Seville and Flamenco: the Sacred and Profane

And then there’s Sevilla (Spanish name) capital of Andalucia and ancient city of dreams. The historic  center of this colorful and fragrant city presents an ornate and romantic city filled with orange-trees everywhere, and gitanos/gypsies everywhere, some still living in the pre-historic caves in the hills around Seville… now adorned with curtains.

all photos by JS

square in the ancient part of Seville, Spain (JS)

It’s a city famous for its huge bullring (think Carmen), its gypsies (think Carmen), its flamenco (think Carmen), its intense oranges, and its huge over-the-top cathedral, the enormity and seeming haphazardness of which I cannot possibly convey to you by word or photo. In it, Columbus is buried in grandiose style, nothing in this cathedral being less than grandiose. It’s the largest cathedral in Spain and the third largest in the world (after St. Peter’s in the Vatican and St. Paul’s Anglican). Having shown you some of Burgos in a previous posting, you get some idea of how immense this even larger one is: really, really BIG!

By the way, if you haven't seen Bizet's Carmen, go get the opera film. It's one terrific musical-drama. It was the very first live opera I was taken to see (by my parents' friend and  piano teacher who despaired of my ever getting in tune)... and I still love the feistiness of that 'bad' girl heroine. (Bizet wasn't Spanish, so how could he have  known it's "torero", not "toreadore. Then again, I guess in lyrics it's fitting the beat that matters most). 

                                                                                                                                                                                   

This is a major altar in the Seville Cathedral... the figures are life-sized or larger, so get an idea of its scale!

Much of the Cathedral is done in the plateresque style (plateresco), which is typically Spanish, and exported to Spain’s colonies in Latin America. Literally translated (plata = silver), it means "in the manner of a silversmith".  It’s  characterized by profuse and lavish applications of delicate low-relief ornament in a variety of motifs, including Gothic, Renaissance, and Moorish design. Gilding and painted surfaces are included in the elaborate ornamentation.

Seeing this style so often in Spanish cathedrals made me wonder if the elaborate excesses often characterizing a Spanish girl’s Quinceañera could derive somehow from this long-standing Spanish tradition for ornamental display. 

Columbus's tomb in Cathedral of Seville (larger than lifesize figures)

I got shell-shocked after walking into the Cathedral. It was too big, too disorganized, too much of too much for me even to get a sense of the awesome or profound or beautiful. Quite the opposite of a rush, I felt a drain. Although I saw some impressive sights in it, as the photos document, I might be the only person in the world not enraptured by this Cathedral and I feel rather sorry about it.

 Here's a fragment of a painting in Seville showing Hell. Why does Hell inspire so much imaginative energy compared to Heaven? the other side of this painting could be a depiction of people waiting patiently for a bus.

My sense of wonder and glee returned after entering the Alcazar Real (Royal Palace), only a brief walk from the Cathedral. The Christian monarchs, Alfonso X and Pedro I employed Moorish craftsmen to build it in the 14th century. It's a wonderful example of  Mudéjar architecture (a mix of Moorish-Western).  


This royal palace, once inhabited by Isabella and Ferdinand, is still inhabited on their visits to Seville by the present Spanish king and queen (Carlos and Sophia). Aside from the royal quarters, much of the Alcazar is open to the public to see its ancient treasures in paintings and architecture (mostly Moorish, again, along with renaissance motifs ). Columbus had one of his latter audiences with Isabell and Ferdie in this place, perhaps both impressed and daunted by what he’d started to roll. 

Mosaic tiles in Alcazar Real, Seville (JS

Moving easily from the sacred to the profane, we went to see a Flamenco performance that same evening. I think I must have gotten hooked on Flamenco when I was an infant and  saw Julio Greco on the Ed Sullivan show. Such restraint in the midst of conveying strong emotion still gets to me. I don’t like bull-fighting; but I do think of the stamping movements in flamenco as embodying something of the bull’s pent-up rage. Similarly, the taught push-and-pull movements of pairs of dancers conveys an energy related to taming, while at the same time expressing, our animal/sexual nature. I’m sure there are dissertations out there on the "meaning” of Flamenco. But I just enjoy it: the music, the singing, the dance. It’s not happy, but there is so much energy and vitality in its pulse.

Today's Thought

Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.

