to Murviedro in 1755, at the entrance of the latter town a mosaic
pavement was discovered; it was entire, and of such beauty that it was
thought worthy of preservation. Ferdinand the Sixth caused it to be
surrounded with walls; but the king's intentions were not properly
fulfilled; the gates were suffered to remain open, and every one carried
away some part of the pavement, which consequently soon became
despoiled; it was rectangular, and measured twenty-four feet by
fourteen. There are still some fragments of it in several houses at
Murviedro. A priest of that town, Don Diego Puch, an antiquarian, took a
drawing of it, which he afterwards had painted at Valencia on the tiles
fabricated there, and paved an apartment of his house with them. It was
likewise copied with the greatest exactness, with small stones perfectly
similar, in an apartment of the library belonging to the archiepiscopal
palace, as we have already stated."
Swinburne also mentions a mosaic pavement which he saw at Barcelona,
upon the site of what he believed to have been a temple of Neptune. In
it were represented "two large green figures of tritons, holding a shell
in each hand; between them a sea-horse, and on the sides a serpent and a
dolphin."
In October of 1901 a very important and beautiful mosaic was discovered
at Italica. It is known as "the mosaic of Bacchus," the worship of which
deity, says Señor Quintero, was probably general in Andalusia, owing to
her wealth of vines. This mosaic was found at a depth of six feet six
inches below the surface of the soil, and measures twenty-one feet
square. It is believed to have formed the pavement of a Roman
dining-chamber.
Mosaic in the manner of the Greeks and Romans seems in Spain to have
disappeared with the Visigoths. That it was known to these is told us by
Saint Isidore:--"Pavimenta originem apud graecos habent elaboratae arte
picturae, litostrata parvulis crustis ac tesselis tinctis in varios
colores."[66]
[66] _Tessela_ and _crusta_ are defined by him as follows: "Tesselae
sunt e quibus domicilia sternuntur a tesseris nominata, id est
quadratis lapillis, per diminutionem."
"Crustae sunt tabulae marmoris. Unde et marmorari parietes et
constati dicuntur. Qui autem marmora secandi in crustas rationem
excogitaverunt non constat. Fiunt autem arena et ferro serraque in
praetenui linea premente arenas, tractuque ipse secante: sed
crassior arena plus erodet marmoris. Nam tenuis fabricis et
polituris accomodata est."
[Illustration: LI
DOOR OF THE MIHRAB
(_Showing mosaic-work. Cordova Cathedral_)]
It is impossible to affirm with any confidence that glazed earthenware,
whether in the form of tiles or other objects, was manufactured by the
Spanish Moors during the Cordovese Caliphate, or the period of the
kinglings of Taifa. No trace of it has been discovered among the scanty
ruins of Medina Az-zahará[67] and Az-zahira--ancient palaces of
Cordova--or in the marvellous mosque. We know, however, that towards the
seventh century the Arabs borrowed from Byzantium the mosaic-work of
tessons known as _psephosis fsefysa_, and this, or something similar,
was used, though probably to a small extent, among the Muslims of the
Spanish Caliphate. Although, towards the middle of the thirteenth
century, the historian Aben-Said, a native of Granada, recorded that in
Al-Andalus "is made a kind of _mofassass_ which is called in the East
_alfoseifesa_," remains of this elaborate product only exist to-day at
Cordova, where patches may yet be seen lining the dome of the _mirhab_
in the vast _aljama_ (Plate li.). The mosaic in question is stated to
have been a gift from the Byzantine emperor to the sultan Al-Hakem, and
was set in place by a skilled workman, a Greek, who, like the offering
itself, proceeded from Constantinople.
[67] Among these ruins, at five miles' distance from the city, pieces
of common brick have come to light; but no glazed pottery of any
kind, whether as _foseifesa_, _azulejos_, or mosaic.
During his stay at Cordova this Greek was helped by certain of the
Sultan's slaves, who thus acquired the secrets of the craft, and
practised it thereafter.[68]
[68] Dozy's version of _The History of Almagreb_, by Ibn-Adzarí the
Moor; p. 253.
Rodrigo Amador de los Rios contends, however, that this decoration is
in no sense a true mosaic, but just a tempera painting executed on the
wall and overlaid with cubes of glass. In any case, no other specimen of
such work has been discovered in any part of the Peninsula.
