Chapter XIX: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century (2)

[43] It is a pity that the difference in date makes it impossible to identify this Bernardo with the Bernardo who built Santiago. For the work Dom Miguel gave 500 morabitinos, besides a yoke of oxen worth 12, also silver altar fronts made by Master Ptolomeu. Besides the money Bernardo received a suit of clothes worth 3 morabitinos and food at the episcopal table, while Soeiro his successor got a suit of clothes, a quintal of wine, and a mora of bread. The bishop also gave a great deal of church plate showing that the cathedral was practically finished before his death.

[44] Compare the doorlike window of Nossa Senhora da Oliveira at Guimarães.

[45] The small church of São Salvador has also an old door, plainer and smaller than São Thiago.

[46] The five small shields with the Wounds of Christ on the Portuguese coat are supposed to have been adopted because on the eve of this battle Christ crucified appeared to Affonso and promised him victory, and because five kings were defeated.

[47] Andre de Rezende, a fifteenth-century antiquary, says, quoting from an old 'book of anniversaries': 'Each year an anniversary is held in memory of Bishop D. Payo on St. Mark's Day, that is May 21st, on which day he laid the first stone for the foundation of this cathedral, on the spot where now is St. Mark's Altar, and he lies behind the said place and altar in the Chapel of St. John. This church was founded Era 1224,' _i.e._ 1186 A.D. D. Payo became bishop in 1181. Another stone in the chancel records the death, in era 1321, _i.e._ 1283 A.D., of Bishop D. Durando, 'who built and enriched this cathedral with his alms,' but probably he only made some additions, perhaps the central lantern.

[48] It was built 1718-1746 by Ludovici or Ludwig the architect of Mafra and cost 160:000$000 or about £30,000.

[49] The whole inscription, the first part occurring also on a stone in the castle, runs thus:--

E (i.e. Era) MC : L[~X]. VIII. regnant : Afonso : illustrisimo rege Portugalis : magister : galdinus : Portugalensium : Militum Templi : cum fratribus suis Primo : die : Marcii : cepit edificari : hoc : castellu : n[=m]e Thomar : q[=o]d : prefatus rex obtulit : Deo : et militibus : Templi : E. M. CC. XX. VIII : III. mens. : Julii : venit rex de maroqis ducens : CCCC milia equit[=u] : et quingenta milia : pedit[=u]m : et obsedit castrum istud : per sex Dies : et delevit : quantum extra : murum invenit : castell[=u] : et prefatus : magister : c[=u] : fratribus suis liberavit Deus : de manibus : suis Idem : rex : remeavit : in patri[=a] : su[=a] : cu : innumerabili : detrimento : homin[=u] et bestiarum.

[50] Cf. Templar church at Segovia, Old Castile, where, however, the interior octagon is nearly solid with very small openings, and a vault over the lower story; it has also three eastern apses.

[51] There is a corbel table like it but more elaborate at Vezelay in Burgundy.

[52] _E.g._ in S. Martino al Cimino near Viterbo.

[53] So says Murray. Vilhena Barbosa says 1676. 1770 seems the more probable.

[54] Indeed to the end the native builders have been very chary of building churches with a high-groined vault and a well-developed clerestory. The nave of Batalha and of the cathedral of Guarda seem to be almost the only examples which have survived, for Lisbon choir was destroyed by the great earthquake of 1755, as was also the church of the Carmo in the same city, which perhaps shows that they were right in rejecting such a method of construction in a country so liable to be shaken.

[55] Cf. similar corbel capitals in the nave of the cathedral of Orense in Galicia.

[56] Before the Black Death, which reduced the number to eight, there are said to have sometimes been as many as 999 monks!

[57] It was a monk of Alcobaça who came to General Wellesley on the night of 16th August 1808, and told him that if he wished to catch the French he must be quick as they meant to retire early in the morning, thus enabling him to win the battle of Roliça, the first fight of the Peninsular War.

[58] Cf. the clerestory windows of Burgos Cathedral, or those at Dunblane, where as at Guimarães the circle merely rests on the lights below without being properly united with them.

[59] From the north-east corner of the narthex a door leads to the cloisters, which have a row of coupled shafts and small pointed arches. From the east walk a good doorway of Dom Manoel's time led into the chapter-house, now the barrack kitchen, the smoke from which has entirely blackened alike the doorway and the cloister near.

[60] Compare the horseshoe moulding on the south door of the cathedral of Orense, Galicia, begun 1120, where, however, each horseshoe is separated from the next by a deep groove.

