PUERTA DE LA JUSTICE (Weekly Art Project #3; the Alhambra)

 

This magnificent horseshoe style gate is the Puerta de la Justice, but it is also known as the Gate of the Esplanade. This would be because of the grand esplanade that leads to it & because it was the largest & most impressive gate found in the Alhambra walls.  Built in 1348 it soon became the most often used entrance into the Palace grounds as well.

I remember a few things about the experience of encountering it for the first time.  It's size made an impression on me & you can see in the photo above how it's height compares to the average human!

This Hamsa symbol also attracted me as it is unlike any Hamsa symbol I have seen before. This is a protective symbol in the Islamic faith & represents the hand of Fatima, Mohammad's daughter.

And because I have an interest in symbols.... above the inner archway is another Islamic symbol, the key.  I particularly liked this key because of the detail of it's tassle. It is believed to represent Islamic Paradise, which I can well imagine the Nasrid Palaces within the Alhambra complex were designed to be the earthly equivalent of.  However this symbol could also represent authority, & perhaps this is where the connection with 'justice' comes from?

What impressed me most though,  are the glazed tiles that decorate the upper section of the second arch. They are so high up we mere mortals need a zoom lens on our camera to even see them properly.  When we do see them though, they are as exquisite as if they were just made yesterday.

 

For my weekly art project this week I wanted to create something new using some of these features. 

I started by drawing a rendition of the tiles & then cut it out into a paper stencil.

I'd made a couple of fresh gelli plates, so I was keen to see whether they worked okay.  This seemed a good opportunity to print off a few pieces of fabric using my tile shapes & hopefully in the course of that process I would have a brilliant idea about how I was going to bring it all together in one 20cm2 piece!

I moved my more successful prints around to see how they looked with each other.

Slowly I began sewing some together & appliqueing others over top to create an interesting base.  

Scale was a key word when I thought about this gate, so with that in mind I made my hand & key rather smaller than my tiles!

This was the end result & I'm quite happy with it.

Only 'quite' because in hindsight I wish I'd just left the tiles as themselves & maybe pushed them a little further to perhaps look like this variation, which my Layout App came up with.  This REALLY appeals to me & perhaps I would have got to it on my own if I hadn't have been so determined to include the Hamsa & the key, both of which could have been subjects for another week's project.

When setting my own guidelines for this project I have been deliberately open ended, not giving myself too many rules except size & a stitch requirement.  Today's outcome is a very good lesson for me, I keep telling myself 'less is more', but sometimes even less is more!  

Even so, I'm not disappointed with my outcome & it has certainly been fun to work on.