C. Gasquoine Hartley

“ The Spanish character speaks in every Spanish picture. There is one quality, which at a first knowledge will impress the careful observer, in all these pictures, which, though different, all have one aim—it is their dramatic seriousness. Rarely do you meet with a picture in which the idea of beauty, whether it be the beauty of colour or the beauty of form, has stood first in the painter’s mind. Almost in vain will you search for any love of landscape, for any passage of beauty introduced for its own sake. ”

“ But it is during the days of festival at Easter and the Feria that the fine hospitality of the Sevillians is seen at its best. The houses are filled to overflowing, and hospitality is taxed to a degree that only the most perfect courtesy and good-nature could endure. Every corner is received with a chorus of welcome, and embraced like a brother. Beds are surrendered, even sofas are given up, and as fresh strangers arrive, unable to gain accommodation in the crowded inns, mattresses, pillows, and rugs are brought out of cupboards, and beds are made upon the floor. ”

“ Not only in the churches that once were mosques does the passage of that great people remain, but in the houses, austere without but beautiful within, in ancient palaces, in fragments of gardens that still are places of rest, in embattled bridge and arch, in exquisite harmonies of ornament that meet you everywhere, and, more than all, we find this gracious influence in the spirit of the city itself. Toledo is a living picture, a city in which each building is a voice that speaks the history of Spain. ”

“ You seem to understand the brilliant dominion of the Moors in Spain. Only people with a history like theirs could have reigned here; life lived here could but have been a romance.
The first impression you gather from the almost bewildering beauty is how any building so seemingly fragile can be so strong. More than five centuries have passed since the Alhambra was built. The repeated earthquakes which did so much damage to Granada, and laid in ruin the Renaissance palace of Charles V., have been powerless to destroy this most delicate of architectural structures. ”

“ Here, too, Goya astonishes us with his vigorous and wonderful art; there are admirable paintings by El Greco, by Ribera, by Murillo; but we can see nothing but Velazquez. And the emotion of first seeing these pictures is one of awe. We are not in the presence of an Old Master, but of a painter who in his perfect art forestalled every modern movement in painting. This is why Velazquez stands alone among artists. And the lover of art journeys to the Prado that he may study his pictures, as the pilgrim journeys to the shrine of his saint. ”

“ All business is carried out in the vivid, primitive Spanish manner. And what impresses the stranger most is the courtesy and happy good-nature, which makes the universal bargaining a game enjoyed alike by buyer and seller.
In one corner of the plaza, under an archway, is a stone image, beneath which burns a sacred lamp, and always, as they pass, the men and women pause, cross themselves, and make a genuflection; religion is part of business. ”

“ To stay in Madrid is to undergo the most absorbing fatigue. The Madrileño lives with a speed that in Spain startles. The city never sleeps, never stays its chatter; its inhabitants are apparently so full of business that they turn day into night, yet no one seems to work. It thus comes about that the lover of Spain, who has become used to the untroubled content of happy Seville or the sleeping peace of Cordova and Toledo, can with difficulty find himself at home in Madrid. ”

“ A great town, set on its rough and elevated rock of granite in the midst of the blue Sierra, closely ringed by the deep brown water of the Tajo, it is like no other city in the world. The national character, strong and aloof, passionate and brilliant, and the nation’s history, are here epitomized before you. And coming to the city, as the stranger does, from Madrid, blatant, noisy, and modern, you will feel transplanted back into an older world. ”

“ In the intervals between their devotions the women chatter loudly together and use their fans; children play about as if in their own homes; even dogs and cats are there, quite unmolested. The Spaniard is wholly at home in his church, which to him is so much a part of the world and his daily life that he can talk, eat, sleep, and transact business, there.
As the week advances an indescribable emotion grows, which culminates on the Saturday, when, at ten o’clock in the morning, the Veil of the Temple is rent in twain. ”

“ The dull jangle from the bells of your straining mules gives an unaccustomed sound as you drive upwards, for almost every Spanish town is set upon a hill.
If the town is small, the posada where you seek for lodging will have a wineshop below. You will see a crowd of wild-looking men, with great cloaks and sombreros pulled low upon their foreheads, seated at a rude table. They are taking wine from the bota, the long-spouted leather bottle from which only the Spaniard has the skill to drink. ”