By the time of the Almohade invasion or very shortly after--that is,
towards the twelfth century,--the Spanish Moors had grown acquainted
with glazed earthenware. Indeed, the Almohades are believed by some
authorities to have actually introduced it. Gestoso, on the contrary,
suggests that Spain may have transmitted it to Africa. However this may
be, the Almohades used it largely in the decoration of their homes and
public buildings in Andalusia; first as _aliceres_ or bands composed of
smallish pieces running round a room, and subsequently in the more
effective and more useful form of _azulejos_ proper. The Spanish Moors
employed the word _almofassass_ to designate both _aliceres_ and
_azulejos_. Nevertheless, the two were not identical, although Riaño
takes them to be so. He says: "The earliest tiles or _azulejos_ made in
Spain are composed of small pieces let into the wall, forming
geometrical patterns." These, in fact, were _aliceres_. It is not so
easy to define an _azulejo_. We read in Aben-Said, quoted by
Al-Makkari: "There is another kind of work employed for paving houses.
It is called _azzulechí_ and resembles _mofassass_. It has wonderful
colouring, and replaces the coloured marble used by the people of the
East to decorate their chambers."
This definition is not completely clear. Those of the Christian-Spanish
writers are not more satisfactory. Covarrubias calls these objects
"small bricks, square and of other shapes, used for lining chambers in
the mansions of the wealthy, or in garden paths." Nebrija calls them
_tessela pavimenticia_, adding that they bear the name of _azulejos_
because the earliest ones were of a blue colour--a statement which Dozy
supports by instancing the Persian-Arabic _zaward_ or "blue stone."
Gestoso resolves the question sufficiently for our purpose by showing
that the term _azulejo_ is usually applied to square tiles of a largish
size, the length of whose sides varies between eleven centimetres and
eighteen centimetres, _aliceres_ being properly the smaller strips or
pieces (technically known as _cintas_ or _verduguillos_) used in a
bordering or frieze. Other decorative pieces of small dimensions,
invented in the fifteenth century, were called _olambres_ or
_olambrillas_, and served to lend variety to the red or yellow brickwork
of a pavement or a floor.
The production of _azulejos_ in Spain may thus be traced to as far back
as the twelfth century. By far the most important centre of the craft
was Seville. Here, from the twelfth until the fourteenth century, was
made the glazed and decorative tiling which consisted of small pieces of
monochrome earthenware--black, white, green, blue, or yellow--cut one by
one, and pieced together in the manner of a true mosaic. This process,
says Gestoso, was lengthy, difficult, and dear. In the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries the same mosaic would often take the form of a
series of narrow, white, ribbon-like strips, with coloured interspaces.
Specimens of this "ribbon-work tiling" exist to-day in the Patio de Las
Doncellas of the Alcázar (Plate lii.). Towards the sixteenth century the
Sevillano potters discovered a simpler way of making effective and
artistic _azulejos_, which they called the _cuerda seca_ process. This
novel method consisted in pressing a wood or metal mould upon the
unbaked tile, in such a manner that the outline of the pattern remained
in slight relief. This outline was next brushed over with a mixture
of manganese and grease, which turns, in baking, very nearly black. The
body of the pattern was then filled in with the various colours, which
the greasy line completely separated, and thus prepared, the tile was
rendered permanent by firing.
[Illustration: LII
MOSAIC OF THE PATIO DE LAS DONCELLAS
(_Alcázar of Seville_)]
This process, in which the patterns are nearly always geometrical,
remained in general use until about the year 1550, when it began to be
superseded by two others, known respectively as the processes of
"cuenca" and "Pisano".
The _cuenca_ tile was simple and of excellent effect. The pattern,
stamped from a metal mould, remained in bas-relief,--a characteristic
which caused these objects to be also known as _azulejos_ "_de
relieve_". The shelving border of each hollow stamped into the tile thus
formed a kind of natural barrier which kept the colour there deposited
from mingling with its neighbours. When of a larger size, and joined in
pairs to form between each two a single motive (_ladrillo por tabla_),
these _azulejos_ were often employed for decorating roofs and ceilings.
