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The term is applied to any kind of earthenware slab applied to any surface of a building. Roof tiles have little artistic interest and art history is concerned with the tiles of floors, walls and ceilings. Decorative tile work was invented in the Near East and was practised there for a longer period than anywhere else. As early as the 4th millennium B.C., the Egyptians used tiles with a surface glaze stained blue with copper. The Assyrians and Babylonians (9th to 6th centuries B.C.) made wall tiles of earthenware with patterns or figures in coloured glazes. Under Islamic rule ceramic art in the Near East readied unparalleled heights.
The earliest Islamic tiles date from the 9th century A. D. and include squares with a plain green or brown glaze and decorative designs such as that of a cock within a wreath painted on squares surrounded by oblong hexagons mottled to resemble marble. Quantities of lustre ware with brown or yellow painting executed in a sketchy, broad style found at Rayy include star-shaped tiles. Another important tile-making centre was Kashan, where the tiles were painted in brownish lustre.
The Islamic veto on the representation of living things was observed in the decoration of religious buildings but usually ignored elsewhere. Thus, many Islamic tiles show human figures, birds animals and trees. Carved and glazed tiles were made in the region of Samarkand from about 1369 onwards and adorn the mausoleum of Tamerlane's sister ( 1371) and buildings in Bokhara. Patterns in gold alone, applied by stencils are found on hexagonal blue or turquoise tiles in the 13th-century Kiosk and Kara Tal Madrasa at Konia.
The brickwork of Persian buildings was often arranged to form patterns or Kufic inscriptions on the outer walls, and these designs or lettering were picked out in coloured glazes. The technique of tile mosaic flourished in Persia during the 15th century, the most famous example being the decoration of the Blue Mosque at Tabriz ( 1465). Potters from Tabriz were probably the first to make tiles painted in underglaze blue with patterns similar to those found on blue and white Ming porcelain.
From Tabriz this blue and white tilework was introduced into Turkey. Blue and white tiles in the Chinese taste were used in the decoration of the Great Mosque at Damascus and similar tiles occur on buildings in Cairo dating between 1495 and 1544. The early blue and white tiles were succeeded by tiles painted in blue, turquoise and sometimes olive green.
Seventeenth century Isnik tiles are painted in scarlet, emerald green, blue and turquoise with a frequent use of black outlines, on the pure white slip which is peculiarly Turkish. The designs are derived principally from plants, flowers and arabesques. Towards the end of the 17th century the tile industry of Isnik began to decline until in 1726 there was a revival in Istanbul itself.
Imitations of Near Eastern tiles were made in Chelsea and at Merton Abbey by William de Morgan ( 18391917) who attempted to reproduce the green, blue and turquoise tiles of Isnik.
Decorated tiles did not come into use in Europe until the second half of the 12th century when they were relegated to the floor. Tile mosaic and inlaid tiles were probably first invented in northern France, their use spreading from there to England and the Netherlands. The tile mosaic consisted of small tiles of red or brown clay cut into shape while soft, and fitted together on a cement bed after firing. The upper surface was always covered with a transparent yellow glaze and this was sometimes stained green, blue or black. Some tiles were coated with pipe-clay. One of the earliest tile mosaic floors is in the abbey of St Denis (c. 1260).
A development in the making of tiles occurred when, after the tile had been shaped, a pattern was struck into its surface by means of a wooden block on which the design had been carved in relief. The impression was then inlaid with white pipe-clay. A splendid medieval tile floor of this type has survived in the chapterhouse of Westminster Abbey.
The 15th century witnessed an innovation in technique: the white clay was not so deeply embedded in the surface and seems to have been smeared over the tile before the impression was made. Examples from Malvern Priory are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. French tiles of the 13th and 14th centuries differ little from English examples, but towards the beginning of the 16th century they take on a more distinctive character. The pattern appears dark on a light ground and Renaissance ornament is introduced.
Meanwhile in Germany, whose cultural area embraced also Austria, Switzerland, Poland and Denmark, wall tiles decorated in relief were popular. The oldest surviving tiles of this kind were found in the church of St Fides at Schlettstade near Strassburg. Hexagonal and diamond shaped, these red clay tiles are moulded in high relief with fantastic centaurs and birds. They date from about 1150. In the late 5th and 16th centuries the manufacture of stove tiles became more important than the making of floor tiles. Tiles from 15th-century German stoves show decoration moulded in relief including naturalistic designs and geometrical patterns. After about 1520, Renaissance designs were common and figures in classical costume were favoured.
In the craft of tile-making as in all other branches of the arts, inspiration during the Renaissance period came from Italy. Tiles first became popular in Italy during the 15th century when the potter aspired to rival the painter. The earliest existing majolica pavement is at Naples in a chapel added to the church of S. Giovanni a Carbonara before 1427. Bold designs, including profile heads decorate long hexagonal tiles arranged round squares. On the whole, 15th-century Italian tiles are distinguished by bold and rather sombre colour dominated by dark blue. The style of the High Renaissance, on the other hand, is characterized by minute detail and a predominance of orange and pale yellow colouring. Italian potters carried the Renaissance style all over Europe. By the 16th century tin-glazed wares in the Italian manner were being made in Germany, France and the Netherlands. But very soon in the Netherlands tiles began to be used in the form of large pictorial compositions on walls spread over a number of tiles.
During the wars with Spain craftsmen fled from Antwerp to what was to become the Dutch Republic and by the beginning of the 17th century Dutch wall tiles had assumed a highly individual character. Tile pictures often appeared as house signs in Holland, but the usual place was on the intetior walls; they were especially used to decorate fireplaces and overmantels or to form a wainscot. The earliest Dutch tiles were painted with arabesques on dark blue or light orange grounds. Later, owing to the influence of Chinese taste, blue or, less commonly, purple monochrome painting on a white ground supplanted all other colouring. Dutch tiles were exported in great numbers and some of the finest examples of their use are found in the chateau of Rambouillet near Paris and in the Amalienburg pavilion of Schloß Nymphenburg near Munich. In London and Bristol, where Dutch influence was strong, the production of tiles was limited though tile pictures were used as house signs in 17th-century London.
In Spain, the meeting-ground of Christian and Islamic cultures, tile mosaic reached its full development in the south in the 14th century. The finest examples are in the Alhambra and in the church of S. Gil, Seville. Tiles decorated with designs of which the outlines were depressed by means of a relief mould, were made on a large scale in the 16th century at Seville. A special type of tile was made by the creators of the superb Hispano-Mauresque lustreware. The earliest examples show designs painted in blue and including Christian and Islamic symbols; but as the 15th century advanced the oriental motifs were displaced by the foliage and heraldic figures of Gothic art. The technique of majolica was introduced into Spain early in the 16th century and the tile picture painted continuously over a number of tiles became a favourite art form.
In connection with the history of Spanish pottery, mention may be made of the majolica made at Puebla in Mexico from the middle of the 17th century onwards. The style was at first entirely Spanish, then became influenced by the Chinese taste and, by 1700, Indian painters had incorporated a strong native flavour.
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