OCR Text |
Show VHERE KINGS OF SPANIARDS TURNTO DUST Escorial Reflects Somber Spirit of Philip, Its Un-. Un-. happy Builder. MONUMENT TO . GREATER PAST Monastery. College, Palace, Art Gallery and Mauso- . lenm Combined. Brr&EbEKioKj7 haskin; MADRID, Spain. Tha' marvelous Taj Mahal at Agra la India tells tho story ef the Jove of a mogul emperor for hit favorite wife. The gloomy Escorial at Madrid pictures ia its snassiva grandeur the moodiness of a brooding Christian king. Its builder played a large part in great affairs, but knew little happiness. Among the palaces of Europe none more surely awakens the imagination of the visitor than the real Monasterio de San Lorenzo del Escorial. Ia it repose many of the world 's masterpieces of painting. A monastery, a college, a palace, a mausoleum, mau-soleum, and an art gallery combined, it . is unique among architectural monu- ments of Kurope. Its spirit is as somber som-ber as that of the Alhsmbra at Granada Gra-nada and the magnificent palaces of the Emperors Shah Jehsn and Akbar at Agra and. Delhi are light. Philip II. of Valladolid had sufficient tragedy in hia domeatic life toy have accounted ac-counted for his moody temperament. His first wife. Princess Mary of Portu-- Portu-- gal, died giving birth to a ton, Don Carlos, Car-los, whose mysterious death in captivity indicated murder for reasons never explained. ex-plained. He next married the English princess, Oueen Msry, dsughter of Henry VII l and her death occurred a few years afterward. He might have msrried his sister-in-law, the great Kliiaheth of England, had not the Pro testsnf reformation in England made it impossible tor such a marriage to be ananged. aid it is of record that the vi.-in qucn oxpresji-d a decided prcf-rirace prcf-rirace for his majea'v. while he scut a love letter to Englaid by the embss.a-der embss.a-der who waa dispatched to suggest the alliance, for reasons of atste. . When Philip married Elisabeth of France the wedding festivities were marred by a fstsl accident to. her father ia a tournament. tour-nament. - ' 1 1 Died ta Midst of Work. Tha' Escorisl waa buildod by Philip in obedience to an oath he swore to San tarenzo during the battle of St. Ouintia, in which the Spanish engaged tne French. He rhoee for its site a bleak emineaeevnpon a wild spur of the "Guadarrama, and gave a stern setting to a grim pile among beetling crags in the ahadow of barren peaks Long before, the reign of Philip, Caatilliant hdd worked iron mines in the Gnadar raina ta get material for weapons and armor', and the "seorise," tbo refuse from the miaea, gave the name "Escorial" "Esco-rial" to the spur of the mountaina. A village nearby waa-Vslled the village of Escorial, and the building took its naiUo from the site. It was not called the Escorial by its builder Aa if fate had decreed that nothing but eombernese should mark (he building of ths Escorial, the first arrhi-teet arrhi-teet died in the midst of his work. The plan was made ia the shape of a grid-Iron, grid-Iron, because its patroe saint, Lorenr.o, was roasted alive upon a grid. The monastery, designed for Hieronvmite monks, represents a bar of the grid, and 'the royal apartment another. The seminary semi-nary ia a third. During the course of the construction of the building Philip occupied rode lodgings on the moun tain side and supervised the work, insisting in-sisting upon severity in decoration, and obsessed by tho fear that be might die .before the pile should be completed. The first royal body to be laid to rest is the tomb was a son of Philip by his fourth wife, Anae of Austria, who died at tha age of 7 The second was that of his natural brother, Don John of Austria, who died the next year. A terrific atorm swept over the mountains and marred tho ceremonies atteadant poo transferring to the new tomb the bodies of several members of the royal family whose deaths Muurrsd before the building was begun, and a stroke of lightning split ths solid stones of on of tk walls a little later and started a conflagration that caused great damage. - Tho rumor that the devil, in the form of a tremendous dog with wings, haunt-ad haunt-ad tho eorridore, drove away some of . the workmen, and tba heavy cost so increased in-creased tsxatioa thst aa uprising was thrrateoed. HI Lag Day There. Queen Anne's body wss borne to the tcmb when it was yet incomplete, and for the fourth time Philip was left a widower. Whea his owa mortal illness overtook him in Madrid be ordered that -he should bo conveyed to the Escorial. For nearly two months ho was slowly dying there. Just before diasolutio'a he caused himself to b borne from one chamber to aaother that be might have a last look at tho building. The last vaults were hewa sfter the body of ; tho builder of the Kseorisl bad found its n-sting place in one whoa building he bad superintended. Tha pyramid of Choopd, which roars '' its granite mass -from the edge of the Kgvptiaa desert near Cairo, is believed - to have coat the lives of countless peaa-aats peaa-aats impressed ia the servies of a dea--potie ruler, bat there is nothing in the monument thst suggests ths atmosphere ef tragedy that fills tho corridor of ' tho Escorial. Aad among the tomb