It would take too much space to enumerate the choir seats in Spain worthy of notice; those at Toledo rank as the most important, as including the last period of the Gothic and best Renaissance styles. This coro contains 45 stalls in the lower, and 71 in the upper part. Mr. Street fully describes the lower part in his "Gothic Architecture in Spain," p. 252, and says: "The lower range of stalls, fifty in number, are the work of Maestro Rodrigo, circa A.D. 1495; and the upper range were executed, half by Berruguete and half by Felipe de Borgoña, A.D. 1543. The old stall ends are picturesque in outline, very large, and covered with tracery, panels and carvings with monkeys and other animals sitting on them. The upper range of stalls is raised by four steps, so that between the elbows of the lower stalls and the desk above them, are spaces filled in with a magnificent series of bas reliefs, illustrating the various incidents of the conquest of Granada. They were executed whilst the subjects depicted were fresh in the minds of the people, and are full of picturesque vigour and character. The names of the fortresses are inscribed on the walls; in some we have the siege, in others the surrender of the keys; in others the Catholic monarchs, accompanied by Cardinal Ximenes riding in triumph through the gates." The upper stalls, although considered by Mr. Street "heavy dull Paganism," are among the most important artistic works existing in Spain. Their sculptures and ornamentation reproduce the Renaissance Italian style in its finest period. Columns of red jasper are combined with the walnut-wood carvings, and the termination of the upper part which rests on the wall is of white marble carved by the same artists.
Choir stalls, sharing the fate of other architectural works, followed the general path of decay after the 16th century. Those stalls at the cathedral of Malaga, which were carved in the 17th century by José Michael, Pedro de Mena, and Luis Ortiz, are worthy of mention: the figures in high relief at the back are very fine. This falling off of artistic feeling is particularly observable at the cathedral of Cordova; the stalls there, which were carved by Pedro Duque Cornejo in the 18th century, are admirable in richness of ornamentation, but the whole decoration is in the worst possible taste. The fine lecterns which are placed in the centres of the choirs are often good examples of carving. An admirable model of this style exists at the cathedral of Zamora.
In treating of furniture of other kinds, the silver chair or throne of Dn. Martin de Aragon must figure in the first instance. It is described in "Gold and Silver Work," p. 19. In these and other objects which are not Oriental in style, constant reminiscences are observable of the similarity of ideas and forms with Italian or French objects. The large chests or cassoni of different sizes which are constantly met with in museums, or in private collections, are similar to objects of the same kind which abound in Italy. Some are covered with fine Gothic or Renaissance carvings in the same taste as the choir stalls, and are ornamented also with good iron-work. Some of them were made in the province of Cataluña of inlaid ivory, imitating in a coarse manner Florentine and Milanese work. These objects were of the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century. An excellent example exists at the cathedral of Toledo, near the Puerta de los Leones, consisting of an iron coffer covered with carved and repoussé work.
A fine cupboard of walnut wood may be seen at the same cathedral which is unrivalled for its beauty. It is composed of an architectural order with six pilasters, forming five vacant spaces completely covered with medallions, groups of children, flowers, and a multitude of subjects of ornamentation in reliefs, terminating with a frieze crowned with candelabra and salient points. This piece of furniture was made in 1549-1551, by the sculptor, Pedro Pardo, for holding vestments of the clergy. In 1780 a reproduction was made by Gregorio Lopez Durango: the original and the copy face each other in the room which is passed on entering the Sala Capitular. As Spanish carved wood work of the beginning of the 16th century may be mentioned the specimens at the Kensington Museum, Nos. 245 and 246-64, of two panels with armorial shields.
During the 16th, but more especially the 17th, century it became very fashionable in Europe to use secretaires or cabinets to a great extent, which, if we calculate by those that still are found in private houses in Spain, have never been so numerous in any other country. A great variety of every description may be seen at the South Kensington Museum. In looking through old inventories at Madrid, the number of these escritoires which decorated the rooms of the Palace is almost incredible. Many of them came from Italy, Flanders, or Germany. In a memorial drawn up by Pedro Gutierrez and presented to the King, begging for protection for this industry, he says: "The cabinets and escritoires, contadores y bufetes, which were worth 500, 600, and 700 reales when brought from Germany, are now made in Spain for 250 and 300 reales each." (Acad. de la Hist., N. 6, vol. iv. 371.) The quantity and importance of those brought from Germany is to be inferred from an edict promulgated by Philip III., in Valladolid in 1603, in which "cabinets of every kind coming from Nuremberg are not allowed to enter the country," ib. 518.
These cabinets were made in a great variety of ways. Some were, as we have seen, copied in Spain from foreign models, but the greater number constituted a characteristic industry of the Peninsula. Some were covered with wood carvings in a similar style to the large armoires in the Sala Capitular at Toledo. Others were known by the name of Vargueños, because the great centre of their manufacture is supposed to have existed at the village of Vargas in the province of Toledo. These cabinets are effective; their geometrical ornamentation is a reminiscence of the Oriental style, and the iron work outside is very striking. A good specimen may be seen at the Kensington Museum, No. 1073, '71; a woodcut of the upper portion is given on the next page.
We also meet with cabinets and armoires with glass doors covered with tortoise-shell and gilt bronze. A splendid series of inlaid work of tortoise-shell, ebony, mother-of-pearl and ivory is preserved at the Sacristy of the Cartuja at Granada, made by a friar of the same convent, Manuel Vazquez, at the beginning of the last century. Cabinets of ebony, inlaid and covered with repoussé silver work, must have been very generally made in Spain; silver was used to so great an extent after the conquest of America, that a law was issued in 1574 prohibiting with the utmost rigour the making and selling of this kind of merchandise, in order not to increase the scarcity of silver. "No cabinets, desks, coffers, braziers, etc., shall be manufactured of silver."
Cabinets of inlaid ivory or different coloured woods which were originally imported from Italy and Germany were constantly reproduced in Spain, as will appear by the following dialogue:— "How much has your worship paid for this cabinet? It is worth more than 40 ducats. What wood is it made of? The red one is made of mahogany from the Habana, and the black one is made of ebony, and the white one of ivory. You will find the workmanship excellent. Here you will find a finer cabinet. Where was it made? It was brought with these chairs from Salamanca." ("Dialogos Familiares," by J. de Luna, Paris, 1669, p. 111.) Among cabinets inlaid with bone or ivory there is a peculiar style in which furniture brought from the Portuguese possessions in the East was imitated in a rough way. Some also have reached us in which the drawers are covered with embroidery in silks of different colours, exquisitely worked. In the 17th century furniture of different kinds was covered with embroidered silks. At the Kensington Museum there is an interesting coffer, which came from the Convent of Loeches, and was originally the gift of Count Duke de Olivares, Philip the IVth's minister.