_Granada: Memories, Adventures, Studies, and Impressions_.
[Illustration: LIX
HISPANO-MORESQUE LUSTRED VASE
(_Alhambra, Granada_)]
In the time of Owen Jones the one surviving vase, now standing with a
wooden rail before it in a corner of the Hall of the Two Sisters, still
occupied the "room that looks upon the Court of Myrtles." Jones wrote of
it in 1842:--"This beautiful vase was discovered, it is said, full of
gold in one of the subterranean chambers of the Casa Real. It is at
present to be seen in a small chamber of the Court of the Fish-pond, in
which are deposited the archives of the palace. It is engraved in the
Spanish work by Lozano, _Antigüedades Arabes de España_, with another of
the same size, which was broken a few years ago, and the pieces sold to
a passing traveller. The vase is executed in baked clay, with enamelled
colours and gold similar to the mosaics."
A more precise description is the following. The vase, which measures
four feet six inches in height by eight feet two inches and a half in
circumference, is of common earthenware painted with intricate devices
fired after painting. This was a difficult operation in a vessel of such
size; and here, in consequence, the colours have slightly run and
mingled. Besides these technical flaws, the belly of the vase is broken
clean in half, and one of the handles is missing. The shape is
amphoraic, with a moderate downward curve. About the middle, surrounded
by leaf and stem and geometrical devices effectively intertwined, are
two antelopes. The vase is coloured blue and caramel upon a delicate
yellow ground, and has a faint metallic lustre.[84] An Arabic
inscription is repeated several times, and consists of the words
"Felicity" and "Welcome."
[84] This lustre is faint but quite distinguishable, and Rada y Delgado
was clearly in error in supposing that there is none.
This vase is believed to date from the fourteenth century; and if we
judge from the colour and composition of the earth employed, it appears
probable that it was made at Granada. Together with the other vases
which have disappeared,[85] it was doubtless meant to serve as a
receptacle for water, and for decorating the chambers of the palace,
where it would rest in amphora-fashion on a perforated stand, while
smaller vases containing flowers would fill the niches which may yet
be seen in various inner walls of the Alhambra. The belief of Argote[86]
and many other writers that these niches were intended to receive the
slippers of the Moors is utterly unfounded.
[85] The lost jar mentioned by Owen Jones, of which a drawing has been
made, was of the same shape as the one which now remains; but in
its decoration were included the arms of the Nasrite dynasty of
Granada. It is this circumstance which has induced Gómez Moreno to
suppose that these vases were the work of Granadino artists.
[86] "_Los nichos para chinelas_," as he calls them, in describing the
Sala de Comares.
Until quite recently all published illustrations of the great _jarrón de
la Alhambra_ were inaccurate, and as a rule grotesquely so. Among the
very worst are those inserted in the handbooks of Riaño and Contreras. I
am glad to be able to reproduce an excellent photograph, which both
corrects the atrocious cuts I have observed elsewhere, and relieves me
from giving a prolix and possibly a wearisome description of the
decoration on the vase.
[Illustration: LX
HISPANO-MORESQUE LUSTRED VASE
(_Madrid Museum_)]
Several other lustred vases of large size are still preserved in Spain
and other countries. One, proceeding from a Sicilian church, is in the
museum of Palermo. Wallis, who inserts an illustration, describes it as
"amphora-shaped, with two large flat handles; pear-shaped body, long
neck, ribbed at lower part, canellated above, moulded lip. Whitish body,
tin glaze. Ornament painted in gold lustre on white ground, the pattern
in parts almost obliterated. Hispano-Moresque. Height, one metre,
seventeen centimetres."
Another of these great vases belonged to the painter Fortuny, and was
sold at his death to Prince Basilewsky, for thirty thousand francs. It
was found by Fortuny at the village of Salar, near Granada, and
purchased by him at a low price. "The neck and mouth resemble those of
the Alhambra vase. The ornamentation is distributed about the body of
the vase in four zones; one of the two central zones has tangent
circles, and the other an inscription."
