term which reaches from the most ambitious _azulejero_ to the maker of
the meanest kitchen-ware. The _olleros_ of older Seville produced for
centuries, not only glazed and coloured tiling by the processes already
indicated, but countless other objects such as brims of wells,
apothecary's jars, baptismal fonts, and dishes of every shape and size.
They used a general mark (the tower of the Giralda) to stamp their
pottery; but private marks are nearly always absent. The facts that have
appeared in recent years concerning these artificers are seldom
interesting. The mere mention of a name is meaningless, or even
perplexing, seeing that a Moor or Mudejar would frequently assume the
name and surname of a Christian. Nevertheless, Gestoso has brought to
light important notices concerning one or two, and in particular a
document dating from the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, relating to a
celebrated potter of that period named Fernan Martinez Guijarro. This
document, which is dated 1479, describes Martinez as "a very great
master in the art of making _azulejos_, fonts, and all the things
pertaining to his trade, insomuch that none other in all this kingdom is
like unto him," and subsequently, "considering him to be so excellent a
craftsman that persons come hither from Portugal and other parts to
purchase and to carry off his ware." It is further stated that Martinez
Guijarro was in wealthy circumstances ("hombre rrico e de mucha rrenta e
fasyenda"). His _talleres_ or workshops were in the _barrio_ of Triana,
and included (as we learn from one of the documents copied by the same
investigator) a separate department for the manufacture or storage of
lustred ware.
Unfortunately, even Gestoso is unable to point to any piece of tiling or
other pottery now existing, as being unquestionably executed by this
master.
Another Sevillian potter of exceptional merit was Cristóbal de Augusta,
who worked in the latter half of the sixteenth century, and left his
name upon the _azulejo_ dadoes of the Halls of Charles the Fifth in the
Alcázar. The style of these most brilliant tiles is pure Renaissance,
and forms a worthy continuation of the splendid work of Niculoso.
Augusta, indeed, is termed in the Archives of the Alcázar "master of
making tiles in the Pisano manner" (_del pisano_).[74] Some tilemakers
of little note succeeded him, but even the names of these are carefully
recorded by Gestoso.
[74] The _pisano_ process is believed by Gestoso to have succumbed
before the _cuenca_. He says he is aware of no _pisano_ tiling
which can be dated from as late as the second half of the
seventeenth century.
Seville was thus the principal centre of the craft of decorative
tile-making. _Azulejos_ were also made at Barcelona and other towns in
Cataluña, at Talavera de la Reina, Burgos, Toledo, Granada, and
Valencia, in several towns of Aragon, and probably at Cordova. Riaño
quotes a letter written about the year 1422, from the wife of the
Admiral of Castile to the abbess of the nunnery of Santo Domingo at
Toledo, requesting that a number of _azulejos_ be sent to her. "She
alludes, in the same letter, to painted tiles, and says she was
expecting a master potter from Seville to place the tiles in their
proper places. This shows us" (continues Riaño) "that it was only in the
province of Andalusia that the art was known of cutting these tiles into
geometrical sections and mosaic patterns."
The meaning of this passage is obscure. Riaño speaks of painted tiles
and _azulejos_ as though they were distinct objects, and yet they are
essentially the same. Again, if only Andalusia was able to produce such
tiles, why did the Almirante's wife order them from Toledo? Perhaps the
faulty English of Riaño's handbook is responsible, but, as it stands,
this passage tells us practically nothing. In any case, abundant
evidence exists to show that large quantities of Mudejar and
Renaissance tiles were manufactured at Toledo. In general appearance,
they are similar to those of Seville.
Ramírez de Arellano believes that decorative tiles were manufactured at
Cordova in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and quotes, in proof
of this, the names of "maestros de hacer vidriado" or makers of glazed
ware, who resided at this ancient capital. One of these craftsmen was
Alonso Rodriguez the younger, who, on June 7th, 1574, sold to a canon of
the cathedral ten thousand white and green tiles of a common kind
(_ladrillos_), probably employed for roofing. The price was three ducats
the thousand. On April 10th, 1598, Juan Sanchez engaged to supply the
same temple with the same quantity of glazed tiles (_tejas_) for
roofing, coloured white, green, and yellow, at sixteen _maravedis_ each
tile.
_Azulejos_ were certainly made at Granada in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, and probably earlier.
