Part 1

Chapter 12,891 wordsPublic domain

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MOORISH REMAINS IN SPAIN

E. Goodman and Son, Phœnix Printing Works, Taunton.

DEDICATION

TO HIS MAJESTY KING ALFONSO XIII.

SIRE,

The great interest Your Majesty has evinced in the Moorish Monuments which adorn Your Majesty’s loyal and noble country, and the gracious appreciation with which You were pleased to regard my work on The Alhambra, inspired me with the presumption to solicit the honour of Your Majesty’s August Patronage for this volume, which is humbly dedicated to Your Majesty agreeably to Your Majesty’s gracious permission, by

Your Majesty’s humble Servant,

ALBERT F. CALVERT.

PREFACE

The inception of my work on The Alhambra, to which this book is designed to be the companion and complementary volume, was due to the disappointing discovery that no such thing as an even moderately adequate souvenir of the Red Palace of Granada, “that glorious sanctuary of Spain,” was in existence. It was written at a time when I shared the very common delusion that the Alhambra was the only word in a vocabulary of relics which includes such Arabian superlatives as the Mosque at Cordova, the Gates and the Cristo de la Luz of Toledo, and the Alcazar at Seville. I had then to learn that while the Alhambra has rightly been accepted as the last word on Moorish Art in Spain, it must not be regarded as the solitary monument of the splendour and beauty with which the Arabs stamped their virile and artistic personality upon Andalus.

In the course of frequent and protracted visits to Spain I came to realise that the Moors were not a one-city nation; they did not exhaust themselves in a single, isolated effort to achieve the sublimely beautiful. Before the Alhambra was conceived in the mind of Mohammed the First of Granada, Toledo had been adorned and lost; Cordova, which for centuries had commanded the admiration of Europe, had paled and waned beside the increasing splendour of Seville; and the “gem of Andalusia” itself had been wrested from the Moor by the victorious Ferdinand III. But each in turn had been redeemed from Gothic tyranny by the art-adoring influence of the Moslem. Their dominion, their politics, and their influence is a tale of a day that is dead, but it survives in the monuments of their Art, which exist to the glory of Spain and the wonder of the world. The Arabian sense of the beautiful sealed itself upon Cordova, and made the city its own; it blended with the joyous spirit of Seville; it forced its impress upon the frowning forehead of Toledo. To see the Alhambra is not to understand the wonders of the Alcazar; the study of Moorish wizardry in Toledo does not reveal, does not even prepare one, for the bewildering cunning of the Mosque in Cordova.

In Cordova--this gay, vivacious overgrown village, which gleams serene in a setting of vineyards and orange groves--the spirit of the Moors still breathes. Rome wrested the city from Carthage; the Goths humbled it to the dust. But, under the Moors, Cordova became the centre of European civilisation, the rival of Baghdad and Damascus as a seat of learning, the Athens of the West, and second only in sanctity to the Kaaba of Mecca. Its Cathedral first came into being as a temple of Janus; it has been both a basilica and a mosque. But the magic art of the Mohammedan, which effaced the imprint of the Roman spear, has survived the torch of the Holy Inquisition, and to-day Cordova is the most exquisitely beautiful Moorish monument in Spain.

In Seville, on the spot where Roman, Visigoth, and Moslem have each in turn practised their faith, the Cathedral bells now hang above the Arabian tower of the mosque, and the spire of the temple of the faithful has become the world-famous Giralda, which dominates the city. Moorish fountains and patios are found at Malaga, and Granada, and Toledo, but one comes to “La Tierra de Maria Santisima” to see them at their loveliest, while the Alcazar is perhaps the best preserved and most superbly-decorated specimen of the Moorish citadel-palace that Europe has to show.

Menacing, majestic, and magnificent in its strength and splendid isolation, Toledo, guarded by its Moorish masonry, a rock built upon a rock, has been described by Padilla as “the crown of Spain, the light of the world, free from the time of the mighty Goths.” The light of the world has dwindled in the socket of modern progress, the Moor has left his scars upon the freedom of the Goth; but Toledo, which was old when Christianity was born, presents an epitome of the principal arts, religions, and races which have dominated the world for the last two thousand years.

