gold-work belonging to that monarch may have been owing to the
circumstance that they were disposed around him in the sepulchral
chamber where the body was deposited after death; and the emperors of
Germany, his successors, may not have scrupled to appropriate those
riches, of which some rare specimens, particularly his diadem and sword,
are still preserved in the Museum of Vienna (Figs. 87 and 88).
Ecclesiastical display, notably extinct during the period of trouble and
suffering through which the Church passed in the seventh and eighth
centuries, and to which the power of Charlemagne was to put an end,
manifested itself in an extraordinary degree from that time. For
example, it was calculated that under Leo III., who occupied the
pontifical chair from 795 to 816, the weight of the plate which the Pope
gave to enrich the churches, amounted to not less than 1,075 pounds of
gold and 24,744 pounds of silver!
[Illustration: Fig. 88.--Diadem of Charlemagne. Preserved in the
Imperial Treasury at Vienna.]
To that period belongs the famous gold altar of the basilica of St.
Ambrose of Milan, executed in 835, by order of Archbishop Angilbert, by
Volvinius; and which, notwithstanding its immense intrinsic value, has
come down to our time. “The four sides of this monument,” says M.
Labarte, “are of extreme richness. The front, entirely of gold, is
divided into three panels by a border of enamel. The centre panel
represents a cross of four equal projections, formed by fillets of
ornaments in enamel, alternating with precious stones uncut but
polished. Christ is seated in the centre of the cross. The symbols of
the Evangelists occupy its branches. Three of the Apostles are placed in
each angle. All these figures are in relief. The right and left panels
contain each six bas-reliefs, the subjects of which are taken from the
life of Christ; they are encircled by borders of enamels and precious
stones alternately disposed. The two sides, in silver relieved with
gold, exhibit very rich crosses, treated in the same style as the
borders. The back, which is also of silver relieved with gold, is
likewise divided in three large panels; that in the centre contains four
medallions, and each of the others six bas-reliefs, of which the life of
St. Ambrose supplied the subjects. In one of the medallions of the
centre panel is seen St. Ambrose receiving the gold altar from the hands
of Archbishop Angilbert; in the other, St. Ambrose is giving his
benediction to Volvinius, the master goldsmith (_magister faber_), as he
is designated in the inscription transmitting to us the name of the
author of this work, of which no description can give an exact idea.”
It was not Italy alone which possessed skilful goldsmiths, and
encouraged them. We have in particular, among other enlightened and
active supporters of ecclesiastical gold-work, a succession of the
bishops of Auxerre, to whom must be added Hincmar, bishop of Rheims, who
caused a splendid shrine to be made for the relics of the illustrious
patron of his church. It was cased in plates of silver, and statues of
twelve bishops adorned its borders.
But, notwithstanding all its artistic magnificence, the jewellery of the
West could only appear to be the reflex of the wonders produced at the
same epoch by the goldsmiths of the East, or the Byzantines, to adopt a
term generally sanctioned.
One of the most curious specimens of Byzantine art, preserved in Russia,
is a gold reliquary lined with a plate of silver, in the centre of which
is an embossed representation of the Crucifixion. Above the head, on a
gilt nimbus, is an inscription in Greek, “Jesus Christ, King of Glory.”
This treasure, remarkable for its extreme finish, is covered with a
mosaic of precious stones of different colours, in partitions of gold;
the cross being quartered in enamel, with silver filigree. At the back
the names of the archimandrite Nicolos are engraved. It is a work of the
tenth century, and was found in the Iberian monastery on Mount Athos.
[Illustration: Fig. 89.--Byzantine Reliquary, in Enamel, brought from
Mount Athos. Tenth Century. (Collection of M. Sebastianof.)]
If rare specimens only of jewellery have come down to us of a date prior
to the eleventh century, this may be accounted for not merely by their
intrinsic value having indicated them to the uncivilised as fit objects
of plunder during the invasions which took place after the reign of
Charlemagne, but also, as we have elsewhere remarked, by the
re-introduction of church furniture, which was in some measure a
necessary result of renovated architecture. It was right to adapt the
style of plate to that of the edifice it was to adorn. The forms which
were then employed for various objects of church-service showed the
influence of the severe style derived from the original Byzantine type;
the latter, moreover, explained itself by the repute, especially in
metallurgy, enjoyed by the city of Constantine, to which the East
generally had recourse when taking in hand any work of importance.
