Study from the Giralda, Seville, Spain c. 20th century

Editor: This is Kenneth John Conant's sketch, "Study from the Giralda, Seville, Spain," housed here at the Harvard Art Museums. It's a very delicate pencil drawing, almost ghostly. What symbols or cultural echoes do you find in this image? Curator: The Giralda, originally a minaret, transformed into a bell tower, embodies layers of cultural memory. Its visual vocabulary speaks of Islamic design assimilated and reinterpreted by Christian Europe. The very shape directs the gaze upward, doesn't it? Editor: Yes, it really does. The upward gaze, is that also symbolic? Curator: Consider the psychological weight of ascension, a reaching for something beyond the earthly. How does that interplay between cultures resonate today? Editor: That’s fascinating, thinking about how architectural symbols transform and still communicate across centuries.