Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/292

276 276 SPANISH ARCHITECTURE. Part II. cases might have been better expended on a larger and jiurer style of art. Some parts of the church of San Miguel at Xeres exceed even this in richness and elaborateness of ornament, and surpass anything found in Northern cathedrals, unless it be the tabernacle-work of some tombs, or the screens of some chapels. In these it is always applied to small and merely ornamental parts. In Sjtain it is frequently spread over a whole churcli, and thus, what in a mere subordinate detail would be beautiful, on such a scale becomes fatiguing, and is decidedly in very bad taste. It would be tedious to attempt to enumerate or describe the other cathedrals of Spain, or the numerous conventual or collegiate churches, many of which are still in use, with their cloisters and conventual buildings nearly complete. In this respect Spain is nearly as rich as France ; while she possesses, in proportion to her jiopulation, a larger number of important parochial churches than that country, though inferior in that respect to England. The laity seem during the Middle Ages to have been of more importance in the Spanish Church than they were north of the Pyrenees, and the tendency of the architecture therefore was to provide for their accommodation. If, however, any such feeling then existed, it was carefully stamped out l)y the Inqui- sition after the fall of Granada. It would be interesting, however, to trace it back, and try to ascertain the cause whence it arose. Was it that the Aryan blood of the Goths was then more prevalent, and that the Iberian race has since become more dominant ? Whatever the cause, it is one of those problems on which architecture may hope to throv,' some light, and to which, consequently, it is most desirable that uie attention of architects should be turned. MoRKsco Style. Wliile Gothic churches were being erected under French influence in the north and centre of Spain, another style was developing itself under Moorish influence in the South, which, in the hands of a more artistic people than the Spaniards, might have become as beautiful as any other in Europe. It failed, however, to attain anything like com- pleteness, primarily because the Spaniards were incapable of elaborating any artistic forms, but also perhaps because the two races came to hate one another, and the dominant people to abhor whatever belonged to those they were so cruelly persecuting. If we knew more of the ethnic relations of the Moors who con- quered Spain in the 8th century we might perhaps be able to predi- cate whether it were possible for such dissimilar parents to produce a fertile hybrid. It seems certain, however, that the Moors did not belong to any Turanian race, or traces of their tombs would be found :