o, encouraged and royally assisted by Alfonso and his successor, D.
Luis of Acuna, set about to erect some of the most striking and
wonderful portions of Burgos Cathedral,--the towers of the facade, the
first lantern and the Chapel of the Constable.

The Chapel of Don Pedro Fernandez de Velasco, Count of Haro and
Constable of Castile, was not erected with pious intent, but to the
immortal fame of the Constable and his wife. In the centre of the
chapel-church on a low base lie the Count and Countess. The white
Carrara of the figures is strangely vivid against the dark marble on
which they rest, and all is colored by the sunlight striking down
through the stained glass. It is very regal. The Constable is clad in
full Florentine armor, his hands clasping his sword and his mantle about
his shoulders. The carving of the flesh and the veining, and especially
the strong knuckles of the hands, are astonishing. The fat cushions of
the forefinger and thumb seem to swell and the muscles to contract in
their grip on the cross of the hilt. The robe of his spouse, Dona Mencia
de Mendoza, is richly studded with pearls, her hand clasps a rosary,
while, on the folds of her skirt, her little dog lies peacefully curled
up.

The plan of the chapel is an irregular hexagon. It should have been
octagonal, but the western sides have not been carried through and end
in a broad-armed vestibule, which by rights should be the radial chapel
upon the extreme eastern axis of the whole church. Above the vaulting
early German pendentives are inserted in the three faulty and five true
angles in order to bring the plan into the octagonal vaulting form. The
builder seems almost to have made himself difficulties that he might
solve them by a tour-de-force. A huge star-fish closes the vault. The
recumbent statues face an altar. The remaining sides are subdivided by
typically Plateresque band-courses and immense coats-of-arms of the Haro
and Mendoza families. The upper surfacing is broken by a clerestory with
exquisite, old stained glass. It is melancholy to see tombs of such
splendid execution crushed by meaningless, empty display, out of all
scale, vulgar, gesticulating, and theatrical, especially so when one
notices with what extraordinary mechanical skill much of the detail has
been carved. It thrusts itself on your notice even up to the vaulting
ribs, which the architect, not satisfied to have meet, actually crossed
before they descend upon the capital