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Lot Essay
This centre-piece is based on the Pavilion in the 'Patio de los Leones' in the Alhambra, Granada, Spain.
The Alhambra was first a palatine city that embraced a diversity of functions, only one of which was residential. It was the Royal city from which the Muslim rulers would run the country and patronise the arts, in strict conformity with the religion. The buildings were therefore highly decorated in the Islamic taste, often reproducing some of the Koran's verses or the Nastrid device "There is no conqueror but God".
The historical circumstances that prompted the first reference to the Alhambra were the battles between the Arabs and the Muladies, started at the end of the 9th century in the medieval region of Elvira, now the province of Granada.
The castle, for the most part abandoned during the first half of the 11th century, was rebuilt and enlarged by the Vizier to King Badis of the Zirid dynasty in the 13th century, but it only acquired its present outlines during the last third of the 14th century thanks to Muhammad V. With the campaign begun in 1491 by the catholic sovereigns, Granada fell under siege, and Muhammad XII surrendered the city to Ferdinand and Isabella of Castille and Aragon in January 1492.
The Alhambra is the only Palace that remains from the Muslim Middle Ages nearly intact and relatively well preserved. It survived because the entire complex became a part of the Royal patrimony: the King and Queen declared it a Casa Real, a Royal residence, and therefore preserved the buildings. It was then inhabited by Charles V (d. 1558) following his wedding in Seville to Isabel of Portugal.
The Alhambra was first a palatine city that embraced a diversity of functions, only one of which was residential. It was the Royal city from which the Muslim rulers would run the country and patronise the arts, in strict conformity with the religion. The buildings were therefore highly decorated in the Islamic taste, often reproducing some of the Koran's verses or the Nastrid device "There is no conqueror but God".
The historical circumstances that prompted the first reference to the Alhambra were the battles between the Arabs and the Muladies, started at the end of the 9th century in the medieval region of Elvira, now the province of Granada.
The castle, for the most part abandoned during the first half of the 11th century, was rebuilt and enlarged by the Vizier to King Badis of the Zirid dynasty in the 13th century, but it only acquired its present outlines during the last third of the 14th century thanks to Muhammad V. With the campaign begun in 1491 by the catholic sovereigns, Granada fell under siege, and Muhammad XII surrendered the city to Ferdinand and Isabella of Castille and Aragon in January 1492.
The Alhambra is the only Palace that remains from the Muslim Middle Ages nearly intact and relatively well preserved. It survived because the entire complex became a part of the Royal patrimony: the King and Queen declared it a Casa Real, a Royal residence, and therefore preserved the buildings. It was then inhabited by Charles V (d. 1558) following his wedding in Seville to Isabel of Portugal.