[61] The town having much decayed owing to fevers and to the gradual shallowing of the river the see was transferred to Faro in 1579. The cathedral there, sacked by Essex in 1596, and shattered by the earthquake of 1755, has little left of its original work except the stump of a west tower standing on a porch open on three sides with plain pointed arches, and leading to the church on the fourth by a door only remarkable for the dog-tooth of its hood-mould.

[62] The towers stand quite separate from the walls and are united to them by wide round arches.

[63] In the dilapidated courtyard of the castle there is one very picturesque window of Dom Manoel's time (his father the duke of Beja is buried in the church of the Conceição in the town).

[64] An inscription says:--

'Era 1362 [i.e. A.D. 1324] anos foi esta tore co (meçad) a (aos) 8 dias demaio. é mandou a faze (r o muito) nobre Dom Diniz rei de P...'

[65] Just outside the castle there is a good romanesque door belonging to a now desecrated church.

[66] Some of the distinctive features of Norman such as cushion capitals seem to be unknown in Normandy and not to be found any nearer than Lombardy.

[67] Sub Era MCCCXLVIII. idus Aprilis, Dnus Nuni Abbas monasterij de Alcobatie posuit primam lapidem in fundamento Claustri ejusdem loci. presente Dominico Dominici magistro operis dicti Claustri. Era 1348 = A.D. 1310.

[68] It is interesting to notice that the master builder was called Domingo Domingues, who, if Domingues was already a proper name and not still merely a patronymic, may have been the ancestor of Affonso Domingues who built Batalha some eighty years later and died 1402.

[69] In this cloister are kept in a cage some unhappy ravens in memory of their ancestors having guided the boat which miraculously brought St. Vincent's body to the Tagus.

[70] Cf. the aisle windows of Sta. Maria dos Olivaes at Thomar.

[71] It was at Leça that Dom Fernando in 1372 announced his marriage with Dona Leonor Telles de Menezes, the wife of João Lourenço da Cunha, whom he had seen at his sister's wedding, and whom he married though he was himself betrothed to a daughter of the Castilian king, and though Dona Leonor's husband was still alive: a marriage which nearly ruined Portugal, and caused the extinction of the legitimate branch of the house of Burgundy.

[72] Opening off the north-west corner of the cathedral is an apsidal chapel of about the same period, entered by a fine pointed door, one of whose mouldings is enriched by an early-looking chevron, but whose real date is shown by the leaf-carving of its capitals.

[73] A note in Sir H. Maxwell's _Life of Wellington_, vol. i. p. 215, says of Alcobaça: 'They had burned what they could and destroyed the remainder with an immense deal of trouble. The embalmed kings and queens were taken out of their tombs, and I saw them lying in as great preservation as the day they were interred. The fine tesselated pavement, from the entrance to the Altar, was picked up, the facings of the stone pillars were destroyed nearly to the top, scaffolding having been erected for that purpose. An orderly book found near the place showed that regular parties had been ordered for the purpose' (Tomkinson, 77).

[74] There is in the Carmo Museum at Lisbon a fine tomb to Dom Fernando, Dom Pedro's unfortunate successor. It was brought from São Francisco at Santarem, but is very much less elaborate, having three panels on each side filled with variously shaped cuspings, enclosing shields, all beautifully wrought.

[75] Another trophy is now at Alcobaça in the shape of a huge copper caldron some four feet in diameter.

[76] This site at Pinhal was bought from one Egas Coelho.

[77] Though a good deal larger than most Portuguese churches, except of course Alcobaça, the church is not really very large. Its total length is about 265 feet with a transept of about 109 feet long. The central aisle is about 25 feet wide by 106 high--an unusual proportion anywhere.

[78] Albrecht Haupt, _Die Baukunst der Renaissance in Portugal_, says that 'Der Plan durchaus englisch ist (Lang-und Querschiff fast ganz identisch mit dener der Kathedral zu Canterbury, nur thurmlos).'

[79] This spire has been rebuilt since the earthquake of 1755, and so may be quite different from that originally intended.

[80] In his book on Batalha, Murphy, who stayed in the abbey for some months towards the end of the eighteenth century, gives an engraving of an open-work spire on this chapel, saying it had been destroyed in 1755.

[81] Huguet witnessed a document dated December 7, 1402, concerning a piece of land belonging to Margarida Annes, servant to Affonso Domingues, master of the works, and his name also occurs in a document of 1450 as having had a house granted to him by Dom Duarte, but he must have been dead some time before that as his successor as master of the works, Master Vasquez, was already dead before 1448. Probably Huguet died about 1440.

[82] Caspar Estaço, writing in the sixteenth century, says that this triptych was made of the silver against which King João weighed himself, but the story of its capture at Aljubarrota seems the older tradition.

