As we have now said enough of the three gems, ruby, emerald, and
sapphire, we must perforce consider at greater length the diamond.
Now, though the diamond is said to be kin to water, let no man
suppose that this need imply an absence of colour, perfume, and taste
such as would be the case in good water. Just as water may have both
colour, perfume, and taste, even so the diamond; not that the diamond
actually _has_ perfume or taste, but it has colours as many as nature
herself. I propose here only to mention two, and these diamonds about
as splendid as it is possible to imagine. The first was a stone
I came across in the reign of Pope Clement, a diamond literally
flesh-coloured, most tender, most limpid, it scintillated like a
star, and so delightful was it to behold that all other diamonds
beside it, however pure & colourless, seemed no longer to give any
pleasure and to lose their gratefulness. The second was a stone I saw
in Mantua, it was green, & green such as you might see in a very pale
emerald, but it shone just like any diamond, and as no emerald ever
shone; indeed it seemed the most glorious of all emeralds. Though I
have seen all imaginable colours in diamonds, the mention of these
two may suffice.
Now for just a word about the cutting of the diamond, that is to say
on the changing of the stone from its roughness into those lovely
shapes so familiar to us, the Table, the Facetted, & the Point.[37]
Diamonds you can never cut alone, you must always do two at a time
on account of their exceeding hardness, no other stone can cut them;
it is a case of diamond cut diamond. This you do by means of rubbing
one against the other until a form is obtained such as your skilful
cutter may wish to produce, and with the diamond powder that falls
from them in the process, the final polish is subsequently given.
For this purpose the stones are set in little cups of pewter[38] and
held against a wheel by means of certain little pinchers prepared
on purpose, and they are thus held with their dust mixed with oil.
The steel wheel upon which the diamonds are cut and finished should
be about the thickness of a finger, & the size of an open hand and
of the finest steel excellently tempered. This wheel is fastened to
a hand mill and turned round as fast as it is possible to turn it.
Four to five diamonds, or even six, can be applied to the wheel at
the same time, and by bringing to bear a sufficiently heavy weight
you can increase the pressure of the diamonds upon the wheel and
give greater grip to the dust which wears them away, and so they are
finished. I could tell you a deal more, and all about the ways of
cutting, but because it is not in my own craft, I will not bore you
with it; ’tis sufficient for me to have given a general sketch of the
method in question.
To return however to the subject we have in hand, I will say
something of the tinting of the diamond, of its setting in gold,
and of the variation between one stone & another on account of the
above-mentioned colours. However great the variety of these colours
is, the wondrous hardness of the stone is similar in all cases, or
at least the variation is so slight that the process of cutting is
the same. With the greatest possible care will I show how I set about
making tints for diamonds, and give likewise a number of instances,
on various exceptional occasions, that I have come across in diamonds
of great importance: it is only owing to experiences such as I have
passed through that one is able satisfactorily to show the great
difficulties that stand in the way of those who wish to make them
fine settings. I will begin with one occasion when Pope Paul III.
of the house of Farnese was given a diamond by the Emperor Charles
V.,—’twas when he returned from the capture of Tunis & paid a visit
to the Pope in Rome. The diamond in question was purchased in Venice
by certain servants of the Emperor’s for 12,000 scudi, and it was
set merely in a plain and simple bezel with a little claw.[39] In
this fashion it was given by the Emperor to the Pope, as soon as
he visited him, & I heard tell that he gave it as a sign of his
goodwill and friendliness, the latter receiving it courteously with
the same spirit. Now forasmuch as the Pope, for a month previously,
had ordered a present to be prepared for the Emperor, worthy to pass
between them, he had held much counsel on the matter with many, and
so called for me, and asked me in the presence of his Council, but
quite privately, to give him my opinion on the matter. I straightway
said that, inasmuch as the Pope was the veritable head of the
Christian religion, and the veritable vicar of Christ, the most
fitting gift from the Pope to the Emperor seemed to me to be a fine
Christ of gold set upon a ground of lapis lazuli, an azure stone from
which they make ultramarine; the foot of this crucifix I said should
be of gold & set with jewels, and of such value as should please his
Holiness. And because I had, with great care, already executed three
gold figures that might serve for the base of this cross, & because
they symbolised Faith, Hope, and Charity, and were already completed,
the suggestion pleased the Pope mightily, and he bade me set to &
make a model of what I proposed, for him to see.
