THE PAINTINGS IN THE HALL OF
THE KINGS OF THE ALHAMBRA:
VEGETAL-ASTRAL PARADISE,
PORTRAIT AU VIF AND CHIVALRIC
VIRTUE
1
LAS PINTURAS DE LA SALA DE LOS REYES DE LA
ALHAMBRA: PARAÍSO VEGETAL-ASTRAL, RETRATO AU
VIF Y VIRTUD CABALLERESCA
MANUEL PARADA LÓPEZ DE CORSELAS
PROFESOR AYUDANTE DOCTOR EN EL DEPARTAMENTO
DE HISTORIA DEL ARTE DE LA UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE DE MADRID.
manuel.parada@uva.es
ABSTRACT This work delves into the paintings in the Hall of Kings at the Palace of the Lions in the
Alhambra to try to address a global analysis of them in their palatine context. Regarding its symbolism,
a reading related to the building is proposed as Garden of Joy that alludes to the Muslim Paradise in its
vegetal-hedonistic and astral-mystical connotations, presided over by the resplendent astral bodies of
Muhammad V and his ancestors. We propose that this symbolism links the Nasrid poetic tradition with
the classical topos on the conversion of the virtuous person into sidus. This conjunction is also traced
in the panorama of artistic hybridization between Granada and Castile, based on several examples in
Toledo and Burgos.
On the other hand, the painting of the Nasrid kings is analyzed from the typological and semantic
point of view. To this end, its relationship with the medieval series of royal portraits in the Hispanic king-
doms –of which it constitutes its oldest preserved example– and its relationship with the concept of
au vif portrait (alive-like portrait) –according to Lalaing’s description of 1502– are addressed. Parallels
between the visual images in the Hall of Kings and the literary images present in the medieval Hispanic
chivalric tradition –synthesized in the Amadís de Gaula and the Tirant lo Blanc– are pointed out and
discussed. Finally, this paper reects on the function of the series of portraits of Nasrid kings and the
chivalric themes of the paintings and their perception by the audiences of the time.
KEY WORDS Iconography, cultural hybridity, portrait series, chivalric romance, Nasrid art.
1 This article is part of the research project ‘Al-Andalus, Science and Contexts in an Open Mediterranean: From the West to
Egypt and Syria (AL-ACMES)’ (RTI 2018-093880-B-100), directed by Susana Calvo Capilla and Juan Carlos Ruiz Souza. I would
like to thank Jesús Bermúdez López, Luis Manuel Girón-Negrón, Carlos Plaza Morillo, and José Miguel Puerta Vílchez for
their help.
390
MANUEL PARADA LÓPEZ DE CORSELAS
RESUMEN Por otro lado, se analiza la pintura de los reyes nazaríes desde el punto de vista tipológico y
semántico. Para ello se aborda su relación con las series medievales de retratos regios en los reinos his-
panos –de las cuales constituye su ejemplo más antiguo conservado– y su vinculación con el concepto
de retrato au vif o al natural según la descripción de Lalaing de 1502. Asimismo, se señalan y comentan
paralelismos entre las imágenes visuales de la Sala de los Reyes y las imágenes literarias presentes en
la tradición caballeresca medieval hispana sintetizada en el Amadís de Gaula y en el Tirant lo Blanc. Final-
mente, se reexiona sobre la función de la serie de retratos de reyes nazaríes y los temas caballerescos
de las pinturas, así como su percepción por las audiencias de la época.
PALABRAS CLAVE Iconografía, hibridación cultural, serie de retratos, libros de caballerías, arte nazarí.
COMO CITAR/ HOW TO CITE PARADA LÓPEZ DE CORSELAS, M., Las pinturas de la Sala de los Reyes
de la Alhambra: Paraíso vegetal-astral, retrato au vif y virtud caballeresca, Cuadernos de la Alhambra,
2021,50,pp. ISSN 0590-1987
CUADERNOS DE LA ALHAMBRA I núm. 50 I 2021 I págs. 389-405
Recibido: noviembre 2021 | Aceptado: noviembre: 2021 | Revisado: noviembre 2021 | Publicado: diciembre 2021
ISSN: 0590 - 1987 I eISSN: 2695-379X I Depósito legal: GR 70-1965
CUADERNOS DE LA ALHAMBRA I núm. 50 I 2021 I págs. 389-405
391
THE PAINTINGS IN THE HALL OF THE KINGS OF THE ALHAMBRA:
VEGETAL-ASTRAL PARADISE, PORTRAIT AU VIF AND CHIVALRIC VIRTUE
391
INTRODUCTION: THE PALACE AND ITS ENIGMAS
Although there is still no consensus on the overall symbolic in-
terpretation of the Palace of the Lions at the Alhambra in Gra-
nada, the hypotheses put forward to date revolve around two
major conventions of Islamic culture in general and Nasrid
architecture and epigraphy in particular. Firstly, the palace’s
relationship with the garden as a paradise has been explored,



.     
water and the plant motifs in its plasterwork thus create this
architectural and literary metaphor, which is characterised by
its sacred and meaningful semantics
2
.

symbolism of the Palace of the Lions is its astral component. In
this respect, a cosmic, sidereal or astral interpretation of the mu-
 vaults and the treatment of light throughout the building
is generally adopted, which is also in line with Ibn Zamrak’s ins-
-

and eternal happiness to his people
3
. Other authors have gone
further, linking  in general with the atomisation and
accidentality of al-Baqillani, emphasising their cosmic symbo-

the funerary sphere
4

madrasa, , and tomb of Muhammad V
5
, or at least a place
dedicated to the prince’s knowledge and virtue
6

