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The Court of the Lions at the Alhambra
Unknown - Enlarge image
The Court of the Lions at the Alhambra
- Object:
Photograph
- Place of origin:
Spain (photographed)
- Date:
1854 (photographed)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Albumen print mounted on glass
- Museum number:
58-1939
- Gallery location:
Prints & Drawings Study Room, level H, case X, shelf 546, box C
Object Type
A stereograph is a pair of photographic images of the same subject taken from slightly different angles and mounted side by side on a card.. This gives the illusion of a single three-dimensional image when the stereograph is viewed through a stereoscope designed to hold it. Viewing stereographs was a popular amusement from the 1850s until the early 20th century.
Places
This photograph shows part of a court in the old citadel and royal palace of the Alhambra in the city of Granada in southern Spain. The ornate style of the architecture is known as 'Moorish' (after the Muslims of mixed Arab, Spanish and Berber origins who ruled southern Spain between the 8th and the 15th centuries) or Islamic. The main sections of the building were begun in the 14th century. In the 19th century the Alhambra court was such a popular site that it was replicated in the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace, London in 1851.
Subject Depicted
A printed caption on the reverse of this stereograph reads: 'The Court of the Lions - so called from a massive stone fountain which is placed in its centre guarded on every side by those animals... a fitter locality for the enjoyment of that Eastern luxury, a cool retreat from the intense heat without, cannot well be imagined, possessing all the requirements for the indulgence of sensuality and repose.'
