RENAISSANCE HEAD-ORNAMENTS
(ENSEIGNES, AIGRETTES, HAIR-PINS, EARRINGS)
The origin of the ornaments for the hat or cap, known generally as
enseignes, has been mentioned in dealing with the jewellery of the
Middle Ages. At the period of the Renaissance, the enseigne--the "bijou
par excellence" it has been termed--was above all the recipient of the
very highest workmanship, and formed the subject of varied designs of
the most ingenious character. By the beginning of the fifteenth century
fashion had already turned hat-badges almost entirely into articles
of adornment, and judging by that worn by King Dagobert in Petrus
Christus's picture of 1449, and, amongst many other portraits, by that
of Richard III in the National Portrait Gallery, these jewels were
composed of goldsmith's work, enamelled, and set with precious stones.
In the sixteenth century the majority of enseignes seem always to have
borne some figured design; and Cellini, referring to the year 1525,
says: "It was the custom at that epoch to wear little golden medals,
upon which every nobleman or man of quality had some device or fancy of
his own engraved; and these were worn in the cap."
For a considerable time the earlier religious badges sold at places of
pilgrimage continued to be worn. Though enseignes very frequently bore
some religious representation, or the figure or emblem of some patron
saint, they ended, like other articles primarily religious, by becoming
purely secular, and took the forms of devices of a fanciful or even
humorous character.
Every one from the highest rank downwards had his personal _devise_ or
_impresa_, or more often a series of them. It was worn as an emblem--an
ingenious expression of some conceit of the wearer, the outcome of his
peculiar frame of mind. It usually contained some obscure meaning, the
sense of which, half hidden and half revealed, was intended to afford
some play for the ingenuity of the observer. The love of the time for
expressing things by riddles led to the publication of sets of emblems,
like those of Alciatus, which had imitators in all directions. Every
one, in fact, tried his hand at these "toys of the imagination."
Numbers of enseignes are mentioned in the inventories, and male
portraits very commonly exhibit this form of decoration. Women also wore
them upon the hat or in the hair, but not until about the middle of the
sixteenth century. The hat was turned up so as to show the lining, and
the badge was usually placed under the rim, at the side, and somewhat to
the front of the hat. Some of these medallions are furnished with a pin,
like a brooch; but as the majority have loops at the edge, or are
pierced with holes for the purpose of sewing them to the head-dress,
they can as a rule be distinguished from ordinary brooches. Pendants of
the same form as those hung from neck-chains also appear occasionally as
enseignes upon the hat.
In England, during the sixteenth century, brooches, owches, or nowches,
as they were often called, were extensively worn in caps and hats[141]
as men's jewels in particular; and besides these there were jewelled
hat-bands richly decorated with precious stones. The chronicler Hall
mentions that on one occasion, in 1513, Henry VIII wore a hat called a
"chapeau montabyn" which was adorned with a rich band or coronal, and
had in addition an enseigne, for "y^e folde of the chapeau was lined
with crimsyn saten; and on y^t a riche brooch withe y^e image of
sainct George." An enamelled brooch of this design modelled in full
relief with the figure of St. George and the dragon, with the Princess
Sabra in the background, is preserved amongst the exceedingly
interesting series of jewels in His Majesty's collection at Windsor
Castle. It is of gold, finely chased, brilliantly modelled, and
surrounded with an open wire balustrade enamelled green. This brooch,
traditionally believed to have been worn by Henry VIII, is known as the
Holbein George; but internal evidences tend to prove the unlikelihood of
Holbein having had any hand in its construction. It appears to be of
Venetian origin--though not without some traces of German influence--and
to date from the first few years of the sixteenth century (Pl. XXVIII,
2).
[141] "He gave me a jewel the other day, and now he has beat it
out of my hat" (_Timon of Athens_, Act iii.)
"Honour's a good brooch to wear in a man's hat at all times"
(Ben Jonson, _Poetaster_).
"And his hat turned up, with a silver clasp on his leer side"
(Ben Jonson, _Tale of a Tub_).