of king the Escorial gtsnds aloe as defining de-fining tho character of the maa who Caused it to be built. "To understand Philip, study tho Kseorisl" advises. the author of a handbook who set dowa the 'dimensions of the building, and describe de-scribe it architecture. "To under-stand under-stand tbo Eseoriai, study Philip" would . ho squally as good advice. The royal apartments srs almost as monkish ia their simplicity ss the cells of the Hier-anymite Hier-anymite fsthe'rs. Jts arcaaures of art (Continued oa page 4.) '. ' . WHERE KINGS OF SPANIARDS SPAN-IARDS TURN TO DUST (Continued from pare I.) intereat tha visitor, but ita fortres-like fortres-like appearance impreaaea him. And the imprea.ioo laata when the work, of art have been forgotten. Monument to Grant Days. That the Eseorial is a monument to the paat greatness of s eeuatry aa well a a mausoleum of king ia a fact impressed im-pressed by a block of marble, copper-lettered, copper-lettered, in the main edifice which telle that the firat atone waa laid by Philip II.. king of all the Spain., of the two Siciliee, and of Jeruealem. At that time "all of the Spain." included a good deal of the two America., and the Spani.h tongue waa epoken in every continent. The' piety of Philip i. indicated no Ieea by h au.terity of the royal apart-menta, apart-menta, auggeeting a retreat for religion, meditation rather than the luxury, or even ooraforta, of the abode of royalty, than by the ornamentation of the church. Korie eimplieitr mark. thi. edifice a. the work of an aaretic. It. twin towera are the moet ornamental part of the Eaeorial and ita arched vaa-tibule vaa-tibule and decorated dome bee peak aome relaxation of Philip's aeverity in tha construction of the place of worhip. Violence ha. been done to the idea, and plan, of King Philip in tha "Pane-ton "Pane-ton da loa Revea" the tomb of the king.. He Intended thi. to be aa earert a. pomible, but after hi. death it waa gaudily decorated, much to it. detriment. detri-ment. At the doorway of the vaulta there ia a tablet bearing this inaerip-tion: inaerip-tion: "To the varv good and very great God: sacred apo't dedicated by the piety at th A j.tr'an dynasty to. tha mortal remain, of lathoiie king., who await the de.ired day under the high altar conaecrated to the Redeemer of the human hu-man race. fl "Charles X., the moet glorion. of emperor., reeolved thia place to be the lent bed of himeelf and hie lineage: Philip II., the wic.t of king., designed it; Philip III., a monarch .incerely pious, continued the work; Philip IV., great for hi. clemeney. hi. constancy and hi. devotion, augmented, adorned and terminated it, in the year of our Lord 1654. Figures of Humanity and Hope lighten the gloom of the entrance. From where they atand one deacenda three fligbta of stepa to an octagonal chamber cham-ber lighted by a massive bronae candelabrum can-delabrum casting a flickering light upon up-on the figures of the twelve apostlea. In the niche, re.t tha a.hee of Spani.h sovereigns to the number of thirty-six, the name of eaeh .uggeeting a chapter in the troubled history of tha eountry over which they reigned. Q rest Library Them P.ming from contemplation of Philip the eonnoiaaeur of art to Philip the book worm the visitor to the Eseorial finds himself ia a library that ia an enduring en-during monument to a monarch who was a man of letters. The cities of the world were ransaeked for the book, that Philip brought to the Kacorial. At that time letter were known chiefly ia the east and Greece and Arabia and the holy land yielded their treasure at th. touch of the Hpani.h scepter, tipped with gold. - Like all true book lovers, Philip wanted hie library artistically ensconced. Vicente Cardueei adorned the vaulted ceiling of the chamber, and made the frescoes on of the enduring art treasure of the building. Tibaldi represented philoeophy, astronomy, mathematics and other aciencea in mural paintings. Flecha contributed hia matchless carving to the ornamentation of the shelves. The library of 4000 volume collected by Philip waa a handful hand-ful when compared with the vast collections collec-tions that now fill such repositories a. the eongrea.ional library at Waahmgton but for Kurope in the sixteenth eentury Philip's collection wss imposing. The apartments of Philip In the palace pal-ace of the Eseorial bring the visitor to the tomb of the Hapaburg closer to the personality of the builder. Hi personal person-al bookraae, hi. inkatand. hia writing table, the chair, upon which he .at. are among the personal relic, of the gloomy monarch whose life wa so full of tragedy. Th apartment ar those of a man temperamentally a recluse and a thinker, as ascetic, aa a piona monk. The low hum of the voice pf the friar, at their devotiona might have reached th king as he meditated upon the muddy course of mundane affaire af-faire in hi. chamber. The odor of incense in-cense burned' upon th high altar may perhaps have pervaded the room. A head of Christ adorn, th wall of the bedroom. Ia the varioua royal apartment apart-ment many of the artists whose work ia ( In other parte of th building ar represented. The atmosphere is distinctly dis-tinctly a religioua on. |