and silver. An Italian work of the Sixteenth Century.]
Glass and glazing claim particular notice. It may be said that glass was
known in the remotest ages, for Phœnicia and ancient Egypt were, in the
time of Moses, renowned for their innumerable productions in vitrified
sand. In Rome they cast, cut, and engraved glass--they even worked it
with the hammer, if we are to believe Suetonius, who relates that a
certain artist had discovered the secret of making glass malleable. This
industrial art, which extended and improved under the emperors, found
its way to Byzantium, where it flourished during several centuries;
until Venice, claiming as she then did a prominent position in the
history of the arts, imported the process of the Byzantine method of
making glass, and in her turn excelled in this manufacture. Although
articles in glass and crystal, painted, enamelled, and engraved, are
frequently alluded to in historical and poetical narratives, and also in
the inventories of the Middle Ages, we know they were all the result of
Greek or Venetian manufacture. In this art France especially seems to
have been somewhat late in taking her first artistic step; such
[Illustration: Fig. 16.--Bolt of the Sixteenth Century, with Initial of
Henry II.
(In the Castle of Chenonceaux.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 17.--Key of the Thirteenth Century, with two Figures
of Chimeras, back to back.
(Soltykoff Collection.)]
objects as were manufactured for the use of the rich never passed beyond
the limits of the rudest art. We should, however, observe that France
must have long been acquainted with the art of glazing, for in the
middle of the seventh century we find St. Benoît--called Biscop, who
built so many churches and convents in England--coming to France in
search of workmen for the purpose of glazing the church and the
cloisters of his abbey at Canterbury. And it is also mentioned in the
chronicles of the Venerable Bede, that the French taught their art to
the English glaziers.
Towards the fourteenth century the windows of even the commonest houses
were generally glazed; at that date glass manufactories were found in
operation everywhere; and although they may not have rivalled in a
remarkable degree their predecessors of the Merovingian period, they
nevertheless made in large quantities all kinds of articles ordinarily
in use, as we can judge by the terms of a charter, dated 1338, by which
one Guionnet, in order to have the privilege of establishing a glass
factory in the forest of Chambarant, was bound to furnish as an annual
due to his seigneur, Humbert, Dauphin of Viennois, one hundred dozen
glasses in the shape of a bell, twelve dozen small shallow glasses,
twenty dozen goblets, twelve dozen amphoræ, twenty dozen lamps, six
dozen candlesticks, one dozen large cups, one large stand (or _nef_),
six dozen dishes without borders, twelve dozen jars, &c.
We have alluded to Venice and the celebrity she attained in the art of
working glass. It was especially for the manufacture of mirrors and
looking-glasses that this large and industrious city made herself
renowned over all the world. If we are to believe Pliny, the Romans
purchased their glass mirrors at Sidon, in Phœnicia, where, in the
remotest ages, they had been invented. At this time were these mirrors
silvered? We must believe that they were, for a plate of glass, without
quicksilvering, could never be anything than glass more or less
transparent, and would permit of the light passing through, without
reflecting objects. But Pliny asserts nothing of the kind; and,
moreover, as the practice of using mirrors of polished metal, which was
taken from the Romans, was for a long time maintained among modern
nations, we may conclude either that the invention of glass mirrors was
not a great success, or that the secret of making them was lost. In the
thirteenth century an English monk wrote a treatise on optics, in which
allusion is made to mirrors lined with lead. Nevertheless, mirrors of
silver continued in use among the rich, and of iron and polished steel
by the poorer classes, till the time when glass became less expensive,
and Venetian looking-glasses were introduced, or cleverly imitated, in
all European countries; metal mirrors, which easily became dim, and did
not give the natural colour to reflected objects, were then
discontinued. At the same time, the elegant shape of the ancient
hand-mirrors was retained, the workers in gold and silver still
continuing to encircle them with most graceful designs; the only
difference being that the surface of polished steel or silver was
replaced by a thick and bright piece of Venetian glass, sometimes
ornamented with reflected designs produced in the coating of quicksilver
(Fig. 18).
