In Portugal, tiles are everywhere: churches, palaces, metro stations, building façades. They’re so common that we almost stop seeing them. But a tile panel is an image with its own rules, and with a few simple clues you can tell roughly when it was made and what it’s telling you.
A little history
The word azulejo comes from Arabic and means “small polished stone”. The first tiles used on a large scale in Portugal came from Seville in the early 16th century, and the National Palace of Sintra holds one of the largest collections of these Hispano-Moorish tiles. From the late 17th century, blue and white, inspired by Chinese porcelain, took over, and the 18th century was the great age of figurative panels. After the 1755 earthquake, Lisbon was rebuilt with simpler pattern tiles. In the 19th century, tiles moved out onto building façades.
1. Step back and look at the composition
Before the details, look at the whole panel. Is it a single scene or a sequence? Does it show people, landscape, architecture? Many 18th-century panels were designed for one specific place: they follow a staircase, frame a door or tell a story along a corridor.
2. Look at the frame
The border around the scene is one of the best clues to a panel’s date. Heavy, symmetrical acanthus leaves suggest early 18th-century Baroque. Shells and asymmetric curves, known as rocaille, point to mid-century Rococo.
3. Notice the colours
Polychrome tiles in yellows, greens and blues are common in the 16th and 17th centuries. Blue and white dominates the late 17th century and much of the 18th. Towards the end of that century, soft colours return, especially in the frames.
4. Find the story
Many scenes were copied from engravings that circulated around Europe: Bible episodes, lives of saints, mythology, fables, hunting scenes. Once you recognise the story, the panel comes alive. At São Vicente de Fora, for example, a whole series illustrates La Fontaine’s fables.
5. Look for welcoming figures
At the entrance of some 18th-century palaces and convents you’ll find life-size figures, such as footmen, ladies or soldiers, greeting whoever arrives. They’re called figuras de convite (“invitation figures”), a Portuguese speciality.
Where to practise
The best place to start is the National Tile Museum, in the former Madre de Deus Convent in Lisbon. It holds the Great Panorama of Lisbon, a panel about 23 metres long showing the city before the 1755 earthquake. After that, head out into the streets and look up.
