With the doings of the Moslem potters of the countries round the eastern
Mediterranean fresh in our minds, it is interesting to follow the
westward trend of the Moslem conquests, and see how in their wake there
also sprung up in Spain a ware of high distinction and beauty. The
Iberian peninsula had been the scene of pottery-making from prehistoric
times--a red unglazed ware was made before the dawn of civilization as
finely finished as that found in the Nile valley by Flinders Petrie (see
EGYPT: _Art and Archaeology_), and the Romans had one of their great
provincial pottery centres at Saguntum; but it was only when a great
part of Spain lay under Mussulman rule that artistic and distinctive
pottery was produced. What is by no means clear is how it came to pass
that when the traditional methods, learnt by the Arabs in Egypt and
Syria, were carried westward they should have undergone such a radical
change. Oxide of tin, the opacifying and whitening material in glazes
_par excellence_, was certainly known and used in the East from at least
the 6th century B.C.; the ancient wares are coated with a covering of
white tin-enamel to hide the buff or reddish-coloured clay, and it was
similarly used elsewhere; but its use was sporadic and not general in
those countries, where we find instead a consistent development of the
pottery made with a white slip-coating and a clear alkaline glaze.
Perhaps it was that at this period tin was almost as costly as gold, and
it was only when potters with an oriental training brought their skill
to Spain, where tin abounded, that the relative cheapness of the
material led them to employ it, so far as is known, exclusively. (There
is a wide distinction between the tin-enamelled and the slip-faced
wares, glazed with an alkaline glaze. In the latter, the more oriental
type, the slip-coating is of fine white clay and sand, and this is
finished with a transparent alkaline glaze containing little or no lead:
in the former there is no need of a coating of slip, for the addition
of oxide of tin to a glaze rich in lead gives a dense coating of white
enamel, opaque enough to disguise the color of the clay beneath.) Such
colours as were used for painted patterns were painted over this enamel
coating before it was fired, so that they became perfectly incorporated
with it, and then this ground furnished a splendid medium for the
development of those thin iridescent metallic films that we call
"lustres." The knowledge of this lustre process had been brought from
the East also, where it was used on another ground, and with the growing
use of lustre pigments containing copper as well as silver--until the
red, strongly metallic copper lustre almost ousted the quieter silver
lustres--we get the simple technique of one of the most distinctive
kinds of pottery known.
[Illustration: FIG. 43.--Hispano-Moorish Plate, painted in blue and
copper lustre.]
Briefly, the wares were "thrown" upon the wheel or "pressed" on modelled
forms--handles, ribs and dots of clay, or strongly incised patterns were
often added by hand--and they were then fired a first time. A coating of
the tin-enamel (rich in lead as well as tin) was applied, and on this
coating designs were painted in cobalt and manganese; sometimes these
colours were only used as masses to break up the background. Then the
second firing took place and the piece came from the firing all shining
and white, except where the blue or brownish purple had been painted
(see fig. 43). The lustre pigments, a mixture of sulphide of copper or
sulphide of silver, or both with red ochre or other earth, was then
painted over the glazed surface with vinegar as a medium. The repainted
piece was fired a third time to a dull red heat, and smoked with the
smoke from the wood used in firing, and when cold the loosely adherent
ochre and metallic ash left were washed off, leaving the iridescent
films in all their beauty.
The technical practices of the Spanish potters and the composition of
the lustre pigments are given in Cocks's account of the processes
followed at Muel (Aragon) in 1585. The Manises receipt of 1785
gives:--copper 3 oz., red ochre 12 oz., silver 1 peseta piece, sulphur 3
oz., vinegar 1 qt. and the ashes scraped off the pots after lustring 36
oz.[13] Interesting documents have recently been published concerning
the works executed by the "Saracen," John of Valencia, at Poitiers in
1384, and it is certain, from the list of materials supplied to him,
that he made there tiles that were enamelled and lustred.
The earliest record of lustred pottery in Spain is the geographer
Edrisi's mention of the manufacture of "golden ware" then carried on at
Calatayud in Aragon in 1154. Ibn Sa'id (1214-1286) speaks of the glass
and the golden pottery made at Murcia (city), Almeria and Malaga. From
the 4th century the notices which have come down to us divide themselves
into two main groups relating to the industry (a) at Malaga; (b) at
various localities, but especially Manises in Valencia.
_Malaga_--Malaga was situated within the Moorish kingdom of Granada,
which formed, from 1235 until the late 15th century, the last remnant of
Moorish dominion in Spain. Here under the art-loving Nasride dynasty,
Mussulman arts and learning flourished to an unprecedented degree. In
1337 Ahmed ben-Yahya al-Omarí enumerates, among the craft productions of
Malaga, its golden pottery, the like of which he declares is not to be
met with elsewhere. The Moroccan traveller Ibn Batuta mentions (1350)
the Malagan golden pottery, as does Ibn al-Hatib (1313-1374) of Granada,
in his description of Malaga. The principal monument of the period is
the royal palace of Granada, begun in 1273, and finished during the 14th
century, from which period most of its ornamentation dates. Two vases
were discovered there, of which the existing one, known as the "Alhambra
vase," is admittedly the most imposing product of Hispano-Moresque
ceramic art extant. Its amphora-shaped body (4 ft. 5 in. high) is
encircled by a band of Arabic inscription, above which are depicted
gazelles reserved in cream and golden lustre upon a blue field; the rest
of the body and the prominent handles are covered with compartments of
arabesques and inscriptions in the same colours; and panels on the neck,
divided by mouldings and decorated with strap-work and arabesques. Vases
similar in shape and technique, with ornament of Cufic characters and
arabesques in horizontal rows, are to be found in the museums at St
Petersburg, Palermo and Stockholm. As to the exact date of these,
experts are not agreed. Though presenting all the characteristics of the
14th-century Hispano-Moresque ornament, it seems probable that they were
produced at the same period as the large lustred wall-tile formerly in
the Fortuny (now in the Osma) collection, an inscription upon which is
by some held to refer to Yusuf III. of Granada (1409-1418), not to Yusuf
I. (1333-1354). Another remarkable example is a dish (Sarre collection,
Berlin), which, it is claimed, bears upon its back, in Arabic, the word
Malaga; it is ornamented with eight segmental compartments filled
alternately with strap-work designs and arabesques in lustre. Malaga was
reconquered by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1487, and after this its
industry probably decayed, as it is not mentioned by Lucio Marineo in
1539 among the localities where ceramics then flourished.
