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

THE MUSEUM.

In a chamber near to the entrance of the Court of the Lions, a collection of Moorish remains has been brought together. A conspicuous object is the marble sarcophagus, or tank, brought from the Alcazába, with basso-relievos of animals;

DETAILS OF THE ENTRANCE DOOR TO THE MUSEUM OF THE ALHAMBRA.

among them the “deer-slaying lion,” which occurs so often in Greek art, and, like the Mithraic daughter of the bull, may be the symbol of some hieratic mystery, possibly the triumph of the evil principle. It is difficult to say whether this rude

BAS-RELIEF, NOW IN THE MUSEUM OF THE ALHAMBRA.

THE SAME SUBJECT FROM AN ENGRAVING IN MURPHY’S ARABIAN ANTIQUITIES.

sculpture is antique or Moorish. An Arabic inscription is carried round the border, but this may be later than the carving; at all events, stags are animals connected by the Orientals with the fountain—“As the hart panteth for the water-brooks”—and the Spanish Moors, among other departures from strict Moslem rules, did not reject either paintings or carvings of living objects. The splendid vase, el jarro, has been brought hither from the Hall of the Two Sisters, and is described at page 76, with a plate at page 95.