Análise de Pastas Cerâmicas e Vidrados dos Azulejos do Frontal de Altar do Convento de Nossa Senhora dos Remédios de Évora

Abstract

The second half of the 16th century is a time of transition in the history of tiles in Portugal, marked by the slow decline of the orders from Seville, and the rise of the “new” centres of Lisbon and Talavera de la Reina. In this process, Archbishop D. José de Melo ordered, by the year 1611, a set of blue and white pattern tiles for the decoration of the walls of the Episcopal Palace in Évora that can be attributed to the production of Talavera. Also assigned to Talavera´s production, and probably ordered by the same Archbishop D. José de Melo, are the tiles of two polychrome altar frontals made for the church of the convent of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios in Évora, consecrated in 1614. In this work, part of a vaster study undertaken for the characterization of the Talavera’s production is presented. The material characterization of the sets was done by optical microscopy (MO), scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy coupled (SEM/EDS) and micro X-ray diffraction (μ-XRD). The study intents to fully characterize the Talavera’s tile production, allowing to compare the origin and the production process of the different sets under study and contribute to the knowledge about the orders of tiles in Évora in the first quarter of the 17th century.