Part 6

So stupendous a monument has naturally attracted comment from distinguished travellers and critics. All have come under the spell of its majesty and massive nobility. Théophile Gautier expressed himself as follows: “The most extravagant and most monstrously prodigious Hindoo pagodas are not to be mentioned in the same century as the Cathedral of Seville. It is a mountain scooped out, a valley turned topsy-turvy; Notre Dame de Paris might walk erect in the middle nave, which is of frightful height; pillars with the girth of towers, and which appear so slender that they make you shudder, rise out of the ground or descend from the vaulted roof, like stalactites in a giant’s grotto.”

The Italian, De Amicis, is less fantastical in his rhapsodies. “At your first entrance, you are bewildered, you feel as if you are wandering in an abyss, and for several moments you can only glance around in this vast spaciousness, to assure yourself that your eyes do not deceive you, that your fancy is playing you no trick; you approach one of the pillars, measure it, and look at those in the distance; though large as towers, they appear so slender that you tremble to think the building is resting upon them. You traverse them with a glance from floor to ceiling, and it seems that you could almost count the moments it would take for the eye to climb them.... In the central aisle, another cathedral, with its cupola and bell-tower, could easily stand.”

Lomas, who is no great admirer of the building, admits that “the first view of the interior is one of the supreme moments of a lifetime. The glory and majesty of it are almost terrible. No other building, surely, is so fortunate as this in what may be called its presence.”

The Cathedral is oblong in shape, and is 414 feet long by 271 feet wide. The nave is 100 feet and the dome 121 feet high.

The principal façade looks west. Here is the principal entrance (Puerta Mayor), and two side doors, the Puertas de San Miguel and del Bautismo. Over the central door is a fine relief, representing the Assumption, by Ricardo Bellver, placed here in 1885. This entrance is elaborately decorated, and adorned with thirty-two statues in niches.

The Puertas San Miguel and del Bautismo are decorated with terra-cotta statues of saints and prelates, the work of Pedro Millan, a fifteenth-century sculptor. Herr Schmidt thinks very highly of these fine performances. Each figure has life and distinct personality, and the treatment of the drapery harmonises wonderfully with the gestures and physiognomy of the wearers. The upper part of the façade is poor, and dates only from 1827.

The southern façade is flanked by sacristies, offices, and courts, above which appear the graceful flying buttresses, gargoyles, and windows, and the majestic dome of the main building. In the middle of this side is a modern entrance, the Puerta de San Cristóbal, added by Casanova in 1887. In the eastern façade are two entrances--the Puertas de las Campanillas and de los Palos--both enriched with fine sculpture by Pedro Millan; the Puerta de los Palos has also a fine Adoration of the Magi by Miguel Florentin (1520).

On the northern side of the Cathedral we find the most important remains of the pre-existing mosque, the Giralda, already described, and the _Patio de los Naranjos_, with the original fountain at which the Muslims performed their ablutions. The _patio_ is entered from the street by the Puerta del Perdón, a richly decorated horseshoe arch erected by Moorish hands by order of Alfonso XI., to commemorate the victory of the Salado in the year 1340. In the sixteenth century this door was restored and adorned with sculptures. The colossal statues of Saints Peter and Paul, in terra-cotta, are the work of Miguel Florentin. He was among the earliest of the Renaissance sculptors to settle in Spain. By him also is the relief of the Expulsion of the Money-Changers from the Temple, celebrating the substitution of the Lonja or Bourse for this gate as a rendezvous for merchants. The plateresco work was executed by Bartolomé López in 1522. The doors date from Alfonso’s reign, and are faced with bronze plates, on which are Arabic inscriptions.

Close to the Puerta del Perdón is a shrine built in the wall with a Christ on the Cross by Luis de Vargas.

Entering the _patio_, to the right we find the Sagrario, or parish church, and to the left (reached by a staircase) the Biblioteca Colombina or Chapter Library, founded by Fernando Colon, son of Christopher Columbus. Among the treasures it contains are a manuscript of the great discoverer’s travels, with notes in his own hand; a manuscript tract, written by him in prison, to prove that the existence of America was not contrary to Scripture; the sword of Garcia Perez de Vargas, the great hero of the conquest of Seville, and a very interesting thirteenth-century translation of the Bible.