--Victor Hugo

I found an intriguing bit of information on Flamenco provided by the Frommers’ travel site, from which I’ll excerpt.  They mention connections between flamenco and the tragic fate of Spanish Jewry, suggesting that a Sephardic presence can be felt in flamenco music.  Flamenco took root after the  1492 expulsion and flourished underground. They state that many flamenco melodies are similar to Hebrew prayers, also noting similarities of the Hebrew “jalel” (to encourage) and the flamenco “jaleo” (the hand-clapping and shouts of encouragement accompanying the dance). Even the name flamenco (“Flanders” in Spanish) was how Conversos in Spain referred to the sacred music of their co-religionists who had emigrated to Flanders where freedom of worship was permitted. Who knows?

    

 I enjoyed staying in Sevilla. The hotel (Hotel Las Casas de la Juderia; photo at left) was a treat as were the small cafes and restaurants. People seem to enjoy living there. The unusual and highly rated hotel we stayed at was converted from a series of old houses  and retained some lovely old qualities along with excellent modern facilites and staff. 

Today's Painting

Cat & Hat, www.janetstrayerart.comhttp://www.janetstrayerart.com

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A FIND in Spain: ELCHE and the Phoenix

En route back southward we stopped at the small city of Elche, only because it was convenient and we wanted to avoid the traffic in Valencia. But what a find! It’s a lovely, small city with one of the best hotels we’ve stayed in, set in a park-like area of palms and greenery.

Today's Painting (1 of 3 in this post)

This one just happened to fit my mood while writing about the garden in Elche:

watercolor by Janet Strayer

This is absolutely the place to go when weary of the road and wanting comfort. The Hotel Huerta del Cura  (don’t know if it gets crowded later in the season) is surprisingly reasonably priced. It comprises an elegant, well equipped set of bungalows strewn along garden paths leading in different directions from an attractive and welcoming reception area with good restaurant (buffet breakfasts were great) and a friendly staff. A lovely swimming pool rests in this tropical setting and is bordered by a patio with tables for drinks or whatever. There’s an area for kids and a playground in back, making it family-friendly , and it has a closed garage for the luggage-challenged. 

Yikes, I sound like an agent for the hotel!Nope, we’ve just been there twice during our travels in Spain because we so enjoyed the privacy and calm of it. In fact, we’ve arranged to stop at Elche again on our goodbye to Spain when we head for our next home in Italy.

We liked the city, too, with its fine public garden and very good restaurant in the middle of that, too. And there were nice little tapas restaurants and ice cream shops in nearby squares. I liked it so much I had the fantasy of opening an art studio there  …. as if. But maybe, as in most places you love for the respite they give you (travelers do get frayed!), it may not be so wonderful on a fulltime basis. Can’t see what’s not to like, though.

Even the main industry of Elche is terrific: they are a major center in Europe for  footwear. I am a shoe-addict, and even the fear of becoming Imelda Marcos does not deter me. Did I buy boots of Spanish leather? Not this time. Only because I’m wearing only ortho-shoes these days. But I sure had the urge!

Today's Painting (boots figure prominently in this one)

mixed media painting-assemblage by Janet Strayer

Nearby the hotel is a famous garden, also named Huerta del Cura,with very, very, old palm-trees, some originally planted by the Phoenicians and growing still. The garden is entered for a small fee. Inside is a green and golden place of luxuriant forgetfulness of time and worry. 

Tame peacocks roam and graze in the garden area  (gated along its perimeter) and goldfish swim in its ponds. What I mean by calling peacocks ‘tame’ is that they allowed me to approach them close enough to get some nice photos. I didn’t try feeding them, remembering my lessons not to feed the animals from way back at the Bronx Zoo.

Peacocks are odd, don’t you think?  Among an assortment of odd birds, like ostritches or flamingoes, they win the beauty pageant. I suppose it’s just for their beauty that they’ve been prized for millennia. Having them roam around at your  feet is quite a luxuriant experience: an impromptu dance of shifting iridescent color. They prompt me to make an imaginary leap to another bird with magnificent tail, the phoenix or firebird. So I’ll wander in that direction for a bit.

one of several peacocks strolling the Huerta del Cura in Elche (JS photo)

Found in various mythologies, the phoenix was identified by the Egyptians as a stork/heron-like bird, one of the sacred symbols of worship of the sun-god Ra.The Greeks, from whom the name phoenix derives (meaning purple-red or crimson), pictured the bird more as a eagle-like peacock. According to the Greek mythology the phoenix lived in Phoenicia next to a well… making it well-placed among these Phoenician palms and ponds in the Huerta. At dawn, it bathed in the water of the well, and the Greek sun-god Helios stopped his chariot (the sun) in order to listen to its song  (actually I’m told it’s rather croaky). Herodotus mentioned (though he cautioned he had not seen) the unique capability of the phoenix to be consumed by and then reborn of its own flames. At the end of its legendary 500-100 year life-cycle the phoenix burns fiercely and from its ashes a new phoenix or phoenix egg arise to live anew.