The _German_ school particularly would acquire a Byzantine character,
owing to the marriage of the Emperor Otho II. with the Greek princess
Theophania (972)--an alliance which naturally bound the two empires in
closer ties, and attracted a considerable number of artists and artisans
to Germany from the East. Of the works of that period still in
existence, one of the most remarkable is the rich gold cover of the book
of the Gospels, now in the Royal Library, Munich; on which are executed,
in the embossed style, various bas-reliefs of great delicacy, and
designed with the purity at that time distinguishing the Greek school.
[Illustration: Fig. 90.--Altar of Gold, presented to the ancient
Cathedral of Basle by the Emperor Henry II., now in the Cluny Museum.]
The Emperor Henry II. was therefore welcomed (_bien-venu_), and, if one
may say so, well served by the condition of art in Germany, when,
elevated to the throne in 1002, and inspired by ardent piety, he sought,
by princely liberality to the churches, to surpass even Constantine and
[Illustration: Fig. 91.--Enamelled Shrine, in Limoges Work of the
Twelfth Century. (Museum of Cluny.)]
Charlemagne. It is to Henry that the Cathedral of Basle owes the
decorations of the altar, to which none can be compared for richness,
except that of Milan; yet without recalling it by its style, which has
lost every trace of the antique, and is a clearly-pronounced type of the
art which the Middle Ages were to create as their own. It is right to
mention also the crown of the sainted emperor, and that of his wife, now
preserved in the Treasury of the King of Bavaria; both are in six
jointed parts, making a circle; the former bears figures of winged
angels; the other, stalks with four leaves designed with correctness and
grace, and executed in a manner which evinces the greatest dexterity.
“Moreover,” says M. Labarte, “the taste for jewellery was then generally
diffused throughout Germany; and many prelates followed the example set
by the emperor. Willigis, the first Archbishop of Mayence, may be cited;
he endowed his church with a crucifix weighing 600 pounds, the several
parts of which were adjusted with such art that each could be detached
at the joints; and Bernward, Bishop of Hildesheim, who, like St. Eloi,
was himself a celebrated goldsmith, and to whom is ascribed a crucifix
enriched with precious stones and filigrees, and two magnificent
candelabra, which still constitute a portion of the treasures of the
church whereof he was the pastor.”
About the same period--that is, in the early days of the eleventh
century--a monk of Dreux, named Odorain, who had made himself famous in
France by his works in precious metals, executed a large number of
objects for King Robert, intended for the churches the monarch had
founded.
[Illustration: Fig. 92.--Shrine in Copper Gilt. (End of the Twelfth
Century.)]
It has been remarked in the preceding chapter, that the Crusades gave a
great impulse to the goldsmith’s art in Europe, in consequence of the
great demand for shrines and reliquaries intended for the reception of
the venerated remains of saints which the soldiers of the faith brought
back from their distant expeditions (Figs. 91 and 92). The offerings of
consecrated vessels and of altar-fronts were also multiplied. The Holy
Scriptures received cases and coverings which were so many splendid
works entrusted to the goldsmiths. To speak truly, had it not been for
the essentially religious direction which, at that period, certain
departments of luxury acquired by the Crusaders in the East had taken,
we might perhaps have seen the arts, that only in the West recommenced
a real existence, become extinguished, and in a manner perish in the
first burst of their revival.
It is chiefly to the minister of Louis le Gros, Suger, Abbot of
Saint-Denis, who died in 1152, that the honour of this consecration of
arts is due, for he distinctively proclaimed himself their protector; he
endeavoured to render legitimate their position in the State, by
opposing their pious aims to the too exclusive censures of St. Bernard
and his disciples.
Conjointly with the powerful abbot, there is deserving of special
mention a simple monk, Theophilus, an eminent artist who wrote in Latin
a description of the Industrial Arts of his time (_Diversarum Artium
Schedula_), and devoted seventy-nine chapters of his book to that of the
goldsmith. This valuable treatise shows us, in the most unmistakable
manner, that the goldsmiths of the twelfth century must have possessed a
comprehensiveness of knowledge and manipulation, the mere enumeration of
which surprises us the more now that we see industry everywhere tending
to an almost infinite division of labour. At that time the goldsmith was
required to be at once modeller, sculptor, smelter, enameller,
jewel-mounter, and inlay-worker. He had to cast his own models in wax,
as well as to labour with his hammer or embellish with his graver: he
had to make the chalice, the vases, and the pyx, for the metropolitan
churches, on which were lavished all the resources of art; and to
produce, by the ordinary process of punching, the open-work or the
designs of copper intended to ornament the books of the poor (_libri
pauperum_), &c.
