The Arts and Crafts of Older Spain, Volume 1 (of 3)Williams, Leonard
History
The Arts and Crafts of Older Spain, Volume 1 (of 3)
Williams, Leonard
Decorative arts -- Spain -- History
The substitution for this spike of multiform and multicolor figures or
devices dates from a later age. The Chronicle of Alfonso the Eleventh
describes as something altogether novel and surprising, the crests upon
the helmets of the foreign knights who flocked, in 1343, to Algeciras to
aid the cause of Christianity against the Moor. "All of them," says this
narrative, "placed their helmets at the door of their dwellings,
supporting them on stout and lofty staves; and the figures on the
helmets were of many kinds. On some was the figure of a lion; on others
that of a wolf, or ass's head, or ox, or dog, or divers other beasts;
while others bore the likeness of the heads of men; faces, beards, and
all. Others, too, had wings as those of eagles or of crows; and so,
between these various kinds there were in all as many as six hundred
helmets."
This brings us to the celebrated helmet or _cimera_ (Plate xxxix.), now
in the Royal Armoury of Madrid, believed till recently to have belonged
to Jayme the First, conqueror of Palma and Valencia, and the greatest,
both in spirit and in stature, of the old-time kings of Aragon.
Such part of this interesting helmet as is left consists of two pieces,
one of them resting loosely on the other. Baron de las Cuatro Torres
infers, from a detail which will presently be noted, that the lower of
these two pieces is not original; and his opinion was shared by the
Count of Valencia de Don Juan, who, notwithstanding, thought the
spurious part to be coeval with the actual crest. The upper part
consists of a fragment of a helm, made, like some flimsy theatre
property, of linen, card, and parchment, and surmounted with the figure
of the mythical monster known in the Lemosin language as the
_drac-pennat_, or winged dragon, which formed, conjointly with the royal
crown, the emblem or device of all the Aragonese sovereigns from Pedro
the Fourth to Ferdinand the Second.
[Illustration: XLII
PARADE HARNESS OF PHILIP THE THIRD
(_Royal Armoury, Madrid_)]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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