The tiles which bear the name of their inventor, Francesco Niculoso
Pisano the Italian, who lived and worked for many years at Seville, date
from about the same time as the "cuenca" _azulejos_. In the case of the
_Pisano_ tile, there is no indentation caused by the imprint of a mould,
the surface being merely coated with a monochrome glaze, painted upon
and fired, the decoration thus remaining flat all over. Commonly the
ground is white or yellow, with the colour of the pattern shaded blue,
or black, or deepish purple. This process, which lent itself to most
elaborate and effective schemes of ornament, remained in vogue until the
eighteenth century, and was practised, not only by Pisano himself, but
by a long succession of his pupils, followers, and imitators.
[Illustration: LIII
ANDALUSIAN NON-LUSTRED WARE
(_A.D. 1480-1495. Osma Collection_)]
Such were the processes in use among the _azulejo_-makers of old
Seville. Specimens of their craftsmanship which yet survive and
illustrate the various styles and epochs may be thus enumerated:--
(1) Mosaic tile-work, such as appears in Seville at the time of the
Almohade invasion. A fragment of this kind of work forms part of the
collection of Señor Osma, and proceeds from the church of San Andrés.
Tiles and smaller pieces of mosaic-work, coloured in malachite green and
white, were also found in 1899 and 1900, in the upper walls of the
renowned Torre del Oro, or "Golden Tower," erected in the year 1220,
and which is popularly thought to derive its venerable title from the
sparkle of the sun upon its _azulejos_. Another piece of primitive
mosaic, measuring rather less than a yard square, and containing
star-shaped geometrical devices, was found in 1890 beneath the floor of
the cathedral; while mosaics of a later age, including the more
elaborate _lacería_ patterns that resemble ribbon, are preserved in the
Patio de las Doncellas of the Alcázar, in the Casa de Olea, and in the
parish churches of San Estéban, San Gil, and Omnium Sanctorum.
(2) A small group of curious tiles, believed to be anterior to the reign
of Pedro the First, has come to light some years ago, in the churches of
San Andrés and Santa Marina, and in the Claustro del Lagarto of the
cathedral. Those of San Andrés are of white earthenware, glazed in the
same colour and stamped from a mould with the figures of two wolves in
fairly bold relief (see tailpiece to this chapter). Traces of a glaze of
malachite green are on the bodies of these wolves. The _azulejos_ of the
church of Santa Marina, also discovered recently, are examined by Señor
Osma in his pamphlet _Azulejos sevillanos del siglo xiii_ (Madrid,
1902). They measure about three and a half inches square, and bear
devices of a castle and an eagle, stamped in the diagonal direction of
the tile, showing that this was fixed upon the wall in lozenge fashion.
The tiles are bathed upon their surface with what is termed by Osma "the
semi-transparent, caramel-coloured glaze peculiar to the pottery of
Moorish Spain."[69] Upon this ground is stamped the decoration,--the
eagles in the blackish purple of baked manganese, the castles without
additional colour, so as to be distinguished only by their outline from
the yellowish surface of the tile.
[69] According to Gestoso, the colours in use among the Almohades
consisted of green, black, caramel or honey, and deep purple.
These colours underwent no change until the sixteenth century.
The _azulejos_ of the Claustro del Lagarto of the cathedral are three in
number, and were found in 1888. Two of them are stamped with a castle of
a single tower described within a shield, and the third with a Greek
cross. These are considered by Osma to be the only tiles existing at
this moment which date from the latter third of the thirteenth century.
In fact, he places their manufacture between the years 1252 and 1269.
[Illustration: LIV
_CUENCA_ TILES
(_Alcázar of Seville_)]
(3) _Cuerda seca_ tiles. Handsome _zocalos_ or dadoes of these tiles are
in the Casa de los Pinelos, and in the chapels of the palaces of the
Dukes of Alba and Medinaceli. Gestoso attributes them to the end of the
fifteenth century or the beginning of the sixteenth. Detached _cuerda
seca_ tiles are preserved in the municipal museum of archæology, while a
fine pair (Plate liii.) of this class of _azulejos_ belongs to Señor
Osma, who considers they were made between 1480 and 1495. They are thus
coeval with the no less interesting dish of the time of Ferdinand and
Isabella, of which a reproduction is given opposite page 190.
(4) _Cuenca_ tiles. Quantities of these, dating from the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, may yet be seen in many parts of Seville; for
instance, in her churches or her convents, in her superb Alcázar, or in
the mansions of her old nobility. Probably the most remarkable of all
are those in the gardens of the Alcázar, and lining the walls of the
Pavilion of Charles the Fifth. The devices on these polychrome
_azulejos_ (16th century; Plate liv.) are very numerous, including men
and animals, centaurs and other monsters, the Pillars of Hercules, and
imitations of elaborate dress fabrics.
