HALL OF THE ABENCERRAGES.

SECTION OF THE HALL OF THE TWO SISTERS, AND

SECTION OF PART OF THE COURT OF THE LIONS.

INSCRIPTION IN THE HALL OF THE TWO SISTERS.

INSCRIPTIONS IN THE HALL OF THE TWO SISTERS.

PANEL, ORNAMENT, AND INSCRIPTIONS IN THE HALL OF THE TWO SISTERS.

DETAILS ON THE FRONT OF “LINDARAJA’S” BALCONY.DETAILS ON THE FRONT OF “LINDARAJA’S” BALCONY.

DETAILS ON THE FRONT OF “LINDARAJA’S” BALCONY.

EL JARRO. ARAB VASE OF METALLIC LUSTRE, PROBABLY FROM THE BALEARIC ISLES (MAJORCA). THIS VASE NOW STANDS IN THE MUSEUM OF THE PALACE.

PLATE I.No. 1.Ornament in panels on the Walls, Hall of the Ambassadors.

PLATE I.

No. 1.

Ornament in panels on the Walls, Hall of the Ambassadors.

PLATE II.No. 2.Soffit of an arch, Court of the Fishpond.

PLATE II.

No. 2.

Soffit of an arch, Court of the Fishpond.

PLATE III.No. 3.Ornament over doorway at the entrance, Court of the Lions.

PLATE III.

No. 3.

Ornament over doorway at the entrance, Court of the Lions.

PLATE IV.No. 4.Ornament in doorway at the entrance to the Ventana, Hall of the Two Sisters.

PLATE IV.

No. 4.

Ornament in doorway at the entrance to the Ventana, Hall of the Two Sisters.

PLATE V.No. 5.Ornament on the side of windows, upper story, Hall of the Two Sisters.

PLATE V.

No. 5.

Ornament on the side of windows, upper story, Hall of the Two Sisters.

PLATE VI.No. 6.Ornament in spandrils of arches, Hall of the Two Sisters.No. 7.Ornaments in spandrils of arches, Hall of the Abencerrages

PLATE VI.

No. 6.Ornament in spandrils of arches, Hall of the Two Sisters.

No. 7.Ornaments in spandrils of arches, Hall of the Abencerrages

PLATE VII.No. 8.Ornaments in panels, Hall of the Ambassadors.

PLATE VII.

No. 8.

Ornaments in panels, Hall of the Ambassadors.

PLATE VIII.No. 9.Ornaments in panels, Court of the Mosque.

PLATE VIII.

No. 9.

Ornaments in panels, Court of the Mosque.

DETAILS AT THE EXIT OF THE HALL OF THE TWO SISTERS.

toel jarro, formerly existed in the Palace, but it was unfortunately broken about the year 1837, and the pieces sold to a passing traveller. It is here figured from Murphy’sArabian Antiquities, 1815.

AN ARAB VASE OF THE XIVTH CENTURY IN THE NICHE WHEREIN IT STOOD UNTIL THE YEAR 1837.

The Hall of The Two Sisters fairly intoxicates one with the fragile yet imperishable beauty of the place. The eye soars upward, and flutters in and out of those flower-cup cells which seem the first creative types of some fresh world. Architects—Owen Jones amongst the number—inform us that the thing is very simple: it is a beauty put together by mere receipt proceeding from three primary figures—the right-angled triangle, the rectangle, and the isosceles triangle: capable of millions of combinations, just like the three primary colours, or the seven notes of the musical scale. “A simple receipt,” says an anonymous writer on the glories of the Alhambra; “but who, nowadays,

MOSAIC IN DADO OF THE ENTRANCE TO THE HALL OF THE TWO SISTERS.

can cook anything like it?” The same writer goes on to say that in devising the Alhambra, the Moors were always thinking of the Arab tent. They wanted air and lightness. The marble pillars are the tent spears, but of stone. The net-work lace veil that filigrees every wall with cobwebs of harmonious colour, is the old tent tapestry, the Córdovan-stamped leather hangings are the Indian shawls that canopied the wandering and victorious horseman’s tent. They wanted mere pendant flowers woven together into roof and gossamer-pierced panels that hardly

MOSAIC IN DADO OF RECESS, HALL OF THE TWO SISTERS.

