Chapter IV: Appendix: Ii.--Cordova 100 (3)

Ibn-Roshid Averroes, the most renowned of the Arabian philosophers, was born in Cordova in A.D. 1120. He came of a high-born family held in honour in the city. His grandfather was a Kadi of Cordova. In his youth Averroes learned law, mathematics, theology, and the practice of medicine. His reputation as a man of erudition and of force of intellect caused Almanzor to grant him privileges. He was appointed Kadi of the city of Seville.

The story of the life of Averroes is an example of the eternal conflict between the reformer of thought and morals and the mass of the people of his age. Averroes was misunderstood, impeached as a dangerous heretic, and condemned as an enemy of humanity. The Moors, in spite of their culture, could manifest rank fanaticism when they encountered any teaching that seemed to contradict the writings of the Koran, or the traditional piety. Averroes was a follower of Aristotle, although he remained a Mohammedan, and as the Greek philosophy did not accord completely with the dogmas of Mohammed, the teacher was arraigned as an assailant of religion and a foe to morality. His ostracism was thorough. The noble man was pelted with stones by boys in the street, and scorned by the whole city.

Shrinking from this terrible spectacle of the humiliation and cruelty heaped upon the innocent head of his revered tutor, the young Maimonides, a diligent pupil of Averroes, fled from Cordova. Averroes soon after left the city, and wandered in Morocco. But he was not allowed to roam unmolested. At Fez the populace treated him with gross inhumanity. He was forced to stand on the step of the mosque, and every one who passed into the House of Allah spat in the philosopher’s face. Hunted, despised, and bereft of the opportunity for using his learning for the good of humanity, Averroes dissembled and professed to repent of his heresies. We can hardly experience surprise at this. His humiliation and his trials had been such that few men could endure without a loss of reason or a total paralysis of aspiration.

Averroes returned to Cordova. But he was still avoided and looked upon as a felon, and his poverty and miserable state continued. Eventually he was reinstated. There was a reaction of feeling; bigotry was wearing out, and the virtues and attainments of the great thinker were recognised at their worth. The chief work of Averroes was his philosophy, compounded of Aristotle and the teaching of Neo-Platonism. His writings upon Aristotle are not of the highest value, for he was unversed in the Greek language.

Like Seneca, the Arab teacher Averroes was a rigidly plain liver. He contented himself with common raiment, slept on hard couches, and made only one meal in twenty-four hours. Averroes was not only reputed for his culture and his philosophical treatises; he bore the character of amiability, simplicity of manner, and extreme courteousness. He rises far above Seneca in the conduct of life and the application of his principles to actions. He was a true moral philosopher. Cordova has produced many illustrious sons, but certainly not a greater man since his day.

For some time the philosophy of Averroes was regarded as highly dangerous among the Moors of Cordova. It was considered equally injurious to the Christian faith, for all the works of the Arab doctor were placed upon the Catholic Index.

Cordova gave many valiant soldiers to the world, but none more brave than the Gran Capitan. The hero’s name was Fernandez Gonsalvo, or Hernandez de Cordova. He was born in 1453, and arose to fame about 1495. ‘Nursed amid the din of battle,’ Gonsalvo accompanied his father to the courts of Alfonso and Isabella. He fought in Portugal, showing remarkable intrepidity at the great battle of Albuera. At Monte Frio the Great Captain led the besiegers in scaling the ramparts. At Granada his horse was killed beneath him, but he mounted that of his attendant, who lost his life in the encounter. In the Calabrian campaign, Gonsalvo led the army. For his prowess he was made Viceroy of Naples.

The life of the Gran Capitan is a chapter of moving romance. In the Spanish estimation he is almost as mighty and adorable as the Cid. Gonsalvo was over sixty when he died. He was a born commander, capable of judging character and of leading men, and possessed of extraordinary bravery and coolness in action. His manners were urbane and pleasing.

The city is associated with at least three famous painters of the Andalusian school: Pedro de Cordova, Pablo de Céspedes, and Juan Valdés Leal. The Museo of Cordova is not a very important collection of paintings, but it contains some works of Céspedes, Zurbarán, and Ribera. Zurbarán’s best work is not to be seen in Cordova. Ribera’s ‘Rest on the Flight into Egypt,’ in the Museo, is a fine picture, but it is injured by the state into which it has fallen through neglect. It is deplorable that so many of the paintings in the collection at Cordova are in a condition of decay. During our visit to the city we were appalled at the indifference exhibited by those in charge of the pictures.

