Ouro sobre o azul(ejo)

Abstract

In documents from the 16th and 17th centuries we can read sometimes the expression “golden azulejos”. This is a matter that azulejo historians never fully studied but which raises interesting questions. Sometimes this expression could be related to azulejos in the “lusterware” technique, a secretive and complex process which allowed the ceramic surfaces to be decorated with gold and copper metallic shine. Another possibility to interpret the expression “golden azulejos” is related with a form of decoration used from the late 16th to the early 17th centuries. Sometimes the glazed surface of azulejos was painted with an oil-based golden paint, presumably over white tiles or over compositions of “enxaquetado” (chequered compositions) of several colours. Examples of these decorations are rare today due to the fraility of the process. With this presentation we aim to present two processes of decorations of azulejos in Portugal that remain almost ignored but in their time could return a quite staggering effect.