Azulejo

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Azulejo in Funchal ( Madeira )

Under Azulejo ( Portuguese pronunciation [ ɐzu'ɫɐjʒʊ ], Castilian pronunciation [ aθu'lexo ]) refers to an image from mostly square, brightly painted and glazed ceramic tiles that its European origin in Spain and Portugal has and is manufactured there. These weatherproof tiles are an integral part of the cityscape in these countries and are often combined into artistic murals on public monuments and buildings, house facades and churches, but also on interior walls. Often old flower, bird and ship motifs are used. Ornaments from Islamic art are traditionally found in wall coverings made from azulejos .

history

The name Azulejo is derived from Arabic الزليج, DMG az-zulaiǧ ("faience", "tile work"). The glazing techniques originally come from the Persian region. On the Iberian Peninsula , they are a legacy of the Moors , who ruled large parts there from the 8th century. The manufacturing technology was adopted and further developed by local craftsmen. The center of production in the 12th and 13th centuries was Andalusia, especially Granada . In the 14th century, Valencia was famous for its azulejos. Today Portugal is the main producer. Old tiles can be recognized by the three fingernail-sized flaking of the glaze, which can be traced back to the chipping off of small ceramic tripods that kept the tiles separate during the firing process. In later times - around the 16th century - the individual tiles were fired in square clay holders, which could easily be stacked on top of each other and reused several times.

techniques

Tile mosaic with star motifs in the Capilla de San Bartolomé , Córdoba

Tile mosaics

Tile mosaics are among the early forms of wall decorations in North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula . The tiles were only fired in one color; Then the abstract-geometric - in principle infinite - ornaments (mostly star motifs) were put together from small pieces cut to size with the help of pliers. Such motifs mostly come from Moorish art , which was also established in the south of the Iberian Peninsula from the 8th to the 15th century. In order to reduce the enormously high costs of craftsmen, this method was replaced in the 11th century by the Cuerda-Seca technique, in which greased cords were placed in incised indentations and thus kept the colored glazes separated during the firing process. The wall tiles could thus be moved as a whole; these techniques survived the Christian Reconquista .

Tile scratches or scratches

Fès - Medersa Bou Inania , calligraphy (14th century)

As early as the 14th century, curvilinear calligraphic writing tapes also used techniques of scratching and scraping - the actual writing, which was always black, was left in place so that a large part of the tile surface was scraped off or worked off with a fine metal stylus . In this way, the two facades of Bab Boujeloud on the edge of the medina of Fez were created in the early 20th century .

Tile paintings

In the 16th century, the old craftsmanship of the ceramic burner encountered new European majolica techniques and the client's desire for pictorial representations. Whole picture cycles were then painted on tiles and burned; At first they served sacred purposes, but very quickly they also found their way into the royal and aristocratic palaces. Wealthy citizens - especially in the Netherlands - could also afford such things and this is how the famous Delft tiles were created .

function

The architecture used the azulejos as a decorative element - the interiors of churches, monasteries and palaces were covered over large areas. As in other art forms, tile motifs became fashion trends; one variant was the azulejos de tapete , stone oriental carpets for the wall. In the 19th century the azulejos left the interior and, as facades, enlivened the image of the cities. In a new bloom the azulejos passed through historicism and art nouveau, with Antoni Gaudí finding his way back to the mosaics.

museum

The Museu Nacional do Azulejo in Portugal's capital Lisbon is dedicated to the typical Portuguese, white and blue wall tiles.

photos

Tile mosaics
Tile carvings

  • Meknes - Bou Inania Medersa (14th century)

  • Fès - Bab Boujeloud
    (20th century)

Tile paintings

literature

  • Simões, JM dos Santos: Azulejaria em Portugal nos séculos XV e XVI: introdução geral , Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 2nd ed., Lisbon, 1990
  • Meco, José: O Azulejo em Portugal , Alfa, Lisbon, 1988
  • Diego Hurtado De Mendoza: Tile decor from Portugal / Tile Designs from Portugal. With a CD-ROM. Pepin Press, Amsterdam 2007, ISBN 978-90-5768-099-1 (German, English, French, Spanish)
  • Agostinho Guimaraes: Azulejos do Porto. Tile decor in the city of Porto (Portugal) , 3 languages ​​(Portuguese, English, French), 1997
  • Agostinho Guimaraes: Azulejos de Guimaraes tile decor in the city of Guimaraes (Portugal) , 3 languages ​​(Portuguese, English, French), 1997
  • Rioletta Sabo and Jorge Nuno Falcato: Azulejos in Portugal. Tile decor in palaces, gardens and churches. Hirmer Verlag , Munich 1998, ISBN 3-7774-7640-4 ; Book guild Gutenberg , Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-7632-4794-7
  • AJ Barros Veloso & Isabel Almasqué: Portuguese Tiles and Art Nouveau / O Azulejo Portugués ea Arte Nova , Edições Inapa, Portugal, 2000; ISBN 972-8387-64-4

Movie

  • Portugal's splendor - azulejos, quintas and palaces. Documentation, Germany, 2007, 45 min., A film by Kerstin Woldt, production: SR , first broadcast: March 21, 2007, summary of the SR

Web links

Commons : Azulejos  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Azulejo  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

References and comments

  1. ^ H. Wehr: Arabic dictionary for the written language of the present , Wiesbaden 1968, p. 345
  2. ↑ The Persian city of Kashan in the north of the Isfahan province was an important center of the tile trade in the Middle Ages. After her, the "tile" ( Persian كاشى, DMG Kāšī ).
  3. ^ Museu Nacional do Azulejo