[Illustration: Fig. 18.--Hand or Pocket Mirror in gold or chased silver,
from an Engraving by Etienne Delaune, a celebrated French goldsmith and
engraver (Sixteenth Century).]
From all these details, the reader will have the gratification of
ascertaining at a glance the general effect of furniture in use for
domestic purposes; and thus, after the analysis, he will have its
opposite. Fig. 19, a reproduction, taken from the “Dictionnaire du
Mobilier Français,” by M. Viollet-le-Duc,
[Illustration: Fig. 19.--Dwelling room of a Seigneur of the Fourteenth
Century.]
represents a dwelling-room of a rich nobleman in the fourteenth century.
What we now designate as a bedroom, and which was then called simply
_cambre_ or _chambre_, contained, besides the bed--which was very
large--a variety of other furniture in use for the ordinary requirements
of daily life; for the time that was not given to business, to out-door
amusements, to state receptions, and to meals, was passed, both by
nobles and citizens, in this room. In the fourteenth century
requirements for comfort had developed themselves in a remarkable degree
in France. To be convinced of this, we have only to glance at the
inventories, to read the romances and narratives of the day, and to
study with some little care the mansions and houses erected in the reign
of Charles V. A huge chimney admitted many persons to the fireside. Near
the hearth was placed the _chaire_ (seat of honour) of the master or of
the mistress. The bed, which usually stood in a corner, surrounded by
thick curtains, was effectually screened, and formed what was then
called a _clotet_; that is, a sort of small room enclosed by tapestry.
Near the windows were _bancals_, or benches with backs covered with
drapery, on which persons could sit and talk, read, or work, while
enjoying the view. A dresser was ranged along one side of the room, and
on its shelves were placed pieces of valuable plate, dishes for comfits,
and flower-vases. Small stools, arm-chairs, and, especially, numerous
cushions were placed here and there in the room. Flemish carpets, and
those which were called _sarrasinois_, covered the floor; this was
composed of enamelled tiles; or, in the northern provinces, of thick
squares of polished oak. These large, lofty, wainscoted rooms always
communicated with private staircases, through dressing-rooms and
wardrobes in which were located the domestics in immediate attendance.
Let us now pass from domestic furniture to that used for ecclesiastical
purposes. We now leave the palaces of kings, the mansions of nobles, and
the dwellings of the rich, and enter the buildings consecrated to
worship.
We know that in the early ages of Christianity religious ceremonies were
characterised by the greatest simplicity, and that the buildings in
which the faithful were wont to assemble were for the most part devoid
of any kind of decoration. By degrees, however, rich display entered
into churches, and pomp accompanied the exercise of religious worship,
especially at the period when Constantine the Great put an end to the
era of persecutions and proclaimed himself the protector of the new
faith. It is related that among the rich presents which this emperor
distributed throughout the Christian temples in Rome, were a golden
cross weighing two hundred pounds, patens of the same metal, lamps
representing animals, &c. At a later period, in the seventh century, St.
Eloi, who was a celebrated goldsmith before he became Bishop of Noyon,
gave his whole mind and talents to the manufacture of church ornaments.
He enlisted from among the monks of the various monasteries that were
subject to his episcopal authority, all those whom he fancied had an
aptitude for these works of art; he instructed and directed them
himself, and made them excellent artists; he transformed entire
monasteries into gold and silver-smiths’ workshops; and numerous
remarkable works increased the splendour of the Merovingian basilicas;
such, for example, were the shrine of St. Martin of Tours, and the tomb
of St. Denis, the marble roof of which was profusely ornamented with
gold and precious stones. “The bounty of Charlemagne,” says M. Charles
Louandre, “added new riches to the immense wealth already accumulated in
the churches. Mosaics, sculpture, the rarest kinds of marble, were
lavished on those basilicas for which the emperor evinced partiality;
but all these treasures were dispersed by the Norman invasions. From the
ninth to the eleventh centuries it would seem that, with the exception
of a few shrines and crosses, objects employed for ecclesiastical
purposes were not enriched by the addition of anything note-worthy; at
any rate, the works of that period and those of anterior date have not
been handed down to us, if we except some rare fragments. The reason is,
that, independently of the constant causes of destruction, the furniture
of churches was renewed towards the end of the eleventh century, when
the edifices themselves were rebuilt; and it is only from the date of
this mystical Renaissance that we begin to find in the texts precise
indications, and in museums or temples perfectly preserved monuments.”
