Alhambra plasterwork: history, technique and conservation

The Alhambra and Generalife site offers a wide range of research opportunities to analyse its cultural and material history. However, it is only recently that this science has been extended to the technical studies and works performed in a range of fields to obtain conclusive results. This is the case of the book Yeserías de la Alhambra: Historia, Técnica y Conservación (Alhambra plasterwork: history, technique and conservation) by Ramón Rubio Domene, head of the Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife Plasterwork and Tiling Restoration Workshop, following on from his doctoral thesis, defended before the University of Granada Faculty of Fine Arts.
With almost 300 photographs and other images, the book analyses plaster in all its different forms and technique, along with outlining the history of the plasterworks from the 15th century to the current day.
 
In the craft workshops of the Nasrid dynasty of Granada, plaster, always considered a humble material from a decorative point of view, achieves one of its most extraordinary artistic expressions.  The skill and mastery of involved today allows us to evaluate mocarabes, sebkas, epigraphs and atauriques as an authentic architectural tapestry, put in place to reinforce the appearance of the spaces occupied by a declining political power.
 
The behaviour of the material down through the years has also given rise to permanent concern for its preservation, applying a range of analysis techniques to the material itself and to the different techniques for its preservation and restoration used throughout the history of the site.
A knowledge of the original composition of the plaster, along with Nasrid colouration and gilding methods, the analysis of the sequences of the restoration process and the technical evolution of the associated materials, along with the formulation of restoration proposals and the observation of the behaviour of the solutions applied, are covered in the book, published jointly by the University of Granada Press and Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife.
 
María del Mar Villafranca, general director, Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife.