the churches of the romanesque and early gothic periods

at the close of the eleventh century a new and more vigorous life sprang up in the art of spain. the fresh impulse came from france; it expended itself chiefly in building.

it is necessary to remember that the geographical barrier of the pyrenees forms no real ethnological separation between that country and spain; one and the same iberian race dwells in gascony, navarre, and the basque provinces. hence it is easy to understand that natural relations, intimate and frequent, grew up between the two countries. marriage alliances united the two royal families, and the princes of france crossed the frontier to fight against the moors in spain. with them came priests and monks, more learned than their neighbours, many of whom settled in the peninsula. in this way the influence of the great orders of cluny and citeaux spread and grew powerful.{26} then followed architects and sculptors from aquitaine, languedoc, toulouse, burgundy, and normandy, to find work, and impress their separate influences on the numerous churches that at this time were being built. the romanesque cathedrals are indeed the direct outcome of french medi?valism; and the figure-statues of the numerous tombs and altars are full of reminiscences, so that it is difficult to distinguish the native art. yet in the midst of these imported styles we shall find, do we seek them, those distinct traits which belong to spain.

it is in the province of asturias that we find the greatest number of romanesque churches. these churches were of moderate size. their style was that of the basilica, with nave and aisles, a well-marked transept, a trans-apsidal termination, and a lantern or dome over the crossing. the roof was at first flat, but afterwards the nave was covered with barrel vaulting, and the aisles with quadrant or semi-barrel vaulting.

the most important of the early romanesque churches is santiago de compostella (plate 7), which was commenced and finished building during the twelfth century. it is a somewhat simplified copy of st. sernin at toulouse, and shows in its structure, as well as in its ornaments and{27} sculptures, very clearly marked, the influences of cluny. this explains the great excellence of the carvings (plates 8 and 9); works that are surprising at this period when so many figures are still barbaric. the admirable puerta de las gloria, which was completed by the carver maestre mateo in 1188, after twenty years’ work, is held by mr. street to be “one of the greatest glories of christian art.” it is a vestibule or porch, divided into three sections, which extend across the entire width of the nave. the quadri-partite vaulting of the roof is adorned with elaborate carvings. still more sumptuous are the carvings of the doorways; one, the double doorway which opens on the nave, has exquisitely delicate carvings. on the shaft dividing the doorway into two is a seated figure of st. james, holding the burdon or pilgrim’s staff; while the shaft itself has carvings of the tree of jesse. the shafts in the jambs have figures of the apostles and major-prophets. the main capital above represents the temptation in the garden and angels ministering to christ. at the back of the middle pillar is a kneeling figure, supposed to be the portrait of maestre mateo. then in the tympanum is a seated figure of our lord, with upraised hands; and round him are the evangelists and eight angels{28} with the symbols of the passion, while above are a company of the worshipping elect. the archivolt shows figures of the twenty-four elders of the apocalypse. the general idea of the subject of the whole doorway is the appearance of christ at the last judgment, but each of the series of small pictures is in itself an independent work of art. the side doorways which lead into the aisles are equally ornate. the shafts are adorned with figures of the apostles; above are representations of purgatory and hell. all the figures are clearly painted. m. marcel dieulafoy does not think, however, that the tones which now show are the original colours, but that during the restoration in the seventeenth century some innovations occurred.

the colegiata de san isidoro at leon (plate 10), an early romanesque edifice, resembles in many respects santiago de compostella. the actual date of the building is difficult to establish. it was founded by ferdinand i. of castile in 1065 as a royal mausoleum; and the building is said to contain the tombs of eleven kings and twelve queens. it was altered and rebuilt by maestro pedro vitambeu, and was not consecrated until 1149, while even then much of its decoration was probably incomplete. some subjects of sculpture{29} and ornamentation are very analogous to st. sernin, toulouse. the main fa?ade is decorated with quaint old reliefs in stone; above the right portal are the descent from the cross (plate 11) and the deposition in the tomb, with st. paul on the right hand and st. peter on the left. then in the tympanum of the left portal is a very interesting sacrifice of abraham, placed under a zodiacal frieze. but perhaps the most interesting parts of the building are the chapel and cloisters of the eastern aisle, where the groined vaults are covered with fresco paintings of admirable effect and preservation. the paintings show strongly the influence of france, curiously interpreted by the native art. c. gasquoine hartley writes, in “a record of spanish painting”: “in colour and certain peculiarities of outline they are strongly french, but they are executed with a rugged and original force which is entirely spanish.... the bible narratives are executed with a direct and almost brutal baldness that at once marks the frescoes as the work of a spaniard.” we are, however, chiefly interested with their colourisation, which is very important where so much of the colourisation of statuary has disappeared. as m. marcel dieulafoy points out, these frescoes give the range of tones usual to this epoch in france and in spain. we{30} find red-brown, indigo, yellow-ochre, and white; the black seems to have been obtained by a mixture of three of these colours. it is interesting to note that these are the colours, and of about the same shade, that we find used by the persian artists in their decorations.

san vicente of avila (plate 13) is another admirable example of the romanesque churches. the nave, with its triforium and clerestory, is in a pure romanesque style; while the transept, choir, and three semicircular apses are in the transition style. though the building was begun in the twelfth century it was not finished until three hundred years later, and for this reason it shows a more advanced art. m. marcel dieulafoy holds it to be “the most beautiful specimen and the purest example of burgundian architecture in spain.” the west portal (plate 14) is decorated with admirable statuettes in terra-cotta, unfortunately much mutilated, whose style recalls that of st. landre of avallon. very curious are the heads of bulls, decorating the base of the pilaster by which the tympanum is sustained. here the analogy with the bicephalous capitals of the achemenide is very marked.