[Illustration: LVI
THE GATE OF WINE
(_Showing polychrome tiling. Alhambra, Granada_)]
In a passage of the Alhambra palace leading from the Patio de la Alberca
to the Cuarto Dorado, a space was laid bare not many years ago,
containing the original _mostagueras_ or small tiles used for flooring,
glazed in two colours; and in the same building, although in
constantly diminishing quantities, are large numbers of tiles which date
from the time of the Spanish Moors. There has been a good deal of
discussion as to whether the roofs of the Alhambra were originally
covered with decorative tiles. Swinburne (who must not, however, be
taken as the safest of authorities) wrote that "in Moorish times the
building was covered with large painted and glazed tiles, of which some
few are yet to be seen."
Indifferent Renaissance tiles, made in the reign of Philip the Fifth,
are still preserved in parts of the Alhambra.
Excellent polychrome _cuerda seca_ tiles (fourteenth century), in white,
green, yellow, blue, and black, are over the horseshoe archway of the
Gate of Wine of the Alhambra (Plate lvi.). According to Gómez
Moreno,[75] they were manufactured here, as were the Moorish _azulejos_,
yellow, black, white, violet, and sky-blue, in the Mirador de
Daraxa.[76] The archives of the Moorish palace also state that towards
the close of the sixteenth century Antonio Tenorio, whose pottery was
situated in the Secano, and consequently within a stone's-throw of the
Casa Real, made several sets of _azulejos_ for the Hall of the
Abencerrajes. Good Morisco tiles, dating from the same period and
wrought by craftsmen such as Gaspar Hernandez, Pedro Tenorio, and the
members of the Robles family, are in the Sala de Comares, and in one of
the rooms of the Casa de los Tiros.
[75] _Guía de Granada_; pp. 35, 36.
[76] Pure red is the rarest of the colours employed in Moorish
tile-work. It is, however, found in a single part of the Alhambra;
namely, among the superb tile-decoration of the Torre de la
Cautiva.
Gestoso says that red was practically unknown among the Seville
potters. Sometimes, however, in coats of arms, a space that should
have properly been gules was left uncoloured in the actual making
of the tile, and painted red with oil-colour after firing.
From the thirteenth century until the eighteenth, excellent _azulejos_
were made in Cataluña. Specimens of every period exist in the
collections of Don Francisco Rogent and Don José Font y Gumá, of
Barcelona, and Don Luis Santacana, of Martorell. The tiles belonging to
these gentlemen proceed from the cathedral and other temples of
Barcelona, and from the monasteries or castles of Poblet, Santas Creus,
Montserrat, Marmellá, San Miguel de Ervol, Centellas, Torre Pallaresa,
San Miguel del Fay, and Vallpellach.[77]
[77] Coloured plates of Catalan and other Spanish _azulejos_ are
published with García Llansó's text in the _Historia General del
Arte_; Vol. II.
Another region which has long been celebrated for its _azulejeria_ is
the kingdom of Valencia. Even in the eighteenth century, when this craft
was generally in a state of great decadence, Valencian tiles were
thoroughly well made, although the patterns on them were defective.
Laborde pronounced them "the best executed and most elegant in Europe,"
and further said of this locality; "the painted earthenware tiles or
_azulejos_ are used in the country, but only a small part of them; a
great many are sent into the interior of Spain as well as to Cadiz,
where they are shipped for Spanish America, and to Marseilles, whence
they are conveyed into Africa."
The same writer inserts an interesting account of the manufacture of
these _azulejos_. "It is at Valencia that the tiles of earthenware are
made, with which they incrust walls and pave apartments: those tiles are
of a clayey earth, which is found in the territories of Quarte near
Valencia; they harden the earth long after soaking it in water; the
tiles are formed in moulds, and are dried in the sun; they are then
beaten with a piece of square wood of the dimensions of which they are
wanted. They are then put into the oven, where they undergo a slight
baking. As soon as they are done they are glazed, and are afterwards
painted in water colours with whatever subject is intended to be
represented. The tiles are then replaced in the oven so as not to touch
one another, and that the action of the fire may penetrate them all
equally: as the colours change by baking, the workmen apply them anew in
proportion to the changes that take place; the red alone alters
entirely. The varnish with which they are glazed is made with lead, tin,
and white sand. These three substances are ground in a mill to powder,
which is mixed with water, to form a paste, and baked in the oven; it is
again pounded and put into the oven, where it crystallises: being once
more reduced to powder and diluted with water, it becomes varnish. There
are two kinds of it; one is whiter than the other, though the same
materials are used: the mode of mixing alone makes the difference; the
whiter, the clearer the tiles. It takes a certain number of tiles to
form a picture: they are of different dimensions; the smallest are three
inches nine lines, the largest seven inches nine lines. The price varies
according to the size of the tile, the beauty of the varnish, and the
variety of the drawings: the lowest price is eight pesos (25s.) a
thousand, and the highest 100 pesos or £15, 12_s._ 6_d._ There is a
considerable demand for them; they are superior both in beauty and
strength to those used in Holland."
