New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1858-12-20

COWS history Of Phillip the second, when Will be
published early next month
Critics have greatly differed from each other in
their Judgments Of the Escoral Few foreigners have
been found 70 acquescs in the undiinted panegyrc Of
those Caatilana who pronounce it the eighth wonder
Of the world Yet it cannot be denied that few
foreigners are qualified to decide on the merits of
work, to judge Of which correctly requires perfect
understanding Of the character Of the country in
which it built and of the monarch who bniit it.
The traveller who Razes on its long lines of cold gray
stone, scarcely broken by an ornament feels dreary
sensation creeping over him, while be contrasts Is
with the lighter and more graceful edifces to which
his eye has been accustomed. Bat he may read IN
this the true expression Of the founders character.
Philip did not aira at the beautiful much less at the
festive and cheerful. The feelings which he desired
to raise in the spectator were that Of solemn indeed
sOmbTe complexion, which correspondent best with
his own religious faith.
Whatever defects may be charged on the Eseoriai
it Is impossible to view it from distance and see the
mighty pile az it energies from the gloomy depths Of
the mountains without feeling how perfectly it con-
forms in its aspectto the wild and melancholy scenery
Of the Sierra. Nor can one enter the cunsecrated
precincts without confes5ng the genius Of the place.
and experiencing sensations of mysterious awe as
he wauders through the desOlate halls which fancy
peoples with the solemn images Of the past.
The architect Of the building was embarrassed by
more than one difficulty Of very peculiar kind It ia
not simply monastery that he vas to build. The
same edice, as we have seen, was to comprehend at
once convent, palace and tomb It was no easy
problem to reconcile objects discordant and infase
INTO Them common principle Of unity. It is re-
pfoacn 70 the builder that he did not perfectly sue
coed IN this and that the palace should impair the
predominant tone Of feeling raised by the other parts
Of the structure looking in fact like an excrescence,
rather than an integral portion Of the ediice.
Another difficulty, Of more whimsical nature
imposed the architect, the necessity Of accom-
mOdsting the plan Of the building to the form Of a
gridiron-as typical of the kind Of martyrdom suf-
fered by the patron saints of the Escora Thus the
long line of coisters with their intervening courts
served for the bars of the instrument The four lofty
spires at the Of the monastery represented its
legs inverted and the palace extending its slender
length on the East furnished the awkward handle.
1t is impossible for language to convey any ade-
quate idea Of the work of art Yet architecture has
this advantage over the sister arts of design that the
mere statement Of the dimensions helps Us much in
forming conception Of the work A few of these
dimensions will serve to give idea Of the magni
tude Of the edifce They are reported to Us By Los
Santos, Jeronymite monk, who has left of the
best accounts of the Escorial.
The main building, or monastery, he estimates at
seven hundred and forty Castian feet in length by
five hundred and eighty in breadth. Its greatest
height measured to the central cross above the dome
Of the great church, s three hundred and fifteen feet.
The whole circumference of the EsCOTia including
the palace, be reckons at two thousand nine hundred
and eighty feet, or near threeffths of mile The
| patient inquirer tells there were no less than
twelve thousand doors and windows in the building;
that the weight Of the keys alone amounted to fifty
arrobas, or twelve hundred and fifty pounds; and
finally that there were sixty eight fountains playing
|
The cost of its construction and interior decoration
we are informed by Father Siguencca, amounted to
very six million Of ducats. Sigueneea was Prior
of the monastery, and had access of course to the
best sources Of information. That he did not exag
gerate, may be inferred from the fact that he was de-
sirOus to relieve the building from the imputation Of
any excessive expenditure incurred in its erect0na
common theme of complaint, it seems, and one that
was urged with strong marks Of discomfort By cote
porary writer's Probably no single edi6ce ever COM
bined such an amount and variety Of nestimable trea
sures as the Escorial-so many paintings and sculp-
lures by the greatest masers-s0 many articles of
exquisite workmanship, composed OF the most preci-
Gus materials. Tt would be mistake to suppose that
when the building was finished the labOrs of Philip
were at an end. One might almost say they were
but begun. The casket was completed bat the re-
mander of his days was to be passed in filling it with
the richest and rarest gems. This labor never
to be completed. 1t was to be bequeahed to his
cessors, who, with more less taste, but with the
revenues of the Indies at their disposal continued to
lavish them on the establishment of the Escorial.
Philip the Second set the example He omitted
nothing which could give value, real or imaginary,
to his museum. He gathered, at an immense cost,
several hundred cases Of the bones Of saints and mar
tyrs, dep0siting them in rich silver shrines Of eabo-
rate workmanship, He collected four thousand vol.
umes in various languages especially the Oriental as
the basis Of the fine library Of the Escoral.
The care of successive princes, who continue to
spend there part Of every year preserved the palace
monastery and its contents from the rude touch Of
time. But what the hand of time had spared the hand
of violence destroyed The French who in the early
part of the present century swept like horde of VAN
dals the Peninsula, did not overlook the Escorai
For in it they the monument designed to COM
memorate their own humiliating defeat. A body of
the dragons under La Houssaye burst into the mon
astery in the winter of 1905 and the raVages of few
days demolished what it had cost years and the high
est efforts of art to construct The apprehension of
similar violence from the Carsts in 1887 led to the
removal of the finest paintings to Madrid. The Els.
corral ceased to be royal residence Tenantless and
unprotected it was left to the fury Of the blasts which
swept down the hills of the Guadarrama.
The traveller who now visits the place will find its
condition very different from what it was in the be-
ginning OF the century. The bare and mildewed
: walls no longer glow with the magical tnts of Ra-
phael and Titan, and the sober pomp Of the Gas.
= tin school. The exquisite specimens of art with
which the halls were filled have been wantonly de-
molished or more frequently pilfered for the sake Of
the rich materials. The monks, SO long the guardi-
OF the place. have sharad the fate of their breth
rem elsewhere, since the suppression of religious
houses and their venerable forms have disappeared
Silence and solitude reign throughout the courts I'M
disturbed by any sound that of the eeaselesa
winds, which to be ever chanting their melan
choly drge over the faded glories of the EscoriaI
There is little now to remind of the palace Of
the monastery. Of the three great objects to which
the editce was devoted one only surviVes-that Of
mausoleum for the royal line of CASTLE, The spirit of
/. the dead broods the place-of the sceptered
e dead who lie in the dark chamber where they
have lain for centuries unconscious of the changes
Y that have been going on all around them.
INTERESTING Relieve find the following para,
r graph in recent letter from Paris;