Cistercian Tiling In Medieval Architecture

Cistercian Tiling In Medieval Architecture

Corrie Byrne
Maves
November 12, 2010

Cistercian Mosaic Tiles Within the Context of European and English Medieval Tiling

Brief History and General Craft
Although various forms of tiling had been used in Europe in the early part of the first millennium, and of course before that as well, the enamel and precise craft of the gothic tile seems to have originated with the arrival of the Moors in Spain around 711 A.D. The tiles they brought with them, "under the name of azulejos (from the Arabic zuleiek, a varnished tile), became very popular with the Spaniards."(Fairholt) From there the knowledge presumably drifted into France. "We now come to the consideration of the so-called Norman or, properly speaking, inlaid encaustic tiles, a kind used almost universally in France from the twelfth to the sixteenth century to pave the floors and wainscot the walls of churches, and after the Conquest, for a like purpose in England." (51 coleman)
Square encaustic tiles were by and far the most common tile during the twelfth through sixteenth centuries because they were uniform and could be manufactured in large quantities. Square tiles could be glazed with one solid color, so as to make a checkered floor where pattern was established   due simply to the contrast between basic colors, as in the top portion of the Halesowen pavement seen to the left; stamped in relief or counter relief and then glazed (or not glazed) and fired to create texture in the tile; or stamped, the stamped parts filled with a white clay or some type of slip so as to make two colors (yellow and red, yellow and green, etc) and then fired so as to create a picture, as seen in the bottom portion of the Halesowen pavement seen to the left. The picture could reside in just one tile, independent of others as in the Halesowen example, or be made of several square tiles placed together to make a bigger pattern as we will see in the forthcoming examples in Cherstey and Westminster. Themes for these tiles...