In the three cities of Cordova, Seville, and Toledo, in which the hand of the Moor touched nothing that it did not beautify, I have found the supplement to the art wonders that I attempted to describe in my book upon the Alhambra; and, encouraged by the cordiality of the welcome extended to that volume in Spain and America, as well as in this country, I have followed the course which I therein adopted, of making the letterpress subservient to the illustrations. While immersed in authorities, and tempted often by the beauties of the scenes to indulge the desire to emotionalise in words, I have never permitted myself to forget that my purpose has been to present a picture rather than to chronicle the romance of Spanish-Morisco art.

For the historical data, and some of the descriptions contained in this book, I have levied tribute on a large number of authors. Don Pascual de Gayángos, the renowned translator of Al-Makkari; the _Handbook_ and the _Gatherings_ of Richard Ford; William Stirling-Maxwell’s _Don John of Austria_; _The History of the Conquest of Spain_, by Henry Coppeé; Washington Irving’s _Conquest of Granada_; Miss Charlotte Yonge’s _Christians and Moors in Spain_; Stanley Lane-Poole’s _The Moors in Spain_; the writings of Dr. R. Dozy, of Leipsic; Muhammed Hayat Khan’s _Rise and Fall of the Muslim Empire in Spain_; Hannah Lynch’s _Toledo_; Walter M. Gallichan’s _Seville_; _The Latin-Byzantine Monuments of Cordova_; _Monumentos Arquitectonicos de España_; Pedro de Madrazo’s _Sevilla_--these, and many less important writers on Spain, have been consulted.

But with this wealth of literary material to hand, I have remembered that it is my collection of illustrations, rather than on the written word, that I must depend. From the nature of Arabian art, and the characteristic minuteness of the details of which Morisco decoration is composed, lengthy descriptions of architecture, unaccompanied by illustrations, become not only tedious but positively confusing to the reader, while, on the other hand, a sufficiency of illustrations renders exhaustive descriptions superfluous. I have striven to do justice to the subject in this direction, not without hope of achieving my purpose, but with a vast consciousness of the fact that, neither by camera, nor brush, nor by the pen, can one reflect, with any fidelity, the effects obtained by the Moorish masters of the Middle Ages. In their art we find a sense of the mysterious that appeals to one like the glint of moonlight on running water; an intangible spirit of joyousness that one catches from the dancing shadows of leaves upon a sun-swept lawn; and an elusive key to its beauty, which is lost in the bewildering maze of traceries and the inextricable network of designs. The form, but not the fantasy, of these fairy-like, fascinating decorations may be reproduced, and this I have endeavoured to do.

A. F. C.

“ROYSTON,” HAMPSTEAD, N. W.

