The Industrial Arts in Spain

by Juan F. Riaño

The Cathedrals and large churches in Spain lent themselves in an admirable manner to the construction of objects of all kinds in iron work, especially the railings enclosing the side chapels, or sepulchres, and the double screens required for the Capilla Mayor and Coro, owing to the ancient Spanish custom of constructing the choir in the centre of the principal nave of the cathedral. Hence we meet with names of the iron-masters, rejeros, mentioned in early documents as attached to the different cathedrals in the same manner as painters and architects. We find Bartolomé Morey working at Palma de Mallorca in 1389 to 1397. He was succeeded by his son Juan, from 1401 to 1407. See Piferrer, "Recuerdos y Bellezas de España." Maestro Basil worked at Burgos, and Maestro Pablo at Toledo and its dioceses towards the end of the same century. Maestro Juan Francés worked at Toledo in 1482. By this same artist is the beautiful reja of the Capilla Mayor of the Colegiata of Alcala de Henares; it is signed, "Maestre Juan Francés, maestro mayor de las obras de fierro en España." From this time the names of iron-masters are well known and numerous; we may safely affirm that those who lived in the 16th century have left us the most important works.

One of the finest specimens of this artistic industry is the splendid reja which divides the nave at the royal chapel of Granada. Its immense size has enabled the artist to carry out a splendid ornamentation in the "plateresque style," combined with reliefs on a large scale of figures of apostles and saints, terminated at the upper part with a wide band of ornamentation of leaves and flowers, crowned with a Rood, with the Virgin and St. John on either side. The splendid balustrades and supports are forged with the hammer; the figures and circular piers are formed of large plates, repoussé and carved in the most admirable manner, and give a good idea of the difficulties of this work, which the artists of this time had overcome, long before the various technical facilities of the present day existed. The ornamentation of this reja was originally gilt, and the figures are painted in oils. It was made about the year 1520 to 1530; in the lock, formed as a Gothic pinnacle, is a small inscription, "Maestro Bartolome me fec." This same artist worked at Jaen and Seville. Cean Bermudez calls him "sculptor and iron-master."

Two most important specimens of iron-work exist also at the cathedral of Toledo, enclosing the Capilla Mayor and Coro. The reja of the Capilla Mayor is 42 feet wide by 19 inches high; it rests on a pediment of marble ornamented with masks and bronze work, upon which rises the reja, which is divided horizontally by means of a frieze of ornamentation, and this again vertically in five compartments. In each vertical division there is a pilaster of four sides formed of repoussé plates, carved with a fine ornamentation in the renaissance style, this is again terminated with life-size figures in high relief of bronze. The second compartment rises upon the band which divides it in an horizontal sense; it follows the same decoration in its pilasters, and is terminated by a series of coats of arms, torches, angels, and a variety of foliage which finishes the upper part. Upon the centre, hanging from a thick chain supported from the roof, is suspended a life-size Rood, of admirable effect, which completes the decoration. In several spots there are labels with mottos in Latin; in one of them appears the following inscription, and the date of 1548 when this splendid work was finished: "Anno MDXLVIII. Paul III. P. M. Carol. V. Imper. Rege. Joannes Martinez Siliccus. Archipiscopus. Tolet. Hispaniae. Primat." The railings of this reja are silvered, and the reliefs and salient points gilt. The artist who made it was Francisco Villalpando, a native of Valladolid; this model was chosen among those of several artists, who presented their plans in competition before the ecclesiastical authorities; it is calculated that ten years elapsed before it was finally finished in 1548. Villalpando was greatly distinguished likewise as a sculptor and architect. In 1563 a book was printed after his death of a translation he made of the work on architecture by Sebastian Serlio. Other remarkable bronze works of art, which will be described further on, were also by him.

The reja of the coro, which is placed opposite that of the Capilla Mayor, is almost exactly similar in size. It is less rich in ornamentation, but so pure and sober in its general lines, and its ornamentation is so perfect, that it is perhaps superior to the other. This reja consists of a single architectonical body, divided in six vertical compartments, covered with bas reliefs of such delicate work that they appear rather to be by the hand of a silversmith than by an iron-master. An innumerable number of figures are combined with the ornamentation in the base, terminations of the columns and coronation; in the same manner it is full of banderoles with Latin mottos, and gilt and silvered; it was finished in 1548, as we see by the inscription. This reja was made by Domingo de Cespedes, a native of Toledo, with the help of his son-in-law, Fernando Bravo; the design was also chosen by competition, and it was finished in seven years. Both these admirable models of iron-work belong to the best productions of the renaissance school, and contain models which might be adapted with great advantage to ironwork of every description in the present day.

