CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
EN/FR
Search
Menu
Research dossier · Arts & Letters

The Surrender of Granada

painting by Francisco Pradilla Ortiz

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ19032360 ↗
Source-derived summary

La rendición de Granada (English:The Surrender of Granada) is a work by the Spanish painter Francisco Pradilla Ortiz completed in 1882, which is located in the Conference Room or Salón de los Pasos Perdidos of the Spanish Senate Palace.

This large (3.3 meters high by 5.5 meters wide) oil on canvas depicts the surrender of Boabdil, last ruler of the Emirate of Granada, to Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille on 2 January 1492, thus marking the end of the Reconquista.

Commission

Pradilla was commissioned by the Senate to produce this work following the success of his painting Doña Joanna the Mad, which had won medals of honor at both the National Exhibition of Fine Arts of 1878 and the Spanish section of the Universal Exposition in Paris that same year.

It was commissioned to reproduce the capture of Granada by the Catholic Monarchs at the end of the Reconquista, an event that was to be seen as a "representation of Spanish unity" and "a starting point for the great deeds carried out by our grandparents under those glorious sovereigns", according to the indications of the then president of the institution, Marquis Manuel García Barzanallana. The canvas was to be installed in the Senate Conference Room, which was planned to be decorated with paintings and statues of prominent figures in Spanish history.

The result was not as successful as Doña Joanna the Mad, and it did not participate in any national exhibition. However, it was one of Pradilla's greatest professional successes and its wide public acclaim brought him fame beyond the borders of Spain. It was first presented in Rome, where Pradilla was heading the Spanish Academy, and later in the Senate, where Alfonso XII went to see the work.

After the painting was completed Alfonso XII awarded Pradilla the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic and the Senate paid the painter 50,000 pesetas, double the amount initially agreed upon.

The painting

The picture shows the handing over of the keys of the city of Granada by Emir Muhammad XI (Boabdil) of Granada to the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Isabella and Ferdinand on 2 January 1492.

Editorial summary

“The Surrender of Granada” enters the record as painting by Francisco Pradilla Ortiz. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Surrender, Granada and painting can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1882, 1492, 1878—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1882. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Surrender, Granada and painting.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“The Surrender of Granada” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Surrender, Granada and painting provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q19032360. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1882, 1492 and 1878.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Surrender of Granada”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Surrender of Granada primary sources, The Surrender of Granada archive and Surrender research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Surrender of Granada”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Surrender of Granada” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.