[Illustration: LVII
TILES OF THE DECADENT PERIOD]
Bourgoing, author of the _Nouveau Voyage en Espagne_, described, in
1789, the same product in the following terms: "L'industrie des
Valenciens tire d'ailleurs parti de toutes les productions de leur sol.
Il contient une espèce de terre dont ils font ces carreaux de faïence
colorée, connus sous le nom d'_Azulejos_, et qu'on ne fabrique qu'à
Valence. On en pave les appartements, et on en revêt leurs lambris; on y
peint les sujets les plus compliqués, tels par exemple qu'un bal masqué,
une fête de taureaux. La couleur rouge est la seule qui ne puisse être
fixée sur cette espèce de faïence; elle s'altere entièrement par la
cuisson."[78]
[78] Vol. iii., p. 56.
For the amusement of my readers, I insert an illustration of common
Spanish tiles of the decadent period (Plate lvii.), displaying
considerable liveliness combined with reckless ignorance of
draughtsmanship. A class of these degenerate tiles, made in large
quantities at Seville in the eighteenth century, is known as _azulejos
de montería_ or "hunting-tiles," since episodes of the chase form one
of the favourite themes of their design.
Although it passed through a long period of prostration, embracing the
greater part of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, at no time has
the manufacture of decorative Spanish tiles succumbed completely. Of
recent years it has revived surprisingly at Seville, Barcelona, and
Segovia; and at the first of these cities the older _azulejos_, and
particularly those in the _cuenca_ style, are imitated to perfection.
In the cheapest kinds of modern tiling, such as is used for corridors
and kitchens, a common device is a series of repeated curves and dots
which evidently has its source in Arabic lettering. Indeed, the
ornamental and attractive written characters of the Spanish Moors,
rendered familiar to their rivals through long centuries of intercourse,
seem to have constantly found favour with the Christian Spaniards. The
_fuero_ of Jaca, dated A.D. 1064, tells us that a Christian prince of
Spain, Don Sancho Ramirez, was accustomed to write his signature in
Arabic lettering. Meaningless inscriptions in the same language, and
evidently executed by a Christian hand, are engraved on objects in the
Royal Armoury; and Señor Osma describes in an interesting pamphlet
(_Los letreros ornamentales en la cerámica morisca del Siglo XV._) how,
in the pottery of older Spain, a word in Arabic such as _alafia_
("prosperity" or "blessing") would often be corrupted by Morisco
craftsmen into a motive of a purely ornamental character, and which
would only in this sense be comprehended and appreciated by the
Christian.[79]
[79] _Alafia_ is written in Neshki, [Illustration], which word, says
Señor Osma, by suppressing the diacritical points and prolonging
some of the lines, was converted by the potter into the
conventional and exclusively decorative device:--
[Illustration]
HISPANO-MORESQUE LUSTRED POTTERY
Probably no pottery in the world possesses greater loveliness or
interest than the celebrated, yet even to this day mysterious, lustred
ware of Moorish Spain. Our knowledge of the early history of this ware
is still imperfect. In modern times, attention was first drawn to the
lustre process by M. Riocreux, of the Sèvres Museum. In spite, however,
of the subsequent monographs and researches of Davillier and other
authorities, the origin of lustred pottery is yet a problem which awaits
solution. Until some years ago it was believed to have had its source in
Persia, where many specimens have been discovered in the form of tiles
and other objects; but this belief was afterwards shaken by Fouquet, who
unearthed at Fostat in Egypt, in the year 1884, specimens of lustred
ware which are known to date from the eleventh century. Saladin, too,
affirms that he has seen upon the mosque of Kairuan lustred plaques with
inscriptions recording them to have been presented, between A.D. 864 and
875, by the emir Ibrahim Ahmed-ibn-el-Aglab.
Whatever these facts may signify, it appears from a statement by the
geographer Edrisi that lustred ware was made in Spain as early as the
twelfth century. "Here," said the writer, speaking of Calatayud, "is
produced the gold-coloured pottery which is exported to all countries."