MOSAIC IN DADO, HALL OF THE TWO SISTERS.

arrest the air. Everything must float and sway; they would not bar out the chirp of the dripping silver water. They thinned and shaved the pillars till they were no longer cylinders of marble, but tender saplings, or flower-stalks, slender as spear-shafts. The spandrils are not corbelled beams, faced with gargoyle monsters, but perforated supports as to some fairy’s cabinet. There is nothing to hold up, only ivory-patterned walls, and a honeycombed dome that seems to float in mid-air.

Here it is said that thirty-six cavaliers of the heroic line of Abencerrage were sacrificed to appease the jealousy or allay the fears of a tyrant. The fountain ran red with the noblest blood of Granada; and a deep stain on the marble pavement is pointed out by theciceroneof the pile as a sanguinary record of the massacre. The discolourations must be regarded with the same perfect faith with which one looks upon the traditional stains of Rizzio’s blood on the floor of the chamber of the unhappy Queen Mary at Holyrood. Who desires to be sceptical on such points of popular belief? The enlightenment of the happy reader of De Foe’s immortal romance—happy in the masterly illusion of the author—robbed him of one of the chief delights of his life. If there is any country in Europe where it is easy to live in the romantic and fabulous traditions of the past, it is in legendary, proud-spirited, romantic Spain, where the old, magnificent, barbaric spirit even now contends with modern innovation.

In the silent halls of the Alhambra, surrounded with the insignia of regal sway, and vivid with traces of Oriental voluptuousness, everything speaks and breathes of the glorious days of Granada when under the dominion of the Crescent. Inthe proudest days of Moslem domination, the Abencerrages were the soul of everything noble and chivalrous. The veterans of the family, who sat in the royal Council, were the foremost to devise those heroic enterprises which carried dismay into the territories of the Christian; and what the sages of the family devised, the young men of the name were prompt to execute. In all services of hazard, in all adventurous forays, the Abencerrages were sure to win the brightest laurels. In those noble recreations, too, which bear so close an affinity to war, still the Abencerrages carried off the palm. None could equal them in splendour of array, in gallantry of device, or in their noble bearing and glorious horsemanship. Their open-handed munificence made them the idols of the populace, while their lofty magnanimity and perfect faith gained them golden opinions from the generous and high-minded; the “word of an Abencerrage” was a guarantee that never admitted doubt.

The main facts connected with the fate of the chieftains of that generous but devoted race seem to have been ascertained, leaving little doubt of this hall having been the scene of their calamitous end. Alas! that boudoirs made for love and life should witness scenes of hatred and of death; and let none presume to “peep and botanize” over-much, for nothing is more certain than that heroic blood can never be effaced, still less if shed in most unnatural murder. Nor, according to Lady Macbeth, will “all the perfumes of Arabia” serve to sweeten the foul deed. The blood at least is genuine to all intentions of romance as that of “the gentle Lutenist” at Holyrood, or of Becket at the shrine of Canterbury. It behoves us to beware of those dull people who, deprived of imagination, pretend to judgment; and who would abolish the midsummer fairies, or proscribe old Æsop; there is no faith in them.

All who visit the Alhambra are sure to make for the fountain

HALL OF THE ABENCERRAGES (BENI CERRAJ).

where the Abencerrages were beheaded, the more credulous looking with interest upon the natural reddish-brown veins of the marble, which are supposed to be indelible blood-stains. It is said that Boabdil resolved upon the extirpation of the noble family of the Abencerrages in consequence of the alleged discovery of an intrigue, including a false charge of infidelity against his gentle queen, and directed the decapitation of thirty-six of

MOSAIC—HALL OF THE ABENCERRAGES.

them in this Hall. The story has passed into ballads, dramas, and romances, until it has grown too strong to be eradicated. Boabdil, however, was of a mild and amiable character, if wavering and irresolute; and too gracious to have ordered so inhuman a massacre as the execution of thirty-six of not only a gallant, but a powerful and numerous family, with many friends. The truth is, it was Boabdil’s father, Muley-Abu-l-Hasen, represented by both Christian and Arabian chroniclersas of a cruel and ferocious nature, who unjustly put to death some cavaliers of the illustrious line upon suspicion of their being engaged in a conspiracy to dispossess him.

It so happens that the fame of Boabdil the Unlucky can be cleared of such infamy as the wholesale massacre of the Abencerrages through direct evidence afforded by a contemporary Hispano-Moresque ballad, “Ay de mi Alhama!” written in 1482, and which Lord Byron has made familiar by his version, “A very mournful Ballad on the siege and conquest of Alhama.”

