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Title: Old Continental Towns
Author: Hartley, C. Gasquoine (Catherine Gasquoine)
Language: English
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_OLD
CONTINENTAL
TOWNS_
[Illustration]
* * * * *
_Uniform with this Volume_
(_All very fully Illustrated_)
_The Cathedrals of England and Wales_
_By T. Francis Bumpus_ (_3 vols._) 6_s._ _net each_
_The Cathedrals of Northern France_
_By T. Francis Bumpus_ 6_s._ _net_
_The Cathedrals of Northern Germany and the Rhine_
_By T. Francis Bumpus_ 6_s._ _net_
_The Cathedrals of Northern Spain_
_By Charles Rudy_ 6_s._ _net_
_The Cathedrals and Churches of Northern Italy_
_By T. Francis Bumpus_ (9×6-1/2. 16_s._ _net_)
_The Cathedrals of Central Italy_
_By T. Francis Bumpus_ 6_s._ _net_
_London Churches Ancient and Modern_
_By T. Francis Bumpus_ (_2 vols._) 6_s._ _net each_
_The Abbeys of Great Britain_
By H. Claiborne Dixon 6_s._ _net_
_The English Castles_
By Edmond B. d'Auvergne 6_s._ _net_
_A History of English Cathedral Music_
_By John S. Bumpus_ (_2 vols._) 6_s._ _net each_
_The Cathedrals of Norway, Sweden and Denmark_
_By T. Francis Bumpus_ (9×6-1/2. 16_s._ _net_)
_Old English Towns_ (_First Series_)
_By William Andrews_ 6_s._ _net_
_Old English Towns_ (_Second Series_)
_By Elsie Lang_ 6_s._ _net_
_The Cathedrals and Churches of Belgium_
_By T. Francis Bumpus_ 6_s._ _net_
* * * * *
[Illustration: ROUEN, 1822.
A STREET SHOWING THE TOWER OF THE CATHEDRAL.]
OLD CONTINENTAL
TOWNS
BY
WALTER M. GALLICHAN
_Author of
"The Story of Seville," "Fishing and Travel
in Spain," "Cheshire," etc._
[Illustration]
LONDON
T. WERNER LAURIE
CLIFFORD'S INN
CONTENTS
PAGE
ROME 1
ASSISI 21
VENICE 30
PERUGIA 52
FLORENCE 57
VERONA 72
SEVILLE 79
CORDOVA 97
TOLEDO 120
GRANADA 135
OPORTO 152
POITIERS 164
ROUEN 170
CHARTRES 179
RHEIMS 186
BRUGES 192
GHENT 201
ANTWERP 211
AMSTERDAM 220
COLOGNE 229
HEIDELBERG 236
NUREMBERG 241
WITTENBERG 249
PRAGUE 259
ATHENS 266
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Rouen. A Street showing the Tower
of the Cathedral, 1822 _Frontispiece_
Rome. The Bridge and Castle of St
Angelo, 1831 _To face page_ 2
Venice. The Grand Canal, 1831 " 30
Florence. Ponte Santa Trinita, 1832 " 58
Verona. 1830 " 72
Seville. Plaza Real and Procession of
the Corpus Christi, 1836 " 80
Cordova. The Prison of the Inquisition,
1836 " 98
Toledo. 1837 " 120
Oporto. From the Quay of Villa Nova,
1832 " 152
Poitiers. The Church of Notre Dame,
1845 " 164
Ghent. 1832 " 202
Antwerp. The Cathedral, 1832 " 212
Cologne. St Martin's Church, 1826 " 230
Nuremberg. 1832 " 242
Prague. The City and Bridge, 1832 " 260
Athens. A supposed appearance if restored,
1824 " 266
OLD CONTINENTAL TOWNS
ROME
The story of Rome is a mighty chronicle of such deep importance towards
an understanding of the growth of Europe, that a feeling almost of
helplessness assails me as I essay to set down in this limited space an
account of the city's ancient grandeur and of its monuments. It is with
a sense of awe that one enters Rome. The scene gives birth to so much
reflection, the pulse quickens, the imagination is stirred by the annals
of Pompey and Cæsar, and the mighty names that resound in the history of
the wonderful capital; while the ruins of the days of power and pomp are
as solemn tokens of the fate of all great civilisations.
The surroundings of Rome, the vast silent Campagna, that rolling tract
of wild country, may be likened to an upland district of Wales. Here are
scattered relics of the resplendent days, in a desert where the sirocco
breathes hotly; where flocks of sheep and goats wander, and foxes prowl
close to the ancient gates. Eastward stand the great natural ramparts of
purple mountains, whence the Tiber rolls swiftly, and washing Rome,
winds on through lonely valleys.
Dim are the early records of the city. Myth and legend long passed as
history in the chronicles of the founding of Rome. We learn now from the
etymologists and modern historians that the name of Rome was not derived
from Roma, the mother of Romulus, nor from _ruma_, but, according to
Niebuhr, from the Greek _rhoma_, signifying strength; while Michelet
tells us that city was called after the River Rumo, the ancient name of
the Tiber.
[Illustration: ROME, 1831.
THE BRIDGE AND CASTLE OF ST. ANGELO.]
Romulus, the legendary founder, was supposed to have lived B.C. 752. The
growth of the community on the Seven Hills began, according to the old
annalists, with a settlement of shepherds. We are told that after the
death of Romulus, the first king, the city was ruled by Numa Pompilius.
This sovereign instituted nine guilds of industry, and united the mixed
population. Tarquinius Superbus, the despotic king, reigned with
fanatical religious austerity, and after his banishment Rome became a
republic.
The first system of rule was sacerdotal, the second aristocratic, and
the third a state of liberty for the plebeians. Then came the Gauls who
burned the city to the ground and harried the whole country. Hannibal
and Scipio arose, and we enter upon the period of the great Punic Wars,
followed by the stirring epoch of Cæsar and Pompey.
How shall we separate myth and simple tradition from the veracious
chronicles of the Roman people? What were the causes of the downfall of
their proud city, and the decadence of the great race that invaded all
quarters of Europe? These are the questions which fill the mind as we
wander to-day in Rome. We are reminded of the menace of wealth, the
insecurity of prosperity, and the devastating influence of militarism
and the lust of conquest. We meditate, too, on the spirit of persecution
that flourished here, the love of ferocity, and the cruelty that
characterised the recreations of the city under the emperors.
With all its eminence in art and industry, in spite of its high
distinction in the science of warfare, and its elaborate jurisprudence
and codes, Rome, at one time terrorised by Nero, at another humanely
governed by Aurelius, was in its last state a melancholy symbol of
decrepitude and failure. The final stage of degradation was worse than
the primitive period of barbarism and superstition.
In the Middle Ages, at the time when most of the wealth went to the
Popes of Avignon, the city had fallen into pitiful decay. The majestic
St Peter's was threatened by destruction through lack of repair; the
Capitol was described as on a level with "a town of cowherds."
The monarchy of Rome is said to have endured for about two hundred and
forty years. The city extended then over a wide area, and was protected
by walls and towers. The Coliseum, the Pantheon, and the Forum were
built as Rome grew in might and magnificence, and the Roman style of
architecture became a model for the world. Happily these structures have
survived. The Rome of pagan days and the Rome of the Renaissance are
mingled here strangely, and the pomp and affluence of former times
contrasts with the poverty of to-day that meets us in the streets.
Note the faces of the people; here are features stern and regular,
recalling often old prints of the Romans of history. The dress of the
poorer women is ancient, while that of the upper classes is as modern as
the costumes of Paris, Berlin, or London. On days of fête it is
interesting to watch these people at play, all animated with a southern
gaiety which the northerner may envy. The life of Rome is outdoor; folk
loiter and congregate in the streets; there is much traffic of vehicles
used for pleasure. Over the city stretches "the Italian sky," ardently
blue--the sky that we know from paintings before we have visited
Rome--and upon the white buildings shines a hot sun from which we shrink
in midsummer noons.
It is hard to decide which appeals to us the more strongly in Rome--the
relics of Cæsar's empire or the art of the Middle Ages. The Coliseum
brings to mind "the grandeur that was Rome," in the days of the pagan
majesty, while St Peter's, with its wealth of gorgeous decoration and
great paintings, reminds us of the supreme power of the city under the
popes.
In the Coliseum there is social history written in stone. We look upon
the tiers rising one above the other, and picture them in all the
splendour of a day of cruel carnival. We may see traces of the lifts
that brought the beasts to the arena from the dens below.
_Ad leones!_ The trumpet blares, and a victim of the heretical creed is
led into the amphitheatre to encounter the lions. How often has this
soil been drenched in blood. How often have the walls echoed with the
plaudits of the Roman populace, gloating upon a spectacle of torture, or
aroused to ecstasy by the combats of gladiators.
Silence broods in the arena, and in every interstice the maidenhair fern
grows rife among the decaying stones. The glory has departed, but the
shell of the Flavian amphitheatre remains as a monument of Rome's
imperial days. Here were held the chariot races, the competitions of
athletes, the tournaments on horseback, the baiting of savage brutes,
the wrestling bouts, throwing the spear, and the fights of martyrs with
animals. Luxury and cruelty rioted here on Roman holidays.
For a comprehensive view of the Coliseum, you should climb the Palatine
Hill. The hundreds of arches and windows admit the sunlight, and the
building glows, "a monstrous mountain of stone," as Michelet describes
it. Tons of the masonry have been removed by vandals. The fountain in
which the combatants washed their wounds remains, and the walls of the
circus rise to a height of a hundred-and-fifty-seven feet. In yonder
"monument of murder" there died ten thousand victims in a hundred days
during the reign of Trajan.
The triumph of Christianity is symbolised in St Peter's. An impartial
chronicler cannot close his eyes to the truth written in the great
cathedral. Both pagans and Christians persecuted in turn to the glory of
their deities. Force was worshipped alike by emperor and pope. Pagans
tortured martyrs in the arena; the Christians burned them in the square.
In 1600 Giordano Bruno was tied to the stake, and consumed in the
flames, by decree of the Church, after two years of imprisonment. His
offence was the writing of treatises attempting to prove that the earth
is not flat, and that God is "the All in All." He also dared to opine
that there may be other inhabited worlds besides our own. Bruno's last
words have echoed through the ages: "Perhaps it is with greater fear
that you pass the sentence upon me than I receive it."
Under Innocent IV. the Inquisition was established as a special tribunal
against heretics. Men of science soon came under its penalties.
Copernicus was a teacher of mathematics in Rome, when he conceived his
theory, "The Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies," which he dedicated to
Pope Paul. Fearing the awful penalties of the Holy Office, he withheld
publication of the work for many years, only seeing a copy of the
printed volume in his last hours. The book was condemned by the
Inquisition and placed on the index.
About a century later, Galileo wrote his "System of the World," an
exposition and defence of the theories of Copernicus. The Inquisition
dragged him before its tribunal at Rome, where he was charged with
heresy and compelled to recant or die. We know that he chose
recantation, or the fate of Bruno would have been his. For ten years
Galileo pined in the dungeon, and his body was flung into a dishonoured
grave.
Not a man in Rome was safe from the Inquisition. Its courts travestied
justice; its terrified witnesses lied, and the accusers were
intimidated. Suspicion alone was sufficient to compel arrest and trial,
and there was no possible appeal, and no hope of pity or leniency. The
Church urged that while unbelief existed, the Inquisition was a
necessity, and the chief means of stamping out heretical doctrine. And
yet, a few years ago, an International Free-thought Congress was held
under the shadow of St Peter's. How truly, "it moves!"
The Renaissance, with its mighty intellectual impetus, its reverence for
the arts and culture, and its resistance against the absolutism of the
Papacy came as the salvation of Rome from the terrors and the stagnation
of the dark days.
The birth of Michael Angelo, in 1474, came with a new era of
enlightenment. Angelo, painter, sculptor, poet, and philosopher, was
commissioned by Pope Julius II. to carve a great work in Rome, and to
adorn the Sistine Chapel with frescoes. Three years were spent on these
superb paintings. This is the most wonderful ceiling painting in the
world. In the centre are pictures of scenes of the Creation and Fall; in
compartments are the prophets, and other portions represent the
ancestors of the Virgin Mary and historical characters.
The figures are colossal, and wonderful in their anatomy, revealing the
artist's richness of imagination, as well as his unsurpassed technical
skill. To see to advantage the frescoes of the roof, it is necessary to
lie flat on the back, and gaze upwards. The human figure is superbly
imaged in "The Temptation, Fall and Expulsion." The largest figures in
the whole composition are among the prophets and sibyls.
"Here, at last, here indeed for the first time," writes Mr Arthur
Symons, in his "Cities," "is all that can be meant by sublimity; a
sublimity which attains its pre-eminence through no sacrifice of other
qualities; a sublimity which (let us say it frankly) is amusing. I find
the magnificent and extreme life of these figures as touching, intimate,
and direct in its appeal, as the most vivid and gracious realism of any
easel picture."
The vast picture of "The Last Judgment," on the wall of the Sistine
Chapel, was painted by Michael Angelo when he was growing old. The work
occupied about seven years. It is full of figures in every kind of
action, and most of them are nude. Their nakedness affronted Paul IV.,
who commanded Da Volterra, a pupil of Angelo, to paint clothing on some
of the forms, thus marring the beauty of the work.
In the Pauline Chapel of the Vatican are two mural paintings by Michael
Angelo, "The Crucifixion of St Peter," and "The Conversion of St Paul."
"I could only see and wonder," writes Goethe, referring to the works of
Angelo in a letter from Rome. The mental confidence and boldness of the
master, and his grandeur of conception, are beyond all expression.
Sir Joshua Reynolds spent some time in Rome, in 1750, and recorded the
result of his study of the work of Raphael and Michael Angelo. It was in
the cold chambers of the Vatican that Reynolds caught the chill which
brought about his deafness. He made many copies of parts of the
paintings of Angelo. "The Adonis" of Titian in the Colonna Palace, the
"Leda," by Coreggio, and the works of Raphael, were closely studied by
the English painter. Before he left Rome he declared that the art of
Angelo represented the highest perfection.
Many critics affirm that St Peter's is somewhat disappointing,
architecturally considered, while some critics maintain that it is one
of the finest churches in the world. The colonnades, with their gallery
of sculptured images, are stately and impressive. It is the huge façade
that disappoints. Nevertheless, St Peter's is a stupendous temple, with
a dignity and majesty of its own. The interior is garish; we miss the
dim religious light and the atmosphere of sober piety so manifest in
the cathedrals of Spain. As a repository of masterpieces St Peter's is
world-famous. Here is "The Virgin and Dead Christ," the finest of
Michael Angelo's early statues.
Angelo spent various periods in Rome, after his first stay of five
years. He was in the city at the age of sixty, and much of his work was
executed when he was growing old. It was in the evening of his days that
he became the close friend of Vittoria Colonna, the inspirer of his
poetry, and after her death, in 1547, he entered upon a spell of
ill-health and sadness. But his activities were marvellous, even in old
age. In 1564 he planned the Farnese Palace for Paul III., and directed
the building of the Church of Santa Maria.
Immensity is the chief impression of the interior of St Peter's. Even
the figures of cherubs are gigantic. The great nave with its marble
pavement and huge pillars, is long-drawn from the portal to the altar,
and the space within the great dome is bewildering in its vastness.
The bronze statue of St Peter, whose foot is kissed yearly by thousands
of devotees, is noted here among the numerous images. At the altar we
shall see Canova's statue of Pius VI., the chair of St Peter, and tombs
of the Popes Urban and Paul.
Michael Angelo designed the beautiful Capello Gregoriana. His lovely
"Pieta" is the Cappella della Pieta, and this is the most splendid work
within the building. Tombs of popes are seen in the various chapels. In
the resplendent choir chapel is Thorvaldsen's statue of Pius VII.
The Vatican is a great museum of statuary, the finest collection in
existence to-day. On the site of the building once stood a Roman
emperor's palace, which was reconstructed as a residence for Pope
Innocent III. Besides the statues in the Vatican and the cathedral,
there are many remarkable works of sculpture in the Villa Albani and the
Capitoline. In the Capitoline Museum are, the "Dying Gladiator," the
"Resting Faun," and the "Venus."
Days may be spent in inspecting the minor churches of Rome. Perhaps the
most interesting is San Giovanni Laterano, built on the site of a Roman
imperial palace, and dating from the fourteenth century. The front is by
Galileo, very highly decorated. Within, the chapels of the double aisles
are especially interesting for their lavish embellishment. The apse is
a very old part of the structure, and the Gothic cloister has grace and
dignity, with most admirable carved columns. It is a debated question
whether the ceiling of this church was painted by Michael Angelo or
Della Porta.
The Lateran Palace, close to San Giovanni, has a small decorated chapel
at the head of a sacred staircase, said to have been trodden by Christ
when he appeared before Pilate, and brought here from Jerusalem.
The Churches of San Clemente, Santi Giovanni Paolo, Santa Maria in Ara
Coeli are among the other churches of note.
The memorials of pagan and Christian times stand side by side in Rome,
and in roaming the city it is difficult to direct one's steps on a
formal plan. Turning away from an arch or a temple of Roman origin, you
note a Renaissance church, and are tempted to enter it. If I fail to
point out here many buildings which the visitor should see, it is
because the number is so great.
The part of the city between the Regia and the Palatine Hill is very
rich in antiquities. It is said that Michael Angelo carried away a great
mass of stone from the Temple of Vesta to build a part of St Peter's;
but I do not know upon what authority this is stated. A few blocks of
stone are, however, all that remain of the buildings sacred to the
vestals.
The tall columns seen as we walk to the Palatine Hill, are relics of the
temple of Castor and Pollux. Behind the Regia is the temple of Julius
Cæsar, built by Augustus; and here Mark Antony delivered his splendid
oration. Near to this temple is the Forum, with traces of basilicas, and
a few standing columns. The whole way to the Capitoline abounds in
ancient stones of rich historical interest. Here are the walls of the
Plutei, with reliefs representing the life of Trajan, the grand arch of
Septimus Severus, the columns of the Temple of Saturn.
The Palatine Hill is crowned with the ruins of the Palace of the Cæsars.
Mural decorations still remain on the walls of an apartment. Here will
be seen relics of a school, a temple dedicated to Jupiter, and portions
of the famous wall of the mythical Romulus. These are but a few of the
antiquities of the Palatine, whence the eye surveys Rome and the rolling
Campagna.
In the quarter of the Coliseum are ancient baths, once sumptuously
fitted and adorned with images, now removed to the museum of the city.
Trajan's Column towers here to about one hundred-and-fifty feet. Then
there is the Pantheon, a classic building wonderfully preserved. All
these are but a few of the ancient edifices of Rome.
Among the more important museums and picture galleries are the splendid
Vatican, at which we have glanced, the Capitol Museum, the Palazzo del
Senatore, with works by Velazquez, Van Dyck, Titian, and other masters,
the National Museum, the Villa Borghese, the Dorian Palace, and the
Kircheriano.
The art annals of the Rome of Christian times are of supreme interest.
The greatest of the painters who came to study in Rome was Velazquez,
who was offered the hospitality of Cardinal Barberini in the Vatican. He
stayed, however, in a quieter lodging, at the Villa Medici, and
afterwards in the house of the Spanish ambassador. Velazquez paid a
second visit to Rome in 1649, where he met Poussin, and Salvator Rosa.
To Rosa he remarked, "It is Titian that bears the palm."
The Spanish painter was made a member of the Roman Academy; and at this
time he painted the portrait of Innocent X., which occupies a position
of honour in the Dorian Palace. Reynolds described this as "the finest
piece of portrait-painting in Rome." Velazquez' portrait of himself is
in the Capitoline Museum in the city.
The art records of Rome are so many that I cannot attempt to refer to
more than a small number of them. Literary associations, too, crowd into
the mind as we walk the lava-paved streets of the glowing capital.
Goethe sojourned long in Rome, and wrote many pages of his impressions.
In 1787 he writes of the amazing loveliness of a walk through the
historic streets by moonlight, of the solemnity of the Coliseum by
night, and the grandeur of the portico of St Peter's. He praises the
climate in spring, the delight of long sunny days, with noons "almost
too warm"; and the sky "like a bright blue taffeta in the sunshine." In
the Capitoline Museum he admired the nude "Venus" as one of the finest
statues in Rome. "My imagination, my memory," he writes, "is storing
itself full with endlessly beautiful subjects.... I am in the land of
the arts."
Full of rapture are the letters of Shelley from Rome: "Since I last
wrote to you," he says to Peacock, "I have seen the ruins of Rome, the
Vatican, St Peter's, and all the miracles of ancient and modern art
contained in that majestic city. The impression of it exceeds anything I
have ever experienced in my travels.... We visited the Forum, and the
ruins of the Coliseum every day. The Coliseum is unlike any work of
human hands I ever saw before. It is of enormous height and circuit, and
the arches, built of massy stones, are piled on one another, and jut
into the blue air, shattered into the forms of overhanging rocks."
Shelley was entranced by the arch of Constantine. "It is exquisitely
beautiful and perfect." In March 1819, he writes: "Come to Rome. It is a
scene by which expression is overpowered, which words cannot convey."
The Cathedral scarcely appealed to Shelley; he thought it inferior
externally to St Paul's, though he admired the façade and colonnade.
More satisfying to the poet's æsthetic taste was the Pantheon, with its
handsome fluted columns of yellow marble, and the beauty of the
proportions in the structure.
The Pantheon is generally admitted to be the most noble of the ancient
edifices of the city. It was erected by Agrippa 27 B.C., and sumptuously
adorned with fine marbles. The dome is vast and nobly planned, and the
building truly merits Shelley's designation, "sublime."
Keats was buried in the Protestant cemetery in Rome, in a tomb bearing
the inscription: "Here lies one whose name was writ in water." His loyal
and admiring friend, Shelley, wrote a truer memorial of the young poet:
"Go thou to Rome--at once the paradise,
The grave, the city, and the wilderness;
And where its wrecks like shattered mountains rise,
And flowering weeds, and fragrant copses dress
The bones of desolation's nakedness
Pass, till the spirit of the spot shall lead
Thy footsteps to a slope of green access,
Where, like an infant's smile, over the dead
A light of laughing flowers along the grass is spread."
In 1850 Robert Browning and his wife were in Rome, and it was then that
Browning wrote the beautiful love poem, "Two in the Campagna," telling
of the joy of roaming in:
"The champaign with its endless fleece
Of feathery grasses everywhere!
Silence and passion, joy and peace
An everlasting wash of air----"
Poets and painters have through the centuries drawn inspiration from
this wondrous city of splendid monuments and ancient grandeur. How true
was Goethe's statement that wherever you turn in Rome there is an object
of beauty and arresting interest.
The appeal of the city is strong, the variety bewildering, whether you
elect to muse upon the remains of the imperial days, or to study the
Renaissance art of the Christian churches. It is well, if possible, to
make a survey of the antiquities in chronological order, beginning with
an inspection of the ruins of the Romulean wall and the traces of the
oldest gates. Then the Forum should be visited in its valley, and the
art of the temple of Saturn, the Basilica Julia, and the Arch of Fabius
examined. The Temple of Vespasian, the Palace of Caligula, Trajan's
Column, and the numerous arches will all arouse memories of the emperors
and the splendid purple days.
The Campagna is not only a wilderness, but it is rich in historic
memories. Here lived the cultured Cynthia, the friend of Catullus, the
poet, and of Quintilius Varus. Numerous villas dotted the Campagna in
the days of the emperors, and here, during the summer heats, retired
many of the wealthy citizens of Rome. Valuable antiquities, vases, urns,
and figures, have been unearthed from this classic soil.
ASSISI
"There was a man in the city of Assisi, by name Francis, whose memory is
blessed, for that God, graciously presenting him with blessings of
goodness, delivered him in His mercy from the perils of this present
life, and abundantly filled him with the gifts of heavenly grace."
So speaks Saint Bonaventura of the noble character of the holy man of
Assisi, whose figure arises before us as we tread the streets of the
town of his birth. For Assisi is a place of pilgrimage, filled with
fragrant memories of that saint of whom even the heterodox speak with
loving reverence. St Francis stands distinct in an age of fanatic
religious zeal, as an example of tolerance, a lover of mercy, and a
practical follower of the teaching of Christian benevolence.
At the beginning of the thirteenth century, Pope Innocent III. offered
indulgences to the faithful who would unite in a crusade against the
Albigensian heretics of Languedoc. For twenty years blood was shed
plentifully in this war upon heresy; for twenty years the hounds of
persecution were let loose on the hated enemies of papal absolutism.
"Kill all; God will know," was the answer of the Pope's legate during
this massacre, when asked by the crusaders how they could recognise the
heretics. While Languedoc and Provence were ravaged by the truculent
persecutors, and fires were lighted to burn the bodies of men, women and
children, St Francis lived in Assisi, preaching humanity and good will.
There is no testimony that he protested expressly against the
Albigensian crusades; but we know from his life and his writings that he
detested cruelty and violence, and never directly counselled
persecution.
In "The Golden Legend" we read that "Francis, servant and friend of
Almighty God, was born in the city of Assisi, and was made a merchant in
the twenty-fifth year of his age, and wasted his time by living vainly,
whom our Lord corrected by the scourge of sickness, and suddenly changed
him into another man, so that he began to shine by the spirit of
prophecy."
Putting on the rags of a beggar, St Francis went to Rome, where he sat
among the mendicants before St Peter's. Then began the miraculous cures
of lepers whose hands he kissed, and his many works of charity and
healing. He extolled "holy poverty," and called poverty his "lady." When
he saw a worm lying on the path, the compassionate saint removed it, so
that it should not be trodden on by passers-by. The birds he called his
brothers and sisters; he fed them, bade them sing or keep silence, and
they obeyed him. All birds and beasts loved him; and he taught the birds
to sing praises to their creator. St Francis was perhaps the first
eminent Christian who showed pity and love for the lower animals. In the
morass of Venice, he came upon a great company of singing-birds, and
entering among them, caused them to sing lauds to the Almighty.
St Francis taught asceticism to his followers, but it was the asceticism
of joy rather than of grief and pain. The saint had in him the qualities
of poet and artist as well as of pious mystic. He lived for a time the
life of the luxurious, and found it profitless and hollow; he passed
through the ordeal of the temptations that beset a young man born of
wealthy parents.
"The more thou art assailed by temptations, the more do I love thee,"
said the blessed St Francis to his friend Leo. "Verily I say unto thee
that no man should deem himself a true friend of God, save in so far as
he hath passed through many temptations and tribulations."
Flung into the prison of Perugia, he rejoiced and sang, and when the
vulgar threw dirt upon him and his friars, he did not resent their
rudeness.
Trudging bare-footed through Umbria, scantily clothed, and subsisting
upon crusts offered by the charitable, St Francis set an example of the
holiness of poverty which impressed the peasants and excited their
veneration for the preacher and his gospel.
He worked as a mason, repairing the decayed Church of St Damian, and
preached a doctrine of labour and industry, forsaking all that he had so
that he might reap the ample harvest of Divine blessing. In winter the
saint would plunge into a ditch of snow, that he might check the
promptings of carnal desire. He refused to live under a roof at Assisi,
preferring a mere shelter of boughs, with the company of Brother Giles
and Brother Bernard. A cell of wood was too sumptuous for him.
As St Francis grew in holiness there appeared in him the stigmata of
Christ's martyrdom. In his side there was the wound of the spear; in his
hands and feet were the marks of the nails. St Bonaventura relates that
after his death, the flesh of the saint was so soft that he seemed to
have become a child again, and that the wound in the side was like a
lovely rose.
He died, according to this historian, in 1226, on the fourth day of
October. His remains were interred in Assisi, and afterwards removed to
"the Church built in his honour," in 1230.
After the canonisation of the holy St Francis many miracles happened in
Italy. In the church of his name in Assisi, when the Bishop of Ostia was
preaching, a huge stone fell on the head of a devout woman. It was
thought that she was dead, but being before the altar of St Francis, and
having "committed herself in faith" to him, she escaped without any
hurt. Many persons were cured of disease by calling upon the blessed
name of the Saint of Assisi, and mariners were often saved from wrecks
through his intervention.
St Francis lived when the fourth Lateran Council gave a new impetus to
persecution, by increasing the scope and power of the inquisition. This
gentlest of all the saints was surrounded by a host of influences that
made for religious rancour, and yet he preached a doctrine of love, and
was, so far as we can learn, quite untouched by the persecuting zeal
that characterised so many of his sainted contemporaries. It is with
relief, after the contemplation of the cruelty of his age, that we greet
the tattered ascetic of Assisi, as, in imagination, we see him pass up
the steps of the house wherein Brother Bernard was a witness of his
ecstasy.
The little city of Assisi stands on a hill; a mediæval town of a
somewhat stern character meets the eye as we approach it. Outside the
town is a sixteenth-century church, Santa Maria degli Angeli, which will
interest by reason of the Portinucula, a little chapel repaired by St
Francis. It was around this church that the first followers of the saint
lived in hovels with wattled roofs. Here was the garden in which the
holy brother delighted to wander, and to watch his kindred the birds,
and here are the rose bushes without thorns, that grew from the saint's
blood.
Entering Assisi, we soon reach the Church of San Francisco, in which is
the reputed tomb of St Francis. This is not a striking edifice, but its
charm is in the pictures of Giotto. Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience
are the subjects of these frescoes. Ruskin copied the Poverty, and made
a long study of these works. The picture symbolises the Lady of Poverty,
the bride of St Francis, who is given to him by Christ. This is one of
Giotto's chief pictures. Chastity is a young woman in a castle; she is
worshipped by angels, and the walls of the fortress are surrounded by
men in armour. In another fresco St Francis is dressed in canonical
garb, attended by angels, who sing praise to him. It is said that Dante
suggested this subject to Giotto.
The frescoes of Simone, in a chapel of the lower church, are of much
interest to the art student. They are richly coloured and very
decorative, and have been considered by some authorities as equal to the
works of Giotto at Assisi. Simone was a painter of the Sienese School,
and according to Vasari, he was taught by Giotto. His "Annunciation" is
a rich work, preserved in the Uffizi Palace at Florence.
The twenty-eight scenes in the history of St Francis are in the upper
church, and in these we see again Giotto's noblest art in the harmonious
grouping and the fluidity of his colour.
The Cathedral of San Rufino is a handsome church. Here St Francis was
baptised, and in this edifice he preached.
The father of the saint was a woollen merchant, and his shop was in the
Via Portica. The house still stands, and may be recognised by its highly
decorated portal. This was not the birthplace of St Francis, for the
Chiesa Nuova, built in 1615, covers the site of the house.
In the Church of St Clare you are shown the "remains" of Saint Clare, in
a crypt, lying in a glass case.
When Goethe was in Assisi, the building that interested him more than
any other was the Temple of Minerva, built in the time of Augustus.
"At last we reached what is properly the old town, and behold before my
eyes stood the noble edifice, the first complete memorial of antiquity
that I had ever seen.... Looking at the façade, I could not sufficiently
admire the genius-like identity of design which the architects have here
as elsewhere maintained. The order is Corinthian, the inter-columnar
spaces being somewhat above the two modules. The bases of the columns,
and the plinths seem to rest on pedestals, but it is only an
appearance." Goethe concludes his description: "The impression which the
sight of this edifice left upon me is not to be expressed, and will
bring forth imperishable fruits."
VENICE
The very name breathes romance and spells beauty. Poets, artists, and
historians without number have revealed to us the glories of this city.
Dull indeed must be the perception of loveliness of form and colour in
the mind of the man who is not deeply moved by the contemplation of the
Stones of Venice. Yet it seems to me that no city is so difficult to
describe; everything has been said, every scene painted by master hands.
One's impression must read inevitably like that which has been written
over and over again. And in a brief enumeration of the buildings to be
seen by the visitor, how can the unhappy writer avoid the charge of
baldness and inefficiency?
[Illustration: VENICE, 1831.
THE GRAND CANAL.]
Well, then, to say that Venice is supremely beautiful among the towns of
Italy is to set down a commonplace. It is a town in which the
matter-of-fact man realises the meaning of romance and poetry; a town
where the phlegmatic become sentimental, and the poetic are stirred to
ecstasies. George Borrow wept at beholding the beauty of Seville by
the Guadalquivir in the evening light. "Tears of rapture" would have
filled his eyes as he gazed upon the splendours of the Grand Canal.
Some of the many writers upon Venice have found the scene "theatrical";
others assert that the influence of Venice is sad, while others again
declare that the city provokes hilarity of spirits in a magical way.
Whatever the nature of the spell, it is strong, and few escape it.
Ruskin, Byron, the Brownings, and Henry James, are among the souls to
whom Venice has appealed with the force of a personality.
The spirit of Venice has been felt by thousands of travellers. Its
pictures--for every street is a picture--remain deeply graven on the
mind's tablet.
Perhaps there is nothing made by man to float upon the waters more
graceful in its lines than a gondola. To think of Venice, is to recall
these gliding, swan-like, silent craft, that ply upon the innumerable
waterways. Like ghosts by night they steal along in the deep shadows of
the palaces, impelled by boatmen whose every attitude is a study in
lissome grace. To lie in a gondola, while the attendant noiselessly
propels the stately skiff with his pliant oar, is to realise romance
and the perfection of leisurely locomotion.
What can be said of the sunsets, the almost garish colouring of sea and
sky, and the witchery of reflection upon tower and roof? What can be
written for the thousandth time of the resplendent churches, the rich
gilding, the noble façades, the hundred picturesque windings of the
canals between houses, each one of them a subject for the artist's
brush? Is there any other city that grips us in every sense like Venice?
The eyes and the mind grow dazed and bewildered with the beauty and the
colour, till the scene seems almost unreal, a fantasy of the brain under
the influence of a drug.
The student of life and the philosopher will find here matter for
cogitation, tinged maybe with seriousness, even sadness. Venetian
history is not all glorious, and the city to-day has its social evils,
like every other populous place on the globe. There are beggars, many of
them, artistic beggars, no doubt; but they are often diseased and always
unclean. Yet even the dirty faces of the alleys, in this city of
loveliness, have, according to artists, a value and a harmony. There is
the same obvious, sordid poverty here as in London or Manchester. But
the dress of the people, even if ragged, is bright, and the faces, even
though wrinkled and haggard, fit the scene and the setting in the
estimate of the painter.
If your habit is analytic and critical, you will find defects in the
modern life of Venice that cannot be hidden. The city is not prosperous
in our British sense of the word. There is an air of decayed grandeur,
an impression that existence in this town of exquisite art is not
happiness for the swarm of indigents that live in the historic purlieus.
On the other hand, there is the climate, a soft, sleepy climate, not
very healthy perhaps, but usually kindly. The sun is generous, the sky
rarely frowns. Life passes lazily, dreamily, on the oily waters of the
canals, in the piazza, and in those tall tumble-down houses built on
piles. No one appears to hurry about the business of money-getting; no
one apparently is eager to work, except perhaps the unfortunate
mendicants and the persuasive hawkers, who do indeed toil hard at their
occupations.
When the evening breeze bears the interesting malodours of the canals,
with other indescribable and characteristic smells, and the sun sinks
in crimson in a flaming sky, and music sounds from the piazza and the
water, and the gondolas glide and pass, and beautiful women smile and
stroll in streets bathed in gold, you will think only of the loveliness
of Venice, and forget the terrors of its history and the misery of
to-day. And it is well, for one cannot always grapple with the problems
of life; there must be hours of sensuous pleasure. Sensuous seems to me
the right word to convey the influence of Venice upon a summer evening,
when, a little wearied by the heat of the day, you loll upon a bridge,
smoking a cigar, and drinking in languidly the beauty of the scene,
while a grateful breeze comes from the darkening sea.
Go to the Via Garibaldi, if you wish to lounge and to study the
Venetians of "the people." Here the natives come and go and saunter. The
women are small, like the women of Spain, dark in complexion, and in
manner animated. They are very feminine; often they are lovely.
