Chapter XXIX: A Velón 168 (2)

"'Well, but,' insisted the young monarch, 'what ground is there for
thinking so?'

"'Señor,' replied the prelate, 'none whatever. _The time for
traditions is passing away._'"

The other cross (Pl. iii.) is more than twice as large, and measures just one yard in height by two feet four and a half inches in width. Tradition says that the primitive, undecorated wooden core of this cross was carried against the Moors by King Pelayo. The ornate casing, similar to that upon the Cross of Angels, was added later, and contains 152 gems and imitation gems. The following inscription tells us that this casing was made at the Castle of Gauzon in Asturias, in the year 828:--

_"Susceptum placide maneat hoc in honore Dei, quod offerent
Famuli Christi Adefonsus princeps et Scemaena Regina;
Quisquis auferre hoc donoria nostra presumpserit
Fulmine divino intereat ipse.
Hoc opus perfectum et concessum est
Santo Salvatori Oventense sedis.
Hoc signo tuetur pius, hoc vincitur inimicus
Et operatum est in castello Gauzon anno regni nostri._
XLII. _discurrente Era_ DCCCLXVI."

These crosses are processional. Others which were used for the same purpose are those of San Sebastián de Serrano (Galicia), San Munio de Veiga, Santa María de Guillar (Lugo), San Mamed de Fisteos, and Santa María de Arcos. The five preceding crosses are of bronze; those of Baamorto and San Adriano de Lorenzana are respectively of silver, and of wood covered with silver plates, and all were shown at the Lugo exhibition I have spoken of.

Besides the Cross of Victory or Pelayo, and the Cross of Angels, interesting objects preserved at Oviedo are a small diptych presented by Bishop Don Gonzalo (A.D. 1162-1175), and the _Arca Santa_ used for storing saintly relics. This beautiful chest, measuring three feet nine inches and a half in length by twenty-eight inches and a half in height, is considered by Riaño to be of Italian origin, and to date from between the tenth and twelfth centuries.

Another handsome box belonging to the cathedral of Astorga was once upon a time the property of Alfonso the Third and his queen Jimena, whose names it bears--ADEFONSVS REX: SCEMENA REGINA. The workmanship is consequently of the close of the ninth or the beginning of the tenth century. The material is wood covered with _repoussé_ silver plates on which are figured angels and birds, together with the eagle and the ox as emblems of the evangelists John and Luke, whose names are also to be read upon the casket.

Next to the sword, no object in the history of mediæval Spain was more profoundly popular or venerated than the _relicario_. This in its primitive form was just a small receptacle, such as a vase or urn of gold or silver, ivory or crystal, used by the laity or clergy for treasuring bones, or hairs, or other relics of the Virgin, or the Saviour, or the saints. In private families a holy tooth, or toe, or finger thus preserved would often, as though it were some Eastern talisman, accompany its credulous possessor to the battlefield.

As time went on, the urn or vase was commonly replaced by chests or caskets made by Moorish captives, or by tranquil and respected Moorish residents within the territory of the Christian,[19] or wrested from the infidel in war and offered by the Spanish kings or nobles to their churches. Here they were kept on brackets, or suspended near the altar by a chain[20] of silver, gold, or iron. Among the Moors themselves such chests and caskets served, according to their richness or capacity, for storing perfumes, clothes, or jewels, or as a present from a bridegroom to his bride; and since the sparsely-furnished Oriental room contains no kind of wardrobe, cabinet, or chest of drawers, their use in Moorish parts of Spain was universal.

[19] In many towns a hearty friendship sprang up between the Spaniard
and the Moor. This was a natural consequence in places where the
vanquished had a better education than the victor. The warrior
population of both races might be struggling on the field at the
same moment that their craftsmen were fraternizing in the workshop.
Ferdinand the First and Alfonso the Sixth were particularly lenient
in their usage of the dominated Muslim. Thus, the former of these
princes recognised the Moorish townspeople of Sena as his vassals,
while those of Toledo were freely allowed by Alfonso to retain
their worship and their mosque.

[20] "_Fallaron ay de marfil arquetas muy preçiadas
Con tantas de noblezas que non podrian ser contadas
Fueron para San Pedro las arquetas donadas;
Están en este dia en el su altar asentadas._"
Poem of FERRAN GONZALVEZ (13th century).

A typical Moorish casket of this kind (Plate iv.) is now in the cathedral of Gerona. It measures fifteen inches in length by nine across, fastens with a finely ornamented band and clasp of bronze, and is covered with thin silver-gilt plates profusely decorated with a bead and floral pattern superposed upon a box of non-decaying wood--possibly larch or cedar. A Cufic inscription along the lower part of the lid was formerly interpreted as follows:--

"In the name of God. (May) the blessing of God, prosperity and fortune and perpetual felicity be (destined) for the servant of God, Alhakem, Emir of the Faithful, because he ordered (this casket) to be made for Abdul Walid Hischem, heir to the throne of the Muslims. It was finished by the hands of Hudzen, son of Bothla."

It is supposed, however, that the part of this inscription which contains the maker's name was rendered incorrectly by Riaño, who followed, on this point, Saavedra, Fita, and other archæologists; and that the casket was made to the order of Djaudar, as a gift to the heir to the throne, Abulwalid Hischem, the actual workmen being two slaves, Bedr and Tarif. That is to say, the name Hudzen is now replaced by Djaudar, whom Dozy mentions in his history of the Mussulman domination in Spain, and who is known to have been a eunuch high in favour with Alhakem, Hischem's father. These princes ruled at Cordova in the latter half of the tenth century and the beginning of the eleventh.

Spanish-Moorish caskets (_arquetas_) of ivory, silver, or inlaid work, are also preserved in the South Kensington Museum, the Archæological Museum at Madrid, and the cathedrals of Braga, Tortosa, and Oviedo. There is no reason to doubt that all these boxes were made in Spain, although an Eastern and particularly Persian influence is very noticeable in their scheme of decoration.

