Seville: an historical and descriptive account of "the pearl of Andalusia"Calvert, Albert Frederick
History
Seville: an historical and descriptive account of "the pearl of Andalusia"
Calvert, Albert Frederick
Art -- Spain -- Seville; Painters -- Spain; Seville (Spain) -- Description and travel
Referring more particularly to the exterior of the Cathedral, Caveda
says: “The general effect is truly majestic. The open-work parapets
which crown the roofs, the graceful lanterns of the eight winding
stairs that ascend in the corners to the vaults and galleries, the
flying buttresses that spring lightly from aisle to nave, as the jets
of a cascade from cliff to cliff, the slender pinnacles that cap them,
the proportions of the arms of the transept and of the buttresses
supporting the side walls, the large pointed windows that open, one
above another, just as the aisles and chapels to which they belong
rise over each other, the pointed portals and entrances--all these
combine in an almost miraculous manner, although lacking the wealth of
detail, the airy grace, and the delicate elegance that characterise the
cathedrals of Léon and Burgos.”
Entering the church, the gloom renders it difficult for a time to
distinguish its exact configuration. We find it is divided into a
nave and four aisles, the former being fifty feet in width. The fine
marble floor was laid in the years 1787 to 1795. There is little
ornamentation, the interior displaying a noble simplicity, the
beautiful effect being produced mainly by the grandeur and symmetry
of the vaultings, archings, and pillars. The seventy-four exquisite
stained-glass windows, however, form a decorative series of the richest
kind. They are, for the most part, the work of northern artists. Micer
Cristóbal Aleman (Master Christoph the German) began the first--the
first stained-glass window seen in Seville--in 1504, the work being
carried on by the German Heinrich, the Flemings Bernardino of Zeeland
and Juan Bernardino, Carlos of Bruges, and the great master Arnao of
Flanders. The two latter designers are said to have received ninety
thousand ducats for their work. The last window was completed in 1662
by a Spaniard named Juan Bautista de Léon. The finest windows are
generally considered to be those representing the Ascension, St Mary
Magdalen, Lazarus, and the Entry into Jerusalem, by Arnao the Fleming
and his brother (1525), and the Resurrection, by Carlos of Bruges
(1558).
Passing up the nave, from the Puerta Mayor, we find midway between that
entrance and the choir the Tomb of Fernando Colon, son of the great
Columbus--“who would have been considered a great man,” says Ford, “had
he been the son of a less great father.” The slab is engraved with
pictures of the discoverer’s vessels, and the inscription, _À Castilla
y á León Mundo nuevo dio Colon_. At this spot, during Holy Week, is set
up the _Monumento_, an enormous wooden temple in the shape of a Greek
cross, in which the Sacrament is enshrined. The structure was made by
Antonio Florentin in 1544.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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