Tile with a hare

A ceiling tile produced with flat dry cord on board and representing a hare running between two floral motifs against a neutral background of white tin enamel. The tones are honey, blue and green. It makes a pair with another tile conserved at the museum.

The use of ceramic pieces to decorate beamed ceilings, known as ceiling tiles, has its precedent in the Visigothic unglazed bricks in relief. From the 14th century, they were usually decorated with ridges or relief motifs, with two narrow bands left on their smaller ends that were smooth or in herringone relief to be supported on the beams. The variety of motifs that can be identified is immense: geometric patterns are combined with plant elements or act as a frame for emblems for names, attributes or saints or simple animals.

Dry-cord ceiling tiles like this are not common, although, while rare, this motif of the hare and another similar piece with a unicorn can be found in different collections. All of them had similar enough features to be considered as originating from a coffered celing that was disassembled at the end of the 19th century.