Two silver caskets which were once in the church of San Isidoro at León are now in the Madrid Museum. The smaller and plainer of the two, elliptical in shape and measuring five inches in length by two inches and a half in depth, is covered with a leaf and stem device outlined in black enamel. A Cufic inscription of a private and domestic import, also picked out with black enamel, runs along the top. The lid is ornamented, like the body of the box, with leaves and stems surrounded by a Grecian border, and fastens with a heart-shaped clasp secured by a ring.

The other, more elaborate, and larger box measures eight inches long by five in height. In shape it is a parallelogram, with a deeply bevelled rather than--as Amador describes it--a five-sided top. Bands of a simple winding pattern outlined in black enamel on a ground of delicate niello-work run round the top and body of the casket. The central band upon the lower part contains a Cufic inscription of slight interest. Some of the letters terminate in leaves. The bevelled lid is covered with groups of peacocks--symbolic, among Mohammedans, of eternal life--outlined in black enamel. These birds are eight in all, gathered in two groups of four about the large and overlapping hinges. Four leaves, trifoliate, in _repoussé_, one beneath the other, decorate the clasp, which opens out into a heart containing, also in _repoussé_, two inverted peacocks looking face to face. Between the birds this heart extremity is pierced for the passage of a ring.

Amador de los Ríos considers that both caskets were made between the years 1048 and 1089.

The use of coloured enamel in the manufacture of these boxes dates, or generally so, from somewhat later. Although the history of enamelling in Spain is nebulous and contradictory in the extreme, we know that caskets in _champlevé_ enamel on a copper ground, with figures either flat or hammered in a bold relief, became abundant here. Two, from the convent of San Marcos at León, and dating from the thirteenth century, are now in the Madrid Museum. Labarte says that the lids of these enamelled reliquaries were flat until the twelfth century, and of a gable form thenceforward.

Other old objects--boxes, triptyches, statuettes, incensories, book-covers, crucifixes, and processional crosses--partly or wholly covered with enamel, belong or recently belonged to the Marquises of Castrillo and Casa-Torres, the Count of Valencia de Don Juan, and Señor Escanciano. All, or nearly all, of these are thought to have proceeded from Limoges (Pl. v.). _Champlevé_ enamel is also on the tiny "Crucifix of the Cid" (Pl. vi.) at Salamanca, as well as on the Virgin's throne in the gilt bronze statuette of the Virgin de la Vega at San Esteban in the same city.[21] Of this image, although it properly belongs to another heading of my book, I think it well to give a reproduction here (Plate vii.). I will also mention, in spite of its presumably foreign origin, the enamelled altar-front of San Miguel de Excelsis in Navarre--a small sanctuary constructed by a mediæval cavalier who, by an accident occasioned by the dark, murdered his father and mother in lieu of his wife.[22] This altar-front, conspicuously Byzantine in its style, measures four feet three inches high by seven feet five inches long, and is now employed as the _retablo_ of the little church which stands in solitary picturesqueness on the lofty mountain-top of Aralar. The figures, coloured in relief upon a yellowish enamel ground, are those of saints, and of a monarch and his queen--possibly King Sancho the Great, who is believed to have been the donor of the ornament. If this surmise be accurate, the front would date from the eleventh century.

[21] Together with the statuette of Ujué in Navarre, the Virgen de la
Vega of Salamanca may be classed as one of the earliest "local
Virgins" of this country. Sometimes these images are of wood alone,
sometimes of wood beneath a silver covering, sometimes, as that of
the Claustro de León, of stone. But whatever may be the substance,
the characteristics are the same:--Byzantine rigidness and
disproportion, the crude and primitive anatomy of artists only just
emerging from the dark. The Virgin and Child of Santa María la Real
of Hirache in Navarra may be instanced as another of the series.
This image dates from late in the twelfth or early in the
thirteenth century, although a crown and nimbus have been added
subsequently. It measures rather more than a yard in height, and
consists of wood covered with silver plates, except the hands and
face, which are painted. The Virgin, seated, holds the Infant with
her left arm; in her right hand is an apple. A kind of stole
bearing the following inscription in Gothic letter falls upon the
Infant's breast; "_Puer natus est nobis, venite adoremus. Ego sum
alpha et omega, primus et novissimus Dominus._" Before this
statuette the King Don Sancho is stated to have offered his
devotion.

[22] I quote this legend in Appendix A.

I have said that the history of Spanish enamel-work is both confused and scanty. The subject in its general aspects has been studied by M. Roulin, whose judgments will be found in the _Revue de l'Art Ancien et Moderne_, and in his article, "Mobilier liturgique d'Espagne," published in the _Revue de l'Art Chrétien_ for 1903. M. Roulin believes the altar-front of San Miguel in Excelsis to be a Limoges product, not earlier than the first half of the thirteenth century.

Ramírez de Arellano declares that no enamelling at all was done in Spain before the invasion of the Almohades. López Ferreiro, who as a priest had access to the jealously secreted archives of Santiago cathedral, gives us the names of Arias Perez, Pedro Martinez, Fernan Perez, and Pedro Pelaez, Galician enamellers who worked at Santiago in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Martin Minguez says that enamelling was done at Gerona in the fourteenth century, and Moorish enamels were certainly produced at Cordova and Cuenca from comparatively early in the Middle Ages. A few obscure workers in enamel are mentioned by Gestoso, in his _Diccionario de Artistas Sevillanos_, as living at Seville in the fifteenth century, though, in the entries which refer to them, little is told us of their lives and nothing of their labours. In the sixteenth century we obtain a glimpse of two enamellers of Toledo--Lorenzo Marqués and Andrés Ordoñez, and dating from the same period the Chapter of the Military Orders of Ciudad Real possesses a silver-gilt _porta-paz_ with enamelling done at Cuenca. However, our notices of this branch of Spanish art have yet to be completed.

