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.”
The most important monument of this period in Seville is the Casa Pilatos. It illustrates the fusion of the Moorish and Renaissance styles, almost to the effacement of the former. In the architecture of this period we usually find an Arabic groundwork nearly obscured by ornamentation of the newer style. In the schemes of decoration the conventional floral designs and geometrical patterns remain, while the inscriptions, which figured so largely in earlier work, disappear. The stucco and azulejos no longer cover the whole walls, and the windows and doors become larger and less graceful. As Herr Schmidt remarks, effect was no longer sought for in the innately elegant but in bold, monumental compositions.
Mr Digby Wyatt (“An Architect’s Note-Book in Spain”) indicates as the two special points of architectural value possessed by the Casa de Pilatos, “the entirely moresque character of the stucco-work at a comparatively late date, and the profuse use of azulejos or coloured tiles. It is ... in and about the splendid staircase that this charming tile lining, of the use of which we have here of very late years commenced a very satisfactory revival, asserts its value as a beautiful mode of introducing clean and permanent polychromatic decoration.”
The history of this beautiful building is of singular interest. Its erection was begun in 1500 by the adelantado (governor), Don Per Enriquez, continued by his son, Don Fadrique Enriquez de Ribera, first Marqués de Tarifa, after his return from a two years’ pilgrimage in the Holy Land, and finished by Don Per Afan, first Duque de Alcalá, and sometime Viceroy of Naples, in 1533. Authorities differ whether it received its name from its having been modelled on the House of Pilate, seen by Don Fadrique, or from the relics presented to the Duque de Alcalá by Pope Pius V. The ex-Viceroy was a liberal patron of the arts. He enriched his house with priceless works of art and a fine library—since removed to Madrid. He played the part of Mæcenas to the Varros of his generation. Here the wits, the savants, and the virtuosi of Spain were made welcome, and here they met together in a noble coterie. Among the frequenters of the house may be named Pacheco the painter, Céspedes, the Herreras, Góngora the poet, Jauregui, Baltasar de Alcazár, Rioja, Juan de Arguizo, and (probably) Cervantes. Herr Schmidt tells us that Seville did not stand alone among the cities of Spain in boasting such a rallying-point for genius: “In Guadalajara, the palace of the Mendozas, in Alba de Tormes and Abadia, the castles of the Duque de Alba, in Madrid, the arts were treasured by Antonio Perez; in Zaragoza by the Duque de Villahermosa, in Plasencia by Don Luis de Avila, in Burgos by the Velascos. These and other families in Spain followed the example set by the Medici in Italy.”
The ground-plan of the Casa de Pilatos is Moorish, with an inner court, two storeys, guest-chambers, and high outer walls surrounding a garden. The exterior is plain and dignified. The portal is of marble, and over the arch is the text, “Nisi Dominus ædificaverit domum, in vanum laboraverunt qui ædificant eam,” etc. To the left of the door is a jasper cross fixed in the wall. In October 1521, the Marqués de Tarifa returned from the Holy Land, and having traversed the path trodden by Christ on His way from Pilate’s house to Calvary, he placed this cross on the wall and counted thence the fourteen stations of the cross. The last fortuitously coincided with the Cruz del Campo, raised near the Caños de Carmona, in the year 1482.