A comparison of the earliest faience tiles produced in Lisbon with earlier and later types

Abstract

The manufacture of majolica azulejos in Portugal started, as far as we know presently, during the 1550s by the workshop of Hans Goos, a Flemish potter established in Lisbon as João de Góis. The productions of what we may call the “circle of João de Góis” (maybe only a single workshop, or maybe several sharing the same technology) encompasses a period starting with his own productions before 1560 and lasting at least until the 1580s, possibly beyond. To address the characteristics of those productions and what makes them distinguishable, we have to compare them with those that chronologically preceded or followed it. This article attempts such a study, noting however that the notions of “antecedent” and “subsequent” do not imply a technological connection in the form that the latter is rooted in the former.