Fernando Liger

FERNANDO LIGER HIDALGO (Seville, 1880-1945).
"View of the courtyard of the Alcázar of Seville".
Oil on canvas.
Signed and located in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 29.5 x 22 cm; 36 x 28 cm (frame).
Liger Hidalgo specialized in Moorish architecture. Here, the door of the patio of the maidens of the Real Alcázar of Seville is described with meticulous detail. The successive rooms escape in perfectly traced perspective, welcoming the play of nuanced light, of gilding that reverberates in tracery and mosaics, and behind the beautiful columns with Ionic capitals, the spaces are distributed. We glimpse in the background how the pool with flower beds, the interlaced semicircular arches, combined with lobed arches, decorated with sebka and reliefs. The qualities of the marble jasper behind the light filters.
The Real Alcázar of Seville is a fortified palace composed of areas built in different historical periods. Although the original palace was built in the High Middle Ages, some traces of Islamic art are preserved and, from the period after the Castilian conquest, a Mudejar palace space and another of Gothic style. Later reforms added Renaissance, Mannerist and Baroque elements. The original fortification was built over an ancient Roman and later Visigothic settlement. It later became an early Christian basilica (San Vicente Mártir), where San Isidoro was buried. The Real Alcazar of Seville began to take its current appearance after the city was taken by the Arabs in 713. One of the palaces surrounding two courtyards is from the same period as the Alhambra in Granada. To carry out the work, were sent by the Nasrid king Mohamed V important craftsmen. After the Reconquest of the city in 1248, the Reales Alcázares belonged to successive monarchs. Alfonso X the Wise made the first reforms creating three large Gothic halls. Later Pedro I decided to build the wonderful Mudejar Palace.