Zambelli of Bergamo, a relative of Fra Damiano. He was helped by Anselmo
de' Fornari, Andrea and Elia della Rocca, Giovanni Michele de
Pantaleone, and Giovanni Piccardo, who had already worked in the choir
of the Cathedral of Savona. The contract is still extant by which
Francesco di Zambelli of Bergamo undertakes to make them with three of
the procurators for the building and ornamentation of San Lorenzo, dated
April 12, 1540. He agrees to get to work not later than the first of
September next, and to stay in the city till the work is done. Nor must
he undertake other work under a penalty of 100 scudi, which he is to pay
in such case without demur or defence. The procurators agree to pay for
every picture, with its frame, according to the design furnished to him,
and they also promise to provide lodgings for himself and his family
without any expense to him, and to give him a present when the work is
finished. On the same day his relative, Fra Damiano, promises to make
two pictures, one for the seat of the archbishop and one for the doge,
to be ready by Christmas Day next, to be paid for at the rate of 27
scudi each, measure and design to be given by the signory. The same day
the aforesaid "Magnifici" had it explained to them that they would have
to pay the expenses of making sketches. In the panel with the history of
Moses Zambelli signs his name and domicile. Fra Damiano's subjects
appear to be the large ones in the panelling before the stalls commence,
"The Massacre of the Innocents" and "The Martyrdom of S. Laurence." The
figure subjects are not very successful, the arabesques are better; but
the panels with open cupboard doors and objects within are not so well
done as Fra Giovanni's. The stalls were restored in 1868, and a good
deal of new work put in. The choir of the Cathedral of Savona was made
in 1500 by Anselmo de' Fornari, a native of Castelnuovo da Scrivia; Pope
Julius II. (della Rovere), who was born in the city, commissioned it.
The intarsias are on the elbows of the stalls, half-figures of saints
nearly life size, singly or in pairs, among which is a portrait of the
donor, with perspectives of palaces, temples, or interiors on the backs.
The lower stalls have less important subjects, such as censers,
chalices, vases of flowers, animals, armillary spheres, musical
instruments, etc. The cost of these stalls was 1132 scudi d'oro larghi
(10 francs each and a little more) half of which was paid by Julius
II. and half by the Commune of Savona. In the same Cathedral are a fine
lectern, an episcopal throne, two doors of the chapel of our Lady of the
Column, and a fine seat, the "banco dell' opera," commonly called
"Massaria." Upon such a seat sat anciently the four citizens elected by
the Commune to attend to the interests of the Church governed by them.
Within this bench were preserved the diplomas, statutes, and arguments
held to be most important to the greatness of the country. Anselmo de'
Fornari was helped by Elia de' Rocchi, and the commission was given to
them jointly on January 30, 1500, on which date Cardinal della Rovere
promised to pay 570 ducats towards the expenses.
[Illustration: _To face page 78._
Plate 36.--_Panel from lower row of Stalls, Cathedral, Savona._]
Another intarsiatore who worked with Fra Damiano was Giovanni Francesco
Capo di ferro of Lovere, on Lake Iseo. His masterpiece is the choir of
S. Maria Maggiore, Bergamo. When it was determined to commence it in
1521 the presidents of the church fabric sent to various cities of
Italy, especially to Milan, to consult over the model to be selected for
so important a work with the excellent painter and architect M. Bernardo
Zenale da Treviglio. In the archives of the Misericordia is a book
entitled "Fabbrica Chori," in which is noted the great expense of the
designs only, among which were some made by Lorenzo Lotto, by
Alessandro Bonvicini, called Il Moretto; Andrea Previtali, Giacomo de'
Scipioni, Filippo Zanchi, Giuseppe Belli, Domenico di Albano, Niccolino
Cabrini, Pietro da Nembro, Francesco Boneri, and other painters, as well
as the making of models and other similar operations. Those who worked
at carving and tarsia under the direction of Giovanni Francesco were his
son Zinino and Pietro his brother, who lived in Lodi; Paolo da Pesaro,
and many others, including a whole family, Giovanni di Ponteranica and
his four sons. The part towards the sacristy was designed by Lorenzo
Lotto, the rest by Alessandro Belli. The sedilia on the Gospel side bear
a signature hung from a tree, "Opus Jo: Franc: D. Cap. Ferr. Bergomi."
