Ceramic diaper panel. Gate of Justice

Opening hours: Every Saturday in December, at 12 noon
Location: Room VI, Museum of the Alhambra, Palace of Charles V
The Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife presents the ceramic diaper panel of the Gate of Justice as piece of the month in the Museum of the Alhambra. Every Saturday in December, from 12:00 on, the restorer Isabel Cambil will reveal details and specialties of this type of ornamentation. The spandrels of the inner Gate of Justice still show remains of its original decoration, which consisted of a ceramic diaper panel, whereof a piece is on display in the Museum of the Alhambra.
This panel is designed starting from a module which is repeated following a geometric pattern, generating interlaced mixed arches. Inside of each of these arches we can see arabesque decoration in blue and green on a white background.
The ornamental motif of diaper pattern in panels is repeated in other parts of the Alhambra, like for example in the open plasterwork in the Court of the Lions. In fact, in this pattern is given expression to the evolution developed in former times, like the Caliphate and Almohad period, as in the case of the Mosque of Cordoba and Seville’s Giralda.
The material used is glazed earthenware. The motifs used for each module in the panel have been generated by means of an open cast on which the clay is pressed, after what the pieces have been glazed and fired.