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II I

GRANADA

PRESENT AND BYGONE

THE SPANISH SERIES

ALBERT F. CALVERT

1 Goya

2 Toledo

3 Madrid

4 Seville

5 Murillo

6 Cordova

7 El Greco

8 Velazquez

9 The Prado

10 The Escorial

11 Royal Palaces of Spain

12 Granada and the Alh;imbra

13 Spanish Arms and Armour

14 Leon, Burgos, and Salamanca

15 Catalonia, Valencia, and Murcia

16 Valladolid, Oviedo, Segovia,

Zamora, Avila, and Zaragoza

BV THE SAME AUTHOR

The Alhambra ; Life of Cervantes; Im-
pressions of Spain ; Summer in San
Sebastian ; Moorish Remains in Spain ;
Alfonso XIIL in England ; The Spanish
Royal Wedding.

c c f • r' f I- t

r f t r I ( ,

' • ' ,' c" o'c •" '

GRANADA

PRESENT AND BYGONE

ALBERT F. CALVERT

WITH 20 COLOURED AND 8 HALF-TONE

ILLUSTRATIONS AND NUMEROUS

LINE-DRAWINGS IN THE TEXT

LONDON: J. M. DENT & CO.
NEW YORK: E. P. BUTTON & CO.

1908

Printed in Great Britain

PREFACE

No city in Spain possesses so much fascination for
the foreigner as the old Moorish capital of Granada.
Toledo boasts a greater antiquity, Seville may flaunt
a larger share of sensuous beauty, but the mysterious
charm of the City of the Moor is irresistible. Few
that set foot in the halls of the Alhambra escape the
spell that legend has woven about the palace — the
spell which inspired the pen of Washington Irving and
by him communicated to his Anglo-Saxon contem-
poraries. Since Prescott revealed Granada as a second
Troy and glorified the campaigns of the Catholic
Sovereigns into a fifteenth-century Iliad, the keenest
rays of criticism and the coldest surveys have failed
to dispel the glamour which makes the city the Mecca
of every pilgrimage beyond the Pyrenees.

To the Spaniard Granada is an epitome of seven
centuries of national aspiration and endeavour. It
is at once the coping stone of the edifice of Spanish
nationality, the noblest monument of a vanished civi-
lisation, the high-water mark of Moslem culture.

223187

vi PREFACE

The enchantment of the Alhambra has held me
captive since my first visit, and consumed me with
the desire to make better known its manifold beauties.
At times, indeed, I have been accused of an excess of
enthusiasm for my subject, but in the following pages
I have endeavoured to approach the last stronghold
of the Spanish Moor in a critical, if not entirely dis-
passionate, mood. And I have found (as others have
found before me) that its beauty becomes the more
admirable the better it is understood.

It has been with me a labour of love to bring to-
gether and to condense the appreciation of a variety
of authors — English, French, Spanish, and German —
who have written of the history and art of Granada.
It is unnecessary, perhaps, to name all the works that
I have consulted, but I take this opportunity of men-
tioning one among them, which* while it has been of
exceptional value to me, seems to be hardly known
outside the city of which it treats. I refer to the
Guia de Granada by Don Francisco de P. Valladar,
the learned and courteous annalist of the Province,
to whom, with peculiar pleasure, I hasten to confess
myself indebted.

With the aid of the text I hope that the visitor
to Granada will be helped to a fuller appreciation of
the city and its history, but as a souvenir of a visit

PREFACE vii

this book will have its greater value in the pictures
with which it is enriched. In my three previous
publications on Granada and the Alhambra I relied
almost entirely upon the art of the photographer,
but in the present case I have invested the illustra-
tions with a personal note by revealing the place with
the assistance of contemporary artists. Of these
pictures, all of which have been specially drawn for
this book, the twenty coloured illustrations are by
Mr. Trevor Haddon, R.B.A., and the black and white
drawings are by him. Walker Hodgson, Louis Weirter,
M. Green, F. H. Gallichan, and M. Reed.

My thanks are also due to Mr. E. B. d'Auvergne
for his help in the revision of the text, and to C.
Gasquoine Hartley, with whose assistance the chapter
on Alonso Cano was prepared.

A. F. C

CONTENTS

CHAP. J'AGE

I. The History of the City i

II. The Alhambra 92

III. The Modern Town— Moorish Remains . . 197

IV. The Chapel Royal and Cathedral . . . 223

V. San Geronimo— San Juan de Dios— The Car-

TUJA 260

VI. Old Houses and Historic Sites . . . .275

Alonso Cano. By Albert F. Calyert and C.

Gasquoine Hartley 295

List of the most Important Sculptures, Carv-
ings, and Other Works Ascribed to Alonso
Cano, Arranged According to Periods and

Places Where Painted 334

Reference to Plan of Granada .... 343

ILLUSTRATIONS

COLOURED

General View of the Alhambra ....
The VermiUon Towers from the Ramparts To
Gate of Justice and the Emperor's Fountain
Court of the Mexuar, West Fa9ade
Tower of Comares

View of the Sierra Nevada and River Genii
Hall of Justice .
.Garden of Daraxa
The Queen's Boudoir
Gate of Justice .
Torre de los Picos

Torre de las Damas from the River Darro
Acequia Court ....
View of the Generalife
Gipsies at the Doors of their Caves
Tower and Aqueduct .
Exterior of the Royal Chapel .
Villas on the Banks of the River Darro
Villas on the Banks of the River Darro
Market and Gipsy Fair in the Triunfo

Frontispiece
face page i8
48
104
126

136
152
158
164
168
178
184
192
196
208
220
240
280
286
294

HALF-TONE

The Surrender of Granada ....

Chapel Royal. The High Altar
Chapel Royal. Tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella,
Philip I. and Juana . . . . .

72
228

236

xiv ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE
90

93
95
97

East Portico in the Court of the Lions

Court of the Lions from the Gallery ....

Hall of the Abencerrages and Court of the Lions
Hall of the Abencerrages . .....

Court of the Lions and Entrance to the Hall of the Two

Sisters .......... 98

Alcove in the Hall of Justice ...... 99

Entrance to the Hall of the Two Sisters . . . .101

Hall of Justice and Entrance to Court of the Lions . 103

" Wa la Ghalib ila Ala ! " — There is no conqueror but God
The famous motto in Kufic characters, of Mohammed I
and his successors, which is inscribed on the walls of the
Alhambra in countless repetition . . . .104

Part of picture in the Hall of Justice representing a Christian

Knight rescuing a maiden from a wicked Magician or

\Vild-man-o'-th'-Woods. The Christian Knight is in

turn slain by a Moorish Warrior . . ' . .105

The Death of the Lion at the Hands of a Christian Knight.

Part of Picture in the Hall of Justice . . . 106
Moorish Huntsman Slaying the Wild Boar. Part of Picture

in the Hall of Justice . . . . . .107

Painting in the Hall of Justice ...... 108

The Moor's Return from Hunting. Part of Picture in the

Hall of Justice ........ 109

Inscription in the Court of the Lions . . . .110

The Chamber of Repose — Baths of the Alhambra . .111
Sultan's Bath constructed by Yusuf L . . . -113
Balcony of Daraxa or " Lindaraja " . . . . • 115

Garden of Daraxa or "Lindaraja" . . . . • 117

The Garden of Daraxa or "Lindaraja" . . . .118

The Queen's Boudoir and View of the Albaicin . .120
The Queen's Boudoir and Distant View of the Generalife 121
The Queen's Boudoir and Distant View of the Generalife 123
The Queen's Boudoir . . . ... . . . 125

Gate of Justice . . . . . . . .127

Gate of Justice and Fountain of Charles V. . . .128

The Gate of Justice . . . . . . . .129

The Gate of Justice 131

the

ILLUSTRATIONS

The Gate of Justice .....
The Gate of Justice (Inner Side)
The Infantas Tower .....
Interior of the Torre de las Infantas
The Captive's and Infantas Towers .
Interior of the Torre de la Cautiva .
The " Captive " and " Candil " Towers

Torre de los Picos

Exterior of the Mihrab ....

Side Entrance to the Mihrab and Distant \'iew of the

Generalife ......

Interior of the Mihrab ....

A Court in the Alhambra ....

Mihrab ; or Oratory .....

Gold Coin (Obverse and Reverse) of Mohammed I

Founder of the Alhambra .
Arabian Lamp . .....

Palace of Charles V. .

The Generalife from the Alhambra .

The Generalife . . . • .

Approach to the Generalife

Generalife. The Acequia Court

Gallery in the Generalife ....

Generalife. Cypress Court ....

Gallerj^ and Cj'press Court, Generalife
The Cypress of the Sultana in the Generalife
Generalife. The Sultana's Cypress .
Gallery in the Generalife ....

Generalife. Entrance to the Portrait Gallery

Generalife. The Acequia Court .

Generalife. Acequia Court

The Acequia Court of the Generalife

Generalife. Acequia Court

Generalife. Gallery in the Acequia Court

Generalife. Acequia Court

PAGE

135
136
138
139
141
142

148
149

153
155
156

.157
159
161

163

164
166
167
168
169
171
172
173
175
176
177
179
181
182
183

XVI

ILLUSTRATIONS

Generalife. Gallery in the Acequia Court
Generalife. Gallery in the Acequia Court
The Aqueduct of the Alhambra
Puerta del Hierro
The late King of the Gipsies
Gipsies Dancing .

Near the Torre de los Picos. A Gipsy Family
Gipsy Gossip near the Aqueduct
The Generalife from the Alhambra
The Puerta Real
The Calle Reyes Catolicos .
Calle de San Anton
Hotels near the Alhambra .
In the Gipsy Quarters. Sage Advice
In the Gipsy Quarters
Gipsy Blacksmiths
A Gipsy Beauty ....
Gipsy Quarter. The Caves
Gipsy Dwelling ....
Gate of Elvira ....
Gate of Elvira ....
The Casa del Carb6n .
The Casa del Carb6n .
The Alcaiceria ....
Ancient Arab Silk Market (Alcaiceria)
Exterior of an old House ....
Courtyard of a Moorish House in the Albaicin
Courtyard of an Arab House in the Albaicin
Courtyard of a Moorish House in the Albaicin
Courtyard of an old House in the Albaicin
The Chapel Royal
The Chapel Royal
The Chapel Royal
Entrance to the Chapel Royal
Screen in the Chapel Royal
Sepulchres of the Catholic Sovereigns, and of Dofia J nana
and Philip I. ........

PAGE

i8s
187
189
190
191
192

193

194

195
199
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213

215

217
218
219
220

221
222
225
226
227
229
231

233

ILLUSTRATIONS

xvii

Chapel Royal. Statue of King Ferdiaand the Catholic
Chapel Royal. Statue of Queen Isabella .
The Chapel Royal. Statue of Isabella the Catholic
Sceptre, Crown, Sword, Mass-book, and Coffer of the

Catholic Sovereigns
Cathedral. Interior Doorway of the Chapel Royal
Cathedral of Granada
View of the Cathedral and the Alhambra from San

Ger6nimo ....
The Cathedral ....
West Front of the Cathedral
Main Entrance to the Cathedral
Cathedral. The Trascoro .
The Cathedral. Puerta del Perdon
In the Cathedral
Gothic Door^vay in the Sagrario
Plaza del Triunfo
Hospital of San Juan de Dios
Portal of the Church of San Juan de Dios
The Cartuja. Sanctum Sanctorum
The Cartuja. San Bruno by Alonso Cano
St. Mary Magdalene. Sculpture by Alonso Cano in the

Cartuja ....

St. Joseph and the Child. Sculpture

the Cartuja
The Market and Gipsy Fair, and the
Head of John the Baptist
Head of John the Baptist
Head of John the Baptist
A Woman of Granada
Market Gardeners
The Casa de los Tiros
A Charcoal Dealer
A Gipsy Dance .
The Plaza Nueva
Church of Santa Ana
The House of Hernando de Zafra
The River Darro

by Alonso Cano in

Triunfo

PAGl-

234
235
238

239
241
242

243

245

247
249
251

253
255
256

257
261
263
265
266

267

269
270
271
272

273
276
277
278

279

280
281
283
285
286

xviii ILLUSTRATIONS

J'ACE

Court of the House of Chapiz 287

The Casa de Sanchez 289

Court of an old House in the Calle del Homo de Oro . 291

Statue of Queen Isabella and Columbus .... 292

By the Wayside. Gipsy Basket-makers .... 293

MAPS

Granada .......... xx

Plan of Granada 342

Plan of the Alhambra Palace . . . .To face page 96
The Alhambra „ 113

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■W , 1 . • 1 ' > J 1 111 1

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Granada from the Torre de la Vela

GRANADA

CHAPTER I

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

The world knows nothing of the makers of its cities,
and you may search in vain for any probable account
of the founding of Granada. Speculation has, not-
withstanding, been rife on the subject, and the re-
capitulation of the theories and guesses of various
writers — some the most extravagant — would fill
several pages. As late as 1842, I find the learned
Don Jose Hidalgo de Morales gravely protesting
against the summary dismissal of the genealogy which
links up the city with the immediate descendants of
Noah ; " for," says he, " to deny a statement, with-
out saying more than it is false because it does not

;? . : . , GRANADA

seem to mc to be true, is to say nothing." The
tradition which the empty sophistry of us moderns
thus discredits, is this. Tubal, the grandson of Noah,
peopled Spain in the Year of the World 1800 ; and
Granada, according to such respectable authorities
as St, Isidore, St. Jerome, and Pedro Arias Montano,
was the first part of the country to receive inhabitants.
Tubal was succeeded by Iberus who gave his name
to the peninsula, and also to the town of Illiberis ;
though according to another " authority," this place
was named after the wife of King Pyrrhus and
daughter of King Hispan. Here we hav'B not only
the foundation of Granada but the nomenclature of
many places in Spain accounted for in the simplest
and most natural manner ; for there undoubtedly
was a city called Illiberis or Elvira in Visigothic and
Roman times, and it was situated in the neighbour-
hood of Granada. Alfonso the Learned's theory that
the south-east of Spain was colonised by the Egyptians
is supported, or may have been suggested by Mac-
robius's statement that the tribes in this part wor-
shipped the bull ; which, in a very different sense,
they continue to do.

Illiberis, which many historians have tried to
identify with our city, was raised to the dignity of a
municipium by Augustus, and we hear of an ecclesi-
astical council there in the fourth century. Doubt-

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

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4 GRANADA

less it suffered severely at the hands of the Vandals,
from whom it was ultimately wrested by the Visigoths.
By the time of the Moorish invasion, it had dwindled
almost to insignificance. It was probably then that
the modern town of Granada sprung into existence,

Villas on the Banks of the River Darro

for the Arabs, to overawe the neighbouring people,
appear to have built a citadel which they called
Karnattah al Yahlid, from the circumstance of its
garrison being composed of Jews. The district, soon
after the conquest, was allotted to Damascene settlers
— that is, according to Moorish writers anxious to

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY 5

exalt the lineage of their nation. The first settlers
in Spain after the downfall of the Gothic monarchy,
were in the main Berbers and, therefore, comparatively
recent converts to Islam.

More obscurity and confusion attend the mediaeval
history of Granada than that of almost any other city

V'iew from the Camino del Monte

in the kingdom. It is seldom mentioned by con-
temporar}' writers, from which we may conclude that
its days were untroubled and the ways of its men
were peace. In the year 767 Ash Shebeni, the governor
of Illiberis, built a castle at Granada. A hundred
years later Andalusia was ravaged by the war waged
by the natives, both Mohammedan and Christian — •
Mozarab and Muladi — against their Arabian rulers.
Omar ben Hafsun, a Goth by descent and nominally
a Muslim by creed, put himself at the head of the

6 GRANADA

insurrection, and from his castle of Bobastro, near
Malaga, made incessant forays into the enemy's
country. Meantime the rebels under the command of
one Ndbil, presumably Omar's lieutenant, laid siege
to Granada, which was held by the redoubtable chief,
Sawar ben Hamdun al Kaysi. Ibn Hayyan, the
historian, has preserved for us some exulting verses,
which were attached to an arrow and shot over the
walls by the besiegers. They run : —

•' Deserted and roofless are the houses of our enemies ;
Invaded by the autumnal rains, traversed by impetuous

winds ;
Let them within the red castle { Kalat al hamra) hold their

mischievous councils ;
Perdition and woe surround them on every side."

This is the first occurrence of a name (al hamra =
Alhambra) which afterwards loomed so large in the
history of Granada ; and there can be little doubt
that it was here apphed to the castle built by Ash
Shebeni, which some historians make out to be the
Torres Bermejas and others the Kasba on the Alhambra

hill itself.

The rising of native Muslims and Christians was
extinguished in blood. But in 886 we hear of Omar
ben Hafsun taking Alhamra from the Khalifa of
Cordova, and a few years later extending his dominion
over and beyond the Vega. His power was over-

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

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8 GRANADA

thrown in 891, and he retired to his castle of Bobastro,
where he died after returning to the fold of
Christianity.

The distinction of first elevating Granada to the
rank of an independent kingdom was reserved to a
Berber chief of the tribe of Senhajah or Sinbasha,
whose name is variously spelt Zawi ben Ziri and Zawi
Ibn Zeyri. Having been governor of the province, on
the virtual break-up of the empire of the Ummeyads,
he established himself as an independent ruler at
Elvira (as Illiberis was now called) in the year 1013.
The Visigothic city was now fast falling into decay.
Ibn Hayyan, who had visited it half a century before,
reports that he found none of its once imposing build-
ings standing, except the mosque whereon he read
this inscription : "In the name of God the all mighty,
the compassionate ! This mosque was erected at the
command of the Amir Mohammed, son of Abd-ur-
Rahman (on whom may God bestow favours !) in
expectation of His munificent rewards, and for the
greater comfort and convenience of his subjects.
And the building was completed in the month of
Dhilkada, in the year 250 [December 864], under the
direction of Abdullah, his governor for the province
of Elvira."

According to Gayangos, the seat of government was
transferred from the moribund city to Granada by

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

GRANADA

Zawi's nephew and successor, Habus Ibn Makesen
(1019-1037), who, after the fashion of the time, offered
Hberal inducements to settlers in his new capital.

The history and per-
sonalities of the Amirs
of the Zirite dynasty
are involved in much
obscurity. To Habus
is attributed the
founding of the Kasba
in the Albaicin, a work
extended .by his son
and successor Badis
(1037 -1072). This
sovereign is also said
to have erected and
dwelt in the famous
Casa del Gallo de Viento, in the same quarter, which
was surmounted by a bronze weathercock in the form
of a mounted warrior. Pedraza, an old chronicler
of Granada, repeats a rhyme which he avers to be a
translation of the text beneath this warlike figure.

" Dice el sabio Aben Habuz,
Que asi se defiende el Andaluz."

This tradition no doubt suggested to \\'ashington
Irving one of his better-known legends. Badis, it is

General View of the Sierra Nevada and the
River Genii

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY ii

agreed by all historians, considerably extended his
kingdom in all directions and subjugated the moun-
taineers of the Alpuj arras. Having added Malaga to
his dominions, he tried conclusions with Motamid,
the Abbadite sultan of Seville. The Grenadines were
badly beaten at Cabra by their adversaries, thanks
mainly to the prowess
of Motamid's ally, Ruy
Diaz de Vivar, who ^J^-^^J^^Si^-

was on this occasion "'■■'?i#^

acclaimed the Cid (Sidi '"^^CiMS'

= lord) by the grateful ^%^^"

Moors. The reign of '^*"'"

A Peep at Granada from the Sacro Monte

Badis was also stained

by the massacre of the Jews of Elvira, to the number
of 4000. This was provoked by the expulsion of a
popular poet, Abu Ishak, by the Wizir, Yusuf ben
Nagdela, who was, like many other men of rank
and wealth in Granada, an Israelite. This was an
early expression of that fanatical temper which dis-
tinguished the Mushms of Granada among their
co-religionists all over Spain.

The Zirite monarchy was brought to an end by the
Almoravide invaders, who, commanded by Ibrahim
Abd-ul-Aziz, occupied Granada in the year 1090.
The last king, Abdullah Ibn Balkin, fled to the Alpu-
j arras, where for a time he carried on a guerrilla war-

GRANADA

fare. At last captured, he was sent to Africa, where
he died (says Gayangos) at the castle of Aghmat.
Under the Almoravides, Granada became a place of
great importance, if it was not actually the seat of
government. The Viceroy, Abdullah Ibn Ghaniyyah,
compared Spain to a shield of which Granada was the

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The Vermilion Towers

grip or arm-hole, adding, " Let us but hold the strap
tight, and the shield will never drop from our arm."
The saying is probably an invention, as nothing in
the city's strategical position would warrant such
a boast.

Their religious fervour intensified by the example
of the new African sectaries, the Mohammedans of
Granada turned their swords against their Christian
fellow-townsmen, and razed to the ground their prin-
cipal church situated outside the Bab Elvira. In

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

their despair the luckless Mozarabes (as the Christians
under the Moorish yoke were called) sent secret em-
bassies to Alfonso the Battler, King of Aragon, who
marched to their assistance with a formidable army.
The Almoravides were routed at Anzul, near Lucena,
but the Spanish king, prosecuting the usual strategy

The \'ermilion Towers

of his time, contented himself with wasting the Vega.
and then returned to his kingdom. The plight of
the Christians of Granada was worse than ever as
a result . of this abortive campaign. The following
3^ear (1126) they were exiled by the thousand to
Barbary, and those who remained were reduced to
abject servitude.

Granada remained true to the Almoravides in their
darkest hour. A pretender who had occupied the

GRANADA

Kasba was expelled, we are told, in 1145, by the
garrison of the old Kasba, and routed at the battle
of Almosala. When the last Amir of the race of
Tashfin had ceased to reign, the loyal garrison of
Granada continued to coin money with the inscription,
" May God preserve the princes of the Muslims, the

The Vermilion Towers

Beni Tashfin." The city held out till 1148, when it
came into the possession of the Almohades.

The Grenadines could ill brook the yoke of these
fierce Africans. In 1161, while their governor, Abu
Said, was over in Barbary assisting his father the
Khalifa, they allied themselves with the Jews and
Christians, and admitted the Almoravide chief,
Ibrahim Ibn Humushk within their walls. The
Almohades shut themselves up within the Kasba,

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

where they were closely besieged by the insurgents.
The first army of 20,000 men sent from Africa to their
relief was defeated by Ibn Humushk at a place called
Marcharocad (Merj-ur-Rokad). Ibn Mardanish, sultan
of Murcia and Valencia, now joined forces with the

General \'ie\v of the Alhambra and the Sierra Nevada

Grenadines, and assailed the Kasba from the ground
afterwards covered by the Albaicin. But the garrison
held out manfully, while the Khalifa sent a fresh
army to their assistance. On the night of July 13,
1 162, the Almohades surprised the camp of Humushk
and Mardanish, and routed them with immense
slaughter. The Murcian king barely escaped with his

i6 GRANADA

life to Jaen, and his unfortunate Christian alhes were
almost exterminated.

^ The Almohadcs now made some efforts to con-
ciliate a population as fierce and warlike as them-
selves. One of their governors, Sidi Abu Ibrahim
Ishak, is said to have been a wise and beneficent
ruler, and adorned the city with gardens, mosques,
colleges, and palaces. For himself he built a sumptu-
ous residence on the banks of the Genii, called the
Kasr-es-Sid, not neglecting to strengthen the forti-
fications of the Kasba, to which at any moment a
rising of the turbulent Grenadines might have com-
pelled him to fly. But the reign of the Almohades
was short lived. The downfall of the empire had
already been predicted by a Jewish astrologer, who
announced that it would be accomplished by a man
of Andalusian birth, named Mohammed Ibn Yusuf.
Professional prophets are seldom so precise in their
indications. Diligent search was made for all persons
answering to the description, who, as soon as found,
were handed over to the executioner. The prophecy,
notwithstanding, was verified in the person of
Mohammed Ibn Yusuf Ben Hud, a descendant of the
emirs of Zaragoza. This powerful chief had already
possessed himself of extensive districts on the east
coast of Spain, and profiting by the death struggle
in which the Almohades were engaged with foes in

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

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GRANADA

Africa, seized upon the cities of Cordova, Jaen, and
Granada in the year 1228.

The prospects of Ben Hud were soon clouded by

the rise of Moham-
med al Ahmar, a
young man of Ar-
jona, who raised the
flag of revolt in his
native town and soon
secured a consider-
able following. On
all sides 'adventurers
and pretenders were
rising, hoping to
carve for themselves
kingdoms out of the
crumbling empire of
the Almohades. Al
Ahmar allied himself
with the enemies of Ben Hud, and succeeded for
a brief interval in reigning over Seville. From that
city he was expelled, but he forced Ben Hud to
take refuge in Almeria, where he caused him to
be assassinated in the year 1237. The next year
Al Ahmar extended his authority over Granada.
City after city threw open its gates to him, including
Malaga and Almeria, and in 1241 he was recognised

The Alhambra from the Cuesta del Rey Chico

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY 19

as lord over all the lands between the upper reaches
of the Guadalquivir and the Strait of Gibraltar,
between Ronda and Baza. In all directions the
crescent was going down before the cross. St. Ferdi-
nand was thundering at the gates of Seville, Castihan
lances were pricking across the Vega. Instinctively
the children of Islam turned their eyes towards the
adventurer of Arjona, recognising in him their last
bulwark against the Christian. Nor were their hopes
deceived. Out of the last fragments of the Mushm
empire, in the hour of extremest peril, Al Ahmar
founded a state which for over two centuries with-
stood the flowing tide of Christian victory.

It is to the dynasty of the Nasrids, founded by this
able sovereign, that Granada owes not only its fame
but its noblest monuments. On the banks of the
Genii and the Darro, Islam in Spain knew an Indian
summer, an after-glow of the glory that had been in
the days of Abdurrahman and Al Mansur. Hitherto
little better than an obscure provincial town, it
now became known as one of the most beautiful
and populous of the capitals of Europe, and the
nucleus of a state where ^Muslim civilisation reached
its zenith.

Al Ahmar's name in full is given as Abu Abdullah
Mohammed ben Yusuf ben al Ahmar — the latter
being the name of his tribe. He is said to have been

GRANADA

descended from the Khoreish tribe to which belonged
the Prophet — a distinction claimed, it should be men-
tioned, for almost every man of eminence among the

T.H.

'^^^'^'^M^^.'^^^-^^^

The .■Uhambra from San Nicolas

Muslims. But the founder of the sultanate of Granada
has sufficient titles of his own to respect and admira-
tion without borrowing any such from his forebears.
He was a great man in every sense. Arabic writers

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY 21

extol the beauty and dignity of his person, the charm ""
of his manner, his simple and temperate habits. That
he was a foe to luxury we are told, but cannot so
easily credit, seeing that it is to him we owe the
Alhambra, most beautiful of Moslem palaces. He
possessed statesmanlike qualities of a high order. It
was no mean diplomacy that arrested the irresistible
Ferdinand in his career of conquest, and obtained his
consent to the establishment of a rallying point for
the disheartened and broken Muslims on Spanish
soil. True the price paid for such a concession was
heavy enough. Al Ahmar had perforce to cede many
of his conquests to the north and west, especially in
the valley of the Guadalquivir ; and, harder still, to
march with the Castilian king against the Moham-
medans of Seville, assisting at their downfall and
subjection. But even this humiliating, not to say
dishonourable condition, he knew how to turn to
good account ; for he induced many thousands of the
conquered citizens to emigrate to his own dominions,
strengthening his own power thereby and averting
the maledictions which might have been hurled at
him as a traitor to Islam. Al Ahmar seems early to
have perceived that a state as limited in extent as
his own could subsist only by virtue of an unusual
density of population. Granada was the last strong-
hold of Islam in Europe, and its ruler despised no

GRANADA

Asceut to the Alhambra by the Cuesta del Key Chico

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

means of safeguarding it. He despatched embassies
to the powerful African princes, whose kingdoms, Hke
his own, had been reared on the shattered fabric of
the Almohade empire ; but it is doubtful if he went

The Alhambra and Generalife from San Miguel

so far as to invite their intervention, knowing that
such must have been the prelude to the absorption
of his own dominions. He neglected no means of
conciliating Ferdinand III. He acknowledged himself
his vassal, and bound himself and his successors to
attend the Cortes if called upon. His supremely
difficult task he accomplished to perfection ; and the

GRANADA

monument to his genius was a kingdom which, shut
in between the sea and its implacable and powerful
foes, and torn by incessant internecine disorders,
defied its fate for two hundred and fifty years.

Al Ahmar's reign was long, and allowed him but
the briefest snatches of repose. Despite his earnest

^5*Sfe

K*^

M^''^ — ~^pt^J^.S^%M;-

A Glimpse of the Alliambra from the Sacro Monte

endeavours to preserve peace, the temper of his
subjects and the political agitation of his time com-
pelled him again and again to draw the sword.
Studious of the interests of his country, when King
Alfonso's rebellious brother, Don Enrique, sought
refuge at his court, he passed him on to Tunis, with
letters cordially recommending him to the Emir of
that country. Yet he could not remain deaf to the

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY 25

appeals of his co-religionists of Jerez and Arcos, who
besought him to relieve them from the Christian
yoke. The campaign was well planned. The rising ^^
of the ^Muslims took place simultaneously at such
distant points as Murcia, Lorca, Arcos, and Lebrija.
Al Ahmar crushed a Spanish force within sight of his
capital, and harried the frontiers of Castile. But in
his distribution of rewards he was so unfortunate as
to offend his powerful vassals, the Walis of Guadix,
Malaga, and Comares, who joined their forces with
those of the enemy. Al Ahmar was obliged to relin-
quish his conquests and would have been obliged to
recognise the independence of the revolted governors,
had not an insurrection in Castile distracted Alfonso's
attention, and disposed him to agree to moderate
conditions of peace. But the Walls, thus deserted
by their Christian ally, continued the struggle, and
Al Ahmar, in desperation, appealed for help to Abu
Yusuf, the Sultan of Morocco. But before assistance
could reach him, he resolved on a final effort to crush
the rebels single-handed. An old man of eighty,
enfeebled with disease, he rode forth from Granada
at the head of his army, for the last time. Falling
from his horse, he lingered until sundown, and in the
arms of his ally, the Infante Don Felipe, breathed
his last by the roadside. That night his body was
conveyed to Granada, and buried in the cemetery of

GRANADA

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

the Assabica beneath a marble tomb, the epitaph on
whicli proclaimed him to be the strength of Islam,
the glory of the day and night, the sword of truth,
and the splendour of the law.

This great man was succeeded by his son who, at
the age of thirty-eight years, began his reign under the
style of Mohammed II. on January 21, 1273. He

The Alhambra from San Nicolas

owed his elevation to his father's throne largely to
Don Felipe and other Christian refugees, for a strong
party of Moors favoured the pretensions of the Wall
of Malaga, hoping by his election to terminate the
division of the kingdom. The new sultan rewarded
one of his most prominent supporters, Don Nuiio de
Lara, by the gift of a magnificent palace, the name of
which was long remembered in Granada. Mohammed
II. was surnamed the Alfaki or Jurist, on account of
his having made a special study of the law. He had

28 GRANADA

long been associated in the government with his
father, and was scarcely inferior to him in valour
and statecraft. He loved the arts and letters, and
surrounded himself with an elegant court. Yet most
of his reign of twenty-nine years must have been
passed in the camp. To secure his person, he main-
tained a guard officered by men either of his own
family or related to the African dynasty of the Beni
Merin. Thus accompanied he severely chastised the
rebel Walis at Antegnera, and then visited Alfonso X.
at Seville in the hope of finally detaching him from
his alliance with the defeated insurgents. He was
partially successful, but was outwitted by a woman's
ruse. Queen Violante of Castile, at the conclusion of
his stay, asked of him a boon, which as a true knight,
according to the custom of the times, he was obliged
to grant. He then learnt to his dismay that he had
conceded a year's truce to the men who were dis-
membering his kingdom. Smouldering with wrath,
he returned to his capital, and matured plans for the
final destruction of his enemies. This he hoped to
effect with the help of the Sultan of Morocco, who,
with a large army, landed at his request at Tarifa.
But the rebel Wahs immediately presented themselves
at his ally's court, and were received more cordially
than his own envoys. The Muslim sovereigns, how-
ever, at length agreed to suspend their mutual differ-

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY 29

ences and to make common cause against the Christian.
In the campaign that followed, Mohammed's old
friend, Don Nufio de Lara, was defeated and killed
at Ecija. The Africans sent his head to Granada,
where Mohammed ordered it to be treated with
respect and sent in a silver casket to Cordova. The
generous sultan gained a signal victory at Alcala de
Abenzaide over the Infante Sancho, who was left
dead on the field ; but the supine and treacherous

l^¥:

-v,.^
■^^

V'r^M

. t

'm^

LJ^-:

"-^j^^u^

The Alhambra from San Xicolas

attitude of his allies robbed him of the fruits of
\dctory. The Africans presently recrossed the strait,
lea\dng garrisons in Tarifa, Algeciras, and Malaga.
Mohammed succeeded, by bribing the governor, in
repossessing himself of the latter town ; and by force
and negotiation recovered Comares and Guadix. He
paid a visit to the court of Fez, and was presented
with a highly prized copy of the Koran. More fight-
ing with the Christians followed. We find Mohammed
at one time in alliance with the Spaniards against the
Africans, at another time coming to his co-religionists'
assistance when they were besieged in Algeciras. He

GRANADA

recovered that port on the payment of an indemnity
to his quondam alHes, and at his death in 1302, could
have boasted that he had not lost an inch of the
territory left to him by his father.
r Mohammed III. was a prince of at least as much
capacity as his father, and remarkable for his energy

. "ZZ- ~ --a

The Alhambra and Granada from the Generalife

even as one of an energetic race. He is said to have
frequently passed the whole twenty-four hours occu-
pied with the cares of state, while the ministers re-
lieved each other in their attendance upon him. He
gave early proof of his vigour by the capture of the
town of Almandhar, where he obtained possession
of a beautiful Christian girl, who afterwards became
the sultana of an African monarch. Ibn Nasr, the

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY 31

governor of Guadix, having caught the fever of treason
which seemed endemic within that town, was sum-
moned to the Alhambra, and decapitated in the
presence of his sovereign without warning or prepara-

The Alhambra and GeneraUfe from the Gipsy Quarter

tion. A more honourable exploit was Mohammed's
conquest of the town of Ceuta opposite Gibraltar in
May 1306. With the immense treasure amassed [
within the walls of the conquered town, he erected 1
a mosque on the Alhambra, ^

resplendent with marble and ^S^'^a^^''^

jasper, gold and silver. The ■'^3^1^^^-

j ->'^'^^^^'
principal inhabitants of Ceuta ,"^1 '... M:-'-1mk, r-^m

were brought over to swell ^W^^MU^^
the population of Granada. ^ ^#f?|^^:pJ^
buch good fortune was not /'I

to last. The governor of The Alhambra from the Fountain

of Avellano

Almeria revolted and offered

to surrender the town to the King of Aragon, who
immediately marched an army to his assistance. At
the same time the Castilians laid siege to Algeciras.
Assailed on both sides, Mohammed III. could do
nothing to avert the taking of Gibraltar or the siege

GRANADA

i'H

of Ceiita. He purchased peace by surrendering four

fortresses and paying five thousand gold doubloons.