[Illustration: LXI
LUSTRED TILES
(_Osma Collection_)]
Another large lustred vase is in the museum of Madrid (Plate lx.). It
was found by a labourer at Hornos in the province of Jaen, and passed
into the hands of the village priest, who placed it in his church to
support the font of holy water. In course of time a dealer in
antiquities, by name Amat, happened to pass that way, observed the vase,
and made an offer for it to the _padre_. This latter at first refused,
but subsequently, stimulated by an ignorant though well-intentioned and
disinterested zeal for bettering the temple, he stipulated that if the
dealer provided a new support of marble for the font, and paid for white
washing the church, he might bear off the coveted _jarrón_.
Fulfilling these conditions at all speed, he mounted the precious vessel
on an ass, and briskly strode away. When he had gone a little distance
the villagers, missing their cherished vase, though unaware, of course,
of its artistic worth, swarmed angrily about the purchaser, flourished
their knives and sticks at him, and pelted him with stones. At this he
called upon the mayor for protection; the mayor provided him with two
armed men for bodyguard, and, thus defended, the indomitable dealer
reached Madrid and sold his jar to government for fifteen hundred
dollars. Its present value is estimated at not less than thirty
thousand.[87]
[87] J. R. Mélida, _Jarrones arábigos de loza vidriada_; published in
the _Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Excursionistas_.
One of the earliest and most interesting notices relating to the
preparation of this lustred ware is contained in a description by one of
the royal archers, named Henry Cock, of the progress, performed in 1585,
of Philip the Second from the court of Spain to Zaragoza.[88] Cock wrote
of Muel, in Aragon:--"Almost all the inhabitants of this village are
potters, and all the earthenware sold at Zaragoza is made in the
following manner. The vessels are first fashioned to the required shape
from a certain substance extracted from the earth of this locality. They
are next baked in a specially constructed oven, and when removed from
this are varnished with white varnish and polished, after which they are
washed with a mixture of twenty-five pounds of lead, three or four
pounds of tin, and as many pounds of a certain sand which is found
there. All these ingredients are mixed into a paste resembling ice,
which is broken small, pounded like flour, and kept in powder. This
powder is mixed with water, the dishes are passed through it, and after
being rebaked they keep their lustre. Next, in order to gild the
pottery, they take the strongest vinegar mixed with about two _reales_
of powdered silver, vermilion, and red ochre, and a little wire. When
all is thoroughly mixed they paint the patterns on the dishes with a
feather, bake them again, and their gold colour is now quite permanent.
I was told all this by the potters themselves."[89]
[88] _Relación del viaje hecho por Felipe II. en 1585._ Madrid, 1876.
[89] The village of Muel continued to be a centre of this craft.
Townsend, who travelled in Spain in 1786 and 1787, wrote of
it:--"There are many potters, who turn their own wheels, not by
hand, but with their feet, by means of a larger wheel concentric
with that on which they mould the clay, and nearly level with the
floor."
[Illustration: LXII
HISPANO-MORESQUE LUSTRED WARE
(_A.D. 1460-1480. Osma Collection_)]
Another most interesting account of the manufacture of lustred ware
was discovered in manuscript by Riaño in the British Museum, and,
although it belongs to a later date (1785), is well worth quoting fully.
It consists of a report upon the later gilded pottery of Manises, and
was drawn up by order of the Count of Floridablanca:--
"After the pottery is baked, it is varnished with white and blue, the
only colours used besides the gold lustre; the vessels are again baked;
if the objects are to be painted with gold colour, this can only be put
on the white varnish, after they have gone twice through the oven. The
vessels are then painted with the said gold colour and are baked a third
time, with only dry rosemary for fuel.
"The white varnish used is composed of lead and tin, which are melted
together in an oven made on purpose; after these materials are
sufficiently melted, they become like earth, and when in this state the
mixture is removed and mixed with an equal quantity in weight of sand:
fine salt is added to it, it is boiled again, and when cold, pounded
into powder. The only sand which can be used is from a cave at
Benalguacil, three leagues from Manises. In order that the varnish
should be fine, for every _arroba_, twenty-five pounds of lead, six to
twelve ounces of tin must be added, and half a bushel of finely-powdered
salt: if a coarse kind is required, it is sufficient to add a very small
quantity of tin, and three or four _cuartos_ worth of salt, which in
this case must be added when the ingredient is ready for varnishing the
vessel.
