James Ward

“ Freedom in sculpture and painting brought with it a desire to treat enamels in the same freedom, and so we find that engraving on silver and gold, and placing carefully the various powdered enamels in their proper proportions over the engraved surfaces, produced an entirely new and splendid effect; besides, it required more artistic skill to execute this kind of enamelling, and consequently the best artists of the Renaissance were not only goldsmiths, painters, sculptors, and architects, but executed important works in enamels as well. ”

“ Some of these pavements have ornamental compositions of geometrical interlacings and conventional foliage, and others have hunting scenes in which animals, figures, and birds are treated flatly, after the Persian or Oriental manner of inlaid work or like textile designs.
In the thirteenth century towards the latter end, in the dawn of the Renaissance, design in mosaic began to feel the reviving influence in common with all Italian art. In the mosaics of this century executed at Rome we see something of the poetry and dignity which belonged to the great works of the fifth century. ”

“ Although the Greeks never quite lost the art of making pottery during the Middle Ages, they did not produce much artistic work after A.D. 200, and between this time and the end of the fourteenth century. Artistic pottery as glazed ware was imported into Europe from Damascus through the Arabs or Saracens about this time. Cups from Damascus in glazed pottery were reckoned among the treasures of kings, and it was from Damascus that the Arabs undoubtedly brought the secrets of glazed earthenware to Spain, where they established the potteries that fabricated the famous Hispano-Moresque ware. ”

“ During the seventeenth century the power of design was growing rapidly weaker, the ornament became coarser in feeling and imitated the cumbersome and heavy traditions of classical art. Headpieces, tailpieces, and printers’ devices or marks were now more in fashion, rather than the consideration of the design of the page as a whole decorative scheme. ”

“ Many other uses for ivory carvings are found by the Japanese, such as handles of swords and daggers, and some of their beautiful lacquered panels have encrusted eagles and other birds beautifully carved, and perched on the branches of trees, the latter being made from mother-of-pearl, and sometimes the flowers, foliage, and fruit of tinted ivory minutely chased.
India is famed for its extremely elaborate ivory carvings. The elaborated richness of Oriental ornament is seen in the ivory carvings of India more than in almost any other material except the goldsmiths’ work ”

“ In the latter country a great deal of good work was produced—in metals especially—in the ninth and tenth centuries. The amount of personal ornaments, such as torques or collars of gold, bracelets, brooches, belt-clasps, and croziers, shrines for sacred bells, and covers for the Gospels, that were wrought in gold, silver, or alloys must have been prodigious. The astonishing delicacy and intricacy of the Celtic ornamentation bear eloquent testimony to the great skill of the early Irish artists. ”

“ At the end of the century, however, a more correct appreciation of book-cover decoration was manifested. This was due to the happy influence of Arabian design when mixed with the prevailing Renaissance forms. The Oriental craftsmen who came to Italy, and the great commerce of Venice and Europe generally with the East, served to colour in a marked degree the design of the ornamental arts, and nowhere do we see the purely Arabian strap-work and peculiar Saracen leafage used to such advantage as in the tooled and stamped book-cover designs of this period. ”

“ Heads of the croziers and bishops’ pastoral staffs were often designed in elaborate architectural compositions, and generally speaking Gothic ornamentation is enthralled by architectural forms even to the smallest details when the plan of the object to be decorated is architectural, which happens in most cases; when, however, the plan is not so, the freedom and fancy of the designer revelled in the beauty of the curving, twisting, foliage, and grotesque work, as may be seen in the metal work of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. ”

“ The Romans were not skilled in the working of iron, although well conversant with the manufacture of bronze objects.
Remains of iron hasps, escutcheons, window grilles, candlesticks, folding chairs, &c., have been found in France and in England, of the Romano-Gaulish and British periods, that have a great similarity of style, and, indeed, up to the fifteenth century the style and design of iron work in both countries were pretty much alike.
The most interesting examples of the blacksmith’s art of the Middle Ages—in England especially—are the hinges to the church doors. ”

“ The Germans carried the arts of ivory and miniature wood carving, as they did the larger style of wood carving, to great perfection; in fact to an astonishing degree of dexterity, that would compare with Chinese or Japanese carving, but lacking in the restrained artistic power of the latter nation’s productions. All kinds of astonishing creations are preserved in the museums of subjects such as little ivory carvings of skeletons in company with groups of female figures, miniature hunchbacks, and beggars with diamonds for buttons on their dresses. ”

“ Metals are the usual foundations to which enamels are applied, but stone, earthenware, and glass may be enamelled. When one speaks of “an enamel” we understand it to mean a metal that is ornamented by a vitreous decoration fused and fixed to the metal surface by heat. There are three principal kinds of enamels: the “embedded or encrusted,” the “translucent upon relief,” and the “painted.” Some enamelled objects have a mixture of two methods.
The embedded or so-called encrusted kind has two varieties, which are best known under their French names, the Cloisonné and the Champlevé. ”

“ In Germany the love for iron work was not developed so early as it was in France and England, and it was not until Gothic architecture took a firm hold in that country in the end of the thirteenth century that the first serious attempts were made in the use of decorative iron work, and, like their architectural forms, the German wrought-iron work was inspired by French examples. ”

“ The Chinese element in design became everywhere in the ascendant, not only in late Rouen ware, but in the pottery of every country in Europe, and remains more or less in the work of to-day. Some of the late Rouen ware is not so bizarre in its decoration as many other French and European styles of the same period. Fig. 57 shows the Chinese influence, but is in better taste than the majority of contemporary designs.
As a style decays the colour as a rule becomes more gaudy, which applies to Rouen ware as to other varieties of fayence. ”

