North: Western and Spanish Visions of the Alhambra

Following a brief reminder of the discovery of the Alhambra in the eighteenth century by Spanish scholars and artists, the chapter sets the scene by focussing on the romantic and exotic image of the monument created and diffused by predominantly French and British authors and artists throughout the first half of the nineteenth century. Laborde, Chateaubriand, Hugo, Jones, Irving, to name the a few, were responsible for the creation and diffusion of this image in literature, art, and architecture. It also examines the impact of ‘northern’ perceptions of the Alhambra and Al-Andalus on Spanish intellectuals, such as Julián Juderías, who considered some of these visions as yet another embodiment of the powerful leyenda negra, or ‘black legend’, which portrayed Spain as a violent and colourful backwater of Europe, and an extension of the Moorish world. By the second half of the century, the myth of the Alhambra was fully incorporated into the wider scope of Orientalism. Authors and artists like Gautier, Gérôme, or Regnault combined architectural elements with the legend of the Abencerrages and with African themes to create a visually powerful image, which culminated in the 1900 Paris Exposition’s section devoted to ‘Andalusia in the times of the Moors’.