THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
FRANCE--SPAIN
The campaigns of Charles VIII and Louis XII in Italy, and the patronage
of Italian artists by Cardinal d'Amboise, brought a knowledge of
Renaissance art into France. France was the first nation to adopt the
style of ornament to which Italy had given birth, and at the very outset
of the sixteenth century Italian influence made itself felt. From the
reign of Francis I to that of Charles IX, French jewellery was closely
modelled on the Italian, while many Italian jewellers took up their
abode in France, and among them Cellini, who resided in Paris from 1540
to 1545.
Not since the days of Charles V had France witnessed such profusion of
jewellery as was indulged in by the splendour-loving Francis I who
exceeded even Henry VIII and Pope Paul III--two other great collectors
of the day--in gathering together jewels and precious stones. We hear
much of the jewellery of the day from Rabelais, who speaks of the
rosaries, girdle-ornaments, rings, gold chains, jewelled necklaces and
of the various kinds of precious stones worn both in articles of
jewellery and scattered in profusion over the dress.
An incident of considerable interest is recorded to have taken place in
the time of Francis I in connection with a supposed abuse of enamel on
the part of the jewellers. The king's attention was drawn to the fact
that when jewellery enamelled with opaque enamels, which were considered
to weigh heavier than the clear ones, came to be realised, the enamel
was so much pure loss. So, in spite of a protest by some of the leading
goldsmiths, who declared that the proper execution of the majority of
articles of jewellery was impossible without opaque enamel, an ordinance
was passed in 1540 forbidding its use. After three years, however, the
king relented, and again permitted the jewellers the full exercise of
the resources of their art, provided there was no superfluous excess in
the use of enamel.
Under the last Valois kings, Charles IX and Henry III, the production of
jewellery in France, as elsewhere, was greater than at almost any other
period. Vivid descriptions of the rich jewellery of this time are
furnished by the chronicler Brantôme.
Actual articles of French Renaissance jewellery are, it must be
confessed, of great rarity. Almost the only extant specimens are
the wonderful mounted cameos in the Cabinet des Médailles of the
Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, the majority of which are presumably of
French origin. From comparison of these with contemporary designs, the
distinguishing features of the French jewellery of the time appear to
be--a cartouche-shaped frame with comparatively unbroken outline,
enriched with scroll ornament and occasionally with human figures and
grotesques, a slight use of open-work, and the general employment of a
central ornament.
Like the Germans, the French had excellent masters, who engraved models
for jewellery of great beauty of design. The following are the chief
_maîtres ornemanistes_ who flourished in the sixteenth century:--Jean
Duvet, known also as the Master of the Unicorn, born at Langres in 1485
and died about 1562, was goldsmith to Francis I and Henry II. His
designs for small objects of personal use in the form of scrolls,
flowers, and foliage, intended for execution in enamel, are among the
earliest engravings in _taille-douce_ produced for the purpose. Jacques
Androuet Ducerceau (about 1510-about 1585) worked chiefly at Orleans.
His numerous engravings in the form of cartouches with rolled and
voluted frames show the type of design mainly employed for pendants. His
actual models for jewellery, numbering upwards of fifty, comprise clasps
and brooches, and many pendants, including earrings (pp. 241 and 269).
After Androuet Ducerceau, the most famous jeweller of this time was
Etienne Delaune, called Stephanus (1518-1595). He is said to have worked
under Cellini during the latter's residence in Paris. In 1573 he moved
to Strasburg, where the greater part of his work was produced. A "little
master" par excellence, he engraved with extraordinary delicacy a number
of exquisite designs for jewellery. Two of his engravings of slightly
different design, both dated 1576, represent the interior of goldsmiths'
workshops, and are of particular interest in illustrating the practice
of the goldsmith's art and the equipment of the workshop at this period.
Designs for jewellery are the most interesting of the engravings of René
Boyvin (1530-1598), of Angers. He appears to have been influenced by the
Italian artists of Fontainebleau, and his plates of jewel-ornament,
engraved with great skill in the style of Il Rosso, show considerable
ingenuity and fancy in the combination of faceted stones and large
pearls with human and fantastic figures.
More influential perhaps than any of the designs of the time are those
of Pierre Woeiriot of Lorraine, who was born in 1532 and died after
1589. In 1555 Woeiriot settled at Lyons, where he produced a large
number of engravings for jewellery. These, showing the greatest variety
of design, include numerous patterns for rings, a dozen earrings, and
ten pendent ornaments (Pl. XXVII, 3). These masterpieces of engraving
and composition were published at Lyons in 1555 and 1561.
Spain occupies a peculiar place with respect to its Renaissance
jewellery. In the sixteenth century the Spanish Peninsula was perhaps
the richest part of the civilised world. Even at a time when universal
luxury in personal ornaments reigned, Spain made itself an object of
note by its extraordinary display in this direction. The union under
the same dominion of three of the most powerful countries of Europe
coincident with the newly developed wealth of America resulted in a
desire among all classes for a more luxurious style of living and for
more sumptuous ornaments. The natural instinct of wealthy and cultured
individuals to surround themselves with the choicest productions of the
fine arts led to the importation of the best of such objects from other
countries and of the first foreign craftsmen of the day.
