Granada and the Alhambra / A brief description of the ancient city of Granada, with a particular account of the Moorish palace

by Albert Frederick Calvert

In this magnificent apartment formerly stood the famous vase (el jarron), which tradition says was discovered in one of the subterranean chambers of the Palace, full of gold. It is now in the little Alhambra Museum. The vase, which dates from the fourteenth century, and is beautifully enamelled in white, blue, and gold, is described by Baron Davillier in his work on Spanish Pottery.

Beyond the Hall of the Two Sisters is a long, narrow apartment called the Sala de los Ajimeces (Hall of the Twin Windows). Its ceiling and decorations are little inferior to those of the larger hall. On the north side opens the exquisite Mirador de Lindaraja, or prospect-chamber, affording a delightful view of the garden beyond. In wealth of detail and ornamentation, this little bower of fifteen by ten feet surpasses all other parts of the Palace. In Moorish days the Sultanas could look from behind the lattices of the three windows across the town and the plain of the Vega. When their eyes wearied of the prospect they could scan the numerous poetical effusions traced upon the walls.

Returning to the Patio de los Leones, we enter, at its eastern extremity, the Sala del Tribunal, or de la Justicia. This hall consists of seven chambers opening on to a common vestibule. The four small rooms are square, and are separated by three larger oblong apartments. The same gorgeous colouring, the same profusion of geometrical ornamentation, here as elsewhere in the Alhambra! The arch over the central small chamber, or divan, is perhaps the finest in the whole Palace. But what renders this hall the most remarkable in the edifice is that it contains what are probably the only existing specimens of mediæval Muslim figure painting. The ceiling of the central alcove or alhami is adorned by a painting representing ten personages, who were formerly supposed to be judges, whence the name given to the hall. They were intended, more probably, to represent the first ten sultans of the Nasrite dynasty. The painting, like those in the other alcoves, is done in bright colours (gold, green, red, &c.) on leather prepared with gypsum. The designs appear to have been sketched in brown. The paintings in the other alhamis are of an even more interesting character. In the first, a castle with square towers and battlements is seen; outside it is a lion led in chains by a maiden, whose hands are rudely grasped by a savage with shaggy hair and beard. A rescuer hurries to her assistance in the person of a Christian knight, armed cap-à-pie. On the other side of the picture, the same knight is shown attacked by a Moorish cavalier, who plunges a lance into his breast. The Moor is evidently out hunting, for beneath the combatants’ horses his dogs are chasing the wild boar and fox. From the towers of the castle two fair ladies observe, with evident pleasure, the Christian’s overthrow. In another part of the picture both knights are shown, following the chase; and a page is seen, leaning against a tree, with sword and shield, presumably awaiting his master’s return.

The second painting is entirely devoted to hunting scenes. Moors are seen chasing the wild boar, while the Christians occupy themselves with bears and lions. The huntsmen are also seen returning and offering the spoils of the chase to their ladies. The Moor greets his sultana with a benign and condescending air; the Christian warrior kneels to the lady and offers his prize.

The most competent critics have now arrived at the conclusion that these paintings are of the fourteenth century, and therefore executed under the Muslim sovereigns, in defiance of the precepts of the Koran. Whether they were the work of a Mohammedan it is not so easy to say. Gayangos has pointed out remarkable similarities between these paintings and those in the Campo Santo at Pisa; and on the whole it is probable that they were executed by an Italian artist, whom the Muslims may not have scrupled to employ to do a thing for them unlawful. A parallel instance of casuistry is that of London Jews, who on certain feasts employ Christians to perform forbidden menial offices. It should also be said that in the opinion of some modern Muslim doctors the prohibition of sculpture and painting is not to be taken as absolute.

In the Sala de la Justicia was found a basin for ablutions, now in the Museum, on which are interesting reliefs of lions, deer, and eagles. According to the inscription, this was designed in 1305 for the service of the mosque, a fact which seems to support the view of the authorities just mentioned.

It was in this hall that Ferdinand and Isabel caused Mass to be celebrated after the Reconquest, and here that the cross was set up by Cardinal Mendoza. The devices of the Catholic sovereigns—the Yoke and Sheaf of Arrows—have been introduced into the decoration of the alcoves.

The ruinous tower and apartment to the south of the Hall of Justice, called the Rauda, appears to have been the mausoleum of the Sultans. The niches in which the turbehs were placed may still be distinguished, and the long, narrow trough used for the purification of the corpse. In the Museum may be seen three tablets with the epitaphs of the Sultans Yusuf III. and Mohammed II. and of a prince Abu-l-Hejaj, probably the former’s son.

Of the few remaining apartments of the Alhambra, the most interesting perhaps is the Tocador, or Queen’s Dressing-room, at the side of the Patio de Lindaraja, opposite the Mirador de Lindaraja. This was the apartment occupied by Washington Irving, according to his own showing: “On taking up my abode in the Alhambra, one end of a suite of empty chambers of modern architecture, intended for the residence of the governor, was fitted up for my reception. It was in front of the Palace.... I was dissatisfied with being lodged in a modern apartment.... I found, in a remote gallery, a door communicating apparently with an extensive apartment locked against the public.... I procured the key, however, without difficulty; the door opened to a range of vacant chambers of European architecture, though built over a Moorish arcade.... This fanciful suite of rooms terminated in an open gallery with balustrades, which ran at right angles with a side of the garden.... I found that it was an apartment fitted up at the time when Philip V. and the beautiful Elizabeth of Parma were expected at the Alhambra, and was destined for the Queen and the ladies of her train. One of the loftiest chambers had been her sleeping-room, and a narrow staircase leading from it ... opened on to the delightful belvedere, originally a mirador of the Moorish sultanas, which still retains the name of the tocador. I determined at once to take up my quarters in this apartment. My determination occasioned great surprise, but I was not diverted from my humour.”

This exquisite apartment is adorned by four sixteenth-century paintings, representing the legend of Phaëton. On the artesonado ceiling, painted and gilded, may be read the invocation: “The help and protection of God and a glorious victory for our Lord, Abu-l-Hejaj, Amir of the Muslims!” Round the boudoir runs a gallery of nine arches on Arabic pillars, painted and decorated with the figures of Faith, Hope, and Charity, Justice, Strength, and Temperance, Jupiter, Neptune, Plenty, and the Vestals’ Fire. These paintings were the work of two Italians, Giulio Aquila and Sandro Mainere, both pupils of Raphael.