“ The Prado is the evening gathering-place of the fashionable Madrileños, and the p. 140tree-shaded promenade, from seven o’clock onwards, affords the most animated sight. An astonishing number of people collect here. In the crossways which intersect the carriage-drive, all the families of the city walk to enjoy the cool of the evening. The Madrileños are seen at their finest here. The majos, resembling plates of fashion in their tight, faultless clothes, stand about in groups admiring the ladies who roll past in landaus, for carriages are essential to fashionable Madrid. ”

“ The Andalusian’s leisure is a perpetual source of delight. What impresses the serious foreigner, who is so fortunate as to become an inmate of a Sevillian home, is the mirth and courtesy of the family, who all seem to enjoy endless leisure. Spanish households have a pleasantness quite their own. The men are never preoccupied with business; smoking cigarettes, they will pass hours chattering to the women of the family, who spend the greater part of the day working their beautiful embroideries. ”

“ Yes, the Court of Oranges is the most perfect spot in Cordova, to which the stranger will come again and again.
And when you go into the mosque itself, you will pass out of the colonnades of orange-trees into colonnades of stone. Before you, around you, everywhere, a forest of columns; and the canopy of curves above you, formed by the double rows of crossed fantastic arches, p. 110will seem like the interlacing branches of great trees. You will remember those enchanted forests you dreamed of as a child. In truth, the architecture of the mosque is like a living thing. ”

“ During summer this outdoor parade in the Prado is in gay career until midnight; and as the night advances the promenades are full of gay noise. There are open-air concerts, and dancing takes place upon the open spaces of grass. Around the stalls of the refresco sellers, families are seated talking gaily together. The greatest animation prevails. The Madrileños never seem to be tired. The abandonment to happiness is contagious, and the stranger will gain a sense of the joy of life as he sees the ardent faces of men, women, and children, in whom mirth is never vulgar, but as natural as speech. ”

“ The indefinite unquietness that so often characterizes English and American women is entirely absent. These Spanish señoras, for their happiness, have kept the pagan content.
Much of what is characteristic of the home life of the Sevillians may be gathered from the arrangement of their houses. They are all—the houses of the poor as well as those of the rich citizens—built around the patio, or shaded court, where palms, myrtles, pomegranates, and jasmines grow, and the singing of caged birds mingles with the sound of the playing fountains. ”

“ Spain has something from of old, which the younger countries of the world, with all their headlong progress, have as yet only begun to gain. That something is tradition. It is interesting to note for one’s self the signs of this tradition in the daily life of the people—in their fine understanding of the art of living, in their unfailing courtesy, in their kindness in all personal relationships. I have never known a people with so little thought of themselves or care for personal gain. ”

“ They blew and rattled with a will, and the hideous, deafening noise mingled strangely with the music of the Mass, for the evil spirit must not escape. Incomprehensible survival of an old superstition, blending the grotesque with the most sacred service of the Church—how often the stranger is surprised in Spain! ”

“ In no country does less stigma fall upon a child who is born out of wedlock. One of the strongest impressions I gained during my stay in the Peninsula was the happiness of the charming children. It is noteworthy that the first hospital for the insane was established in the country of the bull-ring. The practice of allowing counsel to poor persons in criminal cases is of much older origin than in our own country. The pest of beggars is another witness to this softness in their character; the Spaniard feels that it is inhuman to refuse alms. ”

“ And herein rests the fascination of Spain—this conservatism which has lasted into an age of hurrying progress. It is a fascination that everyone will not feel, but for those whom it touches the glamour is more permanent and irresistible than that of any other country I know. ”

“ There is something specially characteristic of the Spaniards’ attitude towards religion in thus making dancing a part of the sacred ritual of the Church. Just as the bull-fight is carried out as a solemn ceremony, so dancing, the people’s strongest passion, finds its place in the service of the house of God. To the stranger it is an astonishing ceremony, a witness to the pagan element that lives so persistently in the Spaniard—the cause of those sharp contrasts that surprise us in his character. ”

“ I know of no people who are as little careful of personal comfort. Stoicism may be said to be the religion of the true Spaniard. Every form of asceticism has been practised by him, and to-day there exist brotherhoods whose members flagellate themselves with special instruments made of sharp broken glass till the blood flows, just in the same way as the banderilleros prick the bulls in the ring. ”

