The Cathedral of Zamora (Plate 15) is a more important edifice. This ancient city had in succession two French archbishops—Bernard and Jerome de Perigneaux. It is probable that the church was erected during the episcopate of Jerome, who died in 1126. It was consecrated in 1174, as is now known from that date discovered in an old epitaph during the restoration in the eighteenth century. This makes impossible the old belief that the church was built by Bernard de Perigneaux. M. Marcel Dieulafoy believes that it is the work of an Aquitaine architect. Both the exterior of the building, with its square tower, graceful cupolas, richly decorated, and the interior are interesting, with a character very rare in Spain. Of the carvings of this church M. Marcel Dieulafoy writes: “From the sculptural point of view I would signalise in the portal, the corinthian columns and niches, which both seem to come down from a monument of the decadence of the Roman age. One will notably remark the busts, bezel set in a sort of window, which has been seen in the monuments of Roman Gaul, on the northern slope of the Pyrenees, and which became a most common feature in the architecture of the Spanish renaissance; also the laurelled flying-arch, and the bas-relief of the spandril which crowns the busts.”
Two Romanesque churches, one belonging to the same period, the other to a later date, with a more advanced art, are the church and fine cloisters of San Pablo del Campo of Barcelona (Plate 16) and the Cathedral of Sigüenza. This last church, which was begun in 1102 and consecrated in 1123, was not completed until the thirteenth century. It is the most important example of the late-Romanesque Transition style. San Pablo was originally a Benedict convent, erected in 914 by Count Guitardo, but the building was restored in 1117 by Guiberto Guitardo, and is an excellent specimen of early Catalan architecture. Like San Pedro of Huesca, it has three parallel apses. The nave and transept are covered with barrel vaulting, and above the crossing rises an octagonal cupola. On the chief portal are carved figures of St. John and St. Matthew; and especially interesting are the carved capitals of the columns, both those in the church itself and even more those in the cloisters, where we find cusped arches in the Saracenic style, coupled shafts, and richly decorated capitals.
In all the Romanesque churches the greatest wealth of the carver’s art is lavished on the capitals of the columns. Here we see Bible scenes and purely decorative designs, alternating, often very strangely, with fantastic monsters, fables, and scenes from daily life. Almost all of these carvings are truly Spanish in their sentiment, though the foreign influences are always visible.
The Romanesque period lasted longer in Spain than in France; we do not find the Pointed or Gothic style before the twelfth century, when the Cistercian order introduced the severe and noble Burgundian type of church. But many old churches, though begun in the Romanesque period, assumed a Gothic character before their completion; we find this at Tarragona, in the old Cathedral of Salamanca, and in those of Londa and Tudela, as well as in many other churches. In the Monastery of Las Huelgas, Burgos, celebrated as the church where Edward I. of England was knighted by Alonso the Learned, the church, dating from 1279, is in severe Gothic style; the cloisters, too, are Gothic, but in the earlier Claustreo (Plate 17) there are fine Romanesque capitals and arches. Again, the older and less-known Cistercian Abbey at Verula is a Transition building, while the beautiful cloisters of the fourteenth century are Gothic.
This mingling of styles, owing to the difference in time between the building of different parts of the same church, has a real advantage to the student of Spanish architecture and sculpture. The Cathedral of Tarragona (Plate 18) especially furnishes an almost complete series of examples of all the Spanish art-styles. For the church, built on the site of a mosque, was begun about the year 1118, and dates mainly from the end of the twelfth and first half of the thirteenth centuries, but additions were made from the fourteenth century onwards as late as the eighteenth century. Thus we have examples of early Christian art in a sarcophagus of the façade, and that in the ancient window of the Capilla Mayor with the three Byzantine columns. The main building is a brilliant example of the developed Romanesque Transition style; the beautiful cloisters, among the most perfect in Spain, and the earliest of the side chapels are Gothic; the other chapels, added later, date from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, and are in the Renaissance and baroque styles. Even Moorish art is represented in the azulejo roofing of the N.W. lateral chapels, and in the small Moorish window, said to be a prayer niche or mihrab, with its Cufic inscription dating from the year of the Hegira 347—that is, 958 A.D.—in the ancient Capilla de Santa Maria Magdalena. The splendid doorway, with elaborate carvings, which gives entrance to the cloisters is the most notable pre-Gothic work in marble in Spain (Plate 19). But of this work we shall speak in the next chapter.
Following these early Gothic buildings we have the developed French cathedral style of the thirteenth century introduced into Spain. It is first seen in the great cathedrals of Burgos and Toledo (Plates 20 and 21), and a little later in that of Leon (Plate 22), the most perfect of the Gothic cathedrals in Spain. Very little of the national Spanish art is visible in these buildings; built for the most part by French architects, they recall in turn the cathedrals of Rheims, Beauvais, Bayonne, and Amiens; some see in Leon a copy of the great cathedral at Chartres. The truth is that the style of these buildings is eclectic; they are all distinguished by the romantic magnificence of their ornamentation. The elaborately carved choir-stalls of Leon Cathedral (Plates 23-29) furnish a splendid example of the power of carving. They are the masterpiece of John of Malines and the Dutch artist Copin. It was from carvings such as these that the native artists drew their inspiration.
CHAPTER IV
THE SCULPTURED PIECES AND TOMBS OF THE ROMANESQUE AND EARLY GOTHIC PERIODS
During the Romanesque and, even more, in the early Gothic periods the creative forces of art in Spain found its expression, after building, in carving in stone and wood. A wealth of ornament meets us in every building, for it must be remembered that the churches are the real museums of Spain. We have in the last chapter spoken incidentally of some of these carvings in connection with the churches for which they were executed. It is now necessary to examine in detail the most representative of these works. Among them we shall find many beautiful examples of polychrome statuary.
All the statues of this time were coloured, for Spain, always tenacious in her habits, never wavered from the custom of colouring her carvings to resemble life. However, few pieces retain manifest traces of such colourisation, the tints having been lost through the action of the atmosphere, as well as through frequent washings. The statues in the Gloria of Santiago de Compostella (Plate 30) are among the earliest works that are clearly painted, and even in these, as we have seen, it is very doubtful if the present tints represent the original colours used.
For this reason a very special interest attaches to the fine font in enamelled bronze, now in the Museum of Burgos, which came from the monastery of Santo Domingo at Silos. This remarkable and fine work is coloured and richly encrusted with gold and jewels, but of these unfortunately many have disappeared. Seated on a throne, the figure of God the Father occupies the centre, and ranged on either side are the twelve Apostles. The figures are set in a kind of frame formed by columns placed on a base of metal crossed by horizontal bars. Two winged monsters are in the triangles on either side, and a dove is placed above the figure of God. Small rectangular enamelled medallions are encrusted in the frame. Colour is used for the robes of the figures, for the winged monsters, the dove, and the medallions, the predominant tints being dark blue or vivid green. The heads, the hands, and the feet, as well as the architectural motives, are all in gold. Polished stones in bezel settings alternate in the decoration of the frame with the coloured medallions, and though many of the stones have disappeared this rich setting helps the effect of the whole bas-relief, which is one of great splendour.