Ruins of Castle of Las Navas in Andalusia
Description:
The ruins of the Castle of Las Navas stand at the top of a hill that crests at the very center of the composition. This focal point is flanked on both the right and left registers with dense foliage and shrubbery. The plentiful vegetation encircles a meadow at the foot of the hill. In this clearing, groups of men and women are picnicking and relaxing. In the center of the foreground, two aristocratically dressed men stand surveying the pleasure-seekers.
Copyright:
Copyright 2009, Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
Primary Works:
Picturesque Tour Through Spain
Accession Number:
G40 SW6 Cutter
Height (in centimeters):
20
Width (in centimeters):
26
Printing Context
Ruins of Castle of Las Navas in Andalusia was printed as an engraved illustration in Henry Swinburne’s Picturesque Tour Through Spain. (London 1808). This text was originally published in 1779.Associated Events
The Battle of Las Navas de TolosaIn this pass, on a round hill, was encamped in 1212, Mahomet Miramolin of Africa, with his mighty host, when the allied Kings of Castille, Aragon, and Navarre, came over the Sierra Morena to attack him. The strength of his position, and his command of the only way by which they could penetrate into Andalusia, checked their progress. The Moor had behind him an abundant country and rich towns, from which he drew daily supplies: the Spaniards had neither victuals nor drink, nor any means of procuring them in the mountainous desert in which they were engaged: it was therefore necessary to take a speedy resolution: the attack was voted. Under the guidance of a shepherd the allies surprised a hill that overlooked the African camp: the assault was given, the entrenchments were forced, and the infidels routed with prodigious slaughter. This victory decided the fate of Spain. (H. Swinburne, Picturesque Tour)
Associated Places
AndalusiaAssociated Texts
Swinburne, Henry. Picturesque Tour Through Spain. London: E. Orne, 1808.Subject
This engraving is clearly intended to enact Gilpin’s theory of the picturesque. When one compares the composition of Scott’s print with the caption following Gilpin’s geographically unspecific drawing, A View into a Winding Valley, the similarities are striking. Here, as in Gilpin’s sketch, we have the “picturesque appendages” in the foreground, the ruined castle atop a “rocky knoll,” and the “side-screens” of dense foliage creating the effect of a theatrical stage (S. Copley, “Gilpin on the Wye” 140-141). The major difference in Scott’s print is that here the “stage” is occupied by the spectacle of the picnicking crowd.Significance
As an illustrated plate in Henry Swinburne’s Picturesque Tour Through Spain, Scott’s engraving is an exemplary image of the type of entertainment and education that Swinburne suggests the reader will find through the contemplation of exotic landscapes. Although the nationalities of the pleasure-seekers are not evident, Swinburne’s text, which is written in both French and English, targets a British and European audience, suggesting an educated and perhaps multilingual readership. The figures of the two men surveying the groups of men and women lounging in the valley beneath the hilltop ruins could easily be interpreted as the reader and Swinburne himself, with Swinburne instructing his companion on how to properly view the scene before him.Function
Book IllustrationBibliography
“CHAPTERS FROM THE HISTORY OF SPAIN.” Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine, 19 (February 1873): 140-147.Long Title
Scott, John. Ruins of the Castle of Las Navas in Andalusia. Engraving. From Henry Swinburne’s Picturesque Tour Through Spain. London: E. Orme, 1806. Each plate is preceded by unpaged descriptive text in English and French. Memorial Library Special Collections. G40 SW6 Cutter.Featured in Exhibit:
Engraver:
Image Date:
1808
Publisher:
E. Orne
