_ in the
Cathedral, is a good example of his work, and displays his charm as a
colourist. The garments of both the Virgin and Elizabeth are beautiful
with radiant harmony. The works of Francesco Frutet--like Campaña a
Flemish artist trained in Italy, who came to Seville, about the year
1548--will be noticed in the account of the Museo.
Another foreigner, who worked in Seville during this period, was
Sturmio, probably a German, who, in 1554, painted nine pictures on panel
for the _Cap de los Evangelistas_, in the Cathedral. These studies are
important, for they afford the earliest instance of the fine brown
tones distinctive of the Sevillian school. The central picture depicts
St. Gregory saying Mass, while around him are grouped the fourteen
evangelists, and the saints of the city. Santas Justa and Rufina, the
holy maids, frequently portrayed by the artists of Seville, are among
the best.
The work of all these artists, who may be classified as the early
Italian mannerists, reveals a distinctive personality. The individuality
of the artist constantly breaks forth, through the strong Italian bias,
while traces are often revealed of the truthful expression of the early
Hispano-Flemish mode.
As the sixteenth century drew to its close, the tendency to adopt a
style of affected mannerism was largely augmented in the work of the
artists of Andalusia, the result being a corresponding loss of national
individuality. All that was essentially Spanish was for the time
forgotten, submerged in an imported Italianism. The pictures of these
later mannerists are dreary and almost entirely without interest. Their
work may be readily identified by the conventional conceptions, the flat
tones, the dry, hard colours, and the utter lack of that element of
charm, so essential to all works of art.
Juan del Castillo, 1584-1640, and Francisco Pacheco, 1571-1654, may be
regarded as types of this phase in the record of Andalusian art. Their
reputation rests largely upon the renown of their pupils. Juan del
Castillo was the master of Murillo and Alonso Cano, and the chief
interests incited by the study of his work, rests in tracing the
influence he may have exercised in moulding the work of the Sevillian
favourite. His best picture is the Assumption, in the Museo, in which
the figure of the Virgin has some merit.
Francisco Pacheco, the father-in-law and devoted teacher of Diego
Velazquez, claims our attention as an individual, rather than as an
artist. He painted innumerable pictures, which may still be viewed in
the Cathedral, the churches and the Museo, but none rise above the level
of mediocrity. They are carefully executed and rarely offend the rules
of drawing, but they are all hopelessly 'mannered,' and entirely devoid
of individual imagination.
We owe a debt of gratitude to Pacheco for his _Arte de la Pintura_, a
treatise upon the principles of art, and the lives of the artists of
Spain, published in Seville in 1649. In style the work is pompous and
prolix, and often very tedious, but as a record of the lives of the
Sevillian artists it possesses great value. Pacheco was the Inquisitor
of Art, or Familiar of the Inquisition. His authority under the Holy
Office was great, and it was his duty to see that no indecorous or
indecent pictures found their way into the churches. Here is a copy of
the commission which was granted to him: 'We give him commission and
charge him henceforward that he take particular care to inspect and
visit all sacred subjects which may stand in shops or in public places;
if he finds anything to object to in these he is to take the picture
before the Lords, the Inquisitors.'
The degraded Italian taste was carried to its uttermost limits by
Herrera El Mozo (the younger), 1622-1625, who, by a strange anomaly, was
the son of the man, who was the first to break completely away from the
trammels of the pseudo-Italian manner. His works may be viewed in the
Cathedral and the Museo; they instance the degradation which had been
brought upon the art of Seville, by the unintelligent adoption of an
alien style.
It is a relief to revert to the work of those men, whose sturdy Spanish
spirits refused to bend beneath the yoke of conventional tradition. The
work of the cleric, Juan de la Roelas, 1560-1625, bears little, or no,
trace of the degenerate pseudo-Italianism, although his pictures are not
exempt from foreign influence. They are Venetian in colour, soft, yet
free, in their drawing. They exhibit many of the features, afterwards
amplified in the work of Murillo. His finest composition is the Death of
San Isidore, in the parish church, dedicated to that saint. The theme of
the picture is the transit of the holy man, Archbishop of Seville,
during Gothic days. Many figures fill the canvas, but with true artistic
unity, the interest is centralised upon the dying saint, who rests upon
the ground, clad in dark mantle and finely-painted pontifical robes.
Subtle discernment is manifested in the grouping of the figures. The
aged fathers are thrown into distinct relief, by the youthful bloom of
the children who kneel beside them. The shadowy forms of the
worshippers, as they kneel in the receding aisles of the church, lend
atmosphere to the study. The heavens are depicted above, and in the
midst of a blaze of glowing light, the Virgin awaits with Christ, the
coming of the saint.
San Santiago, destroying the Moors in the battle of Clavigo, which hangs
in the Cathedral, affords another fine instance of the work of Roelas.
Three more of his pictures may be seen in the University--The Holy
Family, The Nativity, and the Adoration of the Shepherds, while several
hang in the Museo. A figure of a black-robed kneeling saint, in the Holy
Family, is said to be the portrait of Roelas.
Francisco de Herrera, 1575-1656, termed, el Viego (the Elder) to
distinguish him from his son, possessed a character of unusual vigour.
The traditions which have survived, reveal the temper of the man. His
methods were eccentric. He worked with a dashing pencil, and it was his
custom to employ any implement, which presented itself as convenient. It
is reported that upon one occasion, when short of a brush, he painted a
picture with a spoon. His fame induced numerous artists--the young
Velazquez being among them--to seek his studio; but his irascibility was
so great that few of them remained. He broke many a maul-stick across
their shoulders, and frequently he was left without a single pupil to
execute his mandates.
It is said that one day, when this had occurred, he rushed into the
kitchen, and insisted upon the serving-maid becoming his attendant; and
amidst oaths and blows, he forced the trembling girl to prepare a canvas
for the composition he desired to execute. His turbulent spirit led him
into difficulties, and he was accused--whether falsely or not it is now
impossible to say--of coining money. To escape punishment he sought
sanctuary in the College of the Jesuits, where he painted the Legend of
St. Hermingild, now in the Museo. In the year 1624 Philip III. came to
Seville, and visited the college. In common with all the house of
Austria, the King had a fine appreciation of art, and when he saw the
work of Herrera, he at once recognised its merits, and desired to see
the artist. Herrera knelt at the King's feet, and told the reason of his
confinement in the convent. 'What need of silver and gold has a man
gifted with a talent like yours? Go, you are free,' was the answer of
the King.
Such was the nature of the man, whose cogent individuality
re-established a national Spanish style. His pictures are distinguished
for their vigorous force. Sir W. Stirling-Maxwell calls him 'the most
remarkable of the painters, who learnt their art solely in Andalusia';
while Palomino, often termed the Spanish Vasari, says that the boldness
of his manner conveys to his figures the appearance of being painted in
relief. Several of his pictures are now in the Museo; the Cathedral
possesses none, but there is one in the Church of San Bernardo, which,
in spite of dirt and dim lighting, affords a fine instance of the power
of Herrera. In the upper portion the Lord is shown with a band of
attendant angels, while below St. Michael divides the sinful from the
righteous. The canvas is overcrowded; a fault in which the majority of
the compositions of Herrera share, and the form of St. Michael is
somewhat uncouth, but the picture is full of power, and many of the
figures, especially among the hosts of the wicked, are drawn with a fine
freedom of handling.
Francisco de Zurbaran, a peasant, born in Estremadura, in the year 1598,
was the veritable follower of Herrera. His work more fully than that of
any other artist typifies the genius of Spain. Lord Leighton speaks of
him 'as a man of powerful personality, in whom more than any of his
contemporaries, the various essential characteristics of his race were
gathered up--its defiant temper, its dramatic bent, its indifference to
beauty, its love of fact, its imaginative force, its gloomy fervour, its
poetry, in fact, and its prose.'
He was the pupil of Juan de las Roelas, but his work soon eclipsed that
of his master. From the very first he cast from him all mannered
tradition, and determined unflinchingly to follow natural methods. He
copied all objects directly from Nature, and while still a lad working
in the studio of Roelas, he refused to paint drapery, without having it
placed upon a lay figure to represent the living model. He has been
termed the Spanish Caravaggio from his strict adherence to Nature, and
his delight in breadth and strong contrasts of light and shadow. As he
saw Nature thus he painted her, without desire to soften or to
idealise. His one purpose was to portray conscientiously the exact
impression of the objects he beheld. And for this reason he may be
designated the herald of Velazquez. His pictures lack the facility, the
charm and the impelling force of the great master; but in their
adherence to Nature and strict nationality of style they are in nowise
inferior. The Adoration of the Shepherds, the fine picture in our
National Gallery, formerly ascribed to Velazquez, is now held to be the
work of Zurbaran. His colour is above all praise; his tints, although
sombre, have at times, as Sir W. Stirling-Maxwell justly remarks, 'the
depth and brilliancy of Rembrandt.'
His earliest work was a series of pictures, illustrative of the life of
the Apostle Peter, which he painted for the Chapter of the Cathedral.
They may still be inspected in the _Cap de San Pedro_, but unfortunately
the deficiency of light renders it well-nigh impossible to see them.
The celebrated Death of St. Thomas Aquinas, and the remarkable series of
pictures, painted for the Chartreuse monks of Santa Maria de las Cuevas,
are now in the Museo.
For the Church of the Hospital del Sangre he painted eight small
pictures of female saints. They are portraits of the beauties who
reigned in the city during the life of Zurbaran, and are among the most
charming of the pictures of women to be found in Seville. Especially
mark Santa Matilda in her crimson robe, embroidered with gold and
pearls, Santa Dorotea in lilac, and Santa Iñes in purple, and bearing a
lamb in her arms.
The fame of Zurbaran was overshadowed by Murillo, who became the central
figure in the artistic life of Seville, during the latter half of the
seventeenth century.
The position Murillo occupies in the record of Andalusian art is so
significant, that it appears fitting to notice his work, and that of his
brilliant contemporary Velazquez, in a separate chapter; and to conclude
this brief chronicle of the Sevillian artist with two names--Alonso Cano
and Juan de Valdés Leal, the last painters of Andalusia, whose work is
worthy of special note.
Alonso Cano, 1601-1667, was not born in Seville, but came to the city,
when quite young, to receive instruction from Pacheco and Juan de
Castillo. He painted pictures for the Carthusians, and the other
convents and churches, but a duel, fought with a brother artist, in
1639, drove him from the city. The finest instance of his work in
Seville is Our Lady of Bethlehem, in the Cathedral. It was painted in
Malaga for Señor D. Andres Cascentes, who presented it to Seville. The
light is dim, and it can only be seen by the glow from the tapers which
burn upon the altar. It is somewhat conventional in treatment, and bears
distinct traces of Italian mannerism. Yet the picture is not without
charm, and the Spanish national note is not entirely absent. The hands
and feet are painted with extreme care, and the crimson robe and
dark-blue mantle of the Virgin are exquisite in colour. The picture may
be regarded as typical of his work. One of his chief faults was
repetition, and he was frequently accused by his contemporaries of
copying from the works of other masters; a charge which he is said to
have challenged, with the following answer: 'Do the same thing, with the
same effect as I do, and all the world will pardon you.' His power as an
artist has been somewhat over-estimated, and his claim to be called 'the
Michelangelo of Spain' rests solely upon the fact that he was sculptor
and architect as well as painter.
Juan de Valdés Leal, 1630-1691, lived until the time when Andalusian
art was fast approaching its decline. His early life was embittered by
jealousy of Murillo, and much of his energy was expended in useless
quarrels with his brother artists. His pictures are mannered, but the
best are vigorous, and their main defects are due to hasty execution. He
appears to have had no power to finish his work; when he tried to be
careful he became weak. The Museo contains many of his pictures. The
Virgin bestowing the Chasuble on San Ildefonso in the _Cap de San
Francisco_, in the Cathedral, is one of his finest works. The two
pictures in the Hospital de la Caridad were painted to illustrate the
vanity of worldly grandeur. They are theatrical, and have little
'literary' attraction, but the execution exhibits a certain power. In
one of them a hand holds a pair of scales, in which the sins of the
world--represented by bats, peacocks, serpents and other objects--are
weighed against the emblems of Christ's Passion; in the other, which is
the finer composition, Death, with a coffin under one arm, extinguishes
a taper, which lights a table spread with crowns, jewels and all the
gewgaws of earthly pomp. The words _In Ictu Oculi_ circle the gleaming
light of the taper, while upon the ground rests an open coffin, dimly
revealing the corpse within.
It was this picture which caused Murillo to remark that it was something
to be looked at with the nostrils closed. To which rather uncertain
praise Leal is reported to have replied, 'Ah, my compeer, it is not my
fault, you have taken all the sweet fruit out of the basket and left me
only the rotten.'
With the death of Valdés Leal, at the close of the seventeenth century,
the long chain of artists, who had made the name of Seville famous,
terminates. He left behind him no painter of specific merit. The artists
who remained were dreary conventionalists, without originality, mere
copyists of those who had preceded them. The study of their work yields
neither pleasure nor profit. It is better to leave the record of the
artists of Seville, while the memory of her greatest masters is still
vivid, than to trace the slow decay of her art into feeble mediocrity.
* * * * *
_Note._--In order to facilitate the finding of the works of the artists
mentioned in this chapter, this list is appended, naming their chief
pictures, and the places where they may be found.
Artists. Pictures. Where Situated.
Pedrode Pampeluna Illuminated Bible. Library of the Cathedral.
(thirteenth century).
Juan Sanchez de Fresco of San San Julian.
Castro (1454-1516) Cristobal.
" Painting on panel House of Murillo.
of the Entombment.
Juan Nuñez (fifteenth Piéta. Sacristía de los
century). Cálices, Cathedral.
Alezo Fernandez Conception. Palacio Arzobiscopal.
(worked in Seville
about 1508).
" Birth of the Virgin. Ditto.
" Purification. Ditto.
" Virgen de la Rosa. Santa Ana, Triana.
" Altar-piece. San Julian.
Luis de Vargas Frescoes. The Giralda Tower.
(1502-1568). Outer Wall of the
Court of the Oranges.
" The Nativity. Altar del Nacimiento,
Cathedral.
" Temporal Generation Altar de la Gamba,
of Our Lord. Cathedral.
" Portrait of Don Ditto.
Juan de Medina.
Pedro Campaña The Descent from Sacristía Mayor,
(1503-1580). the Cross. Cathedral.
" Purification of the Cap de Mariscal,
Virgin. Cathedral.
" Portraits. Ditto.
" Altar-piece. San Pedro.
" Retablo, with Santa Ana, Triana.
fifteen paintings.
Antonio de Arfian Frescoes on the St. Mary Magdalen,
(1537-1587). History of St. Triana.
George.
Juan Bautista Vasquez Altar-piece. Altar of Our Lady of
(worked in the Pomegranate,
Seville about 1568). Court of the
Oranges.
Alonso Vasquez Various works. Museo.
(_d._ 1648).
Pedro Villegas Virgin visiting Altar de la Visitación,
Marmolego Elizabeth. Cathedral.
(1520-1597).
" Doubtful Works. Museo.
Francesco Frutet Several Works. Museo.
(worked in Seville
about 1548).
Sturmio (worked in St. Gregory saying Cap de los Evangelistas,
Seville about 1554). Mass. Cathedral.
" Evangelists. Ditto.
" Saints. Ditto.
Herrera, el Mozo Several Works. Cathedral.
(1622-1685).
" " Museo.
Juan de las Roelas Martyrdom of St. Museo.
(1560-1625). Andrew.
" Other works. Ditto.
" Death of San San Isidore.
Isidore.
Juan de las Roelas San Santiago. Cap de Santiago,
(1560-1625). Cathedral.
" Holy Family. The University.
" Nativity. Ditto.
" Adoration of the Ditto.
Shepherds.
Herrera, el Viego Legend of St. Museo.
(1576-1656). Herminigild.
" Other works. Ditto.
" St. Michael and the San Bernardo.
Hosts of the Wicked.
Juan de Castillo Assumption. Museo.
(1584-1640).
" Other pictures. Ditto.
" Virgin and Child. House of Murillo.
" Other works. The Churches.
Francisco Pacheco Many works. Museo.
(1571-1654).
" " House of Murillo.
" " Cathedral.
" " Churches.
Francisco de Zurbaran Legend of St. Cap de St. Pedro,
(1598-1661). Pedro. Cathedral.
" Death of St. Museo.
Thomas Aquinas.
" Other works. Ditto.
" Eight Female Hospital del Sangre.
Saints.
Alonso Cano Our Lady of Altar de la Virgin
(1601-1667). Bethlehem. de Belen, Cathedral.
Juan de Valdés Leal San Ildefonso. Cap de St. Francisco,
(1630-1691). Cathedral.
" Pictures illustrating Hospital de la
the vanity Caridad.
of worldly grandeur.
" Many works. Museo.
CHAPTER IX
_Velazquez and Murillo_
'The more the artist studies Nature, the nearer he approaches to
the true and perfect idea of art.'--Sir J. REYNOLDS.
On the 15th of June, in the year 1599, Diego Rodriguez de Silva y
Velazquez was born in Seville. Eighteen years later affords the record
of birth of Murillo. Contemporary, or nearly so, they began their lives
in the same environment, yet from their earliest youth they tended to
develop upon divergent lines. The young Velazquez, at the age of
thirteen, became the pupil of the vigorous Herrera, while Murillo
entered the school of the academic Juan de Castillo.
It was reserved for Velazquez to break away from the traditional
limitations of the Sevillian school, while the work of Murillo was to
develop them to their fairest fruition.
The national manner, begun by Herrera and developed by Zurbaran, was, by
the genius of Velazquez, carried to perfect fulfilment.
The grave and truthful simplicity of his pictures is unsurpassed among
the artistic records of any nation. His supreme effort was directed to
the portrayal of Nature. With unerring judgment he selected the
essential details of a composition, and painted them with unflinching
fidelity. He depicted each colour precisely as the lighting of his
canvas revealed it to him. He is the master of chiaroscuro, by the
perfect unity of his tones. His style is wholly personal, his pictures
bear pre-eminently the mark of individual expression. From his earliest
youth this was his method of work. 'He kept,' Pacheco tells us, in the
account he gives of his pupil and son-in-law, in his _Arte de la
Pintura_, 'a peasant lad, as an apprentice, who served him as a study in
different actions and postures--sometimes crying, sometimes
laughing--till he had grappled with every difficulty of expression; and
from him he executed an infinite variety of heads, in charcoal and chalk
on blue paper, by which he arrived at certainty in taking likeness.' In
this way did Velazquez train his power; and we are able to comprehend
the wonderful portraits, which have rendered the House of Austria
familiar to the world, when we picture the youth drawing his slave,
again and yet again, in different attitudes and ever varied changes of
expression.
This, then, was the divergence between the methods of Velazquez and
Murillo. The one painted Nature as she was; the other depicted men and
women as they never could be, but in the guise of saints, according to
the desires of the Catholic Church. It is in this dis-similarity of
their aims, that we shall find the explanation of the fact, which cannot
fail to impress the visitor to Seville, that, while the city abounds in
the works of Murillo, no single picture from the hand of Velazquez is to
be found in Cathedral, Church or Museo. The city of his birth is
destitute of any commemoration of his genius, if we exclude a few
pictures, of very doubtful authenticity, to be found in some of the
private collections.
The art of Seville was maintained by the munificence of the Church.
Painting was the handmaid of the Catholic religion. Pictures were
painted for the glory of God; they were valued as aids in the due
performance of religious observance rather than as works of art. For
the artist whose supreme desire was to follow truth Seville was no home.
Realism was opposed to the very essence of the Catholic mind. The
mediæval spirit did not exist in Velazquez, the most modern of all the
old masters; he yearned for a freer and wider scope for the development
of his genius.
In March, 1621, Philip III. died, and was succeeded by his young son,
Philip IV., who at once began to collect about the throne the literary
and artistic genius of the day.
Accompanied by Pacheco, Velazquez went to Madrid and craved an audience
of the King. The favour was denied, and after some months of waiting,
the young artist returned to Seville. Next year he again sought the
metropolis. One of the Canons of Seville Cathedral, Don Juan Fonseca,
had obtained a post in the King's service; Velazquez painted his
portrait. It was carried to the palace before it was dry, and in an hour
the whole court had seen it. 'It excited the admiration of the capital,'
writes Pacheco, exulting in the success of his favourite, 'and the envy
of those of the profession, of which I can bear witness.' Velazquez's
position was assured. He was formally received into the King's service,
and became a member of the royal household. His genius was lost to
Seville. He is classed among the artists of Castile, and to study his
works it is necessary to visit, not Seville, but the Prado Museo, at
Madrid.
Of the pictures he painted in his youth none remain in Seville. The most
famous are The Water Carrier, or Aguador, now in the collection of the
Duke of Wellington, at Apsley House; The Omelet belonging to the late
Sir Francis Cook; St. John in Patmos and The Woman and the Dragon, the
property of Sir Bartle Frere; The Epiphany in the Prado Museo; and The
Adoration of the Shepherds in the National Gallery.
The Water Carrier and The Omelet are studies of street life, finished
with great care; a class of picture known as _bodegones_, often painted
by the Spanish artists. The former is the finer work. It is a
magnificent instance of Velazquez's power during his student days.
Either a study for this picture, executed by Velazquez himself, or a
copy by one of his pupils, can be seen in the house of Murillo. The
courteous owner, Señor Don López Cepero, is always willing to show his
valuable collection of pictures. He believes the work to be a genuine
Velazquez, and it is just possible that it may be so, and in any case it
is a study of much interest. The Corsican water-seller, clad in his
brown frock, a well-known figure in the streets of Seville, hands a
glass of water to a boy, while in the distance another figure is dimly
discerned, with his face buried in an earthenware mug. The background is
very dark; the figures alone stand in the light. There is no scenery,
and the accessories are painted with absolute truth.
* * * * *
While the art of Velazquez was unsuited to the city of his birth, the
works of Murillo breathed the very spirit of the life around him. His
pictures represent the religious emotion of his period; they may
fittingly be termed, 'the embodied expression of Spanish Catholicism,
during the seventeenth century.'