A long array of royal gifts caused, in the olden time, the treasure of Santiago cathedral to be the richest and most varied in the whole Peninsula, although at first this see was merely suffragan to Merida. But early in the twelfth century a scheming bishop, by name Diego Gelmirez, intrigued at Rome to raise his diocese to the dignity of an archbishopric. The means by which he proved successful in the end were far from irreproachable. "Gelmirez," says Ford (vol. ii. p. 666) "was a cunning prelate, and well knew how to carry his point; he put Santiago's images and plate into the crucible, and sent the ingots to the Pope."

The original altar-front or parament (_aurea tabula_) was made of solid gold. This altar-front Gelmirez melted down to steal from it some hundred ounces of the precious metal for the Pope, donating in its stead another front of gold and silver mixed, wrought from the remaining treasure of the sanctuary. Aymerich tells us that the primitive frontal bore the figure of the Saviour seated on a throne supported by the four evangelists, blessing with his right hand, and holding in his left the Book of Life. The four-and-twenty elders (called by quaint Morales "gentlemen") of the apocalypse were also gathered round the throne, with musical instruments in their hands, and golden goblets filled with fragrant essences. At either end of the frontal were six of the apostles, three above and three beneath, separated by "beautiful columns" and surrounded by floral decoration. The upper part was thus inscribed:--

HANC TABULAM DIDACUS PRÆSUL JACOBITA
SECUNDUS
TEMPORE QUINQUENNI FECIT EPISCOPI
MARCAS ARGENTI DE THESAURO JACOBENSI
HIC OCTOGINTA QUINQUE MINUS NUMERA.

And the lower part:--

REX ERAT ANFONSUS GENER EJUS DUX RAIMUNDUS
PRÆSUL PRÆFATUS QUANDO PEREGIT OPUS.

This early altar-front has disappeared like its predecessor; it is not known precisely at what time; but both Morales and Medina saw and wrote about it in the sixteenth century.

Another ornament which Aymerich describes, namely, the _baldaquino_ or _cimborius_, has likewise faded from the eyes of the profane, together with three bronze caskets covered with enamel, and stated by Morales to have contained the bones of Saints Silvestre, Cucufate, and Fructuoso. One of these caskets was existing in the seventeenth century.

The silver lamps were greatly celebrated. Ambrosio de Morales counted "twenty or more"; but Zepedano made their total mount to fifty-one. The French invasion brought their number down to three. Three of the oldest of these lamps had been of huge dimensions, particularly one, a present from Alfonso of Aragon, which occupied the centre. The shape of it, says Aymerich, was "like a mighty mortar." Seven was the number of its beaks, symbolic of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost; and each beak contained a lamplet fed with oil of myrtles, acorns, or olives.

All kinds of robberies and pilferings have thus been perpetrated with the once abundant wealth of Santiago.[23] The jealous care which keeps the copious archives inaccessible to all the outside world is in itself of sinister significance. It has transpired, furthermore, that many of the bishops have "exchanged," or simply stolen, portions of the holy property. Besides these clerical dilapidations, a cartload, weighing half a ton, was carried off by Marshal Ney, though some was subsequently handed back, "because the spoilers feared the hostility of the _Plateros_, the silversmiths who live close to the cathedral, and by whom many workmen were employed in making little graven images, teraphims and lares, as well as medallions of Santiago, which pilgrims purchase."[24]

[23] A recent instance, not devoid of humour, is as follows. About three
years ago, a silly rogue removed and carried off the crown from
Santiago's head; but since the actual jewel is only worn on solemn
festivals, his prize turned out to be a worthless piece of tin. An
odd removal of the treasure of another Spanish church was noted by
the traveller Bowles. "The curate of the place, a worthy fellow who
put me up in his house, assured me that a detachment of a legion of
locusts entered the church, ate up the silk clothes upon the
images, and gnawed the varnish on the altars." Perhaps these
adamantine-stomached insects have assailed, from time to time, the
gold and silver plate of Santiago.

[24] Ford, _Handbook_, vol. ii. p. 671. I briefly notice, in Appendix B,
the Santiago jet-work, also practised by these craftsmen.

Among the gifts of value which this temple yet preserves are the ancient processional cross presented by the third Alfonso in the year of grace 874,[25] and the hideous fourteenth-century reliquary shaped to represent the head of James Alfeo, and containing (as it is believed) this very relic (Pl. viii.). I make a reservation here, because the Chapter have forbidden the reliquary to be opened. In either case, whether the head be there or not, heads of the same apostle are affirmed to be at Chartres, Toulouse, and other places. Similarly, discussing these Hydra-headed beings of the Bible and the hagiology, Villa-amil y Castro (_El Tesoro de la Catedral de Santiago_, published in the _Museo Español de Antigüedades_) recalls to us the ten authenticated and indubitable mazzards of Saint John the Baptist.

[25] To lend my censures further cogency, I leave this statement as I
set it down some weeks ago; since when, on picking up a Spanish
newspaper, I read the following telegram:--

"THEFT IN SANTIAGO CATHEDRAL

"SANTIAGO, _May 7th, 1906_ (9.15 _p.m._).

"This morning, when the canon in charge of the Chapel of the Relics
unlocked the door, he was surprised to observe that some of these
were lying in confusion on the floor. Fearing that a theft had been
committed, he sent for the dean and others of the clergy, who had
examination made, and found the following objects to be missing:--

_"A gold cross, presented by King Alfonso the Great, when he
attended the consecration of this temple in the year 874._

"Another cross, of silver, dating from the fifteenth century--a
present from Archbishop Spinola.

"An aureole of the fifteenth century, studded with precious stones
belonging to a statuette of the apostle Santiago.

"The authorities were summoned and at once began their search.

"They find that two of the thick iron bars of the skylight in the
ceiling of the cloister have been filed through. This cloister has
a skylight which opens upon the chapel.

