PLATES XLVII.-XLVIII.

A PALATIAL BUILDING IN THE MORISCO-SPANISH STYLE.

"Mother of pearl, and porphyry, and marble,

Vied with each other in this costly spot,

And singing birds without were heard to warble;

And the stained glass, which lighted through the grot

Varied each ray, but all description garble

The true effect, and so we had better not

Be too minute, an outline is the best,

A lively reader's fancy does the rest."-LORD BYRON'S Don Juan.

A SKETCH of that singular building, the deserted Moorish palace of Alhambra, situated in the citadel of Granada, in Spain, and the prototype of our annexed design will sufficiently illustrate this style of architecture. The palace, when in its glory, to use the beautiful simile of an Arabian writer in the days of Gusef, was a silver vase filled with emeralds and jacynths. It was in the reign of Mahomet II. that this famous palace of Alhambra was commenced,* when those people the Moors had conquered and settled in this place,† a great part of which palace still remains to astonish those travellers whom its name alone attracts to Granada, and proves to what a pitch of perfection the Mussulmen had carried that art, so little known to the European, of splendid magnificence subservient to the purposes of voluptuous pleasure. Nothing of what we know of architecture can give us any representation of that of the Mussulmen. They heaped up buildings without order or symmetry, without paying attention to the aspect they offered from without; all their care being to adorn the interior, on which they exhausted the resources of taste and magnificence, to combine in their apartments the accommodations of luxury with the charms of nature. There, in saloons lined with marble, and paved with shining delf, close to luxurious couches, covered with cloth of gold and silver, jets-d'eau spouted up to the vaulted stalactite ceiling, the most precious vases exhaled perfumes; and living myrtles, orange-trees, and flowers, growing in beds around the fountains, added to their fragrance. The palace, seated on the Sierra del Sol, or the mountain of the sun, overlooked the city of Granada; but did not present any regular front, and was approached by a promenade, having several winding walks, intercepted frequently by a rivulet, which meandered among trees of luxuriant foliage. The portal of the palace consists of a large square tower, which was formerly called the Gate of Judgment; an inscription of a religious nature points out that it was there the king distributed justice, according to the ancient custom of the Hebrews, and of the people of the East. On entering the northern side of this ancient abode of the Mussulman king, one is led to suppose himself transported to the land of the fairies.‡

The word Alhambra signifies a red house, which is the colour of the stones of this palatial edifice.-(Sir John Carr's Travels in Spain.)

+ The Moors became possessed of Spain in the following manner. In the reign of Witiza, the predecessor of Roderick, the conquest of Spain was attempted by Moosa. His troops, landing at Gibraltar, vanquished the Goths that were here under the usurper Roderick, A.D. 711. In a short time their dominion extended over the whole of Spain, with the exception of the Asturias. The reign of the Moors lasted here seven hundred and eighty-one years, till the time of Ferdinand and Isabella, when the taking of Granada, A.D. 1492, put an end to their kingdom.--(Powers's History of the Moors in Spain.)

The grand porch of the gate is formed by an immense Arabian arch of the horse-shoe form, which springs to half the height of the tower; on the key-stone of the arch is engraven a gigantic key. The hand is said to be the emblem of Mahomet's doctrine, and the latter the key of faith. The Moorish king who built it, was reported to be a great magician, and had laid the whole fortress under a magic spell. This spell, the tradition went on to say, would last until the hand on the centre arch should walk down and grasp the key, when the whole would tumble to pieces.-(Irving's Alhambra.)

The first court is a square with arcades and galleries, the walls and ceilings of which are covered with Damascus mosaic workmanship. In the midst of this court, paved with white marble, there is a large reservoir or basin filled with running water, which was formerly inclosed on either side by borders of shrubs and flowers, and walks of large trees. This place was called the Mesnar, or common baths of those Moors attached to the service of the court. The passages from them lead to the Quartode los Leones, or Court of the Lions, which is one hundred feet in length by fifty in breadth. Here a colonnade of white marble supports a gallery, which reaches along the whole extent; the columns are placed in pairs and sometimes in triples; they are slender to a singular degree; from which spring peach-leave Gothic arches with cusp edges, nine in each arch; but the lightness of the columns, and their graceful effect, is peculiarly pleasing to the astonished eye. The walls, and above all, the ceiling of this surrounding piazza, are covered with gold, and azure paint in arabesque stucco work, and executed with a degree of care and delicacy, which our most skilful modern artist would find it difficult to imitate. In the middle of those Damascus flower-pieces with which the walls are incrusted, and the ornaments always varying, we read these passages from the Koran, "God is great; God is the supreme conqueror; There is no God but God; Celestial gaiety, exultations of heart, and delight of the soul await those who believe."*

On the south side of the Court of the Lions is the hall of Abbencerrages, the cupola of which is extremely beautiful. (Vide Plate XLVIII. annexed.) The Abbencerrages were a numerous and illustrious family, who having incurred the displeasure of the Moorish King Boabdil, many of whom were enticed into this hall of the palace, (which now bears their name) one by one, where their heads were immediately struck off into the fountain. Upon the survivors hearing of this piece of treachery they headed the people of the city of Granada, and the Moorish king fled for security to Barbary, and Spain again fell into the hands of Ferdinand and Isabella.†

MOORISH PALACE GARDEN.

"On quitting the Alhambra, we enter," says Power, "the famous garden of Generalif, which name implies in Arabic, 'the habitation of love.' In this garden was a palace built in the same style as the Alhambra, and characterized by the same magnificence in which the king of Granada used to pass the spring of the year The palace no longer remains, but the Generalif still possesses its picturesque situation, and its points of view so varying and always pleasing. The fountains and cascades which played on every side, the retiring terraces which rise one above another, paved with mosaic work, are now shaded by immense cypress-trees, and ancient myrtles, which in their younger state afforded a shade in former times to the king and queen of Granada. At the present day the thickets flourish, and the finest of fruit-trees are intermixed with gloomy groves, with pavilions, and turban domes. Nothing remains of the former grandeur of Generalif but what it was impossible to take away, and yet it is that place on earth which speaks most powerfully to the eye and to the heart, and which the Moors imagine they shall again possess."

* Du Peyron bagayae d'Espayne, vol. i. p. 195.

One

+ It is not necessary to describe at length the other remains which are still left of the Palace of Alhambra. served as a hall of audience or justice; another contains the baths of the king, the queen, and their children, and we can yet see their bedchambers, where the couches are close to a favourite fountain, placed in alcoves covered with delf. In the saloon of music four elevated tribunes were filled with choice perfumery, whilst the whole court were seated on carpets round a basis of alabaster. In the chamber where the queen dressed herself or said her prayers, from which the view is endearing, is a slab of marble, pierced with an infinity of apertures to permit the exhalation of the perfumes which were burned incessantly in the vaults beneath. Throughout the whole, the windows, doors, and openings are managed in such a manner as to afford seats the most cheerful. The effect of light is so modified as to produce the most pleasing repose to the gratified eye. In every apartment two currents of air were continually in motion, apertures being formed near the ceiling to discharge the warm and unwholesome air which the pure inferior current forced upwards: so well directed were these currents of air as to come refreshed every instant with that delicious coolness breathed only in this edifice. Also in the winter season warmth by means of tubes of baked earth placed in the walls, was diffused from subterraneous tunnels, not only to the lower apartments, but to all the contiguous upper apartments where warmth was required.-(Power's History.)