The Holy Cross over the water (sketch)
Ca. 1865. Oil on canvas.On display elsewhere
This oil sketch is also known as Alfonso X’s occupation of the Cádiz waters. This is the sketch for the painting kept in the Alcázar of Segovia (oil on canvas, 250 x 300cm), intended for the competition organised by the Academia de Bellas Artes de Cádiz in 1865. In addition, the Museo del Prado keeps a preparatory drawing (D002379).
It depicts, as an iconographic subject, the moment in which Alfonso X ordered a cross to be nailed on the waters of the Cádiz beach in the year 1262 after the conquest and expulsion of the Muslims in Cádiz. This cross was to symbolise his control over the ocean that separates the Iberian Peninsula from Africa and the reign of the Christian religion over Islam.
