CHAPTER III.SPAIN.

CONTENTS.

Introductory remarks—Mosque at Cordoba—Palace at Zahra—Churches of Sta. Maria and Cristo de la Luz at Toledo—Giralda at Seville—Palace of the Alcazar—The Alhambra—Sicily.

CHRONOLOGY.

Owingprobably to its position, the forms which the Saracenic style assumed in Spain are somewhat different from those which we find elsewhere. As a style it is inferior to many other forms of Saracenic art. It has not the purity of form and elegance of detail attained in Egypt, nor the perfection in colouring which characterises the style of Persia, while it is certainly inferior both in elegance and richness to that of India. Still it is to us perhaps the most interesting of the whole, not only because of its proximity to our own shores, and our consequent greater familiarity with it, but because history, poetry, and painting have all combined to heighten its merits and fix its forms on our minds. Few are unacquainted with the brilliant daring of the handful of adventurers who in the 8th century subjugated Spain and nearly conquered Europe, and fewer still have listened without emotion to the sad tale of their expulsion eight centuries afterwards. Much of the poetry and romance of the Middle Ages owes its existence to the struggles between the Christian and the Paynim knights; and in modern times poets, painters, and architects have all lingered and expatiated on the beauties of the Alhambra, or dwelt in delight on the mysterious magnificence of the mosque at Cordoba. Indeed no greater compliment could be paid to this style than that conveyed by the fact that, till within the last few years, not one work of any importance has been devoted to the Christian antiquities of Spain, while even England has produced two such splendid illustrations of theAlhambra as those of Murphy and Owen Jones—works far more magnificent than any devoted to our own national art. In France, too, Girault de Prangey, Le Normand, Chapuy, and others, have devoted themselves to the task; and even in Spain the ‘Antigüedades Arabes en España’ is the best production of the class. We are thus really familiar with what these strangers did; while the cathedrals of Seville, Toledo, Burgos, and Leon, are only partially measured or illustrated; and travellers hurrying to the Alhambra scarce condescend to alight from the diligence to cast a passing glance at their beauties.[161]

This is indeed hardly fair; still it must be confessed it is impossible to come into contact with the brilliant productions of the fervid imagination of a Southern people without being captivated with their beauty; and there is a fascination in their exuberance of ornament and brilliancy of colour which it is impossible to resist when these are used with the daring which characterises their employment here. It is also true that these Moorish architects avoid the vulgarity which would inevitably accompany such exuberance in the hands of Northern artists—a defect which the more delicately organised Asiatic invariably escaped.

As far as the history of architecture is concerned, by far the most interesting building in Spain is the mosque of Cordoba; it was the first important building commenced by the Moors, and was enlarged and ornamented by successive rulers, so that it contains specimens of all the styles current in Spain from the earliest times till the building of the Alhambra, which was in the latest age of Moorish art.

This celebrated mosque was commenced by Caliph Abd-el-Rahman in the year 786, and completed by his son El-Hakeem, who died 796. The part built by them was the eleven western aisles and twenty-one bays deep, which then formed an edifice completed in itself, not unlike the Aksah at Jerusalem (except in the number of aisles), which the Caliph is said to have been anxious to surpass. In 961A.D.El Hakeem II. enlarged the mosque by forming arches through the southwall and adding twelve more bays further south. He rebuilt the mihrab and added priest’s chambers the whole width of his building. The court on the north side was rebuilt about 937A.D.

990. Plan of Mosque of Cordoba. (R. H. Carpenter, R. I. B. A., Transcriber.)

The eight eastern aisles were added by El Mansour (976-1001), who increased the size of the court to the full width, thus completing the mosque to a parallelogram of 573 ft. by 422; it covers, therefore, 242,000 square feet, or, not counting the open court, 232,000 square feet, being a larger superficies than that of any Christian church, including St. Peter’s at Rome. It is, however, sadly deficient in height, being only about 30 ft. high to the roofs, and also wants subordination of parts, all the aisles being nearly of the same width, about 22 ft., except the central one of the original eleven, which is 5 ft. wider; the 33 transverse aisles are all similar in breadth; so that altogether it is as deficient in design as the “hall of a thousandcolumns” of a Hindu temple, and produces pretty nearly the same effect.