“ The style in furniture and in ornament now developed into what is known as the “Louis Seize” (Louis XVI.) , and consisted in its ornament of a composition of thin scrolls, garlands, bows and quivers of arrows, ribbons and knots, medallions with classic cameo-cut subjects. Mouldings were fine and delicately ornamented, and of straight-lined variety; in fact, the straight line now reasserted itself in architecture and furniture design (see Figs. 249, 250) , in refreshing and healthy contrast to the tottering and riotous curves of Louis XV. and the Du Barry period. ”

“ From the Gallo-Roman period until the eleventh century 119most of the arts were at a low ebb, owing to the devastating wars and invasions that spread all over Europe; the art of enamelling had been almost lost, and had quite died out in France and Germany, but is likely to have still been practised in Ireland, where no doubt the art of the goldsmith and the enameller in conjunction had flourished less disturbed than in France or England. We have existing remains of pure Irish Celtic work that date from the ninth and probably earlier centuries, and are of unsurpassed workmanship. ”

“ The salt-glazed ware is one of the hardest wares known, and is almost a porcelain in composition. The glaze gives a slightlyslightly uneven surface to the ware, which comes from the manner in which the wares receive the glaze. The pieces are not dipped in a glaze mixture, but when the kiln has reached a very high temperature common salt is thrown into the kiln; the soda is liberated from the salt by the action of the heat, and coming in contact with the silica of the stoneware clay, forms with it a silicate of soda, which is really a glass glaze. ”

“ Boulle was an artist of great excellence as a sculptor and chaser of metals; his mountings of foliage and masks which decorated his works are spirited in design and are skilfully chased and finished (Fig. 243) . He executed a great number of costly pieces of his famous marquetry for Louis XIV. and the Dauphin of France, many of which found their way to England a century later. Examples of Boulle work fetch great prices when, as on rare occasions, they make their appearance in a sale. ”

“ Though there are no records of glass making in Ireland of a very early date, the glass beads and glass bosses which decorate the objects of Irish art, such as the crosses, croziers, brooches, book-covers, and the celebrated Ardagh Chalice, prove that the art was known in Ireland at least in the ninth century, if not earlier. ”

“ In his time the manufactory was in a state of great prosperity, and the science he brought to bear on the manufacturing processes was of immense importance. Vases over seven feet in height were produced, and the pieces which were made were ornamented with trophies and battle scenes that glorified the events in the reign of Napoleon I.
In the reign of Louis Philippe the artists Fragonard, Chenavard, Clerget, and Julienne introduced a new style of Renaissance decoration and design, but this was of a heavy and overloaded order that was not exactly suited to the character of porcelain. ”

“ The Persians and surrounding nations inherited from the older races this love of colour and early traditions of design, which are still seen in their tapestry, carpets, and embroidered work of all kinds. ”

“ Any painted enamels found in Italy are Limoges enamels or the work of Limousin artists. The fifteenth century was the period during which the painted enamels were brought to perfection. In the earlier part of the century the enamel was applied directly to the plate of metal and united to it by fusion; but later, towards the middle of the century, a ground of translucent enamel coating was laid on the metal, over the engraved outline of the design, and on this transparent flux the colours were applied. ”

“ Common jewellery of enamelled bronze was exported to all parts, such as brooches or morses, buckles, armour decoration, and monumental plates with effigies, one of the latter being that of Aylmer de Valence in Westminster Abbey, made at Limoges and brought to England.
The monastic establishments were the schools and workshops of all the art produced in the Middle Ages, and not only splendid examples of metal work, but manuscript illuminations, wood and stone carving, and many other kinds of works were produced within their walls. ”

“ Whole fronts of houses were elaborately carved in designs consisting of figure work, animals, ornament, and grotesques of a quaint and humorous description, while exceedingly minute works of figure subjects and animals were carved in box and other woods with a delicacy and quaintness often excelling the ivory carvings of the Japanese. Escritoires, buffets, cabinets, and other furniture, were made and exported from Germany into Spain and other countries. ”

“ In America the silk industry has made great headway of late years, the principal seat of the manufacture is the town of Paterson in New Jersey.
England has always held its own in the manufacture of woollen goods of good material, mostly of plain cloth, but sometimes inwrought or woven with designs of figures, animals, and foliage patterns. At Bath, Norwich, Worcester, and in the abbeys and great religious houses during the Middle Ages the monks employed a good deal of their time at the loom, and considerable quantities of their work were exported to the Continent during the fourteenth century. ”

“ Perhaps the earliest woven tapestries of Europe were the Flemish, which were first made towards the end of the twelfth century. The towns of Arras, Oudenarde, Lille, Brussels, Valenciennes, Tournay, and Bruges were celebrated for the manufacture of tapestry, of which the town of Arras was the most important, hence the old name of “Arras” used in England for all kinds of storied tapestry.
Flanders was a rich and powerful country during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and at that time the ports of Bruges and Antwerp were the greatest in the world. ”

“ Before leaving the Italian sixteenth-century work we must notice the mirrors, with their elaborately carved frames of Venetian design and manufacture. In this century Venice was renowned for the making of glass, for which it is still famous, and certain privileges were granted by the State exclusively to Venetian manufacturers of looking-glasses. Two Murano glass makers named Andrea and Dominico, who were the inventors, were granted in the year 1507 the sole privilege of making “mirrors of crystal glass” for a term of twenty years. ”