Ecclesiastical appendages include altars, altar-screens, the pulpit,
monstrances, chalices, incense-burners, candlesticks or lamps, shrines,
reliquaries, basins for containing holy water, and some other objects of
lesser relative importance, as crosses, bells, and banner-poles. To
these we may add votive offerings, which were generally either of gold
or silver.
In the infancy of religious worship the altar took two distinct shapes;
sometimes the form of a table, with a top of stone, wood, or metal
supported by legs or by columns; sometimes it resembled an ancient
tomb, or a long coffer, narrowed at the base, and surmounted by a
similar covering, which invariably formed the upper portion, or the
table, of the altar.
In addition to altars, more or less monumental, which were fixtures in
the churches, and which, from the earliest period, were placed under
_ciboria_ (a kind of dais or canopy supported by columns), small
portable altars were employed, in order to meet the requirements of the
service. They were intended to accompany the bishops, or the ordinary
clergy, who had to preach the faith in countries where no churches
existed. These altars, which were alluded to when the Christian religion
had made but slight progress, were no longer seen after it became
general; but we again find them at the time of the Crusades, when pious
pilgrims, who journeyed from place to place preaching the Gospel, were
obliged to say mass in fields and public places, where the faithful
assembled to hear them, and to “take up the cross.” M. Jules Labarte
gives the following summary description of a portable altar of the
twelfth century:--“It consists of a slab of lumachella marble, set in a
box of gilt copper, 36 centimètres in height by 27 in width, and 3 in
thickness. The top of the box is cut in such a manner as to leave
uncovered the stone on which the chalice was placed during the
celebration of mass.”
Throughout all the periods of the Middle Ages, the ardent faith of which
seemed to consider sufficient honour could never be rendered to the real
presence of God in the holy sacrifice, the ornamentation of the altar
was everywhere looked upon as an object of the most extraordinary pomp
and of the most elevated artistic taste. Among the marvels of this kind
we must name, as occupying a leading place, the gold altar of St.
Ambrose, in Milan, which dates from 835, and those of the cathedrals of
Basle and Pistoia, which belong to the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
These gold altars, wrought with the hammer, were chased and sometimes
enamelled, and in addition to remarkably well executed designs in carved
work, taken from religious books, they usually also had on them
portraits of the donors.
The altars and tabernacles were executed with an equal amount of art and
costliness; and from the earliest period of the fabrication or the
importation of carpets, embroideries, and gold and silver fabrics, we
see them employed for the purpose of covering, adorning, and of
rendering more striking and imposing the altar and its accessories, to
which the name of chancel was given (Fig. 20).
The chalice and the altar-vessels, which date from the very cradle of
Christian worship, since without these sacred vases the fundamental
services of the religion of Jesus Christ could not have been performed,
perhaps owe it to this exceptional fact that they are not spoken of
before the eleventh century (Fig. 21). In truth, nowhere do we find an
indication of their ordinary shape, nor of the mode of their manufacture
in early times; but it is reasonable to suppose that the chalice
originally was identical, as it was in times approaching nearer to our
own, with the goblet of the ancients; or perhaps, to define it more
particularly, was the well-known _hanap_ (drinking-cup), the earliest
type of which tradition endeavours to trace to so early a date. At a
later period, and until the time when the artists of the Renaissance
period were called upon to remodel sacred ornaments, and they
transformed them into marvels of art on which were lavished all the
resources of casting, chasing, and glyptic, we observe that chalices
continued to be manufactured with the greatest care, adorned with
exquisite elegance, and enriched with all the brilliancy that art can
give them.