On his return after this humihating peace to his

- -, capital, he was seized in

'yi'- ' s the royal apartments by a

band of conspirators, who
murdered his wizir. El
Lakshmi, and constrained
him to abdicate in favour
of his brother, Abu-1-Juy-
yush Muley Nasr. The
same night he quitted
the Alhambra and retired
soon after to the town of
Almuhecar.

Nasr, who thus ascended
the throne on April ii,
1307, began his reign with
a signal success. He at-
tacked Don Jaime before
Almeria, and forced him to
raise the siege. But the
example he had so lately
given was speedily followed, and the news reached
him of a formidable conspiracy, at the head of which
was his sister's son, Abu-l-Walid. At this juncture,
Nasr had a stroke of apoplexy and was thought to

|ir«LJj^ilir-M,vr.;

The Alhambra and \'alley of
the Darro

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

be dead. Some courtiers immediately set off to
Almuiiecar, and brought back Mohammed III. with
shouts of joy and triumph. To their consternation
they entered the palace to find that the usurper was
in possession of his life and authority. Mohammed,
according to some authorities, was murdered and his

body thrown into the pond in the Court of Myrtles ;
according to others, he was sent back to Almuhecar,
where he died soon after. Nasr did not long enjoy
his ill-acquired power. The partisans of Abu-1-Walid
approached the city, where the citizens, inspired by
hatred of the Wizir Mohammed ben Ali el Hajji,
received them with joy. Nasr was besieged in the
citadel, whence he appealed in vain for help to Pedro

34 GRANADA

of Castile. He capitulated and abdicated at length,
on condition of his being assigned the town of Guadix
as a residence. Usurper though he may have been,
Nasr conducted himself upon his downfall with the
stoicism of a philosopher. He patriotically refused
to assist Pedro, when the latter, at last and too late,
responded to his call, and he evinced the liveliest

The .\lhambra

concern for the welfare of his country. He expressed
satisfaction that he had been allowed to atone in this
life for the wrong he had done his brother ; and
expired, mourned by very few, in the year 1322.
His funeral prayer was pronounced by his rival and
successor. According to Al Khattib, Nasr was a
skilled astronomer and mathematician, and expert at
constructing scientific instruments.

Abu-1-Walid was before all things a fighter. He
believed, he declared, only in God and his sword.

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY 35

He regarded the Christians as a pestilent race whom
it was his duty to destroy. He was repulsed in an
attack on Gibraltar, but in the year 1319, cut to
pieces a Castilian army which had invaded the Vega.
The bodies of the Infantes Pedro and Juan were
found among the slain. The head of the first-named
prince was exposed on the city walls. This signal
victory is commemorated in the inscriptions in the
Generalife. Abu-1-Walid followed up his success by
taking Baza and Martos, putting all the Christian
population to the sword. The moral effect of these
victories was immense. At Baza, the Moorish king
had brought artillery into action for the first time in
Spain, and Martos had hitherto been considered an
invincible fortress.

The victorious sultan made his entry into Granada
amidst frenzied rejoicings. Among the spoils of war
he valued nothing more highly than a girl of sur-
passing beauty, whom, like another Agamemnon, he
had torn from the arms of one of his officers. Three
days after his return, he was struck down at the door
of the Alhambra by the poniard of the man he had
injured, his assassin escaping before the guards had
heard their sovereign's cries. Another account has it
that the sultan was murdered as he went from his
harem to the audience chamber by a cousin whom
he had pubhcly reproached with cowardice in a

GRANADA

skirmish before Martos. To avert the evils of a dis-
puted succession, the W'izir did not disclose the fatal
character of the monarch's wounds till he had obtained,
on the strength of an alleged royal command, an oath

of allegiance from the no-
tables of the kingdom to
Abu-1-Walid's eldest son, the
boy prince, Muley INIoham-
med ben Ismail. When this
command had been obeyed
by all, the minister was able
to announce the death of
Abu-1-Walid and the acces-
sion of Mohammed IV.

The young sultan succeeded
his father in July 1325. The
earlier years of his reign were
troubled by the rivalry of
the Wizir, iMohammed ben al
Maruk and the famous cap-
tain, Osmin Abu-1-Ola, the
commander of the African troops in the Grenadine ser-
vice. The minister superseded Osmin in his command
and the angry chief, immediately rallying his partisans,
plunged the country into civil war. Peace was only
secured by the sacrifice of the unfortunate Wizir, and
the restoration of Osmin to his former rank. The Chris-

;''A.>

The Alhambra from the Cuesta
del Chapiz

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

, ^tiL%:'^ --Vy^ -/*"?*' -: . N.^: W-^- ^

The Alhambra from the Cuesta del Chapiz

GRANADA

tians, meantime, took advantage of these dissensions
to invade the young sultan's dominions, while the
African allies of the rebels seized Algeciras, Marbella,
and Ronda. Displaying incredible vigour and celerity,
Mohammed IV. recovered these places one after the
other, defeated the Castilians in several pitched
battles, and reduced Baena in 1329. He failed, how-
ever, to raise the siege of Gibraltar, which was at

Entrance to the Avenues of the Alhambra

length saved from the Spaniards and occupied by the
forces of Abu-1-Hasan, Sultan of Morocco. A few
years later the position was reversed, and it was
Mohammed who relieved the African garrison when
closely beleaguered by the Castilians. But for this
success he paid dearly. He jestingly taunted his
allies with their inability to defend the fortress ; and
a day or two later, having sent his army home, and
meditating a visit to Morocco, he made an excursion
to the summit of the Rock. He was followed by the

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

40 GRANADA

officers whom he had reproached, and thrown, pierced
with dagger thrusts, over the chff. His body was
taken to Malaga, but no attempt seems to have been
made to identify or to punish his assassins.

He was succeeded on August 24, 1333, by his brother
Yusuf I. (Abu-1-Hejaj), whose first care was to expel
the turbulent brood of Osmin Abu-1-Ola. To this
step he was urged probably not so much by animosity
as by that ardent detestation of strife, which char-
acterised him before all the princes of his race. He
believed, says Don Francisco Pi y Margall, that it is
more glorious to remedy evils than to atterjipt hazard-
ous enterprises. Concluding a truce with Alfonso XL,
he devoted himself to the betterment of the condition
of his subjects and to the cultivation of the arts and
sciences. Assisted by his able Wizir, Redw^n, he
revised and simplified the laws, and purified the
administration in every department. He built a
magnificent palace at Malaga, and a mosque on the
Alhambra of which no trace remains. Thanks to the
general prosperity of the country, he was able to
dispose of wealth so enormous that his contemporaries
supposed it to be produced by the transmutation of
metals. Yet in his reign the Muslim power received
its crushing blow. A final attempt to recover Spain
was made by the African princes, whose vast host
Yusuf L was reluctantly obliged to join. The dis-

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

Gate of Las Granadas. Approach to the Alhambra

42 GRANADA

astrous defeat of the Salado followed, and the Sultan
of GranadS only obtained peace by surrendering
Algeciras to the Castilians in 1348. Ten years later
he followed his enemy, Alfonso XL, to the tomb.
As he knelt at prayer in the little mosque adjoining
the Patio del Mexuar, a maniac rushed in upon him,
and in spite of a manly resistance, left him bathed
in blood. A few hours later he breathed his last
in the arms of his attendants, while his murderer was
burnt by his infuriated subjects. In Yusuf I. Granada
lost one of her best monarchs and noblest sons.

We now approach a dreary and confused period of
the city's history, when personal ambition stifled
every sentiment of patriotism and the ultimate ex-
tinction of the Muslim power in Spain was plainly
foreshadowed. Mohammed V. began his reign under
the most favourable auspices, at peace with the neigh-
bouring states, and ready and anxious to continue
the good work of his father. Certain chiefs, to whom
his disciplinary measures had given umbrage, took
counsel together, and approached the late sultan's
younger and favourite son. Prince Ismail, w^ho appears
to have inhabited the palace of which the Torre de
las Damas formed part. On the night of August 11,
1360, the conspirators to the number of one hundred,
scaled the walls of the Kasba (Alcazaba), murdered
the Wizir, and proclaimed Ismail sultan. Mohammed,

THE ?IISTORY OF THE CITY

Qli

^'rim^^

who was passing the night in the gardens of the
Generahfe, attempted to re-enter the fortress, but
being received with a Ihght of arrows, mounted a
fleet horse and rode for his hfe. In the morning he
reached Guadix, where he was loyally received. From
Guadixhe fled to Marbella,
thence to Africa, where he
was lent troops to recover
his kingdom by Abu-1-
Hasan of Fez. With these
auxiliaries he had no
sooner landed in Spain,
than they were recalled,
and the dethroned mon-
arch could only throw
himself with a few faithful
followers into Ronda. In
the meantime Ismail II.
had quarrelled with his
chief partisan, Abu Said,
who besieged him in his
himself sultan. Ismai

Gate of Las Granadas. Entrance to the
Avenue of the Alhambra

palace and proclaimed
attempting a sally, was
taken prisoner and put to death. A new actor now
appeared on the troubled stage in the person of
Pedro the Cruel of Castile, who marched across the
border to reinstate the legitimate sultan. But
Mohammed, beholding the territory of his subjects

44 GRANADA

devastated by the Christians, was fihed with remorse,
and implored his ally to retire. " For no empire in
the world would I sacrifice ray country," he ex-
claimed. " I would prefer to live in exile than to
reign over a ruined state." Abu Said, misunder-
standing very probably the cause of Pedro's retreat,
paid him a visit at Seville, with a brilliant retinue,
and solicited his alliance. The splendour of his
guest's equipment and apparel excited the Castilian
king's cupidity. Abu Said was suddenly seized,
bound to a post, and stabbed to death with lances.
His chief nobles were butchered in the Alcazar. By
this act of perfidy Pedro became possessed of the
famous ruby, which afterwards passed into the
hands of the Black Prince, and now adorns the
English regalia.

On the news of the usurper's murder, Mohammed V.
returned to Granada, where he was enthusiastically
received. Henceforward his star was in the ascendant.
He crushed a rising fomented by Ali ben Nasr, and
in 1370, his ally Don Pedro being dead, attacked and
levelled the fortifications of Algeciras. The remaining
twenty years of his reign were years of abundance
and untroubled prosperity. Granada was adorned
with splendid buildings, with charitable institutions
and asylums. The city in the words of the con-
temporary historian, Al Khattib, became the metropohs

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

ii=^

_WMl|[!M'IIH'BII'I.IWMIWU'UI".iPUi..l'JlllHIUWIjia '_

I ( - __ ' .^ _ Lj" ~U- ,-. — -» -_ " ^ p._l

'iiifiiS^^

"-^1P

—a _.

I I.
I

The Puerta del Vino

GRANADA

of the Mediterranean, the emporium of commerce, the
common fatherland of all nations. Men of all creeds
and races frequented its markets, and dwelt in

~'' ''A , i'\ svviV®"* I":' [:'■-■■ d^ '.'III I '

'^l«*jf///K%^-

The Puerta del Vino

security under Mohammed's mild and tolerant rule.
It was the Indian summer of Islam in Spain. When
Mohammed's son was married to the daughter of the
Sultan of Fez, knights flocked from all parts of Europe

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

and the East to take part in the festivities. The silk
trade flourished and provided emplo^inent for thou-
sands of the citizens. The population of the city
about this time was estimated by Mendoza at 70,000
hearth-fires, or about 420,000 souls. This is no doubt

The Puerta del \'ino. After a drawing by T. R. Macquoid

an exaggeration, but it is probable that the population
reached at least to half that figure. But the kingdom
had now risen to its zenith. Thence to its nadir the
descent was rapid.

Yusuf II., who succeeded his father in 1391," was
suspected of an attachment to the Christians, mainly,

48 GRANADA

it seems, on account of his aversion to war. On the
truce being renewed with the King of Castile, he
released all the Christian captives and sent them
home with rich presents to their sovereign. This was
the signal for an outbreak headed by his younger son,
Mohammed. The peace-loving monarch was disposed
to abdicate rather than draw the sword, but was
persuaded at last by the Moroccan ambassador to
take a manher course. Putting himself at the head
of the army, he made a successful foray into Murcia,
and in the eyes of his subjects redeemed his char-
acter. It was unfortunate for Granada^ that she was
not ruled at this moment by a more warlike sove-
reign ; for the state might have been permanently
strengthened at the expense of Castile, whose monarch
was at that time Enrique III., the feeblest prince
who ever ruled in Spain. It was in defiance of this
king's express orders that the prototype of Don
Quixote, Don Martin de la Barbuda, the Master of
Calatrava, directed his wild expedition into Yusuf's
territory. The success promised the hare-brained
knight by a crazy hermit did not attend him, and
the little band of Crusaders was cut to pieces. In
the following year (1395) Yusuf the Peaceable died,
being poisoned, it is said, by herbs sent to him by
the Sultan of Fez.

The reins of government were at once seized by his

u
a.

3
-2

-J

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

warlike younger son, Mohammed, to the exclusion of
the elder Yusuf, who was confined in the castle of
Salobreha. The new sultan was a man of a different
stamp from his father. With twenty-five horsemen
he rode to Toledo, and presenting himself to the
astonished Enrique III., obtained a
renewal of the truce. This, how-
ever, was soon broken by the gover-
nor of Andalusia, who made an
incursion into the Moorish territory.
Mohammed retaliated by taking the
fortress of Ayamonte. A desperate
but indecisive battle was fought at
Collejares. The Moors were beaten
at Jijena, and the sultan, for all his
valour, was obliged to sue for peace.
Finding himself at the point of
death, he resolved to secure the
succession to his son by a fratricide. He despatched
a messenger to Salobrefia, with orders to the governor
to put his brother to death. Yusuf and his gaoler
were playing chess together when the emissary arrived.
On being acquainted with the nature of his mission,
the prince, with great composure, asked permission to
finish the game before his execution. This modest
request was granted, and before either player could
cry "checkmate!" a second messenger arrived to

At the Puerta del
Vino

GRANADA

announce the death of Mohammed III. and the pro-
clamation of Yusuf III. as sultan.

This pacific sovereign had to face some of the most
determined attempts on the independence of his
kingdom. The important town of Antequera was
besieged and taken by the Castilians under the Infante

Tlie Ramparts, and Torre de la Vela

Fernando. After an heroic defence the garrison were
put to the sword, only 2638 of the inhabitants sur-
viving the horrors of the siege and being permitted
to take refuge in Granada, where the suburb of Ante-
queruela was named after them.

Things would have gone hard with Yusuf III. had
he not found a powerful ally as the result of an act
of generosity. The people of Gibraltar revolted
against Granada, and proclaimed themselves the sub-

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

jects of Fez. The sultan of that country sent his
hated brother Abu Said to defend the town against
Yusuf, and, treating him as David did Uriah, left
him at the mercy of the enemy. Abu Said was taken
a prisoner to Granada, where soon after his captor

■^^s^

^i^^kviJ.S'j^.

^^^^^SMj^^%

The Torre del Homenaje

showed him a letter in which the Sultan of Fez re-
quested that he might be poisoned. Far from com-
pl}dng with this request, Yusuf provided the prince
with money and soldiers, with which he departed for
Africa. His treacherous brother was driven from the
throne by Abu Said, who henceforward remained the
sworn ally of Granada. Yusuf was therefore secured
from molestation on the part of Castile and Aragon

52 GRANADA

for the rest of his reign. He indulged his subjects
in martial sports and exercises, and we read of his
presiding over a joust between Christian knights on
the Plaza de Bivarambla, when both combatants
expressed themselves as satisfied with the fairness of
the Moorish umpire's decision. From these brave
doings, Yusuf III. was suddenly called away by a
stroke of apoplexy in the year 1423.

The history of the doomed sultanate is henceforward
dreary reading. Yusuf III. was succeeded by his son,
Mohammed, reckoned the seventh of that name, by
those who deny the title of Mohammed- VI. to Abu
Said, the usurper slain at Seville. Few princes have
had a more chequered career than this despotic
sultan, who did his best to merit misfortune by his
harshness and contemptuous bearing. He was speedily
driven from the throne by a namesake styled as
the eighth of his name, and sought refuge in Africa.
Mohammed VIII., while courting the favour of the
populace, mortally offended the powerful family of
the Beni Serraj (Abencerrages), by whose instru-
mentahty the son of Yusuf III. was restored. A
Castihan army ravaged the Vega up to the walls of
Granada. The capital itself would have fallen, had
not Juan II. and his general, the great Alvaro de Luna,
been recalled to Castile by the disorders that ended
in the latter's overthrow. An earthquake next de-

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

Facade in the Patio del Mexuar

GRANADA

vastated the devoted kingdom. A fresh revoUition
broke out. Mohammed VII. retired to Malaga,
leaving the Alhambra in the possession of another
pretender, Yiisuf IV. The new reign lasted but six

months, and Mohammed

returned for the second
time to his capital. The
war with Castile was re-
newed, and on the whole
favourably for the Mos-
lems, who routed their
opponents at Illora,
Archidona, and Castril.
But the unlucky mon-
arch alienated his chief
supporters, the Beni
Serraj, and for the third
and last time was de-
prived of his throne by his ambitious nephew,
Aben Osmin, who was proclaimed as Mohammed IX.
Considerable success at first attended this sultan's
arms, in spite of the defection of the Beni Serraj,
who, regretting the part they had taken in the
deposition of the old ruler, had retired to Montefrio.
One of their number, Abdhelvar, continued to
serve Osmin, out of love for a lady of his faction ;
but he suffered a bloody defeat at the hands of the

Patio del Mexiiar. West

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

Castilians at Alporchones, and expiated his failure
with his Ufe. Mohammed IX., after the barbarous

'"»-«»v*^.^.

^''^^^*^^^^^3^^^^^:?2^3P

-s- ^^

T«.

Patio del Mexuar

execution of this luckless officer, conducted himself
after the fashion of a Cahgula or Domitian. The

56 GRANADA

victims of his tyranny rallied at Montefrio, where
they acclaimed as monarch a member of the royal
family variously called Said and Mohammed ben
Ismail. With the assistance of the Castilians, the
new faction triumphed, and Osmin was glad to escape
with his life.

Said was a well-intentioned ruler, who saw that
Granada's only chance of survival lay in peace. But
this was not easily obtained. Heav}^ tribute was
paid to Enrique IV., Christian captives were released
— all in vain. The sultan's efforts were thwarted by
his ferocious and fanatical son, Muley Hasan. Jaen
and Gibraltar were lost. Archidona fell, and its
intrepid commandant, Ibrahim, seeing himself con-
quered, leaped to his death, like another Marcus
Curtius, armed and mounted on his war-horse into
the depths of a chasm. At last the unhappy Said
sought an interview with the King of Castile at the
very gates of Granada and obtained not merely a
truce but an alliance. The rest of his reign he de-
voted to the encouragement of commerce, industry,
and agriculture, to heal the dreadful wounds left by
years of ceaseless warfare. His labours did not profit
even those who were to succeed him. Said died at
Almeria in 1465. The knell of the Moorish empire
in Europe was sounded over his bier.

The history of the reigns of Ali Abu-1-Hasan, of

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

Mohammed X., and Mohammed XI. (1465-1492) is
the record of the subjugation and extinction of the

Entrance to the Patio del Mexuar

kingdom. The story of its fall has filled many
volumes, and has been penned by the writers of all

GRANADA

lands. It seems, in fact, to have excited more
general interest than the taking of Constantinople by
the Turks, or the more recent subversion of the king-
dom of Poland. The episodes of the conquest have
been made familiar to English-speaking readers by

the works of Prescott, which
every one visiting Granada is,
of course, under a virtual neces-
sity to read. The melancholy
story is long drawn out and
confused, and the accounts of
Moorish and Christian historians
are often at direct variance.
Many idle legends also have
been mixed up with both ver-
A Window of the " Mosque •• sious, aud uuduc importance is
attached even by Prescott to what were in reality
unimportant skirmishes.

Ali Abu-1-Hasan was a sovereign of a different
character from his father's. He was a zealous Muslim,
and heartily detested the unbelievers. His capacity
for war was soon illustrated by the successes he
achieved over the feeble Enrique IV., and by his
crushing a rebellion at Malaga. His statecraft was
not equal to his military genius, for he let slip the
golden opportunity presented by the disputed succes-
sion to the throne of Castile, and seems to have viewed

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY 59

with unconcern the alHance of the rival kingdoms of
Spain in the persons of Ferdinand and Isabel. The
veriest amateur at kingcraft would have realised that
he should have backed the claims of Juana " la
Beltraneja," and so averted the union of the two
crowns of Castile and Aragon. Abu-1-Hasan con-
descended in 1476 to sue for a renewal of the alliance
with Castile concluded by his father ; but when
Ferdinand of Aragon, on behalf of his wife, insisted
on the payment of the tribute stipulated by Said,
the heart of the Moor was hardened. " Return to
your sovereigns," he said to the ambassadors, " and
tell them that the sultans who paid tribute to the
Christians are dead ; that here we now manufacture
not coins but spear-heads for our enemies." Probably
Abu-1-Hasan little realised that his words had sealed
the doom of the Moors in Spain.

The first acts of hostility were the incursions of the
Marquis of Cadiz into the district of Ronda, where
he took Villaluenga and other places. Hungry for
revenge, Abu-1-Hasan swooped down in a night of
storm and rain upon the Castilian fortress of Zahara.
He put half the inhabitants to the sword and returned,
with the rest as slaves, in triumph to Granada. In
the midst of the acclamations that greeted him was
heard the voice of a sage exclaiming, " Alas, alas for
Granada ! the hour of her desolation is near. Already

6o GRANADA

the downfall of the empire of the Prophet in Spain
is at hand ! "

Intoxicated with victory, Abu-1-Hasan confidently
awaited the bursting of the storm. The fiery chivalry
of Andalusia did not keep him long in suspense. Two
months after the capture of Zahara, the fortress of
Alham.a — a place so strong that St. Ferdinand had
left it unattacked — was stormed and taken from the
Moors by the Marquis of Cadiz with a force of 7000
men. The news produced the utmost dismay in
Granada, staggering for the moment Abu-1-Hasan
himself. But his indomitable nature reasserted itself,
and hastily collecting a force of 53,000 men, he
marched to the recapture of the stronghold. He
wasted his men by throwing them repeatedly against
the impregnable walls, and at last settled down to
reduce the garrison by hunger and thirst. But
meanwhile the Marquis's appeal for help re-echoed
hke a trumpet-call through Spain. Among the first
to respond to it was his hereditary foe, the Duke of
Medina Sidonia, who, forgetting ancient animosities,
hurried with 45,000 men to his reHef. The Moorish
king reluctantly raised the siege, and re-entered his
capital amid the execrations of his subjects. A
second attack had no better result than the first.
Seventy Moors only succeeded in penetrating into the
fortress, where they were immediately cut down.

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

Abu-l-Hasan returned to Granada, to learn that
nothing less than the complete subjugation of his

Interior of the Alhambra Chapel

realm had been resolved by the Catholic sovereigns,
who made their triumphal entry into Alhama on

62 GRANADA

May 14, 1482. The principal mosques were seized,
purified, and solemnly consecrated as Christian
churches. Everything showed the determination of
the Spanish sovereigns to retain possession of their
conquests.

While Ferdinand was making extensive prepara-
tions at Cordova for the renewal of the campaign,
his antagonist was hurled from the throne by one of
those domestic revolutions to which Mohammedan
dynasties seem peculiarly subject. Years before, a
beautiful Christian captive, Dofia Isabel de Solis,
daughter of the governor of Martos, had, been added
to the sultan's harem. By the Moors she was called
Zoraya, a word said to mean the Morning Star.
Between this favourite, for whom Abu-1-Hasan mani-
fested idolatrous affection, and the principal sultana,
Ayesha, there raged a deadly feud. A recent historian,
Mr. Uhck Burke, states that Abu Abdullah, better
known as Boabdil the Unfortunate, was the son of
Zoraya, and that the two were embittered by the old
sultan's transferring his favours to a Greek slave.
The more generally accepted version is that the prince
was the son of Abu-1-Hasan by Ayesha, and that it
was jealousy of the renegade Christian that led him
to conspire against his father. Whatever may have
been the relationship of the parties, it is certain that
Boabdil escaped from the prison in which he had

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

•c

GRANADA

been confined— the Tower of Comares, it is said —
and willi llic assistance of the ever-rebehious Beni
Serraj, compelled his father to abandon to him both
citadel and city. After a brave but futile attempt

Relief (Jupiter and Leda) in the AUiainbra Chapel

to recapture the Alhambra, Abu-1-Hasan retired to
Malaga, where, as in many other parts of the crumbling
kingdom, his authority continued to be recognised.

Hoping to profit by the divisions among his adver-
saries, Ferdinand in July 1482 advanced from Cordova
to the assault of the important town of Loja. The
place was ably defended by one of the ablest of the
Moorish captains, Ali Atar, whose daughter was the
favourite of Boabdil. The Christians were repulsed,
leaving the Master of Calatrava and hundreds of
dead on the field. The King of Aragon escaped with
difficulty, and Alhama all but fell into the hands of
its original occupants. This reverse was followed, a
few months later, by another not less serious. An

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

expedition against Malaga, headed by the Marquis
of Cadiz and the Master of Santiago, while threading
its way through the passes of the Ajarquia (Esh-
Shark), was attacked by the lieutenants of the old
Hon, Abu-1-Hasan, and cut to pieces. Eight hundred
Spaniards, including four hundred persons of rank,
were slain, and fifteen hundred prisoners were marched
into Malaga.

Emulous of the glory his father had acquired,
Boabdil (reckoned as Mohammed X.) marched out of
Granada with 9700 men, and laid siege to Lucena.
The approach of the Count of Cabra with a superior
force compelled him to retire. He was overtaken
near Iznajar. his bravest general. Ah Atar, slain, and
his army totally defeated. Boabdil, who fought with

Bas-relief, found in the Alhambra

desperate courage, was taken prisoner by a private

soldier, named Martin Hurtado.

The astute Ferdinand at once reahsed that the

disappearance of Boabdil would be a distinct gain to

GRANADA

the Moors, and would have the effect of reuniting
them once more under one sceptre. He saw that the
young sultan would serve his own purposes better on
the throne than in the dungeon. The conditions of
his release wore, notwithstanding, of the most onerous

■ ^

W^^?^f^P-^?\P<f\P\

Court of the Fishpond and Tower of Comares

and humiliating description. The Moorish king de-
clared himself a vassal of Castile, and bound himself,
not only to pay for five years a tribute of twelve thou-
sand golden ducats, but to assist with supplies the
Spanish troops passing through his dominions to
attack his own father. In return a two years' truce

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

i^f /I ■ w ,

f 'liiiiiiiii'

■ti«.(«m,T:;:.,;:;/'l|||l| 11 .

lii!!|i!l!lli!ll';!i|J| lllil

, liiiliil

a^l . I, i:ii ,1', Ji'i

7 «.< v ^ A or y.

mm / ^ ^-

■a

3
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68 GRANADA

was granted to those places that acknowledged his
authority. Having thus secured his liberty at the
price of his honour, he returned to Granada to find
that Abu-1-Hasan had possessed himself of the
Alhambra. A collision between the two factions
deluged the streets of the capital with blood. The
ancients and alfakis at length intervened, and Boabdil
was suffered to retire to Almeria.

For the next four years, Ferdinand and Isabel con-
tented themselves with systematically ravaging the
wretched country, and reducing the smaller towns
and villages. Abu-1-Hasan's attempts to carry the
war into his enemy's country was repulsed with loss.
Meantime a strong man appeared on the scene in the
person of the old sultan's brother, Abdullah Az-
Zaghal, who might fairly be styled the Last of the
Moors. Realising that no effective resistance could be
offered to the enemy by a kingdom divided against
itself, this prince swooped down on Almeria, and
slew the governor, but failed, alas ! to secure Boabdil,
who, warned in time, fled to Cordova. There he
threw himself upon the mercy of the Catholic
sovereigns.

Az-Zaghal returned to Granada, and was soon after
proclaimed as Mohammed XI. in the room of Abu-1-
Hasan, who, worn out and aged, retired to Mondujar.
The Christians took the important fortresses of Ronda

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

a
&

70 GRANADA

and Gaucin, while Boabdil negotiated with his uncle
from his asylum at Cordova. His father's death
strengthened his claims to the tottering throne, and
a compact was entered into, whereby he was to occupy
the Albaicin, while Mohammed XI. reigned in the
Alhambra. Wishful to redeem his reputation by
some signal feat of arms, Boabdil, forgetful of his
engagements, attacked the Spaniards near Loja with
vastly inferior forces. He was soundly beaten after
a valiant resistance, and shut up with the remnants
of his army in the citadel. Thence he was permitted
to emerge only upon solemnly renewi'ng the dis-
graceful treaty of Cordova.

This reverse — which his bravery did not merit —
exasperated his uncle and his subjects generally
against the ill-starred son of Abu-1-Hasan. Az-
Zaghal made repeated and determined efforts to rid
himself of his rival by means of poison or the dagger.
But Boabdil was not, as we have seen, wanting in
courage, and rallying his still numerous partisans, re-
turned suddenly to his capital. Az-Zaghal descended
from the Alhambra and desperate fighting took place
between the two factions, Boabdil being assisted by
Christian auxiliaries. Ferdinand, whose policy it was
to keep both sultans fully occupied with each other,
patched up a truce between them before one could
destroy the other, and in the interval attacked and

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

took Velez Malaga. Four months later, in August
1487, Malaga was invested and taken after a heroic

Gallery in Court of the Fishpond

defence. The entire population of both sexes was
sold into slavery, presents of the most beautiful

72 GRANADA

damsels being made by the Catholic Sovereigns to
the various courts of Europe. The Jews and rene-
gades found among the prisoners were doomed to the
flames kindled by the recently established Inquisition,
and the town was repeopled by Christian settlers.

At this desperate juncture, the brave Az-Zaghal
finally abandoned the capital to his nephew, and
hurried to Almeria, where he organised the defence
of the eastern provinces. He held the invaders at
bay during the course of the year 1488, but in the
following year he was unable to avert the fall of
Baza, which capitulated on honourable- conditions.
The old warrior's spirit was at last broken. Bowing,
as he expressed it, to the will of Allah, he surrendered
all the places in his possession, including Guadix and
Almeria, to the conquerors. He received in exchange
the domain of Andaraz in the heart of the kingdom,
a property which he soon abandoned, to die, years
afterwards, in poverty and obscurity in Algeria.

Of the once vast and powerful empire of the Moham-
medans in Europe there now remained but the single
city of Granada, of which Mohammed X. was at last
undisputed sovereign. He determined to sell his
hard- won crown as dearly as possible. He salHed
from his capital, took Alhendin and Marchena by
assault, and laid waste the country held by the
Christians. In vain the CathoHc Sovereigns sum-

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THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

moned him to surrender the city, in compUance with
an alleged treaty. He replied, and probably with
truth, that his proud and defiant subjects would not
permit him to do so. The population of Granada
was now swollen by the influx of refugees to three
times its normal figure. Fer-
dinand perceived that in a
blockade lay the surest means
of reducing the city. With
an army of 20,000, men, in-
cluding the flower of European
chivalry, he entered the now
desolate Vega, and built the
town of Santa Fe, almost at
the gates of Granada. The
Spanish fleet scoured the nar-
row seas, and cut off all hope
of succour from Africa. In
the spring of 1491, Queen Isabel in person pitched
her camp only six miles from the walls. The city
endured the horrors of famine. But the people
clamoured to be led against the enemy. Boabdil and
his counsellors alone realised the utter futility of
further resistance. Repeated councils were held, but
the bravest and sagest could see no ray of hope. The
negotiations for the capitulation had to be entered
upon in secret through fear of the people. The terms

Gallery in the Court of the
Fishpond

74 GRANADA

conceded by the conquerors, which they probably
had no intention of observing, were generous in the
extreme. Not only were the hves and property of
the Moors to be respected, but they were guaranteed
absolute freedom of worship and were to be subject
to their own laws and tribunals. Disputes between
Muslims and Christians were to be adjusted by a
mixed court, the Moors were to pay to their new
rulers exactly the same tribute they had hitherto
paid to the sovereigns of their own race. A private
treaty reserved to Boabdil and certain members of
his family their private domains outside -and within
the city. The surrender of Granada was to take
place sixty days after the signature of the treaty.
But the publication of these terms, liberal though
they were, excited such discontent among his sub-
jects that the unfortunate sultan besought Ferdinand
to anticipate the date named, and to cut short the
agony by taking possession of his conquest at once.
On the morning of January 2, 1492, the curtain was
rung down on the protracted tragedy. Attended by
his family and fifty cavaliers, the last sultan of
Granada left the palace wherein he was born, rode
out through the Puerta de los Siete Suelos, and cross-
ing the Genii, found Ferdinand, with a brilHant train,
awaiting him near the httle mosque, now known as
the Ermita de San Sebastian. There are conflicting

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

accounts of this fateful interview. According to the
Moorish annahsts, the fallen monarch was received

/^v y*' ■'""''J '^' ' "^ A'" / ■ .—• l'-:r, '.■■"-J

Court of the Fishpond and Tower o£ Comares

with scarcely-veiled contempt, while Spanish writers
represent the King of Aragon's behaviour as that of
a model Christian knight. We may be sure at all

GRANADA

events that Boabdil did not prolong the audience,
but passed on as quickly as possible to the village of
Armilla, where he presented himself to Isabel and
the Infante Juan. Thence he proceeded to his retreat

y^srrm

'SblllilllllMlllMWliPSiMil

Balcony in the Hall of Anabassadors

in the rocky Alpuj arras. The story of his emotion
on beholding Granada for the last time from a height
near Padul, and of the rebuke administered to him
by his mother, is well known. We are not told
whether his eye caught the gleam of the great silver
cross which had been planted by Cardinal IMendoza

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

Entrance to the Hairof Ambassadors

78 GRANADA

on the Torre de la Vela as a signal to the Spanish
army that the dominion of Islam was at an end.

