The Story of Seville

by Walter M. Gallichan

In the Oratory of the Catholic Kings there is the most notable specimen of ceramic art to be seen in Spain. It is a lovely retablo of azulejos, designed by Franciso Niculoso, an Italian, in 1504. Niculoso introduced this kind of azulejo painting into Seville. The central picture represents the Visitation of the Virgin to St. Isabella. A smaller subject is the Annunciation, and there is a curious genealogical tree of the Saviour. The decorations are fantastic.

In the Comedor there is a splendid laced ceiling of Mudéjar workmanship, dating from the fifteenth century. The walls are covered with interesting tapestry pictures.

Step on to the balcony of the Hall of the Ambassadors, and admire the roofing, the columns, and wealth of Oriental ornamentation. In the rooms of the Infantas there are Mudéjar ceilings of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The portraits of princes and other royal personages are not of much artistic importance. There is a picture by Goya, a very spirited portrait of Doña Maria, wife of Don Carlos IV. Goya was the last of the great painters of Spain. A number of his works are in a gallery of the Prado Museum at Madrid, but very few of his paintings are preserved in Seville. This example in the Alcázar deserves the visitor's notice.

One of the most interesting apartments on the upper floors of the royal palace is the bedroom of Pedro el Cruel. The dormitorio is sumptuous with Mudéjar decorations of the sixteenth century. Near the doorway are four heads painted upon the wall. They are the heads of four disloyal justices who incurred the anger of their sovereign, and were condemned to death. The paintings throw a light upon the character of Pedro, who, no doubt, surveyed them with satisfaction whenever he entered the chamber. It is probable that the King feared assassination, for from this part of the palace there is a staircase descending to the quarters formerly occupied by the guards and royal bowmen. The story runs that Pedro had this stairway made in order to communicate with his faithful servant Juan Diente, a famous marksman with the bow.

In the Dormitory of Queen Isabel there is a copy of Murillo's Ecce Homo, and various portraits of monarchs. The Salón Azul (Blue Room) is so named on account of the colour of its silk tapestries. The pastel paintings in this apartment are by A. Muraton, representing Queen Doña Isabel, the Infanta Doña Isabel, King Alfonso XII., and the Marquesa de Novaliches. There are also eighteen miniatures painted upon ivory.

The modern bedroom has a Coronation of the Virgin, the work of Vicente López, a copy of a Murillo, and another of Raphael's Holy Family.

Let us saunter now in the sunny gardens of the Alcázar. We can reach them through the Apeadero, and by the steps leading from the tank at the entrance. The reservoir is full of carp, some of them of corpulent proportions. A few small fish may be seen basking near the surface of the water, but the bigger and warier carp do not often show themselves. Roses cluster about the steps, and twine on all the railings. We come to a tree-grown court, with a gallery running on one side, and an arched entrance to the Baths of Maria de Padilla. This garden is called El Jardin del Crucero. The underground bath is cool, and it is a rest to the eyes to escape for a few minutes from the dazzling sunlight of the gardens. Here the lovely Maria, faithful mistress of the ferocious Pedro, was wont to bathe in warm weather.

To show their homage to the monarch's consort, the chivalrous courtiers came hither when the fair bather had taken her bath, and drank of the water in which she had washed her white limbs. It is said that these devoted servitors used sometimes to carry away some of the water in vessels 'to drink it with enjoyment.'

Pedro el Cruel, of all the Christian sovereigns who lived in the Alcázar, was the most attached to the palace. He lavished money upon the building of the apartments which we have just inspected, and employed the cleverest Mudéjar designers and craftsmen. In the Hall of Justice he heard charges against criminal offenders; in the gorgeous salons he received illustrious guests, discoursed with his officers, and played at draughts with his courtiers. His image arises before the imagination as we stray under the lemon and orange trees of his quaint and charming pleasure-grounds. Coming to the throne in his sixteenth year, Don Pedro decided upon making Seville his capital.

We have read in the historical sections of our account of the city how he earned the title of 'El Cruel.' But the story of his treachery towards his half-brothers has not been related.