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About the Story
In the summer of 2024, one of the most fascinating objects in the Museum for Islamic Art's permanent exhibition was temporarily dismantled: a domed ceiling originating from the Alhambra. This cupola, made of various coniferour woods, cedar and poplar wood, consists of a myriad of individual parts that were carefully and patiently carved and painted. The cupola came to the museum in 1978, but it had already arrived in Berlin almost a century earlier. This story reports on the origin and transfer of the ceiling; another story takes a closer look at the dismantling process and future installation plans in the museum’s new permanent galleries.
The Alhambra Cupola
Craftsmanship and Design
The Alhambra palace complex in Granada is a fascinating testimony to the craftsmanship of al-Andalus, the region of the Iberian Peninsula that was under Muslim rule between 711 and 1492. The carved wooden cupola in the Museum for Islamic Art’s collection originates from a building within this palace complex.
The cupola in the Museum for Islamic Art is made up of many individual parts and richly decorated with carved elements. Originally, it was also painted and probably partially gilded. Remnants of red, blue and green painting are still visible today.
Center of the Dome
Overall, the cupola measures almost two metres in height and three and a half metres in both width and depth. At its centre rests a sixteen-pointed rosette, which from a distance gives the impression of being almost round. Sixteen wooden planks with interlacing star carvings have been arranged around this central element, tapering off in width towards the bottom.
Looking Closely
Originally, the cupola sat over the square room of the Partal observation tower. This roof construction therefore rests on a square base, which merges over several stages into the ceiling’s hexagonal shape formed by individual panels. Each of these stages displays a different decorative programme: shell rosettes, pine cones, and tendrils. This is followed by stalactite cornices (muqarnas) containing a repeated inscription in Arabic that reflects the Nasrid ruler's motto There is no victor but God. In the context of the continuous territorial threat from neighbouring Christian kingdoms, this motto can be read as a proclamation of the sovereignty of Islam. The corners of the square base, which would usually be exposed by the central sixteen-sided rosette, have been filled by triangles with small muqarnas constructions.
The roof structure
Through the use of standardised decorative schemes, the ceilings of the Alhambra were intended to convey a specific aesthetic experience. In terms of motif, they were supposed to interact with the stucco wall decorations usually found below. Ultimately, the contrast between flat woven bands and raised relief elements makes these fascinating decorative schemes so appealing.
The geometric patterns and gradients on which this aesthetic is based were planned out down to the smallest detail. In the case of the Alhambra cupola in the Museum for Islamic Art, the basis of the pattern is a circle from which a complex, sixteen-pointed geometric star shape was constructed, the units and variations of which were then expanded to cover the entire surface of the cupola.
Wooden ceilings of this type were – and continue to be – found in many other buildings on the Iberian Peninsula and in North Africa, including further architectural constructions in the Alhambra.
Who Made the Cupola?
Very little is known today about the names and personalities of the architects and craftsmen who built the Alhambra. However, traces of their methods can be found on parts of various ceilings in the Alhambra, including those of the Berlin cupola. A marking system was frequently used to plan and execute the complex geometric shapes carved into the ceiling panels: Marks were added to the back of certain parts, indicating the respective affiliation of individual construction elements. In this way, the individual parts could be precisely fitted together to form an elegant whole.
From Granada to Berlin
Throughout its history, the building from which the cupola originates has been known under many names. Today it is identified as the Palacio del Partal or Torre de las Damas. This building was erected by the Nasrid Emir Muhammad III, who ruled from 1302 to 1309. Therefore, the cupola can be dated to the early 14th century. It covered the Partal’s observation tower, which still offers an outstanding view of Granada today.
Following the end of Muslim rule in Granada, the Alhambra underwent various phases oover the centuries, from utilisation to decay. Ownership changed many times; parts of the complex were leased or sold. It was in this context that the German banker Arthur von Gwinner acquired the Palacio del Partal from a private owner in 1885. It is possible that von Gwinner had learnt about the Alhambra during a stay in London, where he lived and worked for four years as a young man. In London, the Alhambra had become famous. Between 1842 and 1845, the English architect Owen Jones published a detailed architectural study of the palace complex, and during the London World Exhibition in 1851 – for which Jones submitted replicas of the Alhambra – it was the talk of the town. In 1880, von Gwinner moved to Madrid for work and began travelling to Granada. He returned to Germany in 1886.
In the 1890s, von Gwinner left his property in the Alhambra, including the Palacio del Partal, to the city of Granada. In return, he received permission to remove and export the wooden ceiling of the Partal’s observation tower. It was subequently reinstalled in his home in Berlin. Drawings of the cupola were made before it was removed, on the basis of which the Spanish government ordered a reproduction to be installed in the tower in the 1960s.
