Spanish and Andalusian Art: Al-Andalus, the Golden Age and Modernity
This domain runs from the Mezquita of Córdoba to Picasso, and it is the section where Andalusian specificity is expected. The PAU tests Islamic architectural vocabulary, Mudejar as a hybrid phenomenon, Golden Age painting and the modern Spanish avant-garde. Questions often ask you to describe a building's spatial system or a painter's technique in detail.
Al-Andalus
- The Mezquita of Córdoba (begun 786 under Abd al-Rahman I) is a hypostyle hall: reused Roman columns carry a double-tier arcade of horseshoe arches below and semicircular arches above, gaining height from short columns. Al-Hakam II's expansion (961–966) adds a richly decorated mihrab with Byzantine mosaics. Decoration is aniconic - geometry, epigraphy, vegetal ornament.
- The Alhambra (Nasrid, 13th–14th centuries) uses muqarnas vaults, stucco, water channels and the Court of the Lions to create a palace of controlled light and sound. The Giralda in Seville began as an Almohad minaret (1184–98) and was later topped by a Renaissance bell tower.
Mudejar
- Mudejar is not Islamic art: it is Islamic technique and ornament - brick, tile, horseshoe arches, wooden ceilings - used for Christian patrons, as in the Alcázar of Seville and many Toledan churches. The distinction is a common exam point.
Golden Age
- El Greco: elongation, acidic color, unstable space, Counter-Reformation spirituality.
- Velázquez: naturalism and chiaroscuro in his Seville period, then court portraiture and spatial complexity in Madrid; Las Meninas (1656) stages looking, representation and royal presence.
- Zurbarán's still-life austerity, Ribera's tenebrist realism, Murillo's softened religious imagery.
Modern
- Goya bridges periods: court tapestry cartoons, portraits, the Black Paintings and the Disasters of War prints. Sorolla's light; Picasso, Gris, Dalí and Miró carry Spanish art into the avant-garde.
Worked example: the Mezquita prayer hall
Form: rows of columns with double-tier arches create a repeating, non-directional rhythm; height is gained without tall columns. Function: the mihrab marks the qibla toward Mecca, but the hall itself has no single visual axis comparable to a basilica nave. Context: reused spolia signals both economy and continuity with the classical past. Interpretation: the space works by repetition and horizon-like arcades rather than by procession, which is exactly the contrast to draw with a Christian basilica.
Traps that cost marks
- Calling Mudejar simply "Islamic art".
- Assuming the Mezquita looks today as it did in 786; it was expanded and a cathedral was inserted.
- Reducing Goya to a single period.
- Confusing Velázquez's Seville and Madrid manners.