(5) _Pisano_ tiles. Although some facts have been unearthed concerning
the Italian Francesco Niculoso Pisano, we do not know precisely in what
year he came to Seville, or in what year he died. Davillier thought it
probable that he had studied at Faenza or at Caffagiolo. At all events,
it was Pisano who broadly launched the art of the Sevillian potters on
the stream of the Renaissance.[70] I have stated that the tiles which
bear his name are painted on a white or yellow ground. Consequently
their surface is flat, without the ridges and depressions of the
_cuenca_ or the _cuerda seca_ methods. We find _Pisano_ tiles applied to
various objects, such as tombs, altars, friezes, and archivolts. This
artist, says Gestoso, further introduced the use of two new
colours,--violet and rose. Several of his best productions are still
intact, including the doorway of the church of the monastery of Santa
Paula (in which he was assisted by a Spanish master, Pedro Millan), and
the altar of the Catholic Sovereigns in the Alcázar. Both these
masterpieces were executed in the year 1504, and bear Pisano's
signature. The doorway of Santa Paula is described by Gestoso as
consisting of a single body of masonry, distinct from that of the
building itself, though resting against it, and constructed of bricks
of uniform size, which show us, by their perfect symmetry, how skilful
were the masons of that time, with whom the Moorish craftsmanship was
yet a living power. The doorway is formed by a series of concentric
Gothic arches resting on slender pillars. The space which forms the
outer archivolt is most remarkable. Upon a ground of _azulejos_ which
copy the colour of the brickwork, we see a number of Plateresque designs
of exquisite beauty, painted in white and blue, with occasional touches
of other colours. Among the devices are chimeras, war-trophies, volutes,
chaplets, parapegms, antelopes, masks, and others which are
characteristic of the Florentine Renaissance. Upon this ground, and
enclosed by circular garlands in high relief, consisting of polychrome
fruits and flowers, are seven medallions containing figures of male and
female saints, except the one which is upon the keystone, and which
represents the birth of Christ. In this medallion the figures are
enamelled in white upon a cobalt-blue ground, recalling, as also do the
garlands, the work of the celebrated della Robbia.[71] In the rest of
the medallions the figures are glazed in brilliant colours. In the
three medallions upon the left, beginning with the lowest one, we see,
upon the first, Saint Helen; upon the second, two saints in monkish
dress; and upon the third, Saint Peter and Saint Paul. On the medallions
of the other side are another saint dressed as a monk, San Cosmé, San
Damián, and San Roque. The spaces on either side of the archivolt are
covered with tiles which represent a landscape. In each of the upper
angles is an angel holding a large tablet with IHS in ornamental Gothic
character upon a black ground. These letters, and also the angels and
the frames of the tablets, are enamelled in gold. Beneath each tablet is
an angel standing with extended wings upon a bracket of lustred
earthenware, and holding an open book. The brickwork of the door is
closed by a plain impost supporting a small battlement covered with
_cuenca_ tiles, and crowned with a cornice of flamboyant ornaments
alternating with the heads of cherubs glazed in white, and with a white
marble cross in the centre. The tympanum is embellished by a superb
shield carved in high relief upon white marble with the arms of Castile,
León, Aragon, and Sicily, surmounted by a royal crown and the eagle with
the nimbus. Beside this shield are two smaller ones of _azulejos_
painted with the yoke and sheaf of arrows, and the motto T[=A]TO
M[=O]TA. The ground on which are executed these three shields occupies
the whole tympanum, and is covered with Plateresque devices including
two tablets, on one of which we read the letters S.P.Q.R., and on the
other, PISANO. Above the first of these tablets is another of an oval
shape, bearing the word NICULOSO. Lastly, at the base of the archivolt,
and on the left-hand side of the spectator, is a very small rectangular
tablet with this inscription:--
NICVLOSO
FRANCISCO-I-
TALIANO-MEF
ECIT INELAGNO DEI
· 154 ·
[70] Gestoso says that florid Gothic and Renaissance motives are found
occasionally in the older _cuenca_ tiles. This was, however, quite
exceptional.