The fact that Muley-Abu-l-Hasen in vain invested the castle and town of Alhama[11]after its capture by the Marquis of Cadiz, and the direct reference in the ballad to its loss, ascribed to the wrath of Allah at the wickedness of the King, clearly exonerates Boabdil from the crime of his father.

* * * * * *

“By thee were slain, in evil hour,The Abencerrage, Granada’s flower;And strangers were received by theeOf Córdova the Chivalry.Woe is me, Alhama!“And for this, oh king! is sentOn thee a double chastisement:Thee and thine, thy crown and realm,One last wreck shall overwhelm.Woe is me, Alhama!”

“By thee were slain, in evil hour,The Abencerrage, Granada’s flower;And strangers were received by theeOf Córdova the Chivalry.Woe is me, Alhama!

“And for this, oh king! is sentOn thee a double chastisement:Thee and thine, thy crown and realm,One last wreck shall overwhelm.Woe is me, Alhama!”

* * * * * *

With the loss of the two “Keys” to Granada—Loja and Alhama—both being forthwith heavily garrisoned by the

HALL OF THE ABENCERRAGES.

WOODEN DOOR, HALL OF THE ABENCERRAGES.

PLATE IX.No. 10.Ornament over arches at the entrance to the Court of the Lions.

PLATE IX.

No. 10.

Ornament over arches at the entrance to the Court of the Lions.

PLATE X.No. 11.Ornament on the walls, Hall of the Abencerrages.

PLATE X.

No. 11.

Ornament on the walls, Hall of the Abencerrages.

PLATE XI.No. 12.Ornament in panels on the walls, Court of the Mosque.

PLATE XI.

No. 12.

Ornament in panels on the walls, Court of the Mosque.

PLATE XII.No. 13.Spandril of an arch of window, Hall of the Ambassadors.

PLATE XII.

No. 13.

Spandril of an arch of window, Hall of the Ambassadors.

PLATE XIII.No. 14.Brackets supporting ceiling of the portico, Court of the Lions.

PLATE XIII.

No. 14.

Brackets supporting ceiling of the portico, Court of the Lions.

PLATE XIV.No. 15.Small panel in jamb of a window, Hall of the Ambassadors.

PLATE XIV.

No. 15.

Small panel in jamb of a window, Hall of the Ambassadors.

PLATE XV.No. 16.Small panel in jamb of a window, Hall of the Ambassadors.

PLATE XV.

No. 16.

Small panel in jamb of a window, Hall of the Ambassadors.

PLATE XVI.No. 17.Small panel in jamb of a window, Hall of the Two Sisters.

PLATE XVI.

No. 17.

Small panel in jamb of a window, Hall of the Two Sisters.

HALL OF THE TWO SISTERS.

INTERIOR VIEW, TAKEN FROM THE HALL OF THE TWO SISTERS.

CEILING OF THE HALL OF THE TWO SISTERS.

HALL OF THE ABENCERRAGES.

CEILING OF THE HALL OF THE ABENCERRAGES.

MOSAIC, FROM A FRAGMENT IN THE ALHAMBRA.

MOSAIC, NORTH SIDE OF THE COURT OFTHE LIONS.

CHIEF GATE OF THE ALHAMBRA.

PLATE XVII.No. 18.Panel in the upper chamber of the House of Sanchez.

PLATE XVII.

No. 18.

Panel in the upper chamber of the House of Sanchez.

PLATE XVIII.No. 19.Soffit of great arch at the entrance of the Court of the Fishpond.

PLATE XVIII.

No. 19.

Soffit of great arch at the entrance of the Court of the Fishpond.

PLATE XIX.No. 20.Spandril from niche of doorway at the entrance of the Hall of Ambassadors, from the Sala de la Barca.

PLATE XIX.

No. 20.

Spandril from niche of doorway at the entrance of the Hall of Ambassadors, from the Sala de la Barca.

PLATE XX.No. 21.Lintel of a doorway, Court of the Mosque.

PLATE XX.

No. 21.

Lintel of a doorway, Court of the Mosque.

PLATE XXI.No. 24.No. 25.Capital of Columns, Court of the Lions.

PLATE XXI.

No. 24.

No. 25.

Capital of Columns, Court of the Lions.

