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Reframing: cataloguing azulejo frames
Inês Aguiar
Az - Rede de Investigação em Azulejo
ARTIS – Instituto de História da Arte, Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa
[email protected]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ABSTRACT
The present paper aims to analyze the cataloguing of azulejo frames, done for the project Catalogação de
padrões da azulejaria portuguesa [Cataloguing Portuguese azulejo patterns], initiated in 2011, at ARTIS Instituto de História da Arte (FLUL), in a partnership with the National Museum of Azulejo. The catalogue
can be consulted at Az Infinitum – Sistema de Referência e Indexação de Azulejo
(http://redeazulejo.letras.ulisboa.pt/pesquisa-az).
The importance of the frame and its independent study, although connected with the study of the patterns
that constitute the remaining covering, has been a crucial concept since the beginning of the project. The
project has already compiled examples of frames from four centuries of ceramic production.
This catalogue allows for a more effective tracking of what azulejos frames were produced and/or applied
in Portugal, to see where and when they were applied, as well as, to know the coverings each frame
articulates with. As such the cataloguing contributes to a better understanding of how pattern azulejo
frames were understood throughout the centuries.
In this context, the systematic cataloguing allows the addition and continuous processing of new data in Az
Infinitum, stimulating the emergence of new questions and thus contributing to the production of
theoretical knowledge, without never losing sight of its object of study: the work of art in situ.
Finally, the function of manipulated digital photography and its contribution to a project with such features
will also be addressed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Inês Aguiar has a degree in History of Art from the School of Arts and Humanities of the Universidade de Lisboa. She
also attends the Master in Arts, Heritage and Restoration Theory in the same institution, where she’s working on a
thesis about photography indexation. She also has a Complete Studies Plan in Photography from Ar.Co – Centro de
Arte e Comunicação Visual. Since 2011, she is a researcher from ARTIS – Instituto de História da Arte, where has
worked mainly on the project Catalogação de padrões da azulejaria portuguesa and in the development of Az
Infinitum – Sistema de Referência e Indexação de Azulejo. Her main fields of study are Photography and Digital History
of Art.