The effect was magical. The officials were even more polite than before. One of them wrote a note, which he asked me to give to the _conserje_, and I was bowed out of the office. The _conserje_ in the Patio de la Monteria scanned the open-sesame. And at last I gained entrance to the upper apartments of the Royal Alcázar.
The visitor who has secured his permit will be rewarded. There is much to see in these chambers. Notice, first of all, the fine staircase constructed at the end of the sixteenth century. The seventeenth-century tapestries in the salons are magnificent examples of this art. Most of the subjects are Dutch; some are copies of pictures by David Teniers. In the first hall, at the head of the principal staircase, there is some handsome artesonada ceiling decoration of the fifteenth century.
In the Oratory of the Catholic Kings there is the most notable specimen of ceramic art to be seen in Spain. It is a lovely retablo of _azulejos_, designed by Franciso Niculoso, an Italian, in 1504. Niculoso introduced this kind of _azulejo_ painting into Seville. The central picture represents the Visitation of the Virgin to St. Isabella. A smaller subject is the Annunciation, and there is a curious genealogical tree of the Saviour. The decorations are fantastic.
In the Comedor there is a splendid laced ceiling of _Mudéjar_ workmanship, dating from the fifteenth century. The walls are covered with interesting tapestry pictures.
Step on to the balcony of the Hall of the Ambassadors, and admire the roofing, the columns, and wealth of Oriental ornamentation. In the rooms of the Infantas there are _Mudéjar_ ceilings of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The portraits of princes and other royal personages are not of much artistic importance. There is a picture by Goya, a very spirited portrait of Doña Maria, wife of Don Carlos IV. Goya was the last of the great painters of Spain. A number of his works are in a gallery of the Prado Museum at Madrid, but very few of his paintings are preserved in Seville. This example in the Alcázar deserves the visitor's notice.
One of the most interesting apartments on the upper floors of the royal palace is the bedroom of Pedro el Cruel. The _dormitorio_ is sumptuous with _Mudéjar_ decorations of the sixteenth century. Near the doorway are four heads painted upon the wall. They are the heads of four disloyal justices who incurred the anger of their sovereign, and were condemned to death. The paintings throw a light upon the character of Pedro, who, no doubt, surveyed them with satisfaction whenever he entered the chamber. It is probable that the King feared assassination, for from this part of the palace there is a staircase descending to the quarters formerly occupied by the guards and royal bowmen. The story runs that Pedro had this stairway made in order to communicate with his faithful servant Juan Diente, a famous marksman with the bow.