This fact in a large measure accounts for the popularity of Murillo, and
the rapid recognition which his merits received at the hands of his
countrymen. His art appealed pointedly to the hearts of the people; the
expression of his genius was comprehensible to them all. He speedily
became the favourite artist in Spain, and his fame gradually extended
throughout Europe.
Murillo's artistic career may be divided into four periods. During the
first he was needy and unrecognised, gaining a precarious livelihood by
painting rude pictures for the Feria, a weekly fair, held every Thursday
at the northern end of the Old Alameda, in front of the Church of All
Saints. The artistic training he had received was slight. Juan de
Castillo, who, as a relative of the family, had taught the boy free of
charge, left Seville, and the young Murillo was too poor to enter the
schools of Herrera, Pacheco, or Zurbaran. He was obliged to toil with
strenuous effort to support himself and his sister, who was dependent
upon him.
We can picture the future genius of Seville, standing in the market of
the Feria, exposing his pictures for sale. He would often paint them
while he waited, or would alter each composition to suit the fancy of an
intending purchaser. Ambitious dreams fired his imagination. Pedro de
Moya, an artist friend, had been to Rome, and had returned imbued with
the glories of the metropolis of art. Murillo aspired to visit Italy,
and with this hope he toiled, until he had saved a sufficient sum to
take him to Madrid. He at once sought the counsel and protection of his
old friend Velazquez. The court artist received him with the utmost
kindness. He gave him lodging in his own apartments, and obtained
permission for him to work in the Royal Galleries. A new world was
revealed to the young Murillo. For two years he worked, then Velazquez
advised him to go to Italy, to continue his studies in Rome, or
Florence. He offered him letters of introduction, and did all in his
power to induce him to undertake the journey, but for some reason
Murillo declined his offer and returned to Seville.
His earliest work was to paint a series of studies of the Legend of St.
Francis, for the Franciscan Convent, formerly situated behind the Casa
del Ayuntamiento. They at once assured his fame; the unknown artist
became the most popular painter in opulent Seville. The only person who
failed to acknowledge his genius was Francisco Pacheco. Jealous for the
fame of Velazquez, and unable to forgive the lack of appreciation which
Seville had tended to his favourite, he makes no mention of Murillo or
his works, in his _Arte de la Pintura_; a curious omission only to be
accounted for by private enmity.
None of the Franciscan cycle of pictures are in Seville, and only two,
The Heavenly Violinist, and The Charity of St. Diego, are in Spain. They
were carried away by the French during the War of Independence.
The influence of the two years Murillo had spent in Madrid can readily
be traced in these early paintings. The outlines are distinct and in
some cases hard; while the tone of the shadows, and the treatment of the
lights follows the method of the realists, and affords little or no sign
of the melting indecision of outline, the manner so prevalent in his
later work. The pictures belonging to this period are said to be painted
in the _Estilo Frio_, or cold style. The best instance in Seville, is La
Anunciación de Nuestra Señora, in the Museo.
In his later work Murillo abandoned the influence of Ribera, Zurbaran,
Velazquez and the Spanish realists; he developed a manner more personal,
and more in harmony with the mystic trend of his emotions. His outlines
became softer, and his forms rounder, while his colour began to assume
tones of melting transparency. A Spaniard writing of his work at this
period remarks that his flesh tints seem to be painted '_con sangre y
leche_' (with blood and milk).
The first picture painted in this manner, which is known as the _Estilo
Calédo_ (warm style), is Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, executed for
the brotherhood of the True Cross, in 1655, for the sum of 2500 _reals_.
To this period belong the fine portraits of St. Leander and St. Isidore,
in the _Sacristía Mayor_, of the Cathedral; the Nativity, which formerly
hung behind the high altar, until it was carried away by Soult; and the
celebrated St. Anthony of Padua, receiving the infant Christ, still to
be seen in the _Cap del Bautistero_.
The portraits of St. Leander and St. Isidore are among the finest
instances of the powers of Murillo. All the accessories are painted with
the utmost care, and perhaps the only criticism which can be offered is
that the figures are rather short. These portraits must be classified
with Murillo's fine _genre_ studies--those charming representations of
gipsy life and beggar boys, by which he is largely known in this
country, but of which Seville unfortunately possesses not a single
example.
The Nativity of the Virgin was received by Seville with a burst of
enthusiasm. The St. Anthony was painted in 1565, the Chapter paying for
it the sum of 10,000 _reals_. The light in the dim chapel renders it
very obscure. A brown-frocked monk kneels at a table, and gazes at the
Heavenly Child, who descends towards him. Upon the table rests a vase of
lilies, and the story runs that they were so life-like that the birds,
flying around the Cathedral, used to come and peck at them, while
Murillo was engaged in painting them. The picture was restored, and
almost repainted in 1833, which has doubtless done much to destroy its
charm.
Shortly after this time Murillo adopted his third and last manner, known
as "el Vaporoso," in which the outlines are entirely lost, obliterated
in a misty effect of light and shade.
The first pictures painted in this method were executed for the Church
of Santa Maria la Blanca, to illustrate the legend of our Lady of the
Snow. They were carried away by the French and placed in the Louvre; but
were rescued, and are now in the Académia de Belles Artes, at Madrid.
The Virgin, appearing to the wife of a Roman senator, and telling her
where she will find the patch of snow upon which to erect a church to
her honour, is one of the loveliest of Murillo's conceptions.
The great cycle of pictures for the Hospital de la Caridad were painted
about this time, being completed between the years 1660 and 1674. Three
of the pictures stand in their original position, Moses striking the
Rock, The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, and the Charity of St. Juan
de Dios. The figure of the Prophet, in Moses striking the Rock, Sir W.
Stirling-Maxwell says, 'is one of impressive dignity.' Clad in pale
yellow robe and violet mantle, he occupies the central position in the
picture. Behind him stands Aaron, with mystic breastplate, and robe of
subdued white. Around the two prophets are grouped numerous figures,
men, women and children, all quenching their thirst with feverish
eagerness. This has given the picture its name of La Sed (the thirst).
The figures bear no resemblance to the men and women of Palestine, they
are ordinary Spanish peasants, such as Murillo would see in the streets
around him. This custom of introducing common types into his scriptural
compositions, Professor Carl Justi considers as one proof of
Murillo's genius. The personality of Christ, in the Miracle of the
Loaves and Fishes, lacks the force of the ancient prophet, and the work
as a whole is inferior to its companion picture. The Angel appearing to
St. Juan de Dios, as he sinks under the burden of a sick man, well
represents the later manner of Murillo. In colour this picture is good,
the tones are finer than in either of the other works. The five
remaining pictures, which completed this great series, were carried away
by Soult. The finest, St. Elizabeth of Hungary washing the Feet of
Beggars, is now at Madrid. The Return of the Prodigal is in the
collection of the Duke of Sutherland. Two others, The Healing of the
Paralytic, and Abraham with the Angels, are in England, while the last,
St. Peter released from Prison, is in St. Petersburg.
[Illustration: THE GUARDIAN ANGEL
_Murillo_]
The final work of importance undertaken by Murillo, was the execution of
a series of twenty pictures for the Capuchin Convent of the Franciscans.
The convent was destroyed in 1835, when its treasures were scattered.
The greater number of the pictures are now in the Museo; the immense
altar-piece of the Porciuncula is in Madrid; while the Angel de la
Guarda is in the _Sacristía de los Cálices_, having been presented to
the Cathedral, by the Franciscans, in 1814. There is great beauty in
this composition; which was founded upon the text, Matthew xviii. 10.
An angel, in a rich yellow robe and royal purple mantle, points with one
hand to heaven, while with the other she tenderly leads a lovely child.
It is painted with great lightness of touch; the diaphanous drapery of
the child's dress has a transparency of texture rarely seen in Spanish
pictures.
The life of Murillo was nearing its completion. He worked until its
very close; and devotion to the art he loved was the immediate cause of
his death. In 1678 he painted for the Hospital de los Venerables a very
fine Conception, which has since been lost; he also executed two
pictures for the Augustine Convent, now in the Museo. In 1681 he was
summoned to Cadiz to paint an altar-piece for the Capuchins of that
city. The work was nearly completed, when he fell from the scaffolding,
upon which he was standing in order to reach upper portions of the
picture. He received an internal injury, and returned to Seville to die,
on April 3, 1682.
The whole city sorrowed for his loss. His obsequies were conducted with
great magnificence. His bier was carried by four marquesses and four
knights. He was buried in the Church of Santa Cruz, beneath his
favourite picture, The Descent from the Cross, by Pedro Campaña. The
spot was marked by a simple marble slab, upon which was engraved,
according to his own desire, his name, the figure of a skeleton, and the
words '_Vive Meritorus_.'
The position Murillo occupies in the heart of Andalusia is almost
unprecedented. To this day a picture of great merit is in Seville termed
a 'Murillo.' What Cervantes was in literature Murillo was in art. Sir
David Wilkie justly remarks, in his comparison of Velazquez and Murillo,
'Velazquez by his high technical excellence is the delight of all
artists; Murillo, adapting the higher subjects of art to the commonest
understanding of the people, seems, of all painters, the most universal
favourite.'
Artist. Pictures. Where Situated.
Velazquez (?) Water Carrier. House of Murillo.
(1599-1660).
" A few doubtful Private Collections.
works.
THE PRINCIPAL WORKS OF MURILLO IN SEVILLE CATHEDRAL.
Artist. Pictures. Where Situated.
Murillo Angel de la Guarda. Sacristía de los
(1617-1682). Cálices.
" SS. Leander and Sacristía Mayor.
Isidore.
" Conception. Sala Capitular.
" St. Anthony of Cap del Bautisterio.
Padua.
" Moses striking the Hospital de la
Rock. Caridad.
" Miracle of the Ditto.
Loaves and Fishes.
" Charity of St. Juan Ditto.
de Dios.
" Seventeen works Museo.
from the Capuchin
Convent, and
other works.
Other Pictures in many of the Churches.
CHAPTER X
_The Pictures in the Museo_
'The office of art is to educate the perception of beauty.'
EMERSON.
In the south-western quarter of Seville, in the midst of a palm-shaded
_plaza_, stands the Museo Provincial, a picturesque structure, whose
history dates back to the thirteenth century. It was originally a
monastery, founded by the pious San Fernando, in the year 1249, for the
monks of the order of the Merced, whose duty it was to redeem the
Christian captives taken from the Infidel. Sumptuously rebuilt by Carlos
V., it was a religious house of great wealth during the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries.
Little of the former glory now remains. The convent was destroyed, and
the monks expelled in the year 1835. New uses were found for the ancient
edifice. The Roman and Visigothic relics were brought from Italica, and
stored within the quiet cloisters. Numerous pictures, rescued from the
convents and churches by the efforts of Dean Manuel López Cepero, were
hung upon the walls of the old convent church. The sole relic of the
banished order of the Merceds are the emblazoned arms of the
brotherhood, which may still be seen upon the rich and curiously-panelled
doors.
The majority of the pictures hang in the Salón de Murillo, the name now
given to the convent church. The collection cannot be taken as
representative of the genius of Seville. There are numerous examples of
the work of Murillo, more than half of the room is occupied by the
canvases of the Sevillian favourite. There are some fine instances of
the work of Zurbaran. The elder Herrera and Valdés Leal are also well
represented. But there are only two specimens of Luis de Vargas and Juan
de las Roelas, while the works of Velazquez, Alonso Cano, Nuñez, Campaña
and several other artists are entirely absent. The space which the
compositions of these masters might have occupied is filled with
comparatively worthless pictures, painted by the decadent artists, who
lived during the eighteenth century.
The pictures[D] are well lighted, in a tolerable state of preservation,
and are arranged with some method.
The compositions of Murillo immediately attract attention. There are
more than twenty in number, almost all of which are ranged in the nave
of the Salón. The seventeen pictures, painted for the Capuchin Convent,
are the most important. The finest is Santo Tomás de Villanueva
socorrierdo á los pobres[E] (rendering succour to the poor). Murillo
esteemed this picture above all his works, and was wont to call it _su
lienzo_ (his own picture). In literary conception the work has much
merit. It is executed in the misty, _vaporoso_ manner. The light is
skilfully handled and the figure of the saint is well realised. Robed in
black, and bearing a white mitre in his hand, he stands at the door of
his Cathedral, ministering to the needs of a beggar; whose feeble form,
clad in filthy rags, affords a fine contrast with the calm beauty of
the saint. Penurious men and women, waiting to be relieved, stand
grouped in the foreground. The little urchin, who exultingly exhibits
the _maravedis_ which have fallen to his share, is a typical Murillo
beggar-boy.
The two fine pictures of San Antonio with the infant Jesus are both
instances of Murillo's latest manner. A similar picture is the Virgin
revealing herself to San Félix de Cantalicio. The outlines in all three
pictures are obliterated, lost in a haze of misty vapour. The deposition
of the drapery in St. Leander and St. Buenaventura is admirable. The
picture of Santas Justas y Rufina, supporting the famous Giralda Tower,
to guard it from the ravages of the tempest, should be compared with the
picture of the same saints by Francisco Goya, in the _Sacristía de los
Cálices_, in the Cathedral. In the composition of Goya we have an
instance of a saintly subject treated in a realistic manner; Murillo
follows the accustomed mode and depicts the maidens as holy saints,
crowned with halos of glory.
The fable that the picture of La Virgen con el Niño Jesús was painted
upon a serviette has no foundation, as can readily be seen by examining
the panel upon which the study is painted. The story, which is very
widely credited, says that the cook at the Capuchin Convent, having
rendered Murillo some service, was asked by him what recompense he
desired. He at once craved a sketch from the hand of the great master.
Murillo, according to the fable, took the serviette which the cook was
carrying, and with a few rapid touches of his brush created the picture,
which is still noteworthy for the brilliancy of its tints.
[Illustration: THE CONCEPTION
_Murillo_]
One of the sweetest of Murillo's Madonnas may be seen in El Nacimiento
de Jesucristo (The Nativity). Cean Bermudez praises this picture very
highly, while Antonio Ponz, a later Spanish critic, says that the stream
of light which floods the picture is worthy of Correggio. There are four
Immaculate Conceptions. In one the Virgin is supposed to be a portrait
of the daughter of Murillo. Possibly the finest is the one termed 'la
Grande,' although the difference between the pictures is very slight.
At the farther end of the nave, close to the works of Murillo, is El
Martirio de San Andres, by Juan de las Roelas, a huge composition,
crowded with numberless figures. In spite of this defect the picture has
power. The expression of the faces is individual and life-like, and the
form of the martyr, bound to his double-cross, is well drawn. The chief
merit of the work rests in its colour, which is Venetian in many of its
tones. Very beautiful is the picture of Santa Ana teaching the Virgin to
read. The drawing, especially of the hands, is defective, but the flesh
tints are full of rich warmth, indeed, the colouring of the whole
picture can hardly be too highly praised.
Near to the Martyrdom of St. Andrew hang the Visión de San Basilio and
the Apotéosis of San Hermenegildo, two works of great size, by Herrera
el Viego. The latter is the finer composition as the canvas of the
Vision is overcrowded and the interest of the work is not sufficiently
centralised. San Hermenegildo is a noteworthy instance of the power of
Herrera, and exemplifies his vigorous individual style. The favoured
saint of Seville ascends to heaven in a flood of yellow glory, which
reveals the steel blue of his cuirass, and the rich crimson of his
flowing mantle. Two angels bear the axe and chain, the trophies of his
triumph; while all around cherubs hover, waiting to crown with flowers
the newly-martyred saint. Beneath are three figures--a fair-haired,
kneeling boy, the son of San Hermenegildo, St. Isidore, robed and
mitred, and King Leovigild, the Visigoth, who imprisoned and killed his
brother for his defection from the Arian faith.
Upon the same wall as the Santa Ana are the works of Juan de Valdés
Leal. They are of uneven merit, and traces of hurry and lack of careful
completion may be discerned in almost all of them. One of the most
interesting is, La Virgen, las tres Marías y San Juan, en busca (search)
de Jesús. The figures convey the idea of motion, while eager expectancy
finds expression in look and gesture. The series of pictures
illustrative of the life of San Jerónimo are also interesting,
notwithstanding the lack of harmony which mars several of the
compositions. Entirely distinct are, La Concepción, and La Asunción.
They are poor, both in drawing and colour; distinctly mannered, and
devoid of simplicity and deep religious feeling.
The works of Francisco de Zurbaran are collected in the old convent
choir. In the centre is, La Apotéosis de Santo Tomás de Aquino,
considered by some critics the masterpiece of Zurbaran. It is a triple
altar-piece, allegorically representing the death of the patron of the
College of St. Thomas. The saint is ascending to heaven to join the
blessed Trinity, the Virgin, St. Paul, and the hosts of glory. Below sit
the venerable figures of the Doctors of the Church; on the right kneels
the Bishop Diego de Dega, the founder of the college, while the Emperor,
Charles V., with a train of ecclesiastics, stands upon the left. The
dark, mild face of the figure immediately behind the Emperor is supposed
to be the portrait of Zurbaran. As a work of art the picture is
defective; it lacks charm, and the literary interest of the composition
is too diffused. The execution is excellent, the colour, though sombre,
is rich with a splendid mellowness of tone, while each of the heads
bears the imprint of being a separate study.
[Illustration: THE ROAD TO CALVARY
_Valdes Leal_]
The three studies of Carthusian monks amply manifest the charm which
this allegorical composition lacks. La Virgen de las Cuevas, and San
Hugo en el refectorio will be found on either side of the choir, while
the third of the series, Confrencia de San Bruno con Urban II. hangs
close to the St. Thomas. The genius of Zurbaran is disclosed in these
scenes of monastic life. All three pictures are executed with remarkable
fidelity, but the finest of the three is St. Hugo visiting the monks in
their refectory. It is painted with realistic and individual truth. The
monks, clad in the white robes of the Carthusians, sit around a table at
their mid-day repast. In the foreground stands the aged figure of St.
Hugo, attended by a young page. The saint has come to reprove the order
for unlawfully dining upon flesh meat. His purple vestments supply an
effect of fine colour, which contrasts with the dull white cowls and
frocks of the brothers. What cold, passionless faces! Zurbaran has
embodied the very spirit of asceticism. Each monk is a portrait,
probably drawn from life. It is a perfect realisation of a monastic
scene from the life of ancient Spain.
We can only touch briefly upon the remaining pictures of Zurbaran. They
are all worthy of study. Signs of weak drawing can often be detected,
but the effort after truthful expression, and the entire absence of a
desire to please by any special trick of manner will commend his work to
every student. Note the simple, yet powerful, sincerity of his
Crucifixion. Consider the manner in which he has depicted the boy Jesus
in the picture, El Niño Jesús. A boy clad in a simple gown of darkest
grey; no halo surrounds his head, and upon his knees rests a twisted
crown of thorns. One of the prickly spines has pierced the boy's
finger, and with the verity of life Zurbaran depicts him pressing the
finger to extract the thorn. The drawing of the figure is faulty and the
execution of the little sketch is not equal to many of the other
pictures, but the mode of treatment illustrates very convincingly the
sincerity of the artist's purpose. Many of the studies of monkish
figures are very fine. San Luis Beltrán is a work of wonderful power.
The careful painting of the hands, and the way in which every detail of
the picture is subordinated to the whole effect deserve high praise.
To turn from the works of Zurbaran to the pictures of Francisco Pacheco
and Juan de Castillo is somewhat difficult. The hard, flat, lifeless
portraits of the one, and the dull, faultily drawn, religious
composition of the other, offer little inducement to linger. Were it not
for the interest which attaches to these artists from the illustrious
fame of their pupils, their very names would hardly be remembered.
Equally disappointing are the majority of the remaining canvases, which
hang in the nave of the Museo. The modern pictures appear out of place.
The chief idea they convey is one of intense crudity of colour. Among
the numerous pupils and imitators of Murillo not one is worthy of
attention. The work of the pupils of Zurbaran reaches a somewhat higher
level. The pictures of the Apostles, by the brothers Miguel and
Francisco Polancos are good studies.
[Illustration: SAINT HUGO IN THE REFECTORY
_Zurbarán_]
In the nave are two pictures, both good and one of fine merit, executed
by artists not belonging to the Sevillian school. La Sagrada Cena (The
Last Supper), by Pablo de Céspedes, the artist of Córdoba, 1538-1608,
hangs upon the end wall of the nave, near to the Martyrdom of St.
Andrew. The colour is good, there is a slight confusion of detail, but
the picture is not without charm. The portrait of himself, by
Doménico Theotocópuli,[F] 1548-1625, better known as El Greco, the
genius of Toledo, will be found near the door. It is a magnificent study
and testifies to the power of the hand which executed it. Composition
and technique alike, are above praise. The portrait is life-like in its
reality; we grow to know the dark face of the artist, as he stands, with
his brush and palette in his hand.
Three other rooms, of small size, complete the Museo. The pictures they
contain are not of great importance, but there are a few interesting
canvases in the old sacristy, leading from the south transept of the
Salón. Among them are several compositions of the early fifteenth
century, classified as belonging to the _Escuela Flamenca_, by artists
whose names have not been preserved. The tones in many of these antique
pictures are wonderful, and they are all painted with a naïve
simplicity. The colour in the two compositions, El Señor Coronado de
espinas (thorns), and La Anunciación de Nuestra Señora is especially
good. The long lean figures and conventional grief depicted in El
enterramiento del Señor, strongly resemble the similar picture by
Sanchez de Castro, in the house of Murillo.
The works of Francisco Frutet will be found in this room. The finest, a
grand triptych, entitled, Jesús en el camino (road) del Calvario, is a
work of much beauty. The central picture of the Crucifixion is finely
conceived, and Sir W. Stirling-Maxwell thinks that several of the
figures bear a resemblance to the Spasimo de Sicilia of Raphael.
El Juicio Final, by Martin Vos, a Flemish painter, who worked in
Seville during the early years of the sixteenth century, is a
quaintly-conceived allegorical picture. This finest portion represents
the hosts of the wicked. The drawing of the figures is good, but the
canvas is much crowded.
_The Statuary in the Museo._
Before studying Spanish statuary, it is well to remember that this
branch of art never attained to the same level in the Peninsula as the
sister art of painting. The reason of this lack of development is not
difficult to appreciate, when we remember that statuary was executed,
almost without exception, for the religious uses of the Catholic Church.
