Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

Built during the Nasrid dynasy (1232-1492), the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain, is one of the most spectacular monuments to survive from the period of Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula. The beginnings of tourism to Spain in the nineteenth century prompted the establishment of a restoration program for the Alhambra, which had fallen into disrepair. In 1847, Rafael Contreras was appointed restaurador adornista, charged with the reconstruction of much of the palace in accordance with the current taste for Orientalism. Rafael Contreras also presided over a workshop that produced small models of various sections of the palace. These models, made with tourists in mind, reflect Contreras’s restorations—some of which were undone in the twentieth century due to their historical inaccuracy.