. The story of architecture: an outline of the styles in all countries. gold, silver, purple, and azure in relief. Each tile was doubtless executed separately with infinite patience and care, but the settings are so skilfully contrived that few ofthe joints appear. The doorways are large, thewindows small, and the friezesand architraves richly illuminedwith Cufic or Asiatic inscrip-tions, such as There is no Godbut God, There is no Con-queror but God, and the like ;while an apologetic sentenceinserted by the architect reads : My windows admit the light,and exclude the view of exter-nal objects
. The story of architecture: an outline of the styles in all countries. gold, silver, purple, and azure in relief. Each tile was doubtless executed separately with infinite patience and care, but the settings are so skilfully contrived that few ofthe joints appear. The doorways are large, thewindows small, and the friezesand architraves richly illuminedwith Cufic or Asiatic inscrip-tions, such as There is no Godbut God, There is no Con-queror but God, and the like ;while an apologetic sentenceinserted by the architect reads : My windows admit the light,and exclude the view of exter-nal objects, lest the beauties ofNature should divert your at-tention from the beauties of mywork. Other forms of decorationare knots, crockets, arabesques,and, above all, the key, which isheld in much the same rever-ence by the Mahometan as thecross by the Christian. Little furniture now re-mains, but formerly it was par-ticularly elaborate throughoutand composed of citron, aloe,and sandal wood, picked out with blue and inlaidwith ivory and mother-of-pearl; while curious vases. Fig. iio.—Giralda a drawing by Gi-rault de Irangey. DURABILITY OF WOODWORK. 283 of sardonyx, rock crystal, porcelain, and mosaic filledthe corners. Flowery carpets and softly cushionedcouches encouraged drowsy repose, and filtered foun-tains, kept at a constant temperature, perfumed theatmosphere with the fresh clean smell of washed airafter a storm. But the most astonishing fact concerning the Al-hambra is the durability of the woodwork, which was
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidstoryofarchi, bookyear1896