The mosque of Abd el-Rahman I. was built with columns of many-coloured marbles, taken from ancient edifices, with beautiful capitals of Roman and Byzantine work. These columns being small and low, they were obliged to employ the expedient of placing arch over arch to eke out their height—to insert, in short, for the nonce that strange style which gives so peculiar a character to the building. In the additions by El Hakeem II. the same style was adhered to, but the columns were quarried at Merida for the purpose, and are all uniform in colour and size. The capitals are blocked out only, and not carved, except some in the mihrab. A manksoura or sanctuary was enclosed at the north end, including two bays in depth, and extending across the eleven bays of El Hakeem II.’s addition. Great richness was given to this portion of the work, and the lower arches are formed of interlaced cusped work of great elaboration and richness, which seems to have suggested the plaster decoration of the screen work above the arches in the courts of the Alhambra. The decorations of the sanctuary and the mihrab in marble and mosaic are of Byzantine workmanship, being executed by artists sent by the Emperor Leo from Constantinople at the request of the Caliph, El Hakeem II. The roof of the whole mosque was originally in wood, carved, painted, and gilded. This is now hidden by the brick and plaster vault built underneath partly in 1713-23 and in this century; this vault also hides the frieze which decorated the upper part of the walls.

991. Interior of Sanctuary at Cordoba. (From a Drawing by Girault de Prangey.)

In the eastern extension of Al Mansour there is a great falling off in the execution of the work, which is irregularly set out, and in which some of the arches are pointed.

The alterations effected by the Christians are found in the churcherected on the southern side of the first south wall, taking three bays of El Hakeem II.’s mosque, and in the great coro built in 1547, in the centre of the whole building. According to Mr. Carpenter, the work is a combination of late Gothic and Plateresque work, and great ingenuity has been shown in the treatment of the arches of the transept where the Moorish aisles run into them. “The effect of the whole is undoubtedly very grand, and we cannot but respect the skill of the architect, even though its erection involved the sweeping away of a large portion of Moorish work.” Mr. Carpenter refers also to “the very clever and artistic treatment of the great internal piers of the flying buttresses, which, with the walls of the Capilla Mayor facing the aisles are panelled and filled with sculptures of late-painted work executed with great delicacy and beauty.”

992. Exterior of the Sanctuary, Cordoba. (From Rosengarten.)

Before leaving this mosque it may be as well to remark that nowhere in any of these styles does the pointed arch appear, or only so timidly as to be quite the exception, not the rule. At an age when its employment was universal in the East, it is singular to observe how completely the Saracenic architects followed the traditions of the country in which they found themselves. At Cordoba they neverthrew off the influence of the Roman arches, though farther north the pointed is by no means uncommon in their buildings.

Contemporary with the rebuilding of the sanctuary of the mosque was the erection of the great palace in the city of Zahra near Cordoba, which, if we may trust the accounts that have been handed down to us, was by far the most wonderful work of the Moors in Spain. This indeed might be expected, for, as has been before remarked, the palaces were the principal buildings of this people, and this being of the very best age, might naturally be expected to excel any other edifice erected by them.

Hardly a stone now remains to mark even the spot where it stood. Its destruction commenced shortly after its completion, in the troubles of the 11th century, even before the city fell into the hands of the Christians, and we therefore depend wholly on the Arabian historians from whom Conde and Murphy compiled their accounts; but as they, with Maccary, describe the mosque in the same page with the palace, and do not exaggerate, nor say one word too much in praise of the former, we cannot refuse credence to their description of the latter.

993. Screen of the Chapel of Villa Viciosa, Mosque of Cordoba.

According to these authors the enclosing wall of the palace was 4000 ft. in length E. and W., and 2200 ft. N. and S. The greater part of this space was occupied by gardens, but these, with their marble fountains, kiosks, and ornaments of various kinds, must have surpassed in beauty, and perhaps even in cost, the more strictly architectural parts of the building. 4300 columns of the most precious marbles supported the roofs of the halls; 1013 of these were brought from Africa, 19 from Rome, and 140 were presented by the Emperor of Constantinople to Abd-el-Rahman, the princely founder of this sumptuous edifice. All the halls were paved with marbles in a thousand varied patterns. The walls too were of the same precious material, and ornamented with friezes of the most brilliant colours. The roofs, constructed of cedar, were ornamented with gilding on an azure ground, with damasked work and interlacing designs. All in short, that the unbounded wealth of the caliphs of that period couldcommand was lavished on this favourite retreat, and all that the art of Constantinople and Bagdad could contribute to aid the taste and executive skill of the Spanish Arabs was enlisted to make it the most perfect work of its age. Did this palace of Zahra now remain to us, we could afford to despise the Alhambra and all the works of that declining age of Moorish art.