You will be struck with the gaiety of the people, a sheer
lightheartedness more evident and exuberant than the gaiety of Spanish
folk. Perhaps the struggle for existence is less keen than it seems
among the inhabitants of the more lowly quarters of the city. At
anyrate, the Venetians are lovers of song and laughter. A flower
delights a woman, a cigarette is a gift for a man. They are able to
divert themselves in Venice without sport, and with very few places of
amusement.
"The place is as changeable as a nervous woman," writes Mr Henry James,
"and you know it only when you know all the aspects of its beauty. It
has high spirits or low, it is pale or red, grey or pink, cold or warm,
fresh or wan, according to the weather or the hour."
Having given a faint presentment of the beauties of Venice, I will refer
to some of the chief episodes of its great history. In the earliest
years of its making, we are upon insecure ground in attempting to write
accurately upon Venetia. The city probably existed when the Goths swept
down upon Italy, about 420, and it fell a century later into the hands
of the fierce Lombards. Under the Doges (dukes) the land was wrested
here and there from the waves, the mudbanks protected with piles and
fences, and the great buildings began to arise from a foundation of
apparent instability.
The ingenuity of the architect and the builder in constructing this city
is nothing short of marvellous. In the sixth century the town was no
doubt a collection of huts on sandbanks, intersected by tidal streams.
There were meadows and gardens by the verge of the sea, and the
inhabitants made the most of every yard of firm soil. St Mark's
Cathedral was built in the tenth century, to serve as a resting-place
for the bones of the saint.
Under the wise rule of Pietro Tribuno, Venice withstood the attack of a
Hungarian horde. The city was walled in and fortified, and the natives
gathered at Rialto. The resistance was successful. The Doge who saved
the city was one of the most honoured of all the rulers of Venice as a
brave general and a man of scholarly parts.
Genoa and Pisa, formed into a powerful republic, warred with Venice in
the eleventh century; but the Venetians won in the protracted warfare.
Wars in Italy and wars in the East followed, and internal trouble
reigned intermittently in the city.
The discovery of America by Columbus, and the opening up of trade with
Hindustan, affected Venice injuriously. Until then the city had held a
monopoly as a market for the products of the Orient. Her great power
and wealth were imperilled by the discoveries of Columbus, the Genoese
voyager, and by the rounding of Cape Horn by the Portuguese adventurers.
Spain and Portugal were reaping the splendid golden harvest while Venice
was impoverished. Consternation filled the minds of the citizens. The
great Republic had reached the height of its glory in the fifteenth
century, but from the falling off of her commerce she never recovered.
It is curious that in the period of decline, Venice expended much wealth
in works of art, and in the embellishment of the buildings and palaces.
Several of the city's greatest painters flourished at this time.
The Doge's Palace, often burned down, was rebuilt in its present
grandeur. St Mark's was constantly repaired, decorations were added, and
internal parts reconstructed. The palaces of the rich sprang up by the
waterways of this city in the sea.
Printing was already an art and industry in Venice. John of Spires used
movable type, and succeeding him were many distinguished printers, whose
presses supplied the civilised world with books.
A terrible plague devastated the city in 1575. Among the victims were
the great painter, Titian, then nearly a hundred years of age. The
epidemic spread all over Venice.
When Pope Paul V. endeavoured to bring the citizens under his autocratic
rule, they resisted with much firmness. One of the causes of offence was
that the Venetians favoured the principle of toleration in religious
beliefs, and permitted the heretical to worship according to their
consciences. The Pope, after fruitless negotiations, excommunicated
Venice, sending his agents with the documents. With all vigilance, the
government of the city forbade the exposure of any papal decree in the
streets, while the Doge stoutly asserted that the people of Venice
regarded the bull with contempt.
Nearly all Europe sided with Venice in this conflict between Pope and
Doge. England was prepared to ally herself with France, and to assist
Venice. Months passed without developments. Venice remained Catholic,
but refused to become a vassal of the Pope of Rome. Paul was enraged and
humiliated. One cannot admire his action; yet pity for the proud,
sincere, and baffled Pontiff tinges one's view of the struggle. Venice
even refused to request the abolition of the ban. She remained quietly
indifferent to the thunderings of the See, and haughtily criticised the
overtures of reconciliation offered through the French cardinals.
Finally, with dignity and yet a touch of farce, the Senate handed over
to the Pope's emissaries certain offenders, "without prejudice," to be
held by the King of France.
Paolo Sarpi, the priest and born diplomat, was the hero of Venice during
this quarrel with Rome. Sarpi was a man of unassailable virtue and
integrity, a tactful leader of men, and possessed of intrepidity. He
was, not unnaturally, detested by the adherents of the Pope for his
defence of Venetian rights and privileges. One night, crossing a bridge,
Brother Paolo was attacked by ruffians, and stabbed with daggers. The
assailants had been sent from Rome to kill the obnoxious priest. But the
scheme failed, for Paolo Sarpi recovered from his wounds, and the
attempt upon his life endeared him still more deeply to the hearts of
the Venetians.
Some years after he died in his bed, lamented by high and low in the
city. Before the Church of Santa Fosca stands a memorial to this brave
citizen.
The Venice of the eighteenth century was a decaying city, with an
enervated, apathetic population, given to gaming, and improvident in
their lives. Many of the noble families sank into penury. Still the
people sang and danced and held revelry; nothing could quench their
passion for enjoyment. The Republic was now the prey of the great
imperialist Napoleon, who adroitly acquired Venice by threats of war
followed by promises of democratic rule. A few shots were fired by the
French; then the Doge offered terms, which gave the city to the Emperor,
while the citizens held rejoicings at the advent of a new government.
A few months later Venice was given to Austria by the Treaty of
Campoformio. Between the French and the Austrians the city passed
through a troublous period of many years. Venice was now a fallen state.
But what a memorial it is! The city is like a huge volume of history,
and we linger over its enchanting pages. Let us now look upon the
monuments that reveal to us the soul and genius of Venice of the olden
times.
Several of the most important buildings in Venice border the fine square
of San Marco, a favourite evening gathering-place of the Venetians.
Dominating the piazza is the Cathedral of San Marco, with its
magnificent front, a bewildering array of portals, decorated arches,
carvings in relief, surmounted by graceful towers and steeples. The
style is Byzantine, and partly Roman, designed after St Sophia at
Constantinople. In shape the edifice is cruciform, with a dome to each
arm of the cross. High above the cathedral roof rises the noble
Campanile.
Over the chief portal are four bronze horses, brought here in 1204 from
Byzantium. The steeds are beautifully modelled, and the work is ascribed
to Lysippos, a sculptor of Corinth. Napoleon took the horses to Paris,
but they were restored to Venice in 1815.
The mosaic designs of the façade represent "The Last Judgment," among
other Scriptural subjects, while one of the mosaics depicts San Marco as
it was in the early days. A number of reliefs and images adorn the
arches of each of the five doorways of the main entrance.
Within the decorations are exquisite. Ruskin writes: "The church is lost
in a deep twilight, to which the eye must be accustomed for some moments
before the form of the building can be traced; and then there opens
before us a vast cave, hewn out into the form of a cross, and divided
into shadowy aisles by many pillars. Round the domes of its roof the
light enters only through narrow apertures like large stars; and here
and there a ray or two from some far-away casement wanders into the
darkness, and casts a narrow phosphoric stream upon the waves of marble
that heave and fall in a thousand colours along the floor. What else
there is of light is from torches or silver lamps, burning ceaselessly
in the recesses of the chapels; the roof sheeted with gold, and the
polished walls covered with alabaster, give back at every curve and
angle some feeble gleaming to the flames, and the glories round the
heads of the sculptured saints flash out upon us as we pass them, and
sink again into the gloom."
In the vestibule of the cathedral, the mosaic decoration depicts Old
Testament scenes. In the apse are represented a figure of the Lord, with
St Mark, and the acts of St Peter and St Mark. The mosaics of the east
dome represent Jesus and the prophets. Tintoretto's design is in an
adjoining archway, and in the centre dome is "The Ascension." The
western dome has "The Descent of the Holy Ghost," and an arch here is
decorated with "The Last Judgment." There are more mosaics in the
aisles, illustrating "The Acts of the Apostles."
The high altar is a superb example of sculpture. The roof is supported
by marble columns, carved with scenes from the lives of Christ and the
Virgin Mary. The figures date from the eleventh century. A magnificent
altarpiece of gold-workers' design is shown for a fee. The upper part is
the older, and it was executed in Constantinople. The lower portion is
the work of Venetian artists of the twelfth century.
The baptistery contains early mosaics, a monument of one of the Doges of
Venice; and the stone upon which John the Baptist is stated to have been
beheaded is kept here.
"The Legend of San Marco" is the design in the Cappella Zen, adjoining
the baptistery. Here are the tomb of Cardinal Zen, a Renaissance work in
bronze, and a handsome altar.
In his rapturous description of the interior of San Marco, Ruskin
continues: "The mazes of interwoven lines and changeful pictures lead
always and at last to the Cross, lifted and carved in every place and
upon every stone; sometimes with the serpent of eternity wrapt round
it, sometimes with doves beneath its arms, and sweet herbage growing
forth from its feet."
Venetian architecture has a character of its own. We find the Oriental
influence in most of the buildings of Venice; the ogee arch is commonly
used, and the square billet ornament is a distinguishing mark. The first
Church of San Marco was built in 830.
The Palace of the Doge is in the Piazza. Its architecture has been
variously described and classified. It has strong traces of Moorish
influence, while in many respects it is Gothic. The decorated columns of
the arcades are very beautifully designed. Archangels and figures of
Justice, Temperance, and Obedience adorn the building, and there is an
ancient front on the south side. Enter through the Porta della Carta,
and you will find a court of wonderful interest, with rich façades and
the great staircase, which is celebrated as the crowning-place of the
Doges.
The architecture of the interior of the palace is of a later date than
that of the exterior. In the big entrance hall are Tintoretto's
portraits of legislators of Venice. From here enter the next apartment,
which contains a magnificent painting of "Faith" by Titian. In another
hall are four more of Tintoretto's works, and one by Paolo Veronese. The
Sala del Collegio is one of the principal chambers of the palace and its
ceiling was painted by Veronese. Here is the Doge's throne.
Tintoretto and Palma were the artists who executed the paintings in the
Hall of the Senators. The adjoining chapel is decorated with another of
Tintoretto's pictures. Pass to the Hall of the Council of Ten, where the
rulers of the city sat, and note the gorgeous ceiling by Paolo Veronese.
A staircase leads to the Hall of the Great Council below. From the
window there is an inspiriting view. The walls are hung with portraits,
but the glory of this hall is Tintoretto's "Paradise," an immense
painting.
Before leaving the Palace of the Doges, I will devote a few lines to the
Schools of Venice of the sixteenth century. Unfortunately most of the
works of Giorgione, the most characteristic painter of Venice, have
disappeared. He was the founder of a tradition, and the teacher of many
painters, including Palma, while his work influenced a number of his
contemporaries. Titian, born in 1477, was one of Giorgione's admirers,
and his early work shows his influence. The pictures of the great
Venetian master are one of the glories of the city. Some of his
paintings are in the Academy, in the Church of Santa Maria dei
Friari--where there is a monument to the artist--in the Church of Santa
Maria della Salute, and in the private galleries of the city.
In the Academy collection, in a large building in the square of St
Mark's, are Titian's much-restored "Presentation" and the "Pieta," among
the finest specimens of the Venetian School of painters. The celebrated
"Assumption" has been also restored.
"There are many princes; there is but one Titian," said Charles V. of
Spain, who declared that through the magic of the Venetian painter's
pencil, he "thrice received immortality." Forty-three examples of the
art of Titian are in the Prado Gallery of Madrid. Sanchez Coello, Court
artist to Philip II. was one of the students of the Italian master;
indeed several of the great painters of Spain were influenced by Titian,
and none of them revered him more than Velazquez.
Tintoretto's "Miracle of St Mark" and "Adam and Eve" are two instances
of his genius for colour, in the Academy, calling for special study,
and another of his works is to be seen in Santa Maria della Salute. We
have just looked at a number of this painter's pictures in the Doge's
Palace.
It has been said that Tintoretto inspired El Greco, whose pictures we
shall see in Toledo. Tintoretto was a pupil of Titian, basing his
drawing on the work of Michael Angelo, and finding inspiration for his
colour in the painting of Titian. He was a most industrious and prolific
artist.
Paolo Veronese, though not a native of Venice, was one of the school of
that city. He surpassed even Tintoretto in the use of colour, and
adorned many ceilings and altars, besides painting canvases. The "Rape
of Europa" and others of Paolo's mythical subjects display his gift of
colour and richness of imagination.
Among the later Venetian painters, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo is perhaps
the most remarkable. His conceptions were bizarre, and his fanciful
style is manifest in his picture of the "Way to Calvary," preserved in
Venice. Canaletto may be mentioned as the last of the historic painters
of Venice.
The work of Bellini must on no account be forgotten before we leave the
subject of Venetian art. His "Madonna Enthroned" is in the Academy,
among other of the masterpieces of his brush; and one of his most
exquisite paintings is in the Church of the Friari.
Let us also remember the splendid treasures of the art of Carpaccio, as
seen in the picture of "Saint Ursula" in the Academy, and in the
delightful paintings of San Giorgio, which moved Ruskin to rapture.
The many churches of Venice contain pictures of supreme interest. Most
of them are in a poor light, and can only be examined with difficulty.
San Zanipolo is a church of Gothic design, built by the Dominicans,
abounding in tombs and monuments. San Zaccaria has Bellini's altarpiece
"The Madonna and Child."
Many of the palaces, especially those of the Grand Canal, are
exceedingly beautiful in design, whether the style is Renaissance or
Byzantine-Romanesque. Among the oldest are the Palazzo Venier, the
Palazzo Dona, and the Palazzo Mesto; while for elegance the following
are notable: Dario, the three Foscari palaces, the Pesaro, the Turchi,
and Ca d' Oro, and the Loredan.
Some of these historic houses are associated with men of genius of
modern times. Wagner lived in the Palazzo Vendramin Calergi. In 1818
Byron resided in the Palazzo Mocenigo, and Browning occupied the Palazzo
Rezzonico.
Robert Browning and his wife had a passionate love for Venice. As a
young man the poet visited the city, and returned to England thrilled by
his impressions. Mrs Bridell Fox, his friend, says that: "He used to
illustrate his glowing descriptions of its beauties--the palaces, the
sunsets, the moonrises, by a most original kind of etching. Taking up a
bit of stray notepaper, he would hold it over a lighted candle, moving
the paper about gently till it was cloudily smoked over, and then
utilising the darker smears for clouds, shadows, water, or what not,
would etch with a dry pen the forms of lights on cloud and palace, on
bridge or gondola, on the vague and dreamy surface he had produced."
William Sharp--from whose "Life of Browning" I cull the passage just
quoted--tells us that his friend selected the palace on the Grand Canal
as a corner for his old age. Browning was "never happier, more sanguine,
more joyous than here. He worked for three or four hours each morning,
walked daily for about two hours, crossed occasionally to the Lido with
his sister, and in the evenings visited friends or went to the opera."
In 1889 Robert Browning died in Venice, on a December night, as "the
great bell of San Marco struck ten." He had just received news of the
success of his "Asolando." The poet was honoured in the city by a
splendid and solemn funeral procession of black-draped gondolas,
following the boat that held his body. Would he not have chosen to die
in the Venice that he loved with such intense fervour?
Among the statuary in the streets is the image of Bartolomeo Colleoni on
horseback, "I do not believe that there is a more glorious work of
sculpture existing in the world," writes Ruskin of this statue, which
stands in front of SS. Giovanni e Paolo. In the Piazzetta by the Palace
of the Doges are the two columns, which everyone associates with Venice,
bearing images of the flying lion of St Mark, and of St Theodore
treading upon a crocodile.
One other public building must be seen by the visitor. This is the
beautiful library opposite the Doge's Palace, an edifice that John
Addington Symonds praises as one of the chief achievements of Venetian
artists. The cathedral, the ducal palace, the library, and the Academy
of Arts are certainly four impressive and splendid buildings.
If you have seen the old roofed bridge that spans the river at the head
of the Lake of Lucerne, you will have an impression of the famous Rialto
of Venice. The historic bridge is charged with memories of the days when
"Venice sate in state throned on her hundred isles," and citizens asked
of one another, in the words of Solanio, in _The Merchant of Venice_.
"Now, what news on the Rialto?" The bridge is mediæval in aspect, and
romantic in its associations. You cannot lounge there without an
apparition of Shylock, raving at the loss of the diamond that cost him
two thousand ducats in Frankfort.
All around this "Queen of Cities" are places of supreme interest to the
student of architecture and the lover of natural beauty. Padua, and
Vicenza, with its rare monuments of Palladio, Murano, Torcello, and
other towns and villages with histories are within access of Venice. But
do not hasten from Venezia. It is a town in which one should roam and
loiter for long days.
PERUGIA
A white town, perched high on a bleak hill, is one's first impression of
Perugia. The position of the capital of Umbria is menacing, and without
any confirmation of history, one surmises that this was once a Roman
fortified town. After being built and held by the Etruscans, Perugia was
taken by the Roman host, and called Augusta Perusia. For centuries the
town was the terror of Umbria. Its citizens appear to have been a
superior order of bold banditti, continually making raids on the
surrounding towns and villages, and returning with spoil.
Mediæval traditions of Perugia are a romance of battle within and
without the town. At one time one faction held sway, at another a rival
faction gained the upper hand, and the natives spent much time and
energy in endeavouring to kill one another. The story is perhaps more
melodramatic than tragic. It reads almost like a novel of sensational
episodes, related by a fertile and imaginative writer in order to
thrill his readers.
Pope Paul III. was the subduer of Perugia. He dominated the town with a
citadel, now destroyed, and broke the power of its martial inhabitants
with the sword and the chain.
The surroundings of the town are bare, except for the olive groves which
give a cold green to a landscape somewhat devoid of warm colouring. You
either climb tediously up a long hill to the city, or ascend in an
incongruous electric tramcar. Entering the place, the chances are that
your sense of smell will be affronted somewhat rudely, for Perugia is
not very modern in its sanitary system.
Assisi is seen in the distance, bleached on its slope, and there are
far-off prospects of high mountains. The Prefeturra terrace is over
sixteen hundred feet above the sea, and is a fine view-point.
The setting of Perugia makes no appeal to the lover of sylvan charms. It
stands on an arid height, constantly attacked by the wind, and in dry
weather the town is very dusty. But there is hardly a narrow street nor
a corner without quaintness and beauty for the eye that can appreciate
them. Almost everywhere are glimpses of elegant spires and tall
belfries.
The cathedral, dedicated to San Lorenzo, is a fourteenth-century
edifice, with an aged aspect, and not much beauty in its decorations. In
the Chapel of San Bernardino is "The Descent from the Cross," by
Baroccio. This artist was a follower of Coreggio, fervent in his piety,
and devoted to his art. He was born in Urbino, and painted several
pictures in Rome. The example in the cathedral is one of his best-known
paintings. Signorelli designed an altarpiece for this church. Three
popes were buried here, Innocent III., Urban IV., and Martin IV.
Close to San Lorenzo is the Canonica, a palace of the popes, a huge,
heavy building. The fortress-like Palazzo Pubblico is still used as the
town hall. Its history is stirring. Many trials have been held in its
halls, and we read that culprits were sometimes hurled to death from one
of the windows.
The upper part of the Palazzo is a gallery of paintings, the works
representing the Umbrian School. Here we may study Perugino, Fiorenzo di
Lorenzo, Bonfigli, and other masters of the fifteenth century. Perugino
instituted a school of painting in the town. In the Sistine Chapel, in
Florence, we may see some of his frescoes. We shall see presently
examples of his works in other buildings in Perugia.
Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, Bonfigli, and Pinturicchio are represented in the
secular buildings and churches of the town. An altarpiece by Giannicola,
one of Perugino's pupils, should be noticed.
But perhaps the most important of the paintings are Fra Angelico's
"Madonna and Saints," "Miracles of San Nicholas," and "The
Annunciation."
Perugino's frescoes in the Exchange (Collegio del Cambio) are very
beautiful, depicting the virtues of illustrious Greeks and Romans.
"Perugino's landscape backgrounds," writes Mr Robert Clermont Witt, in
"How to look at Pictures," "with their steep blue slopes and winding
valleys are as truly representative of the hill country about Perugia as
are Constable's leafy lanes and homesteads of his beloved eastern
counties."
In the museum of the University, we shall find a number of antiquities
of pre-Roman and Roman times. The Church of San Severo must be visited,
for it contains a priceless early work by Raphael.
The Piazzi del Municipio was the scene of many conflicts in the
troublous days of Perugia. Here the austere Bernardino used to preach,
and here were held the pageants of the popes upon their visits to the
town. Around this piazzi is a network of narrow, ancient thoroughfares,
with many curious houses.
The Piazzi Sopramuro is one of the oldest parts of the town. In this
vicinity is the ornate, massive Church of San Domenico, with a
magnificent window, and the Decorated monument of Benedict XI.
Passing through the Porta San Pietro, we approach the Church of San
Pietro, considered to be the oldest sacred building in the town. It has
a splendidly ornamented choir, and in the sacristy are some remarkable
works of Perugino. The belfry of this church is of very graceful design.
About three miles from Perugia, towards Assisi, are some Etruscan tombs,
with buried chambers, a vestibule, and several statues. This monument is
of deep interest. It is a family cemetery of great antiquity, and the
carvings are of exquisite art.
FLORENCE
_Firenze la bella_, the pride of its natives, the dream of poet and
painter and the delight of a multitude of travellers, lies amid graceful
hills, clothed with olive gardens and dotted with white villas. In the
clear distance are the splendid Apennines. Climb to the terrace of San
Miniato, and you will gain a wide general view of this great and
beautiful city of culture and the arts. The wonderful campanile of
Giotto rises above the surrounding buildings, rivalling the height of
the cathedral; the sunlight glows on dome and tower, and the valleys and
glens lie in deep shadow, stretching away to the slopes of the
mountains.
Very lovely, too, is the prospect from the Boboli Gardens, and finer
still the outlook from Fiesole, whence the eye surveys the Cathedral,
the Baptistery, the Campanile, the noble churches of Bruneschi, the
Pitti Palace, and many fair buildings of the Middle Ages.
Gazing over Florence from one of the elevations of the environs, a vast
pageant of history seems revealed, and men of illustrious name pass in
long procession in the vision of the mind. How numerous are the great
thinkers and artists associated with the city from Savonarola to the
Brownings! We recall Dante, Giotto, Boccaccio, Michael Angelo--the roll
seems inexhaustible. Almost all the famous men of Italy are connected
with the culture-history and the political annals of Florence. The city
inspires and holds us with a spell; we are impelled to wander day after
day in the narrow streets, to linger in the fragrant gardens, to roam in
the luxuriant valleys of the surrounding country, and to climb the hill
of classic Fiesole.
Rich and beautiful is the scenery between Florence and Bologna, with its
glimpses of the savage Apennines. The glen of Vallombrosa is one of the
loveliest spots in the vicinity, where the old monastery broods amid
beech and chestnut-trees. It was this scene that Milton recalled when he
wrote the lines:
"Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks
In Vallombrosa...."
[Illustration: FLORENCE.
PONTE SANTA TRINITA, 1832.]
The history of the city is of abundant interest. Florence was probably
an important station in the days of the Roman Triumviri. Totila the
Goth besieged and destroyed the town, and Charlemagne restored it two
hundred and fifty years later. Machiavelli states that from 1215
Florence was the seat of the ruling power in Italy, the descendants of
Charles the Great governing here until the time of the German emperors.
In the struggle between the Church and the State, the city took sides
with the popular party for the time being. There were, however, constant
factions within Florence, due to the quarrels of the Buondelmonti and
Uberti families. Frederick II. favoured the Uberti cause, and with his
help, the Buondelmontis were expelled. Then came the remarkable period
of the Guelfs and the Ghibellines, the former standing for the Pope, and
the latter siding with the Emperor. Florence favoured the Guelfs, and
the Ghibellines resolved to destroy the city; but the Guelf party again
won ascendancy in Florence. The trouble was, however, not at an end. For
years Florence was disturbed by the conflicting aims of these intriguing
parties.
Grandees and commoners warred in Florence in the fourteenth century, and
efforts were made by the aristocratic rulers to curtail the liberties of
the people. This was frustrated by the commoners, and the government
was reformed on a more democratic basis. Peace followed during a period
of about ten years, but calamity befell Florence in the form of the
pestilence described by Boccaccio. Ninety-six thousand persons are said
to have died from the ravages of this plague.
As early as the twelfth century there were many signs in Florence of
intellectual liberty. The doctrine of the eternity of matter was openly
discussed, and on to the days of Savonarola civilising forces were at
work in this centre of culture.
Girolamo Savonarola arose at the end of the fifteenth century, and his
reforming influence soon spread through Italy. "The church is shaken to
its foundations," he cries. "No more are the prophets remembered, the
apostles are no longer reverenced, the columns of the church strew the
ground because the foundations are destroyed--in other words because the
evangelists are rejected." Such heresy as this brought Savonarola to the
stake.
Greater among the mighty of Florence was Dante, born in a memorable age
of art and invention. "The Vita Nuova," inspired by the gentle damsel,
Beatrice, was written when Dante had met his divinity at a May feast
given by her father, Folco Portinari, one of the chief citizens of
Florence. Beatrice died in 1290 at the age of twenty-four. Boccaccio
states that the poet married Gemma Donati about a year after the death
of Beatrice. Dante died in 1321, and was buried in Ravenna.
For me the chief appeal in Seville, Antwerp, or any old Continental town
is in the human associations. In Florence, roaming in the ancient
quarters, the figure of Dante, made so familiar by many paintings,
arises with but little effort of the imagination, for the streets have
not greatly changed in aspect since his day. The atmosphere remains
mediæval.
Can we not see the moody poet, driven from his high estate by the
quarrels of the ruling houses, pacing the alleys, repeating to himself:
"How hard is the path!" Can we not picture him in company with Petrarch,
who, after the merry-making in the palace, remarked that the wise poet
was quite eclipsed by the mountebanks who capered before the guests? And
do we not hear Dante's muttered "Like to like!"
Two great English poets, Chaucer and Milton, made journeys to Florence.
Giovanni Boccaccio was born in 1313, in Certaldo, a small town some
leagues from Florence. He spent a few years in France and in the south
of Italy, returning to Florence at the age of twenty-eight. Boccaccio
was the close friend and the biographer of Dante, and a contemporary of
Petrarch.
In the time of Lorenzo de Medici, Florence was a prosperous city and a
seat of learning. Machiavelli writes of Lorenzo: "The chief aim of his
policy was to maintain the city in ease, the people united, and the
nobles honoured. He had a marvellous liking for every man who excelled
in any branch of art. He favoured the learned, as Messer Agnola da
Montepulciano, Messer Cristofano Landini, and Messer Demetrio; the Greek
can bear sure testimony whence it came that the Count Giovanni della
Mirandola, a man almost divine, withdrew himself from all the other
countries of Europe through which he had travelled, and attracted by the
munificence of Lorenzo, took up his abode in Florence. In architecture,
music, and poetry, he took extraordinary delight.... Never was there any
man, not in Florence merely, but in all Italy, who died with such a name
for prudence, or whose loss was so much mourned by his country."
Machiavelli, the Florentine historian, lived for a while in retirement
in the outskirts of Florence. We may gain a little insight into his
character and tastes from a passage in one of his letters in which he
mentions that it was his custom to repair to the tavern every afternoon,
clad in rustic garments, where he played cards with a miller, a butcher
and a lime-maker. In the evening he dressed himself in the clothes that
he wore in town and at court, and communed with the spirits of the
"illustrious dead" in the volumes of his library.
Over the entrance to the Casa Guidi is the inscription: "Here wrote and
died Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who, in the heart of a woman, combined
the learning of a scholar and the genius of a poet. By her verse she
wrought a golden ring connecting Italy and England. Grateful Florence
erected this memorial in 1861."
Mrs Browning passed away in the Casa Guidi just before dawn, in June
1861. Her remains lie in the beautiful grounds of the Protestant
cemetery.
Fierce old Walter Savage Landor lived for a time in Florence, and for a
longer period in Fiesole, where the Brownings often visited him.
Swinburne came just before Landor's death to see the poet.
Shelley was in Florence in 1819. A son was born to him here, and he
records the event in a letter to Leigh Hunt. The poet writes of the
Cascine Gardens, where he loved to walk and to gaze upon the Arno.
Florence seems to have impressed Shelley almost as powerfully as Rome.
"Florence itself," he writes upon a first visit, "that is the Lung Arno
(for I have seen no more) I think is the most beautiful city I have yet
seen." With this tribute from the poet, we will begin our survey of
Florence.
In a magnificent square stands the cathedral, the baptistery, and the
belfry. The oldest of the edifices is the baptistery, reared on the
ground whereon stood a temple of Mars. Parts of the building are said to
date from the seventh century. The glories of the baptistery are many,
but perhaps the most appealing of the external decorations are the
reliefs of the bronze door, which Michael Angelo so greatly admired.
They illustrate scenes from the life of John the Baptist. The exterior
of the Duomo or cathedral is the work of several great artists,
including Giotto and Andrea Pisano. A modern façade was added in
1875-1887.
The Porta della Mandoria, one of the most beautiful doorways in
existence, is surmounted by a mosaic of Ghirlandaio, "The Annunciation."
There is not much to claim attention within the cathedral, except
Michael Angelo's incomplete and last work, the "Pieta," behind the chief
altar, a statue of Boniface VIII., and a painting of Dante reading his
"Divina Commedia," by Michelino. Savonarola preached in this church.
The triumph of Giotto, the famed Campanile, adjoins the duomo. The work
was begun in 1335, and the structure and its decorations are a superb
achievement of Giotto's genius. Ruskin has written a glowing passage
upon this wonderful example of "Power and Beauty" in decorative
architecture. The edifice is of variously coloured marbles, adorned with
splendid bas-reliefs, depicting the growth of industry and art in many
ages. Another set of bas-reliefs represent Scriptural scenes. The
statues are the work of Rosso and Donatello.
Giotto was born in the neighbourhood of Florence, and died in the city.
He was the friend of Dante, who wrote an eulogy upon his supremacy as a
painter. The bell-tower of Florence is his finest work in architecture
and the most treasured of all the monuments in the city.
Fra Angelico is intimately associated with Florence, and many of his
pictures are preserved in the city. He was born in the vicinity of
Florence, near the birthplace of Giotto. Vasari says: "Fra Giovanni was
a man of simple and blameless life. He shunned the world, with all its
temptations, and during his pure and simple life was such a friend to
the poor that I think his soul must now be in heaven. He painted
incessantly, but would never represent any other than a sacred subject.
He might have been rich, but he scorned it, saying that true riches
consisted in being content to be poor."
The Academy of Arts in Florence contains many of Fra Angelico's
masterpieces. There are six of his paintings in the Uffizi Palace, and
several in the Convent of San Marco. In this collection of pictures are
numerous works of the fourteenth and fifteenth century painters, all
claiming diligent study.
The Uffizi Palace and the Pitti Palace are rich storehouses of some of
the most famous of the world's pictures, and of several great statues.
The chief pictures cannot even be enumerated. Let me only mention
Raphael's "Madonna and Child," Michael Angelo's "Holy Family," Titian's
"Venus," Durer's "Adoration of the Magi," Andrea del Sarto's
"Assumption," Ruben's "Terrors of Wars," and Velazquez's "Philip IV."
These are but few indeed of the treasures of these two noble palaces of
art.
The wonderful Venus de Medici, one of the greatest of classic works of
art, is in this collection. In the seventeenth century the statue was
unearthed in the villa of Hadrian, near Tivoli. It was in eleven pieces,
and it was repaired and set up in the Medici Palace at Rome. In 1680
Cosmo III. had the treasure removed to the Imperial Palace at Florence.
In the north-eastern part of the city there are three buildings of
historical interest. One is the Church of Santissima Annunziata, founded
in the thirteenth century, but restored in modern times. Here will be
seen sacred pictures by Andrea del Sarto, in the court, while in the
cloisters is the "Madonna del Sacco." The tomb of Benvenuto Cellini is
here.
San Marco is now a repository of works of art. It was the monastery of
Savonarola, and the edifice is haunted with the spirit of the zealous
reformer. The fine frescoes by Fra Angelico adorn the cloisters, and in
the chapter house is his "Crucifixion," one of the largest of the
friar's pictures.
Three of the cells were inhabited at different times by Savonarola, and
contain memorials of the pious ascetic, a coat of penance, a crucifix,
and religious volumes.
Sir Martin Conway writes, in "Early Tuscan Art": "In Savonarola's cell
there hangs a relic of no small interest--the handiwork of Fra Angelico
himself. It is stowed away in so dark a corner that one can hardly see
it. Eyes accustomed to the gloom discover a small picture of the
crucified Christ, painted on a simple piece of white stuff. When the
great preacher mounted the pulpit, this banner was borne before him. In
those impassioned appeals of his, that electrified for a time the people
of Florence, collected in crowded silence within the vast area of the
newly finished cathedral, it was to this very symbol of his faith that
he was wont to point, whereon are written the now faded words, _Nos
predicamus Christum crucifixum_."
In the church of San Marco are the tombs of Sant Antonino and the
learned Pico della Mirandola.
Among the other churches of note is Santa Trinita, originally an example
of the art of Niccolo Pisano, but it has been modernised. It contains a
monument by Luca della Robbia, and some splendid mural paintings,
depicting the career of St Francis, by Ghirlando. There are more
paintings by this master in the Franciscan church of Ognissanti.
Santa Croce is a great burial-place, rich in monuments of illustrious
Florentines. Michael Angelo's tomb is here, and near to it is the
resting-place of Galileo. A monument to Dante, the tomb of Alfieri, by
Canova, the memorials of Machiavelli, Aretino, Cherubino, and many
others are in this building. My necessarily scanty description of the
splendours of this church are offered with an apology for want of fuller
space to describe them.
Donatello's "Crucifixion" is in the north transept, and the Capella
Peruzzi and the Capella Bardi are decorated with frescoes by Giotto.
Agnolo Gaddi's paintings are in the choir. Reluctantly, one leaves this
great treasure-house. A mere catalogue of its works of art would fill
pages.
We have glanced at two of the palaces. Let us now visit the stern
Palazzo Vecchio, once the Senate House of the city. The building dates
from the thirteenth century, and was the home of the Medici.
Verrochio's fountain beautifies one of the courts. Inside the palazzo
are mural paintings by Ghirlando.
Another of the interesting buildings is the Bargello, an important
museum. Michael Angelo's "Dying Adonis" and "Victory" are in the court,
and there are more works of the great artist within. Dante lectured in
one of the halls of the Bargello. Benvenuto Cellini's design for
"Perseus" is in one of the rooms, and there are reliefs by Della Robbia.
The Riccardi Palace is redolent with memories of Lorenzo. It stands in
the Piazza San Lorenzo, and in the same square is the church named after
him, containing some very beautiful monuments. Donatello was buried
here, and a stone marks the grave of Cosimo de Medici. Lippo Lippi's
"Annunciation," and Michael Angelo's works are the glories of this
church. The New Sacristy contains Angelo's "Day and Night" over the tomb
of Giuliano Medici, and that of Lorenzo de Medici adorned with statues
of "Dawn and Twilight." These are among the most magnificent examples of
Michael Angelo's statuary.
Near to the railway station is the Church of Santa Maria Novella, a
glorious specimen of Gothic architecture, with a fine façade. In this
church are paintings by Orcagna, Lippi, Cimabue Ghirlando, and other
artists. The frescoes in the Strozzi Chapel, and the Spanish Chapel of
this Dominican church are of great interest. Orcagna's paintings in the
Strozzi Chapel are of the fourteenth century. The chapel was dedicated
to St Thomas Aquinas, who was greatly honoured by the Dominican order.
Modern Florence is a bright populous city, with wide main streets,
squares, and pleasant gardens.
