An Architect's Note-Book in Spain Part 19

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PLATE LXXIX.

_GUADALAXARA._

DOORWAY OF THE MONASTERY OF SAN MIGUEL.

IN and about Guadalaxara may be found many indications of the traditional preservation, long after the expulsion of the Moors, not only from New Castille, but from Spain generally as well, of their excellence in the technical arts, amongst which brick-making, combining, and laying were conspicuous. Hence, especially throughout the two Castilles, Aragon, and Andalucia, the common method of using brick-work is peculiarly Oriental and effective. The entrance doorway to the Monastery of San Miguel, which forms the subject of our seventy-ninth sketch, ill.u.s.trates this mixture; as well it may, since traces are yet to be found of the structure having been originally a mosque converted, probably, shortly before the year 1500 to Christian uses. The round instead of square b.u.t.tresses, with conical terminations, the segmental arch, with its ponderous archivolt, the great strength and almost heaviness given by the regular rectangular setting out of the woodwork--and a coa.r.s.eness and yet spirit in the execution of carving, are marked features of Aragonese style; the echoes of which may not unfrequently be met with at Naples, especially in the entrance gateways to many an old house. I well remember being puzzled by several of those which I sketched there, and which appeared to me to differ from ordinary contemporary Italian architecture in other localities. I subsequently recognized similar features in Palermo, and elsewhere in Sicily.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 80

GUADALAXARA CASA DEL DUQUe DE RIBAS

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PLATE Lx.x.x.

_GUADALAXARA._

CASA DEL DUQUe DE RIBAS.

THE traveller who takes his seat for an hour or so before some old portal of a Spanish provincial mansion, garnished with heraldic insignia, proclaiming the rank, if not the dignity, of the possible owner, can scarcely fail to be struck by the usual incongruity between the a.s.sumption of the structure, and the modesty, not to say meanness, of those who pa.s.s in and out of it generally at long intervals. The sketcher's operations naturally, after a little while, attract the attention of some few, and "their name is legion" throughout Spain, of those who have nothing to do; or who, at any rate, do nothing, but wander lazily but restlessly up and down to while away the time. After a compliment or two, and probably a request that the spectators will not stand exactly between the artist and the object he may be drawing, an inquiry very generally follows as to "whose house that may be?" If the answer extends beyond the usual "Quien sabe Caballero?" it may chance to be "del Senor Duque," or "del Senor Marques," something or other, or at any rate of a "Senor somebody," "somebody," "somebody." To the next inquiry, as to where the Hidalgo, if he be such, may be? the usual answer will be "Madrid" or "Paris," or at any rate the "chef-lieu" of the Province. The next demand may likely enough be, "Who lives there then, now?" If the answer is not the usual "No puedo decir a Usted," it may possibly be, "El Senor Administrador," the Steward, or "Algunos Pobres," or "Don Manoel, the shoemaker," or "Don Juan, the carpenter."

Where the n.o.bility live, if they are not all absentees, it seems very difficult to find out; and hence it is that instead of ladies and gentlemen, and liveried servants, who pa.s.s in and out of these grand looking "portone," the sketcher usually sees only extremely picturesque poverty. Sometimes this presents itself in the shape of a ragged girl or two, carrying antique-shaped earthen water-jars, sometimes an old woman with a heap of long-haired unkempt children sitting down to spin, or reel off yarn, or lolling against the wall, distaff in hand; and sometimes, possibly, two or three boys or young men a.s.semble, who, after smoking out some cigarrilos or stumps of cigars, coil themselves up on the threshold, and go off into a comatose condition closely resembling sleep.

Such were my experiences whilst trying to gain some local information as to the mansion of the very n.o.ble, the Duque de Ribas at Guadalaxara.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 81

GUADALAXARA DOOR HANDLE

CALLE DEL BARRIO NUEVO N 10

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PLATE Lx.x.xI.

_GUADALAXARA._

DOOR HANDLE FROM THE CALLE DEL BARRIO NUEVO.

THE outskirts of Guadalaxara are very picturesque, and the traveller who wanders about in quest of beauty, old or new, cannot fail to be rewarded; not only by glimpses of scenery, but by the discovery of many quaint little fragments of art which have escaped the attention of the many despoiling locusts--native as well as foreign--who have done their best at different times to "devour the land." Of such, a specimen is given in the "knowing" little knocker, or door-handle ill.u.s.trated in my eighty-first sketch. It is no doubt a joke on the part of some cunning smith, of the last century, mindful of the still greater cunning of his handicraft, traditions of which may have descended to him, from the days when the armourers of Spain rivalled those of Milan and Augsburg.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 82

SARAGOSSA

PALACIO DELLA INFANTA

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PLATE Lx.x.xII.

_SARAGOSSA._

VIEW OF THE PATIO OF THE PALACIO DE LA INFANTA.

PONZ speaks with great complacency of the sumptuousness of the houses of Saragossa--particularly those with columns, (such as that of the Marques de Monistol) and those the Patios of which are adorned with sculptures--"such costly and sumptuous works," he says, "as no one undertakes now a days." Amongst these he particularises the house which forms the subject of the present sketch. Before his time it appears to have belonged to the Citizen Gabriel Zaporta, "muy distinguido y rico,"

as Ponz calls him. From him it was bought by the widow of a certain Don Gabriel Franco. At the close of the last century it was the home of the Infante Don Luis, (uncle of Charles IV. of Spain), a Cardinal and Archbishop of Toledo! who married "La Vallabriga," earning exile to Saragossa for his pains. She lived here with him, and procured for the house its popular and best known name, la Casa de la Infanta. Their eldest daughter was bestowed, as an Infanta of Spain, upon the detestable G.o.doy--"Prince of Peace,"--the recognised lover of her first cousin by marriage, the Queen, wife of Charles IV., thus crowning a double mesalliance.

"On the ground floor," says Ponz,[52] "of the Patio are twelve arches supported on columns wrought with a thousand fancies, as are those also of the first floor. On the lower floor of this house is a painter's studio. Both floors are enriched with medallions representing kings, fanciful foliage, and infinite labour in cornices, mouldings, &c."

Similar elaboration, now much defaced, is to be seen in the staircase with vaulting, and handrail with medallions recalling those of the first floor.

Amongst the most important palaces, next to the house of Zaporta or de la Infanta, and that of the Marques de Monistol, were those known as the "Castel-Florit," which belonged in Ponz's time to the Count Aranda--and another the property of the Duque de Hijar. The "Casa de Comercio" which forms the subject of my eighty-fifth sketch was less important as to quant.i.ty, but more important as to quality, than those last mentioned appear to have been. As a general rule, the Saragossan houses appear very large but coa.r.s.ely treated as to detail, even in the richest, such as those with showy windows behind the Seminario, in the Plazuela de San Carlos.

My sketch sufficiently shows the "base uses" to which the truly palatial Casa de Zaporta, or de la Infanta, has "come at last." It is well that as many as possible of the rising generation of art-students should see it, for it is not likely that any of it will be left for their children.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 83

CASA DE LOS INFANTES ZARAGOZA

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PLATE Lx.x.xIII.

_SARAGOSSA._

DETAIL OF THE ARCADING OF THE FIRST FLOOR OF THE CASA DE LA INFANTA.