It had endured seven hundred and eighty years —
a period only sixty years shorter than that which
has elapsed since the Norman Conquest of England
to our own day. More remarkable still, the sultanate
of Granada had survived the break-up of that empire
by two and a half centuries. While the reconquest,
inch by inch, of their fatherland through so many
centuries reflects undying glory on the tenacity of the
people of Spain, no one can withhold their admiration
from the princes of the Nasrid dynasty, who in face
of such tremendous odds, kept the banner of Islam
flying, when, humanly speaking, all hope had long,
long since fled. All that valour and statecraft could
do, they had done. To use a military comparison,
the j\Ioors of Granada went down with flags flying
and every gun firing. Even the last sovereign of the
race of Al Ahmar, for all his hesitancy and pestilent
ambition, showed fight almost to the finish, and
proved himself not unworthy as a warrior of the
tribe from which he sprung. To credit him alone
with the downfall of his country is to misread history.
He had at least as good a right to the throne as his
uncle, Az-Zaghal, who, there is no reason to suppose,
in view of his surrender at Baza, would have made
a longer or more successful resistance. As to his

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

making terms with the Christians and consenting to
hold the kingdom as their vassal, Al Ahmar himself
had done the same and prolonged the Moslem
dominion by so doing. To reproach the last sultan

n",'i i><| '-.'I itiH >| M :.',i lit' i yC^ r>

■i^-ri''

■' ■ "''%^

■ '■- 'AT'

^ mTTTl

oiivi->t.i*-

Window in the Hall of Ambassadors

of Granada for the extinction of his country by an
irresistible foe is as fair as it would be to attribute
to Harold the overthrow of the Saxon state or to
Palaeologus the downfall of the Byzantine empire.

The government of Granada, after the reconquest,
was entrusted to Mendoza, Conde de Tendilla, a

8o GRANADA

humane and honourable man, who soon endeared
himself to the JMoors under his control. He laboured
in s^Tnpathy and harmony with the newly-appointed
Archbishop Fernando de Talavera, who hoped to
convert the unbelievers by example and kindness.
For seven years these two high-minded men were
left to pursue their own methods. The Catholic
Sovereigns were meanwhile occupied with projects of
conquest in the New World, and with the expulsion
and persecution of their Jewish subjects. The cele-
brated Cisneros, or Ximenes, as most English his-
torians term him, at last turned his atten.tion to that
nest of infidels, Granada, and practically superseded
Talavera in the management of his own diocese.

The vigorous prelate's proselytising zeal soon re-
sulted in an outbreak among the Moors, which was
quelled by the personal intervention of Talavera and
]\Iendoza. But the policy of Ximenes was dear to
the hearts of his master and mistress, and he soon
returned to Granada with full powers. He began his
crusade by a wholesale destruction of books in the
Arabic language. Thousands of rare and beautiful
manuscripts perished in the flames. Not yet autho-
rised to burn the Moors themselves, the cardinal
resorted to bribery, cajolery, and intimidation. So
numerous were the " conversions " that the rite of
baptism had to be administered with mops and

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

1 I

m:tM:ik ■

ifi'^'"

IAmsM^

Mite

m I

82 GRANADA

buckets. Argument was less effective a means of
conversion. A prominent Moor, referred to as Al
Zegri, was invited to a controversy, but it was deemed
prudent to cut short the discussion by throwing him
into prison. This kind of logic seems to have con-
vinced the hard-hearted infidel, who emerged from
confinement a professed Christian. His abjuration, it
was said, was due to a visit the Almighty had paid
him in his prison. Al Zegri, at his baptism, ungrate-
fully preferred to the names of his benefactor, Cardinal
Ximenes, those of his brave opponent in the field,
Gonsalvo Hernandez de Cordova.

It had become now abundantly clear that the
Catholic Sovereigns had no intention of keeping faith
with their Moorish subjects. A revolt broke out early
in 1500, not in the city, which had been thoroughly
cowed, but in the Alpuj arras. It was quelled, not
without difficulty, by the Great Captain. The male
inhabitants of the towns captured were put to the
sword, and the women and children sold as slaves.
A mosque filled with these non-combatants was blown
up by the Conde de Lerin. Yet the terms of peace
granted by Ferdinand were not unduly harsh. A
renewal of the rising, the next year, proved equally
abortive, though it was marked by the destruction
near Ronda of a Spanish force under Don Alfonso de
Aguilar — the rout of the Rio Verde, famous in song

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

Court of the Lions ^nd Entrance to Hall of The Two Sisters

84 GRANADA

and story. With the approbation of Ximenes, and
in defiance of the most sacred treaty rights, the
I abominable Inquisition, blasphemously styled the
Holy Office, was established in Granada. The
wretched Moors sent an embassy to the Khalifa at
Cairo, to lay before him a statement of their grievances
and to solicit his intervention. The Mameluke sove-
reign was not deaf to these appeals. He addressed
a protest to the Pope against this shameless disregard
of the treaty made with his unhappy co-religionists,
pointing by way of comparison to the toleration
accorded to the Christians in his own dominions.
Needless to say, this protest was ineffectual. It is a
long way from Egypt to Granada, and moral argu-
ments did not carry much weight with Ferdinand of
Aragon. A preliminary decree, dated July 20, 1501, .^^
proclaimed the exercise of the Mohammedan religion
illegal throughout Spain, the penalty being death ; a
few months later, the whole Moslem population was ^z
ordered to quit the country within two months ; and
as it was found that the exiles sought refuge in Turkey
and Africa, on September 17, 1502, this order was
annulled by another, decreeing that no one of any
race or religion should quit the country, unless by
special permission of the sovereign, for the space of
two years. But even the general outward acquies-
cence of the Moriscos (as they were now called) with

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

£3
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GRANADA

the Christian religion, which followed these savage
decrees, did not satisfy the conquerors. Doubts con- /^
tinned to exist in the minds of the Inquisitors as to
the sincerity of the conversions obtained under the
threat of death. It was known that thousands of
so-called Christians abhorred the Cross and wor-

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The Fountain in the Court of the Lions

shipped Allah in secret. Pedraza tells us that a
dying Morisco, when warned by the priest to prepare
for confession, communion, and extreme unction, ex-
claimed, " How ? must I be tortured three times the
same day ? " In desperation, the oppressed race
again rose in the fastnesses of the Alpuj arras in the

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY

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GRANADA

year 1570, and all the skill of Don John of Austria
was required to overcome their obstinate resistance.

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The Fountain of Lions

Mohammedan or Christian, no Moor was to be
tolerated in Spain ; and it is almost with relief that

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY 89

we read of the final expulsion from the Peninsula in
i6og, of all persons of Moorish blood. Spain suffered
a blow with the loss of her most industrious artisans
from which she has been slow to recover ; but a per-
secution of a ferocity almost unknown in modern
times, had at length exhausted and defeated itself.

The history of Christian Granada presents few
features of interest. Sovereigns paid visits to the
city of var^dng duration and with greater or less
ceremony and display. Columbus was here in the
year 1500, and stood before his ungrateful employers
to answer the baseless charges to which they stooped
to listen. Gonsalvo de Cordova, Spain's greatest
soldier, like the Discoverer a victim of royal ingrati-
tude, spent his declining years here, and died within
the city in 1515. Granada's story onwards is one
of decay. Commerce and industry languished, the
population diminished, the Inquisition alone was
active. Between 1606 and 1640, 211 persons under-
went various sentences by the dreaded tribunal, six
being burned at the stake, and five publicly flogged.
The city suffered severely at the hands of the French
in 1810. Scores of patriots who ventured to protest
against the occupation were mercilessly shot down,
and the churches, convents, and palaces were re-
morselessly plundered. The French again appeared in
Granada in 1820-22, on which occasion the Alhambra

GRANADA

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East Portico in the Court of the Lions

THE HISTORY OF THE CITY 91

would have been blown up, but for the presence of
mind of a Spanish pensioner who disconnected the
fuse. Of the bloodshed and disorder which distin-
guished Spanish history during the middle decades of
the last century, the city had her full share. And in
the young and talented Mariana Pineda, she produced
a martyr whose name should be honoured by lovers of
hberty, not only in her native country, but all the
world over. Happily she died not in vain ; and the
glories of Constitutional Spain may even yet eclipse
the more lurid triumphs of the Despotism.

CHAPTER II

THE ALHAMBRA

The Alhambra is to Granada what the Acropohs is
to Athens. Towards it the stranger at once turns
his steps, knowing that it embodies almost all that
is memorable in the city's past. Here the real genius
of the place resides, not in the town which .has during
four centuries deviated ever from its noblest tradi-
tions in a futile attempt to overtake the modern
world. And this aloofness of city and citadel is
expressed in their situation. For, driving through
ugly bare streets on your way from the station, once
you have passed under the fifteenth-century gateway
called the Puerta de las Granadas, you seem to enter
a new city, a new world. Gone is the fierce glare
of the merciless sun, gone the stare of white houses,
and the parching aridity of the southern town ; in-
stead you enter a deep, cool valley, where tall over-
arching trees make a grateful shade, where the leaves
and bushes are as green as in English groves, where
running water is ever heard, and the ground beneath

your feet is moist and springy. How this pleasant

THE ALHAMBRA

Court of the Lions from the Gallery

94 GRANADA

oasis in the burning south reminds us of a very
different country ! and well it may do so, since these
elm-trees first struck their roots in English soil, and
were the gift of our Iron Duke in the year 1812.
Mingled with them are cherry-trees, now as tall or
even taller. If you come in spring you will hear the
nightingales pouring forth their melody among the
branches ; but in summer even the birds are silent,
and you hear httle else than the plash of the water
and the footfall of an occasional lounger.

This valley cleaves that spur which the Sierra
Nevada thrusts forward against the south-east side
of Granada, between the rivers Darro and Genii. The
eminence to the south of the valley is crowned by
the Torres Bermejas or Vermilion Towers ; on the
north side rises the hill of the Alhambra, and beyond
that, separated by another depression, is the GeneraHfe.
From the Puerta de las Granadas three avenues
diverge : that in the centre leads to the Washington
Irving Hotel and beyond it to the gate of the
GeneraHfe, while the other two lead respectively to
the Vermihon Towers and the Alhambra.

The former should be visited first if possible, since
they are the oldest buildings in Granada. Not that
the visit is to be remembered as among a traveller's
most dehghtful experiences. Taking the path to the
right on passing through the Granada gate, you soon

THE ALHAMBRA

3
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96 • GRANADA

find yourself in a filthy little open space at the foot
of the solid, uncompromising Towers. Ragged chil-
dren, slatternly women, and rascally-looking men
stare at you, and simulate amusement at your civilised
appearance. You will not be easily tempted to enter
the Towers, which serve the purpose, I believe, of a
mihtary prison. There is indeed nothing interesting
about them except their antiquity— and that is con-
siderable. The VermiHon Towers have been identi-
fied, in fact, with the Red Castle, besieged, as I have
already said, in the ninth century by the revolting
native Muslims ; but they might just as easily be
the remains of a fortress erected by Habus, the
successor of Zawi Ibn Zeyri, in 1020. The writers on
Granada have very little to say about these ancient
buildings. The only definite conclusion at which we
can arrive is that they date at latest from the epoch
of the first dynasty of Grenadine sultans, and are
older, in all probability, than any other structures in
the city or its neighbourhood. Don Francisco de
P. Valladar, the learned chronicler of the province,
to whose researches I hasten to confess myself most
deeply indebted, says that the Towers were in a de-
fensible condition do\\Ti to the seventeenth century,
though most of the arms and armour found in them
at the reconquest had been removed to equip the
second expedition of Columbus to America. But the

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THE ALHAMBRA

Hall of the Abencerrages

GRANADA

spot is not a pleasant one to linger in, and it need
detain us no longer.

The Alhambra hill, aptly compared by Ford in
shape to a grand piano, is about 2690 feet long by

,^rjiSEflnri^S:^?;nit

Court of the Lions and Entrance to the Hall of the Two Sisters

730 feet broad. It is completely encircled by walls,
which closely follow its outline, and is the site not
of one palace, as many travellers seem to expect, but
of three — the Moorish Palace, the Emperor's Palace,
and the Alcazaba. Around these buildings is grouped
what may be considered a fair-sized village, wherein

THE ALHAMBRA

if you wish to live at the very doors of the palaces,
you may obtain comfortable quarters.

The chronological order should be followed wherever
possible when visiting a city's monuments. Once
arrived, therefore, at the Alhambra, restrain your

Alcove in the Hall of Justice

curiosity, shut your eyes when passing the Flemish
Caesar's folly, and visit first the Alcazaba or citadel
— to your left on entering by the Gate of Justice.
This ruinous but yet massive pile occupies the western
extremity of the hill, and is separated from the body
of the place by a high, frowning wall. Was this, and

100 GRANADA

not the Vermilion Towers, the Red Castle before
alluded to ? If it was, there can be no doubt that
it was extensively restored, possibly entirely rebuilt
by the sovereigns of the first dynasty. It was one of
the Kasbas referred to in the history of Badis and
Habus. Surrounded by thick walls crowning the
crest of the declivity and flanked by stout square
towers, this would even now prove no mean fortress
if put into a state of repair. The three most notice-
able towers are the Torres del Homenage, de las
Armas, and de la Vela. The first, which looks towards
the Moorish Palace, is highly picturesque, but, Uke
much else that is picturesque, in ruinous condition.
The Torre de las Armas is better preserved. It looks
down on the River Darro, which was at this point
spanned by a bridge, the Kantara Al Kadi. Thence a
road or path led up to the beautiful horse-shoe arch
in the tower, now called the Puerta del Bosque, which
was then the principal entrance to the fortress. We
turn towards the Torre de la Vela, the old Watch
Tower. It is inhabited, like nearly all the towers,
but the pubhc have the right of entry, and you may
climb up the awkward flights of stairs to the very
platform where (as an inscription relates) the silver
cross was planted by the magnificent Cardinal Mendoza
on the memorable morning of January 2, 1492. You
will not fail to notice the famous bell (cast in 1773)

THE ALHAMRRA

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Entrance to the Hall of the Two Sisters

102 GRANADA

which on 'the anniversary of the reconquest is struck
with all their strength by damsels desirous of obtain-
ing husbands. The bell can be heard, it is said, at
Loja, thirty miles away. The view from this plat-
form is very fine, though not as extensive as that
from the belvedere of the Generalife. In summer the
prospect is a study in dazzling white and gold. The
eye rests lovingly on the white streaks on the Sierra,
only suggestion of coolness anywhere in view. Below,
Granada spreads itself and basks in the hot rays. It
is the city of the sun, and seeks not to screen itself
from his favours by foliage and plantations such as
those which embower Italian cities.

This Moslem fortress could accommodate a garrison
of 1500 men, and in this tower were lodged, we are
told, the sultan's cavalry — though it seems strange
quarters for mounted troops. At one time or another
a fortified wall connected the Alcazaba with the
Torres Bermejas, the Puerta de las Granadas marking
the site of the old town gate called the Bib el Loshah.
Recent researches have proved that the Alcazaba was
isolated from the palace by a ravine, wliere, after the
reconquest, cisterns were formed by the Count of
Tendilla, and over which the existing Plaza de los
Algibes was constructed. On the palace side of this
ravine ran a wall from the Torre de los Gallinas on
the north to the Puerta del Vino on the south —

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The Alhambra.

Court ot the Mosque.
West Facade.

THE ALHAMBRA

103

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104 GRANADA

probably part of an inner wall which enclosed the
residence of the court. The Puerta del Vino possibly
was the entrance to the gardens. It is a beautiful
gateway, completely detached from the other works,

" Wa la Ghdlib ila Aid ! " — There is no conqueror but God. The famous motto in Kufic
characters, of Mohammed I. and his successors, which is inscribed on the walls of the
Alhambra in countless repetition.

which you find on your right coming up from the
Gate of Justice and before you reach the Conservator's
House. Over the graceful horse-shoe arch — so char-
acteristic of Moorish architecture — is an inscription in
stucco, invoking the blessings of Heaven upon the
Sultan Mohammed V. There appears to be some
allusion to a striking victory — possibly to the taking
of Algeciras from the Castihans in 1370. On the key-
stone is seen the key so often figuring as a symbol
in all parts of the Alhambra, and of which we shall
have more to say later on ; on the wards is inscribed
a G in Kufic characters, being perhaps the initial
letter of the city. The upper storey of the arch is

THE ALHAMBRA 105

pierced by pretty windows of two lights, known in
Spain as ajimezes, which also look down on the open
space between the inner and outer arches. Here there
is some exceedingly beautiful decoration, of the geo-
metrical character with which we shall soon be
familiarised.

The Puerta del Vino may serve as our introduction
to the buildings which were founded by the second
or Nasrid dynasty. That the palace called by
foreigners simply the Alhambra and by Spanish
writers the Alcazar to distinguish it from the Alcazaba,
was erected by Mohammed L (Al Ahmar) about the
middle of the thirteenth century, there is no reason
to doubt. EarHer allusions to the Red Palace refer
to the citadel we have just visited, or possibly to

"■".-^vts ...

Part of Picture in the Hall of Justice representing a Christian Knight rescuing a
maiden from a wicked Magician or VVild-man-o'-th'-Woods. Tlie Christian Knight
is in turn slain by a Moorish Warrior.

some pre-existing structure on the site of the present
one. On the walls of the palace is constantly repeated
the founder's device, " There is no conqueror but
God," the words uttered by him in mournful de-

io6

GRANADA

precation of the acclamations of his subjects on his
return from assisting St. Ferdinand in the reduction
of Seville. During the two and a half centuries of
the Nasrid rule, the place underwent many radical
transformations and renovations, and it is by no
means easy to distinguish the work of the different
sultans. It is evident from the inscriptions that

The Death of the Lion at the Hands of a Christian Knight. Part of
Picture in the Hall of Justice

Yusuf I. and Mohammed V. had the largest share in
the restoration and decoration of the edifice. In their
day it was no doubt more than twice the size it is
now. Probably an entire wing was removed to make
room for the palace of Charles V., and the Harem —
generally the most extensive part of a Muslim
residence — is wanting. It may have extended as far
as the Torre de los Picos. Except on the side towards
the Darro, the outer shell of the building has gone,
but fortunately enough has been left to enable us

THE ALHAMBRA 107

to realise the splendid state in which dwelt the last
Moorish sultans of Spain.

Very big books have been written about the
Alhambra and bigger still on Moorish architecture
generally. The palace belongs to the last period of
Spanish-Arabic art, when the seed of Mohammedan
ideas and culture had long since taken deep root in

Moorish Huntsman Sla>4ng the Wild Boar. Part of Picture in the
Hall of Justice

the soil and produced a style which might more truth-
fully be called Andalusian than Moorish. If the
Muslims left a deep impression upon Spanish art, it
must not be supposed that they altogether escaped
the influence of their Christian neighbours. Moham-
medan culture became acclimatised. As the centuries
rolled by it differentiated ever more and more from
its primitive models, from the styles of Syria and
Egypt. The Alhambra, though it remains the finest
secular monument with which Islam has endowed

io8

GRANADA

Europe, is wanting in the simplicity, the strength,
and the dignity of earher Moorish works— such as the
Giralda. During the last two centuries of their
occupation, the Mohammedans in Spain had lost

Painting in the Hall of Justice

much of their fanaticism and austerity. The> were
not precisely decadent, but as a nation they had
expended the fire and enthusiasm of youth and were
reconciled to their middle age. When too critical,
also, of the Alhambra, we must not forget that it
was primarily intended for a palace, for a place of
pleasure and repose, and that its builders sought
necessarily to delight rather than to impress. It is
probable that the wave of the Renaissance did not
leave the shrunken Moorish empire absolutely un-
touched, and if Castihan kings hesitated not to employ
Muslim artisans in the construction of their churches,
neither did the Sultans of Granada disdain the advice of
Christian artists in the embellishment of their palaces.
The Alhambra remains unquestionably a Moham-

THE ALHAMBRA

109

medan monument, but one which symboUscs a phase
of Mohammedan culture and institutions almost
pecuHar to one country and epoch. This was a
MusHm state isolated from the rest of the Islamic
world, assimilating in spite of itself something of the
spirit of the ahen civilisation that encompassed it.
Nowhere else, except in India, has Islam reached such
a pitch of refinement and elegance. To-day it remains
the monument of a people and a culture long dead
and gone.

The residences of the kings of Christendom during
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were strong-
holds rather than palaces. Power and strength im-
pressed our mediaeval ancestors far more than grace
and luxury. Military considerations had an important

The Moor's Return from Hunting. Part of Picture in the Hall of Justice

bearing on architecture, even ecclesiastical, while
rehgion had httle to say in the arrangement of a
man's abode. With the Muslim it has always been
otherwise. The Oriental mind delights in display,

GRANADA

and eastern potentates have never been able to resist
a tendency to ostentation. Magnificence, therefore,
not power, was the essential element in the architec-
ture of a Moorish court. The secluding of women
and the injunctions of the Koran as to ablution neces-
sitated the construction of special apartments un-
known to the Christians. The Castihan contemporary
of Al Ahmar was content to dwell in chambers gloomy.

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Inscription in the Court of the Lions

ill-lighted, and ill-ventilated. The Moor loved the
sun, the murmur of the breeze, and the ripple of
water. Here we have a few of the considerations
which influenced the Moorish architect, and resulted
in such wide differences between the Christian and
Mohammedan styles of dweUing-house.

If we cannot trace much order in the distribution
of the halls and chambers of the Alhambra, method
is conspicuous in the scheme of decoration. As is
well known, all Moorish ornamentation is based on a
strictly geometrical plan, and every design may be

THE ALHAMBRA

III

resolved into a symmetrical arrangement of lines and
curves at regular distances. The intersection of lines

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The Chamber of Repose— Baths of the Alhambra

at various angles is the secret of the system. All
these Unes flow from a parent stem, and no figure or
ornament may be introduced at random. The origin

112 GRANADA

of this style of decoration may be looked for, in the
opinion of a modern authority (M. Saladin, " Manuel
d'Art Musulman "), in late examples of classic work
such as numerous Roman mosaics, and also in an
attempt to imitate the tent dwellings of the primitive
Arabs. The materials of which these habitations were
composed were generally made of pieces sewn together
and shaped after a more or less regular fashion. The
designs were learnt by heart, and never committed
to paper, doubtless in order to preserve the " mystery "
of the decorator's craft. A certain number having
been committed to memory, it was comparatively
easy to combine and modify them. For fresh ideas
on the subject of ornament, the Muslim architect
seems to have always looked to the weaver of shawls
"""^ and carpets. He could not, if he were a rigid
observer of the Law, look to nature for his inspira-
tion ; though the Koran does not absolutely forbid
the delineation of natural objects, a circumstance of
which the latitudinarian sultans of Granada, as we
shall see, took advantage.

A love of simplicity and the elementary is also con-
spicuous in the colouring of the decorative work.
On the stucco only the primary colours were used :
blue, red, and yellow. The secondary colours occur
only in the dados of mosaic or tile-work. The green
ground-work of much of the ornamentation as it is

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THE ALHAMBRA

113

to-day was formerly blue, time having changed the
tint of the metallic pigment employed. The white
parts have assumed in the course of ages the tint of
old ivory, and the colours blend harmoniously now,
even if they did not do so when fresh. The decora-
tion seems to have been planned with strict regard
to the colour each surface was to receive.

It is not easy for the visitor unaccustomed to

Sultan's Bath constructed by Yusuf I.

Oriental buildings to form a just appreciation of this
beautiful palace. He will find much to condemn
in its architecture, and may find the repetition of
the same designs monotonous and distressing. The
beauty of the ornamentation consists in its exquisite
symmetry, and this only becomes apparent on close
examination. Even seeming irregularities disappear
on a more careful scrutiny. Mr. Lomas points out
that " the exact relation between the irregular widths
of cloistering on the long and short sides of the court

114 GRANADA

[of the Lions] is that of the squares upon the sides of
a right-angled triangle." This, of course, is not the
kind of art easily understood or appreciated by those
accustomed to European canons of taste, but such
exquisite proportioning will at least explain the
raptures of certain students of Mohammedan archi-
tecture.

There are no obstacles to a close study of the build-
ing. On your first visit you are shown round by a
guide, to whom you give a potirboire according to
your means or inclination. Once having paid your
footing you can repeat your visit as often as you like,
and roam unmolested and unattended through the
palace. Residents at the neighbouring pensions pass
much of their time here, reading, sewing, and, shame
be it said ! smoking, while the youngsters are allowed
to sail their boats in the Fishpond. It is much to
be regretted that more careful supervision is not
exercised over visitors. The cigar-ends and matches
which strew the floors suggest a very real danger to
the fabric. In many places names are scribbled or
even carved on the walls. The guides are intelligent
and courteous, but wanting in activity and firmness.
The generosity of the Government in throwing the
place open without fee to the public all the year round
is, I venture to suggest, misapplied. Few visitors
would object to paying an entrance fee of four or

THE ALHAMBRA

115

a
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ii6 GRANADA

five francs, and the sum thus collected could be de-
voted to the better upkeep of this venerable pile.

It is only thanks to the dry pure climate of southern
Spain that the palace has escaped absolute ruin.
From time to time since its acquisition by the Chris-
tians steps have been taken to put it in repair, but
at the end of the eighteenth century it was in a
deplorable state. During the French invasion several
towers were blown up, and as I have elsewhere said,
the whole palace only escaped demolition by the
presence of mind of an old soldier. Washington
Irving found the palace become practically private
property, and apparently in sole charge' of an old
lady and her domestic circle. At last in the year
1870, the Alcazar of the Alhambra was declared a
national monument, and since then a certain sum —
insufficient, I am told — has been set apart by the
State for its maintenance. Extensive and on the
whole skilful restorations were carried out by the
late Conservator, Don Rafael Contreras, who devoted
thirty-seven years of his life to the work. In Sep-
tember 1890, a fire destroyed the vestibule and the
Sala de la Barca. For want of funds the damage done
has not yet been made good. Unfortunately, unless new
regulations are enforced, there is every reason to fear
a recurrence of such a catastrophe at no distant date.

You might five on the Alhambra hill for some days

THE ALHAMBRA

117

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GRANADA

without being aware of the existence of the palace.
It is hidden away behind the unfinished fabric of

Tne Garden of Daraxa or " Lindaraja "

Charles V., and entered through an insignificant
modern doorway which gives no promise of the

THE ALHAMBRA iiq

beauties within. The guides first conduct visitors to
the Court of the Fishpond (Patio de la Alberca).
When, however, he has taken a prehminary glance at
the whole building he will do better to begin a more
systematic survey at the old entrance used by the
Moors themselves. In following our description, it
must not be forgotten that the apartments are
arranged practically in two storeys — the chapel, the
Patio de la Mezquita, the Baths, and the Garden of
Daraxa being on the lower.

The Patio de la Mezquita and Adjacent

Apartments

The court, misnamed the Patio de la Mezquita
(entered by a few steps at the north-west side of the
Court of the Fishpond), with the surrounding chambers,
represent the oldest part of the palace, and exhibit a
much more marked simplicity of architecture and
decoration than the parts yet to be visited. The
chambers lying to the south of this patio (that is,
towards the emperor's palace) are undergoing exten-
sive reconstruction and excavation. Here is to be
found the ancient entrance to the palace, a square
doorway with well-carved lintel, and the inscription :
" O Place of the High Kingdom and Asylum of Pro-
digious Aspect ! Thou hast achieved a great victory,

120

GRANADA

and the merits of the work and of the artificer [are]
the glory of the Imam Mohammed. The Shadow of
the Most High be upon all ! " This text is believed
to refer to Mohammed III. (1302-1309).

This door opened upon the Mexuar (meshwar)
or council-chamber, where the sultan administered
justice and convened his advisers and ministers. This

The Queen's Boudoir and View of the Albaicin

was converted at the reconquest into a chapel, which,
however, was not consecrated till the year 1629. At
that time the ancient entrance was blocked up, and
a fine chimney-piece in the Renaissance style was
transformed into an altar. The character of the
decorations suggests that at one time it was intended
to restore the chamber to secular uses. The terminal
figures on each side of the altar seem hardly appro-
priate to a chapel, nor do the figure of Plenty, and

THE ALHAMBRA

121

the relief of Leda and the Swan, now lying unheeded
in a corner. The fountain that once occupied the
centre of the hall is gone, and little if anything

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The Queen's Boudoir and Distant View of the Generalife

remains of the work of the Moorish builders. The
glazed tiles (azulejos) bear the device of Charles V.
(Plus Oultre), the Imperial Eagle, &c., and like the
stucco and carving are all post-Moorish work. At the
far end of the room is a gallery with a gilded balustrade,

122 GRANADA

and below it a wooden openwork partition, behind
which is the sultan's oratory (Mosala al Aidi), with
the mihrab or Holy Place directed towards the south-
east— that is towards Mecca. Here, according to
tradition, Yusuf I. was stabbed by a lunatic, though
some others have it that the oratory was built by
that monarch's son, Mohammed V. The inscriptions
on the walls certainly relate to the last named, where
they are not precepts from the Koran. The ceiling
is modern, and only a portion of the decoration is
genuinely Moorish. Opposite the mihrab is a little
door communicating with the ruined Tower of Pufiales
which presents many architectural differences from
the rest of the palace, and which may be the beginnings
of the Mudejar style seen in other parts of Andalusia.
The garden terrace seen from this doorway is called
after Machuca, the architect of the emperor's palace.
In Moorish times it was probably occupied by annexes
of the royal residence.

The Patio de la Mezquita, from which access is
obtained to the chapel, is an open quadrangular
court, ornamented on two sides. The southern
fagade, ably restored by Contreras, recalls the gate of
the Alcazar at Seville. The beautifully carved eaves
are sadly blackened by exposure. We notice the
latticed windows, characteristic of Mohammedan
domestic architecture, especially the central one,

THE ALHAMBRA

123

The Queen's Boudoir and Distant View of the Generalife

124 GRANADA

and the inscription on the wooden frieze beneath
the eaves commemorating its construction by Mo-
hammed V. • The tiled dados and arabesques display
the Nasrite motto, " God is the only Conqueror,"
repeated in all parts of the palace. At the opposite
side of the court a portico (roofed in 1522), with
curious columns and capitals of black marble, admits
you to a chamber believed by some to be the true
meshwar. The ceiling is a fine specimen of Moorish
carved work (artesonado), but that the decoration
of the walls is post-Moorish is indicated by the
introduction of amorini or Cupids. The walls of
this apartment display some ominous cracks, which
threaten their very existence.

Retracing our steps across the Patio de la Mezquita,
we reach the spacious Court of the Myrtles or of the
Fishpond (Patio de los Arrayanes ; or, de la Alberca).
This is the court first entered by the visitor through
the modern entrance. It is one of the most beautiful
parts of the palace, and gives a foretaste of the glories
that lie beyond. One feels immediately transported
to the East. " The originality of the architecture,"
says Don Francisco Pi Margall, " the airy galleries,
its rich alhamis or alcoves, the splendid apartments
of which glimpses are obtained through its arches,
the fountains and foliage, the reflection of its stuccoed
walls in the waters of the pond, the murmur of the

t t

. r c 't c t
< s t ' c c '
i f t c t t

The AlhambrS.

Tower of Coma res.

THE ALHAMBRA

125

126 GRANADA

breezes that agitate the dense myrtles, the trans-
parency of the sky, the silence that reigns all about —
all oppress the soul at the same time, and leave us
for some moments submerged in a sea of sensations
which reveal to us little more than the harmony of
the whole scene."

The court is of oblong shape, 120 feet long and
75 feet wide. Along the middle extends the alter ca
or fishpond, filled to the depth of six feet with pale
green water; which gushes up into a round basin at
either end. The long sides of the tank are bordered
by closely-clipped hedges of myrtle. To the north
rises the battlemented Tower of Comares, to the
south a corner of the emperor's palace appears above
the roof. Through one of the entrances may be seen
the fountain in the Patio de los Leones. An atmos-
phere of sensuous calm pervades the place.

Let us look around. The sides of the court were
restored sixty odd years ago, and do not merit much
attention. The southern fa9ade (that to the right on
entering) is very beautiful. It is composed of two
arcaded galleries, one above the other, with a smaller
closed gallery — a species of triforium — interposed.
The arcades are formed by marble columns, with
variously adorned capitals ; the central arch of the
lower gallery rises nearly to the cornice and is
decorated after a style which Contreras thought sug-

THE ALHAMBRA

127

gestive of Indian architecture. The seven windows
of the triforium are closed with fine lattice work.
Equally graceful is the upper gallery, where one notes

Gate of Justice

with anxiety the central arch showing signs of approach-
ing collapse. From the lower gallery a door affords
communication with the emperor's palace. Notice
the black capitals resembling those in the Patio de

128

GRANADA

la Mezquita. The opposite side of the court is
bordered by a single arcade, of similar design. Above
the central arch is a little dome or cupola, the interior

t|_i

f^dfiti^eiii^fj

*</'/<.

Gate of Justice and Fountain of Charles V.

of which is painted with little gold stars on a blue
ground. At each end of this gallery we find an
alhami or alcove, where the Moors were accustomed
to laze away the day extended on rush carpets and
divans. The walls of these little places are adorned.

THE ALHAMBRA

129

like the rest of the Court, with tiled dados and reliefs
in stucco, while the ceiling is of the stalactite pattern.
Traces of blue colouring are to be observed within
them. The domestic usages of Islam are suggested

r-\

^4##.

The Gate of Justice

by the little niches or hahncheros — places for de-
positing slippers — to be seen in the arches here and
in other parts of the palace. Certain authorities,
however, are of opinion that these were niches for
water vessels.

Here, as everywhere else in the Alhambra, in-
scriptions gracefully written in the semi-sacred Kuiic

130 GRANADA

character, enter largely into the scheme of decoration.
They tell us that Mohammed V. built this court—
which has been restored four times since the recon-
quest— while others declare, " Truly Ibn Nasr is the
sun, shining in splendour ; " " May he continue in
the noontide of his glory even unto the period of his
decline," and so forth. Yet another inscription refers
to the taking of Algeciras in 1368, and says of the
sultan, " Thou givest safety from the wind to the
blades of grass, and sittest dreaded even to the stars
in the firmament. When the stars quiver, it is because
they fear thee, and when the grass of the fields bows
low, it is in thanksgiving to thee."

These inscriptions must have greatly reUeved the
monotonous and puzzling aspect of the decorations,
as they would now, if they could be read by the
majority of the frequenters. Yet we imagine the
sultans must in time have grown weary of seeing
their praises repeated on every wall, and still more
weary when the eulogistic inscriptions referred to
their predecessors.

