BARBARIC JEWELLERY OF EUROPE
(THE GREAT MIGRATIONS)
During the period of the great migrations, when hordes of barbarians
swept like waves across Europe over the tracks of Roman civilisation,
all traces of classical art rapidly vanished, save in Constantinople,
which remained, as it were, a corner of the antique world. The forms of
classical jewellery in natural course either totally disappeared or
underwent a complete transformation, and there appeared instead a new
process for the decoration of personal ornament, which in earlier times
was practically unknown, save to the goldsmiths of ancient Egypt.
Just as the desire to imitate precious stones led to the introduction of
enamel, so the Gothic nations who hailed from the south-east corner of
Europe brought into jewellery the Oriental love for colour. Coloured
stones, usually garnets, or red glass, cut in slices, were inlaid
on a metal surface, or were placed side by side, separated only by
intervening strips of metal. This process of inlay or incrustation is of
great importance, since almost every species of jewellery in Europe from
the third till about the eighth century is thus decorated.
The Goths invented no new jewellery, but adapted a style which had long
been in existence. And though the forms of their jewellery may be due to
the growth of local traditions, its decoration is clearly the result of
influences connected in some way with the East. Originating, as it
doubtless did, in Persia or in the further East, this process of inlay
was adopted by the Gothic nations during the earlier centuries of the
Christian era, and made its first appearance among them in the districts
of the Caucasus and in the Crimea. From thence it passed to the Lombards
in Italy, to the Burgundians in Austria and Switzerland, the Visigoths
in Spain, the Merovingians in Gaul, the earlier Scandinavians in
Denmark; and by the Saxon tribes in Northern Germany it was carried to
England, where it attained its highest perfection in the superb circular
brooches that have been brought to light in Kent.
By the discovery of specimens of Asiatic and Germanic jewellery
ornamented in this manner, the path of the migratory tribes can thus be
traced right across the Continent. Yet for the reason that conditions of
property and nationality became altered from one generation to another,
the question to which of the nations numerous pieces of jewellery are
to be ascribed, is difficult to solve. They are often connected with
misunderstood Hellenistic and Asiatic traditions, while at the same time
showing workmanship with barbaric ideas of form.
There are, as has been pointed out,[9] two very distinct forms of
inlay, one of which is possibly the outcome of the other. One has
been termed _plate inlaying_, the other _cloisonné inlaying_. The
first is represented in the east of Europe by the fibulæ and gorget
in the celebrated treasure of Petrossa, and in the west by the crown of
Svinthila in the equally famous treasure of Guarrazar. In these objects
a gold plate is pierced, and into the holes thus formed stones are fixed
by mastic, and supported from behind by a second plate of gold. This
form of inlaying seems to merge naturally into the other, for at a
certain point it may have occurred to the goldsmith to abandon the
continuous upper sheet of metal and to cut it into strips to be placed
edgewise between the stones. Thus appeared the second form of inlaying,
in the cloisonné manner. It is represented in its journey from the
East by the "Oxus treasure." In Europe it is illustrated by numerous
specimens of Teutonic jewellery from Southern Europe, by the ornaments
discovered in the tomb of Childeric I, and finally by the splendid
Anglo-Saxon jewellery from the Kentish cemeteries. Numbers of articles
of jewellery dating from the fifth century until the general
introduction of Christianity have been discovered in various localities
in Europe. But the above-mentioned hoards of treasure demand special
consideration, as being, not only the most characteristic examples of
the methods of inlay, but also types of the utmost luxury of the period
in the way of personal ornaments. Beyond these no general account of
European jewellery need here be given, since excavations in the
Anglo-Saxon graves have revealed examples of jewellery which may be
taken as fairly representative of the articles then in use upon the
Continent as well.
[9] _Archæologia_, LVIII, p. 240, 1902.
A description may now be given of some of the principal and most typical
of these European treasure-hoards, dating from what are known as the
"Dark Ages." But attention must first be drawn to the important Asiatic
treasure found near the River Oxus, in Bactria, in 1877. This "Oxus
treasure,"[10] belonging for the most part to the fourth century B.C.,
seems to supply the missing link in the chain of evidence which unites
the ornamentation of European jewellery with clearly defined Oriental
methods. The chief articles of jewellery in the hoard are two massive
penannular bracelets of gold, one in the British Museum, the other at
South Kensington. They are ornamented at each end with a winged monster
or gryphon in full relief. The surface of the wings and necks of the
figures is covered with gold cloisons, once set with coloured stones or
pastes. The form and decoration of these and the other articles of the
treasure in the Franks Bequest in the British Museum seem to indicate
the Persian origin of this inlaid work.
[10] Dalton (O. M.), _The treasure of the Oxus, 1905._
The "treasure of Petrossa," dating from the fourth century A.D.,
contains some of the earliest examples of inlaid jewellery in Europe.
