Statuette of the Virgin with the Infant Jesus, representing Jeanne
d’Evreux, Queen of France. (Museum of Sovereigns, in the Louvre.)]
in that country, but not more than one or two examples remain; these are
attributed to Corneille de Bonte, who worked at Ghent, and was
[Illustration: Fig. 101.--The Ensign of the Collar of the Goldsmiths of
Ghent. (Fifteenth Century.)]
generally considered the most skilful goldsmith of his time (Figs. 101
and 102). However that may be, the style of the goldsmith’s art of the
fifteenth century continued, as in the two or three preceding centuries,
conformable to the contemporaneous style of architecture. For instance,
the shrine of Saint-Germain-des-Près, which was of that period, had the
form of a small ogivale[16] church; and some specimens still existing in
Berlin are of the Gothic character, the prevailing style of the edifices
of those times. But an influence was making itself felt that was not
long in entirely modifying the general aspect of the productions of the
trade we are considering. That transformation must have been promoted by
Italy; in the midst of which, in spite of intestine troubles and serious
contentions with other nations, a luxury and opulence prevailed. Genoa,
Venice, Florence, Rome, had long been so many centres where the Fine
Arts struggled for pre-eminence and inspiration. Among the majority of
the wealthy merchants who had
[Illustration: Fig. 102.--Escutcheon in Silver-gilt, executed by
Corneille de Bonte, in the Fifteenth Century. (Museum of the Hôtel de
Ville, Ghent.)]
become patricians of those gorgeous republics were found so many
Mæcenases, under whose patronage flourished great artists whom popes and
princes emulously countenanced. “From the moment,” says M. Labarte,
“when the Nicolases, the Jeans of Pisa, and the Giottos, throwing off
the Byzantine yoke, caused Art to emerge from languor and supineness,
that of the goldsmith could no longer find favour in Italy but by
maintaining itself on a level with the progress of sculpture, whose
daughter it was.[17] When we know that the great Donatello,--Philip
Brunelleschi, the bold architect of the dome of Florence,--Ghiberti, the
author of the marvellous doors of the Baptistery, had goldsmiths for
their earliest masters, we may judge what artists the Italian goldsmiths
of that period must have been.” The first in date is the celebrated Jean
of Pisa, son of Nicolas, who, brought from Arezzo in 1286, to sculpture
the marble table of the high-altar, and a group of the Virgin between
St. Gregory and St. Donato, desired to pay tribute to the taste of the
time by ornamenting the altar with those fine chasings on silver
coloured with enamels to which we give the name of translucid enamels in
relief; and also by designing a clasp or jewel with which he decorated
the breast of the Virgin. Both chasings and clasp are now lost.
To Jean (Giovanni) of Pisa succeeded his pupils Agostino and Agnolo of
Siena.
In 1316 Andrea of Ognibene executed, for the Cathedral of Pistoia, an
altar-front, which has come down to us, and must have been followed by
more important works. Then come Pietro and Paulo of Arezzo, Ugolino of
Siena, and finally Master Cione,[18] the author of the two silver
bas-reliefs still to be seen on the altar of the Baptistery of Florence.
Master Cione, whose school was numerous, had for his principal pupils
Forzane of Arezzo and Leonardo of Florence, who worked on the two most
noted monuments of the goldsmith’s art which time and depredations have
respected--the altar of Saint-Jacques at Pistoia, and that same altar of
the Baptistery to which the bas-reliefs of Cione were afterwards
adapted. During more than a hundred and fifty years the ornamentation of
these two altars, of which no description can give an idea, was, if we
may so say, the arena wherein all the most famous goldsmiths met.
At the end of the fourteenth century Luca della Robbia, who, as we have
seen, distinguished himself in ceramic art, and afterwards Brunelleschi,
no less great as an architect than as a sculptor, came forth from the
studio of a goldsmith. At the same period shone Baccioforte and Mazzano
of Placentia, Arditi the Florentine, and Bartoluccio, master of the
famous sculptor Ghiberti, to whom we owe those doors of the Baptistery,
which Michael Angelo pronounced worthy of being placed at the entrance
to Paradise.
