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 side jambs have standing figures on a level with that of St. James.
On the north jamb are Jeremiah, Daniel, Isaiah, and Moses, and on the
opposite side St. Paul, and, I suppose, other New Testament saints,
though I could not tell which. The side doorways, though there is no
sculpture in their tympana, have figures corresponding with the others
in their jambs. Under the groining against the north wall is an angel
blowing a trumpet, and there are other angels against the springing of
the groining ribs holding children in their hands.
The whole scheme is, in fact, a Last Judgment, treated in a very
unconventional manner; the point which most invites hostile criticism
being the kind of equality which the sculptor has given to the figures
of our Lord and St. James, both being seated, and both in the central
position; and though the figure of the apostle is below that of his
Lord, it is still the more conspicuous of the two.
The design of the interior of the west end is peculiar. The doorway
occupies the same space in height as the nave arches; above it the
triforium is carried across over the porch, opening into the nave with
two divisions of the same arcade as in the side galleries. Above this is
a large circular window, with sixteen small cusps and a small pierced
quatrefoil on either side. These openings now all communicate with the
western triforium gallery; and I found it impossible to make out, to my
own satisfaction, what the original scheme of the west end could have
been. It does not appear clear whether there ever were any doors hung in
the doorways, but I think there never were; and, perhaps, as we are told
that the first church built over the body of the saint was of two stages
in height, and open at the ends[164] (somewhat like the curious church
still remaining at Naranco, near Oviedo), we may be safe in assuming
that this western porch was in the same way open to the air. Above it
the vault of the nave may have been prolonged between the towers, and
under this the circular window would have been seen from the outside as
it is still from the inside. Whether there was any direct access to this
western porch from the ground, may admit of question; but it seems
difficult to see how it would have been contrived without blocking up
the chapel below the porch, which I have already described.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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