The mixture of Arab and Christian

Although it’s not an artistic style exclusive to Seville, it is from Spain, as Mudejat art is the fusion between characteristic elements of Occidental Christian art (Romanesque or Gothic) and that of Hispano-Islamic art. For this reason every region of the country has its own characteristics generating differences that only enrich this style.

Origin

For the causes behind for this mix are to be found in the employment of Muslim builders who came from the area -mudejars- and in the taste for traditional Islamic art by the new Christian settlers.

In Seville, gothic art was chosen for this combination, owing to the prevalence of Christian art in the times of the conquest -13^th century-. Therefore we have great examples of our so called Gothic-Mudejar churches. These are mosques built by the Muslims but adapted afterwards as churches for the Christians.

Gothic-Mudejar Churches

Saint Catalina, San Marcos, Omnium Sanctorum, Santa Marina… all of these have great beauty, the same origin and common characteristics. Built out of brick, an Arabic material of the highest quality -think of the Giralda-, some of them are white washed, in certain places they incorporate stone such as the front or the aps, in other words the most sacred places of the temple.

The ceilings, on the other hand, are not made of stone or brick but of wood called ‘coffering’, using the plain lattices and geometric shapes so characteristic of Islamic art. However, their best characteristic is the bell tower, located to one side of the temple, whose tradition comes from reusing the minaret of the mosques, usually including the original Islamic decoration around their windows.

Civilian Mudejar

But not all of the examples of mudejar in Seville are churches. Also considered to be mudejar is art which was built by Christians, in the Islamic style. This is called civilian Mudejar, whose best example is the Mudejar Palace of Pedro I, in the Alcazar.  Here apart from the bricks and the wood used for the ceilings, they utilise horror vacui style plaster work and geometric ceramics.

Another example of civilian mudejar, although very badly conserved, is the Marquises of the Algaba Palace, home to the mayor of Seville, the Marquis of the Algaba and the protagonist of one of the biggest revolts of the city, the Green Pendon Mutiny, which occurred in 1521.  Currently it is the mudejar centre, a museum to admire the pieces which they have preserved from Seville.

However later on mudejar merged with Renaissance art in palaces such as Pilate’s Palace. Here mudejar can be appreciated in the geometric and floral decorations.

This style forms part of the city and it has belonged to the Sevillian artistic culture until developing in the 20^th century as the neo-mudejar, according the new regionalist style of art.

Wonder at the Gothic-Mudejar Churches in this guided tour and get to know the untold story of Seville:

Images source: 24 – 34 (section 4).