The northern façade of the Cathedral is entered through three portals, the westernmost of which, the Puerta del Sagrario, is unfinished. The Puerta de los Naranjos and the Puerta del Lagarto lead from the _patio_. The Puerta del Lagarto retains some traces of its Moorish origin. It is named after the patched and painted stuffed alligator, which has hung here since about the thirteenth century. Here may also be seen a huge elephant’s tusk, and a bridle said to have belonged to the Cid.

Referring more particularly to the exterior of the Cathedral, Caveda says: “The general effect is truly majestic. The open-work parapets which crown the roofs, the graceful lanterns of the eight winding stairs that ascend in the corners to the vaults and galleries, the flying buttresses that spring lightly from aisle to nave, as the jets of a cascade from cliff to cliff, the slender pinnacles that cap them, the proportions of the arms of the transept and of the buttresses supporting the side walls, the large pointed windows that open, one above another, just as the aisles and chapels to which they belong rise over each other, the pointed portals and entrances--all these combine in an almost miraculous manner, although lacking the wealth of detail, the airy grace, and the delicate elegance that characterise the cathedrals of Léon and Burgos.”

Entering the church, the gloom renders it difficult for a time to distinguish its exact configuration. We find it is divided into a nave and four aisles, the former being fifty feet in width. The fine marble floor was laid in the years 1787 to 1795. There is little ornamentation, the interior displaying a noble simplicity, the beautiful effect being produced mainly by the grandeur and symmetry of the vaultings, archings, and pillars. The seventy-four exquisite stained-glass windows, however, form a decorative series of the richest kind. They are, for the most part, the work of northern artists. Micer Cristóbal Aleman (Master Christoph the German) began the first--the first stained-glass window seen in Seville--in 1504, the work being carried on by the German Heinrich, the Flemings Bernardino of Zeeland and Juan Bernardino, Carlos of Bruges, and the great master Arnao of Flanders. The two latter designers are said to have received ninety thousand ducats for their work. The last window was completed in 1662 by a Spaniard named Juan Bautista de Léon. The finest windows are generally considered to be those representing the Ascension, St Mary Magdalen, Lazarus, and the Entry into Jerusalem, by Arnao the Fleming and his brother (1525), and the Resurrection, by Carlos of Bruges (1558).

Passing up the nave, from the Puerta Mayor, we find midway between that entrance and the choir the Tomb of Fernando Colon, son of the great Columbus--“who would have been considered a great man,” says Ford, “had he been the son of a less great father.” The slab is engraved with pictures of the discoverer’s vessels, and the inscription, _À Castilla y á León Mundo nuevo dio Colon_. At this spot, during Holy Week, is set up the _Monumento_, an enormous wooden temple in the shape of a Greek cross, in which the Sacrament is enshrined. The structure was made by Antonio Florentin in 1544.

Extending to the middle of the nave is the Coro or Choir, open towards the east or High Altar. The _trascoro_ or choir-screen is faced with marbles, eight columns of red _breccia_ being especially fine. The marble reliefs are fine examples of Genoese work. Over the altar is a fourteenth-century painting of the Madonna, and there is also a picture by Pacheco, the inquisitor, representing St Ferdinand receiving the keys of Seville from “Axataf.” The side walls of the choir accommodate four little chapels, exhibiting a harmonious combination of the Gothic and plateresco styles in translucent alabaster. The Capilla de la Concepcion contains one of the finest examples of statuary in the Cathedral--the Virgin, by Juan Martinez Montañez. Ford says, “This sweet and dignified model was the favourite of his great pupil, Alonso Cano.” The choir was severely injured by the collapse of the dome in 1888. The pillars and baldachino are richly adorned with Gothic figures and stonework. The fine gilt railing is the work of Sancho Muñoz (1519). But the chief glory of the choir is its exquisitely carved stalls, 117 in number, executed between 1475 and 1548, by Nufro Sanchez, Dancart, and Guillen. Moorish influence may be traced in the patterns and the coloured inlaid work of the chairbacks. The handsome lectern bespeaks the skill of Bartolomé Morel. Till the collapse of the dome, the choir was the repository of a number of priceless missals, illuminated in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. The organs are huge but inartistic. As instruments, they are beyond all praise. The older, dating from 1777, was built by Jorge Bosch, the other by Valentin Verdalonga in 1817.

