Essay

THE CATHEDRAL OF SEVILLE, AN EXAMPLE OF SPANISH CULTURAL GAZPACHO.

By. Natalia Escobar

Seville is the capital of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir. It is the artistic, financial as well as cultural capital of southern Spain with a rich history dating from before the year 500 A.C. Seville is said to be a compendium of different cultures which is reflected through the art, architecture and culture. The three most vibrant cultures in Seville that form its uniqueness are the Romans, Arabs, and Christians. One of the most significant examples of how incorporated these different cultures have been here can be seen in the cathedral, Santa Maria la Mayor, which formally  was begun in 1402 and is now the largest cathedral in volume,   Notre Dame would fit five times in the Seville Cathedral.

In 205 B.C. the Romans invaded the city known as Hispalis; this was an expansion period mostly on the architectural aspect. Seville’s present cathedral is actually built on top of the remains of the Roman forum. From the ancient Roman period we still see at the base of present Giralda Tower some of the ancient Roman “sillares” or huge stones used for construction purposes.   
After the Roman period, the Visigoths from Northern Europe arrived in Seville and decided to construct a basilica on the same site where the ancient Roman forum was located. Visigoth art and architecture is generally considered to be a strain of migration art and is also known as Pre-Romanesque. The primary theme during this period was the introduction and absorption of classical Mediterranean and Christian forms with Germanic ones, creating innovative new forms of artistic characteristics. One characteristic we still find from that period is the baptismal fountain used by the Visigoths in their Basilica, then moved in Muslim time to the “patio de los naranjos”.

By 712 A.C. Hispalis was conquered by the Muslims and renamed Ishbilia. The arrival of the Moors contributed tremendously to the growth in culture, economy, population and building projects of the city. Muslims erected one of the three largest mosques in the Muslim world in Seville, utilizing many materials from the preceding cultures. The Mosque was made by the Almohads, who came from North Africa in 1086 to present Andalucía; they imposed an Islamic ultra-orthodoxy. Their art was extremely sober and bare. In their architecture we notice the use of bricks as their main material; virtually their only superficial decoration, the sebka, is based in a grid of rhombuses. As time passed, the art became slightly more decorative. It was the Muslim king Abu Yacub Jusuf who asked the architect Ahmed Ibn Baso to be in charge of the construction of the mosque. Ahmed Ibn Baso worked from 1172, the year when construction began, to 1176 when the building was concluded with its fundamental aspects. The mosque was made of a rectangular base with seventeen naves. The best known piece of Almohad architecture is the present Giralda, which was the minaret of the Mosque of Seville; it is Classified as Mudéjar or fusion between Hispano and Arab art; besides immersed in the Almohad aesthetic which is characterized by the network of “rhombi”, the horseshoe-shaped arches and the polylobulated arches  the top part was done in the Renaissance.
 
For centuries, the Christians, Jews and Arabs lived together in concord. In 1248 former king Ferdinand III of Castille reclaimed the city for the Christian monarchs. It was then renamed Seville and became an important gateway to the New World following Columbus' discovery.  The mosque was consecrated as a cathedral and adapted to Christian worship. A series of earthquakes destroyed most of the ancient structure; at this time, the city fathers of Seville reached a momentous decision and were said to have uttered the following words: “let’s build such a large church after that those who may eventually see it finished will consider that we are crazy”.  In 1401 the construction of the new cathedral began but the last stone was not placed until 1506. In despite of the fact that it is the work of many people, it shows a great unity.  On the seventy years of construction some architects’ names worthy of recognition are Alonso Martinez and Pedro Garcia, the foreigners Carlin and Juan Norman; Juan de Hoces who worked from 1478 to 1496, Simon the Cologne who built the dome. Juan Gil de Hontanon was the architect who actually finished the cathedral.