1905.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

CORDOVA PAGE

THE MOSQUE--PRINCIPAL NAVE OF THE MIHRAB 9

THE MOSQUE--ENTRANCE TO THE MIHRAB 10

GATES OF PARDON 11

VIEW OF THE CITY AND BRIDGE SOUTH OF THE GUADALQUIVIR 12

GENERAL VIEW OF THE INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE 12

FAÇADE AND GATE OF THE ALMANZOR 13

VIEW OF INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE 961-967 14

THE MOSQUE--PLAN IN THE TIME OF THE ARABS 786-796, 961-967, 988-1001, 1523-1593 15

THE MOSQUE--PLAN IN ITS PRESENT STATE, 786-796, 961-967, 988-1001, 1523-1593 16

ANCIENT ARAB TOWER, NOW THE CHURCH OF ST. NICHOLAS DE LA VILLA 25

ORANGE COURT IN THE MOSQUE, MOORISH STYLE, BUILT 957, BY SAID BEN AYOUT 26

EXTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE 27

THE MOSQUE--SECTION OF THE MIHRAB 28

THE MOSQUE--PORTAL ON THE NORTH SIDE, MOORISH STYLE, BUILT UNDER HAKAM III., 988-1001 45

EXTERIOR VIEW OF THE MOSQUE 47

EXTERIOR ANGLE OF THE MOSQUE 49

THE EXTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE 51

THE BRIDGE 55

VIEW OF THE MOSQUE AND THE BRIDGE 57

SECTION OF THE MOSQUE OF CORDOVA ON THE LINE OF THE PLAN L. M. 59

SECTION OF THE MOSQUE OF CORDOVA ON THE LINE OF THE PLAN N. O. 59

THE GATES OF PARDON 61

A VIEW IN THE GARDEN BELONGING TO THE MOSQUE 65

THE MOSQUE--LATERAL GATE 67

INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE, OR CATHEDRAL 69

INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE, MOORISH STYLE, BUILT 961-967. UNDER HAKAM II. 71

