DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29899#0517
Bk. YIIL Ch. II.
MOBESCO STYLE.
497
never attempted either a vault or a dome, but were always content with
an easily constructed wooden roof, calling for no ingenuity to design,
and no thought how to convert its mechanical exigences into artistic
beauties. The Moorish architects could play with their style, and con-
sequently produced fascinating elegances of detail ; the Gothic archi-
tects, on the contrary, were forced to work like men, and their result
appeals to our higher intellectual wants ; though in doing so they
frequently neglected the polish and lighter graces of style which are so
pleasing in the semi-Asiatic art of the South of Spain.
The other synagogue—del Transito—we know was completed in
1366. It is merely a large room, of pleasing proportion, the walls of
which are plain and solid up to about three-fourths of their height.
Above this a clerestory
admits the light in a manner
singularly agreeable in a hot
climate. The roof is of
wood, of the form called
Artesinado in Spain, from
its being something in the
form of an inverted trough
—with coupled tie-beams
across, so that, though ele-
gant in detail it has no
constructive merit, and the
whole depends for its effect, 1
like all Moorish work in
Spain, on its ornamental
details.
All the churches we
know of in this style clate within the period comprised between the
fall of Toledo (1085) and that of Granada (1492). During that time
the Moors were still sufficiently powerful to be respected and their art
toleratecl. After their expulsion from their last stronghold, fear being
removed, bigotry became triumphant, and persecution followed, not
only of the people and their religion, but of everything that recalled
either to remembrance.
It is possible that some larger and more important churches than
those we now find were erected during this period in this style ; but if
so, they have perished. One of the largest at Toledo, San Bartolomeo,
has an apse (AAoodcut No. 959) little more than 30 ft. across over all,
and others, such as Santa Fé, Santa Leocadia, San Eugenio, or Santa
i" 111111111,1
Apse of St. Bartolomeo. (From 1 Mon. Arch.’)
Scale 25 ft. to 1 in.
1 The room called Paranimfo in the
University of Alcala(see Woodcut No. 89,
History of Modern ArchPe'"ture, vol. i.)
VOL. II.
is of precisely similar design to this, only
carried out with Renaissance instead of
Moorish detail.
2 K
MOBESCO STYLE.
497
never attempted either a vault or a dome, but were always content with
an easily constructed wooden roof, calling for no ingenuity to design,
and no thought how to convert its mechanical exigences into artistic
beauties. The Moorish architects could play with their style, and con-
sequently produced fascinating elegances of detail ; the Gothic archi-
tects, on the contrary, were forced to work like men, and their result
appeals to our higher intellectual wants ; though in doing so they
frequently neglected the polish and lighter graces of style which are so
pleasing in the semi-Asiatic art of the South of Spain.
The other synagogue—del Transito—we know was completed in
1366. It is merely a large room, of pleasing proportion, the walls of
which are plain and solid up to about three-fourths of their height.
Above this a clerestory
admits the light in a manner
singularly agreeable in a hot
climate. The roof is of
wood, of the form called
Artesinado in Spain, from
its being something in the
form of an inverted trough
—with coupled tie-beams
across, so that, though ele-
gant in detail it has no
constructive merit, and the
whole depends for its effect, 1
like all Moorish work in
Spain, on its ornamental
details.
All the churches we
know of in this style clate within the period comprised between the
fall of Toledo (1085) and that of Granada (1492). During that time
the Moors were still sufficiently powerful to be respected and their art
toleratecl. After their expulsion from their last stronghold, fear being
removed, bigotry became triumphant, and persecution followed, not
only of the people and their religion, but of everything that recalled
either to remembrance.
It is possible that some larger and more important churches than
those we now find were erected during this period in this style ; but if
so, they have perished. One of the largest at Toledo, San Bartolomeo,
has an apse (AAoodcut No. 959) little more than 30 ft. across over all,
and others, such as Santa Fé, Santa Leocadia, San Eugenio, or Santa
i" 111111111,1
Apse of St. Bartolomeo. (From 1 Mon. Arch.’)
Scale 25 ft. to 1 in.
1 The room called Paranimfo in the
University of Alcala(see Woodcut No. 89,
History of Modern ArchPe'"ture, vol. i.)
VOL. II.
is of precisely similar design to this, only
carried out with Renaissance instead of
Moorish detail.
2 K