Part 6 (2/2)

The shrine of the adored San Fernando is in front of an altar. In the Panteon are the coffins of Pedro el Cruel, his mistress Maria de Padilla, the Princes Fadrique, Alonso and Pedro, and others. Over San Fernando's coffin is the ivory figure of the Virgin of Battles, which the King carried upon his saddle when he went to the wars. The monarch's pennant and sword are also displayed.

Murillo's Mater Dolorosa is in the sacristy of this _capilla_. There are portraits of St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier, by Pacheco.

In the later styles of the Capilla Real we may see examples of the Grotesque, or _Estilo Monstruoso_, with which the buildings of Seville abound. Diego de Riano's work in the Ayuntamiento, or City Hall, is full of instances of this development of fanciful design and bizarre effect.

Gainza, the collaborator of Riano, is responsible for the articulations and curious, lavish adornment of the Royal Chapel of the Cathedral. The sacristy of the _capilla_ was built and decorated by Gainza after plans by Riano. We may now inspect the stained-gla.s.s windows, in which we shall find the influence of Italian artists. It must be noted that art in Spain has been profoundly influenced by Italy. Michelangelo is reverenced by Spanish artists. Many of the early Spanish painters went to Italy to study, and brought back with them new ideas and fresh methods of painting. 'Spanish artists,' writes Professor Carl Justi, 'did their best to Italianize themselves in the studios of Roman and Florentine masters.'

Cristobal Micer Aleman was the first to introduce the art of staining gla.s.s into Seville. Until 1504 stained gla.s.s windows had not been seen in the city, and Aleman was the designer of the first painted window of the Cathedral. Sir Stirling Maxwell states that in 1538 the Church paid Arnao of Flanders, Carlos of Bruges, and other artists the sum of ninety thousand ducats for staining the windows of Seville Cathedral. The work was not completed until twenty years later. The chief window pictures are the Ascension, Jesus and Mary Magdalen, the Awakening of Lazarus, and the Entry into Jerusalem. The Resurrection is the work of Carlos, and other pictures are by the two brothers Arnao.

The isolated _Capilla Mayor_ has an altar-piece of wood, and a silver image of the Virgin by Alfaro. The painted scenes are from the Scriptures. Crowning the retablo are a crucifix and large statues of the Virgin and St. John. Dancart, the designer of the retablo, was of the Flemish school of decorative carvers. The work was begun about 1482 and finished in 1526.

Between the _Coro_ (choir) and the Chief Chapel an enormous candelabrum is displayed during Semana Santa, or Holy Week. It is called the Tenebrario, and it was constructed by Bartolome Morel, a sixteenth-century sculptor. The structure is twenty-six feet high, and it is ornamented with several small images. During the imposing celebrations of Semana Santa, the candelabrum is lit by thirteen candles. Twelve of these lights represent the apostles who deserted their Master; the thirteenth candle stands for the Virgin, and when the twelve have been extinguished, the thirteenth still burns as a symbol of Mary's fealty to the Saviour.

_The Coro_ was much injured by the collapse of the dome. Two grand organs were destroyed at this time. One of the most interesting objects preserved in the choir is the facistol, or choristers' desk, of Bartolome Morel, adorned with highly-finished carvings. The choir stalls were decorated by Nufro Sanchez, a sculptor of the fifteenth century, whose work suggests German influence. They are beautiful examples of carving.

_The Coro_ is entered by either of the two doors of the front or _Trascoro_. There is a handsome marble facade; a painting of the Virgin by an unknown hand, and a picture said to be from the brush of Francisco Pacheco, the artist, author and inquisitor. The white marble frontage is adorned with bas-reliefs of the Genoese school, exhibiting fine feeling.

Italian influence is manifest in the picture of the Holy Mother, which is highly decorative in style.

Close to the _Coro_, near the chief entrance on that side of the Cathedral, is the tomb of Fernando Colon, son of Cristobal Colon (Columbus). The slab is engraved with pictures of the discoverer's vessels. An inscription runs: '_a Castilla y a Leon mundo nuebo die Colon:_' _i.e._, 'To Castile and Leon Columbus gave the New World.'

The student of architecture and painting will find ample examples of varied styles of art in this great repository of sculpture, frescoes and panel pictures. He will be able to trace the development of architectural design from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, both in the exterior and interior of the immense Cathedral. The art of the _Mudejar_, the Fleming, the Italian, the German and the Spaniard are here represented in masonry, decoration, stained gla.s.s, and upon canvas.

Wandering designers and craftsmen of the Middle Ages looked upon Spain as a land of plenty. They came from Flanders, Italy and Genoa, and found favour with the wealthy Chapter of Seville. The artists employed to adorn the Cathedral range from Juan Sanchez de Castro, 'the morning star of Andalusia,' in 1454, to Francisco Goya, the last great painter of Spain.

Many of the so-called Spanish school of artists were aliens who settled in the country. Pedro Campana was, for example, a native of Brussels.

For twenty years he studied in Italy, and his Purification of the Virgin shows the Italian influence. Sturmio was probably a German named Sturm.

Domenico Theotocopuli, called '_El Greco_,' was a Greek. Mateo Perez de Alesio was an Italian, who lived in Seville, and died at Rome in 1600.

Luis de Vargas, the painter of the Nativity picture in the Cathedral, whose fresco work is to be seen elsewhere in the city, was a student of the Italian method. Vargas was a man of profound piety. He was born in Seville in 1502. After his death, scourges used for self-inflicted penance were found in his room, and by his bed was a coffin in which the ascetic painter used to lie in order to meditate seriously upon life.

The religious devotion of Luis de Vargas is exhibited in the spirit of his work. This reverential treatment of sacred subjects is characteristic of all the Sevillian painters. In their art they wors.h.i.+pped. Martinez Montanez, or Montanes, the sculptor, was a zealous Catholic. In his coloured statues we perceive a melancholy reflection of his sombre mind, a pathos expressing itself in realistic conceptions of a suffering Christ and a sorrowful St. Francis Xavier. These tinted statues appeal powerfully to the imagination of the Sevillian populace.

Many of the images were made for the solemn processions of Semana Santa.

Among the artists employed in adorning the Cathedral there was not one more devoted to the Church than Pacheco. He was censor of art for the Inquisition, and in his writings we find precise counsels upon the fitting method of painting sacred pictures. To Pacheco the faith was of far greater moment than art. He was a close friend of Montanez, whose statues he sometimes coloured.

_The Sagrario_ adjoins the Cathedral, and may be entered from the Court of the Oranges. The building serves as a parish church, and occupies the ground of the old _Sagrario_. It was begun in 1618 by Miguel Zumarraga, and completed in 1662 by Lorenzo Fernandez. The vaulted roof is remarkable. Pedro Roldan painted the retablo, which was formerly in the Francisan Convent. The convent stood in the Plaza de San Fernando, or Plaza Nueva, as it is sometimes called. Roldan was a contemporary and follower of Montanez. There is an important image of St. Clement by Pedro Duque Cornejo. The statue of the Virgin is the work of the devout Martinez Montanez.

Beneath the church is the vault of the Archbishops of Seville. The terra-cotta altar is exceedingly decorative. In the sacristy there are some splendid _azulejos_, which formed part of the old Morisco mosque.

CHAPTER VI

_The Alcazar_

'How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp Abode his destined Hour, and went his way.'

RUBaIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYaM.

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