Today’s Painting: The Phoenix Egg

artwork by Janet Strayer: www.janetstrayerart.com

Today's Thought

Being in the Huerta made me reflect on the timeless importance of tree-filled gardens to us: places of quiet celebration, contemplation, and appreciation. The subtle play of light and color, the breeze and song. Different from the forest with its dark interior, a garden invites us to share in its gentle pleasure a little piece of earth adorned with pleasure.

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanates from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.

-       Robert Louis Stevenson

God almighty first planted a garden: and, indeed, it is the purest of human pleasure.

-       Francis Bacon

Sitting and strolling around the Huerta garden is a delight, pure and simple. Casually placed among the palm fronds and greenery is La Dama de Elche, a reproduction in this setting of a dame who made Elche famous … to art historians, anyway. (The original is displayed in the National Museum of Archaeology in Madrid, with protests from Elche for its return.) The Lady of Elche or Lady of Elx (if you speak the Valencian dialect) is so named because this beautifully sculpted limestone was found near Elche at the close of the 19^th C.

La Dama de Elche

She hit the world stage at once. You’ll notice the strong resemblance to Princess Leah in Star Wars? But her fame rests on being one of the most stunning and best surviving examples of Iberian sculpture (with Hellenistic influences) from the 4^th C C.E. Traces of polychrome have been found of that period, suggesting she was once in full color. Pundits claim the enigmatic Lady may have been an Iberian goddess or priestess. Lovely, if remote, isn’t she?

So I tried to remember, after all my years of Spanish history: Who were the Iberians? The history of Iberian Peninsula is so marked by different cultures, one might well wonder. The Greeks were among the first to name the land Iberia in their records, a word that seems connected to the Ebro (river in Spain).

The Iberians are the oldest historically recognized inhabitants of the region. Their origin is unknown, supposedly of Indo-European stock. An agricultural and herding people, they lived mostly in the southern and eastern regions of the Peninsula, choosing the tops of hills beside rivers, building defensive stone walls round their settlements. They were also known to be warlike with skilled riders and cavalry, with Rome adopting the Iberian style sword and shield.

 Rome annexed “Hispania” or Iberia” under Augustus Caesar, and units of Iberian chivalry became part of Roman army.From ancient times, the small tribal states of Iberia were colonized by more culturally  advanced Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians, their intermingling enabling the creation of works like the Dama de Elche.

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BILBAO and BURGOS

We spent a morning in Bilbao and then the afternoon and evening in Burgos. Not that these two places have anything else in common. Bilbao is fiercely Basque whereas Burgos is proudly in Castile and very Spanish. These two cities were as far north in Spain as our travels took us and not too far from each other by car.

Don't you just have to love a place with a name like "Bilbao"? In fact, Bilbao is a distinctly not-charming industrial port city. However, it now boasts one of the most famous structures of the late 20th C: Frank Gehry’s Bilbao Guggenheim Museum. I had to see it.

all photos by JS

And it did not disappoint. If there's any continuing controversy about it, my vote says it's a winner! 

What a terrific, expansive, surprising feeling to come upon it, to walk around and in it. Doing so, I kept being gleefully surprised. It was a totally up feeling for me. And frankly, Frank, I hadn't come with any particular expectations of even liking it. 

I took the first photo (L) on the walkway that sneaks up to the entrance GG from one side. You turn left at the dog and walk slightly down (you'll see). The photo (R) beside it, with the "boat prow" shows the entrance. The metal 'shingles' and the different colors they take in different lights and shadings, the shapes, the ins-and-outs of it... caramba! this is an exquisite piece of work. It has so many different facets that no one rectilinear view does it justice. 

Construction continues in the area around the museum. I'm not sure what the finished result will be as an environs for it. But so far, so good.

I rather liked this photo I took looking up at a suspended crane... part of the construction I mentioned.

Now that’s a puppy! This flower-growing sculpture is some distance in front of the Bilbao Guggenheim, and puppy's looking across the the street.

I just liked Gehry's structure so much that I can hardly remember the paintings it held (maybe that’s not so good). 

One memorable sight was a Richard Stella steel sculpture taking up an entire museum wing. It was just so right in its setting. One could walk inside and through it: walking within a sculpture within a sculpture! 

The current show: Chaos and Civilization (see sign in photo below) was OK but not nearly so stirring for me as was the museum/sculpture  itself.

This museum seems to have done good things for the city, too, attracting many other cultural ventures.  

Bilbao is a busy Basque port. Much political turmoil exists between the Basques/ETA and Spain, and you likely know of the terrorist outbreaks. The Basque Liberation Movement/ETA has recently, after many years of wanting separation, signed an entente with the Central Spanish government.

In this region the Basque language shares space with Spanish in street signs, menus, etc. Basque is a strange language (lots of Ks and Cs and Qs) ... or at least one that  I cannot relate to any other language with which I’m even vaguely familiar. Spain and France both share a history in this region, known as the Basque, which is ethnically, linguistically, culturally and historically unique. 
Today's Thought 
He preaches well that lives well.  -Miguel de Cervantes                                                                                                                                                                                          

From Bilbao we went to Burgos. Quite a contrast. Burgos is one of the oldest and most staid cities of Castilla-Leon. It was the historic capital of Castile. Castilla etymologically is the land of castles, built during the expanding Christian fortification in northern Spain. The people native to Burgos claim  to speak the best Spanish (Castellano actually) in Spain.

Burgos is known also as a stopping place on the pilgrimage route to Santiago. Known also during the Spanish Civil War, it was Franco’s headquarters.

Now Burgos sits sedately beside the river Arlanzon. This was a pleasant place to walk despite the dreary weather (grey and rainy). 

It looks like a thriving city as we walked around it, with evidence of its long-running ancient university in the many bookshops around town (where are all our bookshops in North America?). But I wanted especially to see its main cathedral (there are several in this town), and to get inside.

Burgos Cathedral is one of the oldest and largest in Spain (a country with a castle and two cathedrals at almost very turn, as I've said). It was begun in the early 1200, based somewhat on French cathedrals of the middle ages, its  construction spanning to the 15th century. It's impressive with its massive Gothic style. It seems to me that the Spanish Gothic style prefers more solid and chunky proportions than the more slender versions of Gothic cathedrals elsewhere. It's much too massive to take in with an ordinary camera lens. But wait, it's only the third-largest cathedral in Spain (those in Seville and Toledo are larger.) Its front is flanked by towers terminating in octagonal spires covered with open stonework traceries. The middle section serves as an entrance. 

                                                                                                                                                                         And there are some treasures inside. For example, here's its renowned Golden Staircase you find while walking among the 17 different chapels housed in this interior space. There are many mansions...

In addition to the multitude of sculptures and artworks inhabiting the cathedral, there is a separate section, the Cathedral Museum which contains many tapestries of the 16th and 17th centuries and many works in silver and metal to do with church functions and liturgy.

The Cathedral is exceptionally well organized with signs directing visitors where to proceed. The cathedral also does a good job of educating its visitors in cathedral architecture, artistic styles, and iconography. It was good to be invited into such a cathedral while also being invited to learn something about cathedral styles through the Gothic ages and early Renaissance in Spain. Everything important was labeled. But being somewhat polymorphically perverse, I also enjoyed the things less labeled. 

Below are some photos of the little creatures I like to find, and one of the many "incidental" or unlabeled works that  caught my eye, as well one of about 100 Gothic statues that fill the interior.

Burgos seems a thriving city and I actually liked this famous cathedral.  I admit to getting that “oh-no-not-another-cathedral” feeling after visiting so many huge, gold-filled, elaborate, drippingly ornate structures with their sometimes profoundly unsettling depictions of torture and suffering… not to mention all those Madonna Dolorosas of the palpable tears. I get the point. Give me a nice, life-affirming Madonna and Child any day! 

Dedicated to the Madonna, the Burgos cathedral, despite its size, invited and aided visitors.

The Spanish hero of the Reconquista, the fabled El Cid was born in Burgos and lies buried in the Cathedral, a simple engraved stone marking the spot. Several finely sculpted tombs of other dignitaries lie here as well. May we all rest in peace...  my hope is that we may do it while still on this earth! 

Today's Painting

Woman in White Wimple, painting by Janet Strayer, janetstrayerart.com