International studio (34.1908)

Hispanic Society of America

the unforgotlen dead; but these monuments seldom
minister also to the intellectual interest and pleasure
of the living. Of such is the gallery that General
Hawkins has built at Providence and filled with
treasures to the memory of his wife; of such is this
filial tribute on the heights of Manhattan, a
Spanish and Portuguese library and museum,
serving as a link between the English and Spanish-
speaking people.
Spain has always been Mr. Archer M. Hunting-
ton’s preoccupation, his serious hobby. His
studies and labors have culminated in the founda-
tion of the Hispanic Society and the assemblage
within its museum of his treasures, including rare
manuscripts and a library of nearly 50,000 volumes.
In May, 1904, the deed of foundation was executed.
Eight lots of land in Audubon Park were conveyed,
and three hundred and fifty thousand dollars were
granted as an endowment. The building was
opened early this year. To-day the American
public can enjoy a coup d’oeil of the magnificence
of Spain, and with the slightest of formalities mav
study her finest literature. The great museums
of Europe are richer in individual departments—
Madrid, for example, which contains three-fourths
of the masterpieces that Valasquez painted; but
probably no other museum contains such a general
collection of the spoils of Spain as this isolated
columnar building on the heights above the city
of New York.
The interior suggests a Spanish patio; but as
the ground floor is arranged as a reading-room,
and as the winter in New York is apt to be rigorous,
the architect has introduced the precaution of a
strong glass roof. Members of the general public
are not admitted to the reading-room unless they
have obtained reading tickets; but the galleries are
open every afternoon and are free to all. Let us ac-
company a Stranger who, maybe, enters this unique
museum for the first time. In the entrance hall
he notices two tall objects dominating the vestibule.
They date from Egypt of the fourteenth century;
they are the wings of the door of a mosque built by
Barkuk, one of the Mamluk Sultans of Egypt;
they bear the name of Sultan Barkuk in Arabic,
inlaid with silver on the repousse bronze, and the
message they would deliver to our Stranger, if they
could speak, would be : “ Through the Arabic door
you must pass to understand the heart of Spain.”
Then our Stranger ascends the stairs, noting the
tiles and mosaics embedded in the walls, belonging
to the periods of the Roman domination and the
Moorish occupation. He passes on to the gallery,
and leaning over the balustrade gazes down upon

the patio reading-room. Austere but comfortable
look the mahogany library tables on terra cotta
bases, tie notices that piers of that warm, imper-
ishable substance, decorated in relief with the coats
of arms of Spanish provinces and cities, support
the galleries, and spring upward to the roof. He
observes that round the four walls range Spanish
pictures. The decorative effect is magnificent
even if all the works be not masterpieces. On the
south wall facing him are a range of large portraits
of Spanish notabilities, producing an effect as sump-
tuous as the sweep of portraits of royal personages
in the Waterloo Chamber of Windsor Castle; the
north wall glitters with Spanish Primitives, some
gold-encrusted in the manner of Crivelli, the un-
couth splendor of Byzantium over all; to the east
he notes, if he be something of a connoisseur in
painting, the saccharine religiosity of Murillo, and
the gaunt, elongated types of El Greco; and on the
west wall, in the center, a fine Goya, an attractive
rendering of the much-painted Duchess of Alba,
who is pointing to the signature of the artist at her
feet. Adjoining the Duchess is a direct and force-
ful portrait of General Forastera, more restrained
than is usual with Goya, who would sometimes
paint a portrait in a day, working from morn till
evening, “ in absolute silence, with extraordinary
concentration and vigor.”
Then our Stranger’s eyes drop from the Goyas to
the glass cases that stand, treasure-full, against the
walls : here a rare collection of old Spanish treasures
—crosses, monstrances, carvings, images; there
specimens of primitive pottery followed by carvings
on ivory, dating from the era of the Phoenicians.
One of them, depicting a bull attacked by two lions,
bears an interesting resemblance to the engraved
bone, the masterpiece of the Reindeer Period,
found in the grotto of Lorthet in the Pyrenees.
Yonder, against the south wall, is an array of His-
pano-Maurescjue luster ware. These beautiful
objects dazzle while they charm; the eyes turn al-
most with relief from their iridescent loveliness
to the calmer beauty of the illuminated manu-
scripts and the Spanish volumes ranging from the
first book printed in Spain with movable type, in
1475, the manuscript of George Sorrow’s “Bible
in Spain.”
Having wandered round the galleries, peering
here and there, regretting that he had never
mastered Spanish, our Stranger is handed a terra
cotta-colored card containing the titles and descrip-
tions of the thirty-five pictures. While he is study-
ing the works seriatium, I will describe briefly
certain other sections of the collection. First, the

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