REJERIA OF TH E SPANI SH RENAI SSANCE A C O LLECTI ON O F PH OTO GRAPH S AND MEAS!RED D RAWINGS WITH DESC RI PTIVE TEXT !Y A RT H !R !YN E AN ! MI !!RE! ST A P!EY NEW Y O RK 1 9 1 4 Co ri ht 1 1 b py g , 9 4 , y T H E H I SPA N I C SOC I ETY H ispan ic Society Publications 8 No . 7 !!RG O S I NTRO D !CTI ON EN AI SSAN CE Architecture in Spain could not be fully appreciated without exam ining the - towering wrought iron grilles , or Rej as , of the period . These exhibit a dom ination over the stubborn material never attained elsewhere . The Span ish iron - worker became a veritable magician ; he made the heaviest of metals seem mere gossamer ; he turned the cheapest into something priceless . Not only did he sur ‘ o f pass the lim its his material , but he converted the Reja , which had hitherto been nothing more than an architecton ic accessory , into a colossal creation that ceased to be tributary to its surround er e as ings and stood p r a monumental achievement . In it the national elation produced by the Fall of Granada and the D iscovery of the Ne w Wo rld fixed itself most distinctively as it sought expression in art . The indomitable Span ish temper began to revel in the task of tam ing iron . The small screens which , all through Christian ized Spain , had always been the accus to m e d means of separating chapels from the body of the church VI l - h Pronoun ced Ray ah. was no longer sufficed . Somethin g splendid demanded ; and to m was secure this more agn ificent Rej a , the matter often given O re e ro w as out to competition . n such an occasion the j , who generally a sculptor and architect as well , would travel a great distance to submit his designs to the cathedral chapter . Thus , being a focusing of circumstances purely national , the Renaissance Rej a is a more interesting and valuable study than Span ish Gothic productions in iron ; these , while all too little e known , present but few variations from Gothic work els where in E is uro pe ; the Rej a , on the contrary , unmatched , unapproached even , by any other country . h It has been regretted by writers on the art of Italy t at , du ri n g a those insp ired centuries when she w s producing the Renaissance , — iron - beating was not a more popular craft that the world has thereby m issed glorious works . Let the world , then , turn to that other and less exploited Pen insula of Southern Europe ; for surely not even Italy at her happiest moment could have surpassed ’ Spain s superb Rej as . ’ R E JE RI A O F T H E S PA N I S H R E NA I S S A N C E HE high altar of Christian temples , suppl ied as it was from the beginn ing with rich fur n ishi n e n c l o gs , necessitated some adequate sure — one that would protect the sacred treasures and at the same time leave them visible to worshipers outside . I ron , strong , as plentiful , and capable of being wrought in open patterns , w the obvious choice . The screens fashioned out of it are known in S pain as Rej as . I n Romanesque churches , where the earl iest Rej as must be - sought , the separate un its are an endless n umber of C Shaped — a scrolls . These are riveted into a rich arabesque design common to medieval Navarre , Catalon ia , and the adj acent Roussillon , which was then part of Spain . Pamplona Cathedral contains one of the finest of the type (Plate I) , made , accord in g to tradition , from Moorish chains captured by the Navarrese at 1 2 2 the Battle of !as Navas in 1 . The Style , while beautiful , - was comparatively short l ived ; for early in the XV Century , or su c perhaps sooner , ironworkers seem to have decided that a Plate ll !ARCELONA CATHEDRAL cession of spaced vertical bars strengthened by a few horizontal members would answer their pu rpose better than scrolls . This bar type soon became the accepted convention and was well establ ished in Spain before the i nitiation of the period we are to d iscuss . Its increase of transparency is instantly evident (Plate I I) ; likewise the increase of st ruct ura bil ity and d ign ity in the mere vertical ity itself . The new design by its very n ature precluded ornamentation from the body of the Rej a and left it to be concentrated in cresting and lock , with horizontal structural members remaining strictly util itarian . But by de grees this austerity van ished and embellishment began to creep in everywhere ; the severe succession of tall plain uprights was mod ified by twistin g them or spl itting and open in g them out as Si ii e n za into hearts or trefoils , in the g examples (Plates IV , e V , and VI) ; the pre m inently util itarian aspect of horizontals gave way before adornment which converted them into elabo rate broad bands that divided the composition into tiers ; the i ts cresting , to keep dominatin g part as the princi pal d isplay point , grew extraordinarily rich . Meanwhile the lock , that pride of Gothic artisans , was dwindl ing into inconspicuousness . O f the various features undergoin g elaboration the one which expanded most while still in the Gothic period was the crest i ng . I n an early Barcelona example (Plate I I) a simple floral arran gement fin ishes off the com position ; but the later and more amb itious Gothic worker tried figures , hammering them up out of the sol id when small , or embossing two reverse sheets H i s an d rivetin g these together to form the round when large . success emboldened him to try those rich effects which mark Plate JV SI G!EN!A CATHEDRAL CLOISTER REJA ( A !O!T the gloom of Sevilla Cathedral at a height of some thirty feet . Below this burst of new forms the old Gothic twisted bars still i hold their own . This s not a specially early spec i men ( 1 5 1 9) and much less architecton ic than others of its day ; but it is ’ — Sancho M ufi e z s interpretation of Renaissance to preserve the Gothic impressiveness that came from a repetition of twisted uprights and to assemble all the variety his fertile brain could devise in a sumptuous crown ing decoration of kings , prophets , Renaissance scrolls and exaggerated candelabra . These last , sur mounting the b ig supporting members below , carry the eye from the ground up in a way which makes the whole composition seem even loftier than it is . Cresting , as we see here and in the Granada example (Plate X IX) , had reached great development before the bar itself suc c um be d to new treatment . The process which slowly ban ished ! the tall Gothic bar may be described as follows first , the breakin g up of its assertive verticality by means of accentuated horizontal e members ; next , the s lectin g of a certain few bars , usually at the ends of the Rej a or at each side of the central opening , for special variati on into a tentative Renaissance p ilaster (Plate V) very tentative indeed , since it was generally but three or four ’ i n d e e n d inches square . Nevertheless it asserts the designer s p ence of expression in breaking away from the succession of ’ sim ilar un its that had been the earl ier worker s creed ; while the attenuated l ittle Corinthian capital that frequently surmounted the new - born pilaster invited the use of chisel and file in its — execution a further departure from the Gothic method of ham merin g up . The last stage in the making over of bars was to I 3 SI G!EN!A CATHEDRAL Plate VI SIG!EN!A CATHEDRAL CLOISTER REJA ( A!O!T 1 507 ) i s this distinctly Renaissance feature . It the antithesis of the - old time Gothic bar , where the marks of the mallet show with charming frankness , as in the Barcelona detail of Plate I . ! use With the of spindles in ranks and rows , l iterally in thousands , the attenuated pilaster emerged from its previous inconspicuousness and took on the imposing massiveness illus r t t a e d in the detail from Granada (Plate XXI) . Though only a simulated massiveness (for the huge pilaster was in real ity a Stout wooden beam covered with iron plates) its proportions e m pha f sized the general architectural character o the whole . The embossin g of its metal sheath shows how , if the artisan were a not actually a S ilversm ith , he w s at least far more conversant with the art of workin g silver than with the van ishin g methods of early blacksm ithing . This is again apparent in the i n tro d uc tion of many finely modeled medall ion portraits in repoussé , an d even large compositions by the same process , as in Plate XV , as from Sevilla . It w the versatility , too , of the man trained in many crafts that brought heraldic ornament into such prom i - mence in iron work .