black and white in the choir, only add to the
luxurious effect produced by statues, pulpits, and other accessories,
either brilliantly coloured, or else wrought in polished metal or stone.

The altar-piece itself, slightly concave in shape, is the largest, if
not the best, of its kind. It is composed of pyramidically superimposed
niches flanked by gilded columns and occupied by statues of painted and
gilded wood. The effect from a distance is dazzling,--the reds, blues,
and gold mingle together and produce a multicoloured mass reaching to
the height of the nave; on closer examination, the workmanship is seen
to be both coarse and naive,--primitive as compared to the more finished
_retablos_ of Burgos, Astorga, etc.

To conclude: The visitor who, standing between the choir and the high
altar of the cathedral, looks at both, stands, as it were, in the
presence of an immense riddle. He cannot classify: there is no purity of
one style, but a medley of hundreds of styles, pure in themselves, it is
true, but not in the ensemble. Besides, the personality of each has been
lost or drowned, either by ultra-decoration or by juxtaposition. A
collective value is thus obtained which cannot be pulled to pieces, for
then it would lose all its significance as an art unity--a complex art
unity, in this case peculiar to Spain.

Neither is repose, meditation, or frank admiration to be gleaned from
such a gigantic _potpourri_ of art wonders, but rather a feeling--as far
as we Northerners are concerned--of amazement, of stupor, and of an
utter impossibility to understand such a luxurious display of idolatry
rather than of faith, of scenic effect rather than of discreet prayer.

But then, it may just be this idolatry and love of scenic effect which
produces in the Spaniard what we have called _religious awe_. We feel it
in a long-aisled Gothic temple; the Spaniard feels it when standing
beneath the _croisee_ of his cathedral churches.

The whole matter is a question of race.

THE END.

_Appendices_

I

[Illustration]

_Archbishoprics and Bishoprics of Northern Spain_

II

_Dimensions and Chronology_

ASTORGA

See dedicated to Saviour and San Toribio.

Legendary (?) erection of see, 1st century (oldest in peninsula).

First historical bishop, Dominiciano, 347 A. D.

During Arab invasion see was being continually destroyed and rebuilt.

1069, first cathedral (on record) was erected.

1120, second cathedral w