Portuguese Tiles
The decorative program of the Saint James Church was completed between the years 1699 and 1700, already in the final part of the archbishopric of Friar Luís da Silva Teles. The iconographic program articulates the tile panels with the frescoes on the ceiling, in an exaltation of the Sacrament of the Eucharist, a fundamental theme for the Catholic Church after the Council of Trent.
The program of the Jesuit philosophy course was structured in several stages and firmly anchored in Aristotelian thought. In the early levels, the students earned a solid initial training in Natural Philosophy and Logic.
Both in the panel tiles of the physics class at the Colégio do Espírito Santo and the mathematics class in the Aula da Esfera, the Archimedes weapon established a bridge between the sciences and the successful evangelizing activity of the Jesuits.
In the ensemble that decorates the main hall of Colégio de Santo Antão-o-Novo, in Lisbon, the panel with the representation of a gear system that lifts the weight of the Earth is one of the good examples of transposing an erudite knowledge to eighteenth-century tiles.
In one of the panels of the Colégio do Espírito Santo classroom, the scientific discipline of Physics is compared with The punishment of Prometheus, a theme with an enormous tradition among humanists since the work of Andrea Alciato.
In Evora, a small room in the parish church of Saint Mammes has a decorative ensemble that combines the tiles on the walls with the frescoes on the ceilings in a coherent iconographic program in praise of the Blessed Sacrament.
El trasfondo moral estoico fue la razón principal para la elección de los emblemas representados en los azulejos del claustro del Convento de San Francisco, en la ciudad de Salvador de Bahía, Brasil.
The renovation of the inner space of the Igreja da Misericórdia in Évora is one of the best examples of the importance of tiles for combining the discourse of images with the decorative program, in a campaign carried out by the painter António de Oliveira Bernardes, in 1716.
The tiles painted by Gabriel del Barco for the Convent of Nossa Senhora da Assunção are one of the most amazing works of the Spanish painter, a pioneer of blue and white figurative tiles in Portugal.
Green and white or blue and white tile sets often received a gilded decoration, applied on the walls, with no relation to the ceramic manufacturing process. These relatively fragile golden ornaments have faded over the years, but traces remain on the Chapter House of Beja.
The construction of the octagonal tower of the Jesuit University was funded by António Franco, and the edifice was an opportunity for the elaboration of an innovative iconographic program.
In 1675, there was a complete transformation of the inner space of the University of Évora Great Hall.
Portuguese Tiles 