Art Noveau pattern azulejo panel

In the last quarter of the 19th century Caldas da Rainha became, on a level with Lisbon, Porto, Gaia and Aveiro, an important centre of ceramic production. It was revitalised in 1883 when the caricaturist and illustrator Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro (b. 1846 - d. 1905) decided on a career as a ceramist and agreed to run the faience factory which started production in June 1885. Following on from his graphic work, Bordalo Pinheiro used ceramic objects as a weapon to contest the monarchical regime, giving rise to a series of figures criticising the politics and society of that time. He developed approximately two hundred three-dimensional models, his work influenced by the international ceramics revival of the French artist Bernard Palissy (b. c.1510 - d. c. 1589), already present in local tradition and which he would reformulate along eclectic and revivalist lines. So, various international aesthetic currents of the second half of the 19th century were re-worked in a markedly Portuguese spirit, also inspired on 16th century Arab and Manueline art. The Art Nouveau influences received directly from France, but later used in Bordalo Pinheiro’s work, could be seen both in the creation of three-dimensional items and in azulejos.