Archaeometry of tiles (azulejos) produced in the region of Lisbon – 16th to 18th centuries. A comparison of Lisbon and Seville pastes for the cuerda seca and arista tiles

Abstract

This study aims to identify the origin of the Oratory of Garcia de Resende tiles and provide extensive data on the ceramic materials used in Lisbon and Seville workshops.An enlarged and detailed archaeometric study of selected tiles produced in the region of Lisbon, North and South of Tagus River, dated from the early 16th to the late 18th century has been made. The information provided by the X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), X-Ray Fluorescence Emission (XRF) and Stereo Microscopy (SM) experiments for the ceramic bodies of those tiles or tile fragments allowed us to characterize the Lisbon tile pastes in that period. The main conclusion of this study is: regardless of the enormous diversity and number of tiles produced in the Lisbon region during the period mentioned above, we could sort its ceramic pastes into four types.A parallel and similar study was performed for cuerda seca and arista tiles belonging to museum collections or found in Lisbon archaeological contexts, and usually reported as Seville (Triana) productions (15th and 16th centuries).Moreover, for the Lisbon and Seville tiles, biplots of the Potassium (K) versus Calcium (Ca) contents, normalized to the silicon content of each ceramic paste, allowed us to exhibit manifest differences between the two production centres.Confirming the traditional attributions, the compared results with those obtained on the Oratory of Garcia de Resende tiles identified a Seville production.