Cathedrals of Spain Part 11

Rounding the church to the south, we find the view obstructed by the cloisters and sacristy; only the facade of the transept, ascended from the lower ground by a flight of steps, remains visible. The southern doorway is quite denuded, and even its b.u.t.tresses rise without as much as a corbel to soften their lines. When one has, however, dodged through the tortuous, narrow, malodorous streets and come out opposite the apse and northern flank, the whole bulk of the logical organic body of the church becomes visible with its larger squat and higher lofty domes towering into the blue. To the same Renaissance period as the two domes belongs the cla.s.sical portal of Pedro Brizuela, leading to the northern transept. The view from the northeast is particularly fine. Every portion of the structure is expressed by the exterior lines. One above the other rise chapels, ambulatory, apse, transepts and lanterns, each level crowned by its sparkling bal.u.s.trade. The sky is jagged by the crocketed spires which terminate the flying b.u.t.tresses, the piers and the angles of the wall surface. Here the Latin cross may be seen, and the sub-divisions of every portion of the interior. There is no deception nor trickery. It is simple and straightforward. Its artistic merits may be small, the forest of carved turrets rising all around the apse, tiresome, but this final impression of Spanish Gothic was thoroughly sincere.

VII

SEVILLE

[Ill.u.s.tration: Photo by J. Lacoste, Madrid

CATHEDRAL OF SEVILLE

The Giralda, from the Orange Tree Court]

"Wen Gott lieb hat, dem giebt er ein Haus in Sevilla."

Seville is ever youthful, for the blood which courses in her veins absorbs the sunlight. Venice is the city of dreamy love, Naples, of indolence, Rome, of everlasting age, but Seville keeps an eternal youth.

What picturesqueness, what color, what pa.s.sion blend with memories of Andalusia!

All sunny land of love!

When I forget you, may I fail To ... say my prayers!

And Seville is the queen of Andalusia, of n.o.ble birth, proud and beautiful. Distinctly feminine in her subtle, indefinable charm, like a woman she changes with her surroundings, and her mutability adds to her fascination. We never fathom nor quite know her, for she is one being as she slumbers in the first chalky light of morning, another, in the resplendent nakedness of noontide, overarched by the indigo firmament, and yet another, in the happy laughter of evening when her mantle has turned purple and her throbbing life is more felt than seen. The roses, hyacinths and crocuses have closed in sleep, but the orange groves, the acacia, and eucalyptus, jasmine, lemon, and palm trees and hedges of box fill the air with heavy, aromatic perfume. To the exiled Moors she was so sweet in all her moods that they said, "G.o.d in His justice, having denied to the Christians a heavenly paradise, has given them in exchange an earthly one." With the oriental languor of her ancestors, she keeps the freshness and sparkle of the dewy morn. She is as gay and full of youthful vitality as her Toledan sister is old and worn and haggard.

While Toledo is sombre and funereal, Seville is alive with the tinkling of silver fountains, the strumming of guitars and mandolins, and the songs of her women. She lies rich and splendid on the bosom of the campagna, fruitfulness and plenty within her embattled walls. "She is a strange, sweet sorceress, a little wise perhaps, in whom love has degenerated into desire; but she offers her lovers sleep, and in her arms you will forget everything but the entrancing life of dreams."

Andalusia and Seville justly claim an ancient and royal pedigree, which through all the vicissitudes of centuries has still left its stamp upon them. Andalusia was the Tarshish of the Bible, whither Jonah rose to flee. Her commerce is spoken of in Jeremiah, Isaiah, the Psalms, and the Chronicles: "Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the mult.i.tude of all kind of riches, with silver, iron, tin, and lead they traded in thy fairs" (Ezekiel xxvii, 12).

In pa.s.sing the Straits of Hercules, Seville and Ceuta alone caught Odysseus' eye:--

Tardy with age Were I and my companions, when we came To the Strait pa.s.s, where Hercules ordain'd The bound'ries not to be o'erstepp'd by man.

The walls of Seville to my right I left, On th' other hand already Ceuta past.

_Inferno_, xxvi. 106-110.

The honor of founding the city of Seville seems to be shared by Hercules and Julius Caesar. In the popular mind of the Sevillians, as well as through an unbroken chain of mediaeval historians and ballad-makers, Hercules is called its father. Monuments throughout the city bear witness to its founders. On one of the gates recently demolished the inscription ran,--

Condidit Alcides, Renovavit Julius urbem.

Rest.i.tuit Christo Fernandus tertius heros.

The Latin verses were later paraphrased in the Castilian tongue over the Gate of Zeres:--

Hercules me edifico, Julio Cesar me cerco, de meno y torres altes y el rey santo me gano, Con Garci Perez de Vargas.

"Hercules built me, Julius Caesar surrounded me with walls and high towers, the Holy King conquered me by Garcia Perez de Vargas." Statues of the founder and protector still stand in various parts of the city.

In the second century B. C., the shipping of Seville made it one of the most important trade centres of the Mediterranean. Phnicians and Greeks stopped here to barter. In 45 B. C., Rome stretched forth her greedy hand, and Caesar entered the town at the head of his victorious legion. Eighty-two years later the Romans formed the whole of southern Spain into the "Provincia Baetica." With its formation into a Roman colony, Seville's historical background begins to stand out clearly and its riches are sung by the ancients. "Fair art thou, Baetis," says Martial, "with thine olive crown and thy limpid waters, with the fleece stains of a brilliant gold." The whole province contained what later became Sevilla, Huelva, Cadiz, Cordova, Jaen, Granada and Almeria.

