Gothein, Marie Luise; Wright, Walter Page [Editor]: A history of garden art (Band 1) (London , Toronto, 1928)

CHAPTER VIII

SPAIN AND PORTUGAL IN THE TIME OF THE RENAISSANCE

HAT of Spanish style ? Where, in what century, is there a school that
can be called national?" These questions occur in Carl Justi's Intro-
duction to the History of Spanish Art, and he thus answers them:
" One might put forward certain prelates, grandees, magistrates, guilds,
as the friends of art in the past—of art that proved their taste to be
uncritical and unprogressive—but they showed their enthusiasm rather as spectators than
as artists, just as the Arabs were wont to take pleasure in the dance."

These words are more true of the world of gardening than of any other. During
the whole period when
Spain was under the yoke
of the Arab, she was so
controlled by the manners
and customs of his nation
that the Oriental way of
life was accepted every-
where as natural and in-
evitable : therefore gardens
were open living-rooms,
and in arrangement and
ornament were extremely
like rooms or halls of
houses, which contained
fountains and flowers as
decoration.

And Moorish customs
had struck such deep roots
that for a long time after
the struggle for power in
Spain had ended in a j
victory for Christendom,
the castles and pleasure- i
houses of Catholic kings *
and their nobles were with
very few exceptions much
the same as the Moorish ones. It is true that historians endeavour to distinguish separately
a style called Mudejar, made use of by Christianised Spain until the sixteenth century;
but what we really find is that Arabian architects have discovered a way to combine their

353

FIG. 282. THE ALCAZAR, SEVILLE—GROUND-PLAN OF THE GARDENS