The next allusion to it is by the traveller Ibn-Batutah, who visited
certain parts of Spain in the middle of the fourteenth century. "At
Málaga," he wrote, "is made the beautiful golden pottery which is
exported to the farthest countries." These passages refer respectively
to Aragon and Andalusia. The same ware was produced in Murcia. Ibn-Said,
quoted by Al-Makkari, mentions the "glazed and gilded porcelain" of
Murcia, Málaga, and Almería, calling it "strange and admirable." It was
also manufactured, probably in larger quantities than in any other part
of Spain, in many towns and villages of the kingdom of Valencia, such as
Carcer, Alaquaz, Moncada, Quarte, Villalonga, Traiguera, and Manises. In
the _Excellencies of the Kingdom of Valencia_, written by Eximenes and
published in 1499, we find it stated that "surpassing everything else is
the ware of Manises, gilded and painted with such mastery that all the
world is enamoured thereof, insomuch that the pope, the cardinals, and
princes send for it, astonished that objects of such excellence can be
made of earth."[80]
[80] "_Sobre tot es la bellessa de la obra de manizes daurada é
maestriuolment pintada que ja tot lo mon ha enamorat ent[=a]t que
lo papa, é los cardenals é lo princeps del mon per special gracia
la requeren é stan marauellats que d'terra se puxa fer obra axi
excellent é noble._"
Other writers on the same locality, such as Diago and Escolano, author
of the _Historia de la insigne y coronada ciudad y reino de Valencia_
(Valencia, 1610, 1611), confirm this eulogy of Eximenes. According to
Escolano, Valencian ware was "of such loveliness that in return for that
which the Italians send us from Pisa, we send them boatloads of it from
Manises." One of the most recent of authorities on lustred ware remarks
that "in the fifteenth century ornamental vases in the (Spanish-Moorish)
wares appear to have been commanded from Spain by wealthy Florentines,
as is evident from the Medici arms and impresa in fig. 40; others
bearing the Florentine lily (fig. 41) seem to have been ordered from the
same city." The illustrations to which the author of this monograph[81]
refers, depict a vase and a boccale, both in lustred ware, and which it
is extremely probable were manufactured at Manises.
[81] Wallis, _The Oriental Influence on Italian Ceramic Art_. London;
1900.
The same ware was also possibly made in Cataluña, where pieces of it
have been found among the ruins of the village of Las Casas. _La
Alhambra_, a small magazine which is published at Granada, contains, in
the number dated September 30th, 1901, an account of these fragments by
their finder, Joaquín Vilaplana.
Some years ago the Balearic Islands were also thought to have produced
this pottery. One of the earliest and most fervent champions of this
theory, now definitely shown to be erroneous, was Baron Davillier. This
gentleman, in some respects an excellent authority on Spanish ceramics,
relied too strongly on certain assurances made him by a Señor Bover, and
ended by declaring that in the museums of Paris and London he had
himself seen lustred plates which bore the arms of Ynca in the
Balearics, proving them to have been manufactured at that town.
However, a Majorcan archæologist, named Alvaro Campaner, refuted one by
one Davillier's points of argument, and showed beyond all question that
both the plates of Ynca and the arms which decorated them were simply
nonexistent, and that the term _Majolica_, deriving from _Majorica_,
applies to pottery in general, and not with any preference to lustred
ware. Campaner also suggested very ingeniously that the word _Majolica_
was probably applied by the Italians to Catalan or Valencian pottery
conveyed to Italy in vessels themselves belonging to the Balearics, and
which were in the habit of completing their cargoes in the ports of
Barcelona and Valencia, and he added that this suggestion is supported
by the fact that specimens of lustred ware are far more often met with
on the Balearic coast than in the towns and villages of the interior. It
is only fair to state that Davillier frankly and fully recognized the
value of Campaner's refutation.
As to the methods of producing lustred pottery, the chemical
investigations practised by Riocreux, Brogniart, Carand, and others,
have shown that the metals used to produce the characteristic reflex
which gives the ware its name were copper and silver, entering into the
composition of an extremely thin glaze extended over the surface of the
pottery, and employed, sometimes together, and sometimes separately. It
is obvious that the lustre produced by copper would be deeper, redder,
and less delicate than that produced by silver, while varying gradations
would be obtainable by the mixture of both metals. It is also beyond
doubt that the oldest specimens of this pottery extant to-day are those
which contain the palest and most pearly lustre, and consequently the
largest quantity of the costlier metal. In those of later date there is
an evident inferiority, both in colour, lustre, and design. In fact, two
separate, or nearly separate, epochs of this branch of Spanish pottery
are pointed out by Señor Mélida, who gives the name of _Mudejar_ to
lustred objects manufactured at an earlier time by Moorish artists
working in the cities captured by the Christians, and that of _Morisco_
to the second or inferior class produced by Morisco craftsmen after the
reconquest, and distinguished by the coarser and degenerate lustre,
colouring, and draughtsmanship.