[Illustration: Fig. 103.--Shrine of the Fifteenth Century. (Collection
of Prince Soltykoff.)]
It is well known that the execution of these doors was, in 1400,
submitted to competition; and it may be said, in honour of the
goldsmith’s art, that Ghiberti, vying with the most celebrated
competitors--for among them were Donatello and Brunelleschi--owed his
triumph, perhaps, to the simple fact that he had treated, as it were by
habit, his model with all the delicacy of the goldsmith’s art. And it
must be added, and to the praise of the great artist, that although in
great reputation for sculptured works of the highest importance, he
adhered faithfully all his life to his first profession, and considered
it not derogatory even to manufacture jewellery. Thus, for example, in
1428 he mounted as a signet for Jean de Medicis, a cornelian said to
have belonged to the treasury of Nero, and he set it as a winged-dragon
emerging from a cluster of ivy leaves; in 1429, for Pope Martin V., a
button of the cope, and a mitre; and in 1439, for Pope Eugene IV., a
golden mitre, embellished with five and a half pounds weight of precious
stones,--its front representing Christ surrounded by numerous cherubs,
and at the back the Virgin in the midst of the four Evangelists.
During the forty years employed in the execution of the doors of the
Baptistery, Ghiberti continued to derive assistance from several
goldsmiths, who, so guided, could not fail in their turn to become
skilful masters.
The list would be long of goldsmiths who, by the single force of their
talents, or under the direction of renowned sculptors, competed during
two centuries in the production of the marvellous works with which the
churches of Italy are still crowded; and in fact it would be only a
monotonous detail, the interest of which can scarcely be enhanced by any
description we could give of their works. Nevertheless, we may cite the
most illustrious of them: for instance, Andrea Verrochio, in whose
studio Perugino and Leonardo da Vinci passed their time; Domenichino
Ghirlandajo, so called because when a goldsmith he had invented an
ornament in the form of garlands, of which the ladies of Florence were
passionately fond; he afterwards relinquished the hammer and the graver
for the painter’s pencil; Maso Finiguerra, who, reputed to be the
cleverest niello-worker of his time, engraved a _pax_, or paten, still
preserved in the cabinet of bronzes in Florence; it is acknowledged to
be the plate of the first engraving printed,--the Imperial Library of
Paris possesses the only early proof of it.
In 1500 was born Benvenuto Cellini, who was to be the embodiment of the
genius of the goldsmith’s art, and who raised it to the zenith of its
power. “Cellini, a Florentine citizen, now a sculptor,” as his
contemporary Vasari relates, “had no equal in the goldsmith’s art when
devoting himself to it in his youth, and was perhaps for many years
without a rival, as well as in the execution of small figures in full
relief and in bas-relief, and all works of that nature. He mounted
precious stones so skilfully, and decked them in such marvellous
settings, with small figures so perfect, and sometimes so original and
with such fanciful taste, that one could not imagine anything better;
nor can we adequately praise the medals which, when he was young, he
engraved with incredible care in gold and silver. At Rome he executed,
for Pope Clement VII., a fastening for the cope, in which he represented
with admirable workmanship the Eternal Father. He also mounted with rare
talent a diamond, cut to a point, and surrounded by several young
children carved in gold. Clement VII. having ordered a gold chalice with
its cup supported by the theological attributes, Benvenuto executed the
work in a surprising manner. Of all the artists who, in his own time,
tried their hands at engraving medals of the Pope, no one succeeded
better, as those well know who possess them or have seen them. Also to
him was entrusted the execution of the coins of Rome; and finer pieces
were never struck. After the death of Clement VII., Benvenuto returned
to Florence, where he engraved the head of Duke Alexander on the coins,
which are so beautiful that to this day several specimens are preserved
as precious antique medals; and rightly so, for in them Benvenuto
surpassed himself. At length he devoted himself to sculpture and to the
art of casting statues. He executed in France, where he was in the
service of Francis I., many works in bronze, silver, and in gold.
