Architectural heritage preservation and sustainability need advanced graphic techniques in order to document and understand the disposition/composition of plaster muqarnas, a fragile construction element. The muqarnas are key elements in the Nasrid architecture developed during the 14th century in the Alhambra complex, nowadays part of World Heritage. As a case study, this analysis focuses on the muqarnas pendentives of the Sala de la Barca in the Comares Palace. After examining both explanations and drawings published by architects Jones and Goury from 1842 to 1845, our research provides new drawings (plans and elevations) derived from laser scanner technology. Theoretically, though muqarnas are composed of simple geometrical shapes, these new drawings unveil important deformations hitherto unknown, and which have not been studied yet by other bibliographic references. Finally, we provide some considerations about the causes of these deformations and the monument sustainability across the time and the images’ capacity to show the muqarnas complex shapes in a reliable way.

<p>The muqarnas of the Nasrid Alhambra stand out as one of the most singular architectural episodes of Medieval Islamic art due to their sophisticated three-dimensional construction, whose layout remains little known. In 1834 and 1837, the architects Owen Jones and Jules Goury visited the monument in Granada and accomplished surprising drawings thereof, later published towards 1842-1845 as chromolithograph prints, which represented its architecture, ornaments, and muqarnas in a systematic way for the first time. In order to value their pioneering drawings, the historical data is briefly reviewed and several previous drawings of the Alhambra are cited. After consideration of a few questions regarding the process of data collection in Granada, a comparative analysis is presented of a cornice, a capital, an arch and a pendentive, with photos and computer-aided drawings. Thus, the principles or elementary grammar of muqarnas groupings described by these architects are highlighted, as well as the precision of their images, which resulted crucial to integrate and disseminate the architectural legacy of the Alhambra in the contemporary Western culture.</p>

This research documents and graphically analyzes the pavilions muqarnas at the Court of the Lions in the Alhambra in Granada, a World Heritage Site. In order to cast some light on the understanding and preservation of these 14th century architectural elements, after a brief report of historical data on catastrophes and restorations, a novel methodology for the case study based on three complementary graphic analyses is presented here: First, there is a review of outstanding images ranging from the 17th to the 20th centuries; subsequently, new CAD (computer-aided design) drawings from pavilions muqarnas testing the theoretic principles from their geometric grouping are accomplished for the first time; and finally, a 3D laser scanner is used to understand the precise present-day state from the point cloud obtained. Comparing drawings allows us to assess the muqarnas relevance while proving, for the first time, that the muqarnas of both pavilions have distinct configurations and different amounts of pieces. Besides, this process reveals geometric deformations existing in the original Nasrid muqarnas compositions, identifying small pieces hitherto unknown, plus additional deformations resulting from adjustments after important threats that both pavilions and their muqarnas overcame for centuries, despite their fragile construction.

In the Alhambra of the Nasrid era (1230–1492), a transformed type of capital emerged that incorporated muqarnas to materialize the transition from the column to the abacus. Although the Alhambra contains the most muqarnas compositions from the Occident (Iberian Peninsula), the present understanding of “Western” muqarnas is based upon two carpentry manuscripts from the 1630s, from different authors on each side of the Atlantic (López de Arenas and Fray Andrés de San Miguel). In this research, the proportions of the muqarnas profiles from each manuscript are studied and compared to each other to articulate the formal consequences of their differences. By sculpting four examples of muqarnas capitals in the Alhambra, this study assesses whether the results correspond to the information provided in the manuscripts. The particularities that arise from these simple muqarnas capitals shed light on the proportions of the Alhambra muqarnas, generate new profiles that are distinct from those of the manuscripts, and establish geometrical relationships that have hitherto been unclear. These observations offer a basis for future tests on other muqarnas compositions in Nasrid palaces, therefore advancing the definition of the formal language of the Alhambra muqarnas.