''The Sigh of the Moor'' is an oil-on-canvas painting of

Muhammad XII Abu Abdallah Muhammad XII ( ar, أبو عبد الله محمد الثاني عشر, Abū ʿAbdi-llāh Muḥammad ath-thānī ʿashar) (c. 1460–1533), known in Europe as Boabdil (a Spanish rendering of the name ''Abu Abdallah''), was the ...

, (Boabdil), last Nasrid

Emir Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cerem ...

Granada Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...

. It was painted in the late 19th century by the Spanish artist

Francisco Pradilla Ortiz Francisco Pradilla Ortiz (24 July 1848 – 1 November 1921) was a prolific Spanish painter famous for creating historical scenes. Biography He was born in Villanueva de Gállego, in Zaragoza Province and began his studies in Zaragoza. He ...

. The painting depicts

Boabdil Abu Abdallah Muhammad XII ( ar, أبو عبد الله محمد الثاني عشر, Abū ʿAbdi-llāh Muḥammad ath-thānī ʿashar) (c. 1460–1533), known in Europe as Boabdil (a Spanish rendering of the name ''Abu Abdallah''), was the ...

, having ceded Granada to the

Catholic Monarchs of Spain The Catholic Monarchs were Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, whose marriage and joint rule marked the ''de facto'' unification of Spain. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, being both ...

Ferdinand Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "protection", "peace" (PIE "to love, to make peace") or alternatively "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "co ...

and

Isabella Isabella may refer to: People and fictional characters * Isabella (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Isabella (surname), including a list of people Places United States * Isabella, Alabama, an unincorpor ...

, turning to take a last look at the city he has lost, before going into exile.

History

The picture

The painting depicts

, the last Nasrid

ruler A ruler, sometimes called a rule, line gauge, or scale, is a device used in geometry and technical drawing, as well as the engineering and construction industries, to measure distances or draw straight lines. Variants Rulers have long ...

, turning to take his final look at the city from the

Puerto del Suspiro del Moro Puerto del Suspiro del Moro or Pass of the Moor's Sigh is a mountain pass in the Spanish Sierra Nevada. History Muhammad XII, the last Moorish Sultan of Granada, and his court are said to have crossed this Alpujarras pass after being ejected fr ...

before going into exile. Boabdil was upbraided by his mother,

Aixa Aisha al-Hurra ( ar, عائشة الحرة), generally known under her Spanish name Aixa (''fl.'' 1493), was the spouse of Muhammed XI and of Abu l-Hasan Ali, and the mother of Muhammad XII. Aixa was also known by the Muslims as Aisha al-Horra; " ...

; “weep like a woman for the kingdom you could not defend like a man.” Historians have generally followed Aixa in condemning Boabdil, but a 21st-century revisionist view by

Elizabeth Drayson Elizabeth Drayson is Lorna Close Fellow in Spanish at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge. She is a specialist in medieval and early modern Spanish literature and cultural history Cultural history combines the approaches of anthropolo ...

, a historian at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, sees him as; “a last stand against religious intolerance, fanatical power and cultural ignorance”. The writer

Giles Tremlett Giles E.H. Tremlett (born Plymouth, 1962) is a historian, author and journalist based in Madrid, Spain. Tremlett is author of five works of history and non-fiction that have been translated into half a dozen languages. He won the Elizabeth Lon ...

, in his 2012 study, ''Ghosts of Spain'', notes the traditional name for the road Boabdil took, "La Cuesta de Las Lágrimas - the Slope of Tears". The

Treaty of Granada The Treaty of Granada, also known as the Capitulation of Granada or simply the Capitulations, was signed and ratified on November 25, 1491, between Muhammad XII of Granada, Boabdil, the sultan of Emirate of Granada, Granada, and Catholic Monarchs ...

, also known as the Capitulations, agreed in 1491 between

and

Ferdinand and Isabella The Catholic Monarchs were Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, whose marriage and joint rule marked the ''de facto'' unification of Spain. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, being both ...

, was signed on 2 January 1492. The Alhambra had been surrendered to Ferdinand and Isabell's troops on the previous day. The treaty concluded the

Granada War The Granada War ( es, Guerra de Granada) was a series of military campaigns between 1482 and 1491 during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, against the Nasrid dynasty's Emirate of Granada. It e ...

and brought to an end over 700 years of Arab rule in Spain which had begun with the Umayyad conquest in 711.

The artist

(1848-1921) served brief terms as director, firstly of the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome and then at the

Prado Museum The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...

, but worked primarily as a practising artist. Pradilla enjoyed great success in his career, his entry in the Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga catalogue describing him as "one of the foremost Spanish painters of the last quarter of the 19th century ndthe last great master of history painting of the century." ''The Sigh of the Moor'' was begun at around the same time as Pradilla’s ''

The Surrender of Granada ''La rendición de Granada'' (English:''The Surrender of Granada'') is a work by the Spanish painter Francisco Pradilla Ortiz completed in 1882, which is located in the Conference Room or ''Salón de los Pasos Perdidos'' of the Spanish Senate Pal ...

'', commissioned by the Spanish Senate, the upper house of the

Cortes Generales The Cortes Generales (; en, Spanish Parliament, lit=General Courts) are the bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house), and the Senate (the upper house). The Congress of Deputies meets ...

, in 1879. However, Pradilla appears not to have completed it until around 1892. The picture was sold at auction in 2018 for €240.000, and remains privately owned. In 2021 the painting was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC).

Description

The painting is

oil-on-canvas Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

and is 1.95m high and 3.02m wide. The focus of the image is the landscape around Granada, and it depicts Boabdil, dismounted and with a small band of followers behind him, staring back at the city from the mountain pass.

Gallery

El suspiro del moro, de Benito Soriano (Museo del Prado).jpg, ''El Suspiro del Moro'' (1856), by Benito Soriano Murillo,

Boabdil-el-Chico.jpg, '' Boabdil’s Farewell to Granada'' (1869), by Alfred Dehodencq,

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art ...

El suspiro del moro, de Marcelino de Unceta (Museo de Zaragoza).jpg, ''El Suspiro del Moro'' (1885), by Marcelino de Unceta,

Zaragoza Museum Zaragoza Museum (Spanish - ''Museo de Zaragoza'') is a national museum in the Plaza de los Sitios in the city of Zaragoza in Spain. Its collections range from the Lower Palaeolithic to the modern era and include archaeology, fine arts, ethnology ...

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sigh Of The Moor 1892 paintings Orientalist paintings Horses in art Emirate of Granada Sultans of Granada Nasrid dynasty History of al-Andalus