The four panels outside the screen are Noah entering the ark, the
passage of the Red Sea, the triumph of Judith by the death of
Holofernes, and the victory of David over Goliath. Thus Tassi speaks of
them--"These, to speak the truth, for their admirable workmanship,
singular art, and beautiful colouring, do not appear to be pieces of
wood put together, but rather pictures formed by an excellent brush, the
pieces placed with such mastery, and the woods of different colours to
form the chiaroscuro so arranged with the darkening of others that they
make the half-tints appear as if really painted with oil by the same
Lotto who made the coloured designs, and as he was a celebrated and
finished painter and a powerful one, thus certainly these pieces of wood
put together could stand in face of paintings by the most celebrated
brushes, which, beyond the exactness of drawing, gave to their works
singular force and finish; for in them all the possible excellences of
drawing and of art are displayed, and whoever has had the opportunity of
well considering them has remained surprised and delighted, never
believing that human art could reach so high a pitch of perfection." His
last work is mentioned in 1533, two pictures of Samson, at 60 lire each.
In 1547 his son Zinino and his brother Giovanni Pietro went on with the
choir, and finished it nine years later. The total cost for labour alone
was 7000 lire Imperiali.
[Illustration: _To face page 80._
Plate 37.--_Panel from the Ducal Palace, Mantua._]
In Spain there must have been a good deal of intarsia done, seeing how
long the Moors held the southern part of the country, but very little
has come down to us. In the Mosque at Cordova was a finely inlaid mihrab
of the 10th century, which was unfortunately destroyed in the 16th
century and its material used to make an altar. In the Museum at South
Kensington are some panels with Hispano-Moresque geometric inlays of
bone of the 15th century, which are very pleasing; the ground is of
chestnut, the bone is often stained green, and metal triangles and
light wood are also used. This use of bone, which is frequently tinted,
in conjunction with black and pale wood, is characteristic of Spanish
work of the 16th century. The design is often exceedingly naive,
employing birds, animals, plants, and trees, with scrolls and monsters.
There is one cabinet at South Kensington with the animals entering the
ark, which is most entertaining. The Portuguese carried this work on
later, especially at Goa, in the 17th century, but neither here nor in
Spain is the later work tasteful, except occasionally. Cabinets were
then made at Toledo of ebony and ivory, and at Seville and Salamanca the
same materials were used for chests and sideboards.
At Burgos is a pulpit decorated with inlay as well as carving, and one
of the most elaborate works of marquetry of comparatively modern times
is Spanish. This consists of the decoration of four small rooms in the
Escurial, upon which 28,000,000 reals (£300,000) was spent in 1831. They
are called "piezas de maderas finas," rooms of perfect or delicate
woods, and are entirely covered with landscapes, still-life subjects,
flowers, etc., made of the finest and most costly woods, and almost like
paintings; floor, frieze, panels, window recesses, and doors.
There was a mode of decorating furniture much used in Spain and
Portugal, especially the latter, in which metal plates, cut and pierced
into elaborate and fanciful patterns, were fastened on to the surface of
objects made of black wood by means of small pins. From this to the
decoration of the same surfaces by sinking the metal in the wood is a
short step, and some think that this was the origin of the metal inlay
so well known a little later under the name of Boulle work.