[83] These capitals have the distinctive Manoelino feature of the moulding just under the eight-sided abacus, being twisted like a rope or like two interlacing branches.

[84] The church was about 236 feet long with a transept of over 100 feet, which is about the length of the Batalha transept.

[85] She also sent the beautiful bronze tomb in which her eldest brother Affonso, who died young, lies in the cathedral, Braga. The bronze effigy lies on the top of an altar-tomb under a canopy upheld by two slender bronze shafts. Unfortunately it is much damaged and stands in so dark a corner that it can scarcely be seen.

[86] In one transept there is a very large blue tile picture.

[87] The Aleo is still at Ceuta. In the cathedral Our Lady of Africa holds it in her hand, and it is given to each new governor on his arrival as a symbol of office.

[88] The inscription is:--

Memoria de D. Duarte de Menezes
Terceiro conde de Viana, Tronco
dos condes de Tarouca. Primeiro
Capitão de Alcacer-Seguer, em Africa,
que com quinhentos soldados defendeu
esta praça contra cemmil
Mouros, com os quaes teve
muitos encontros, ficando n'elles
com grande honra e gloria. Morreu na
serra de Bonacofú per salvar a
vida do seu rei D. Affonso o Quinto.

[89] When the tomb was moved from São Francisco, only one tooth, not a finger, was found inside.

[90] Besides the church there is in Caminha a street in which most of the houses have charming doors and windows of about the same date as the church.

[91] 1524 seems too early by some forty years.

[92] The rest of the west front was rebuilt and the inside altered by Archbishop Dom José de Braganza, a son of Dom Pedro II., about two hundred years ago.

[93] A chapel was added at the back, and at a higher level some time during the seventeenth century to cover in one of the statues, that of St. Anthony of Padua, who was then becoming very popular.

[94] This winding stair was built by Dom Manoel: cf. some stairs at Thomar.

[95] A 'pelourinho' is a market cross.

[96] The kitchens in the houses at Marrakesh and elsewhere in Morocco have somewhat similar chimneys. See B. Meakin, _The Land of the Moors_.

[97] 'Esta fortaleza se começou a xiij dagosto de mil cccc.l. P[N. of T. horizonal line through it] iiij por mãdado del Rey dõ Joam o segundo nosso sõr e acabouse em tpõ del Rey dom Manoel o primeiro nosso Sñor fela per seus mãdados dom Diogo Lobo baram dalvito.'

[98] The house of the duke of Cadaval called 'Agua de Peixes,' not very far off, has several windows in the same Moorish style.

[99] Vilhena Barbosa, _Monumentos de Portugal_, p. 324.

[100] Though the grammar seems a little doubtful this seems to mean

Since these by service were And loyal efforts gained, By these and others like to them They ought to be maintained.

[101] One blank space in one of the corners is pointed out as having contained the arms of the Duque d'Aveiro beheaded for conspiracy in 1758. In reality it was painted with the arms of the Coelhos, but the old boarding fell out and has never been replaced.

[102] Affonso de Albuquerque took Ormuz in 1509 and Gôa next year.

[103] Sumatra was visited in 1509.

[104] Fernão Peres de Andrade established himself at Canton in 1517 and reached Pekin in 1521.

[105] Compare the elaborate outlines of some Arab arches at the Alhambra or in Morocco.

[106] Some have supposed that Boutaca was a foreigner, but there is a place called Boutaca near Batalha, so he probably came from there.

[107] Once the Madre de Deus was adorned with several della Robbia placques. They are now all gone.

[108] Danver's _Portuguese in India_, vol. i.

[109] See in Oliveira Martims' _Historia de Portugal_, vol. II. ch. i., the account of the Embassy sent to Pope Leo IX. by Dom Manoel in 1514. No such procession had been seen since the days of the Roman Empire. There were besides endless wealth, leopards from India, also an elephant which, on reaching the Castle of S. Angelo, filled its trunk with scented water and 'asperged' first the Pope and then the people. These with a horse from Ormuz represented the East. Unfortunately the representative of Africa, a rhinoceros, died on the way.

[110] Danver's _Portuguese in India_, vol. i.

[111] Unfortunately Fernandes was one of the commonest of names. In his list of Portuguese artists, Count Raczynski mentions an enormous number.

[112] In the year 1512 Olivel was paid 25$000. He had previously received 12$000 a month. He died soon after and his widow undertook to finish his work with the help of his assistant Muñoz.

[113] See the drawing in _A Ordem de Christo_ by Vieira Guimarães.