[Illustration: The South Kensington Breviary and another Cellini
attribution]
At this model I wrought for a day and a half, and then brought it
to him completed. Pleased as he had been at my suggestion, he was
simply delighted when he saw the model, and determined to give me
the job; we clinched the bargain in no time, I was paid the earnest
money and bidden to bestir myself. I strained every nerve to bring
this beautiful work to being, but so it was, I was hindered from
finishing by certain beasts who had the vantage of the Pope’s ear.
’Tis a thing that often happens, this, with all princes; the worst
men in the whole court are often the best listened to, and these
fellows believe for them what they don’t even believe themselves. One
of these men whispered such evil things into the Pope’s ear, that he
got him to believe that it would be better to make a present to the
Emperor of a breviary of the Virgin in miniature that had been made
for the Cardinal Hippolitus de Medici as a gift to the Lady Julia
Gonzaga, that this little book should be bound in a cover of fine
gold set with what variety of stones might please his Holiness, and
that the Emperor would like this much better, because he could make a
present of it to his wife the Empress. And so it came that the Pope
got so gammoned, that he was dissuaded from the crucifix, and bade me
make the little book, which I accordingly did.[40] When the Emperor
arrived in Rome, I had not yet put the finishing touches on the book
because it took some time before they made up their minds about it;
none the less the cover was visible, as it had all been put together,
and it looked splendid with all its gorgeous jewels set upon it. Then
the Pope sent to let me know that I must have it in order as well as
I possibly could within three or four days, as he wanted to show it,
incomplete as it was, to the Emperor, and that he would excuse me to
the latter for not having completed it, on the plea of illness. As
for that I will speak of it in its place.
After this the Pope with his own hands gave me the diamond he had
received from the Emperor, told me to take the measure of his
forefinger and make him a ring as richly wrought as possible and as
quickly as ever I could. Off I hurried to my workshop, and with the
greatest dispatch and in the space of two days produced as rich a
ring as was ever made. Now Pope Paul had waiting in attendance on him
a number of Milanese who patronised a certain Milanese jeweller, Gaio
by name. This Gaio came before the Pope, and all off his own bat,
without ever having been as much as asked, ‘Holy Father,’ quoth he,
‘your Holiness knows that by profession I am a jeweller, & that I am
better skilled at my craft than any man ever born. Now your Holiness
has given Benvenuto a diamond to set, and the diamond is one of the
most difficult stones in the whole world to set, and this particular
diamond is more difficult than any other diamond, and it is a very
beautiful stone, and a very costly stone & withal a very delicate
stone, & Benvenuto is a very young man, and though he is enthusiastic
enough about his art, & apt enough at his work, the tinting of so
precious a stone is rather too tough a bone for tender gums like
his. In my opinion your Holiness would do well to commission two or
three old and tried jewellers to go and look Benvenuto up & not let
him tint the diamond without their advice. It was a jeweller called
Miliano Targhetta of Venice, your Holiness, who tinted and set the
stone as your Holiness has it at present. This was an old man, and
never did any one better know how to fix foils and tint stones.’
Weary of this plaguey babbler, the Pope told him he might go and do
what he liked & thought best. So off the fellow went to look for
Raphaello del Moro the Florentine, and Guasparri Romanesco, both of
them men of great cunning in the matter of jewels; with these two he
came to my shop on behalf of the Pope. Then did he begin to babble so
tiresomely that I could scarce contain myself. The other two talked
sense & were decently civil, so I turned to them in my politest
manner, explained to them my views and begged them to let me have a
couple of days to prepare a few tints to try this lovely stone, for
this could only do good. In the first place by trying a few rare
tints for the diamond, I might be able not only to teach myself,
but lure on others who were following the art, & in the next place
the stone might so gain at my cost, that it might delight them, do
the Pope a service, and bring much credit to me. All the time I was
giving them my reasons, that insolent beast of a Gaio kept fidgeting
about with his feet and his head and his hands, ever and anon
interjecting the most irritating words, so that I very nearly lost my
temper altogether. But the others, men of sense they, managed it so
that I got the time I asked for. As soon as they were gone, I set to
like anything to make my tints, and this is how I did it.
FOOTNOTES:
[37] _In tavola, a facette, e in punta._
[38] _Piombo e stagno._
[39] _Gambo._
[40] _The illustration given is probably not of the breviary in
question, but it is a reasonable Cellini attribution._