The images were needed to increase the pious fervour of the populace;
they were carried in the religious processions, and often they were
credited with miracle-working powers. The one necessity for a Spanish
statue was that it should be an exact imitation of life. The more
realistic the illusion, the greater was the power of the statue to
conform to the requirements of the Church.
It will readily be seen that marble--the substance most fitting for the
artistic rendering of form, would not comply with these demands. Thus,
in Spain, the classic marble was discarded, while wood and plaster were
employed in its place. These substances could be readily coloured, or
even covered with a canvas, like a skin, and then painted to counterfeit
life. This barbaric custom--a relic of heathen days, did much to seal
the doom of the art of sculpture in Spain. In seeking to imitate life
the artists frequently rendered their statues grotesque. The ambition of
art is not to be a deceptive imitation of nature. The true purpose of
sculpture is to depict pure form; when it departs from this limitation
it loses its distinguishing motive, the representation of repose, and
becomes a degraded intermingling of the two arts of sculpture and
painting.
Yet, in spite of these limitations, there are several Spanish sculptors
whose works deserve praise, and two of the most famous lived and worked
in Seville.
Pietro Torriggiano, of Florence, a roving soldier-sculptor, came to
Spain, in the year 1520. He had journeyed in many lands, and to his
skill we owe the fine tomb of Henry VII., in Westminster Abbey. He
settled in Seville, and soon completed his great work, San Jerónimo
penitente, now in the north transept of the Museo.
It is impossible to rightly estimate the value of this work in its
present position. The bright colours of the modern picture, which forms
its background, are entirely unharmonious. The penitent saint, with his
sinewy, attenuated form, frowning brow and shaggy locks, needs to be
seen alone. Its original home was a lonely grotto in the gardens of the
Jeronimite Convent; and in such a place of quiet solitude we must
picture it, before we can appraise its worth. Cean Bermudez twice
visited it in company with Francisco Goya. It excited their unbounded
admiration, and Goya pronounced it 'the finest piece of work of modern
sculpture in Spain, and perhaps in the world.' Torriggiano fell under
the ban of the Inquisition, and died in the prison of the Holy Office.
Facing the San Jerónimo, in the south transept, rests the Santo Domingo,
of Martinez Montañes, the most eminent sculptor of Seville, if not of
the whole of Spain. The date of his birth is not recorded, but we know
he was working in Seville in the year 1607; he died in 1649. Like its
companion work of art the Santo Domingo suffers from its situation. Such
works are utterly unsuited to the crowded gallery; they need the silent
cloister, or quiet corner in some convent church. The saint kneels and
scourges himself. The figure is of wood and of great dignity. The
colouring is subdued, so as not to interfere with the fineness of the
conception. The statue is a powerful study of asceticism.
Finer than the Santo Domingo is the Crucifixion, by Montañes, in the
_Sacristía de los Cálices_, in the Cathedral. It is unrivalled among the
statues of Spain. The anatomy is excellent, the sufferings of the Christ
are portrayed with powerful reality.
[Illustration: THE CRUCIFIXION
_Montañes_]
CHAPTER XI
_The Churches of the City_
'The different provinces of Spain differ from each other in their
architecture, as in their history; some of the buildings are purely
Moorish, others have a mixture of that style....' J. H. Parker,
_The Study of Gothic Architecture_.
In order to appreciate the Andalusian character, it is essential that
one should take into account the vast sway exerted by the Church in
Spain. Devotion to piety has ever been one of the cardinal traits of the
true Spaniard, and uncompromising faith in prelatical absolutism is
considered one of the first virtues. In the long crusade against Saracen
infidels, Arians, Jews, Protestants and apostates, men of high birth and
wealth abandoned a life of ease to fight under the standard of Rome. To
serve one's country as a priest or a soldier was the chief duty of the
Christian.
The wars of the country were fought to preserve the traditional faith.
As early as the seventeenth century, the clergy possessed more power in
Spain than in any other European country; and the sovereigns were
pledged to protect the faith. The bishops were the king-makers, the
predominant rulers of the nation. During the forty years' reign of
Carlos V., the main object of the State was to suppress heresy, and this
had been the ambition of all the rulers since Fernando the Saint.
In the seventeenth century, the Church secured even greater power in
temporal affairs; but this power began to wane when Florida Blanca, the
new Minister, made a determined effort to lessen the dominance of the
Church, in 1780. For diplomatic reasons, Blanca signed treaties with
Turkey, Tripoli, Algiers and Tunis, thus exhibiting amity towards the
very infidels, 'whom, in the opinion of the Spanish Church, it was the
first duty of a Christian government to make war upon, and, if possible,
to extirpate' (Buckle). The expulsion of the Jesuits was a part of the
same policy. And now, for the first time for centuries, the secular
authority gained supremacy over the spiritual class.
The cathedrals and churches of Spain remain as instructive monuments of
the powerful religious fervour of the Middle Ages. They were built by
men of profound faith, by devotees who were ready to die for their
creeds. Those who endowed the buildings gave ungrudgingly; rich and poor
were liberal in contributing the means, and clerics sometimes yielded
half of their stipends to assist in the cost of beautifying the
venerated piles. One and all, those who subsidised the labour, the
architects, masons, artists and carvers, were inspired by a deep faith.
Such was the enthusiasm that produced the rich designs of rose windows
like that of San Pedro in Avila, the doors of Toledo Cathedral, the
marvellous architecture of Burgos Cathedral, and that of León and many
other sacred buildings in the Peninsula. When surveying with delight
these examples of æsthetic inspiration, we must remember that the
artists worked not only to charm men, but to show reverence to their
God. Every curve, tracery and adornment was conceived in a spirit of
pious homage and of religious duty.
It is only when faith is enfeebled that we may observe the touch of
indifference in the hand of the ecclesiastical builder and artist. There
is nothing 'cheap,' nothing hasty, nothing paltry in the scheme and
construction of the temples dedicated by mediæval believers to the
worship of God and the Holy Virgin Mother. We may have outgrown the
taste in certain forms of decoration, but the work will not strike us as
ill-considered and commonplace. It stands as a testimony to the
influence of faith and devotion upon the imagination and the artistic
spirit.
If the modern churches of Spain disappoint us, we must remember that in
these days men have, to a marked extent, lost that tenacity of belief,
which once urged them to expend a great share of their wealth upon the
founding of splendid houses of worship. 'The temples made by hands' are
to-day less beautiful than those of the age when creed ranked before
country, and was the absorbing subject and the profoundest conviction of
the Spanish mind.
But the ancient cathedrals and churches endure as solemn memorials.
Atmospheric influences do not cause crumbling and speedy decay in this
land of dry winds and sunshine. The edifices were built to stand, and
they have stood well the wear and tear of the centuries.
Most of the Seville churches exhibit the art itself, or at least the
artistic influence, of the Moorish designer. The reconciled and
converted Morisco had to live among his conquerors. Why should he not
set his hand to the building of their temples? The Christians were
pleased to borrow from his designs, to imitate his half-orange cupolas,
his graceful arches, his glazed tiles, ribbon decorations and _ajimez_
windows. Why should he refuse to design churches, and erect and adorn
them, for the good pay that the Christians offered? The _Mudéjares_, or
'reconciled' Moors, became, therefore, the chief and most
lavishly-remunerated artisans of Seville. In building the churches and
mansions of the city, they no doubt experienced a compensation for
their subjection in the thought that they were permitted to labour with
a free hand, and to design and embellish sacred or secular buildings
after the manner of their own nation. They had no faith to inspire them;
the religion foisted upon them was repugnant to their consciences and
minds. But they possessed a potent stimulus to good execution--the love
of art for art's sake. This was their inspiration, and we may see its
effect in many details of ecclesiastic architecture in the Sevillian
churches.
[Illustration: Minaret of San Marcos.]
_San Marcos._--This church is of exceptional interest on account of its
tower, a fine example of Morisco architecture, and its beautiful
_Mudéjar_ portal. The tower is in the minaret form, and was no doubt
built in imitation of the Giralda, which it resembles in miniature. It
is seventy-five feet in height, and ten feet wide, the loftiest tower in
the city, except, of course, the stupendous Giralda, which is reared
over all other edifices. The church is of Gothic design, and dates from
1478, though the much older tower and the chief portal are Arabian. The
interior is not of much importance. It is said that the love-sick
Miguel Cervantes used to ascend the tower of San Marcos to gaze around
for one Isabel, a Sevillian beauty, who had entranced him. The church of
San Marcos is approached from the Feria by the Calle de Castellar.
_The Church of the Convent of Santa Paula_ is behind San Marcos, and
within a few steps of that church. The _azulejos_ covering the walls are
fine examples of sixteenth-century workmanship from the potteries of
Triana. The reliefs of saints on the Gothic portal of the nunnery are
from the design of Pedro Millan, a famous sculptor, and are the work of
Niculoso of Pisa. From the convent we may retrace our steps to San
Marcos, turn to the right, and follow the Calle San Luis to
_Santa Marina._ The handsome Gothic portal of this church has some
notable sculptures. It is said that the tower and the chapels are the
remains of a mosque.
_San Gil_ is on the left-hand side of San Luis, close to the Church of
Santa Marina. It was originally a Moorish _mezquita_. The doorways are
Gothic. The effigies of the Saviour and the Virgin within the church are
attributed to Roldan, one of the pupils of Montañez.
_Omnium Sanctorum_ is in the Plaza de la Feria. This church stands on
the former site of a Roman temple, and it was built by Pedro the Cruel
in 1356. It exhibits a mingling of Gothic and _Mudéjar_ architecture.
There are three naves and three doors. On the tower are some noteworthy
frescoes. Francisco de Rioja, the poet, lived in this parish.
_Santa Catalina_ is situated in the _calle_ of that name. This church
was also built on the ground once occupied by a Roman fane, and
afterwards by a Mohommedan mosque. The façade is another instance of the
survival of Moorish art, while the principal chapel is Gothic. Within
are three remarkable paintings by Pedro de Campaña, a Flemish artist,
who is claimed as one of the Sevillian school. These masterpieces of
early Andalusian art are described in the chapter on the painters of
Seville.
The inspection of these churches would fill a long day. But there are
several more fine _parroquias_ to be visited, for it must be remembered
that the churches are the art museums of Spain, and no one can gain
knowledge of the development of architecture, sculpture and painting in
the country without spending a considerable portion of one's time in the
dim, perfumed naves and chapels. The stranger will be impressed by the
garish decoration of the interiors of many of the churches of Seville.
Gilt is spread lavishly, and the effect is often tawdry. Some of the
images are poor, especially in the modern churches, and one's taste is
often shocked by their incongruity. The figures of the Virgin often lack
dignity and beauty. But, as Mr. Henry James points out in his sketch
'From Normandy to the Pyrenees,' in _Portraits of Places_, those images
of the Holy Mother are 'the sentiment of Spanish Catholicism' of modern
times. They are, therefore, instructive from that point of view.
But from a devotional, as well as an æsthetic, standpoint, one is
disposed to ask whether the sacred idols would not gain in nobility,
pathos and stateliness if the Virgin were represented in the realistic
garb of a Jewish woman of the people, instead of in modern dress, with
trappings of lace and jewellery. It is with no disrespect towards
Catholic prejudices in this matter that one expresses this view. The
mediæval conception of the Madonna in painting appeals to the
imagination, because in the works of the great masters there is beauty,
simplicity and convincingness.
In the northern district of the city, beyond the Convento de Santa
Paula, we may, in a few minutes, reach--
_Santa Lucia._--This church is now used for profane purposes; but its
splendid Gothic portal remains. The Morisco tower is also notable.
_San Roque_ is in the Barrio de San Roque, not far from Santa Lucia. The
church was destroyed by fire in 1759, and rebuilt in 1769. It is not of
great interest, though the arches of the naves are graceful, and the
small tower is worthy of note. In times of flood, the Guadalquivir
inundates this suburb, and the water flows into the church.
_San Bartolomé_ may be reached from the last-mentioned church by the
Recared ó Industria and the Calle Tinte. The church was built on the
site of a Jewish synagogue, after the expulsion of the Jews by the
Catholic Kings of Spain. The _retablo_ and the sculpture of our Lady of
Joy is antique and interesting.
_Santa Maria de las Nieves, or la Blanca_, is close to San Bartolomé.
Until the year 1391 this church was a synagogue. It has three small
naves, marble columns, and plateresque ornamentation. The two doors are
Gothic. There is a painting attributed to Murillo, and one of our Lady
of the Augustias, with the dead Christ in her arms, by Luis de Vargas,
the famous fresco painter.
_San Salvador_ is in the centre of the city, behind the Audencia, and
may be reached from Sierpes by the Calle de Gallegos. This church is not
of much importance from its age; but it contains effigies by Montañez,
the most celebrated being the figure of San Cristobal.
_San Isidoro_ is built upon the ground where a fine mosque once stood.
It is stated that St. Isidore was born upon this spot or close to the
church. Juan de las Roelas painted the Translation of San Isidoro for
the principal altar. There are also pictures by Murillo, Valdés, and
Tortolero, and a statue of Santa Catalina by Roldan the Elder.
_San Julian_ should be visited for an inspection of the large painting
of San Cristobal, the work of Juan Sanchez de Castro. The painting of
St. Christopher has been retouched. It was executed in 1484, and the
work is of great interest as an example of the art of the earliest
Sevillian painter.
I have now mentioned thirteen churches. There are more to visit.
_San Bernardo_ is in the suburb of that name. It is built on the spot
where a hermitage stood until 1593. The church has three wide naves. It
should be visited for an inspection of the pictures. In the left nave is
a painting of the Last Judgment, the work of Herrera the Elder.
The _Cena de Jesus_ is by Francisco de Varela. It was executed in 1622,
and is regarded as one of the finest works of that painter. The statues
of St. Michael, the Faith, St. Augustine and St. Thomas are the work of
Luisa Roldan. The organ of this church is one of the best in Seville.
[Illustration: Puerta de Santa Maria]
_The Convent Church of La Trinidad._ The associations of the church are
of considerable interest. In the time of the Roman rule in Seville, the
palace, ecclesiastical court, and dungeons of a governor were built upon
this ground. The church is dedicated to the saints of Seville, Justa and
Rufina, the guardians of the Giralda. When the Romans conquered the
Spaniards, they sought to convert the subject-people to the Pagan
religion. Among the potters of Trajan's town, now known as the suburb
of Triana, were two girls, both of great beauty, named Justa and Rufina.
The maidens were renowned for their Christian piety. They refused to
worship the Roman gods, and in their zeal they became iconoclasts. Their
image-breaking brought them beneath the tribunal; they were sentenced to
extreme punishment. The wretched victims were scourged, and forced to
walk barefooted on the bleak mountains of the Sierra Morena. But this
persecution failed to shatter their fervent devotion to Christianity.
They continued to protest against the religion of the Romans. Justa was
imprisoned and slowly starved to death, while Rufina was cast to the
lions in the arena.
The portraits of the youthful saints have been painted by several of the
Sevillian artists. Murillo's SS. Justa and Rufina is in the picture
gallery at Seville. The treatment is conventional. The saints are
holding a model of the Giralda in their hands, and the martyrs' palms.
At their feet are broken crockery, showing the nature of their calling.
To the left are the ruins of a building. The figures of the maidens are
large, and halos surround their heads.
In the same gallery are two pictures of the Sevillian saints by an
unknown artist. One is a portrait of Santa Justa. The saint is holding a
white vase and the martyr's palm in her hands. Santa Rufina, in the
other painting, is bearing a plate and a palm branch. The Santa Justa is
the more notable of these works. The conception is beautiful and the
colouring subdued.
H. Sturmio's painting of Justa and Rufina is in the Cathedral, and so is
that of the celebrated Luis de Vargas. From the artistic standpoint, the
picture of the two saints by Francisco Goya is the finest of all. It is
to be seen in the _Sacristía de los Cálices_ in the Cathedral.
In the crypt of the Convent Church of La Trinidad is shown a rock, to
which the saints were bound when scourged by their persecutors. There is
a poor shrine in a dim cellar; and the sacristan shows a long, dark
passage, full of water, which is said to be a part of the Roman prison,
where heretics were confined and starved to death. The story of the
saints of Triana is legendary; but it is no doubt credited as actual
history among the devout of the city.
It is recorded that the martyrs incurred death for breaking a statue of
Venus. Tradition is hazy concerning the place of their burial. In one
account we learn that SS. Justa and Rufina were laid to rest in Burgos.
Another historian assures us that they were buried in Seville, while a
third story relates that their bones are in the mountainous Asturias, in
the North of Spain.
A big book might be written on the churches of Seville alone. There are
so many of those edifices, and few of them are devoid of interest to the
antiquarian, art lover, and student of ecclesiastical history. The
amalgamated Moorish and Renaissance elements in the Seville churches
lend a charm to the architecture and the adornments. This strange
combination of styles is only to be found in the Christian churches of
Spain. Almost everywhere we are confronted in Andalusia with this
seeming incongruity, the employment of designs for religious edifices
from the hand of the despised and detested _Mudéjar_. The phenomenon is
strange and instructive. The zealous Catholic kings, sworn to the
extirpation of the Moslems, allowed the Moors to build their churches in
the style of temples devoted to Allah.
The same monarchs who ordered the destruction of the beautiful Moorish
baths in Córdova and Seville were willing that Mohammedan genius should
have full play in the design, construction and decoration of Christian
temples.
But, after all, was it not a question of necessity? When a nation has
only two honourable professions, the military and the clerical, where is
the scope for a development of skill in the industrial arts? The
Moriscoes were martial, but they never neglected the peaceful
occupations. Sadly had Spain to learn that the neglect of culture and
the arts was the cause of her decline. Germans, Italians and Moors were
employed in the erection and adornment of ecclesiastic and civil
buildings. The Teutons Johann, and his son Simon, of Cologne, were the
chief architects of Burgos; and it is probable that German designers and
masons performed a large share in the building of Seville Cathedral. At
Burgos, Toledo and León we may note the influence of French architects.
The interiors of the churches of Seville are so dark that it is often
difficult to see the pictures clearly. Even on the brightest days the
sunshine penetrates imperfectly through the stained windows, and in some
cases the works of art are in the gloomiest chapel or recess of the
building. The sacristans are usually to be found in or near the
churches, and they are mostly courteous to the visitor, and anxious to
point out the most important paintings, statues and relics. But in their
desire to please, they sometimes ascribe the pictures to the wrong
artist. A daub by an unknown artist becomes a work of Zurbaran, if the
stranger appears to be greatly interested in that painter.
Several spurious Murillos were shown to me. Now and then, the sacristan
knows very little about the art treasures of his church. When you ask
who painted a picture or carved an image, the attendant shrugs his
shoulders, and murmurs _No se_ (Don't know). The boys who volunteer as
guides are of no service to the visitor. In the chapter of information I
have given the name of a reliable guide.
CHAPTER XII
_Some Other Buildings_
'Fair is proud Seville; let her country boast
Her strength, her wealth, her site of ancient days.'
_Childe Harold_, Stanza lxv.
The _palacios_ and fine _casas_ of Seville are numerous. Some of them
retain a distinctly _Mudéjar_ design in their architecture, and all of
them possess an Oriental atmosphere or tone. One may spend many hours in
visiting the courts of the big houses of the city. As a rule, the porter
has instructions to admit strangers into the courts, but very rarely
within the houses. But from the courts one may gain very considerable
knowledge of the progress of architectural style in the dwelling-houses
of the South of Spain, where, above all, we may trace the influence and
art of the Morisco designer and craftsman.
We will first visit the Casa de los Taveras, in the Calle Bustos Tavera.
The house is principally celebrated as the scene of the tribunal of the
Inquisition from 1626 to 1639. In the corridors is a collection of
family portraits.
Finer, from the point of view of architecture and adornment, is the Casa
de los Marqueses de Torre Blanca, in the Calle de Santiago, number
thirty-seven. It has a very beautiful _patio_, and a splendid marble
staircase. These two houses are mentioned as well worth seeing in the
little book _Sevilla Histórica_.
Roaming in the Calle O'Donnell, I peeped into the court of number
twenty-four. The fine _patio_ is surrounded with the heads of bulls
killed in the arena. Number seventeen in the Calle Alfonso XII. is
another handsome _casa_, with a typical court. Visitors may discover
many sumptuous houses in this quarter of the city. The Casa Alba once
had eleven courts and nine fountains. It is decidedly Moorish in build,
with Renaissance details in the stucco-work. This beautiful palace, in
the Calle de Dueñas, was at one time owned by the Ribera family (the
Dukes of Acalá). It was begun about 1483. The Casa Alba is larger than
the Casa Pilatos, described in the literary chapter of this book.
Mr. Digby Wyatt says of the Casa Alba, in his _Architect's Note Book in
Spain_, that this is one of the rare instances of Renaissance
ornamentations executed by Moorish workmen. 'For these, no doubt, they
were furnished with drawings or models, since in no 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 _Mudéjar_ work, and partly to the old types of geometrical
enrichment, which may be regarded as specifically their own. Much of
this is almost reduced to a flat surface by repeated coats of
whitewash.'
The Casa de los Abades is 'more Italian in its plateresque than is usual
in other houses in Seville,' says Mr. Digby Wyatt. The mansion was built
early in the fifteenth century, and was modified and embellished by the
Pinedos, a Genoese family, in 1533. Mr. Wyatt tells us that: '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.' After the Pinedo family, the _casa_ came into the hands
of the Abades, members of the Cathedral staff.
[Illustration: Patio del Casa Murillo]
A _Mudéjar_ window in the Fonda de Madrid has been sketched by Mr. Digby
Wyatt in the afore-mentioned book. This is an _ajimez_ window, 'through
which the sun shines.' It is of brickwork and was 'once covered
apparently in Moorish fashion with thin plaster, excepting the column
which is of white marble.'
We may now visit the Palacio Arzobiscopal, the Archbishop's Palace, in
the Plaza de la Giralda. The doors are in the plateresque style. You may
enter the courtyard, and ascend the marble staircase, which is one of
the most beautiful in the city. The _Salón_ contains some pictures that
were formerly in the Cathedral. Among them are three paintings by Alejo
Fernandez, an artist of the early Sevillian school, representing the
Conception, Birth, and Purification of the Virgin. There are also
pictures by J. Herrera and Juan Zamora.