Seville, or Hispalis, became the capital and was accordingly fortified with walls and towers, garrisoned and supplied with water from aqueducts and adorned with Roman works of art. After the spread of Christianity during the later Emperors, Seville was important enough to be made the seat of a bishop.

With the fall of Rome, Hispalis was overrun by hordes of Goths and Vandals. They held possession of the country until they were conquered in 711 by the Moors, who, after crossing the strait between Africa and Europe, gradually spread northward through the Iberian peninsula. The Goths made Hispalis out of the Roman Hispalia, and the Arabians in their turn, unable to p.r.o.nounce the p, formed the name into Ixbella, of which the Castilians made Seville.

To the Moors, Andalusia was the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey. What was lacking, their genius and husbandry soon supplied. The land which they found uncultivated soon became a garden filled with exotic flowers and rich fruits, while they adorned its cities with the n.o.blest monuments of their taste and intelligence. They divided their territory (el Andalus) into the four kingdoms of Seville, Cordova, Jaen, and Granada, which still exist as territorial divisions. To-day the three latter contain only the ruins of a great past. Seville alone remains in many respects a perfectly Moorish city. Her courts, her squares, the streets and houses, the great palace and the tower are essentially Arabian and bear witness to the magnificence of her ancient masters.

[Ill.u.s.tration: KEY OF PLAN OF SEVILLE CATHEDRAL

A. The Giralda.

B. Royal Chapel.

C. Chapter House.

D. Sacristy.

E. Old Sacristy.

F. Colombina Library.

G. Portal of the Perdon.

H. Courtyard of the Orange Trees.

I. The Sagrario.

J. Portal of the Orange Trees.

K. Choir.

L. Capilla Mayor.

M. Portal of the Lonja (San Cristobal).

N. Portal of the Palos.

O. Portal of the Campanillas.

P. Portal of the Bautismo.

Q. Puerta Mayor.

R. Portal of the Nacimiento.

S. Trascoro.

T. Dependencias de la Hermandad.

U. Portal of the Sagrario.

V. Portal of the Lagarto.

X. Tomb of Fernando Colon.]

They had lost all the rest of Spain except Granada before Cordova and Jaen surrendered, and finally Seville fell into the hands of Ferdinand III of Castile in 1248, and its Christian period began. Three hundred thousand followers of the detested faith were banished from Seville, and slowly the power of the Catholic Church began to rise and the agricultural beauty and industry of the surrounding province to wane.

The city was divided into separate districts for the different races, the ca.n.a.ls were dammed up, the water-works fell to pieces, the valley was left untilled, and fruit trees were unpruned and unwatered. Hides bleached in the sun and webs rotted on the looms, sixty thousand of which had woven beautiful silk fabrics in the palmy days of the Moors.

Ferdinand the Holy was a great king, of a saintliness and greatness still acknowledged by the soldiers of Seville. After eight centuries they still lower their colors as they march past the great shrine of the Third Ferdinand, in the church which he purged from Mohammedanism and dedicated to the worship of the Christians' G.o.d and the Holy Virgin.

After him, Seville became the theatre of momentous deeds and events that had a far-reaching influence on the history of the country. Into her lap was poured the riches of the New World; within her halls Queen Isabella laid the foundation of her united kingdom; from Seville came the intellectual stimulus that revived the arts and letters of the whole Peninsula. Here were born and labored Pedro Campana, Alejo Fernandez, Luis de Vargas, the several Herreras, Francisco de Zurbaran, Alfonso Cano, Diego de Silva Velasquez, Bartolome Esteban Murillo, and Miguel Florentino. The riches of the western world made of Seville a second Florence, where art found ready patrons, and literature, cultivated protectors. She rivaled the great schools of Italy and the Netherlands, but out of her secret council chambers came the Inst.i.tution of the Holy Office, the scourge that withered the nation. In the latter half of the sixteenth century, forty-five thousand people were put to death in the archbishopric of Seville. Finally, under Philip II, Seville and her great church rose to stupendous wealth and power.

"When Philip II died, loyal Seville honored the departed king by a magnificent funeral service in the Cathedral. A tremendous monument was designed by Oviedo. On Nov. 25th, 1598, the mourning mult.i.tude flocked to the dim Cathedral while the people knelt upon the stones, and the solemn music floated through the air. There was a disturbance among a part of the congregation. A man was charged with deriding the imposing monument and creating disorder. He was a tax-gatherer and ex-soldier of the city named Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Some of the citizens took his side, for there was a feud between the civil and the ecclesiastical authorities in Seville. The brawler was expelled from the cathedral,--but he had his revenge. He composed a satirical poem upon the tomb of the King which was read everywhere in the city:--

_To the Monument of the King of Seville_

I vow to G.o.d I quake with surprise, Could I describe it, I would give a crown, And who, that gazes on it in the town But starts aghast to see its wondrous size; Each part a million cost, I should devise: What pity 'tis, ere centuries have flown, Old time will mercilessly cast it down!

Thou rival'st Rome, O Seville, in my eyes!

I bet, the soul of him who's dead and blest, To dwell within this sumptuous monument, Has left the seats of sempiternal rest!

A fellow tall, on deeds of valour bent, My exclamation heard. "Bravo," he cried, "Sir Soldier, what you say is true, I vow!

And he who says the contrary has lied!"

With that he pulls his hat upon his brow, Upon his sword-hilt he his hand doth lay, And frowns--and--nothing does, but walks away!"[16]