309
end of the 19th century in poor state. Loose pieces, some complete
panels and panel-fragments were replaced in order to recuperate
their original size in the three rooms of the Cuarto del Principe,
specially on the western side of the Patio de las Doncellas and in
open spaces in the rooms on the ground floor (Phase 5). Finally in
1905 the entrance hall was covered (Phase 6).
Notes
1 This article is based on the lecture delivered within the frame-
work of the series
Seminars on Archeological Intervention and Resto-
ration
. Initially it was entitled “Tiles of the Royal Alcázar of Seville.
Vestiges of its past”. Later, this title changed into “The tile-work
in the Mudéjar alace in the Royal Alcázar of Seville. A Preliminary
Visual Analysis”, also used for this article.
2 Rafael CÓMEZ RAMOS, “El Alcázar bajomedieval”,
Apuntes del
Alcázar,
nº 14 (2013), pp. 118-137.
3 In 1904, he stated: “There is no reason not to consider that the
tiles date from the same period of the construction of the palace”
(José GESTOSO Y PÉREZ,
Historia de los barros vidriados sevilla-
nos
, Sevilla, 1904, pp. 84-85, desde ahora Gestoso, 1904), though
on February 23rd, 1917, during a lecture entitled “Sevillian glazed
clay” delivered on his behalf by his friend Vicente Lampérez —he
had health problems— at the Ateneo de Madrid and which origi-
nal text gently gave to us some years ago his grand-daughter Salud
Rojas Gestoso, he wrote: “Today we consider that such tiles date
from the Catholic Monarchs time, when the mudejar ceilings were
used to cover those galleries”. A press release on this event was
published in
El Debate
, Madrid, on February 24th, 1917. On this
composition, see also Balbina MARTÍNEZ CAVIRÓ,
Cerámica His-
panomusulmana. Andalusí y Mudéjar
, Ed. El Viso, Madrid, 1991, p.
25.
4 A couple of panels Gestoso donated to Seville Cathedral. Appar-
ently they are part of this monument.
5 Guillermo de Osma assembled an extraordinary collection of me-
dieval Spanish-Muslim ceramics. Gestoso was a friend of his and
one of his advisors. One of these panels has been recently exhib-
ited at the exhibition commissioned by Alfonso PLEGUEZUELO
and João CASTEL-BRANCO
O brilho das cidades. A rota do azulejo
,
Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisboa 2013-2014. See the entry nr
5, p. 205 of this catalogue, written by Elisa RAMIRO who states
that the work comes from the Patio de las Doncellas. However, it
is remarkable that the colors of this panel do not match the copies
replacing it, which leads to two hypotheses: the documentation
may refer to another work or, more likely, some of the cloths repro-
duced between 1894 and 1896 respected the design of the original
panels but not the colors. The other panel of this collection, which
seems to come from the Alcázar, matches the original one in its
colors but not in their distribution. This may be due to the order
given to the pieces by the person who assembled them. An identi-
cal panel can be found in the Gestoso collection, at Seville Cathe-
dral, as mentioned in a previous footnote.
6 In a previous work, I presented a preliminary three-stage scheme,
which, after a closer study, I must increase to the double. Cfr.: Al-
fonso PLEGUEZUELO, “Un palacio de azulejos”,
Apuntes del Al-
cázar
, nº 14 (2013), p. 216.
7 Let us add to all the above the fact that some of the works that
are being published on the Mudéjar geometry of this ensemble
frequently analyze and recreate parts of it that we consider were
made by 1900.
8 CÓMEZ:
ob. cit
., p. 128.
9 Considerable documentation has already been published on the
19
th
century works at Rosario CHÁVEZ GONZÁLEZ,
El Alcázar de
Sevilla en el siglo XIX
, Patronato del Real Alcázar de Sevilla, Sevilla,
2004. Of great interest also is the work by Álvaro RECIO MIR,
“Alfonso XIII, José Gestoso y el Alcázar de Sevilla” at
Estudios de
Historia del Arte. Centenario del Laboratorio de Arte 1907-2007
. Uni-
versidad de Sevilla, 2009, pp. 119-133. In this article, Recio presents
data that allow confirming the important general intervention
made on the plinths which, for several reasons, we localize in the
ground plan of the building showed at the end of this article, and
date from the end of the 19
th
century. A report written by Gestoso
and dated May 27th 1908 does not mention the need of repairing
it. Also in this work the tile-works of the palace entrance hall are
dated from 1905.
10 Maria Dolores ROBADOR y otros,
Art in the Real Alcázar de Se-
villa: Study of the paintings and ceramics in the Patio del Yeso, Palacio
Gótico, Palacio Mudéjar, Galería de Grutescos and The Cenador de la
Alcoba (11th-17th centuries
). Reference: Charisma-FP7 n.229830. Fi-
nanced by: European Union. Charisma. Molab. Cultural Heritage
Advanced Research Infrastructures. Sinergy for a Multidisciplinary
Approach to Conservation/Restoration. Further colorimetric anal-
yses are currently being carried out by the research group headed
by Francisco José COLLADO MONTERO and others “Scientific
analysis and tests for the material and chromatic reintegration of
the tile plinth of the Patio de las Doncellas , palacio de Pedro I,
Royal Alcázar of Seville”, financed by CEI Bio Tic Granada in the
framework of the 2014 3rd Call of R+D+I projects “Commitment
with Research and Development”.
11 An extreme and striking example of this is the spandrel of the
façade of the church of Santiago in Málaga, which is covered from
the right to the left with plinths of varied geometrical patterns and
different color distribution.
12 In fact, many are the concepts that should be included in the
mentioned general data sheet. This could become the basis of a
real corpus of Tiling of the Royal Alcazar and would include:
documentary and bibliographical references, parallelisms with
other known works, state of preservation, patrimonial assessment,
graphic, photographic or videographic reproduction, etc.
13 As this paper´s approach is thematic and not topographic and
because it is not suitable to exceed the reasonable extent of this ar-
ticle, the rooms of the palace will not be treated in a monographic
way. Likewise, we will not tackle the subject of the ceramic floor-
ing. Some old samples of this flooring have remained in the Royal
Alcázar.
14 The term “Paño” has two different meanings in the ceramics
field. It may refer to a physical unit or a fragment of plinth limited
by plane shifts, such as a corner; but it also may refer to a esthetical
unit, meaning a fragment of plinth limited by two vertical friezes.
Geometrical ceramic coverings usually imitate palm mats (braided
ribbons and laces may come from this) and also they copy richer