It is a few steps across the _plaza_ to the Casa Lonja. This Renaissance
edifice was erected in 1583. The Academy of Painters formerly held their
councils in the Lonja. It is now a library, and a repository of archives
relating to the Indies. The _patio_ is fine, paved with marble, and
surrounded by a double arcade. On the fountain is a statue of Columbus.
A marble staircase, constructed in the time of Charles III., conducts
the visitor to Achivo General de Indias.
From the Casa Lonja pass down the Calle Santa Tomás to the Hospital de
la Caridad. This institution has a church, built by Miguel de Mañara. In
the _Annales de Sevilla_, the author, Ortiz de Zuñiga, says that the
record of the Brotherhood of the Holy Charity dates back to 1578, and
that the institution had probably existed then for a century. The object
of La Santa Caridad was to provide Christian burial for evildoers and
offenders against the law of Spain. La Caridad is, however, associated
with Don Miguel de Mañara Vicentelo de Leca, Knight of Calatrava, a Don
Juan of Seville, who abandoned his profligate life, and became a devout
pietist. In his youth, Mañara was a renowned duellist, a boon companion,
and a gambler. He was generous to his friends in a spendthrift fashion,
and he was cultured enough to expend large sums of his wealth upon the
fine arts. Murillo was under his patronage and enjoyed his friendship.
Don Miguel de Mañara was born in the year 1626, and is supposed to have
married the _señorita_ of the House of Mendoza. There are several
stories of the young rake's career in Seville, and of his resolve to
dedicate his riches to the service of the Church and to the poor of the
city of his birth. One day a gift of some choice hams was sent to
Mañara. In compliance with the regulations, the hams were detained by
the customs' officers until the dues upon them were paid. The Don was
extremely angered at the detention of the hams. He went out, in a
furious passion, to upbraid the officials for the delay. As he paced
fuming through the streets, 'the Lord poured a great weight upon his
mind,' and Mañara was suddenly convicted of the sinfulness and folly of
his life. Such is one account of Don Miguel's 'conversion.' Another
annalist informs us that Mañara, while stumbling homewards after a night
of carousal, saw a funeral procession approaching him. The priests and
the usual torch-bearers accompanied the bier. Stepping up to the
bearers, the young man said: 'Whose body is that which you are
carrying?' The reply was startling: 'The body of Don Miguel de Mañara.'
The prodigal reeled away, filled with horror; for he had looked upon the
corpse, and seen his own features. Upon the next morning Mañara was
found insensible in a church. It was the turning-point in his life. He
became an ascetic and devotee. Because he liked chocolate, he refrained
even from tasting that innocent beverage. He was seen no more among the
dissolute of Seville, and his money went to the building and decoration
of the Hospital and Church of the Holy Charity. In his treatise
_Discurso de la Verdad_ (Discourse upon Truth) Don Miguel Mañara tells
us of the hollowness of existence apart from holiness. He reflects often
upon the solemnity of death, and the necessity for practising virtue and
charity. His repute as an almsgiver of discretion was so great that one
Don Gomez de Castro gave him an estate worth 500,000 ducats for
charitable disbursement.
In the Sala del Cabildo of La Caridad, you may see a portrait of the
pious founder, painted by Juan de la Valdés. Mañara has a sad, thin
face. He is seated at a table covered with black velvet and gold, and he
appears to be reading aloud. A charity lad is seated on a stool, with a
book on his knees. Mañara's Toledan sword is exhibited in a case. He
died in 1679, and bequeathed his fortune to the hospital, except some
legacies to servants. To his confessor the Don presented his ivory
Christ. His sister received a picture, which was upon his bedstead,
representing the Saviour on the Cross. The work was said to be from the
brush of Murillo.
The founder was interred in the vault of the hospital church. There is a
legend that, two months after burial, the corpse was found without any
trace of decay. It is also related that by the touch of some documents
which had belonged to Mañara, a knight of the Order of Santiago was
cured of a headache.
In Mr. C. A. Stoddard's account of La Caridad, in _Spanish Cities_, the
name of the founder is given wrongly as Mañana. Mr. Stoddard writes that
Don Miguel desired to be buried at the church door, with the epitaph
upon his tomb: 'Here lies the worst man in the world.' Mañara was,
however, buried in a vault of the church, and in the inscription upon
the stone he was lauded as 'the best of men.'
For viewing Murillo's pictures in the Hospital Church of La Caridad, it
is best to seek admission in the afternoon. The Charity Hospital is
built in the Greco-Romano style from designs by Bernard Simon de Pineda,
or Pereda. Visitors should examine the five large _azulejos_ of the
exterior, said to have been designed by Murillo, the friend of the
founder. The centre is Charity, a woman with a child in each arm and a
boy at her side. Other designs represent Santiago slaying Moors, and San
Jorge spearing the dragon.
Sir Stirling-Maxwell speaks of the Church of La Caridad as 'one of the
most elegant in Seville.' The aisle widens beneath a lofty and ornate
dome. One of the chief objects of interest is the famous retablo; but
the church is mostly visited by admirers of Murillo. The eleven works of
the master, which once adorned the building, were painted in four years.
Soult carried away five of the paintings. Four of them were sold by the
French marshal, and one was presented to the Louvre. Mr. Stoddard
praises Moses and the Rock as one of the finest pictures of Murillo.
There are three groups in the scene. Water gushes from a dark rock in
the centre of the picture, and Moses, with hands folded, offers thanks
for the miracle. Behind is Aaron, in an attitude of worship. The
Israelites press forward to quench their thirst. _Le Sed_ (The Thirst)
has been reproduced by engraving, and is well known.
The other pictures by Murillo are the Infant Saviour, the Annunciation,
and the San Juan de Dios. In the last painting the saint, assisted by an
angel, is bearing a sick man to the hospital. Christ feeding the Five
Thousand (_Pan y Peces_) and the Young John the Baptist are large
pictures, showing Murillo's broad method.
The curious paintings by Juan Valdés Leal are described in the chapter
on 'The Artists of Seville.' They are at the west end of the church.
The court through which one enters the hospital is very handsome, and a
good example of the Sevillian _patio_. A Sister of Charity conducts the
visitor to the wards and to the council room of the institution. The
sick and the convalescent recline upon their beds, and there is a hush
in the long chambers. The patients are all men. They appear to be well
cared for, and the wards are clean and sunny.
In the Plazo de Alfaro, number seven, is the house where tradition
states that Murillo lived. From the Plaza de Giralda follow the Calle de
Barceguineria, and take the second street on the right hand side,
passing the Church of Santa Teresa. Turn to the right at the end of the
Calle de Santa Teresa. Murillo's house is in a corner of the Plaza de
Alfaro. It is now occupied by the Señores López Cepero, two cultured and
courteous brothers, the nephews of a greatly respected dean of the
Cathedral, who in his day collected a number of fine pictures, and did
much to encourage artists in the city.
Don Juan Maria López Cepero speaks English well. I paid three visits to
the historic _casa_ that he inhabits, and he told me that his house was
open to all lovers of art who desire to see his collection of pictures.
In the chapter on Sevillian artists will be found descriptions of some
of the oil paintings in the Casa Murillo.
Don J. López Cepero showed me his beautiful garden, with its Moorish
bath, frescoed walls, rose trees and carnations. The _patio_ is planted
with palms, and on the walls are pictures. The mural paintings in the
garden have been attributed to Luis de Vargas; but they are
unfortunately almost obliterated. At the end of a long salon, covered
with pictures, is the room wherein Murillo is said to have died on April
3, 1682.
I am indebted to Don López Cepero for the opportunity of seeing his
valuable pictures, for the information which he gave me concerning books
upon Seville by Spanish authors, and for the permission granted to my
collaborator to reproduce some of the paintings in photography. His
services to me were most valuable, and I now repeat my thanks for his
assistance.
The University, founded by Alfonso the Learned, is in the Calle de la
Universidad. In the rooms are portraits of St. Francis of Borja and of
Ignatius Loyola by Alonso Cano, and a picture of a saint by Zurbaran.
The University Church has a notable retablo by Roelas; an Annunciation
by Pacheco, and statues of St. Francis of Borja and of Loyola by
Montañez. There is a monument to Enriquez de Ribera, and one to his wife
Catalina in the nave. The Don was the first owner of the Casa Pilatos,
and a benefactor of the city. It was he who founded the excellent
Hospital Civil, in 1500, in the Calle de Santiago. The building was
reconstructed near the Puerta de la Macarena in 1559.
The Hospital Civil is best reached by the tramway from the Plaza de la
Constitución. It is surrounded by gardens, and has a charming _patio_.
In the church of the hospital there are pictures of saints by Zurbaran,
and the Apotheosis of St. Ermenigild and Descent of the Holy Ghost by
Roelas.
The most handsome of the Renaissance buildings in Seville is that of the
Casa de Ayuntamiento, or City Hall, in the Plaza de la Constitución. It
was designed by Riaño in 1526. The ornate carved doors, and the
plateresque ornamentations of the masonry are highly decorative, and the
marble floors and vaulted ceiling within should be seen. In the
Municipal Library of the Ayuntamiento is the banner of the city, of the
fifteenth century, bearing a figure of San Fernando.
We have not yet visited the Biblioteca Columbina, given to the city by
Fernando, son of Christopher Columbus. It is in the Cathedral precincts,
and can be entered from the Patio de los Naranjos (the Court of the
Oranges). The beautiful illuminated Bible of Alfonso the Learned, by
Pedro de Pampeluna, used to be shown here, but it has, I believe, been
removed by the Chapter. The Columbus manuscripts are here, in glass
cases. There is a copy of the _Tractatus de Imagine Mundi_, with notes
by Columbus, and the famous treatise attempting to prove Scriptural
prophecies concerning the discovery of the New World. A sword here
exhibited is said to be that of Perez de Vargas, used by him in the
capture of Seville. I have referred to the manuscripts of Christopher
Columbus in the historical portion of this book.
Close to the Fabrica de Tabacos is the Palace of San Telmo, the former
residence of the Dukes de Montpensier. The building dates from 1734, and
it was first used as a naval school. It passed into the hands of the
Infanta Maria Luisa, widow of the Duke of Montpensier. The _palacio_ has
been shorn of its splendour by the removal of most of its works of art.
It is of little interest; but the garden is a beautiful shady retreat,
with semi-tropical plants and trees.
There are but few statues in the streets of the city. Velazquez has been
honoured by a bronze figure, which stands in the Plaza del Duque de la
Victoria. It was cast by Susillo in 1892. The monument to Murillo, in
the Plaza del Museo, is also of bronze. It is the work of Sabino
Medinia, and the cast was made in Paris in 1864.
Number eleven in the Plaza del Duque de la Victoria is now a large
drapery store. It was formerly the splendid palace of the Marquis de
Palomares. It is a fine example of a Seville residence.
As we wander from church to palace and alcázar of this ancient and
beautiful capital, we are often reminded of the words of Cervantes in
_The Two Maiden Ladies_: 'Seville is a city of Spain, of which you
cannot fail to have heard frequent mention, considered, as it is, to be
one of the wonders of the world.'
[Illustration: Amphora]
CHAPTER XIII
_Seville of To-day_
'To have seen real doñas with comb and mantle, real caballeros with
cloak and cigar, real Spanish barbers lathering out of brass
basins, and to have heard guitars upon the balconies.'--THACKERAY,
_Cornhill to Cairo_.
'Many monuments, fine religious processions, splendid bull fights, and
not much business,' was the pithy description of modern Seville given to
me by an intelligent Basque _señora_, living in the Province of
Santander. The picture is a good one. As to the monuments, we have seen
that the city abounds with them. But it is not only the historic
buildings, associated with the Romans, Goths, Berbers and Almohades,
that lend the fascination of antiquity to Seville. The Andalusian
features, the manners, the speech, the domestic habits, the music, songs
and dances of the people remind us hourly, while in the city, of the
Seville of a thousand years ago.
A spell of Orientalism, strange and seductive, comes upon the stranger,
as he sits on the marble benches under the palms in the Plaza de San
Fernando, watching the olive-skinned _chicos_ at their evening pastime
of mimic bull-fighting, or dancing, with quaint, slow movement of the
feet and much swaying of the body, to a semi-barbaric accompaniment of
clapping hands and a low chanting. The gaunt mules, with their Arabesque
wool trappings and panniers, that pass slowly by, the water-sellers in
their white garments and hemp-soled shoes, and the women with their
black lace _mantillas_, which must surely be a survival of the
Mohammedan veil, all serve to impress one with their suggestion of
Moorish influence.
Electric lights and electric tramcars scarcely mar the charming
illusions of the Oriental and the mediæval in the Seville of to-day. The
tokens of modernity are subservient; they do not jar continually as in
Madrid, perhaps the most commonplace of Spanish cities. In Seville you
cannot forget the Moriscoes, and the part they played in the making of
the city, the memories of Christopher Columbus, the art of Velazquez and
Murillo, the romances of Cervantes, and the traditions of the Mother
Church of Christendom. Every step causes reflection upon the past. You
are carried back to the Middle Ages from the ringing of matin bells till
the midnight cry of the watchman.
The costume of the Sevillian _caballero_--and remember that every man in
Spain is a cavalier--has suffered, no doubt, in picturesqueness since
the time of Don Quixote. But there is a real grace and a romantic charm
in the winter _capa_, flung upon the shoulders, with one of its
plenteous folds muffling the mouth, and another thrown back to show the
gorgeous lining of amber, green, or crimson. One looks for the point of
a scabbard, containing a good Toledan blade, below the cloak. It is not
there, though the practice of carrying weapons still survives everywhere
in the Peninsula.
Once only have I seen the sword carried by a civilian in Spain.
Travelling from Córdova to Toledo by rail, I had as companion a young
man who had provided himself with a cutlass and a revolver, in case of
assault by robbers. The sword was thrust through the straps of his bag.
Revolvers are frequently worn on a belt under the coat, and most of the
working class carry the _navaja_, a knife with a long blade, a sharp
edge, and a keen point.
[Illustration: Patio del Collegio San Miguel.]
There is, however, no need for the traveller to provide himself with a
six-shooter or a dagger; indeed, the revolver hung at the head of the
bed, as I have seen it in a Seville hotel, is not only superfluous, but
the mere possession of arms is apt to cause surmises as to the valuables
carried by the armed stranger, and may lead to the pilfering of his
portmanteau.
The custom of going about armed is just one of those mediæval usages
that still prevail in spite of the suppression of brigandage and the
protection of the railway trains and stations by the vigilant,
well-trained and courteous Civil Guards. Spaniards are conservative;
they cling to practices that are no longer necessary, and the carrying
of knives and pistols is one of those quixotic characteristics of the
race, which will probably survive for several generations. As a matter
of fact, the stranger in Seville is as safe, to say the least, as he is
in London. The species Hooligan is unknown in Spain, though, of course,
there are thieves in the country as in every other quarter of
Christendom throughout the globe. The _navaja_ is never worn and used
ostentatiously. It is the weapon of the criminal population and the
disreputable, and it is too often drawn in street broils and for
vendetta purposes.
It is not necessary that I should caution the visitor against wandering
alone, after dark, in the low streets of the city, nor warn him that it
is risky to engage professional guides, who are not well known for
honesty, and recommended by one of the proprietors of the better-class
hotels. I do not wish to alarm the timid traveller. One should point
out, however, that highway robberies do occasionally occur in the
country districts.
Two years ago, in the neighbourhood of Granada, a party of travellers
found themselves and the guides surrounded by ruffians on a
mountain-side, and were submitted to a complete rifling of their pockets
before they were allowed to proceed on their way. A friend of mine, an
English artist, was one of the party. You are frequently told in Spain
that brigandage has been entirely suppressed. It is quite true that the
Civil Guards have almost exterminated the organised bands of brigands
that used to infest the lonelier roads of the country. But, here and
there, as in Galicia, robbers sometimes work in small parties on the
high roads, after dark. In Seville, however, one may feel as secure as
in any other continental city. The average Andalusian is honest. Railway
porters, cabmen, and hotel servants expect a _propina_ or 'tip'; but
they are seldom exacting, and rarely addicted to pilfering. The
_propina_ is a national institution; but a small gratuity is, as a rule,
gratefully received, and I have met porters and others who have refused
a fee for their assistance. Railway servants and hotel waiters are so
poorly paid in Spain that they rely largely for their living upon the
generosity of travellers. There is, however, a protest afloat against
the _propina_, and a society has been formed in Madrid to combat the
custom of giving 'tips.'
The smart or fashionable life of Seville may be studied, after five in
the evening in the warm months, in the narrow central thoroughfare
called Sierpes, or in the drives of the beautiful gardens bordering the
Guadalquivir. The Calle de Sierpes signifies in English the street of
the serpents. It is a street for foot passengers only, with many
_cafés_, wine bars, nick-nack stores, and superior hatters', tailors'
and tobacconists' shops. In this quarter ladies will find a fine array
of fans, _mantillas_ and showy Andalusian shawls. Some of these articles
bear the label 'made in Austria.' The shawls worn by the _majas_, or
Sevillian smart dames, and maidens of the middle and working class, are
sometimes very beautiful. Yellow is a favourite hue, as it accords with
the black which is universally worn by the women of southern Spain.
The _majo_ costume, as 'sported' by the dandies of Sierpes, is correctly
made up of a wide-brimmed brown or white felt hat, a shirt with a
frilled front, and diamond or paste studs, a low waistcoat, or broad
silk band around the middle, a short coat, resembling an Eton jacket,
and trousers cut exceedingly tight across the hips. A _majo_ affects the
dress and conversation of his ideal, the bull-fighter. He favours the
tightest, thin-soled, pointed brown shoes, crops his hair, shaves his
cheeks and chin clean, walks with a self-consciousness, and ogles and
bandies repartee whenever he passes a _maja_. The loungers of Sierpes
exhibit more or less amused interest in the English or American lady
visitors. Their hats are a wonder to them; their serviceable travelling
dresses appear severely plain, their coats masculine in fashion, and
their shoes short, broad, and absurdly low in the heel.
How different is the guise and demeanour of the Spanish _señora_! If she
is of the upper rank of society, she may wear a Parisian hat and a dress
in the English style; but her slow, erect and graceful walk proclaim her
an Andalusian. She will not start and seem insulted when a man stares
her full in the face, smiles, and exclaims: 'How lovely you are! Blessed
be the mother who bore you!' A parting of the lips, perhaps a slight
flush, show that she is pleased when the gallant turns to gaze at her.
So much has been sung and written about the loveliness of the Sevillian
_doñas_ that I may perhaps be taken to task if I do not join in the
rapturous chorus. The beauty of the Andalusian women does not startle
one immediately upon setting foot in Seville. It seems to me to be a
charm that needs comprehension. Undoubtedly you may see a proportion of
handsome faces among the ladies in the evening parade in the park, on
the racecourse, at the bull fights, and in the theatres. If you expect
to find that every other woman in Seville is a belle--well, I think you
will be disappointed.
'If Shakespeare is right in saying that there is no author in the world
"teaches such beauty as a woman's eyes," then Andalusia easily leads the
world in personal beauty.' So writes Mr. Henry T. Finck, in his
_Romantic Love and Personal Beauty_. Byron comments in the same strain,
and so does Blanco White, not to mention other authors. Perhaps Mr. G.
P. Lathrop's description of the girls of the Seville tobacco factory
may, by reason of its dispassionateness, be accepted as a fair estimate.
In _Spanish Vistas,_ Mr. Lathrop writes: 'Some of them had a spendthrift
common sort of beauty, which, owing to their southern vivacity and fine
physique, had the air of being more than it really was.... The beauty of
these Carmens has certainly been exaggerated. It may be remarked here
that, as an offset to occasional disappointment arising from such
exaggerations, all Spanish women walk with astonishing gracefulness, and
natural and elastic step, and that it is their chief advantage over
women of other nations.'
The opinion of Washington Irving on the charms of the Seville fair may
perhaps explain my qualification that the graces do not make a sudden
and arresting appeal, but require reflection and comprehension, like
many interesting works of art. Washington Irving says: 'There are
beautiful women in Seville as ... there are in all other great cities;
but do not, my worthy and inquiring friend, expect a perfect beauty to
be staring you in the face at every turn, or you will be awfully
disappointed.... I am convinced the great fascination of Spanish women
arises from their natural talent, their fire and soul, which beam
through their dark and flashing eyes, and kindle up their whole
countenance in the course of an interesting conversation. As I have had
but few opportunities of judging them in this way, I can only criticise
them with the eye of a sauntering observer. It is like judging of a
fountain when it is not in play, or a fire when it lies dormant and
neither flames nor sparkles.'
A true appreciation of the Sevillian dame is only possible to such as
possess the wit to understand the quality known as _sal_ or 'salt.'
Andalusian _sal_ has a flavour of its own. It is made up of _persiflage_
and the quality called 'smartness.' _Sal_ is more esteemed than beauty
in a woman; it is more fascinating than physical comeliness. 'The
Andalusian women,' writes the author of _Costumbres Andaluzas_, 'has on
her lips all the salt of the foam of two seas.' ... The woman of
Andalusia 'is frank, passionate, loving or hating without taking the
trouble to dissemble her sentiments.' She is 'life, light, fire'; she
'is beauty illumined by the torch of Paradise,' etc. Such is the strain
of Spanish gallantry.
In the old days the ardent lover was wont to beat himself beneath a
maiden's window, until the blood trickled down his back. Nowadays, the
amorous cavalier waits below the casement, and when he catches a glimpse
of the object of his devotion, exclaims: 'Your beauty ravishes me! Your
eyes burn into my soul!'
The peculiarly guarded life of the young Spanish woman, which is in part
a relic of Orientalism, and in part traceable to her religion, forces
her to develop ingenuity in attracting an admirer, and in her means of
communicating with him.
