The surrender of Granada
|
| The surrender of Granada |
|---|
| Francisco Pradilla y Ortiz , 1882 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 330 × 550 cm |
| Palacio del Senado, Madrid |
The historical painting The Surrender of Granada (Castilian La rendición de Granada ) was created in 1882 by the Spanish painter Francisco Pradilla y Ortiz . The 3.30 × 5.50 meter picture hangs in the Palacio del Senado in Madrid .
Image description
The picture shows the handover of the keys to the city of Granada by the Emir Muhammad XII. (Boabdil) from Granada to the Castilian royal couple Isabella and Ferdinand on January 2, 1492.
The group of Christian conquerors is shown on the right side of the picture as seen from the viewer. A little to the left of the center there is a gap to the group of the Muslim defeated. The separation is reinforced by a wheel track on the path visible there. This also emphasizes perspective.
Through her positioning in the foreground, the bright colors of the clothing, which stand out against the dark background consisting of cypress trees at this point , and the white of her white horse , the queen is an eye-catcher. She is dressed in a light green and gold brocade dress and wears a light blue brocade coat with a white ermine collar . The queen's crown corresponds to that which is still kept in Granada today. King Ferdinand is shown with almost no overlap. He is dressed all in red. He wears a Venetian cloak made of red velvet , red stockings and a red cap that is tied with a crown. He opened his right hand to receive the keys. Their two oldest children can be recognized between the royal couple. Crown Prince John of Aragon and Castile wears a crown. The husband of Infanta Isabella of Aragon and Castile , Infanta Alfonso of Portugal , died on July 13, 1491. She therefore wears black mourning clothes. To the right behind the queen you can see some ladies-in-waiting and people who played a role in the conquest of the kingdom of Granada .
The group of the emir with his entourage is shown in perspective a little further back. This means that the people are shown smaller. Emir Muhammad XII. is dressed in black, he rides a black horse led by a black servant. He is holding the key in his right hand. His followers are not mounted, but apparently still carry weapons.
In the background of the picture you can see a city wall, white buildings and the Alhambra Castle on the mountain .
Historical background
From 1482, the Castilian ruling couple Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand increased the military pressure on the Emirate of Granada to include it as the Kingdom of Granada in the territory of the Crown of Castile. The fighting continued for many years until finally only the city of Granada itself was not occupied by Castilian troops. At the end of April 1491 the siege ring around the city was closed, almost without a fight.
It is believed that long before the start of official negotiations, perhaps even before the start of the siege, secret negotiations between Muhammad XII. (known as Boabdil) and Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand had taken place.
On January 1st, 1492, with Boabdil's consent, Castilian soldiers occupied all strategically important places on the Alhambra around midnight and hoisted the royal banner and the flag of the Order of Santiago on one of the towers. On January 2, 1492, the official key handover ceremony took place , depicted by Pradilla in the painting: The procession was led by King Ferdinand. Queen Isabella and her children followed at some distance, then representatives of the Church, the nobility and the cities of Castile. The emir rode towards the parade and gave King Ferdinand the keys to the city of Granada and the Alhambra Castle.
People clearly shown in the picture:
- Muhammad XII. Abu Abdallah is usually called Boabdil or El Rey chico . Up to this point he was Emir of Granada.
- King Ferdinand had been King of Sicily since 1468 and, together with his wife Isabella, ruling King of Castile and León from 1474. In 1479 he became ruler of the kingdoms of the Crown of Aragon. Ferdinand was the chief military leader in the war against Granada.
- Rodrigo Ponce de León y Núñez, Duke of Cádiz was one of the military leaders in the war against Granada.
- Crown Prince Johann was Prince of Asturias as heir to the throne in Castile and Prince of Girona as heir to the throne in Aragon . He died in 1497.
- Princess Isabella was second in line to the throne in Castile. Her first husband, the Portuguese Infant Alfons , died six months before the event depicted.
- Queen Isabella was Queen of Sicily from 1469 through her marriage to Ferdinand, from 1474 she was ruling Queen of Castile and León with Ferdinand and from 1479 also Queen of the Kingdoms of the Crown of Aragon.
- Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar was involved in the peace negotiations between Granada and Castile.
- Alonso de Cárdenas was Grand Master of the Order of Santiago .
- Íñigo López de Mendoza y Quiñones , Count of Tendilla, was appointed fortress commander of the Alhambra.
The paintings
On August 17, 1878, the then President of the Senate, the Marqués de Barzanallana, the member of the Real Academia de España in Rome, Francisco Pradilla y Ortiz, commissioned a painting depicting the handover of Granada or the handing over of the keys by Boabdil to the Should represent Catholic kings .
Pardilla started the creation of the picture in Granada with the intention of getting the most accurate information about the landscape and architecture, including the atmospheric environment. He found out about various historical details, such as B. the crown and the scepter of Queen Isabella or the horses common at the time. Many details are reproduced very precisely in the large-format image. In the case of the people he portrayed, Pardilla limited himself to those of whom he could obtain sufficient knowledge from credible portraits. It has not been proven that the people he portrayed actually took part in the ceremony.
The image was very popular in Spanish society in the late 19th century. King Alfonso XII awarded Francisco Pradilla y Ortiz the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic for the creation of the image , which is awarded in Spain for services to art and science.
Political importance
The commissioner of the picture, the Marqués de Barzanallana, described the handing over of the keys by Boabdil to the Catholic Monarchs as a symbol for the creation of the unity of Spain. The historical painting “La Rendición de Granada” is today one of the most famous political representations of the Catholic Kings as symbols of the unity, the greatness and the freedom of Spain. The motto in the coat of arms of Spain in the time of Franquism was "Una - Grande - Libre" (Einig - Groß - Frei). The history of Spain is presented as a process that inevitably led to unity. With their marriage, Ferdinand and Isabella created the basis for the political unification of Spain through the personal union in the government of the kingdoms of the Crown of Castile and the kingdoms of Aragon. With the conquest of Granada and later the incorporation of Navarre into the kingdoms of the Crown of Castile by King Ferdinand, the territorial unity of Spain was created. With the destruction of the last Muslim state on the Iberian Peninsula and the Alhambra Edict , the religious unity of Spain was achieved. The conquest of Granada was a step taken by the Catholic Monarchs, who also laid the foundation for the greatness of the Spanish Empire with the conquest of the last Canary Islands and America. With the conquest of Granada, the Catholic Kings freed the Iberian Peninsula from all the influences of Islamic governments in North Africa.
Other versions of the topic
Francisco Bayeu y Subías painted a picture, oil on canvas, on the same subject in 1763 as a design for a ceiling painting for the Royal Palace in Madrid. The almost round, 55 × 58 cm picture is part of the collection of the Museo del Prado.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thomas Freller: Granada, Kingdom between Orient and Occident . 1st edition. Jan Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7995-0825-4 , p. 137 .
- ↑ Carlos Reyero Hermosilla: La rendición de Granada 1882 . In: Pilar de Miguel Egea (ed.): El Arte en el Senado . Departamento de Publicaciones del Senado, Madrid 1999, ISBN 978-84-88802-35-4 , p. 294–298 (Spanish, [1] [accessed August 1, 2019]).
- ↑ Carlos Reyero Hermosilla: Cambio y crisis en el usos de la imagen política del siglo XIX en España - El papel de la Alegoría, la historia y la realidad . In: Félix Iñesta Mena (ed.): El arte en tiempos de cambio y crisis . Sociedad Extremeña de Historia, Llerena 2011, ISBN 978-84-615-0021-5 , pp. 35 (Spanish, [2] [accessed August 1, 2019]).
- ↑ Francisco Bayeu, The Surrender of Granada [3]
literature
- Thomas Freller: Granada, Kingdom between Orient and Occident . 1st edition. Jan Thorbecke, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7995-0825-4 .
- Carlos Reyero Hermosilla: La rendición de Granada, 1882 . In: Pilar de Miguel Egea (ed.): El Arte en el Senado . Departamento de Publicaciones del Senado, Madrid 1999, ISBN 978-84-88802-35-4 , p. 294–298 (Spanish, [4] [accessed August 1, 2019]).