[Illustration: Fig. 20.--An Altar-cloth embroidered in silver on a black
ground, representing the procession of a friar of the Abbey of St.
Victor. Fifteenth Century (copied from the original belonging to N.
Achille Jubinal).]
All that can be said regarding the chalice applies equally to the
monstrances and the pyxes employed to contain and to exhibit the
consecrated wafers, as also to the censers, which originated in the
Jewish form of worship, and which, in accordance with the successive
epochs of Christianity, affected different mystical and symbolic shapes
(Fig. 22). Of these M. Didron gives the following description:--“They
were first formed of two open-work spheroids, in cast and chased copper,
ornamented with figures of animals and inscriptions.” Originally they
were suspended by three chains, which, according to tradition, signified
“the union of the body, the soul, and the divinity in Christ.” At
another period the censers represented, in miniature, churches and
chapels with pointed arches. Again, at the Renaissance, they took the
form of that now in use.
[Illustration: Fig. 21.--An Altar-Tray and Chalice, in enamelled gold,
supposed to be of the Fourth or Fifth Century, found at Gourdon, near
Chalon-sur-Saône, in 1846. (Cabinet des Antiques, Bibl. Imp. de Paris.)]
From the first, the lighting of churches was, to a certain extent,
carried out on much the same principle as that employed in princely
abodes and important mansions. Fixed or movable lamps were used; also
wax candles in chandeliers, for the ornamentation of which pious donors
and pious artisans, the former paying the latter, vied with each other
in skill and liberality. We may here observe that even in the early days
of Christianity, numerous candlesticks were generally employed both by
day and by night. The candlesticks on the altar represented the apostles
surrounding Christ; thus their number ought to be twelve. Placed around
the dead, they signified that the Christian finds light beyond the
grave. To the faithful they typified the day which shines brightly in
celestial Jerusalem.
The worship of relics, established in the early days of the Church,
subsequently led to the introduction of shrines and reliquaries, a kind
of portable tomb which the disciples of the Gospel devoted to the
memory, and in honour, of martyrs and confessors of the faith. Thus from
the first, in collecting these holy relics, to which the faithful
attached every kind of miraculous powers, they dedicated what, according
to ecclesiastical writers, had been the temple of the living God, a
gorgeous sanctuary, worthy of so many virtues and miracles. Hence the
introduction of shrines into churches, and reliquaries into private
houses.
[Illustration: Fig. 22.--Censer of the Eleventh Century, recalling the
shape of the Temple of Jerusalem, in copper repoussé. (Formerly in Metz
Cathedral, now at Trèves.)]
Owing to the care bestowed on some of these by St. Eloi, from the
seventh century, they had become real marvels of intrinsic richness and
artistic finish. Nevertheless we are unacquainted with the shape which,
in accordance with the Christian liturgy, was originally given to the
shrines and reliquaries, although the Latin word _capsa_, from which the
word _châsse_ (shrine) is derived, conveys the idea of a kind of box or
coffer. Indeed this shape was retained for a long time by the whole of
Christendom; but the majority of shrines in gold and silver work which
do not date further back than the eleventh or twelfth century represent
tombs, chapels, and even cathedrals. This symbolic shape continued in
use to the time of the Renaissance, but with successive modifications
suggested by the architectural style of each period. We thus see there
was no precious material or delicate workmanship which was not employed
to contribute in making the shrines and reliquaries more magnificent.
Gold, silver, rare marbles, precious stones, were lavished on their
construction; the chaser and enameller embellished with figures and
emblems, with incidents taken from Holy Writ and from the lives of
saints, the shrines in which are deposited their remains.
[Illustration: Figs. 23 and 24.--Stall and Reading-desk in carved wood,
from the Church of Aosta (Fifteenth Century).]
