Photograph: Guillermo Maestro CasadoPhotograph: Guillermo Maestro CasadoPhotograph: Guillermo Maestro CasadoPhotograph: Guillermo Maestro CasadoPhotograph: Guillermo Maestro CasadoPhotograph: Guillermo Maestro CasadoPhotograph: Guillermo Maestro Casado


Name of Monument:

The Moor’s Workshop

Location:

Calle Taller del Moro, s/n, Toledo, Spain

Date of Monument:

1325–50

Period / Dynasty:

Mudéjar

Description:

The name 'Moor's Workshop', used to refer to the remains of a palace built in the second quarter of the 14th century, derives from the fact that in the 16th century, abandoned by its owners, it was rented by the cathedral, which used it as a masonry workshop. Earlier, in the 15th century, it had been converted into a convent dedicated to Saint Eufemia. When it was studied by Amador de los Ríos one hundred years ago it was a complete ruin, a state from which it was saved by restoration work that turned it into the Museum of Mudéjar Art, a satellite of the Santa Cruz Museum.
The palace is one of the most important examples of Toledan civil architecture. The three surviving rooms (a central rectangular room between two square ones) constitute one 'quarter' of the palace, which was built around a central garden courtyard with a layout typical of Nasrid and Mudéjar buildings in that century. It would originally have had another three 'quarters' similar to the surviving one, and the main rooms on the short sides behind an arcade or gallery.
The greatest treasure in the surviving part is the plasterwork on the arches and walls with vegetal, geometric and epigraphic themes. Stilted engrailed arches were used. Two large arches link the central rectangular room with the side rooms, and another two provide access to the central room from the courtyards. Finally, two smaller arches are located in the side walls of the small rooms. The central room also has two rectangular windows. The largest and richest plasterwork is to be found on the two arches that link the central room with the side rooms. There are two superimposed layers of sebka (rhombuses) with a central pinecone on the outsides. Lower down are panels of 12-lazo knotwork with stars and cross, finger and ring motifs. The entrance to the central room from outside consists of two arches whose triangular spandrels and intradoses are decorated with another version of the rhombus pattern, with clover-filled pods or 'peppers', a traditional Toledan theme in the 13th century. Above one of these arches there are five semi-circular openings with plaster lattice windows.
As was typical with Nasrid and Mudéjar architecture, the walls would have been fully decorated with a tiled plinth at the bottom and fabrics or skins covering the walls, which bore the aforementioned plasterwork and supported the ceilings. The ceilings in the side rooms are octagonal, while the central room has a large, simple, moamar (paired beam) caisson (coffered ceiling). In the moulding that serves as a transition to the wall there are rows of spurs and the scotia bears an inscription in gothic characters reproducing the start of the gospel of St John, 'In principio erat verbum', which suggests that the room was originally the chapel.

View Short Description

This is the main room of the old Mudéjar palace and the only part of it that has survived. It is laid out according to the basic model for Hispano-Muslim homes, with a central rectangular room and two square bedrooms at either end.
Its decoration imitates Andalusian models: walls with tiled skirting boards, walls covered with skin or fabric and multicoloured plasterwork framing the windows and doors.

How Monument was dated:

The style dates to the second quarter of the 14th century and the noble coats of arms belong to the families of Lope González Palomeque (dove) and his wife María Téllez de Meneses (plain) and the Toledo family (castle).

Selected bibliography:

Amador de los Ríos, R., Monumentos Arquitectónicos de España: Toledo, Madrid, 1905, pp.326–36.
López Guzmán, R., Arquitectura Mudéjar: Del Sincretismo Medieval a las Alternativas Hispanoamericanas, Madrid, 2000, p.261.
Martínez Caviró, B., Mudéjar Toledano: Palacios y Conventos, Madrid, 1980, pp.211–20.
Pérez Higuera, T., “Palacio del Taller del Moro”, in Arquitecturas de Toledo (co-ord. D. Peris), Vol. I: Del Romano al Gótico, Toledo, 1992, pp.395–404.
Pérez Higuera, T., “Palacio del Taller del Moro”, in El Arte Mudéjar: La Estética Islámica en el Arte Cristiano, Madrid, 2000, pp.204–5.
Mudéjar Art: Islamic Aesthetics in Christian Art, pp.204–5.

Citation of this web page:

Ángela Franco "The Moor’s Workshop" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;ISL;es;Mon01;24;en

Prepared by: Ángela FrancoÁngela Franco

Ángela Franco es Jefa del Departamento de Antigüedades Medievales en el Museo Arqueológico Nacional.
Obtuvo el Grado de Doctor por la Universidad Complutense de Madrid con la tesis Escultura gótica en León y provincia, premiada y publicada parcialmente (Madrid, 1976; reed. León, 1998); y la Diplomatura en Paleografía y Archivística por la Scuola Vaticana di Paleografia, Diplomatica e Archivistica, con la tesis L'Archivio paleografico italiano: indici dei manoscritti, publicada en castellano (Madrid, 1985). Becas de investigación: beca posdoctoral del Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, Academia Española de Bellas Artes de Roma (1974-75); beca posdoctoral del Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Academia Española de Bellas Artes de Roma (1975-77); beca de la Fundación Juan March de Madrid (1978).
Tiene en su haber 202 publicaciones, fundamentalmente sobre arte medieval cristiano, en especial la iconografía: Crucifijo gótico doloroso, Doble Credo, Danzas de la Muerte, temática bíblica en relación con la liturgia (el Génesis y el Éxodo en relación con la vigilia Pascual) o con el teatro (Secundum legem debet mori, sobre el “pozo de Moisés” de la cartuja de Dijon). Es autora de cuatro catálogos monográficos del Museo Arqueológico Nacional, entre ellos el de Dedales islámicos (Madrid, 1993), y de publicaciones sobre escultura gótica y pintura en la catedral de León y sobre escultura gótica en Ávila, así como de numerosas fichas para catálogos de exposiciones.
Ha participado en innumerables congresos nacionales e internacionales, presentando ponencias y mesas redondas, y ha dirigido cursos y ciclos de conferencias. Es Secretaria de Publicaciones en el Museo Arqueológico Nacional desde 1989.

Copyedited by: Rosalía AllerRosalía Aller

Rosalía Aller Maisonnave, licenciada en Letras (Universidad Católica del Uruguay), y en Filología Hispánica y magíster en Gestión Cultural de Música, Teatro y Danza (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), ha obtenido becas de la Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional y la Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia de Madrid, así como el Diplôme de Langue Française (Alliance Française), el Certificate of Proficiency in English (University of Cambridge) y el Certificado Superior en inglés y francés (Escuela Oficial de Idiomas de Madrid). Profesora de Estética de la Poesía y Teoría Literaria en la Universidad Católica del Uruguay, actualmente es docente de Lengua Castellana y Literatura en institutos de Enseñanza Secundaria y formación del profesorado en Madrid. Desde 1983, ha realizado traducción y edición de textos en Automated Training Systems, Applied Learning International, Videobanco Formación y El Derecho Editores. Integra el equipo de Museo Sin Fronteras desde 1999 y ha colaborado en la revisión de los catálogos de “El Arte Islámico en el Mediterráneo”. Así mismo, ha realizado publicaciones sobre temas literarios y didácticos, ha dictado conferencias y ha participado en recitales poéticos.

Translation by: Laurence Nunny
Translation copyedited by: Monica Allen

MWNF Working Number: SP 28

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