The treasury of the Abbey of Saint-Denis still possessed, at the time of
the Revolution, several _chefs-d’œuvre_ produced by the artists whose
processes are described by Theophilus; especially the rich mounting of a
cup of Oriental agate, bearing the name of Suger, which it is believed
he used for the service of mass; and the mounting of an ancient sardonyx
vase, known as the cup of the Ptolemies, which Charles the Simple had
given to the abbey. Having been deposited, in 1793, in the Cabinet of
Medals, Paris, the mounting of the cup of the Ptolemies and the chalice
of Suger remained there until they were stolen in 1804.
Among the examples of that period still existing, and which,
conditionally, every one is permitted to inspect, we may distinguish,
with M. Labarte,--in addition to “the great crown of lights” suspended
under the cupola in the cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle, and the
magnificent shrine in which Frederick I. collected the bones of
Charlemagne,--in the Museum of the Louvre, a vase of rock-crystal
mounted in gold and embellished with gems, presented to Louis VII. by
his wife Eleanora; in the Cluny Museum, several candelabra; in the
Imperial Library in Paris, the covering of a Latin manuscript, numbered
622; a cup of agate onyx (Fig. 93), bordered with a belt of precious
stones raised on a groundwork of filigree; and the beautiful gold
chalice of St. Remy (Fig. 94), which, after having appeared in the
Cabinet of Antiquities, was restored in 1861 to the treasury of the
church of Notre-Dame, Rheims.
Severe forms and an elevated style were the characteristics of the
jewelled works of the eleventh and twelfth centuries; and, for the
principal elements of accessory embellishment, we most frequently see
pearls, precious stones, with enamelled divisions which, according to
the minute description of Theophilus, are only delicate mosaics whose
various coloured segments are separated by plates of gold.
[Illustration: Fig. 93.--A Drinking Cup, called Gondole, of Agate; from
the Treasury of the Abbey of Saint-Denis. (Cabinet of Antiquities, Imp.
Library, Paris.)]
In the days of St. Louis, a period of active and generous piety, there
was (an assertion which may appear hazardous after what we have said of
the zeal of preceding centuries) a remarkable accession to the number
and the splendour of the gifts and offerings of jewellery to the
churches. For instance, it was then that Bonnard, Parisian goldsmith,
assisted by the ablest artisans, devoted two years to the manufacture of
the shrine of
[Illustration: Fig. 94.--Chalice, said to be of St. Remy. (Treasury of
the Cathedral of Rheims.)]
St. Geneviève, on which he expended one hundred and ninety-three marks
of silver and seven and a half marks of gold; the mark weighing eight
ounces. The shrine, consecrated in 1212, was in the form of a little
church, with statuettes and bas-reliefs enriched with precious stones.
It was deposited in the French mint in 1793; but the spoil realised only
twenty-three thousand eight hundred and thirty livres. Half a century
earlier, the most celebrated German goldsmiths were engaged during
seventeen years upon the famous reliquary in silver gilt, called the
“Great Relics,” which the cathedral at Aix-la-Chapelle still possesses;
it was fabricated from the gifts deposited in that space of time by the
faithful in the poors’-box of the porch; an edict of the Emperor
Barbarossa having appropriated all the offerings to that object, “so
long as it remained unfinished.”
Moreover, that period, which may be regarded as denoting the zenith of
the goldsmith’s art for sacred purposes, is also that wherein occurred
the important transition which was to introduce into domestic life the
same lavishness so long devoted only to objects applicable to
ecclesiastical use. But, before entering upon that new phase, we ought
to mention, not without much commendation, the enamelled gold-work of
Limoges, which was greatly celebrated for several centuries. From the
Gallo-Romano period Limoges had acquired a reputation for the works of
its goldsmiths. St. Eloi, the great goldsmith in the time of the
Merovingian kings (Fig. 95), was originally from that country, and he
was working under Alban, a goldsmith, and master of the mint at Limoges,
when his reputation led to his being called to the court of Clotaire II.