Few treasures of which record has been preserved are equal to it in
archæological interest. It was discovered in 1837 by peasants on the
banks of a tributary of the Danube, near the village of Petrossa, about
sixty miles from Bucharest. Much of it was broken up shortly after its
discovery. What remained was seized by the Government and conveyed to
the Museum of Antiquities at Bucharest, where it is now preserved. The
treasure includes a gold torque with hooked ends, like the Celtic
torques from the British Isles; a crescent-shaped collar or gorget of
gold with its surface pierced in the manner of plate inlay, and set
with garnets and other stones; three bird-shaped fibulæ; and a larger
ornament, also in the shape of a bird, intended probably as a
breast-plate. The heads and necks of the birds are inlaid in the
cloisonné manner; their lower parts are ornamented with plate inlay.[11]
[11] A remarkable book descriptive of this treasure has been
published by Professor Odobesco, of the University of Bucharest, in
which the whole process of inlaying is discussed at considerable length.
The same subject has been treated with the most minute care by the
well-known art historian, M. Charles de Linas.
Dating from the Merovingian period are the treasures of King Childeric I
in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris. The founder of the Merovingian
dynasty died in 481, and was buried at Tournai, in Languedoc, surrounded
by his treasures and robes of state. In the year 1653, when all memory
of the place of his interment had perished, a labourer accidentally
uncovered the royal grave and brought to light the treasure it
contained. The regalia consisted of a sword, a bracelet, fibulæ,
buckles, about three hundred gold bees--the decoration of a mantle--and
a signet-ring of gold. This ring was not set with a gem, but had its
oval gold bezel engraved with a full-faced bust holding a spear. It bore
the legend CHILDIRICI REGIS. On the night of November 5, 1831, the
Bibliothèque was broken into by burglars. An alarm being given, they
fled, and threw their spoil, which included, amongst other objects,
Childeric's regalia, into the Seine. The river was dredged, and a great
part of the treasure was recovered. The ring, however, was never found;
but its design is preserved in Chiflet's _Anastasis Childerici I_, while
the signet itself has been reconstructed from an impression of the seal
in wax, found in the Bodleian Library in a copy of Chiflet's work, once
the property of the great antiquary, Francis Douce. Except on this
jewel, the traditional surface decoration of Teutonic jewellery is
admirably represented. Every item of the treasure is inlaid with thin
slices of garnet or red glass, arranged in the cloisonné manner between
gold partitions.[12]
[12] Abbé Cochet, _Le tombeau de Childéric I^e^r_, 1859.
The most wonderful, probably, of all treasures-trove is the famous
"treasure of Guarrazar," discovered in 1858 at a place called La Fuente
de Guarrazar, near Toledo.[13] It included eleven crowns of pure gold
set with precious stones. The peasants who unearthed the treasure broke
up the crowns and divided the spoil. But the story of the discovery
became known; and having been pieced together, most of the crowns were
conveyed to the Musée Cluny at Paris, and the remainder placed in the
Real Armería at Madrid. The most important of those at Madrid is the
crown of King Svinthila (621-631). Its surface is pierced with holes
arranged in rose-shaped patterns, and set with large pearls and cabochon
sapphires. From the lower rim hangs a fringe of letters set in the
cloisonné manner with red glass paste, suspended by chains. The letters
form the inscription SVINTILANUS REX OFFERET. The chief crown in the
treasure at Paris is that of King Reccesvinthus (649-672). It consists
of a broad circle of gold, 8 inches in diameter, mounted with thirty
huge Oriental pearls and thirty large sapphires, all set in high collets
and separated by pierced open-work. The margins are bands of cloisonné
work with inlays of red glass. Suspended below by twenty-four chains are
letters of gold inlaid like the borders forming the words [Symbol:
cross pattée] RECCESVINTHUS REX OFFERET. Attached to each letter is a
square collet hung with a pear-shaped sapphire. The crown is suspended
by four chains from a foliated ornament encircled with pendent pearls
and sapphires, and surmounted by a capital of rock crystal. A massive
cross 4¼ inches long and 2½ inches wide hangs below the crown. It
is set with eight enormous pearls and six large and brilliant sapphires,
the latter mounted in high open bezels. From its foot and limbs hang
three paste imitations of emeralds, with pear-shaped sapphires below.
The combination of the pure gold with the violet sapphires and the
somewhat faded lustre of the pearls produces an exceedingly harmonious
effect of colour.
[13] Lasteyrie (F. de), _Description du trésor de Guarrazar_, 1860.
The majority of these crowns were votive offerings to a church, to be
hung above the altar; the larger ones may have been actually used at
coronations, and afterwards suspended in some consecrated building and
the dedicatory inscriptions attached in remembrance of the ceremony.
They certainly appear to be native work of the Spanish Visigoths,
executed under the influence of the style prevailing in the Eastern
Empire. At a date not long after their production, the use of this
particular species of decoration of jewellery, owing probably to the
revival of the art of enamelling, rapidly declined in western Europe;
and though it continued to be practised in the East, it had virtually
disappeared at the close of the Merovingian period--by about the year
800, when Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the West.