IN GERMANY AND HOLLAND, ENGLAND AND FRANCE
[Illustration: Plate 38.--_Panel from the Rathaus, Breslau, 1563._
_To face page 84._]
In Germany there can be little doubt that the art first struck root in
the southern part of the country, the towns which produced the earliest
furniture and other objects decorated in this manner being Augsburg and
Nuremberg. The first names of workers recorded, however, are those of
the two brothers Elfen, monks of S. Michael at Hildesheim, who made
altars, pulpits, mass-desks, and other church furniture for their
monastery, ornamented with inlays, at the beginning of the 16th century,
and Hans Stengel, of Nuremberg, but none of the inlaid work of either
has come down to us. Two earlier pieces are figured by Hefner Alteneck,
the harp already referred to on p. 8, and a folding seat of brown wood
inlaid with ivory, stained yellow or light green, and black or dark
brown wood, in oriental patterns, both of the latter part of the 14th or
beginning of the 15th century. Two other names are mentioned as capable
craftsmen in Nuremberg, Wolf Weiskopf and Sebald Beck; the latter died
in 1546. The Augsburg work was much sought after, the "so-called
mosaic work of coloured woods." The designs for the panels were
generally made by painters, architectural and perspective subjects being
most common, but flower pieces, views of towns, and historical
compositions were also made. A German work thus characterises the later
16th century productions of this type--"A certain kind of intarsia
becomes common in the German panelling and architectural woodwork; also
in cabinets, vases, and arabesques, with tasteless ruins and
architectural subjects with arabesque growths clinging all over them, of
which examples may be seen in the museums at Vienna and Berlin, where
one may also see works in ebony with engraved ivory inlays, which are
generally more satisfactory. In German work, however, inlay was never of
so much importance as carving, and the Baroque influence almost
immediately affected the character of the design for the worse." At
Dresden and Munich there were several celebrated inlayers in the 17th
century, among whom may be named Hans Schieferstein, Hans Kellerthaler,
of Dresden, and Simon Winkler, N. Fischer, and his son Johann Georg, of
Munich, the last of whom, with his contemporary Adam Eck, practised
relief intarsia, of which the latter is said to have been the inventor.
It was known in the art trade as "Präger arbeit," which was not a name
which accurately described its origin. Panellings of walls and doors
were often decorated with inlays, most frequently of arabesques, of
which the town halls of Lübeck and Danzig furnish fine examples. The
"Kriegsstube" at Lübeck was done by Antonius Evers, who in 1598-9 was
master of the joiners' guild, with his companions. The Rathsaal at
Lüneburg was made in 1566-78, and the name of Albert von Soest is
connected with it. Danzig, in the "Sommerrathstube," shows intarsias and
decorations of 1596 in which the painter Vriedeman Vriese and a certain
Simon Herle, probably a local man, collaborated. Other similar works may
be seen at Brunswick and Breslau, at Ulm, in the Michel Hofkirche at
Munich, and in the Cathedral at Mainz. At Coburg, in the so-called
"Hornzimmer," are intarsias worked from the designs of Lucas Cranach and
others, at Rothenburgh, at Geminden, at Landshut, and in many places in
Tyrol and Steiermark, most of them much mixed with carving, too numerous
to describe. The intarsias at the Hofkirche at Innsbruck, begun in 1560
by Conrad Gottlieb, may, however, be mentioned as being remarkably fine.
Schleswig Holstein is full of intarsias of the end of the 16th and
beginning of the 17th century, of which perhaps the finest are in the
chapel of the Castle of Gottorp. The princes' prayer chamber or pew
is elaborately panelled, and the panels are all filled with inlays,
mostly arabesques. The door and wall panels have elaborate architectural
forms in relief with base, frieze, and pilasters; and are also fully
inlaid with arabesques, counterchanged bay by bay. The ceiling is
coffered, and the male and female patterns are counterchanged
diagonally. Bosses of lions' heads and rosettes project from the
surfaces of the beams, between which the intarsia panels are flat. The
central features in the several divisions are sunk, a central oblong
with an oval in centre bearing the subject of the Resurrection and two
side diamonds. The panels surrounding these have raised mouldings, so
that there is considerable variety of level, and the whole is raised on
a bracketed cornice, the flat surface of which has small panels inlaid
in the same fashion. It was put up in 1612 by Duke Johann Adolf of
Schleswig Holstein and his wife, Augusta of Denmark.
[Illustration: Plate 39.--_Panel from Church of S. Mary Magdalene,
Breslau._
_To face page 86._]
[Illustration: Plate 40.--_Pilaster strip from the Magdalen Church,
Breslau._]
In the State archives of Schleswig, in 1608, the names of Andreas
Sallig, court joiner; Jochim Rosenfeldt, carver; and others are noted.