“Between the choir and High Altar is put up during Holy Week the exquisite bronze candlestick, 25 feet high, called El Tenebrario, one of the finest specimens of bronze work of the sixteenth century that exists (it may be seen in the Sacristy), and wrought, in 1562, by Morel; when the _Miserere_ is sung, it is lighted with thirteen candles, twelve of which are put out one after another, indicating that the Apostles deserted Christ; one alone of white wax is left burning, and is a symbol of the Virgin, true to the last. At Easter, also, the Ciro Pascual or fount candle, equal to a large marble pillar, 24 feet high, and weighing seven or eight hundredweight of wax, is placed to the left of the High Altar” (Ford).

Facing the choir stands the isolated Capilla Mayor, containing the High Altar. It is enclosed on three sides by a railing of wrought iron, and on the fourth by a superb Gothic retablo. Schmidt considers this work the quintessence of late Gothic sculpture. The middle parts date from the fifteenth, the outer from the sixteenth century. The ornamentation is of extraordinary delicacy and richness. It is divided into forty-five compartments, each containing subjects from the Scriptures and the lives of the saints in sculpture painted and gilded. It is crowned by a crucifix and the statues of the Virgin and St John. This fine altar-piece was begun by the Fleming Dancart in 1479, and was completed by Spanish artists in 1526.

Behind the altar is the Sacristy, adorned with terra-cotta statues by Miguel Florentin, Juan Marin, and others. Here is kept a reliquary shaped like a triptych, presented to the church by Alfonso the Wise, and called the Alphonsine Tables.

Behind the Capilla Mayor, at the eastern extremity of the nave, is the Capilla Real (Royal Chapel). The building--which, as Ford remarks, is almost a church by itself--was begun by Gainza in 1514, and finished in 1566 by his successors, Fernan Ruiz, Diaz de Palacios, and Maeda. The chapel is of the Renaissance style, and has a lofty dome. There is a handsome frieze showing the figures of children carrying shields and lances. The chapel is divided by light pillars into seven compartments, of which the midmost is occupied by the altar of the Virgin de los Reyes. This image was the gift of St Louis of France to St Ferdinand. “It is of great archæological interest,” says Ford; “it is made like a movable lay-figure; the hair is of spun gold, and the shoes are like those used in the thirteenth century, ornamented with the lilies of France and the word “Amor.” In 1873, the fine gold crown belonging to this image [a sixteenth-century work] was stolen. This image is seated on a silver throne, thirteenth-century work, embossed with the arms of Castile and Leon.” The body of St Ferdinand, remarkably well preserved, is contained in a silver urn, placed on the original sepulchre, which is engraved with epitaphs in Latin, Spanish, Hebrew, and Arabic. In the vault beneath is the ivory figure of the Virgin de las Batallas, which the king always carried with him on his campaigns. It is a fine piece of Gothic statuary. Ferdinand’s sword is also preserved in this chapel. Here are the tombs of Alfonso el Sabio, of Beatriz of Swabia, his mother, of Pedro I., Maria de Padilla, and various Infantes. An interesting trophy is the flag of the Polish Legion of the French army, taken by the Spaniards at Bailen. The twelve statues in the entrance to the Capilla Real are after the designs of Peter Kempener; there is a Mater Dolorosa by Murillo in the sacristy. Some of the later work in this chapel exhibits those fantastic and grotesque features which became common, under the name of _Estilo Monstruoso_, in Seville.

The entrance to this chapel is flanked by the Capillas de San Pedro and de la Concepcion Grande. In the south aisle is the chapel of the Purification or of the Marshal, containing a remarkable altar-piece by Peter Kempener--exhibiting the portraits of the founder, Marshal Pedro Caballero, and his family. Adjacent is the Sala Capitular, in fine Renaissance style, the work of Gainza and Diego de Riaño (1531). The roof is formed by a fine cupola, supported by Ionic columns, beneath which is some admirable plateresco work, with escutcheons, triglyphs, etc. The hall contains a portrait of St Ferdinand by Francisco Pacheco, the “Conception” and ovals by Murillo, and the “Four Virtues” by Pablo de Céspedes. Beneath the windows are seen reliefs by Velasco, Cabrera, and Vazquez.