Gothic has been the prevailing architectural style from the 13th through the 15th Century. The Gothic style was an international aesthetic known as the “French style”, it brought skilled workmen and artisans from all parts of Europe specially Spain, Portugal, France and Belgium. For some people, Gothic later became a pejorative term that came to be used as early as the 1530s by the writer Giorgio Vasari to describe culture that was considered rude and barbaric. At the time of Vasari, Italy had experienced a century of building in the Classical architectural vocabulary revived in the Renaissance and seen as the finite evidence of a new Golden Age of learning and refinement. This classical style appears to have been used at first contemptuously to both imitate and revive the Grecian orders of architecture, after the revival of classical literature.  Throughout Europe at this time there was a rapid growth in trade and an associated growth in towns; it is as well a time of international collaboration. This is the beginning of guilds of skilled workmen as stone masons, glass blowers, bell-makers, carpenters, etc
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Gothic features such as pointed arches, geometric traceries gargoyles and sculptures, and stained glass are easily seen throughout the cathedral. Gothic features were not only decorative; flying buttresses and pinnacles are to help distribute the tremendous weight of the ceiling; the weight is first absorbed by the pillars, then transmitted to the pinnacles by means of flying buttresses.  Also, the walls were made thinner in order to achieve the beautiful effect of the stained-glass windows. Girolas or curved areas in the back of the altar were made so processions can pass through. Due to Gothic architecture the cathedral inside is a forest of columns which serve as decorative characteristics but also as powerful support for the ceiling’s weight.
The word Renaissance means rebirth; in architecture it was a period during the 16th and the 17th century in which there was a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Classical Greek and Roman
thought and material culture. In this period symmetry, proportion, geometry as they were used in the ancient classical times is characteristic. Some features of this period are symmetrical facades around a vertical axis, semi-circular or segmental vaults and construction over a square plan. Domes are larger so they can be seen from the exterior. Roofs are built-in with coffered ceilings, or sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon which are often painted or decorated.

In Spain local architects created a specifically Spanish Renaissance in which influences of Italian Renaissance architects were mixed with Gothic tradition and local idiosyncrasy. The first Renaissance style was Plateresque.  It gets its name because the extremely decorated facades from this period resemble the work of “plateros” or silversmiths; “plata” means silver and “esque” means in the style of. The second phase was pure or high Renaissance, it was born when Gothic influence disappeared and concepts derived from classical ancient times were developed and used with more security. The last phase was Baroque; it is a Portuguese word that means “irregularly shaped pearl”. It is known for the “fear of vaccui” or fear of empty spaces, everything is fully decorated and very detailed. The architecture is supposed to capture the spirit of Counter-Reformation; the sculptures resemble the agony and suffering that saints and Catholic figures had to go through. The Church wanted people to still believe regardless how much was going on in the world, specifically the Protestant Reformation.

Some of the most important Renaissance features of the cathedral of Seville are the main altar done in early Renaissance, the choir done in Baroque style as well as the sacristy, chapter room, Royal chapel as well as some parts of the exterior. After the Renaissance no features of upcoming art movements have been made; only restorations have made in neo-classic style.

The Seville cathedral is not only a place of worship, but a place of celebration, shelter, social gathering and a sanctuary for paintings, sculptures and architecture. It is an iconographic symbol of the city admired not only by tourists but by Sevillanos. It exemplifies the Spanish gazpacho; shows the incorporation of the different cultures that have lived in the city such as Romans, Arabs, and Christians and the integration of different art movements as Visigoth, Mudéjar, Gothic and Renaissance. 

THE GIRALDA
“The tower sleeps standing
and the cathedral does it lying,
that the giralda is life and the cathedral faith.
From the square one can see
the bells flying
and the prayers waiting.
And by themselves, without bell-ringer
they move their steel tongues
and St. Ferdinand awakes”.

The Giralda is one of the remaining Almohad minarets in the world; the two other are in Morocco. Ahmed Ibn Basso began the construction in 1184 and it took him twelve years to finish it.   He used the Roman and Visigoth ruins which were set fifty – two feet deep in the ground as foundation. At the topmost it used to have four copper spheres celebrating the Almohad victory in Alarcos which could be seen for miles around.
The inner architecture is as remarkable as its outside; it encompasses thirty five floors connected with quietly inclined ramps. Even though it is a long climb, the sights of the cathedral's buttresses and gargoyles on the way up as well as beautiful views of the city from the top are worth the effort. Moors respected and adored their minaret so as soon as they found out that the Christians were reconquering the city they wanted to destroy it; but Christian king Alfonso X, threatened everyone with the sword if a single stone was to be removed.      
 
