Azulejos are everywhere in Portugal.
Walls of churches, monasteries, train stations and palaces often portray
historic or religious scenes, on the outside and on the inside. They serve as
street signs, name plates or house numbers. Shops and ordinary houses are also decorated
as tiles additionally protect against damp, heat and noise.
The word Azulejo comes from the
Arabic word az-zulayi, which means polished stone. The use of glazed tiles
started in Egypt. Although Portugal was occupied by the Moors tiles were
introduced from Spain in the 15th century. King Manual I admired the
Alhambra in Granada and decided to have his palace in Sintra decorated with
ceramic tiles. The first imported tiles didn’t portray human figures in
accordance to Islamic law. Gradually Portuguese painters changed from
ornamental decoration to animal and human figures. The dominant colours were
blue, yellow, green and white. Influenced by porcelain of the Ming Dynasty
painters changed to blue and white in the 17th century. No other
European country produced as many tiles for such a variety of purposes and in
so many different designs as Portugal. Mass production started in the late 17th
and early 18th centuries because of a greater internal demand and
due to orders from Portuguese colonies.
In total there were three factories
in Porto and two in Vila Nova de Gaia. The Massarelos porcelain factory was founded in 1766 in Porto and was
the oldest one. The factory was first located in the Rua da Restauração but a fire destroyed it completely in 1920. Therefore the production moved to an associated unit
for stoneware near the bridge D. Maria Pia in the parish of Bonfim. Massarelos
was specialised in relief tiles. The factory closed with its bankruptcy
declared in 1980. The remains of two kilns still exist and can be visited in the Av. de Paiva
Couceiro. Devezas, founded 1865 in Vila Nova de Gaia, was one of the largest
but also most important producer for architectural decorative ceramics. The
former factory building is currently a ruin but the City Council has plans to
turn the site into a museum and a car park.
In general all designs can be
categorised into: concentric, 4 dots, rotation or features of a pattern. The
tiles are either flat, feature a relief or the edges bevelled. The most common
dimensions are 10 cm x 10 cm, but also 14 cm x 14 cm and 15 cm x 15 cm were produced. In order to preserve
this very important cultural heritage Alba Plaza and Marisa Ferreira launched
the project Os Azulejos do Porto. Since 2016 they have been working on a digital archive with photos of tiles found in Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia. But they
also organise workshops to teach everyone the art of painting a Portuguese
azulejo.
The general working steps to create
a tile are:
- Collecting clay & sieving
- Tile moulding
- Glazing
- Painting, and
- Burning.
The original design is red and blue but I decided to customise the centre part with green, yellow and blue. As Alba made the stencils with Adobe Illustrator I could design my azulejo first on the computer.
The tiles we used were already glazed with glass forming minerals. Pigments, e.g. supplied by R2W, were mixed with water. The more water is used, the lighter is the colour. When painting the tile the water was quickly absorbed by the glazing and the pigments were deposited as layer. Brush strokes like in watercolour or oil painting are not really possible.
Thereafter the pigments needed for my design were applied in four layers.
1st layer
2nd layer
3rd layer
4th layer
I decided to carefully carve a small detail into the pigment layer. I chose the perhaps most Portuguese word: SAUDADE. Thereafter, Marisa and Alba burned our tiles in their kiln and shipped them to us by mail.