Returning to his native country, he was employed by the Duke Cosmo de
Medicis, who at once required of him several works in jewellery, and
afterwards some sculptures.”
Thus, Benvenuto is at the same time goldsmith (Fig. 104), engraver in
medals, and sculptor, and he excels in these three branches of the art,
as the productions which have survived him attest. Nevertheless,
unfortunately, the greater part of his works in the goldsmith’s art have
been destroyed, or are now confounded with those of his contemporaries,
upon whom Italian taste, combined with his original genius, had
exercised a powerful influence. In France there remains of his works
only a magnificent salt-cellar, which he executed for Francis I.; in
Florence is preserved the mounting of a cup in lapis-lazuli,
representing three anchors in gold enamelled, heightened by diamonds;
also the cover, in gold enamelled, of another cup of rock-crystal. But,
besides the bronze bust of Cosmo I., we may still admire, with the group
of Perseus and Medusa, which ranks among grand sculptures, the reduced
form, or rather the model of that group, which in size approaches
goldsmith’s work; and the bronze pedestal, decorated with statuettes, on
which Perseus is placed; works that enable us to see of what Cellini
was capable as a goldsmith. And, let us repeat, the influence which he
exercised over his contemporaries was immense, as well in Florence as in
Rome, as well in France as in Germany; and, had his work been thought
utterly worthless, he would remain not less justly celebrated for giving
an impulse to his time by imprinting on the art which he professed a
movement as fertile as it was bold.
[Illustration: Fig. 104.--A Pendant, after a design by Benvenuto
Cellini. Sixteenth Century. (Cabinet of Antiquities, Bibl. Imp.,
Paris.)]
Moreover, in imitation of the monk Theophilus, his predecessor of the
twelfth century, Benvenuto Cellini, after having given practical
example, desired that the theories he had found prevailing, and those
which were due to his faculty for originating, should be preserved for
posterity. A treatise (“Trattato intorno alle otto principali Arti dell
‘Orificeria”), in which he describes and teaches all the best processes
of working in gold, remains one of the most valuable works on the
subject; and even in our days goldsmiths who wish to refer back to the
true sources of their art do not neglect to consult it.
The artistic style of the celebrated Florentine goldsmith is that of a
period when, by an earnest return to antiquity, the mythological element
was introduced everywhere, even in the Christian sanctuaries. The
character, which we may call autochthone,[19] of the pious and severe
Middle Ages, ceased to influence the production of plastic works, when
the models were taken from the glorious remains of idolatrous Greece and
Rome. The art which the religion of Christ had awakened and upheld
suddenly became again Pagan, and Cellini proved himself one of the
enthusiasts of the ancient temples raised in honour of the gods and
goddesses of Paganism; that is to say, under the impulse given by him,
and in imitation of him, the phalanx of artists, of which he is in a
manner the chief, could not fail to go far on the new road by which he
had travelled among the first.
When Cellini came to France he found, as he himself says in his book,
that the work consisted “more than elsewhere in _grosserie_” (the
_grosserie_ comprised the church plate, vessels, and silver images),
“and that the works there executed with the hammer had attained a degree
of perfection nowhere else to be met with.”
The inventory of the plate and jewels of Henry II., among which were
many by Benvenuto Cellini--the inventory prepared at Fontainebleau in
1560--shows us that, after the departure of the Florentine artist, the
French goldsmiths continued to deserve that eulogium; and to comprehend
of what they were capable in the time of Charles IX., it is sufficient
to recall the description, preserved in the archives of Paris, of a
piece of plate which the city had caused to be made to offer as a
present to the king on the occasion of his entry into his capital in
1571.
“It was,” says that document, “a large pedestal, supported on four
dolphins, and having seated on it Cybele, mother of the gods,
representing the mother of the king, accompanied by the gods Neptune and
Pluto, and the goddess Juno, as Messeigneurs the brothers, and Madame
the sister, of the king. This Cybele was contemplating Jupiter, who
represented our king, and was raised on two columns, the one of gold,
the other of silver, having his device inscribed--‘Pietate et Justitia.’