"Five ingredients enter into the composition of the gold colour: copper,
which is better the older it is; silver, as old as possible; sulphur;
red ochre; and strong vinegar, which are mixed in the following
proportions: of copper three ounces, of red ochre twelve ounces, of
silver one _peseta_ (about a shilling), sulphur three ounces, vinegar a
quart; three pounds (of twelve ounces) of the earth or scoriæ, which is
left after this pottery is painted with the gold colour, is added to the
other ingredients.
[Illustration: LXIII
HISPANO-MORESQUE LUSTRED WARE
(_A.D. 1460-1480. Osma Collection_)]
"They are mixed in the following manner: a small portion of sulphur in
powder is put into a casserole with two small bits of copper, between
them a coin of one silver _peseta_; the rest of the sulphur and copper
is then added to it. When this casserole is ready, it is placed on the
fire, and is made to boil until the sulphur is consumed, which is
evident when no flame issues from it. The preparation is then taken
from the fire, and when cold is pounded very fine; the red ochre and
scoriæ are then added to it; it is mixed up by hand and again pounded
into powder. The preparation is placed in a basin and mixed with enough
water to make a sufficient paste to stick on the sides of the basin; the
mixture is then rubbed on the vessel with a stick; it is therefore
indispensable that the water should be added very gradually until the
mixture is in the proper state.
"The basin ready prepared must be placed in an oven for six hours. At
Manises it is customary to do so when the vessels of common pottery are
baked; after this the mixture is scratched off the sides of the basin
with some iron instrument; it is then removed from there and broken up
into small pieces, which are pounded fine in a hand-mortar with the
quantity of vinegar already mentioned, and after having been well ground
and pounded together for two hours the mixture is ready for decorating.
It is well to observe that the quantity of varnish and gold-coloured
mixture which is required for every object can only be ascertained by
practice."
Nevertheless, the gilded ware of the kingdom of Valencia had by this
time deteriorated very greatly. Formerly, from as far back as the reign
of Jayme the Conqueror, the other towns or villages of this region which
produced the lustred and non-lustred pottery were Játiva, Paterna,
Quarte, Villalonga, Alaqua, Carcer, and Moncada. Early in the fourteenth
century fourteen potteries were working in the town of Biar, and
twenty-three at Traiguera. Manises, however, maintained the lead for
many years. The notices of Eximenes and other writers concerning the
pottery of this town have been already quoted. The same ware is
mentioned in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by Diago (1613),
Francisco Jávier Borrell, Beuter, and Martin de Viciana. Marineus
Siculus, the chronicler of Ferdinand and Isabella, adds that similar or
identical pottery ("_desta misma arte_") was made in Murcia, whose
manufacture of it had been praised in earlier times by Ibn-Said. Toledo
also manufactured gilded ware with blue or bistre colouring. García
Llansó says that in the sixteenth century this capital produced plates
which contain the arms of Spain in the centre, the rest of the plate
being completely covered with minute geometrical or floral
ornamentation.
[Illustration: LXIV
HISPANO-MORESQUE LUSTRED WARE
(_A.D. 1460-1480. Osma Collection_)]
It is certain that during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
large quantities of lustred pottery were produced in many parts of
Andalusia, Castile, Aragon, and Valencia. The oldest and most valuable
specimens of this pottery are those which have the palest and most
purely golden lustre, combined with blue or bluish decoration in the
form of animals, coats of arms, or foliage. The lustred ware of Manises
began to deteriorate about the time of the expulsion of the Moriscos,
when the leaves and fronds of a clean gold tone upon a lightish ground
are replaced by commoner and coarser patterns, and the gold itself by
the coppery lustre which is still employed.
After the seventeenth century the further decline of this once famous
industry may be traced from the accounts of travellers. Towards the
middle of this century Bowles wrote that "two leagues from the capital
(Valencia) is a fair-looking town of only four streets, whose occupants
are nearly all potters. They make a _copper-coloured_ ware of great
beauty, _used for common purposes and for decorating the houses of the
working-people of the province_. They make this ware of an argillaceous
earth resembling in its colour and composition that portion of the soil
of Valencia which produces native mercury.... The objects they fashion
of this earth possess a glitter and are very inexpensive, since I
purchased half a dozen plates for a _real_. Nevertheless, _this is not
the ware which has the highest reputation in the kingdom of Valencia_.