"They have also found, upon the roof, a knotted rope. This rope was
only long enough to reach a cornice in the chapel wall. _The wall
itself affords no sign that anybody has attempted to descend by
it._"

The head-shaped reliquary is of beaten silver with enamelled visage, and the hair and beard gilt.[26] The workmanship is French. The cross, which hung till recently above the altar of the Relicario, but which now requires to be placed upon the lengthy list of stolen wealth, was not unlike the Cross of Angels in the Camara Santa at Oviedo, and had a wooden body covered with gold plates in finely executed filigree, studded with precious stones and cameos. Not many days ago, the wooden core, divested of the precious metal and the precious stones, was found abandoned in a field.

[26] This form of reliquary was not uncommon. Morales, in his _Viaje
Sacro_, describes another one, also preserved at Santiago, saying
that it was a bust of silver, life-size and gilded to the breast,
"with a large diadem of rays and many stones, both small and great,
all or most of them of fine quality, though not of the most
precious." Other bust-reliquaries belong, or have belonged, to the
Cathedrals of Burgos and Toledo.

Visitors to the shrine of Santiago seldom fail to have their curiosity excited by the monster "smoke-thrower" (_bota-fumeiro_) or incensory, lowered (much like the deadly sword in Poe's exciting tale) on each _fiesta_ by a batch of vigorous Gallegos from an iron frame fixed into the pendentives of the dome. "The calmest heart," says Villa-amil, "grows agitated to behold this giant vessel descending from the apex of the nave until it almost sweeps the ground, wreathed in dense smoke and spewing flame." Ford seems to have been unaware that the real purpose of this metal monster was not to simply scent the holy precincts, but to cover up the pestilential atmosphere created by a horde of verminous, diseased, and evil-smelling pilgrims, who, by a usage which is now suppressed, were authorized to pass the night before the services within the actual cathedral wall.

The original _bota-fumeiro_, resembling, in Oxea's words, "a silver boiler of gigantic bulk," was lost or stolen in the War of Spanish Independence. It was replaced by another of iron, and this, in 1851, by the present apparatus of white metal.

Striking objects of ecclesiastical _orfebrería_ were produced in Spain throughout the thirteenth and the fourteenth centuries. Among the finest are the triptych-reliquary of Seville cathedral known as the _Alfonsine Tables_; the _retablo_ and _baldaquino_ of the cathedral of Gerona; the silver throne, preserved in Barcelona cathedral, of Don Martin of Aragon; and the _guión_, at Toledo, of Cardinal Mendoza.

Triptych-reliquaries, which had gradually expanded from the diptych form--three leaves or panels thus replacing two,--were generally used in Spain from the eleventh century, and varied in dimensions from a few inches in height and width to several yards. We find them in the Gothic, Mudejar,[27] Romanic, or Renaissance styles--wrought either in a single style of these, or in effective combination of some two or more. The Academy of History at Madrid possesses a richly ornamented Mudejar triptych (Plate ix.) proceeding from the Monasterio de Piedra. It is inferior, notwithstanding, to the _Tablas Alfonsinas_,[28] "a specimen of Spanish silversmiths' work which illustrates the transition to the new style, and the progress in the design of the figures owing to the Italian Renaissance."[29] In or about the year 1274, this splendid piece of sacred furniture was made by order of the learned king, to hold the relics of certain saints and of the Virgin Mary. The maker is thought by Amador to have been one "Master George," a craftsman held in high esteem by the father of Alfonso and the conqueror of Seville, Ferdinand the Third. Romanic influence is abundant in this triptych, showing that, although exposed to constant changes from abroad, the Spanish mediæval crafts adhered upon the whole with singular tenacity to primitive tradition.

[27] The Mudejares were the Mussulmans who submitted, in the conquered
cities, to the Spanish-Christian rule. The word _Mudejar_ is of
modern growth, nor can its derivation be resolved with certainty.
From the thirteenth century onwards, and formed by the fusion of
the Christian and the Saracenic elements, we find Mudejar influence
copiously distributed through every phase of Spanish life and art,
and even literature.

[28] Amador prefers to call these Tables "the triptych of the learned
king," in order to distinguish them by this explicit title from the
_Astronomical Tables_ prepared by order of the same monarch.

[29] Riaño, _Spanish Arts_, p. 16.

The triptych is of larch, or some such undecaying wood, and measures, when the leaves are opened wide, forty inches over its entire breadth, by twenty-two in height. Linen is stretched upon the wood, and over that the silver-gilt _repoussé_ plates which form the principal adornment of the reliquary. "The outside is decorated with twelve medallions containing the arms of Castile and Aragon, and forty-eight others in which are repeated alternately the subjects of the Adoration of the Magi and the Annunciation of the Virgin, also in _repoussé_. In the centres are eagles, allusive, it is possible, to Don Alfonso's claim to be crowned Emperor.... The ornamentation which surrounds the panels belongs to the sixteenth century" (Riaño). The arms here spoken of contain the crowned lion and the castle of three towers; and the interesting fact is pointed out by Amador that the diminutive doors and windows of these castles show a strongly pointed Gothic arch. The sixteenth-century bordering to the panels is in the manner known as Plateresque.[30] The clasps are also Plateresque, and prove, together with the border, that the triptych was restored about this time.

[30] So named because the silversmiths (_plateros_) of this country used
it in their monstrances (_custodias_) and in many other objects or
utensils of religious worship. The most refined and erudite of
Spanish silver-workers, Juan de Arfe, thus referred to it in
rhyme:--

_"Usaron desta obra los plateros
Guardando sus preceptos con zelo;
Pusiéronle en los puntos postrimeros
De perfección mi abuelo."_

Inside (Plate x.), it consists of fifteen compartments, "full of minute ornamentation, among which are set a large number of capsules covered with rock crystal containing relics, each one with an inscription of enamelled gold, _cloisonné_. Several good cameos with sacred subjects appear near the edge of the side leaves" (Riaño). These cameos, handsomely engraved with figures of the Virgin and other subjects of religious character, are fairly well preserved; but the designs upon enamel are almost obliterated. Eight precious stones, set in as rude a style as those upon the ancient crowns and crosses of the Visigoths, have also fallen out, or been removed, from the interior.