VERONA
Amid surroundings of great beauty, in a northern corner of Italy, with a
huge mountain barrier in the rear, and not far from the Lake of Garda,
is the old city of Verona. Shakespeare called the place "fair Verona,"
and made it the scene of _Romeo and Juliet_, while the city is again the
background of drama in _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_.
[Illustration: VERONA, 1830.]
Shall we not see, leaning from one of the old balconies, the lovely
Juliet? Do Romeo, Mercutio, and Benvolio no longer roam these twisted
ancient streets? And where shall we find Julia and Lucetta, and
Valentine, and smile at the pleasantries of Launce, with his dog, Crab,
on a leash? Shakespeare has peopled these courts and cloisters for us
with characters that we knew when we were young. We resent the bare hint
that there never were in Verona a fervent youth named Romeo and a gentle
maid called Juliet. Verona is the home of _Romeo and Juliet_, and for
this we have known the town since we first turned the magic pages of
Shakespeare.
One wishes that there were a better word than "picturesque." How
hackneyed seem adjectives and phrases in describing these old towns.
Verona then is very beautiful; it is certainly one of the loveliest
cities of Europe, both in its surroundings and within its confines. You
will not soon tire of the Piazza della Erbe, with the flying lion on its
column, the charming fountain, and the stately Municipio. Here you will
watch the life of Verona of to-day, and reflect that it has not wholly
changed since the time of the Scaligers, the mighty rulers of the city.
There is, of course, the modern note. But the old buildings stand, and
in their shade people in the dress of olden days pass continually. It is
inspiring and a trifle unreal when the moon lights the square, and the
silence of night lends mystery to the scene.
In Verona everyone strives to live and work in the open air. The streets
are thronged on days of market, stalls are set up in the narrow lanes
and in the piazzas, vegetables and fruit come in great store. The
eternal garlic scents the street, but we learn to love its odour. In
Spain a market is quiet and solemn; here the scene is gay and noisy.
Voices are raised, and there is lively bartering of wares. There are
subjects at every turn for the brush of the painter--stern old
buildings, winding alleys, and groups of garishly dressed peasants.
Diocletian's glorious amphitheatre is the chief wonder of Verona. Few
Roman monuments are so well preserved; the lower arches are almost
perfect, and the stonework has been restored.
Great gladiators fought here during hundreds of centuries. The tiers had
thousands of seats for spectators of all classes; and in later times the
knights of chivalry contended in the circus. There is a fine view from
the highest tier, overlooking the city and the varied landscape.
The structure is of a dull red marble, and signs of decay have been
removed by repeated restoration, for the people of Verona take great
pride in this monument. "The amphitheatre," writes Goethe, "is the first
important monument of the old times that I have seen--and how well it is
preserved!"
Fra Giaconda designed the Palazza del Consiglio, and his fine arches and
statuary deserve close inspection. The Tribunale and the Palazza della
Ragione, both interesting, should be visited; the tombs of Scaligers in
the Tribunale are Gothic work of great beauty.
There are several important churches in the city. The cathedral was
begun in the twelfth century, and is adorned with a number of exterior
images and reliefs. One of the chief works of the interior is Titian's
"Assumption." San Zeno Maggiore has a beautiful façade, with Theodoric
the Goth as one of the carvings, and a doorway of noble decorations. The
interior of this church is very impressive.
The Church of Sant Anastasia dates from the thirteenth century, and is
one of the most striking buildings in Verona. In the Cavilli Chapel are
some old frescoes, and there is a splendid statue of the last of the
Scaliger rulers, Cortesia Sarega, on horseback.
San Giorgio has some famous paintings. Let us inspect first the great
picture of Paolo Veronese, "The Martyrdom of St George." Paolo Caliari,
born in 1528, was a native of Verona, and came to be known as "The
Veronese." His model was Titian, and he excelled in colour effects, and
in the brilliance of his scenes. Several of his chief works are in
Venice, but the example in this church is considered one of his
greatest achievements. More of his pictures will be seen in the gallery
of the Pompeii Palace. The art of Paolo Veronese appealed strongly to
Goethe, who admired more than all his work in portraiture.
Jacopo Robusti, called Tintoretto, was the founder of the Venetian
School. Like Veronese, he followed the method of Titian. He was a
prolific painter. Venice abounds in his works, and there are several of
his paintings in Verona. In San Giorgio is "The Baptism of Christ," and
Goethe refers to one of this artist's pictures, called "A Paradise," in
the Bevilague Palace.
One of the finest works of Mantegna is in Verona. This is the altarpiece
"The Madonna with Angels and Saints," in the Church of San Zeno. The
figures and features of the Virgin are very beautifully presented.
Mantegna was by birth a Paduan, but he worked chiefly in Mantua. His
magnificent cartoons, painted for a palace at Mantua, are now in the
Hampton Court Gallery, England.
In the Church of Santa Maria in Organo there are some fresco paintings
by Morone, depicting a Madonna accompanied by St Augustine and St
Thomas Aquinas. Dr Kugler, in his "History of Painting," says that there
is a "Madonna" by that painter in a house beyond the Ponta delle Navi in
Verona.
Fra Giovanni designed the choir stalls in this church, and executed
other decorations during his sojourn in the monastery of Verona.
From Santa Maria we may turn into the beautiful old Giusti Gardens, with
their shady walks, their wealth of verdure, and ancient cypress-trees.
Besides the pictures in the churches, there is a collection of paintings
in the picture gallery of the Palazzo Pompei. Here will be found
examples of Paolo Veronese and other notable artists of his day. One of
the Veronese School here represented is Girolomo dai Libri, who was a
follower of Mantegna. His work is of a deeply religious character, and
merits careful study.
The Church of San Fermo Maggiore should be seen for its handsome Gothic
architecture, both in the exterior and interior.
There are one or two relics of the Roman period in the history of
Verona, besides the splendid amphitheatre. The most noteworthy are the
two gateways, the Arco dei Leoni, and the Porta dei Borsari.
A. E. Freeman, the historian, has admirably described the variety of
interest in this old town: "There is the classic Verona, the Verona of
Catullus and Pliny; there is the Verona of the Nibelungen, the Bern of
Theodoric; there is the mediæval Verona, the Verona of commonwealths and
tyrants; the Verona of Eccelius and Can Grande; and there is the Verona
of later times, under Venetian, French, and Austrian bondage, the Verona
of congresses and fortifications."
SEVILLE
A house in Seville is the reward of those beloved by the gods. In Toledo
you are made reflective, perchance a little melancholy, while in Granada
you are infected by the spirit of a past long dead. But in fair, sunlit
Seville you live in the present as well as in the past; and your heart
is made light by the pervasive gaiety of the people and the cheerfulness
of the streets and plazas.
Climb the beautiful Giralda--the brown tower of the Moors that rises
above the cathedral dome--and look around upon the vegas, and away to
the blue mountains of the horizon, and you will know why Borrow was
moved to shed "tears of rapture," when he gazed upon this delightful
land of the Blessed Virgin and the happy city, with its minarets, its
palm-shaded squares, its luxuriant gardens, and broad stream, winding
between green banks to the distant marshes, where rice and cotton grow,
and the flamingo and heron fly over sparkling lagoons amid a tropical
jungle.
Seville in spring is gay to hilarity. The great fair and the Easter
ceremonials and _fêtes_ attract thousands to the capital of Andalusia at
the season when the banks of the Guadalquivir are white with the bloom
of the orange-trees, and hundreds of nightingales make the evening
breezes melodious; when the heat is bearable, the sky a deep azure, and
the whole town festive, and bright with the costumes of many provinces.
No blight of east wind depresses in early spring, and rarely indeed is
the promise of roses and fruit threatened by frost in this region of
perennial mildness and sunlight. "Only once have I seen ice in Seville,"
said to me a middle-aged native of the place. It is only the winter
floods, those great _avenidas_, that are dreaded in Seville; for now and
then the river swells out of normal bounds, and spreads into the streets
and alleys.
[Illustration: SEVILLE, 1836.
PLAZA REAL AND PROCESSION OF THE CORPUS CHRISTI.]
Seville is a white city in most of its modern parts. Lime-wash is used
profusely everywhere, and the effect is cool and cleanly; but we wish
sometimes that the natural colour of the stonework had been left free
from the _brocha del blanquedor_, or the whitewasher's brush.
Nevertheless, this whiteness hides dirt and dinginess. There are no
squalid slums in Seville. The poor are there in swarms, but their
poverty is not ugly and obvious, and for the greater part they are clad
in cotton that is often washed.
This is the town of beautiful southern doñas: the true types of
Andalusian loveliness may be seen here in the park, on the promenade,
and at the services in the cathedral--women with black or white
mantillas, olive or pale in complexion, with full, dark eyes, copious
raven hair, short and rather plump in form, but always charming in their
carriage. More picturesque and often more lovely in features are the
working girls, those vivacious, intelligent daughters of the people,
whose dark hair is adorned with a carnation or a rose.
The lightheartedness of Seville has expression in music, dancing, and
merry forgatherings each evening in the _patios_, when the guitar
murmurs sweetly, and the click of the castanets sets the blood tingling.
Everyone in Seville dances. The children dance almost as soon as they
learn to toddle. In the _cafés_ you will see the nimblest dancers of
Spain, and follow the intricate movements of the bolero, as well as the
curious swaying and posturings of the older Moorish dances. These
strange dramatic dances must be seen, and to witness them you should
visit the Novedades at the end of Calle de las Sierpes.
Fashionable Seville delights in driving, and some of the wealthiest
residents drive a team of gaily-decked, sleek-coated mules, with bells
jangling on their bridles. Beautiful horses with Arab blood may be seen
here. Even the asses are well-bred and big. But one sees also many
ill-fed and sadly over-driven horses and mules. These people, so
affectionate in their family life, so kindly in their entertainment of
foreigners, and so graciously good-natured, have not yet learned one of
the last lessons of humane civilisation--compassion for the animals that
serve them.
Society in Seville takes its pleasure seriously, but the seriousness is
not the dullness that attends the Englishman's attempts at hilarity. The
Spaniard is less demonstrative than the Frenchman, less mercurial than
the Italian. Notwithstanding, the crowd at the races, at the battle of
flowers, or watching the religious processions, or at the opera, is
happy in its quiet intentness. The enthusiasm for bullfighting is
perhaps the strongest visible emotion in Seville, the Alma Mater of the
champions of the arena. At the _corrida_ the Sevillian allows himself
to become excited. He loses his restraint, he shouts himself hoarse,
waves his hat, and thrashes the wooden seats with his cane in the
ecstasy of his delight, when a great performer plunges his sword into
the vital spot of the furious bull that tears the earth with its foot,
and prepares for a charge.
Bullfights, gorgeous ecclesiastic spectacles, and dancing--these are the
recreations of rich and poor alike in Seville to-day. In this city of
pleasure you will see the _majo_, the Andalusian dandy, as he struts up
and down the Sierpes--the only busy street of shops--spruce,
self-conscious, casting fervent glances at the señoras accompanied by
their duennas. Go into the meaner alleys and market streets, and you
will see the very vagrants that Murillo painted, tattered wastrels who
address one another as Señor, and hold licences to beg. Cross the Bridge
of Isabella to the suburb of Triana, and you will find a mixed and
curious population of mendicants, thieves, desperadoes, and a colony of
Gitanos, who live by clipping horses, hawking, fortune-telling, dancing
and begging.
Peep through the delicate trellises of the Moorish gates of the patios,
and you will see fountains, and flowers, and palms, and the slender
columns supporting galleries, as in the Alhambra and other ancient
buildings. Very delightful are these cool courtyards, with their canvas
screens, ensuring shade at noonday, their splash of water, and their
scent of roses clustering on columns and clothing walls. Some of these
courtyards are open to the visitor, and one of the finest is the Casa de
Pilatos in the Plaza de Pilatos.
A pleasant garden within a court is that of my friend, Don J.
Lopez-Cepero, who lives in the old house of Murillo, and allows the
stranger to see his fine collection of pictures. Here Murillo died, in
1682, and some of his paintings are treasured in the gallery. The house
is Number Seven, Plaza de Alfaro.
We will now survey the Seville of olden days. No traces remain of
Seville's earliest epochs. The Phoenician traditions are vague, and we
know little indeed of the Hispolo of the Greeks, a town which was
supposed to have stood on this ground. The Romans came here, and called
the town Julia Romula, and the remains of that age, if scanty, are
deeply interesting. Italica, five miles from the city, is a Roman
amphitheatre, with corridors, dens for the lions, and some defined
tiers of seats. At this great Roman station, Trajan, Hadrian, and
Theodosius were born. For other vestiges of the Roman rule, we must
visit the Museo Provincial, where there are capitals, statues, and
busts. The Pillars of Hercules in the Alaméda are other monuments of
this period of the history of Seville.
Vandals and Goths ravaged the Roman city. Then came Musâ, the Moor, who
besieged Seville, and captured it, afterwards marrying the widow of the
Gothic monarch. A succession of Moorish rulers governed the city for
several hundred years. One of the greatest was Motamid II., under whose
sway Seville became a prosperous and wealthy capital, with a vast
population.
The Christians took the city in 1248, and expelled thousands of the
Mohammedans. Under the Spanish kings, Seville remained, for a
considerable spell, a royal city; and one of the most renowned of its
Christian sovereigns was Pedro the Cruel, who, while democratic in some
respects, was, on the other hand, a truculent tyrant. In administration
he was jealous and energetic, and though called "The Cruel," he has also
been named "The Just." Pedro lived in the Alcázar, the old palace which
we shall presently visit.
The monuments of the Moors in Seville are numerous. In the Alcázar are
courts of resplendent beauty, gilded and coloured in hundreds of
fantastic designs; arcades with horseshoe arches and graceful columns,
marble floors, fountains, and richly decorated doorways. The Giralda,
which is seen from many open spaces in the city, is a magnificent
specimen of the minaret, dating from 1184; and this tower, and the
adjoining Court of the Oranges, are parts of an ancient mosque. The
lower portion of the Golden Tower, by the Guadalquivir, was built by the
Moors. Many of the churches are built in the Mudéjar, or late Moorish
style, and most of them have elegant minarets, arched windows, and
interior decorations of an Oriental character.
The power of Seville diminished under the domination of the Catholic
kings, until the discovery of America by Cristoforo Colombo (Columbus),
who sailed from the city on his bold expedition, and was welcomed with
fervour upon his triumphal return. We think of the explorer setting
forth for a second voyage, with vessels equipped at the cost of Isabella
the Catholic, who profited so liberally by the conquest of the New
World, and we picture him in the days of neglect, when he suffered the
lot of those who put their trust in the promises of princes. It was
Columbus who made the Seville of the fifteenth century. The commercial
importance of the city, after the expulsion of the Moors, was
re-established through the great trade opened with America.
The fortunes of Seville at this period were bound up with those of the
revered Queen Isabel. Shakespeare styled her "queen of earthly queens,"
and Sir Francis Bacon praised her. She was tall, fair, and of most
amiable bearing, and she possessed many of the qualities of one born to
command. Unfortunately for Seville, the young queen was under the
domination of Cardinal Mendoza, and of Torquemada. It was Torquemada who
urged her to purify Spain from her heresy by means of torture and the
flame. Let it be said that Isabel did not comply willingly, and that she
strove more than once to check the cruelties of the Holy Office. The
first to suffer from the Inquisition in Seville were the Jews; then
followed a long and bitter persecution of heretics of the Protestant
faith, and a reign of terror among men of learning.
The Chapel of the Alcázar was built in the time of Isabel, and her
bedroom is still to be seen.
Charles V. loved the retirement of the Alcázar, and his marriage with
Isabella of Portugal was celebrated in the gorgeous Hall of the
Ambassadors. He made several additions to the palace, and directed the
planning of the exquisite gardens. Philip V. lived here for a time, and
he also caused alterations, and added to the curious mixture of
buildings within the walls of the Moorish palace.
There are so few signs of commercialism in the city that we gain an
impression that Seville only lives to amuse itself, and to entertain its
host of visitors. There are, however, industries of many kinds, and a
considerable export trade in various ores, in olive oil, fruit, wine,
and wool. The population is over one-hundred-and-fifty thousand. There
are several factories, and many craftsmen working in their homes.
The illustrious natives are numerous. Velazquez, the greatest painter of
Spain, if not of the world, was born here in 1599. Murillo was a
Sevillian, and so were the artists Pacheco, Herrera, and Roelas, and the
sculptor, Montañez. Lope de Rueda, one of the earliest Spanish
dramatists, lived here. Cervantes spent a part of his life in Seville,
and described the characters of the Macarena Quarter in his shorter
tales.
The house of the gifted Dean Pacheco, in Seville, was the resort of many
artists and notable men. This painter and cleric is chiefly remembered
as the teacher of Velazquez. He wrote discourses on the art of painting,
and trained a number of the Sevillian artists. The art of Murillo was
influenced by Juan del Castillo, who also taught Alonso Cano. Castillo
was born in Seville.
Francisco Herrera, born in 1622, studied in Rome, and upon his return to
Spain painted many pictures in Madrid. The Cordovan painter, Juan Valdés
Leal, lived for many years in Seville, and worked with Murillo to
establish an academy of painting in the city. There are many specimens
of his art in Seville. Juan de las Roelas was a Sevillian by birth
(1558-1625) and his "Santiago destroying the Moors" is in the chapter of
the cathedral, while many of the churches contain his pictures.
The Provincial Museum has an instructive collection of paintings of the
Andalusian School as well as the works of many artists of other
traditions. Murillo is represented by several paintings. There are some
fine examples of the art of Zurbaran, a sombre and realistic artist
whose work conveys the mediæval spirit of Spain, and is esteemed by many
students as more sincere than the art of Murillo. His finest pictures
are, perhaps, "San Hugo visiting the Monks," "The Virgin of Las Cuevas,"
and "St Bruno conversing with Urban II."
In the Museo is a portrait by El Greco, supposed erroneously to be the
painter himself. This is often appraised as the chief treasure of the
collection. Among the most admirable of the Spanish primitive painters
is Alejo Fernandez, whose work is to be seen in the cathedral, in the
churches of Seville and Triana. Fernandez is scarcely known out of
Spain, but art students will delight in his work, and everyone should
see the beautiful "Madonna and Child" in the Church of Santa Ana in
Triana, and the large altarpiece in San Julian.
The sculpture of Montañez merits very careful attention. His figure of
"St Bruno" stands in the Museo Provincial, and "St Dominic" is in the
south transept. "The Virgin and Child" and "John the Baptist" are in
this collection. In the sacristy of the cathedral is Montañez' "Statue
of the Virgin." This artist died in 1649, after a busy life. He carved
many images for the Church, and founded a school of wood-carving. Among
his pupils was the gifted Alonso Cano. The single figures by Montañez
are considered finer art than his groups. Most of his effigies are
lavishly coloured.
The cathedral is a magnificent building, the largest in Spain, and
greater than St Paul's in London. Gautier said that "Notre Dame de Paris
might walk erect in the middle nave." There are seven naves with
monstrous columns, the loftiness of the interior conveying a sense of
vastness which has been often described by travellers. More than a
hundred years were spent in the building of this great church, and
several architects planned the various parts during that period. Ruiz
and Rodriguez designed the greater portion, and the last of the
architects was Juan Gil de Houtañon, who planned the cathedral of
Salamanca. The chief front is finely decorated, and has three portals,
with statue groups and reliefs. There is so much of beauty and interest
in the interior that I can only write briefly of a few of the most
notable objects. The stained windows number over seventy, and they are
chiefly by Aleman, a German, and by Flemish artists of the sixteenth
century. The choir altar has pictures, and a handsome plateresque
screen. There are splendidly carved stalls, and a notable lectern. The
sacristy is near the chief façade, with a high dome, several chapels,
and some interesting statues. The retablo is by Roldan, a follower of
Montañez.
Murillo's "Vision of the Holy Child" is in the Capella del Bautisterio.
In the Royal Chapel, which is interesting Renaissance work, richly
ornamented, there are the tomb of Alfonso the Wise, and an old figure of
the Virgin. Pedro Campaña's altarpiece, in the Capilla del Mariscal,
should be seen. In the south transept is the noted "La Gamba," a
painting by Luis de Vargas. The ornate Sala Capitular has the
"Conception," by Murillo, and a painting by Pablo de Céspedes, who was a
sculptor, poet, and painter, born at Cordova, and made a canon of the
cathedral in that city. Céspedes was a fine portrait painter, and has
been described as "one of the best colourists of Spain."
The Sacristy de las Calices of the Capilla de Nuestra Senora de las
Dolores contains Goya's well-known painting of Saints Justa and Rufina,
the potter-girls who were martyred by the Romans. Here also will be seen
a picture by Zurbaran; "The Trinity," by El Greco, the crucifix carved
by Montañez, and a "Guardian Angel," by Murillo. The Capilla de Santiago
has paintings by the early artists Valdés Leal and Juan de las Roelas.
Close to the cathedral is the semi-Moorish Alcázar, with its strangely
mingled styles of architecture. The buildings are in part a fortress,
while within the walls are portions of a palace of the sultans and a
residence of Christian kings. The rich frontage of Pedro's palace is
composite, and probably only the gate is purely Moorish. In the Court of
the Maidens there is much gorgeous decoration. As in the Alhambra, we
see the characteristic gallery with delicate columns, and arches with
ornamental inscriptions. The Hall of the Ambassadors is the pride of the
Alcázar. Here again we shall notice several orders of architecture, but
the effect is impressive. The portals are sumptuous, and the whole place
and decorations suggest the opulence and might of the early Catholic
kings.
I like the old gardens of the Alcázar, with their tiled walks, their
clustering roses, their alcoves and arbours, and quaint fountains, all
enclosed by an ancient wall. Here sultans dreamed, and kings retired
from the cares of government, to breathe the scented air of evening.
Quiet reigns in these flowery courts, only the voices of birds are heard
among the orange-trees and tangled roses.
There are many beautifully adorned chambers in this palace of delight.
Alfonso, Pedro, Isabel, Charles, and Philip all reconstructed or added
to the wonderful pile first erected by Yusuf. The old buildings once
stretched to the river, the Golden Tower forming one of the defences.
Before the Moors came to Seville, a Roman prætorium stood on this
ground, and it was in 1181 that the Morisco architects began to plan the
Alcázar. Much of the present building is of Mudéjar, or late Moorish,
origin. The details that should be studied are the pillared windows, the
marble columns, the fine stalactite frieze, the arches, the azulejos of
dazzling colour, the choice decoration of the doors, the marble
pavements, and the half-orange domes--all representative of the art of
the Mudéjares.
We must now inspect some more of the monuments of Seville. King Pedro's
Church, Omnium Sanctorium, is an example of mixed Christian and
Mohammedan architecture, with a minaret and three portals. The
Ayuntamiento is an exceedingly flamboyant building in the Plaza de la
Constitucion, with two façades, one of them fronting the Plaza de San
Fernando. The older and finer front was designed by Riaño.
The Archbishop's Palace, which dates from the seventeenth century, is
not a good example of the plateresque style. The only picture in Seville
by Velazquez, a much restored canvas, is in the palace. The Lonja
(Exchange) was built by Philip II., and finished about 1598. It is a
square, imposing structure, but scarcely beautiful in form or
decoration. A splendid doorway, very luxuriantly decorated, is that of
the Palace of San Telmo, where there are very lovely gardens.
The modern life of Seville concentrates in the two principal plazas, in
the Calle de las Sierpes, and in the Park of Maria Luisa. Very pleasant
are the palm-shaded squares and the walks by the Guadalquivir. In the
tortuous white alleys you come unexpectedly upon charming wrought-iron
gates, through which you catch glimpses of cheerful patios. Some of
these lanes are so narrow that a pannier-mule almost bars your road. And
above this fair city the sun shines almost perpetually, while the
smokeless air has a wonderful clarity.
CORDOVA
Cordova, like Seville and Granada, is a memorial of the Moors. It is a
city that sleeps, living in the memory of its past.
Its history since the last of the sultans in Spain is comparatively
uneventful, its glorious days were before the expulsion of the Morisco
inhabitants, when the city was a seat of learning, a great centre of art
and industry, and the place of residence of illustrious caliphs.
The somnolence of Cordova is like an eternal siesta. You wander in
ancient streets, with houses guarded from the ardent rays of the sun,
and marvel how the people live, for there is no outward sign, as in
Seville, of commercial activity.
Yet the inhabitants who saunter in the Paseo del Gran Capitan, under the
orange-trees, and flock to the bullfights, do not appear so "dull and
ill-provided," as O'Shea found them in 1868. There is even an air of
prosperity among the residents, despite the long centuries of slumber.
Nor does the aspect of the city convey an impression of neglect. The
houses are white and clean, the streets brighter than the thoroughfares
of sombre Toledo, and the charming courtyards inviting and pleasant,
with clustering roses and spreading palms. There is colour everywhere,
Cordova is a painter's paradise.
In summer the heat is extreme. The glare of the whitened houses reflects
the brilliant sapphire of the sky, and becomes painful to the eyes; the
city is in a plain, exposed to every ray of the Andalusian sun. To
escape the enervating heat of summer, the wealthier inhabitants migrate
to the uplands and the beautiful sierras, at whose base the city lies.
The country around Cordova is fertile. Olives, vines, and many
fruit-trees flourished in the valley of the Guadalquivir, and on the
foothills, and there are large tracts of pasture-land. Vegetables are
grown in profusion. Before the time of the Moors, Cordova had repute for
its succulent artichokes. On the grassy plains the Moorish settlers led
great flocks of cattle, and here grazed the splendid horses of Arab
breed, which were long famous throughout Spain.
[Illustration: CORDOVA, 1836.
THE PRISON OF THE INQUISITION.]
But the immediate surroundings of the city are almost treeless. Here
and there a slope is clothed with olive-trees, and the broad _paseos_
are shaded by young trees, newly planted; but the Spanish peasant,
dreading the harbourage that woods afford to birds, ruthlessly fells and
stubs up trees. For league upon league stretches a monotonous tract of
grass, watered by sluggish yellow streams, upon whose banks grows the
cold grey cactus.
Most English travellers reach Cordova by rail from Madrid or Seville.
The journey from Madrid is by way of Alcazar and Linares, passing the
wine-growing districts of Manzanares and Valdepeña, and crossing the
waste territory of La Mancha, in which Don Quixote roamed in quest of
knightly adventure. From Seville the rail journey occupies about four
hours, and the line runs through a fairly cultivated track of Andalusia,
following the Guadalquivir for the greater part of its course.
To the north of Cordova, some leagues away, stretch the grey-blue
heights of the Sierra Morena, whence wild winds sweep the plain in
winter. Between this range and the Sierra Nevada there are fertile
districts, watered by the Genil and other streams. At Cordova the
Guadalquivir is a wide, somewhat turgid stream, washing the southern
side of the town, around which it sweeps in a mighty circle. The rushing
water is spanned by a great bridge of many arches, whose gateway, the
_Puerta del Puente_, a Doric triumphal arch, erected by Philip II. on
the site of the Moorish _Bâb al-Kantara_, gives entrance to the city.
The bridge, with its sixteen arches, is Moorish, and stands on Roman
foundations. This is one of the best points from which to view the city.
The great mosque is seen well from here, and the city stretching away
from the water's edge, white-gleaming in the blaze of the sun, is
beautiful and strangely suggestive. The rugged heights of the Sierra de
Cordoba rise in the far distance; the water of the river tumbles and
eddies in its wide bed. A little way up the stream are the Moorish mills
that have stood unchanged through the centuries. This is the spot to
learn the peace of sleeping Cordova. The history of Cordova dates back
to the pre-Christian era: Corduba was the most important of the ancient
Iberian cities. It was made a Roman settlement about 200 B.C., and later
the city was extended, and under the name of Colonia Patricia was made
the capital of Southern Spain. Always the history of the city has been a
record of struggle and the shedding of blood. There was a great
massacre of the people in the time of Cæsar, through their allegiance to
Pompey.
Cordova has been ruled by many masters. After the Romans, the city came
into the possession of Goths, and from them it was captured by the
Moors. Roderick the Goth was defeated by Tarik in 711, on the Guadelete
River, and the valiant Mughith, one of Tarik's commanders, was sent to
Cordova with a force of horsemen. In a heavy hail shower, Mughith rode
into Cordova, taking the natives by surprise, and capturing the town
without resistance.
Ruled later by the caliphs of Damascus, Cordova became the centre of the
Moorish dominion in Spain. In the tenth century, the city was in the
height of its splendour and renown. For three centuries the Omeyyads
held sway, and these rulers, descendants of the sovereign family of
Damascus, vied with one another in enlarging and adorning the city. The
three caliphs of the name of Abderahman were distinguished for their
courage in their administrative capacity, and their love of the arts,
and of learning. The last of the trio of great rulers, though brave, was
described as "the mildest and most enlightened sovereign that ever
ruled a country." Abderahman III. was, in every sense, a potent
monarch. None of the caliphs who succeeded him equalled this wise and
tactful Moor. Intrigues, factions, and treachery marked the reigns of
his successors.
For a time Almanzor, the unconquerable minister, saved Cordova. The
career of this man is witness to the romance which meets us so often in
Spain; beginning his life as a professional letter-writer, he ended as
sole ruler of an empire. Almanzor died in 1002, and from this time
Cordova's history is a monotonous record of revolt and disorder. Hisham
III. was imprisoned in the great vault of the mosque, and the rule of
the Omeyyads was at an end. Caliph after caliph was set up. Arabs,
Moors, and Spaniards fought for the city. Once for four days Cordova was
turned into a shamble, when "the Berber butchers" ransacked the city,
slaying the people, and burning its splendid buildings. Az-Zahra, the
summer palace, with all its exquisite treasures of art, was left a heap
of charred ruins.
Afterwards Yusuf, the Berber, founded the dynasty of the Almoravides.
But his rule was brief.
In 1235 Cordova fell. Fernando had pledged himself to recover Spain for
the Christians. The king advanced into Andalusia, with a mighty army of
fervent crusaders, and the splendid city of the Moors was seized by the
warriors of the Cross. A host of the Morisco natives quitted the city
for Africa; many were killed, and a proportion remained as "reconciled"
Spanish subjects. Fernando's victory was a triumph for Catholicism; but
it brought about the slow decay of Cordova. The population dwindled, the
arts and crafts were neglected, the fields untilled. Learning was
discountenanced, libraries of precious volumes burned; and in their zeal
for cleansing Cordova from all traces of the Moslem, the reformers even
destroyed the baths.
To read of the Cordova of the Moors is like reading a chapter of
Oriental romance. But the story is not legendary. This marvellous city,
equal in grandeur to Baghdad, was a great beacon-light of culture for
three hundred years. Its mosques, its schools, and its hospitals were
famous throughout the world. Sages, poets, artists found here every
scope and assistance for the development of their philosophy and their
art. There were no ignorant natives, and no class living in penury and
squalor. The Moors were almost perfect masters of the art of
civilisation. They esteemed education; they taught tolerance; they
inculcated a love of beauty in daily life, and lived cleanly, and on the
whole, sanely.
The life was jocund, but sober, for the Moors abstained from wine. "The
City of Cities," "The Bride of Andalus," are the names bestowed on the
beautiful city of Cordova by the Moorish writers of that age.
In the twelfth century Abu Mohammed wrote of Cordova as "the Cupola of
Islam, the convocation of scholars, the court of the sultans of the
family of Omeyyah, and the residence of the most illustrious tribes of
Yemen. Students from all parts of the world flocked thither at all times
to learn the sciences of which Cordova was the most noble repository,
and to derive knowledge from the mouths of the doctors and ulemas who
flourished in its cultured life. Cordova was 'to Andalus what the head
is to the body.'"
The city once boasted of fifty thousand resplendent palaces, and a
hundred thousand inferior houses. Its mosques numbered seven hundred,
and the cleanly Moors built nine hundred public baths. The city
stretched for ten miles along the banks of the Guadalquivir, flanked
with walls, battlements, and towers, and approached by guarded gates.
Throughout the world men spoke in veneration of its four great
wonders--the immense and gorgeous mosque, the bridge over the
Guadalquivir, the suburb city of Az-Zahra, and the sciences which were
studied in the colleges.
Abderahman III. built a palace a few miles from the city, called
Medinat-az-Zahra. It was named after the beautiful Zahra, one of the
sultan's mistresses. A figure of Zahra was carved over the chief gateway
of this fairy city. Medinat-az-Zahra was a town rather than a royal
residence. There was a splendid mosque upon the site; the suburb had
colleges, baths and marts.
Forty years were spent in building this retreat for the caliph and his
favourite. Upon the decoration of its buildings Abderahman spent large
sums of money. El Makkari, the Arab historian, states that the columns
of the buildings came from the east, and that the marble walls of the
palace were shining with gold. The caliph even proposed to remove the
dark background of hills, but instead the slopes were planted with
fruit-trees.
This palace, one of the four great glories of the city, has vanished.
The savage host of Berbers, in 1010, attacked Medinat-az-Zahra and
burned it to the ground. The natives were slaughtered with fearful
cruelty, even within the precincts of the mosque the pursuers cut them
down. It is said that portions of the caliph's palace were afterwards
used in erecting the Convent of San Jerónimo, to the north-west of the
city. At this time Cordova was assailed, its buildings burnt, much of
its treasure was despoiled or carried away by the troops of
Abd-l-Jabbar, the Berber leader.
There is one wonder that conquest has left unspoiled to Cordova, and one
cannot survey the imperishable mosque of the caliph without veneration
for the race that set an example to the world in virtue, culture, and
the joy of beautiful living. It is to see this wonder of Moorish art
that the stranger visits Cordova.
The way to the mosque (mezquita) is readily discovered, for every
stranger is recognised by the street urchins who are eager in offering
directions.
The first religious edifice upon this site was a Roman temple. In 786
the building of the Moorish mezquita was begun by the first Abderahman.
The work was carried on by the next sultan, Hishem, and by Abderahman
III. For more than two centuries the mosque grew in size and splendour,
as each succeeding caliph added some new beauty.
The mosque is a magnificent example of Moorish architecture. Vast,
massive, bewildering, and beautiful are not extravagant terms to use in
describing this edifice. It is worth while to walk round the outside of
the building to gain an impression of its vast size and the strength of
its structure. Like all Moorish buildings the exterior is plain, with
the fine primitive severity of Byzantine work. The interior structure is
enclosed by walls of about fifty feet in height, buttressed, and very
stout, with numerous towers. The bronze doors are of finest Moorish
work. There is a handsome portal on the north side, built in the time of
Hakam between 988 and 1000.
The Gate of Pardon which gives entrance to the Court of Oranges has a
horseshoe arch, surmounted by three smaller arches, and which are
decorated with paintings of no value. This gateway is not Moorish, but a
later addition built by the Christians in imitation of the gate at
Seville Cathedral.
The Court of Oranges was used by the Moslems for ablution before
entering the mosque. It is a wide space, with palms, orange-trees, and
fountains, and a colonnade. It is the most beautiful spot in Cordova,
cool and gracefully shaded, and when the orange-trees are in flower a
fragrance pervades the place. Once there were nineteen beautiful
gateways leading into the court, and these were uniform with the
nineteen aisles. The famous fountain of Abderahman stands in the centre
of the court. Here all day the women of Cordova are gathered. They come
one by one, or in groups together. Each carries her red-brown pitcher
for water. It is the meeting-place where the day's gossip is exchanged.
Always there is the sound of laughter and gay chattering. All the
Cordovese appear to be happy.
We enter the mosque by the Puerta de las Palmas; the eyes are dazed by
the endless columns and profusion of arches, numbering nearly nine
hundred. Nowhere are there such columns and arches as these. Every stone
has its history. Marble, porphyry, and jasper are the material, and the
arches are painted red and white. The effect is indescribable. I
believe that there are not two columns alike in point of decorative
detail. Some of the arches are of horseshoe shape, and some are round.
But symmetry is retained; the whole interior gives a delightful
impression of grace and elegance.
Look up at the wondrous ceiling. Its wealth of colour is dazzling. When
the thousands of lamps were lit, the ceiling shone with gold and
brilliant colours. In some parts the ceilings of the mosque are
embellished with paintings, and a number of cufic inscriptions are seen
among the decorative designs.
