Cuerda seca (Spanish for "dry cord") is a technique used when applying coloured ceramic glaze to ceramic surfaces.
Description
When different coloured glazes are applied to a ceramic surface, the glazes have a tendency to run together during the firing process. In the
cuerda seca technique, the water-soluble glazes are separated on the surface by thin lines of a greasy substance to prevent them running out of their delineated areas. A dark pigment such as manganese carbonate is usually mixed with the grease to produce a dark line around each coloured area.
History
The origin of the technique is not known for certain. Many scholars believe that the
cuerda seca technique originated primarily in
al-Andalus (
Spain and Portugal) in the second half of the 10th century, during the Umayyad period (citing Umayyad-era examples from Suza).
Jean Soustiel (1985). 271910213X, Fribourg: Office du livre. 271910213X
Scholar Juan Zozaya argues that the advent of this style in al-Andalus could have been spurred by
Chinese ceramics which were imported to the region from an early period.
The technique was further advanced during the
period in the 11th century.
Preserved fragments of tiles from the late 12th-century
minaret of the Kasbah Mosque in
Marrakesh, Morocco, have been cited as the earliest surviving example of
cuerda seca tilework being used for architectural decoration.
In Central Asia, Haft-rang ("seven colors") enamelled tiles were manufactured using the cuerda seca technique from the second half of the 14th century. Hans Van Lemmen postulates that these tiles, from the Timurid Empire period (late 14th to 15th centuries), were the "earliest development of cuerda seca".
In the 15th century Persian potters from Tabriz introduced the technique into Turkey and were responsible for decorating the Yeşil Mosque in Bursa (1419-1424). Within the Ottoman Empire cuerda seca tilework fell out of fashion in the 1550s and new imperial buildings were decorated with underglaze-painted tiles from İznik. The last building in Istanbul to include cuerda seca tilework was the Kara Ahmed Pasha Mosque which was designed in 1555 but only completed in 1572.
==Gallery==
in
Iran, 8th-9th century]]
, c. 1420]]
in Iran, mid 15th century]]
in Spain, early 16th century]]
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