It is extremely probable that the southern gallery
of this court communicated with an extensive suite
of apartments demolished to make room for the
palace of Charles V., corresponding, perhaps, in plan
to the apartments to the north. These include the
Halls of the Barque and of the Ambassadors (Salas

THE ALHAMBRA 131

de la Barca and de Embaj adores). Into the first-
named we pass from the Court of the Fishpond
through a beautiful stalactite arch, into the decora-
tion of which fioral designs enter to an unusual extent.

The Gate of Justice

The name de la Barca is supposed to have been given
to this long, narrow apartment, from the resemblance
of its roof to the hull of a ship. Of the magnificent
ceiling, destroyed by fire in 1890, Owen Jones wrote :
"... A waggon-headed dome of wood of the most
elaborate patterns, receiving its support from pen-
dentives of mathematical construction so curious that

132 GRANADA

they may be rendered susceptible of combinations as
various as the melodies which may be produced from
the seven notes of the musical scale ; attesting the
wonderful power and effect obtained by the repeti-
tion of the most simple elements." Nothing of this
remains now, and the decoration of the walls has
been carried out after an obviously conventional
European fashion, a few Arabic inscriptions being
clumsily introduced. The windows above the en-
trance, filled with transparent stucco, are worth
notice.

^ Beyond this hall rises the Tower of Cpmares, with
walls of surprising thickness, yet appearing to rest on
the slenderest pillars and almost to be balanced in
air. The real supports, with questionable taste, have
been purposely kept out of sight. The battlements
are not those from which the sultans watched the
approach of the infidel, but date from recent times.
The interior, which is a square of 37 feet by 75 feet
up to the centre of the dome, is occupied by the
Sala de Embaj adores, the reception room of the
palace, where the last assembly of Boabdil's coun-
cillors was held. It is the largest and, on the whole,
the most imposing of the halls of the Alhambra, and
was built by Yusuf I. Lifting our eyes we behold
the glorious, airy dome of larch-wood, with painted
stars and angles. Owen Jones was of opinion that

THE ALHAMBRA

133

1/ ,'

r-i

iifri^ll .■'r|(il;,,H|i,l, J,,

The Gate of Justice

134 GRANADA

this ceiling replaced an earlier one, which was sup-
ported by an arch of brickwork. Opposite the
entrance was the sultan's throne, and in the centre
of the marble flooring (now of brick) spouted a foun-
tain, the site of which is still marked by stonework.
The decoration, in which red and black predominate,
is on a magnificent and elaborate scale, though here
and there the true Arab note seems wanting. Five
" zones " may be distinguished as the eye travels
from floor to roof : (i) a dado of azulejos, (2) stucco
work in eight separate horizontal bands and of dif-
ferent patterns, (3) a row of five windows on each
side, (4) a carved wooden cornice, (5) the " arteso-
nado " roof. Numerous inscriptions in Kufic and
African characters are introduced into the decoration,
including several verses from the Koran. On three
sides of the hall are alcoves, each with a window,
from which splendid views are obtained. The central
windows on each side are of two lights, and like the
windows which light the upper portion of the hall
were once filled with stained glass. Some of the
windows have been filled up.

Unsuitable for a human habitation as these empty
halls may at present seem, they probably presented
no very different aspect when in everyday use. A
few rich carpets, a divan in an alcove, here and there
a tiny table to hold a tray of refreshments, were all

, I, » I,' < , r

1.
>

THE ALHAMBRA

135

'ffi-'S?te^

The Gate of Justice (Inner Side)

136

GRANADA

the furniture that the Moors, with a curious blending
of simpHcity and luxuriousness, ever needed. It is
unhkely, of course, that the Hall of Ambassadors
was ever put to other than state uses. When not

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.=-^53^^

Ai^r*-.^

The Infanta's Tower

SO occupied, we can imagine it filled with slaves and
attendants dozing away their days on mats or re-
clining dog-like on the bare floor, ready, however, to
spring up and make the lowest of salaams as some
bearded dignitary passed in from the Court of Myrtles,

THE ALHAMBRA 137^

The Court of the Lions and Adjacent Apartments

The Patio de los Leones (Court of the Lions) occu-
pies, with the chambers opening on to it, the south-
eastern quarter of the palace. " There is no part of
the edifice that gives us a more complete idea of its
original beauty and magnificence than this," says
Washington Irving, " for none has suffered so little
from the ravages of time. In the centre stands the
fountain famous in song and story. The alabaster
basins still shed their diamond drops ; and the twelve
Hons, which support them, cast forth their crystal
streams as in the days of Boabdil. The architecture,
like that of all other parts of the palace, is char-
acterised by elegance rather than grandeur ; bespeak-
ing a delicate and graceful taste, and a disposition to
indolent enjoyment. When one looks upon the fairy
tracery of the peristyles, and the apparently fragile
fretwork of the walls, it is difficult to believe that so
much has survived the wear and tear of centuries,
the shocks of earthquakes, the violence of war, and
the quiet, though no less baneful, pilfe rings of the
tasteful traveller : it is almost sufhcient to excuse the
popular tradition, that the whole is protected by a
magic charm."

The Court is an oblong measuring 116 feet by
66 feet. On each of the four sides is an arcade.

138

GRANADA

formed by 124 marble columns, 11 feet high. These
axe placed irregularly, sometimes singly, sometimes in
pairs — an arrangement which does nothing to mar

. / 1

.jijg^

Interior of the Torre de las Infantas

the symmetry of the whole. The arches, which are
purely ornamental, exhibit a corresponding variety of
curve, and spring from capitals decorated with foliage
of various patterns. The space above the arches is

THE ALHAMBRA

139

decorated with the richest stucco work, which has
the appearance of old ivory. The arcades are roofed
with tiles — brown, white, green, and blue, and the
ceilings are of carved and painted wood. At each end
of the Court is a beautiful little pavilion with a " half-

The Captive's and Infanta's Towers

orange " dome or cupola, and a basin in the centre
of its marble flooring. The walls of the Court, which
on three sides support an upper storey, are decorated
after a geometrical design, but want the dado with
which they were once adorned. The stucco work in
the end galleries is very elaborate.

140 GRANADA

The Court is now gravelled, and is divided in four
by shallow conduits which run from the basins in
the arcades to the central fountain. This is com-
posed of two basins (in Moorish times there was but
one), supported by the twelve marble lions after
which the Court is named. These Muslim sculptures
are, remarks Ford, rudely but heraldically carved, and
closely resemble those to be seen supporting Norman-
Sarracenic tombs in Apuha and Calabria. " Their
faces are barbecued, and their manes cut like the
scales of a griffin, and their legs like bedposts, while
a water-pipe stuck in their mouths does not add to
their dignity." Notwithstanding, a tremendously long
inscription, versified by Valera, reminds us that
nothing need be feared from these creatures, " for
life is wanting to enable them to show their fury."
This fountain, like all the others in the Alhambra, /
only plays on certain state occasions.

The upper storey which looks down on the Court
on three sides is also roofed with coloured tiles, and
adorned with belvederes with ajimez windows pro-
jecting in the middle of each side.
\y' It is generally agreed that this Court form.ed part
of the harem or private domain of the sultan and
his family. It is unhkely that it communicated, as
at present, directly with the pubKc apartments. The
entrance was no doubt at the south-west angle between

THE ALHAMBRA

141

the Hall of the Abencerrages and the palace of
Charles V.

The Court of the Lions is adjoined on each side by
a sumptuous apartment. The Sala de los Mocarabes,
which is the first entered from the Court of the Fish-

Interior of the Torre de la Cautiva

pond, is a long narrow apartment, devastated by fire
in the year 1590. Some part of the original roofing
was preserved in the restoration in 1614. The ceiling
displays the escutcheon of Spain with the initials
F and Y (Ferdinand and Isabel), while inscriptions
on the beautiful arcading resound the praises of
Mohammed V.

142

GRANADA

The hall to the right of the Court is named the
Sala de los Abencerrages, and is the legendary scene
of the execution of thirty-six chiefs of the Beni Serraj
by order of Boabdil. The story has not the slenderest
historical support, and can only be traced to a writer
named Gines Perez de Hita, who lived in the sixteenth

The " Captive " and " Candil " Towers

century. Others have it that here Aben Osmin (1446)
was beheaded by order of the prince, Muley Hasan,
though most chroniclers agree that the usurper took
refuge in the mountains. The hall is separated from
the arcade by a narrow corridor, at either end of
which were staircases leading to the apartments above.
This narrow chamber stands sadly in need of repair,
the colour having almost entirely disappeared from

THE ALHAMBRA 143

its decorations. Wc pass beneath two beautiful
arches into the hall itself— one being closed with
superb wooden doors, found and restored by Contreras
in 1856. The hall is rectangular. In the centre .is
the basin beside which the chiefs are said to have

Torre de los Picos

been beheaded. To the right and left, beautiful
stalactite arches lead to alcoves, where, unfortunately,
the stucco decoration has almost entirely disappeared.
But the glory of the Sala de los Abencerrages is its
roof— its plan hke that of a star, with seemingly
innumerable pendants, and sixteen elegant closed
windows in its ventlings.

" Its thousand stalactites," writes Don Francisco Pi

144 GRANADA

Margall, " its colours, its innumerable archings, its
crowns of stars, its complicated depressions and pro-
jections, its cones, its polygons, its accidents of light,
the effects of chiaroscuro, present it at first sight as
something confused, indefinable, indecipherable, re-
splendent, and vague, like that broad band, the Milky
Way, which crosses the pavilion of the heavens. Yet
in reality it is most regular, although irregular in
appearance ; the compass of the geometrician had
more to do in planning it than the genius of the
artist ; but its lines are so many, and their combina-
tions change so rapidly, that the scheme is only to
be comprehended after a long and patient study."

The stalactite ceihng is one of the most beautiful
features of Moorish architecture. Two or three ex-
planations of its origin are forthcoming. Some say
that it was designed in remembrance of a cavern in
which the Prophet was accustomed to meditate or
took refuge. Another legend has it that an architect
saw a party of girls aiming snow-balls at the ceihng,
and that the formations assumed by the snow as it
froze harder or trickled downwards inspired him with
the idea since carried out with such beautiful effect.
The honeycomb, again, has been named as the source
of the inspiration. The stalactite, it seems to us, is,
however, merely the natural product of geometrical
design ; the more skilful artists of that school would

THE ALHAMBRA

145

Exterior of the Mihrab

146 GRANADA

naturally wish to express their fancies not only on
the plane but in the cube.

Opposite this hall, on the other side of the Court
of the Lions, is a similar apartment called the Sala de
las Dos Hermanas, or of the Two Sisters, after two
twin slabs of marble let into the pavement. This hall
was designed by Aben Sensid, the architect of the
Court of the Lions, and is beheved to have been in-
habited by the sultan himself. An exquisite arch gives
admittance from the Court to a lobby or corridor,
which communicates on the right with the mirador
or latticed balcony over the entrance — all that re-
mains of the upper storey ; at the other end of the
lobby is the old private entrance to the baths below.
The Hall of the Two Sisters is the most richly and
elaborately decorated part of the palace, and seems
to have suffered less from restoration than the other
apartments. To the left and right graceful arches
lead to alcoves rather more shut-off than in the other
rooms. Above each arch (there is one in each wall)
is a window from which those in the upper storey
could once look down. The roof, pierced with sixteen
windows, is of the same wondrous stalactite character,
and exhibits the same marvellous combinations of
geometrical forms, the same confused symmetry, the
same extraordinary cell-formations, as the Hall of the
Abencerrages. Hardly less bewildering and admirable

THE ALHAMBRA

147

Side Entrance to the Mihrab and Distant View of the Generalife

148

GRANADA

is the intricate lace-work of stucco, which covers the
surface of the walls above the brilliantly-coloured
dado. The inscriptions on the sixteen medaUions and
cartouches constitute a long poem by Ibn Zamrek,
composed in praise of Mohammed V., and translated
by Valera into eleven verses of Castilian. We are

Interior of the Mihrab

exhorted " to look attentively at my elegance, and
reap the benefit of a commentary on decoration ; here
are columns ornamented with every perfection, the
beauty of which has become proverbial."

In a corner of this superb apartment stands the
famous vase {e/ jarron), alleged to have been dis-
covered, full of gold, in a subterranean chamber of
the palace. It dates from the fourteenth century,
and is beautifully enamelled in white, blue, and gold.

THE ALHAMBRA

149

A full description may be found in Davillier's work
on Spanish pottery.

Beyond this hall, with which it communicates by
one of the four arches mentioned, is a long narrow
chamber called the Sala de los Ajimeces, from the

A Court in the Alliambra

graceful twin-windows that pierce its walls. Its
ceiling and ornamentation are almost as fine as those
of the larger hall. Facing the entrance is the beautiful
little chamber called the Mirador de Lindaraja (from
darasha, a vestibule), exuberantly decorated. Three
tall windows, once filled with coloured crystals, look
down into the charming Patio de Daraxa, and are

150 GRANADA

screened by jalousies of line workmanship. The
stained glass roofing is modern. In Moorish days the
sultanas could look from behind the lattices across
to the mountains, the view not being then obstructed
by other buildings ; and when their eyes wearied of
the prospect, they could decipher the numerous
poetical inscriptions on the walls. One of these runs :
" In this place appears a firmament of crystal, most
admirable, on which is stamped beauty ; colour and
hght are here so disposed, that you may take them
as one and the same and yet different." The in-
scriptions on the dado refer to Mohammed V. This
Moorish boudoir is perhaps the best preserved apart-
ment in the palace.

At the eastern extremity of the Court of the Lions is
the Hall of Justice (Sala de la Justicia), so called from
the baseless assumption that this was the seat of a
Moorish tribunal. Through one of the three double
entrances from the Court, we pass into a long chamber,
on to which open seven smaller rooms or alcoves.
The four small chambers are square and quite dark,
and are separated by three larger oblong apartments.
Here we notice the same gorgeous decoration, the
same geometrical ornamentation, as in the other halls
visited. The inimitable metallic lustre of the azulejos
is seen here to the greatest advantage. The hall is
lighted by windows let into three cupolas over the

THE ALHAMBRA

151

M^&MS

Mihr.ib ; or Oratory

152

GRANADA

archways. The arch over the central recess is perhaps
the finest in the whole palace. But what renders this
hall the most interesting in the building is that it
contains what were believed to be the only existing
specimens of mediaeval Mushm figure painting. These
curious pictures are done in bright colours (gold, green,
red, &c.) on leather prepared with gypsum, and nailed
to the ceilings of poplar wood. They ought long since

Gold Coin (Obverse and Reverse) of Mohammed I., the Founder of the Alhambra

to have been removed and placed under glass. When
I last saw them, they were peeling off the ceihng in
parts, and were rapidly becoming defaced. The
painting above the central alcove represents ten per-
sonages, who may with some degree of certainty be
identified with the first ten sultans of the Nasrid
dynasty. According to Oliver, the monarch in the
green costume, occupying the middle of one side, is
Al Ahmar, the founder of the race ; on his right are
seen Mohammed II. and Nasr Abu-1-Juyyush, to his
left, Mohammed III. and Abul Wahd ; the great

^ ^7 3^

l^-^x

L/ 0 ^

1 ■» 1 1 )

' ' ; > ^

TS5

'-■Ti'^t iim>ir

The Alhambra.

Hall of Justice.

THE ALHAMBRA

153

restorer of the palace, Mohammed V., in a red robe,
occupies the place of honour on the opposite side,
with Yusuf II. and Yusuf I. to his right, and Said
Ismail and Mohammed IV. to his
left. A strong family likeness
may be traced between these
illustrious persons, and the red
beards of some suggest a liberal
use of the dye still much resorted
to in the East. The features of
Mohammed V. are almost de-
faced. The background of this
painting is gold reheved with a
row of blue stars.

More interesting still are the
pictures in the other alcoves.
In the first, a castle with
square towers and battlements
is seen ; in the foreground is a
lion led in chains by a maiden,
whose hands are rudely grasped
by a savage with shaggy hair and beard. A rescuer
hurries to her assistance in the person of a Christian
knight, armed cap-d-pic, who transfixes her aggressor
with his lance. On the other side of the picture, the
same knight is attacked and overthrown by a Moorish
cavaher. The Moor is evidently out hunting, for

Arabian Lamp

154 GRANADA

beneath the combatants' horses his dogs are chasing
the wild boar and fox. From the towers of the castle
two fair ladies observe, with evident pleasure, the
Christian's overthrow. In another part of the picture
other knights are shown, following the chase ; and a
page is seen, leaning against a tree, with sword and
shield, presumably awaiting his master's return.

The second painting is entirely devoted to hunting
scenes. Moors are seen chasing the wild boar, while
the Christians occupy themselves with bears and
lions. The huntsmen are also seen returning and
offering the spoils of the chase to their ladies. The
Moor greets his sultana with a benign and condescend-
ing air ; the Christian warrior kneels to the lady and
offers his prize.

This picture, disgracefully enough, is now half
covered with mildew, and the whole pattern is fast
disappearing.

The most competent critics have now arrived at
the conclusion that these paintings are of the four-
teenth century, and therefore executed under the
Muslim sovereigns, in defiance of the precepts of the
Koran. Whether they were the work of a Moham-
medan it is not so easy to say. Gayangos has pointed
out remarkable similarities between these paintings
and those in the Campo Santo at Pisa ; and on the
whole it is probable that they were executed by an

THE ALHAMBRA

155

tiS

G
'o

156

GRANADA

Italian artist, whom the Mushms may not have
scrupled to employ to do a thing for them unlawful.
A parallel instance of casuistry is that of London
Jews, who on certain feasts employ Christians to
perform forbidden menial offices. It should also be

The Generalife from the Alhambra

said that in the opinion of some modern Muslim
doctors the prohibition of sculpture and painting is
not to be taken as absolute. They were certainly
never taken as such in Persia, where painting has long
been a recognised art.

In the Sala de la Justicia is also found a basin for
ablutions, on which are interesting reliefs of lions.

C c c c* «

c'ccc'cc'f ctttct t c

The Alhambra.

Garden of Lindaraja.

THE ALHAMBRA

157

^€Yji?,/J;

-^ ^-"^QJ" ■;. \•^^^ (fillll, 'V'V ll i, -/' 'i^

158 GRANADA

deer, and eagles. According to the inscription, this
was designed in 1305 for the service of the mosque,
a fact which seems to support the view of the autho-
rities just mentioned.

It was in this hall that mass was celebrated in
presence of the Catholic sovereigns on the day of the
reconquest, in commemoration of which their device,
the yoke and sheaf of arrows, was introduced into
the decoration of the alcoves.

At the south-eastern extremity of this hall may be
seen three tablets inscribed with the tremendously
long epitaphs of Yusuf III., Mohammed II., and of
a prince, probably the former's son. These slabs
come from the adjacent tower (closed at present),
which formed part of the Rauda or mausoleum of
the Nasrid dynasty. I understand that the niches in
which the turbehs were placed may still be distin-
guished, and the trough in which the body was
washed.

On the lower floor of the palace, communicating
with the Patio de la Mezquita by a long tunnel, called
the Viaducto, are the baths — those important ad-
juncts of the Moorish household. Entering by the
passage mentioned, we notice a divan on the right,
presumably for the use of the eunuchs and attendants.
We penetrate first into the Sala de las Camas, or
chamber of repose. Skilfully restored by Contreras,

THE ALHAMBRA

159

this is among the most brilhantly decorated rooms
in the palace, yet, as elsewhere in this neglected pile,
the gilding is being suffered to fade and the tiling
in the niches is loosening and breaking up. Four

Approach to the Generalife

columns support the gallery running round the
chamber, from which the songs of the odahsques were
wafted down to the sultan rechning in one of the
graceful divans below. The artesonado roofing of the
gallery is decorated with stars, escutcheons, and
geometrical patterns. The room is lighted from
above. In the centre is a fountain. Thence you

i6o GRANADA

pass into the Sala de Baiios, with its white marble
baths and pavement of glazed tiles. Under the
arcades that uphold the dome, the bathers underwent
the kneading and rubbing processes, not long since
introduced among us. The light penetrates from
above, through star-shaped apertures. The baths
altogether consist of three halls, and two small
chambers, stupidly called the Infantes' Baths.

The Modern Structures

From the baths, behind the principal divan, we
may pass into the charming little court called the
Patio de Daraxa, which intervenes between the
Mirador de Lindaraja and the apartments constructed
by Charles V. This is the most delicious spot in the
Alhambra. However hot it may be elsewhere, here
there is always grateful shade among the closely
planted cypresses, orange, and peach trees, rising
between trim parterres of box and bushes of roses and
myrtles. In the centre is a basin with a seventeenth-
century fountain. Here you will always find some
artist — English, American, French, or German — com-
mitting to the canvas his impressions of one of the
prettiest gardens men have ever fashioned for them-
selves.

The old Moorish garden used to extend uninter-

THE ALHAMBRA

i6i

'js^

Generalife. The Acequia Court

1 62 GRANADA

ruptedly to the Tower of Comares. The apartments
that shut it in on the north side were built by order
of Charles V., and include the Tocador, or Queen's
Dressing-Room. This was the room occupied by
Washington Irving, according to his own showing :
" On taking up my abode in the Alhambra, one end
of a suite of empty chambers of modern architecture,
intended for the residence of the governor, was fitted
up for my reception. It was in front of the palace.
... I was dissatisfied with being lodged in a modern
apartment. ... I found, in a remote gallery a door
communicating apparently with an extensive apart-
ment locked against the public. I procured the key,
however, with difhculty ; the door opened to a range
of vacant chambers of European architecture, though
built over a Moorish arcade. . . . This fanciful suite
of rooms terminated in an open gallery with balus-
trades, which ran at right angles with a side of the
garden ... I found that it was an apartment fitted
up at the time when Philip V. and the beautiful
Elizabeth of Parma were expected at the Alhambra,
and was destined for the Queen and the ladies of her
train. One of the loftiest chambers had been her
sleeping-room, and a narrow staircase leading from
it . . . opened on to the delightful belvedere, originally
a mirador of the Moorish sultanas [sic], which still re-
tains the name of the tocador. I determined at once to

THE ALHAMBRA

163

Gallery in the Generalife

164

GRANADA

take up my quarters in this apartment. My deter-
mination occasioned great surprise, but I was not
diverted from my humour."

This dainty room is surrounded by a gallery of

Generalife. Cypress Court

nine arches on Arabic pillars, painted and decorated
with the figures of Faith, Hope, and Charity, Justice,
Strength, and Temperance, Jupiter and Neptune,
Plenty and the Vestal Fire. The interior of the
chamber is adorned by paintings illustrating the fable

THE ALHAMBRA 165

of Phaeton. All works of art were produced by two
Italian artists, Giulio da Aquila and Sandro Mainere,
both pupils of Raphael. Theirs, also, are the paint-
ings in the corridor representing the victories of
Charles V. The gallery was formerly filled with per-
fumes, which ascended through the perforated slab let
into the flooring. The initials F and Y in the decora-
tion refer, of course, to Ferdinand and Isabel. On the
artesonado ceiling, painted and gilded, may be read
the invocation, " The help and protection of God and
a glorious victory for the Lord, Abu-1-Hejaj, Amir of
the Muslims ! " This ceiling may possibly have been
brought here from another part of the palace. One
may linger long in this beautiful room, feasting
one's eyes on the entrancing view presented from
the windows.

The Towers and Gates of the Alhambra

" The wall of the Nasrids," writes Sehor Fernandez
Jimenez, " of which scarcely a patch remains un-
impaired, measured about 1400 metres from one
extremity to the other, and was defended by twenty-
six towers, counting as one the two buttresses that
defended the gate of the Siete Suelos. To this
number should properly be added the Torre de las
Armas, which is pierced by a gate common to the

i66

GRANADA

Alcazaba and Alhambra, and is therefore also a
Nasrite work. The citadel was fortified, moreover,
by five bastions, corresponding to as many gates, and
by various external defences, of which traces remain

'oil

Gallery and Cypress Court, Generalife

in the modern alamedas. The thickness of the towers
varies according to their situation and purpose, the
distance between them ranging from 34 to 64 metres
approximately." At the present day eighteen towers
may be counted, including those of the Alcazaba :
the Torres de la Vela, de las Armas, del Homenage,

THE ALHAMBRA

167

de las Gallinas, de Punales, de Comares, del Mirador
de la Reina (containing the apartment called the
tocador, above described), de las Damas, de las
Picos, del Candil, de la Cautiva, de las Infantas, del
Agua, de los Siete Suelos, de
las Cabezas, de los Hidalgos,
de la Polvora, and Qiiebrada.
Most of these towers are in-
habited by keepers of the Royal
Demesne, or by old ladies, pos-
sibly their widows or parents.

The traveller coming up on
foot from the town enters the
fortified enclosure by the Gate
of Justice (Puerta de la Jus-
ticia), where justice was ad-
ministered in Moorish times
after the patriarchal fashion.
The gate is a building in itself,
and consists really of two towers, one behind the other,
connected by an upper storey. An inscription over
one of the arches relates that it was built by Sultan
Yusuf I. in 1348. Over the first outermost arch, which
is of horse-shoe shape, is carved an open hand, the signi-
fication of which has occasioned much controversy.
The most probable explanation is that it is a religious
symbol, the five fingers being emblematic of Faith and

i ""1 '!■ ■ ' t

The Cypress of the Sultana
in the Generalife

i68 GRANADA

of the four duties of the Mushm — to pray, to fast,
to give alms, and to make the pilgrimage to Mecca.
Set further back in the tower is a smaller arch, over
which is seen a rudely carved key. This was a
favourite religious emblem of the Mohammedans, and

Generalife. Tlie Sultana's Cypress

is believed to have s3mibolised the power of God
to unlock the heart or some other attribute of the
Divinity. There was a silly legend to the effect that
the Alhambra would be lost only when the hand
grasped the key— a tradition probably of Christian
invention. The entrance winds in the interior of the
tower past an altar erected in 1588 and a tablet

% ^mmmn..

The Alhambra.

Gate of Justice.

THE ALHAMBRA

169

commemorating (like the Virgin on the second arch-
way) the taking of the fortress by Ferdinand and
IsabeL The horse-shoe archway on the inner side,
which gives egress from tlie tower, shows some remains
of fine enameUing.

Gallery in the Gencralife

Outside this gate, and passed by you when ascend-
ing from the town, is the Pilar de Carlos V., a fountain
in the Renaissance style erected by Pedro Machuca
in 1545 by order of the Conde de Tendilla. It is
ornamented with the Imperial shield, and the heads
of the three river-gods. Genii, Darro, and Beiro.
The four medallions represent Hercules slaying the

170 GRANADA

Lerncan Hydra, Phryxiis and Helle, Daphne, and
Alexander. The laurels growing out of Daphne's
head give her somewhat the appearance of a Red
Indian. These medallions are becoming rapidly de-
faced, and no effort at all is being made for their
preservation.

It is easy to make the circuit of the old wall of
the Alhambra, which closely follows the outline of the
crest of the plateau. Walking eastwards from the
Gate of Justice we pass the entrance for carriages
and through a gate, closed like other parts of the
Real Sitio between 12 noon and 3. The wall is
crumbling in many parts and the bastions and but-
tresses are fast going to ruin. The double Torre de
los Siete Suelos flanks a gateway now walled up,
through which the luckless Boabdil is said to have
passed when leaving the Alhambra for ever. The
tower is so called because it is believed to descend
seven storeys underground ; so far, four subterranean
chambers have been discovered. Here tradition
places the site of much buried treasure, and fables
are told of phantom guards and tremendous spells.
For all of which, consult Washington Irving.

At the south-east extremity of the plateau is the
ruinous Torre del Agua, which derives its name from
the stream that at this poi-nt bubbles over the cliff,
falling in a charming cascade into a pool below. The

THE ALHAMBRA

171

Generalife. Entrance to the Portrait Gallery

172

GRANADA

wall of the cliff is shrouded in living greenery, at
which you gaze down from the scorched and ruined
wall hungrily and lovingly. This water is conveyed

Generalife. Entrance to the Portrait Gallery

by an aqueduct across the ravine to the cool plea-
saunce of the Generalife. Quitting this spot, not
without reluctance, you traverse the uninviting space
of cultivated ground called the Secano, and reach the
little square tower named the Torre de las Infantas.

THE ALHAMBRA

173

The key is to be obtained of the guardian at the
tower opposite — the Torre de las Cabezas, I think.
Built by Mohammed VII., this is one of the most

H^-^yJ:^^^,

jpm^

■y '

- ---- \^

Generalife. Entrance to the Portrait Gallery

recent examples of Spanish-Moorish work. The in-
terior is a perfect model of an Oriental dwelling-
house on a small scale. Through the usual zaguan or
zigzag vestibule, we reach a hall with a fountain in
the centre and alcoves in three of the sides ; the

174 GRANADA

upper storey is on the same plan, smaller, but less
ornate. The decoration is elaborate and possibly
rather too florid. The view from the flat roof is
one of the best in the fortress. Pass on, now, to the
next tower, the Torre de la Cautiva. Here, through
a zaguan and outer court, we enter a square chamber,
which is more beautifully decorated than any apart-
ment in the palace itself. Rose-coloured tiles with a
fine metalHc lustre adorn the walls, the tint of the
stucco in the outer chamber being also reddish and
producing a pretty effect. The walls, though thick,
do not exclude the heat as effectually as those of the
last tower. The numerous poetical inscriptions refer
to the Lion resident here — a very different tenant
from the imaginary captive after whom the tower is
named.

Further on is the Torre de los Picos, which seems
to have been so styled from the battlemients that
surmount it. Completely remodelled at the time of
the reconquest, it still retains some fine ajimez
windows of the Moorish period. Close by is the
Puerta. de Hierro, or Iron Gate, constructed or re-
stored by Ferdinand and Isabel, and facing the gate
and path that lead to the Generalife. The Torre de
las Damas, a fortified tower dating from the reign of
Yusuf I., was assigned by Mohammed V. to his
brother Ismail, who afterwards usurped his throne.

THE ALHAMBRA

175

Generalife. Entrance to the Portrait Gallery

176

GRANADA

It contains a balcony and a hall decorated with much
taste. This tower is believed by some authorities to
mark the Umit on this side of the Alhambra palace.
Between the Torres de las Damas and de los Picos

Generalife. The Acequia Covirt

is a charming little Muslim oratory or mihrab, ap-
proached through a private garden. At the recon-
quest, with the adjoining mansion, it was the residence
of one Astasio de Bracamonte, the squire of the Conde
de Tendilla. The roof is very fine, but the decora-
tion has been badly restored and the colours are now
all too glaring. The easterly niche and other essentials

r tr II o

< ( • c < t

r c e ,' t V ' c t ' 5 '/'',','

ctt'c'' ccccet c t

The Alhambra.

Torre de los Picos.

THE ALHAMBRA

177

Generalife. Acequia Court

178 GRANADA

to the Muslim rite can still be distinguished. In a
side room are preserved two stone lions, hke those in
the palace, brought here on the demolition in 1843
of the old hospital founded by Mohammed V. in

1376.

The uninteresting sixteenth-century church of Santa
Maria occupies the site of a mosque, which was pulled
down in 1576, and which may or may not have been
the building referred to by Al Khattib in these terms :
" And among his [Mohammed III.'s] great actions,
the greatest and most remarkable was the construc-
tion of the great mosque or aljama of the Alhambra,
with all that it contained of elegance and decoration,
mosaics and cements ; as well as lamps of pure silver
and other great marvels. In front of the mosque
were the baths, erected with the tribute paid by his
Christian subjects. With the receipts from these, the
mosque and its ministers were maintained." The
modern church contains a Visigothic inscription on
marble, recording the erection of three temples dedi-
cated to St. Stephen, St. John, and St. Vincent, in
the reigns of Witeric and Reccared. Some say that
it was in this church, and not in the Sala de Justicia,
that mass was first celebrated on the taking of
Granada. At the end of the little Calle Real, where
the pensions are situated, are some ruinous buildings
which once formed part of the convent of San Fran-

THE ALHAMBRA

179

Cisco, erected on the site of a Moorish mansion, and
where the bodies of the Cathohc Kings lay awaiting

(#'•.„-•,.;.. ^1,;-: \^' ■ :.r-^^m lift-- tfeiK^ ■ ^

CiTjii ..iiiJf'Sil A^. . liKilgv: J

The Acequia Court of the Generalife

sepulture in the Chapel Royal. Close by was the
house of the Condes de Tcndilla (Marquises of Mon-

i8o GRANADA

dejar), partially demolished by the holder of the title
when he was deprived of the hereditary governorship
of the Alhambra by Philip III. Continued investiga-
tions and excavations would no doubt reveal abundant
remains of Moorish work, for it must be remembered
that the walls enclosed not only the palace and
citadel, but a small town. The population thus
dwelling at the foot of the throne was mainly com-
posed, in later times at least, of persons connected
with the Court — ministers and officials, princes of the
blood, ex-favourites and discarded sultanas, the
ulema, alfakis, and scribes, soldiers of fortune and the
sultan's guests. Such powerful tribes 'as the Beni
Serraj and Beni Theghri, whose rivalry contributed
to the downfall of the monarchy, would also have
had quarters for their leaders here. The little town
extended from the south-eastern extremity of the
hill to as near the doors of the palace as the humour
of the sultan for the time being may have permitted.

The Palace of Charles V.

Far more conspicuous and imposing, exteriorly,
than the Moorish Alcazar, is the huge square building,
roofless and forlorn, which confronts you as you
emerge from the Gate of Justice on to the Plaza
de los Algibes. This is " the stately palace dome

THE ALHAMBRA

i8i

decreed " but never finished, by the Emperor Charles V.
On his visit to the Alhambra in 1526, he was so
pleased with the site that he determined to construct
here a royal residence, more suited, as he conceived

Generalife. Acequia Court

it, to the dignity of a monarch than the old home
of the Nasrid sultans. The cost was defrayed by a
heavy tribute exacted from the Moorish inhabitants,
who had been threatened with new and severe dis-
abilities and restrictions. Though a considerable

l82

GRANADA

portion of the Alcazar was pulled down, the story
that the Flemish Caesar regarded it contemptuously as
'' the ugly abomination of the Moor " is probably
fictitious, and certainly conflicts with the well-known
utterance, " Unhappy he who lost all this ! " drawn
from him by a survey of the beauties of the Alhambra.

Generalife. Gallery in the Acequia Court

The plans for the new palace were drawn by Pedro
Machuca, under whose direction the work was begun
in 1538. The fabric grew very slowly under succes-
sive architects, and was abandoned before the middle
of the seventeenth century. The world thus lost a
very noble and splendid edifice — to judge from what
was actually accomplished. It has long been the

The Alhambra.

Torre de las Damas from the
River Dnrro.

