Skip to content

Home
Search
Your album
Learn more

Images

The Giralda, Seville

image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art | CC0 1.0

Start Zooming Stop Zooming

Current search
Add To Album

Date

1833

Artist

David Roberts (1796-1864)

Collection

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Description

Roberts painted this moody watercolor in Seville between May and September 1833, focusing on a famous minaret built by the Moors then converted into a bell tower after Christians reclaimed the city in 1248 (its name derives from a crowning weatherwave, or giraldillo). Using watercolor over graphite on blue-gray paper, with white gouache added to heighten details and suggest light reflecting off masonry, the artist addresses his subject from the north. He emphasized the tower’s height by placing its base close to the bottom edge, filling the sheet with its vertical thrust, but avoids vertical recession by keeping the width of the façade the same size from botton to top. A range of lower buildings along the street anchor offer contrast, as tiny pedestrians accentuate the scale.

Image Licence

CC0 1.0

Image Credit

image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Location

Seville Cathedral, Seville, Andalusia, Spain

Country

Tags

Religious Buildings

Category

Buildings & Architecture

Glossary
Search tips

© 2024 Watercolour World | Technology by The Museum Platform

© 2024 Watercolour World | Technology by The Museum Platform