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 choir shows the same gradual variation in style; and I have
considerable difficulty in assigning a precise date to it. It is clear,
however, that the whole of it is of much later date than the original
foundation of the cathedral; and it is probable, I think, that it was
reconstructed in the latter half of the thirteenth century. The windows
in the chapels of the chevet are of two lights, with a small quatrefoil
pierced in the tympanum above the lights. The mouldings of the groining
are extremely bold and simple. The aisle-vaulting, too, is very simple
and of early-pointed character, whilst the clustered columns round the
apse look somewhat later. There is, however, no mark of alterations or
additions; and I think, therefore, that the whole of this work must be
of the same date, and that the difference visible between the various
parts of it may be put down to the long lingering of those forms of art
which had been once imported into this distant province, and to the
consequent absence of development. The sculpture of the capitals in the
chevet is nowhere, I think, earlier than about the end of the thirteenth
century, though that in the chapels round it, being very simple, looks
rather earlier.
Unfortunately all the upper part of the choir was rebuilt about the same
time that the eastern chapel was added. It has strange thin ogee flying
buttresses, large windows, and a painted ceiling.
Here, as at San Isidoro, Leon, the Host is always exposed, and, as I
have mentioned before, two priests are always in attendance at
faldstools on each side of the Capilla mayor in front of the altar.
The interior, of course, has been much damaged by the destruction of the
old clerestory of the choir. It is, nevertheless, still very impressive,
and much of its fine effect is owing to the contrast between the bright
light of the nave and the obscure gloom of the long aisles on either
side of the Coro. The length of the nave, too, is unusually great in
proportion to the size of the church; and though much of the sculpture
is rude in execution, it is still not without effect on the general
character of the building.
On the north side of the nave a chapel has been added, which preserves
the external arrangement of the windows and buttresses in the earliest
part of the building, as they are now enclosed within and protected by
it. The simple and rather rude buttresses are carried up and finished
under the eaves’ corbel-tables with arches between them, so as to make a
continuous arcade the whole length of the building on either side.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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