2 PUERTA VÍLCHEZ, José Miguel. La Alhambra como lugar paradisíaco en
el imaginario árabe. In: Boletín de Arte-UMA, 2017, nº 38, pp. 45-60, at pp.
52-55. PUERTA VÍLCHEZ, José Miguel. Los códigos de utopía de la Alhambra
de Granada. Granada: Diputación Provincial, 1990, pp. 182-199.
3 PUERTA VÍLCHEZ, José Miguel. Estéticas de la luz, el tiempo y la apa-
riencia en la arquitectura áulica andalusí. In: BORRÁS GUALIS, Gonzalo
Máximo; CABAÑERO SUBIZA, Bernabé (coord.). La aljafería y el arte del is-
lam occidental en el siglo XI. Actas del seminario internacional (Zaragoza,
1-3 December 2004). Zaragoza: Institución Fernando el Católico, 2012, pp.
135-176, en pp. 154-160. PUERTA VÍLCHEZ, José Miguel. The codes of uto-
pia.. . op. cit. (n. 1), pp. 112-117.
4 RUIZ SOUZA, Juan Carlos. La cúpula de mocárabes y el Palacio de los
Leones de la Alhambra. In: Anuario del Departamento de Historia y Teoría
del Arte, 2000, nº 12, pp. 9-24.
5 RUIZ SOUZA, Juan Carlos. El palacio de los Leones de la Alhambra:
¿Madrasa zawiya y tumba de Muhammad V? Estudio para un debate. In:
Al-Qantara, 2001, nº 22.1, pp. 77-120.
6 RUIZ SOUZA, Juan Carlos. El Palacio de los Leones: Al-Riyāḍ Al-Sa‛īd”,
el Jardín Feliz del Conocimiento: arte y visión islámica de la Creación. In:
PARADA LÓPEZ DE CORSELAS, Manuel (ed.). Domus Hispanica. El Real Cole-
gio de España y el cardenal Gil de Albornoz en la Historia del Arte. Bologna:
have accepted this theory in part, in particular the hypothesis
surrounding the use of the Hall of Kings as a library
7
or at the
very least as a “place of rest and social gatherings”
8
.
Regardless of the various hypotheses as to the original
function of the Palace of the Lions, it is clear that it was inten-
ded to exalt Muhammad V and his dynasty through the con-
ventions of the paradisiac garden and astral or cosmic com-
 
Palace of the Lions coherently brought together the plant and
astral components that historiographers have noted to date.
In particular, we will seek to understand how the paintings on
leather in the Hall of Kings contributed to its cohesion and
levels of meaning.
PAINTINGS OF CHIVALRIC THEMES AROUND
COURTLY LOVE
         
side bedchambers of the Hall of Kings have been interpreted
through various levels of reading that have to do with mirrors
for princes and the space’s possible use as a library
9

It has also been proposed that its themes, linked to the chival-

of love leading to Allah, practised at the court of Muhammad
V and commented upon by Ibn al-Khatib
10
. Vallejo Naranjo
has studied the Nasrid literary tradition with which these
chivalric scenes are in dialogue, from the treatise on chivalry
    
Bononia University Press, 2014, pp. 195-210. RUIZ SOUZA, Juan Carlos. El
Palacio de los Leones de la Alhambra: espacio de virtud del príncipe. In:
GIESE, Francine; VARELA BRAGA, Ariane (ed.). The Power of Symbols: The
Alhambra in a Global Perspective. Bern: Peter Lang, 2018, pp. 71-82. RUIZ
SOUZA, Juan Carlos. Ciencia y virtud en el palacio bajomedieval: el Palacio
de los Leones de la Alhambra. In: USCATESCU, Alexandra; GONZÁLEZ HER-
NANDO, Irene (ed.). En busca del saber: arte y ciencia en el Mediterráneo
medieval. Madrid: Ediciones Complutense, 2018, pp. 33-47.
7 ROBINSON, Cynthia. Arthur in the Alhambra? Narrative and Nasrid
Courtly Self-Fashioning in the Hall of Justice Ceiling Paintings. In: ROBIN-
SON Cynthia; PINET, Simone (ed.). Courting the Alhambra: Cross-Discipli-
nary Approaches to the Hall of Justice Ceilings. Leiden: Brill, 2008, pp. 12-46.
ECHEVARRÍA, Ana. Painting Politics in the Alhambra. In: ROBINSON, Cyn-
thia; PINET, Simone (ed.). Courting the Alhambra: Cross-Disciplinary Approa-
ches to the Hall of Justice Ceilings. Leiden: Brill, 2008, pp. 47-66.
8 Alhambra y Generalife. Edicios y lugares. Sala de los Reyes. https://
www.alhambra-patronato.es/edicios-lugares/sala-de-los-reyes [accessed
27/10/2021].
9 ECHEVARRÍA, Ana. Painting Politics... op. cit. (no. 6), pp. 49, 52, 53, 55, 56.
10 RUIZ SOUZA, Juan Carlos. El Palacio de los Leones: Al-Riyāḍ Al-Sa‛īd”...
op. cit. (no. 5), pp. 198-199. RALLO GRUSS, Carmen. El jardín pintado: las
pinturas de la Sala de los Reyes del Cuarto de los Leones. In: Cuadernos de
la Alhambra. 2020, nº 49, pp. 131-147, p. 147.