[114] The last two figures look like 15 but the first two are scarcely legible; it may not be a date at all.

[115] All the statues are rather Northern in appearance, not unlike those on the royal tombs in Santa Cruz, Coimbra, and may be the work of the two Flemings mentioned among those employed at Thomar, Antonio and Gabriel.

[116] The door--notwithstanding the supposed date, 1515--was probably finished by João after 1523.

[117] Cf. the carving on the jambs of the Allah-ud-din gate at Delhi.

[118] Such heads of many curves may have been derived from such elaborate Moorish arches as may be seen in the Alhambra, or, for example, in the Hasan tower at Rabat in Morocco, and it is worth noticing that there were men with Moorish names among the workmen at Thomar--Omar, Mafamede, Bugimaa, and Bebedim.

[119] Esp(h)era=_sphere_; Espera=_hope_, present imperative.

[120] The inscription says: 'Aqui jaz Matheus Fernandes mestre que foi destas obras, e sua mulher Izabel Guilherme e levou-o nosso Senhor a dez dias de Abril de 1515. Ella levou-a a....'

[121] Fig. 57.

[122] _As Capellas Imperfeitas e a lenda das devisas Gregas._ Por Caroline Michaëlis de Vasconcellos. Porto, 1905.

[123] The frieze is now filled up and plastered, but not long ago was empty and recessed as if prepared for letting in reliefs. Can these have been of terra cotta of the della Robbia school? Dom Manoel imported many which are now all gone but one in the Museum at Lisbon. There are also some della Robbia medallions at the Quinta de Bacalhôa at Azeitão near Setubal.

[124] J. Murphy, _History of the Royal Convent of Batalha_. London, 1792.

[125] One of the first was probably the chapel dos Reys Magos at São Marcos near Coimbra.

[126] A conto = 1.000$000.

[127] It is no use telling a tramway conductor to stop near the Torre de São Vicente. He has never heard of it, but if one says 'Fabrica de Gas' the car will stop at the right place.

[128] Similar roofs cap the larger angle turrets in the house of the Quinta de Bacalhôa near Setubal, built by Dona Brites, mother of Dom Manoel, about 1490, and rebuilt or altered by the younger Albuquerque after 1528 when he bought the Quinta.

[129] Raczynski says 1517, Haupt 1522.

[130] According to Raczynski, João de Castilho in 1517 undertook to carry on the work for 140$000 per month, at the rate of $50 per day per man. 140$000=now about £31.

[131] Nicolas was the first of the French renaissance artists to come to Portugal.

[132] _E.g._ on the Hotel Bourgthéroulde, Rouen.

[133] Cf. the top of a turret at St. Wulfram, Abbeville.

[134] Haupt.

[135] The university was first accommodated in Sta. Cruz, till Dom João gave up the palace where it still is. It was after the return of the university to Coimbra that George Buchanan was for a time professor. He got into difficulties with the Inquisition and had to leave.

[136] Nicolas the Frenchman is first mentioned in 1517 as working at Belem. He therefore was probably the first to introduce the renaissance into Portugal, for Sansovino had no lasting influence.

[137] 'To give room and licence to Dioguo de Castylho, master of the work of my palace at Coimbra, to ride on a mule and a nag seeing that he has no horse, and notwithstanding my decrees to the contrary.'--Sept. 18, 1526.

[138] _Vilhena Barbosa Monumentes de Portugal_, p. 411.

[139] Other men from Rouen are also mentioned, Jeronymo and Simão.

[140] The stone used at Batalha and at Alcobaça is of similar fineness, but seems better able to stand exposure, as the front of Santa Cruz at Coimbra is much more decayed than are any parts of the buildings at either Batalha or Alcobaça. The stone resembles Caen stone, but is even finer.

[141] João de Ruão also made some bookcases for the monastery library.

[142] 'Aqui jas o muito honrado Pero Rodrigues Porto Carreiro, ayo que foy do Conde D. Henrique, Cavalleiro da Ordem de San Tiago, e o muyto honrado Gonzalo Gil Barbosa seu genro, Cavalleiro da Ordem de X^to, e assim o muito honrado seu filho Francisco Barbosa: os quaes forão trasladados a esta sepultura no anno de 1532.'--Fr. _Historia de Santarem edificada_. By Ignacio da Piedade e Vasconcellos. Lisboa Occidental, MDCCXXXX.

[143] The date 1522 is found on a tablet on Ayres' tomb, so the three must have been worked while the chancel was being built.

[144] _Les Arts en Portugal:_ letters to the Berlin Academy of Arts. Paris, 1846.