THE MOSQUE 75

THE MOSQUE--INTERIOR VIEW 77

INTERIOR VIEW OF THE MOSQUE 79

THE MOSQUE--GENERAL VIEW OF THE INTERIOR 81

THE CENTRAL NAVE OF THE MOSQUE--961-967 85

THE MOSQUE--CHIEF ENTRANCE 87

INTERIOR VIEW OF THE CATHEDRAL 89

INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE--LATERAL NAVE 91

INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE--EAST SIDE 91

THE MOSQUE--DETAIL OF THE GATE 95

THE MOSQUE--FAÇADE OF THE ALMANZOR 95

VIEW IN THE MOSQUE--961-967 97

THE MOSQUE--A GATE ON ONE OF THE LATERAL SIDES 99

THE MOSQUE--SIDE OF THE CAPTIVE’S COLUMN 101

MOSQUE, NORTH SIDE--EXTERIOR OF THE CHAPEL OF ST. PEDRO 105

GENERAL VIEW OF THE INTERIOR OF THE CHAPEL OF THE MASURA AND ST. FERDINAND 107

DETAIL OF THE CHAPEL OF MASURA 109

THE MOSQUE--ELEVATION OF THE GATE OF THE SANCTUARY OF THE KORAN 111

THE MOSQUE--GATE OF THE SANCTUARY OF THE KORAN 115

THE MOSQUE--MOSAIC DECORATION OF THE SANCTUARY, 965-1001 117

THE MOSQUE--RIGHT-HAND SIDE GATE WITHIN THE PRECINCTS OF THE MAKSURRAH 119

THE MOSQUE--SECTION OF THE CUPOLA OF THE MIHRAB 121

THE MOSQUE--DOME OF THE SANCTUARY 125

THE MOSQUE--ROOF OF THE CHAPEL OF THE MASURA AND ST. FERDINAND 127

VILLAVICIOSA CHAPEL 129

THE MOSQUE--DETAIL OF THE HALL OF CHOCOLATE 131

ENTRANCE TO THE VESTIBULE OF THE MIHRAB 135

MIHRAB OR SANCTUARY OF THE MOSQUE 137

THE MOSQUE--ARCH AND FRONT OF THE ABD-ER-RAHMAN AND MIHRAB CHAPELS 139

ENTRANCE TO THE CHAPEL OF THE MIHRAB 141

VIEW OF THE INTERIOR OF THE MIHRAB CHAPEL 145

THE MOSQUE--DETAILS OF THE INTERIOR OF THE CHAPEL OF THE MIHRAB 147

THE MOSQUE--MARBLE SOCLE IN THE MIHRAB 149

BASEMENT PANEL OF THE FAÇADE OF THE MIHRAB 151

THE MOSQUE--FRONT OF THE TRASTAMARA CHAPEL 155

GENERAL VIEW OF THE CHAPEL OF VILLAVICIOSA 157

NORTH ANGLE OF THE CHAPEL OF VILLAVICIOSA 159

VILLAVICIOSA CHAPEL 161

THE MOSQUE--CHAPEL OF VILLAVICIOSA 165

ARAB TRIBUNE, TO-DAY THE CHAPEL OF VILLAVICIOSA, LEFT SIDE 167

ANCIENT INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF KHALIFATE, FOUND IN AN EXCAVATION 169

THE MOSQUE--CHAPEL OF TRASTAMARA, SOUTH SIDE 171

THE MOSQUE--DETAIL OF THE TRASTAMARA CHAPEL 171

THE MOSQUE--INTERIOR OF THE MIHRAB 175

THE MOSQUE--ARAB ARCADE ABOVE THE FIRST MIHRAB 175

THE MOSQUE--DETAILS, ARCHES OF THE MIHRAB 177

THE MOSQUE--DETAIL OF THE MIHRAB 177

THE MOSQUE--EXTERIOR OF THE CHAPEL OF THE MIHRAB 179

THE MOSQUE--GATE OF THE SULTAN 179

PRINCIPAL ENTRANCE TO THE MOSQUE 181

THE MOSQUE--DETAIL NEAR THE MIHRAB 181

THE GATES OF PARDON 185

THE BISHOP’S GATE 185

THE MOSQUE--PILASTERS AND ARABIAN BATHS 187

INSCRIPTIONS AND ARABIAN CHAPTERS 191

THE MOSQUE--A CUFIC INSCRIPTION IN THE PLACE APPROPRIATED TO THE PERFORMANCE OF ABLUTIONS 193

ARABIC INSCRIPTIONS 195

A CUFIC INSCRIPTION ON THE ADDITIONS MADE TO THE MOSQUE, BY ORDER OF THE KHALIF AL-HAKAM 197

THE BRIDGE ACROSS THE GUADALQUIVIR, WITH A VIEW OF THE CATHEDRAL (MEZQUITA). THE SCENE AS IT APPEARED IN 1780. FROM _Antigüedades Arabes de España_. MADRID, 1780, FOL. 201

VIEW OF CORDOVA CATHEDRAL (MEZQUITA), AS IT APPEARED IN 1780. FROM _Antigüedades Arabes de España_. MADRID, 1780, FOL. 203