“ There is a fascination about Spanish women not easy to define. Many of them are not beautiful, but they are always graceful, and they all walk beautifully. Then, most of them have the soft, expressive eyes which the East has bequeathed to Spain. ”

“ It is this ever-present consciousness of a great tradition, which we may call an understanding of “good manners,” meaning by this the art of beautiful living, finding its expression as it does in the common life of the people, that makes it true that, though the Spaniard belongs to the Past, he belongs also to the Future. He has the qualities which younger nations now are striving to gain. ”

“ Seville, the joyous southern capital, is the city that has given its own spirit to the most beautiful of the Spanish dances. Granada and Malaga are also centres of dancing, and sometimes good performances may be witnessed at Madrid. But the best cafés cantantes, where the true Spanish dancers perform, are hidden in back streets where the foreigner does not readily find them. These dances are national ceremonies and belong to the people, and are far different from the dances, often quite modern in character, that are given at the popular cafés. ”

“ The Basques claim to be the oldest race in Europe; and it is now generally acknowledged that they represent the primitive Iberians of Berber stock, who form the fundamental population of all Spain. Many primitive customs survive among them, and one of the most interesting is that by which the eldest daughter in some districts takes precedence over the sons in inheritance. They are a people of the mountains, and to know the Basques you must live in their villages; even their one town, Bilbao, in spite of its industrial and commercial prosperity, is really an overgrown village more than a city. ”

“ The niños, using a mask for the bull and the capes of red and yellow which are sold on the stalls, go through the whole pantomime of the bull-ring with a vivid and quite grown-up delight in the sharp appeal made to their sensations. Another group play at soldiers, armed with sticks for swords and holding a great flag. Other children, a little older, pass the time in flirtations. The boys pay the extravagant Spanish compliments to little girls, or in the wooded groves they sing the native melodies to the answering songs of the nightingales. ”

“ These familiar and intimate relationships, which once were common in every country, are found to-day nowhere so universally practised as in Spain. Each Spaniard that you meet gives the greeting which commends you to God. And no native ever eats in company without first uttering the customary gusta, an invitation to share in the repast, which is a survival, most probably, of the belief of primitive peoples in the evil eye that poisons the food of those who eat alone. ”

“ All the days the cathedral is filled with relays upon relays of worshippers: some kneel upon the bare stones, one by one or in groups together; some stand; others sit on the chairs they have brought with them. The black dresses and mantillas of the women mingle with the bright colours of the peasants who have come from the country districts. ”

“ The churches are the museums and picture-galleries of the city; each one has its special appeal—its precious mosaics, its ironwork, its glass windows, its cloisters, its tombs, its beautiful carvings, or its pictures.
p. 99In Toledo you understand the part that religion has taken in the history of the country. You can hardly walk for five minutes in any direction without coming upon some church; they stand at the corner of almost every square, many are embedded between the brown walls of the houses.
Its architecture shows a curious mingling of Arab, Gothic, and Renaissance work. ”

“ Rivers are not stocked, and trout hatcheries are almost unknown. The poacher is everywhere, using snares, spears, and the deadly dynamite. Thousands of small fish are scooped out of the small pools of the tributaries with pole-nets during dry seasons. But, on the other hand, Spain is, happily, almost free, except in the mining districts of the north, from poisoned and contaminated waters. There are thousands of miles of beautiful rivers with no factories, works, or big cities within many leagues of their lengths. Then, the fish in the Spanish rivers are splendidly prolific. ”

“ But this development of a national art on the basis of Flemish influence was not of long duration, and before the fifteenth century closed the newly-born Spanish school was rudely disturbed by the introduction into Spain of the Italian influences of the Renaissance. The building of the Escorial brought a crowd of artists from Italy—not the great masters, for they were no longer alive, but pupils more or less mannered and decadent. Spain was overrun with third-rate imitators of the Italian grand styles, of Michael Angelo, of Raphael, and their followers. ”

“ Spain’s claim to the world’s attention in the arts, as also in literature, rests upon the accomplishment of individuals more than upon the general average of her work. It is the result of that personal quality—the predominance of character—which rules every department of Spanish achievement. ”