History of Ceramics

Changes in style and form often reflect changes in the economy, society politics and religion.  Nowhere is this more true than with mayolica, a ceramic version of the painted canvas. It was with the Arab occupation of Spain, beginning in the 8th century, that ceramics became commonplace. Muslim potters brought new technology, knowledge of different materials, and new methods that revolutionized pottery production in Spain. As a result, their influence was far-reaching.  Even after the expulsion of the Muslims in the 16th and 17th centuries, many potters continued to use the motifs and colors (copper green, and manganese purple-black) that were so prominent in Islamic pottery. A number of towns, such as Teruel, had established their reputation on and continued to produce Hispano-Muslim pottery while others, such as Talavera de la Reina and Barcelona, adopted Italian and French designs. The ever-popular, Chinese-inspired pottery was ubiquitous, and virtually every ceramic center created its own version of this blue-on-white ware.  Mayólica is the Spanish term for a specific method of glazing earthenware pottery. The earliest glazes developed in the Near and Middle East were of lead. These glazes were transparent, but by adding certain minerals, such as manganese-purple or copper-green, an overall shade was created that would hide the color of the clay. However, designs could not be painted in lead glazes as they would run. In the 9th century a remarkable discovery was made: by adding tin oxide to the lead glaze, an opaque white surface was created that could both cover the clay color and be used as a paint surface. This discovery allowed potters to imitate the appearance of costly Chinese porcelain in earthenware.  The Spanish term mayólica is synonymous with maiolica, majolica, faience and delftware.

Italian potters living in Spain in the 16th century introduced the concept of tile as a canvas.  Some of the earliest depictions of daily life were the trade tiles, or oficios, depicting people in various occupations. These were often created as advertisements for businesses, and were comprehensible to a largely illiterate population.

All  vessels were made to serve almost every function in the Spanish household. Inkwells, flower pots, chamber pots and barber bowls were among the items that were formed on the potter's wheel. Many of these pieces were based on metal or wooden prototypes. Mayólica proved to be less expensive than metal, more durable than wood, and more colorful than either. The status associated with mayólica is evident in its inclusion in many portraits and still lifes in the colonial period, indicating that it was a significant possession. The range of vessel forms provides a glimpse of the many activities that made up daily life in Spain, plates and pots were also vehicles for depicting everyday activities and clothing, sometimes expressing political statements and satire. In early 19th century Spain, some vessels bore the image of Ferdinand VII, indicating loyalty to the Royalists who were supporting Ferdinand against the French invasions led by Napoleon..The decoration of the 18th century Spanish kitchen revealed as much about daily life as the vessels and utensils within it. During this era Felipe V, the first Spanish Bourbon king, and his court embraced the fashion and social customs of the French court at Versailles. One characteristic of this period was an emphasis on decoration and filling rooms and walls with light and air. In many areas of Spain, tile work replaced earlier, heavy leather hangings (guadamaciles). Once again tile began to invade all parts of a building—as it had in Islamic Spain—only now the decoration was not geometric and floral, but figurative. Entire walls of palaces and grand homes were covered in pictorial tilework, illustrating scenes of domestic and courtly life-- themes that were also popularized in the French and Spanish paintings of Watteau, Boucher and Goya. Interior walls depicted domestic scenes, and most popular were those of the kitchen.

The typical Spanish apothecary jar derives its shape from the Muslim world. The apothecaries and hospitals established in Spain following the great plague of the 14th century were based on Arab pharmacies. The shape of the jars is said to be based on the bamboo sections in which Arab pharmaceutics were shipped. Typically they were covered with a piece of cloth or parchment.  Apothecary jars in Spain often had the name permanently marked on the vessel. Herbs, medicinal plants, as well as spices, candied fruits, and scented honeys were typically stored in these jars, which were narrow at the waist for easy removal from pharmacy shelves. Pharmacies were often attached to royal courts, monastic houses and hospitals; therefore, the jars might also bear the insignia of a particular institution.

Among the exotic items that the Aztecs introduced to the Spanish was chocolate. The bean of the cacao plant had long been used in the Americas to make a beverage that was typically served unheated, unsweetened, and sometimes spiced with chile. The native Mexican Indians believed it to have spiritual qualities, and the valuable beans were also used as money.  Aristocratic Europeans initially rejected this bitter drink. In time, however, by heating the chocolate and mixing it with cinnamon, vanilla, and sugar cane, they created a beverage that, by the mid-1600s, became the rage throughout Europe. Its consumption conferred status on those who could afford to purchase, prepare and drink it properly. Drinking chocolate properly meant having the right equipment for storing, grinding, heating and serving the beverage hence the chocolate pot (chocolatera) and the chocolate cup (jicara) found their way into Spanish mayolica.

Seville – Triana 15th – 19th centuries
Ceramics of Islamic tradition continued to be produced in Andalusia until the 16th century. This ware gradually evolved towards the Renaissance and Baroque tastes, thanks to the Italian craftsmen who established themselves in Seville, the centre of the flourishing trade with the Americas.   The oldest series is represented by some dishes decorated in two colours, blue and purple, on a greyish white glaze. The decorations are geometric, with concentric friezes in the Moslem style.

Glazed pottery from Granada, is traditionally known as "Fajalauza," a reference to the place where many potters settled near the gateway to the Albaicín. The Albaicín is the old Arabic quarter located on the hill opposite the Alhambra.

