A Study of Paterna Ceramics in Mudéjar Spain
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McSweeney, Anna (2012) The Green and the Brown: A Study of Paterna Ceramics in Mudéjar, Spain. PhD Thesis, SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/13631 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination. Anna McSweeney THE GREEN AND THE BROWN: A STUDY OF PATERNA CERAMICS IN MUDÉJAR SPAIN Volume 1 (Text) SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF LONDON PhD THESIS 2012 1 DECLARATION I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the School of Oriental and African Studies concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination. __________________________ 2 ABSTRACT This thesis is an art historical analysis of the tin-glazed ceramics decorated with green and brown pigments which were made in Paterna, in Spain, in the fourteenth century. The potters who made them were mostly mudéjares, Muslims working under Christian rule in the Crown of Aragon; the use of the term mudéjar and the notion of convivencia are explored in the theoretical framework. Far from being a small, local production site, this thesis reveals a sophisticated and complex ceramics industry through its exploration of the history and production of these ceramics. The Paterna potters were part of a western Mediterranean movement in tin-glazed ceramics, which exploited new connections in international trade in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. They used Islamic production techniques, but adapted their typologies to include a range of forms that were new to ceramics in the region. The iconographical study demonstrates that the potters drew on a wide variety of sources, from both west and east, to create the motifs that decorate the ceramics. The corpus of material which forms the basis for this study is illustrated in the Catalogue, as a separate volume which, for the first time, brings together images of all the ceramics of this type. 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Firstly I am grateful to my supervisor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, Dr Anna Contadini, with whom I first encountered Islamic art in Dublin and without whom this thesis would neither have started nor been finished. My studies were generously funded by the Fouad Zagloul educational foundation (University of North Florida), for which I am very thankful. I am grateful to SOAS Generic Skills Research Fund for enabling me to travel to Siena in 2008 to give a paper at the annual conference of the Medieval Pottery Research Group. I was struck by the generosity of scholars and academics who I met during my various stays in Spain, who never failed to give me their time, knowledge and often even their books. In particular I would like to thank Maria Antonia Casanovas at the Museu de Ceràmica in Barcelona and Jaume Coll Conesa at the Museo Nacional de Cerámica in Valencia. Also Joana Pujol at the Museo de Mallorca and Guillermo Rosselló Bordoy in Palma de Mallorca; Mercédes Mesquida García for showing me around Paterna and for accommodating me at her home; Vicent Escrivá in Liria; Judit Molera for her detailed explanations of the archaeometrical data; Isabel Flores in Almeria; Francisco Navarro for his guided tours of Islamic Murcia and long lunches; Manuel Ruzafa García in Valencia; Alberto Canto García at the Universidad Autonoma in Madrid; Eduardo Manzano Moreno at CSIC; Ignacio Quintana Frías at the Instituto Geologico y Minero de España; Julia Beltrán de Heredia in Barcelona. In Pisa, Graziella Berti was kind enough to show me around the churches with bacini and the Museo di San Matteo. In Sicily, the staff at the Museo Regionale di Caltagirone were endlessly patient with my photographic demands. 4 I owe thanks to Reino Leifkes and Mariam Rosser-Owen at the V&A; Peregrine Horden from the Royal Holloway, University of London and Brian Catlos from the University of California who gave me their time and advice at the Society for the Medieval Mediterranean conference at the University of Exeter in 2009; Thilo Rehren at UCL Institute of Archaeology; Peter Claughton at Exeter University; Olivia Remie Constable at the University of Notre Dame; the potter John Hudson; Rebecca Bridgman at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. I am also very grateful to the library staff who have helped me throughout my studies, particularly at the Universidad de Valencia, Universidad de Murcia, the National Art Library in London and to Yelena Schlyuger at SOAS library. Thanks also to the members of the group of Researchers of Islamic Art in London for their inspiration and insight, as well as to my parents and to Paul for their endless patience and encouragement. Notes on dating and transliteration Dating is given according to the year of the Christian Era. The transliteration used in this thesis for Arabic is derived from the English Transliteration System in The International Journal of Middle East Studies. When called for, I have used the Castilian rather than Catalan or Valencian languages, except for the name of Jaume I, who as king of the Crown of Aragon is usually referred to in this form. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Volume 1 (Text) Page No. Abstract 2 Acknowledgments 3 Table of Contents 5 List of Illustrations 9 PART ONE Chapter One Introduction 19 Chapter Two Literature Review 26 Historical scholarship 28 Modern scholarship 33 Archaeometry 40 Chapter Three Historical context 44 The early habitation of Paterna 46 Muslim Paterna 47 Christian conquest 51 The development of a pottery industry 54 A changing population – who was living in Paterna? 55 The identity of Paterna potters 58 Language 61 Mudéjar daily life and social status 63 6 Chapter Four Theoretical Issues 70 Paterna – convivencia or conveniencia? 78 PART TWO Chapter Five Excavations, Distribution and Collections 85 Paterna production sites: Ollerías Mayores and Ollerías Menores 86 The distribution of Paterna ware 90 Other production sites? 97 The rediscovery of the workshops 100 Recent excavations 104 Collections of Paterna ware 110 Chapter Six Typologies and Consumption 129 Typologies 130 Old and new shapes in Paterna ware 142 Function and social context 147 Other ceramic types 151 Chapter Seven The Production of Paterna Ware: Materials, Techniques, Workshops 160 Materials: Clay and Tin 161 Pigments 179 Techniques: Glazing, fritting, glaze composition and firing 181 Workshops 189 7 Chapter Eight Chronologies: dating Paterna ware 197 Coin finds 198 Comparative archaeological material 200 Stylistic analysis 206 Documentary evidence 209 Islamic ceramics in Paterna? 214 The end of Paterna ware 215 Paterna ware in a wider context 217 From east to west: the origins of green and brown tin-glazed ceramics 219 PART THREE Chapter Nine Iconography: General Themes 240 A school of painting? 242 The courtly love tradition 256 Iconography and Style: Motifs in focus Human Figures 261 Coats of arms 281 Castles 284 Animals 287 Pseudo Arabic Writing 317 Khams motif 323 Geometric and vegetal motifs 327 Chapter Ten Conclusion 337 8 Bibliography 342 Volume Two (Catalogue) Catalogue Introduction 1 Organisation of the Catalogue 3 Terminologies 6 Table of Contents (Catalogue) 7 9 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS All photographs and drawings by the author unless otherwise stated. Chapter Three – Historical context Fig.1 Map of western Europe. (Image adapted from Caiger-Smith, Lustre, p.19). Fig.2 Map of the huerta of Islamic Valencia, showing the canal systems including the Moncada which runs through Paterna. (From Glick, Irrigation, pp.24-25.) Fig.3 The point where the Uncía canal branch breaks away, to the left, from the main Moncada canal which continues to the right, in Paterna. (Photograph taken 2008.) Fig.4 Large earthenware disc known as a rodell. Paterna, fifteenth century. Museo Nacional de Cerámica y de las Artes Suntuarias ‘González Martí’, Valencia. Inv.1/8244. Chapter Five – Excavations, Distribution and Collections Fig.5 Satellite image showing the sites of the Ollerías Mayores and the Ollerías Menores in Paterna. (From Google Earth.) Fig.6 Satellite image of the Ollerías Mayores. (From Google Earth.) Fig.7 Satellite image of Paterna town with the excavation sites in the Ollerías Menores area marked. (From Google Earth.) Fig.7a Satellite image of the western Mediterranean showing major sites where Paterna ware has been found or excavated. (From Google Earth). Fig.7b Tin-glazed Paterna bowl with manganese and copper decoration, found at Pula, Sardinia. Diam.:14.2cm Height:5.8cm (From Blake, ‘The ceramic hoard from Pula’ p.386 no.35). Fig.8 The sketch made by Novella of the sites excavated in the early twentieth century. (From Folch i Torres, Noticies, p.10.) Fig.9 Photographs of the excavation of ceramics from Paterna in the early twentieth century. (From Folch i Torres, Noticies, pp.8-9.) Fig.10 Satellite image showing the site of the Ollerías Mayores. (From Google Earth.) Fig.11 Map indicating where the Barrachina, Carmona and Miralles excavations took place in 1982.