Mr. Lathrop, in his _Spanish Vistas_, says that the beggars around
Seville Cathedral are sometimes the bearers of love letters to the
ladies who attend the services and go to confession. A piece of silver
is dropped into the mendicant's dirty palm, and a little note is
transferred to the _señorita's_ hand. And with eyes fixed modestly upon
the ground, the maiden steps out of the portal of the sacred building,
clutching the tender missive which she burns to read. In all countries
stealthy courtship has its charm and romance for lovers; and in Spain
the zest of wooing is quickened by the devices employed for clandestine
assignations, and the secret conveying of gifts and letters from one
lover to another. Our forthright British mode of love-making might
appear almost barbarous to an Andalusian girl.
The women of Southern Spain are short, and they incline to stoutness.
Mr. Finck says that sexual selection 'is evolving the _petite_ brunette
as the ideal of womanhood,' and that 'the perfected woman of the
millennium will resemble the Andalusian brunette, not only in
complexion, hair, eyes, gait, and tapering plumpness of figure, but also
in stature.'
Among the men of Seville one sees many slim, lissome, well-proportioned
figures of medium height. Some of the _majos_ of Sierpes are of this
type, and among the working class there are many good-looking,
clean-limbed men. The masculine physiognomies impress me as being much
more varied in contour and more expressive than those of the women.
Faces that might be English are not uncommon among the men of Seville.
But the true Andalusian features are distinctive, and have an Arab cast.
The hair is dark, black or brown, and the skin olive or tawny. There is
an unshaven look about many of the middle-class men. A _majo_ who
dresses in the height of fashion will often go out to parade the streets
with a three days' beard on his chin. But his hands will be
scrupulously washed several times a day, and the finger nails will be
carefully trimmed and polished.
[Illustration: The Golden Tower]
To see Sevillian society out of doors, go to the Parque Maria Luisa and
the adjoining Paseo de las Delicias about five in the afternoon. This is
the fashionable promenade, and here the _élite_ of the city drive in
open carriages daily. The costumes of the _señoras_ are varied and
stylish. Some of the ladies wear English gowns and hats, and one sees a
few of the latest Paris fashions in dresses. But the majority have not
discarded the _mantilla_ of black or white lace, and the fan is in every
hand. A 'smart turn-out' is a sort of four-wheeled dogcart, drawn by
four mules, with bells, and gay worsted ear-caps and worked bridles.
The servants are dressed in London livery, the landaus are of French or
English make, and many fine horses may be seen. _Caballeros_ ride upon
prancing nags. Under the palms and orange trees there are seats filled
with loungers, the women fanning themselves, the men smoking cigars or
cigarettes. None but foreigners smoke a pipe in the streets of Seville.
A _majo_ would not be guilty of such vulgarity.
Beneath the odorous orange trees, where innumerable nightingales warble,
one may watch the afternoon procession of carriages and pedestrians. A
breeze blows from the wide Guadalquivir. It is cool by the ornamental
water, where roses and camellias are rife. The blue uniform of an
officer, the white duck trousers of a dandy, the sunshades of the ladies
show amidst the greenery of the avenues. From the cavalry barracks comes
the blare of bugles. In the Parque there are peacocks and a den of wild
boars.
In April, during the _feria_ week, there is horse-racing on the broad
meadows beyond the Paseo de las Delicias. English horses, ridden by
English jockeys, sometimes compete in the races. The grand stand is a
large one, with a long enclosure. It is well filled on race days with
the rank and fashion of Andalusia. One is struck with the gravity of the
spectators as contrasted with the animation of a British crowd upon a
racecourse. The people are thoroughly enjoying the spectacle; but they
do not shout, and there is no ring of bellowing bookmakers. Backers of
horses purchase a ticket at a little office in the enclosure. There is
only one of these offices, and there are no betting men behind the ropes
of the course.
An element of pageant is introduced by the company of cavalry drawn up
near the grand stand. When officers of the State arrive upon the course,
they are saluted with a flourish of trumpets. A number of mounted men
of the Civil Guard keep the course clear of pedestrians. The resplendent
dresses of the ladies, the bright uniforms of the soldiers and the
costumes of the jockeys make a brilliant scene in the dazzling southern
sunshine.
But horse-racing is not the national pastime of Spain. Bull-fighting is
deemed the nobler sport, and Seville has been called 'the Alma Mater of
the bull-fighter.'[G] I do not here propose to describe one of these
combats. Such descriptions have perhaps occupied an undue space in many
books about Spanish ways and customs. The most reliable accounts of
bull-fighting are to be found in Mr. Williams's _The Land of the Dons_,
and in _Wild Spain_, by A. Chapman and W. T. Buck.
There is a handsome Plaza de Toros at Seville, built in 1870, with seats
for fourteen thousand spectators. At Easter, and during the _feria_
festivals in April, there are several fights in the arena, which are
attended by immense crowds made up of all classes from the duke to the
girls from the cigarette factory. The enthusiasm which bull fights evoke
is so great that large crowds collect around the hotels, where the
bull-fighters reside during Holy Week and fair time, in order to watch
the heroes of the ring start for the Plaza de Toros.
I was in Seville during the _feria_ of 1902, and I may now attempt to
describe the scene on the Prado de San Sebastian. The city was thronged
with sight-seers; every hotel and boarding-house was overcrowded, and
hundreds of cattle and horse dealers, gipsies and itinerants slept on
the fair ground in booths or upon the bare earth. I found the open space
on the Prado covered with flocks of sheep and goats, droves of bullocks,
horses, mules and donkeys, tended by picturesque herdsmen and muleteers
in the dress of several provinces. An English carriage and pair of
handsome horses paraded the ground, and changed hands at a high price.
_Caballeros_ rode their steeds up and down, to show off their points,
and gipsy 'copers' haggled and chaffered. In the long row of refreshment
tents was one bearing the sign of _Los Boers_. I entered one of the
booths, and ordered a _refresco_, a bitter, syrupy decoction, with a
tang of turpentine. Men and women were sipping this beverage with much
zest, and watching the continual procession of holiday-makers under the
trees. Everyone was quiet, orderly and sober. I did not see one drunken
or quarrelsome person on either of the fair days, which I think may be
taken as a token of the sobriety of the Spaniards. The diversions of the
_feria_ struck me as innocent, perhaps childish; but there was none of
the coarseness and the squalor of a fair in England. There were only a
few shows.
The Gitanas had their tents, where they danced to _gorgio_ audiences,
exacting exorbitant fees for each performance. Importunate gipsy dames
stood at the doors of their tents, inviting the visitors to enter, and
to taste their curious liquors, or to have their fortunes told. It was
not easy to escape from these syrens, for they seized one's coat sleeve,
and almost dragged one into their shows and booths. Some of the Gitana
girls are remarkably handsome, and the gay colours of their clothing
lend animation to this part of the _feria_.
One of the most interesting streets of the fair is that of the
_casetas_, or pavilions of the influential Sevillians, who spend the day
in receiving guests, dancing, guitar playing and singing. The doors of
the _casetas_ are open. You can look within at the merry company. The
old folk sit around on chairs; someone clicks a pair of castanets, and a
graceful girl begins to dance. Fans are fluttering everywhere; there is
a soft tinkling of guitars. Dark eyes flash upon you, and red lips part
in smiles as the hats of _majos_ are raised. Some of the children are
dressed in old Andalusian costume, with black lace over yellow silk, and
_mantillas_ upon their dark hair. They dance to the castanets, and win
handclaps from grandfathers and grandmothers, who recall their own
dancing days of forty or fifty years ago.
There is an iron tower in the centre of the fair ground. I ascended it,
and gained a view of the bright crowd, the flocks, the prancing horses
and the waving bunting everywhere displayed. At night the avenues of
booths are illuminated with thousands of fairy lights, electric lamps
and Chinese lanterns. The fair is then thronged in every part, and
everyone submits to a good-humoured jostling. At this festive time you
must be prepared for disturbed nights. The streets are never quiet by
day or night, and there is a constant tramping up and down the stairs of
the hotels. Long after midnight one hears the revellers in the _plazas_,
singing and dancing to the clapping of hands or the strumming of
guitars.
This 'fantastic pandemonium,' as it is called by a Sevillian rhymer,
lasts for about eight to ten days. During the three days of the _feria_,
the hotel charges are doubled, and in some cases trebled. The city
profits considerably through the influx of visitors at this time, and
also during _Semana Santa_, or Holy Week, when Seville is very crowded.
Nothing can prove so instructive concerning the Spanish devotion to
ritual and religious pageant as a visit to Seville at Easter. The
processions and celebrations of _Semana Santa_ are exceedingly
interesting from the artistic and the antiquarian point of view. All the
costly vestments, the rare ecclesiastic treasures of the Cathedral, the
works of artists and sculptors, and the sacred images of Christ and the
Virgin are then displayed, in the midst of high pomp, to the adoring
eyes of the vast crowds lining the streets and filling the windows. It
is during these ceremonies that one may catch the spirit of mediævalism
still surviving in Spain. Even the religious dances of antiquity are
performed in the Cathedral before the high altar on Corpus Christi day.
The dancers are boys, sixteen in number, and they are called the
_Seises_. They dress in the costume of the reign of Felipe III.
The _pasos_ or processions of _Semana Santa_ pass through Sierpes to the
Plaza de la Constitución, where the mayor of the city is seated on a
daïs before the Ayuntamiento. Here there are stands for spectators. The
processions are headed by men of the Guardia Civil; mummers dressed as
Romans follow, then come masked monks, girls in white raiment, bands of
music, and city officials. On Palm Sunday there is a blessing of the
palms in the Cathedral by the Cardinal Archbishop, who is clothed in
purple canonicals. The procession leaves the edifice by the Puerta San
Miguel. At Vespers the sacred banner is elevated, and at six in the
evening four _pasos_ parade the streets, in honour of San Jacinto,
Santisimo Cristo, San Juan Bautista and San Gregorio.
Figures by Montañez, the celebrated ecclesiastical sculptor, are borne
in these processions. One of the most imposing objects of veneration is
the immense crucifix, carried on a stand by thirty concealed bearers. It
is followed by musicians playing the solemn funeral music of Eslava.
Miguel Hilarion Eslava, the composer, was born in 1807, near Pampeluna,
in the north of Spain. He sang in the cathedral choir of that city, and
afterwards played the violin in services. First a priest, he became
chapel-master at Seville, in 1832, where he composed a great number of
pieces of church music and masses. His chief work is _Lira Sacro
Hispaña_, a collection of sacred music from the sixteenth to the
nineteenth century, with brief biographies of the composers. This
_magnum opus_ is in ten volumes.
Eslava also wrote secular music, and his operas of _Il Solitario_, _La
Tregura di Ptolemaide_ and _Pedro el Cruel_ were first produced at
Cadiz. The eighth volume of the _Lira_ contains only Eslava's music, and
the _Museo Organico Español_ embodies some of his own organ
compositions. This famous composer spent many years of his life in
Seville. He lived in a house in the Calle del Gran Capitan, now used as
the Colegio de San Miguel, a school for boys. Over the gateway is an
inscription announcing that Eslava lived in this house. The courtyard is
extremely quaint, and should be seen.
The solemn strains of Eslava's _Miserere_ may be heard in the Capilla
Mayor of the Cathedral during Holy Week, upon the day of 'rending the
Veil of the Temple.' This ceremony is accompanied by peals of artificial
thunder. On the Saturday after Good Friday, the _Velo Negro_ (black
curtain) is torn amidst the clanging of bells and claps of thunder. On
the same day a candle, twenty-five feet in height, is consecrated.
There is a similarity in the processions of Semana Santa, and they are
less sumptuous than in bygone times. But they are still popular, and the
visitor should endeavour to obtain a favourable point of view for
watching the ceremonials in the streets and in the Cathedral. The figure
of the Virgin is always the same in Spain; an image clad in black
velvet, trimmed with lace, and adorned with diamonds, while the
_tableaux_ of the Saviour upon the Cross are often very realistic and
ghastly. On Good Friday the large image of the Virgin is carried by
thirty-five men, and there is a representation of Christ in the throes
of death upon a splendid cross of tortoiseshell and silver.
An interesting rite is performed on Thursday afternoon, when the
Cardinal Archbishop washes the feet of twelve poor persons, who are
given new clothes and a substantial meal. In the evening the _Miserere_
of Eslava is again sung in the Cathedral by a chorus of one hundred and
fifty voices, accompanied by ninety instrumentalists.
During Holy Week a lamb fair is held in the Feria del Rastro. The lambs
are bought and given to children, who lead them about the streets.
The Corpus Christi festivals, or _La Fiesta del Santisimo Corpus_, are
less gorgeous than those of _Semana Santa_, but they are not without
interest to the student of religious custom. The dancing of the _Seises_
in the Cathedral is certainly a curious spectacle. Blanco White says
that among the treasures carried in the Corpus Christi procession of his
day were the tooth of St. Christopher, the arm of St. Bartholomew, the
head of one of the eleven thousand virgins, a part of the body of St.
Peter, a thorn from the crown of the Saviour, and a fragment of the True
Cross.
Special services and pageants are also celebrated on All Saints' Day and
at Christmas (_La Natividad_). The pilgrimages are another Andalusian
custom dating from early Christian times. These _romerias_ are of a
festal character. The people resort to Rocio in Almonte on Whit Sunday,
dressed in holiday garb, and riding in carriages decked with banners.
Dancing, singing and feasting are the chief attractions of these
semi-religious _fêtes_. _La Consolación de Utrera_ is celebrated on
September 8, when excursion trains are run from Seville to Utrera. In
October there are _romerias_ on each Sunday at Salteras, eight miles
from the city. The festivities usually end with a display of fireworks.
Passion plays are still represented in Seville. At Easter the drama of
the 'Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ, with the Glorious
Resurrection' is acted at the Teatro Cervantes. The Teatro de San
Fernando is the home of opera and spectacle, and there is a summer
theatre, the Eslava, in the Paseo de la Puerta de Jerez.
Who has not heard of the charm of Andalusian dancing? Seville is the
home of the _bailarin_, the artist of the _bolero_, _olé_, _Sevilliana_,
and other dances. On every evening in summer, the inhabitants dance in
their _patios_ to the guitar and castanets, while the street lads
perform their Oriental antics in the _plazas_ and bye-streets. The
cleverest professional dancing is to be seen at the _Café de Novedades_,
at the end of the Calle de las Sierpes, where it is joined by the Calle
de Campana. There are other _cafés_ in Sierpes where national and gipsy
dancing may be witnessed, but perhaps the most characteristic
performances are those of the Novedades. You may obtain a seat, just in
front of the stage, for half a peseta. The entertainment usually opens
with a representation of gipsy or _flamenco_ dancing, which is a strange
exercise and difficult to describe. A number of women sit in a
semi-circle on the stage, and in the centre of the dancers is a male
guitar player. Nothing happens for some time, but the spectators evince
no impatience. They sip coffee, smoke, and chat contentedly.
Presently one of the _flamenco_ women quits her chair, and begins to
strike extraordinary postures. At one moment she might be trying to
impersonate Ajax defying the lightning; in the next she is apparently
fleeing from a satyr. Her hands are held high above her head, and there
is a continual movement of the fingers. She writhes and wriggles rather
than dances, and the feet play no part, except that the heels now and
then thump the stage. Meanwhile her seated companions drown the sound of
the guitar with the clapping of their hands and cries of _anda!_
One after another the women go through these curious contortions to the
delight of the audience. I believe that there are subtle fascinations in
these dances when one understands the drama which they represent; but to
the casual spectator they are somewhat tedious, and they do not make
much appeal to the imagination or to one's sense of the graceful in
movement. Most visitors will prefer the Andalusian dancing. The dancers
of the Novedades are extremely nimble in the _bolero_, one of the
prettiest and most joyous of dances. Their shapely, lissome feet skim
and bound in bewildering and intricate steps, to the clicking of
ribbon-decked castanets. They spring into the air, hover, and bound
again; they move rapidly on their toes, float, glide, and almost fly. It
is a wonderful sight. One is sorry when the troop leave the stage. There
is an intoxication in watching such grace, lightness and agility.
The singing of _coplas_ (couplets) is one of the attractions at this
_café_. This form of vocalisation is very Andalusian. I can only
describe it as a prolonged _tremolo_; the singer appears to sing a verse
without drawing breath, and the effort often seems painful. A 'star' in
this art is exceedingly popular, and his singing is sure to be followed
by loud plaudits.
Gitana dancing of a more pronounced sort may be studied in the suburb of
Triana, where there is a colony of gipsies. Those who have read George
Borrow's _The Zincali: An Account of the Gypsies of Spain_, will
discover an increased interest in their visit to the Gitana quarter.
Some of the Triana gipsies are the swarthiest and weirdest of their
race. A hag, who might be a hundred, clutches your arm, and looks into
your face with her cunning black eyes as she begs for alms. She has the
features of an Egyptian, coal black hair, and a skin like the
calf-binding of an old book. A nude brown boy rolls in the road, a Cupid
in sepia.
Here is a lovely girl of fourteen, with a lithe figure, feline
movements, huge dark eyes, jet locks, and a rich olive tinting of the
skin. She is conscious of her beauty, and will not cease to insist upon
receiving a coin for the pleasure that her charms afford the admiring
Gentiles. Whatever you give her, she will ask for more. But she is very
beautiful, and most beauties are exacting. Some of these Romany people
are almost as swarthy as negroes. There is hardly one who would not make
a splendid model for an artist. Their graceful unstudied pose is most
alluring to the painter, while the mystery of their glowing eyes, their
strange lore, and secret speech invest them with romance and poetry that
appeal to Mr. Leland and Mr. Watts-Dunton.
George Eliot must have experienced the spell of these tawny folk during
her visit to Spain. Her 'Spanish Gypsy,' is a 'creation' but it was to
the Gitanas of the highways that the poet owed her inspiration. 'Gypsy
Borrow' found the race irresistible; the tongue, the customs, the
esoterics of the Zincali of Spain were to him a subject of fascinating
study.
In the old days the Romany fared ill in the Peninsula. He was a pariah,
a suspect, an object of persecution. But to-day Sevillian gentle-folk
are inclined to pet the Gitanas, and it is quite 'good form' to use
Romany phrases, and to appear a little gipsyish. The sons of wealthy
families are the patrons of the _flamenco_ dances; they are enthralled
by the loveliness of the lithe nut-brown maids, with piercing eyes,
carmine lips, and pearly teeth. But it all ends in admiration. No bribe
will tempt the Gitana lass to swerve from the strict code of chastity
laid down by the tradition of her class.
To see the Gitanas at their best, or living under primitive conditions,
take a trip down to Coria on the Guadalquivir. A steamboat starts daily
from the Triana Bridge at about half-past seven in the morning. The
voyage is interesting, and you can return in time for evening dinner.
You pass two or three villages with landing-stages, and gain views of
the distant marshes towards the mouth of the river, while on the right
bank are slopes clothed with olives and vines. Pottery is made from the
red clay of the foothills, and a number of gipsies work at this
industry.
At Coria you will be an object of curiosity, for very few strangers
visit the little village. The Gitanas inhabit 'dug-outs,' or caves, in
the hillside. These dens are only lit by the doorway, but they are not
so dark within as one might expect. Nor are they unwholesome, for the
gipsies appear to take pride in keeping their habitations clean. Most of
the cooking is done outside the burrow. There is quite a warren in the
hill, which is honeycombed with dwellings of this savage kind.
Strange to say, not a single Gitana begged from me when I visited the
colony. But the Gentile population of Coria were somewhat importunate
when our party embarked for the return journey to Seville, and most of
the lads of the village congregated on the landing-stage to beg for
_centimos_.
Macarena and Juderia, the poor _barrios_ or suburbs of Seville, are not
like our English slums. There is no sign of abject want, though the
people have a keen struggle for subsistence. The houses are all
white-washed without, and the little courts have their climbing roses
or a grape vine trained to pillars. There are malodours here and there,
owing to the insanitary practices of the people; but the inhabitants of
these quarters are seldom ragged, and they do not appear dejected, dirty
and degraded.
Now and then, a mischievous boy will throw a stone at the foreigner, or
a group of idlers will break into derisive laughter when you pass by. On
the other hand, ask a question civilly of these people, and they will
put themselves to trouble to assist you in finding the church or the
monument of which you are in quest. Beware, however, of the
soft-tongued, amiable loafer who persists in dogging your heels and
offering his services as a guide.
Begging, which is such an intolerable nuisance in some of the Spanish
towns, has been almost suppressed in Seville by the rigorous municipal
laws. The mendicant is not extinct; some of the order are sure to be
encountered in the neighbourhood of the Cathedral, but they do not
pester the visitor incessantly as in Toledo and Granada. A number of the
idle and vicious inhabitants of Seville appear to be homeless. In this
balmy Southern climate, the _al fresco_ life of the tramp is not
unendurable; still I am told that beggars sometimes die in Spain by the
roadside from sheer want.
The Plaza Nueva is a favourite nocturnal resort of the _gamins_ and
vagabonds of the city, and at one in the morning the space presents a
scene resembling that of Trafalgar Square in the days when unfortunate
'out-of-works' camped there nightly.
In the Macarena quarter is the market street of the Feria. This
thoroughfare should be seen. It is the home of metal-workers, whose
beaten brass, iron and copper ware is interesting and artistic in
workmanship. Peripatetics here display a jumble of second-hand articles
upon the ground, such as books, old pictures, brass candlesticks, tools,
buttons, pistols, rusty swords, harness, and mule bells. There are
stalls of fruit, coloured kerchiefs, hats and caps, shoes, and common
china ware. The scene is bustling and bright.
Here the young and unknown artists of Seville were wont to sell their
pictures in former times. Murillo and many another painter of renown
stood here anxiously awaiting chance purchasers for their works. These
'fair pictures' were often daubs; but sometimes, no doubt, a buyer
secured the work of a young genius for a trifling sum. If a purchaser
wished a picture altered to his taste, the artist would retouch it upon
the spot.
These were hard days for young painters. But many who hawked their
religious pictures and portraits of the Virgin and the saints for
pesetas rose to fame, and gained wealth in their later days. A _pintura
de la Feria_ became a term in Spain for a meretricious picture. Some of
the Feria paintings were still-life subjects, and others were _sargas_,
large screens or banners used in sacred processions.