The ancient Roman colony had retained its industrial speciality, and
during the Middle Ages was remarkable for the production of works of a
peculiar character, which are supposed to have been fabricated there
prior to the third century, if we may judge from a passage in
Philostratus, a Greek writer of that period.
This work consisted of a mixed style, inasmuch as the material forming
the ground of the work is copper; and, moreover, the principal effects
are due not less to the skill of the enameller than to the talent of the
worker in metal. The process of fabrication is very simple--that is, in
the way of description--yet the execution must have been extremely
protracted and minute.
“After having prepared and polished a plate of copper,” says M. Labarte,
whose account we transfer to our own pages, “the artist marked on it all
the parts which were to rise to the surface of the metal, in order to
produce the outlines of the drawing or of the figure he wanted to
represent; then, with gravers and scrapers, he dug deeply in the copper
all the space which the various metals were to cover. In the hollows
thus _champlevés_ (a word sometimes used to signify the mode of
producing this kind of work), he placed the material to be vitrified,
which was afterwards melted in a furnace. When the enamelled piece was
cold, he polished it by various means, so as to bring to the surface of
the enamel all the lines of the drawing produced by the copper. Gilding
was afterwards applied to the parts
[Illustration: Fig. 95.--Cross of an Altar, ascribed to St. Eloi.]
of the metal thus preserved. Until the twelfth century, only the
outlines of the drawing ordinarily rose to the surface of the enamel,
and the tints of the flesh, as well as the dresses, were produced by
coloured enamel; in the thirteenth century enamel was no longer used but
to colour the ground-work. The figures were entirely preserved on the
plate of copper, and the outlines of the drawing were then shown by a
delicate engraving on the metal.”
[Illustration: Fig. 96.--An Abbot’s Enamelled Crozier, made at Limoges.
(Thirteenth Century.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 97.--A Bishop’s Crozier, which appears to be of
Italian manufacture. (Fourteenth Century. Cathedral of Metz.)]
Between the enamels partitioned (_cloisonnés_) and the enamels
_champlevés_ the difference, as we can see, is only the first
arrangement of the divisions to receive the several vitrifiable
compositions. Making allowances for the influence of fashion, these two
styles of analogous works were held in almost equal estimation.
Nevertheless, it seems that the preference ought to be assigned to the
goldsmith’s art in Limoges, which, at a time when there was manifested a
demand for private reliquaries and collective offerings to the churches,
had this advantage over the other, that it was much less costly, and
consequently more accessible to all classes (Fig. 96). In the present
day there is scarcely a museum, or even a private collection, that does
not contain some specimen of the ancient Limousine[15] industry.
With the fourteenth century the splendour of the goldsmith’s art ceases
to display, as its exclusive object, ecclesiastical decoration and
embellishment; but it suddenly became so developed among the laity that
King John (of France) desiring, or pretending to desire, to restore it
to the exclusive line it had till then retained, prohibited by an
ordinance, in 1356, the goldsmiths from “_working_ (fabricating) gold or
silver plate, vases, or silver jewellery, of more than one mark of gold
or silver, excepting for the churches.”
But it is possible to issue ordinances in order to show the advantage of
evading them, and to benefit exclusively by the exception. This is what
appears to have then occurred; for, in the inventory of the treasury of
Charles V., son and successor of the king who signed the sumptuary edict
of 1356, the value of the various objects of the goldsmith’s art is
estimated at not less than nineteen millions. This document, in which
the greater number of the articles are described to the minutest detail,
would suffice in itself to exhibit a truthful historical view of the art
at that period; and, at all events, it affords a striking idea of the
artistic progress made in that direction, and of the extravagance to
which the trade was subservient.
When considering the subject of furniture in domestic life, we indicated
the names and the uses of several articles which were displayed on the
tables or sideboards--plateholders, ewers, urns, goblets, &c.; we also
adverted to the numerous and capricious forms they assumed--flowers,
animals, grotesque images; we need not, therefore, recur to the matter;
but we ought not to overlook the jewellery, of all sorts--insignia, or
ornaments of the head-dress, gems, clasps, chains and necklaces, antique
cameos (Fig. 98), which appear in the treasury of the King of France.
