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 tympanum is sculptured with our Lord in an aureole in the centre,
the Betrayal and the Last Supper below, angels censing on either side,
and the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin above. The orders of the
archivolt are filled with figures, some representing the resurrection of
the dead, and others figures of kings and saints worshipping the central
figure of our Lord. The door-opening has the peculiarity of having an
elliptical or three-centred arch. This feature I noticed also in doors
evidently of about the same age at Burgos and at Leon, and it is just
one of those evidences which go surely to prove that the several works
are all designed by the same architect. The resemblance of the mouldings
in the jamb of this doorway to those in the western end of Leon
Cathedral is very close, and all these doors have an order of very
similar foliage between the several sculptured or storied orders of the
archivolt. I do not think the work here is quite as good as that at
Leon, though the filling in of the tympanum with a well-marked vesica in
the centre, and four rows of subjects divided by well-defined horizontal
lines, is uncommonly good. A sort of shallow porch has been formed by
some later groining, which occupies the space between the buttresses on
either side of the doorway, and this is finished in front with a rich
open traceried parapet and pinnacles.
It was during the prelacy of Don Sancho III., Bishop of Avila from A.D.
1292 to 1353, that most of the later works of the cathedral were
executed, and his arms are sculptured upon the vault of the Crossing.
The character of all the work would agree perfectly with this date,
which is given by Gil Gonzalez Dávila[174] in his account of the church.
[Illustration: Roofing, Avila.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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