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tween the two jambs there are marked differences with regards to
the conditions and percentage of painting preserved, being higher
in the right side (East), which keeps the three upper fifths of the
pictorial composition, despite of the fact that it seemed veiled by
crusts of salts, dirt, environmental pollution and splashes. Its inferior
side maintained part of the original fine stuff but non-painted. The
apparent losses of original mortar were covered with roughcast, af-
fecting mostly the transversal stripe which covered the whole stairs.
In the left jamb there is only a visible transversal fragment, placed
beneath the impost, which is about a 12% of the composition of
this area. Its defective conditions presented flaws and cleavages as
a consequence of the lack of adhesion. The rest of surface was also
restored with roughcast in an extremely deteriorated style.
With regards to the original facing of the most susceptible areas,
they were located on the Western jambs and the Northern wall
aforementioned, where the original cladding have been virtually
lost —except for small a fragment founded during this intervention,
in the middle of the North-Western side and which makes the fact
that it was painted with the same decorative motifs clear—. Other
great lacunas affect the profiles of the vault, in the upper third of
the Eastern jamb and its lateral side. The declines presented in these
mortars were related to internal adhesion problems, coming from
the humidity and salts which have caused lack of traction, cracking,
disintegration and consequent losses, being restored several times.
The rusting of iron bars of the gate has caused cracking, removal
and losses as well.
On one hand, the disrupting factors could be due to the effects of
moisture considering the high groundwater level which almost
reaches a meter of height, which has contributed to creation of salts
and the adhesion problems, besides of the disintegration of mortars.
The wall thickness, together with the high groundwater level in the
upper side of the
Patio del Crucero
and the favourable ventilation in
the area, has caused effervescence, crusts and whitish saline stains in
the upper third of both wall coverings.
On the other hand, since they were built in the sixteenth century,
and due to their location these wall coverings have always been ex-
posed and subjected to erosion due to the transit and the accidental
touch of visitors who climb and descend this short flight of stairs.
The walls show the effects of accidental blows and an old sign of
the gate leaves in the wall covering, which should contribute notori-
ously to the loss of paintings and coverings. The absence of banister
lead visitors to hold on the gate leaves, causing accidental blows in
the wall coverings. Finally, we must remark that anthropogenic acts
of vandalism have contributed to the deterioration of jambs, like the
graffiti-paintings over the pictorial surface in the most accessible ar-
eas, which reinforces the need of covering these areas by means of
protective screen.
III. THE OGIVAL VAULT
Until recently it was inconceivable that the surface of this vault and
its ogival arches were wholly covered with mural paintings, since the
vault was covered by crusts caused by different factors and white-
washing which also concealed the painted arches by means of the
same type of ochre liming presented in the rest of vaults from the
pond. Only among the detached fragments from the mullion we
could intuit the underlying presence of some polychromes, but not
as extensive and complete as they would decorate the whole sec-
tor. That is why, the discovery has been greatly surprising and, even
much corroded by different factors, —which we are going to ana-
lyse—, we can affirm that they are relatively well maintained which
a fantastic collection of Grutesque Mannerist samples.
In terms of its location, this dome is placed in the last vaulted ceil-
ing, in the penultimate sector of central longitudinal gallery, over-
taking the ponds of the
Baños
in the sector of the Grutesque Man-
nerist fountain. The lateral arches of the vault converge at arcade
and the external courtyards of the Northern gallery. At the bottom
the Grutesque fountain, aforementioned, blocking off the opening,
being in the middle of an irregular pavement made from soil and
rubble, devoid of any rest of flooring. It is a vault which together
with those behind the Grutesque fountain and the first preceding
the pond, was not restored with gothic ribs as the ten central placed
above the pond were.
The vault is slightly rectangular, with the larger size in E-W direc-
tion, structured in eight wall coverings, decorated with paintings.
With a dimension of 3,43 m in a transverse direction (E-W) and 2,64
in longitudinal direction(N-S) , with a height of 3,50 m from the key-
stone. Each ogival opening is about 321 x 257 cm.
The vault and pillars were built with bricks and mortar. The mullion
and the arches are primitively covered with mortar and lime stucco,
painted with the
technique
of simulated fresco, similar to that put
into practice in the two vaults abovementioned and the polychrome
murals of the perimeter galleries. The prevailing colours are red
ochre, dark red, pinks, ochre, orange, green, white and black. The
green tints belong to tempera, applied dry.
The Grutesque fountain, sculptural, was created by Juan Chacón,
who probably also decorated the vault and the three ogival arches
finished in November 1578. These works involved a complete aes-
thetic renovation program of the
Patio del Crucero
, which includes
the murals of the perimeter galleries and the three vaults studied, in
the absence of verifying the gothic ribs by means of cleaning tests.
The
artistic decoration
is thoroughly Mannerist. All the formal el-
ements are related to an allegoric and symbolic theme. In spite of
the vault itself is a whole, every of its eight wall coverings is an in-
dependent surface, with different compositions. All the panels are
similar regarding to the compositional scheme, based on a central
radial axis, as in the sequential organization of the figures and its
downwards direction of reading. The triangular surface in every wall
covering is used as pictorial development plan, like the upper side of
every composition in longitudinal and transversal edges. Additional-
ly, every plan is framed by a freeze which represents a fine stemwith
leafy and floral bouquets and a ribbon in spiral layout. The friezes
are also painted by contrast colours, earthy red and ochre, alternated
with the contours of the wall coverings with the purpose of highlight
the contrast.
In terms of
iconography
this dome has a complex appearance due
to the profusion of Grutesque designs, but the vault actually rep-
resents two iconographic groups according to every wall covering.
One of the iconographic groups depicts Cupid in the upper side, up
and naked, armed with an arch, darts and a quiver, above branch-
es and flanked by two coiled snakes. Beneath this scene, we find
two figures built on a corbel, half-humans and half-vegetal foli-
age, keeping their hands together harmoniously looking towards
