The Alhambra / being a brief record of the Arabian conquest of the Peninsula with a particular account of the Mohammedan architecture and decoration

by Albert Frederick Calvert

ORNAMENT.

However much disguised, the whole ornamentation of the Moors is constructed geometrically.

FRET.—FIG. 1. FORMED BY THE INTERLACING OF LINES. THE NUMEROUS FRETS THROUGHOUT THE PALACE ARE FORMED UPON THE TWO PRINCIPLES EXHIBITED IN THIS AND FOLLOWING DIAGRAM.

It is probable that the immense variety of Moorish ornaments, which are formed by the intersection of equi-distant lines, could be traced through the Arabian to the Greek fret.

The Moorish system of decoration reached its culminating point in the ornament of the Alhambra. Owen Jones says: “The Alhambra is at the very summit of perfection of Moorish art ... every principle which we can derive from the study of the ornamental art of any other people is not only ever present here, but was by the Moors more universally and truly obeyed. We find in the Alhambra the speaking art of the Egyptians, the natural grace and refinement of the Greeks, the geometrical combination of the Romans, the Byzantines, and the Arabs.

FRET.—FIG. 2. FORMED BY THE INTERLACING OF LINES.

The ornament wanted but one charm, which was the peculiar feature of the Egyptian ornament—symbolism. This, the religion of the Moors forbade.”

The decoration of the Alhambra is peculiarly appropriate—the circumstances of the people rendered the ornament beautiful for that reason—when transplanted, though it loses nothing of its loveliness, it becomes inexpressive.

The Moors ever regarded what architects hold to be the first principle of architecture—to decorate construction—never to construct decoration. In Moorish architecture, not only does the decoration arise naturally from the construction, but the constructive idea is carried out in every detail of the ornamentation of the surface. A superfluous, or useless ornament is never found in Moorish decoration; every ornament arises quietly and naturally from the surface decorated.

PLAN OF GENERAL CONSTRUCTION OF CENTRAL ORNAMENT OF CEILINGS.

The general forms were first cared for; these were sub-divided by general lines; the interstices were then filled in with ornament again to be sub-divided and enriched for closer inspection. The principle was carried out with the greatest refinement, and the harmony and beauty of all Moorish ornamentation derive success from its observance. The greatest distinction was thus obtained; the detail never interfering with the general form. When seen at a distance, the main lines strike the eye; on nearer approach, the detail comes into the composition; upon yet closer inspection, further detail is seen on the surface of the ornaments themselves.

To the builders of the Alhambra, harmony of form consisted in the proper balancing and contrast of the straight, the inclined, and the curved.

SECTION OF THE COLUMNS AND ARCHES OF GENERAL CONSTRUCTION IN THE PALACE.

As in colour, there can be no composition in which either of the three primary colours is wanting, so in form, whether structural or decorative, there can be no perfect composition in which either of the three primary figures is lacking; variety and harmony in composition and design depend on the pre-dominance and subordination of the three.

In his monumental work on the ornamentation of the Alhambra, the late Owen Jones, who spent many years at Granada in collaboration with his friend, M. Jules Goury, the eminent French architect, studying the Palace of the Western Caliphs, furnishes diagrams in support of this conclusion, which are here reproduced; and, furthermore, says: “In

surface decoration, any arrangement of forms, as at A., consisting only of straight lines, is monotonous, and affords but imperfect pleasure; but, introduce lines which tend to carry the eye towards the angles, as at B., and you have at once an additional pleasure.

“Then add lines giving a circular tendency, as at C., and you have now complete harmony: in this case the square is the leading form or tonic; the angular and curved are subordinate.

“We may produce the same result in adopting an angular composition, as at D., add the lines as at E., and we at once correct the tendency to follow only the angular direction of the inclined lines; but, unite these by circles as at F., and we have harmony still more nearly perfect, i.e., repose, for the eye has now no longer any want that could be supplied.”

Still, compositions distributed in equal lines or divisions will be less beautiful than those which require a greater mental effort to appreciate them: proportions the most difficult for the eye to detect will be the most agreeable.

In surface decoration by the Moors, lines flow from a parent stem: every ornament, however distant, can be traced to its branch and root; they have the happy art of so adapting the ornament to the surface decorated, that the ornament as often appears to have suggested the general form as to have been suggested by it. In all cases we find the foliage flowing out of a parent stem, and we are never offended, as in modern practice, by the random introduction of an ornament set down without a reason for its existence. However irregular the space they have to fill, they always commence by dividing it into equal areas, and round these trunk lines they fill in their detail, but invariably return to their parent stem.

The Moors also followed another principle, that of radiation from the parent stem, as we may see exemplified in nature by the human hand, or in a chestnut leaf. When style becomes debased, neither of these laws is followed; as in Elizabethan ornament, where nothing is continuous, nothing radiates, all is haphazard.

All junctions of curved lines with curved, or of curved with straight, should be tangential to each other. The Oriental practice always accords with this principle. Many of their ornaments are on the principle which is observable in the lines of a feather and in the articulations of a leaf; and to this is due that additional charm found in all perfect ornamentation, which is called “the graceful.”

MISCELLANEOUS ORNAMENT IN THE ALHAMBRA

CORNICES, CAPITALS, AND COLUMNS IN THE ALHAMBRA. THE SPLENDID CORNICE AT THE RIGHT-HAND TOP CORNER IS FROM THE LOGGIA OF THE GENERALIFE.

CAPITALS FROM THE COURTS AND HALLS OF THE ALHAMBRA.

A further charm is found in the works of the Arabs and Moors from their conventional treatment of ornament, which, forbidden as they were by their creed to represent living forms, they carried to the highest perfection. They ever worked as Nature works, but always avoided a direct transcript; they took her principles, but did not attempt to copy her works.

It is true that the Arabs in Spain, as already pointed out, once or twice allowed themselves to disregard the behests of the Korán, as instanced in the Fountain of Lions, and the bas-relief which is now preserved in the Museum of the Alhambra; but the Mohammedan mosques of Egypt, India, and Spain, show everywhere the calm, voluptuous translation of the doctrines of the Korán: an art in unison with its imaginative and poetic teachings which led them to adorn their temples in a manner peculiar to themselves.