An Architect's Note-Book in Spain Part 15

REMAINS OF THE ALHAMBRA AS SEEN FROM THE ALBAYCIN.

NO one looking from the quarter of the city to which, after its conquest by the Christians in 1480, the Moors who lingered behind the bulk of their fellows, were relegated, (as the Jews by the Popes to the Ghetto at Rome,) would be justified in supposing that the stern-looking and dilapidated fortresses, and lines of walling of vast height and apparent strength, which meet the eye, contained nearly complete specimens of the loveliest and most elaborate system of ornamentation, both in form and colour, which has ever existed. The position of the Alhambra is worthy in every respect of the treasures of art it contains. It overlooks the Vega, an extended plain, which in the days of the city's prosperity was literally one vast garden, and even in the present day is, to most of central Spain, pretty nearly what an oasis may be supposed to be to a desert.

On the extreme left in this sketch is seen the great ma.s.s of the "Torre de Comares," which contains the celebrated Hall of the Amba.s.sadors; next to it on the right are the ancient buildings of the Patio de la Mezquita or Mosque. Behind these, and further to the right, rises the great rectangular ma.s.s of the Palace of Charles V. The flat s.p.a.ce, in front and on the right of the Palace, is known as the Plaza de los "Algibes"

(of the tanks) and the ma.s.s of towers and buildings beyond are those of the Alcazaba, (the fortress) with, conspicuous on the extreme right, the Torre de la Vela, (the Watch-Tower,) from which a constant look-out was kept far and wide over the city to the west, and the far spreading Vega to the west and south. On the horizon stretched the great range of snow-clad mountains, the Sierra Nevada.

The beauty of the view from this tower cannot be exceeded, and I never shall forget the aspect of the scene upon one especially lovely moonlight night. By such soft illumination, the desolation of which one saw so much by day was pa.s.sed over in the breadth of the great ma.s.ses of light and shade. As the moonlight caught the snow-clad peaks of the Sierra Nevada and traced itself in the silver lines of the winding River Genil, coming from the far off distance to the city beneath, and losing itself in the thousands of twinkling lights of the suburbs in which its silver threads seemed to get entangled and lost, everything was perfect; and as one turned away towards the nearer mountain heights, and saw, upon their hilly eastern slopes, the Generalife and the Alhambra, almost close at hand, one felt inclined to forget the present in the past and to think of ruin as perfection, and of death as life.

By day the illusion was destroyed, the young Alhambra of the night faded away, and in its place one saw all the seams and stains and wrinkles age had left upon its h.o.a.ry head and face, all the more painfully perhaps from the efforts one recognise as having been made here and there, by loving and anxious hands, to mend and palliate conspicuous decay.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 67

GRANADA

ENTRANCE TO THE BOSQUe DEL ALHAMBRA

MDW 1869]

PLATE LXVII.

_GRANADA._

ENTRANCE TO THE BOSQUe DEL ALHAMBRA.

OUR sixty-seventh sketch ill.u.s.trates the road by which the traveller usually ascends from the City of Granada to the delights of the Alhambra. On pa.s.sing through the ma.s.sive gateway, seen in the middle of the sketch, he finds himself in a thickly-planted wood or "bosque,"

cool, shady, refres.h.i.+ng, and beautiful. At several turns in the winding road, fountains, abundantly supplied with crystal water, charm his eye and ear at the same moment. With his pulse just quickened by the gradual ascent, everything seems to conduce to ease of body, and to throw him into a happy frame of mind for enjoying the feast of beauty which lies in store for him. As a preparation for such a banquet, I know nothing better calculated to insure a healthy digestion of the artistic "pabulum" the Alhambra furnishes, than a thorough acquaintance with the views of Owen Jones upon the subject of Moorish art generally.

