University of Toledo - Blockhouse Yearbook (Toledo, OH)

Page 19 text:

The choir stalls of everlasting fame are a magnif ficence of the Spanish Renaissance. To describe that art in wood in detail would take pages. The comf plete history of the wars of Granada is carved on the back of the seats. However, the most curious and truly noteworthy are the roguish devils which adorn Q.-A 1 lf 'D K w ff , Interior Cathedral, Toledo, Spam 25' u..x.L3'- '.,..4i..' ... .. . Cathedral , Toledo, Spain the arms of the seats. With charming candor there are artistically carved panels of those showing monks with donkey ears, etc. There are several monkeys pirouetting on another place, and in a corner there is represented the dog-beadle with a whip in his hands, grave as a judge, and many others which cause one to wonder at the toleration of the clergy of that epoch. The seventy chairs of the chanters of the gospel and epistle comprise a work of art worth seeing.

Page 18 text:

Cathedral of Toledo, Spain O the west of the city, where one sees a conglomeration of buildings with roofs of different heights, appears the sump' tuous tower of the Cathedral. This artistic tower, like all tall and graceful constructions, from a distance gives the spectator a rare illusionAit seems that it does not stand firm and that the gusts of wind rock it gently as a palm tree. The construction of the Cathedral was begun early in the XIII century. However, its general form could not be appreciated until the end of that century, and it was completed at the beginning of the XV century. Like all cathedrals of the Middle Ages, so enormous, so complex, it needed, like a geological strata, entire centuries of slow and continuous elaboraf Queen of the Hulv Rosary Cathedral, Toledo, Ohio tion. This Cathedral is in itself a treasure of art and reliquaries. Everything therein represents the artistic temperament of those Christians. There are many master pieces of art which one could not attempt to describe. However, let us review hurriedly the famous choir of this Cathedral.

Page 20 text:

First Baptist Church, Toledo,Ohio San Juan de los Reyes, Toledo, Spain FTER the Cathedral this Temple is the most artistic Gothic structure in Toledo, although rather despoiled by unappreciative invaders. It is ' one of the richest and most beautiful specimens of florescent Gothic architecture in Spain. lt is a building of inestimable merit, erected by the Catholic kings in fulfillment of a vow made for the ending of the war in Portugal, and originally intended to be their sepulchre. Its cloisters, which enjoy universal fame, are perhaps the piece of Spanish architecture of which most reproductions have been made in foreign lands, existing as a model in all the schools in France. The Church itself, although of great beauty, is inferior to the cloisters which are as perfect a work of their type as is humanly possible. The Church is luxurious and marvelously decorated, as the cloisters are: however, the art and decorations of the latter are more graceful. Among many peculiarities in this monastery, the traveller finds three outstanding. One is the door which communicates with the cloisters. This door has a cross and two statues which resemble Ferdinand and Isabella. Another is a terrible allegory put in the refectory of the monks by order of the Queen. In an horizontal niche over the door there is a Hgure carved in horrible reality, which represents a corpse in the stage of putrification. Therefore, the monks had always in sight while eating, the image of death with all its horror and the repugnance of the corpse in that stage. The third A -