Azulejo: Macau’s Inheritance from Portuguese Art

A Brief History of Portuguese Azulejo

Azulejo is native both to Iberia and Morocco. In Spain, it is also known as alicatado. In Morocco, it is known as zellij, which is close to azulejo’s Arabic root word, az-zulayj, meaning small, polished stone. The early history of azulejo was intertwined with the artistic culture of the Islamic Levant. However, the modern form of azulejo is rooted mostly in the culture of Renaissance Europe that King Manuel I (r. 1495–1521) introduced to Portugal from the neighboring Kingdom of Castile-Leon.

Portuguese Maritime Exploration

Hailing from the House of Aviz that had ruled Portugal since the late 1300s, King Manuel was known as Manuel the Fortunate because he inherited the maritime exploration that had been his predecessor and cousin King John II’s lifetime focus. During Manuel’s reign, Portuguese sailors discovered sea routes to India and Brazil, and Portuguese armadas based in India monopolized the Indian Ocean trade.

The most notable achievement of Manuel’s reign arguably was the establishment of coastal settlements in the Ming Chinese province of Canton. In 1557, they were conferred to Portugal under the governance of Macau, a city of paramount significance in the larger history of Portugal, particularly with regards to the suzerain’s independence and global expansion.

The Influence of the Renaissance

By the time King Manuel brought modern azulejo from the Alhambra to Portugal’s Palace of Sintra, the Italian Renaissance was well underway. 15th century Italian artisans could work with a wide range of natural forms in addition to the geometric patterns carried over from the medieval period. Therefore, what truly initiated the flourishing of azulejo in Portugal was the shift of artistic motifs from Islamic tessellations to Catholic figurative art.

The House of Aviz

Since the House of Aviz was a cadet branch of Portugal’s first royal house, the House of Burgundy, the Aviz kings inherited their parent house’s coat of arms and corresponding royal colors, blue and white. A blue cross on a white field was thus ubiquitously used by all future Portuguese settlements, whether in Iberia or overseas, including Macau. The adoption of royal colors had an enduring effect on Portuguese colonial art, especially when Portuguese royal power ebbed in Iberia.

Azulejo Arrives in Macau

The rise of the Portuguese in Macau was highly synchronized with the fall of the Aviz in Iberia. The penultimate Aviz monarch, King Sebastian, disappeared at the Battle of the Three Kings (1578), where Saadi Moroccans routed the Portuguese army. As a result, Portuguese nobles had to pay huge ransoms for captured relatives. This battle directly triggered the Portuguese succession crisis of 1580 and the subsumption of Portugal into Spain, known as the Iberian Union (1580–1640), that same year.

The Birth of the Macanese Community

While most Portuguese colonies chose to cooperate with the Spanish Habsburgs, Macau was an exception. In 1583, Macau established a municipal council to handle its affairs autonomously. As the rare Portuguese settlement defiant of Habsburg authority during the entire period of the Iberian Union, Macau became the de facto overseas capital for Portuguese loyalists. Facing the military aggressions of Spaniards from Manila and Dutchmen from the East Indies, Portuguese settlers in Macau had no choice but to seek provisional assistance and military protection by merging themselves with the local Cantonese communities. Out of this situation emerged the first generation of Macanese, who had Portuguese fathers and Cantonese mothers. The two-way process of cultural assimilation in Macau accelerated henceforth.

Azulejo and Saudade

The Eighty Years’ War and instability in Iberia kept local-born Portuguese in Macau from visiting their fatherland. Their resulting homesickness accounted partially for their extraordinary combination of patriarchal culture and maternal temperament. The large-scale production and use of azulejo in Macau was an exemplary outcome of the emerging sense of saudade.

Azulejo is Adapted in Macau

To this day, Macau still has the most preserved azulejos in the world. Azulejos permeated every corner and street of colonial Macau, from tea saucers to pedestrian pavements, from school buildings to church walls, and from water fountains to palaces and plazas, giving it a disproportionately European flavor among cities in East Asia. Ironically, that impression was achieved through ceramics, an art form that independently developed in ancient China.

Colors of Macanese Azulejo

What made azulejo integrated in Macau was the fact that the colors and motifs of early Portuguese azulejos overlapped with those of contemporaneous Chinese ceramics. Attributing the blue-white bicolor tradition of Portuguese azulejos (in contrast to the more colorful Spanish alicatados) solely to the introduction of Dutch Delftware into 17th century Iberia, as some have done, is very misleading.

The endurance of the iconic bicolor style, especially during the Iberian Union period in colonial Macau, was primarily due to loyalists’ affection for the House of Aviz. The royal (and thus national) color for all Portuguese dynasties until the First Portuguese Republic was blue and white, as inherited from the coat of arms of King Afonso I Henriques, the founder of the Portuguese House of Burgundy and the Kingdom of Portugal.

Coincidentally, these Portuguese artistic preferences complemented the evolution of Chinese ceramics since the Yuan Dynasty. In Ming China, ceramics likewise were largely decorated in blue and white, and they were primarily produced in the provinces of Kiangsi and Canton, which neighbored Macau. Those two factors made it relatively easy for the Macanese community to create azulejos using imported Chinese products.

Motifs of Macanese Azulejo

The floral and biblical motifs of Portuguese azulejos also facilitated their adaptation and mass production in Macau. Since the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the exterior decoration of Chinese ceramics had focused on flowers and figures. It thus was not such a radical step for Macanese artisans to replace Chinese historic figures with Catholic ones. Especially during the Iberian Union, when Portugal ceded its sovereignty to Spain, Macanese artists began creating large numbers of azulejos with Portuguese patriotic motifs.

Portuguese maritime heroics and defiance against Spanish suzerainty were frequent themes. Famous scenes included King Afonso I’s battles against his mother, Teresa, and her Galician lover at São Mamede (1128) and later against his cousin, Alfonso VII of Leon-Castile, at Valvedez (1140).

Designs of Macanese Azulejo

Another example of Eurasian synergy in Macanese azulejo was the reformatting of its design using Cantonese ceramic tiles that were much larger than the ones used in Andalusia or Morocco. This approach originated from the need to reduce the cost of mass-producing ceramic tiles. Even today, most of Macau’s street-name signs feature this style of azulejo, which delivers a sense of European elegance amid Asian tidiness.

Azulejo’s Contribution to Portuguese Art

Despite its practical origin, Macanese azulejo design was seen as a technical innovation in post-Renaissance Iberia, as it facilitated painting on large ceramic surfaces. Continental Portuguese artists enthusiastically embraced the style for decorating public spaces like church walls and railway stations. The style also heavily influenced Portuguese embroidery, as seen in traditional tablecloths arrayed with large blocks or repeated patterns.

Azulejo from Macau to the Lusosphere

The inheritance and innovation of Portuguese azulejo in Macau, whether in motifs, colors, or designs, left a deep impact on Portuguese art and from there went on to influence various art forms throughout the Lusosphere, primarily in colonial Maranhão and Pernambuco.