Ceramic products have been used for surface cladding since ancient times. For example, in decorating the underground halls of the pyramids, the Egyptians used bluish-green glazed tiles, and the Assyrians and Babylonians used glazed face bricks to display artistic scenes. These works of architectural ceramics, which were created back in the 2nd millennium BC, are still available to us today. Such finds once again confirm the durability of the material.
However, in these regions the use of ceramic tiles gradually faded away. But after several centuries of stagnation, it manifested itself again, now in Islamic architecture of the 9th century. Later, time-tested decorative techniques from the countries of the Near and Middle East gradually moved to European countries. There, over time, they received their subsequent development and artistic reflection.
The architecture of the East in the period between the 12th and 14th centuries developed under the significant influence of Islam, and here building ceramics occupied one of the first places, and the technology for the production of ceramic tiles experienced a new flourishing. Since religious beliefs did not allow the use of images of living beings in decoration, images of people, birds and animals were extremely rare. And the main stylistic direction was the use of various geometric patterns.
In the 12th century, a fundamentally new type of architectural ceramics appeared in the East. It consisted of only 10-20% clay, with the rest using quartz sand and frit (a silica-rich glass composition). The tiles were fired at high temperatures (1100 ºС) and had a high degree of strength, for which they received the name “stone ceramics”. Coating the surface of the products with glaze (a thin glassy sintered layer) and engobes (a thin layer of clay suspension with a matte appearance) gave the tiles great artistic and aesthetic value. Possessing significant advantages over traditional glazed clay bricks, the new material quickly gained popularity not only in Iraq, Syria, Iran, Egypt, but also in Europe.
In the architecture of the Ancient East, decorative tile decoration played a significant role, being not so much a facing material as a special type of decorative art. Compositions of triangles, rectangles and other geometric shapes indicate a high level of development of mathematics and geometry in the society of that time. Another direction of Islamic painting of ceramic cladding is “arabesque” - a composition of complexly woven plant patterns that appeared under the influence of Arab culture.
A feature of the Chinese school of painting decorative elements is the addition of lotuses and peonies to floral patterns, as well as the use of calligraphic compositions characteristic of certain regions and historical periods. European traditions of depicting plant ornaments (in the barocco, rococo styles) were also reflected in the architecture of the East of the 18th-19th centuries, replacing abstract plant compositions with more naturalistic views.
A characteristic feature of Islamic architecture was the lack of authorship. Most architectural monuments are the fruit of the creation of a group of specialists. Each was responsible for their own area of work: construction, production of ceramic tiles, painting, decoration, etc.