In treating of ecclesiastical furniture we, moreover, observed that the
goldsmith’s art, although devoting itself to secular ornaments,
nevertheless continued to work marvels in the production of objects for
ecclesiastical use; it would be mere repetition to support this
assertion by other examples.
[Illustration: Fig. 98.--An Ancient Cameo-setting of the time of Charles
V. (Cab. of Ant., Bibl. Imp., Paris.)]
But, dismissing those two questions, let a contemporary poet raise a
third, which deserves a place here. Eustache Deschamps, who died in
1422, equerry and usher-at-arms to Charles V. and Charles VI.,
enumerates the jewels and gems which the female nobility of the time
aspired to possess. “It was indispensable,” he says--
“Aux matrones,
Nobles palais et riches trônes;
Et à celles qui se marient
Qui moult tôt (bientôt) leurs pensers varient,
Elles veulent tenir d’usaige ...
Vestements d’or, de draps de soye,
Couronne, chapel et courroye
De fin or, espingle d’argent ...
Puis couvrechiefs à or batus,
A pierres et perles dessus ...
Encor vois-je que leurs maris,
Quand ils reviennent de Paris,
De Reims, de Rouen et de Troyes,
Leur rapportent gants et courroyes ...
Tasses d’argent ou gobelets ...
Bourse de pierreries,
Coulteaux à imagineries,
Espingliers (étuis) taillés à émaux.”
They desired, moreover, and said that they ought to have given to them--
“Pigne (peigne) et miroir d’ivoire ...
Et l’estui qui soit noble et gent (riche et beau),
Pendu à chaines d’argent;
Heures (livres de piété) me fault de Notre-Dame,
Qui soient de soutil (delicat) ouvraige,
D’or et d’azur, riches et cointes (jolies),
Bien ordonnés et bien pointes (peintes),
De fin drap d’or très-bien couvertes,
Et quand elles seront ouvertes,
Deux fermaux (agrafes) d’or qui fermeront.”
We thus see that, according to the above programme, the jewel-box of a
princess, or of a lady of rank, must have been really splendid.
Unfortunately for us, the specimens of these female ornaments of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are still more rare in collections
than objects of massive plate; and one is almost left to imagine their
appearance and their richness from the entries in inventories, that
chief source of information regarding the times of which the memorials
have disappeared.
It is there we see the costliness of the _fermails_, or clasps of cloaks
and copes, called also _pectoraux_, because they fastened the garments
across the breast; girdles, chaplets (head-dresses), portable
reliquaries, and other “little jewels (Fig. 99) _pendants et à pendre_,”
the fashion of which we have restored under the name of _breloques_, and
which represent every variety of object more or less whimsical. We see,
for instance, gold clasps representing a peacock, a fleur-de-lis, two
hands “clasped.” This one is embellished with six sapphires, sixty
pearls, and other large gems; that one with eighteen rubies, and four
emeralds. From a girdle of Charles V., which is made “of scarlet silk
adorned with eight gold mountings,” are suspended “a knife, scissors,
and a pen-knife,” ornamented in gold; the trinkets (pendants) represent
“a man on horseback, a cock holding a mirror in the form of a trefoil,”
or “a stag of pearls with enamelled horns;” or, again, a man mounted on
a double-headed serpent, “playing on a Saracenic horn” (of Saracen
origin). Finally, we remark that in reliquaries a fashion long
established was maintained, which consisted of forming them of a
statuette representing a saint (Fig. 100), or of a subject that
comprised his image, and to which were attached, by a small chain,
relics inlaid in a little tabernacle of gold or silver, preciously
wrought.
[Illustration: Fig. 99.--Scent-box in Chased Gold. (A French Work of the
Fifteenth Century.)]
But now the fifteenth century opens out, and with it a period of tumult.
France suddenly beheld that impulse to industry paralyzed, which, to
prosper, requires a condition of affairs very different from sanguinary
civil dissensions and foreign invasion. Not only were the workshops
closed, but princes and nobles were more than once constrained to
appropriate the gorgeous decorations of their tables and their
collections of gems, to pay and arm warriors under their command, or
even to redeem themselves from captivity.
At that time the goldsmith’s art flourished in the neighbouring country
of Flanders, then quietly submissive to the powerful house of Burgundy,
which, with equal taste and liberality, encouraged the art, which had
installed itself in the principal cities. This was also an epoch of
magnificent productions