Cuerda seca

Cuerda seca (Spanish for "dry cord") is a technique used when applying coloured glazes 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.^[1]

History

Although some scholars have postulated a

In central Asia tiles were manufactured using the cuerda seca technique from the second half of the 14th century.^[7] The introduction of different coloured glazes is recorded in the mausoleums of the Shah-i-Zinda necropolis in Samarkand. In the 1360s the colours were restricted to white, turquoise and cobalt blue but by 1386 the palette had been expanded to include yellow, light-green and unglazed red.^[8] Large quantities of cuerda seca tiles were produced during the Timurid (1370–1507) and Safavid (1501–1736) periods.^[9]

In the 15th century Persian potters from

• 
  Pitcher in cuerda seca style from Susa in Iran, 8th-9th century
• 
  Cuerda seca tile from the Alcazar of Seville, 12th-13th century
• 
  Tiles in the

  Green Mosque, Bursa

  , c. 1420
• 
  Details of the Green Tomb in Bursa
• 
  Tile from

  Khargird

  in Iran, mid 15th century
• 
  Ottoman tile, Istanbul, first half 16th century
• 
  Dish from Seville in Spain, early 16th century

Notes

Sources

• ISBN 978-1-85669-054-6
  .
• Campbell, Gordon, ed. (2006). "Cuerda seca and cuenca tiles". The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts, Volume 1. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 293.
  ISBN 978-0-19-518948-3
  .
• Necipoğlu, Gülru (2005). The Age of Sinan: Architectural Culture in the Ottoman Empire. London: Reaktion Books.
  ISBN 978-1-86189-253-9
  .
• Porter, Venetia (1995). Islamic Tiles. London: British Museum Press.
  ISBN 978-0-7141-1456-9
  .

Further reading

• Gestoso y Pérez, José (1899). Ensayo de un diccionario de los artífices que florecieron en Sevilla : desde el siglo XIII al XVIII inclusive. Volume 1 (in Spanish). Seville: En la oficina de la Andalucía moderna. p. 77.
  OCLC 9986104
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cuerda seca ceramics.

• The cuerda seca method, Qantara project.