Also in 1609, with the addition of the painter Herman Uhr and Hans and
Jürgen Dreyer, of Schleswig; also the carver Hans Preuszen, and Adam
Wegener, the figure-cutter. In 1610 the names of Jürgen Koningh,
joiner's workman, several carvers, and Herman Uhr, the painter, occur.
In 1611 Herman Uhr and Klaus Barck work in the chapel, the first for 115
days, and the second for 178 days, and in 1612 several carvers and
turners work for a long time at the rate of five "schillings" a day, as
well as Herman Uhr and his assistant. These records distinctly suggest
that the painter Herman Uhr was the designer, since his name is the only
one which appears for four years consecutively, though the long period
during which he worked in 1612 may be explained by the number of
paintings which cover a portion of the exterior of the pew.
[Illustration: Plate 41.--_Panel from S. Elizabeth's Church, Breslau._
_To face page 88._]
In South Germany one often meets with musical instruments which are
inlaid with conventionalised floral forms. They were produced in the
17th century in considerable quantities in Wurtemburg, Bavaria, and on
the Southern Shores of Lake Constance. Nor must one forget the
extraordinarily elaborate ivory inlays on the stocks of arquebuses. In
the Wallace collection are many examples, and attention may be drawn to
a jewel box made in 1630 by Conrad Cornier, arquebus mounter, which is
decorated with most elaborate scrolls, leaves, and birds of ivory and
mother-of-pearl, stained green in parts. It is made of walnut, and has
metal scrolls at the corners of the panel framing. The German inlays
on the whole rather run to arabesques and strapwork, or naturalistic
vases of flowers, with butterflies and birds; one meets occasional
perspectives and even figures, but the work is generally harder and less
successful than the Italian technique, with a larger and less
intelligent use of scorched tints.
In the latter part of the 17th century they often made the ground of a
cabinet or panelling of one wood and the mouldings which defined the
panels and the carved ornaments added of another, or even of two others;
the effect is not quite happy. Tortoiseshell also appears, and metal and
coloured stones; the striving after what they thought to be greater
artistry soon caused them to outstep more and more the proper limits of
the art, and brought about decadence. The South German bride chests of
the century before are decorated a good deal with inlays, Peter
Flotner's designs often serving as patterns; a little green and red
appear mixed with the commoner colours. The architectural forms project,
and would form a tolerable design by themselves, though scarcely
suitable to the object to which they are applied. In German work the
cabinets are often of the most elaborate architectural design, like the
façade of a palace, made of ebony, or occasionally even of ivory, and
inlaid with ivory, silver, gold and enamels or precious stones.
Augsburg was the most celebrated place for such work. The joiner, the
woodcarver, the lapidary, and the goldsmith all worked together on such
things. In the North of Germany tarsia was principally used on chests,
cabinets, seats, and smaller objects of furniture; in South Germany,
where the Italian influence was stronger, it was much used in
wall-panelling and the panels of doors. The little castle of Völthurn,
near Brixen, built by the bishop of that town in 1580-85 and decorated
by Brixener artists and joiners (now belonging to Prince Lichtenstein),
shows "panelled walls with architectural features, columns, cornices,
and friezes, with gabled doorways with columns and pediments, decorated
with very delicate intarsias, foliage ornaments, flowers, and fruit, a
work which modern Brixener joiners could with difficulty understand"; so
says Von Falke. Ebony and ivory work came to Germany in the latter half
of the 16th century, when Augsburg and Nuremberg soon exported their
productions of this sort to all the world, and with this commercial
production the use of male and female designs begins, black on white and
white on black. The latter is the better and more valued. Hans
Schieferstein's cabinet, now at Dresden, a work of this period, has an
ingenious use of this mode of inlay. It is made of ebony or veneered
with that wood, and has inlays of brown cypress and of ivory. The
panel on the inside of the door is of the same design as that on the
outside, but what was white becomes brown, what was brown is black, and
the black becomes white.
