DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63330#0009
THE LIFE OF VELAZQUEZ
CHAPTER I
EARLY YEARS AT SEVILLE
1599-1623
Few cities of the world suggest by their very names the poetry of
a picturesque past more vividly than Seville. After five centuries of
Catholic rule, it still retains the impress of its Arab masters, its character
as a meeting-place of East and West, where buildings, customs, and
traditions proclaim the fusion of the hardy Gothic spirit with the
exotic culture and magnificence of the Moorish genius. Jaber’s tower
still divides the traveller’s interest with the great Cathedral ; the marble
courts and fountains of the East are common features of the houses ;
the convents and palaces were once the homes of Moorish kings ; and
in the architecture of the Christian churches built during the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries, the mingling of Gothic elements with the Sara-
cenic arch seems to deliberately symbolise the marriage of alien races.
Nowhere, indeed, has the scent of the roses clung more persistently to
the broken vase than in Seville.
The geographical position of the city marked it out from early
times for a centre of commercial enterprise. The Guadalquivir gave
it not only easy access to the sea, but a water-way for inland transport.
Long before the discovery of the New World, Seville was the most
flourishing city of the peninsula, but after the conquest of Mexico and
Peru, its wealth and importance were vastly increased. The Silver
Fleet unloaded in the port, galleons freighted with Spanish pistoles, and
argosies
Laden with spice and silks
brought their precious cargoes to her quays. Auctions were held in
CHAPTER I
EARLY YEARS AT SEVILLE
1599-1623
Few cities of the world suggest by their very names the poetry of
a picturesque past more vividly than Seville. After five centuries of
Catholic rule, it still retains the impress of its Arab masters, its character
as a meeting-place of East and West, where buildings, customs, and
traditions proclaim the fusion of the hardy Gothic spirit with the
exotic culture and magnificence of the Moorish genius. Jaber’s tower
still divides the traveller’s interest with the great Cathedral ; the marble
courts and fountains of the East are common features of the houses ;
the convents and palaces were once the homes of Moorish kings ; and
in the architecture of the Christian churches built during the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries, the mingling of Gothic elements with the Sara-
cenic arch seems to deliberately symbolise the marriage of alien races.
Nowhere, indeed, has the scent of the roses clung more persistently to
the broken vase than in Seville.
The geographical position of the city marked it out from early
times for a centre of commercial enterprise. The Guadalquivir gave
it not only easy access to the sea, but a water-way for inland transport.
Long before the discovery of the New World, Seville was the most
flourishing city of the peninsula, but after the conquest of Mexico and
Peru, its wealth and importance were vastly increased. The Silver
Fleet unloaded in the port, galleons freighted with Spanish pistoles, and
argosies
Laden with spice and silks
brought their precious cargoes to her quays. Auctions were held in