The _retablo_ of Gerona cathedral and its baldachin date from the fourteenth century. "The Retablo is of wood entirely covered with silver plates, and divided vertically into three series of niches and canopies; each division has a subject, and a good deal of enamelling is introduced in various parts of the canopies and grounds of the panels. Each panel has a cinq-foiled arch with a crocketed gablet and pinnacles on either side. The straight line of the top is broken by three niches, which rise in the centre and at either end. In the centre is the Blessed Virgin with our Lord; on the right, San Narciso; and on the left, St Filia. The three tiers of subjects contain figures of saints, subjects from the life of the Blessed Virgin, and subjects from the life of our Lord."[31]

[31] Street, _Gothic Architecture in Spain_.

San Narciso is patron of the city of Gerona; which explains the presence of his image here. From the treasury of the same cathedral was stolen, during the War of Spanish Independence, a magnificent altar-front of wrought gold and mosaic, a gift of Countess Gisla, wife of Ramón Berenguer, count-king of Barcelona. It had in the centre a bas-relief medallion representing the Virgin, another medallion with a portrait of the donor, and various saints in niches, interworked with precious stones.

The great armchair of Don Martin, called by Baron Davillier a "beau faudesteuil gothique," which possibly served that monarch as a throne, and was presented by him to the cathedral of Barcelona, dates from the year 1410. The wooden frame is covered with elaborately chiselled plates in silver-gilt. This most imposing object is carried in procession through the streets upon the yearly festival of Corpus Christi.

The _guión de Mendoza_, now in Toledo cathedral, is a handsome later-Gothic silver-gilt cross, and is the same which was raised upon the Torre de la Vela at Granada on January 2nd, 1492, when the fairest and most storied city in all Spain surrendered formally to Ferdinand and Isabella. Many other interesting crosses, of the character known as processional, are still preserved in various parts of the Peninsula, at South Kensington, and elsewhere. The more remarkable are noticed under various headings of this book. Their workmanship is generally of the fifteenth or the sixteenth century.

The Seo or cathedral of Zaragoza possesses a handsome ship (Plate xii.), presented to this temple, towards the end of the fifteenth century, by the Valencian corsair, Mosén Juan de Torrellas. The hull is a large shell resting on a silver-gilt dragon of good design, with a large emerald set in the middle of its forehead, and a ruby for each eye. Ships of this kind were not uncommon on a Spanish dining table of the time, or in the treasuries of churches and cathedrals. Toledo owns another of these vessels (in both senses of the word), which once belonged to Doña Juana, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella.

Hitherto I have confined my notice almost wholly to the treasure of the Spanish temples. Turning from ecclesiastical to secular life, we find, all through the Middle Ages, the humbler classes kept by constant penury and war aloof from every form of luxury. Jewellery and gold and silver work were thus essentially the perquisite or, so to speak, the privilege of princes, nobles, and the Church. The mediæval kings and magnates of this land were smitten inveterately with a passion for display, and chronicles and inventories of the time contain instructive details of the quantities of gems and precious metals employed by them to decorate their persons and their palaces. The richness of their bedsteads will be noticed under Furniture. Quantities of jewellery and plate belonged to every noble household. For instance, the testament of the Countess of Castañeda (A.D. 1443) includes the mention of "a gilded cup and cover to the same; a silver vessel and its lid, the edges gilt, and in the centre of both lid and vessel the arms of the said count, my lord; a silver vessel with a foot to it; a diamond ring; a silver vessel with gilt edges and the arms of the count, companion to the other vessels; a jasper sweetmeat-tray with silver-gilt handles and feet; four coral spoons; a gilt enamelled cup and lid; a small gilt cup and lid; two large silver porringers; two French cups of white silver; two large plates of eight marks apiece; two middling-sized silver vessels; two silver-gilt barrels with silver-gilt chains."[32]

[32] Count of Clonard.

On each occasion of a court or national festivity, the apparel of the great was ponderous with gold and silver fringe, or thickly strewn with pearls--the characteristic _aljofar_ or _aljofar_-work (Arabic _chawar_, small pearls), for which the Moors were widely famed. Towards the thirteenth century unmarried Spanish women of high rank possessed abundant stores of bracelets, earrings, necklaces, gold chains, rings, and gem-embroidered pouches for their money. Their waist-belts, too, were heavy with gold and silver, and _aljofar_.[33] The poem of the Archpriest of Hita (1343) mentions two articles of jewellery for female wear called the _broncha_ and the _pancha_. The former was an ornament for the throat; the other, a plate or medal which hung to below the waist. An Arabic document quoted by Casiri, and dating from the reign of Henry the First of Castile, specifies as belonging to an aristocratic lady of that time, "Egyptian shirts of silk and linen, embroidered shirts, Persian shirts with silk embroidery, Murcian gold necklaces, ear-pendants of the same metal, set with gems; finger-rings and bracelets, waist-belts of skins, embroidered with silk and precious stones; cloaks of cloth of gold, embroidered mantles of the same, coverings for the head, and kerchiefs."

[33] _Ibid_.

For all the frequency with which they framed and iterated sterile and exasperating sumptuary pragmatics for their people, the Spanish kings themselves went even beyond the nobles in their craze for ostentatious luxury. Upon the day when he was crowned at Burgos, Alfonso the Eleventh "arrayed himself in gold and silver cloth bearing devices of the castle and the lion, in which was much _aljofar_-work, as well as precious stones innumerable; rubies, emeralds, and sapphires." Even the bit and saddle of the monarch's charger were "exceeding precious on this day, for gems and gold and silver covered all the saddle-bows, and the sides of the saddle and its girths, together with the headstall, were curiously wrought of gold and silver thread."

