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 ritual arrangements are all modern, and on the usual plan. The
western bay of the church is open; the stalls of the Coro occupy the
second and third bays; and metal rails across the fourth bay of the nave
and the Crossing connect the Coro with the Capilla mayor.
The evidence as to the age of the various portions of the building is
sufficient to enable us to date most of the work rather accurately. The
foundation of the church is recorded by an inscription over the
south-transept door to have been laid in 1262:[251] and some portion of
the exterior is, I have no doubt, of this date. The whole south-transept
front, a portion of the sacristy on the east side, and the exterior of
the apse, are all of fine early-pointed style, and, in the absence of
any specific statement of their date, might well have been thought to
belong to quite the commencement of the century. But I think a careful
examination of the detail will show that the work is possibly not so
early as it looks: and it has so much in common with Italian work of
the same age, that we need not be surprised to find in it features which
would nevertheless be inconsistent with its execution in the middle of
the thirteenth century in any work in the North of Europe. The south
transept façade consists of a round-arched doorway, with a horizontal
cornice over it, and a large and fine lancet-window above. The door and
window have respectively six and three jamb-shafts, and the abaci
throughout are square in plan. The archivolt of the doorway is very
rich: it includes five orders of enriched dog-tooth moulding, one order
of seraphs in niches, one of chevron, one of scalloping, and two of
foliage: good thirteenth century mouldings are also freely used. The
shafts are detached, and there is foliage on the jamb between them. The
abaci are very richly carved with animals and foliage, and the capitals
are all sculptured with subjects under canopies. The detail of the whole
of the work is certainly very exquisite. Undoubtedly in the north of
France such work would be assumed to have belonged to the twelfth rather
than the thirteenth century; but the quatrefoil diapering on the
capitals, the canopy work over the subjects in them, and the pronounced
character of the mouldings and dog-tooth enrichment, make it pretty
clear that the recorded date applies to this work. Indeed I do not know
how we can assume any other date for it without altogether throwing over
the extremely definite old inscription: for as it is evident that the
south transept and choir are of the same date, it is difficult to see
how it could have been possible to speak of the first stone, if all this
important part of the fabric were already in existence.[252] Close to
the transept on the east, in the wall of what is now a sacristy, is
another lancet window, of equally good, though simpler detail. Enough,
too, remains of the original work in the exterior of the apse to show
that it is of the same age as the south transept.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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