THE ALHAMBRA

183

fashion to decry the building, and to argue that it
presents an appearance incongruous with its sur-

Generalife. Acequia Court

Foundings. As the Moo'rish palace is almost invisible,
and the other and less striking Arabic monuments are
at some little distance, it is difficult to understand

1^4 GRANADA

or to appreciate these objections. The structure
forms a square, 207 feet across and 53 feet high. The
lower storey of each fa9ade is of the Tuscan order,
the upper Ionic with a Doric cornice. The marble
portals are very fine, and enriched with beautiful
reliefs, illustrating or symbolising the emperor's
victories. The motto Plus Oultre and the emblems of
the Golden Fleece frequently occur in the decoration.
The southern fa9ade was to have been approached
through a great triumphal arch, a design, like that
for a great domed chapel, which was never realised.
The interior of the palace is circular, and surrounded
by galleries upheld by thirty-two columns. The
lower stage is in the Doric, the upper in the Ionic
style. The fine staircase dates from 1635. The
palace is roofless and neglected, and only used nowa-
days for occasional public concerts and ceremonies.
It is unfortunately characteristic of the country that
no effort is made to restore and to complete what
would have been one of the triumphs of Renaissance
architecture.

The space before the deserted palace is prettily
planted with hedges and provided with seats. Here
and in the adjacent Plaza de los Algibes, the inhabi-
tants of the Alhambra, residents and visitors, take
the air and exchange gossip. It is a pleasant place
enough. The stranger soon gets known to the little

THE ALHAMBRA

185

Generalife. Gallery in the Acequia Court

i86 GRANADA

colony, and no longer attracts the rude curiosity
which he must usually expect in Spain. He soon
feels sufficiently at ease to exchange pleasantries with
the water-carriers who come to fill their vessels at the
ice-cold well in the centre of the plaza, and whose
harsh prolonged cry, " agua-a-ah ! " assails the ear at
every corner in the hot town below. They are always
passing quickly up and down through the Gate of
Justice, in haste to obtain their precious liquor and
to dispense it to the thirsty citizens. A hard life
theirs seems. Yet where would you find a race of
men more cheerful ? Young bloods also honour the
alamedas of the Alhambra with their visits, and
gallop and prance about on fiery steeds to the ad-
miration of the rather demure white-robed maidens
with roses in their hair. Dogs abound on the hill,
in the precincts from which their ancestors would
have been rigorously banned. And considering the
manner in which these vivacious animals disturb your
slumbers at all hours of the night, you may be dis-
posed to regret that some such law does not obtain
to-day. At all hours of the day, you will find an
inexhaustible delight in the superb prospect from
these pleasant promenades. Where there is so much
beauty, it may seem ungrateful to complain that the
view of the snow-streaked Sierra Nevada to the south-
east is limited by the Cerro del Sol, and that the view,

THE ALHAMBR.\

187

Generalife. Gallery in the Acequia GDurt

i88 GRANADA

however extensive, embraces no very notable site.
This cavil to restrain the enthusiasm, often too
exuberant, of those who have beheld vega and sierra,
white-walled town and green plantation, from the
old abode of Moorish kings ! The view by night —
above all by moonlight — is, I think, by far the most
beautiful. The white city gleams with a shimmer
that the luminous sky above reflects. The thousand
points of light that stud the vault of Heaven are
outnumbered and outshone by the myriad lights
below. It is thus, at night time, that Granada
resumes her old Oriental aspect. Leaning over the
rampart, this seems no city of the West. The
fancy strays to Syria, to white towns crowning
brown hillsides in Galilee. The Christian's by day,
Granada returns by night to the allegiance of the
Crescent riding yet triumphant in the violet sky
of Andalusia.

The Generalife

The walls and towers of the Alhambra look across
an ivy-draped ravine — a study in green and red — at
the Generalife, the " Palace of Recreation " — what we
may call the Trianon of Granada. To obtain ad-
mittance you apply at the Casa de los Tiros in the
town, where a card is given you free of charge.

THE ALHAMBRA

189

Formed}' in direct communication with the Alhambra
by means of a path opening opposite the Puerta de
Hierro, the Generahfe is now approached by a long
avenue terminating in a gate some distance beyond
the Washington Irving Hotel. The name is a
corruption of the words Jennat al arif — " the garden

v-^m '

1 •t4/:.v;:*'A^ iii^^

The Aqueduct of the Alhambra

of the architect." The palace appears to have been
built by a ^loor named Omar, from whom it was
purchased by the Sultan Abu-l-\\'alid. It then
became the summer residence of the sovereign. At
the reconquest we find it in the hands of Sidi Yahya,
who claimed descent from Ben Hud, the rival of Al
Ahmar. This personage renounced Islam and assumed
the name of Don Pedro de Granada. The property
is at present in possession of his descendant, the

190

GRANADA

Marquesa de Campotejar, who also owns the Villa
Pallavicini at Genoa.

It is a long but delightful walk from the outer gate
to the door of the palace, between beautiful shrubs
and cypresses. On ringing you are admitted by a
prepossessing daughter of Andalusia, by whom you
are allowed to wander at will over this enchanting

Puerta del Hierro

villa. To-day it hardly deserves the name of palace.
The first court is surrounded by an arcade, the decora-
tion of which is older than that of the principal halls
of the Alhambra, but is completely hidden by white-
wash. A little chamber or belvedere to the left —
generally closed — is used as a chapel, and said on
doubtful authority to have been a mosque. Through
the middle of the court, which is thickly planted with
orange trees and myrtles, runs the canal which also

THE ALHAMBRA

191

waters the Alhambra. At the far end of the court
are two or three ugly apartments, containing a curious
collection of portraits. The majority represent
members of the Granada family, and one — number
II — is absurdly supposed to be the likeness of the

The late King of the Gipsies

founder of the race, Ben Hud, though he is dressed
in the costume of the fifteenth century. This is the
portrait which English travellers, and even the usually
correct Baedeker, persist in mistaking for Boabdil's.
Here is also shown the family tree of the Granadas.
In another room are portraits by unknown artists
of Ferdinand and Isabel, Joanna I. and Philip I.,
Charles V., and other Spanish monarchs. The collec-
tion is by no means valuable or interesting.

ig2

GRANADA

Turning to the right, we enter the gardens of the
GeneraHfe — assuredly one of the most dehcious spots
ever haunted by the followers of Mohammed. Water
gushes up everywhere, and moistens the roots of
myrtles, orange trees, gorgeous oleanders, cedars, and
tall cypresses — the finest trees in all Spain. Beneath
one of these — that to your right as you reach the

ZS'^^h^J- ■ w^-^ \J/ - . "'^:? -y^a -1 Ti TIP* 'f .n 1. li'iH -III ' t ■

*Js»Ia£>v*'

^■^y<s^f^-:

Gipsies Dancing

head of the first fiight of steps — a sultana is fabled
to have been discovered listening to the amorous
declaration of one of the ill-fated Abencerrages.
Truly the place seems made for lovers' trysts.
Planned in terraces, you mount from one bower to
another, till you reach the bare, ugly belvedere, from
which an enchanting view is obtained of the fairy-
land below and of the mountains, the vega, and the
city. The view of the Alhambra from this point is
very fine. Behind one is the eminence called the

THE ALHAMBRA

193

Silla del Moro, where once a mosque stood, and
farther off, some large Moorish reservoirs, which
partly supplied these gardens with water, and one
of which the troops of Don John of Austria drank
dry. But more delightful and inspiring than the

^^^^tf^i^

Near the Torre de los Picos. A Gipsy Family

panorama are the gardens themselves — a Paradise
which the stranger generally has to himself, and
which he is likely to remember most gratefully of
all the things of Granada.

You may return to the Alhambra by the Cuesta
del Rey Chico, the pleasant road that separates the
two hills and passes beneath the picturesque aqueduct

194

GRANADA

near the Torre del Agua. But a serpent haunts this
Eden in the person of a gipsy, fantastically and
theatrically attired in a costume given his grandfather

Gipsy Gossip near the Aqueduct

by Fortuny the artist. This child of Nature dogs
your footsteps, imploring you to buy his photographs,
or to accept his services as a guide. If you are pro-
vided with a camera, he will strike a picturesque

THE ALHAMBRA

195

The Generalife from the Alhambra

196 GRANADA

attitude every few yards. This irritating Bohemian
is connected in some vague manner with the dilapi-
dated and venerable Romanies, whose extraordinary
gyrations, fancifully called dances, are witnessed by
ill-advised visitors to Granada. For this depressing
and yet laughter-provoking exhibition a charge of five
francs is made by the " guides." Of this sum only
about fifty centimes finds its way into the pockets
of the miserable gipsies, whom the tourist, desirous
of spending five francs without any pleasure to him-
self, would do better to entertain to a hearty meal.

CHAPTER III

THE MODERN TOWN — MOORISH REMAINS

If Granada had become a Christian city two centuries
sooner, she would have preserved her Moorish aspect
longer. This is no mere paradox. Alfonso VI. and
St. Ferdinand approached their conquests in a spirit
very different from that of the Catholic kings. The
works of the Muslim were admired and imitated. The
palace of the sultans of Seville became the residence
of the Castilian king, with as little alteration in the
scheme of the fabric as was consistent with the new
owner's requirements. Seville to-day retains much of
the Moorish character. Granada fared very differently.
In the interval which elapsed between the conquests
of the two cities, the Spaniard had become a bigot
and an iconoclast. He wished not only to subdue
the Moor but to efface him. It is a matter for sur-
prise that the peerless Alhambra escaped demolition.
Doubtless, had the emperor's palace been completed
before the middle of the seventeenth century, the site
of the halls of Al Ahmar would have been occupied

by the Versailles-like gardens of a Hapsburg prince.

197

198 GRANADA

Ferdinand and Isabel were sincere and thorough
fanatics. They detested Mohammed and all his works.
The beauties of an art alien to their creed appealed
to them as little as to Cromwell and his ironsides.
As a result the city which was of all others in Spain
the longest and the last in the possession of Islam
has far less of a Moorish character than Seville,
Cordova, and Toledo.

A white city of narrow, winding streets and lanes,
and arid, desert-like open spaces. A city old but
not venerable, which has lost the stamp of antiquity
without acquiring the imprint of modernity. Granada
reminds one rather of the thirties and forties of the
last century than of any remoter and more heroic
epoch ; and indeed in those decades, when Theophile
Gautier saw the place, it presented a livelier and
more picturesque appearance than now. Yet it is far
from being the " living ruin " it is called by a certain
writer ; were it more ruinous, it would wear a more
romantic guise. The beggars, too, who till lately
infested the streets and squares, have vanished. A
clean sweep was recently made of them by the autho-
rities, who seem to have acted with a thoroughness
rare in Spain, or indeed in any country. There is not a
busy thoroughfare in London where you would not now
meet with more mendicants than in the whole of this
city of seventy thousand inhabitants. In other direc-

THE MODERN TOWN— MOORISH REMAINS 199

•a

200 GRANADA

tions the Granadinos have shown a disposition to set
their house in order. Driving from the station, having
passed the Bull Ring — that foul blot on the physiog-
nomy of a Spanish town — you pass along a straight
wide street, with high white buildings on either side,
with a bank, a modern church, and a brand-new
hotel : this is the Gran Via, the new (and, in anticipa-
tion, principal) street, which has been driven, of
recent years, through one of the oldest quarters of
the town. But the enterprising citizens would do
well to remember that the street architecture which
is eminently suitable for Paris and Vienna is quite
out of place in their own sunburnt city. The Moors
knew what they were about when they built their
streets narrow and shady. To-day, one turns with
infinite relief from this pretentious, glaring Gran Via
into the cool alley-like Zacatin or Calle Elvira.

The Puerta Real is the focus of the town's life. It
is an irregular open space, of which apparently the
designers knew not whether to make a square or an
avenue ; it contracts ultimately into the latter. Here
are situated the few — the very few — decent caf6s
Granada contains, and they are well patronised at
night, the abstemious Spaniards drinking nothing
stronger in the summer-time than lemonade or the
like. While you are seated at the tables outside these
cafes, the shoeblack boys, as in Cairo, leave you no

THE MODERN TOWN— MOORISH REMAINS 201

peace. Their attentions are not resented by the Dons,
who are as sensitive as to the smartness of their foot-

The Calle Reyes Catolicos

wear as the Americans. By day, the Puerta Real is
well-nigh deserted. You are almost burnt up crossing

202 GRANADA

from one side to another. At six on a summer's
evening, Granada wakes up. The cafes begin rapidly
to fill. The water-carriers coming down from the

Calle de~San~Anton

Alhambra take up the cry of " agua-a-ah , . . ! "
newsboys thrust El Defensor beneath your nose.
Carriages — the carriages that Gautier thought smarter
than those of Madrid — pass on their way to the
alamedas, occasionally a motor-car rushes past.

THE MODERN TOWN— MOORISH REMAINS 203

Bicycles are rare in this land of bad roads. As the
stars come out, the houris of the city come forth to
take the air. They are not very beautiful, these over-
praised Andalusians, but a certain sprightliness distin-

Hoteh near the Alhambra

guishes them, and justifies perhaps the volley of
loudly-expressed compliments directed upon them by
the caballeros at the cafe tables. But the Andalusian
damsel is very circumspect in her behaviour, and it is
difficult to imagine a place — to judge by externals —
where Mrs. Grundy would be more at home than here.

204

GRANADA

f^- '^ -E^iwrv,

In the Gipsy Quarter. Sage Advice

The Spaniard learnt something from the Moor — his
method of training women. One imagines that it
is hke these ladies of Granada that the women of
Constantinople would comport themselves were they
suddenly suffered to go out unveiled. But the Moors
themselves — where are they ? Have they left nothing

in this, the last seat of their
empire, except the palace
yonder on the hill ? Let us
leave the dusty Puerta Real
and go in search of memorials
of Granada's golden age.

The limits of the Moorish
city corresponded pretty
closely with those of the modern town, so that the
five hundred thousand inhabitants of whom some
historians speak, must have been somewhat closely
packed. The oldest part is the quarter called the
Albaicin, and it is not unsafe to ascribe the founda-
tion of the newer and central parts to the Nasrid
dynasty. It was in the Albaicin, the name of which
is derived from Al Bayyazin, " the quarter of the
falconers," that the Zirite sultans reared their new and
old Alcazars. At least so most authorities are now
agreed, though others identify these works with the
Kasba of the Alhambra. And, after all, those early
kings of Granada strutted for so short a time on the

THE MODERN TOWN— MOORISH REMAINS 205

stage of history that the exact place of their abode
is not a problem likely to interest the foreigner at
all events. With patience you may still discover a
few remains of this Alcazar — a wall or an arch built
in amongst the formless, ruinous houses that con-
stitute this most wretched, squalid quarter of the
city. The old Moorish wall to the
north is still standing, and it is '^^^^''^'''

flanked on the east by the Cerca s^?^^^^-"^- '
del Obispo Don Gonzalo. This .t^^^^'^'^^/^;
prelate was a captive of the in- .-'. \\W^%,
fidel, and quite probably worked ''^-^^^^■m %
at this wall; for the legend anent ^^''''^1^-?

him is borne out by certain in- " '

• ,• 1 • 1 i\ L L^ In the Gipsy Quarter

scriptions, which prove that the

fortifications were constructed by Christian captives

in the reign of the tenth or the eleventh Alfonso.

It is, in its way, a wonderful place, this Albaicin.
The home of sultans and princesses in Moorish days,
after the conquest it continued for a century or more
to be the aristocratic quarter and the home of many
families of rank. It is hardly credible, you would
think. To-day it is a congeries of ruins, of houses
unutterably dilapidated, of tottering walls, of shape-
less masses of rubble and stone. Its filthy alleys
form a trackless labyrinth, into which it is hopeless
to adventure without a guide. Here dwell in burrows,

2o6 GRANADA

in holes in the ground, or in caves which once perhaps
were cellars, five hundred or so gipsies, wretched
creatures who perform curious antics for the benefit
of the stranger. It is they who are dragged out to
entertain the visitors at the Alhambra hotels. Yet
this, the very capital of squalor and misery, has a

^4€^^:'

Gipsy Blacksmiths

rare attraction for tourists. It is one of " the sights,"
I must add that it is a sight not to be enjoyed without
a certain risk. To penetrate into the Albaicin with-
out the escort of a well-known native or in a large
party, is to court at the least robbery. And the thrill
at the nearness of danger is about the best thing to
be experienced in the visit.

The Albaicin was more interesting as late as seventy
years ago, when a number of fine old Moorish mansions
were still standing. Then perhaps you might still
have traced the House of the Weathercock built bv

THE MODERN TOWN— MOORISH REMAINS 207

Aben Habuz (Badis), and have seen the Casa de las
Tres Estrellas, the theme of a well-known Spanish
romance, before it was restored.

The two most important remains of the Moorish
period within the city are the gates leading to this
quarter from the north-west. You pass the massive,
crenellated Gate of Elvira on your
left as you drive from the station . ;..' '_ ^-,

past the Bull Ring and across the
Plaza del Triunfo. It is a simple
structure, pierced with a horseshoe
archway, which does not call for
much description. More pictur- a Gipsy Beauty

esque and ancient is the Puerta
Monaita or Bab Albonaida, a stern square tower,
with graceful arches, to be seen from the Plaza, but
quite surrounded by private property. The towers
were the bulwarks of Granada on this side, and per-
haps Boabdil entered through them when he returned
suddenly from captivity, and seizing the Alcazar of
the Albaicin, bade defiance to his uncle in the Red
Palace. Now walk down the Gran Via, and just a
little to the right of the junction with the Reyes
Catolicos, and on the left-hand side of that street, a
short alley leads you to the Casa del Carbon, easily
recognised by its horseshoe arch. The fagade,
blackened with coal dust, exhibits traces of former

208

GRANADA

splendour. The stucco work and twin windows are
in good Moorish style, and within the portal may be

J
>_ )

Gipsy Quarter. The Caves

seen a finely carved roof. This building, which dates
from the beginning of the fourteenth century, seems
to have been the Alhondiga Jedida or fonduk, the
Com Exchange of Moorish Granada. The interior has

o
o
Q

THE MODERN TOWN— MOORISH REMAINS 209

entirely lost its primitive character, and the place is
now used as a storehouse for coal. There is little to
detain one. We retrace our steps across the Reyes
Catolicos, built in the middle of last century over

^a'^

Gipsy Dwelling

the river Darro, and enter the lane called the Zacatin,

the most famous and once the most important street

in Granada. Here are some of the best shops in the

city, and the ancient character has quite gone. Even

Gautier's description would hardly apply to it to-day.

" The Zacatin is always crowded. Now you meet a

group of students on a tour from Salamanca, playing

210

GRANADA

the guitar, the tambourine, the castanets, and triangle,
while they sing couplets full of fun and animation ;
then again your eye encounters a gang of gipsy

Gate of Elvira

women, with their blue flounced dresses studded with
stars, their long yellow shawls, their hair in disorder,
and their necks encircled with big coral or amber
necklaces, or a file of donkeys loaded with enormous
jars, and driven by a peasant from the Vega as sun-
burnt as an African." Traffic has now drifted from

THE MODERN TOWN— MOORISH REMAINS 211

the Zacatin to the Reyes CatoHcos. More in the
Moorish style is the adjacent Alcaiceria, a large ex-
change built on the site of the silk market destroyed
by fire in 1843. The arches resemble those of the
Alhambra, and the whole reminds one of the markets

.J-

^^ r^=i F*^ --^^

1fT 'i ,•

■y

Gate of Elvira

of the East. In Moorish days this quarter was the
scene of great commercial activity. Silk was the
principal industry of the place. Adjoining was the
madrassa or university, founded by Yusuf I. to replace
that of Seville. It is now called the Ayuntamiento
Viejo or Casa del Cabildo Antiguo, and faces the
Royal Chapel. Having been converted first into a
palace for the Catholic Sovereigns, then into a Chapter

212

GRANADA

House for the Cathedral, next into a Town Hall, and
finally into a cloth warehouse, this venerable edifice
has not preserved much of its original character.
Fortuny has left a picture of the exterior. The mihrab
of the madrassa has been recently discovered and

restored. It is somewhat
in the style of the Alham-
bra. The Chapter Room
has a beautiful roof in the
mudejar style — this being
the name apphed by
Spanish writers to work
undertaken by Moorish
workmen under the di-
rection and influence of
Christian rulers, or to
Christian imitations of
the Moorish style.
Still it must be admitted that our search for
memorials of the Mohammedan epoch has not been
very fruitful. We pass down the Zacatin into the
far-famed Bibarrambla square, mentioned in song and
story, and supposed to have been the theatre of the
most striking events in the city's history. Here the
valiant Moor, Ghazal, combated the bull, and laid
the foundations of the art of tauromachy, as Goya's
pencil has shown us. Here on more than one occa-

The Casa del Carbda

mfim

THE MODERN TOWN— MOORISH REMAINS 213

sion Christian knights, forbidden to have recourse to
arms in their own coun-
tries, would settle their
differences with sword and
lance by favour of His
Moorish Majesty. From
the lattice windows round
the square the women of
the harem would witness
the rude shocks and en-
counters of the mail-clad
chivalry of the north,
while the bearded sultan
and his people would smile
grimly on, no doubt en-
joying this spectacle of
infidel dog destroying dog.
Then came darker days,
when Muslim turned his
sword against Muslim,
and the square became
the scene not of chivalric
encounters but of indis-
criminate slaughter. The
gate or Bib er Ramla itself
was standing till quite recently, and was latterly known
as the Arco de las Orejas (Arch of the Ears), because

The Casa del Carbc5n

214 GRANADA

of an outrage that occurred here in 1621. At a festival
arranged in honour of PhiHp IV. a raised platform
on which were seated a number of richly dressed
ladies collapsed ; and their ears were brutally torn
off by rufhans for the sake of their earrings.

There is nothing antique or Moorish about the
Bibarrambla to-day. It is just a bright sunny square
surrounded by commonplace shops and buildings. In
the mornings it is fragrant and gay with the blossoms
of the flower-sellers, and thanks to its proximity to
the market it is constantly traversed by processions
of mules with loutish men and witch-like old women
perched Hke Chinese idols on their backs. But you
must have a lively fancy indeed if you recover much
from the storied past at this bustUng spot.

The Bib er Ramla was one of the twenty-eight
principal gates which pierced the old Moorish city
wall, the chief others being the Elvira, the Monaita,
Puerta Real, Bib Atauwin, Bib Laushah (Puerta de
las Granadas), Bib Shomays on the Guadix road, and
Bib Fag Alosha (on the Albaicin side). The Bib
Atauwin gate stood near the Hotel Alameda, on the
site occupied by the ugly infantry barracks distin-
guished by two grotesque figures of grenadiers.
Ferdinand the Catholic built a castle here, which,
with the remains of the Moorish gate, were pulled
down in the eighteenth century.

THE MODERN TOWN— MOORISH REMAINS 215

The Alcaiceria

2i6 GRANADA

An interesting relic of the rule of the cleanly
Paynim is the Bahuelo or Moorish bath, to be seen
at No. 39 Carrera de Darro. It is not very easy of
access, as the occupants of the house obstinately
refuse to answer the bell or to pay attention to the
stranger clamouring for admittance. When, however,
your patience is rewarded, you enter a typical but
extremely dilapidated Moorish bath chamber with the
customary alcoves and annexes. The arches are of
the horseshoe pattern, and evidently belong to a
remote period — probably to the era of the Zirites.

Traces of the Moorish occupation constantly occur
in one's rambles through Granada and in the archi-
tecture of its buildings, but it is best to take these
as they come, as it is almost impossible to study
them independently and systematically. Nor, frankly,
would they repay the trouble. The Bafiuelo almost
faces the ruined arch of the old Kantara al Kadi, the
bridge across the Darro, from which a path led up to
the Torre de las Armas. This Carrera de Darro is
one of the oldest and most picturesque parts of the
city. The rugged walls of the Alhambra rising
opposite, the river swirling in its rocky, tortuous bed,
the old, old houses, and the curious, ruinous bridges,
make up a scene that appeals very strongly to the
artist. Formerly the Darro flowed right through the
town to join the Genii, in the hght of day. Soon

THE MODERN TOWN— MOORISH REMAINS 217

Ancient Arab Silk Market (Alcaiceria)

2l8

GRANADA

Exterior of an old House

THE MODERN TOWN— MOORISH REMAINS 219

after the reconquest, the Plaza Nueva was built over
it, the roofing-in being completed by the construction
of the Reyes Catolicos street in the early part of
the nineteenth century. The Darro was called Hadaro
by the Arabs. It washes
down minute particles of
gold, and it is a common
sight to see men wading
in its waters and sifting
its sands in wooden bowls
called dormillos. To the
learned Official Chron-
icler of the Province of
Granada (Don Francisco
de P. Valladar) I am in-
debted for the following
curious particulars —

" In 1850 this industry
attained so much import-
ance and excited the cupidity of natives and foreigners
to such a degree that the banks of the Darro were spoken
of as another California. The exploitation was carried
on principally in the Barranco de Dofia Juana, near
Huetor, and in the Barranco Bermejo in the Cerro
del Sol, where the Aurifera Granada works were
established, with a plant invented by Mr. Napoleon
Simyan, one of the most fervent promoters of the

Courtyard of a Moorish House in the
Albaicin

220

GRANADA

new California. The machinery set up in the Barranco
Dona J nana, and invented by a local barrister and
carpenter, yielded no results whatever. Other works
with a plant brought from France, carried on near
Cenes by Professors Montells and Coello, alike proved

'■'■<!^ty' AfYi^] -^^I'S liaJ

4ir

Court of an Arab House in the Albaicin

barren, and the promoters were obliged to admit, as
Hernando de Zafra had found three hundred and fifty
years before, that the results would not defray the
working expenses. Notwithstanding, some twenty-
five or thirty years ago, the attempt was renewed, and
cost M. Goupil, the well-known expert in the fine arts,
several millions of francs. At the present time there

THE MODERN TOWN— MOORISH REMAINS 221

Courtyard of a Moorish House in the Albaicin

222

GRANADA

is a likelihood of the enterprise being resumed." Cosas
de EspaHa ! Seen in summer this auriferous stream
has not enough volume to bear a paper boat, yet the
local records abound in instances of devastation
caused by its sudden floods and shiftings of its channel.

Courtyard of an old House in the Albaicin

CHAPTER IV

THE CHAPEL ROYAL AND CATHEDRAL

Granada, as the scene of the final downfall of the
Moorish rule in Spain, assumed for a time an import-
ance in the eyes of its conquerors which its geo-
graphical position and resources hardly warranted.
The Alhambra hill, as we have seen, was to be crowned
by one of the grandest royal residences in Spain ; and
though that project was never accomplished, the con-
quered city was soon endowed with memorials of its
re-incorporation in the Spanish monarchy worthier
of a much greater town. Rather strangely, the three
edifices to which I more particularly refer, now con-
stitute but one building. The Sagrario, marking the
site of the old mosque, the Capilla Real (Chapel
Royal) — the Memorial Chapel of the Catholic Kings —
and the Cathedral are welded together into one great
mass of stone. Facing the main front of the Cathedral,
the unimposing building immediately flanking it on
the right is the Sagrario. And this should be con-
sidered first and visited last.

Nominally the first act performed by a Spanish

333

224 GRANADA

sovereign on his entry into a conquered Muslim city
was the purification of the principal mosque and its
consecration as a Christian place of worship. This
rule was followed at Granada, but the first Mass was
celebrated in the mosque of the Alhambra, now trans-
formed into the church of Santa Maria, which con-
tinued for many years to be the pro-cathedral of the
new See. There is reason to believe that the mosque
of the Albaicin, the site of which is occupied by the
church of the Salvador, also served for a few years as
the mother church of the city. Finally the principal
mosque (aljama) was erected into a cathedral, and
was described by the Abbe Bertaut of Rouen (quoted
by Valladar), writing in the year 1669, as " square,
or rather longer than wide, without vaults, and with
a roof covered with tiles, which for the most part
were not even joined. The whole was supported
by a number of small stone columns, harmoniously
arranged." Jorquera says the mosque was composed
of five low naves. Whether or not it was originally
a Visigothic church, as some writers pretend, the
temple probably dated from the earliest period of
the Nasrid rule, and the tower which contained the
mihrab was long famous in Christian legend as the
Torre Turpiana. The building, after serving the pur-
poses of the Catholics for over two centuries, was
demolished in the first half of the eighteenth century,

THE CHAPEL ROYAL AND CATHEDRAL 225

226

GRANADA

to make room for the present Sagrario or Parish
Church. As a cathedral it had long been superseded
by the existing edifice, dedicated on August 17, 1561.

Of these three buildings, or parts of the same
building, the Chapel Royal should be visited first.

The Chapel Royal

It occupies half the right side of the Cathedral, lying
behind the Sagrario, and opposite the Ayuntamiento
Viejo. Like the Cathedral it may be entered freely
while mass is being celebrated before nine or ten in
the morning according to the season, and during other
offices of the Church. At other times, it need hardly
be said, the sacristan will be ready enough to show

THE CHAPEL ROYAL AND CATHEDRAL 227

3^ou round in consideration of a fee. It is better to
apply at once to this functionary, as the guides who
proffer their services are obhged to satisfy him, and,
of course, make a profit over the transaction. The
ciceroni who waylay strangers at the entrances to the
public buildings of Granada are of little assistance to

The Chapel Royal

the visitor. They cannot express themselves intelli-
gibly in any language but their own, and they are
in so great a hurry to earn their money that they
leave you no time for a careful examination. There-
fore either dispense with a guide altogether — which
is better — or hire one through the hotel-keeper. If
you visit the Cathedral and the adjacent chapels

228 GRANADA

often, however, it may be worth your while to hire
a local guide on the first occasion, as you will then be
left unmolested and unbothered on subsequent visits.
The Chapel Royal is the most solemn and interest-
ing memorial of the conquest of Granada. The
Alhambra attests how great were the conquered, in
this mausoleum repose the conquerors. Even as
Kellerman, dying a duke and marshal of France,
directed that his heart should be buried on the field
of Valmy, where he had foiled the foes of France, so
of all other spots in their wide empire, Ferdinand and
Isabel chose this to be the place of their interment.
The soldier's love for the place where he has earned
his laurels is often as deep and as tender as a lover's
for his mistress. The chapel, containing as it does
the ashes of Spain's greatest rulers, is one of the
three or four most interesting buildings in the whole
monarchy. The foundation was laid by the Catholic
Sovereigns on September 13, 1504, about two months
before the queen's death. The work was seriously
begun in the year following (1505), under the direction
of Enrique de Egas, and completed the year after
Ferdinand's death in 1517. Later, it was enlarged by
Charles V., who declared it " too small for so much
glory." It is one of the latest Gothic structures in
Spain, and yet one in which the Gothic character
is in some indefinable way most pronounced. The

^^ - i^w.

Altar-piece in the Royal Chapel, B/ F. ' aji '3ar<goKa' ' '^ ' '> '>''>

THE CHAPEL ROYAL AND CATHEDRAL 229

^. -c-^^i^

Entrance to the Chapel Royal

230 GRANADA

exterior is very simple ; the decoration mainly con-
sists of two highly ornate balustrades surmounting
each of the two stages. The lower one displays the
monograms F and Y, interwoven with scroll and
floral work. The windows are ogival. Over one, in-
terrupting the lower balustrade, appears the escutcheon
of Castile and Aragon, flanked by the emblems of the
founders, the yoke and the sheaf of arrows. The
portal, designed by De Pradas, is composed of an
arch flanked by two pillars on which are sculptured
the figures of kings-at-arms. Above is the imperial
eagle and shield, with cherubim to right and left ;
and above this again, beneath an ugly projecting
roof, three niches, one of which enshrines a statue of
the Virgin. In front of this portal stood the fountain
of the mosque.

We enter the chapel. It is bright and airy, more
so than the grey exterior would seem to promise.
The plan is that of a Latin cross, the ceiling simply
vaulted, the decoration mainly confined to a frieze
bearing a long inscription in beautiful gilt letters,
which reads : " This chapel was built at the com-
mand of the most Catholic Don Ferdinand and Doiia
Isabel, King and Queen of the Spains, Naples, Sicily,
Jerusalem ; they conquered this kingdom and im-
planted in it our faith. They acquired the isles of
the Canaries and the Indies, and the towns of Oran,

THE CHAPEL ROYAL AND CATHEDRAL 231

Screen in the Chapei Royal

232 GRANADA

Tripoli, and Bugia, they destroyed heresy, expelled
the Moors and Jews from these kingdoms, and re-
formed the religious orders. The Queen died on
Tuesday, 26th of November, in the year 1504. The
King died on Wednesday, 23rd of January, 15 16.
This work was completed in the year 15 17." The
short nave is separated from the transept by a magni-
ficent reja, or grille of gilt iron, executed by Maestre
Bartolom6, of Jaen, in 1522. Between this and the
altar, railed in, are the two gorgeous Renaissance
cenotaphs of Ferdinand and Isabel and their suc-
cessors, Philip L and Joanna. The former is the work
of a Florentine, Domenico Fancelli. Tlie faces of
the two sovereigns, who lie side by side, express
infinite repose and dignity. Ferdinand is in full
armour, and wears the insignia of the Order of St.
George ; Isabel, that of Santiago. Both are crowned,
and at their feet crouch lions. At each corner of the
tomb is seated a Doctor of the Church, below whom
is a winged monster. On each side are medaUions
representing respectively the Baptism and Resurrec-
tion of Jesus, St. George, and St. James. Between
these in niches are the figures of the Twelve Apostles.
Over the medallions are escutcheons supported by
angels. All these details are exquisitely done, yet
the monument as a whole is unimpressive, grandiose
rather than grand.

THE CHAPEL ROYAL AND CATHEDRAL 233

The same may be said of the adjacent tomb, where
the same skill is not observable in the design and
execution. The faces of the recumbent figures of

Sepulchres of the CathoUc Sovereigns, and of Dona J nana and Philip I.

Isabel's daughter, Joanna the Mad and her husband,
Philip L, the Handsome, are not portraits. At the
corners of the slab appear the statues of Saints
Michael, George, Andrew, and John the Divine.
Between these are escutcheons upheld by nymphs,
and reliefs of scenes from the New Testament. The

234

GRANADA

lower part of the monument is adorned with medalUons
representing the Nativity, Adoration of the Magi, the

Chapel Royal. Statue of King Ferdinand the Catholic

Agony in the Garden, and the Entombment. The
introduction of satyrs, nymphs, and other Pagan
creations into a generally Christian scheme of decora-
tion, is thoroughly in the spirit of the Renaissance.
The figures of children and much of the heraldic

THE CHAPEL ROYAL AND CATHEDRAL 235

decoration are beautiful. The whole is in the most
florid style of the period, and was designed at Genoa,

Chapel Royal. Statue of Queen Isabella

it is said, by command of Charles V. The sculptor
was Bartolome Ordofiez.