One of the sights of modern Seville is the Fábrica de Tabacos, a factory
where a large number of women and girls are employed. The building is a
handsome one, in the baroque style, in the Calle de San Fernando. The
_cigarreras_ work in overcrowded rooms. On public holidays they don
their smartest dress, and are to be seen at the _romerias_ and dances.
A survival of the ancient potter's art in Seville is the factory of La
Cartuja, in Triana, owned by the English firm of Prickman and Sons. The
works supply almost the whole country with china, and examples of
antique Spanish majolica may be seen here. La Cartuja was once a
convent. The church should be seen; it has a fine door in the _Mudéjar_
style.
Campaña's paintings in the Church of Santa Ana, in Triana, may be
inspected after a visit to La Cartuja. Near this church are the streets
inhabited by the Gitanas. The SS. Justa and Rufina, mentioned elsewhere
in these pages, made pottery in this quarter in the Roman days.
The custom of selling drinking water in the streets is common almost
everywhere in Spain. Velazquez painted the familiar figure of the
water-seller, who is to be seen to-day in the _calles_ of Seville,
crying _agua fresca_. The water is carried on the men's shoulders, in
graceful Oriental jugs of earthenware.
Sometimes one hears the sound of the drum and the _dulcinea_, a pipe
played with one hand, and used to provide music for village dances in
many parts of Spain. The music proceeds from a man, who is accompanied
by a led bullock, and it announces that tickets may be bought for a
lottery in which the prize is a horse. Piano organs enliven the streets,
playing popular dance music, and these seem to have superseded the
performances of guitarists.
Time can scarcely hang heavily upon the visitor to 'the diadem in
Andalusia's crown.' Days may be spent in the noble Cathedral, dreamy
hours passed in the scented garden of the Alcázar, or by the
Guadalquivir, where the bulbul still sings as in the Moorish days. Each
time one climbs to the summit of the Giralda, a fresh beauty in the
prospect of the sunny, white city and the glowing plain fascinates the
vision. The picture gallery should be visited more than once; and there
are so many works of art in the churches, monasteries and public
buildings that one is never at a loss for pleasant recreation or serious
study.
Delightful, too, are the cool evenings in the _plazas_, or the gardens,
when the sinking sun sheds its beams on the stately Cathedral and the
proud Giralda. The storks sail homewards far overhead in the glow of
the rising moon; a chorus of birds dies away in the tangled banks of the
Guadalquivir. Brief night succeeds the twilight; day dawn soon appears,
and the hawks flash from their eyries in the Giralda, and the mule bells
begin to jingle in the sunlit streets.
[Illustration: A Roof Garden]
The quay, which stretches from the Triana Bridge to the Delicias, forms
a pleasant promenade. By the Golden Tower there are seats under the
trees, and the kiosks of the _refresco_ sellers, who dispense
orange-water, lemonade and sarsaparilla to the sailors and the girls
from the tobacco factory. Adjoining that part of the quay where English
vessels are loaded with iron brought upon a tramway, there is a little
booth for the sale of refreshments. It is kept by a young Spaniard and
his wife, named José. The boothkeeper has made several trips to England
in trading vessels, and he speaks English very fairly. José has a
'connection' among the British sailors, who come to his pavilion for
rum, whisky and other drinks beloved of English tars. He possesses a
great regard for England and the English, and among his customers José
is often addressed as Johnson.
Near the Golden Tower there is another house of call used by seamen. In
the window you will see advertisements of British beverages, and
announcements in several European languages. Ships from Liverpool,
Glasgow and Cardiff are often anchored in this part of the Guadalquivir,
and now and then there is an English yacht in the port.
The fishermen of Seville have a curious method of taking shad. They work
a cross-line under water from two boats on opposite sides of the river.
The line is armed with hooks, baited with pieces of meat. Now and then,
the fishermen haul up a fish. But the Guadalquivir is heavily netted and
fished, and the shad are not very plentiful in this reach. There are
some very big eels in the river, which can be caught with a rod and line
from the banks.
As the _pescadores_ slowly scull their boats down the river, they sing
strange Andalusian melodies, with a kind of _yödel_. Their voices reach
far along the stream on still days. The men are hard-working, and their
catches scarcely repay them for their patience and labour in the burning
sun.
Along the quay, and at every point of entrance to Seville, there are
customs' officers in uniform, with swords at their sides. The _consumo_
is not a popular character in Spain. Peasants and small traders resent
the tax upon the produce which they bring into the markets, and many
attempts are made to evade paying the duty. At Córdova I heard a violent
altercation between a peasant and a _consumo_, who demanded duty upon a
live pigeon.
Spain is the land of officials in uniform. Down the Guadalquivir you
will see armed men who protect the wooden breakwaters. Then there are
four grades of police, the _consumos_, and the watchmen, all of them
provided with weapons.
The quaint, irregular thoroughfares of Seville, its palm trees and olive
gardens, its Morisco remains, its _hidalgos_ and _doñas_, its brightness
and gaiety, and its blue skies will not soon be forgotten by those who
pass a short time within its ancient walls. Lord Byron praises the city
as the most beautiful in Spain. It is certainly charming, but there are
towns in the Peninsula more antiquated in aspect, and more picturesque
in their surroundings. Still, the Andalusian capital possesses a strong
fascination, and few persons will dispute, in the main, the truth of
Byron's lines in the first canto of _Don Juan_:--
'In Seville was he born, a pleasant city,
Famous for oranges and women--he
Who has not seen it will be much to pity,
So says the proverb--and I quite agree;
Of all the Spanish towns is none more pretty,
Cadiz, perhaps--but that you soon may see;--
Don Juan's parents lived beside the river.
A noble stream, and call'd the Guadalquivir.'
Since the days of Cervantes, the aspect of the city and the manners and
customs of its inhabitants have not undergone any profound change. The
monumental buildings remain, and the cry of the watchman and the notes
of the guitar are still heard by night in the tortuous alleys, and under
the palm trees of the _plazas_. The careless, merry Sevillanos continue
to love the dance, the song, the bull fight and the theatre more than
science and literature. We may see the types sketched by the great
satirist in _The Jealous Estremaduran_, if we will but enter one of the
fashionable _cafés_ during the evening. It would be unfair to say that
Sevillian society is composed entirely of adventurers, but they are a
distinctive class in the pleasure-loving capital. 'In the city of
Seville,' writes Cervantes, 'is a class of idling, lazy people who
locally go by the common name of "the children of the ward"; they are
considered as foragers on the public; they are the sons of rich parents,
not of the nobility; always well-dressed, fond of pleasure, extravagant
and expensive, plunging themselves and their parents in debt; always
feasting and revelling; every way bringing discredit on society,
defrauding and injuring their creditors.'
The stranger will not be in the city many hours before he notices a
curious device on public buildings, official uniforms and elsewhere.
This is the node, or knot (_el nodo_), which forms a part of the
coat-of-arms of Seville. The knot is in the centre of an ornamental
circle, and on one side of it are the letters NO and on the other DO.
This legend in full is _No madeja do_, or, _No me ha dejado_, which
means: 'It has not deserted me.' The symbol of the _nodo_ was adopted
after the fealty of the _muy leal_ city to Alfonzo X.
[Illustration: Arms of Seville]
CHAPTER XIV
_The Alma Mater of Bull-fighters_
'The Arabs were much given to bull-fighting, and highly skilled in
the _lidia_, whether mounted or on foot.'--SANCHEZ DE NIEVA, _El
Toréo_.
Seville is so renowned in the annals of the great Spanish sport of
bull-fighting, that I propose to devote a chapter to a brief history and
description of the 'science of tauromachia,' or the recreation of the
_lidia_. Mr. Leonard Williams, in _The Land of the Dons_, is somewhat
apologetic to his readers for introducing three chapters upon the
bullfight and its history; but such is the enthusiasm exhibited for the
pastime, that Mr. Williams states that thirty chapters, instead of
three, would scarcely be disproportionate to the importance in which the
_corrida_ is esteemed by the Spanish nation. While making personal
confession that I am not an _aficionado_, or enthusiast, of the art of
bull-fighting, I will endeavour to convey to the reader a conception of
the influence of the sport upon the Andalusian public, from which the
moralist and sociologist may draw their conclusions.
There is an odour of Pharisaism in the British fox-hunter's denunciation
of the bull fight on the score of cruelty to animals. But in defence of
the hunter, it may be pointed out that he rarely sacrifices the life of
his steed in order to be in at the death of a fox, and that he would
certainly scorn to torture a worn-out and decrepit horse by riding it
till it dropped with a ruptured heart. In bull-fighting there is no
pity shown for horses. The emaciated beasts, upon which the _picadores_,
or spearmen, are mounted, are urged at the bull, and serve as a target
for its terrible horns until they are no longer able to stand upon their
legs. Even when ripped open, or otherwise wounded, the bleeding,
terrified creatures are sewn up, or have their wounds plugged with tow,
and are again lashed and spurred to the attack.
Surely it is impossible to defend this element of the _corrida_. The
Spaniard does not attempt to do so; he cannot easily understand the
point of view that calls for such defence. All over Spain domestic
animals used in the service of man are treated mostly with callous
insensibility to their sufferings, and often with cruelty that appals
and disgusts the stranger. What does it matter whether an old, used-up
horse goes to the knacker or into the bull ring to end its days? In
Spain there is no sentimental bond between the aged, faithful,
hard-working horse and its owner. The horse or mule is a mere beast of
burden and of draught, to be worked as hard as possible, half-fed,
cursed, abused, and at all times beaten, goaded and kicked.
It would seem that a long training in warfare, the effect of harsh rule,
and the terrible example of the Inquisition form a trinity of evil that
has made the mass of the Spanish people indifferent to the spectacle of
certain kinds of pain. That this apathy to the sufferings of human
beings and brutes is compatible with strong physical courage is a fact
well supported by examples in the histories of nations and individuals.
It is also true that the humane man can be exceedingly courageous.
Cruelty in sport has, however, characterised other European countries
than Spain, which in this matter may be said to stand where we stood,
ethically speaking, in the days of bull-baiting, cock-fighting and
badger-drawing. The English crowd that went to see an unhappy victim of
nervous irritability ducked in a dirty pond, for the offence of nagging
at the goodman, was on the same level of civilisation as the mob in
Spain that enjoyed the sport of arming blind men with swords, turning
pigs loose among them, and urging the sightless to hack at the pigs,
with the result that the men frequently injured one another instead of
the porkers.
So far, then, as bulls and horses are concerned, we can only expect to
find blunted feeling in Spain. And I am not sure that we need expend
much sympathy upon the bull of the arena. In the ordinary fate he has to
die, and it is probable that he would prefer to live the life of a
fighting bull than bear the yoke and drag the cumbrous cart along dusty,
scorching high roads. At all events, the bull reared for fighting has a
placid existence until he is 'warrantable'; and in the excitement of his
short contest with men he may suffer much less pain than we imagine. And
as for the _matadores_, the heroes of the populace, the favourites of
the aristocracy,--well, it is their affair if they and their attendants
choose to risk their lives to make a Seville holiday. The human
performers in the drama are not forced to fight. If one falls, he is not
flogged till he rises to face the bull again, and when injured he is
tended at once by skilful surgeons.
This is really all that one can say in reply to the charge of cruelty,
and it is little enough. Bull-fighting is specifically a Spanish sport,
and efforts to introduce it into other countries have failed. British
and American visitors to Seville are frequently to be seen at the Plaza
de Toros; and at Algeciras and La Linea, the soldiers of the British
garrison, and the people of Gibraltar, are the principal supporters of
the bull rings. Throughout Spain the word _toro_ creates keen interest
in all classes of society. The State, the Church and the aristocracy
support the recreation of the _corrida_. Most of the bull rings have
their chapels attached, where the performers receive the sacrament and a
priestly blessing before entering the perilous arena. Ladies of the
highest birth are among the breeders of fighting bulls; even some of the
clerics rear beasts for the pastime, and attend the exhibitions of
tauromachia. The passion for the sport is deep and apparently
ineradicable in the people of Spain. Isabel the Catholic, after
witnessing a sanguinary display in the ring, endeavoured to suppress
bull-fighting. But not even the popular Queen could divert her subjects'
interest from the absorbing sport. Moral suasion and attempted
legislative methods are alike futile. The people demand the bull fight.
In the very midst of war's alarms, and during civil trouble, the _plazas
de toros_ were thronged with enthusiastic spectators. Jovellanos,
Charles III., Señor Castelar, and Señor Ferreras, the editor of _El
Correo_, are among those who have protested against bull-fighting.
'Spain pays no heed to any of these agitators,' writes Mr. Leonard
Williams, 'but continues unmoved the proud traditions of the arena. The
superb bull ring inaugurated not long ago at Barcelona was consecrated
by the clergy in procession, on the very day on which a novel of the
naughty Tolstoi was thrust upon the list _librorum expurgatorum_.' In
Spain the schoolmaster is a bankrupt, while the famous bull-fighter
receives five thousand pesetas for killing two or three bulls. There are
sociological inferences to be drawn from this fact.
BULL-FIGHTING OF THE PAST.
There is no doubt that encounters between men and bulls are of ancient
origin in the Peninsula. The Moors are said to have brought
bull-fighting into Spain, and there is historical proof that exhibitions
of daring in worrying and attacking bulls were one of the chief
recreations of the Moorish feast days. During times of truce between
Moslems and Christians, displays of tauromachia were arranged by the
rival leaders, and knights of both sides took part in the ring. The
great Cid distinguished himself in fights with fierce bulls, and his
horsemanship in the arena was widely admired. In these early days of the
sport, the tournament, or _lidia_, was celebrated in the largest _plaza_
of the towns. Raised seats were erected for the cavaliers and ladies,
and the _fêtes_ were attended almost entirely by the higher classes of
Andalusian and Castilian society. The combatant of the bull was mounted
on a plucky Arabian horse, and armed with a lance, called the _rejón_, a
weapon about five feet in length. At a signal the bull was let loose.
The knight charged the beast, and endeavoured to thrust his spear-head
into the neck. An expert performer sometimes killed his bull at the
first thrust. When hurled from his steed by a charge of the bull, the
knight was bound by the rules of the ring to face the brute on foot,
with a sword. Vassals assisted their master by essaying to draw the
attention of the bull, and at the right moment the knight plunged his
steel into the animal's neck.
Such combats appear to have been held in Andalusia as early as the
eleventh century. In one of Goya's bull-fighting sketches, we may see a
Moor, with a cloak on the left arm, and a dart in the right hand,
practising the _suerte de banderilla_. In the fifteenth century
bull-fighting was recognised as the chief national sport. In 1567 Pius
V. issued a threat of excommunication for all rulers who permitted
bull-fighting within their realms, and for all priests who witnessed the
shows. Fighters who fell in the ring were denied burial with Christian
rites. The Bull of the Pope was utterly disregarded. Nobles continued to
erect bull rings and to arrange _corridas_. The Church then exercised
wonted discretion. A decree came from Salamanca that priests of a
certain order might be present at bull fights, and the institution of
the _lidia_ was made semi-sacred and wholly respectable.
At Valladolid, Charles I. engaged and killed a bull in the public arena.
Succeeding kings and the flower of the nobility yearned to graduate in
the art of bull-fighting. The sons of _hidalgos_ resorted to the
slaughter-houses of the towns to practise with cloak and sword the
feints and passes of the _matador_. A valorous bull-fighter won his way
to women's hearts and to the favour of princes. In 1617 the Pope issued
a Bull announcing that the Virgin was conceived immaculately and was as
pure as her divine offspring. The announcement threw Seville into a
frenzy of delight. Archbishop de Castro gave a splendid service in the
beautiful Cathedral. Guns boomed from the ramparts of the city, and all
the church bells clanged and pealed. In the bull ring, Don Melchor de
Alcázar, a friend of Velazquez, arranged a special display. The Don,
with his dwarf and four immense negroes, gave a remarkable show of their
daring to a host of spectators.
Upon the day that Fernando VII. abolished the University of Seville, he
established an academy of bull-fighting in the city. The building was
constructed with a small ring for the practice of students in the art of
tauromachia, and contained stables, bedrooms, and other apartments. From
that time Seville was regarded as the classic home of bull-fighting, and
many of the most valiant fighters were trained in that city. Then arose
the professional _matador_, or _espada_, the swordsman who faces the
bull single-handed, when it has been worried and incensed by the
_picadores_ and the _banderilleros_.
Two of the first paid _matadores_ were the brothers Juan and Pedro
Palomo. They were succeeded by Martiñez Billon, Francisco Romero and his
son Juan, and José Delgado Candido, who was killed on the 24th of June
1771. The original Plaza de Toros of Seville was constructed in 1763,
and from that date until the end of the century several bull rings were
built in Andalusia and Castile.
'Andalusia,' write the authors of _Wild Spain_ 'has always been, and
still remains, the province where the love of the bull and all that
pertains to him is most keenly cherished, and where the modern bull
fight may to-day be seen in its highest perfection and development. It
provides the best bull-fighters and the most valued strains of the
fighting bull. It may be added that the Andalusian nobility were the
last of their order to discontinue their historic pursuit; and when,
during the darker days of this sport, the Royal order of the Maestranza
de Sevilla was created by Philip V., it was conceded in the statutes
that members of the order could hold two _corridas_ with the long lance
annually outside the city walls. Three gentlemen subsequently received
titles of exalted nobility of this order in respect of brilliant
performances with the lance.' José Candido, usually known as Pepe Hillo,
brought about a great revival of the _corrida_ after the Bourbons had
sought to discountenance the sport of the nobility. _Pepe Hillo_ is the
title of a drama concerned with the valiant exploits of the celebrated
master among _matadores_. Hillo, though he was said to be illiterate,
drew up the rules of the sport, and even to-day he is regarded as one of
the highest authorities upon the art of the bull fight.
According to Mr. Leonard Williams, Francisco Romero, of Ronda, in
Andalusia, was 'the first great exponent of the modern _toreo_.' Romero
was put to shoemaking, but he abandoned that homely trade for the
profession of bull-fighter, acting first as a page to the knights who
encountered the bulls. It was Romero who introduced the pass of
fluttering the cloak, or red cloth, in the face of the bull, and then,
at the fitting opportunity, thrusting the sword into the creature's
neck. Most of the reputed _matadores_ are of Sevillian birth. In the
days of Romero and his son, Juan, who died at the age of one hundred and
two, there lived the famous Sevillian _toreros_, the brothers Palomo,
Manuel Bellón, Lorenzo Manuel, Joaquin Rodriguez, and Pepe Hillo, or
Illo.
Among the Andalusian schools of bull-fighting Ronda was renowned for
daring, and Seville for coolness. The intrepidity of the Sevillian
bull-fighters was remarkable. The _salto del trascuerno_, or jump across
the head of the bull, was one of their favourite feats. Mr. Williams
tells us that the most redoubtable of all the _toreros_ of Seville was
one Martin Barcaiztegui, called Martincho, a cowherd of Guipuzcoa.
Martincho was a pupil of the famous José Leguregui, and his bravery
excelled that of his trainer. 'His favourite accomplishment was to mount
upon a table, when his legs were closely fettered with massive irons.
The whole was then set opposite the _toril_. The bull, emerging, sighted
the table, covered with a crimson cloth, and charged it, when Martincho
would leap along his back from head to tail, and alight in perfect
safety. The table, one presumes, went flying into splinters. On a
certain occasion, at Zaragoza, Martincho, seated in a chair, killed a
bull by a single thrust, using his hat as a _muleta_.'
Martincho died in 1800, having survived the dangers of the arena. He
lived for a time with the artist Goya, who has drawn his friend in
several of his bull-fighting pictures. Costillares and Pepe Hillo were
also celebrated for their reckless daring in the bull-fighting
exhibitions of Seville. These heroes retired from the ring before Godoy
influenced Maria Luisa to suppress the _corrida_. For three years there
was no bull-fighting in Spain. Upon the revival of the sport under
Joseph Bonaparte, Pedro Romero was appointed chief instructor of
Ferdinand's academy of tauromachia at Seville. This _matador_ died at
Ronda in 1839. During his public career, he killed no less than 5,600
bulls.
BULL-FIGHTING OF THE PRESENT.
Montes now comes into prominence among the famous _toreros_ of
Andalusia. Francisco Montes fought for the first time at Madrid in 1832.
He attracted the notice of Candido, of the academy of bull-fighters at
Seville, and he was accepted as a pupil and granted a pension of six
_reales_ per day. Montes introduced the modern style in the art of the
_torero_. He wrote a treatise on bull-fighting, entitled: _El arte de
torear á pie y á caballo_. 'Considered to be the _torero's_ very bible
for the infallible wisdom of its precepts.'
The _matador_ of to-day is the idol of the populace; but he is not so
honoured by persons of noble birth as in the earlier times of
bull-fighting. Luis Mazzantini is perhaps the greatest living _torero_.
Guerrita has retired. Antonio Fuentes and Reverte are accomplished
bull-fighters. Montes died of injuries received in the ring, in the year
1850, at the age of forty-six.
To show the favour formerly extended to the _torero_, we may quote the
story of Lavi and Queen Isabel II. Lavi was a Romany by birth, and a
bold _matador_ of his day. During a royal _corrida_, the gipsy pluckily
tore out the _moña_, or bunch of ribbons in the bull's neck, and
advanced towards the Queen. 'Here,' he cried, 'this is the first _moña_
your majesty has had the honour of receiving at my hands!'
The retinue of the _matador_ consists of the _picadores_, or mounted
spearmen, the _banderilleros_, or dart throwers, and the _monos sabios_,
who repair the damages to the wretched horses and thrash them to their
feet. The _matador_ is clad in silk and gold, with a spangled cloak,
which he wears in the parade of the fighters previous to the display. It
is stated by one writer that a bull fight in Seville cost from £1100 to
£1200. The value of each bull killed is about £70. The _matador's_ fee
is from £120 to £200; but this includes the fees paid by him to his
_cuadrilla_, or troupe. The horses are valued at from £120 to £200,
according to the number killed by the bull. The cost of the seats is
from a _peseta_ to three _duros_. Guerrita could 'command all over Spain
and in the South of France almost any remuneration.' The _banderilleros_
receive about fifty dollars, and the _picadores_ something less than
that for their share in the performance.