_Valencia._--The emirate of Valencia was reconquered by Aragon in 1238.
The history of its lustred ware is known from 1383, when Eximenes (whose
evidence has been erroneously held to date from 1499) mentions the
golden ware (_Obra dorada_) of Manises. Valencian pottery of this kind
was an offshoot of the Malagan industry, as in documents lately
published (ranging from 1405 to 1517) it is repeatedly designated Malaga
ware (_Obra de Malaga_). Its decorative qualities became famous
throughout the whole of Europe and North Africa. The ware was chiefly
manufactured at Manises by the Moorish retainers of the Buyl or Boil
family, lords of Manises, who levied dues upon the output of the kilns,
and occasionally arranged for its sale. It is distinguished as regards
its ornamentation from the pottery of Malaga by the adoption of a more
natural rendering of plant form motives and by the use of armory. The
ware consists of drug pots, deep dishes, large and small plates,
aquamaniles, vases, &c. Some dozen varieties of ornament were employed
during the 15th and early 16th centuries, including mock arabic
inscriptions, various flower or foliage patterns taken from the vine,
bryony, &c., and gadroons. The centres of dishes frequently bear the
arms of a king or queen of Aragon, of the Buyls of Manises, or other
Valencian or Italian families for whom they were made. Great dexterity
is shown in the execution of minute and complicated schemes of ornament
and in the richness of the colour schemes; golden lustre of various
hues, with blue and manganese, form the simple combinations, but the
ruby, violet or opalescent lustre combine to produce with the colours a
wonderful decorative effect. From 1500 the use of blue and manganese was
gradually discontinued and the ornament quickly became nondescript, but
the brilliancy of the lustre pigment nevertheless obtained a wide
popularity for the ware, as is attested by Marineo (1539), Viciana
(1564) and Escolano (1610). After the expulsion of the Moriscoes (1609)
the industry was carried on by those who had escaped deportation or by
Spaniards who had learnt the craft; generally speaking their productions
can be summed up in the word "decadence." In the course of the 15th
century the manufacture of lustred pottery was carried on at various
other small towns near Valencia; in 1484 it was produced at Mislata,
Paterna and Gesarte. It is known to have flourished at Calatayud in
1507, and at Muel, also in Aragon, in 1589. In the Valencia district
much pottery for ordinary use, ornamented with blue on white, was also
produced.
_Majorca._--Scaliger, in 1557, states that Chinese porcelain was
imitated in the Balearic Isles, and that the Italians called these
imitations "majolica," changing the letter in the name of the islands
(then called Majorica) where they originated. The truth would appear to
be that Valencian wares, being exported in Balearic vessels that called
at Majorca on the voyage to Italy, acquired a reputed Mallorcan origin.
There is extant a potter's petition praying for permission to establish
himself in Majorca (1560), in which he states that "Manises ware," &c.,
had to be imported, as it was not made there.
_Collections._--In England, the Victoria and Albert and the British
Museums have fine collections of this ware. At Paris the Cluny Museum
collection, and the Louvre; the museum at Sevres contains many fine
typical pieces. Another good collection is that of the archaeological
museum at Madrid. The Berlin and the Hamburg museums, the Metropolitan
Art Museum at New York and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts also contain
good specimens. The private collections of England, France and Italy
are rich in these wares, among the finest being those of Mr F.D.
Godman (Horsham), and of Don G.J. de Osma (Madrid).
LITERATURE.--A. Van de Put, _Hispano-Moresque Ware of the 15th
Century_ (1904); F. Sarre, "Die spanisch-maurischen Lusterfayencen des
Mittelalters," &c. (in _Jahrbuch der kgl. preuss. Kunstsammlungen_,
xxiv. (1903); G.J. de Osma, "Apuntes sobre cerámica morisca: textos y
documentos valencianos," No. 1, 1906, and "Los Letreros ornamentales
en la ceramica morisca del siglo xv." (in the review _Cultura
Española_, No. ii, 1906; J. Font y Gumá, _Rajolas valencianas y
catalanas_ (1905); J. Tramoyeres Blasco, "Cerámica valenciana del
siglo xvii." (in the _Almanaque, para 1908, del periodico Las
Provincias de Valencia_; J. Gestoso y Pérez, Historia de los barros
vidriados sevillanos (1904); also J.C. Davillier, _Histoire des
faiences hispano-moresques à reflets metalliques_ (1861).
(A. v. de P.)