Teruel. 14th-18th centuries
Muel. 16th-18th centuries
Villafeliche. 17th-18th centuries
Glazed tiles. 14th-19th centuries

The Islamic influence in Teruel was already very evident in the 13th century since all the potters there were Mudejars. Teruel ware appears most commonly in the form of porringers, pharmacy jars, pitchers, vases, pots, large baptismal fonts, mortars, "escribanías" or holders for writing utensils, and basins.  A blue series began to be produced in Teruel at the end of the 14th century. In the 15th century the blue colour became more intense and the forms underwent minor changes. The Moslem influence and the popular taste merged in the pieces from this period. Beginning in the 17th century, the influence of Talavera and Catalan ware became patent in the ceramics decorated in blue.

Muel. 16th-18th centuries.
From the end of the 15th to the beginning of the 17th century, a large part of the population of Muel - formed by Moriscos (Moorish converts to Christianity and their descendants) - was engaged in the production of ceramics.

Villafeliche. 17th-18th centuries.
In Villafeliche, a town in Saragossa province near Muel, ceramic production began in the 17th century. From that time until the early 18th century, its ware was decorated in blue and green, in blue and in purple. It bears similarities to the pieces from Muel, but its patterns are less elaborate and reflect a taste more deeply rooted in folk-art.

Talavera de la Reina
Puente del Arzobispo
Together with Seville and Catalonia, beginning in the 16th century the town of Talavera de la Reina, situated on the banks of the Tagus river in Toledo province, produced ceramics reflecting the new spirit of the Renaissance, which affected all the arts. The abstraction of Moslem art was abandoned, adopting bright colours that highlighted the classicism of the decorative motifs.  This ware found warm acceptance among the nobility, the burghers and the great religious orders, who were its principal customers, but it was also exported to Mexico, which belonged to the Spanish crown at that time, exerting a large influence on all the ceramics produced in Spain and Latin America.   The polychrome series forms the most important group of Talavera ware. The ceramic surfaces were conceived as pictorial supports for decoration with figured mythological, allegorical or religious scenes copied from the contemporary engravings..

Puente del Arzobispo.
The town of Puente del Arzobispo, which lies just a few kilometres from Talavera de la Reina, became an important ceramics production centre in the 16th century. Almost all the Talavera series have their counterparts in Puente del Arzobispo. This makes it so difficult to classify the pieces that they are given the joint attribution of Talavera - Puente del Arzobispo. At the end of the 18th century and throughout the 19th, the ware produced here was characterised by the predominance of the colour green and the abundance of bird and tree figures in a folk-art style.

Paterna. 14th century. Green and purple series
Paterna and Manises. Blue series. "Socarrat" ceiling tiles
Manises lustreware. 15th-18th centuries
Polychrome tableware and tiles. 18th-19th centuries

Paterna. 14th century. Green and purple series
The people of Paterna quickly adopted the Islamic pottery techniques in the Middle Ages, producing two-colour ware in green and purple that exerted a great influence on both the Spanish kingdoms and Europe at large. Almost all the decorative motifs came from Mesopotamia, Persia and Egypt, and from the classic Graeco-Roman world. The ornamentation represents vegetal, zoomorphic, geometric and epigraphic themes as well as human figures. The usual products were tableware, jugs for water or wine, oil cruets, pots, dishes and platters, which were used for meats, fish and greens, and porringers for soup.

Blue series.
At the end of the 14th century, Paterna ceramics underwent a change of colour.
The green and purple series was succeeded by a blue decoration of cobalt oxide, which had already been in use since the 13th century in Málaga, the great ceramics export centre of Al-Andalus.  The high point of Valencian ceramic-tile production came with the ware decorated in blue on a white-glazed background.

The most attractive pieces in the blue series are the pharmacy jars, which may be attributed indistinctly to the towns of Paterna or Manises since they lie quite close to one another.

"Socarrat" ceiling tiles (late 15th-16th centuries) are terracotta plaques that were placed between the wooden beams of a room to decorate the ceiling, covering the brick floor-arches from view. The ornamental motifs - architectural, geometric, vegetal and figurative - are simple and spontaneous because of the method used to make them, which was similar to the fresco technique.

2.3. Manises. Lustreware. 15th-18th centuries.
Tableware with a golden lustre, decorated by means of the most refined Islamic technique, began to be produced in Manises at the beginning of the 15th century thanks to the arrival of Moorish craftsmen from Málaga. At the end of the 16th century, this technique began to be used in Barcelona, Reus and Muel (Aragon).

These ceramic pieces became very popular in the rest of Europe and in North Africa because of their beautiful lustre, with iridescences ranging from gold to copper, and their masterful patterns, in which blue and gold were often combined. The rear of these pieces deserves special attention since it is also profusely decorated.

2.4. Polychrome tableware and tiles. 18th-19th centuries.
Between the 18th and 19th centuries, Valencia produced glazed wall tiles for the decoration of kitchens, which were ornamented with domestic scenes. The polychrome tableware, showing a taste deeply rooted in folk-art, were decorated with vibrant colours applied on high-quality white glaze. The colour pink appeared on ceramics for the first time.  The wide diversity of decorative motifs was predominated by vegetal figures, while a bird pattern in the centre of the piece formed a recurrent theme. The colour is more intense in the blue series and the ornamental motifs are mainly vegetal and geometric.

The Catalan ceramics from the end of the 17th century and middle of the 18th show that this was the most original and attractive period of this ware.  Indeed, the 18th century may be considered the golden century of Catalan and especially Barcelona earthenware. The brilliance of these pieces' colors and their Baroque decoration, combined with the city's great financial thrust at the time, favored the production of exceptional ceramics.  Blue ceramics acquired renewed importance, becoming the most characteristic ware of the times.  As in the earlier series, the decoration appears in the border and centre of dishes, or all over the surface in pharmacy jars and pots.  The motifs in the centre vary widely, ranging from full-bodied figures and busts to animals, plants, escutcheons and ships. A notable influence of the ceramics from Italy's (Genoa and Savona) region may be observed.