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The Hispanic Society of America.
Carvings, paintings and textiles.
Descending to the main floor we turn to the right, past chests, carved and inlaid, which tell of long voyages at sea, past carvings, paintings and textiles that speak of long ago, to the far eastern end of the hall, under the gallery, where there are two alabaster marble altars, one of the XVth and the other of the XVIth centuries.
They were erected to the memory of the Duke and Duchess of Albuquerque and both came from the monastery of San Francisco de Cuellar, Province of Segovia.
"These tombs, the sculptures and the Greek and Roman torso excavated at Santiponce, near Seville, need all the space allotted to them under the east gallery. This corridor of marbles, blocked at one end by a magnificent tomb, is like a lonely side chapel in a cathedral.
Standing in this diminutive temple of silence and reconciliation it is difficult to believe that one is in the neighborhood of 156th Street, New York.
That mute woman in nun's robe and rope girdle! That silent warrior in armor with a lion crouching at his feet! How still they are yet how eloquent of a past long vanished yet persuasively with us."
Returning through the same corridor we find that opposite the entrance there are swinging frames. Here paintings by Sorolla and other modern Spanish artists are closely packed. Also by Sorolla are the portraits of King Alphonso XIII and Queen Victoria, the present rulers of Spain.
The personal charm of this beautiful little museum is so human that we feel that we have learned to know and love the people whose life story it tells and we leave it reluctantly promising ourselves another visit at an early date.
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