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
Some features still remain to be noticed, and the most important is the
tomb or shrine of the tutelars--San Vicente and his brethren. This is
picturesquely placed on one side of the space under the lantern, with
entire disregard to that desire for balance everywhere which so
painfully affects almost all of us now-a-days. It is a
thirteenth-century erection standing on detached shafts, within which
appears to be a tomb which is always kept covered with a silken pall.
Over this is a lofty canopy carried on four bold shafts at the angles,
and consisting of a deep square tester, above which is a lofty pyramidal
capping with its sides slightly concave and crockets at the angles. It
is rather difficult to convey an idea of this very remarkable work
without large and careful illustrations. The inner tomb or shrine is the
really important work, the outer canopy or tester being evidently a much
later addition.[181] The shrine has all the character of an early
pointed Italian Gothic work. Its canopy is carried on clusters of four
shafts twisted together, at each of the angles; between them, on each
side, are three coupled columns, and at the east and west ends are
single shafts. These carry trefoiled or many-cusped arches, the
spandrels of which are sculptured; and above this is a sort of shrine
with a sloping stone scalloped all over on either side, and a steep
diapered roof rising out of the centre. A series of subjects is carved
in panels all along the sides of the shrine, which seem to have
reference to three saints and martyrs--probably to San Vicente and his
companions. Figures of the Twelve Apostles are introduced, two and two,
at the angles, and other figures sitting and reading between the
subjects. A late iron screen between the columns of the outer baldachin
makes it rather difficult either to see or to sketch this interesting
work carefully. Its detail is all very peculiar, and in the twisted and
sculptured shafts, the strange form of some of the cusping, and the iron
ties with which it is undisguisedly held together, I thought I saw
evident traces of the influence of Italian art. I take the shrine to be
a work of the thirteenth century, though the baldachin is no doubt of
later date.
Near this shrine in the south aisle is some very fine rich and delicate
wrought-ironwork in a _grille_ round a side altar. It is possibly part
of the old choir-screen, and at any rate does not belong to the place in
which it is now preserved. The beauty of this work consists in the
delicacy of the thin strips of iron, which are bent into a succession of
circular lines ending in roses, and on an excessively small and delicate
scale. Some similar work is still to be seen in one of the windows of
the apse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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