PLATE XXII.No. 24.No. 25.Capital of Columns, Court of the Lions.

PLATE XXII.

No. 24.

No. 25.

Capital of Columns, Court of the Lions.

PLATE XXIII.No. 26.No. 27.Capital of Columns, Court of Fishpond.

PLATE XXIII.

No. 26.

No. 27.

Capital of Columns, Court of Fishpond.

PLATE XXIV.No. 28., No. 29., No. 30., No. 31., No. 32., No. 33.Ornament on the Walls of the windows of “Lindaraja’s” Balcony.

PLATE XXIV.

No. 28., No. 29., No. 30., No. 31., No. 32., No. 33.

Ornament on the Walls of the windows of “Lindaraja’s” Balcony.

TRANSVERSAL SECTION OF THE ALHAMBRA.

SECTION SHOWING HEIGHTS OF THE ALHAMBRA.

ELEVATION OF THE “WINE GATE.”

THE GATE OF JUDGMENT.

PORCH OF THE GATE OF JUDGMENT.

A SECTION OF THE GATE OF JUDGMENT.

INTERIOR PERSPECTIVE OF THE ALHAMBRA.

VIEW OF THE ACQUEDUCT, NEAR THE ALHAMBRA.

PLATE XXV.Details of an Arch, Portico of the Court of Lions.Spandril of the opposite side of Arch.No. 34.Court of The Lions.

PLATE XXV.

Details of an Arch, Portico of the Court of Lions.

Spandril of the opposite side of Arch.

No. 34.

Court of The Lions.

PLATE XXVI.No. 35.Capitals in the Hall of Two Sisters.

PLATE XXVI.

No. 35.

Capitals in the Hall of Two Sisters.

PLATE XXVII.Details of the Great Arches in the Hall of the Bark.

PLATE XXVII.

Details of the Great Arches in the Hall of the Bark.

PLATE XXVIII.No. 37.4, 5. Arches, Court of The Lions.1, 2, 3, 6. Arches, Hall of Justice.

PLATE XXVIII.

No. 37.

4, 5. Arches, Court of The Lions.

1, 2, 3, 6. Arches, Hall of Justice.

PLATE XXIX.No. 38.Details of The Great Arches.

PLATE XXIX.

No. 38.

Details of The Great Arches.

PLATE XXX.No. 39.1. Hall of Ambassadors.3. Hall of The Bark.2. Court of The Fish Pond.4. Hall of The Two Sisters.

PLATE XXX.

No. 39.

1. Hall of Ambassadors.

3. Hall of The Bark.

2. Court of The Fish Pond.

4. Hall of The Two Sisters.

PLATE XXXI.No. 40.Detail of an Arch, Court of The Fish Pond.

PLATE XXXI.

No. 40.

Detail of an Arch, Court of The Fish Pond.

PLATE XXXII.No. 41.Detail of an Arch, Portico of The Court of Lions.

PLATE XXXII.

No. 41.

Detail of an Arch, Portico of The Court of Lions.

A VIEW OF THE ALHAMBRA FROM THE ALBAYCIN.A VIEW OF THE ALHAMBRA FROM THE ALBAYCIN.A VIEW OF THE ALHAMBRA FROM THE ALBAYCIN.

A VIEW OF THE ALHAMBRA FROM THE ALBAYCIN.

GATE OF JUSTICE.

Christians, the reduction of the last stronghold of the Moors became only a question of time. As we know, the surrender of Granada took place within four years after the fall of Loja.

But it is not the history of the Dominion and Expulsion, so much as the description of the Hall of the Abencerrages, that demands attention at present.

After the glories of theSala de las Dos Hermanas, the Hall of the Abencerrages, elegant as it is, pales somewhat in interest. There are but few inscriptions here. It has been repeatedly “restored,” and much of the ornament which decorates the walls seems to have been transferred from the Hall of The Two Sisters. The arches, however, appear in their original state, and are most beautiful in general form, as in their surface decoration. The manner in which the arch-form gradually grows out from the shaft of the column is exquisite. In the centre of the Hall is the famous “Fountain,” with the waters of which the blood of the Abencerrage chieftains is said to have mingled.

The beautiful wooden doors to the Hall of the Abencerrages existed in their places, and in perfect condition till the summer of 1837, when they were removed and sawn in halves by the then resident Governor of the Alhambra for the purpose of stopping a gap in another part of the Palace; and, as they proved too large for the openings to which they were applied, the superfluous parts were broken up for firewood!

