Unknown Maker, Spanish

Heavily chipped on its surface, this tile was made in what is now Spain after the fall of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada (1238-1492). Almost 800 years of Muslim rule ended when the Christian Crown of Castile conquered the Iberian Peninsula, but many Islamic influences remain in the region today. This includes the cuerda seca (dry cord) technique, adopted from Central Asian ceramicists in the 1300s. Artists create geometric patterns by painting thin lines of resistive wax, which prevent colored glazes from running together during the firing process. This tile would be grouped with identical ones to create an alicatado (mosaic), admirable both up close and from a distance as decoration on palace walls and ceilings.