In dealing with these beautiful things I will first explain to you
the method adopted by the ancients and then tell you how we are wont
to go to work nowadays. As far as we can gather from the methods of
this art, it appears that in the days when the art of making medals
commenced to flourish in Egypt, Greece, and Rome, the rulers put the
impressions of their heads on one side and on the other some record
of the great deeds they had done. What strikes us professionals,
however, who look deeper into the matter, is the variety of medals
struck for each emperor by a number of different masters. And the
reason of this is that when a new ruler was elected all the masters
of the craft of medal stamping in his dominions, and especially those
in his immediate residence, struck a medal for the occasion, the
prince’s head on one side, and on the other some commemoration of one
of his deeds of honour. Then all the many medals were shown to the
prince, and his ministers, and to him whose work was pronounced the
best was awarded the Mastership of the Mint, or rather the making of
the dies for the coins.
Now as to their making. The first thing to be done is to make a model
in white wax of the head, the reverse, and whatever there may be, to
the exact size and relief of the final work, for we know this was how
the ancients did it.
The white model in wax is made as follows: Take a little pure white
wax, add to it half the quantity of well-ground white lead, & a
little very clean turps. It depends on the time of the year as to
whether you put much or little turps, winter requiring half as much
again as summer. With wooden sticks[91] it is worked on a surface
of stone, bone, or black glass, & thereupon—for the ancients and
the moderns are at one here—it is made in the gesso just as the
cardinals’ seals were, of which I erewhile told you. Then you take
what are called the _taselli_, or iron implements used for stamping
medals, just as in the case of the _pile_ and _torselli_ you used
for stamping coins; only in this case they are made alike and not
dissimilar like the latter. There is a further difference too, and
this you must be careful about; whereas the latter were made of steel
and iron, the former are of well-chosen steel and four-cornered
in shape and the one just like the other. After you have softened
them in the fire in the same way as I showed you above with coins,
you smooth and polish[92] them very carefully with soft stones and
mark out the size of your medal, the beading, the place for the
inscription & so forth, with just such immovable compasses as you
used before.
After this you begin to work with your chisels ever so carefully,
cutting away the steel in order to round off the form of the head
in just such manner as you have it in your gesso model. And in this
manner, little by little, you hollow it out with your tools, but
using the punches[93] as little as possible, because they would
harden the steel and you would not be able to remove it with your
cutting tools. This was the way in which the ancients, with their
wonted diligence and patience, went to work; & in the same way, using
the chisels and the gravers, did they engrave their letters, and
thus it comes about that on no ancient medal have I seen really good
letters, though some are better than others. So much for the methods
of the ancients.
Now for another of our practical instances, gentle reader, always
as I have promised you, something from my own hand. It was a medal
for Pope Clement VII., and it had two reverses. On the front was the
head of his Holiness, on the reverse side was the subject of Moses
with his folk in the desert at the time of the scarcity of water.
God comes to their help, bidding Aaron, Moses’ brother, strike the
rock with his staff, from which the living water springs. I made it
just full of camels and horses, and ever so many animals and crowds
of people, and the little legend across it ‘_Ut bibat populus_.’ An
alternative reverse bore the figure of peace, a lovely maiden with
a torch in her hand burning a pile of weapons, & at the side the
temple of Janus with a Fury bound to it, and the legend around of
‘_Claudunter belli portae_.’ The dies for these medals I prepared[94]
with the _madre_, of which I told you above, and the punches, using
them first in the same way as I did with the coins. But I must remind
you how I said that the dies for the coins were not to be worked
on with cutting instruments, gravers and so forth; here, with the
medals, the contrary holds good, & as soon as you have done what you
can with your _madre_ and the various little punches that go with it,
you must needs finish the work ever so carefully with chisels and
gravers. The letters are stamped in with steel punches, just as was
the case with the coins. You must take heed, too, while striking, to
fix your die on to a great block[95] of lead. Some, when they strike
coins, have used hollowed wooden blocks[96] for this purpose, but
this will not answer for medals, as the dies have to be much deeper
cut, the relief of the medal being so much higher. Just in the same
way as with the coins you will do well to make wax impressions from
time to time, while you are cutting, to see how you are getting
on. Likewise, before you temper[97] the die, make a few impressions
on lead so as to see how the whole works together, and to correct
any mistakes. When you are satisfied with the results, set to with
the tempering of the dies, like you did for the coining. Don’t,
however, omit to have a pitcher containing about ten gallons[98] of
water. When your die is aglow, grip it carefully with the tongs &
quickly dip it into the water, and not holding it in one position
but stirring it round, always keeping it under water till it hisses
no longer and becomes cold. Then take it out & polish it up with
powdered iron scale just as you did before with the coins.
FOOTNOTES:
[91] _Fuscelletti._
[92] _Ispianera’ gli._
[93] _Ceselletti da ammaccare._
[94] _This might be translated, ‘I sank.’_
[95] _Tasello._
[96] _Ceppi di legno bucati._
[97] _Perhaps: ‘harden’ (see pp. 68 & 70). I am indebted to Prof.
Roberts-Austen for the following note: ‘This passage is amplified
in the next chapter where the author treats of the hardening of
medal dies. He has shown that before working on the coin dies he has
made them as soft as possible, but before they could actually be
used for striking coins they would need “hardening” & “tempering.”
Hardening steel is effected by heating it to bright redness & then
quenching it in some fluid which will cool the metal with more or
less rapidity, cold water being usually employed for this purpose.
Hence in this chapter Cellini states that there must be ten gallons
of cold water in which the hot die is quenched, & kept moving (as in
modern practice) until it is cold. “Tempering,” on the other hand,
to which he alludes here, consists in reducing the hardness of the
quenched steel by heating it to a moderate temperature much below
redness. Usually the die would be (in modern practice) heated until
a straw-coloured film forms on its surface. Probably such a film
is contemplated by the author when he indicates the necessity for
removing a film, produced at the hardening stage, by polishing with
fine oxide of iron.’_
[98] _The barila is about forty pints. Capt. Victor Ward tells me
about twenty Florentine wine flasks._