"CS.040 Court of the Lions" by Denis Baly
 

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Creator

Denis Baly

Creation Year

1963

Image ID

CS.040

Alternate Identifier

B49.221

Subcollection

CS: Granada

Abstract

There are more than a hundred of these elegant columns that support the porticoes in the Court of the Lions in the Alhambra. In the words of Robert Irwin, in the Court of the Lions "one has a sense of architecture descending from heaven rather than resting upon the earth on which it was built."

Description

The palace was built in the second half of the fourteenth century in the reign of Muhammad V. The central courtyard is traversed by water-channels with a water fountain in the center. This is in the form a basin below which stand the eponymous twelve stone lions. 124 slender columns establish a harmonious internal rhythm to the building. The Alhambra as a whole is one of the most fantasized monuments of Islamic Architecture, captivating the imagination of a vast number of writers and artists, including Washington Irving and the French author Chateaubriand, to name just a couple. Indeed, some parts of the Alhambra, such as the Court of the Lions, are commonly written about examples of the most beautiful architecture in the world. The palace-complex as it stands today was built mostly in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries under the Nasrid dynasty (1238-1492), in particular by Yusuf I (1333-54) and his son Muhammad V (1354-59, 1362-1391). Out of six royal palaces, only two survive (the Comares palace and the Palace of the Lions). A summer palace called the Generalife (from the Arabic jannat al-arif, ‘the garden of the architect’) is also extant. – SK

References

Robert Irwin, The Alhambra. Profile Books, London, 2004. p. 49.

Image Notes

Photograph created 1963. Photograph processed September 1963. Formerly catalogued as B49.221, BV.032. Notes written on the slide or index: Court of the Lions (arcade).

Image Format

35 mm slide

Geographic Reference

Granada, Spain

Keywords

Moorish, Muslim, Fourteenth Century, Fifteenth Century, Reconstructed, Palace, Arches, Stucco, Stucco Carving, Archway, Columns, Portico, Courtyard

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Rights Statement

In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted
 
 
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