Some Account of Gothic Architecture in SpainStreet, George Edmund
History
Some Account of Gothic Architecture in Spain
Street, George Edmund
Architecture, Gothic -- Spain; Church architecture -- Spain
The soffeits of the cross arches between the vaults are painted, some
with foliage, others with figures. Of the latter, one has the twelve
Apostles, another the Holy Spirit in the centre, with angels worshipping
on either side, and a third a Hand blessing (inscribed “Dextra Dei”) in
centre, and saints on either side. The whole detail of the painted
foliage is of thoroughly good conventional character, and just in the
transitional style from Romanesque to Pointed.
There is a fine steeple detached from the church to the west. It stands
on the very edge of the old town wall, several of the round towers of
which still exist to the north of it, and below the great walls of the
convent built within them. This steeple is very plain below, but its
belfry stage has two fine shafted windows in each face, and nook shafts
at its four corners. It is capped with a low square spire with small
spire-lights: but as I found the working lines of all this drawn out
elaborately on the whitewashed walls of one of the cloisters, and as all
the work appears to be new, I cannot say whether or no it is an exact
restoration, though I dare say it is.
In the sacristy there are some paintings, of which one or two are of
great beauty. One is a charming picture of the Blessed Virgin with our
Lord, with angels on either side, and others holding a crown above: the
faces are sweet and delicate. One of the attendant angels offers an
apple to our Lord; the other plays a guitar: the background is a
landscape. The frame, too, is original. It has a gold edge, then a flat
of blue covered with delicate gold diaper, and there are two shutters
with this inscription on them:--“_Fœlix ē sacra virgo Maria et
omni laude dignissima quia in te ortus est sol justicie Chrūs Deus
noster._” There is also a very little triptych, with a Descent from the
Cross, and an inscription on the shutters. Two figures are drawing out
the nails, and hold the body of our Lord; two other figures on ladders
support His head and feet, and St. Mary and St. Mary Magdalene weep at
the foot of the cross. The inscriptions on the shutters are from
Zachariah xii., _Plagent eum, &c._, and Second Corinthians, “_Pro
omnibus mortuus est Christus_.” There are other paintings which the
Sacristan exhibits with more pride, but these two are precious works, of
extremely good character, and painted probably about the end of the
sixteenth century.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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