Similar relations may be found at every moment of the history of mediæval Spain. Another instance may be quoted from the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. When these sovereigns visited Barcelona in 1481, the queen was dressed as follows:--"She advanced riding upon a fine mule, and seated on cushions covered with brocade, rising high above the saddle. Her robe was of gold thread and jewel-work, with a rich brocade skirt. Upon her head she wore a crown of gold adorned with richest diamonds, pearls, rubies, balas rubies, and other stones of passing price." During the same visit, a royal tournament was given in the Plaza del Born, in presence of the aristocracy and wealthy townspeople, "the counts, viscounts, deputies, councillors, _caballeros_, _gentiles hombres_, burgesses, and others without number." Ferdinand, who "with virtue and benignity" had deigned to break a lance or two in tourneying with the Duke of Alburquerque, the Count of Benavente, and several gentlemen of Cataluña, was wearing "over his harness a jacket all of gold brocade. His horse's coverings and poitral also were of thread of gold, richly devised and wrought, and of exceeding majesty and beauty. And on his helm he wore a crown of gold, embellished with many pearls and other stones; and above the crown a figure of a large gold bat, which is the emblem of the kings of Aragon and counts of Barcelona, with white and sanguine bars upon the scutcheon.[34] The queen and the cardinal of Spain were in a window of the house of Mossen Guillem Pujades, conservator of the realm of Sicily. Her highness wore a robe of rich gold thread with a collar of beautiful pearls; and the trappings of her mule were of brocade."[35]

[34] Four pallets gules, on a field or; which were the arms of Cataluña
and subsequently of Aragon.

[35] _Archives of the Crown of Aragon._

Eleven years later the youthful prince, Don Juan, son of these rulers, appeared before the citizens of Barcelona dressed in "a robe of beautiful brocade that almost swept the ground, and a doublet of the same material; the sleeves of the robe thickly adorned with fine pearls of large size." He carried, too, "a gold collar of great size and beauty, wrought of large diamonds, pearls, and other stones."[36]

[36] _Ibid_.

It was an ancient usage with the people of Barcelona to present a silver service to any member of the royal family who paid a visit to their capital. The service so presented to Ferdinand the Catholic cost the corporation a sum of more than twelve hundred pounds of Catalan money, and included "a saltcellar made upon a rock. Upon the rock is a castle, the tower of which contains the salt.... Two silver ewers, gilt within and containing on the outside various enamelled devices in the centre, together with the city arms. Also a silver-gilt lion upon a rustic palisade of tree-trunks, holding an inscription in his right paw, with the arms of the city, a flag, and a crown upon his head. This object weighs thirty-four marks."[37] The service offered on the same occasion to Isabella, though less in weight, was more elaborately wrought, and cost on this account considerably more. It included "two silver ewers, gilt within and enamelled without, bearing the city arms, and chiselled in the centre with various designs of foliage. Also a silver saltcellar, with six small towers, containing at the foot three pieces of enamel-work with the arms of the city in relief. This saltcellar has its lid and case, with a pinnacle upon the lid, and is of silver-gilt inside and out."[38]

[37] Sanpere y Miquel, _Revista de Ciencias Históricas_, art. _La
Platería catalana en los siglos XIV. y XV._, vol. i. p. 441.

[38] _Ibid_.

From about the fifteenth century the goldsmiths and the silversmiths of Barcelona enjoyed considerable fame. Among their names are those of Lobarolla, Roig, Berni, Belloch, Planes, Mellar, Corda, Fábregues, Farrán, Perot Ximenis, Rafel Ximenis, Balagué, and Antonio de Valdés. Riaño quotes the names of many more from Cean's dictionary. The most important facts relating to these artists were brought to light some years ago by Baron Davillier, who based the greater part of his research upon the _Libros de Pasantía_ or silversmiths' examination-books (filled with excellent designs for jewel-work) of Barcelona. These volumes, formerly kept in the college of San Eloy, are now the property of the Provincial Deputation of this city.

The goldsmiths' and the silversmiths' guild of Seville also possesses four of its old examination-books, of which the earliest dates from 1600. Gestoso, in his _Dictionary of Sevillian Artificers_ describes the actual ceremony of examination for a silversmith or goldsmith. Once in every year the members of the guild assembled in their chapel of the convent of San Francisco. Here and upon this day the candidate was closely questioned, to begin with, as to his "purity of blood"--that is, his freedom from contamination by relationship with any Moor or Hebrew. When it was duly and precisely ascertained that he, his parents, and his grandparents were uniformly "old Christians," untainted with the "wicked race of Moors, Jews, heretics, mulattoes, and renegades," and that neither he nor his ancestors had ever been put on trial by the Inquisition or by any other tribunal, "whether publicly or secretly," he was permitted to proceed to his examination proper.[39] The formula of this was simple. The candidate was summoned before the board of examiners, consisting of the Padre Mayor or patriarch of the guild, and the two _veedores_ or inspectors, the one of gold-work, the other of silver-work. The book of drawings was then placed upon the table, and a ruler was thrust at haphazard among its leaves. Where the ruler chanced to fall, the candidate was called upon to execute the corresponding drawing to the satisfaction of his judges.

[39] Gestoso mentions that Juan de Luna, a silversmith of Seville, was
turned into the gutter from the workshop where he was employed,
solely because his father had been punished as a Morisco by the
Inquisition (_Diccionario de Artífices Sevillanos_, vol. i.
p. lvi.).

Riaño lays too slight a stress upon the Moorish and Morisco jewellery of Spain. Although the use of gold and silver ornaments is forbidden by the Koran, the Muslim, wherever his vanity or his bodily comfort is involved, tramples his Bible underfoot almost as regularly, tranquilly, and radically as the Christians do their own. The Moors of Spain were not at all behind their oriental brethren in displaying precious stones and metals on their persons or about their homes. Al-Jattib tells us that the third Mohammed offered to the mosque of the Alhambra columns with capitals and bases of pure silver. Or who does not recall the Caliphate of Cordova; the silver lamp that measured fifty palms across, fitted with a thousand and fifty-four glass lamplets, and swinging by a golden chain from the cupola of the entrance to the _mirhab_ in the vast _mezquita_; the silver candlesticks and perfume-burners in the same extraordinary temple; the precious stones and metals employed in mighty quantities to decorate the palaces of Az-zahyra and Az-zahra?--

"A wilderness of building, sinking far
And self-withdrawn into a wondrous depth,
Far sinking into splendour without end!
Fabric it seemed of diamond and of gold,
With alabaster domes and silver spires,
And blazing terrace upon terrace, high
Uplifted."

