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Hispano-Moresque ware

Hispano-Moresque ware commonly refers to glazed earthenware that was created by Muslim craftsmen in Spain, especially in Málaga and Granada, until the production of Spanish maiolica ware in the sixteenth century after the fall of the Caliphate of Cordoba.

The origins of Hispano-Moresque ware are directly influenced by the Islamic and Byzantine roots found in the Umayyad capital of Damascus as ‘Abd al-Rahman I rebuilt Cordoba to reflect his Syrian heritage. After the victory of the Christian Reconquista in the 1400s, the production of Hispano-Moresque severely declined. However, Spanish Christian potters later began to produce the Hispano-Moresque ware with the incorporation of Christian motifs. This became known as Spanish maiolica ware, which was exported throughout most of Europe. As an extension of Hispano-Moresque ware and due to the successful production of Spanish Maiolica ware, the lustreware produced in Al-Andalus prior to the fifteenth century remains widely understudied.

Based on the elements of Spanish Maiolica ware, Islamic motifs included geometric shapes, Arabic inscriptions, and animal and botanical depictions. Hispano-Moresque ware was heavily influenced by the lustreware in Baghdad during the 9th century, and by the ornamented ceramic with luster colors, created in Old Cairo and Persia during the 12th century.

At first centered on Málaga in the south, and using typical Islamic decoration, by the 15th century the largest production was around Valencia, which had long been reconquered by the Crown of Aragon. Wares from Manises and other Valencian towns were mainly for the Christian market, and exported very widely.

The term Hispano-Moresque is primarily used to signify a type of medieval tin-glazed lustreware specific to Andalusia in the early medieval time period. This lustreware is heavily influenced by islamic maiolica, thus its reference to the term “Moresque”. Later manifestations of Hispano-Moresque proto-maiolica are referred to as Talavera pottery, although this type of lustreware lacks some of the characteristics of true Hispano-Moresque ware.

Hispano-Moresque Ewer Basin with Inscriptions. Subtly integrated into the intricate pattern of the raised central boss are the letters "IHS," a contraction of the Latin word for Christ.

Origins

Over the following centuries, medieval Muslim Spaniards introduced two ceramic techniques to Europe: glazing with an opaque white tin-glaze, and lustreware, which imitates metallic finishes with iridescent effects. Hispano-Moresque ware uses both processes, applying the paint as an overglaze which is then fired again.

Gold and silver vessels, commonly used by the Christian elites in the medieval societies of Rome and Persia, are prohibited by hadiths; because of this, lustreware became a speciality of Islamic pottery in the middle ages as a function of religious belief.  

The Qur’an states that golden platters in paradise contain “whatever the souls desire.”(Q 43:71).  The Qur’an specifies that “in this life, those who drink from silver and golden vessels will, however, feel the fire (q.v.) of hell (q.v.) in their stomachs (Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ, vi, 135)”. Thus, the production of Hispano-Moresque ware flourished in the Islamic world.

Style

The motifs found in Hispano-Moresque ware are characterized by geometric shapes, distinct color, Arabic language, and occasional depictions of animals. This influenced the later production of Spanish Maiolica ware.

Hispano-Moresque ware held religious significance through the repertoire of geometric motifs that were contained in painted compartments, Arabic inscriptions, and dominant colors of gold and blue that most likely alluded to the sun and sky, while other colors, such as brown, green, and yellow, were much less used.

Around the 1400s, the depictions of animals became popular with Muslim buyers as a result of their popularity abroad. The Alhambra vases represented an example of this growing trend with their inclusion of animals like the pairs of gazelles. By then the Nasrid kings of Granada had given themselves heraldic arms in the Christian way, which are also seen on pottery.

Spanish Maiolica Ware Dish Details with Vine-Leaf and Mock Arabic from the XV century.

The style of Hispano-Moresque ware prior to the Catholic Reconquista directly influences Christian artisans who imitated certain motifs in an effort to maintain the standard for luxury and appearance in pottery. After the decline of true Hispano-Moresque ware around 1450, what is called Spanish Maiolica rose as a continuation of the style.

Albert Van de Put categorizes the Islamically influenced motifs found in the Spanish Maiolica ware into ten categories: large mock-Arabic character, small mock-Arabic character, spur-band and cross-hatching, flower and leaf on dotted ground, large vine-leaf and small flower (two sizes), foliage, bryony leaf and small flower, smaller rounded vine-leaf, and diapering of dots and stalks derived from preceding, and gadroons.  

