The Picturesque Antiquities of Spain: Described in a series of letters, with illustrations representing Moorish palaces, cathedrals, and other monuments of art, contained in the cities of Burgos, Valladolid, Toledo, and Seville.Wells, Nathaniel Armstrong
Islamic
The Picturesque Antiquities of Spain: Described in a series of letters, with illustrations representing Moorish palaces, cathedrals, and other monuments of art, contained in the cities of Burgos, Valladolid, Toledo, and Seville.
In viewing either of these compositions, the other speedily becomes
present to the imagination, and forces you to draw a comparison between
them. They have a sort of affinity in their subject as well as in their
style. The sufferers of the St. Elizabeth, occupied with their torments
and their gratitude, answer to those of the Aguas, engrossed also with
almost parallel feelings. The Moses, tranquil and erect in the midst of
the action which surrounds him, is the exact pendant of the majestic
figure and compassionate countenance of the youthful princess,
exercising her saintly charities. These pictures ought to be companions
in the same gallery, were it possible for two such works to find their
way into one and the same apartment. But that would be a consummation as
hopeless as finding St. Peter's and the Duomo of Milan in the same town;
Naples and Seville in one province, a London and a Paris in one country,
an Ariosto and a Byron in the same language. It has more than once
occurred to me, since I have seen these two pictures, that were
Raphael's Spasimo and Transfiguration placed on one side of a room, and
these two on the other, and the choice offered me which pair I would
possess, I should never be able to come to a decision.
Another large picture by Murillo, the multiplying of the Loaves in the
Desert, is suspended opposite the Aguas, and at the same elevation. On
attempting to examine it, you are forcibly reminded by certain acute
sensations in the region of the neck, of the unnatural position it has
so long maintained, and you leave this picture, together with two
others, placed near the entrance of the chapel, for a subsequent visit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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