In 1355 a belfry and a bell were constructed as the globes placed at the top of the tower felt due to an earthquake. By the 1500’s balconies and four more levels were added as well, a lantern dome and a group of bells were placed on top of the belfry; all the bells have religious names such as Saint Peter, Saint John The Baptist, Holy Cross, etc. In 1568 the construction was changed again by Hernan Ruiz of Cordoba who is responsible for the four classic style sections which still crown the tower.  Almost at the apex of the tower, one can read the words: “NOMEN DOMINI FORTISSIMA TURRIS,” or a mighty fortress is our tower. At the top of the tower was placed an Italian bronze thirteen feet tall sculpture of “faith” made by Diego Pesquera. Its large banner serves as a weathervane; the sculpture was popularly called “Giralda” which means something that girates – referring to the weathervane, when later on the tower was commonly called the same, people renamed the sculpture itself “Giraldillo” or little spinner or gyrator”

The present Giralda has a square base of 44.5 feet and a total height of 308 feet.  Its exterior is arranged in three vertical panels; one of windows and the other two of exquisitely decorated engraved bricks.  Besides being a faith pedestal depicting the Christian faith it is one of the most important symbols of the city which not only a tourist can admire and visit; it stands out in Seville’s landscape as a work of art that personifies the integration of two cultures – Muslim and Christian- .

EL PATIO DE LOS NARANJOS (Orange tree patio)
El Patio de Los Naranjos so-called for the many orange trees whose sweet blossoms enticed the faithful to enter to pray in the Muslim’s time; is often described as “an oasis of peace in the heart of the city”. It is a masterwork from the past mosque of Seville. The old mosque patio has been reformed due to all the restorations that have been made where the cathedral now rests.  Besides the Muslim aesthetic, the pillars which help to support the weight of the horseshoe arches, the surrounding walls with handmade engravings with words from the Koran, the corridor of the nave of the lizard, as well as the Visigoth marble fountain still exist; even though almost everything is in some way camouflaged. During the Muslim time the patio was known as the “ablutions patio” because Muslims used it to do their ablutions before entering the mosque to pray. In the Arab religion the idea of a paradise garden is of great importance and we see in their architecture elements to resemble that idea. In this case they had not only the trees but channels of water and a fountain. In the later Christian period the patio served as well to do some religious celebrations; the solemn funerals of the royal families were celebrated in this patio. 

Judy Cotter, a Sevillana of heart advises everyone who comes to Seville that before leaving this Patio, take a few minutes to contemplate again the thousands of years of culture before your eyes and under your feet – Roman, Visigoth, Arabic, Gothic, Renaissance and Neo-Classical.  If you are lucky enough to be in this patio when the trees are in full bloom, the scent of orange blossoms will forever remind you of this unique cultural compendium that is the Cathedral of Seville.
 

FORGIVENESS AND LIZARD DOOR.
Both the Door of Forgiveness and the Alligator door are the only two which are still preserved from the Muslim period. The Door of Forgiveness was the main entrance to the mosque, now it is used to enter the cathedral from its north side. Its exterior was done in the Moorish plasterwork but changed in the 16th century with Plateresque work, mostly terra-cotta statues. Even though the exterior has been changed, you still see the marvelous decorations characteristic of the Almohade plasterwork in the interior arches which have been preserved in all their purity.

“Spain possesses a work in bronze which has not been given all the importance it deserves: the larchwood doors covered in bronze of the door of forgiveness in the cathedral of Seville...” Vertical and horizontal hexagonal frames with spaces between them stand for its stamped decoration.  The hexagonal illustrations have floral designs, interlaced designs surround inscriptions in Arabic characters which repeat the phrase “The Empire is Allah’s”. Eight pointed stars with an octagon in the center are placed in the spaces left between the frames. The two doorknobs of the Door of Forgiveness are considered as well true masterpieces of Almohade decoration art, engraved bronze with an impressive shine.

