[29] An inventory of effects belonging to the Hospital of San José at Jerez de la Frontera mentions, in 1589, “clothes and trimmings for the image of Our Lady. A crown of gilded guadamecí.”—Gestoso, Diccionario de Artífices Sevillanos, vol. i., p. xxii, note.
[30] A hall, says Ramírez de Arellano, would often be embellished by surrounding it with arches wrought of leather in relief and superposed on leather. As a rule the arches were gilt and silvered, and rested upon pilasters or columns. When pilasters were used, their centres would be ornamented with Italian devices such as flowers, trophies, imitated cameos, and foliage. Landscapes with a far horizon and no figures, known as boscaje or pintura verde were painted on the space between the arches, so that the general effect was that of a pavilion with arches on all sides, displaying everywhere a wide expanse of fertile country. The arches rested on a broad bordering of guadamecíes, and running round the lower part was a zócalo or socle, commonly made of tiling.
Such is the kind of decoration which was most in vogue in Spain throughout the latter half of the sixteenth century; that which was exported to Rome; and that which was commissioned by the Duke of Arcos.
[31] The Art of the Saracens in Egypt, pp. 124, 125.
[32] “Es noble arte, complida en sí; è acrescienta la nobleza del rey y del reyno, si en ella pararen mientes, como deuen; è pone paz en el pueblo y amor entre los omes, onde es carrera para muchos bienes.”—Ordenanzas de Sevilla, Part 1, p. 141.
[33] Gestoso finds no record of him in the city archives; but from a rough portrait of Arenas prefixed to his treatise, we judge that he was born about the year 1580.
[34] Arenas himself defines a carpintero de lo blanco as “he who prepares and works upon the wood employed in building; also, he who fashions tables, benches, etc., in his workshop.”
[35] “His language abounds in Arabic words and phrases of uncertain origin, whose meaning (since he wrote for men familiar with this work) he makes no effort to explain.”—Editor's introduction to the third edition of Carpintería de lo Blanco.
[36] Arabic al-farx, a carpet, piece of tapestry, or anything that covers and adorns.
[37] This mingled decoration is extremely common; and may be studied in our country, in the carved panels at South Kensington which are believed to proceed from the pulpit of the mosque of Kusun; or in the thirteenth-century panels of the tomb of Es-salih Ayyub.