romanesque churches are found in other provinces of spain. one of the most ancient is{31} san pedro of huesca, which was begun in the eleventh century and consecrated in 1241. the church is roofed with barrel vaulting, and terminates in three semicircular apses. it contains many sculptures characteristic of this period.

the cloisters of the cathedral of gerona, and those of the monastery of santo domingo at silos, and of san pedro, and the churches of santa maria and santiago at corunna, are additional examples of the same style.

the cathedral of zamora (plate 15) is a more important edifice. this ancient city had in succession two french archbishops—bernard and jerome de perigneaux. it is probable that the church was erected during the episcopate of jerome, who died in 1126. it was consecrated in 1174, as is now known from that date discovered in an old epitaph during the restoration in the eighteenth century. this makes impossible the old belief that the church was built by bernard de perigneaux. m. marcel dieulafoy believes that it is the work of an aquitaine architect. both the exterior of the building, with its square tower, graceful cupolas, richly decorated, and the interior are interesting, with a character very rare in spain. of the carvings of this church m. marcel dieulafoy writes:{32} “from the sculptural point of view i would signalise in the portal, the corinthian columns and niches, which both seem to come down from a monument of the decadence of the roman age. one will notably remark the busts, bezel set in a sort of window, which has been seen in the monuments of roman gaul, on the northern slope of the pyrenees, and which became a most common feature in the architecture of the spanish renaissance; also the laurelled flying-arch, and the bas-relief of the spandril which crowns the busts.”

two romanesque churches, one belonging to the same period, the other to a later date, with a more advanced art, are the church and fine cloisters of san pablo del campo of barcelona (plate 16) and the cathedral of sigüenza. this last church, which was begun in 1102 and consecrated in 1123, was not completed until the thirteenth century. it is the most important example of the late-romanesque transition style. san pablo was originally a benedict convent, erected in 914 by count guitardo, but the building was restored in 1117 by guiberto guitardo, and is an excellent specimen of early catalan architecture. like san pedro of huesca, it has three parallel apses. the nave and transept are covered with barrel vaulting, and{33} above the crossing rises an octagonal cupola. on the chief portal are carved figures of st. john and st. matthew; and especially interesting are the carved capitals of the columns, both those in the church itself and even more those in the cloisters, where we find cusped arches in the saracenic style, coupled shafts, and richly decorated capitals.

in all the romanesque churches the greatest wealth of the carver’s art is lavished on the capitals of the columns. here we see bible scenes and purely decorative designs, alternating, often very strangely, with fantastic monsters, fables, and scenes from daily life. almost all of these carvings are truly spanish in their sentiment, though the foreign influences are always visible.

the romanesque period lasted longer in spain than in france; we do not find the pointed or gothic style before the twelfth century, when the cistercian order introduced the severe and noble burgundian type of church. but many old churches, though begun in the romanesque period, assumed a gothic character before their completion; we find this at tarragona, in the old cathedral of salamanca, and in those of londa and tudela, as well as in many other churches. in the monastery of las huelgas, burgos, celebrated as the church where edward i. of england was knighted by{34} alonso the learned, the church, dating from 1279, is in severe gothic style; the cloisters, too, are gothic, but in the earlier claustreo (plate 17) there are fine romanesque capitals and arches. again, the older and less-known cistercian abbey at verula is a transition building, while the beautiful cloisters of the fourteenth century are gothic.

this mingling of styles, owing to the difference in time between the building of different parts of the same church, has a real advantage to the student of spanish architecture and sculpture. the cathedral of tarragona (plate 18) especially furnishes an almost complete series of examples of all the spanish art-styles. for the church, built on the site of a mosque, was begun about the year 1118, and dates mainly from the end of the twelfth and first half of the thirteenth centuries, but additions were made from the fourteenth century onwards as late as the eighteenth century. thus we have examples of early christian art in a sarcophagus of the fa?ade, and that in the ancient window of the capilla mayor with the three byzantine columns. the main building is a brilliant example of the developed romanesque transition style; the beautiful cloisters, among the most perfect in spain,{35} and the earliest of the side chapels are gothic; the other chapels, added later, date from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, and are in the renaissance and baroque styles. even moorish art is represented in the azulejo roofing of the n.w. lateral chapels, and in the small moorish window, said to be a prayer niche or mihrab, with its cufic inscription dating from the year of the hegira 347—that is, 958 a.d.—in the ancient capilla de santa maria magdalena. the splendid doorway, with elaborate carvings, which gives entrance to the cloisters is the most notable pre-gothic work in marble in spain (plate 19). but of this work we shall speak in the next chapter.

following these early gothic buildings we have the developed french cathedral style of the thirteenth century introduced into spain. it is first seen in the great cathedrals of burgos and toledo (plates 20 and 21), and a little later in that of leon (plate 22), the most perfect of the gothic cathedrals in spain. very little of the national spanish art is visible in these buildings; built for the most part by french architects, they recall in turn the cathedrals of rheims, beauvais, bayonne, and amiens; some see in leon a copy of the great cathedral at{36} chartres. the truth is that the style of these buildings is eclectic; they are all distinguished by the romantic magnificence of their ornamentation. the elaborately carved choir-stalls of leon cathedral (plates 23-29) furnish a splendid example of the power of carving. they are the masterpiece of john of malines and the dutch artist copin. it was from carvings such as these that the native artists drew their inspiration.