ined in bizarre fantasy and richness of decoration to serve the
ambitions of mighty prelates, fanatic kings, and death-fearing noblemen.

* * * * *

Such is, rhetorically speaking, the history of architecture of Spain.
Cathedrals had a _cachet_ of their own, either national (in certain
characteristics) or else local. But the elements of which they were
composed were foreign. That is, excepting in the case of Spanish-Moorish
art.

Moorish art! In the second volume (Southern Spain), the author of these
lines will dedicate several paragraphs to the art of the Moors in Spain.
Suffice to assert in the present chapter the following statements.

(1) Moorish art in Spain is peculiar to the Arabs who inhabited the
peninsula during seven hundred years. Consequently this art, born on
Iberian soil, cannot be regarded as foreign.

(2) Much of what is called Moorish art owes its existence to the
Christians, to the Muzarabs and Jews who inhabited cities which were
dependent upon or belonged to the Moors. In the same way, much of the
Oriental taste of the Spanish Christians was inherited from the Moors
and received in Spain the generic name of _Mudejar_.

(3) The art of the Moors, though largely used in Spain, especially in
the south, rarely entered into cathedral structures, though often
noticeable in churches, cloisters, and in decorative motives.

(4) The Moors learnt more art motives in Spain than they introduced into
the country.

These and many other points of interest will have to be neglected in the
present chapter. For the cathedrals of the north are (as regards the
ideal which brought about their erection) radically opposed to Moorish
art.

Prehistoric Roman and Visigothic (?) art are equally unimportant in this
study, as neither the one nor the other constructed any Christian temple
standing to-day. That is to say, cathedral; for Visigothic or early
Latin and Byzantine Romanesque churches do exist in Asturias, and a
notable specimen in Venta de Banos. They are peculiarly strange
edifices, and it is to be regretted that they are not cathedrals, for
their study would be most interesting, not only as regards Iberian art,
but above all as regards the history of art in the middle ages. So far,
they have been completely neglected, and, unfortunately, are but little
known abroad.

* * * * *

ROMANESQUE.--The origin of Romanesque is greatly discussed. Some
a