Among other buildings contained within the great enclosure of the palace was a mosque. This had five aisles, the central one wider than the others. The total length from the Kibleh, or niche pointing to Mecca, to the opposite wall was 97 cubits (146 ft.), the breadth from E. to W. 49 cubits (74 ft.). It was finished in the year 941, and seems to have been one of the last works of the palace, having been commenced in 936. From this description it is clear that it was virtually a five-aisled church, and, as no mention is made of the court, we may fancy that, like the seven-aisled Aksah at Jerusalem, it never had that accompaniment, but was in reality only a basilica extended laterally, but on a small scale.

The church of Sta. Maria la Bianca (Woodcuts Nos.957,958), described in a previous chapter, though built for another people, and for a different purpose, is still so essentially in the Saracenic style, that it may fairly be taken as illustrating the progress which has been made in perfecting it up to its date in the 12th century.

994. Church of San Cristo de la Luz, Toledo. (From a Drawing by Girault de Prangey.)

Another very interesting specimen of a Moorish mosque in Spain is that at Toledo, now known as the church of Cristo de la Luz (Woodcut No.994). It is a small square building with four stout short pillars on the floors, dividing it into nine equal compartments, the central one of which is carried up higher than the others, and terminated by a sort of dome, if dome it can be called; for the Spanish architects, working almost wholly from Roman models, never adopted the Byzantine dome to any extent, except perhaps as the roofs of baths. In their mosques and palaces it is only used as an ornamentaldetail, and never constructed either of stone or brickwork, but merely a carpentry framing covered with stucco or mastic. The Spanish style shows in this a most essential difference from the Eastern, where the domes are so splendid and durably constructed, and where they constitute the actual roofs of the buildings.

Indeed vaulting does not seem under any circumstance to have been an art to which the Spanish Arabs ever paid any attention. Almost all their roofs are of wood carved and painted, or of stucco, not used to imitate stone, but as a legitimate mode of ceiling, which it certainly is, and for fanciful and gorgeous decorations perhaps preferable to more durable but less manageable materials.

The art resulting from such materials is, it is true, more ephemeral and must take a lower grade than that built up of materials that should last for ever; but such was not the aim of the gay and brilliant Moors, and we must judge them by their own standard, and by their success in attaining the object they aimed at.

In San Cristo the walls are sufficiently solid and plain, and on the whole the forms and decorations are judiciously and skilfully applied to attain the requisite height without raising the columns or giving any appearance of forced contrivances for that purpose. In this respect it shows a considerable advance on the design of the older part of the mosque at Cordoba, than which it is probably at least a century more modern; but it does not show that completeness which the art attained in the 10th century, when the sanctuary at Cordoba was erected.

These four buildings mark four very distinct stages in the history of the art—the early mosque at Cordoba being the first, the San Cristo de la Luz the second; the third and most perfect is well represented by all the building at the southern end of the mosque at Cordoba; and the fourth by Sta. Maria la Bianca, where all trace of Roman and Byzantine art has wholly disappeared. A fifth stage is represented by another synagogue at Toledo called El Transitu; but this is so essentially merely a gorgeously ornamented room that it hardly serves to be classed among monumental buildings; besides which this stage is so well illustrated in the palaces of Seville and Granada that it is not necessary to dwell on minor examples. Had the great mosques of Seville, Toledo, or Granada been spared to us, it would perhaps have been easier and better to restrict our illustrations to sacred edifices alone; but they—at least certainly the two first named—have wholly disappeared to make way for the splendid cathedrals which stand where they once stood, and which have obliterated nearly every trace of their previous existence. In the northern cities the national pride and stern bigotry of the Spaniards have long ago effaced all traces of this religion.

The Giralda at Seville.

None of the mosques we have been describing possess minarets, nor is there anything in Spain to replace the aspiring forms of the East except the Giralda at Seville. This is a more massive tower than is, I believe, to be found anywhere else as the work of a Moslem architect. At the base it is a square of about 45 ft., and rises without diminution to the height of 185 ft. from the ground; to this a belfry was added in 1568 by Ferdinand Riaz, making it 90 ft. higher; and unfortunately we have nothing to enable us to restore with certainty the Saracenic termination which must have been displaced to make room for this addition. In the annexed woodcut (No.995) it is represented as restored by Girault de Prangey, and from a comparison with the towers of Fez and Morocco, erected by the same king, it is more than probable it was thus terminated originally. It is difficult nevertheless to reconcile oneself to the idea that the upper part was not something more beautiful and more in accordance with the base. In the East the Mahomedan architects would certainly have done something better; but here, from the want of familiarity with tower-architecture, and from the want of any circular or domical forms for the termination of towers or sky-lines, this inartistic form may have been adopted. The lower part is certainly much more beautiful; the walls are relieved with panels to just such an extent as is required for ornament without interfering with the construction or apparent solidity of the tower, while the windows are graceful and appropriate, and in such number as seems required. In this respect it contrasts pleasingly with the contemporary campanile at Venice, which, though very nearly of the same dimensions, is lean and bald compared with this tower at Seville. So indeed are most of the Italian towers of the same age. All these towers seem to have been erected for very analogous purposes, for the Giralda can never have been meant as the minaret of a mosque, to be used for the call to prayer; nor can we admit the destination sometimes ascribed to it by those who surmise that it may have been merely meant for an observatory.