If in his n.o.ble work on the Alhambra he has described the system "no work so fitted to ill.u.s.trate a grammar of ornament as that in which every ornament contains a grammar in itself. 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 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 combinations of the Romans, the Byzantines, and the Arabs. The ornament wanted but one charm, which was the peculiar feature of the Egyptian ornament, symbolism. This the religion of the Moors forbade; but the want was more than supplied by the inscriptions, which, addressing themselves to the eye by their outward beauty, at once excited the intellect by the difficulties of deciphering their curious and complex involutions, and delighted the imagination when read, by the beauty of the sentiments they expressed and the music of their composition. To the artist and those provided with minds to estimate the value of the beauty to which they gave a life, they repeated _Look and Learn_."

It is not, of course, from the study of the monuments of one period, or of one locality, that any accurate idea is to be formed of the Architecture of any races, whose national history and whose dominion have extended for many centuries over many lands. Nor, indeed, is a just appreciation of the artistic value of the system of Art, sectionally studied, to be arrived at until the student has compared it with its antecedents in its own and other localities. Such works, therefore, as offer to the inquirer means for inst.i.tuting studies of the nature alluded to, acquire peculiar value, although necessarily incomplete for sectional study. The student of Oriental Architecture, from this point of view, has been laid under a debt of grat.i.tude by M. Girault de Prangey,[36] whose works enable him to obtain a fair idea of the varieties of style practised by the Mahommedan races in Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Spain, Sicily and Barbary. Through all these there evidently runs a harmony of system, but not the less clearly have we to recognize an endless variety of detail, and an incessantly changeful development--reaching its climax certainly in the Alhambra at Granada.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 68

GRANADA. PUERTA DE JUSTICIA.

MDW 1869]

PLATE LXVIII.

_GRANADA._

PUERTA DE JUSTICIA.

WENDING his way upwards through the beautiful "Bosque," it is on arriving at the celebrated "Gate of Justice"[37] that the traveller first finds himself face to face with the Moor, and his wise and patriarchal habits, as well as his inherent love for the beautiful.

Within these venerable walls once sat the Monarch, as Solomon sat, to administer justice to the poorest, as to the richest, of his subjects.

On the side shown to the outer world the archway wears the stern features of the fortress; while on the inner side, the one shown in my sketch, there are traces of a beauty and richness suitable to the Palace to which it led. What is most remarkable architecturally about this Gateway is, firstly, the ingenuity of its plan for resisting surprise in attack; and, secondly, the beauty of the coloured tiles by which its inside elevation is decorated.

First, with respect to its plan. This, so far as the pa.s.sage way from gate to gate (carried between walls of great thickness and ma.s.sive construction) is concerned, a.s.sumes the form of two letters L placed in contact with one another, thus,

__ B __ A ,

the gate of entry from without being at A, and the gate of exit at B.

The consequence is that no a.s.sailant entering from A can form any idea of what preparations for resistance may exist in the interior of the gateway. Neither can he gain anything by a rush, as the impetus of any attack would be broken by the necessities of having to stop, turn round and start in another direction for too short a distance, before having to check and turn again, to acquire any momentum or "elan." Even after fighting his way from gate to gate, the a.s.sailant would only find himself in a narrow gallery between high walls and upper platforms through which it would be most difficult to advance, exposed to missiles from every direction. While attacking the outer gate and intermediate obstacles, the besieger would, of course, be liable to the amenities of molten lead, &c., from the upper chambers of the Gateway.

Secondly, with respect to the beauty of the coloured tiles. These are unlike, both in colour and texture, as well as I could see, any other tiles existing in the Alhambra, or any left at Cordova, Seville or Toledo. My impression is, that they may have been a present from Damascus, Cairo, or from Persia proper. The peculiar deep granulated blue which is conspicuous in them, I have only seen in fragments from ancient Mosques, which have been brought from the East. The mode of manufacture is not that either of the usual Moorish and Spanish Azulejos, with raised outlines forming compartments for the separate colours; nor is it like that of the Majorca tiles and dishes, and the usual flat tiles of the Alhambra, which, with their fine white surfaces for painting on, formed the basis of Majolica. It is, however, quite like that of the half-encaustic, half-painted tiles of the early Mahommedan buildings in India, Persia, and especially Arabia proper.

A long inscription occurs in two lines over the inner gateway, towards the exterior. The following is from the translation of the distinguished Arabic student and historian, Don Pasqual de Gayangos.

