The Story of Seville

by Walter M. Gallichan

The isolated Capilla Mayor has an altar-piece of wood, and a silver image of the Virgin by Alfaro. The painted scenes are from the Scriptures. Crowning the retablo are a crucifix and large statues of the Virgin and St. John. Dancart, the designer of the retablo, was of the Flemish school of decorative carvers. The work was begun about 1482 and finished in 1526.

Between the Coro (choir) and the Chief Chapel an enormous candelabrum is displayed during Semana Santa, or Holy Week. It is called the Tenebrario, and it was constructed by Bartolomé Morel, a sixteenth-century sculptor. The structure is twenty-six feet high, and it is ornamented with several small images. During the imposing celebrations of Semana Santa, the candelabrum is lit by thirteen candles. Twelve of these lights represent the apostles who deserted their Master; the thirteenth candle stands for the Virgin, and when the twelve have been extinguished, the thirteenth still burns as a symbol of Mary's fealty to the Saviour.

The Coro was much injured by the collapse of the dome. Two grand organs were destroyed at this time. One of the most interesting objects preserved in the choir is the facistol, or choristers' desk, of Bartolomé Morel, adorned with highly-finished carvings. The choir stalls were decorated by Nufro Sanchez, a sculptor of the fifteenth century, whose work suggests German influence. They are beautiful examples of carving.

The Coro is entered by either of the two doors of the front or Trascoro. There is a handsome marble façade; a painting of the Virgin by an unknown hand, and a picture said to be from the brush of Francisco Pacheco, the artist, author and inquisitor. The white marble frontage is adorned with bas-reliefs of the Genoese school, exhibiting fine feeling. Italian influence is manifest in the picture of the Holy Mother, which is highly decorative in style.

Close to the Coro, near the chief entrance on that side of the Cathedral, is the tomb of Fernando Colón, son of Cristobal Colón (Columbus). The slab is engraved with pictures of the discoverer's vessels. An inscription runs: 'Á Castilla y á León mundo nuebo dié Colon:' i.e., 'To Castile and León Columbus gave the New World.'

The student of architecture and painting will find ample examples of varied styles of art in this great repository of sculpture, frescoes and panel pictures. He will be able to trace the development of architectural design from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, both in the exterior and interior of the immense Cathedral. The art of the Mudéjar, the Fleming, the Italian, the German and the Spaniard are here represented in masonry, decoration, stained glass, and upon canvas. Wandering designers and craftsmen of the Middle Ages looked upon Spain as a land of plenty. They came from Flanders, Italy and Genoa, and found favour with the wealthy Chapter of Seville. The artists employed to adorn the Cathedral range from Juan Sanchez de Castro, 'the morning star of Andalusia,' in 1454, to Francisco Goya, the last great painter of Spain.

Many of the so-called Spanish school of artists were aliens who settled in the country. Pedro Campaña was, for example, a native of Brussels. For twenty years he studied in Italy, and his Purification of the Virgin shows the Italian influence. Sturmio was probably a German named Sturm. Doménico Theotocópuli, called 'El Greco,' was a Greek. Mateo Perez de Alesio was an Italian, who lived in Seville, and died at Rome in 1600.

Luis de Vargas, the painter of the Nativity picture in the Cathedral, whose fresco work is to be seen elsewhere in the city, was a student of the Italian method. Vargas was a man of profound piety. He was born in Seville in 1502. After his death, scourges used for self-inflicted penance were found in his room, and by his bed was a coffin in which the ascetic painter used to lie in order to meditate seriously upon life.

The religious devotion of Luis de Vargas is exhibited in the spirit of his work. This reverential treatment of sacred subjects is characteristic of all the Sevillian painters. In their art they worshipped. Martinez Montañez, or Montañes, the sculptor, was a zealous Catholic. In his coloured statues we perceive a melancholy reflection of his sombre mind, a pathos expressing itself in realistic conceptions of a suffering Christ and a sorrowful St. Francis Xavier. These tinted statues appeal powerfully to the imagination of the Sevillian populace. Many of the images were made for the solemn processions of Semana Santa.

Among the artists employed in adorning the Cathedral there was not one more devoted to the Church than Pacheco. He was censor of art for the Inquisition, and in his writings we find precise counsels upon the fitting method of painting sacred pictures. To Pacheco the faith was of far greater moment than art. He was a close friend of Montañez, whose statues he sometimes coloured.