Other decorations were also incorporated as the central motif, such as coats of arms and the Christian IHS monogram that was derived from Gothic art and the border decoration, also known as animal style decoration, of illuminated manuscripts. These pieces of pottery were both the pinnacle of luxury and also extremely functional as each piece had a designated purpose.

Many of the large Valencian dishes with intricate designs centering on a coat of arms are also decorated on the underside with boldly-painted animal figures occupying the whole space, often also taken from heraldry.

Shapes of the fifteenth century Spanish Maiolica ware included large serving dishes with coats of arms made for wealthy people all over Europe and the albarello. Also included were jugs (some on high feet, the citra and the grealet), a deep-sided dish (the lebrillo de alo) and the eared bowl (cuenco de oreja). These wares had a considerable influence on early Italian maiolica, indeed two possible derivations of the name have connections with it. Towards the end of the century designs began to incorporate raised elements in imitation of European silverware shapes, such as gadrooning.

Centers of production

Andalusian

The earliest major center of fine pottery in Al-Andalus was Málaga in southern Spain. The thirteenth fourteenth and fifteenth centuries saw lustreware flourish in this massive production site. Málaga is the center where the best-known wares were produced under the Islamic kingdom, as opposed to the lustreware which was being produced by a workforce presumed to be largely Muslim, or Morisco, under Christian rule. Wares from this center were celebrated for their gold lustre on white enamel. The other significant center for production of lustre ware in Andalusia was Granada. Home of the Nasrid court, Granada supported the demand for a large amount of luxurious items to adorn royal residences, including fine lustre pottery. The clear distinction between lustreware from Málaga and Granada is the inclusion of blue paint with the gold lustre over a red clay that is characteristic of the region. These centers remained under Muslim rule until 1487, shortly before the fall of Granada, the last Moorish kingdom. Murcia and Almería were perhaps also early centers of production. This pottery remained similar to styles seen in other Islamic countries, although much of it was being exported to Christian markets, as can be seen by the coats of arms on many pieces.

At least one authority, Alan Caiger-Smith, excludes this pottery from the term "Hispano-Moresque", but most who use the term at all use it to include Málaga and other Andalusian wares from the Islamic period as well as the Valencian pottery. When Spanish medieval pottery was first studied in the 19th century, there was an awareness of the Valencian centers but very little of those in al-Andalus. There has been a steady re-attribution of types of pottery formerly attributed to Manises and following archaeological discoveries in Málaga, and scientific analysis of the clays used.

Though other types of painted pottery, not usually called Hispano-Moresque ware, were produced in Al-Andalus earlier, firm evidence of lustreware production is not found before the early or mid-13th century. It may have been generated by Egyptian potters escaping political disturbances. Already it was being exported, as some of the earliest evidence exists in the bowls set as decoration into the facades of churches in Pisa. An import from Málaga through Sandwich, Kent in England for the Spanish-born Queen Eleanor of Castile was recorded in 1289, consisting of "42 bowls, 10 dishes, and 4 earthenware jars of foreign colour (extranei coloris)". Málagan ware was also exported to the Islamic world, and has been found at Fustat (medieval Cairo) and elsewhere.

Spanish Maiolica Ware Dish Details with Vine-Leaf and Bryony from the XV century.

The best known and most impressive examples of Andalusian wares are the Alhambra vases, a number of very large vases made to stand in niches in the Alhambra in Granada, and perhaps elsewhere. These are very atypical in traditional Islamic pottery as they only have a decorative function with no practical purpose. These vases are the largest pieces of lustreware known. They are based on traditional shapes descended from the ancient amphora, but at about 115 to 170 cm tall, they are close to the height of a human. All remaining vases are individual in their decoration and shape. The dates of the Alhambra vases range from the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. All the Alhambra vases are now in museums: five in Spain and others in St Petersburg, Berlin, Washington D.C., Stockholm and Palermo. Various large fragments also survive. Lustre tiles are also still in place at the Alhambra. The "Fortuny Tablet", a unique plaque measuring 90 x 44 cm, has a garden-like design, inside a border with an inscription praising Yusuf III, Sultan of Granada (r. 1408-1417). Its design resembles that of some Spanish carpets.

After Yusuf's throne was inherited by an eight-year-old in 1418, the Nasrid kingdom went into decline before its final conquest. As a result, the production of fine pottery seems to cease abruptly around 1450, even though the name obra de Malequa ("Málaga work") continued to be used in Valencia for lustreware long afterwards.