[Illustration: Plate 42.--_Lower panel of door, 1564--Tyrolese._
_To face page 90._]
In the Musée Cluny is a wire drawing bench made in 1565 for Augustus I.,
Elector of Saxony, who was an amateur craftsman. The two longitudinal
surfaces are covered with a double frieze of marquetry, one side
representing a satirical tournament between the Papacy and Lutheranism,
and the other a carousal of wild men. In front one sees the marqueteur
with his tools doing his work, below which he has placed his monogram,
L--D., accompanied by a cup.
In the Museum at Leipzig is a very fine cabinet, with many drawers
within, elaborately inlaid with arabesques on a light ground, with a few
architectural forms in ebony projecting. It is Tyrolese work of the
beginning of the 17th century, and is a typical example. To the few
names of German intarsiatori may be added those of Isaac Kiening, of
Frissen, and Sixtus Loblein, of Landshut.
In the lower Rhine and in Holland tarsia was used for great and small
chests, sideboards and doors with rich gable crownings, with good
drawing of flowers, and sprigs of leaves with birds and beasts among
them, the ground being generally light. The doors ordered by the Swedish
Chamberlain, Axel Oxenstiern, now in the drinking-room of the King's
Castle of Ulriksdal, near Stockholm, are said by Von Falke to be the
finest examples extant of this kind of work, and to have been made in
the 17th century by a Dutch craftsman. The best period in Holland was
the second half of the 16th and the first half of the 17th century. In
the work of this period the handling is broad, and the composition often
a little over-full, but the many different woods which Dutch commerce
made available seduced the marqueteurs into too pictorial a treatment in
point of colour. Their reputation was so great that Colbert engaged two
Dutch marqueteurs, Pierre Gole and Vordt, for the Gobelins at the
beginning of the 17th century, and Jean Macé also learnt the craft by a
long stay in Holland. Here, as well as in France and Italy, rich chairs
were commonly decorated with marquetry, and in William and Mary's reign
such things became the fashion in England. The design employed tulips
and other flowers, foliage, birds, etc., all in gay colours; ivory and
mother-of-pearl were used occasionally for salient points, such as eyes.
Examples of the use and misuse of these materials may be seen in the
Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington.
[Illustration: Plate 43.--_Top of card table in the Drawing-room,
Roehampton House. Dutch, 18th Century._
_To face page 92._]
[Illustration: Plate 44.--_Panelling from Sizergh Castle, now in
Victoria and Albert Museum._]
Although not much work of importance is known in England which is
certainly the production of native craftsmen, a few notable examples may
be called to mind, such as the room from Sizergh Castle, now at South
Kensington, with inlays of holly and bog-oak, and the fine suite of
furniture at Hardwick Hall, made for Bess of Hardwick by English workmen
who had been to Italy for some years. Correspondence passed between her
and Sir John Thynne on the subject of the craftsmen employed by both,
and there seems no doubt that Longleat and Hardwick were the work of the
same men. The inlays upon the long table are particularly fine, and
except for a certain clumsiness almost recall the glories of the great
period of Italian marquetry. The cradle of James I. (1566) is enriched
with inlays.
At Gilling Castle, near Wakefield, are some panels inlaid with flowers,
etc., which local tradition says were executed by some of the ladies of
the family, which probably points to their having been done under their
superintendence by local workmen, and small panels of rough inlay are
not uncommon in chest and bedstead, overmantel and cabinet from the
Jacobean period onward. S. Mary Overie, Southwark, possesses a fine
parish chest decorated with a good deal of Dutch-looking inlay in
conjunction with carving, and a rather unusual piece of work may be
seen at Glastonbury Hall, where the treads and landings of the oak
stairs are inlaid with mahogany and a light wood with stars and lozenges
and a cartouche with a monogram and date 1726. The use of satin wood
came into fashion towards the end of the eighteenth century, and was
accompanied by a delicate inlay of other woods, which, however, scarcely
went beyond the simplest ornament, since the decoration of furniture by
means of painting became fashionable at nearly the same period.
[Illustration: Plate 45.--_Cabinet with falling front, in the
drawing-room, Roehampton House._
_To face page 94._]