The man who did this kind of work was not a common carpenter. Such work was largely practical and prosaic, but also it was largely decorative and poetical. Probably, both in his own and in his customer's regard, the decorative quality was set before the practical. Therefore, beyond the dry, comparatively facile details of technique, this workman studied, with an artist's reverence and zeal, the inner, subtler, sweeter mysteries of line and form; harmonies of curve and angle; patterns, now geometrical, now floral, now these two combined with magic ingenuity; steeping himself in the æsthetic sense; making, indeed, his work the literal fact or fitting of prosaic application that was indispensable; but also, and as if upon some loftier initiative of his own, a miracle of art for people of a later day to come and stand before and wonder at. [Illustration: XX _ALERO_ AND CORNICE OF CARVED WOOD (_Cuarto de Comares, Alhambra, Granada_)] Indeed, whether because Our Lord had practised it, or from some other motive, carpentry was always well esteemed among the Spaniards. The Ordinances of Seville eulogize it, in conjunction with its sister-work of masonry and building, as "a noble art and self-contained, that increaseth the nobleness of the King and of his kingdom, that pacifieth the people, and spreadeth love among mankind, conducing to much good."[32] The same Ordinances divide these honourable craftsmen into half a dozen classes and sub-classes; carvers or _entalladores_, carpenters who kept a shop (_carpinteros de tienda_), _carpinteros de lo prieto_, and _carpinteros de lo blanco_. The latter are the class we are considering here, and these, in turn, were subdivided into _lazeros_ or makers of _lazo_-work, _non-lazeros_ or those who did not make it, and _jumetricos_ or _geómetricos_. The statutory examination was severe in all these branches. Thus, the _lazero_-carpenters of Seville were required to make a chamber of octagonal _lazo_-work, including its pendentives at the corners; while the wood-carvers of the same city were required to be experienced draughtsmen and to make and carve "artistic altar-screens with decorated columns, pedestals for images, and tabernacles (_i.e._ the part of an altar where the cibory and the Host are kept), as well as tombs and chambranles with their covering, tabernacles of the utmost art (_de grande arte_), and rich choir-stalls." [32] _"Es noble arte, complida en sí; è acrescienta la nobleza del rey y del reyno, si en ella pararen mientes, como deuen; è pone paz en el pueblo y amor entre los omes, onde es carrera para muchos bienes."_--_Ordenanzas de Sevilla_, Part 1, p. 141.