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 north doorway is of the same age as the early part of the church,
and has a figure of our Lord within a vesica in the tympanum, and the
Last Supper carved on a pendant below it. The head of the door-opening
is very peculiar, having a round arch on either side of this central
pendant. The door has some rather good ironwork. The porch in front of
it is a work of the fifteenth century, or perhaps later, and is open on
three sides.
The only good external view of the church is obtained from the north
side. Here the tower rises picturesquely above the transept, but the
belfry and upper stage are modern[135] and very poor. The bells are not
only hung in the windows, but one of them is suspended in an open iron
framework from the finish the centre of the roof.
The cloister and other buildings seem to be all completely modern, and
are of very poor style.
There are two old churches here--those of the Capuchins and of San
Domingo--both of them in or close to the Plaza of San Domingo. The
church of the Capuchins is evidently interesting, though I could not
gain access to its interior, which appears to be desecrated. It has
transepts, a low central lantern, a principal apse of six sides, and two
smaller apses opening into the transepts. These apses are remarkable for
having an angle in the centre, whilst their windows have a bar of
tracery across them, transome fashion, at mid-height. It is certainly a
very curious coincidence, that in both these particulars it resembles
closely the fine church of the Frari at Venice; and though I am not
prepared to say that the imitation is anything more than the merest
accident, it is certainly noteworthy. The eaves are all finished with
moulded corbel-tables; and there is a rather fine rose-window in the
transept gable. The circles in the head of the apse windows are filled
in with very delicate traceries, cut out of thin slabs of stone, a
device evidently borrowed from Moresque examples; and it is somewhat
strange to meet them here so far from any Moorish buildings or
influence.
The church of San Domingo is somewhat similar in plan. It has a
modernized nave of five bays, a central dome, which looks as though it
might be old, but which is now all plastered and whitewashed, a
principal apse of seven sides, transepts covered with waggon-vaults, and
small apses to the east of them. The capitals have carvings of beasts
and foliage; but none of these, or of the mouldings, look earlier than
the fourteenth century; yet the capitals are all square in plan, and the
arches into the chapels have a bold dog-tooth enrichment. There is a
fine south doorway to the nave, in which chevrons, delicate fringes of
cusping, and dog-tooth, are all introduced. In such a work the date of
the latest portion must be the date of the whole; and so I do not think
it can be earlier than the rest of the church, though at first sight it
undoubtedly has the air of being more than a century older.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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