We know that in the early days of Christianity the rite of baptism was
performed by immersion in rivers or in fountains, but at a period nearer
to our own time, basins or vessels of various dimensions were placed in
a small detached edifice, by the side of the church; into these the
neophytes were plunged when receiving the first sacrament. These
baptistries disappeared as soon as the practice of sprinkling holy water
on the forehead of the catechumen was definitely substituted for that of
immersion. Baptismal fonts then became what they now are, that is, a
kind of small erection above the level of the floor--piscinas, shells
(_vasques_), or basins, recalling to our minds, though on a reduced
scale, the primitive baptistries. They were placed inside the church,
either near the entrance, or in one of the side-chapels. At various
periods they were made of stone, marble, or bronze; and were ornamented
with subjects relating to the rite of baptism. It was the same with the
holy-water basins, which, according to ancient custom, were placed at
the entrance to the church, and generally assumed the form of a shell,
or of a large amphora, when not made simply of a hollowed stone to
recall the ancient baptismal vessels.
[Illustration: Fig. 25.--Bas-relief in carved wood, representing a
Domestic Scene, from the Stalls called “Miséricordes,” in the Choir of
the Cathedral of Rouen (Fifteenth Century).]
We must not overlook the altar and procession-crosses, which, as being
typical of the divine emblem of the Christian faith, could not fail to
become real objects of art even from the time of the catacombs. It would
be needless repetition to enumerate here the different materials used in
the manufacture of crosses, the various shapes that were given to them,
according to the purpose for which they were intended, and the subjects
and figures they represented. The sculptor, the modeller, the chaser,
the enameller, and even the painter, were associated with the goldsmith
in producing most exquisite works of this kind. The art of the
wood-carver and that of the worker in iron, which we have seen executing
such marvels for household furniture, could not fail to find scope in
the manufacture of objects used for religious purposes. It was
especially in making pulpits, ornamental screens, wainscoting, and
stalls, that the art of the wood-carver became renowned; he was no
longer simply an artisan, but became an artist of the highest order. In
the ornamentation of railings of choirs and tombs, the iron-work on
doors, of bolts, locks, and keys, the remarkable talent of the
locksmiths of the Middle Ages was displayed. Let us here remark, that in
the early days of worship the pulpit was simply a kind of stool on which
the preacher stood in order that his congregation might see him. By
degrees the pulpit was raised on supports or columns; and later again,
but only towards the end of the fifteenth century, we find it fixed at a
great height against one of the central pillars of the church, and
usually magnificently carved, as was also the dais, and the
sounding-board by which it was surmounted.
To form an idea of the degree of perfection attained in wood-carving
from the thirteenth to the fourteenth century, we ought to inspect the
stalls of St. Justine, at Padua, those of the cathedrals of Milan and
Ulm, the church of Aosta (Figs. 23 and 24), &c., and the stalls of the
churches of Rodez, Albi, Amiens, Toulouse, and Rouen (Fig. 25). And if
we would examine a very ancient example of the art attained by workers
in iron, we have but to notice the hinges, dating from the thirteenth
century, which stretch, in arabesque designs, over the panels of the
western door of Notre-Dame, Paris.
[Illustration: Fig. 26.--Design on the Stalls in the Church of St.
Benoît-sur-Loire.]
TAPESTRY.
Scriptural Origin of Tapestry.--Needlework Embroidery in Ancient
Greek and Roman Times.--Altalic Carpets.--Manufacture of Carpets in
Cloisters.--Manufactory at Poitiers in the Twelfth Century.--Bayeux
Tapestry, named “De la Reine Mathilde.”--Arras Carpets.--Inventory
of the Tapestries of Charles V.; enormous Value of these
Embroidered Hangings.--Manufactory at Fontainebleau, under Francis
I.--The Manufacture of the Hôpital de la Trinité, at Paris.--The
Tapestry Workers, Dubourg and Laurent, in the reign of Henry
IV.--Factories of Savonnerie and Gobelins.
If there is an art which bears brilliant testimony to the industry and
ingenuity of mankind in the remotest ages, undoubtedly it is that of
weaving, or of embroidering tapestry; for, however far back we trace the
annals of nations, we find this art flourishing and producing marvels of
workmanship.