GALLERY IN THE GENERALIFE.
Nothing can exceed the symmetry of the Portico of the Generalife. The columns are of white marble, surmounted by arches and arabesques. The inscription, many times repeated, and running along the whole front of the Portico, is that which occurs so frequently in the Alhambra, “There is no conqueror but God.” The dado has a very rich effect, the colours being black, blue, gold, scarlet, and green.
The transverse section of the Royal Villa, shown in the plate at p. 411, gives an idea of the beauty of the interior decorations. The ceiling of the chief apartment is a chef-d’œuvre of Arabian workmanship; the exquisite delicacy and consummate taste displayed by the artist must be seen before a full appreciation can be acquired. The ceiling is delineated at p. 425.
The Acequia Court reminds the observer of the Court of the Fishpond; or of Myrtles, in the Alhambra. Although of no such great dimensions, similar arcades, galleries, and fountains, are here seen in profusion. The slender pillars and gossamer-perforated fabrics are, as in the case of the greater Palace, like nothing so much as our conception of fairy-work, rather a dream of beauty than the production of human hands.
LA CASA DEL CARBON—THE CHARCOAL HOUSE.
Halfway down the Zacatin, which was, in Moorish times, the bazaar, or market, of Granada—then alive with busy silversmiths, and with silk merchants, who offered the most wondrous productions of the loom—stands whatever remains of the elegant palace known as the Charcoal House, from having been appropriated to the sale of that commonplace article. The edifice, until recent times, bore the name by which it had been known for centuries, viz.: La Casa del Gallo de Viento—The Weather-cock House.
There is a tradition that the palace was built by Bàdìs Ibn Hàbus, the third Sultàn of Granada of the Zeyrite dynasty, about 1070 A.D., by whose direction a vane was made in the
THE ACEQUIA COURT, IN THE GENERALIFE.