The sacristy (Sacristia Mayor) is in the Renaissance style, and lies south of the Sala Capitular. It was built by Gainza in 1535, after designs by Riaño, who had died two years earlier. One of the three altars against the southern wall is adorned by the beautiful “Descent from the Cross” by Peter Kempener (a native of Brussels, called by the Spaniards Campaña), before which Murillo used to stand for hours in rapt contemplation. This priceless work of art was cut in five pieces by the French, with a view to its removal, and has not been very well restored. The sacristy contains also three interesting paintings, dating from the early sixteenth century, by Alejo Fernandez; and the “San Leandro” and “San Isidore” of Murillo.

In this chamber is kept the treasury of the Cathedral. In it might be included the superb silver monstrance by Juan de Arfe (1580-87). It is twelve feet high, and richly adorned with columns, reliefs, and statuettes. The treasury likewise contains another monstrance, studded with 1200 jewels; a rock-crystal cup, said to have belonged to St Ferdinand; and the keys presented to that sovereign on the surrender of the city. That given by the Jews is of iron gilt, with the words, _Melech hammelakim giphthohh Melek kolhaaretz gabo_ (the King of kings will open, the King of all the earth will enter); the other key is of silver gilt and was surrendered by Sakkáf. The inscription upon it is in Arabic, and reads, _May Allah render eternal the dominion of Islam in this city_.

Proceeding along the south aisle, towards the main entrance, we first reach the Capilla de San Andrés, the burying-place of the ancient family of Guzman. Behind the chapel of Nuestra Señora de las Dolores is the fine Sacristia de los Calices. It is the work of those who built the Sacristia Mayor. It contains several fine paintings--the Saints Justa and Rufina (patrons of Seville) by Goya (among his finest works), the “Angel de la Guarda” and the “St Dorothy” of Murillo, the “Death of a Saint” by Zurbarán, the “Trinity of Theotocopuli” (El Greco), a triptych by Morales, and “The Death of the Virgin”--an old German picture. This crucifix over the altar is one of the most admirable productions of Montañez.

The next chapel (de la Santa Cruz) is adorned by a fine “Descent from the Cross” by Fernandez de Guadelupe (1527). The Puerta de la Lonja has a fresco, painted in 1584, of “St Christopher carrying the Infant Jesus across a River.” A representation of this saint is to be found in nearly all Spanish cathedrals, owing to a curious superstition that to look upon it secures the beholder for the rest of that day from an evil death. This fresco, which measures thirty-two feet high, is opposite the “Capilla de la Gamba” (or, of the leg--of Adam). Here we find “La Generacion”--Luis de Vargas’s masterpiece. “The picture,” says Herr Schmidt, “is wholly in the Italian style, and one of the best examples of this phase of the Spanish Renaissance.”

The large chapel of the Antigua contains the fine tomb of Archbishop Mendoza, by Miguel Florentin, erected in 1509. Here is also a very ancient mural painting, after the Byzantine style, of the “Madonna and Child,” which was placed here in 1578, and is of unknown and rather mysterious origin. The retablo is distinguished by marble statues in the baroque style by Pedro Duque Cornejo. The small sacristy behind this chapel contains pictures by Zurbarán, Morales, and others.

The Capilla de San Hermenegildo has a good statue of the saint by Montañez, and a fine sepulchral monument to Archbishop Juan de Cervantes (1453), by Lorenzo Mercadante de Bretaña, the master of Nufro Sanchez. The Capilla de San José contains “The Espousals of the Virgin” by Valdés Leal, a “Nativity of Christ” by Antolinez, and an inferior retablo (“The Massacre of the Innocents”). The Capilla de Santa Ana possesses a Gothic retablo, dating from about 1450, and divided into fourteen sections. It comes from the old Mosque-Cathedral. The lower part of the work, illustrating the life of St Anne, dates from 1504, the artists having been Hernandez and Barbara Marmolejo. From beneath the tribune a staircase leads to the Archives, which escaped demolition at the hands of the French, through having been sent to Cadiz. The last chapel in the south aisle (San Laureano) is dedicated to a saint, who, like St Denis of France, having been decapitated, performed the unusual feat of walking away with his head under his arm. Here is the tomb of Archbishop de Ejea, who died in 1417.

On the west side of the Cathedral are five small chapels. The Nacimiento chapel contains an admirable “Nativity with the Four Evangelists” by Luis de Vargas, and a “Virgin and St Anne” by Morales. To the right of the Puerta Mayor is the altar of Nuestra Señora del Consuelo, with a “Holy Family,” the masterpiece of Alonso Miguel de Tobar (1678-1738), esteemed the ablest of Murillo’s pupils. Facing this is the little altar of Santo Angel, with a “Guardian Angel” by Murillo. The altar of the Visitation has a good retablo by Pedro Villegas de Marmolejo (1502-1569), and a statue of St Jerome by his namesake, Geronimo Hernandez.

