I forbear for the present, however, to describe the other delightful
apartments of the palace. My object is merely to give the reader a
general introduction into an abode where, if so disposed, he may
linger and loiter with me day by day until we gradually become
familiar with all its localities.
Note on Morisco Architecture
To an unpractised eye the light relievos and fanciful arabesques
which cover the walls of the Alhambra appear to have been sculptured
by the hand, with a minute and patient labor, an inexhaustible variety
of detail, yet a general uniformity and harmony of design truly
astonishing; and this may especially be said of the vaults and
cupolas, which are wrought like honey-combs, or frostwork, with
stalactites and pendants which confound the beholder with the
seeming intricacy of their patterns. The astonishment ceases, however,
when it is discovered that this is all stucco-work: plates of
plaster of Paris, cast in moulds and skilfully joined so as to form
patterns of every size and form. This mode of diapering walls with
arabesques and stuccoing the vaults with grotto-work, was invented
in Damascus, but highly improved by the Moors in Morocco, to whom
Saracenic architecture owes its most graceful and fanciful details.
The process by which all this fairy tracery was produced was
ingeniously simple: The wall in its naked state was divided off by
lines crossing at right angles, such as artists use in copying a
picture; over these were drawn a succession of intersecting segments
of circles.
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