Spanish Splendor [antikvár]

Roman colonization is the starling point in understai During the five hundred years of Rome's domir Celt-Iberian populatii the cradle of the phil and the emperors Trajai engineering and small a The ruins of Italic inding Spanish culture, on of the region, the native II became completely Romanized, to the degree that il was iopher Seneca, the poets Lucano, Marcial, and Juvenal, [1, Hadrian, and Theodosius. Impressive works of ind large cities were scattered throughout the peninsula, ir Seville, expose the wealth and magnitude of the houses of the Roman citizens. The long pax romana facilitated the development of the countryside and the construction of splendid villas, complexes which were made up of luxurious residences surrounded by agricultural structures, similar to the cortijos (farms) that have survived in Andalusia and Extremadura to the present day.The fall of the Roman Empire, at the hands of the barbarians, permitted the Visigoths, the most Romanized of the Germanic peoples, to settle in Iberia. With them, the first Hispanic kingdom was bom, which established its capital in Toledo. The feudal structure characteristic of the Germanic peoples was imposed; individual estates and armies were established. Though the Visigoths came to dominate the Hispano-Roman peoples, who were much more numerous and cultured, as often happens the superior culture of the vanquished came to influence their conquerors. Roman methods of construction were presen'ed, with arches, vaults, and columns applied to basilicas and residences, ahhough a lower level of luxury and artistic quality pervaded the post-Roman buildings. More than two hundred years later, in 711, the Arabs crossed the Strait of Gibraltar. They conquered don Rodrigo, the Visigoth king, and in a very short time occupied the entire peninsula, aided by the Jewish minority and the passivity of the Hispano-Roman population. Over the next eight hundred years, small groups of Christians, who had taken refuge from the Arabs in the northern portion of the country, driven by the ideal of the restoration of Gothic unity, fought gradually to recover their former territory. The Christian kingdoms considered themselves to be the heirs to the Visigoth kingdom. The countryside became an insecure place to live because of Moslem surprise attacks, and numerous houses and hamlets were abandoned. Life became centered around small cities in the north, such as Oviedo and León. A vast no-man's-land to the south formed a defensive barrier against the enemy. The Reconquest, the struggle to end Islamic rule in Spain, was gradually realized through repopulation of the countryside by Asturians, Cantabrics, and Basques, who built small fortified towns around noblemens' castles. The Moslems inhabited the more populated territories, where the majority of the Hispano-Romans had remained. They lived in the cities which rapidly gained great fame and splendor, such as Córdoba, the capital of tlie Omeya Caliphate, Seville, Zaragoza, Toledo, and Badajoz. They raised powerful fortresses and citadels, and tore down the Christian-Visigoth basilicas, building beautiful mosques. They adopted the Mediterranean style of house witli an interior courtyard for use in the cities. Rooms of unequaled opulence and materials, never before seen in the Christian territories, denoted the supreme level of sensibility and civilization arrived ut by Islamic Spain. They luill a culture far superior to those elsewhere in Europe. The fail of the Caliphate of Córdoba at the beginning of the eleventh century initiated the breakup of the MoHletn territories into sev(-ral Islamic kingdoiUH, which [jrovided an advantuge for the Christian kings in tlu-ir ndvaneemenl of llie Kcconquest. Castile eon|uered Toledo in 1085, Córdoba in 12., and Si-villo in 124. Aragón and Portugal ended the Reconquest and turned their attention to their Mediterranean and Atlantic enterprises. The countryside became filled with castles [not to be forgotten is the fact that the name Costilla (Castile) is derived from the vast number of castle structures in that region] and the life of the nobility was concentrated within them. The period of Reconquest ended in 1492 when the Catholic monarchs look Granada.The Moslem influence, however, was not lost. Il had extended into the arts and customs of the country. The Mudejar (a Mudéjar is a Mohammedan living under a Christian king in Spain) style emerged, representing the synthesis of Christian forms and Arab decorative motifs. Churches, caslles, and furnishings were fashioned in this style well into the sixteenth century. (The palaces of Las Duenas and Pilatos are prime examples of the Renaissance-Mudéjar slyle.) Kings and nobles adopted Moorish customs. King Henry IV was even accused of living in loo Islamic a slyle. The traveler León de Rosmilhal was surprised by his court, which "eats, drinks, dresses and prays according to Moorish customs, and is an enemy of Christians he granted an audience to my master; the king and queen were seated together on the ground" The writer was referring to the custom of sitting on pillows and cushions, which were placed on an estrado, or dais, covered with sumptuous rugs. Originally, an estrado was used as a reception area. Eventually this type of area came to be used only by women of the house. During the seventeenth century it was still amazing to foreigners that Spanish ladies would sit on pillows on the estrado and around them, at a lower level, sat the men on stools and chairs. Several Castilian authors included descriptions of estrados in their works. Among them, Maria de Zayas described a luxurious estrado "with green velvet pillows on which silver tassels and trim appeared extremely beautiful, competing with a showy chaise longue which, to one side of the estrado, must have been a throne, seal and protection for the beautiful Lisis. . . .