In brief, just as the prelates of the Christian Church habitually precede the Christian laity in trampling underfoot the elemental doctrine of Our Lord, so were the most exalted and responsible of all the Mussulmans--that is, their sultans--indefatigably foremost in neglect of the Koranic law.

The Spanish sultans wore a ring of gold containing one large stone (such as an emerald, or ruby, or turquoise), on which was cut the royal seal and signature. Such was the ring belonging to Boabdil el Chico, worn by him on the very day of the surrender of his capital, and by his hand presented to a Spanish nobleman, the Count of Tendilla, governor-elect of the Alhambra. According to Rodriguez de Ardila, the following inscription was upon the stone:--"_La Ala ile Ala, abahu Tabiu. Aben Abi Abdalá_," meaning, "_There is no God but God; this is the seal of Aben Abi Abdalá._" Ardila, who was the author of a history of the Counts of Tendilla (which still remains in manuscript), adds that he saw the ring, although, as Eguilaz observes, two words of the inscription are inaccurately rendered.

Among the Moors of Spain the use of signet rings was general. The stone employed was commonly cornelian, richly mounted and inscribed in various ways, as with the owner's name, his name together with a date, or the name of the town of which he was a native. In other instances we meet with pious phrases or quotations from the Koran; or perhaps a talismanic figure, such as the open eye to guard the wearer from the dreaded _mal de ojo_; or the open hand that still surmounts the gateway of the Tower of Justice at Granada.[40]

[40] An article by Señor Saavedra on these inscribed jewels and signets
of Mohammedan Spain will be found in the _Museo Español de
Antigüedades_.

Undoubtedly, too, the Moorish sultans of this country owned enormous hoards of silver, gold, and precious stones. Al-Makkari says that the treasure of the Nasrite rulers of Granada included quantities of pearls, turquoises, and rubies; pearl necklets; earrings "surpassing those of Mary the Copt" (Mohammed's concubine); swords of the finest temper, embellished with pure gold; helmets with gilded borders, studded with emeralds, pearls, and rubies; and silvered and enamelled belts.

The Moorish women of this country, and in particular the Granadinas,[41] were passionately fond of jewellery. Ornaments which once belonged to them are sometimes brought to light in Andalusia, Murcia, or Valencia, including pendants, rings, necklaces, and _axorcas_ or bangles for the ankle or the wrist, and bracelets for the upper portion of the arm. The National Museum contains a small collection of these objects, dating from the time of the Moriscos, and including a handsome necklace terminating in a double chain, with ball and pyramid shaped ornaments about the centre, a square-headed finger-ring with four green stones and a garnet, and a hollow bracelet filled with a substance that appears to be mastic, similar to those which are reproduced in Plate xiii.

[41] "As to the ornaments and jewels of the ladies of Granada, these
wear at present necklaces of rich design, bracelets, rings (upon
their ankles), and earrings of pure gold; together with quantities
of silver and of precious stones upon their shoes. I say this of
the middle class; for ladies of the aristocracy and of the older
noble families display a vast variety of gems, such as rubies,
chrysolites, emeralds, and pearls of great value. The ladies of
Granada are commonly fair to look upon, shapely, of good stature,
with long hair, teeth of a shining white, and perfumed breath,
gracefully alert in their movements, and witty and agreeable in
conversation. But unfortunately at this time their passion for
painting themselves and for arraying themselves in every kind of
jewellery and costly stuffs has reached a pitch that is no longer
tolerable."--Al-Jattib, in _The Splendour of the New Moon
concerning the Nasrite Sultans of Granada_.

These jewels, I repeat, are of Morisco workmanship, and therefore date from later than the independent empire of the Spanish Moors. Nevertheless, the geometrical or filigree design was common both to Moorish and Morisco art. As I observed in my description of the casket-reliquaries, we note continually the influence of these motives on the arts of Christian Spain. The Ordinances relative to the goldsmiths and the silversmiths of Granada, cried at various times between 1529 and 1538, whether "in the silversmiths' street of the Alcaycería, that has its opening over against the scriveners'"; or in "the street of the Puente del Carbon, before the goldsmiths' shops"; or "in the street of the Zacatin, where dwell the silversmiths," prove also that for many years after the Reconquest the character and nomenclature of this kind of work continued to be principally and traditionally Moorish.

Firstly, the Ordinances complain that the goldsmiths of Granada now employ a base and detrimental standard of the precious metals, especially in the bracelets or _manillas_ of the women. The goldsmiths answer in their vindication that equally as poor a standard is employed at Seville, Cordova, and Toledo. These city laws herewith establish twenty carats as a minimum fineness for the gold employed in making ornaments. The makers, also, are ordered to impress their private stamp or seal on every article, or in default to pay a fine of ten thousand _maravedis_. A copy of each stamp or seal to be deposited in the city chest. The _alamín_ or inspector of this trade to test and weigh all gold and silver work before it is exposed for sale.

We learn from the same source that the gold bracelets were sometimes smooth, and sometimes "covered over with devices" (_cubiertos de estampas por cima_). The technical name of these was _albordados_. The silver bracelets were also either smooth, or stamped, or twisted in a cord (_encordados_). Bangles for the ankle, upper arm, and wrist are mentioned as continuing to be generally worn, while one of the Ordinances complains that "Moorish _axorcas_ are often sold that are hollow, and filled with chalk and mastic, so that before they can be weighed it is necessary to rid them of such substances by submitting them to fire, albeit the fire turns them black."

The weapons and war-harness of the Spanish Moors were often exquisitely decorated with the precious stones or metals. Splendid objects of this kind have been preserved, and will be noticed in their proper chapter.

