It was another lovely day in Lisboa. We’ve had a lot of those.
Portugal has a rich history of tile making and because of that, Lisboa has a National Tile Museum. Jan has long been interested in tiles and tile art so we decided it would be a good place to begin our day. We could have just taken an Uber to the museum, but what’s the fun in that? We took the metro to Santa Apolonia and then walked. It was only a kilometer and a half, and reasonably flat – compared to the rest of Lisboa. We did have a moment when we realized we were going to have to cross the highway without a crosswalk, but … there was a stop light, just no crosswalk… so… easy peasy?
The museum was in an old convent, and one of the benefits of walking is that we approached from the rear and saw the back entrance.
Walking along the side of the compound, we saw further evidence of its origins.
As we approached the museum we saw an unusual piece of tile art without any explanation. When we got back to the apartment we looked it up – this year was the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April Revolution that marked the transition to democracy in Portugal. This also explains the picture I showed yesterday with hands and a carnation on the side of a building. Something well worth celebrating I’d say.
Jan’s interest in tiles predates her interest in quilting, but there is a connection. Although she was admiring the tiles in their own right, many times she was also getting ideas for future quilts.
The art of making tiles is over 500 years old in Portugal, but the first section of the museum was a special exhibit of modern Portuguese tile artists.
This next picture gives an example of tile art that uses textured tiles – these are not flat, they have raised ridges to enhance the effect. Note the shadows.
After the special exhibit we moved on to some of the older tiles in the museum. This tile art dates to the early 17th century.
The fascinating thing here (and I missed this) is that it is all created using a single tile design. Here is a closeup of one tile that is repeated throughout the piece.
Today, when you want to select tiles for your house, you go to a showroom and look at a wall of samples. It was exactly the same 300 years ago. These are from 18th century sample boards.
Here is a more recent example of tile art. The first picture is a drawing of a proposal for a new metro station in Lisboa.
And this is a life-size example of the tile work to illustrate.
Unfortunately the proposal wasn’t accepted. Such a shame.
I mentioned earlier that the museum is in an old convent. In the museum we learned that one of the major sources of income for tile makers was the church. This was nicely illustrated by the spire visible from the museum window.
One of the more interesting things in the convent portion was a room with relics of various saints. Most relics were a small piece of bone, but this one stood out. It took me back to going through the catacombs in Paris – something I highly recommend by the way.
We had a lovely lunch in the museum – tasty and very reasonably prices – and then walked back to Santa Apolonia metro station. This time we made sure to avoid the route that involved jaywalking across the highway. Along the way we were on the lookout for tile art on residential buildings.
After diving into wall art “then” we decided it was time to sample wall art “now”, so we took the metro up to the Museu Banksy. This museum has an extensive collection of replicas of Banksy art, often recreating the original street context, and providing a detailed explanation for each piece. It is well worth a visit, but I’m not going to show you a bunch of photos … of reproductions … of originals. But I can’t resist showing you these two because they kind of say it all.
I came away with a much better appreciation of Banksy’s work. I highly recommend a visit. On the way back to the apartment we kept an eye out for more examples of Portuguese tile art. It wasn’t difficult. This was in the metro station.
And now I’m going to briefly delve into what may be dangerous territory. Today I read that Lisboa citizens are pushing for a referendum to ban tourist lets in residential buildings. Near as I can tell, this is aimed at Airbnb type rentals in buildings zoned residential, and not at apartment hotels (zoned commercial), but I fear the line is finer than I’d like. When I look around me through that lens, I see interesting things. First I’ll show you the view across the street from the apartment hotel we are currently staying in. The building on the right has obviously been completely restored and upgraded. The building on the left … not so much. I’m sure there is a nuanced story here, but alas that will have to wait. Still, it’s an interesting contrast.
And finally this picture of a building with obvious character, that still appears to be in active use, but could definitely use a little TLC.
No answers here, only questions.
I think I know what we are going to do tomorrow, but I’ll leave it as a surprise for you. That way I can claim we stuck to the plan.
If It Was Today... 