995. Giralda, Seville. (From a Drawing by Girault de Prangey.)

Most probably it was a pillar of victory, or a tower symbolical of dominion and power, like many others we have had occasion to allude to in the previous pages of this work. Indeed the tradition is that it was built by King Yousouf to celebrate his famous victory of Alarcos, gained in the year 1159, in which year its construction was commenced. As such it is superior to most of those erected in Europe in the Middle Ages, but far inferior, except in size, to the Kootub Minar, and many others still found in various parts of Asia.

The Alcazar[162]at Seville was an older palace, and perhaps also at one time a more magnificent one than the Alhambra itself. Hence it would be a most interesting example of the Mahomedan style, were it not that it has been much dilapidated in subsequent ages, and its character destroyed by alterations and so-called improvements after it fell into the hands of the Christians. It is more than probable that the best parts of it belong to the same age as the Giralda—the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th century—and that it continued to receive additions till the city was taken by the Christians in 1248. A careful examination of the building by some one intimate with all the peculiarities of the style might distinguish the ancient parts from the later Christian additions, especially those perpetrated by Don Pedro the Cruel (1353-1364), who, in an inscription on the walls, claims the merit of having rebuilt it. The history of this palace is not consequently of much importance, since it is not so much older than the Alhambra as to mark another style, nor so complete as to enable us to judge of the effect of the art as perfectly as we can in that celebrated palace.

It was after his expulsion from Seville (1248) that Mohammed ben Alhamar commenced the present citadel of the Alhambra, at which both he and his successors worked continually till the end of the 13th century. It does not, however, appear that any of the more important buildings now found there were erected by these monarchs. From the accession of Abou-el-Walid (1309) to the death of Yousouf (1354) the works of the present palace seem to have been carried on uninterruptedly, and it is to this half-century that we must refer all the essential parts of the palace now found in the citadel.

996. Plan of the Alhambra, Granada. (From G. Le Normand.)

As will be seen from the annexed plan, it consists principally of two oblong courts; the richest and most beautiful, that of the Lions(A A), running east and west, was built by Abou Abdallah (1325-1333). The other, the Court of the Alberca (B B), at right angles to the former, is plainer and probably earlier. Restorers generally add a third court, corresponding with that of the Lions, which they say was removed to allow of the erection of the palace of Charles V. (X X), which now protrudes its formal mass most unpleasingly among the light and airy constructions of the Moors. My own impression is that if anything did stand here, it was the Mosque, which we miss, although we know that it existed, and tradition points to this side as its locality, though it certainly was not the apartment at that angle which now goes by that name. It must, like all Spanish mosques, have faced the south, and was most probably destroyed by the firstChristian conquerors of Granada. Indeed it is not unlikely that the Christian palace above mentioned, which stands strangely unsymmetrically with the other buildings, follows the lines of the old mosque. This could be in great measure determined if we could rely upon the bearings of the different courts and buildings as given in the plans hitherto published.

The principal entrance to the Alhambra seems always to have been at the southern end of the Court of the Alberca. This part does seem to have been altered or pulled down to make way for the palace of Charles V. The court was originally called, apparently from the pool of water which always occupied its centre, El Birkeh. It is 138 ft. long by 74 wide, the longer sides being singularly, and in such a place ungracefully, plain. The end to the south terminates with a double arcade of very beautiful design; and that to the north with a similar one, but only one storey in height, crowned by the tower enclosing the great Hall of the Ambassadors (C), to which the Court is practically an anteroom. This is an apartment 35 ft. square, and about 60 in height, roofed by a polygonal dome of great beauty of design, and covered, like the walls, with arabesque patterns of the greatest beauty. One of its most charming peculiarities, however, is the deeply-recessed windows, looking down on the city, and beyond that commanding a view of the delicious Vega, and the mountains that bound it. It is one of the most beautiful scenes in the world, of which the architect availed himself with the eye of a true artist, who knew how to combine nature and art into a perfect whole.

