Page:Lisbon and Cintra, Inchbold, 1907.djvu/46

Rh one wonders at these evidences of a constructive enterprise that yet fails in appreciative guardianship of its most ancient Cathedral. Like some poor, scarred, suffering Cyclops, the old Sé looks dumbly over the town and the broad bay, a pathetic image of the tragedy of neglected age and a perverse fate. It is a spectacle to draw tears to the eyes.

A broad flight of steps mounts to the principal entrance and the dim solemnity of the old Romanesque nave calms that strained impression caused by the maimed exterior. Since the clustered marble pillars that support the round arches have been stripped of the stucco which covered them for years, much of the primitive grandeur of the old temple has been regained, though in exploring the whole area with its cloisters one finds at every step mutilations of art—the results of bygone restorations—side by side with historical mementoes of interest. The choir is Gothic with pointed arches, but the ceiling is painted. Handsome altars of granite stand on both sides of the choir decorated with pillars, costly in value, of the twisted cable form, which is one of the decorative features of the Manueline architecture. To the Portuguese this style is the ne plus ultra of architecture, and the sight of cable moulding as ornamentation for any piece of sculpture is guarantee to him of the correct taste of the sculpture.

The passion of D. Manuel, the Fortunate, for building was given full scope at a time when the nation was given up to maritime expeditions, when their ardour for discovery of unknown lands was justified by the successful enterprise of Vasco da Gama. The great sea captain and his bold sailors were regarded as men nobly sacrificing their lives for the glory and advantage of Portugal, and honour to navigation found national expression in the sculptured rope ornamentation of the period. The Manueline architecture is an extraordinary development of amalgamated 24