The Slaughter of The Abencerrajes

Painted in 1870, this canvas depicts the legendary massacre of the Abencerraje clan in the Alhambra's Hall of the Abencerrajes — a story that had circulated through European literature since Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra (1832) and Chateaubriand's earlier romantic treatments. The legend told of the Nasrid sultan Boabdil ordering the slaughter of his Abencerraje nobles in the beautiful courtyard whose fountain basin was supposedly still stained with blood. Fortuny had intimate knowledge of the Alhambra from his extended visits to Granada and used that architectural knowledge to ground the romantic legend in specific physical space. The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya holds the work as part of a major Fortuny collection that documents the range of his Spanish subjects. This painting sits at the intersection of his orientalist practice and his engagement with Spanish-Moorish history, subjects that many contemporaries found indistinguishable.

Fortuny uses the Alhambra's distinctive tile and stucco architecture as a decorative foil for the violent action in the foreground, the geometric beauty of the setting intensifying the horror of the massacre through ironic contrast. Figures are rendered in varying degrees of completion, suggesting the energy of violent movement rather than static poses. The palette is warm and saturated despite the darkness of the subject.