"This gate, called Babu-sh-shari'ah (the Gate of the Law)--may G.o.d prosper through it the law of Islam, and He made this a lasting monument of His glory--was built at the command of our Lord, the Commander of the Moslems, the warlike and just Sultan Abu-l-walid Ibu Naor, (may G.o.d remunerate his good deeds in the observance of religion, and accept of his valorous performances in support of the faith). And it was closed for the first time in the glorious month of the birth of our Prophet, in the year 749. May the Almighty make this gate a protecting bulwark, and write down its erection among the imperishable actions of the Just."

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE 69

GRENADA. THE ALHAMBRA SALA DE EMBAJADORES

MDW 1869]

PLATE LXIX.

_GRANADA.--THE ALHAMBRA._

SALA DE EMBAJADORES.

TO describe the progress of the visitor through the Courts and apartments of the "Casa Real," as the Palace of the Alhambra is called, would be to echo a more than thrice-told tale. For present purposes, it may suffice to say, that in the Hall of the Amba.s.sadors he reaches the acme of Moorish magnificence. My sketch represents one of the nine windows by which the hall is lighted on the level of the floor. The s.p.a.ce from the single arch, which is on the internal face of the apartment, to the coupled arches which are on the external face of the building, represents the thickness, no less than about eight feet, of the wall of the Tower of Comares. The window I have chosen for sketching, looks towards a Renaissance addition to the Alhambra, made by Charles V. for the accommodation of his Queen.

This elegant pavilion, from which is obtained a view of almost unparallelled loveliness over the Vega, is known as the "Tocador de la Reina," or, Boudoir of the Queen.

The Hall of Amba.s.sadors occupies the whole of the internal area on plan of the Tower, and is an apartment thirty-seven feet square and seventy-five feet high. It is entered from the Court of the "Blessing,"

(as Mr. O'Shea considers the Patio de la Berkah to be more properly called, than the Court of the Fish Pond,) or "de la Alberca," the t.i.tle by which it is usually known. Advancing from the Patio, the visitor traverses the Sala. In the wall opposite to the door of entrance to the Hall are three windows. In the central one appears to have been placed the throne of the Sultan. In each of the walls, on the right and left of the entrance, are three nearly-similar windows: the one I have selected for representation being the middle one of the three in the wall on the right upon entering.

The dado which runs round the whole of the splendid Hall, is made of Mosaic and Azulejos for a height of about four feet from the pavement; and above it run bands with inscriptions and medallions. Over these, the walls, covered with lace-like diapers in stucco, to a height of about seven and twenty feet from the floor, run up to a second tier of windows, five on a side, lighting the upper portion of the Hall.

At a height of about forty feet, occurs a beautiful stalact.i.te cornice from which starts a n.o.ble dome, or "Artesonado" ceiling, most ingeniously made in inlaid wood, and gorgeously decorated. This ceiling, splendid as it is, occupies the place only of one yet more marvellous, which fell down. The original ceiling, or rather hollow cone, was of the same description as the existing stalact.i.te, or pendentive, ceilings of the Hall of "the Abencerrages," of "Justice," and of "the two Sisters;"

but larger and finer. Mr. Owen Jones has given us, in Plate VII of his magnificent work, a long section, to a large scale, pa.s.sing from the window in which the throne of the Sultan was placed, through the Hall of the Amba.s.sadors with its arch of entrance, through the Sala de la Barca, the splendid anteroom, as it were, to the Throne room, through the Loggia, or Arcade, of the Patio of the Alberca, through the Patio itself, and through the end Loggia of the Court with its exquisite Pavilion on the first floor. From this section can be admirably realised, what must have been the view, or "colpo d'occhio," of the Sultan, as he sat upon his throne to receive foreign Amba.s.sadors.[38] It seems impossible to conceive of any position more imposing, or better calculated to impress the imagination particularly of Eastern magnates.

Even now, bereft of so much that must once have added to its charm, the view is one of exquisite and most romantic beauty. It is, indeed, a sight to stir a poet's heart, although