Architecture & the Arts - Portugal - page 1004

Portugal's earliest tiles are Moorish, from Seville. These were decorated with interlock-
ing geometric or floral patterns (figurative representations aren't an option for Muslim
artists for religious reasons). After the Portuguese captured Ceuta in Morocco in 1415,
they began exploring the art themselves. The 16th-century Italian invention of majolica, in
which colours are painted directly onto wet clay over a layer of white enamel, gave works
a frescolike brightness and kicked off the Portuguese azulejo love affair.
The earliest home-grown examples, polychrome and geometric, date from the 1580s,
and may be seen in churches such as Lisbon's Igreja de São Roque, providing an ideal
counterbalance to fussy, gold-heavy baroque.
The late 17th century saw a fashion for huge panels, depicting everything from saints to
seascapes. As demand grew, mass production became necessary and the Netherlands'
blue-and-white Delft tiles started appearing.
The Lisbon metro is not just about transport - it's an art gallery, showcasing the best of Portuguese con-
temporary art and architecture, with especially wonderful azulejos . Check out Metro Lisboa's website at
www.metrolisboa.pt .
Portuguese tile-makers rose to the challenge of this influx, and the splendid work of vir-
tuoso Portuguese masters António de Oliveira Bernardes and his son Policarpo in the 18th
century springs from this competitive creativity. You can see their work in Évora, in the
impressive Igreja de São João.
By the end of the 18th century, industrial-scale manufacture began to affect quality,
coupled with the massive demand for tiles after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. (Tiling
answered the need for decoration, and was cheap and practical - a solution for a popula-
tion that had felt the ground move beneath its feet.)
From the late 19th century, the art-nouveau and art-deco movements took azulejos by
storm, providing fantastic facades and interiors for shops, restaurants and residential
buildings. Today, azulejos still coat contemporary life, and you can explore the latest in
azulejos in the Lisbon metro. Maria Keil (1914-2012) designed 19 of the stations, from
the 1950s onwards - look out for her wild modernist designs at the stations of Rossio,
Restauradores, Intendente, Marquês de Pombal, Anjos and Martim Moniz. Oriente also
showcases extraordinary contemporary work by artists from five continents.