The factory which the Count of Aranda has established at Alcora is not
surpassed in Europe, and is ahead of many in fineness of substance,
hardness of the varnish, and elegance of form. It would be perfect of
its kind if the varnish did not crack and peel off so easily."
According to Laborde, early in the nineteenth century Manises contained
two potteries "of considerable extent, which employ seventy workmen. The
people occupied in these possess the art of producing a gold _bronze_
colour which they carefully keep a secret, never communicating it to any
person." Elsewhere in the same book Laborde is more explicit. "Manises
is a village situated a league and a quarter north of Valencia. It is
seen on the left coming from New Castile. It is noted for its
manufactories of earthen ware, which employ thirty kilns, and occupy a
great part of the inhabitants. The women are employed in forming the
designs and applying the colours. There are two large manufactories of a
superior kind, the earthen ware of which is tolerably fine, of a
beautiful white, and a moderate price. They also make here vases
worked with a great degree of delicacy."
[Illustration: LXV
HISPANO-MORESQUE LUSTRED WARE
(_Late 15th Century. Osma Collection_)]
"The society of these workmen possess the secret of the composition of a
colour which in the fire takes the tint and brightness of a beautiful
gilt _bronze_. It has been unsuccessfully attempted to be imitated; the
heads of the society compose the colour themselves, and distribute it to
the masters who take care of it; it is a liquid of the colour of Spanish
tobacco, but a little deeper."
The quantity of Hispano-Moresque lustred pottery preserved in the public
and private collections of various countries is far from small, although
to classify it according to the place and date of its production is
nearly always a matter of extreme difficulty.
Among the earliest specimens are the vase of the Alhambra, those which
are now in the museums of Palermo and Madrid, that which belonged to
Fortuny, and the plaque which once was also his, and now forms part of
the Osma collection. Lustred Spanish tiles are scarce. A few exist at
Seville[90] and Granada, chiefly in altar-fronts, along the archivolts
of doorways, or, with heraldic motives, on the inner walls of houses of
the aristocracy. Invariably, says Gestoso, such tiles are coloured with
combinations of white, blue, and gold, since in the lustre process other
colours--black, or green, or deepish yellow--proved unsatisfactory.
Other lustred tiles of exquisite beauty are owned by Señor Osma, (Plate
lxi.), and seem to have even gained in brilliance by the centuries that
have passed over them. Riaño gives a list of the specimens of this
pottery which are at South Kensington, consisting of bowls, vases, and
plates. One of the vases is particularly beautiful. It dates from the
fifteenth century, and is described by Fortnum as having "a spherical
body on a trumpet-shaped base, with a neck of elongated funnel form,
flanked by two large wing-shaped handles perforated with circular holes.
The surface, except the mouldings, is entirely covered with a
diaper-pattern of ivy or briony leaves, tendrils, and small flowers in
brownish lustre and blue on the white ground."
[90] No direct proof has been found that lustred ware was ever made at
Seville; but a document copied by Gestoso, and which I have already
mentioned (p. 152), records that the famous _ollero_ of the time of
Ferdinand and Isabella, named Fernan Martinez Guijarro, reserved a
department ("_tiendas del dorado_") of his premises for making or
for storing lustred pottery.
[Illustration: LXVI
HISPANO-MORESQUE LUSTRED WARE
(_Late 15th Century. Osma Collection_)]
Through the courtesy of Señor Osma I am able to give illustrations of
a few of the finest specimens of lustred ware in his magnificent
collection (Plates lxii.-lxvi.). The three small vessels facing pages
176, 178, and 180 are of Valencian workmanship, and date, according to
their owner, from between 1460 and 1480. The two plates are also
Valencian. The one with a bull in the centre dates from between 1480 and
1500; and that which has a greyhound from slightly earlier--say 1470 to
1490.
POTTERY OF SEVILLE, PUENTE DEL ARZOBISPO, TALAVERA DE LA REINA, TOLEDO,
AND BARCELONA; POROUS WARE; PORCELAIN OF ALCORA AND THE ROYAL FACTORY OF
THE BUEN RETIRO.