De Amicis, writing of the Mosque of Cordova, says: "Imagine a forest,
fancy yourself in the densest part of it, and that you can see nothing
but the trunks of trees. So in this mosque, on whatever side you look,
the eye loses itself among the columns. It is a forest of marble, whose
confines one cannot discover. You follow with your eye, one by one, the
very long rows of columns that interlace at every step with numberless
other rows, and you reach a semi-obscure background, in which other
columns seem to be gleaming. There are nineteen aisles, which extend
from north to south, traversed by thirty-three others, supported, among
them all by more than nine hundred columns of prophyry, jasper,
breccia, and marbles of every colour."
The walls and ceiling of parts of the building are in marvellous
preservation. They gleam with an infinite opulence of colour; they are
elaborately embellished with almost every conceivable form of
arabesques, bas-reliefs, and Moorish designs, painted in wonderful hues
and rich in gilt.
The Mihrâb is the prime glory of the building. It was first erected and
adorned by Abderahman I., and a second prayer-recess was constructed by
the second Abderaham. The third Mihrâb dates from 961, and was erected
in the time of the Caliph Hakam II. It is one of the finest specimens of
Moorish art extant. Here the Koran was kept, and the most solemn rites
were performed in the days of the great caliphs.
The cupola of this superb sanctuary is carved in the shape of a
pine-apple, decorated with shell-like ornaments, and painted lavishly in
gold, blue, and red. There are delicate pillars of marble, with gold
capitals. The niches of the dome are beautifully painted, and the chief
arch is decorated with mosaics. Over the arch is an inscription in gold
on a ground of blue.
The slender pillars and graceful double arches of the entrance to the
vestibule of the Mihrâb are examples of Moorish architecture in its
finest manifestation. Very gorgeous and intricate is the design of the
façade of the Mihrâb. The portal is a horseshoe arch, handsomely
ornamented, and above runs a tier of smaller horseshoe arches. This is
surmounted by other arches, gracefully interlaced, and adorned with a
profusion of mosaics and decorations in colour.
When the mosque was converted into a Christian cathedral under the name
of Santa Maria, the side aisles were divided into about forty chapels.
The variety of the architectural styles in this great building range
from the Moorish to the baroque and the plateresque. Charles V. was
partly responsible for the choir, which gives a strange note of discord
to the harmony of the Moorish temple. But the emperor lamented having
granted leave to the Chapter to build the Coro, for upon seeing the
structure, he exclaimed: "You have built what you or others might have
built anywhere, but you have destroyed something that was unique in the
world." To construct the choir, a part of the beautiful Morisco ceiling
was destroyed, and commonplace vaulting took its place.
None of the Christian chapels are of especial interest, except perhaps
the Chapel of Villaviciosa which is Morisco in design. In the Capilla de
la Cena is a painting by Céspedes, who was buried in the cathedral. The
choir of the Christian church is very ornate, and of sixteenth-century
date. Lope de Rueda, the dramatist, was buried here. The stalls are by
Cornejo, a celebrated carver, who also designed the beautiful silleria.
The massive chandelier is of silver. Over the altar is a painting by
Palomino.
The Sala Capitular contains a statue of Santa Teresa by Alonso Cano, and
images of saints by J. de Mora.
The Bell Tower is a substitute for the elegant minaret of Abderahman
III. This tower resembled the Giralda of Seville in design, having
lilies and golden balls at its summit. This minaret was despoiled after
the capture of Cordova by the Spanish, and the present tower is the work
of Ruiz. It is surmounted with a figure of Saint Raphael.
Architecturally considered, the Campanario or Belfry of Cordova is an
anomaly.
Apart from its mosque, Cordova contains few buildings of interest to the
stranger. Gautier speaks of the city, once famed for its wonderful
beauty as "le squelette blanché et calcin." The churches demand the
visitor's inspection alone for their instructive evidence of the decline
of architectural taste. San Hipolito is the burial-place of the
historian, Ambrosia de Morales, and the original building dates from the
fourteenth century. San Jacinto has a somewhat handsome doorway, and
Santa Marina is externally ancient. San Nicolas has a pseudo-Moorish
tower.
There are one or two Christian buildings of interest. The bishop's
palace was built originally in the fifteenth century. The Ayuntamiento
or town hall is not a very impressive edifice. Some of the old
residences of the city are in the Mudéjar style, and many have charming
courtyards, with delicate ironwork gates, through which one may peep at
a fountain set among pillars upon which roses twine.
The Renaissance doors of the house of Don Jeronimo Paez and that of the
Foundling Hospital are handsomely decorated; and in the House of Don
Luque, in the Plaza de la Campania, there are some ancient mosaics.
It is worth while to inspect the walls, which have survived a number of
severe sieges, and are still standing, though often repaired. The Gate
of Almodovar and the Tower of Mala Muerte are in good preservation, and
there are instructive examples of Moorish fortification in the turrets
and battlements.
The old Alcazar of the Moors was a noble building of great extent. Very
little of the original structure remains to-day, but one or two towers,
a conduit, and a bath still exist. Alfonso XI. built a modern Alcazar.
On this site stood a Gothic palace, and this was reconstructed by the
caliphs. Historians have described the old Alcazar as a sumptuous
palace, with courts of marble, verdant gardens decked with fountains,
and wonderful apartments, adorned with mosaics and gems. The palace was
heated in winter, and kept temperate in summer with scented air from the
gardens. Here the caliphs surrounded themselves with luxury. Lovely
women resided in the harem, musicians composed and played their melodies
on string instruments; writers recounted romances amid the palms, roses,
and orange-trees, and philosophers discoursed in the courts of marble
and jasper.
The decline of trade in Cordova that followed upon the ravages of Berber
and Christian aroused the dread of the inhabitants that disaster would
result. The citizens who had clamoured for the expulsion of the Moors,
now begged that a few Morisco artisans might be permitted to remain in
the city. All the chief industries of Cordova were decaying. In 1797 De
Bourgoanne writes: "In so fine a climate, in the midst of so many
sources of prosperity, it (Cordova) contains no more than 35,000
inhabitants. Formerly celebrated for its manufactories of silks, fine
cloths, etc. it has now no other industrious occupations but a few
manufactories of ribbons, galoons, hats, and baize."
What a contrast this account affords from that of the Arabian
historians. In the days of Abderahman III. there were fifty thousand
palaces in Cordova, and three hundred mosques of noble architecture. A
palace on arches was built across the river. There were academies,
schools, and libraries in the city of the Ommeyads. To-day there are
thousands of illiterate persons in Spain.
But the Cordovese do not appear to ponder upon time's changes. They
concern themselves with other things--the affairs of the house--and
regard their city with its history and wonderful mosques as a valuable
asset which brings the stranger to their impoverished city. The
Cordovese are a contented people.
On bullfight days Cordova is _en fête_, and all classes of the
inhabitants throng the Plaza de Torres, the hidalgo and the peasant
showing the same enthusiasm for the national sport. Formerly
bull-baiting took place in the Corredera, now used as a market. There is
now a large bull-ring in Cordova, in the Ronda de los Tejares. Near to
the amphitheatre are the public gardens. There is a theatre in the city,
but few other places of amusement.
Cordova is rich in its record of great men. Seneca was born here under
the Roman dominion, and so was Lucan. In the twelfth century, Averroes,
the greatest philosopher of Islamism, was born. His doctrine pervaded
Europe, inciting the fury of the Dominicans, who regarded Averroes as an
arch-blasphemer and infidel. In Paris and in the north of Italy,
however, the Franciscans accepted the philosophy of the learned
Cordovan. But Averroes, the detestation of the Dominican order, is often
depicted in the frescoes of contemporary painters, as a heretic and a
victim of the burning pit. Notwithstanding, Averroism was a fashionable
cult in Venice.
Among the authors of Cordova the poet Gongora must be remembered. He was
born here in 1561, and educated at the college of Salamanca, where he
studied law. Showing little capacity for the law, he turned his
attention to verse, writing satires and lyrics. In later life Gongora's
poetry became stilted and pompous to the point of absurdity. Lope de
Vega, however, held that Luis de Gongora was as great as Seneca or
Lucan.
At the age of forty-five Gongora left his native town, and entered the
Church. In Madrid he was the favourite of Philip III. and of the nobles
of the city. He returned to Cordova when he was sixty-five, and there he
died in 1627.
Gonsalvo, "the Great Captain," was a native of the city, "nursed amid
the din of battle." In the esteem of Spaniards he ranks next to the Cid
in valour and high integrity as a general. Gonsalvo's manners were
described as amiable and conciliatory. He was cool in action,
courageous, and firm. More than once the great captain's life was
imperilled in battle, especially at Granada, where his horse was killed
beneath him. Fernandez Gonsalvo was in the height of his military fame
about the year 1495.
Four painters of note are associated with Cordova. The first in
chronological order was Pedro de Cordova, who executed "the
Annunciation," which is in the Capilla del Santo Cristo of the
cathedral. The picture is in poor preservation. It is interesting as an
example of Gothic art.
Cordova was early a centre of painting in the days of the Christian
recovery of the city. The eminent Pablo de Céspedes was born here in
1538, and became a canon of the cathedral. He studied the Italian
artists, and painted mural pictures in Rome. In the mosque are three of
his works. They are notable for their seriousness and power. Céspedes
was very skilful in colouring.
The remarkable Juan de Valdés Leal, born in 1630, spent most of his life
in Seville, where he was a contemporary of Murillo. In the Church of the
Carmen at Cordova is a retablo representing the "Life of Elijah,"
painted by Valdés Leal. Many of this painter's pictures are in Seville.
The fourth painter of Cordova is Antonio de Castillo, born in 1603, who
was an early exponent of the art of landscape painting in Spain. Some of
his pictures are in the museo of the city. Castillo was said to be an
imitator of Murillo. He died in 1667. The Picture Gallery of Cordova, in
the School of Fine Arts, is not a very important collection of
paintings. There are, however, some of the works of Ribera, Céspedes,
and Castillo, which should be seen. In the museo are a few Moorish
antiquities. The ancient tiles are good examples of the exquisite
Moorish art.
TOLEDO
Since visiting Toledo I have read that masterly novel by Blasco de
Ibañez, "The Cathedral," a work of genius, which has brought the city
vividly to my recollection. I see the old dun-coloured houses on the
slopes, the gorge of the yellow Tagus, and the commanding steeple of the
cathedral, and I recall the Oriental landscape, viewed from the walls,
under a blue, burning sky in June. I know that the goats still wander
forth to their feeding-grounds in the early morning, returning at dusk,
with softly tinkling bells, that the guitar sounds melodious and low
outside the barred window when it is dark, that beggars, wrapped in
tattered cloaks, solicit alms "For the Love of God," and that the voice
of the watchman rings clear at midnight, as he goes his rounds with his
lantern and keys, and a sword at his side.
[Illustration: TOLEDO, 1837.]
"Romantic" is the word that describes Toledo; the setting of the city,
its labyrinthine alleys, its guarded houses, its Moorish fortress,
and its dreaming mood make appeal to the most apathetic of strangers.
The aspect of the city is hardly beautiful. It is too stern, too sombre,
even in sunlight, and it lacks the colour and gaiety of the Andalusian
towns. And yet Toledo is one of the most fascinating cities in Europe,
holding you with a strong spell, a grim, irresistible invitation to
remain within its gates. There is so much to behold, so much to think
upon, in this old Moorish place. The cathedral alone claims long days of
your sojourn, for it is a great monument, haunted with memories, and
richly stored with treasures of art.
Many legends surround the making of Toledo, one of them relating that
Tubal, grandson of Noah, built the city, and another that it was reared
by Jews driven from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. We know, however, that
Toledo was chiefly noted as the stronghold of the Catholic faith in
Spain, that it was in existence in the time of the Romans, held by the
Moors, wrested from them, and restored to the Spanish after many bloody
conflicts, and that it is now the seat of the primate. For four
centuries the Moors held sway here, and everywhere in the city they have
left their traces. Before the Moors, King Roderick the Goth sat on his
throne in the strongly fortified town, and thither came Tarik and his
hordes, coveting the rich capital. Later, the great Abd-er-Rahman
advanced upon Toledo, and laid siege, establishing a mighty camp on the
hillside facing the city, where he waited until famine compelled the
courageous natives to surrender.
In the days of its might Toledo could boast of nearly two hundred
thousand inhabitants. The city lost power when the capital of Spain was
transferred to Valladolid. It is now scarcely more than a museum and
resort of tourists and students of art. The streets are silent and
unfrequented; there is but little evidence of commerce, and the manners
and customs of the people have escaped the influences of to-day. Toledo
is indeed old-world, a veritable relic of antiquity, in spite of its
railway station and large hotel, often thronged with Americans.
The history of Toledo under the Moors is constantly recalled by the
gates, defences, and buildings that remain. We enter Toledo by two
arches and a bridge, over the swirling Tagus, and immediately we are, as
it were, projected into the period of the Moorish conquest. This bridge,
the Puente de Alcantara, was first built by the conquerors, but the
present structure, though Moorish in design, was made in the thirteenth
century. Older is the Puerta del Sol, a work of the Mudéjares, with the
typical horseshoe arches and towers.
The arch of the Zocodover, the bridge of San Martin, and the Church of
Santa Maria la Blanca each show the Moorish spirit in their
architecture. In the Casa de Mesa is a room in the design of the
Mudéjares, the reconciled Moors, who remained and followed their crafts
in Spain, after the reconquest of the country by the Spaniards. The
ceiling is a fine specimen of Arabian art. At the School of Infantry are
further traces of the Moors, while in the Church of El Transito will be
found treasures of the east. Many of the churches have Morisco towers,
such as San Roman, Santo Tomé, San Miguel, and San Servando. Santo Tomé
was once a mosque; it is now a Gothic church. The interior of El Cristo
de la Luz is typically Moorish.
The magnificent cathedral stands on the site of an earlier church which
the Moors shattered, erecting in its place a mosque. In 1227 Fernando
laid the stone of the present edifice; and over two hundred years were
spent in the labour of erecting and adorning it, while vast wealth was
employed in the work, and thousands of artists, craftsmen and labourers
employed. Under Mendoza and other prelates, Flemish artists worked in
the cathedral.
The architecture is Gothic, with many traces of Baroque and Mudéjar art.
There is a very lofty and beautiful tower, with a steeple surmounting
it. The flying buttresses are exceedingly graceful; the eight doorways
of great beauty. A splendid façade, with a wealth of statues, faces the
west. It has three portals and a fine rose window, and is flanked by
towers. The Puerta de los Leones is noble Renaissance work, splendidly
sculptured with rich ornaments.
Entering the cathedral we are impressed by its vastness and the
simplicity of the aisles. But the numerous chapels are highly ornamented
in a bewildering variety of styles. The hand of the artist has been
lavish. We are dazzled, astonished, by the wealth of decoration, the
carving, the metal work, the jewels, the colouring. The choir stalls are
very beautifully carved work by Borgoña and Berruguéte. The choir, with
its jasper columns and decorations, is impressive. The carving of the
stalls is superb.
How shall the visitor know where to turn for those objects that appeal
to him, amid such a wealth of treasures? There are twenty-seven side
chapels besides the chief chapel, and in all of them are works of art
that will repay inspection. The retablo of the principal chapel is a
gorgeous piece of work upon which many artists expended their labour and
skill. Cardinal de Mendoza was buried here in 1495.
The Capilla de Santiago is Gothic, and splendidly decorated. There is a
superb retablo in this chapel. In the Capilla Mozarabe there is a
painting by Juan de Borgoña. This was the chapel built for Cardinal
Ximénez, and it is handsomely ornamented. Another of Borgoña's works
will be seen in the Capella de San Eugénio, an altarpiece representing
scenes in the life of Christ.
In the Sacristia is a notable work painted by El Greco, whose paintings
we shall presently see in the gallery. The subject of this picture is
"Casting Lots for the Raiment of the Saviour." "The Betrayal of Christ,"
by Goya, is another important painting in the Sacristia.
In the cloisters we shall find some frescoes by Bayeu, representing
incidents in the lives of several saints. Francisco Bayeu (1734-1795),
who so often worked with Maella, was not a great artist, though he was
commissioned to paint mural pictures in many parts of Spain.
The City Hall (Ayuntamiento) was first erected in the fifteenth century,
and has an ornate frontage. The portraits of Charles II. and Marianne
within the hall were painted by Carreño, a pupil of Velazquez.
Proudly perched above the city is the Alcazar, a stout fortress of the
Goths, the residence of the mighty Cid, and afterwards a palace of
kings. The old building was almost destroyed during the war of 1710, but
was restored some years later. It was attacked and damaged in the wars
with France, and little of the pristine edifice remains except the
eastern façade.
Toledo was the scene of fierce persecution during the Inquisition. In
1560 there was a burning of heretics in the city, a display arranged for
the entertainment of the young queen, Elizabeth de Valois. Several
Lutherans were committed to the flames on this occasion.
In the days of ecclesiastic splendour, the wealth of the cathedral of
Toledo was enormous. There were six hundred clerics in the city, and
the revenues of the high dignitaries were said to amount to a hundred
thousand pounds. The first archbishop was Don Bernardo, who broke faith
with the Moors by desecrating the sacred objects which they were
permitted to retain in their mosque.
The excellence of the sword blades of Toledan steel were known all over
Europe. To-day the sword-making industry is scarcely flourishing, and
Théophile Gautier was unable during his visit to purchase a weapon as a
memento. "There are no more swords at Toledo," he writes, "than leather
at Cordova, lace at Mechlin, oysters at Ostend, or _pâtés de foie gras_
at Strasburg." According to Henry O'Shea, in his "Guide to Spain," sword
blades were made in Toledo in his day, but he states that the quality of
the steel had deteriorated.
One of the most illustrious of the world's painters, Dominico
Theotocupuli, called El Greco (the Greek), worked for years in the city.
Mystery encompasses the strange character of El Greco; we know not when
he was born, but we learn that he died in Toledo, in 1614, and that he
was a native of Crete. While a youth he was a pupil of Titian; but he
was chiefly influenced in his art by Tintoretto. About the year 1576,
Theotocupuli came to Toledo, where he was employed in adorning the
church of Santo Domingo, securing one thousand ducats for his eight
pictures over the altars.
In character El Greco was independent to the point of obstinacy. His
mind was sombre and pietistic, and his imagination bizarre and vivid.
Men said that he was mad, but his alleged madness was the originality of
genius. "His nature was extravagant like his painting," wrote a
contemporary, Guiseppe Martinez. "He had few disciples as none cared to
follow his capricious and extravagant style, which was only suitable for
himself."
We read that El Greco loved luxury, and that he hired musicians to play
to him while he took his meals. He was, however, retiring, almost morbid
in his desire for quietude; and there are many matters concerning his
life and his personality that will always remain enigmas. For a very
long period the work of El Greco was scarcely known beyond the borders
of Spain, and indeed his rare merit was hardly recognised in that
country except by a few students.
His name now arouses interest among the cultured in every part of
Europe, and there are admirers of his art who would place him on the
highest pedestal. But the more temperate discern in El Greco a
powerfully intellectual painter, not without defects and mannerisms, a
master of colour, with a curiously modern method in portraiture.
In the Provincial Museum at Toledo there are several paintings by "The
Greek." The portraits of Antonio Covarrubias and of Juan de Avila give
example of El Greco's capacity for seizing the characteristics of his
sitters. Covarrubias has a fine, rugged, thoughtful face. The canvas
seems alive. Very strange are the pictures of "Our Saviour," "St Paul,"
"St Peter," and other saints in this collection. The figures in many of
the artist's paintings are curiously lean and attenuated, the faces long
and pinched. In the picture of "Our Saviour" the hands are large, the
fingers remarkably thin and pointed.
The most fantastic of El Greco's pictures is "The Assumption" in San
Vicente at Toledo, in which the ascending figure seems literally flying
in the air. "The Burial of Gonzalo Ruiz," in the Church of Santo Tomé,
is another splendid composition, revealing amazing skill in
portraiture, for each of the figures in the row of Castilian caballeros
was drawn from life. The sixth figure, from the right-hand side, is the
artist himself. There are technical faults in the picture; there are
mannerisms and extravagances; but the work is strongly individual, and
we may echo the words of Ponz, the historian, who states that "the city
has never tired of admiring it, visiting it continually, always finding
new beauties in it."
"The Expolio," in the cathedral, we have already seen. If the work of El
Greco begins to arouse a desire to study more of his paintings, a day
may be spent in visiting the gallery and the churches that contain
examples of his different periods. "San José and the Child Jesus" is in
the Parish Church of St Magdalen. "Jesus and St John" in St John;
portrait of Tavera, in the Hospital of St John; In Santo Domingo there
are four pictures by El Greco. The museum has twenty paintings from his
brush.
"Very few paintings interest me so much as those of El Greco," writes
Théophile Gautier, "for his very worst have always something unexpected,
something that exceeds the bounds of possibility, that causes
astonishment, and affords matter for reflection."
Toledo expresses Castile, as Seville reflects Andalusia. For, like its
stern surroundings of rocky sierras, the city is austere, even gloomy.
Heavy iron gates protect the courtyards, bars screen the windows of the
ancient houses, high, stout walls and towers guard the frowning town.
The natives are reserved, a little proud in their demeanour, but not
inhospitable to the strangers who come and go constantly, and lose their
way in the tortuous streets, in spite of plans and guide-books.
Persistent beggars hang about the cathedral, and squat, blinking in the
sun, along the ramparts. The children pursue the visitor, uttering a few
words of broken English, French, and German, asking for a copper in the
English tongue, and thanking you for it in French or Spanish.
I must not forget that there is another Toledan more widely known than
El Greco, and that is Lope de Vega, the dramatist, the most prolific
writer of Spain, for it is said that he wrote three thousand plays. We
are told that the playwright would compose a comedy in one night. His
plays were often topical, and many of them must be regarded as ephemeral
and poor; but De Vega's stage-craft was excellent, though few of his
works are great in a literary sense. Cervantes styled the dramatist "a
monster of nature," and envied him as "sole monarch of the stage." Lope
de Vega probably wrote for a space of fifty-two years, for he died at
the age of seventy-two, and during that period he produced not only
plays, but epic poems and twenty-one volumes of miscellaneous writings.
Cervantes, by the way, spent some time in Toledo, where he lodged in an
inn, and wrote industriously. Some historians have claimed Cervantes as
a Toledan, but his birthplace was Alcala de Henares.
Berruguéte, the great sculptor, the favourite of Charles V., worked long
in Toledo, where he died, in the Hospital of St John the Baptist. There
are many of this artist's work in Toledo. The fine portal of the
hospital, and the monument within, to Juan de Tavéra, were designed by
him.
Alonso Berruguéte was born at Valladolid about 1480. He was a pupil of
Michael Angelo, and studied the arts of architecture, painting and
sculpture in Italy. Professor Carl Justi refers to the Italian influence
and the "Raphaelesque forms" in Berruguéte's pictures. But it was as a
sculptor that he excelled.
Writing of Toledo in the eighteenth century, the Chevalier de Bourguanne
describes the city in these words: "Houses out of repair, fine edifices
going to ruin, few or no manufactures, a population reduced from two
hundred thousand to twenty-five thousand persons, and the most barren
environs are all that now offer themselves to the sight of the traveller
drawn thither by the reputation of the famous city. Under the present
reign some successful efforts have been made to recover it from the
universal decay into which it is fallen."
About the time when the chevalier wrote this, the Alcazar was being
restored, and the silk industry in the city was reviving; but Toledo,
even to-day, is not a flourishing mart. It is a place of dreams and
memories, set upon a rock among savage hills.
The Tagus, which rushes through its rough gorge, was once made navigable
between Lisbon and Toledo, and in last century small boats sailed now
and then from the city to the sea. There are many fish in the upper
Tagus, and its tributaries provide trout for the markets. The
surrounding country is bare, and in many districts, savage and
unfrequented, the hills affording sparse pasturage for sheep and goats.
These desolate uplands were formerly haunted by bands of the most
bloodthirsty bandits in all Spain.
GRANADA
That which is lacking in sober Toledo is evident everywhere in glowing
Granada. The fiery Andalusian sun gilds and colours the city, and the
whitened houses cast a deep blue shade in the narrow streets. No
forbidding portals bar the way to the flowing patios, those courtyards
that are to-day one of the chief charms of the Andalusian towns. The
climate is soft and languorous; the air laden with the scent of blossoms
and roses, and the people gayer in their garb and bearing than the
natives of Castile.
On twin outlying hills stands Granada, divided into two parts by the
deep ravine of the Darro River, whose waters flow into the Genil at the
base of an eminence crowned by the noble Alhambra Palace and the old
mosque.
Around stretches a territory of singular fertility, where fruits of many
kinds are plentiful, and the earth yields lavish crops of grain, with
scarcely any period of inactivity. Grapevines and olive-trees flourish
here, and the orange, lemon, and pomegranate thrive. In the distance
gleam the snow-capped peaks and blue ridges of the Sierra Nevada, a
savage range, with foothills here and there under cultivation, glens of
exceeding beauty, and rocky streamlets that swell to torrents when the
snows melt. The vegas (plains) are dotted with hamlets and farms;
vineyards clothe the lower slopes; the ferruginous soil is well watered
by innumerable runnels from the hills, and so made richly productive.
Christianised Granada remains Moorish in aspect to this day, and so it
will remain until the end, a mighty "living ruin." We cannot escape in
modern Granada from signs of the Moslem influence; the architecture, the
decorations of the houses within, the utensils of daily use--everything
recalls the Moors. Before the coming of the North African hordes to
Spain, there was probably a city on the banks of the Darro and Genil,
called Illiberis, which was seized by the invaders. Rival tribes of
Moslems strove for Granada for centuries until Al Ahmar, a doughty
general and ruler, became the sovereign. It was he who began the
building of the splendid palace during his long sway. Al Ahmar was
succeeded by Mohammed, his son, in 1273, who, like his father, was
cultured, and an encourager of learning and the arts.
Another great monarch of Granada, who added to the Alhambra, was Yusuf
I. He was murdered in the palace by a fanatic, and following him came a
line of Mohammedan rulers, all more or less distinguished in arms and in
the art of governing.
Granada was the last stronghold of the Moorish sovereigns in Spain; and
hither, in 1491, came the Christian host, led by the zealous Queen
Isabel, who camped within a few miles of the walls. No succour came
during the long siege for the imprisoned Moors, who at last besought
their leaders to make a sortie on the foe. This course was, however,
disapproved by Boabdil, the leader, and a treaty was made with the
Christians, in which it was enjoined that the city should yield within
two months. But the starving populace preferred to surrender at once,
and the last of the sultans in Spain went forth to bend the knee to
Fernando, the Christian king.
The capitulation of Granada broke the last link of the Moorish chain of
dominion in southern Spain. A Christian governor was appointed, and
soon the "reconciled" Moors learned that their conquerors were faithless
in their promises of toleration. Libraries of Arabian literature were
destroyed, and force was used in imposing the rites of the Christian
Church on the subdued Mohammedans.
"There was crying in Granada when the sun was going down,
Some calling on the Trinity--some calling on Mahoun."
To quell the Moorish malcontents, Cardinal Ximenes was sent to Granada,
with the royal permission to enforce baptism or to compel exile. The
Cardinal carried terror into the city. There was no more clemency for
the heretics and "heathen"; their temples were desecrated, and they were
coerced into acceptance of the Catholic religion. "The Knights of
Granada, gentlemen, though Moors," as the Spanish poets had written of
them, were treated with callous cruelty. Some fled to the fortresses of
the Alpujarras; others remained in ignominy in the city of their birth,
exposed to harsh exactions.
It was the humane Archbishop Talavera of Granada who opposed, with all
his courage and energy, the importation of the Inquisition into Spain.
Let it be clearly remembered that this tyrannous institution was
resisted by all the enlightened Spaniards, and that the mass of the
people regarded its introduction with horror. Many of the chief
Inquisitors went in fear of their lives through the hatred which they
aroused in the people.
Ximenes was of a very different cast from Talavera. He was sufficiently
powerful to have contested the establishment of the tribunal, but he
was, on the contrary, responsible for many of its worst excesses of
persecution.
The Moors in Granada, after the reconquest by Fernando, were commanded
to wear the garb of Christians, to speak the Castilian language, and to
abandon their ritual of cleanliness. Philip II. even destroyed the baths
of the Alhambra, to prevent the ablutions of the "infidels." The
beautiful Morisco painting and decorative work were plastered over with
whitewash. Christian vandalism ran riot in the fair city of the
art-loving sultans.
The Moors who sought refuge in the glens of the mountains soon began to
till the land, and to transform the wilderness into a garden. After a
spell of peace, and a recovery of some measure of wealth, the community
of refugees rebelled. Terrible is the tale of reprisal. Christians were
driven to bay and slaughtered ruthlessly. The Moors gained sway over the
district until their leader was slain by one of his own race. Then came
the final routing by the Christian soldiery by means of the sword and
firebrand, and Moorish might was for ever crushed in Andalusia.
For what counted all this bloodshed? The answer is written in the
history of Spain after the expulsion of the intelligent, industrious
Moriscoes. The lesson is plain. The fall of Granada was the beginning of
the decline of Spain, and not, as the Spaniards thought, the dawn of a
golden epoch. With the Moors went their culture, the arts and industry;
and only traditions in craftsmanship remained among the Spanish
artisans. The half million inhabitants at the time of the surrender of
Granada very quickly dwindled under the Catholic kings. To-day there is
scarcely a sign of industrial and commercial energy in this city of the
past. The population seem to subsist principally upon providing for the
continual influx of visitors, while there are hundreds of beggars in the
place.
The Alhambra was considerably marred by Charles V., who used it as a
residence. Philip V. and his consort were the last of the sovereigns of
Spain who sojourned in Granada. In the wars of 1810-1812, the French
troops were quartered in the Alhambra, and they are responsible for the
destruction of the mosque built in the fourteenth century.
The architecture of the Alhambra is of a late Morisco order. If we enter
by the Puerta de Judiciaria we shall see the inscription of Yusuf I.,
who built the gateways and the towers. There are two arches to this
entrance, the inner one is smaller than the outer, and both are of
horseshoe design, with decorations above the curves. The inner side of
this portal is an extremely beautiful example of Moorish art.
The several buildings enclosed within the walls form the Alhambra, the
palace itself being only a comparatively small part of the whole. Towers
guard the walls, and starting from the eastern side of the puerta,
before which we now stand, we come to the Prisoner's Tower. The next
tower is known as Siete Suelos, and the others, in their order, are
Agua, Las Infantas, Cantivá, Candil, Picos, Comares, Puñales, Homenage,
De-las Armas, Vela Guardia, and Polvora.
The Palace of Charles V. was reared in the midst of these Morisco
surroundings, and to the injury of the Alhambra. It is, however, a fine
quadrangular building, with richly decorated puertas. Around the centre
court are a number of apartments. At the back of the palace is the fish
pond, overshadowed by the imposing Comares Tower, and from here we enter
the Court of the Lions, so called from the twelve lions supporting the
fountain in the centre. This beautiful court dates from the time of
Mohammed V. It is surrounded by an arcade with very delicate columns and
horseshoe arches.
Writing of the lions, in "The Soul of Spain," my friend Havelock Ellis
says: "I delight in the Byzantine lions who stand in a ring in the midst
of the court which bears their name. No photograph does justice to these
delicious beasts. They are models of a deliberately conventional art,
which yet never becomes extravagant or grotesque. They are quite unreal,
and yet have a real life of their own."
The Sala de los Mocarabes is approached from this court. Its walls are
decorated in the vivid colours used by the Moors, and it has a ceiling
of later Gothic style.
The Hall of the Abencerrages has fine stalactite arches, and a
bewildering wealth of decoration. The wooden doors are beautifully
ornamented, and the whole effect is fairylike and enchanting. A fountain
plays in the centre of the chamber.
The Hall of Justice has been likened to a grotto. It is one of the most
wonderful of these apartments, approached by a range of exquisite arches
from the Court of the Lions. The pictures on the walls are said to be
portraits of the sovereigns of Granada. There is a brilliant centre
painting on the ceiling, with quaint Moorish figures, and the gilding
and colouring of the arches and alcoves are gorgeous. The Apartment of
the Two Sisters has a marvellous roof of honeycomb pattern, the walls
are decorated with blue tiles, and the floor is of marble. This was the
room occupied by the brides of the kings of Granada.
The inscriptions in this chamber are numerous, and I quote two
specimens:
"Look upon this wonderful cupola, at sight of whose perfection all other
domes must pale and disappear."
"How many delightful prospects I enfold! Prospects, in the contemplation
of which a mind enlightened finds the gratification of its desire."
The Hall of the Ambassadors was built by Yusuf. It is domed, and the
roof is exquisitely carved, while the decorations here surpass those of
any apartment in the Alhambra, and are of an infinite variety of design.
From the windows there are fine views of Granada. Many of the patterns
on the walls of the palace are really inscriptions ingeniously employed
as decorations. The reproduction of animal forms in the adornment of
buildings was prohibited by Mohammedan law.
The Council Chamber (the Mexuar) has been restored. The palace proper
contains, besides the apartments described, the Bath Court, the Court of
the Reja, and the Court of Daxara, a very charming patio, shaded by
trees, with apartments surrounding it.
The mosque was reconsecrated by Charles V. and used as a Christian
chapel. There is a fine carved roof, and superb colouring on the walls,
with an inscription, extolling the power of Allah.
An oratory adjoins the chapel. The court of the mosque is elaborately
embellished, and has graceful columns and arches.
Several of the towers are provided with chambers, and those of Las
Infantas were occupied by the princesses of the Moorish rulers. This
tower was erected in the time of Mohammed VII. Within, Las Infantas
Tower is delightfully decorated. The interior of the Torre de la Cautiva
is even more brilliantly adorned.
The Generalife, the "Palace of Recreation," or, as other authorities
have it, "the Garden of the Architects," was originally an observation
tower, and was used afterwards by the sultans as a villa. This summer
residence is separated from the Alhambra by a gorge, and approached by a
path through a garden. The Acequia Court is one of the most beautiful of
the patios in the buildings comprising the Alhambra. A gallery surrounds
it, supported by tall pillars and arches, most richly ornamented. We
look between the slender columns upon a lovely Oriental garden, with a
series of fountains playing in jets. The gardens of the Generalife are
delightful; the trees are luxuriant from the moisture of the soil, and
the flowers grow in riotous profusion. Here the very trees are aged, for
the cypresses were planted in the days of the sultans. There is an
expansive and impressive view from the belvedere adjoining.
Unfortunately most of the internal beauties of the Generalife have
suffered decay, and the brush of the whitewasher has coated the walls.
But the cypress court, the curious gardens, the fountains, and the
beautiful arches and pillars must be seen.
The Darro that flows beneath the hill of the Alhambra contains gold, and
it is said that when Charles V. came with his empress, the inhabitants
presented him with a crown made from the precious grains collected from
the bed of the stream. A little silver has been found in the Genil into
which the Darro flows.
Looking back at the magnificent Alhambra on its proud summit, we can
imagine the distress of the Moors when their city was captured by the
army of Fernando. We leave this monument behind, and, as we descend to
the Cathedral, our thought turns to the period of Christian domination,
and of the triumph of the old faith of Spain.
The first architect was Diego de Siloe, and the work was continued by
his pupils, and by the renowned Alonso Cano, who designed the west
front. As a specimen of Renaissance work, the Cathedral of Granada is
one of the most splendid churches of Spain. The dome is vast and
magnificent, there are five naves and many side chapels, all containing
splendid works of art. Over the principal doorway are relief carvings,
dating from the eighteenth century. But a finer portal is that of Del
Perdon, where we shall see some of Siloe's characteristic decoration.