The Puerta del Lagarto or Lizard door opens into the north wall of the cathedral transept. It gets its name from a wooden crocodile that hangs from the ceiling; it was thought to have been a gift from the emir of Egypt in 1260 as he sought the hand of the daughter of Alfonso the Wise. An elephant tusk found in the city of Italica is another bizarre element found in the decoration around this door.

MAIN ALTAR
The altar of the capilla mayor is an open unit closed by a stonework wall with works and Gothic statues of terra-cotta or baked clay, very good workmanship, and enormous renaissance iron screens highly ornate. The altar is dominated by the largest retablo in all Christendom (65 feet by 43 feet), that of Gothic design and Renaissance-Gothic sculpture.  It depicts some 36 scenes from the life of Christ, with pillars carved with more than two hundred figures of the apostles and saints. The whole work is lavishly adorned with gold leaf. In the central section stands one of the most beautiful works of Spanish gothic art, the Virgin of the Chair done in the 13th century. 

Two beautiful pulpits of forged, gilded iron made by Francisco de Salamanca, are placed on both sides of the central grill. The Maestro Salamanca did the grills which surround the main sanctuary as well. The pulpit on the Gospel side has figures of the four evangelists; on the other hand the Epistle Side pulpit shows different scenes from the Acts of the Apostles as well as the apocalypse.

At the back of the main altar there is the high sacristy which is used exclusively for ceremonies in the sanctuary. Because of the exceptionally valuable works of art enclosed visits there are very regulated. Some examples are the splendid sculptured ceiling of gilded wood made in 1522 by Pedro Lopez and Sebastian Rodriguez, also the set of Alejo Fernandez paintings. Although it is difficult to notice them, a large and interesting group of terra-cotta statues decorate the exterior of the walls in which the “Virgen de La Sede” stands out. Gothic stained glass windows from the 16th century complete the magnificent setting.
 
CHOIR
The 66ft x 46ft choir stands before the main sanctuary. Three of its sides are closed in by stonework walls and the fourth by a splendid golden iron screen done in Platersque style, the subject of which is the tree of Jese, and from whose reclining body sprouts the branches that culminate in Jesus.

The choir stalls are considered one of the best in their genre; they are on two levels with one hundred and seventeen seats. The fifty choir-chairs in the lower floor are decorated with reliefs of scenes from both the Old and New Testaments; but the front parts of the movable sections of the seats have monstrous representations of vices and sins. In the other hand the sixty seven upper level seats are decorated with inlaid Mudéjar woodwork, above the seats arches rise up sustained by one hundred and fourteen small wooden statues and, above the arches is a canopy supported by seventy two small figures.

The interior of the canopy is decorated with Gothic Mudéjar tracery. Toward the front and sides of the choir, three classical arcades open onto exotic Baroque vestibules of colored marble and bronze. At the back of the choir there is an Italian inspired sumptuous Doric retablo, done with jasper marble and bronze. As well there are two chapels which represent a great example of Gothic and Plateresque art.

Two gigantic organs stand on an ornate Baroque cornice help up by columns in the shape of human figures. They were made by Jorge Bosch but decorated by Pedro Duque Cornejo of Cordoba. They are a monument to music and to the musicians that gave glory to this cathedral.   

STAINED GLASS WINDOWS
In order to light the central nave, transept, side chapels and east and west end wall, the cathedral of Seville has ninety three stained glass windows primarily made in Gothic and Renaissance periods. Most of them have multiple panes decorated with figures of the saints, not many were filled with scenes of the Bible.  Most of the artisans who worked on these windows since the 15th century were of Flemish or Burgundy origin. Some of the greatest examples are The Visitation located in the western chapel and made by Vicente Menardo in 1568, also in the central nave are Death of the Virgin and Glorification done by Jean Jacques in 1511 and 1518.