Azulejo

Azulejo (Portuguese: [ɐzuˈle(j)ʒu, ɐzuˈlɐjʒu], Spanish: [aθuˈlexo]; from the Arabic الزليج, al-zillīj) is a form of Iberian painted tin-glazed ceramic tilework. Azulejos are found on the interior and exterior of churches, palaces, ordinary houses, schools, and nowadays, restaurants, bars and even railway or subway stations. They are an ornamental art form, but also had a specific function, such as temperature control in homes. There is also a tradition of their production in former Portuguese and Spanish colonies in North America, South America, the Philippines, Goa, Lusophone Africa, East Timor, and Macau. Azulejos constitute a major aspect of Portuguese and Spanish architecture to this day, and are found on buildings across Portugal, Spain and their former territories. Many azulejos chronicle major historical and cultural aspects of Portuguese and Spanish history.

In Spanish and Portuguese, azulejo is simply the everyday word for (any) tile.

The word azulejo (as well as the Ligurian laggion) is derived from the Arabic الزليج (al-zillīj), zellij meaning "polished stone" because the original idea was to imitate the Byzantine and Roman mosaics.

The Spanish city of Seville became the major centre of the Hispano-Moresque tile industry. The earliest azulejos in the 13th century were panels of tile-mosaic known as alicatados (from Arabic: ﻗَﻄَﻊَ, romanized: qata'a, lit. 'to cut'), known as zellij in Islamic architecture. Tiles were glazed in a single colour, cut into geometric shapes, and assembled to form geometric patterns. There are many examples in the Alhambra of Granada. This tradition was continued for a time in Mudéjar architecture in Spain (e.g. in the 14th-century sections of the Alcázar of Seville), and has been perpetuated to this day in Morocco.

When former Moorish-controlled territories came under Spanish rule in Spain, new techniques of tile-making developed from the older Andalusi traditions. As wealthy Spaniards favoured the Mudéjar style to decorate their residences, the demand for mosaic tilework in this style increased beyond what tilemakers could produce, requiring them to consider new methods. Towards the late 15th and early 16th centuries, Seville became an important production center for a type of tile known as cuenca ("hollow") or arista ("ridge"). In this technique, motifs were formed by pressing a metal or wooden mould over the unbaked tile, leaving a motif delineated by thin ridges of clay that prevented the different colours in between from bleeding into each other during baking. This was similar to the older cuerda seca technique but more efficient for mass production. The motifs on these tiles imitated earlier Islamic and Mudéjar designs from the zellij mosaic tradition or blended them with contemporary European influences such as Gothic or Italian Renaissance. Following their development, arista tiles grew in prominence during this period due to the streamlined manufacturing process and their ability to more readily incorporate epigraphical works associated with the Reconquista. Prominent examples of these tiles can be found in the early 16th-century decoration of the Casa de Pilatos in Seville. This type of tile was produced well into the 17th century, and was widely exported from Spain to other European countries and to the Spanish colonies in the Americas.

The same techniques were introduced into Portugal by King Manuel I after a visit to Seville in 1503. They were applied on walls and used for paving floors, as can be seen in several rooms, especially the Arab Room of the Sintra National Palace (including the famous cuenca tiles with the armillary sphere, symbol of king Manuel I). The Portuguese adopted the Moorish tradition of horror vacui ('fear of empty spaces') and covered the walls completely with azulejos.

Potters from Italy came into Seville in the early 16th century and established workshops there. They brought with them the maiolica techniques which allowed the artists to represent a much larger number of figurative themes in their compositions. The first Italian potter to move into Spain was Francisco Niculoso who settled in Seville in 1498. Niculoso's arrival led to the development of Sevillian tiles, often referred to as planos; and a new decorative technique known as pisanos, that incorporated maiolica technique with the new medium for azulejos. Examples of Niculoso's work are hosted in situ in the Alcazar of Seville. Numerous azulejos from this period—often influenced by Renaissance trends introduced by Niculoso and other Italian artisans— took the form of polychrome tile panels depicting religious and mythological themes, or hunting scenes.

Until the mid-16th century the Portuguese continued to rely on foreign imports, mostly from Spain, such as the Annunciation by Francisco Niculoso in Évora, but also on a smaller scale from Antwerp (Flanders), such as the two panels by Jan Bogaerts in the Paço Ducal of Vila Viçosa (Alentejo). One of the early Portuguese masters of the 16th century was Marçal de Matos, to whom Susanna and the Elders (1565), in Quinta da Bacalhoa, Azeitão, is attributed, as well as the Adoration of the Shepherds (in the National Museum of Azulejos in Lisbon). The Miracle of St. Roque (in the Church of S. Roque, Lisbon) is the first dated Portuguese azulejo composition (1584). It is the work of Francisco de Matos, probably the nephew and pupil of Marçal de Matos. Both drew their inspiration from Renaissance and Mannerist paintings and engravings from Italy and Flanders. A fine collection of 16th-century azulejos (azulejos Hispano-mouriscos) can be found in the Museu da Rainha D. Leonor in Beja, Portugal (the former Convento da Conceição).