Alonso Cano, painter and sculptor, was buried in the choir. This artist
was a native of the city, and the only great painter that Granada
produced. Before his day, the artists of Spain painted with an intensity
of religious seriousness, to the end of leading men to worship God and
the Virgin. Their work was sombre and dramatic. Alonso Cano struck a
secular note; he had a relish of the life of this world, and his fervent
temperament found expression in depicting love episodes, and portraying
the women of his day in the guise of saints and madonnas. His "Virgin
and Child," in the Saville Cathedral, expresses his emotional art. Cano
has been called "the least Spanish of all the painters of Spain."
He was born in 1601, and the register of the Church of St Ildefonso
records his baptism. In his sixty-sixth year he died. As a lad he
studied painting in Seville, in the studio of Pacheco, at the time when
Velazquez was a student, and afterwards he learned the methods of Juan
del Castillo. He was patronised by Philip IV., and he painted many
pictures for the cathedrals of his country, among others at Madrid,
Toledo, and Granada. Alonso Cano was made a priest, and afterwards a
prebendary of Granada, where an apartment was assigned to him in the
cathedral.
In the Capella Mayor the frescoes of the cupola are by Cano, depicting
episodes in the life of the Virgin. The paintings are joyous in temper,
and brilliant in colouring. "The Purisima," one of his most finished
statues, is in the sacristy, and among other examples of his carving are
the wooden painted figures of "Adam and Eve"; and "The Virgin and Child
with St Anna" is most probably the work of Cano. "St Paul," in the
Chapel of our Lady of Carmen, is also one of his pieces. The pictures in
Granada from Cano's brush are in the Capella Mayor, the Church of the
Trinity, the altar of San Miguel, and in the Chapel of Jesus Nazareno.
His carved work is seen in the lectern of the choir, the west façade,
and the doors of the sacristy.
El Greco, whose work we have seen in Toledo, is represented by a picture
over the altar of St Jesus Nazareno, "St Francis." The other pictures
are by Ribera. Montañez designed the crucifix in the sacristy.
In the Chapel Royal we trace late Gothic work. There is a beautiful reja
here (lattice or grating) by Bartolomé, and the altar is adorned with
statues of Ferdinand and Isabella. The ornate memorial of these
sovereigns is by an Italian, Fancelli.
These are but a few of the objects of art in the cathedral. There are
still many churches and historic places to visit in the city, and I must
perforce hurry in my descriptions. Siloe's architecture is seen in the
Church of Santa Ana, and other churches should be inspected, though few
of them are important. The Charterhouse or Cartuja stands on the site of
a monastery, and the church is a very resplendent example of later
Gothic decoration, the effects being gained within by a lavish use of
pearl, ebony, tortoise-shell, and marble. The Audencia is a handsome
building with a gorgeous façade. In the Church of San Geronimo is the
burial-place of El Gran Capitan, whose effigy and that of his wife are
at the altar.
If we wish to see the types of Andalusian character among the poorer
class--such as Murillo painted--we must stroll in the Albaicin Quarter.
This is a district of picturesque squalor, and not over-sweet are the
odours that may assail sensitive nostrils. But the Albaicin must be
seen. It was the resort of the Moors who remained after the taking of
Granada by Fernando, and it is now largely populated by gypsies such as
George Borrow describes in "The Bible in Spain." The city has been a
haunt of Gitanos for about three hundred years, and many of the swarthy
tribe live in caves, which they have delved in the hillsides. For a
"consideration," the gypsies will perform one of their curious symbolic
dances.
"One of the most enchanting prospects I ever beheld," writes the
Chevalier de Bourgoanne, in the eighteenth century, after his visit to
Granada. Travellers of all nationalities since that time have praised
the wonderful spell of the city. Washington Irving, Ford, O'Shea, and
many others have depicted its beauties with the pen, while a large
gallery could be filled with the pictures painted here by artists from
all parts of Europe.
There are quaint Moorish-looking towns and villages within reach of
Granada, some within walking distance. "In Granada God gives all the
necessaries of life to those by whom He is beloved." So runs a local
proverb, and it seems a justifiable statement from the evidence of
plenty that delights the gaze of the traveller through the richly
fertile province. The vega that lies betwixt the city and Cadiz is
screened by mountains, and thoroughly irrigated by hundreds of rivulets.
Here the cactas is grown for the sake of the cochineal insect. The
vegetation is marvellous; the earth is so generous that lucerne can be
cut from ten to twelve times in the year. No wonder that Romans and
Moors craved this sunny land of plenty.
OPORTO
When Bacchus and Lusus came to the Peninsula, sundered from Italy by the
Mediterranean Sea, they discovered a delightful region of mountains and
glens, well-watered and fertile, which they called Lusitania. Between
the rivers Minho and Douro is a glowing tract of country, not unlike the
finest parts of North Wales, with a varied sea coast, bright little
villages nestling among the hills, and well-tilled fields, vineyards,
and gay gardens. Mountains screen this district on the north and east,
and the vast Atlantic washes it on the west. Here is the chief
wine-growing quarter of Portugal, a land appropriately colonised by
Bacchus; and in the centre of the wine-making and exporting industry is
Porto, the capital of the province of Entre-Douro-e-Minho.
[Illustration: OPORTO, 1832.
FROM THE QUAY OF VILLA NOVA.]
"Oporto the Proud" is a very old city and seaport on the right bank of
the impetuous Douro, and within a few miles of the coast. The river is
tidal and broad, and big ships come to the busy quays below the great
suspension bridge. At the mouth of the Douro is a bar, much dreaded
by sailors, for it is rocky at this point, and generally a rough sea
breaks and foams at the outlet.
Oporto is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. I visited it in
June, when the terraces and gardens were aglow with flowers, the streets
steeped in perpetual sunshine, the sky a deep blue, and the sunsets
gorgeous. It is a bright city, seen from the opposite bank, with houses
rising one above the other on slopes that are almost precipitous. Here
and there the rock juts out among the villas that overhang the river,
while verdure shows on the high banks. In parts of the gorge the cliffs
rise to three hundred feet.
Oporto is a city of squares. There are several of these open spaces, all
planted with trees, well-paved, and surrounded by tall buildings which
lend a Moorish atmosphere to the towns. It is a centre of craftsmen. In
one thoroughfare you will find harness-makers and hatters busily
employed; in another goldsmiths and jewellers ply their trade. The
markets are thronged with peasants from the vineyards, the women dressed
in the gaudiest garments, with huge earrings and great gold brooches.
Perhaps nowhere in Europe can so many prosperous and cheerful
country-folk be seen assembled as in the streets of Oporto on a market
day. Ox carts come laden with barrels; the river is dotted with the
curiously shaped _barcos_ that bring the wine from the rustic presses
far up the valley; and up the steep alleys clamber the pannier-donkeys,
with fruit heaped in the baskets.
The yoked oxen, led by sedate men--with large sallow faces, their loose
limbs clothed in short jackets, and wearing the ancient hats of the
district--the mule carts and the pack-donkeys appear mediæval and
strangely out of accord with the modern motor cars of the fashionable
citizens. Oporto is both old and new. Paris and London fashions in dress
may be seen in the shopping quarters. There is a large colony of English
people in the city, and many French and German merchants. Here you will
see a native of the hills in his national garb; there a lady clad in the
newest Parisian apparel; here an English sailor, and there a Spaniard.
All is movement, animation, colour, when the streets are gay and crowded
on a holiday.
The climate of Oporto is pleasant and healthy. In the height of summer
the heat is tempered by breezes from the Atlantic, and from the
mountains on the east. There is a high average of sunshine. During the
winter there is a considerable rainfall, and occasional snow. Around the
city is a delightfully varied country of hills and valleys, watered by
clear streams, and highly cultivated in the straths. On the slopes are
roads of oak, chestnut, and birch. In the sheltered vales oranges, figs,
lemons, and many other fruits thrive excellently. Strawberries are large
in size and abundant. Vegetables grow with but little culture in this
fertile land, and there are flower gardens with an opulence of colour.
On the south bank of the Douro there was probably an early Roman
settlement. The Vandals swept down upon Lusitania when the power of the
Romans waned, and after them came other Teuton hordes--the Suevi and the
fierce Visigoths. About the middle of the eighth century the Moors
conquered Portugal, and held it for three centuries. The Asturians of
northern Spain appear to have reconquered this part of Portugal in the
time of Ferdinand I. of Castile. After the subduing of the Moors,
Alfonso I. was proclaimed king of Portugal. Until about 1380 the House
of Burgundy held the throne, and from that date the country rose in
power, and became commercially prosperous. John I. of Portugal married
the daughter of John of Gaunt, and became a staunch ally of England,
receiving the Order of the Garter.
This was a stirring period in the history of the country, a time of
strenuous warfare with Castile, and the last remnant of the Moors.
In the reign of Juan of Castile, Portugal became one of the chief
exploring nations of Europe. Henry, third son of the king, was studious,
and learned in astronomy and geography. He obtained royal subsidies, and
gathered about him travellers and seamen whom he inspired to set forth
on voyages of discovery. Two vessels were sent by the prince to round
the southernmost point of Africa, with the object of reaching the East
Indies. In 1418 the voyagers discovered Madeira, which was made a
Portuguese settlement; but they dreaded the rounding of the south Cape
of Africa, a point greatly dreaded by all mariners in those days. The
Canary Islands passed at this time into the hands of a French
adventurer, De Bethancourt, whose heirs afterwards sold the colony to
Henry of Portugal.
Vasco de Gama's famous expedition to India was undertaken in 1497, and
this bold explorer, unlike his predecessors, doubled the Cape of Good
Hope, and travelled as far as Mozambique, where he found pilots who
offered to direct his course to India. The pilots, however, proved
treacherous. Eventually, after many delays, a trustworthy pilot was
found at Melinda, and De Gama reached India, where he opened trading
relations with the natives. At the end of two years the discoverer
returned to Portugal and was received with great honour.
The prosperity of Oporto was largely due to the maritime enterprises of
this period. Cabral discovered Brazil in 1500, and De Cortereal is said
to have reached Greenland. The sea-rovers were the makers of modern
Portugal. The great empire of Brazil was colonised by Juan III. in 1531;
and the Portuguese claimed great territories in the East, which yielded
splendid revenues. This was the most illustrious epoch in the history of
Portugal. Parts of India and China were colonised. Art and learning
flourished in the time of Manuel I., and the architectural style known
as the Arte Manoelina was developed. This style is a flamboyant Gothic,
with Indian and Morisco influence, full of fantasy and often
extravagant.
The colonisers attempted to convert the people of India to Christianity,
and the zealous St Francis Xavier conducted a mission to that country in
the reign of Juan III. Trade with Japan was opened at this time.
After a long spell of fortune, disaster fell upon Portugal. Philip II.
of Spain envied the western strip of the Peninsula, and in 1580 he
seized Portugal and annexed it to Spain. It was not until 1640 that the
Portuguese regained their territory, and placed the Duke of Braganza on
the throne.
During the Peninsular War, the city of Oporto was the scene of severe
fighting, when the troops of Marshal Soult were surprised and routed by
the force of Wellington. In 1832 the Miguelites besieged the city, and
were defeated, with much loss, by the Pedroites. Civil disturbances have
frequently shaken the town.
In 1838 the powerful Oporto Wine Company was re-established. The port
wine, for which Oporto is famed throughout the globe, is the staple
product of the district. There is little doubt that the port of our
grandfathers was a light wine without much "body," and this kind of port
is consumed in the country districts of Portugal. The tipplers who could
consume three or four bottles of port, in the days of the Georges,
probably drank this light wine, which was imported new, and was not a
keeping wine. The prowess of our ancestors, "the six-bottle men," has
been overrated. Old port cannot be drunk in such quantities. The export
trade in wine is enormous, and the chief trade is with England and the
United States. Besides port, Oporto sends to foreign markets cattle,
mineral ores, fruits, and olive oil. The population of the city in 1900
was 167,950.
In his account of his travels in Portugal and Galicia, the Earl of
Carnarvon writes of the city, in 1848: "At length I reached Oporto, an
ancient and very picturesque town; the streets with a few noble
exceptions, are narrow, and the houses high and ornamented with handsome
balconies. That part of the city which overhangs the Douro is strikingly
beautiful; the river itself is fine and clear, and the banks bold and
partially wooded."
Since this was written new and wider thoroughfares have been made in
Oporto. The city has been modernised in many respects, but it still
retains a savour of the eastern influence. Many of the houses are faced
with striped tiles, painted blue. These tiles, or ajuléjos, are one of
the staple manufactures of Portugal, and are Moorish in origin.
The cathedral, or the Sé, stands in a dominating position on the crest
of a hill. It is in the pointed Gothic style, built of granite. There is
an imposing tower, and a fine rose window. In the cloisters there are
interesting specimens of ajuléjo work, and highly ornamented pillars.
The mosaics represent "The Song of Solomon," and are well worth
attention.
The cathedral is in the form of a cross, with a wide nave, and several
chapels. There is a marble floor. The interior is without any impressive
objects of art, and much of it is modern. Close to the Cathedral is the
Bishop's Palace, with an interesting staircase.
Some of the churches of Oporto are notable for their lavish internal
decoration. San Francisco dates from the early fifteenth century, and
has a rose window of great beauty. The wood carving within is very
interesting, and there is a gorgeous memorial to Pereira. The Bolsa is a
striking building close to this church. São Pedro is another old church
which should be seen. The Renaissance Church of the Convent of Nossa
Senhora de Serra do Pilar has beautiful cloisters, and a remarkable
dome.
The bridge is one of the wonders of Oporto. It connects the banks of the
Douro with a single arch, over five hundred feet in length, and is
nearly as long as the Cernavoda Bridge across the Danube. At both ends
are towers. The bridge is immensely strong, and though of iron, elegant
in design. It is crossed by an upper and a lower roadway, and from the
higher road there is a magnificent view up and down the swirling river.
In the busiest part of the city is the space known as the Praça de Dom
Pedro from which several streets radiate. A modern city hall is on one
side. In the middle of the square is a bronze statue of Pedro IV. on
horseback, the work of Calmels. The Torre dos Clerigos, close to the
Praça, is a splendid outlook point, with a bird's-eye view of the city,
the gorge of the Douro, and the shimmering Atlantic in the distance.
For a riotous wealth of flowers the visitor should see the Jardim da
Cordoaria. The grounds of the Crystal Palace are also very lovely. The
gardens are on the slopes descending to the Douro, and the mingling of
natural beauty with cultivation is charming. Nowhere have I seen such
splendid roses. The winding paths afford many delightful glimpses of the
river and the ocean.
One of the quaintest parts of Oporto, where there are still many ancient
houses, is the Rua Cima do Muro. But in all the old quarters of the city
there are interesting streets and corners. The markets should be visited
by travellers interested in the customs of the people. They are bright
and animated on market days.
The Picture Gallery will disappoint the student who expects to see a
representative collection of Portuguese art. In the Largo de Viriato is
the Museum, endowed by Allen, an Englishman, and given to the city. The
pictures preserved here are not of much interest, except the few works
ascribed to Rubens and Van Dyck. There is a collection of natural
history specimens in the museum.
The public library has a large collection of volumes, numbering many
thousands, and is an excellent institution. It was founded by Pedro IV.
and stands on the site of a convent near the Garden of São Lázaro.
For art-work in gold, visit the Rua das Flores, the street of
goldsmiths. The windows contain highly interesting gold ornaments of
infinite variety of design, in filigree, and enamelled. Huge earrings,
worn by the women of the vineyards, are displayed here in lavish array.
A pleasant excursion may be made to São João da Foz, a favourite Sunday
and holiday resort of the Oporto people in summer time. The road runs by
the Douro, and upon approaching the mouth of the river, the dangerous
bar will be seen. The seaside village, with the difficult name, has fine
sands and an interesting coast stretching northwards. The Atlantic
thunders along this shore in stormy weather, but the bathing is safe.
At Mattosinhos, to the north of Foz, there is a wonderful crucifix, said
to have been picked up from the sea after floating from the Holy Land.
It is an object of great veneration among the peasantry and
working-class.
Another excursion may be made to Villa de Feira, where there is an
ancient castle.
POITIERS
A study in grey and green is the impression left upon my mind by a first
view of the old town of Poitiers. There is a sternness in the aspect of
the place as you approach it by rail through the pastures of Vienne. But
peace now rests upon Poitiers; the town dreams in this quiet French
landscape, and the chronicles of arms are old and faded memories.
Crécy and Poitiers! Every English school-boy remembers the names of
these great battlefields, and thrills at the story of the Black Prince
and his encounters with King John of France. Poitiers sets the
reflective visitor musing upon martial valour, and the vast futile
exercise of the bellicose instincts of the French and British nations in
the time of the Hundred Years' War. Fighting was then the proper and
exclusive occupation of gentlemen. The age that gave birth to Chaucer
was the age of vainglorious warfare with Scotland and France, followed
by intellectual stagnation, and all the bitter fruitage of battle.
[Illustration: POITIERS.
THE CHURCH OF NOTRE DAME, 1845.]
In 1355 the Black Prince, at the head of an army, advanced from Bordeaux
towards Poitiers, laying waste the fertile regions of the south, where
no war had ever been waged until this aggression. Aided by the turbulent
Gascons, the English prince came on 19th September 1356 to some
vineyards and fields about four miles from Poitiers. The French host,
sixty thousand strong, awaited him. Hedgerows and vines formed cover for
the English bowmen; the warriors in armour held a point where a narrow
lane led to the encampment. Up this lane the French soldiers, in their
heavy mail, charged to the attack, meeting a terrific rain of arrows
from men in ambush.
Very soon the narrow roadway was choked with the wounded and the dying.
The French were arrayed in three strong divisions, and probably
outnumbered the troops of the Black Prince by seven to one. But their
position was open and exposed, whereas the English had entrenched
themselves and made a barricade of waggons. Moreover, the French were
worn with long marches.
A sally of English archers, under Captal de Buch, wrought havoc among
the French on the left flank of their force, and from that moment the
enemy wavered.
A great and final charge was led by the Black Prince and Sir Denis de
Morbecque, a knight of Artois. The French drew back, routed, and in
disorder, to the gates of Poitiers. After a valiant stand, King John was
taken captive. The victory was complete for England; the vanquished king
was a prisoner, his troops lay in thousands on the field. Eleven
thousand of the flower of French chivalry perished in this fierce
carnage.
Petrarch gives us a picture of the harvest of this strife: "I could not
believe that this was the same France which I had seen so rich and
flourishing. Nothing presented itself to my eyes but a fearful solitude,
an utter poverty, land uncultivated, houses in ruin."
The Black Prince treated his royal captive with courtesy, entertaining
him at his own table, and praising his bravery. In May 1357 the French
king was brought to England, and, seated on a charger, he rode side by
side with his victor through the streets of London. As a first
residence, King John was given the Savoy Palace, and afterwards he and
his son spent some time in Windsor Castle.
Watered on three sides by the Rivers Boivre and Clain, and standing on
rising ground, Poitiers was chosen as the site of a Roman settlement.
Not far from the town are the ruins of a Roman burial-place, and
antiquities that have been discovered may be seen in the interesting
Museum of Antiquaries de l'Ouest.
In 1569 the Count du Lude valiantly defended Poitiers against the seven
weeks' siege of troops led by Coligny, finally repulsing the enemy, and
retaining the town.
Protestantism seems to have gained ground in Poitiers, for we read that
in the days of Calvin there were many "conversions" among the
inhabitants.
In September 1559 the justices of the city published a proscription of
religious gatherings, and bade all strangers to quit the place in
twenty-four hours. No preaching was permitted, the inhabitants were
enjoined not to give necessities of life to the pastors under penalty of
punishment for sedition. This persecution, directed against the
Lutherans, was the result of the edict of Villars-Cotteret, and of an
order made in Blois, which decreed that all the attenders at religious
assemblies should be put to death, "without hope of pardon or
mitigation." France was at this time the scene of the fierce religious
intolerance which led to the Massacre of St Bartholomew.
Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral of France, who led the siege of Poitiers,
was a convert to the teaching of Calvin, and the leader of the reformed
party. Touched with fanaticism, he was a valorous soldier, and was never
daunted by his reverses. After a long conflict with the Church, the
admiral was murdered brutally, and his body mutilated, and dragged
through the streets of Paris by a rabble.
The oldest church in the town is St Jean. A basilica once stood where St
Peter's massive bulk overshadows the houses around. The towers of this
church date from the thirteenth century. There are some very old
stained-glass windows; in one of them are portraits of Henry II. and
Eleanor of England.
Portions of the Church of St Radegonde are probably of the eleventh
century. St Porchaine is another ancient church worth visiting.
The Dukes of Aquitaine lived in the city, and their palace is now a
court of law. One of the halls has a fine vaulted wooden roof.
Poitiers has many winding, narrow lanes of curious old houses. It is not
a busy commercial city, but it does not lack an air of comfort and
prosperity. The town has to-day a population of over thirty thousand
souls.
ROUEN
The fascination of this ancient city of Normandy consists not only in
its historical associations and its splendid cathedral, but in the fine
setting, colour, and aspect of the place. Rouen should be approached, if
possible, by boat on the Seine. The steamboat journey from the mouth of
the river is very delightful, and there is no better way of gaining an
impression of one of the most beautiful of the provinces of France.
Hills, with frowning rocks, begirt the Seine in its tortuous course.
Woods and tilled fields alternate with primitive, untamed ravines,
watered by rivulets, and old sombre-hued houses and churches peer among
woods. Parts of the valley recall Wales or Scotland in their ruggedness;
while here and there we are reminded of the softer scenes of southern
England.
The Rouen of obscure days of antiquity was probably a colony of the
tribe of the Roths-magi. Many place-names in Normandy suggest that the
Danes held this district, and they, rather than Norwegians, were the
early conquerors. From Rouen we derive our word "roan" for a horse of a
reddish colour, for the first imported Norman horses were known as
"Rouens."
In the eighth century this was a city of ecclesiastics, who erected many
churches and convents. A long line of celebrated bishops ruled here, and
the first church of St Ouen was probably built at this period. The
Normans harried the country in 912, under the valiant Rollo, and Rouen
was then made the capital of Normandy.
In the days of Duke William of Normandy, our gallant conqueror, Caen was
of greater importance than Rouen, and at the first city the sovereigns
built their palaces. William the Conqueror died in Rouen, but his body
was taken to Caen for burial. Rufus invaded the territory in 1091, and
obtained possession of all the chief forts on the Seine, up to Rouen.
The attempt to recover Normandy, under Henry of England, is a stirring
chronicle of battle. The city of Rouen was at this time stoutly
fortified, while it was famed for its wealth and power. Led by the brave
Alan Blanchard, the people of Rouen made a fierce defence. But Henry
had cut off approach from the sea; he held, too, the roads to Paris. He
encompassed the walls of Rouen with his army; he brought boats up the
river, constructed a floating bridge, and dug trenches for his troops.
The soldiers and citizens within the city resisted for six terrible
months. Many were the victims of famine, and those who strove to escape
were at once struck down by the besiegers. "Fire, blood and famine" were
Henry's handmaids of war, and he declared that he had chosen "the
meekest maid of the three" to subdue Rouen.
At length the starving and desperate citizens resolved to burn the city,
and to fling themselves on the English. This threat caused Henry to
offer terms of pacification. Blanchard, the valorous defender of Rouen,
was, however, killed by order of the English monarch.
The immortal Joan of Arc appears later on the scene. We cannot follow
the strange and inspiring page of her career. Betrayed at length, and
given into the hands of the English, she was imprisoned in Rouen, where
a charge of heresy was made against her. To escape from the military to
the ecclesiastic prison Joan pleaded guilty to the accusation of heresy.
The story of her martyrdom is not a theme upon which one cares to dwell.
The English cause was lost, though Joan of Arc was burned. "Oh, Rouen,
Rouen, I have great fear lest you suffer for my death. Yes! my voices
were of God; they have never deceived me." And as the maid dropped in
the writhing flames, the soldiers cried: "We are lost! We have burned a
saint!"
"No longer on St Denis will we cry,
But Joan la Pucelle shall be France's saint."
The French recaptured Rouen in 1499. There is now no trace of the proud
castle built by Henry V. of England. The prophetic cry of the soldiers
had been fulfilled.
Before the end of the thirteenth century a cathedral was built in the
city, and by the sixteenth century the stupendous edifice was finished.
Notre Dame has a splendid west front, and very ornamental entrances to
the transepts. The decorated rose windows are exceedingly fine. The
choir has thirteenth-century stained windows, which must be seen in the
sunlight. Here, too, are the monuments of Henry II. and Richard I.
Unfortunately, much of the external decoration of Notre Dame has been
disfigured by weathering, and some of the images have disappeared. But
the rose windows are very celebrated, and the tower of the sixteenth
century is richly ornamented.
The Lady Chapel contains the tomb of two cardinals, with beautifully
sculptured figures, and carvings of exquisite craftsmanship. The tomb of
the Duke of Brézé is attributed to Jean Goujon, and the images are true
works of genius.
Saint-Owen is perhaps more interesting than the cathedral. It is an
immense building, and though so huge, finely proportioned. The south
portal is rich and exquisite in its decoration.
For an example of Goujon's work, you must inspect the remarkably
decorated door of the Church of St Madou. There are other notable
churches in Rouen; and the fine stained-glass windows of St Godard must
not be overlooked.
Among other buildings of interest is the Palace of Justice, with a
stately frontage.
In Rouen was born Corneille, and upon a bridge over the Seine you will
find his statue. Fontenelle was also one of the illustrious natives of
the city.
Readers of Gustave Flaubert will remember his pictures of the country
around Rouen, in "Madame Bovary." Charles Bovary was sent to school in
the city. "His mother selected a room for him, on a fourth floor,
overlooking the Eau-de-Robec, in the house of a dyer she was acquainted
with." It was in Yonville-L'Abbage, "a large village about twenty miles
from Rouen," that Charles and Emma Bovary settled after their marriage.
"The river which runs through it," writes Flaubert, "seems to have
imparted to it two distinct characters. On the right bank it is all
grass-land, whilst on the left it is all arable. The meadow-land spreads
at the foot of some high-lying ground until it meets the pastures of
Bray on the other side; on the east the gently rising ground loses
itself in the distance in fields of golden wheat. The water running
through the grass-land divides the colours of the meadows and of the
furrows by a white streak, and so the landscape looks like a great
unfolded cloak, with a green velvet collar bordered with silver."
Such is the country that the genius of Flaubert has peopled with his
types of provincial character.
Municipal enterprise has "improved and beautified" Rouen in modern
times. The new, broad thoroughfares are undoubtedly admirable, according
to the standard of to-day; but the reconstruction of many streets has
meant the destruction of a large number of those old gabled houses that
delighted the travellers of sixty years ago. Fortunately, a few charming
ancient corners remain, and the authorities of the city have preserved
some of these weather-worn buildings as monuments of mediæval Rouen.
Jean Goujon, the most notable sculptor of his period, is associated with
Rouen, but it has not been proved that he was a native of the city.
Mystery surrounds the life of this genius. We do not even know the date
of his birth. His sculpture is imaginative and powerful art, and he is
very successful in presenting nude figures. It is supposed that Goujon
was one of the victims of the Massacre of St Bartholomew.
A picture of the monastic life of Normandy, in the thirteenth century,
has been drawn in the remarkable _Regestrum Visitationum_ of Eude
Rigaud, Archbishop of Rouen. This wonderful diary has over five hundred
pages, and covers a period of about twenty years. In 1248, Rigaud was
appointed Archbishop of Rouen by Innocent IV. He proved a zealot for
reforms in the Church; he undertook periodic inspection of the
monasteries and nunneries, and his journals contain much "sensational"
reading. The archbishop records that the rule in many of the convents
was exceedingly lax, and that fasts and penances were not duly observed.
He found that a number of the clergy were addicted to tippling, and he
made clerical drunkenness an offence punishable by the deprivation of a
living. Incontinence was very common among the monks. In the convents,
Rigaud discovered "great disorders." But the archbishop relates that the
offenders were so numerous that had he expelled them all, no priests
would have been left in the diocese.
When wandering in the streets of Rouen, we remember that Saint-Amant was
born here in 1594. The life of this wine-loving poet is full of rare
adventure and colour. He was a scholar, wit, soldier, statesman, and man
of business by turn. Saint-Amant visited England, went to Rome with the
fleet, and afterwards to Spain. He also started a glass factory, and
was for a period a diplomat in Poland. His career is a long romance.
Saint-Amant's name in full was Marc Antoine de Gérard, Sieur de Saint
Amant. The name by which he is best known was taken from the abbey of
Saint-Amant. He was one of the greatest of good livers, with an
unquenchable thirst, and an infinite capacity for absorbing liquor. It
is said that he and his boon companions often sat for twenty-four hours
over their bottles. In those days of tavern revelry, the poet was
respected as a master of deep-drinking and a model for the bibulous.
Théophile Gautier wrote of the poet of Rouen: "Saint-Amant is assuredly
a very great and very original poet, worthy to be named among the best
of whom France can boast." This exquisite singer and devoted worshipper
of Bacchus died in Paris in 1661.
CHARTRES
The city of Chartres stands on a bold hill, rising from a wide plain on
the south-west of Paris, watered by the River Eure, a tributary of the
Seine. This commanding position was favourable for a fortified town, and
long before the Romans came to Gaul, kings had a stronghold here of
great importance.
Chartres is dominated by its ancient cathedral towers, that rise grey
and massive, forming an outstanding landmark for leagues around. The old
low-built houses of the city are dwarfed by this mighty church, which
overshadows a number of twisting, narrow alleys of mediæval aspect. Many
of the houses in Chartres are weather-worn, and give an impression of
extreme age, and sometimes of decay. Parts of the town, it is true, have
been rebuilt and made modern; but one's recollection is of an aged,
somnolent place, dreaming of its past, though it strives to advance in
line with progressive ideas of municipal improvement.
According to Mr Henry James, it is not so long ago that sedan-chairs
were used in Chartres; and during his visit in 1876, he saw only two
vehicles--the omnibuses of the rival hotels.
For the student of early Gothic architecture in France, Chartres is a
most profitable field. The older forms of the arch, the foliated
window-circles, the boldly decorated doorways, the twelfth-century
decorative details, and the massive, as well as the light, buttress can
be seen here in perfection. Few, if any, cathedral portals in Europe can
excel in richness those of Chartres. Here is to be seen the noblest
examples of twelfth-century sculpture.
After the Romans, the city was ruled by Christian princes up to the day
of Charlemagne. Before the tenth century, the first Christian church in
Chartres was burned down, and very little of the pristine fabric was
spared by the flames.
The pious Saint Bernard preached here, and many illustrious bishops
presided over the see. Henry V. of England came to the city; and so did
Mary of Scotland. There have been two or three notable sieges, and the
city was a scene of slaughter during the great Revolution.
The legends surrounding the first building consecrated to the Christian
faith in Chartres are numerous. Saint Aventin was probably the first
bishop of the see. Fulbert, who received tribute from a number of
monarchs, was the founder of the new cathedral, after the wreckage by
fire about the year 1021. There were two or three attacks from fire, for
Fulbert's structure was seriously damaged in the twelfth century.
The crypt is part of a very early building. In the chapels are bare
traces of the old mural paintings, and several remarkable remains of the
more ancient edifice. The crypt forms a church in itself, for it
contains no less than fourteen chapels.
There are several points of difference between the early Gothic styles
of England and France, and height is a characteristic of the French
cathedrals; the architects delighted in lofty vaultings, and seemed to
vie with one another in attaining great height. Double aisles and double
flying buttresses are other features of the French Gothic churches,
distinguishing them from the churches of England of the same date.
The French pillars are heavy, and not so highly ornamented as those of
England. In the windows we find chiefly in France the lancet; and the
circle, with trefoils and quatre-foils, is a common form. Specimens of
round windows may be studied to advantage in the Cathedral of Chartres.
The most beautiful examples of early French Gothic architecture, in
detail, are the ornate portals, especially of the western façades, the
spires, the imposing towers, the rose windows, and the high vaulting.
The west front at Chartres is early twelfth-century work. Few façades
present such a bewildering wealth of decoration and of impressive
height. The windows are enormous, and the central rose window is
remarkably rich in design. Each of the three doorways is full of most
interesting statuary, with luxuriant decorations.
The north portal was once gilded and coloured, but this embellishment
has disappeared. Many figures adorn this doorway, and every one of them
will repay close inspection. The central door on this side is exquisite.
Another impressive front is on the south. Here are the statues of Christ
trampling on the lion, and of Christ as Judge. Innumerable figures
cluster on this porch. Every façade and doorway of the Cathedral of
Chartres is a gallery of statuary.
Very noble are the two huge towers. The north tower is the more majestic
of the two, and dates from the sixteenth century. It is literally
covered with delicious ornament and mediæval statuary. The south tower
is massive, but plainer, rising to a height of about three hundred and
fifty feet. It is adorned with some quaint symbolic figures. There were
once two immense bells within this tower.
The interior of the cathedral impresses by its vastness and height. A
wider nave is not to be found among the cathedrals of France, and the
aisles are proportionate in width. The eye ranges upwards to the
wonderful roof, with its opulent decoration, to the beautiful triforium,
and the tall, narrow windows of the clerestory.
The magnificent choir screen is finely sculptured. Among the host of
figures are the Virgin, Saint Joachim, and the Adoration of Wise Men.
Several groups, representing scenes from Scripture, deck the screen. The
effigies are far too numerous to describe in detail. There is a monument
within the choir, "The Assumption," by Bridan. The pavement is of
variegated marble.
In the south aisle of the choir is a tall stained-glass window of an
early date. Several of the painted windows were executed before the
fourteenth century, and these are to be seen in the nave, the
clerestory, and the transcepts. The chapels have several interesting
stained windows, fine roof decorations, and handsome portals. In the
sacristy there is a notable window; and in the ambulatory will be seen
the clothed figure of the Virgin Mary, one of the chief treasures of the
cathedral.
The sixteenth-century Church of Saint Aignan ranks next to the cathedral
in interest. It has a fine, but somewhat worn, front, still rich in
examples of Renaissance art. More than once fire has ravaged this
church, and during the Revolution the edifice was despoiled and damaged.
Saint Aignan is the burial-place of the bishop whose name it bears.
There are many stained windows in the church. The interior is in other
respects somewhat plain.
There are some interesting old churches in Chartres. In the Church of
San Pierre there are dazzling stained windows which should be seen by
the visitor, as they are among the finest examples in Chartres. There is
an old portal on the north side, and the great buttresses should be
noted. Many of the decorations of the interior were destroyed by the
Revolution.
There are some old houses of historical and architectural interest in
Chartres, and one will be seen near Saint Aignan's.
The Museum is in the town hall. Among the objects of interest collected
here are some examples of tapestry that were formerly in the cathedral.
There are also many relics of the Roman days. In the library are several
old missals.
Chartres is the birthplace of two poets, Desportes and Mathurin Regnier,
his nephew. Desportes, born in 1546, travelled in Italy and Poland, and
was court bard to Henri III. He died in 1606. Mathurin Regnier was a
poet of a higher order. He composed a number of fine satires and many
lyrical poems.
A general impression of Chartres is gained by following the tree-shaded
walk which surrounds the old town, a promenade that gives many
delightful glimpses of the plain and of narrow ancient streets, with
here and there a trace of the crumbling walls.
RHEIMS
By the side of the River Vesle, in the province of Marne, and on the
verge of a famous champagne producing country, is one of the oldest
towns of France. Rheims, with its ancient gates, its memorials of Roman
times, and monuments of illustrious kings of Gaul, has a history of much
interest. Its cathedral ranks with the finest ecclesiastic buildings of
the world, and is celebrated as the scene of many great pageants of the
coronations of French sovereigns. The Romans captured a city here, and
called it Durocortorum, and in Cæsar's day this was an important
station. It is recorded that Attila, the fierce conqueror, ravaged the
town with fire.
The Consul, Jovinus of Rheims, was an early convert to Christianity,
which was preached here by two missionaries from Rome in the fourth
century. The marble cenotaph of the Christian consul is to be seen in
the city. Then came the Vandals, who seized the town, and murdered the
bishop at the door of the first cathedral.
When King Clovis conquered the fair territory of Champagne, St Rémi was
made bishop of Rheims, and henceforward the kings of France were crowned
here. Many famous prelates lived in the city during the succeeding
centuries; one, the most celebrated, Gerbert, became pope.
Joan of Arc is an important figure in the drama of Rheims during the
great war with England. The peasant's daughter, born on the borders of
Champagne, at Domremy, a hamlet which is now a shrine, reached the
height of her triumph in 1429, when she led a vast army to the gates of
Rheims. "O gentle king, the pleasure of God is done," cried the white
maid, as she knelt before Charles VII. after his coronation in the
gorgeous cathedral.
A yearning for home and the old tranquil life was in the heart of Joan;
she wished to leave the tented field, and to return to her sheep-folds
and pastures. But, at the battle of Compiegne, she fell into the hands
of the treacherous Bastard of Vendôme, and about a year later Joan la
Pucelle was burned to death.
The focus of interest in Rheims is the cathedral. Notre Dame was built
on the situation of a Roman basilica. Parts of the present building
were first constructed in 1231, but the façade is of the fourteenth
century. This magnificent front has a gorgeous portal, with pointed
arches of great grace, rising to a large and handsome rose window. There
are two towers over two hundred and fifty feet high, very finely
decorated. A number of statues adorn this façade, on the portals and in
the arch of the rose window. The figure of the Virgin is over the
principal doorway, bending to receive the crown from the hands of
Christ.
"The three great doorways," writes Mr Henry James, in "Portraits of
Places," "are in themselves a museum of imagery, disposed in each case
in five close tiers, the statues in each of the tiers packed
perpendicularly against their comrades. The effect of these great
hollowed and chiselled recesses is extremely striking; they are a proper
vestibule to the dusky richness of the interior. The cathedral of
Rheims, more fortunate than many of its companions, appears not to have
suffered from the iconoclasts of the Revolution; I noticed no absent
heads nor broken noses."
The rose windows of the transepts are exceedingly lovely, and attention
should be paid to the design of the buttresses, and the very remarkable
gargoyles. One of the towers contains an enormous bell. In the exterior
of the south transept are several good statues.
An immense nave stretches for nearly five hundred feet. This part of the
edifice was repeatedly extended to make space for the great crowds that
attended the imposing coronation ceremonies. Around the choir are
several chapels. In numerous niches and corners are statues of interest.
"The long sweep of the nave, from the threshold to the point where the
coloured light-shafts of the choir lose themselves in the grey distance,
is a triumph of perpendicular perspective," writes Mr Henry James.
Perhaps the greatest treasures preserved in Notre Dame are the
tapestries. There are pieces representing the life of the Virgin, while
several depict scenes in the life of Christ. The Canticles form the
subject of other examples. Two pieces of Gobelins, after designs by
Raphael, represent the life of St Paul. These tapestries are
exceptionally fine specimens of this art.
During the coronation celebrations, the sovereigns occupied the
archbishop's palace, which is close to the cathedral. The building was
begun about 1499. In the museum of the palace is the famous cenotaph of
Jovinius, adorned with sculpture. A large hall contains portraits of
kings.
Among the churches of importance in Rheims are St Jacques, St André, and
St Thomas. The Church of St Rémi, named after the great bishop, dates
from the eleventh century. During the Revolution this church was
terribly damaged; many of the splendid relics and statues were
destroyed, and but a few images were spared.
The tomb of St Rémi is modern, except the images that decorate it. There
are some rich tapestries in the church. The doorway of the south
transept is handsome, and there are beautiful windows of an early date.
The cloister of the abbey is now enclosed by a hotel. In the seventeenth
century the present Town Hall was erected. It contains a gallery of
paintings and a museum.
The chief Roman monument in the town is the great arch of triumph, the
Porte de Mars. This structure was probably erected by Agrippa on the
occasion of the opening of the highways leading to the city. Near to the
arch stood a temple of Mars. The Gate of Mars is over a hundred feet
long, and over forty feet high. There are several figures under the
archways. Parts of a Roman pavement are near the triumphal arch. These
are the only memorials of Roman times, but it may be noted that the
gates of the city still retain their original names.
Rheims was fortified after the Franco-Prussian War; and in recent years
many of the streets have been widened and modernised. Henry James notes
"a prosperous, modern, mercantile air" in the Rheims of to-day.
Considerable business is transacted in the city. It is a centre of the
woollen industry, and there are several weaving and spinning works, and
a large trade in flannel and blankets.
The chief ancient charm of Rheims is in the great cathedral, with its
highly interesting architecture, the old church of St Rémi, and the
Roman arch. The streets are clean and bright, and the town has its
tramcars among other tokens of modernity. There are not many statues of
importance. The monument to Louis XV. stands in the Place Royale.
BRUGES
The air of prosperity which is so apparent in Amsterdam and Antwerp is
missing in Bruges, once populated by a busy multitude of craftsmen and
weavers. Early in the seventh century, the city contained as many as
fifty thousand weavers, and this was probably the period of its greatest
splendour. For several centuries, however, Bruges held its position as a
trading town, and in the fourteenth century, under the rule of the dukes
of Burgundy, its market was known throughout Europe, and was visited by
the wealthy merchants of Italy and Greece.
If the greatness of the industrial power has long since declined, Bruges
can still boast of its ancient monuments, which invite visitors from all
parts of the world. The town is much visited by strangers. It is easily
reached from England by way of Ostend, and ships of five hundred tons
can sail up to Bruges on its wide artificial waterway.
For the causes of the decay of the town, we must refer to the early wars
that disturbed the country, to the penalty which the natives suffered
for rebellion against the Archduke Maximilian in 1488, when the trade
was transferred to Antwerp, and finally to the ravages of the Duke of
Alva's army.
Peter Titelmann harried the burghers in the days of religious strife to
such an extent that the Catholic burgomasters and senators of the town
petitioned the Duchess Regent to protect them. They complained that the
Inquisitor of the Faith brought before them men and women, and forced
them to confess; and that, without warrant, he dragged his victims from
the church itself.
In 1583 the French, under Captain Chamois, having seized Ostend and
other towns, came to the gates of Bruges. The burgomaster refused to
admit the fifteen hundred troops, and rallying the townsmen, he made a
stand against the invading force, compelling Chamois to retire.
The city was famed for its workers in tapestry, an art known early in
the Netherlands, and probably borrowed from the Saracens. In 1606
Flemish artists, invited by Henri IV., introduced the working of
tapestry into France, and a few years later the industry was established
in England.
Philip the Good, of Burgundy, who died in 1467, was scarcely worthy of
his title of virtue. He was, however, in spite of his adroitness in
deception, an encourager of industry and commerce, and a protector of
the arts. He invited the brothers, John and Hubert Van Eyck, to Bruges,
and he patronised men of science and scholars. "Lord of so many opulent
cities and fruitful provinces, he felt himself equal to the kings of
Europe." Upon his marriage with Isabella of Portugal, he founded at
Bruges the celebrated order of the "Golden Fleece." This Order played a
great part in Flemish history. The symbol of the Golden Fleece was both
religious and industrial, and the Lamb of God, hung upon the breast of
the twenty-five knights, represented not only devotion, but also the
woollen trade of the country. Motley gives the number of the knights as
twenty-five, but another authority states that it numbered thirty-one,
and that the members of the Order wore a distinguishing cloak, lined
with ermine, and the cipher of the Duke of Burgundy in the form of a B,
with flints striking fire. The motto was: _Aute ferit, quam flamma
micat._
The memorials of the days of splendour are many in this city of the
past. The cathedral is not of the finest Gothic work externally, but it
is rich in monuments, and lavishly decorated within. Its earlier
portions date from the twelfth century, the fine nave is of a later
period. The pictures are not of much importance.
Notre Dame has a lofty spire, and many interesting details will be found
in its architecture of the early and the later Gothic periods. One of
the chapels contains the tombs of Charles, Duke of Burgundy, and his
daughter, Mary. The images are in copper, and recumbent on marble.
Memories of Charles the Bold crowd into the mind as we stand before his
effigy. His vast ambition led him into rash adventures, and his career,
if brilliant, was also tragic in its failures. Charles would have made
Burgundy a kingdom, but he lacked the essentials of a conqueror, in
spite of his courage. His rapacity was a drain on the resources of the
Netherlands; his love of power made him an oppressor, and caused
discontent and rebellion. Through his want of the true kingly qualities
he brought disaster upon the country, and destroyed the peace of the
small republics.
In his forty-fourth year, in 1477, he died, leaving his people
impoverished, and the industries decaying. His realm was given into the
charge of his daughter, Mary, who married the Emperor Maximilian.
The monument of Mary of Burgundy is an example of the work of De
Beckere, an eminent sculptor. A painting by Porbus of "The Crucifixion
and Last Supper" is in this church. The carved pulpit is a good specimen
of this Flemish craft.
The Town Hall and Palace of Justice contain several important pictures,
and both buildings are architecturally instinctive; the former is very
highly decorated Gothic, with a fine façade, and several statues of the
Flemish counts. There is a library in the town hall with a beautiful
roof. Here are some missals and manuscripts, and a large collection of
books.
The Palace of Justice has been restored, but parts of the older building
remain. It has a spacious hall, and an elaborate fireplace, with statues
of some of the rulers of Burgundy.
La Chapelle du Saint Sang is finely decorated, and has an ancient crypt,
containing early treasures.
We must now visit the academy of painting, and inspect the pictures,
though not without regret that there are so few works of the
illustrious artists of Bruges, the brothers Van Eyck, in the collection.
There is, however, one of J. Van Eyck's greatest pictures in the
academy. This is the famous "Portrait of his Wife," a rarely finished
piece of work, with a singular history, for it was found in one of the
markets of Bruges, thickly coated with filth. The permanent quality of
the colour used by the Flemish artists of this period is instanced in
the case of this portrait, which has been most successfully cleaned. The
tints are in splendid preservation.
In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the art of Flanders
flourished, and the brothers Van Eyck were the pioneers of oil painting.
Many painters had tried oil as a medium, but none succeeded till Hubert
and Jan Van Eyck discovered a suitable oil. Working with this new
medium, they produced wonderfully durable pictures. It is supposed that
the medium was a mixture of oils and resin, which dried rapidly. The
colours of our modern artists cannot compare with those of the old
Flemish school in respect to durability, which is seen in some of the
works of the Victorian period in England.
The other paintings by Jan Van Eyck are "The Virgin and Child, with St
George and St Donatus," and "A Head of Christ," dated 1440. Of these two
pictures, the former is by far the more representative of the painter's
genius.
J. Van Eyck died, and was buried in Bruges, in a church which the French
destroyed. There is a poor statue of the painter on the ground whereon
the church stood.
Memling's altarpiece is in the collection, a much restored painting of
"St Christopher and the Infant Jesus." For other works of this artist,
we must visit the Hospital of St John, which stands near to Notre Dame.
The pictures are very remarkable and marvellously preserved. "The
Adoration of the Magi," "The Virgin and Child," "The Head of Zambetha,"
"The Virgin," and other examples are in this collection.
Memling and his school used landscape, as seen through windows, in many
of their portrait works, and his architectural backgrounds were painted
from the houses in Bruges. We may still see houses that recall his
period. Hans Memling was probably born in 1425, and appears to have
lived in the town until 1495. His statue is in the Place du Vieux
Bourg.
Among the old houses of the town is the Prissenhof, though now it is
only a ruined memorial of its past grandeur. Here Charles the Bold
wedded Margaret of York, and here lived several of the counts of
Flanders.
An idea of the fortifications of the town in the Middle Ages is gained
by a walk around the ramparts which enclose Bruges. The many canals,
that intersect the city, lend beauty to Bruges. Besides the great
waterway to Ostend there are a canal to Ghent and other streams.
Lace-making is one of the industries of Bruges, and there is a trade in
linen and woollen goods and pottery. The city to-day is not a bustling,
commercial place, as in mediæval times, and to some visitors it may
savour of sadness.
Mr Harry Quilter is a traveller who finds the Gothic towns "more than
ordinarily depressing," by reason of their monotony. "Perhaps it is the
effect of the angular roofs and windows, wearying to the eye as the
diagrams in a book of Euclid. Perhaps it is the low-browed shops, the
irregularly paved streets, the dull unrelieved brown and grey of the
houses. But for whatever reason, the effect is certainly dreary."
If we do not find Bruges a town of dull aspect it is due to personal
temperament and taste. There may be greyness in these old Gothic towns,
there may be a suggestion of decay in Bruges; but there is also a strong
fascination, a charm that appeals to those whose eyes have grown weary
of modern streets with their regular outlines and monotonous
architecture. These tortuous lanes of Belgium and Holland, the gables,
and the tall irregular houses, are steeped in an old-world atmosphere,
and every corner suggests a subject for the painter's brush. Certainly,
the term "picturesque" may be used in speaking of Bruges.
It is still a large town, with a big population; but the thoroughfares
seem rarely thronged, and there is slumber in the by-lanes. There
appears to be no demand for new houses, and no indication that Bruges
will grow. Its hotels prosper through the number of strangers that visit
the city. Few tourists in Belgium neglect to visit this old town.
GHENT
From Bruges to Ghent the distance is about twenty-eight miles. The
railroad runs by the side of a placid canal, with banks planted with
rows of tall trees--such as Hobbema painted--and traverses a fertile
country, a verdant district of West Flanders, famous for its gardens and
orchards. Though an inland town, Ghent can be approached by large
vessels, by way of the Schelde and a big canal draining from the river.
From the top of the belfry tower the eye wanders over the countless
spires and towers of the city, and a vague, distant expanse of flat
country. There are few city views in Europe to be compared with this.
The prospect is vast and impressive; the town below presents a curious
scene, partly old-world, and yet bustling and modern in many aspects;
for Ghent, with over one hundred and sixty thousand inhabitants, is one
of the largest centres of Belgian commerce, and was once the capital of
Flanders. In the fourteenth century it was said that over seventy
thousand of its citizens were trained to arms, while the industrial
population was large and thriving.
Prince John, third son of Edward III. of England, was born here, and
took the name of John of Ghent. The Emperor Charles V. was also born in
Ghent, in the old palace that has disappeared. The history of this city,
which was probably founded in the days of the Nervii, is nebulous until
the tenth century, but in 1297 the town was strong enough to resist a
big English army, and the prosperity of Ghent was envied by the rest of
Europe.
Its busy looms gave employment to many thousands of weavers, and most of
the wool used was supplied by England. Edward III. invited Flemish
weavers to his country, and kept up friendly relations with Flanders.
English wool was, however, still the chief supply of Bruges and Ghent,
and the trade in one year enriched the coffers of Edward III. with
£30,000 in duties.
[Illustration: GHENT, 1832.]
Erasmus declared that there was no other town in Christendom that could
be compared with Ghent, in "size, power, political constitution, or the
culture of its inhabitants." The city was practically a republic, ruled
by representatives, elected yearly by fifty-two guilds of
manufacturers and thirty-two corporations of weavers, and by a principal
senate selected from all classes. It appears that these legislative
authorities were often at strife, for outbreaks of factions within the
walls of the town were frequent.
When Charles V. was in need of money to conduct a war against France, he
made a very heavy claim upon Ghent. The natives rebelled at the
extortion; they even offered to fight with Francis against the emperor.
Francis I. was, however, not disposed to ally himself with the people of
Ghent, and he communicated with Charles, telling him of the defection of
the burghers.
Hurrying from Spain, through the territory of the enemy, Charles V.
advanced on Flanders, and on 14th February 1540 he appeared unexpectedly
at the walls of Ghent. Surrounded by his great army of lancers, archers,
halberd-men and musketeers, and attended by prelates and barons, with
many of the knights of the Golden Fleece, the emperor marched into the
rebellious city. The inhabitants were awed by this pomp and display. As
a punishment, the Duke of Alva proposed to destroy Ghent; but Charles
was too cultured and rational to allow such destruction of a noble city.
Calling the leaders of the revolt before him, the emperor commanded that
they should be executed, and he humiliated the chiefs of the trade
guilds by causing them to bend before him, with halters tied around
their necks, and to ask his leniency. All the privileges and charters of
the city were made null, and the rents and revenues confiscated; while
the subsidy demanded for the war was to be rendered in full. A fine was
also levied, to be paid annually.
This was how Charles V. punished Ghent for its show of independence, and
from that day the city suffered in prosperity. The republican form of
government was banished; in its stead the emperor gave the town into the
despotic control of the supreme court of Mechlin.
Nine miles of walls encompassed Ghent in this day. It was a well-armed
city, protected on all sides, and furnished with drawbridges over the
streams that flowed through it. The population in the height of its
glory was probably two hundred thousand.
In 1376 a great congress was held in Ghent, to draw up a document of
pacification, in order to end the great struggle between the adherents
of the old faith and the reformed religion. All the edicts of Alva were
withdrawn; all prisoners were to be freed, and compensation paid for
confiscated property. Saint Aldegonde, with several commissioners,
signed the treaty at Ghent on 8th November. Thus ended the Inquisition
in Flanders. The publication of the treaty was received with the utmost
joy throughout the land. Hymns of praise were sung, cannons boomed the
news, and beacon fires were lighted.
A year later there was trouble in Ghent, through the appointment of the
Duke of Aerschot as governor of Flanders. The duke was an ardent Roman
Catholic, and the city abounded with converts to Protestantism. A grand
ceremony was witnessed when the new ruler, attended by several companies
of infantry and three hundred horse soldiers, came to Ghent. Aerschot
was regarded as an emissary of Romanism by a large part of the
inhabitants, and by the rest he was distrusted.
A young noble named Ryhove vowed that he would deliver Ghent from the
duke; so he went to William of Orange with a plan for carrying out the
extinction of Aerschot's power. He stated that he was prepared to lead
a cause which would result in the expulsion of "the Duke with his
bishops, councillors, lords, and the whole nest of them." On the day
following Ryhove's interview with the prince, he was visited by Saint
Aldegonde, who informed him that the Prince of Orange did not strongly
discountenance his plan, nor did he strongly approve of it.
Meanwhile, Imbize, another young aristocrat of the city, had confronted
Aerschot, and the governor had threatened the rebellious citizens with a
rope for their necks. When Ryhove arrived, he called on the citizens to
make a fight for their old charters and rights, and to banish for ever
all vestiges of the Spanish Inquisition. Incited by the ardent Ryhove,
the burghers arose and rushed through the streets to the house of
Aerschot, demanding admission. Refused by the guards, they threatened to
burn down the residence. But the duke surrendered in time, and Ryhove
protected him from the violence of the crowd, at the same time
commanding that he should be taken prisoner. Half naked, the governor
was conveyed to the house of Ryhove.
So began an anti-Catholic campaign, which shattered the supremacy of the
older form of religion. Aerschot was released. The Prince of Orange
came to Ghent, and strove to restore peace in the city. He was received
with honour, pageants were arranged, a spectacular drama was displayed,
and the prince was entertained generously.
In 1579 Imbize again led the inhabitants in revolt, and incited them to
attack and plunder the Catholics. William of Orange successfully stemmed
the conflict for a time, but Imbize put himself at the head of a
regiment, and actually arrested the magistrates of the city and other
dignitaries, and established a board of rulers. William the Silent again
intervened. He came to Ghent, reprimanded the riotous burghers, and had
Imbize brought before him. With his customary clemency, the prince
pardoned the young man, after chiding him for his intolerance and folly.
We read again of the fanatical Puritan, Imbize, in 1584, when he allied
himself with the Catholic party, and plotted against his country. His
scheme was, however, discovered; he was charged with treason, and
brought to the gallows.
Ghent was early a stronghold of powerful trade guilds, and one of the
meeting-places of these unions was in the Market Square. These
organisations of craftsmen were probably established first by the
Flemish weavers to protect the woollen industry. All over Europe the
guilds were instituted by artisans working in walled towns during the
Middle Ages. Chaucer mentions them in England in his day. The guilds had
their masters or wardens, who exercised an almost despotic sway over the
members, and watched their interests zealously. The election of the
wardens was made a pompous ceremony, accompanied by a religious service
which was attended by the mayor and corporation, and followed by a
banquet. No doubt the Market Square of Ghent saw many of these
ceremonies in days of old.
The power of the merchants and manufacturers of Ghent was great in the
time of the city's affluence. We gain an idea of their sumptuous houses
and their costly apparel from many paintings of the Dutch School. Often
the merchant was wealthier than the feudal baron, and kings were known
to borrow from them.
Jacques Van Artevelde, "the brewer" of Ghent, was an important burgher
in his day, though he was not, strictly speaking, a brewer, but a
patrician who joined the Brewer's Guild, and headed a riotous faction
against a rival guild. A fierce fight broke out in the square, and
several hundreds of the combatants were slain. Van Artevelde was a
staunch friend of Edward III. of England. He was killed by the populace
for plotting to make Edward ruler of Flanders.
Such, briefly, are some of the main historical events of this old town
of martial and industrial renown. Let us now inspect some of the works
of art preserved in the Cathedral of St Bavon. Perhaps the masterpiece
here is "The Adoration of the Lamb," the marvellous altar-picture
painted by Jan and Hubert Van Eyck. The colour is glowing, though the
picture was painted in 1432. The Lamb is attended by angels, and
worshipped by a company of the devout. There are hundreds of heads in
the composition, which has several compartments. The landscape is
exquisitely rendered, both in the effect of distance and in the flowers
of the foreground. Parts of the altarpiece are elsewhere, in Berlin and
Brussels, and the whole was carried away by the French, only a portion
being restored. Portraits of the brothers Van Eyck are among the Just
Judges in the picture.
Among other paintings in the cathedral are works of Roose, Jansen,
Porbus, and a Rubens, highly praised by Sir Joshua Reynolds. There are
several monuments, notably the statue of St Bavon by Verbruggen, and the
effigies of bishops of Ghent. In the crypt is the tomb of Hubert Van
Eyck.
In the Academy the pictures chiefly claiming inspection are "St
Francis," by Rubens, some works by Grayer, and Jordaen's "Woman taken in
Adultery."
St Michael's Church contains a painting by Vandyk, "The Crucifixion,"
which is in poor preservation, and several modern pictures by Flemish
artists.
The Hotel de Ville and the University of Ghent are both fine buildings;
the first has highly decorated frontages on two sides, that on the north
showing the greater wealth of detail and ornament. A more modern, but
very noble, structure is the university, containing a museum and
library.
ANTWERP
Three centuries ago the city of Antwerp had in Europe scarcely a rival
in commerce and affluence. To-day Antwerp remains one of the most
populous commercial cities of Belgium, although the period of its
greatest splendour passed with the Spanish persecution under the Duke of
Alva. Not only as a busy port and mart is the city on the Schelde
famous. It has renown as a centre of the arts, as the home of several of
the most illustrious painters of the Flemish school, and as the
birthplace of one of the first academies of painting. As a fortified
town, it has always been of first importance in the defence of Belgium.
The traveller from England, as the Harwich boat steams up Goldsmith's
"lazy Scheld" at daybreak, in summer-time, sees long grey vistas, on
either side of the estuary, of flat pastures and fertile fields of
grain, spreading away to Bruges to the south, and across the island of
Walcheren, to the north. Flushing comes into sight, its roofs and spires
lit by the rising sun, which quickly lends colour to the landscape, and
reveals a picturesque town, intersected by canals, lined with vessels.
Past islets and sandbanks, upon which sea-birds congregate, the steamer
follows the line of buoys and beacons, until the river, though still
tidal, becomes narrower, and in sixty odd miles from its mouth, washes
the quays of Antwerp.
During this approach to the city by the Schelde an impression is formed
in the mind of the voyager of the ingenious methods of dyke-making,
canal construction, and damming which have so greatly aided in the
prosperity of Holland and Belgium. Antwerp owes its wealth as much to
the toil of the engineer and the agriculturist as to the merchant and
craftsman. Rural Belgium is well populated, except in some parts of the
Ardennes; the farms are tilled with science, the towns and villages of
the Schelde-side are bright and clean, and inhabited by industrious,
thrifty people.
[Illustration: ANTWERP, 1832.
THE CATHEDRAL.]
Antwerp probably derives its name from "an t' werf," "on the wharf." Its
position on a deep navigable river was one of the principal causes of
the early commercial supremacy of the city. When Venice, Nuremberg, and
Bruges were declining, the port on the Schelde was in the height of
its repute, and second to Paris in the number of its inhabitants, among
whom but few were poor. In education Antwerp excelled in these fortunate
days, for the schools were admirable, and every burgher's child could
benefit by the teaching provided by the senate.
Philip II. of Spain, who despised the Flemings and Walloons, and
disliked their loquacity, was received joyously in Antwerp, as
hereditary sovereign of the seventeen Netherlands. The city was gay with
triumphant arches and splendid banners; a gorgeous assemblage of
dignitaries and their servants, with a great troop of soldiers, met the
Spanish sovereign without the gates. His coldness and reserve disturbed
the minds of the citizens. After Philip came the Duke of Alva with his
reign of tyranny, the setting up of the Inquisition in Antwerp, the ruin
of the silk trade, and the vast emigration of the oppressed workers to
other countries, especially to England.
In 1566, William of Orange was in Antwerp, and two years later, as soon
as the prince had left the city, the natives bent to the rule of the
oppressor. The Spaniards, defeated at Brussels, prepared some years
after for an attack upon Antwerp, then the richest city of Belgium. On
a grey wintry morning, the enemy encompassed the walls of the city, the
besieged having been reinforced by an army of Walloons. The fight was
one of the most desperate ever recorded in history. Gaining entrance,
the Spaniards swept up the chief thoroughfares; "the confused mob of
fugitives and conquerors, Spaniards, Walloons, Germans, burghers,"
writes Motley, "struggling, shouting, striking, cursing, dying, swayed
hither and thither like a stormy sea."
A frightful massacre followed upon the conquest of Antwerp, no less than
eight thousand men, women, and children were put to death by the
ferocious victors.
Merchants were tortured in order to extort from them the hiding-places
of their gold; the poor were killed because they had no store for the
plunderer; and a young bride was torn from the arms of the bridegroom,
and conveyed to a dungeon, where she tried to strangle herself with her
long gold chain. She was stripped of her jewels and dress, beaten, and
flung into the streets, to meet death at the hands of a rabble of
soldiers. Such were the horrors of the capture of Antwerp, to be
followed by the "Spanish Fury," in which more persons were slain than in
the terrible massacre of St Bartholomew.
The siege of 1830, on 27th October, was one of the most sanguinary
conflicts in modern warfare. Attacked by the implacable General Chassé,
the inhabitants had to face a terrible cannonade. The cathedral was
damaged, the arsenal fired, and the townsfolk crouched in terror in
vaults and cellars, while many of them fled into the open country.
Again in the revolution of 1830, and in 1832, Antwerp was the scene of
battle.
From such records of carnage and cruelty, it is a relief to turn the
pages of history till we read of the arts that flourished for so long in
Antwerp. Not only were the wealthy classes of the city cultivated beyond
the standard of many countries of Europe, but the artisans also shared
in the general culture, and cherished respect for art.
Quentin Matsys, whose pictures may be studied in the museum, was one of
the early painters of Antwerp. Rubens and Teniers were both associated
with the city, and their statues stand in the streets. Vandyk is another
famous artist upon the roll of honour of Antwerp, and his image in
marble is in the Rue des Fagots.
Peter Paul Rubens was born in 1577, in Siegen. He was the pupil of
Verhaecht and Van Nort, and afterwards of Otto Van Veen, whom he
assisted in the decoration of Antwerp at the time of the visit of Albert
and Isabella. Rubens travelled in Italy, where he pursued his art
studies, afterwards settling in Antwerp at the beginning of the twelve
years' truce. Here he painted most of his chief pictures. The works in
the cathedral were finished in 1614.
Under the patronage of Charles I. Rubens visited England, and was
commissioned to embellish the banqueting hall in Whitehall. His fame
also reached Spain, and his "Metamorphoses of Ovid" was painted for the
royal hunting seat of that country.
Sir Joshua Reynolds, though a somewhat prejudiced critic of Dutch and
Belgian painting, visited the Low Countries more than once, and brought
back art treasures to England. In 1781, he wrote to Burke from Antwerp,
where he inspected the pictures in the churches.
The Museum contains some of the masterpieces of Rubens, and notable
examples of the work of Vandyk, Teniers, Rembrandt, and Van Eyck. Here
is the great work of Quentin Matsys, "The Descent from the Cross." For
the best-known painting by Rubens, "The Descent from the Cross," we must
visit the Cathedral of Notre Dame. It has been said that the painting of
the picture was suggested to Rubens by an Italian engraving, for there
are traces in it of Italian influence. Parts of the painting have been
restored and cleaned. It is seen to good advantage from a short
distance, for the painting was planned for a large building. "The
Elevation of the Cross" is another of the treasures in the cathedral.
This, in the opinion of Sir Joshua Reynolds, is one of the chief
pictures by Rubens. "The Assumption of the Virgin" was painted rapidly,
and decorates the choir.
The cathedral is Gothic, and one of the finest in Europe. The interior
is impressive, with its wide nave and aisles. The choir stalls are
beautifully carved, and should be carefully examined as examples of
Gothic art. The pulpit is also carved, but the work is indifferent. The
steeple, one of the highest in Christendom, is very exquisite, like lace
work rather than stone and metal. In the tower are the many tuneful
bells that ring out chimes, and one huge bell with a sonorous note.
In the churches of St Paul and St Jacques, and of the Augustines, are
paintings of great interest by Rubens, Vandyk, and Teniers.
A ramble around the fortifications will show how strong are the defences
of the city, which have been constructed since the last siege in 1832.
Walls and citadels, well provided with points of vantage for artillery
fire, begirt Antwerp to-day. The forts and barriers cost an enormous
sum. Guns and ammunition are made in the city, which is the chief
fortress of the country, and an important military centre.
In the Grande Place stands the town hall, a florid building, containing
several paintings, though none of remarkable note, except some frescoes
by Leys, one of the most eminent of modern Belgian painters.
Our tour of the city must include a visit to the house of Rubens, in the
street named after him. The archway is from the designs of the painter,
whose studio was in the grounds.
The first Exchange was erected in 1531, and destroyed by fire in 1858.
It was from this building that the plan of the London Royal Exchange
was taken. The modern Bourse is in the Rue de la Bourse.
Antwerp is architecturally a handsome city, with several fine squares,
wide promenades, and well-planned streets. The docks are extensive, and
the long quays stretch thence to the old fort on the south side. There
is a triangular park with sheets of water, beyond the great Boulevard,
and in the zoological garden is a fairly representative collection of
animals. In the Rue Leopold is the botanic garden.
The Plantin Museum, containing relics and volumes of one famous printer,
is one of the public institutions that must be visited.
Such are the chief monuments and objects of interest in the old city of
Antwerp, where the ancient and the modern are both represented side by
side in odd contrast.
AMSTERDAM
A horn of flatland, bounded by the North Sea and the Zuyder Zee, juts
northward, with Haarlem and Amsterdam at its base. Sundered by a channel
from the point of the horn is Texel, the biggest of the curious line of
islands that stretches along the coast to Friesland. This Helder, or
"Hell's Door," the tidal channel leading to the broad inlet of the
Zuyder Zee, runs like a mill-race, and the passage is deep enough to
admit large vessels travelling to the port of Amsterdam.
The capital of Holland is built upon logs driven into the firm earth
through morass and silt. It is a city of canals and dykes, spanned by
hundreds of bridges, a northern Venice, dependent for its safety upon
the proper control of sluices. The devouring sea is kept at bay by a
mighty dam. Truly, Amsterdam is one of the wonders of men's ingenuity.
The plan of its streets is remarkable; the thoroughfares are a series of
semi-circles with their points to the Zuyder Zee. The flow of the
canals and waterways that wind about the city is impelled by artificial
means. The number of the piles upon which the palace of Amsterdam stands
is reckoned at nearly fourteen thousand.
About the thirteenth century, the building of the city began around the
castle of Amstel, on a tidal marsh. During the siege of Haarlem by the
Spanish, Amsterdam depended upon its waterway for food supplies. The
Duke of Alva wrote: "Since I came into the world, I have never been in
such anxiety. If they should succeed in cutting off the communications
along the dykes, we should have to raise the siege of Haarlem, to
surrender, hands crossed, or to starve."
In 1787 when the King of Prussia brought his troops to Holland, in
favour of the stadtholder, Amsterdam surrendered its garrison. And in
1795 the French entered the city without the resistance of the
inhabitants.
Sir Thomas Overbury, who wrote in 1609, describes Amsterdam as
surpassing "Seville, Lisbon, and any other mart-town in Christendom."
The city maintained a great fleet of vessels trading to the East Indies,
the German ports, and the towns of the Baltic Sea.
The historian relates that the people were not "much wicked," though
disposed to drink; they were hard bargainers, but just, thrifty,
hardworking, and shrewd in commerce. To-day the natives of Amsterdam are
assuredly "inventive in manufactures," and eminently capable in all
affairs of trading and finance.
The fishing industry has declined seriously, but the export trade of
Amsterdam is enormous, the products being chiefly butter, cheese, cotton
goods, glass manufactures, leather goods, bread, stuffs, and gin. In
1900 the population of the city was 523,558.
Amsterdam is still a metropolis of capitalists, many of whom are of the
Jewish race, while it is a principal European centre of the diamond
trade. The famous banking system, established under guarantee of the
city, in 1609, is described at length by Adam Smith in his "Wealth of
Nations."
"Public utility," he writes, "and not revenue was the original object of
this institution. Its object was to relieve the merchants from the
inconvenience of a disadvantageous exchange." The bank was under the
control of four reigning burgomasters, who were changed every year.
The opulence of Amsterdam is apparent to the stranger who roams its
streets to-day. Factories abound, artificers are numerous, and
everywhere there are evidences of a prosperity that recalls the day when
most of the business of Europe was transacted in these narrow, twisted
streets, and a large fleet of vessels traded with the Indies.
Here several renowned printers set up their presses in the seventeenth
century, and many famous books were printed in the city. During the
following century Amsterdam still remained the great commercial capital
of Europe.
The immigration of Spanish and Portuguese Jews into Holland brought to
the city a fresh class of artisans, and gave an impulse to several
crafts. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there was a vigorous
intellectual development in Amsterdam. Several notable men were natives.
Spinoza was born here, in 1632, after the routing of the Spanish forces.
His parents were traders, Jewish fugitives from Spain.
Baruch, or Bendictus, Spinoza excelled even his tutors at the age of
fourteen, and the Rabbin Saul Levi Morteira was astounded by the boy's
capacity for learning. A troubled, but resplendent life lay before this
dark-eyed Hebrew youth. He was of the order of reformers, and shared
the griefs and the trials of all who strive to benefit humanity.
Persecution pursued Spinoza from the day when he conflicted with
Morteira in the synagogue, uttering opinions which were regarded as dire
heresy. We read of attempts upon his life, of excommunication, and of
ostracism. The philosopher supported himself by polishing lenses for
telescopes and optical instruments, until he was able to leave Amsterdam
for the University of Leyden. Later came recognition with the
publication of the great "Tractatus."
When offered a pension by the King of France, the philosopher refused
it, fearing that if he became a slave of the State, he might sacrifice
his liberty of thought. Spinoza lived in extreme simplicity, it is said
that he spent only twopence-farthing a day on his needs. His temper was
equable. "Reason is my delight," he declared. "A virtuous life is not a
sad and gloomy one."
Strange that this noble and tolerant thinker should have been described
as an enemy of humanity. "The God-intoxicated man," as Novalis said of
Spinoza, was accused of atheism in a day when philosophic doubt was
synonymous with crime. It was only such thinkers as Hegel, Lessing,
Goethe and Schelling who were able to appraise Spinoza at his true
value. For the uncultured he remained for generations an enemy of
virtue.
In Amsterdam Spinoza formed at least a measure of toleration among the
citizens. He writes: "In the midst of this flourishing republic, this
great city, men of all nations and all sects live together in the most
perfect harmony."
A monument to Spinoza was unveiled by Renan at the Hague, in 1877.
Amsterdam abounds in memories of Rembrandt, though many of his paintings
are distributed in the galleries of other cities. The rich capital of
Holland encouraged painters, poets, and men of science; and in the year
when Spinoza was born, Rembrandt settled in Amsterdam, and soon became
noted as a painter of portraits. His house is in the Breestraat. In his
day, it was beautifully adorned with works of art, and he owned a large
collection of engravings. Like many great artists, Rembrandt lived
absorbed in his labours, seldom frequenting society. After a spell of
reverses he went to live on the Rozengracht, and in this house on the
quay he spent his last days.
We think of Rembrandt, in the busy Amsterdam of his day, writing to a
friend: "In this great town wherein I am, there being no man, save me,
who does not pursue commerce; everyone is so attentive to his own profit
that I might remain here all my life unseen of any." Here, leading a
life of strenuous simplicity, content with his labour, a piece of cheese
and a crust, Rembrandt painted many memorable pictures. He soon became
one of the most respected of Amsterdam's citizens. His pupils were many,
and they paid high fees for their tuition. But Rembrandt remained almost
a recluse, and seldom forsook his studio for festive company.
In the Fodor Museum in Amsterdam may be seen the "Tribute Money," some
portrait drawings, and "Mars and Venus in the Net." Several of
Rembrandt's works are in private collections in the city. The picture
gallery also contains some of the painter's famous pictures.
For a glimpse of the business life of Amsterdam, we must stroll in the
Kalver Straat, an interesting thoroughfare, running from the palace to
the sea, and then along the harbour and the quay. The great dyke
encloses a number of docks, all thronged with ships, and the fish
market should be seen. Herring-curing, by the way, was the invention of
a native of the Low Countries.
Among the public buildings that will repay inspection, are the Town
Hall, the Bourse, and two churches, the old church and the new church.
The older church dates from about 1300. Its beautiful stained windows
were painted at a later date. There are some tombs here of illustrious
naval conquerors, and these, and the magnificent organ, in its very
ornate gallery, are the chief objects of interest.
The new church is scarcely "new," for it was built in 1408. This is a
fine edifice, with a number of monuments, an interesting carved pulpit,
and metal-work screen.
Admiral De Ruyter lived here, the great adversary of Blake, and the
gallant commander who held us at bay off the coast of Suffolk, and did
such damage to our ships in the Medway.
The pictures in the Museum are representative of the Dutch school, and
the collection includes many masterpieces; the chief artists represented
are Teniers, Rembrandt, Paul Potter, Gerard Douw, and Vandyk.
The situation of Amsterdam, on a salt marsh, with a stratum of mud below
its houses, would seem dangerous to the health of the city. It is,
however, a very healthy capital, and the inhabitants do not apparently
suffer from the specific diseases that are said to flourish in low, wet
lands.
Amsterdam leaves a picture in the mind of mediæval lanes and alleys,
with curious turrets and gables, shadowing slow canals; of sunlight and
vivid colour; of ships coming and going, and bustling quays, and streets
with old and new houses quaintly jumbled.
COLOGNE
In the days of Roman dominion, a city called Civitas Ubiorum was built
by the Rhine upon the site where now stands the fortified mediæval town
of Cologne. Remains of the Roman occupation are still to be traced in
the city in the bases of walls, but the amphitheatre was demolished long
ago. Agrippina was born here, and Trajan ruled in the fortress.
In the Middle Ages Cologne was a prosperous city, with a wide trading
repute, and celebrated for its arts and learning. William Caxton came
here to learn printing, an industry which he introduced into England.
Militarism and clerical domination appear to have been the chief causes
of the long spell of misfortune that fell later upon Cologne.
Persecution was one of the principal occupations of a number of the
people at this period; and much zeal was expended in expelling heretics,
Jews and Protestants from the city.
Cologne also suffered decline through the closing of the Rhine as a
navigable waterway by the Dutch, and it was not until 1837 that the
river was re-opened to trading vessels plying to foreign ports. To-day
the city is an important commercial and industrial centre.
Perhaps the best general view of Cologne is from the opposite bank of
the Rhine. The city is a forest of spires and towers; there were at one
time over two thousand clerics within the walls, and religious buildings
were more numerous then than to-day.
The wide river is spanned by two bridges; the more important is a
wonderful structure, over thirteen hundred feet in length, and made of
iron.
The Cathedral was begun in the thirteenth century, but it remained for a
considerable time in an unfinished state, and portions fell into decay.
Frederick William III. restored the building, and added to it; and since
this time the work has been continued in several parts of the edifice.
Externally the Cathedral is a stately building with its flying
buttresses, host of pinnacles, and splendid south doorway. The
architecture is French--rather German--Gothic.
[Illustration: COLOGNE.
ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH, 1826.]
In the choir are very brilliant stained windows, some mural pictures,
and numerous statues of Scriptural characters. The painted windows
here, and in the aisles, are extremely gorgeous examples of this art.
Among the objects of interest in the chapels are memorials of the
archbishops of the city, and an early painting, known as the Dombild,
depicting the saints of Cologne.
The Church of St Ursula and of the Eleven Thousand Virgins is remarkable
for its treasury of the bones of the adventurous virgins of the famous
legend. These relics are embedded in the walls of the choir. There are a
few pictures, but none of note, in this church.
St Maria Himmelfahrt, the church of the Jesuits, is highly flamboyant in
its embellishments. Amongst its treasures are the rosary of St Ignatius
and the crozier of St Francis Xavier. In St Gereon's Church is a
collection of the bones of the martyrs killed during the persecution by
the Romans. Architecturally, this church deserves careful attention for
it has ancient portions, and presents several styles. The baptistery and
sacristy are very ornate in design.
One of the works of Rubens is in St Peter's Church. This is the
well-known altar picture of "The Crucifixion of St Peter." Sir Joshua
Reynolds and Wilkie have both recorded their impressions of this great
work. Rubens esteemed this as the best picture that he ever painted; but
Reynolds thought the drawing feeble, and surmised that it was finished
by one of the pupils of Rubens, after the master's death.
The Church of Santa Maria is on the site of the Roman capital, and on
the same ground stood a palace at a later date. It is interesting for
its decorated choir, and the old doorways. There are several other
churches in Cologne that should be visited.
In the museum there are many pictures, including one by Durer, "St
Francis," by Rubens, "A Madonna," by Titian, and a work by Vandyk.
The paintings of the Cologne school are numerous, and demand attention,
as they represent the art of the period when painting began to flourish
in Germany. Some of the pictures were painted as early as the thirteenth
century. There are many modern paintings in the museum. A number of
Roman antiquities, statuary, and pottery, are also preserved here.
Among the secular buildings of note are the Rathaus, with varied
architectural styles, and the Kaufhaus, where the Imperial councils
were held in former days.
The noble historic stream upon which the city stands, "Father Rhine,"
flows through its finest scenery above Cologne, among the Siebengebirge
heights.
"Beneath these battlements, within those walls
Power dwelt amidst her passions; in proud state
Each robber chief upheld his armed halls,
Doing his evil will, nor less elate
Than mightier heroes of a longer date.
What want these outlaws conquerors should have?
But history's purchas'd page to call them great?
A wider space and ornamented grave?
Their hopes were not less warm, their souls were full as brave."
So wrote Byron in his verses upon the majestic river, whose "castle
crags," and wooded glens have been described again and again by poets of
many nations.
The Rhine has a life and a population of its own. On its banks are the
homesteads of vine-growers and farmers, while fishermen ply their craft
in its prolific waters. Upon the river itself float the voyagers in sea
vessels, and the enormous timber-rafts, which are one of the curious
sights of the Rhine. A steamboat trip on the river will delight the
tourist, but he should leave the boat at Bonn, for below that old town
the stream flows through a tame, featureless country.
I must not forget the celebrated perfume for which Cologne is famous.
The spirit known as Eau de Cologne was the invention of Farina in the
seventeenth century. It is still manufactured in the city, and provides
an industry for a large number of people. George Meredith's novel,
"Farina," comes to mind as we wander in Cologne, and note the name of
the discoverer of the world-famous scent.
Every visitor to the city should read "Farina," for its vivid
description of the life there, "in those lusty ages when the Kaisers
lifted high the golden goblet of Aachen, and drank, elbow upward, the
green-eyed wine of old romance."
Here is Meredith's picture of Cologne, on the eve of battle: "The
market-places were crowded with buyers and sellers, mixed with a
loitering swarm of soldiery, for whose thirsty natures wine-stalls had
been tumbled up. Barons and knights of the empire, bravely mounted and
thickly followed, poured hourly into Cologne from South Germany and
North. Here staring Suabians, and red-featured warriors of the East
Kingdom, swaggered up and down, patting what horses came across them,
for lack of occupation for their hands. Yonder huge Pomeranians, with
bosks of beard stiffened out square from the chin, hurtled mountainous
among the peaceable inhabitants."
HEIDELBERG
To think of Heidelberg is to think of learning. One of the first of
European universities was established in this town by the Elector
Rupert; and here culture has flourished for centuries, in spite of
repeated sieges and a long history of disasters. What a grim story is
that of yonder old grey castle that frowns upon Heidelberg across the
River Neckar. Wars and rumours of wars form the chief chronicles of this
ancient town from the days of the Electors Palatine of the Rhine to the
invasion of the French.
Besieged by Tully after a protracted siege, held by the Imperialists,
seized by the Swedish troops, burnt by the French, who ravaged it again
a few years later--Heidelberg has been the scene of many calamities and
much bloodshed.
Again and again has the castle been bombarded and fired. The last
catastrophe happened in 1764, when the fortress-palace was struck by
lightning, set on fire, and almost destroyed. It is now a great ruin;
the part least injured dates from the sixteenth century. The massive
tower, with walls over twenty feet thick, was hurled down by the French
in their last assault.
Such architectural details as remain are of great interest. The chief
gateway has parts of the old portcullis; there are some statues of the
sixteenth century, and a triumphal arch. From whatever point of view the
Castle of Heidelberg is seen, it is a striking red pile, proudly
dominating the surrounding country, and overshadowing the Neckar.
A part of the castle is known as the English Palace. Here lived
Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James I. and grand-daughter of Mary Queen
of Scots, who was united to the Elector Frederick V. This palace was
built in 1607, and the garden was made about this time for the enjoyment
of the young bride.
The celebrated great Tun of Heidelberg is in one of the cellars of the
castle. This prodigious cask was originally made in the fourteenth
century, and contained twenty-one pipes of Rhenish wine. A second tun
was constructed in 1664, and this held six hundred hogsheads. The French
emptied this, and demolished it. A third cask was made to hold eight
hundred hogsheads, and when filled, the citizens held a dance upon a
stage erected on its top.
Viewed as a work of architecture, the University is not an inspiring
structure. It stands in a small square about the middle of the town. In
the library are missals and a large collection of books. Attached are
the botanic gardens of the college. The vandal Tully, during his
campaign, ravaged the university, and destroyed a number of valuable
volumes and manuscripts.
One of the greatest names associated with the University of Heidelberg
is the philosopher George Frederick William Hegel, born in 1770. He was
a native of Stuttgart, and at eighteen years of age he entered the
University of Tübingen. There Hegel met Schelling, for whom he had a
deep admiration. After a time of struggle as a tutor, the philosopher
came to Heidelberg, in 1816, as professor. His theses do not seem to
have attracted the students of that date, for we read that only four
persons attended his opening courses of lectures.
Hegel found time during two years in Heidelberg to write a part of his
"Encylopædia of Philosophical Science," a great work, which obtained
for the author a chair at the University of Berlin, where he lectured
for about thirteen years. He died of cholera, in 1831, at the age of
sixty-one.
Another illustrious man of Heidelberg was the poet Viktor Von Scheffel,
to whose memory a monument stands in the terrace of the castle.
The castle and the university are the two historic buildings in
Heidelberg that attract the traveller. One does not easily tire of the
view from the hill three hundred feet above the ruins of the castle, nor
of the beauties of the environs, and the banks of the Neckar.
The city is made cheerful by its law and medical students, who drink
their lager beer with gusto, sing their staves, and keep up the old
university traditions and customs. There are bright clean streets, and
many shops that prosper through the college and the host of summer
visitors.
Two fine bridges span the Neckar. The older bridge was constructed in
1788, and the new bridge was built about a hundred years later. It
connects Heidelberg with Neuenheim.
The old town is curiously elongated, stretching along the riverside.
Modern suburbs are extending to-day, to provide for a population
numbering about forty thousand.
Unfortunately, very little of old Heidelberg has survived the
devastation of wars and conflagrations. Even the churches were despoiled
of their monuments by the French soldiery, and scarcely one of the
ancient houses remains as a memorial of the Middle Ages.
Climb the hill of Anlagen, and you will reach the church associated with
Jerome of Prague, the contemporary of Huss. To the door of this church
Jerome affixed his heretical affirmations, and in the graveyard he
preached to a vast crowd.
Olympia Morata is buried here. This beautiful and cultured Italian woman
was a second Hypatia, who, however, escaped the too common fate of
innovating philosophers. She married a German doctor, after a flight
from her native land, and lived in Heidelberg, where her lectures were
attended by the learned of the town.
NUREMBERG
Few towns in Europe have preserved so much of the spirit of the Middle
Ages as Nuremberg. Its history is pregnant with romance, and its annals
of mediæval art are of marked interest. Amsterdam recalls Rembrandt;
Antwerp calls to mind Rubens, and with the town of Nuremberg, the
student of painting associates its illustrious native, Albert Durer.
The craftsmen of this town were among the most skilful of any European
nation during mediæval times. Goldworkers, armourers, clock-makers, and
artists in stained glass worked here in the days of the trade guilds.
Brass was founded in this city at an early date. Nuremberg was famed,
too, for its metalworkers and goldsmiths. It is still a town of
industrious artificers.
The architecture of the churches is of the highest Gothic order; the
façade of the Rathaus is a noble specimen of late Renaissance work; and
the castle and fortifications are feudal structures of much historical
interest. There are few towns that can compare with Nuremberg in the
charm and variety of its memorials of the past.
We cannot be certain concerning the date of the founding of the town,
but probably it was in existence in the tenth century. In the reign of
Henry II., Nuremberg was already a place of some importance, and its
prosperity advanced until it became one of the chief markets of Europe.
The castle was the residence of many rulers of the country, and it was
one of the favourite palaces of Henry IV.
In the thirteenth century, Nuremberg had a large number of Jews among
its population, who enjoyed all the rights of citizens. But under Karl
IV. a policy of oppression was adopted, and at a later period, the
Jewish inhabitants were bitterly persecuted.
[Illustration: NUREMBERG.
1832.]
John Huss was received here by an enthusiastic populace; but when the
reformer's army laid waste the country, the people of Nuremberg
valiantly withstood the enemy. When the wave of the Reformation swept
the land, Nuremberg gave a welcome to Martin Luther, and his revised
ritual of worship was used in the churches. Melanchthon also came to the
town, and established a school there, though the institution was not
successful. A statue of the "gentle" reformer was set up in Nuremberg.
Civil strife disturbed the town in 1552, but a period of peace followed,
and a few years later saw the founding of the university.
The Thirty Years' War brought disaster upon Nuremberg. The army of
Wallenstein attacked the ancient walls, and the outer entrenchments
which had been constructed by the inhabitants upon the rumour of war.
Led by Gustavus, the soldiers and people of the town opposed the vast
forces of Wallenstein that encompassed the fortifications in a series of
camps.
Hunger and plague assailed the besieged within the gates, while without
the foe cut off escape, and barred the entrance of food supplies. For
weeks the siege endured. Thousands died from disease, thousands were
slain by the enemy. In a valiant sally, Gustavus led his troops to the
attack. The battle raged for hours, and both sides suffered terrible
losses. Nuremberg might have fallen had Wallenstein been able to rally
his hungry soldiers, but, as it was, he withdrew his force.
Let us now review the peaceful arts of the city. The record of Albert
Durer's life shows the character of a deeply religious man, devoted to
his faith, and absorbed by his art. He was reared in Nuremberg, and was
the son of a working goldsmith. Born in 1471, Durer was apprenticed at
an early age to his father's craft, in which, however, he did not excel,
for his heart was set upon following the profession of a painter. His
first master in the art was Wolgemut, whose portrait is one of Durer's
finest works. The young artist spent some time in Italy, studying, among
other paintings, the work of Mantegna, and, on returning to his native
town, he applied himself most industriously to his art.
Albert Durer's pictures are scattered among the galleries of the world.
Durer, in painting landscape, showed a singular modern feeling. In his
portraits he was a realist, analytical in the use of his brush, and
especially painstaking in painting fine hair, for which he used ordinary
brushes with extreme dexterity, much to the amazement of Bellini.
In the Germanic Museum at Nuremberg there are five pictures by the
master, and some copies of his works. The bulk of his paintings are in
other galleries at Munich, Berlin, London, and elsewhere.
An interesting memorial of Albert Durer is the old gabled house in which
he lived and worked. Here he toiled with the brush and the graver's
tools, and received as his guests the cultured men of the city. His life
was simple and industrious, and his nature gentle and retiring. Durer
had several pupils at Nuremberg, who carried on his tradition in
painting and copper and wood engraving.
The art treasures of the churches are very numerous. St Sebald's Church
is a splendid Gothic pile, with many architectural triumphs, such as the
highly decorated bride's door, with its finely carved effigies, the high
pillars, Krafft's statuary and reliefs, and the crucifix by Stoss.
The splendid western door of the Frauenkirche must be seen by the
visitor, for it is an instructive example of Gothic work of the richest
design. St Lawrence has two figures, Adam and Eve, on its chief doorway;
and some Scriptural reliefs adorn the entrance. The windows are
beautifully painted.
There is a notable picture of "Christ and Mary" in the Imhoff Gallery.
There are several other churches in Nuremberg containing works of art,
and offering study for the lover of architecture and painting. The work
of the craftsmen of the Middle Ages is seen everywhere in these
buildings, and a detailed description would fill a volume.
The Museum is in an ancient monastery, and in its numerous rooms will be
found Roman antiquities, old metal work, pottery, furniture of the
Middle Ages, weapons, a collection of books, some of them illustrated by
Durer, and an array of paintings of the German school. A full and
excellent catalogue is issued.
The castle, with its stirring chronicle, is a feudal fortress dominating
the plain, and forming the chief rampart of the town's defences. Walls
and towers protect Nuremberg on every side, as in the ancient days of
peril. The view from the towers is very remarkable, and from one of
these points of outlook, one gains a long-remembered impression of the
old town, with its towers and steeples, and the surrounding country,
watered by the Pegnitz and clothed with forests. The fortifications were
finished in the fifteenth century, and provided a strong protection to
the town in time of siege.
Among the buildings of this "quaint old town of art and song," as
Longfellow describes it, the Rathaus must be visited. The west façade is
very handsome Renaissance work by the Brothers Wolf, with three towers,
and three ornate entrances. The fresco paintings within are the work of
Durer and his pupils, but they are in poor preservation. There is a
beautiful ceiling, by Beheim, in the council chamber. A fountain, with a
statue of Apollo, by Peter Vischer, is in one of the courtyards. The god
is splendidly modelled, and graceful, and the pedestal of the statue has
several mythological figures.
The most pleasing quarters of the town for the lover of antiquity are
below the Fleischbrücke, where the ancient houses overhanging the stream
are exceedingly quaint, the narrow alleys surrounding the Rathaus, and
the castle and its environs. The fountain in the fruit market, Albert
Durer's house, the churches, and the Imhoff house should all be
inspected if you wish to gain a comprehensive recollection of old and
new Nuremberg.
Nuremberg was celebrated for its sculpture, an art that awakened here
and in Würzburg at the Renaissance. While Donatello was living, Stoss,
Krafft and Vischer were gaining repute as image-makers in stone, wood,
and bronze. A volume has been published lately in France, "Peter Vischer
et la Sculpture Franconienne," by Louis Réan, which tells the story of
the rise of the Nuremberg craftsmen. Adam Krafft was no doubt an
influence in the work of Albert Durer. The South Kensington Museum
contains several examples of the work of these German artists.
We must not quit Nuremberg without recalling the great poet, Wolfram,
who was born at Eschenbach, a village near the city. It was to Wolfram
that Wagner owed the subjects for his two great works, "Parsifal" and
"Lohengrin."
Nuremberg stands high, on the verge of an ancient forest, long famous
for its hunting. Its river is the Pegnitz, which flows through the town
about its centre, and is crossed by several fine bridges. Besides its
rambling lanes and main thoroughfares, there are several open spaces and
squares; but the houses retain, for the greater part, their mediæval air
and irregularity of structure, with carved balconies, gables, and
turrets. It is the second important town of Bavaria in point of
population.
WITTENBERG
To the south-west of Berlin, between that city and Leipzig, is the old
town of Wittenberg. The rolling Elbe, which rises in the wild range of
the Erz Gebirge, and crosses Germany on its long course to Hamburg and
the sea, flows by the town, and spreads itself into a wide stream.
Saxony, the third in importance of the kingdoms of Germany, is a fertile
land, cultivated from an early date, and famed as a granary and orchard.
It is noted, too, for its minerals--coal, tin, cobalt, iron, lead, and
marble.
The town is still fortified, and bears a somewhat grim aspect. It was
much damaged by the Austrian artillery in 1760, and has suffered the
ravages of war before, and since the Electors of Saxony lived in the
mediæval castle.
Here was founded an important university, afterwards removed to Halle.
It was at the University of Wittenberg that Martin Luther taught as
professor of theology.
The supreme interest of these rambling streets are the associations with
the great Protestant reformer. Wittenberg is a place of pious
pilgrimage for those who revere the memory of Luther and Melanchthon.
The Schloss Kirche contains the ashes of the two preachers of the
reformed faith; and it was on the door of this church that Luther nailed
his bold indictment of papal corruption. The town abounds with memories
of that stupendous battle for religious liberty which spread into all
parts of Christendom.
How vast were the issues in the balance when Martin Luther defied the
power of Rome! Long before the theologian of Wittenberg, several
reformers had uttered protests against the sale of indulgences by the
Church of Rome. Huss, Jerome of Prague, John of Wessel, John of Goch,
all raised their fervent voices upon the evils of the system.
The Bible was now coming into the hands of the laity; Wicliff's versions
were in use in England, and in Germany, Reuchlin and others had made
Hebrew the study of the educated. Erasmus, too, had satirised the
vicious lives of the monks. The way was prepared for a popular reformer,
such as the ardent priest and theologian of Wittenberg.
Archbishop Albert of Mayence and Magdeburg was indebted to Pope Leo X.
for his investiture, and was unable to raise the money. The Pope was in
need of funds. He therefore gave permission to the archbishop to
establish a wide sale of indulgences in Germany. The bulk of the people,
reared in obedience to Rome, made no complaint of the practice, and were
quite ready to purchase absolution for their sins. But Luther contended
that indulgences only brought the remission of penalties, and refused to
offer complete pardon for indulgences alone.
Tetzel, the agent of Leo X., was naturally enraged. He thundered
anathemas upon the presumptuous Luther. The reformer met his
denunciations by affixing his defiant propositions to the door of the
Schloss Kirche.
So began the historic struggle between Catholics and Protestants. Luther
merely impeached the sale of indulgences; he was still loyal to the
papal authority. The Pope was, however, headstrong and tyrannous. He
showed neither tact nor diplomacy, but issued a bill of excommunication
against the unruly priest. The document was burned in contempt by Martin
Luther.
Let us glance at the character of this doughty heretic. The birthplace
of Luther was Eisleben, in Saxony, and he was born in 1483. His first
school was at Magdeburg, and he was educated for the law. But the early
trend of his mind was pietistic; he aspired to become a teacher of
religion. He joined the Augustine Order, and observed devoutly all the
canons of the Catholic creed. We read that Luther was appointed
professor at the University of Wittenberg; that he taught many students,
and discoursed eloquently.
Luther's temperament was hostile to asceticism. He had a capacity for
enjoying life; he delighted in music, and sang daily. He was not opposed
to the custom of drinking wine with company. More than all, he
impeached, by precept and example, the teaching of the virtue of
celibacy. He said that true manhood finds joy in womanhood; and he
married an ex-nun, Catherine de Bora, who bore him children.
This sane indictment of the unnatural practice of celibacy was accounted
one of Martin Luther's most enormous iniquities. His clerical opponents
arose and denounced him. He was described as a man of immoral life; it
was circulated that he drank wine to excess, and wrote hymns praising
drunkenness. He was labelled an atheist, a blasphemer, and a charlatan,
who did not believe in the doctrines that he taught.
But Martin Luther soon gathered about him a band of zealous followers,
and his fame went forth to the farther ends of Europe.
Philip Melanchthon, a man in some respects more admirable than Luther,
joined in the crusade of reform. "The gentle Melanchthon" had studied in
Heidelberg and Tubingen. He was the author of many religious volumes,
and it was he who composed the "Augsburg Confession."
The effect of Luther's teaching was not without its evils. Guided by
their own reading of the Bible, zealots found authority for violence and
persecution. There were risings of peasants, which Luther denounced,
even urging their suppression with the extremity of force. This brave
assailant of Rome was unwisely aggressive in his attitude towards those
sects that differed from him in their beliefs. He was a bitter enemy of
the followers of Zwingli, the reformer of Zurich. The sectaries were
sundered and torn with dissensions and quarrels. Melanchthon died
rejoicing that he was leaving a world made hideous by the hatreds of
the pious disputants.
For the Jews Luther had no toleration. He detested the spirit of
science, which was spreading even among the Catholics; and declared that
the study of Aristotle was "useless." He described the great Athenian as
"a devil, a horrid calumniator, a wicked sycophant, a prince of
darkness, a real Apollyon, a beast, a most horrid impostor on mankind,
and a professed liar." This contempt for the discoveries of science was
a mark of the ignorance that led Luther to prescribe that a "possessed"
child should be thrown into the water to sink or be restored to sanity.
The extortionate demands of the popes were no doubt the chief cause of
that enthusiasm that burst like a flame when Luther withstood the
exactions of Rome. Germany had long been bled to fill the coffers. The
country was prepared for revolt. Leo X. was one of the most extravagant
of the sovereign pontiffs, and it was said that he wasted as much as the
revenue of three popes. He created thousands of new livings, which he
sold. The office of cardinal was purchasable. But none of the wealth of
the Curia found its way to Germany; on the contrary, that nation was
constantly called upon to contribute heavily to the funds of the church.
In Wittenberg, the flame of revolt burst forth, and all Germany soon
rallied to the support of Luther, who showed himself a born leader of
men. The propaganda spread even to Spain, that ancient stronghold of
Catholicism. In 1519 a number of tracts by Luther were sent into that
country from Basle, where they were printed in Latin. These
disquisitions fell into the hands of the learned. Valdes, secretary to
Charles V., sent to Spain an account of Luther's proclamation against
indulgences, together with an acknowledgment that reform was needed in
the Church.
As soon as the discovery was made that Lutheran literature was entering
Spain, the inquisitors diligently sought for those who had copies of the
proscribed tracts. Valdes, the emperor's secretary, though then a
staunch Catholic, was brought before the holy office because he had
discoursed with Melanchthon.
It was well for Luther that he was defended by Frederick, the Elector of
Saxony. We wonder that the rebellious monk, who raised such venomous
hatred, escaped with his life. But even the tribunal of the Diet of
Worms could not daunt Luther. He flatly refused to retract. Nothing was
left but to banish him from the town; and under the protection of the
Elector of Saxony, he was kept in the Wartburg.
In England the Lutheran heresy had been checked by Henry VIII., who
wrote against it, and won the esteem of the Pope for his defence of the
faith. Cardinal Wolsey's efforts were of no avail in stemming the tide
of reformation; and the King, enraged with the Pope for refusing a
divorce from Catherine, suppressed his anti-Lutheran scruples of
conscience without difficulty. The flame kindled in Wittenberg spread
over England. Monasteries were suppressed; the new creed, first the
religion of the poorer educated classes, was soon adopted by all
classes.
The story of the Reformation is of strangely absorbing interest. In
Wittenberg, the annals of the historic conflict are recalled as we stand
before the church door upon which Luther nailed his ninety-five theses,
and read the inscriptions on bronze that his Protestant successors have
set there. Martin Luther was the man for his age, and whatever were his
faults, he served humanity. Little did he anticipate the terrible wars
and the fierce religious persecution that followed upon his challenge to
Leo X., and the burning of the bull of excommunication outside the walls
of Wittenberg.
The memorials of the vast struggle arising from the resistance of Luther
to be seen in the town are first the Schloss Kirche, and then the house
of the reformer in the old buildings of the University. In the house,
which has been little altered since the death of Luther in 1546, are a
few relics, a chair and table, some utensils, and the portraits by
Kranach.
A tree marks the spot where Luther burned the bull of excommunication in
1520. In the market place is the statue in bronze of the founder of
Protestantism.
The house of Melanchthon is also to be seen. His statue was set up about
forty years ago.
The tombs of Luther and Melanchthon in the Schloss Kirche are marked by
tablets. In this church is the grave of the Elector Frederick, the
trusty friend of Luther, adorned with a magnificent monument by Peter
Vischer. This is one of the notable works of that artist. There is also
a relief by Vischer in the church.
In the Stadt Kirche Luther preached. There are some pictures here
ascribed to Kranach. One of them represents Melanchthon performing
baptism, and another, Martin Luther preaching to his converts.
Kranach's works will interest students of painting. Some more of his
portraits of Luther and Melanchthon will be found in the Rathaus. This
artist was court painter to the Elector Frederick. He was one of the
most gifted of Bavarian painters, and his son inherited his talent. The
elder Kranach was born in Kranach, the town after which he is named. He
was a friend of Luther and Melanchthon. His death occurred in 1553.
Such are the chief mementoes of Luther and his colleague in Wittenberg,
"The Protestant Mecca."
PRAGUE
In the valley of the Moldau, a beautiful tributary of the Elbe, in a
setting of hills clothed with pines, lies the old capital of Bohemia.
Great mountain barriers enclose an undulating and wild tract, with
Prague in its centre. In the valleys there is verdure, and the fields
are well tilled. The river flows through the heart of the city, broad
and powerful, yet navigable. Very delightful and inviting are the banks
of the Moldau on a summer's evening when Prague gives itself to music
and idling. Handsome bridges span the stream, and through their arches
glide the great rafts of timber and the fishermen's boats.
Viewed from one of the hills of the environs, the city is a scene of
colour, with spires and mediæval gables, green open spaces, and narrow
lanes. Prague is one of the most historically interesting cities in
Europe, and its aspect to-day still suggests the Middle Ages, though in
spirit its natives are progressive. The atmosphere of olden days
remains. There are many buildings here with romantic histories, and
instructive works of art are stored within them, though Prague is not
rich in pictures.
Let me compress some of the history of the town into a few lines before
we inspect the monuments.
One of the first rulers of Bohemia was a woman, Libussa, who probably
built a city on the Hradcany Hill in the eighth century. Under the pious
King Wenceslas the city became a stronghold of the Christian faith, and
in his time the first cathedral was built. When Charles IV. was made
ruler of Bohemia, the city of Prague was enlarged and strongly
fortified. The university was then instituted, and there were many
guilds of craftsmen within the walls.
The prosperity of Prague at this period seems to have brought about
those conditions which aroused the reforming zeal of Huss, who found the
people addicted to pleasure and demoralised by luxury. Attacks had been
made upon the Roman Catholic creed by Mathew of Cracow, and other
reformers before Huss and Jerome of Prague, who were followers of
Wicliff.
[Illustration: PRAGUE, 1832.
THE CITY AND BRIDGE.]
Huss was an ardent nationalist, and a hater of Germany; and there is
no doubt that his martyrdom was the result of his political sympathies,
as well as of his indictment of the corruption of religion. This great
preacher lived in Prague, and thundered his monitions from the pulpit of
a chapel. His teaching was a defence of Wicliff, and the reform of the
Church, and for this he was excommunicated.
Wicliff's works were thrown into the flames. Huss was forced to fly from
Prague, taking shelter in the house of one of his followers in the
country.
Through a treacherous invitation to Constance, the reformer fell into a
snare prepared for him. He was cast into prison, and before long he was
taken to the stake, and burnt to death for his heresies.
The execution of the reformer of Prague aroused the deepest resentment
among the citizens. This indignation was the first spark of the great
flame that spread through the land, causing a religious war, and the
siege of Prague by Sigismund. This king favoured the papal authority,
and so rendered himself unpopular among the citizens during his brief
reign.
One of the monarchs of Bohemia who aided in the extension and the
adornment of Prague was Rudolph. He was an encourager of learning and
the arts, and a dabbler in science. Rudolph was succeeded by Matthias,
whose reign was greatly disturbed by religious strife in the city.
During the Thirty Years' War, Prague was besieged by a Swedish force,
and a part of the city fell into the hands of the invaders. The history
of the city is largely a chronicle of combats, for it was constantly
assailed by armies and disturbed within. Protestantism received its
deathblow in Prague, in 1621, after the great battle of the White
Mountain.
The Austrian War of Succession was scarcely at an end before the
outbreak of the Seven Years' War of Frederick the Great, when the famous
"Battle of Prague" was fought. We now enter upon a more tranquil period
of Bohemian history.
Writing of the architects of Prague, in "Cities," Mr Arthur Symons
asserts that "there is something in their way of building, fierce,
violent, unrestrained, like the savagery of their fighting, of their
fighting songs, of their fighting music." One of the most interesting of
the sacred buildings is the Gothic Cathedral of St Vitus, designed by
Petrlik. The decoration is still unfinished, but the edifice has
beautiful slender spires, and an ornate tower. The chapels of the
Cathedral contain several memorials of note, but there are no paintings
of great artistic value. Several sovereigns and their consorts are
buried here.
The Tyn Church has a very fine front. Within is the grave of Tycho
Brahe. A church of a later period is St Nicholas. The Strahov Monastery
has been reconstructed repeatedly since the days when it was founded in
the twelfth century. A "Madonna" by Albrecht Durer is one of the
treasures of the monastery. There is a very richly painted and carved
ceiling in the library. The Capuchin Monastery, and the Emaus Monastery,
are both of historic importance, and the Church of St George is one of
the handsomest in the city.
Palaces abound in Prague, and one of the most characteristic is that of
Count Clam-Gallas, with a noble gateway, decorated with statuary. On the
Hradcany is the Castle, which was the residence of many of Bohemia's
kings and queens. It is approached by two fine courts and an ancient
doorway; the older part of the building dating from the period of
Vladislav, whose magnificent hall is of great architectural interest.
There are several more old palaces in Prague, such as the Kinsky and the
Morzin, which all invite a lengthy inspection.
All the bridges spanning the river are beautifully planned. One of the
finest is the Karl Bridge, dating from the fourteenth century, and
adorned by many images of saints and heroes.
The Powder Gate (Prãsna Brana) was erected by Vladislav II. and served
as a storehouse for ammunition. It is a strangely ornamented structure,
with carved escutcheons, many effigies, and flamboyant decorations on
each of its sides. The gate or tower is surmounted by a wedge-like
steeple.
The Bohemian Museum is a modern building, finely adorned with statuary.
It contains a large collection of arms and armour, coins, books, and
manuscripts of interest.
Bohemia has a state theatre, and the building is one of the finest in
modern Prague. I have had the pleasure of meeting the cultured director
of the National Theatre, Herr M[)u]sek, from whom I learned how the
Bohemian people subscribed, in a few hours, a sufficient sum for the
rebuilding of the theatre after its destruction by fire.
In Prague the drama is esteemed as a real educational force as well as a
means of diversion. The actors are artists who regard their calling
seriously, and the plays represented are by foreign and Bohemian
authors. Bernard Shaw, Pinero, and John Galsworthy are among the
contemporary English playwriters whose works have been performed in
Prague. Ibsen's plays are frequently presented by the national company.
There are occasional performances of grand opera, and the theatre has a
large and excellent orchestra. The sum granted by government for the
support of the theatre is about ten thousand pounds yearly.
