spring. In the four corners the space between the columns, as well as
the entablature, is set diagonally, leaving room in one instance for a
circular stair. The cornice is enriched with dentils and the frieze with
raised squares. On the entablature more columns of about the same height
as those below, but with Ionic capitals, stand in pairs. Stairs lead up
in each corner to the flat roof, above which they rise in a short
dome-bearing drum. In this upper cloister the arches are much narrower,
springing from square Ionic pilasters, two on each side, set one behind
the other, and leaving an open space beyond so that the whole takes the
form of a Venetian window. The small upper window between the columns is
round instead of square, and the cornice is carried on large corbels. In
front of all the openings is a balustrade. Two windows look south down
the hillside over rich orchards and gardens, while immediately below
them a water channel, the end of a great aqueduct built under Philip I.
of Portugal, II. of Spain, by the Italian Filippo Terzi,[160] cools the
air, and, overflowing, clothes the arches with maidenhair fern. Another
window opening on to the Claustro de Sta. Barbara gives a very good view
of the curious west front of the church. There is not and there probably
never was any parapet to the flat paved roof, from where one can look
down on the surrounding cloisters, and on the paved terrace before the
church door where Philip was elected king in April 1580. (Fig. 92.)
This cloister, the first example in Portugal of the matured Italian
renaissance, is also, with the exception of the church of São Vicente de
Fora at Lisbon, the most successful, for all is well proportioned, and
shows that Diogo de Torralva really understood classic detail and how to
use it. He was much less successful in the chancel of Belem, while about
the cathedral which he built at Miranda de Douro it is difficult to find
out anything, so remote and inaccessible is it, except that it stands
magnificently on a high rock above the river.[161]
The reigns of Dom Sebastião and of his grand-uncle, the Cardinal-King,
were noted for no great activity in building. Only at Evora, where he so
long filled the position of archbishop before succeeding to the throne,
was the cardinal able to do much. The most important architectural
event in Dom Sebastião's reign was the coming of Filippo Terzi from
Italy to build São Roque, the church of the Jesuits in Lisbon, and the
consequent school of architects, the Alvares, Tinouco, Turianno, and
others who were so active during the reign of Philip.
But before speaking of the work of this school some of Cardinal Henry's
buildings at Evora must be mentioned, and then the story told of how
Philip succeeded in uniting the whole Peninsula under his rule.
[Sidenote: Evora, Graça.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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