WALL OF THE MOSQUE 205

FAÇADE OF THE MIHRAB 207

THE MOSQUE--ARCH OF ONE OF THE GATES 211

THE MOSQUE--LATTICE 213

THE MOSQUE--ORNAMENTAL ARCHED WINDOW 217

THE MOSQUE--CAPITALS OF THE ENTRANCE ARCH 219

DETAILS OF THE FRIEZE 221

PLAN 221

KEYSTONE OF ORNAMENTAL ARCH 221

DETAILS OF THE CORNICE 223

CAPITAL OF ARCH 227

SIDE VIEW OF THE CORNICE 227

BASES 227

EAST FAÇADE, WITHOUT THE PORTICO 229

SEVILLE

FAÇADE OF THE ALCAZAR 241

ALCAZAR--GATES OF THE PRINCIPAL ENTRANCE 243

FAÇADE OF THE ALCAZAR 247

CHIEF ENTRANCE TO THE ALCAZAR, MOORISH STYLE, BUILT UNDER DON PEDRO I. THE CRUEL, 1369-1379 249

ALCAZAR--PRINCIPAL FAÇADE 253

INTERIOR COURT OF THE ALCAZAR 255

ALCAZAR--ARCADE IN THE PRINCIPAL COURT 259

ALCAZAR--VIEW OF THE INTERIOR 261

ALCAZAR--COURT OF THE DOLLS 265

ALCAZAR--COURT OF THE DOLLS, MOORISH STYLE, BUILT 1369-1379 267

ALCAZAR--THE COURT OF THE DOLLS 271

ALCAZAR--RIGHT ANGLE OF THE COURT OF THE DOLLS 273

ALCAZAR--COURT OF THE DOLLS 277

ALCAZAR--UPPER PART OF THE COURT OF THE DOLLS 279

ALCAZAR--UPPER PORTIONS OF THE COURT OF THE DOLLS 283

ALCAZAR--COURT OF THE DOLLS 285

ALCAZAR--THE LITTLE COURT 289

ALCAZAR--VIEW IN THE LITTLE COURT 291

ALCAZAR--VIEW OF THE HALL OF AMBASSADORS FROM THE LITTLE COURT 295

ALCAZAR--HALL OF AMBASSADORS 297

ALCAZAR--INTERIOR OF THE HALL OF AMBASSADORS 301

ALCAZAR--THE HALL OF AMBASSADORS 303

ALCAZAR--THRONE OF JUSTICE 307

ALCAZAR--HALL OF AMBASSADORS 307

ALCAZAR--FAÇADE OF THE COURT OF THE VIRGINS 309

ALCAZAR--INTERIOR OF THE COURT OF THE VIRGINS, MOORISH STYLE, BUILT 1369-1379 313

ALCAZAR--GENERAL VIEW OF THE COURT OF THE HUNDRED VIRGINS 315

ALCAZAR--COURT OF THE HUNDRED VIRGINS 319

ALCAZAR--COURT OF THE VIRGINS 321

ALCAZAR--GALLERY IN THE COURT OF THE HUNDRED VIRGINS 325

ALCAZAR--THE SULTANA’S APARTMENT AND COURT OF THE VIRGINS 327

ALCAZAR--ENTRANCE TO THE SLEEPING SALOON OF THE MOORISH KINGS 331

ALCAZAR--DORMITORY OF THE KINGS 333

ALCAZAR--THE DORMITORY 337

ALCAZAR--FRONT OF THE SLEEPING SALOON OF THE MOORISH KINGS 339

ALCAZAR--SLEEPING SALOON OF THE MOORISH KINGS 339

ALCAZAR--ROOM OF THE INFANTA 343

ALCAZAR--COLUMNS WHERE DON FADRIQUE WAS MURDERED 345

ALCAZAR--GATE OF THE HALL OF SAN FERNANDO 349

ALCAZAR--GALLERY OF HALL OF SAN FERNANDO 349

ALCAZAR--HALL IN WHICH KING SAN FERNANDO DIED 351

ALCAZAR--ROOM OF THE PRINCE 355

ALCAZAR--VIEW OF THE GALLERY FROM THE SECOND FLOOR 357

TOWER OF THE GIRALDA 361

DETAILS OF THE GIRALDA TOWER 363

COURT OF THE HOUSE OF PILATOS 367

COURT OF THE HOUSE OF PILATOS 369

HOUSE OF PILATOS--VIEW IN THE COURT BY THE DOOR OF THE CHAPEL 373

HOUSE OF PILATOS--CHAPEL 375

GALLERY OF THE HOUSE OF PILATOS 376

GALLERY OF THE COURT OF THE HOUSE OF PILATOS 381

COURT OF THE PALACE OF MEDINA-CŒLI 385

TOLEDO

SANTA MARIA LA BLANCA--INTERIOR, 1100-1150 395

THE GATE OF BLOOD 399

INTERIOR OF SANTA MARIA LA BLANCA 405

GATE OF THE SUN 409

DOOR OF THE HALL OF MESA 413

EXTERIOR OF THE CHAPEL OF CHRISTO DE LA VEGA 413

ANCIENT GATE OF VISAGRA 419

CASTLE OF ST. SERVANDO 419

MOORISH SWORD 423

ARAB FRAGMENT AT TARRAGONA 429

ANCIENT ARABIAN BATHS AT PALMA, MAJORCA 435

MOORISH DESIGNS AND ORNAMENTS

DESIGNS AND ORNAMENTS 447-494

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES--HEXAGONAL FAMILY 495-586

LIST OF COLOURED PLATES

PLATE. DESCRIPTION.