More vigorous and consonant with the Gothic char-
acter of the architecture are the altar and chancel
with their fine kneeling statues of the Catholic Sove-

236 GRANADA

reigns, believed to be faithful portraits. The reliefs
on the reredos on painted wood, are the work of
Philip Vigarni. "They are certainly," says Ford, " of
the highest antiquarian interest. In that which
illustrates the surrender of the Alhambra, Isabel is
represented riding on a white palfrey between Ferdi-
nand and the great Cardinal Mendoza, who sits on
his trapped mule, like Wolsey. He alone wears
gloves ; his pinched aquiline face contrasts with the
chubbiness of the king and queen. He opens his
hand to receive the key, which the dismounted
Boabdil presents, holding it by the wards. Behind
are ladies, knights, and halberdiers, while captives
come out of the gates in pairs. Few things of the
kind in Spain are more interesting. The other basso-
relievo records the ' Conversion of the Infidel ' ; in
it the reluctant flock is represented as undergoing the
ceremony of wholesale baptism, the principal actors
being shorn monks. The mufflers and leg- wrappers
of the women — the Roman fascicB — are precisely those
still worn at Tetuan by their descendants."

The converts, it should be added, are being baptized
by means of a syringe — an undignified method.

Between the cenotaphs and the altar is the narrow
entrance to the royal vault, reached by a flight of
steps. By the aid of the lighted taper the sacristan
thrusts forward, you are able to distinguish five rude

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THE CHAPEL ROYAL AND CATHEDRAL 237

coffins with iron bands. Herein are contained the
remains of Ferdinand — distinguished by the letter F —
of Isabel, of Philip and Joanna, and of the infant
Prince Miguel, the child who was to have united
Castile, Aragon, and Portugal. Philip's coffin is that
which his lovesick wife carried about with her and
had to be parted from by force. We look into this
gloomy tenement of the illustrious dead with awe and
not without reverence. For the Spaniard the vault
is a veritable Holy of Holies. "Here," writes Pi
Margall, " lie together in the dim light fathers and
sons, monarchs of three dynasties united in less than
a century for the greater glory of the fatherland ;
here he the last princes of the Mediaeval Age, and
those who at its close inaugurated the Modern Era.
Here they lie — heroes and fathers of heroes — kings who
never retreated before the face of danger, and queens
whose lives were consumed in the fire of profound
love ; fortunate ones who, returning from the battle,
found rest and refreshment in the arms of their
beloved ; and unhappy souls who drained the cup of
suffering without finding in the dregs even that
lethargy which the excess of grief procures for some.
Who can enter this murky precinct without feeling
his heart swayed by contrary emotions — without
inchning with reverence before the lead which covers
the men who rescued the nations from the anarchy

238

GRANADA

of feudalism ? While a tear may drop on the bier
of that great princess [Isabella], who can restrain his
pity for that unhappy queen [J nana] who, intoxicated
with love, passed the night at the foot of a draw-
bridge, waiting for the
dawn to break that she
might go forth, alone,
to the ends of the
world, in search of her
adored husband, and
would not leave his
coffin till the tomb had
closed upon it ? "

De mortuis nil nisi
bonum — least of all
before their coffins.
Fresh from the pages
of Prescott and Ford,
the pilgrim may be in-
clined to bow before
the ashes of the Catholic Sovereigns as before the shrine
of two canonised saints. Less partial and more critical
historians have dispelled much of the glamour that
obscured the fine characters of those that he here.
Let us bow, if you will, before an abihty, a tenacity
of purpose, a genius for statecraft and organisation
that the ablest sovereigns might have envied ; but

The Chapel Royal. Statue of Isabella
the Catholic

3 « A « 3 >

c c
' < ' c r r <

t * i fc c

THE CHAPEL ROYAL AND CATHEDRAL 239

reserve your sympathy for the Cathohc Sovereigns'
luckless and persecuted daughter. The state does
well to honour Ferdinand and Isabel ; humanity
turns coldly aside from their tombs, and bestows its
compassion on Joanna
the Mad.

Great and weak,
stony-hearted and
tender, we leave these
royal ones of Spain
to pass away to
nothingness in their
last dark palace, and
ascend to the chapel.
There is not much more
to see. Ingress to the
Cathedral is obtained
through a superb portal
in the Late Gothic style.
Above the inscribed

arches is a very beautiful rehef of saints venerating the
Virgin— one of the best works of the kind in Spain.
The pillars on each side are adorned with the figures
of heralds. Escutcheons, rehgious emblems, and
saints and cherubim are gracefully mingled in the
not over-elaborate decoration. Another arch com-
municates with the Sagrario.

Sceptre, Crown, Sword, Mass-book, and Cofier
of the Catholic Sovereigns

240 GRANADA

The sacristan will show you the treasury of the
chapel. In a glass case are preserved Isabel's crown,
her sceptre, and mirror. You may also see Ferdinand's
sword : the hilt has a spherical pommel and drooping
quillons, with branches towards the blade, which is
grooved for two-thirds of its length. Isabella's missal,
beautifully illuminated by Francisco Florez, is used
in the celebration of mass on the anniversary of the
reconquest. You may gaze on the vestments em-
broidered by the queen, and the standard, worked
by her, that floated over the fallen city. Most
interesting, in a sense, of all is the casket in which,
it is averred, were placed the jewels that were pawned
by the queen to procure funds for Columbus's first
voyage of discovery. What was Pandora's box com-
pared to this !

The Chapel Royal was founded before the adjoining
Cathedral, and has always preserved its ecclesiastical
independence. Between its chapter and that of the
Cathedral there has never been much love lost. The
royal chaplains had the right of passage, as it suited
them, across the Cathedral transept to the Puerta del
Perdon, a privilege which the canons deeply resented.
My trusted authority, Don Francisco de P. Valladar,
relates that on one occasion when the Archbishop
Carrillo de Alderete visited the chapel, his attendant
clergy were refused admittance. Thereupon the irate

THE CHAPEL ROYAL AND CATHEDRAL 241

.>,;»

Cathedral. Interior Doorway of the Chapel Royal

242

GRANADA

prelate placed the chaplains under arrest. An inter-
minable lawsuit was the result ; a squabble which
would have delighted Boileau, and which comes as a
sort of anti-climax to the stirring story of which the
Chapel Royal is the culmination.
P The Cathedral of Granada, dedicated to Santa
Maria de la Encarnacion, was built adjoining and

Cathedral of Granada

connecting with the Chapel Royal and Sagrario,
between the years 1523 and 1703. The original plans,
by Enrique de Egas, w^ere according to the Gothic
style, which Charles V. is said to have preferred,
but with his consent the direction of the work
was transferred in 1525 to Diego de Siloe. As a
result we have a church built in the Renaissance
style on a purely Gothic plan. The consecration
took place on August 17, 1561, two years before
Siloe's death. The work was continued at long

THE CHAPEL ROYAL AND CATHEDRAL 243

•a

244 GRANADA

intervals by Maeda, Ambrosio de Vico, and Alonso
Cano.

Fergusson thinks very highly of this cathedral.
" Looking at its plan only, this is certainly one
of the finest churches in Europe." " It contains
arrangements which are not only novelties, but im-
provements upon anything done before ; and such
that if they had been fairly worked out, would have
produced a church better fitted for the dignified per-
formance of Roman Catholic rites than anything
which we have yet seen." It is not to be denied
that this is the finest Renaissance edifice in the king-
dom, but it does not appear to me to deserve the
description once applied to it, " the most magnificent
temple in Europe after the Vatican."

The west front, which looks across the narrow
Plaza de las Pasiegas at the archbishop's palace, is
hardly pleasing in effect. The northern corner is
formed by a massive tower, the lowest stage of which
was built about 1568 by Maeda, the upper portions
by Ambrosio de Vico towards the end of the sixteenth
century. The three storeys are in the Doric, Ionic,
and Corinthian orders respectively. The tower, in-
tended to reach a height of 265 feet, has never risen
above 185. The lower stage of the fa9ade, designed
b}^ Alonso Cano about 1667, is divided by huge
stone columns which support a cornice. On this rest

THE CHAPEL ROYAL AND CATHEDRAL 245

three gigantic arches, the middle one rising above the
others. On the cornice stand statues of four Apostles.
The reliefs above the three doors represent the In-
carnation (by Risucfio), Annunciation, and Assump-

The Cathedral

tion. The subjects of the stained glass in the windows
in the arched recesses are Saint Cecilius (a reputed
local martyr), Saint Pedro Pascual, and other saints.
The south front is covered by the Sagrario and
Chapel Royal, and the east front shut in by adjacent
buildings. In the north front is the beautiful Puerta
del Perdon, the official entrance to the Chapel Royal.

246 GRANADA

This is a beautiful and elaborately sculptured work,
Diego de Siloe's masterpiece. It is in two stages, the
lower being pierced by a rounded archway, over which
is a tablet to the memory of the CathoHc Kings,
upheld by two allegorical figures. On the flanking
buttresses are large escutcheons. The upper stage
has several niches for statues, which are likely to
remain empty for many years to come. The figures
of the Eternal Father, Moses, and David are very
fine. Altogether, this portal may be considered a
triumph of the plateresque or Spanish Renaissance
school.

The interior of the Cathedral is undeniably grand
and awe-inspiring. It does not produce, it is true,
those sentiments of reverence, of sympathy with
bygone ages, of profound calm such as we experience
in the older church of Seville. We have no desire to
linger here, to sit and muse for hours together as we
do in the old Gothic cathedrals. To me this church
appeared as a magnificent palace, to be visited,
admired, criticised. Perhaps these fugitive individual
impressions are hardly worth recording, and the art
of Siloe may call up emotions in some other traveller
to whom the more sombre beauties of Seville and
Toledo would appeal in vain.

The Cathedral consists of five naves, as the
Spaniards say, or of a nave and double aisles, with a

THE CHAPEL ROYAL AND CATHEDRAL 247

West Front of the Cathedral

248 GRANADA

cross-vaulting in the Gothic style, supported by piers,
each of which is formed of four Corinthian pillars.
From the black and white marble pavement to the
vaulting it is 100 feet. The nave is blocked, as is
always the case in Spain, by the choir. Over the
chancel rises a superb dome 220 feet high, resting on
eight Corinthian columns, and opening on to the nave
by a lofty and beautiful arch. " The daring of this
main arch is admirable," says Lafuente, " the way it
is contrived creating a wonderful effect ; looking at it
from the elliptical arches it appears to be extended
and on the point of falhng away through having
sunk below its level." Fergusson remarks that " the
supports of this dome are so numerous and so dis-
tributed that it might as easily have been constructed
170 feet in diameter and of any height. No modern
dome is, in fact, so constructively arranged ; and as
it was not proposed that there should be any
thoroughfare under it, or that it should lead to any-
thing beyond the number of points of supports which
are introduced, and their being somewhat crowded, is
a beauty rather than a defect."

The chancel, or Capilla Mayor, thus magnificently
roofed, is insulated by an ambulatory which is the
prolongation of the two outer aisles. The beautiful
stained glass windows are by a Dutchman, Theodor
de Holanda, who lived about 1550, and by Juan del

THE CHAPEL ROYAL AND CATHEDRAL 249

Main Entrance to the Cathedral

250 GRANADA

Campo, who flourished about the same time. Below
these are seven admirable paintings of scenes from
the life of the Virgin by the great Andalusian painter,
Alonso Cano. The works of Bocanegra and other
pupils of this master are placed lower down. Against
the columns supporting the elliptical arches referred
to, and between which the chancel can be seen at
all points from the ambulatory, are placed colossal
statues of the Apostles in bronze-gilt — the work
mostly of Martin de Aranda (1614). Among Alonso
Cano's best work are the great heads of Adam and
Eve carved above the pulpits at the entrance to the
chancel. The high altar itself, the work' of Jose de
Bada, is in a depraved style with a tabernacle in the
form of a temple. The kneeling figures of the Catholic
Sovereigns are by Mena and Madroso, seventeenth-
century sculptors.

In the centre of the nave, separated from the
Capilla Mayor by the transept, is the choir, in the
debased Churrigueresque style, of which every one
speaks ill. The only things of value it contains are
a crucifix by Pablo de Rojas and two fine organs
by Ddvila. The trascoro, or back of the choir,
is richly decorated with reddish marbles, and with
statues of prelates. The choir marks the site
of the tower of the old mosque, destroyed in
1588. Within it are buried the heroine Mariana

THE CHAPEL ROYAL AND CATHEDRAL 251

^iSm-fr^f^S^vv.^

IniK

<m\m^^

Cathedral. The Trascoro

252 GRANADA

Pineda, and Alonso Cano, who was a prebendary of
this cathedral.

One of this master's most characteristic paintings —
the Virgen de la Soledad — is to be seen over the altar
of San Miguel, in the first chapel to the right on
entering the church. Stolen in 1873, it was recovered
shortly after in the city. It is said to be the copy
of a famous statue by Becerra. The chapel was built
in 1807, and adorned with red marbles and serpentine,
by a high-minded, munificent prelate. Archbishop
Moscoso. His tomb is by the sculptor Folch. In the
chapel are placed — why, no one knows — two elegant
Chinese vases.

Passing the entrance to the Sagrario, we notice a
small picture before which the big-hearted saint, Juan
de Dios, was accustomed to pray. In the Chapel of
the Trinity are good paintings by Cano, including a
Trinity and two miniatures on copper, a Death of
St. Joseph by Maratta, and copies of works by
Raphael and Ribera. It is difficult to get a good
view of the paintings in this cathedral, as the light
at most times of the day in the chapels is bad. The
extravagant eighteenth-century chapel of Jesus Naza-
reno is rich in works of art. Here we find three
genuine Riberas — the Child Jesus, St. Lawrence, and
the Magdalene — a St. Francis by El Greco, and a Way
of the Cross by Cano. We pass the grand Gothic

THE CHAPEL ROYAL AND CATHEDRAL 253

entrance to the Chapel Royal, with its heraldic
achievements, by Enrique de Egas, and pause before
the Chapel of Santiago. The patron saint of Spain
is dressed as a typical Spanish warrior, and is
slaughtering Moors without mercy. The statue was

The Cathedral. Puerta del Perdon

presented to the chapter by the city in 1640. It was
executed by Mena. The picture of the Virgen del
Perdon was given by Innocent Ylll. to Isabel the
Cathohc, and carried about by her. It hung over the
altar of the converted mosque when the first mass
was celebrated in Granada. It is publicly venerated
on the anniversary of the reconquest.

In the ambulatory, beyond the entrance to the

254 GRANADA

sacristy, is the Puerta del Colegio. Behind the
sculptured Ecce Homo, it is averred that Maeda
carved a Lucifer of extraordinary beauty. The story
goes that having asked Siloe to let him give some
proof of his skill, he was told by the testy architect
that he might sculpture the Devil himself if he wanted
to. Maeda was wag enough to take him at his word.

The best view of the Cathedral is obtainable just
before reaching this point, or from the corresponding
point in the north aisle. The Chapel of Saint Anne
in the ambulatory was intended as a mausoleum for
the archbishops. It contains a good sixteenth-century
altar-piece, and a painting of the Aquitanian saint,
Jean de Matha, one of the founders of the Trinitarian
Order, by Bocanegra. The other chapels in the
ambulatory possess little interest, except for the view
they afford of the chancel and its dome. The last
chapel before emerging into the aisle is dedicated to
La Virgen de la Antigua, after a Gothic image, said
to have been found between Segovia and Avila, and
looked upon with much veneration by Ferdinand the
Cathohc. The portraits of the Cathohc Sovereigns at
prayer are by Juan de Sevilla. They are in the
Venetian style. The reredos by Pedro Duque Cornejo
(1718) is tasteless.

We cross the transept, and in the chapel of Nuestra
Seiiora del Carmen in the north aisle, find two

THE CHAPEL ROYAL AND CATHEDRAL 255

256

GRANADA

heads : a St. John, and a St. Paul by Cano, reflecting
the fondness of his contemporaries for the morbid.
The last chapel in the north aisle, containing the
font, was erected by Adan and Azevedo at the

Gothic Doorway In the Sagrario

expense of Archbishop Galvdn who is bmied here
near another occupant of the archiepiscopal throne,
Don Bienvenido Monzon (died 1885). The fine reliefs
of Saints Jerome and Isidore are by Mora. The
pictures over the three entrance doors represent
mystical allegories. In the north tower is the studio
or ohrador of Alonso Cano. It contains also the

The Cathedral. General view of the Chancel
AND High Altar

THE CHAPEL ROYAL AND CATHEDRAL 257

Chapter Room (Sala Capitular), approached through
a noble porch, with figures of Justice and Prudence,
which, with the group of the Trinity, may be safely
attributed to Maeda.

The eighteenth-century sacristy does not possess
the interest of the treasury of the Chapel Royal. In

Plaza del Triunfo

it, however, may be seen the Annunciation by Cano
and two small statues by him ; a crucifix by Mon-
tari^z ; a Holy Family by Juan de Sevilla ; and a
Mary Immaculate by Bocanegra. The Custodia, five
feet high, used in the Corpus Christi processions, was
presented by Isabel the Catholic. The signet ring of
Pope Sixtus III. is also preserved here.

By the door next to the Chapel of St. Michael,
from the Plaza de las Pasiegas, or from the Chapel

258 GRANADA

Royal, we may enter the Sagrario or Parish Church,
a meretricious, Churrigueresque structure which was
designed in 1705 by Francisco Hurtado and Jose de
Bada. It is 100 feet square, and corresponds in site
exactly to the old mosque. In a dark chapel in the
north-east corner lies " the magnificent cavalier,
Fernando del Pulgar, Lord of El Salar," as the in-
scription records. This valiant knight and true,
during the last campaign against Granada, rode into
the city with fifteen horsemen, and set a lighted taper
on the floor of the mosque, and, as others say, nailed
a paper bearing the Ave Maria on the door. This
exploit earned for him and his descendants the ex-
tremely valuable privilege of wearing their hats in
the Cathedral. Del Pulgar's bones have fared better
than those of the good Archbishop de Talavera, which
were scattered when the old mosque was demolished.
The Sagrario possesses several good paintings, in-
cluding a San Jose by Cano, of whose works the
Cathedral buildings, as may have been noticed, con-
tain a fine selection. By the door next to the Capilla
del Pulgar, and a darkish passage, the Chapel Royal
may be entered.

At the back of the Sagrario, and at right angles to
the Chapel Royal, is a graceful little building in the
plateresque style. This is the Lonja or Exchange,
built by Juan Garcia de Pradas about 1520. I do

THE CHAPEL ROYAL AND CATHEDRAL 259

not know to what use it is now put, but like the more
famous Lonja of Seville, it has long been deserted by
the brokers and merchants for whom it was designed.
Our own Royal Exchange attests the reluctance of
these gentry to swarm in the particular hive allotted
to them by a paternal government.

Opposite the Cathedral is the uninteresting Arclii-
episcopal Palace. Readers of Gil Bias will be rather
amused on recalling Le Sage's description of this as
a residence good enough for any king. Le Sage, of
course, knew as much about Granada as Shakespeare
did of Venice.

CHAPTER V

SAN GERONIMO — SAN JUAN DE BIOS — THE CARTUJA

From the Puerta Real the Calle de Mesones and its
continuation, the Calle de la Duquesa, lead westwards
to the church of San Geronimo, the oldest purely
; Christian foundation in Granada. The monastery of
the Hermits of St. Jerome, to whom the church
belonged, was founded at Santa Fe by Ferdinand and
Isabel in 1492, and was transferred here immediately
after the reconquest. The monastery was famed for
its school of music, and produced many eminent
musicians. The monks have long since been dis-
\ persed, and their old home is now a cavalry barracks.
The church, built by Diego de Siloe, is dedicated to
the memory of Spain's greatest soldier, the Great
Captain, Gonzalo de Cordova, who died at Granada
on December 2, 1515, less than two months before
his ungrateful master Ferdinand. The urchins, ever
on the look-out for strangers, will show you the door
in the garden wall, at which presently, in response to
your ring, a caretaker will appear. You are shown
into the church. It is in the usual form of a Latin

260

SAN GERONIMO— SAN JUAN DE DIOS 261

cross, plain, stern, dignified. Mass is no longer cele-
brated here, or on very rare occasions. The walls are
adorned with frescoes representing scenes from the
Passion, portraits of Fathers of the Church, and angels

s^^sagflB^!^

Hospital of San Juaii dc Dios

playing on the harp and singing. On one is inscribed
the painter's name, Juan de Medina, and the date
1723. The choir is placed in a gallery at the end of
the church, and contains some stalls carved by Siloe.
The high altar is one of that master's finest works.
Valladar says that he realised in its construction " his

262 GRANADA

lofty ideal of effecting a truly Spanish Renaissance ;
an ideal which bore little fruit, since some of his
followers confined themselves to the strictest classi-
cism, others to the development of the plateresque.
The elements employed by Siloe are pilasters, arcades,
and columns in the Classic styles ; ogival vaults and
Grecian and Roman ornaments with a certain sugges-
tion of the Oriental." The domed roof is decorated
with statues of Caesar, Pompey, Hannibal, Marcellus,
Marcus Tullius, Homer, Marius, and Scipio, in allusion
to the military qualities of the Great Captain ; and
of Abigail, Judith, Deborah, Esther, Penelope, Alcestis,
and other heroic women of antiquity, whose virtues
were inherited by his lady. This admiration for the
worthies of the ancient world and their introduction
into a Christian temple is difficult to understand on
the part of those who exhibited the most fanatical
hatred against all contemporary non-Catholics.
Behind the altar — the work of Juan de Aragon and
Lazaro de Velasco — rises the magnificent reredos,
divided into numerous compartments or niches filled
with statues and reliefs. These are arranged in four
stages in the Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite
orders respectively. The lowest central compartment
is occupied by the tabernacle, the subject of the three
compartments above it being the Immaculate Con-
ception, St. Jerome, and the Crucifixion. Over all

SAN GERONIMO— SAN JUAN DE DIOS 263

Portal of the Church of San Juan de Dios

264 GRANADA

presides the striking figure of the Eternal Father.
This magnificent work, the best of the kind in Spain,
was executed by several artists, among them Juan de
Aragon, Pedro de Orea, and Juan de Raxis. Figures
of the Apostles, of the Saints Barbara, Katharine,
Magdalene, and Lucia, George, Eustace, Sebastian,
Martin, and Francis, adorn the beautiful shell-like
vault. On either side of the high altar are seen
kneehng figures of the Great Captain and his wife.
Their tomb was formerly here, but their ashes have
now been transported to Madrid. The sepulchre was
once surrounded by seven hundred flags taken from
the enemy. At the ends of the transepts are statues
of the Great Captain's four loyal companions and
brothers-in-arms. In one of the side chapels is a
notable Entombment, believed to be by Becerra. The
frescoes in the choir, representing the Triumph of the
Church, of the Virgin, and of the Eucharist, &c., are
worthy of note. Yet the whole fabric has a neglected
and decayed air. It has never recovered from the
damage done by the French in 1810, when De Cor-
dova's sword and armour were carried off, his tomb
profaned, and all the brass-work, rejas, &c., stolen.

Spain has not produced many commanders of the
first rank, and the memory of Gonzalo de Cordova
is naturally kept green. He won his spurs at the
Conquest of Granada, and then, as we have seen, was

SAN GERONIMO— SAN JUAN DE DIOS 265

The Cartuja. Sanctum Sanctorum

266

GRANADA

successfully employed against the revolted Moors. In
company with the Venetians, he drove the Turks from

Kephalonia, and in a
series of brilliant cam-
paigns reduced the king-
dom of the Two Sicihes
to an appanage of the
crown of Aragon. He
overcame opponents not
less formidable than
Bayard, the knight sans
pcur ct sans reprochc. He
laid the foundations of
his country's military
strength, which endured
for a hundred and fifty
3^ears. De Cordova was,
for his age, a humane
and honourable man, and
ill deserved the neglect
and jealousy to which his
sovereign subjected him
in later years. Above
the main entrance to the church is displayed the
hero's coat-of-arms with the inscription : Gonsalo
Ferdinando a Cordoba niagno Hispanorum duel, Gal-
loruin ac Turcarum Terrori.

The Cartuja. San Bruno by Alonso Cano

Altar ok the Church of San Ger(5nimo

t y 4 ^ f. 1 «

SAN GERONIMO— SAN JUAN DE DIOS 267

On leaving this church and turning to the left, we
reach in a few strides a monument to a hero of a
very different sort. Juan de Robles was a Portuguese,
who, during his stay in Granada from 1536 to 1550,
devoted himself to the sick
and suffering with a zeal
which men mistook for in-
sanity. Yet he succeeded in
obtaining the Pope's sanction
for the Order of Hospitallers
which he founded. His merits
were recognised after his
death (compare the treat-
ment of Columbus, Cortes,
and Gonzalo de Cordova),
and he was canonised under
the style of St. John of God
in 1669. We pass the large
hospital founded two years after his death, that is,
in 1552. We may enter the church, built in the
mid-eighteenth century, in an abominable style.
Few interiors are more gorgeous or in worse taste.
Here, as in other churches in Spain, prudery has
been carried so far as to drape the figure of Christ
Crucified in petticoats. The saint's remains are con-
tained in an ugly and costly silver casket. The cage
in which he was confined when " mad " is also shown.

St, Mary Magdalene. Sculpture by
Alonso Cano in the Cartuja

268 GRANADA

His portrait is merely a copy of another at Madrid.
Some paintings by Bocanegra that might have re-
deemed the ugHness of the church are hidden in the
sacristy.

The street in which this church is situated leads
us to the Plaza del Triunfo, which extends from the
Bull Ring to the Puerta Elvira. It is an uninviting
space with sinister memories. The old Moorish
cemetery was here ; and behind the Bull Ring is a
white cross, marking the spot where the remains of
royal personages on their way to the Chapel Royal
I were identified by the authorities. A not very well
authenticated tradition affirms that here took place
the " conversion " of the Duke of Gandia. On open-
ing the coffin containing the corpse of the Empress
Isabel, the duke was so impressed by the unpleasant
evidences of mortality that he vowed he would never
more serve an earthly master and would devote him-
self to religion. We may be permitted, perhaps, to
suggest that the duke's mind must have been
singularly ill-balanced that so deep an impression
should have been made upon him by so ordinary and
well-known a process of nature. Later on we hear of
him praying that his wife might die if it were for his
own soul's good. In course of time, the holy duke
underwent the same process which had so disgusted
him in the case of his sovereign, and was duly

SAN GERONIMO— SAN JUAN DE DIOS 269

J^'S

canonised as St. Francis Borgia. He was, of course,
a member of the illustrious family which produced
Alexander III. and his children, Lucrezia and Caesar.

A simple column surmounted by an iron cross
marks the spot where Doha
Mariana Pineda (as the in-
scription records) was executed
by the garrotte on May 26,
1831, at the age of thirty-
one. Those were the days
when Spaniards were shouting
"Long hve our chains!" and
frenziedly demanding an ab-
solute monarchy and the sup-
pression of their own liberties.
There are people of that sort
in every country, not least of
all our own, but in Spain they
happened just then to be in the majority. Mariana's
house was known to be a place of meeting for the
Liberals. The police burst in and discovered a tri-
colour flag. For this "crime" she was put to death,
meeting her fate with a courage worthy of her cause.
Five years later, when the nation had recovered its
sanity, her body was carried in state to the Cathedral.
The magistrate who had condemned her was in his
turn executed. Here, too, seventy Spanish patriots

St. Joseph and the Child. Sculp-
ture by .■ilonso Cano in the
Cartuja

270

GRANADA

were remorselessly shot by the French. The Bull Ring
is most appropriately placed near this aceldama.
A monument of a more agreeable character is the
column, surmounted by a statue by Alonso de Mena,

..;c^

The Market and Gipsy Fair, and the Triunfo

raised to commemorate the Immaculate Conception
of Mary.

The building adjacent to the Corrida de Toros
is the Royal Hospital, founded by Isabel the Catholic
in 1504, and built about 1512. It is now used mainly
as a lunatic asylum. Insanity is uncommon here,
as in most easy-going countries. The building
seemed to me to present few features of interest,
but some fine artesonado ceilings by De Pradas,

SAN GERONLMO— SAN JUAN DE DIOS 271

the builder of the gate of the Chapel Royal, and the
cage in which St. John of God was confined, are to
be seen, I understand, in the interior. The church
of San Ildefonso, to the right
of the infantry barracks,
contains the font whereat
Alonso Cano was baptized,
and a record of the event in
its parish register. Otherwise
it is of little interest. Out-
side it, I witnessed the dis-
tribution of a sort of bouillon
to a group of poor folk, but
all were so intent on receiv-
ing their dole that I could get
no satisfactory reply to my
questions as to whether this

was a long-established charity or a form of common-
place outdoor relief.

The road to the right of the Hospital leads to the
turning by which you reach the Cartuja (Charter-
house). It is no great distance, but the way is so
dusty and in summer so glaring that I advise all to
undertake the journey by carriage. The monastery,
built in 15 16, on a site given by the Great Captain,
was pulled down and suppressed in 1842. Some part
of the fabric, however, remains, together with the

Head of John the Baptist

272

GRANADA

church, which is approached by a terrace and steps.
The paving of this terrace is designed with the shapes
of animals. Over the portal is a statue of St. Bruno,
the founder of the Order. On entering you are first

shown the .cloister, which
is adorned with paintings
l)y Cotdn, depicting the
butchery of Carthusian
monks in London by Henry
VIII. 's officers. I had al-
ways understood the tyrant
disposed of these unfortu-
nate monks by starving
them to death, but it is
possible that a few were re-
served to make a Cockney's
holiday.

A priest conducts you into
the church (and, I may add, allows you little time for
its examination). It is not easy to express an opinion
as to the interior, for though undoubtedly in bad
taste, its splendour is dazzling and the skill displayed
in its decoration marvellous. It is rich and fantastic
— undeniably fantastic — rather than ugly. I certainly
cannot agree with those who describe the church as
full of rubbish. The doors of the choir are exquisitely
inlaid with ebony, cedar wood, mother-o'-pearl, and

Head of John the Baptist

^ir

Interior of the Cartuja CnvRpiif,'' '• ; •'

SAN GERONIMO-SAN JUAN DE DIOS 273

tortoise-shell, the work of a friar, Manuel Vazquez,
who died in 1765. The statue of St. Bruno is by Cano,
and that of the Conception by his pupil Mora. Several
pictures by Bocanegra, Giaquinto. and the lay-brother
Cotan adorn the walls. :\Iag-
nificence is carried to its
most extravagant point in
the sanctuary behind the
high altar, where various
coloured marbles are com-
bined with startling effect.
Some of the slabs are richly
veined with agates, and the
hand of Nature has traced
some semblances of human
and animal forms. In the
adjoining sacristy, far ex-
ceeding the elaborately sculptured columns in beauty
and interest, are the wonderfully inlaid doors and
presses. These are certainly the finest works of
their kind in the world. It is strange that so
much genius for detail and so much costly material
should withal have wrought so meretricious an edifice.
The Cartuja, like the San Geronimo, was rifled of
its greatest treasures by the French under Sebastiani,
who exhibited the discrimination of dilettantes on
their plundering expeditions.

Head of John the Baptist

274 GRANADA

On your way back to the Puerta Real (supposing
that to have been your starting-point), you may
glance at the University, a single College situated
in a pretty Botanic Garden. It was founded in 1531,
but the actual building dates only from the eighteenth
century. The classes are poorly attended. Granada
is not a literary town. I only discovered two book-
sellers' shops in it, both in the Calle de Mesones.
Scrappy newspapers and translations of French novels
appear to provide the chief mental pabulum for the
better class. While in this part of the town, enquire
for the house wherein Her Majesty the Empress
Eugenie was born. It is opposite the church of Santa
Maria Magdalena, and bears a memorial tablet. In
the same street (Calle Moret) dwelt Gongora, a Spanish
poet not unknown outside his own country.

5 > > ) > I

> > J >

Cartuja. The Virgin of the Rosary. By Murillo

CHAPTER VI

OLD HOUSES AND HISTORIC SITES

Granada, it must be confessed, is by no means as

rich in ancient churches and houses as Seville. But

the municipality evinces a praiseworthy zeal to keep

alive the memory of illustrious townsmen. Behind

the Post Office may be seen the Great Captain's house,

now forming part of a convent of Discalced Carmelites.

A tablet announces that " In this house lived, and

on December 2nd, 1515, died, the Great Captain,

Don Gonzalo Hernandez de Aguilar y de Cordoba,

Duke of Sessa, Terranova, and Santangelo, the

Christian hero, conqueror of the Moors, French, and

Turks." In the Reyes Catolicos street another tablet

marks the site of the house of one of Spain's few great

naval commanders, Don Alvaro de Bazdn, who was

born at Granada in 1526 and died at Lisbon in 1588.

Had he lived a few months longer, Drake and Howard

might have had a very much harder task in dispersing

the Invincible Armada. Mariana Pineda, the most

interesting of local celebrities, lived at number 19 Calle

de Aguila. You may see her statue on a column by

37s

276

GRANADA

Man'n and ^Morales in the centre of the square, once
called the Campillo, and now named after her. This
square has always been a favourite rendezvous for
conspirators and agitators.

Not far off, and adjacent to the theatre, is a fine

villa surrounded by gardens called
the Cuarto Real de Santo Domingo.
I was unsuccessful in my en-
deavours to obtain admission.
Incorporated with the villa is a
Moorish tower, containing a hall
which bears traces of decorative
work earlier than 'an}^ in the
Alhambra. It is believed to date
from the time of the Almohades,
and later on to have been a
palace of Boabdil's. The modern
name is partly derived from
the church of Santo Domingo, standing behind
it. Although this church was founded in 1512, its
style is that of the late seventeenth century. Some
frescoes over the door are almost defaced. To the
left is an exceedingly picturesque Httle archway —
just the spot for a bravo to linger, stiletto in hand.

This quarter of the town is called Antequeruela,
or little Antequera, because it was peopled by the
inhabitants of that town when it fell into the hands

A Woman of Granada

OLD HOUSES AND HISTORIC SITES 277

of the Christians. The Jewish quarter was also
hereabouts. The church of San CeciHo is raised
on the site of the mosque. It is in the Mudcjar style.
Close to it tradition avers that there existed a Christian
oratory during the whole period of Mussulman rule.

