Richard Ford, an English gentleman traveller and writer in the early nineteenth century, wrote that Spain was “the most romantic and peculiar country in Europe” with some “altogether un-European” Islamic antiquities.
It is these Islamic antiquities of this “peculiar country” – the Islamic arts of Spain – that are the subject of this book. Spain has fascinated travellers, scholars and collectors for centuries, and this fascination is richly reflected in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, which form the backdrop to this book. The author is the curator in the Middle Eastern section of the Asian department at the V&A, and her deep knowledge of the collections of the art of al-Andalus is reflected in the beautiful illustrations that accompany the text, many of which come from the Museum collection.
This is not the usual tour of the highlights of the caliphal, taifa, berber and Nasrid dynasties of 711–1492, although plenty of those highlights are included. Instead, the author expands our understanding of what we mean when we talk about the Islamic arts of Spain, by including chapters not only on the often neglected mudéjar period, but also on the afterlife and influence of buildings such as the Alhambra until today. Islamic art in Spain did not come to a full-stop in 1492, when the period of Muslim rule ended. But it has taken a long time for Spain's Islamic art to become accepted as a fundamental part of Spanish national culture – as integral to the creation of Spanish identity as the flamenco dancer or the matador.
The first chapter focuses on the ages of empire, which include the caliphal, taifa and berber periods of the first 500 years of Islamic rule in Spain. Among the most extraordinary objects to survive from the period of caliphal rule is the group of containers carved from solid ivory, illustrated here by an extraordinary wealth of examples from the V&A collection. These were small and highly personal objects made for the close family members of this far distant, wealthy court, and as such they have been the subject of a number of scholarly studies. But the author has much to add to the subject, for example on the relationship between the carved decoration on the ivories and the decorative repertoire of contemporary luxury textiles. Later in this chapter, in the discussion on the berber art of the Almoravids and Almohads, the author highlights the importance of looking to North Africa for reference material for this rather disparaged period.
The Nasrids are the focus of chapter 2: traditionally this has been seen as a period of decline and degeneration in art and architecture, a view the author dismisses through her careful look at Nasrid architecture and material culture, reminding us for example that the Alhambra was in fact paved with expensive marble. She reassigns a group of openwork ivory caskets to Nasrid rather than Mamluk production, while drawing links between Nasrid style and contemporary developments in Mamluk Egypt.
The Alhambra, jewel in the Nasrid crown, can easily give the impression of a beautiful but cold and uninhabitable palace. Textiles are of course the missing link, as fine silks and rich carpets would have decorated many surfaces of the building. She emphasizes textiles as a vital link between architecture and the decoration of Nasrid palaces, and many unpublished examples are richly illustrated here.
The word “mudéjar”, which describes those Muslims who stayed on and lived under Christian rule, can become problematic when used to describe an artistic style, a difficulty of which the author is keenly aware in her third chapter entitled “Mudéjar taste”. “Mudéjar art” is the term generally used to describe art made often – but not exclusively – by mudéjar craftsmen, in which there are prominent elements of Islamic style. This art may be a carved and painted wooden ceiling in Toledo, or a tin-glazed tile from Seville, an armorial carpet from Murcia or a brick church in Aragon; all of these are included in “mudéjar art” because these craftsmen continued using Islamic techniques and styles, but in objects or buildings made for the changing tastes and demands of the new (usually Christian) patrons. In many publications, it is sometimes difficult to know what links the disparate styles and techniques that are often included under the umbrella term. The author looks at this disparate style through a focus on places (Toledo, Seville) and objects (including wooden ceilings, inlaid “taracea” furniture, ceramics and textiles). In particular the extraordinary marquetry ceiling at the V&A demonstrates the high levels of craftsmanship and artistry that continued to be practised in post-conquest Spain. By concentrating on the specifics and linking these through their inclusion of particular motifs and styles, she avoids the common trap of including everything vaguely Islamic as “mudéjar art”, which can render the term meaningless.
Any notion of “convivencia” or co-existence of Muslims, Christians and Jews in medieval Iberia was gradually eradicated after the Christian conquests. The final chapter of the book looks at the afterlife of the Alhambra, showing the lasting and penetrating influence of Islamic art from Spain. The fascinating history of the neglect and “restoration” of the Alhambra is told through old photographs, architectural models and casts of the palace – one revealing drawing by Gustave Doré even shows a shamefaced visitor chipping pieces of tile off the walls of the fourteenth-century palace.
The impact of the building and its decoration was felt most strongly in the English design of the nineteenth century: how we decorated our walls, built our buildings, all were changed utterly by the work of people like Owen Jones at the Alhambra. Paradoxically, the Andalusi style of Islamic art was re-imported into the Middle East in the nineteenth century, where it was adopted as a more universally acceptable or perhaps just recognizable kind of Islamic style. In Egypt, Khedive Ismail even had an Alhambra-style palace built on Gezirah Island in Cairo where the European monarchs could stay when they attended the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.
This volume is packed with detail, originality and insight, illustrated with images that have been chosen with great care. It is written in a style that makes it accessible to any interested reader, but with an eye for detail and meticulous referencing that make it an invaluable text book for any serious student of the subject.