The rarest and most beautiful examples of this ware are naturally those
which belong to the former class, and consist of various kinds of plates
and other objects in which elaborate devices such as lions, antelopes,
and shields of heraldry, often combined with foliage and inscriptions in
Gothic lettering, are coloured in bistre or pale blue,[82] and rendered
doubly beautiful by the delicate nacreous lustre.
[82] In lustred pottery these colours, and particularly blue, are far
the commonest. It has been found that other colours, such as green
and black, were ill adapted to the lustre process.
In nearly every case it is extremely difficult to determine with any
certainty the date of manufacture of these objects, as well as the
locality. Wallis says he is aware of "no example of Spanish lustre
pottery antecedent to those in the class to which the large Palermo jar
belongs, and they are not likely to be much earlier than the end of the
fourteenth century. Happily the celebrated plaque (Plate lviii.)
formerly belonging to Fortuny, and now in the possession of Excmo Sr.
Don G. J. de Osma, furnishes an early date, which, according to its
owner, is between May 1408 and November 1417. Those who know the
original will remember that it is no less remarkable for the quality of
its golden lustre than for the grace and elegance of its fanciful
Oriental design." It is also believed by Señor Osma that this plaque was
manufactured in the kingdom of Granada; _i.e._ either at Granada or
Málaga.
[Illustration: LVIII
HISPANO-MORESQUE LUSTRED PLAQUE
(_Early 15th Century. Osma Collection_)]
A specimen of Spanish lustred ware more celebrated even than Fortuny's
plaque is the "vase of the Alhambra" (Plate lix.), which rests to-day in
a corner of the Sala de las Dos Hermanas. The history of this mighty jar
is interesting. Popular superstition affirms it to have been discovered,
filled to the brim with gold, by the Marquis of Mondejar, first of the
Christian governors of the fortress of Granada. Exposed for many years
to every stress of weather and to every mutilation at the hands of
passers-by, it stood, in company with other vases of enormous size,
upon a rampart which is now the garden terrace known as the Adarves.
Several of the older travellers have described these vessels or alluded
to them. Marmol wrote of them as far back as the sixteenth century,
while the journal of Bertaut de Rouen contains the following
notice;--"Sur la première terrasse par où l'on entre, et d'où l'on a de
la peine à regarder en bas sans estre ébloüy, il y a deux fontaines
jaillissantes, et tout du long des murs du chasteau, des espaliers
d'orangers et de grenadiers, avec de grands vases de terre peinte, aussi
belle que la porcelaine, où il n'y avoit pour lors, sinon quelques
fleurs en quelques-uns: mais où l'on dit que le Marquis de Mondejar
trouva quantité d'or que les Mores avaient caché dans la terre, quand il
y fût estably par Ferdinand." The priest Echeverría, who forged the
relics of the ancient Alcazaba of Granada,[83] was careful to repeat
this fable in the twenty-sixth chapter of his _Paseos por Granada_. The
first edition of this work was published in 1764, under the assumed name
of Joseph Romero Yranzo. There were then two vases and part of a third,
all "lacerated, peeled, and maltreated." The Englishman Swinburne wrote
in 1776 that below the Towers of the Bell, "on the south-side, on a slip
of terrace, is the governor's garden, a very pleasant walk, full of fine
orange and cypress trees and myrtle hedges, but quite abandoned. The
view it commands is incomparable. Two large vases enamelled with gold
and azure foliages and characters are the only ornaments left: these
were taken out of the vaults under the royal apartments." In the second
edition of Echeverría's _Paseos_, which was republished in 1814, it is
added in a footnote that only a single vase remained, "in a room that
overlooks the Court of Myrtles." Lozano, however, in his _Antigüedades
Arabes_, mentions two vases as existing at the same period. Argote de
Molina (_Nuevos Paseos por Granada_, published about 1808) describes,
together with the wretchedly executed marble statues in the Sala de las
Ninfas, the "two or three great porcelain jars whereof some pieces only
now remain," and reminds us that according to the old tradition these
statues looked continually towards the vases, which were full of
treasure. Argote, nevertheless, takes Echeverría sharply to task for his
absurdities upon this theme; and Washington Irving, a diligent gleaner
in Echeverría's somewhat scanty field, makes use of the same material
for his well-known story.