A GILT AND POLYCHROME-PAINTED PLASTER RELIEF PLAQUE OF A MIHRAB NICHE IN THE ALHAMBRA PALACE
Granada, Andalusia, Southern Spain, ca. 1920 - 1925, attributed to Rafael Rus Acosta

Of rectangular shape, moulded, carved, gilt, and polychrome-painted, the relief replicating a romanticised version of the mihrab facade by the Oratorio del Partal chapel inside the Alhambra Palace in Granada, the architecture characterised by a typical polylobed arch, dense foliate arabesque patterns on the squinches, a row of three arched openwork windows on the upper register, stellar and geometric designs, strapwork bands, and several epigraphic friezes in a variety of calligraphic Arabic scripts including knotted Kufic, thuluth and naskh, the cusped diamond-shaped cartouches around the sides in-filled with the Nasrid motto Wa La Ghaliba Illa-llah (there is no Conqueror but Allah), with a frieze of polychrome arista geometric tiles at the base, stamped Rafael Rus Acosta 25 GRANADA on the lower edge, set in a blackless dark brown wooden frame, the plaster relief 33.5cm x 24.8cm, 42cm x 33cm including the frame.

Dimensions: the plaster relief 33.5cm x 24.8cm, 42cm x 33cm including the frame