Upon this was a large imperial crown, on one side held in the beak of an
eagle perched on the croup of a horse on which Jupiter was mounted; and
on the other side supported by the sceptre he held--thus being, as it
were, deified. At the four corners of the pedestal were the figures of
four kings, his predecessors, all of the same name--that is, Charles the
Great, Charles V., Charles VII., and Charles VIII., who in their time
fulfilled their missions, and their reigns were happy, as we hope will
be that of our king. In the frieze of that pedestal were the battles and
the victories, of all kinds, in which he was engaged; the whole made of
fine silver, gilt with ducat gold, chased, engraved, and in workmanship
so executed that the style surpassed the material.”
[Illustration: Fig. 105.--Cup of Lapis-lazuli, mounted in Gold enriched
with Rubies, and a Figure in Gold enamelled. (Italian Work of the 16th
Century.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 106.--Vase of Rock-crystal, mounted in Silver-gilt
and enamelled. (Italian Work of the 16th Century.)]
That rare piece was the work of Jean Regnard, a Parisian goldsmith; and
the period when such works were produced was precisely that during which
religious wars were about to cause the annihilation of a great number of
the _chefs-d’œuvre_, ancient and modern, of the goldsmith’s art. The new
iconoclasts, the Huguenots, shattered and melted down, wherever they
triumphed, the sacred vessels, the shrines, the reliquaries. Then were
lost the most precious gold-wrought memorials of the times of St. Eloi,
of Charlemagne, of Suger, and of St. Louis.
At the same period Germany, where the influence of the Italian school
had made itself felt less directly, but which could not escape from its
impulse, possessed also, especially at Nuremburg and Augsburg,
goldsmiths’ workshops of high character; these furnished the empire, and
even foreign countries, with remarkable works. A new career opened to
the German goldsmiths when the cabinet-makers of their country had
invented those _cabinets_, whereof we have already said something
(_vide_ FURNITURE), and in the intricate decoration of which appear
statuettes, silver bas-reliefs, and inlay-work of gold and precious
stones.
The _treasuries_ and the museums of Germany have succeeded in preserving
many rich objects of that period; but one of the most rare collections
of the kind is that in Berlin, where, in substitution for the originals
in silver which have been melted down, are gathered a great number of
beautiful bas-reliefs in lead, and several vases in tin,--copies of
pieces of plate supposed to be of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. And on this point it may be remarked that the high price of
the material, together with the sumptuary laws, not always admitting of
the possession of gold or silver vases by the citizens, it sometimes
happened that the goldsmiths manufactured a table-service of tin, on
which they bestowed so much pains that these articles were transferred
from the sideboards of citizens to those of princes. The inventory of
the Count d’Angoulême, father of Francis I., alludes to a considerable
table-service of tin. Indeed, several goldsmiths devoted themselves
exclusively to this description of work; and, to this day, the tins of
François Briot, who flourished in the time of Henry II., are regarded as
the most perfect specimens of plate of the sixteenth century.
However that may be, after Cellini, and until the reign of Louis XIV.,
the goldsmith’s art did but follow faithfully in the footsteps of the
Italian master. Elevated by the impulse of the Renaissance, the art
succeeded in maintaining itself in that high position without, however,
any striking individuality discovering itself, until, in a century not
less illustrious than the sixteenth, new masters appeared and imparted
to it additional lustre and magnificence. These are named Ballin,
Delaunay, Julien Defontaine, Labarre, Vincent Petit, Roussel, goldsmiths
and jewellers of Louis XIV., who retained them in his pay, and lodged
them in the Louvre. It was for that prince they produced an imposing
collection of admirable works, for which Le Brun often furnished the
designs, and under an inspiration altogether French, abandoned the
graceful, though rather _fluette_ forms of the Renaissance, and gave to
them a character more diffuse and grand. Then, for a short time, every
article of royal furniture proceeded from the hands of the goldsmith.
But, alas! once more the majority of these marvels must disappear, as
happened to so many others. Even the monarch who had ordered them
despatched his acquisitions to the crucibles of the mint, when, the war
having exhausted the public treasury, he found himself compelled, at
least for example’s sake, to sacrifice his silver plate and to deck his
table with earthenware.
Having finished this sketch of the goldsmith’s art in general, it may
not be inappropriate to add a brief notice of the more special history
of the French goldsmiths, of which the wealthy corporation may be
considered not only as the most ancient, but as the model of all those
that were formed among us in the Middle Ages. But first, since we have
already referred to the exceptional part taken by the goldsmiths of
Limoges in the industrial movement of that period, we cannot proceed
further without noting another description of works, which, although
derived from the oldest examples, nevertheless gave, and with justice, a
kind of new lustre to the ancient city where the first goldsmiths of
France had distinguished themselves.
“Towards the end of the fourteenth century,” says M. Labarte, “the taste
for gold and silver articles having led to the disuse of plate of
enamelled copper, the Limousine enamellers endeavoured to discover a new
mode of applying enamel to the reproduction of graphic subjects. Their
researches led them to dispense with the chaser for delineating the
outlines of designs; the metal was entirely concealed under the enamel,
which, spread by the brush, formed altogether both the drawing and the
colouring. The first attempts at this novel painting on copper were
necessarily very imperfect; but the processes gradually improved, until
at length, in 1540, they attained perfection. Prior to that period, the
enamels of Limoges were almost exclusively devoted to the reproduction
of sacred subjects, of which the German school furnished the designs.
But the arrival of Italian artists at the court of Francis I., and the
publication of engravings of the works of Raphael and other great
masters of Italy, gave a new direction to the school of Limoges, which
adopted the style of that of Italy. Il Rosso and Primaticcio painted
cartoons for the Limousine enamellers; and then
[Illustration: DRAGEOIR, OR TABLE ORNAMENT
Of Enamelled and Gilt Copper. German, latter part of Sixteenth
Century.]
they who had previously worked only on plates intended to be set in
diptychs, on caskets, created a new species of goldsmith’s art. Basins,
ewers, cups, salt-cellars, vases, and utensils of all sorts,
manufactured with thin sheet-copper in the most elegant forms were
decorated with their rich and brilliant paintings.”
In the highest rank of artists who have rendered this attractive work
illustrious we must place Léonard (Limousin), painter to Francis I., who
was the first director of the royal manufacture of enamels founded by
that king at Limoges. Then followed Pierre Raymond (Figs. 107 to 110),
whose works date from 1534 to 1578, the Penicauds, Courteys, Martial
Raymond, Mercier, and Jean Limousin, enameller to Anne of Austria.
[Illustration: Figs. 107 and 108.--Faces of an Hexagonal Enamelled
Salt-cellar, representing the Labours of Hercules. Executed at Limoges,
for Francis I., by Pierre Raymond.]
With the remark that, at the end of the sixteenth century, Venice,
doubtless imitating Limoges, also manufactured pieces of plate in
enamelled copper, we return to our national goldsmiths.
This celebrated corporation could, without much trouble, be traced back
in Gaul to the epoch of the Roman occupation; but it is unnecessary to
search for its origin beyond St. Eloi, who is still its patron, after
having been its founder and protector. Eloi, become prime-minister to
Dagobert I.--thanks in some measure to his merits as a goldsmith, which
distinguished him above all, and gained him the honour of royal
friendship--continued to work no less at his forge as a simple artisan.
“He made for the king,” says the chronicle, “a great number of gold
vases enriched with precious stones, and he worked incessantly, seated
with his servant Thillon, a Saxon by birth, at his side, who followed
the lessons of his master.”
[Illustration: Fig. 109.--Interior base of a Salt-cellar, executed at
Limoges; with a Portrait of Francis I.]