It would be an interminable task to describe the multitude of railings similar in richness and good taste to these which happily survive in Spanish cathedrals and churches. It is sufficient to call attention to the following. The reja of the Capilla del Condestable in the cathedral of Burgos, by Christoval de Andino in 1523, has been considered one of the finest specimens of its kind, owing to the perfection with which every detail is carried out. A contemporary writer in describing it says: "Good workmen, and those who wish that their work may have authority and be blameless, must endeavour to be guided by ancient models, as your fellow-citizen, Cristoval de Andino; his works are thereby more elegant and excellent than any others which I have seen up to the present time; if not, judge of his work by looking at the reja which he is making for your lord the Condestable, which is undoubtedly superior to all those which have hitherto been made in Spain." Sagredo—"Medidas del Romano," quoted by Cean Bermudez. In the centre of the upper part, towards the middle, appears the inscription: "Ab. Andino, A.D. MDXXIII." The reja of the coro of the cathedral of Seville, made by the iron-master, Sancho Muñoz in 1519, a native of Cuenca, is also very remarkable; besides the finer ornamentation which covers it, it has figures of kings and prophets representing the genealogy of Our Lord. The reja belonging to the capilla mayor of the same cathedral was the work of Friar Francisco de Salamanca, 1518-1533; it is covered with an open-work ornamentation, figures of angels and bas-reliefs, and is terminated in the upper part with a representation of the Entombment of Our Lord. The large reja of the cathedral of Cuenca, made by Arenas in 1517, those at Palencia, by Andino, 1520, and Rodriguez, 1555; the one at the church of Sn. Juan de la Penitencia, Toledo; the beautiful railing at the chapel of Palenzuela, in the cathedral of Salamanca, 1524, and a number of objects of smaller size, such as iron pulpits in the cathedrals of Barcelona, and in some chapels at Burgos, Avila, Palencia, and Toledo, several of which are anterior to the 16th century, are all worthy of the student's especial notice. Among these objects of smaller dimensions special reference must be made to the fine and picturesque reja surrounding the sepulchre of Archbishop Diego de Anaya, in the chapel of Sn. Bartolomé, in the cloister of the cathedral of Salamanca. The beauty of its details and the open-worked inscription which surrounds it, place it at once among the finest specimens of ironwork of the 15th century. The two window rejas at the house called "de las Conchas" in the same town—an admirable specimen of Burgundian architecture, although restored—may be quoted as excellent models of ironwork applied to civil buildings.

Iron pulpits have been made in Spain with great success. Two interesting examples of the end of the 15th century still exist at the cathedral of Avila. They are hexagonal in shape, and supported by lions' claws; they were originally gilt. One of these pulpits is ornamented in the Flamboyant style, the other in good Renaissance; consult Sir Digby Wyatt's "Architect's Note Book in Spain." Friar Francisco de Salamanca made two interesting iron pulpits for the cathedral of Seville; they are covered with bas-reliefs representing the Evangelists and subjects taken from the Acts of the Apostles and the Apocalypse. The pulpit at the parish church of Sⁿ. Gil de Burgos must also be mentioned. Mr. Street, notwithstanding his want of sympathy with every object not strictly of the Middle Ages, says: "It is of very late date, end of the 15th century, but I think it quite worthy of illustration. The support is of iron, resting on stone, and the staircase modern. The framework at the angles, top and bottom, is of wood, upon which the ironwork is laid. The traceries are cut out of two plates of iron, laid one over the other, and the ironwork is in part gilded, but I do not think that this is original. The canopy is of the same age and character, and the whole effect is very rich at the same time that it is very novel. I saw other pulpits, but none so old as this."

Among the applications of iron to decorations of civil architecture must be specially mentioned the nails and knockers on the doors of houses, which are so characteristic of Toledo and other old Spanish towns. This style was imitated from the Moors. Some doors still exist at the Alhambra, Granada, covered with enormous heads of nails of a half-spherical form with embossed pattern. These same nails are constantly to be found on old Spanish houses, to which are added in the angles pieces of iron of a most artistic order. A large number of these nails from Toledo, are in the Kensington Museum. Examples of two are given.

After the 16th century this industry loses its artistic interest and importance. Ironwork becomes simply practical and useful, and ceases to reproduce the grand carved and chiselled works of former times. The artistic objects are reduced to specimens on a small scale: door-locks, of which an excellent example exists at the church of Calatravas, Madrid; a weighing machine, made by the locksmith Salinas for the Mint in the 17th century, which was exhibited at the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus at Kensington in 1876, the fine ornamentation of the clock of the cathedral of Seville, made in the last century by Friar Josef Cordero, and the very remarkable iron locks made by Millan at the beginning of the present century, for the rooms at the palace of the Escurial, called "Piezas de Maderas finas." The art of inlaying iron with gold and silver, constitutes in Spain a special industry; the principal artists who carry it out at the present time with great skill are Messrs. Zuluaga at Madrid, and Alvarez at Toledo. The splendid sepulchre of General Prim at the church of Atocha, Madrid, made entirely of damasquiné ironwork, is worthy of the greatest commendation; the fine vases and shields of repoussé ironwork inlaid with gold, made by Alvarez of Toledo, are artistic and excellent revivals of the Milanese work of the 16th century.