alities, as in Galicia, a prevailing type or style was in common use,
and was slowly evolving into something strictly local and excellent.
These types, together with Moorish art, and above all _Mudejar_ work,
might have evolved still further and produced a national style. But the
nation fell to pieces like a dried-up barrel whose hoops are broken, and
the nation's style was never formed.

Besides, contemporary with the birth of the nation was the advent of the
Renaissance movement. This was the _coup de grace_, the final blow to
any germs of a Spanish style, of a style composed of Christian and Islam
principles and ideals:

"Es waer zu schoen gewesen,
Es haett' nicht sollen sein!"

Under the circumstances, the art student in Spain, however enthusiastic
or one-sided he may be, cannot claim to discover a national school. He
must necessarily limit his studies to the analysis of the foreign art
waves which inundated the land; he must observe how they became
localized and were modified, how they were united both wisely and
ridiculously, and he must point out the reasons or causes of these
medleys and transformations. There his task ends.

One peculiarity will strike him: the peninsula possesses no pure Gothic,
Romanesque, or Renaissance building. The same might almost be stated as
regards Moorish art. The capitals of the pillars in the mezquita of
Cordoba are Latin-Romanesque, torn from a previous building by the
invading Arab to adorn his own temple. The Alhambra, likewise, shows
animal arabesques which are Byzantine and not Moorish. Nevertheless,
Arab art is, on the whole, purer in style than Christian art.

This transformation of foreign styles proves: (1) That though the
Spanish artist lacked creative genius, he was no base imitator, but
sought to combine; he sought to give the temple he had to construct that
heavy, massive, strong, and sombre aspect so well in harmony with the
religious and warlike spirit of the different clanspeople; and (2) that
the same artist failed completely to understand the ideal of soaring
ogival, of simple Renaissance, or of pure Romanesque (this latter he
understood better than either of the others). For him, they--as well as
Islam art--were but elements to be made use of. Apart from their
constructive use, they were superfluous, and the artist-architect was
blind to their ethical object or aesthetical value. With their aid he
built architectural wonders, but hybrid marvels, com