ATHENS
The decay of a great civilisation causes in the reflective the
reconsideration of many problems of human life. We who live in Great
Britain, in security and prosperity, and boast of the power of our
empire, should feel somewhat humbled by the contemplation of the ruins
of Athens. The story of the rise and fall of ancient Greece abounds with
lessons and warnings for those who ponder seriously upon the destiny of
great nations. That little country jutting into the sea, and broken up
by gulfs and inlets, at the southern extremity of Europe--with an area
not so large as that of Portugal--once dominated wide territories in
Persia and Egypt, tracts of Turkey and Asia Minor, parts of Italy, and
the shores of the Black Sea.
[Illustration: ATHENS, 1824.
A SUPPOSED APPEARANCE IF RESTORED.]
Attica and its capital covered a district that could be crossed to-day
in its widest part, by a railway train in less than one hour. The
capital of this small but powerful region was a city with a population
less than that of Sheffield. Yet Athens stood for the whole of the
civilised world as a token of might, wealth, and culture, united in a
city of limited dimensions, situated in the midst of natural
surroundings not wholly kindly for the development of tillage. The
Athenians, descendants of tribes of the North, and of the old race of
Pelasgians, were a vigorous, adventurous, and highly intelligent race
when western Europe was inhabited by rude primitive tribes. Long before
the introduction of Christianity in the East, Athens was a beacon-light
of religious and ethical culture. Three hundred years before the birth
of Christ, the Greeks had made Alexandria the chief seat of learning and
refinement in the world, and "the birthplace of modern science." And
while other states of Europe were ruled by autocrats and tyrants, the
Athenians adopted an advanced republican form of government.
The light of Athens shone dazzlingly for centuries. Its many splendid
buildings, and the glorious Parthenon, were erected in the days of its
proudest prosperity; in the days of gifted architects and sculptors,
such as the world had never known, and in the days long before the
apostles of Christianity had set foot on Attic soil. The light, and not
too generous, soil of this limestone tract had been wrested from nature,
irrigated, and tilled to perfection. Around Athens was a land of gardens
and vineyards, with groves and pastures by pleasant streams. The
Piraeus, on the Saronic Gulf, was connected with Athens by walls and
roads, and used as a port for vessels of war and commerce. In the city
were superb temples, theatres, halls of learning, and academies; while
the open spaces were adorned with statues carved by Praxiteles and
Phidias.
During this period of magnificence, Socrates discoursed in the city, and
the plays of Sophocles were performed in the vast theatre. We tread
to-day on venerable ground as we wander amid the shattered pillars upon
which Demosthenes and Aristotle gazed, and stand where Plato stood in
contemplation. Athens is haunted in every corner with the spirits of
mighty philosophers, poets, artists, and statesmen of eternal fame.
The passionate admirer of Grecian civilisation sometimes fails to detect
any imperfection in the Athenians of the immemorial epoch. But there
were grave faults in the populace of Athens even in the days of its
rarest enlightenment. The democracy showed at times the same
irrationality then as to-day. The statesmen fell into our errors, and
were often as prejudiced as our modern politicians. Miltiades was thrown
into prison; Aristides was ostracised; and Thucydides and Herodotus were
banished. Themistocles became unpopular, and had to fly from his country
to Persia. Socrates was made to drink the bitter cup. Even in this era
of culture and science, the reformer and the innovator of moral and
social customs ran the risk of persecution. And then, as in our own
time, the flippant scoffer, such as Aristophanes, was admired and
applauded, while the serious thinker was exposed to the ingratitude and
cruelty of the less earnest and educated.
Although the cultured of Athens were rationalists in the main, the
masses were prone to monstrous and hurtful superstitions. There were in
Athens, as in modern cities to-day, a number of persons who lived upon
the credulity of their neighbours. Seers, soothsayers, and charlatans
preyed on the foolish, in spite of the ridicule of the philosophers. No
wonder that Socrates was misunderstood by the mob!
In their treatment of women, the Athenians were not entirely just and
sensible. Aristotle held that women were "inferior beings," though he
justly demanded the same measure of chastity for men as for their wives.
Plato was one of the most "feminist" of the philosophers, as we may
gather from his "Republic"; but Plutarch went further, and stated that
women should be educated equally with men, a teaching directly opposed
to that of Xenophon, who declared that young girls should know "as
little as possible." We learn, however, that at one period the women of
Greece were, in civic matters, on a level with their husbands, and could
act without their consent in political affairs. The finest and most
educated women were the courtesans.
The Athenians bought and sold slaves, without the least consciousness of
injustice. No doubt the serfs were treated fairly well, on the whole.
But no Athenian appears to have recognised the moral evil of the system
of slavery.
Yet, despite these blemishes, what a resplendent state was that of
Attica, and how wise and sane in many important respects were the laws,
the home life, and the recreations of the people of Athens. Perhaps one
cannot convey in a better manner an idea of the life of the city in its
days of noblest fame than by giving a page or two out of the lives of a
few of the heroes of war, the lawgivers, and the artists of the capital
who were the makers of its glory.
One of the famous victors in battle among the Athenians was Cimon, son
of Miltiades, who passed a wild youth in the city, but became a great
admiral. "In courage he was not inferior to Miltiades," writes Plutarch,
"nor in prudence to Themistocles, and he was confessedly an honester man
than either of them."
Cimon was "tall and majestic," and had an abundance of hair which curled
upon his shoulders. The Athenians admired the young and handsome man,
and elected him a commander of battleships. One of his victories was
over the invading Persian hosts, who harassed the Thracians.
A picture of his daily life is given by Plutarch, who tells us how the
admiral kept open house each night for his friends and any citizens who
chose to join the repast. Cimon had a following of young men; and when
walking out, if he met a poor man in meagre garments, he enjoined one of
his friends to give him his clothes in exchange for the rags. "This was
great and noble," says Plutarch. The admiral loved riches, but not from
a passion for amassing money. It was his pleasure to distribute money to
the needy.
His naval skill and enterprise were the wonder of the inhabitants of
Athens. In one engagement with the Persians, Cimon captured two hundred
vessels.
During the siege of Citium, the great warrior died, either from a wound,
or from natural causes. His body was brought to Athens, where a monument
was erected in memory of his prowess on land and sea.
During the rule of Pericles, Athens was beautified by the building of a
new Parthenon under the direction of Callicrates and Ictinus. At this
time the walls of the city were extended, the Odeum, or music theatre,
erected, and numerous statues set up in the buildings. Phidias was
chosen by Pericles as superintendent of all public buildings in Athens.
The name of Phidias is spoken with reverence by every student of
sculpture. He was a supreme artist of varied parts; he carved in marble,
made images of ivory and gold, and cast effigies in bronze, besides
exercising the art of the painter. Some of his matchless statuary has
been happily preserved for us in the British Museum. It was the chisel
of Phidias that adorned the frieze of the Parthenon. It was this genius
who made the famous statue of Minerva, and the image of Athene in ivory,
thirty feet high, for the Erechtheum.
Unfortunately, the Minerva image was the cause of the undoing of
Phidias. A man so eminent was sure to evoke envy among his
contemporaries. First he was falsely charged with theft; then his work
was condemned on the score that he had introduced his own image upon the
shield of Minerva.
For this breach of convention, in representing a modern figure in a
historical subject, the sculptor was deemed disloyal to the ancient fame
of Athens. He was sent to prison, where he died. "Some say poison was
given to him," writes Plutarch.
Praxiteles, another mighty image-maker of Athens, lived over a hundred
years before the days of Phidias. He carved the youthful figure with
surpassing delicacy and grace. His Aphrodite was one of the world's
masterpieces; and among his finest works were statues of Hermes and
Niobe and her children.
We must now glance at an Attic social phenomenon of much importance. The
power of the courtesan among the cultured Athenians is instanced in the
life of Pericles. We can learn but little of the Grecian social life,
without inquiring into the status of the hetæræ at this period in the
history of Athens. Xenophon and Socrates were the visitors of Aspasia,
the friend and adviser of Pericles. The influence of this clever woman
was almost unbounded. Philosophers, soldiers, and poets were of her
court; she was one of the causes of the Median faction, and her sway
over Pericles was supreme.
"The business that supported her was neither honourable nor decent,"
writes Plutarch. She was, indeed, of Mrs Warren's profession. Pericles
never set out upon important affairs, nor returned from them, without
waiting upon this fascinating mistress, who combined beauty of body with
much wit and skill in conversation. At the advice of Aspasia, the ruler
of Athens proclaimed war against the Samians, in which memorable
conflict battering-rams were first used by the Greeks. And it was
through the intervention of Pericles that Aspasia was acquitted of the
charge of impiety, adduced by Hermippus, a comic rhymer. In the court
Pericles "shed many tears" for the woman he loved, and thus obtained her
pardon.
Alcibiades, "the versatile Athenian," friend of Socrates, was another of
the makers of Athens. He was a model of manly beauty, with a vigorous
frame, and active in exercises. His lisping speech gave a charm to his
oratory. He was ambitious, variable, passionate, and withal lovable.
Socrates was one of the first to discover his virtues of character, and
his rare qualities of mind. Like Pericles he was the companion of
courtesans, and his excesses provoked his wife Hippareté, who left him
on that account and went to the house of her brother. When Hippareté
appeared before the archon, with a bill of divorce, Alcibiades rushed
forward, seized her in his arms, and carried her home, where she
remained apparently contented until her death.
Alcibiades was the most eloquent orator of his day. His versatility was
great. He bred fine horses, which ran in the competitions at the Olympic
Games, and often won prizes for their owner. He loved display and
handsome apparel; he invented a luxurious hanging bed. In warfare he
distinguished himself by immense courage and a knowledge of tactics.
Timanda, daughter of the famous Lais, was the mistress of Alcibiades,
and near her house he was assassinated by hirelings, sent by his
political enemies.
Such are a few pages culled from the annals of some of the illustrious
natives of Athens in the days of its grandeur. They may serve to throw a
slight reflection of the temper and the lives of the people of this
ancient republic. Anyone who treads the streets of Athens, even if only
superficially acquainted with Grecian history, will find a host of
memories crowding the brain.
War was an occupation and a trade with the Greeks, and the Athenians
were not often at peace with neighbouring countries. Thrice at least was
Athens besieged. When Xerxes came to Greece, the citizens consulted the
oracle of Delphi, who counselled that they should find security "in
walls of wood." Led by Themistocles, the citizens manned the vessels,
after sending the old, the infirm, and the women and children to
Troezene. But the counsel of the oracle proved futile. The Persians
entered Athens, killed the few remaining soldiers, and burnt the
splendid city to ruins.
Upon these ruins grew a second Athens. Then came Lysander and laid siege
for eight months, until the citizens yielded. Harshly ruled for a time
by the Spartan victors, Athens regained liberty through the valour of a
small force collected by Lysias.
In the third siege the city was assailed by the Roman Sylla, who strove
to expel Archelaus, King of Pontus, who had entered Athens by strategy
and deception, and usurped government.
Sylla's attack on the walls of Athens, the tremendous bulwarks erected
by Pericles, was terrific. The general employed thousands of mules in
working the powerful battering-rams. Often the defenders rushed out of
the city to combat with their assailants in the open. The conflict was
deadly and hand-to-hand. Sylla's soldiers endeavoured to fire the city,
the Athenians still resisted, and the troops withdrew for a spell, while
their leader reconsidered his plans.
Worn out with famine, the people within the city begged that their ruler
would surrender. His answer was cruel punishment to the deputies. The
inhabitants were now actually feeding upon human flesh. Sylla finally
captured Athens, secured the port, and became the ruler of the proud and
fallen city.
So came about the conquest of Attica by the Romans. From that day her
glory faded. One after another came the invaders, and her liberty was
no more the envy of the civilised world, for she became the vassal of
Turkey, and later of Venice.
It was the Venetians who destroyed the noble Parthenon, leaving only two
pediments standing. Siege, the ravages of time, and constant spoliation,
have removed nearly all the great historic edifices from the Acropolis.
But the pillars and stones that remain are picturesque, if mournful,
memorials of Athens in the period of splendour.
The city stands on the ground where in remote days the Phoenicians
made a settlement. Acropolis, the upper town, or citadel, contains
to-day several interesting vestiges of Attic art. From the plateau we
survey mountains of about the height of Ben Lomond or Snowdon, the famed
Hymettus, the Parnes, and the Corydallus. The inferior Hill of Mars,
where St Paul preached, is dwarfed by these heights. On this hill ruled
the awful deities of Olympus, and upon it is a monument of Philopappus.
Amid the waves in the distance are the isles of Salamis and Ægina. The
scene is beautiful beneath the glowing southern sky. In Greece the
atmosphere is very clear and bright and the sun shines ardently on the
bleached ruins, the gleaming sea, and the roofs of the modern city.
The rivers Ilissus and Cephissus lave the city. Away in the level
country is the wood where Plato had his academy. The whole territory is
classic soil. We stand in front of the site of the Erechtheum, burned by
the Persians, and rebuilt by Pericles. It was an edifice of superb
architecture, dedicated to the virgin goddess, the adored Athene. Within
stood a figure of the goddess, and there hung a lamp that burned by day
and night.
The Athenians worshipped Erechtheus and Athene in this temple of
majestic form. Athene was to them the inventress of the plough, the
giver of the olive-tree, the goddess of war. She was the daughter of the
mighty Zeus. The god who shared in her honour was the legendary ruler of
Athens, and son of the earth by Hephæstus.
The Parthenon was also sacred to Athene. The remains of this edifice are
very impressive. Huge fluted columns support the roof, and parts of the
frieze and metopes have survived. Five years were spent in the building
of the temple. The style was Doric, and the whole structure was a
splendid example of this imposing style of architecture.
The porticoes and colonnades were constructed as promenades, sheltered
from the sun and wind, and the columns were erected in double rows.
Within was the Maiden's Chamber, beautifully embellished, and provided
with altars. Everywhere the genius of Phidias was displayed in marble
friezes, stone images, and bronze casts. The Elgin Marbles, in the
British Museum, give an example of the elegance of the decorations of
the frontages; and parts of the sculptured eastern frieze are to be seen
in the Acropolis Museum, near to the temple. The carvings represented
the war between gods and giants, the victory of the Athenians over the
Amazons, the birth of the goddess Athene, the destruction of Troy, and
other historical and mythical subjects.
Among the relics of the Acropolis are grottoes dedicated to the gods,
several traces of temples, and shrines of Pan, Apollo, and other
deities. In the Acropolis Museum is a collection of treasures, portions
of bas-reliefs and statuary rescued from the ruins of the old buildings.
The remains of the Temple of Wingless Victory, and the monument of
Lysiantes, are among the ancient stones of the Acropolis.
Modern Athens preserves in a measure the spirit of antiquity; but it is
not so ancient in aspect as many of the towns that we have visited. A
wide thoroughfare, called Hermes, is the chief street of the city. There
are several modern buildings of excellent design, such as the
University, the Academy, and the National Museum. In the museum will be
found a very fine collection of relics of the ancient buildings,
statues, and utensils.
Schools for the study of Hellenic art and culture have been established
in Athens by the British, Americans, and French. Every endeavour is now
made by the learned societies of the city to preserve the Acropolis
monuments, those triumphs of the sculptor's art and mason's craft of
which Plutarch wrote: "That which was the chief delight of the Athenians
and the wonder of strangers, and which alone serves for a proof that the
boasted power and opulence of ancient Greece is not an idle tale, was
the magnificence of the temples and public edifices.... The different
materials, such as stone, brass, ivory, gold, ebony, and cypress,
furnished employment to carpenters, masons, brasiers, goldsmiths,
painters, tanners, and other artificers.... Thus works were raised of an
astonishing magnitude and inimitable beauty and perfection, every
architect striving to surpass the magnificence of the design with the
elegance of the execution, yet still the most wonderful circumstance was
the expedition with which they were completed."
The superb art of the Athenians set an example to the whole of Europe.
Everywhere its influence was manifested in architecture and sculptured
decoration. Artists with pencil and brush are inspired by the matchless
line and form of Phidias. The great English painter, G. F. Watts,
haunted the Greek corridors of the British Museum until he became
steeped in the beauty of the Elgin Marbles. "The academy training taught
him very little; the art of Phidias taught him how to produce great
works." Albert Moore, another of our modern painters of genius, found
his æsthetic ideal in the art of the Greeks.
And so from the little nation of Attica came the mightiest influences of
morality, wisdom, and art that the world has known.
INDEX
AMSTERDAM
Alva, Duke of, 221
Banking system, 222
Canals, 221, 228
Churches, 227
Haarlem, siege of, 221
Helder, 220
Museum, 226
Pictures, 227
Rembrandt, 225
Ruyter, de, 227
Spinoza, 223-225
Town hall, 227
Trade, 222-223
Zuyder Zee, 220
ANTWERP
Alva, Duke of, 211, 213
Cathedral, 217
Chassé, General, 215
Churches, 218
Forts, 218
Matsys, Quentin, 215
Museum, 216
Painters, 211, 215-216
Philip II., 213
Plantin, 219
Quays, 219
Reynolds, Sir J., 216
Schelde, 211
Siege of, 215
William of Orange, 213
Zoological Garden, 219
ASSISI
Chiesa Nuova, 28
Dante, 27
Giotto, 26, 27
Goethe, 28, 29
Ruskin, 27
San Francisco, church of, 25, 26
San Rufino, cathedral of, 28
Santa Maria, church of, 26
Simone, 27
St Bonaventura, 21, 25
St Clare, church of, 28
St Damian, church of, 24
St Francis, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28
Via Portica, 28
Vasari, 27
Vespasian, temple of, 20
ATHENS
Acropolis, 278, 280, 281
Ægea, isle of, 278
Alcibiades, 275, 276
Alexandria, 267
Archelaus, 277
Apollo, 280
Aristides, 269
Aristotle, 268
Aristophanes, 269
Aspasia, 274
Athene, 279
Attica, 266, 270, 277, 282
Callicrates, 272
Cephissus River, 279
Cimon, 271, 272
Delphi, oracle of, 276
Demosthenes, 268
Erechtheum, 273, 279
Hephæstus, 279
Hermes, street of, 281
Hermippus, 274
Herodotus, 269
Hippareté, 275
Hissus River, 279
Ictinus, 272
Lais, 276
Lysander, 276
Lysias, 277
Mars, Hill of, 278
Miltiades, 269, 271
Moore, Albert, 282
Museum, National, 281
Olympus, 278
Pan, 280
Parthenon, 267, 272, 273, 278, 279-280
Pelasgians, 267
Pericles, 272, 274, 275, 277, 279
Phidias, 268, 272, 273
Philopappus, 278
Piræus, 268
Plato, 268, 270, 279
Plutarch, 270, 271, 272, 273, 274
Praxiteles, 268, 273
Salamis, isle of, 278
Socrates, 268, 269, 274, 275
Sophocles, 268
Sylla, 277
Themistocles, 269, 271, 276
Timander, 275
Watts, G. F., 282
Xenophon, 270, 274
Xerxes, 276
Zeus, 279
BRUGES
Alva, Duke of, 193
Canals, 192, 199
Cathedral, 195
Chamois, Captain, 193
Chapelle du St Sang, 196
Dukes of Burgundy, 192, 194
Forts, 199
"Golden Fleece," 194
Lace-making, 199
Market, 192
Mary of Burgundy, 196
Motley, 194
Memling, 198
Philip the Good, 194
Prissenhof, 199
Tapestry, 193
Titchmann, 193
Town hall, 196
Van Eyck brothers, 194, 197, 198
CHARTRES
Aignan, St, 184
Bernard, St, 180
Bishops of, 181
Cathedral, 181-184
Charlemagne, 180
Churches, 184
Desportes, 185
Eure River, 179
Gothic art, 180, 181-183
Museum, 185
Pierre, St, 184
Regnier, Mathurin, 185
Romans, 179, 180, 185
COLOGNE
Agrippina, 229
Bridges, 230
Caxton, 229
Cathedral, 230
Churches, 231, 232
Durer, 232
Eau de Cologne, 234
"Farina," 234
Museum, 232
Painters, 231, 232
Rathaus, 232
Rhine, 233
Romans, 229
Titian, 232
Trajan, 229
Vandyk, 232
CORDOVA
Abderahman, 101, 105, 108, 112, 115
Abu Mohammed, 104
Alcazar, 114
Almanzor, 102
Averroes, 117
Az-Zahra, 102
Berbers, 102, 115
Bridge of, 100
Castillo, 119
Céspedes, 118
Charles V., 111
Climate, 98
Court of Oranges, 108
De Amicis, 109
Fernando, 103
Gate of Pardon, 107
Gongora, 117
Gran Capitan, 97, 117
Guadalquivir, 98, 99
Gautier, 113
Hakam, 107, 110
Hisham III., 102
Leal, Valdés, 118
Lucan, 116
Mihrâb, 110
Moors, 97, 98, 103
Mosque, 106-113
Picture Gallery, 119
Puerta de las Palmas, 108
Ribera, 119
Roderick, 101
Sala Capitular, 112
Seneca, 116
Villaviciosa Chapel, 112
Yusuf, 102.
FLORENCE
Angelo, Michael, 58, 64, 65, 70
Apennines, 57
Aquinas, Thomas, 71
Beatrice, 60
Bargello, 70
Boboli Gardens, 57
Boccaccio, 58, 60, 61
Browning, 58
Bruneschi Palace, 57
Buondelmonti, 59
Campanile, 57
Cellini, 67
Croce, 69
Dante, 58, 60, 65
Delia Robbia, 70
Donatello, 65, 69
Fiesole, 57, 58
Fra Angelico, 66, 67
Ghibellines, 59
Giotto, 57, 58, 65, 69
Guelfs, 59
Hunt, Leigh, 64
Lorenzo, 70
Machiavelli, 59
Marco, San, 67
Maria Santa, 70
Milton, 58, 61
Orcagna, 71
Petrarch, 61
Pisano, 69
Pitti Palace, 57, 66
Porta Mandoria, 65
Raphael, 67
Riccardi Palace, 70
San Miniato, 57
Savonarola, 58, 60, 67, 68
Shelley, 64
Strozzi Chapel, 71
Titian, 67
Totila the Goth, 59
Uberti, 59
Uffizi Palace, 66
Vallombrosa, 58
Vasari, 66
Vecchio Palace, 69
Velazquez, 67
GHENT
Aldegonde, St, 205, 206
Aerschot, Duke, 205, 206
Alva, Duke of, 203, 205
Belfry, 201
Charles V., 203-204
Edward III., 202, 209
Erasmus, 202
"Golden Fleece," 203
Hotel de Ville, 210
Imbize, 206-207
John of Ghent, 202
Museum, 210
Pictures in, 210
Rubens, 210
Ryhove, 205
Trade guilds, 207
Walls, 204
Weaving, 203
University, 210
Van Artevelde, 208
Van Eyck brothers, 209
GRANADA
Albaicin Quarter, 149, 150
Alhambra, 135, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146
-- baths, 139
-- Court of Lions, 142, 143
-- Council Chamber, 144
-- fish pond, 142
-- Hall of Ambassadors, 143
-- -- Abencerrages, 142
-- -- Justice, 142
-- palace of Charles V., 141, 142
-- Puerta de Judiciaria, 141
-- towers, 141, 142
Al-Ahmar, 136
Audencia, 149
Boabdil, 137
Borrow, George, 150
Bourgoanne, Chevalier de, 150
Cano, Alonso, 146, 147, 148
Cartuja, 149
Castillo, Juan del, 147
Cathedral, 146, 147, 148
Charles V., 140, 146
Darro River, 135, 136, 146
Fancelli, 149
Fernando, King, 137, 139
Ford, 150
Generalife, 145
Genil, 135, 136, 146
Gran Capitan, El, 149
Greco, El, 148
Isabel, Queen, 137
Irving, Washington, 150
Mohammed, 137
Montañez, 148
O'Shea, Henry, 150
Pacheco, 147
Philip IV., 147
Philip V., 141
Ribera, 148
San Geronimo, church of, 149
Sierra Nevada, 136
Siloe, Diego de, 146
St Ildefonso, church of, 147
Talavera, Cardinal, 138, 139
Yusuf I., 137
Ximenes, Cardinal, 138, 139
HEIDELBERG
Anlagen, 240
Castle of, 237
Hegel, 238-239
Huss, 240
Jerome of Prague, 240
Mary of Scotland, 237
Morata, Olympia, 240
Neckar River, 236
Rupert, Elector, 236
Students, 239
Tully, 236, 238
Tun, great, 237
Wars, 240
NUREMBERG
Bridges, 248
Churches, 241, 245
Craftsmen, 241
Durer, 244-245
Forts, 246
Gustavus, 243
Huss, 242
Imhoff Gallery, 245
Karl IV., 242
Krafft, 245
"Lohengrin," 248
Luther, 242
Melanchthon, 242
Old houses, 248
"Parsifal," 248
Pegnitz River, 246, 248
Rathaus, 247
Stoss, 248
Vischer, Peter, 247, 248
Wagner, 248
Wars, 243
Wolf-brothers, 247
Wolfram, 248
OPORTO
Alfonso I., 155
Art, 157, 162, 163
Bridge, 161
Cathedral, 160
Churches, 160
Climate, 154-155
Douro, 152, 155, 159, 161, 162
English in, 154
Explorers of, 157
Exports, 159
Foz, 163
Gama, de, 157
Gardens, 161
John I., 156
Juan of Castile, 156
-- III., 157
Lusitania, 155
Manuel I., 157
Markets, 153
Mattosinhos, 163
Museum, 162
Pedro IV., 163
Pedroites, 158
Peninsular War, 158
Philip II., 158
Pictures in, 162
Port wine, 158
Romans, 155
Teutons, 155
Visigoths, 155
PERUGIA
Baroccio, 54
Bernardino, 56
Bonfigli, 54, 55
Canonica, 54
Collegio del Cambio, 55
Coreggio, 54
Fra Angelico, 55
Fiorenzo di Lorengo, 54
Giannicola, 55
Palazzo Pubblico, 54
Paul III., Pope, 53
Perugino, 54, 55, 56
Piazzi del Municipio, 56
Piazza Sopramuro, 56
Pinturicchio, 55
Prefeturra terrace, 53
Raphael, 55
San Domenico, church of, 56
San Lorenzo, cathedral of, 54
San Pietro, church of, 56
San Severo, church of, 55
POITIERS
Battle of, 164-166
Black Prince, 164
Buch, Captal, 165
Coligny, 167, 168
Churches, 168
Dukes of Aquitaine, 168
John of France, 164
Lude, Count, 167
Morbecque, de, 166
Museum, 167
Petrarch, 166
Population, 169
Protestantism, 167
Romans, 167
PRAGUE
Bridges, 259, 264
Capuchin Monastery, 263
Cathedral, 262
Charles IV., 260
Church, 263
Craftsmen, 260
Drama in, 264
Emaus Monastery, 263
Huss, 260
Libussa, 260
Mathew of Cracow, 260
Moldau River, 259
Museum, 264
National Theatre, 264-265
Palaces, 263
Petrlik, 262
Powder Gate, 264
Rudolph, King, 262
Siege of, 261
Sigismund, 261
Symons, Arthur, 262
Thirty Years' War, 262
Austrian War, 262
Vladislav, 263
Wenceslas, 260
Wicliff, 261
RHEIMS
Cathedral, 187-190
Cæsar, 186
Churches, 190
Clovis, 187
Consul of, 186
Gate of Mars, 190
James, Henry, 188, 191
Joan of Arc, 187
Louis XV., 191
Museum, 190
Romans, 186, 190
St Remi, 187, 190
St Jacques, 190
St Thomas, 190
Tapestries, 189
Trade, 191
Vandals, 186
ROME
Agrippa, 18
Albani, Villa, 13
Augustus, 15
Antony, Mark, 15
Aurelius, 4
Berbini, Cardinal, 16
Borghese, Villa, 16
Browning, Robert, 19
Bruno, Giordano, 7, 8
Cæsar, 3
Cæsar, Julius, temple of, 15
Cæsars, palace of, 15
Campagna 1, 15, 20
Canova, 12
Capitoline, 13, 15
Capitol Museum, 16, 17
Castor and Pollux, temple of, 15
Catullus, 20
Caligula, palace of, 20
Coliseum, 4, 5, 6, 15, 17, 18
Colonna Palace, 11
Colonna, Vittoria, 12
Constantine, arch of, 17
Copernicus, 17
Coreggio, 11
Cynthia, 20
Della Porta, 14
Dorian Palace, 16
Fabius, arch of, 20
Farnese Palace, 12
Forum 4, 15, 18, 20
Galileo, 8, 13
Gauls, 3
Goethe, 11, 17, 20
Hannibal, 3
Julia, Basilica, 20
Jupiter, 15
Keats, 19
Kircheriano, 16
Lateran Palace, 14
Medici, Villa, 16
Michael Angelo, 9, 10, 11, 12
Michelet, 2, 6
National Museum, 16
Nero, 4
Niebuhr, 2
Palatine Hill, 6, 14, 15
Pantheon, 4, 18
Pauline Chapel, 10
Plutei, walls of the, 15
Pompey, 1, 3
Pompelius, Numa, 2
Poussin, 16
Protestant cemetery, 19
Raphael, 11
Regia, 14, 15
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 11, 17
Romulus, 2, 15
Rosa, Salvator, 16
San Clemente, 14
San Giovanni, 14
San Giovanni Laterno, 13
Santa Maria, 12, 14
Santi Giovanni Paolo, 14
Saturn, temple of, 15, 20
Scipio, 3
Senatore, Palazzo del, 16
Septimus Severus, arch of, 15
Shelley, 17, 18, 19
Sistine Chapel, 9, 10
St Peter's, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18
Symons, Arthur, 10
Tarquinius Superbus, 2
Thorvaldsen, 13
Tiber, 2
Titian, 11, 16
Trajan, 7, 15
Trajan's Column, 16, 20
Van Dyck, 16
Varus, Quintilius, 20
Vatican, 13, 16
Velazquez, 16
Vespasian, temple of, 8
Vesta, temple of, 14
ROUEN
Arc, Joan of, 172-173
Blanchard, Alan, 172
Bovary, Madame, 173
Cathedral, 173-174
Churches, 171, 174
Corneille, 174
Danes, 170
Flaubert, 175
Gautier, 178
Godard, St, 174
Goujon, 174
Henry V., 173
Rigaud, Bishop, 176
Roan horses, 171
Rollo, 171
St Amant, 177-178
William the Conqueror, 171
SEVILLE
Alcazar, 86, 88, 93
Bolero, 81
Borrow, G., 79
Bullfighting, 82
Campaña, P., 92
Casa Pilatos, 84
Cathedral, 91-93
Charles V., 88
Climate, 80
Columbus, 86
Dancing, 81
Easter _fêtes_, 80
Gautier, 91
Giralda, 79, 86
Gitanos, 83
Golden Tower, 86
Greco, El, 93
Guadalquivir, 86, 95
Horses of, 82
Mendoza, 87
Moors, 85, 86, 94
Montañez, 90, 92
Murillo, 83, 90, 92
-- house of, 84
Pacheco, 89
Painters of, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93
Park, 95
Pedro the Cruel, 85, 93
Romans, 84, 94
Telmo Palace, 95
Torquemada, 87
Trajan, 85
Triana, 83
Velazquez, 88, 95
Women of, 81
Zurbaran, 93
TOLEDO
Abd-er-Rahman, 122
Alcantara Bridge, 122
Alcazar, 126, 133
Ayuntamiento, 126
Bayeu, 125
Bernardo, Don, 127
Berruguéte, 124, 132, 133
Borgoña, 124, 125
Bourgoanne, Chevalier de, 133
Carreño, 126
Casa de Mesa, 123
Cathedral, 121, 124, 130
Cervantes, 132
Cid, 126
El Cristo de la Luz, church of, 123
El Transito, church of, 123
Elizabeth de Valois, 126
Gautier, 127, 130
Goya, 125
Greco, El, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131
Ibañez, Blasco de, 120
Infantry, school of, 123
Justi, Carl, 132
Martinez, Guiseppe, 128
Maella, 126
Mendoza, Cardinal, 124, 125
Museum, Provincial, 129
O'Shea, Henry, 127
Ponz, 130
Puerta de los Leones, 124
Puerta del Sol, 123
Roderick, King, 122
San José, church of, 130
San Juan, church of, 130
San Juan, hospital of, 130
San Martin, bridge of, 123
San Miguel, church of, 123
San Roman, church of, 123
San Sevando, church of, 123
San Vicente, church of, 129
Santa Maria la Blanca, church of, 123
Santo Domingo, church of, 130
Santo Tomé, church of, 123, 129
St Magdalen, church of, 130
Tagus, 122, 133
Tarik, 122
Tintoretto, 127
Tubal, 121
Vega, Lope de, 131, 132
Ximenes, Cardinal, 125
VENICE
Academy of Arts, 46, 48, 51
Brownings, 49, 50
Byron, 49
Bellini, 47, 48
Borrow, George, 30
Canaletto, 47
Coello, Sanchez, 46
Columbus, 37
Doge, palace of, 37, 44, 45, 50, 51
Giorgione, 45
Grand Canal, 48, 49
Greco, El, 47
Goths, 35
James, Henry, 35
Lido, the, 50
Lysippos, 41
Murano, 51
Napoleon, 40, 41
Padua, 51
Palazzo Dario, 48
-- Dona, 48
-- Ca d'Oro, 48
-- Foscari, 48
-- Loredan, 48
-- Mesto, 48
-- Mocenigo, 49
-- Pesaro, 48
-- Rezzonico, 49
-- Vendramin, 49
-- Venier, 48
Palma, 45
Palladio, 51
Paul V., Pope, 38
Piazzetta, 50
Pietro Tribune, 36
Rialto, 36, 51
Ruskin, 31, 41, 43, 50
San Marco, cathedral of, 36, 37, 41, 51
San Marco, square of, 40
San Zaccaria, church of, 48
San Zanipolo, church of, 48
Santa Fosca, church of, 39
Santa Maria dei Friari, church of, 46
Santa Maria della Salute, church of, 46, 47
Sarpi, Paolo, 46, 47
Sharp, William, 49
Spires, John of, 37
Symonds, J. A., 50
Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista, 47
Tintoretto, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47
Titian, 44, 46
Torcella, 51
Veronese, Paolo, 45, 47
Via Garibaldi, 34
Vicenza, 51
Wagner, 49
VERONA
Amphitheatre, 74
Anastasia Church, 75
Caliari, 75
Catullus, 78
Cavilli Chapel, 75
Consiglio Palace, 74
Diocletian, 74
Eccelius, 78
Fermo, San, 77
Freeman, A. E., 78
Garda, lake of, 72
Giaconda, 74
Giorgio, San, 75
Libri, dai, 77
Mantegna, 76, 77
Maria, Santa, 77
Municipio, 73
Piazza della Erbe, 73
Pliny, 78
Ragione Palace, 74
Roman period, 77
Romeo and Juliet, 72
Scaligers, 73, 75
Shakespeare, 72-73
Tribunale, 74
Veronese, 76, 77
Zeno, San, 76
WITTENBERG
Augsburg Confession, 253
Bishop Albert, 250
Diet of Worms, 256
Elbe, 249
Frederick, Elector, 255, 257, 258
Henry VIII., 256
History of, 249
Kranach, 257, 258
Leo X., 251, 254
Luther, 250-257
Melanchthon, 253, 255, 257
Rathaus, 258
Reuchlin, 250
Schloss Kirche, 250, 251, 257
Stadt Kirche, 257
Tetzel, 251
Tubingen, 253
University, 249
Valdes, 255
Vischer, 257
Wicliff, 250
Zwingli, 253
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Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:
footseps=> footsteps {pg 19}
degl Angeli=> degli Angeli {pg 26}
Campofornio=> Campoformio {pg 40}
Torcella=> Torcello {pg 51}
they inculated=> they inculcated {pg 104}
worderful beauty=> wonderful beauty {pg 113}
philosoper=> philosopher {pg 116}
his contemptoraries=> his contemporaries {pg 273}
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Old Continental Towns" ***
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