Valencia

Valencia and its suburbs Manises and Paterna became important centres after potters migrated there from the south; the city had returned to Christian rule from 1238, and the immigration of skilled potters had been going on since at least the mid-14th century. In 1362 a cardinal commissioned floor-tiles in "obra de Malicha" ("Malaga work", probably meaning lustreware) for the Pope's Palais des Papes in Avignon from two masters in Manises, at least one with an Arabic name (though "Juan" as his forename). In 1484 a German traveller mentioned vessels "which are made by the Moorish potters".

It seems that the local lords of Manises, the family of Buyl, encouraged the immigration, and may have acted as distributors and agents for the product; certainly when Maria of Castile, Queen of Aragon, wanted to order a large service in 1454, she wrote to the Buyl lord for him to arrange it. Several Buyl's had served as ambassadors, to Granada as well as Christian courts, giving them contacts in many markets. They seem to have taken a 10% royalty on all sales of pottery, and enjoyed a very high income from these. The largest deposit of Manises ware found by archaeology, apart from Manises itself, comes from Sluis in the Netherlands, then part of the territories of the wealthy Duchy of Burgundy. Manises also had clay and a cave nearby where a special sand used as a raw material for glazes was extracted.

Catalonia

Barcelona, located in Catalonia in northeastern Spain, which was under Muslim rule from 718 to 801., This city became a centre for pottery much later, probably receiving immigrant Christian potters from Al-Andalus, especially Valencia, during the later Reconquista period. It was important at first for wares resembling the brown and green decorated pottery of Paterna and in the 16th century for lustreware in a "warm silvery-gold", either reflecting different materials available, or a deliberate change in style. Several other towns began to produce lustreware in the same period.

Decline and revival

Alan Caiger-Smith describes the Valencian industry as the victim of its own success; as the wares initially produced for the very top of society, usually as bespoke commissions with personalized heraldry, were demanded by the expanding lesser nobility and bourgeoisie, both the size of pieces and their quality of decoration declined, with painting becoming more routine repetitions of simple motifs. The Italian maiolica industry, largely developed in imitation of the Spanish, was developing in directions where Valencia could or would not follow. That the Italian figurative Renaissance painting was not attempted in Spain is perhaps not surprising, but Valencia only joined the Italians in copying simpler shapes from metalware, the Italians being more ambitious.

The Reconquista captured Valencia for the third and final time in 1238, and Málaga was one of the last cities to fall, after the Siege of Málaga (1487). The remaining Islamic Mudéjar and converted Morisco populations were expelled from Spain in 1496 and 1609 respectively, the latter Expulsion of the Moriscos involving a third of the population in the province of Valencia. But many of the craftsmen had long been Christians in any case, and the Hispano-Moresque style survived in the province of Valencia, although showing an immediate drop in quality. Later wares usually have a coarse reddish-buff body, dark blue decoration and luster; by now their position as the most prestigious European pottery had been lost to Italian and other producers.

Wares continued to be produced in a slow decline, now relying on relatively local demand for tiles and other decorated items, including votive offerings. There were still said to be thirty working kilns at Manises around 1800, by which time the first efforts to revive the industry's former glory had already been made. The secrets of the techniques for making high-quality wares were largely lost, and after Carlos III of Spain took a personal interest a report was commissioned in 1785 to record the methods then being used, lest more was lost. By the 1870s a market had developed for pieces as close to the early work as could be managed, and a number of new firms were set up, some of which continue today, although little original work in the tradition is done.

Other uses of the term

The term "Hispano-Moresque" is also used to describe figured silk textiles with geometric patterns woven in Al-Andalus, and sometimes to refer to Mudéjar or other work in other media, such as carpets, an industry which followed a similar pattern to pottery in Spain. Hispano-Moresque ware is also used to describe later traditions of Maiolica and Lustreware, including Talavera pottery. Talavera is a form of Hispano-Moresque ware which evolved into a more niche style during its peak in popularity among 15th century Italians. The earliest iterations of Islamic earthenware are sometimes referred to as proto-maiolica. The non-specificity of the term Hispano-Moresque ware and the disjointedness which accompanies its many forms and names makes the lustreware style difficult to study in its entirety. The Metropolitan Museum of Art uses the term to describe a gilded parade helmet in its collection.

Testing out the bold feature.