[145] _São Marcos:_ E. Biel. Porto, in _A arte e a natureza em Portugal:_ text by J. de Vasconcellos.

[146] There is also a fine reredos of somewhat later date in the church of Varziella near Cantanhede not far off: but it belongs rather to the school of the chapel dos Reis Magos; there is another in the Matriz of Cantanhede itself.

[147] Johannis III. Emanuelis filius, Ferdinandi nep. Eduardi pronep. Johannis I. abnep. Portugal. et Alg. rex. Affric. Aethiop. arabic. persic. Indi. ob felicem partum Catherinae reginae conjugis incomparabilis suscepto Emanuele filio principi, aram cum signis pos. dedicavitque anno MDXXXII. Divae Mariae Virgini et Matri sac.

[148] The only other object of any interest in the São Marcos is a small early renaissance pulpit on the north side of the nave, not unlike that at Caminha.

[149] During the French invasion much church plate was hidden on the top of capitals and so escaped discovery.

[150] João then bought a house in the Rua de Corredoura for 80$000 or nearly £18.--Vieira Guimarães, _A Ordem de Christo_, p. 167.

[151] There is preserved in the Torre do Tombo at Lisbon a long account of the trial of a 'new Christian' of Thomar, Jorge Manuel, begun on July 15, 1543, in the office of the Holy Inquisition within the convent of Thomar.--Vieira Guimarães, p. 179.

[152] From book 34 of João III.'s Chancery a 'quitaçã' or discharge given to João de Castilho for all the work done for Dom João or for his father, viz.--'In Monastery of Belem; in palace by the sea--swallowed up by the earthquake in 1755--balconies in hall, stair, chapel, and rooms of Queen Catherine, chapel of monastery of São Francisco in Lisbon, foundation of Arsenal Chapel; a balcony at Santos, and divers other lesser works. Then a door, window, well balustrade, garden repairs; work in pest house; stone buildings at the arsenal for a dry dock for the Indian ships; the work he has executed at Thomar, as well as the work he has done at Alcobaça and Batalha; besides he made a bastion at Mazagão so strong,' etc.--Raczynski's _Les Artistes Portugais_.

[153] Vieira Guimarães, _A Ordem de Christo_, pp. 184, 185.

[154] Foi erecta esta cap. No A.D. 1572 sed prof. E. 1810 foi restaur E. 1848 por L. L. d'Abreu Monis. Serrão, E. Po. D Roure, Pietra concra. Muitas Pessoas ds. cid^{eç}.

[155] Ferguson (_History of Modern Architecture_, vol. ii. p. 287) says that some of the cloisters at Gôa reminded him of Lupiana, so no doubt they are not unlike those here mentioned.

[156] An inscription over a door outside says:

DNS. EMANVEL NORONHA EPVS LAMACEN. 1557.

[157] One chapel, that of São Martin, has an iron screen like a poor Spanish _reja_.

[158] It has been pulled down quite lately. Lorvão, in a beautiful valley some fifteen miles from Coimbra, was a very famous nunnery. The church was rebuilt in the eighteenth century, has a dome, a nuns' choir to the west full of stalls, but in style, except the ruined cloister, which was older, all is very rococo.

[159] This reredos is in the chapel on the south of the Capella Mor.

[160] This aqueduct begun by Terzi in 1593 was finished in 1613 by Pedro Fernandes de Torres, who also designed the fountain in the centre of the cloister.

[161] It was here that Wellington was slung across the river in a basket on his way to confer with the Portuguese general during the advance on Salamanca.

[162] Terzi was taken prisoner at Alcacer-Quebir in 1578 and ransomed by King Henry, who made him court architect, a position he held till his death in 1598.

[163] Some of the most elaborate dated 1584 are by Francisco de Mattos.

[164] It was handed over to the cathedral chapter on the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1772.

[165] São Bento is now used as a store for drain-pipes.

[166] The Matriz at Vianna has a fifteenth-century pointed door, with half figures on the voussoirs arranged as are the four-and-twenty elders on the great door at Santiago, a curious arrangement found also at Orense and at Noya.

[167] There was only one other house of this order in Portugal, at Laveiras.

[168] Not of course the famous son of Charles V., but a son of Philip IV.

[169] In that year from June to October 45,000 men are inscribed as working on the building, and 1266 oxen were bought to haul stones!

[170] The area of the Escorial, excluding the many patios and cloisters, is over 300,000 square feet; that of Mafra, also excluding all open spaces, is nearly 290,000.

[171] Compare also the front of the Misericordia in Oporto.

End of Project Gutenberg's Portuguese Architecture, by Walter Crum Watson