The ruinous and reckless measure known to Spain's eternal shame as the Expulsion of the Moriscos, deprived this country of a great--perhaps the greatest--part of her resources. Fonseca estimates this loss, solely in the quantity of coin conveyed away, at two million and eight hundred thousand _escudos_, adding that a single Morisco, Alami Delascar de Aberique, bore off with him one hundred thousand ducats.[42] To make this matter worse, the Moriscos, just before they went on board their ships, fashioned from scraps of tin, old nails, and other refuse, enormous stores of counterfeit coin, and slyly sold this rubbish to the simple Spaniards in return for lawful money of the land. In the course of a few days, and in a single quarter of Valencia, more than three hundred thousand ducats of false coin were thus passed off upon the Christians. Besides this exportation of good Spanish money, the cunning fugitives removed huge quantities of jewellery and plate. Chains, _axorcas_, rings, _zarcillos_, and gold _escudos_ were taken from the bodies of many of the Morisco women who were murdered by the Spanish soldiery; but the greater part of all this treasure found its way to Africa. In his work _Expulsión justificada de los Moriscos_ (1612), Aznar de Cardona says that the Morisco women carried "divers plates upon the breast, together with necklaces and collars, earrings and bracelets." It is recorded, too, that the Moriscos, as they struggled in the country regions to avenge themselves upon their persecutors, did unlimited damage to the ornaments and fittings of the churches. "This people," says Fonseca, "respected not our temples or the holy images that in them were; nor yet the chalices and other objects they encountered in our sacristies. Upon the contrary, they smashed the crosses, burned the saints, profaned the sacred vestments, and committed such acts of sacrilege as though they had been Algerian Moors, or Turks of Constantinople."

[42] There was, however, from long before this time a prohibition to
export from Spain the precious metals, in any form, whether as
objects of plate or as coined money. The penalty for a repetition
of this offence was death. Another law prohibited all foreigners
who were resident in Spain, not excluding the Moriscos, from buying
gold or silver in the bar (_Suma de Leyes_, p. 46). It was also
forbidden to sell the jewels or other objects of value belonging to
a place of worship (_ibid_. p. 87).

Legends of hidden Moorish and Morisco wealth are still extant in many parts of Spain. The Abbé Bertaut de Rouen[43] and Swinburne among foreigners, or Spaniards such as the gossiping priest Echeverría, who provided Washington Irving with the pick of his _Tales of the Alhambra_, have treated copiously of this fascinating and mysterious theme. The Siete Suelos Tower at Granada is particularly favoured with traditions of this kind. Peasants of the Alpujarras still declare that piles of Moorish money lie secreted in the lofty buttresses of Mulhacen and the Veleta, while yet another summit of this snowy range bears the suggestive title of the Cerro del Tesoro, where, almost within the memory of living men, a numerous party, fitted and commissioned by the State, explored with feverish though unlucky zeal the naked cliffs and sterile crannies of the lonely mountain.[44]

[43] This entertaining and inquisitive tourist describes, in 1659, a
wondrous cavern in the south of Spain, "ou l'on conte que les Mores
ont caché leurs trésors en s'en retournant en Afrique, et ou
personne n'ose aborder de peur des esprits que l'on dit que l'on y
voit souvent. Mais comme il commencait a se faire nuit, je n'eus
pas le loisir de m'y amuser beaucoup." With this our author shelved
his curiosity, and prudently retired.

[44] Leonard Williams. _Granada: Memories, Adventures, Studies, and
Impressions_, p. 90.

Reducing all these fables to the terms of truth, Moorish and Morisco jewellery and coin are sometimes brought to light on Spanish soil. Such finds occur, less seldom than elsewhere, within the provinces of Seville, Cordova, Granada, and Almeria (Plate xiv.), but since they are neither frequent nor considerable, although the likeliest ground for them is being disturbed continually, we may conclude that nearly all the Muslim wealth accumulated here slipped from the clumsy if ferocious fingers of the mother-country, and found its way, concealed upon the bodies of her persecuted offspring, to the shores of Africa.[45]

[45] Ford was more hopeful as to the preservation of this wealth in
Spain. "No doubt much coin is buried in the Peninsula, since the
country has always been invaded and torn by civil wars, and there
never has been much confidence between Spaniard and Spaniard;
accordingly the only sure, although unproductive, investment for
those who had money, was gold or silver, and the only resource to
preserve that, was to hide it."--_Handbook_, vol. ii. p. 682.

Sometimes, too, an early gold or silver object would be melted down and modernized into another and a newer piece of plate. This was a fairly common usage with the silversmiths themselves, or with an ignorant or stingy brotherhood or chapter. Thus, the following entry occurs in the _Libro de Visita de Fábrica_ belonging to the parish church of Santa Ana, Triana, Seville. In the year 1599 "the large cross of silver-gilt, together with its _mançana_ and all the silver attaching thereto, was taken to the house of Zubieta the silversmith, and pulled to pieces. It weighed 25 marks and 4 _ochavas_ of silver, besides 5 marks and 2 ounces and 4 _ochavas_ of silver which was the weight of the three lamps delivered to Zubieta in the time of Juan de Mirando, aforetime steward of this church. It is now made into a silver-gilt cross."[46]

[46] Gestoso, _Diccionario de Artífices Sevillanos_, vol. ii. p. 360.

A similar instance may be quoted from a document of Cordova, published by Ramírez de Arellano in his relation of a visit to the monastery of San Jerónimo de Valparaiso. In the year 1607 Gerónimo de la Cruz, a Cordovese silversmith, agreed with the prior of this monastery to make for the community a silver-gilt _custodia_. For this purpose he received from the prior, doubtless a man of parsimonious spirit and a boor in his appreciativeness of art, eight pairs of vinegar cruets, four of whose tops were missing; a silver-gilt chalice and its patine; a _viril_ with two angels and four pieces on the crown of it; a small communion cup; some silver candlesticks; four spoons and a fork, also of silver; and a silver-gilt salt-cellar. The total value of these objects was 1826 _reales_; and all of them were tossed, in Ford's indignant phrase, into the "sacrilegious melting-pot," in order to provide material for the new _custodia_.