There is evidence that Cordova under the Moors contained some works of the early Spanish schools of painting. Pablo de Céspedes, in an essay, states: ‘In the parish church of San Pedro, in our city of Cordova, on the right wall, there are many paintings of those times which escaped the barbarous fury of the Moors when they held that place, though they have not escaped the ravages of time and the neglect of those intrusted with the care of the church. The consequence is, they are scarcely intelligible from the injury which they have received and the dust which has accumulated upon them. This sort of painting, rude and savage as it is, appears to have been the ashes whence was destined to spring that fairest Phœnix of modern art which has since burst forth in such splendour and riches.’

The first painter of Cordova of whom we have a brief record is Pedro de Cordoba. In 1475 he painted the Annunciation, which is still to be seen in the Capilla del Santo Cristo of the Mezquita. The picture is representative of Gothic art; but it is in a poor light, and the canvas is in a condition of neglect.

Cordova was ranked as the second centre of art in Andalusia; and the Italian influence, which succeeded the Gothic, was exemplified in the productions of the cultured and versatile Pablo de Céspedes, who was born in the city in 1538. This artist, who wrote a celebrated poem on the art of painting, is ranked among the writers as well as the painters of his nation. He studied in Italy, and became one of the canons of the Cathedral of Cordova. In Rome he painted frescoes after the manner of Correggio. ‘The Last Supper,’ and two pictures of ‘St. John’ and ‘St. Andrew,’ are in the Mezquita, and in these we see the intellectual quality of this painter’s art. Cean Bermudez, the Spanish critic, ranked Pablo de Céspedes high as a colourist, and especially in flesh-tints. Most of the pictures by Céspedes have perished.

Juan de Valdés Leal was born in Cordova in 1630. Most of the painter’s life was spent in Seville, where he was regarded as the rival of Murillo. His most sincere, and one of his earliest compositions is in Cordova, in the Church of the Carmen. This work is interesting because it instances the dramatic qualities of the painter. The retablo is painted in eleven different parts, representing the life of the prophet Elijah. Most of the work of Valdés Leal is to be seen in Seville.

Antonio de Castillo y Saavedra, born in Cordova in 1603, revived the best traditions of Céspedes. Castillo was one of the first of the Spanish landscape-painters, but his strength lay in the presentment of figures. His colour is not his _forte_, as will be seen from a study of his pictures in the Museo. Perhaps his most admirable work is the ‘Denial of St. Peter.’ Castillo unfortunately attempted to imitate Murillo, and it is said that he was envious of the reputation of that more popular painter. This artist seems to have spent most of his time in Cordova, where he died in 1667.

The poet Luis de Gongora was born in the city in 1561. His first studies were at the University of Salamanca, whither he was sent at the age of fifteen, to learn law. While at the College he became exceedingly worn in health, but his disease was not mortal, and his recovery was accounted miraculous. While still a youth Gongora wrote poetry. He showed but little aptitude for the profession of lawyer, and upon his return to Cordova he cultivated his bent for poetry.

In person Luis de Gongora was tall and powerfully built. He was a caustic writer, and in his first period his style was simple and delightful. But he became more mannered and affected as he grew older, and his later work was marred by pomposity, extravagance, and often by sheer absurdity. His mannerisms were, however, regarded as the fruit of rare genius by his host of disciples and imitators. Gongorism became the fashion among poetasters in Spain, and the followers of this master of eccentricity were slavish flatterers and fanatical worshippers.

At forty-five Gongora left Cordova and entered the Church. He afterwards lived in Madrid. In the capital he was under the patronage of influential hidalgos and nobles, and Philip III. made him his honorary chaplain. Gongora eventually returned to his native place, where he died at the age of sixty-six, in the year 1627.

In spite of his stilted style and metrical defects, Gongora was endowed with true poetic talent. Writing of him, Lope de Vega said: ‘I have known this gentleman for eight-and-twenty years, and I hold him to be possessed of the rarest and most excellent talent of any in Cordova, so that he need not yield even to Seneca or Lucan, who were natives of the same town.’