Voces del Prado

The Alhambra in Granada: The Crucifixion by Juan de Flandes

Pilar Silva Maroto, Head of the Department of Conservation of Flemish Painting and the Northern Schools up to 1700, 1997-2017

I was delighted when The Crucifixion by Juan de Flandes came. It was a real milestone, because, in principle, we knew that we had a real treasure on our hands, but we didn’t know just how marvellous it was. In the last three years we have discovered that the ruined landscape that appears so often in the works of Juan de Flandes in this case corresponded to a specific place: what it depicts in the background is actually the Alhambra in Granada. Through research carried out by a lecturer at the Complutense University who specialises in Islamic art, we have discovered that the painting depicts the Comares Palace, which is now covered by the Palace of Carlos V at the Alhambra. Juan de Flandes had stayed with Isabella the Catholic in Granada, because he was her Court Painter between 1500 and 1501. For him, coming from the North, seeing the Alhambra just eight years after the Reconquest, seeing those buildings and the city itself, must have made quite an impression. He would have made a number of drawings and then used them when he returned to Palencia. This was a real delight for me, because I also love Granada. I don’t have any personal connection with the city, but it’s one of my favourite cities in Spain.