Cleveland Museum of Art

Picturesque Sketches in Spain: The Mosque, Cordova

Thomas Shotter Boys

Date

1837

Medium

lithograph

Culture

England, 19th century

Department

Prints

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This print shows the Mosque of Cordoba, in Andalusia, southern Spain, being used as a Catholic cathedral. The site was a mosque from 785 through 1236, when it was converted into a cathedral under the Christian kingdom of Castile. Today the building includes both Islamic and Christian architectural elements. The scalloped archway recalls the period in which the Moors, a Muslim cultural group, ruled parts of Spain and Portugal. An altar with a crucifix is visible, and the Christogram IHS (an abbreviation of the first three letters of Jesus’s name in Greek) can be seen on one priest’s shoulder.

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