The other court, called that of the Lions (A A), from the beautiful fountain supported by twelve conventional-looking animals so called, is smaller (115 ft. by 66 from wall to wall), but far more beautiful and elaborate than the other; indeed, with the apartments that surround it, this is the gem of Arabian art in Spain—its most beautiful and most perfect example.[163]It has, however, two defects which take it entirely out of the range of monumental art: the first is its size, which is barely that of a modern parish church and smaller than many ball-rooms; the second its materials, which are only wood covered with stucco. In this respect the Alhambra forms a perfect contrast to such a building as the Hall at Karnac, or any of the greater monumental edifices of the ancient world, and, judged by the same standard, would be found lamentably deficient. But, in fact, no comparison is applicable between objects so totally different. Each is a true representative of the feeling and character of the people by whomit was raised. The Saracenic plaster hall would be totally out of place and contemptible beside the great temple-palace of Thebes; while the granite works of Egypt would be considered monuments of ill-directed labour if placed in the palaces of the gay and luxurious Arab fatalist, to whom the present was everything, and the enjoymentof the passing hour all in all.

The shafts of the pillars that surround the Court of Lions are far from being graceful in themselves, being more like the cast-iron props used by modern engineers than anything else. Their capitals, however, are very gracefully moulded, and of a form admirably adapted for the support of the superstructure they were destined to bear, and the pillars themselves are so gracefully grouped, alternately single and coupled, and their alignment is so completely broken by the projecting portico at each end, that they cease to be prominent objects in themselves, and become mere accessory details. The arcades which they support are moulded in stucco with a richness and beauty of ornament that is unrivalled. There is in this no offence to good taste; indeed work executed in plasteroughtto be richly decorated, otherwise it is an unsuccessful attempt to imitate the simplicity and power that belongs to more durable and more solid materials. It should therefore always be covered with ornament, and was never elaborated with more taste and consistence than here.

At the upper end of this court is an oblong hall, called that of Judgment (D), and on either side two smaller rooms, that “of the Abencerrages” (E) on the south, and that called “of the Two Sisters” (F) opposite, the latter being the most varied and elegant apartment of the whole palace. The walls of all these are ornamented with geometric and flowing patterns of very great beauty and richness, and applied with unexceptionable taste for such a decoration; but it is in the roofs and larger arcades that the fatal facility of plaster becomes most apparent. Instead of the simple curves of the dome, the roofs are made up of honeycombed or stalactite patterns, which look more like natural rockwork than the forms of an art, which should be always more or less formal and comprehensible at a glance, at least in its greater lines and divisions. There is perhaps no instance where a Saracenic architect has so nearly approached the limits of good taste as in these parts, and it requires all the countervailing elements of situation, and comparison with other objects, to redeem them from the charge of having exceeded those limits.

Behind the Hall of the Two Sisters, and on a lower level, are situated the baths (G)—beautiful in some respects, and appropriately adorned, but scarcely worthy of such a palace.

Besides the edifices mentioned above, there is scarcely a town in Spain, once occupied by the Moors, that does not retain some tracesof their art. These traces, however, are generally found in the remains of baths, which from their nature were more solidly built than other edifices, and were generally vaulted with bricks—frequently with octagonal domes supported on twelve pillars, as those in the East. These in consequence have survived, while the frailer palaces of the same builders have yielded to the influence of time, and their mosques have disappeared before the ruthless bigotry of their successors. None of the baths, however, seem to be of sufficient importance to require notice.

In Spain we entirely miss the tombs which form so remarkable a feature of Saracenic architecture wherever any Turanian blood flows in the veins of the people. The Moors of Spain seem to have been of purely Semitic race, either importations from Arabia or the descendants of the old Phœnician settlers on the southern coast; and among them, of course, it would be absurd to look for any indications of sepulchral magnificence.

If the Moors of Spain had practised tomb-building to as great an extent as some of their brethren further east, this circumstance would, in all probability, have given a more monumental character to their style of architecture. True domes would certainly have been introduced and applied, not only to their mosques but to their palaces, and with them all those beautiful arrangements which we find as the invariable accompaniments of domes in the East.

Be this as it may, it is on the whole perhaps fortunate that we possess in Spain a form of Saracenic art from which all feeling of solemnity, and all aspirations for the future, are wholly banished. No style of architecture is so essentially impressed with the feeling that the enjoyment of the hour is all that should be cared for. It is consequently the gayest, but it is also the most ephemeral, of all the styles of architecture with which we are acquainted.[164]

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