The Casa de los Tiros is
the property of the Marquis
of Campotejar, and here you
must apply for permits to
view the Generalife. Built in
the early sixteenth century,
it occupies the site and in-
corporates the remains of a
Moorish fortified dwelling.
It was possibly an advance
work of the Vermilion Towers,
or a point d'appui in the

fortifications that extended to the Bab Atauwui. The
interior, at all events, bears evident marks of its
Arabic origin. The staircase was probably built by
floors, and there are rich azulejos and a splendid
artesonado ceihng. The busts of eminent Spaniards
adorn the chamber, together with the graven heads
of Moors and Christians, and reliefs of Lucretia,
Judith, Semiramis, and Penthesilea.

The Arabic sword, with a richly decorated hilt
and scabbard, shown in this house, is said to ha\e

Market Gardeners

278

GRANADA

The Casa de los Tiros

OLD HOUSES AND HISTORIC SITES 279

belonged to Boabdil. The sheath, in any case, is
unquestionably of post-Moorish workmanship. It is
well to be very much on one's guard as to the numerous
relics ascribed to the last Moorish king.

In the neighbourhood of the Casa de los Tiros is an-
other large building called
the Casa de los Girones
(number i Calle Ancha
de Santo Domingo), with
traces of ^loorish work.
This quarter of the town
is, however, colourless and
uninteresting to all but the
most assiduous students
of architecture. There is
more life and colour in the
Plaza Nueva, to which we may now proceed,
large building on the north side, now the Audiencia
or High Court, was begun about 1530, and was for
centuries the chancery of the ancient kingdom of
Granada, which included beside the modern province
of the name, the provinces of Almeria, Malaga, and
Jaen. The facade is dignified and in good taste.
The fine staircase came to be built in the following
manner. One day the Marquis del Salar presented
himself covered before the tribunal. On the presi-
dent commanding him to remove his hat, he replied

».****il'

A Charcoal Dealer

The

28o

GRANADA

that as a descendant of the vahant Pulgar, he had
the right to stand covered even before the king.
The judge refused to hear him, and condemned him
to pay a heavy fine, which was doubled every time
the act of disrespect was repeated. Phihp II. was

, - ■ N

appealed to, and pronounced against the marquis.
"It is one thing to stand covered before me," he said,
" but quite another to remain covered in the presence
of Justice." With the fine thus imposed, the staircase
was built. This incident recalls well-known episodes
in the careers of Henry V. and Frederick the Great.
Just where the Darro reappears, on its left bank,

Mv/

"'^

_»*».■. t|^».^.l«^

\illas on the RanUs of the River Darro.

OLD HOUSES AND HISTORIC SITES 281

is the church of Santos Gil y Ana, built on the site
of a mosque. The beautiful Renaissance portal was
built, it is alleged, by Siloe. The images are those
of St. Anne, St. Mary " of Salome," and St. Mary
" of James." The fine statue of Our Lady of Dolours
is by ]\Iora. The tower, built in 1561, is a clever

i^i^^j^m^-

"X^I^^MTi

■•2?l^

The Plaza Nueva

reproduction of a minaret. The ceiling of the church
is a good example of the IMudejar style.

Passing up the Carrera del Darro — the most
picturesque street in Granada — close to the church
of Saints Peter and Paul, and fronting the river,
we see a very handsome mansion built in 1539 for
Hernando de Zafra, the statesmanlike secretary of

282 GRANADA

Ferdinand and Isabella. The portal is in three
stages : the first contains the entrance, a square
doorway, bordered with shells and trophies, between
Doric columns ; the second bears the escutcheons
of the family (one showing the Tower of Comares),
above them being sculptured griffins and hons ; the
third, a balcony between pilasters, carved in delicate
relief. In a line with this is another balcony at the
corner of the house, bearing the curious inscription,
Esperandola del Ciclo—'' Waiting for it from Heaven."
These words are explained by a tragic legend. De
Zafra is said to have suspected his daughter of a
clandestine attachment. To satisfy his' doubts, he
burst into her room one day, and found her page
assisting her lover to escape by the window. Baulked
of his prey, the father turned, with death in his face,
upon the boy. " Mercy ! " shrieked the page. " Look
for it in Heaven ! " answered the Don, and he hurled
his daughter's accomplice from the balcony into
the street below. So runs the legend. De Zafra
does not appear, according to the records, to have
left any children ; but his daughter may not have
survived the terrible consequences of her amour.
" After all," remarks Valladar, " nothing was easier
in the sixteenth century than to throw a page out of
the window without attracting the attention of the
police or magistrates."

OLD HOUSES AND HISTORIC SITES 283

Church oi Santa Ana

284 GRANADA

It was De Zafra, by the way, who went backward
and forward in secret, and at the risk of his hfe,
between the CastiHan camp and the Alhambra, when
the capitulation was being negotiated. Hence his
right to bear on his shield the Tower of Comares,
wherein the articles were probably signed.

The Casa del Chapiz in a side street at the end
of the Carrera, was built for two wealthy Moors,
El Perri and his brother-in-law, El Chapiz, some time
after the reconquest. It was confiscated after the
Moorish revolt in 1581. The Mudejar ceilings are
worthy of note, but the house has evidently under-
gone repeated restoration — of which it stands badly
in need at present. The same may be said of the
church of San Juan de los Reyes, near at hand.
Erected in the Gothic style by Rodrigo Hernandez
about 1520, with it was incorporated the minaret
of the mosque of Ataybin ; but it has now entirely
lost its peculiar Moorish features, which were more
pronouncedly Eastern than any other Grenadine
monument.

On the other side of the Darro a road leads round
the slope of the Generalife to the fountain of
Avellano, a beautiful spot which Chateaubriand pre-
ferred to the more historic spring of Vaucluse. The
sites are indeed comparable ; but here there never
was a Petrarch to weep over his Laura. On the

OLD HOUSES AND HISTORIC SITES 285

-^u- \, - , ■: .':,'•>•: •="'i*g£S»,^iS^!;^'v^S3£^^-^' "

\^.^^y

^mBv^^^M.

The House of Hernando de Zafra

286

GRANADA

north side of the stream a road leads to the Sacro
Monte. This is worth visiting for the fine view.
Otherwise it is interesting only as a memorial of
human creduhty. In 1594, one Hernandez, reported
to the Archbishop, Don Pedro Vaca de Castro, that

•V:' k .-

The River Darro

he had discovered within a cave in this hill, certain
books written in Arabic characters on sheets of lead,
which declared this to be the place of sepulture of
the martyrs Mesito, Hiscius, Tesiphus, and Cecihus.
These works were for upwards of a century the sub-
ject of embittered controversy. Meanwhile a church
was raised over the spot, and became a place of
pilgrimage. Whether the martyrs referred to ever

^ vyj'v^ '

^nc

OLD HOUSES AND HISTORIC SITES 287

existed is open to question. The church has no
architectural merit, but the caves are interesting and
may have served as catacombs to some early Christian
community. The rock worn away by the kisses of

Court of the House of Chapiz

devotees, usual at such shrines, is shown. There is
a superstition that the person who kisses the stone
the first time will be married within the year, if single,
and will be released from the conjugal tie if already
married. As divorce does not exist in Spain, it is
to be hoped that the stone is seldom had recourse
to by discontented Benedicts.

Modem Granada is to be studied in the opposite

288 GRANADA

quarter of the town, on the Puerta Real, and the
beautiful promenades by the Genii, the Paseos del
Salon and de la Bomba. The space near the Hotel
Alameda, now covered with cafe tables, seems to be
the spot referred to by Cervantes as the Rondilla,
the resort of the light-fingered fraternity. On the
right of the Alameda, going towards the river, the
gaudy seventeenth-century church of Nuestra Sehora
de las Angustias (" Our Lady of Pain ") may be
glanced at. It is the shrine of an image much vene-
rated by the people of Granada, and after which
they are fond of naming their children. To English
ears " Angustia " — Agony — hke Dolores, seems an
uncomfortable label to bear through life, though
no doubt appropriate to a vale of tears. The ill-
paved, tree-hned street leads us out to the promenade
by the Genii, where Benlliure's bronze statue con-
fronts us, representing Columbus receiving the assent
of Isabel the Catholic to his mighty project. The
monument has been severely criticised. The pose
of the two figures is somewhat too natural and
commonplace for a work of this kind. We could
wish the sculptor had idealised his subject.

Crossing the Genii, a short walk, which in summer
will remind you of the Sahara Desert, will bring
you to the little Ermita de San Sebastian, formerly
a Moorish oratory. Here on the memorable 2nd of

OLD HOUSES AND HISTORIC SITES 289

290 GRANADA

January 1492, as I have already related, Boabdil
surrendered the keys of Granada to Ferdinand. The
road winding to the left brings you to the Duke of
Gor's country seat of Alcazar Genii, built by Yusuf I.
as a palace for the Moorish queens. So at least
says one authority, but, as will perhaps have been
noted, if we accept all statements of this kind, two-
thirds of the city's area must have been occupied by
royal residences, and there could have been scant
room for the half-million inhabitants the same writers
tell us of. Simonet, on the other hand, says that
this palace was built in the time of the Almohades,
and that here were lodged the Christian knights and
princes who so often sought refuge at the Court of
Granada. The building contains much Moorish deco-
rative work, skilfully restored by Contreras.

In the gardens of the archbishop's palace at
Zubia, four miles from the city, is a laurel bush,
behind which Isabel the Catholic concealed herself
when her party was surprised by the Moors. The
Spaniards gained the day, and in gratitude for her
escape the queen founded a monastery on the spot,
long since demolished. We may return to the city
by the Puerta Verde, near which stood the Bab-en-
Neshdi or Puerta de los Molinos, through which the
Christians entered Granada in 1492.

When we walk through the streets of the town,

OLD HOUSES AND HISTORIC SITES 291

and enter its tawdry churches and dilapidated pubHc
buildings, it does not strike us that it has gained

Court of an old House in the Calle del Horno de Oro

very much by its change of masters. The expulsion
of the Moors and the French invasions of 1810 and

292

GRANADA

1820 were the culminating disasters in its story. The

silk industry disappeared, and stagnation set in.

P^'et Granada is the residence of many very wealthy

families, and the prevailing depression is dvie rather

^TT

Statue of Queen Isabella and Columbus

to want of enterprise than want of funds. It must
be admitted that the people seem happy enough,
and more of the joy of living is apparent in its streets
than in much more prosperous towns of the same
size in England. We who sneer at Granada in her
decay would not perhaps relish a Spaniard's com-
parison of her with thriving Huddersfield ! In
summer evenings, as at Seville, one great fair seems

OLD HOUSES AND HISTORIC SITES 293

in progress in the principal streets. Everybody is
out of doors, and in a mood to appreciate the
simplest forms of amusement. Granada is a light-
hearted cit}'. Her citizens are renowned for their
elegance of costume, and her men are unquestionably
as well-groomed as any to be seen in the capitals of

By the Wayside. Gipsy Basket-makers

Europe. This statement may jar on those who
think of Granada as a palace of enchantment and
a home of romance. In truth, it is far less romantic
and infinitely less individual than Seville. A pleasant
city withal. And one which, it is only fair to say,
shows signs of partaking in the slow but certain
revival of industry in Spain. Great hopes are enter-
tained of the newly-introduced manufacture of beet-
root sugar ; and if a Vega studded with factory

204 GRANADA

chimneys will not rival the Vega of the Moors in
beauty, it may far outdistance it before long in
prosperity and population. The future is full of
promise for "the most loyal, most noble, great,
famous, and heroic city of Granada ! "

ALONSO CANO

Albert F. Calvert and C. Gasquoine Hartley

Granada was not a centre of art in Spain, as Seville

was, or even as Valencia and Cordova were, but the

southern city had one painter. And amongst the many

interesting figures in the country's art, as yet unrescued

from neglect and oblivion, few stand out with a more

fascinating personality than Alonso Cano. He belongs,

writes Richard Muther, " to that group which may

be called the aristocrats of art history." Descended

from parents of gentle blood, and trained from his

boyhood in art, it would certainly seem that he

followed his personal inclinations to a fuller extent

than the great mass of his contemporaries. A strange

chord was sounded which was not heard again in

Spanish work of the seventeenth century.

It is not easy to explain Cano's appearance in a

race monotonously grave, always austere in its outlook

upon nature. But the art lover will find constant

food for astonishment and study in Spain, a country

never specially endowed in her art, whose successes in

295

296 GRANADA

painting have been isolated achievements due to the
genius of great personahties. Cano passes across the
Spanish seventeenth century, with its seriousness, its
almost defiant realism, charming and unexpected.
Tempestuous of temper, he was a cavalier whose
sword was ready always to spring from the scabbard,
as well as a canon of the Church, a painter, sculptor,
and architect.

All Spanish art is dramatically serious in its ten-
dencies. Cano painted religious pictures, as, indeed,
did all the masters of southern Spain, where art was
used for the service of God and not for the dehght of
man. But what a new step in the history of Spain's
painting we find. Think of the dramatic religious
scenes of such painters as the great realist Ribera, or
the gravity and simplicity of Zurbaran's ascetic art,
or again, the sense of earthly corruption in some of the
pictures of Valdes Leal.

In their works Christ is always the Man of Sorrows,
Mary is the Mater Dolorosa, or the mother maiden who
has no knowledge of the love of this world ; the saints
are depicted on the rack of martyrdom.

This profound seriousness, directing, as it does, the
entire course of Spanish painting, was the natural
artistic outcome of the predominance of character in
the Spanish temperament. The chief end of art was
to persuade men to piety and to incline them to God,

ALONSO CANO 297

wrote Pacheco, the master of Cano and Velazquez, in
his Arte de la Pintura, which was pubhshed in Seville
in 1649. In Cano we find the reaction, and in his work
art is turned into a new channel. Although Christ,
the Madonna, saints and martyrs, were painted by
him, the spirit of his pictures was no longer the same.
His preference was for life, and a quite new pagan
rejoicing in the senses sets his art apart from among
the painters of Andalusia. To him alone, it would
seem it was given to find joy and not sorrow in human
life and in divine life.

It is in this new gift of the joy of the senses that
we find the significance of Cano's art. He changed
the traditional religious representations common to his
contemporaries into scenes that are really love stories
of knights and ladies. In such a picture, for instance,
as the " Vision of St. Anthony " in the Munich Pina-
cothek, probably the best known among all his work,
we see the saint adoring Mary, but how different, how
new is the sentiment expressed. It is chivalry and
not religion that speaks so charmingly here — a man
worships an adored Lady, not a saint the Mother of
God. Cano neither thrills nor excites us ; his pictures
never touch the level we find in the passionate art of
Ribera and Zurbaran ; they are on a lower level than
the ecstatic emotion of Murillo, the master of whom
he was in some measure the forerunner, indeed without

298 GRANADA

Cano's Virgins Murillo's Conceptions could hardly have
been painted. Cano is mild and touching ; there is
nothing sad in his art. And this is true even in those
pictures whose themes treat of sorrow. Thus in his
Crucifixions and Flagellations of the Christ the ex-
pression of pain is softened and the delicate treatment
deprives the stories of their harsh truth. Contrast his
renderings of the great death drama with the Cruci-
fixions of Zurbaran ; there is no insistence on sad
details, no startHng intensity, we do not feel the
physical pain and sorrow. Even when Cano paints
the Entombment it is not the triumph of death which
he depicts. No longer do the earthly friends of Christ
stand stricken with grief around His body bemoaning
His martyrdom; instead, happy angels with radiant
wings support Him and give a foretaste of the
triumphant joys of heaven. His martyrs and especi-
ally his women — for Cano's appeal rests largely in his
power to realise the charm of women — all exist in an
atmosphere of tender joyousness. Take as instances
the wonderful painting of St. Agnes in the Berlin
Museum, or those six pictures of the Magdalene in the
altar of the parish church of Getafe, a small town near
Madrid, or again, the two renderings of the Virgin with
Christ in the Museo del Prado, and the really beautiful
Virgin and Child in Seville Cathedral. What a new
understanding of the appeal of woman we find in these

ALONSO CANO 299

pictures. The penitent Magdalene is a beautiful
sinner ; Mary is a happy Mother taking sweet pleasure
in the nursing of her Child. In the Prado pictures
she is placed in a tender nocturnal landscape, and in
calm and dreaming pleasure she gazes on her babe ;
she has no halo, but the stars form a glittering crown
behind her. We have the charm of the earthly mother
substituted for the ecstasy of the bride of the Lord.
The Seville Virgin has even more of the fairness that
Cano gives to women ; there is a suggestion of love
that is remembered in the glance with its human
sweetness which caresses the child she holds. And
the same tender joyousness, born of earthly love,
speaks in the soft brown Andalusian eyes of the St.
Agnes at Berlin. It is in such pictures as these that
we find the real qualities in Cano's art ; and before
them we forget that he executed a great mass of
indifferent, even meaningless, work — the result of a
too facile pictorial talent. It is this crowd of bad and
empty pictures that have led to an underestima-
tion of his really lovable talent.

Doubtless by this loss of seriousness Cano misses
the greatest gift of the Spanish painters: their power
of telling a story dramatically, be it a religious story,
or the more personal story of man, expressed in
portraiture. Never do we find in his pictures that
strong sense of the reality of the thing told, the quality

300 GRANADA

so present in all Spanish art, which expresses itself
in dramatic gesture, and in the painting of vivid
details to help in the rendering of the scene just as
the painter supposed it might have happened. Cano,
for reasons we shall presently try to show, was without
this strong dramatic intention — the gift of the man
who sees. In his reaction against the Spanish spirit
Cano worked without the Spanish seriousness.

And this brings us to another point. One quality
that impresses us in Cano's pictures is the way in which
he aimed at the simplification of the accessories of
his art ; perhaps no other painter has produced his
pictures with such simple effects. Carl Justi, as well
as other writers, have invented an indolence of char-
acter, to which the facts of Cano's life lend no support,
to explain this simplicity of invention. But the truth
is, it was the outcome of his loss of purpose. It was
not his aim io say something ; he had no use for the
emphatic expression that is the strength, as it is also
the weakness, of Spanish painting. Almost all his
pictures are just incidents with solitary figures, chosen,
it would seem, at hazard, and repeated again and
again ; " Mary with her Child," " Mary with Angels,"
" Christ on the Cross," " Christ carrying the Cross,"
" Christ at the Column," and such subjects. And
here is a further reason why Cano is the least Spanish
of all the painters of Spain. Once or twice only, as in

ALONSO CANO 301

the picture of " The Last Judgment " in the church of
Mount Sion at Seville, does he give us qualities which
we recognise as Spanish.

The circumstance that Cano was a native of Granada,
the southernmost city of Spain, may explain, to some
extent, the special temper of his art. Granada has
an atmosphere of its own. All the history of Spain is
written in its ruins and can still be read there. The
seductive spirit of the East hves in this city, to which
poets have given the title " The Pearl of Price." It
is most beautifully placed, set on the border of the
verdant Vega, at the feet of the mountains of the Sun.
Nature is lyrically soft, and the air one breathes is
sensuously laden, where all speaks so eloquently of
beautiful Hfe. Granada is dehcately joyous, its
wonderful Red Palace is the most unspoilt Moorish
work in Spain, combining in its many exquisite rooms
and in its gardens, in spite of decay and alterations,
much of that full suggestion of all beautiful things
which was the gift of that wonderful people. Here you
have the charm of dehcate buildings, of richly coloured
tiles, mosaics, and rare inscriptions, with those of pure
flowing waters, of great cUpped cypresses, of myrtle
and orange-trees and the glow of flowers. Men who
have grown up in such surroundings are more re-
sponsive in all the emotions than those who have
lived in cities of quieter appeal; for the special

302 GRANADA

atmosphere of such a place, with its ever present
expression of romance, renders the nerves more
vibrating and passionate. And it is certainly reason-
able to suppose that the boy Alonso was wrought upon,
as any sensitive child would be, by the mysterious
adjacent Alhambra, where you find yourself in a new
atmosphere ready for romance, and life seems to
move to measures of music and in delicate fetters
of colour.

Alonso Cano was fortunate, therefore, in his birth-
place as he was also in the circumstances surrounding
his youth. He was born on the 17th of March 1601,
and was baptized in the parish church of San Ildefonso,
where the register of his baptism may still be seen.
He died in the same city on 15th October 1667, and
was buried in the Cathedral which to-day prizes his
work as its most splendid treasure. His father, Miguel
Cano, was a native of Almodova del Campo ; his
mother, Maria de Almansa, came from Almansa in
the province of La Mancha ; they belonged to " the
gentle " or hidalgo class, with descent on both sides
from good families ; and this fact is significant in
Spain, whose artists were mainly drawn from the
artisan and peasant class. Miguel Cano was a well-
known and skilful architect and carver of retahlos,
those astonishing sculptured works which belong so
specially to Spain, and which occupied so large a

ALONSO CANO 303

part of its art in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
He brought his son up to his o\mi caUing ; thus the
young Cano had opportunities of famiharising himself
with the tools of his art at an early age. He learned
the use of materials and methods, the guild traditions
of fitness and proportion, colour harmony and deco-
rative effect. This early home influence and training
must have counted as a stimulus to the boy who from
the first showed an aptitude for imitation. Soon his
talent gained the notice of the painter Juan del Castillo,
who recommended the removal of the Cano family to
Seville for the sake of better instruction.

Here the eager boy found himself upon his true
soil, and we may well believe in the impulse given
to the natural bent of his character in the delight he
must have had in the southern capital, " the golden
city," which was a centre of culture, wealth, and
pleasure. Seville was a maritime city ; it was the
metropolis of the new world and the focus of the
commercial enterprise of Europe. The riches of the
West Indies were pouring into its harbour ; it was
the mart to which galleons with almost fabulously
rich cargoes were brought. This inevitably meant the
profit of art.

Cano entered for eight months the studio of Fran-
cisco Pacheco, having Velazquez as comrade in his
studentship. But a year later, when Juan del Castillo

304 . GRANADA

came from Granada to Seville, he left the older master
and became the apprentice of his friend. Afterwards,
it is said, that for a time he worked in the studio
of the realist Herrera. In sculpture he was the pupil
of Martinez Montafies ; and he continued to assist his
father, who was largely employed in carving retablos
for the churches and convents of the district.

It may be well to estimate the forming influence of
this mixed tutorship on a boy whose temperament was
easily receptive. Pacheco, a man of fine culture, was
a conscientious and excellent teacher ; as an artist
he was an eclectic, and though of mediocre personal
talent, his art was very popular, being representative
of the taste of the day, which leant entirely towards
Italy and the imitation of things Italian.

It was this tendency towards a pseudo-Italianism
which, from the first, directed Cano's talent. Already,
as a child and as a youth, he may have noticed
the sixteenth century retablo in the church of San
Geronimo at Granada, a beautiful and harmonious
work in the Italian manner of great freedom, and
expressing more truly the Italian spirit than is common
in Spanish paintings. In Seville he would be attracted
by the work of Juan de las Roelas, who had learnt much
from the art of Italy, and in many of whose pictures
he would find a human gaiety unusual in Spain. In the
Cathedral and in the churches of the city he would

ALONSO CANO 305

see the gilded decorative pictures of the early painters
of the Spanish school, and especially in the work of
Alejo Fernandez, in the " Virgen de la Rosa," in the
church of Santa Ana at Triana, for instance — he
would notice a dehcate care for beauty, expressed
more perfectly perhaps by this painter than by any
Andalusian artist.

Pacheco, whatever his personal talent, and his own
paintings can have been of little importance as an
inspiration, inculcated in his pupils the habits of
patience and perseverance ; it was with him that
Velazquez first acquired that capacity for improve-
ment which is one quality of genius. Unfortunately
it was just in this capacity that Cano failed. Yet
another advantage resulted from this training ; as
the pupil of Pacheco, Cano would gain admission to
the renowned Casa de Pilatos, the rendezvous of a
pohshed coterie of painters and men of letters. The
third Duke of Alcald, Fernando Enriquez de Ribera,
was a patron of the arts. He had collected many
pictures, and especially the paintings of the great
realist Ribera, which he brought from Naples intro-
ducing them to Seville. Then he had cabinets of
coins and medals, and cases containing manuscripts,
and, of more moment as a forming influence on Cano,
a large number of Roman relics collected from Italica,

among them many excellent examples of classical

3o6 GRANADA

sculpture. We may accept the estimate of the
Spanish writers that the true source of Cano's inspi-
ration can be found in these classical models, from
which we know he worked in these years of youth.
The change to the studio of Juan del Castillo which,
as we have said, took place after nine months' work
with Pacheco, in companionship with Velazquez, was
certainly harmful to Cano. This bad painter, whose
lifeless and dull pictures, crude in colour and unnatural
in action, still crowd the churches of Seville, a witness
to the swift poison brought to Spanish painting by
the eruption of Italianism in the fifteenth and early
sixteenth centuries, may at once be dismissed. From
him Cano can have learnt nothing. Indeed Castillo's
one claim to remembrance is that Cano, and later,
the much greater Murillo, worked as his apprentices,
grinding colours and preparing the canvases for his
commonplace pictures. We may dismiss, too, any
possible influence of the elder Herrera, who, over-
estimated in Spain, is claimed as the founder of the
Spanish school. Nowhere in Cano's work do we find
a trace of Herrera's florid and emphatic manner.
If the boy did, as tradition says, become his pupil,
it is probable that the master's violence and eccen-
tricity soon drove him from the studio as it did all his
pupils. Of far greater importance was Cano's ap-
prenticeship to the sculptor, Martinez Montanes, who

ALONSO CANO 307

already had revived in Seville the mediaeval poly-
chrome sculpture of Spain, resisting the Italianising
influences which had extended from painting to
sculpture. There seems to have been a great friend-
ship between the master and the pupil. For some
time Cano worked under his guidance, and in 1636
we find him appl3dng to Montafies to decide the value
of an altar-screen executed for the parish church
of Lebrija.^ x\ssuredly Cano's debt to this master
was \'ery great ; all his early works in Seville are
very similar to the groups and figures of Montahes,
having the same classical sense of form, though with
more delicacy in the treatment and colouring.

These earliest sculptured works — of which some
may still be seen in Seville— were three retablos,
designed, carved, and painted for the college of San
Alberto, and two for the Conventual Church of Santa
Paula. Zurbaran and Pacheco were employed with
Cano in executing the retablos of San Alberto, and
Cean Bermudez tells us that his work surpassed theirs.
In the execution of the altar-screens for Santa Paula
he was helped by Caspar de Rebas who worked with
him under the direction of Montafies. These works
remain in the church of Santa Paula — one over the
altar of St. John the Baptist, the other over that of
St. John the Evangelist. They are pieces of har-

^ The price was fixed at three thousand two hundred and fifty ducats.

3o8 GRANADA

monious work, altogether praiseworthy, that show
Cano's combined power as architect, sculptor, painter,
and damask worker. The finer is the altar of St.
John the Baptist. A statue of the Prophet, a bas-
relief representing the Baptism of Christ, are at either
side, and between a beautiful representation of figures
carrying the head of St. John on a charger ; then to
the right and left, between the columns, statues of
the Saints are placed, and these surmount figures of
the Virtues and Cherubim. The hand of a master is
seen everywhere. Scattered in the churches of Seville,
too often placed near dark side-altars and hidden by
unsightly robes, are a few good pieces that belong to
this period. There is a Conception in the nunnery of
Santa Paula, placed over the doorway ; a second, and
perhaps finer, Conception is in the parish church
of San Andres ; there is also in the same church a
beautiful Child Jesus, unfortunately dressed in a satin
robe which quite hides the body ; and there are a
few other works of less interest, less certainly by
Cano, though ascribed to him.

An important work belongs to the year 1628.
Miguel Cano had been employed to erect a new high
altar for the church, once a mosque, of the ancient
town of Lebrija.^ The altar was already designed, but

' Lebrija is a small town forty-five miles from Seville on the way to
Jerez.

ALONSO CANO 309

the figures were not started, when, in 1630, he died. It
fell to his son to complete the work. Four pieces of
sculpture were executed, a Crucifixion to be placed
above the altar, colossal statues of St. Paul and St.
Peter for its second storey, and a small and exquisite
image of the Blessed Virgin enshrined within a cur-
tained niche above the slab of the altar. This last is,
on the whole, the most pleasing sculpture of these
early years ; it is one of those inspired pieces which
cause us to forgive much of Cano's commonplace work.
To the same period of youth, which may for con-
venience be termed the Sevilhan period, belong a group
of first pictures. Cano v.-as largely employed by the
Carthusians, and eight scriptural pictures were painted
for the adornment of their refectory, of which the two
most important were " Adam and Eve driven from
Paradise " and " Joseph escaping from Potiphar's
Wiie " ; and for the same Order he made a copy of
the Madonna, Christ, and St. John, of Raphael, the
master who influenced much of his work ; as well as
other paintings now forgotten. It is to be regretted
that these pictures are no longer in Seville.

But of all the pictures in this first style, painted by
Cano in his youth, the most interesting is the large
" Purgatory " still in the church of Monte Sion. The
strong impression made by this powerful work is one
that lingers in the mind. Already we have referred to

310 GRANADA

its Spanish character, so different from Cano's later
and more personal manner. It| must be presumed
that it was painted under the influence of the realists
who were working in Seville at the beginning of
the seventeenth century. The self-possessed execution
recalls Ribera, and we remember that Cano was already
acquainted with the art of this powerful painter by
his pictures in the Casa de Pilatos. In the foreground
are four men and two children ; they lift their hands
out of the red flames ; other figures appear shadowy
behind them. It is a dramatic realisation of the
terrible scene, given quite simply, and with a power
of representing the conception of the painter that one
finds rarely except in Spain, where art was closely
allied to story-telling.

Several paintings will be found in Seville in the
same style as this picture, which, for this reason,
probably belong to the same period ; examples are
"The Descent from the Cross," in San Vicente, and,
a picture of greater interest, " Las Animas del Pur-
gatorio," in the Provincial Museum, assigned to Cano,
the present writer thinks correctly.^ The fine half-
length portraits of St. Francis Boja and Ignatius
Loyola, and the St. John the Evangelist and St, John
the Baptist, all in the University, were also probably

' The beautiful Madonna of ihe Cathedral belongs to Cano's third
period, and will be noticed later.

ALONSO CANO 311

painted at this time. But it must be stated at once
that it is very difficult to make any certain classi-
fication of Cano's paintings and sculptured pieces.
Spain has cared too little about the works of her
artists. Spurious Canos are shown to the visitor
in Seville and elsewhere, while many statues and
pictures referred to by Cean Bermudez and the old
Spanish writers have disappeared.

These few sculptured works and paintings carry us
forward to the year 1637. Then a change came. Cano,
plunging as was his wont, with passion into life, chal-
lenged a fellow-painter, Sebastian de Llano y Valdes, for
he would allow no superior in his art to be near him.
He stabbed and wounded him, and, to escape the action
of the ecclesiastical authorities, he fled to Madrid.

This was the turning point in Cano's hfe ; in the
work he executed in this second period of his art, the
really independent Cano was involved. In Madrid he
found himself in a safe haven. He renewed his
friendship with his former fellow-student Velazquez,
who was already in a position of favour in the Court,
and to his influence, doubtless, he owed an appointment
to work in the royal palaces, which two years later he
obtained. Cano's prosperity was assured; he gained
the protection of the Count-Duke OUvares ; he was
made painter to Philip IV., and, moreover, he was
charged to teach Prince Baltasar Carlos to paint.

312 GRANADA

From certain documents in the palace archives, dated
1640 to 1643, we know that he was commissioned
with Arias Fernandez and Francisco Camilo, two
artists of the Madrid school, to paint portraits of the
Kings for the gallery of the royal portraits then being
formed in the new Alcazar. We are told that he
painted those of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholics.
It is stated also that he assisted in judging other
paintings executed at that time for the royal palaces.
The disappearance of these portraits by Cano again
places us in difficulty. It seems impossible to clear
up the confusion which exists with regard to his
works. But it is to be presumed that at 'this time, or
rather earlier, the grotesque portraits of the Gothic
Kings, now in the Prado, were painted. We know
that on the occasion of a great bull-fight, given in
1638 in honour of the Duke of Modena, the buffoons
of the palace were dressed in costumes of the Gothic
Kings. What more likely than that Cano, just then
rising in the royal favour, should be commissioned
to execute their portraits, either for the salon of royal
portraits or for that of the comedians also in the
Alcazar ? And if these portraits were, as we think,
Cano's first work in Madrid, they stand as a link
between his first and his second period. A realistic
power, a certain coarse quality, seen in the Sevillian
" Purgatory " remains, which later becomes soft and

ALONSO CANO 313

theatrical. It may be said that no pictures of Cano
are more interesting than these singular portraits.

The influence, drawn perhaps, as we have suggested,
from the pictures of Ribera, seen in Seville, was soon
supplanted ; and the bonds, always against his tem-
perament, which for a time had united our painter's
art with the realists, in Madrid, were broken. Through
his friendship with Velazquez, Cano would gain access
to the royal galleries, where he would study the paint-
ings of Raphael and Titian, the great masters of Italy,
of Rubens, and others. Now the immediate result of
these new influences was that he united what he saw
in a strange motley of imitations ; then finally the
independent Cano was evolved. Hence it is that the
pictures that now follow are puzzling to classify.
The large " Conception," painted probably about 1640,
for a retablo in the church of the Imperial College, now
San Isidro,^ especially contains the quintessence of
what he adopted from others ; but " The Virgin and
Child " in the Buen Consejo chapel of the same church,
and still more the later and much finer " Nude Christ,"
in the Church of St. Gines, show the new personal
qualities which he added. The change in his work is
clearly seen in the type of this Virgin ; the handmaid
of God has been transformed into a young mother
nursing her babe in quiet joy. In no respect does she

1 The picture is now in the sacristy.

314 GRANADA

resemble the Catholic Mary, and already we may see
the genesis of the beautiful, humanly-loving Mary of
Seville Cathedral. And in the St. Gines' picture, Christ
is a young man, effeminate in delicacy ; the slender
nude figure sits on the rock of Calvary, his eyes gaze
out at the landscape over his shoulder in sweet and
tender melancholy. There is nothing left of the
passionate spiritual asceticism of the realists. Notice
the beautiful delicate hands, with the soft, almost
quivering touch, for it is in these exquisitely expres-
sive hands that the spirit of Cano's art Hes. The
hands in all his pictures are finely painted. From this
time only the joy of this fife really attracted Cano.

In the next four years Cano executed a group of
paintings, in the same style as these pictures, in
commission for Phihp IV., as well as for the churches
of Madrid. Of these works several are now in the
Prado, three are in the Academy of San Fernando,
while others, mentioned in the old inventories of Cean
Bermudez and Palomino, have been lost with the dis-
appearance of the churches for which they were
painted. Cano is imperfectly represented in the
Museum of the Prado. His most important pictures
there are the " Dead Christ in the arms of an Angel,"
and " St. Benito Abad absorbed in Contemplation "
(Nos. 668 and 672).^ Yet both, as well as "The

^ These two pictures were seen by Cean Bermudez in the Alcazar and
the Buen Reliro.