Near the north-western corner of the church the Puerta del Sagrario leads into the Sagrario or Parish Church. This was built between 1618 and 1662 in the Baroque style by Miguel Zumarraga and Fernandez de Iglesias. The width of the single arch of which the roof consists is believed to endanger the safety of the edifice. The rich statues that adorn the interior are by Dayne and Jose de Arce. There is a notable retablo by Pedro Roldan which came from a Franciscan convent now suppressed. The wall of the sacristy is faced with beautiful _azulejos_ of the Arabian period, and in one of the side-chapels is a noteworthy statue of the Virgin by Montañez. In the vault beneath this impressive church the Archbishops of Seville are buried.

Returning to the Cathedral, we find on the left the Capilla del Bautisterio or of San Antonio. It is famous for one of Murillo’s finest works, “St Anthony of Padua’s Vision of the Child Jesus.” This is the picture which was stolen in 1874, conveyed to New York, sold to a Mr Schaus for £50, and by him returned to the ecclesiastical authorities. This chapel is also remarkable for its _pila_ or font, the work of Antonio Florentin, and Giralda windows. Next to it is the Capilla de las Escalas, with two pictures by Luca Giordano, “strong in character, drawing, and colour,” and the sepulchre of Bishop Baltasar del Rio (about 1500); then comes the Capilla de Santiago, with paintings by Valdés Leal and Juan de las Roelas, a stained-glass window with the richest tones, and the tomb of Archbishop Gonzalo de Mena (1401); and the Capilla de San Francisco, with another fine window, and an ambitious “Apotheosis of St Francis” by Herrera el Mozo.

Separated from this chapel by the Puerta de los Naranjos is the Capilla de la Visitacion (or Doncellas). The Puerta is furnished with two altars, one, the Altar de la Asunción, the other, the Virgen de Belén. The former has a painting by Carlo Maratta, the latter a “Virgin and Child” by Alonso Cano. The Capilla de los Evangelistas has an altar-piece in nine parts by Hernando de Sturmio (1555), which shows us the Giralda as it was before the present upper part had been added. Crossing before the Puerta Lagarto we reach the little chapel of Nuestra Señora del Pilar, with a notable “Madonna and Child” by Pedro Millan. The altar-piece of the Capilla de San Pedro, between this chapel and the Capilla Real, has paintings by Zurbarán, hardly distinguishable in the dim light. On the other side of the Capilla Real is the Chapel of la Concepcion Grande, containing pictures relating to the Immaculate Conception, and a crucifix attributed to Alonso Cano. Here is also a fine modern monument to Cardinal Cienfuegos.

OTHER BUILDINGS OF THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES

Close to the Church of San Marcos is the Convent of Santa Paula with a chapel dating from about 1475. The house, which is of the religious of St Augustine, was founded by Doña Ana de Santillan and the Portuguese Donha Isabel Henriquez, Marqueza de Montemayor. This illustrious lady and her consort, Dom João, Constable of Portugal, are entombed in the Capilla Mayor in separate niches. The portal of this church is one of the richest in Europe. It is magnificently decorated with white and blue _azulejos_, over the arch being seven medallions representing the birth of Christ and the life of St Paul, encircled with garlands of flowers and fruit, and the figures white on a blue ground. In the tympanum of the arch are displayed the Arms of Spain in white marble on a field of blue tiles, supported by an eagle, and flanked by the escutcheons of the Catholic sovereigns. The _azulejo_ work was jointly executed by Francesco Niculoso of Pisa and Pedro Millan. The interior of the church is in the sixteenth-century style, and, except for the tombs of the Marqueses de Montemayor, not specially interesting.

In 1472 Maese Rodrigo founded a college, which afterwards became the seat of the University of Seville, and is now a seminary. Attached to it is a chapel built in the first years of the sixteenth century. It is a fine example of the late Gothic style. The retablo exhibits good painting and carving by unknown artists. The front of the altar displays fine specimens of Andalusian ceramic art. “The students of the seminary,” says Ford, “wear a scarf of brilliant scarlet upon a black gown.”