FRONTISPIECE--VERTICAL SECTION OF THE DOME AND CUPOLA OF THE MIHRAB. CORDOVA.

I. SHELL-LIKE ORNAMENTS IN THE CUPOLA OF THE MIHRAB. CORDOVA.

II. SHELL-LIKE ORNAMENTS IN THE CUPOLA OF THE MIHRAB. CORDOVA.

III. SHELL-LIKE ORNAMENTS IN THE CUPOLA OF THE MIHRAB. CORDOVA.

IV. PART OF THE ORNAMENTATION AND KEYSTONE OF ONE OF THE LOWER ARCHES, WHICH GIVES LIGHT TO THE DOME. CORDOVA.

IV. RING OF THE CUPOLA.

V. CURVILINEAL TRIANGLES, RESULTING FROM THE INTERSECTION OF THE ARCHES SUSTAINING THE DOME. CORDOVA.

V. SETTING OF THE ARCHES SUSTAINING THE DOME. CORDOVA.

VI. ORNAMENT RUNNING BELOW THE CUPOLA. CORDOVA.

VI. SETTING OF ONE OF THE LOWER ARCHES, WHICH GIVES LIGHT TO THE DOME. CORDOVA.

VII. CURVILINEAL TRIANGLES, RESULTING FROM THE INTERSECTION OF THE ARCHES SUSTAINING THE DOME.

VII. ARCHITRAVE OF ONE OF THE ARCHES SUSTAINING THE DOME. CORDOVA.

VIII. DETAILS OF THE GATE OF THE MAKSURRAH. CORDOVA.

IX. ARCHES OF THE PORTAL OF THE MIHRAB. CORDOVA.

X. DETAIL OF THE FRAMING OF THE SIDE GATE. CORDOVA.

X. DETAIL OF THE WINDOW PLACED OVER THE SIDE DOOR. CORDOVA.

X. DETAIL OF THE FRAMING OF THE ARCH OF THE MIHRAB.

XI. WINDOWS IN AN ALCOVE.

XII. ARAB VASE OF METALLIC LUSTRE.

XIII. DETAILS OF THE ARCHES.

XIV. CENTRE PAINTING ON A CEILING.

XV. DIVAN.

XVI. DETAIL OF AN ARCH.

XVII. GATE OF THE MURADA.

XVIII. DETAILS OF THE MIHRAB.

XVIII. DETAIL OF ONE OF THE ARCHES OF THE CUPOLA.

XVIII. MOSAIC KEYSTONES OF THE GREAT ARCH OF THE MIHRAB.

XIX. DETAILS, VILLAVICIOSA CHAPEL AND MIHRAB.

XX. DETAILS OF THE INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE.

XXI. DETAILS OF THE INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE.

XXII. DETAILS OF MOORISH WORK.

XXIII. DETAILS, VILLAVICIOSA CHAPEL AND MIHRAB.

XXIV. DETAILS OF MOORISH WORK.

XXV. FRIEZE IN THE HALL OF AMBASSADORS. SEVILLE.

XXV. STUCCO WORK IN THE HALL OF AMBASSADORS. SEVILLE.

XXV. MOSAIC IN THE LARGE COURT. SEVILLE.

XXVI. HALL OF AMBASSADORS--DETAILS. SEVILLE.

XXVII. HALL OF AMBASSADORS--DETAILS. SEVILLE.

XXVIII. HALL OF AMBASSADORS--DETAILS. SEVILLE.

XXIX. BLANK WINDOW.

XXX. SOFFIT OF ARCH.

XXXI. CORNICE AT SPRINGING OF ARCH OF DOORWAY AT ONE OF THE ENTRANCES.

XXXII. BORDERS OF ARCHES.

XXXIII. BORDERS OF ARCHES.

XXXIV. BORDER OF ARCHES.

XXXV. ORNAMENT IN PANELS ON THE WALL.

XXXVI. BANDS, SIDE OF ARCHES.