The glory that surrounds the _matador_ induces a large number of Spanish
youths to adopt the profession of bull-fighting. In consequence, there
is a surplus of indifferent _toreros_ and novices, who are awaiting
their chance for promotion and for an appearance in the arena.
These hangers-on of the sport are to be seen in the Puerta del Sol of
Madrid, and in the _paseos_ and streets of Seville. They have a 'horsey'
air, and are proficient at lounging, and chaffing the women who pass by.
A little pigtail hangs from the brims of their hats, and they are fond
of frilled shirts, in which they display paste studs. Every city and
provincial town of Spain has its _aficionados_ of bull-fighting. These
amateurs talk learnedly upon _encierros_, _suertes_, and _pases por
alto_. They are vain of their acquaintance with popular _toreros_, and
they read all the literature of the beloved sport. The _Historia del
Toreo_ is better known among these 'sports' than the poems of 'Herrera
the divine.' At the _cafés_ they pore over the bull-fighting journals,
_El Toréo_, _El Enáno_, and _La Lidia_.
Mr. H. T. Finck describes the bull fight as 'the most unsportsmanlike
and cowardly spectacle I have ever seen.' This author does not believe
that bull-fighting is highly dangerous. 'No man,' he writes, 'who has a
sense of true sport would engage with a dozen other men against a brute
that is so stupid as to expend its fury a hundred times in succession on
a piece of red cloth, ignoring the man who holds it.'
The bull fight not dangerous! I can imagine the indignation of the
devotees of the sport at such a suggestion. Personally, I am not in a
position to affirm how great or how small is the peril to the man who
finds himself alone in a ring, face to face with a savage Andalusian
bull. I have, however, been told by a Spaniard, living in Madrid, that
the fluttering of the red cloth certainly distracts the bull's attention
from its combatant, and that the animal invariably closes its eyes when
the _muleta_ is whisked in its face. This 'fact,' given on the authority
of my Spanish friend, may throw a side-light on the art of the
_matador_. But I am certainly not prepared to say that bull-fighting is
without danger to the human performers in the tournament. Many lives
have been lost in the arena, and injuries are of comparatively common
occurrence. On October 7, 1900, Dominguin was killed at Barcelona; two
novices were wounded at Carabanchel; Parrao was injured at Granada,
Telilas had his collar-bone broken at Madrid, and Bombita was wounded at
the same place. Such was one day's list of mishaps in the amphitheatres
of Spain.
Until infuriated by the lances and darts, many of the bulls are far from
savage. There is the story of a bull in the arena, that recognised the
voice of a lad, who had tended it on the plains, and came towards its
friend with apparent pleasure at the re-meeting. On the other hand,
there is the account of the bull of Muruve, who fought at Seville, in
1898, and carried a horse and a _picador_ upon its horns from the
barrier to the centre of the ring. A strong bull will sometimes toss a
_picador's_ saddle high in the air; yet Mr. Williams tells us that two
men are required to carry the saddle. Bulls frequently leap the
_barrera_ of the arena, although the height is over five feet. 'At
Málaga, some six years ago, a bull leaped over the barrier at precisely
the same spot _fourteen_ times in swift succession. At Madrid, in 1898,
another cleared _both_ barriers,' writes Mr. Williams, 'landing with his
head among the spectators, but falling back into the _callejón_. On
April 30, 1896, at Madrid, Ermitaño, the second bull of the _corrida_,
cleared the barrier four times, jamming a carpenter between a pair of
doors and severely injuring him. All the above I have myself witnessed;
but other feats, perfectly authenticated, are even more remarkable.'
The Plaza de Toros at Seville is a handsome building. It was constructed
to seat fourteen thousand spectators. The chief fights take place on
Domingo de Resurrección, and during the week of the _feria_, in April.
The seats are arranged in boxes (_palcos_), the _asientos de barrera_
(barrier seats) and the _asientos de grada_. A higher price is charged
for seats in the _sombra_, or shade; while the cheaper positions,
occupied by the poorer classes, are in the _sol_, or sunshine.
It is fashionable to drive to the _corrida_ behind four or six horses or
mules, with gay trappings and jangling bells. Hawkers, thieves,
programme vendors and beggars throng around the _plaza_. The half-hour
of waiting, preliminary to the first combat, is enlivened by the arrival
of smart people and notabilities of the city, while the orchestra plays
a selection of pieces.
Reverte or Fuentes arrives, and is acclaimed by his admirers. The
knowing _aficionados_, who have seen the doomed bulls in their
enclosure, promise an excellent show. The seats gradually fill; there is
a loud hum of conversation and a waving of fans by the _señoras_ in the
_palcos_. At a signal from the President of the _corridas_, the ring is
cleared of the groups of _toreros_ and their friends. Then the band
strikes up, and the bull-fighters march out, with the _matadores_ in
front of their attendants. They salute the President. The key of the
bull enclosure is thrown down, an official unlocks the door, and into
the arena canters the first bull, to encounter a charge from the
_picador_. Sometimes the bull refuses to fight. The beast is lazy,
good-tempered, or dazed. Not even the darts will enrage the creature. It
gazes upon its tormentors with benign amazement. This poor sport; _toro_
must be worried into a passion. An explosive dart is thrown at the bull.
The fire burns into its nerves. It is more than the most placid bull
nature can endure with patience. _Toro_ lowers its horns and rushes upon
its assailants.
The spectators, men, women and children, closely watch every move and
double of the fighters. A _picador_ is thrown. The horse, with a ghastly
dripping wound in its flank, rushes around the ring. It is met by the
bull, gored, and tossed in the air. The wounded nag cannot regain its
feet. Again and again the infuriated _toro_ vents its rage on the
struggling horse. Presently, the bull's attention is drawn from the
steed, and it turns to face the gaudy _matador_. A thrust of a dagger
ends the convulsive kicking of the dying horse.
With scientific precision, the swordsman flutters his _muleta_ in the
bull's face. At each charge the _matador_ bounds aside, and the beast
worries the red rag. At length, _toro_ stands snorting and pawing the
ground. The magnificent brute surveys his enemy with hatred, and makes
another rush. Again it is thwarted. Finally, the sword is plunged deftly
into the creature's viscera. _Toro_ trembles, falls, and lies prone. The
_coup de grace_ is administered with a big knife. There is deafening
applause, the strains of the band, and the dead bull is dragged from the
ring by a team of mules.
'When I see children at the _corrida_, I sigh and think of the future of
Spain,' said my Spanish friend. Such expression of opinion is almost
treasonable. Long live the bull fight! Humanitarian cant is not to be
taken seriously. It is not only the Spanish people who love the sport.
'There are no more enthusiastic patrons of the bull ring in Madrid,'
writes Mr. H. C. Chatfield Taylor, author of _The Land of the Castanet_,
'than many of the foreign diplomats, and one remembers clearly the
Secretary of the United States Legation, stationed in Madrid at the time
of a former visit, saying that he was an annual subscriber, and had not
missed a _corrida_ during his entire term of office.'
THE LIFE OF THE FIGHTING BULL.
In Great Britain our nobility and gentle-folk breed racehorses. In Spain
the aristocracy and grandees rear bulls for the ring. The breeders of
bulls are termed _ganaderos_. Around Seville, Jerez, Huelva and
Valladolid are born the _toros bravos_. At the age of one year the bulls
selected for the arena are branded, and sent on to the plains to graze,
in charge of a _conocedor_, who is assisted by an _ayudante_. When the
bulls are two years of age, they are tried for the first time to prove
their pluck and pugnacity. At four years old they are put into huge
enclosures of good pasturage, and in time of scarcity they are fed upon
vetches, maize and wheat. From five to seven _toro_ is warrantable for
the _lidia_. At his trial, at the age of two years, the owner of the
herd invites a number of friends to the ranche. Young and clever
horsemen attend these trials, and vie with one another in courage. The
_caballeros_ are armed with the _garrochas_, lances about twelve feet in
length, with short steel points. Visitors to Seville may often see
parties of mounted sportsmen returning from these _tentadores_, or
trials.
A bull is separated from its companions. The horseman, carrying the
_garrocha_, pursues the brute, and attempts to overturn it by a powerful
thrust on the flank, delivered at full gallop. The horseman must be a
bold rider, possessed of coolness and strong in the arm. If the charge
is successful, _toro_ tumbles with its feet in the air. Another rider
now takes up the attack. He has a sharper spear, and is called _el
tentador_. Should the young bull refuse to charge, it is discarded as a
_toro bravo_, and the slaughter-house or the life of labour awaits it.
The chosen bulls are then christened, and entered upon the breeder's
list of warrantable animals. In due time their names appear on the
brilliant placards advertising the _corridas_ of Seville or Cadiz.
'The _tentadero_ at the present day,' writes the authors of _Wild
Spain_, 'affords opportunity for aristocratic gatherings, that recall
the tauromachian tournaments of old. Even the Infantas of Spain enter
into the spirit of the sport, and have been known themselves to wield
the _garrocha_ with good effect, as was, a few months ago, the case at a
brilliant _fête champêtre_ on the Sevillian _vegas_, when the Condesa de
Paris and her daughter, Princess Elena, each overthrew a sturdy
two-year-old; the Infanta Eulalia riding _á ancas_, or pillion-fashion,
with an Andalucian nobleman, among the merriest of a merry party.'
Travelling by rail across the wide and lonely plains of Southern and
Central Spain, the stranger often sees large herds of bulls, quietly
grazing in charge of an attendant, who leans upon a long wooden staff,
and wears a plaid upon his shoulder. The Spanish travellers crowd to the
window at the magical words _los toros_, and in an animated manner the
points of the herd are discussed. This pleasant pastoral life lasts for
five years of the bull's life, though during that time it has to endure
the trial with the _garrocha_. The bulls are divided into three classes
after the _tientas_, or trials, _i.e._, those of the first rank, the
'brave bulls'; those of the second order, the _novillos_, which are used
by second-rate _matadores_ and beginners, and those sentenced to death,
or a life of toil. Amongst the most eminent strains of Andalusian bulls
used for the ring are those of Cámara, Miura, Muruve, Pérez de la
Concha, Conradi, Adalid, Ibarra, Saltillo, and Anastasio Martin.
The animals are sold from four to eight at a time, according to the
status of the _corrida_ for which they are purchased. If the distance to
the ring is short, the bulls are driven by night through the country,
and pastured in the daytime. They are led by peaceable cattle with bells
hung from their necks. 'These intelligent beasts keep the wild ones
together and out of mischief,' says Mr. Leonard Williams, 'with the
same unerring watchfulness as a collie controlling a flock of sheep, and
lightening to an incalculable extent the labours of the accompanying
horsemen.' At night the bulls are driven into the town, the sides of the
streets being barricaded. When the beasts are consigned to buyers at a
long distance from the ranche, they are conveyed by rail in strong
boxes.
Just before the encounter in the ring, the _toros_ are confined in the
_chiqueros_, dark dens with strong doors that are opened and closed by
ropes pulled from above. Difficulty is often experienced in coaxing
refractory animals into these cells. The operation is witnessed by
_aficionados_, who pay a fee for the privilege.
Among the best-known _garrochistas_ of modern times are the Señores Don
Antonio Miura, Don Faustino Morube, Don Miguel Garcia, Don Guillermo
Ochoteco, Don José Silva, Don Fernando Concha, Don Agusto Adalid, Don
Angel Zaldos, Don Manuel Sanchez-Mira, Marques de Bogaraya, Marques de
Guadalest, Don Frederico Huesca, and the Marques de Castellones. Two of
the finest exponents of the art of wielding the _rejón_, or short
lance--a weapon surviving from the early times of the _lidia_--are the
Señores Heredia, Ledesma, and Grané. Mr. Williams says that there are
not a dozen horsemen in Spain and Portugal who can successfully perform
the feat of killing the bull with the _rejón_.
'An animated spectacle it is on the even of the _corrida_,' write the
authors of _Wild Spain_, 'when amidst clouds of dust and clang of bells,
the tame oxen and wild bulls are driven forward by galloping horsemen
and levelled _garrochas_. The excited populace, already intoxicated with
bull-fever and the anticipation of the coming _corridas_, lining the way
to the Plaza, careless if in the enthusiasm for the morrow they risk
some awkward rips to-day.
'Once inside the lofty walls of the _toril_, it is easy to withdraw the
treacherous _cabestros_, and one by one to tempt the bulls each into a
small separate cell, the _chiquero_, the door of which will to-morrow
fall before his eyes. Then, rushing upon the arena, he finds himself
confronted and encircled by surging tiers of yelling humanity, while the
crash of trumpets and glare of moving colours madden his brain. Then the
gaudy horsemen, with menacing lances, recall his day of trial on the
distant plain, horsemen now doubly hateful in their brilliant glittering
tinsel. No wonder the noble brute rushes with magnificent fury to the
charge.'
The bull fight of Spain and Portugal is the modern form of the
gladiatorial shows of ancient Rome. At Urbs Italica, the Roman city of
old, is the ring wherein many victims of Pagan persecution were forced
to combat with fierce beasts. It is but a step upwards from this
sanguinary sport to the tournament with bulls, introduced into Andalusia
by the Moors. The fascination of the horrible is the motive that impels
men to witness exhibitions involving risk of human life and cruelty
towards animals. Our bull-baiting with dogs was certainly not more
sportsmanlike than the Spanish duels between knights, armed only with
the lance or sword, and a fierce bull of the plains. Yet bull-baiting
was a favourite diversion of the British nation from the time of King
John until about a hundred years ago. In the reign of Elizabeth
bear-baiting was a fashionable recreation in London, and there were
'Easter fierce hunts, when foaming boars fought for their heads, and
lusty bulls and huge bears were baited with dogs' (_Sports of England_).
When public opinion began to recoil from such barbarous amusements,
Windham, in the House of Commons, made a brilliant speech in defence of
the sport of bull-baiting, and the Bill for its abolition was rejected.
That was in 1802. Yet, no doubt, a number of our countrymen of that
period were accustomed to denounce the atrocious cruelty of the Spanish
bull-fighters.
Statute 5 and 6, William IV., in 1835, made bull-baiting and
cock-fighting illegal. The Act enjoined 'that any person keeping or
using any house, pit, or other place, for baiting or fighting any bull,
bear, dog, or other animal (whether of a domestic or wild kind), or for
cock-fighting, shall be liable to a penalty of £5 for every day he shall
so keep and use the same.' In 1837 the provisions of this Act were
extended to Ireland.
We must remember, therefore, that a high stage of culture and refinement
must be attained before nations will consent to abandon cruel and
dangerous contests between men and brutes, or between beasts. Even in
Spain there is a growing revolt from the exhibitions of combats between
bulls and other animals, which are sometimes given in the big towns. In
these fights--which take place in a cage in the centre of an arena--a
wretched, half-fed lion or elephant is pitted against a bull.
Cock-fighting still flourishes in the Peninsula. It is popular in
Seville, and like bull-fighting, the sport has its _aficionados_ in
every town and hamlet. Sunday, after Mass, is the favourite day for a
display of cock-fighting. These _funciones gallisticas_ have been
described by one or two writers upon Spain, who agree that the diversion
is of a degrading character.
Those among my readers who are interested in bull-fighting, its history
and its anecdotes, will find a chapter on 'Tauromachia' in that
fascinating work _Wild Spain_, by Mr. Abel Chapman and Mr. Walter J.
Buck. A full account of the sport, and the most modern of all the
numerous contributions to the literature of the bull ring, is that in
the three special chapters of Mr. Leonard Williams's _The Land of the
Dons_, published in 1902.
CHAPTER XV
_Information for the Visitor_
Most English visitors to Seville travel by way of Paris, Irún, the
Spanish frontier town, and Madrid. By this route the interesting towns
of Vittoria, Burgos, Valladolid and Segovia may be visited should the
tourist's time permit. Many travellers break their journey at Madrid,
spend a day or two in that city, and proceed by the night-express to
Seville. For comfort, it is advisable to take the south express _train
de luxe_ from the Quai D'Orsay, Paris. This train is made up of
first-class carriages only, and provided with sleeping berths, for which
there is an extra charge. By the ordinary express trains the journey is
slower, and the traveller has to provide his sleeping accommodation in
the shape of rugs and pillows. A pillow may be hired at most of the
large Spanish railway stations for one peseta, _i.e._, sevenpence
half-penny in British money.
Railway travelling in Spain is not luxurious. The first-class
compartments are usually stuffy, and at night they are ill-lighted,
while the second-class carriages will not compare with the English
third-class. Compartments of the _tercera clase_ (third-class) are
uncomfortable and cushionless. They may be used for short day journeys
in Spain by the stranger who wishes to come into touch with the people.
As a rule, the third-class passengers are quite orderly in behaviour,
and the foreigner need not fear to travel with them. Still, from the
point of view of comfort, the Spanish third-class cannot be recommended,
especially to ladies.
The journey by rail from Madrid is across the monotonous plains of La
Mancha, made world-famous by the exploits of Don Quixote, through
interminable olive gardens, wide grass meadows, and by groups of bare
and fantastic rocks, to ancient Córdova. Thence we reach the fertile
land of Andalusia, follow the windings of the clay-stained Guadalquivir,
and come into the district of the cactus and almond tree, and a
semi-tropical climate.
Before leaving the railway station square, the stranger must submit to
the inspection of his luggage by the customs' officers (_consumos_), who
are on the watch for taxed articles. Usually the search is a mere
formality, as English visitors are rarely regarded as 'suspects.' Assure
the officer that you have nothing to sell, and he will in most instances
refrain from overhauling your baggage.
Hotel omnibuses, cabs and outside porters await the arrival of every
train at the Estación de Cordoba. The fare for a one-horse carriage to
any part of Seville, with one or two passengers, is a peseta, and for
each piece of luggage the charge is from half-a-peseta to a peseta. The
driver expects a _propina_ ('tip') of at least half-a-peseta. Avoid
hotel touts and loafers who crowd outside the railway station.
_Hotels._--The majority of English and American visitors stay at the
Hôtel de Madrid, at the corner of the Plaza del Pacifico. It is a large
house, with a court in the Moorish style, adorned with palms. The
position is central. The boarding terms are from about twelve pesetas
per day, but the charge is from about fifteen pesetas in the spring
season. The Hôtel de Paris is also in the Plaza del Pacifico. Here the
tariff is about ten pesetas per diem, and the cuisine is of the
first-class Spanish order.
Smaller, but comfortable, hostelries are Hôtel de Roma and the Hôtel
Europa, with a pension tariff of ten pesetas. If the visitor desires to
see something of the life of Spanish people of the middle-class, he will
prefer to take up his quarters in one of the minor hotels. Such a house
is that of Juan Zamanillo, Hôtel de la Victoria, in the Plaza Nueva. The
charge here is from five pesetas a day, which includes a comfortable
bedroom, with clean linen and mosquito curtains to the bed, luncheon
(_almuerzo_), and dinner (_comida_). The Victoria is frequented by
English artists, and the proprietor is accustomed to English guests. The
head waiter is an intelligent man. In hotels of this order the sanitary
arrangements are Spanish. Even in the first-class houses of Spain these
arrangements need improvement. On the other hand, the rooms are
scrupulously clean, the cuisine very fair, and the bedrooms comfortable.
At most of the hotels there is an extra charge for the early breakfast
(_desayuno_), which consists of a cup of chocolate, flavoured with
cinnamon, or of _café con leche_ (coffee with milk), and a small roll
without butter. Many Spaniards take a cup of coffee in their bedrooms
about half-past eight in the morning, and do not eat until luncheon,
which is usually served in Seville from eleven till one. Visitors who
are accustomed to a substantial breakfast often find themselves somewhat
faint by the hour of _almuerzo_. The two meals are much alike in their
courses. Soup, fish, meat or poultry, salad, cream cheese of Burgos,
fried potatoes, various kinds of cakes and fruit are served at luncheon
and dinner. The table wine is provided free of charge, but it is often
of a very inferior quality, and should be used sparingly, especially in
hot weather. A cheap, palatable wine is the Rioja. Mineral waters can
be had at all the hotels and _cafés_.
At the Spanish houses, as distinguished from the hotels mostly
frequented by foreigners, Andalusian dishes form the chief part of the
_menu_. Shad, sea-bream and codfish, garnished with onions, are served
cold. _Pollo con arroz_ (fowl with rice), and curried rice, with cockles
and sausages, are favourite dishes. One course is usually composed of
stewed mutton, or beefsteaks grilled. The meal begins with eggs, boiled,
poached, or made into savoury omelettes. Those visitors who do not enjoy
the flavour of garlic should say to the waiter, "_No ajo, sirvase_,"
_i.e._, "No garlic, if you please," before ordering an omelette. In the
larger hotels the cookery is usually French, with an occasional dish of
the country.
_Cafés._--Spaniards spend a good share of their leisure time in the
_cafés_. In Seville the chief resorts of this kind are in the Calle de
las Sierpes, the Calle Tetuan, and the Plaza Nueva. It is the custom in
Spain to make business appointments and to arrange friendly meetings in
the _cafés_. The drinks are coffee, chocolate, tea, wines, liqueurs, and
mineral waters. Coffee is usually taken black, with cognac. The spirits
are _caña_, _agua ardiente_, and cognac. A favourite liqueur is
anisette. At some of these houses Bass's ale and Scotch whisky can be
obtained. The Spanish bottled cider (_sidra_) is a refreshing drink,
mixed with lemonade, in hot weather.
An English medical practitioner, Dr. Dalebrook, resides in the Calle
Albareda, leading out of the Calle Tetuan. A guide, whom I can recommend
as well-informed, is Señor Carlos Rudé, 22 Otumba. Señor Rudé is known
as "Charles" by the English visitors. He speaks English well, and can
obtain entrance to private collections of paintings in the city.
A large stock of interesting photographs of Seville, pictures and
characters is kept by Señor Julio Beauchy, 24 Calle de Rioja.
* * * * *
A LIST OF BOOKS UPON SEVILLE, OR CONTAINING REFERENCES TO THE CITY.
_History._
'Sevilla' (A volume in the series '_España_')--Don Pedro de
Madrazo.
'Annales de Sevilla'--Don Ortiz de Zuñiga.
'Sevilla Histórica,' etc.--By 'A Son of Seville.'
'Histoire des Arabes d'Espagne' (3 vols.)--De Circourt.