Juan de Arphe, "the Spanish Cellini," himself of German extraction,
devoted much attention to the naturalisation of Renaissance forms. Other
jewellers also remained in so large a measure dependent on foreign
influence, at first of Italian types, and then of the designs of French,
German, and Flemish engravers of ornament, that it is often hard to
arrive at a decision as to the precise provenance of their productions.
But just as other works of art, the product of different countries, are
stamped with certain indefinable characteristics, which in general
circumstances may at once be detected, so jewels of Spanish origin
betray the influence of national temperament in their composition and
design. The series of drawings by Barcelona jewellers published by
Davillier in his _Recherches sur l'Orfèvrerie en Espagne_, bear
sufficient evidence of this native spirit.
Nevertheless, the majority of the surviving examples of the Renaissance
jewellery of Spain approach at times very near to those of Germany. And
there can be little doubt that the Nuremberg and Augsburg jewels which,
as has been shown, were in vogue not only all over Germany, but in
France and England and the Low Countries, were imported and imitated,
as Davillier says, by the goldsmiths of Spain.
The most important Spanish jewels of the sixteenth century are in the
form of enamelled pendants. Of these the Victoria and Albert Museum
possesses a collection, excelled by that of no other public museum,
which acquired at the sale in 1870 of the treasures of the sanctuary of
the Virgen del Pilar at Saragossa.
A species of pendant which in Spain above all places has always been
popular was the reliquary. It assumed numerous shapes; and among the
many kinds of adornment it received were small panels of painted glass
commonly known as _verres églomisés_.
This so-called _verre églomisé_, which had been handed down from
antiquity and was used in the Middle Ages, was brought to high
perfection at the Renaissance. Adopted from Italy, where it was also
employed for jewellery, it met with considerable favour in Spain in the
sixteenth century (Pl. XLIII, 4).
The process employed in its production consisted in covering the under
side of a plate of glass or rock crystal with gold leaf. On this were
traced the outlines of the design intended to be reserved in gold, and
the remainder of the gold was then removed. In the painting which
followed, the finest details, the high lights, the shadows and flesh
tints were first executed. Then came in successive applications,
transparent varnishes of different colours and thicknesses, in
accordance with the value of the tones desired. Small pieces of silver
leaf were applied to certain parts to reflect the light and heighten the
effect; and the whole was finally backed with a sheet of metal.[129]
[129] _La collection Spitzer_, III, p. 53.
Verre églomisé appears to take its name from one Glomy, a French
craftsman of the eighteenth century, who produced a special black and
gold varnish which he applied to the back of glass. In a similar way
his countrymen the Martins gave their name to the varnish of their
invention. Verre églomisé, a somewhat unsatisfactory title, which came
first into use in the latter part of the century, and was wrongly
applied to paintings under glass of a similar order, has been retained
ever since.
A peculiar and characteristic species of pendent ornament, numbers of
which were produced in the seventeenth century chiefly at Barcelona, are
certain badges worn by members of religious corporations. They are of
open-worked gilt brass enriched with white, black, and blue opaque
enamels fused into recesses stamped in the surface of the metal. These
badges, which are either triangular, oval, square, or oblong in shape,
are formed of two parts--a frame surrounded with rayed patterns, and a
central portion ornamented with various designs (Pl. LIII, 5). Among the
latter designs are crowned monograms of Christ or the Virgin, with
emblems such as palm leaves, and the device of a nail and the letter S
interlaced--a rebus for "Esclavo." Fitted in the back is usually a
miniature under crystal. In point of technique these enamelled badges
offer an interesting comparison with the well-known English enamels of
the same date applied mainly to objects such as candlesticks and
fire-dogs. Pendent badges of the same designs exist in gold. The
collection of Señor de Osma at Madrid contains several examples.
To the seventeenth century belong also the characteristic "lazos" or
bow-shaped jewels worn as breast-ornaments, made of open-work gold set
with emeralds, and occasionally with other stones (Pl. LIII, 1). Of the
same style are rings, also set with emeralds, and particularly long
earrings, which have always been popular in Spain. The backs of these
jewels are engraved with floral designs. The greater part of the Spanish
jewellery of the time is set with emeralds, which were acquired in
quantities from Peru. Spain has always had a great reputation for these
stones, which when of fine quality are still alluded to as "old Spanish
emeralds." Emeralds are always subject to flaws and rarely free from
them. The emeralds set in Spanish jewellery, though usually full of
feathers, are nevertheless of great decorative value. Further reference
will be made to Spanish work of the seventeenth century when the jewels
of that period are dealt with.
The earlier Hispano-Moresque jewellery is of considerable rarity. It is
often enriched with opaque enamel fired between cloisons formed of
twisted wire. From the union of Moorish and Renaissance forms developed
the Spanish peasant jewellery, usually fashioned of stout silver
filigree parcel-gilt.
[Illustration: Design for a pendant by Hans Brosamer.]