We have seen that Seville was an early and important centre of the
potter's craft in Spain. Her potteries were celebrated even with the
Romans, and probably have at no moment been inactive. Fifty, established
in the suburb of Triana, were mentioned in the sixteenth century by
Pedro de Medina, and documents which tell of many more have recently
been discovered by Gestoso. The excellence of the Seville tiles has been
described in a preceding section of this chapter. Their production
still continues upon a large scale; and the ware of the Cartuja factory,
which reached the zenith of its fame towards the end of the eighteenth
century, is considered by Jacquemart and other authorities to rival with
the Italian wares of Savona.
Pottery made in other parts of the Peninsula--particularly that of
Talavera de la Reina--is known to have been imitated by the Seville
potters with embarrassing perfection. In the case of the so-called "loza
de Puente del Arzobispo," it is the Seville ware itself which seems to
have been imitated. Puente del Arzobispo is a small village near Toledo.
Mendez wrote of it in the seventeenth century:--"Fine pottery is
manufactured in about eight kilns, which produce more than 40,000 ducats
yearly." "In 1755," says Riaño, "thirteen pottery kilns existed at this
place; they still worked in 1791, but their productions were very
inferior in artistic merit."
[Illustration: LXVII
HISPANO-MORESQUE LUSTRED WARE]
Not many years ago the name of Puente del Arzobispo was connected by
Baron Davillier with certain polychrome non-lustred plates and other
vessels which are greatly esteemed for their rarity, and of which a few
specimens exist in the South Kensington and other museums, as well as in
one or two private collections, such as that of Señor Osma.
Gestoso says that the usual diameter of these plates is either
twenty-three centimetres or forty-two centimetres. "Their decoration,
betraying at a glance the Saracenic influence, consists of leaves and
flowers, together with animals of a more or less fantastic character:
lions, rabbits, and birds. In other specimens the centre is occupied by
a heart, fleurs-de-lis, or other fancy devices, or yet, in some few
cases, with the head of a man or woman. These central designs are
surrounded with leaves and flowers. The draughtsmanship upon these
plates is of the rudest, and the process of their colouring was as
follows. The figures were drawn upon the unfired surface in manganese
ink mixed with a greasy substance; and after this the aqueous enamel or
glaze was allowed to drop from a hogshair brush into the spaces which
the black had outlined."
This will be recognized as the _cuerda seca_ process, so extensively
employed in making Seville tiles. Nevertheless, judging by certain marks
upon this pottery, Baron Davillier declared it to proceed from Puente
del Arzobispo. The marks in question consist in one or two examples of
what appears to be the letters A.P. or P.A.[91] Davillier, however,
affirmed that he had seen a plate fully inscribed as follows:--
[Illustration]
[91] These, says Señor Osma, are doubtful in every case, and are only
found on plates which bear the figure of a lion. Two plates in this
gentleman's possession are thus marked [Illustration], and another
[Illustration].
The existence of this plate is now discredited; at least, no trace of it
can be discovered at this day. Upon the other hand, Gestoso points to
various objects manufactured by the _cuerda seca_ method, and which
undoubtedly proceed from Seville. Among them are three shields, one of
which, containing the arms of Ferdinand and Isabella, is of exceptional
interest, for it is accompanied by an inscribed slab, evidently coeval
with the shield itself, recording it to have been made in the year 1503,
and by Jerónimo Suarez. This shield and slab were removed from a
courtyard of the old Alhóndiga to Seville Museum, where they now remain.
Of the two other shields, one belongs to Señor Osma, and the second,
which is still at Seville, adorns the tomb of Don León Enriquez in the
church of Santa Paula; and since it is unquestionable that all these
_cuerda seca_ shields, as well as quantities of _cuerda seca_ tiles,
were made at Seville, Gestoso prudently suggests that we should
designate as "_cuerda seca_ ware" that pottery which has hitherto passed
as specially belonging to Puente del Arzobispo. In fact, towards the end
of the fifteenth century this pottery is found extending northward from
Seville to Toledo, and Señor Osma assures me that Toledo specimens are
of a somewhat later manufacture than those which were produced at
Seville. One of the rarest and most interesting _cuerda seca_ plates in
this gentleman's collection is reproduced herewith (lxviii.). No other
plate of similar pattern is known to exist. Its date may be placed
between 1480 and 1495, and it gives a curious illustration of the
masculine headdress and headwear in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella.