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Much of the decocation consists of Islamic style geometric strapwork designs forming eight-pointed stars in relief. The transition between squared walls and octagonal dome consists of four corner squinches decorated with coats of arms against a ground of spiky leaves, and four panels of gilded basketweave panels, each with a stylised ‘S’ motif . Below this layer, running around the walls is a plaster cast reproduction of the original plaster frieze with Kufic lettering. Surface decoration consists of paint and gilding on a thick gesso layer, sometimes applied over linen used to reinforced joins in the wood. Retouching has been executed in various areas with overpaint and the application of a substitute for gilding. \r\n\r\nThe tiers of the ceiling are described from the bottom up, following the system used during conservation 2019-21:\r\n\r\nA: Pyramid motif moulding of Carved and gilded wood, running along the lower edge of the plaster panels\r\nB: Moulded frieze in plaster of Paris on scrim reinforced with wooden battens. In four sections (HWD: 1540 X 6500 X approx. 60 mm.) These are replicas made c1905 based on the originals before removal from the original location.\r\nC: Wood border painted with stick and reel, above a red cavetto moulding\r\nD: Pyramid moulding in carved and gilded wood\r\nE: Tier expressing the tranisition from four to eight sides consisting of four large corner squinches, each with a moulded arch and quadrants in carved and gilded wood above, and below, three pendant corbels (two large and one small in the centre, all carved and gilded). Between the squinches are between four large panels of gilded basket weave on each of which is set a single large stylised S motif. Rising from each corbel is a vertical divider in the form of an undulating moulding with carved and gilded acanthus leaves. \r\nF: Moulding of carved and gilded wood below an inclined band painted with pomegranate motifs in red/black/green/blue/white on which are mounted carved and gilded acanthus leaf rosettes (six per section). \r\nG: Carved and gilded wood cord below a deep ‘footing’ of gilded muqarnas in four tiers. \r\nH, I: Eight A-shaped sections (faldones) with geometric designs forming eight pointed stars in strapwork, divided vertically by gilded scale pattern moulding, and horizontally, at mid-height,  a carved and gilded muqarnas band in three tiers. \r\nR: Band of gilded muqarnas in two tiers which serves both as the horizontal capping to each of the faldones and a frame to the octagonal centrepiece, a horizontally levelled octagon (almizate) containing geometric designs At the centre of the panel, hanging vertically is an octagonal, gilded <i>muqarnas</i> boss or <i>piña de mocarabes</i> (M).\r\n\r\n<u>Materials: </u>\r\nSoftwood (probably Pinus Nigra and/or Pinus sylvestris), iron nails, animal skin glue; two types of replacement plaster of Paris ornament (the plaster is as thin as 3mm in places, and is assumed to have been made by museum staff in London using moulds taken in situ, in Torrijos.)\r\n\r\nSurface decoration: mordant gilding on a gesso (chalk or gypsum) preparatory layer, on yellow and reddish bole layers, with purpurina substitute for gilding (which has turned greenish); the tempera paint (carbon black, blue (probably azurite), red (probably vermilion) in a binder (probably consisting of animal glue and oil) on a whitish ground.\n\n","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"AAT251917"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"pine","id":"AAT12620"},{"text":"plaster of Paris","id":"AAT14927"}],"techniques":[{"text":"carving","id":"AAT53149"},{"text":"gilding","id":"AAT53789"},{"text":"painting","id":"x30598"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Pine wood, carved, painted and gilded; with modern plaster of Paris panels","categories":[{"text":"Architectural fittings","id":"THES48994"},{"text":"Islam","id":"THES48932"}],"styles":[{"text":"Mudéjar","id":"AAT20944"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2024NU5178","2024NU5176","2024NU5179","2024NU5183","2024NU5180","2024NU5184","2024NU5186","2024NU5187","2024NU5190","2024NU5191","2024NU5192","2024NU5193","2024NU5195","2024NU5196","2024NU5198","2006BG4752","2006BG4749","2006BG4760","2006BG4759","2006BG4758","2006BG4757","2006BG4755","2006BG4754","2006BG4751","2006BG4750","2025PL1995"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"LD001","id":"THES410319"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Architectural 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(province)","id":"x33109"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"c.1490","earliest":"1485-01-01","latest":"1494-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Width","value":"650","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"650","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"1080","unit":"cm","qualifier":"From gallery floor","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"From catalogue: 'Approximate measurements; H. 14 ft. 8 in., W. 20 ft. 6 in.' [447 x 625cm]\r\nAs installed 2025 including framework and height from the floor: H: 1080 x W: 650 x D: 650 cm","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"The plaster frieze includes an Arabic inscription, repeated, '<i>wa tashrabuna min al-surur</i>' ('And you [plural] drink from happiness')"}],"objectHistory":"Bought for £480 from Messrs. L. Harris &amp; co. (The Spanish Art Gallery, Conduit Street, London), RF 88519/1904 and 8375/1904. Transported from Spain per E. Tanton. Recorded as \"Large ceiling of wood, painted and gilt, in parts and fragments, and 6 panels plaster casts; the contents of 24 packages. (5 plaster panels broken\"\nA measured diagram (original on accession register) shows an elevation of the ceiling 'Plano para la colocacion di los arteronados'\n\nDescription at accession: \"Vaulted ceiling of carved pinewood, painted and gilt; in some parts the painting is on a canvas priming. From a palace at Torrijos near Madrid, built for Gutierrez de Cardenas and his wife Teresa Enriquez, whose arms are shown in the spandrels.The ceiling is octagonal in plan, fitted by means of spandrels to a a square room. In the apex is a stalactite pendant within an octagonal panel, from which eight ribs radiate; the ribs are intersected by cross-bars, the surface being thus divided into sixteen panels, which together with the top panel are filled in with geometrical arabesque ornament enriched with leafy and floral designs; under the whole is a frieze of stalactite ornament. Each of the four slightly coved spandrels contains a shield of arms of the families referred to, on a ground of interlacing branches; between each pair of spandrels is a panel of matted ornament witha conventional S-shaped device in the middle. With the vault are portions of plaster work, representing parts of the frieze of the wall which supported the vault. Hispano-Moresque; late 15th century.\"\n\nTwo more portions of plaster work 'pieces of stucco frieze with Arab inscriptions...from the lowest frieze of the Hispano Moresque ceiling' were presented by Messrs. L. Harris on 30th July 1909 (RF 3792/1909). A.B. Skinner explained on the acceptance papers 16/8/1909 that 'Portions of this frieze were missing, but all was received, which was thought to exist at the time - sufficient for the repeating design existed to allow the frieze to be completed by making plaster casts. Mr Harris subsequently obtained the pieces under consideration and offers to give them to the Museum.'\n\n<u>Display History</u>\r\nInstalled in the apse of gallery 48 by from 1908 until 1992 (though not visible to visitors throughout this period); in this position, the base of the frieze was  4.85m above the floor (the top of the frieze reaching to c6.5m), and the central boss was 10.5m above the floor.\n\nConserved 2019-2021 by Arte Conservation Ltd.\n\nFor the most recent and complete account (from which the following summary is taken), see Anna McSweeney, Mariam Rosser-Owen, 'Four wooden ceilings from the Torrijos Palace, Toledo', in  <i>The Burlington Magazine</i> - no. 1449 vol CLXV - December 2023, pp. 1272-89\n\n<u>Summary</u>\r\nThis is one of four surviving ceilings from the Palace of Torrijos (a town 30km north of Toledo), built in the 1480s or 1490s as the seigneurial house of Gutierre de Cárdenas (c.1440-1503), chamberlain to Isabella the Catholic, and his wife Teresa Enríquez (c.1456-1529), cousin of Ferdinand of Aragón and one of Isabella's closest ladies-in-waiting. The V&amp;A ceiling was probably in the room at the NW corner of the Palace. Its frieze began 5m above floor level, and the top point of the ceiling was 10.8m above floor level. Evidence of modifications in the woodwork suggest that the V&amp;A ceiling was made for a different room in the Torrijos Palace (or even for a different palace), and moved shortly afterwards. Originally its eight A-shaped panels - now separated by gilded mouldings that give every appearance of being late fifteenth-century in date - would have been linked seamlessly with each other. \r\n\r\nThe four painted and gilded ceilings, complemented by plaster friezes, were originally located in four rooms at the corners of the palace, and were made using the technique of <i>carpintería de lo blanco </i>(white carpentry, probably referring to the use of pale pine wood), generally known in English as strapwork carpentry. Spectacular domed spaces exemplify the emergence during the fifteenth century of imposing architectural spaces in which a noble family could project itself and its messages of wealth and status, reinforced by sculptural designs in stone or plaster work highlighting themes of wisdom and princely virtue. Such ceilings were considered so valuable that they were moved and reused, sometimes soon after their creation, as seems to have been the case with the V&amp;A ceiling. With its four elaborate ceilings the Torrijos Palace would have been grander than most contemporary Castilian palaces. The designs of the four ceilings, all measuring between 5.5m and 6m in plan, differ, but combine geometric designs derived from the Iberian peninsular’s Islamic architecture with the coats of arms and several heraldic devices of the patrons: scallop shells of the Order of Santiago, large-scale ‘S’s referring to Gutierre’s introduction of Isabella to Ferdinand, and spiky plants probably referring to the thistle (‘<i>cardo</i>’) for the Cárdenas family.\r\n\r\nThe Torrijos palace came to be known, variously, as the palace of the Dukes of Maqueda, the Palace of the Counts of Torrijos, and latterly as the Palacio Altamira. Prior to its demolition in 1917, the ceiling was removed by 1904 and sold in 1905, via the dealer Lionel Harris (1862-1943), proprietor of the Spanish Art Gallery, London, to the South Kensington Museum, as the V&amp;A was formerly known. The other three ceilings were acquired by the Museo Arqueológico, Madrid (MAN) in 1969, the Museum of the Legion of Honour, San Francisco in 1946, and the owners of the château de Villandry in the Loire valley, probably soon after 1906.\r\n\r\n<u>The Patrons</u>\r\nGutierre de Cárdenas and Teresa Enríquez were married in 1470, and purchased the town of Torrijos from the archbishopric of Toledo in 1482. She was a cousin of Ferdinand of Aragón, and one of Isabella’s closest ladies-in-waiting. Gutierre was a distinguished diplomat and soldier, and a wealthy and powerful figure at court, holding the offices of <i>contador mayor </i>(chief treasurer) of Castile and <i>comendador mayor </i>(commander-in-chief) of the military order of Santiago for the province of León; he was the first representative of the Catholic Monarchs to enter the city of Granada to take formal possession of the Alhambra in 1492. The palace at Torrijos was an impressive expression of the couple’s high status. Their building projects also included a Franciscan monastery in Torrijos, Santa María de Jesús (1492-1503), built in emulation of the Catholic Monarchs’ foundation San Juan de los Reyes. After the death of Gutierre Teresa led a life of pious retreat, and founded the collegiate church of Torrijos, the Colegiata del Santísimo Sacramento (1508-13), along with several hospitals and schools.\r\n\r\n<u>The Torrijos Palace</u>\r\nThe Palace overlooked the main market square. A sober facade included ten balconies at the upper level which adorned glass windows. The main entrance portal, of stone, displayed the joint arms of the Catholic monarchs, with a sliced pomegranate indicating that the palace was built after the conquest of Granada in 1492, and below, the arms of Cárdenas and Enríquez. The palace has been attributed to royal masons, the brothers Anton and Enrique Egas. A <i>patio</i> (courtyard) measured 22 by 20 metres, with two storeys of arches supported by Doric columns. The galleries of both levels were four metres wide with flat wooden ceilings. The range is surrounding the <i>patio</i> were one room deep, with the exception of the north range, which was two rooms deep and led to a gallery that opened onto large orchards and gardens occupying a space equal to the palace itself. From the main <i>patio</i> visitors ascended the main, elaborately decorated, staircase to the <i>salas nobles</i> on the second floor. The rooms at the four corners were square in plan. The first room entered from the staircase, an antechamber with an early 16th century renaissance style ceiling (now at Finca El Alamín) probably added after the death of Gutierre (and perhaps prepared for Queen Isabella), led to the Chapel, with the most complex of the four ceilings (MAN, Madrid). \r\n\r\nProceeding along the palace’s main facade, the room at the south-east corner of the building (Legion of Honour Museum) contained an elaborate ceiling and plaster freezes with Arabic inscriptions. The remaining two ceilings were in the palaces western range. The V&amp;A ceiling could have been in the south-west or the north-west corner, but it seems most likely that being the second richest ceiling it may have overlooked the gardens at the NW corner, adjacent to the palace’s banqueting hall. Its Arabic inscriptions make an association with feasting, as they read ‘And you drink from happiness’. The room was perhaps a space for informal receptions, where spiced wine was enjoyed by the host and his intimate circle. \r\n\r\n<u>Construction of the Torrijos Ceilings</u>\r\n<i>Carpintería de lo blanco</i> flourished in Spain between the late 13th and 16th centuries, and was predominantly used to make decorative carved and painted wooden ceilings that combine Islamic and northern European techniques and aesthetic approaches. (The historical roots of the technique can probably be traced to Almohad North Africa.) Such ceilings, many of which survive, were made for religious and secular buildings in Muslim, Christian and Jewish contexts across the western Mediterranean and Iberia, but the evidence of surviving examples suggests that the technique was particularly popular in Nasrid Granada from the late 13th century; in Castilian Seville and Toledo from the 14th century; and in the palaces of the new Christian rulers of Spain from the late 15th century. \r\n\r\nTerms such as ‘<i>Mudéjar</i>’ and ‘Moorish’ which have been applied to art and architecture that appear Islamic to modern eyes, have been rejected by recent historians on the grounds that they perpetuate an outdated idea that a particular race and religion was central to the design and patronage of these ceilings, while helping little in understanding their designs. Nothing is known about the religion of the craftsman who made the Torrijos ceilings, so employing terms that imply that they were all Muslims is at best misleading. Guild regulations from sixteenth-century Granada note the requirement to elect both ‘old’ and ‘new’(convert) Christians to the offices of the Guild, which implies that there was a mix of cultural and confessional identities among carpenters.\r\n\r\nSuch ceilings are decorative, with no significant structural function in the buildings in which they are found; they were made to support only themselves, sitting on top of the walls of the room in which they were placed, and requiring a roof above them to protect them from the exterior elements. The space they covered is spanned by the <i>par y nudillo</i> (rafter and collar beam) construction, which is hidden by the decoration, a <i>lacería</i> (a skin of interlaced strapwork) constructed in prefabricated sections, that together form a coherent geometrical design across the ceiling when viewed from below. The design of the V&amp;A ceiling is based on an eight-pointed star motif (<i>ochavada</i>) that radiates from a central <i>muqarnas</i> boss. This system of construction involved the prefabrication of the ceilings in workshops, where they were assembled into large panels (<i>faldones</i>) before being raised into place and fitted together in a reasonably short time. This modular system, based on repeated patterns for each section, which were slotted together with the rest of the ceiling once it was in place, facilitated the dismantling and re-erection of ceilings. Only master carpenters of the highest status, with deep knowledge of practical, applied geometry, and of wood, were capable of constructing these complex, interlaced ceilings. The V&amp;A ceiling is an example of the second most complex type. \r\n\r\nThe construction of strapwork carpentry ceilings involves the use of many individual pieces of wood that have been specially shaped to fit into the geometric pattern, allowing for greater flexibility than the use of fewer and larger beings would permit, while also enabling the carpenter to make the best use of a relatively scarce resource. High quality pinewood of various sub-species was available on the Iberian peninsula and is likely to have been the principal timber used on the Torrijos ceilings. All four ceilings were painted and gilded and sat above carved, moulded and painted plaster panels. The V&amp;A ceiling used a widely used colour scheme of black, white, red blue and gold, worked in tempera and gold leaf over a preparatory layer of plaster. The <i>zafates</i> - inserted panels (often hexagonal) fitted between the interlaced wooden panels - are decorated with carved, gilded and painted motifs including thistles, acorns, flowers, spiky leaves and the letter S. The scheme probably uses azurite, a valuable pigment which in combination with a large quantity of gold on the ceiling underlines the ceiling’s status as a luxury object.\n","historicalContext":"For contextual information see also:\r\nArthur Byne and Mildred Stapley. <i>Decorated wooden ceilings in Spain</i> (New York, London, 1920)","briefDescription":"Octagonal strapwork carpentry ceiling from the Torrijos Palace (near Toledo, Spain); carved, gilded and painted with plaster frieze; c.1490 for Gutierre de Cárdenas and Teresa  Enríquez","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"M. Rosser-Owen. <i>Islamic Arts from Spain</i> (London: V&A Publishing, 2010), Fig.78, p. 85-87\nFig 78: 'Ceiling from the Palacio de Altamira in Torrijos (near Toledo),\n c.1490. Pine wood, covered with gesso, painted and gilt, each side 625 cm. (V&amp;A: 407-1905)'\r\n\nP.85-87:\n'Mudejar was used to create rich interior spaces, and some of the most spectacular of all Mudejar creations are marquetry ceilings. The V&amp;A is fortunate to have in its collections one of four surviving ceilings from the Palacio de Altamira in Torrijos, near Toledo (p1.78). This palace was built for Gutierre de Cardenas (d.1503), chamberlain to Isabella the Catholic, and his wife Teresa Enriquez (d.1529), the queen's cousin. The couple are credited with introducing Isabella and Ferdinand. Gutierre arranged their first meeting, and when asked by Isabella which one among a group of men was Ferdinand, he replied 'Ese', 'That one'; for this he was awarded the distinction of adding a floriated 'S' (ese in Spanish) to either side of his coat of arms, just as they appear in the ceiling. [Note 25: Letter dated 13 March 1956, from Beatrice Gilman Proske, Curator of Sculpture at the Hispanic Society of America, New York, to Miss Elizabeth Moses, Curator of Decorative Arts, M.H. De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco; among the archival papers held at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. My thanks to Melissa Buron for sending me copies of these papers.] Gutierre also deputized for the Catholic Monarchs at the surrender of the Alhambra in 1492. [Note 26: Harvey, L.P., Islamic Spain 1250-1500 (Chicago, 1990), p.322.] This noble couple was therefore at the summit of the social order, and the architectural decoration of their palace is revealing of the taste for Mudejar styles among the Spanish elite at the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It also illustrates how members of the Spanish nobility who were intimately involved in the conquest of Muslim lands favoured the Islamic style in their domestic environment.\n\r\nGutierre and Teresa's palace was probably constructed about 1490, soon after their marriage. It was built around a courtyard and had four corner towers, inside each of which was a Mudejar ceiling, all different though sharing the same stylistic elements. [Note 27: The palace was demolished between 1901 and 1904, though not before the four ceilings had been salvaged and sold.] The stucco friezes which crowned the walls below them were too fragile to be removed from the walls, so casts were made which allowed them to be replicated when the ceilings were installed in their new homes. Three ceilings from this palace can be seen at the Museo Arqueologico Nacional, Madrid; the Chateau Villandry in the Loire Valley, France; and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco (inv. 46.16). The fourth is in the V&amp;A (pl. 78) although not currently on display. An article on the decoration of the Palacio de Altamira, which described it as an 'architectural jewel' (p.346), was published in <i>Por Esos Mundos</i>, no. 87 (April 1902), pp. 344-7.] The tongue-and-groove construction of the ceilings was Islamic, continuing that of the marquetry ceilings created for the Alhambra a century and a half before, as was the conception of their decoration, based on an all-over framework of geometric starburst designs. The upper part of the V&amp;A ceiling is octagonal and arranged in three zones radiating outwards from the muqarnas boss at the centre, covered with eight-pointed stars, and brightly coloured in red, blue and gold. A muqarnas frieze runs around the edge of the`Islamic' part of the ceiling, separating it from the more 'Gothic' part, where four squinches at the corners provide the transition from square hall to octagonal dome. The squinches contain spiky vegetation, surrounding the prominent coats of arms of the Cardenas and Enriquez families (compare p1.100 for the Enriquez arms from a slightly later palace in Seville). These spiky flowers are also incorporated within the starburst decoration (see frontispiece) and seem intended to represent thistles, <i>cardos</i> in Spanish, a punning reference to the name `Cardenas'. Running around the walls below the crown of the ceiling are stucco panels which feature half-palmettes and curling leaf-forms like those on the Alhambra's plasterwork, and a frieze of Kufic lettering, though this does not spell out actual Arabic words. Altogether, from the point at which the stucco decoration starts to its pinnacle, the ceiling took up more than half the total height of the tower in which it was installed; the walls below would have been hung with carpets or tapestries, also decorated with Islamic designs. The ceiling would have been a magnificent spectacle when viewed in its original space, and the overall impression strikingly Islamic.'\n\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Juan Antonio Gaya Nuño.<i> La Arquitectura española en sus monumentos desaparecidos</i> (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1961), p. 246-249\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"\"El Palacio de Torrijos\",<i> Por esos mundos</i> (Madrid, April 1902), p. 342-347\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Enrique María Repullés, \"El Palacio de Torrijos\", <i>Resumen de Arquitectura</i> (Madrid, 1st October 1894), p. 101-105"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Bevan, Bernard 'Woodwork', <i>Spanish Art </i>(Burlington Magazine, 1927) p. 89, Woodwork-Plate IB\n'The most ingenious of the Mudejar ceilings were those called 'media naranja' -half orange, in which the intersection of the beams produced the effect of a dome. One of the finest in Spain, though it has suffered from repeated restorations, is that in the Hall of the Ambassadors in the Alcazar of Seville. It is made of cedar wood, the  myriad ribs inlaid with box, while the interstices between the panels are filled with tiny mirrors. A scarcely less beautiful example is over the staircase in the Casa de Pilatos, the ancient home of the Riberas; and in the South Kensington Museum is a late fifteenth-century 'media-naranja' [Plate I-B] from Torrijos  (some twenty miles west of Toledo) made for Gutierrez de Cardenas and his wife Teresa Enriquez, whose arms appear in the spandrels.'"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Anna McSweeney, Mariam Rosser-Owen, 'Four wooden ceilings from the Torrijos Palace, Toledo', in The Burlington Magazine - no. 1449 vol CLXV - December 2023, pp. 1272-89\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Nick Humphrey, ‘Fortuitous and Fragmentary: Collecting Spanish Furniture, Woodwork and Leather at the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1850-1950’, in Ana Cabrera Lafuente & Lesley E. Miller (eds.), <i>Collecting Spain - Coleccionismo de artes decorativas espanolas en Gran Bretana y Espana - Collecting Spanish Decorative Arts in Britain and Spain</i> (Ediciones Polifemo, Madrid 2022), pp. 208-10"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"stars","id":"AAT9811"},{"text":"kufic","id":"AAT194434"},{"text":"geometric patterns","id":"AAT165213"},{"text":"foliage motifs","id":"x46499"},{"text":"coats of arms","id":"AAT126352"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["407-1905","407:2-1905","407:3-1905","407:4-1905","407:5-1905","407:6-1905","407:7-1905","407:8-1905","407:9-1905","407:10-1905","407:11-1905","407:12-1905","407:13-1905","407:14-1905","407:15-1905","407:16-1905","407:17-1905","407:18-1905","407:19-1905","407:20-1905","407:21-1905","407:22-1905","407:23-1905","407:24-1905","407:25-1905","407:26-1905","407:27-1905","407:28-1905","407:29-1905","407:30-1905","407:31-1905","407:32-1905","407:33-1905","407:34-1905","407:35-1905","407:36-1905","407:37-1905","407:38-1905","407:39-1905","407:40-1905","407:41-1905","407:42-1905","407:43-1905","407:44-1905","407:45-1905","407:46-1905"],"accessionNumberNum":"407","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1905,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Architectural element [1]","Architectural element [2]","Architectural element [3]","Architectural element [4]","Architectural element [5]","Architectural element [6]","Architectural element [7]","Architectural element [8]","Architectural element [9]","Architectural element [10]","Architectural element [11]","Architectural element [12]","Architectural element [13]","Architectural element [14]","Architectural element [15]","Architectural element [16]","Architectural element [17]","Architectural element [18]","Architectural element [19]","Architectural element [20]","Architectural element [21]","Architectural element [22]","Architectural element [23]","Architectural element [24]","Architectural element [25]","Architectural element [26]","Architectural element [27]","Architectural element [28]","Architectural element [29]","Architectural element [30]","Architectural element [31]","Architectural element [32]","Architectural element [33]","Architectural element [34]","Architectural element [35]","Architectural element [36]","Architectural element [37]","Architectural element [38]","Architectural element [39]","Architectural element [40]","Architectural element [41]","Architectural element [42]","Architectural element [43]","Architectural element [44]","Architectural element [45]","Architectural element [46]"],"assets":["2019LW7330"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-12-18","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":false}}