Invitation figure (gentlemen)

Unique manifestations in the context of the production of ceramic revetments are the panels now known as "invitation figures". Through their cut-outs these life-size figures stand out from their structure of application. Obvious here is the reutilisation of an Islamic technique employed in the 16th century, called alicatado, eloquent proof of the mastery of both the ceramic artists and the azulejo-layers charged with placing the panels in their end position. The various ceramic parts making up these pieces were cut out after firing and as they were being applied, a process that is a characteristic of Portuguese azulejos of the period known as the Grand Production, linked to the second quarter of the 18th century. Applied to entrances and landings, next to the main accesses to gardens, courtyards and palace doors and more rarely in churches, these "invitation figures" are, in azulejo-form, the maximum expression of the etiquette and theatricality of the quotidian Baroque.