Transcriber's note: The etext attempts to replicate the printed book as closely as possible. Obvious errors in spelling and punctuation have been corrected (see the list here). The spellings of names, places and Spanish words used by the author have not been corrected or modernized by the etext transcriber. The footnotes have been moved to the end of the text body. The images have been moved from the middle of a paragraph to the closest paragraph break.
SANTIAGO CATHEDRAL.
PORTICO DE DA GLORIA.
SOME ACCOUNT
OF
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE
IN
SPAIN.
BY GEORGE EDMUND STREET, A.R.A.,
HONORARY MEMBER OF THE IMPERIAL ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS, VIENNA.
“The old paths, where is the good way.”
JEREMIAH vi. 16.
SECOND EDITION.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1869.
The right of Translation is reserved.
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE,
&c. &c. &c.,
THIS WORK IS INSCRIBED
AS A TESTIMONY OF THE AUTHOR’S RESPECT
AND ADMIRATION.
PREFACE.
THE book which I here commit to the reader requires, I fear, some apology on my part. I feel that I have undertaken almost more than an artist like myself, always at work, has any right to suppose he can properly accomplish in the little spare time he can command. Nevertheless, I have always felt that part of the duty which every artist owes to his mother art is to study her developments wherever they are to be seen, and whenever he can find the opportunity. Moreover, I believe that in this age it is only by the largest kind of study and range of observation that any artist can hope to perfect himself in so complex and difficult an art as architecture, and that it is only by studying the development of Gothic architecture in all countries that we can form a true and just estimate of the marvellous force of the artistic impulse which wrought such wonders all over Europe in the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries.
In a day of revival, such as this, I believe it to be necessary that we should form this just estimate of bygone art; because I am sure that, unless our artists learn their art by studying patiently, lovingly, and constantly the works of their great predecessors, they will never themselves be great. I know full well how much hostility there is on the part of some to any study of foreign examples; but as from my boyhood up I have never lost any opportunity of visiting and studying our old English buildings, and as my love for our own national artistic peculiarities rather increases than diminishes the more I study the contemporary buildings of the Continent, I have no hesitation in giving to the world what I have been able to learn about Spanish art.
What I have here written will no doubt be supplemented and corrected by others hereafter; and much additional light will, I hope, be thrown upon the history of Spanish buildings and their architects. It will be found that I have referred to many Spanish authorities for the historical facts on which the dates of the buildings I have visited can alone be decided. Of these authorities none is more useful to the architect, none is more creditable to its authors, than the ‘Notices of the Architects and Architecture of Spain, by D. Eugenio Llaguno y Amirola, edited with additions by D. Juan Agustin Cean-Bermudez,’ in four volumes, compiled about the beginning of this century, but not published until A.D. 1829.[1]
This work, full of documentary evidence as to the Spanish architects and their works, appears to me to be far better in its scheme and mode of execution than any work which we in England have upon the buildings of our own country; and, though it is true that neither of its authors had a very accurate knowledge of the art, they seem to have exercised great diligence in their search after information bearing on their subject, and to have been remarkably successful.
Mr. Ford’s ‘Handbook of Spain’ has been of great service to me, not only because it was the only guide to be had, and on account of the charm of his style, but because it had the rare excellence (in a Guide-book) of constantly referring to local guides and authorities, and so enabling me to turn at once to the books most likely to aid me in my work.
The other works to which I have at some pains referred are mainly local guides and histories, collections of documents, and the like. Of these a vast number have been published, and I cannot pretend to have exhausted the stores which they contain.
Unfortunately, so far as I have been able to learn, no one of late years has taken up the subject of the Mediæval antiquities of Spain in the way in which we are accustomed to see them treated by writers on the subject elsewhere in Europe. The ‘Ensayo Historico’ of D. José Caveda is very slight and unsatisfactory, and not to be depended on. Passavant, who has published some notes on Spanish architecture,[2] is so ludicrously wrong in most of his statements that it seems probable that he trusted to his internal consciousness instead of to personal inspection for his facts. The work of Don G. P. de Villa Amil[3] is very showy and very untrustworthy; and that of Don F. J. Parcerisa,[4] and the great work which the Spanish Government is publishing,[5] are both so large and elaborate as to be useless for the purpose of giving such a general and comprehensive idea of the features of Gothic architecture in Spain as it has been my effort to give in this work.
Seeing, then, how complete is the ignorance which up to the present time we have laboured under, as to the true history and nature of Gothic architecture in Spain, I commit this volume to the reader with a fair trust that what has
To this I have added, in an Appendix, two catalogues—one of dated examples of buildings, and the other of their architects, with short notices of their works; and, beside these, a few translations of documents which seem to me to bring before us in a very real way the mode in which these mediæval buildings were undertaken, carried on, and completed.
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE I. Irun, San Sebastian, Burgos 1 II. BURGOS 12 III. Palencia, Valladolid 56 IV. Salamanca, Zamora, Benavente 78 V. LEON 105 VI. Astorga, Lugo, La Coruña 129 VII. Santiago de Compostella 140 VIII. Medina del Campo, Avila 160 IX. SEGOVIA 180 X. Madrid, Alcalá, Guadalajara, Sigüenza 195 XI. TOLEDO 209 XII. VALENCIA 259 XIII. TARRAGONA 273 XIV. BARCELONA 291 XV. Gerona, Perpiñan, S.APPENDIX.
PAGEA.—Catalogue of dated examples of Spanish Buildings, from the tenth to the sixteenth century inclusive
467B.—Catalogue of Architects, Sculptors, and Builders of the Churches, &c., mentioned in this volume
471C.—Documents relating to the construction of the new Cathedral at Salamanca
482D.—Royal Warrant for the payment of the Master of the Works at Santiago
489E.—Memoir of the construction of the Cathedral at Segovia, by the Canon Juan Rodriguez
490F.—Catalogue of the subjects carved on the screens round the Coro of Toledo Cathedral
495G.—Agreement between Jayme Fabre and the Sub-prior and Brethren of the Convent of San Domingo at Palma in Mallorca
500H.—The Reports of the Junta of Architects assembled at Gerona to decide on the mode of building the nave of the Cathedral
501I.—Contract between Guillermo Sagrera and the Council of the Fabric, for the erection of the Exchange at Palma in Mallorca
514 INDEX: A,LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
(The Full-Page Engravings are Numbered in Order.)
Frontispiece. Santiago Cathedral, Portico de la Gloria. Vignette on Title-page, Segovia from the Alcazar. Page Compartment of Nave, Burgos Cathedral 14 1. Burgos Cathedral, North-west View (from Fergusson) 25 Varieties of Crockets, Burgos Cathedral 28 2. Burgos Cathedral, Clerestory of Choir 29 3. Burgos Cathedral, View of Cloisters from the roof 30 Carved Capital, Burgos Cathedral 33 Transept Chapel, Las Huelgas 35 4. Las Huelgas, Burgos, north-west view 38 5. San Esteban, Burgos, Interior looking west 49 San Esteban, Burgos, Iron Lectern 50 6. San Gil, Burgos, Iron Pulpit 51 Prie-Dieu, Palencia Cathedral 59 Steeple of San Miguel, PalenciaGROUND PLANS.
Plate 1. Burgos, Plan of Cathedral 34 2. Burgos, Plans of Las Huelgas, San Gil,