Panel of three glazed arista tiles, decorated with interlacing patterns depicting eight-pointed stars
Sevilla, Spain, early 16th century
Height: 13 cm (5.12 in) Width: 39 cm (15.35 in)
Additional Information
This panel, composed of three arista tiles, is a magnificent representation of the golden age of Sevillian pottery in the 16th century. The piece documents the survival and adaptation of Andalusian geometric aesthetics within the decorative programmes of civil and religious architecture in modern Spain, in the midst of the transition to the Renaissance.
The tiles are made using the cuenca or arista technique, a method of production that revolutionised architectural ceramics in the 15th and 16th centuries, replacing the laborious technique of tiling. The process consisted of stamping a wooden or metal mould onto the still-plastic clay, creating a relief of small ridges or partitions. These ridges served as a physical barrier to prevent the melted glazes of different colours from mixing during firing in the kiln. The natural colour of the fired clay and the depth of these ‘basins’ can be clearly seen on the edges and in the hollows of this panel.
There are panels with identical designs or direct variations of this ‘eight-spoke wheel’ preserved in situ in the most emblematic monuments of Andalusian civil and religious architecture. Similar patterns can be found covering the baseboards of the Reales Alcázares in Sevilla, the Casa de Pilatos, the Palacio de las Dueñas and the Monastery of San Isidoro del Campo in Santiponce. Likewise, individual pieces of identical workmanship appear in the collections of the Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions in Seville, the National Museum of Decorative Arts in Madrid and the Hispanic Society of America in New York.
Provenance
Private Collection, Madrid, Spain.
Panel of three glazed arista tiles, decorated with interlacing patterns depicting eight-pointed stars
Sevilla, Spain, early 16th century
Height: 13 cm (5.12 in) Width: 39 cm (15.35 in)
Additional Information
This panel, composed of three arista tiles, is a magnificent representation of the golden age of Sevillian pottery in the 16th century. The piece documents the survival and adaptation of Andalusian geometric aesthetics within the decorative programmes of civil and religious architecture in modern Spain, in the midst of the transition to the Renaissance.
The tiles are made using the cuenca or arista technique, a method of production that revolutionised architectural ceramics in the 15th and 16th centuries, replacing the laborious technique of tiling. The process consisted of stamping a wooden or metal mould onto the still-plastic clay, creating a relief of small ridges or partitions. These ridges served as a physical barrier to prevent the melted glazes of different colours from mixing during firing in the kiln. The natural colour of the fired clay and the depth of these ‘basins’ can be clearly seen on the edges and in the hollows of this panel.
There are panels with identical designs or direct variations of this ‘eight-spoke wheel’ preserved in situ in the most emblematic monuments of Andalusian civil and religious architecture. Similar patterns can be found covering the baseboards of the Reales Alcázares in Sevilla, the Casa de Pilatos, the Palacio de las Dueñas and the Monastery of San Isidoro del Campo in Santiponce. Likewise, individual pieces of identical workmanship appear in the collections of the Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions in Seville, the National Museum of Decorative Arts in Madrid and the Hispanic Society of America in New York.
Provenance
Private Collection, Madrid, Spain.
