The Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba: Graphic Analysis of Interior Perspectives by Girault de Prangey around 1839

Abstract

The work of Philibert Girault de Prangey, who was a draughtsman, pioneering photographer and an Islamic architecture scholar, has been the subject of recent exhibitions in his hometown (Langres, 2019), at the Metropolitan Museum (New York, 2019) and at the Musée d’Orsay (Paris, 2020). After visiting Andalusia between 1832 and 1833, Prangey completed the publication “Monuments arabes et moresques de Cordoue, Seville et Grenada in 1839”, based on his own drawings and measurements. For the first time, this research analyses his interior perspectives of the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba (Spain). The novel methodology is based on its comparison with a digital model derived from the point cloud captured by a 3D laser scanner. After locating the different viewpoints, the geometric precision and the elaboration process are analysed, taking into account historic images by various authors, other details published by Prangey and the architectural transformations of the building. In this way, the veracity and documentary interest of some beautiful perspectives of a monument inscribed on the World Heritage List by UNESCO is valued.

The first scientific plan of the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba: Graphic and dimensional analysis of an oil painting from 1741

“…The first known interior perspective was included in a book by Henry Swinburne in 1779, and the first collection of views was published by Alexandre Laborde in 1812 (Ga ´miz-Gordo and Garcı ´a-Ortega, 2012). The accuracy of Laborde's interior perspectives has recently been analyzed (Ga ´miz-Gordo et al, 2022) plus that portrayed in Girault de Prangey's important views in 1839 (Ga ´miz-Gordo et al, 2021).…”

Proportions and Deformations in the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba

“…The digitization of the architectural heritage has experienced a major breakthrough in recent years thanks to the development of new technologies for capturing metric data. Late research in the Mosque-Cathedral has applied photogrammetry techniques (Fuentes-González 2019) or 3D laser scanners (Gámiz-Gordo et al 2021) as the basis for precise graphic documentation. In any case, the survey precision must be adjusted according to the scale used and the dimensions of the model, considering the objectives proposed here.…”