The Pavilion of Charles V in the Gardens of the Alcázar of Seville

The Pavilion of Charles V in the gardens of the Alcázar of Seville is a Renaissance loggia built in the sixteenth century as an outdoor retreat within the larger complex of Moorish and Christian architecture. Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta painted it in 1868 alongside the garden pool canvas, during a journey through Andalusia that produced several important architectural subjects. The pavilion offered a subject combining Renaissance architectural order — arches, columns, tiled floors — with the Andalusian garden that surrounds it, a layering of historical periods that gave the site its particular cultural resonance. Raimundo's approach was empirical rather than historical: he was interested in the quality of light playing through the arches, the shadow patterns on the tiled floor, the specific color of warm stone against blue southern sky. The work is now in the Prado alongside the companion garden pool canvas.

The architectural subject requires Raimundo to maintain perspective coherence while capturing the play of Andalusian light across stone and tile surfaces. The arches cast complex shadow patterns on the tiled floor that are among the most technically demanding elements — precise in geometry but activated by the warmth and color of transmitted and reflected light.