'Memoirs of the Kings of Spain' (5 vols.)--W. Coxe.
'History of Spain and Portugal'--Dunham.
'Ferdinand and Isabella'--Prescott.
'History of the Reformation in Spain'--T. M'Crie.
'The Ottoman and the Spanish Empires'--L. Ranke.
'History of the Reign of Philip II.'--R. Watson.
'Philip II.'--Prescott.
'Charles V.'--Armstrong.
'Recherches sur l'histoire et la littérature de l'Espagne'--Dozy.
'Spain'--H. E. Watts.
'The Moors in Spain'--S. Lane-Poole.
'The Inquisition'--Llorente.
'The Story of Spain'--E. E. and S. Hale.
'Historia de la Ciudad de Sevilla'--Joaquin Guichot.
'Historia de Sevilla'--Alonso Morgado.
'Antigüedades Prehistóricas de Andalucia'--Miguel de Gongora.
_Art._
'Descripción Artística de la Catedral de Sevilla'--Cean Bermudez.
'Seville Mosque Cathedral' (Paper Architect. Society)--R. H.
Carpenter.
'An Architect's Note Book in Spain'--D. Wyatt.
'Annals of the Artists of Spain'--Sir W. Stirling-Maxwell.
'Spanish and French Painters'--G. W. Smith.
'Velazquez'--G. C. Williamson.
'The Industrial Arts of Spain'--J. F. Riaño.
'La Giralda'--A. Alvarez Benavides.
'Alcázar de Sevilla'--J. Gestoso y Pérez.
'La Imprenta en Sevilla.'
'Velazquez: Life and Work'--G. H. Stokes.
'Renaissance Architecture and Ornament in Spain'--A. N. Prentice.
'Seville Cathedral' (article in 'Macmillan's Magazine,' May
1903)--Havelock Ellis.
_Literature._
'History of Spanish and Portuguese Literature' (2
vols.)--Bouterwek.
'History of Spanish Literature'--Ticknor.
'The Spanish Drama'--G. H. Lewes.
'Vida de Cervantes'--M. F. Navarette.
'Tipografía Española'--Mendez.
'Spanish Literature'--H. Butler Clarke.
'Life of Cervantes '--J. Fitz-Maurice-Kelly.
'Cervantes'--H. E. Watts.
_Social and General._
'Letters from Spain'--Doblado (Blanco White).
'Handbook for Spain'--R. Ford.
'Old Court Life in Spain'--F. M. Elliott.
'The Bible in Spain'--Geo. Borrow.
'Spanish Vistas'--G. P. Lathrop.
'Voyage en Espagne'--T. Gautier.
'Spain and Portugal' (Handbook)--Karl Baedeker.
'The Zincali'--Geo. Borrow.
'A Summer in Andalusia' (2 vols.)--R. Bentley.
'Seville' (article in 'Harper's Magazine,' March 1901)--Arthur
Symons.
'Spanish Cities'--C. A. Stoddard.
'The Land of the Castanet'--H. Chatfield-Taylor.
INDEX
A
Abdelasis, 19, 20.
Abdelgafar, 22.
Abdelmelic, 21, 22.
Abdelola, 19.
Abderahman I., 21.
Abu Abdallah, 24.
Abu el Kásim, 26.
Abu Said, Red King, 37.
Alcázar, 6, 23, 30, 35, 39, 61, 63, 65, 88, 110-128, 237.
Aleman, author, 139.
Alesio, painter, 101.
Alfonso, the Wise, 6, 34-36.
Almohades, 28, 30, 31, 32, 73, 110, 213.
Almoravides sect, 26-29.
Amalaric, 13.
Aqueduct, 11.
Archbishop's Palace, 205.
Arfian, artist, 153.
Arms of city, 241.
Augustus, 11.
Averroes, 25.
Avila, 5.
Ayub, 20.
Ayuntamiento, 63, 211.
B
Barca, Hamilcar, 8.
Bartolomé, San, church, 193.
Bazan, author, 144.
Berbers, 17, 18, 27.
Bermudez, 149, 179.
Bernardo, San, church, 194.
Bizet's _Carmen_, 141.
Black Prince, 42.
Blanco White, 59, 69.
Bonifaz, Admiral, 31-32.
Books relating to Seville, 266-268.
Borrow, George, 5, 140-141, 232.
Buckle, 26, 188.
Bull-fights, 225, 242-261.
Byron, 5, 139, 240.
C
Caballero, Fernan, author, 139.
_Cafés_, 265.
Campaña, painter, 107, 151-152, 163, 177, 237.
Cano, A., artist, 95-96, 160, 177.
Caridad Hospital, 161, 205-208.
Carlos V., 63, 123, 127, 128, 176, 187.
Caro, historian, 131.
Cartagena, 8.
Cartuja, 236.
Casa Abades, 202.
Casa Pilatos, 39, 62, 124, 132-134.
Casa Taveras, 201.
Casanova, sculptor, 91.
Catalina, Santa, church, 191.
Cathedral, 67, 73, 85-109.
Cato, 6.
Cepero, Don, 168, 209, 210.
Cervantes, 6, 67, 135-139, 212, 241.
Céspedes, artist, 103.
Cid, 28-30.
Columbus, Christopher, 6, 25, 43-46.
Columbus, Fernando, 106.
Columbus Library, 211.
Condé, historian, 24.
Córdova, 2, 20, 21, 41, 73, 81, 127, 263.
Corpus Christi, 230.
Court of Oranges, 73, 95.
Custodia, 102.
D
Dancart, artist, 105.
Dancing, 25, 231-232;
in cathedral, 228.
Delicias, 81.
Dello, painter, 147.
Don Quixote, 138.
Dunham, historian, 92.
E
Edward VII. at Seville, 71.
Egidius, Protestant preacher, 54.
El Begi, the Sage, 24.
El Greco, 107, 183.
Englishmen and Inquisition, 58-59.
English sailors, 239.
Ermenigild, 13-15.
Eslava, composer, 228-229.
Eyck, J. Van, 147.
F
Fabrica de Tabacos, 211, 236
Feria of Seville, 225-226;
street of, 235-236.
Fernandez, painter, 149, 205.
Fernando I., 27.
Fernando III., San, 31-34, 104, 113.
Finck, H. T., 220, 222, 252.
Fishermen of Seville, 239.
Floods in Seville, 2.
Frutet, F., painter, 183.
G
Gautier, 5, 86.
Gever, architect, 73.
Gil, San, church, 191.
Giordano, painter, 99.
Gipsies, 226, 232-234.
Giralda Tower, 23, 24, 70, 73, 77-82, 86, 95, 110, 237.
Golden Tower, 113.
Góngora, 135, 142.
Goya, 102, 107, 178, 197, 246.
Granada, 23
Guadalquivir, 1, 2, 5, 11, 21, 22, 69, 113, 224, 238, 243.
Guide to Seville, 265.
H
Hamilcar Barca, 8.
Hasdrubal, 8.
Hernandez, painter, 100.
Herrera, 96, 131, 137, 156, 163, 164, 179.
Herrera El Mozo, 155.
Horse racing, 224, 225.
Hospital Civil, 210.
Hotels, 263-265.
I
Ingunda, 14.
Inquisition, 49-60.
Isabella the Catholic, 42, 44, 48-51, 60, 61, 122.
Isidoro, San, 6, 13, 15-16, 193.
Italica, 8, 11, 12, 81, 176, 259.
J
James, Henry, 192.
Juan I., 121.
Julian, San, church, 194.
Justa and Rufina, 194-198.
Justi, Professor, 147, 172.
K
Keys of Seville, 33.
King of the Suevi, 14.
L
Lathrop, G. P., 220, 221.
Leal, Valdés, artist, 96, 99, 100, 160-161, 180, 209.
Leandro, San, 6, 13.
Lebrixa, scholar, 143, 144.
Leighton, Lord, 146, 149.
Leovigild, 13.
Library of Cathedral, 129.
Llorente, historian of Inquisition, 57-58, 60.
Lonja, 74, 205.
Losada, Doctor, 58.
Lucia, Santa, church, 193.
M
Macarena, suburb, 234, 235.
M'Crie, historian of Inquisition, 50, 54.
Magellan, 46, 47.
Majos of Seville, 219, 241.
Marcos, San, church, 190.
Maria de Padilla, 37, 41, 114.
Marmolejo, painter, 100, 153.
Maxwell-Stirling, 148, 157, 172, 183, 208.
Michelangelo, 105.
Miguel of Florence, 74.
Mir, 14.
Montañez, 67, 100, 108, 185, 186, 210, 228.
Moors, 22, 28, 30, 31, 62, 65, 66, 67, 69, 73, 77, 88, 109, 110,
113-114, 123, 124, 129, 132, 190, 202.
Morel, sculptor, 106.
Mosque of Seville, 20, 23, 73-82.
Motamid II., 28.
Mozart, 141.
Munebrega, inquisitor, 57.
Murillo, 99, 101, 102, 103, 104, 168-175, 177-179, 209;
statue to, 212.
Musa, 17, 19.
N
New World, discovery of, 25, 68.
Niculoso, designer, 117.
Novels of Cervantes, 135-139.
Nuñez, painter, 149.
O
Olmedus, 54.
Omnium Sanctorum, church, 191.
P
Pacheco, 67, 106, 108, 131-132, 154-155, 167.
Palomino, painter, 157.
Passion Plays, 231.
Paula, San, church, 191.
Pedro, the Cruel, 6, 36-42, 115, 120.
Pedro de Pampeluna, 146, 211.
Peninsular War, 71.
Philip II., 64, 115.
Philip III., 67.
Philip V., 67.
Phœnicians, 7-8.
Pizarro Hernando, 6, 47, 48.
Plague, 70, 71.
Plaza de Toros, 225, 253.
Ponce de León, 57.
Prado de San Sebastian, 51.
Prescott, 138.
Printing in Seville, 43.
Prosperity, 48, 49.
Puerto del Perdón, 74.
Puigblanch, 51.
R
Recared, King, 16.
Riaño, architect, 101, 103, 211.
Ribera, painter, 170.
Roderic, the Goth, 17, 18.
Roelas, artist, 99, 177, 179.
Roldan, artist, 108.
Romans, 8-12.
Romerias, 230.
Rossini's _Barber_, 141.
Roque, San, church, 193.
Rueda, dramatist, 130.
S
Sagrario, 77, 108.
Saints of Seville, 82, 194-198.
Salvador, San, church, 193.
Sanchez, artist, 148.
Schlegel, 13, 62.
_Semana Santa_, 228-230.
Siege of Seville, 32-34.
Sierpes, Calle de, 218, 219.
Silver Tower, 30.
Singing in _cafés_, 232.
Sturmio, artist, 95, 153, 163.
T
Tablas Alfonsinas, 103.
Tarik, 20.
Theudisel, 13.
Toledo, 199.
Torquemada, 57, 61.
Torriggiano, sculptor, 185.
Trajan, 12, 32.
Triana, 32, 24, 57, 232.
Trinidad, church, 194.
U
University of Seville, 62, 70, 210.
V
Valdés, Juan, painter, 207.
Valer, the Protestant, 52-54.
Vandals, 12.
Varela, artist, 194.
Vargas, fresco painter, 82, 101, 102, 107, 150, 151, 197.
Vasquez, painter, 153.
Velazquez, 165-168, 170, 212.
Visigoths, 17, 129.
Vos, painter, 183-184.
W
Walls of Seville, 11.
Watts, H. E., 17, 137.
Wilkie, David, 174.
Williams, Leonard, 225, 242, 245, 249, 253.
Wiseman, Cardinal, 141.
Witiza, 18.
Women of Seville, 219-222.
Wyatt, Digby, 134, 202, 205.
X
Xeres, 17.
Y
Yusuf, 21, 27, 28.
Z
Zuñiga, Ortiz de, 205, 266.
Zurbaran, 104, 156-159, 165, 169, 170, 177, 180-182, 211.
THE END
_Colston & Coy. Limited, Printers, Edinburgh._
A List of the Volumes in
The Mediæval Town Series
"_That most charming series of books._"--NOTES & QUERIES
"_There was ample room for a series which should put into the
traveller's hand a compact_ résumé _of what the research of local
historians had discovered and arranged. This series has gone far to
provide for this want. Such volumes as "Assisi" and "Florence" are
indispensable companion-volumes to Baedeker._"--TIMES
"_The series is one of the first-rate things in the bookmarket._"--DAILY
NEWS
"_An extremely pleasing series.... The volumes are fully illustrated,
and the letterpress, charmingly written, is a perfect mine of
information._"--GRAPHIC
"_The intelligent traveller has not been long in recognising their
worth._"--GUARDIAN
"_Brought out with the dainty care for both artist and reader that we
have a right to expect from Aldine House._"--SATURDAY REVIEW
"_For the library they are perfection, a pleasure to handle, as they are
also a pleasure to read._"--DAILY TELEGRAPH
"_They are guide-books, books for study, and books for reference, and at
the same time little galleries of art._"--ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS
_London: J. M. Dent & Co._
_Aldine House, Bedford Street, W.C._
1903
_List of Volumes_
_With numerous Topographical Drawings, Reproductions from Paintings and
Sculptures, Maps, and Plans. Fcap. 8vo (pocketable). In grey cloth and
limp green paste grain roan bindings._
ASSISI. By LINA DUFF GORDON. Illustrated by HELEN M. JAMES and
NELLY ERICHSEN.{*}
[_Second Edition._
"Miss Duff Gordon has told the story of Assisi exceedingly well and
produced one of the very best volumes that have yet appeared in the
series."--_Times._
BRUGES. By ERNEST GILLIAT-SMITH. Illustrated by HERBERT RAILTON and
EDITH CALVERT.{**}
"The wonder is how Mr. Gilliat-Smith has so cleverly managed to outline
all this material, and to describe all to be seen within such narrow
limits."--_World._
CAIRO. By STANLEY LANE-POOLE, Litt.D., M.A. Illustrated by J. A.
SYMINGTON and OTHERS.{**}
"A really good guide-book to Cairo. As a work of condensation, which
nevertheless remains both attractive and instructive, the book is much
to be recommended."--_Spectator._
CHARTRES. By CECIL HEADLAM. Illustrated by HERBERT RAILTON.{**}
"There is no exaggeration in saying that it is the best book in the
language on the town and church of which it deals. Everything is
here."--_Speaker._
CONSTANTINOPLE. By WILLIAM HOLDEN HUTTON. Illustrated by SYDNEY
COOPER.{*}
"A delightful book which we cordially recommend to travellers visiting
the Stambul."--_Athenæum._
FLORENCE. By EDMUND G. GARDNER. Illustrated by NELLY ERICHSEN.{**}
[_Third Edition._
"We recall few, it any, works of a similar kind which contrive to
display so complete a picture of a historic city.... A guide which every
tourist should take with him to Florence."--_Spectator._
MOSCOW. By WIRT GERRARE. Illustrated by HELEN M. JAMES.{*}
"A very pretty and handy guide to the city, which can easily be slipped
into the pocket of the tourist and certainly ought to find its way
there."--_Speaker._
NUREMBERG. By CECIL HEADLAM. Illustrated by HELEN M. JAMES, and
with Wood-cuts from Photographs.{*}
[_Third Edition._
"The general history is remarkably well done, and the descriptive and
biographical part is as cleverly done as the historical
outline."--_Morning Post._
PERUGIA. By MARGARET SYMONDS and LINA DUFF GORDON. Illustrated by
H. M. JAMES.{*}
[_Fourth Edition._
"Possesses charm as well as information, style as well as learning Work
more sympathetically rendered we have rarely seen"--_Outlook._
PRAGUE. By COUNT LÜTZOW. Illustrated by NELLY ERICHSEN.{*}
"It is reasonable to prognosticate a great success for this charming
little book.... Let us hope that our countrymen will rise refreshed and
instructed."--_Athenæum._
ROME. By NORWOOD YOUNG. Illustrated by NELLY ERICHSEN.{**}
[_Second Edition._
"All that distinguishes travel from sight-seeing. A complete series of
the events, buildings, personalities and ideas which will most interest
the better kind of traveller."--_Monthly Review._
ROUEN. By THEODORE ANDREA COOK. Illustrated by HELEN M. JAMES and
JANE E. COOK.{**}
[_Second Edition._
"This is your true COOK to conduct you on your next visit to Normandy.
Erudition, charming vivacity of style, and most excellent
illustrations."--_Punch._
TOLEDO. By HANNAH LYNCH. Illustrated by HELEN M. JAMES.{*}
"No intelligent reader of the brilliant little monograph is likely to
forget easily the pleasure which will have been derived from a perusal
of its pages."--_Speaker._
VERONA. By ALETHEA WIEL. Illustrated by NELLY ERICHSEN and HELEN M.
JAMES.{**}
"Verona's story faithfully told by one who knows, who loves, and
understands it."--_Times._
_In Preparation_:
EDINBURGH. By OLIPHANT SMEATON, M.A.
OXFORD. By CECIL HEADLAM
CAMBRIDGE. By the Very Rev. C. W. STUBBS, D.D., Dean of Ely
AVIGNON. By ELLEN MARRIAGE
SIENA. By EDMUND G. GARDNER
CANTERBURY. By Dr SEBASTIAN EVANS and FRANK B. GOLDNEY, F.A.S.
LONDON. By H. B. WHEATLEY
FERRARA. By ELLA NOYES
RAVENNA. By EDMUND G. GARDNER
VENICE. By THOMAS OKEY
_Price per Volume_:--
{*} _Cloth 3/6 net; Roan 4/6 net._
{**} _Cloth 4/6 net; Roan 5/6 net._
_Mediæval Towns_
The enjoyment of foreign travel is so largely dependent upon the
sympathetic appreciation of the charms and treasures of the place
visited that a tour may be wholly marred by an indifferent or ignorant
guide; and so rarely is that charming companion to be found whose local
knowledge is co-extensive with his artistic instincts, that one has
perforce often to pursue one's journeys in search of the picturesque
unattended. In such circumstances the MEDIÆVAL TOWN SERIES fills the
breach, furnishing a guide whose knowledge is that of an authority,
whose descriptions do not weary us with their garrulity, and whose
opinions we may treasure in the safety of our coat pocket; to which,
also, we may always refer with pleasure when we wish to revive faded
recollections.
[Illustration: _Specimen Text Illustration_]
Artist and author have both made the objects and scenes described the
subject of careful personal observation, and are consequently able to
impart to their work that charm of local colour which lends vitality to
their pictures; every old-time thoroughfare and weather-beaten fabric
supplies some legend of saint or hero, and as the story of these
mediæval towns progresses, the reader's imagination is kindled until the
very spirit of the past pervades the page.
* * * _This page is set in the type of the series._
* * * * *
Alterations in the text made by the etext transcriber:
Abdelgfar=>Abdelgafar
Abdelgafr=>Abdelgafar {2}
Gránada=>Granada
then it its pristine splendour=>then in its pristine splendour
Francico=>Francisco {2}
Alfonzo=>Aflonso {2}
she had seem a fight=>she had seen a fight
peceptions=>perceptions
The ascetic artist was born in Seville, in 1502, and died there about
the year 1658=>The ascetic artist was born in Seville, in 1502, and died
there about the year 1568
Capella de San Hermenegildo=>The Capilla de San Hermenegildo
Hermenigildo=>Hermenegildo {2}
Francisan Convent=>Franciscan Convent
Alcazár=>Alcázar {3}
Franciso Pacheco=>Francisco Pacheco
Emilio Pardo Bazan=>Emilia Pardo Bazan
mannnerists=>mannerists
Chasuble on San Ildefenso=>Chasuble on San Ildefonso
San Ildefenso=>San Ildefonso
Sacristiá=>Sacristía {numerous}
Calices=>Cálices {3}
La Anunciación de Neustra Señora=>La Anunciación de Nuestra Señora
Neustra Señora de la Concepción=>Nuestra Señora de la Concepción
Sacristia=>Sacristía {6}
Sacristiá de los Cálices=>Sacristía de los Cálices {2}
La Anunciación de Neustra Señora=>La Anunciación de Nuestra Señora
Martinez Moñtanes=>Martinez Montañes
Mahommedan=>Mohommedan
nine fountain=>nine fountains
cannnot=>cannot
Spaniard are conservative=>Spaniards are conservative
A suvival=>A survival
it Morisco remains=>its Morisco remains
Sevillaños=>Sevillanos
smart poople=>smart people
A bull is separted=>A bull is separated
'Sevilla Historica,'=>'Sevilla Histórica,'
'Antigüedades Prehistoricas de Andalucia'=>'Antigüedades Prehistóricas
de Andalucia'
'Descripción Artistica de la Catedral de Sevilla'=>'Descripción
Artística de la Catedral de Sevilla'
'Tipografia Española'=>'Tipografía Española'
Dukes of Alcala=>Dukes of Alcalá
Fábrica de Tabácos=>Fábrica de Tabacos
Domenico Theotocopuli & Dominico Theotocopuli=>Doménico Theotocópuli
Vìrgen de la Rosa=>Virgen de la Rosa
Erminigild=>Ermenigild
Cap de los Evangelestas=>Cap de los Evangelistas
Sevilla Historica=>Sevilla Histórica
Pedro Villegas Marmolego, 1520-1597=>Should be: Pedro Villegas
Marmolejo, 1519-1596.
Patio de los Naranjas=>Should be: Patio de los Naranjos
FOOTNOTES:
[A] This and other interesting pictures may be seen by applying to the
owner of the collection.
[B] In _Sevilla Histórica_ the names of Juan Norman, Alonso Rodriguez
and Gonzalo Rojas are mentioned as architects employed before 1507.
[C] _See_ chapters on 'the Churches' and upon the 'Artists of Seville.'
[D] There is an excellent Catalogue, with a short historical memoir of
each artist, which can be purchased at the entrance of the Museo, for
the trifling sum of one _peseta_. It is, of course, in Spanish.
[E] The titles of the pictures are given in Spanish in order to
facilitate their identification in the Catalogue.
[F] The picture has been recently presented to the Museo, by the Infanta
Da Maria Luisa Fernanda, and is only mentioned in the Catalogue, in a
short notice at the end of the book.
[G] See separate chapter.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Story of Seville" ***
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