ALONSO CANO 315

Christ at the Column," ^ and " The Christ Crucified "
are at a lower level than the " Nude Christ " of
St. Gines, with which they must be classed ; they are
less expressive in feeling, although they show the
same delicate and correct modelling of the male
figure without any anatomical display. The com-
panion pictures of "The Virgin adoring the Child"
we have spoken of already ; these two have especial
interest, revealing, as they do, the development of
Cano's changing mood. The same human sentiment
is re-echoed. Breaking away from the old forms,
Cano pictures the Mother sitting in dreaming happiness
with her Child — the scene a night landscape ; he gives
her no halo, but the stars make her crown. The
" St. John in Patmos," Cano's last picture in the
Prado, by its manner of painting and sentiment, would
seem to belong to an earlier period. The] strong
probability is that it was painted either in Seville
or during the first years in Madrid. ^ We have these
works then, and the three less known, but the present
writer thinks finer, pictures of the Academy of San
Fernando — " Christ Crucified," " Christ in Purple,"
and " The Death of a Franciscan "—to carry us up
to the date 1644, which closes the first Madrid period.

' This picture was brought to the Prado from the Escorial.

- The Prado catalogue suggests that the picture was brought from the
Cartuja Portacali where Cano is said to have taken refuge after the
supposed murder of his wife. But the evidence of the picture refutes
the supposition.

3i6 GRANADA

Legend has gathered many stories around the years
that now follow, and indeed, the life history of Cano
would yield a fine romance. Some events must be
noted to complete our knowledge of the man. In
1643 we find Cano at Toledo asking for work in the
Cathedral. He did not obtain it, and returned to
Madrid. His sudden departure from the capital soon
afterwards was caused — so it is said — by an accusa-
tion of the murder of his wife, a woman of unchaste
origin, who one day was found stabbed in her bed.
An act of this kind made him impossible in Madrid.
If we accept tradition, Cano fled, loaded with the curse
of blood, first to the Franciscan convent 'of the city
of Valencia, and afterwards to the Cartuja of Portacali.
Palomino speaks of many works carved and painted,
now disappeared ; among them " Christ bearing the
Cross," " A Crucifixion," and a portrait of a holy
woman, Inez de Moncada. Cano's pictures now in
Valencia, " The Christ of the Cathedral " and " The
Nativity," and " Christ at the Column," in the
Museum, — were brought from this monastery. These
pictures may be classed with the works of the second
period. Still following tradition, we learn from Palo-
mino that on returning to Madrid, Cano fell under
the tribunal of the Inquisition, was tortured by the
alguazils, and emerged victorious from the test. But
be this as it may, it seems certain that Cano was

ALONSO CANO 317

in Madrid in 1647, ^^^ that his innocence was estab-
hshed is proved by the fact that he was employed
as major-domo to the Brotherhood of Our Lady
of Sorrows. This was a source of fresh troubles, and
in the same year he was fined a sum of a hundred
ducats for refusing to assist in the Procession in Holy
Week beside the alguazils of the Court — a characteristic
incident, for Cano was a man who never crossed his
own wishes. Our painter was still in Madrid in 1649,
in which year he was working at his old carvings,^
supplying the designs and superintending the building
of the triumphal arch erected at the Guadalajara gate
for the entry of Queen Mariana. Next year we find
Cano in Toledo, employed by the Chapter to inspect
works in the octagon chapel. Unfortunately we know
of no personal work resulting from this stay .2

The year 1651 closes this period of wandering. For
some reason possibly connected with his quarrels
with the tribunals of the Inquisition, Cano sought
an opportunity to leave Madrid. He seems to
have desired to return to the city of his birth. A
canonry being vacant in the Cathedral of Granada,
he petitioned the post from Philip IV., which was

* In 1643 Cano had supplied designs for the monument erected during
Holy Week for the Church of S. Gines.

- The statuette of St. Francis of Assisi in the sacristy of Toledo Cathe-
dral, which formerly was ascribed to Cano, is certainly not by him. This
fine piece is the work of his pupil and disciple, Pedro de Mena.

3i8 GRANADA

granted by a royal decree, dated September ii, 1651,
with the condition that Cano should be ordained in
sacris during the next year. He left for Granada,
and took possession, on February 20, 1652. But, in
spite of the king's command, the year passed and he
was not ordained. Three more years went by, then
the king, strongly urged by the Chapter, decided that
if he was not ordained during the Ember weeks of
1656, his prebendaryship must be considered vacant.
It must be acknowledged that Cano did not belie
his reputation for self-will, for he did nothing. More-
over, when the incensed Chapter communicated to
him his dismissal, he professed indignation- and styled
their conduct an act of spoliation. Armed, therefore,
with documents and certificates, he returned to Madrid
to seek a solution of the quarrel.

This second stay of Cano in Madrid was not marked
by any more work from his brush ; at least none is
known. At Queen Mariana's behest he finished a
" Crucifixion " begun at some earlier period, which
possibly is the picture recently given to Segovia
Cathedral by the Marquis of Lozoya. To this period
we may perhaps ascribe the group of paintings on the
Life of the Magdalene, executed for the parish church
of Getafe, a small town eight and a half miles from
Madrid on the way to Aranjuez. The characteristic
features of these paintings carry us forward to the

ALONSO CANO 3^9

third period in Granada. We see even more strikingly
than in the Madrid pictures the human interest that
Cano imparts to his women. There is ample reason
for thinking that the execution of some at least of
the pictures was carried out by pupils.

Meanwhile Cano gained the principal object of his
journey. He accepted a chaplaincy conferred on him
by the Bishop of Salamanca, and at once was ordained
a sub-deacon. Then the king ordered, by a decree
of April 14, 1658, that the Granada prebendaryship
should be restored to him, but on condition he adopted
ecclesiastical dress, which hitherto he had refused to
do. At last, in 1659, Cano returned to Granada, took
possession of his prebendaryship, which he occupied in
peace for the remaining eight years of his life.

This third period in Granada was the period of
Cano's greatest activity, and the work which he
created for the Cathedral, and in commission for the
religious houses of the city, is his most characteristic
work by which he must be judged. A chamber on the
first floor of the Bell Tower of the Cathedral was
assigned to him as a studio, and we may well beheve
in the effect of such a residence as this in forming
his finished style. He had at last found a fixed aim
and a true home for his facile gifts.

The cycle of his activity begins with the great
cupola frescoes of the Capilla Mayor, illustrating scenes

320 GRANADA

from the history of the Life of the Virgin. Nowhere else
is Cano quite so effective as here. Intensely brilliant
is the chapel ; and here his paintings, the colours
glowing in the rich light falhng from the stained-glass
windows above, are in harmony with the decoration,
and become an essential part of its design. His Virgins,
quivering with joy, his smiling, tender Child-Christs,
the angels gracefully sporting about the scenes, seem
of a new fair world. Cano did not endeavour, hke
the former masters of his country, to conceive dramatic
and tragic compositions, but confined himself to human
and charming representations of the sacred stories.
And as you gaze upwards for long minutes enjoying
the warm colour and pleasant drawing, you grow to
have real affection for this painter, who gave so new
an expression to the religious sentiment of Spain.

The Cathedral owes much to the years of Cano's
residence. The lower stage of the massive west fagade
was largely his work. Many of the rich sculptures we
owe principally to him. He designed and super-
intended the execution of two silver lamps for the
principal chapel, he carved the elaborate lectern of
the choir, formed of fine woods, bronze, and precious
stones, and executed new portals for the sacristy.

Two medalhons on copper of great delicacy w^ere
wrought for the Chapel of the Trinity. Pictures were
painted as altar-pieces for the chapels. Some of these

ALONSO CANO 321

canvases disappeared when Granada was stripped of
so many of its treasures by the French. But a few
fine pictures remain. There is " The Trinity " in the
chapel of that name, and a fine " Way of the Cross"
in the eighteenth century chapel of Jesus Nazareno,
where it takes its place, not unworthily, beside three
Riberas and an El Greco ; and there is " the Virgen
de la Soledad," over the altar of San Miguel, more
beautiful in its tenderness. It is one of our painter's
most characteristic works, and of real beauty in its
human appeal. The Christ kneels absorbed in pain
that is tender, not tragic ; His arms are crossed ; tears
roll down His cheeks. He is dressed in a white robe ;
a veil of the same hue is wound around the body ;
a dark indigo cape covers the head and shoulders.
But the interest of the picture centres in the Virgin, who
appears amid draperies of the same deep blue as the
cape of the Christ, brilliant, in a dark, yet luminous,
atmosphere, which suggests the sky on a summer night.
The spirit which breathes from this Mary is love, human
love, quivering and longing. She is a woman of
Granada, not of heavenly type. We see Cano's talent
at its highest ; not always does he rise to this level.

Even more important are Cano's carved and coloured
statues, though it must be owned that Granada— if
we are to believe our guide-books — possesses more
works than ever he did ! So little critical account

322 GRANADA

has been taken of this really fascinating branch of
Spanish art, that it has been usual to attribute to
Cano almost every good piece of polychrome statuary
in southern Spain. In truth it is impossible, in many
instances, to distinguish with certainty between his
work and that of his pupils, Josef de Mora and
Pedro de Mena, who imitated his style and copied his
work. And the difficulty is increased by Cano's habit
of working himself on the carvings of his assistants ;
were they in difficulty he would finish them with his
own hand. This has resulted in a confusion of Cano's
real native gift, which, within the limitations of aim
and realisation that were his, was very great indeed.

Among the most characteristic and individual
statues in the Cathedral, ascribed to Cano and cer-
tainly his work, we must place first " The Purisima,"
which is kept in the sacristy. It is a most interesting
piece that has the quahties which belong to the paint-
ings of Cano. Perhaps it is the sculptured work
which shows to the best advantage his power of ex-
pressing tender human emotions. Other works ascribed
to Cano, though these pieces have been disputed, are
the great busts of Adam and Eve, placed very high,
to the right and left of the entrance to the Capilla
Mayor, and the head of St. Paul, which is lost in the
darkness of the Chapel of Nuestra Seiiora del Carmen.
These pieces, and especially the bleeding head of St.

ALONSO CANO 323

Paul, are subjects that belong less to Cano's art. The
Adam and Eve, larger than life-size, are carved in
oak and painted with excellent care. Unfortunately
the height at which they are placed makes it very
difiicult to see them. The St. Paul, if it is Cano's
work — and the great skill in the craftsmanship points
to this being so — must be classed with the head of
St. John the Baptist executed for the Convent of
Santa Paula, which is also ascribed to Cano. This
last piece must have been copied from Montailes'
sculptured head of the Prophet for the church of
Santa Clara. There is also an excellent " Head of
St. Paul " in the Camarin of the Chapel of San Juan
de Dios, which is probably Cano's work. Yet it is
not easy to speak with any certainty. Many of the
works attributed to Cano are probably the work of
De Mora. A sculptured piece also in the Cathedral,
which the present writer would give to Cano, is a
"Virgin and Child with St. Anna." The figures are
half life-size ; the three faces and the hands are
of exquisite delicacy. The Virgin resembles " The
Purisima " in her sweetness. WTiat a dainty fairness
is here ; with what exquisite taste the veil and the
robe is arranged ! In face of this work, as before in
" The Purisima," we recognise anew Cano's import-
ance in Spanish art.

In addition to his work for the Cathedral, Cano

324 GRANADA

was employed sculpturing and painting altar-pieces
for the churches and different religious houses of his
native city. His activity seems to have been un-
wearying. Cean Bermudez catalogues many works.
For the Convent of the Angel, we read that he painted
a picture of " Our Lord parting from the Virgin in
the Via Dolorosa " ; he carved in marble a figure of
the Guardian Angel ^ to be placed over the portal,
and he designed an elaborate altar-piece, which was
carved by his disciple, Pedro de Mena ; Cano, how-
ever, executed several of its statues with his own
chisel. Other pictures we learn were painted for the
Convent of San Diego, and a series of half-length
Apostles were designed and executed for the Dominican
Monastery of St. Catahna. We are told that in
addition he worked for private patrons. Palomino
tells of a statue of St. Anthony of Padua, carved for
the auditor of the chancery, which Cano, becoming
enraged with his client about the payment for the
work, dashed to pieces. Unfortunately the disappear-
ance of many of these churches and monasteries
with all their contents, the change of the names of
others, again makes it impossible to estimate these
works, or to hazard an opinion as to their present

^ Cean Bermudez catalogues this as Cano's only work in marble. The
original drawing for this figure is in the collection of Cano's drawings in
the Louvre.

ALONSO CANO 325

whereabouts. The few pictures in the Provincial
Museum assigned to Cano — in some cases with httle
apparent reason — may be some of them. However,
their bad state of preservation renders judgment very
difficult. There are besides a few sculptured pieces.
We have mentioned already the "St. John the
Baptist," executed for the Convent of Santa Paula,
and the "St. Paul" in the Camarin of the Church
of San Juan de Dios. In addition to this work in
the first chapel, there is a small statuette of the
" Soledad," and there is another representation of the
same subject in the parish church of Santa Ana.
Both these pieces have, without doubt, been copied
from the painting of the " Soledad " in the chapel
of San Miguel. The question is, are they by Cano ?
Probably the finer one, which is in Santa Paula, is
his work, while the other is a copy by Josef de Mora.
Yet both statues are so good, especially in the colour-
ing, that the pupil's work may well have been touched
up by the hand of the master. Again, in the Cartuja
there are two statues of St. Bruno ; one, life-size, is
in the sacristy, and this work, tradition says, was
ordered from Josef de Mora ; the other, which is
placed over the high altar, may, with little question,
be ascribed to Cano. At least, if it is not his work,
then it is a copy of a lost original. Josef de Mora
could not by himself have designed so exquisite a

326 GRANADA

work. The statuette far exceeds the statue in beauty.
Both the carving and the colouring are equally fine ;
the latter is a triumph of polychrome. The monk's
pale face, his hands, his robe, and his white scapular
are perfectly transcribed ; a richness being given to
the white of the dress, in contrast to the pale flesh,
by the device, often used by damask workers, of
painting over a gold ground. This small work is
a masterpiece.^ It takes rank with the better-
known " St. Anthony " in San Nicolas of Murcia,
though this work belongs probably to an earlier
period.

Towards the close of his third period of activity, a
commission of work received from the Chapter of
Malaga Cathedral called Cano from Granada. This
visit was not without results. Cano designed the
Capilla Mayor and new stalls for the choir, and painted
the large altar-picture of the " Madonna of the Rosary
with Six Saints," which still is in the Capilla del
Rosario. It is an effective work, in which the qualities
that belong to this third period appear. It is to be
regretted that the deplorable state of the canvas has
robbed it of much beauty. To our painter's stay in
Malaga we owe the Seville Virgin and Child, known

^ The Cartuja formerly contained the fine statue of the Magdalene, by
Cano. It was taken away with many works of art during the invasion of
the French. An engraving of this piece is given in Studien zur Geschichte
der Spanischen Plasiik, by Dr. B. Haendcke.

» < >

Interior of the Cartuja. The Sacristy

ALONSO CANO 327

as " Our Lady of Bethlehem." The picture was
painted for Don Andres Cascantes, by whom it was
given to Seville Cathedral of which he was a minor
canon. It hangs where it was first placed in the small
dark chapel of the Virgen de Bel/n, near to the left
entrance which leads into the Court of Oranges. In
this picture we see the debt which ]\Iurillo owed to
Cano, This Virgin is not of heavenly beauty, once
more we see an Andalusian mother, humanly tender.
Cano clearly aimed at a beautiful composition of a
woman and her child. In describing his Madonnas
we must not judge them on the same terms we
apply to those of the Spanish realists — of Morales, of
Zurbaran, of Ribera. To those masters religious art
existed as a solemn and often over-burdening truth.
In comparison with their works Cano seems affected,
empty even. He translates their devotion into sweet-
ness. Yet consider how truly he expresses the power
of love. We have the living woman, who, if she is
the mother of the Lord, has understood and loved
motherhood. Woman for Cano is human. It is this
that directs his work.

Cano's work at ^Malaga brings us to those pictures
which probably concluded his life work — the pictures
in which he uses Mary and the Saints to paint what
in reality are love scenes. Several of these canvases
have been brought to the European galleries, and for

328 GRANADA

this reason they are better known than his paintings
and sculptured pieces in Spain. We have referred
already to these works. In the "St. Agnes " of the
Berlin Museum we have one of the most beautiful of
his women. In the " Vision of St. Anthony," in the
Munich Pinakothek, the Virgin — aptly characterised
by Professor Muther as " proud as a Venus Victrix
and tender as a Tanagra figurine," ^ — descends from
heaven in a cloud of glory and gives her Child to the
kneeling saint, whose devotion Cano translates into
earthly gallantry. No longer is Mary the Queen of
Heaven : she is the Queen of Earth. The magnificent
altar-piece in the Cook collection at Richmond ^ is
the picture that best represents Cano in this country.^
The same language of love and human joy speaks
here as, indeed, it does in all Cano's work that
belongs to this third period in Granada. It is in
these compositions, in which Cano, turning away from
the asceticism of Spain, commingles religion with
paganism, that his true gift is revealed. Here we find
his real significance in Spanish art.

There is little more to add. The year 1665 finds
Cano again in Granada, at work for the Dominican

^ History of Painting, Richard Muther, vol. ii. page 529.

* A reproduction of this picture is given in The Burlington Magazine,
August 1907.

^ There is a "Vision of St. John the EvangeUst " by Cano in the
Wallace Collection.

ALONSO CANO 329

friars of the Royal Monastery of Santa Cruz, for
whom he made sketches for a series of pictures
on the Life of St. Dominic.^ This was his last work.
He died in his house in the Albaicin quarter, on
5th October 1667 ; he was then sixty-six years old.
His body rests in the Pantheon of the Canons beneath
the choir of the Cathedral.

It is worth noting that Cano died in poverty. Two
entries in the register of Granada prove this. The
first orders that live hundred reales shall be paid to
the Canon Cano, " he being sick and very poor and
without means to pay the doctor " ; the second
notice further orders that two hundred reales shall be
added, " at the suggestion of the archdeacon, to buy
him poultry and sweetm.eats." Then a story of his
death, though probably a fable, is too good not to be
recorded ; moreover it helps to complete our picture
of the man. The priest called to offer the extreme
unction to the dying Cano was accustomed to labour
among penitent Jews, towards whom the painter had
always displayed a curiously passionate antipathy.
The sick man recognised the priest. " Go, Senor
Licenciado," he cried, " go with God and do not
trouble to call again. The priest who administers the
Sacraments to Jews shall not administer them to me."
A fresh priest was summoned. The new-comer tried

1 Pictures were afterwards painted from these sketches by Camillo.

330 GRANADA

to place an ill-fashioned crucifix in the hands that
had carved so many beautiful pieces. Impatiently
they pushed it aside. " My son," gently remonstrated
the priest, "what dost thou mean? This is the
Lord who redeemed thee, and must save thee ! " "I
know that all very well," w^as Cano's answer, " but
do you want to provoke me with this wretched,
ill-wrought thing, in order to give me over to the
devil ? "

Cano's disposition was generous ; in spite of his
violence and restlessness he was loving and charitable.
The old Spanish writers tell us that his gains as soon
as he won them were divided among his friends and
among the poor. They describe him as a gallant
storming through life, who yet displayed boundless
graciousness towards his pupils and his friends. No
master ever took greater interest in his pupils. As
we have noted, he gave freely to them of his know-
ledge and of his work. These contradictions in his
temperament explain his art. In the portrait ^ that
he has left of himself we see him old ; it must have
been painted in Granada in the last years of his life.
He is dressed in the habit of his Order. It is a strong
face, compact of energy, an energy that springs from

1 This portrait, which was formerly found in Louis Philippe's Spanish
gallery in the Louvre, is engraved in Stirling-Maxwell's Annals of the
Artists of Spain, p. 780.

ALONSO CANO 331

the nerves and from the will, for the features are
emaciated. The short white hair falls loosely on the
forehead from beneath the dark cap ; the eyes, that
look out with a sideward glance, have a quivering
impatience ; the beautiful hands are as expressive as
the face ; they hold a book. Yes, Cano must have
had an interesting personality.

In this brief essay it has been impossible to analyse
all aspects of Alonso Cano's activity, or even to
mention all his works. He may be compared with
the artists of the Renaissance in the variety and
facility with which he practised in different mediums.
Besides his paintings and sculptures he employed his
leisure moments in working in silver, in brass, and
in copper, he was interested especially in copper-plates
and other curios. The Spanish writers speak of him
as a collector of great taste. Then he has left a
larger and more interesting collection of drawings
than any other Spanish master. Much of his time was
spent in executing dainty drawings, outlined on white
paper with the pen and shaded with sepia or Indian
ink, perhaps these are among his most remarkable
achievements. In the National Library of Madrid,
in the Jovellanos Institute at Gijon, in numerous
Museums and private houses in Spain, as well as in

332 GRANADA

the Louvre, in England,^ and in other places, are
numbers of his drawings and designs. Cano was
especially fond of executing these, and he did so
indiscriminately. Many sketches are studies for his
pictures and sculptured pieces, others are designs for
architectural works, and these last are executed with
singular grace and mastery. The number of these
drawings is so great that their names alone would
almost fill this essay.

It may seem to many that Cano's achievement in
Spain's art has been overrated in this essay — that
his work has been given undue praise. He has been
ignored by the majority of writers on Spanish artists
in this country. Carl Justi, to whose works we owe so
much of the little we know of Spanish art, passes severe
judgment upon him. Professor Muther is perhaps the
only modern writer, outside of Spain, to recognise his
claim to a wider interest and recognition than has as
yet been accorded to him. It is true Cano's talent was
a limited one. And unfortunately he seems himself
to have been of the opinion that he could accomplish
everything ; this explains, in part, how it is that he
has left many works which show him from a dis-
agreeable rather than from a lovable aspect. And

^ There is a fairly good and representative collection of Cano's drawings
in the Print Room of the British Museum. One really fine drawing of
" The Virgin with Saints " was reproduced in The Burlington Magazine,
August 1907.

ALONSO CANO 333

" lovable " is not written without full consideration ;
for Cano at his best is a really lovable artist. But as
often as he ventures outside from his own limitations
he fails, and a false striving after effect takes the place
of real sentiment. His human joyousness in life is
the quality which distinguishes his art. In this
direction he struck chords which are echoed in no
other Spanish work. This perhaps, more even than
his actual achievement, is why one values his art in
a school whose predominant characters are gloom and
earnestness.

LIST OF THE MOST IMPORTANT SCULP-
TURES, CARVINGS, AND OTHER WORKS
ASCRIBED TO ALONSO CANO, ARRANGED
ACCORDING TO PERIODS AND PLACES
WHERE PAINTED.i

FIRST PERIOD, IN SEVILLE. 1620 (?)-i637

Seville — Sculptured Pieces

Church of Santa Paula — Two altar-pieces designed, carved,
and painted. St. John the Baptist ; St. John the
Evangehst. (These altar-pieces, and especially the
former, are fine examples of Cano's early powers in
carving.)

Church of San Andres — Conception ; Child Christ.

Nunnery of Santa Paula — Conception.

In Lehrija (a small town 45 miles from Seville on the way
to Jerez) — Sculptured pieces.

The Church of the Town — Four pieces of sculpture executed
to complete the altar designed by Miguel Cano. A
Crucifixion ; St. Peter ; St. Paul ; The Blessed Virgin.

^ This list has been made by the present writers and is offered as a
suggestion only. In the present confusion which exists with regard to
Cano's works it is impossible to give an authoritative list.

334

LIST OF CANO'S WORKS 335

Seville — Pictures

Church of Monte Sion — Purgatory (large picture). (The

most important painting of the first period.)
Cathedral, Chapel of Las Reliquias — A Christ ; a Holy

Father ; two Saints.
(Our Lady of Bethlehem was painted in Malaga and
belongs to the third period.)
San Vicente — Descent from the Cross.
Museo de la Merced (Provincial Museum) — Las Animas del

Purgatorio.
University — Portraits of St. Francis Boja and Ignatius

Loyola.
University Church — St. John the Baptist ; St. John the

Evangelist.
Collection of Don Lopez Cepero, 7 Plaza Alfaro — Death of

San Juan de Dios.

Works that have Disappeared

Seville — Sculptured Pieces

College of S. Alberto — Three altar-pieces designed, carved,

and painted.
Convent of the Immaculate Conception — A Conception
carved in stone ; St. John the Evangehst carved in
wood.

Seville — Pictures
Convent of the Carthusians —

The Refectory — Adam and Eve driven from Paradise
(the Expulsion) ; Joseph escaping from Potiphar's
Wife ; six other pictures on BibHcal subjects.

336 GRANADA

Convent of the Carthusians (continued) —

The Sacristy — A copy of Raphael's " Madonna, Christ,
and St. John." (The old inventories of Cean Ber-
mudez and Palomino give many other works.)

SECOND PERIOD, IN MADRID, 1637-1644
Madrid — Pictures

Museo del Prado —

Portrait of a Gothic King ;

Portraits of two Gothic Kings ;

St. John at Patmos.
(Transition pictures between the styles of the first and
second periods) —

The Dead Christ in the arms of an Angel ;

S. Benito Abad absorbed in contemplation
(The two pictures that best represent Cano in the Prado) ;

The Virgin adoring her Child ;

Repetition of the same picture ;

Christ at the Column ;

S. Geronimo penetente.
Church of S. Gines — Nude Christ (the most important

picture of the second period).
Imperial College non San Isidro — Conception (large picture).
Buen Consigo Chapel of same Church — Virgin and Child.
Academy of San Fernando — Crucifixion ; Christ in purple ;
Death of a Franciscan.

LIST OF CANO'S WORKS 337

Madrid — Sculptured Works

In 1643 Cano designed and superintended the monument
erected in Holy Week for the Church of S. Gines.

(Many works inventoried by Cean Bermudez have dis-
appeared.)

INTERMEDIATE PERIOD OF WANDERING

In Madrid, Valencia, Cartuja of Portacoeli, then back again
in Madrid, and Toledo, 1644-1657.

Valencia — Piclures

Cathedral — A Christ.
Provincial Museum — Nativity ;

Christ at the Column.
(These pictures were brought from the Cartuja of Porta-
coeli at the time of its suppression.)

Works that have Disappeared

Many pictures now lost were painted by Cano for the
Portacoeli, where tradition says he took refuge when
accused of the murder of his wife.

Among them were — Christ bearing the Cross ; Crucifixion ;
Portrait of a Holy Woman, Inez de Moncada, four
pictures, unnamed, for the Cloisters.

Madrid — In 1649 Cano designed and superintended the
building of the Triumphal Arch erected at the Guadal-
jara Gate for the entry of Queen Mariana.

33« GRANADA

Toledo, 1650 — Inspected works, in the Octagon Chapel of
the Cathedral.

Madrid, 1656-1658 — A Crucifixion (an old picture, com-
pleted during this second visit to Madrid at the
request of Queen Mariana. Possibly this is the Cruci-
fixion in Segovia Cathedral, recently presented by the
Marquis Lozoya).

Getafe {near Madrid)

Parish Church — A Retablo, designed and carved, with six
large paintings on the Life of Mary Magdalene ; single
pictures of Saints for the side altars. (This work at
Getafe was either executed in this period, or earlier,
during Cano's first residence in Madrid.) •

THIRD PERIOD, IN GRANADA, 1651-1656 and

1658-1667

Granada Cathedral — Pictures

Capilla Mayor — Frescoes (seven paintings : the upper
series decorating the roof of the chapel ; the lower
series are by Cano's pupils, Bocanegra and others) —
Scenes from the Life of the Virgin : The Annuncia-
tion, Conception, Nativity, Presentation, Visitation,
Purification, and Ascension.

The Church of the Trinity — The Trinity.

Chapel of Jesus Nazareno — The Way of the Cross.

Over the altar of San Miguel — The Virgen de la Soledad.

LIST OF CAXO'S WORKS 339

Cathedral — Sculptured Pieces

Sacristy — " The Purisima."
Capilla Mayor — Adam and Eve, colossal busts.
Chapel de Nuestra Sefiora del Carmen — St. Paul.
Chapel of Santa Ana — Virgin and Child with Santa Ana.

Cathedral — Various Works

Choir — Lectern, designed and carved.

Sacristy — Portals of doors, designed and executed.

Principal Chapel — Two silver lamps designed and executed.
The massive west facade was executed by Cano and
Jose Granados with wide deviation from the designs
of Diego de Siloe.

Granada — Sculptured Works

Cartuja — St. Bruno.

Convent of Santa Paula — St. John the Baptist (?), The

Soledad (?).
Camarin Chapel of San Juan de Dios — St. Paul (?).

Works th.\t have Dis.\ppeared
Granada

Cartuja — Magdalene.

Convent of the Angel— Design for an altar-piece (carved by
Pedro de Mena, Cano executed several of the statues) ;
Picture of Christ parting with the Virgin in the Via
Dolorosa ; Figure of Guardian Angel (carved in

340 GRANADA

marble and placed over the door of the convent ; said
by Cean Bermudez to be the only piece of marble
statuary executed by Cano).

Convent of San Diego — Many works (unspecified).

Church of Sta. Cataluna — Series of half-length Apostles.

Royal Monastery of Santa Cruz — Sketches for a series of
pictures on the Life of St. Dominic (Cano's -last works
undertaken after the visit to Malaga; afterwards
pictures were painted from his sketches by Camillo).

Malaga Cathedral

Capilla del Rosario — Madonna of the Rosary with Six

Saints (in bad preservation).
Capilla Mayor — Designed by Cano.
Choir Stalls — Designed by Cano.

Seville Cathedral

Altar de la Virgen de Belen — Our Lady of Bethlehem
(painted in Malaga for Don Andres Cascantes, a minor
canon of Seville) .

Murcia
Church of San Nicolas — St. Anthony in Capuchin dress.

Cadiz

Museum (Picture) — Virgin and Child appearing to St.
Francis.

Segovia
Cathedral — Crucifixion .

LIST OF CANO'S WORKS 341

Pictures Outside Spain

Berlin Royal Gallery — St. Agnes.

Munich, Pinakothek — Vision of St. Anthon\'.

5/. Petersburg, Hermitage — Virgin and Cliild ; the Infant
Jesus and the Uttle St. John ; Portrait of a man
(supposed to be Cano) (the best known portrait of
Cano is the one formerly in the Spanish Gallery of
Louis Philippe. It is engraved in Stirling-Maxwell's
Annals of the Artists of Spain, p. 780) ; Portrait of a
Knight.

London — Cook Collection — Richmond, Surrey, Altar-piece ;
Virgin and Saints.

Wallace Collection — Vision of St. John the Evangelist.

Drawings in the Print Room of the
British Museum

Virgin with Saints.

A Canon kneeling before an Apparition of the Virgin.

Virgin giving the Chasuble to St. Ildefonso.

Assumption of the Virgin.

Altar-piece of the Assumption.

Christ holding the Cross ; Christ standing after His Resur-
rection ; Saint sitting with a book on his knee (three
small drawings).

Feast of Bacchus.

The Boar hunt (two small drawings).

Design for Painted Ceiling.

GRANADA

REFERENCE TO PLAN OF GRANADA
Buildings a\d Places

1. Hospital of San Lazaro

2. Church of San Juan de Letran

3. Hermitage of Santo Cristo de Yedra

4. San Bruno and the Cartuja

5. The Sacro Monte

6. The Tumba Sagrada

7. Cavalry Barracks

8. San Juan de Dios

g. The Street of San Juan de Dios

10. Lunatic Asyhun

11. Bull Ring

12. San Ildefonso and Plaza de Triunfo

13. Municipal Offices

14. Puerta de Elvira

15. Puerta de Monaita

16. San Andres

17. Children's Hospital

18. Municipal Offices

19. Santos Justo and Pastor

20. Institute of Music

21. Botanic Gardens and the Convent of

" La Piedad "

22. Plaza RuU and Plaza Godinos

23. Convent of " La Encamacion "

24. Santa Paula

25. Calle Elvira

26. San Geronimo

27. The " Balcon de Orlando "
28 San Diego

29. San Gregorio

30. San Luis

31. Moorish Walls

32. San Miguel " El Mas Grande "

33. Puerta de los Estandartes

34. El Salvador

35. San Jose

36. Convent " del Angel "

37. Seminary

38. The Cathedral

39. Provincial Goveniment Ofl5ce

40. School of Economics

41. The Market and Archiepiscopal

Palace

42. Plaza de Rib-Rambla

43. Convent of Augustines and La

Magdalena

44. Casa de Gracia

45. Puentezuelas

46. Plaza del General Prim

47. Casa Consistorial

48. Santa Teresa

49. Convent of the " Espiritu Santo "
;o. Garrison Headquarters

51. Convent " de la Cannelita "

52. Lepers' Hospitcil

53. Santa Ana

54. Santa In6s

55
56,
57-
58.

5Q-
60.
61.
62.
63.
64.
65-
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
71-
73-
74-

75-
76.
77-
78.

79-
80.
81.
82.
83.
84.
85.
86.
87.
88.
89.
90.
91.
92.
93-
94-
95-
96.
97-
93.

9Q,

100,

lOI,

102.

103

104
105

106

107

Convent of the " Concepcion "

San Juan de los Reyes

Ex-Convent of the " Victoria "

Torre de la Vela del Alhambra

The Alhambra

Puerta de las Granadas

Puerta de la ludiriaria

The Generalife

Puerta de Hierro

San Francisco

Silla del Moro

The Tower of Seven Floor';

The Bridge of " K.xpiacion "

Puerta del Sol

Convent of Santa Catalina

Ecce Homo

San Cecilio and Military Hospital

Santa Escolastica

Convent of Capuchin and Santa

Maria Egipciaca
San Anton
Gas Works
Abattoir

San Sebastian and the Avenida dei
Violon

Las Angustias

The " Salon "

Convent of Santiago

Museum of Fine Arts

Monument of Mariana

Artillery Barracks

Teatro Principal (Calle de Bailen)

The " Plaza Nueva "

Zacatin

Fish-market

Church of Santiago

San Nicolas

Convent of " Tomasas "

Vermilion Towers

Palace of Carlos V.

Puerta de los Molinos

San Basil

The Recreation Ground

The Cemetery

Convent of San Bemado and the
Church

San Bartolome

Avenida de San Basil

San Cristobel

Hospital of Corpus Christi

Santa Isabel la Real, and San
Miguel el Menor
. Santa Maria (ancient Mosque of the
Alhambra)

San Matias

Puerta de Fajalauza

Calle de Reyes Catolicos

343

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