[71] A plaque belongs to Señor Gestoso which proceeds from the
demolished Mudejar church of San Miguel at Seville. It measures
fifteen inches high by ten wide, and is decorated with a
representation, in bas-relief, of the Coronation of the Virgin. The
eyebrows, eyelids, and lips of the figures are executed in cobalt
upon a thick layer of white glaze, and strongly recall the method
of Lucca della Robbia. Gestoso considers that this plaque was made
in the latter part of the fourteenth century. If so, it is
antecedent to the work of della Robbia (whose _Resurrection_ upon
one of the doors of the Duomo of Florence dates from 1438) by a
good many years. A similar example, also by an unknown hand and
representing the Coronation, is in the chapel of the Sagrario of
Seville Cathedral.
The altar in the Alcázar of the same city, and which is known as that of
the Catholic Sovereigns (Plate lv.), is entirely covered with "Pisano"
_azulejos_ measuring sixteen centimetres square. Imbedded in the centre
is a picture, also of painted tiles, representing the visit of the
Virgin to Saint Elizabeth. This picture measures five feet in height by
three feet eight inches in breadth. Beneath it is the figure of a
patriarch resting his head upon his hand. Boughs with large flowers
issue from his breast, and among the flowers are half-length figures of
the prophets, together with those of Jesus and the Virgin, the whole of
this decoration forming a frame to the central picture. The rest of the
altar is profusely decorated with designs in the Renaissance style,
consisting of vases, animals, genii, and the emblems of Ferdinand and
Isabella. In the centre of the tiling which forms the altar-front is a
circular picture made of _azulejos_ surrounded by a garland of fruits
and laurel leaves, and representing the Annunciation, garland and
picture being supported by two monsters with the tails of dragons and
the upper parts of women. Large flaming torches rest between the
out-stretched arms of the monsters, and round about or springing from
them are flowers, animals, cornucopias, and other decoration. The
entire _retablo_ is painted lightish blue and white upon a yellow
ground, except the larger picture and its decorative border, which is of
a deeper blue. A small tablet beneath the Virgin's feet contains the
words NICULOSO FRANCESCO ITALIANO ME FECIT, and on the pilaster
represented on the left hand of the same picture is added the date,
1504. As Gestoso, Davillier, and others have remarked, it is evident
that while the rest of the altar is pure Renaissance-Plateresque, the
pictures copied on the tiles are of a northern school. Probably they
were designed for Niculoso by one of the various German or Flemish
masters who at that time were resident in Seville.
[Illustration: LV
ALTAR OF THE CATHOLIC SOVEREIGNS
(_Alcázar of Seville_)]
Another altar which was formerly in the same palace, but which has
disappeared, was also painted by this craftsman. It was described by
Cean Bermudez as containing scenes from the life of the Virgin, the
Trinity, and the two Saints John, and bore the same date as the altar
which is yet existing, namely, 1504.
Among the other works of Niculoso are the altar of the church of
Tentudia, the tomb of Iñigo Lopez in the church of Santa Ana in the
quarter of Triana, and a tile-picture representing, similarly to the
one which forms the centre of the altar in the Alcázar, the Virgin's
visit to Saint Elizabeth. This picture formerly belonged to the kings of
Portugal, and is now in the museum of Amsterdam.[72]
[72] Certain _azulejos_, signed by Niculoso and dated 1500, were
formerly existing in the palace of the Counts of El Real de
Valencia in the city of this name. These tiles were executed in
relief, and proved that Niculoso did not work exclusively in the
Italian style.
Such were the decorative _azulejos_ which made the potteries of Seville
famous throughout Europe, and which are known to have been exported to
Italy, Portugal, and even England.[73] The names of several hundred
mediæval and post-mediæval makers of these Seville tiles have been
exhumed and published by Gestoso.
[73] In Portugal, tiles which Gestoso believes to have been made at
Seville, exist in Coimbra cathedral, the church of San Roque at
Lisbon, and the two palaces of Cintra. In our own country, Seville
tiles are stated by Marryat and Demmin to line the walls of the
Mayor's Chapel at Bristol, whither they were doubtless conveyed by
one of the numerous English merchants who traded between Spain and
England, and who are known to have made their home at Seville in
the sixteenth century. Another tile of Seville workmanship,
proceeding from Haccombe Church, Devonshire, is in the British
Museum.