Left: View of the Spanish Room in von Gwinner’s residence, Berlin, around 1930 © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst, photo archive
Right: Interior view of the Partal’s observation tower before the cupola replica was installed © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst, photo archive, image collection no. 15465
The cupola is clearly recognisable in a photo of the Spanish Room in von Gwinner's residence. Furthermore, von Gwinner had the stuccoworks of the Partal moulded and placed these moulded panels underneath the cupola. For the wall sections below, he acquired a large collection of 16-th century Spanish tiles (visible here on the right-hand side of the picture, among others). It is no longer possible to trace when and where exactly these tiles were acquired. However, they do not originate from the Partal, as they have been manufactured in a different technique.
The furnishing of an ‘oriental’ room or architectural constructions in an orientalising style was highly fashionable at times among the European and North American elite in the 19th century. Other well-known examples include the Syrian interior wall decoration of Herbert Gutmann's villa in Potsdam, Lord Leighton's Arab Hall in London and the Serra Moresca greenhouse in Rome.
During the Second World War, von Gwinner's house was destroyed by bombing and subsequent fire. In 1942, the wooden cupola was moved to the von Gwinner family’s country estate in the Altmark for safekeeping, where the individual panels were stored in crates. The ceiling survived the war largely undamaged; however, a few losses occurred when Russian soldiers assumedly used parts of it as firewood towards the end of the war (see footnote 243 in McSweeney, 2015, pp. 179-180).
Some of the tiles from the extensive tile collection were also saved. These were recently acquired by the Museum for Islamic Art. On some oft hem, burn marks are still prominently visible. In the museum’s new permanent exhibition, a segment of the original wall structure from von Gwinner's Spanish Room will be recreated with stucco and tiles.
Tiles from Gewinner's Spanish Room
The Tiles’ Accession into the Collection
In order to enable a coherent, properly documented accession, the tiles were first sorted according to their respective decorative programme. An entry in the museum's internal database was then created for each tile. This way, each object was assigned an individual number, which serves as a unique identifier as they are never repeated across the Berlin State Museums‘ collections. Data records also contain information on geography of geographic origin, dating, material, technique, provenance and conservation requirements.
Once the objects officially entered the collection through a purchase or donation agreement, each object was also given an inventory number. The inventory number differs from the identification number. Inventory numbers refer to the specific collection in which the object is located, in this case the collection of the Museum for Islamic Art.
Moreover, the front and back of each tile were photographed next to a ruler for scale, and the height, width and length were measured. The measurements and photos were added to the data records; another step that supports the clear identification of each object.
Of course, traceable documentation and identification are crucial elements of every accession process. The relocation of the Pergamonmuseum’s depots and the subsequent volume of object movements serve to further emphasise this importance.
Photos: Examples of workflow photos from the museum’s internal daabase: one of v. Gwinner’s tiles photographed during a recent accession process, the ruler an unique identification number clearly visible © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst / Franziska Kabelitz
The Cupola in the Museum
In 1978, the Museum for Islamic Art acquired the cupola from von Gwinner's descendants. It was initially exhibited in the museum galleries in Berlin-Dahlem. During the Second World War, the cupola was transferred to an estate belonging to the von Gwinner family, where eleven of the 41 elements were burnt. These were re-carved in 1979, one year after the acquisition.
In 1992, the ceiling travelled to New York, where it was shown on loan in the exhibition Al-Andalus: The Art of Islamic Spain at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. During this journey, museum staff estimated the total weight of the cupola: almost 540 kg, not including the iron parts.
In the course of German reunification and the subsequent merging of the museums in East and West Berlin, the cupola was on display for visitors at the Museum for Islamic Art in the Pergamonmuseum between 2000 and October 2023.
Digitised inventory books in the Museum for Islamic Art
The Museum for Islamic Art’s collection dates back to the founding of the Islamic Department of the former Kaiser Friedrich Museum in 1904. Between 1904 and 2014, all accessions to the collection were documented in handwritten inventory books. Since 2014, the entries have been documented in a digital database. The historical inventory books of the Museum for Islamic Art have now been digitised and are publicly accessible: https://www.smb.museum/museen-einrichtungen/museum-fuer-islamische-kunst/sammeln-forschen/erwerbungsbuecher/
About the author
Franziska Kabelitz serves as assistant curator at the Museum for Islamic Art in Berlin. With thanks to Deniz Erduman-Çalış, Miriam Kühn, Farwah Rizvi, Jutta Maria Schwed.
Note: For reasons of consistency, all years and centuries in this article are based on the Christian calendar.
Literature:
- McSweeney, Anna. From Granada to Berlin: The Alhambra Cupola. Dortmund: Kettler publishing house, 2020.
- McSweeney, Anna. Arthur von Gwinner and the Alhambra Cupola. In: Gonnella, Julia and Jens Kröger (eds.): “Wie die Islamische Kunst nach Berlin kam. The collector and museum director Friedrich Sarre (1865-1945).” Berlin: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 2015.
Read more related stories here:
Dismantling the Alhambra Cupola
The Alhambra cupola will be reinstalled in our future exhibition in the Pergamonmuseum’s north wing. Read about its dismantling process.
Dismantling the Permanent Exhibition
An insight into the dismantling of the permament exhibition of the Museum for Islamic Art.