The doors are of white wood, with similar mouldings and ornaments on either side; the decorations were originally in colour, traces of which may still be discovered. The folding doors are hung on pivots, which are let into the socket of a marble slab below, and above into the soffit of a beam which crosses the colonnade of the Court of the Lions. This method of hanging the doors is precisely similar to that adopted inancient temples, and is still practised throughout the East. The manner in which the bolt secures, at the same time, both flaps of the larger doors and the wicket, is full of ingenuity.

Don Rafaél Contreras caused these doors, or what remained of them, to be replaced in the position for which they were originally intended. He found the fragments amid the lumber of the palace! His own words are: “Nous l’avons restaurée en 1856, l’ayant trouvébrisée en quatre morceaux, abandonnée dans les magasins du palais”—They were found, broken into four pieces, in the lumber rooms of the palace.

This Court was called in former timesPatio de los Arrayanes—the Court of the Myrtles—by reason of its beautiful flowering shrubs which gem either side of the Fishpond; trim myrtle hedges, and orange trees rising beside the water.

To enter the Court of the Fish-pond is to be straightway translated to the palace of Haroun-al-raschid: Granada changes to Damascus. The Moorish arches, springing from slender palm-tree shafts, are of bewildering beauty; the walls, no longer forbidding blocks of stone, but pierced trellises, that turn sunlight and moonlight into patterns resembling so much Venetian filigree. “Surely they are needle-work turned to stone,” says a traveller of long ago; “or some great Sultán has built them with panels cut from caskets of Indian ivory, though the piecing be not seen. The myrtles grow green and glossy round the great marble tank, 150 feet long, which flows with mellow water, in which burnished fish—some apparently red-hot, others of molten silver—steer, flirt, skim, and splash. Never stop to think that the dry, whity-brown, tubular-tiled, sloping roofs

NORTH SIDE OF THE COURT OF THE FISH-POND.

ELEVATION OF AN ALCOVE IN THE COURT OF THE FISH-POND.

ELEVATION OF THE ARCADE ON THE NORTH SIDE OF THE COURT OF THE FISH-POND.

SECTION THROUGH PART OF THE COURT OF THE FISH-POND

AND THE HALL OF THE AMBASSADORS.

THE BATHS, HALL OF REPOSE.

Explanation of the Letters of Reference in this Plate.A A A. Entrances to the quarter of the Palace containing the baths.B B B B B B. Passages communicating with the different apartments and baths.C C. Apartments, looking into.D D. A Court with a fountain in its centre.E E Baths and dressing-rooms.F F F. Warm baths.G G G. The place where the water was heated. The copper vessels anciently employed for this purpose were sold many years ago by the then Governor of the Alhambra for the sum of 14,000 reals, about £350 sterling. From these coppers, the warm water was conducted between the walls to the different baths by means of pipes communicating with them, and which are distinctly shown by the white line.I I I I I I. Other baths and apartments. The linesaaaaaaaaaaadesignate steps by which the bathers descended into the water.K. The great Hall of the Baths.GROUND PLAN OF THE BATHS IN THE ALHAMBRA.

Explanation of the Letters of Reference in this Plate.

A A A. Entrances to the quarter of the Palace containing the baths.

B B B B B B. Passages communicating with the different apartments and baths.

C C. Apartments, looking into.

D D. A Court with a fountain in its centre.

E E Baths and dressing-rooms.

F F F. Warm baths.

G G G. The place where the water was heated. The copper vessels anciently employed for this purpose were sold many years ago by the then Governor of the Alhambra for the sum of 14,000 reals, about £350 sterling. From these coppers, the warm water was conducted between the walls to the different baths by means of pipes communicating with them, and which are distinctly shown by the white line.

I I I I I I. Other baths and apartments. The linesaaaaaaaaaaadesignate steps by which the bathers descended into the water.

K. The great Hall of the Baths.

GROUND PLAN OF THE BATHS IN THE ALHAMBRA.

SECTION OF THE HALL OF THE BATHS.

A SECTION OF THE BATHS IN THE ALHAMBRA.

THE SULTÁNA’S BATH.

THE SULTÁN’S BATH.

THE HALL OF THE BATHS.

CEILING OF THE HALL OF THE BATHS.

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