Third Annual Harvey Stahl Lecture

The International Center for Medieval Art

in association with the

Art History Department, University of Illinois at Chicago

and the

Department of Art and Archaeology, Washington University in St. Louis

present


The Third Annual Harvey Stahl Lecture


Opening Up the Alhambra: Comparative Consideration of a ‘Unique’
Monument in the Context of Nasrid Court Life

Cynthia Robinson

Associate Professor, Cornell University


The Alhambra, the famous medieval Islamic palace located in Granada,
Spain, is often referred to as the culminating artistic achievement
of medieval ‘Hispano Islamic civilization.’ The dynastic seat of the
fourteenth-century Nasrid Sultanate, it is often characterized as a
‘unique’ monument. Yet despite the enormous body of scholarship on
the Alhambra, it is puzzling that until very recently this ensemble
has remained resistant to the sort of historically contextualized
interpretation that has unlocked the mysteries of many other medieval
monuments. Using a variety of contemporary written sources and
comparative buildings, both Islamic and Christian, this presentation
considers the Alhambra through the eyes of the audience[s] for which
it was created and sheds light on the aesthetics, courtly culture,
and literary tastes of the Nasrid court. Finally, the lecture
reaffirms the Alhambra as a distinctly Islamic palace in relation to
the medieval monuments of Christian Spain.

The Stahl lecture will be delivered twice.

Both presentations are free and open to the public.
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Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at 6p.m.

Steinberg Auditorium

Sam Fox School of Art and Design, Washington University