There exist several other jewels, the majority of them hat-ornaments,
executed in this so-called "gold wire" enamel,[142] of the same
exquisite and rare style of workmanship, and all possessing a singular
likeness to that at Windsor, both in the patterns of the dresses worn by
the figures represented on them, and in general treatment, particularly
of the hair of the figures, which is formed of ringlets of spiral
twisted gold wire. Among other examples are two in the Salting
Collection, another which was lately in the collection of Sir T. Gibson
Carmichael,[143] and a fourth in the Cabinet des Antiques in the
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
[142] Bonnaffé (E.), _La collection Spitzer_, III, p. 134.
[143] Burlington Fine Arts Club, _Catalogue of enamels_, 1897.
The wide range of subjects chosen for hat-ornaments can best be judged
from the lists of "bonnets" in Henry VIII's possession in the years 1526
and 1530, enriched with a variety of brooches.[144]
[144] _Letters and Papers of Henry VIII_, IV, Nos. 1907 and 6789.
Representations of enseignes in pictures are too frequent to permit of
any attempt to enumerate them. It is impossible, however, to refrain
from drawing attention to the fine male portraits of Bartolommeo Veneto,
an artist of marked individuality of character, who worked at Venice
from about 1505 to 1530. He appears to have delighted in painting with
peculiar care the beautiful enseignes worn by his sitters--attractive
jewels enamelled in _ronde bosse_, and contemporary with the Windsor
"George" and its fellows. The examples of his work that display such
ornaments in the most striking manner are in the following collections:
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Dorchester House, London; the Crespi
Gallery, Milan; the collection of Baron Tucher at Vienna; and the
National Gallery, Rome.[145]
[145] _L'Arte_, II, p. 432, 1899.
One of the most exquisite jewels of the Renaissance is a medallion of
enamelled gold numbered 5583 in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris. It
is oval, and in a space of 2 by 2-3/16 inches contains a composition of
no less than twelve men and eight horses in high relief, representing a
battle. Horsemen and foot-soldiers in antique armour are engaged in
furious combat, and many have fallen. One horseman carries a banneret
which flies in the wind. The background is enamelled green, and the
figures, delicately modelled, are white, save for their armour and
weapons, which are reserved in the gold. The frame of the jewel is
furnished with four loops, which clearly explain its use (Pl. XXIX, 2).
Its design offers an interesting comparison with two cameos (Nos. 643
and 644), themselves fanciful renderings of the subject of another cameo
(No. 645), and an intaglio, the work of Matteo del Nassaro, in the same
collection, both undoubtedly inspired by the famous painting after
Raphael, known as the Battle of Constantine at the Milvian Bridge (A.D.
312), in the so-called Gallery of Constantine in the Vatican.
Among the jewels in the public collections in London, which on account
of their design or form were presumably intended to be worn in the hat
or cap, there are several noteworthy examples. The Wallace Collection
contains a circular gold enseigne, repoussé, chased, and partly
enamelled, with a representation of Judith carrying the head of
Holofernes. It is probably Italian. In the Waddesdon Bequest at the
British Museum is an oval badge enamelled in relief with the Judgment
of Paris. It is of the same minute style of work as that of the
"Battle-Piece," and is of striking similarity to a drawing by Hans
Mielich, in the Royal Library, Munich.[146]
[146] Hefner-Alteneck (J. H. von), _Deutsche Goldschmiede-Werke
des 16^t^e^n Jahrhunderts_, Pl. 12.
An enseigne in the Victoria and Albert Museum--perhaps the
most beautiful of all, and probably the work of a Florentine
goldsmith--represents the head of John the Baptist on a charger. The
_caput Johannis in disco_, a favourite subject in mediæval art both in
painting and sculpture, was also popular for personal ornaments. This
symbol of the Precursor was no doubt phylacteric, for the efficacy of
his intercession was most highly esteemed against epilepsy and other
disorders. The enseigne in question, contemporary with one described as
a "St. John's head in a dish" in Henry VIII's possession in 1530, is of
gold, one and five-eighths of an inch in diameter, and shaped like a
circular dish. It has a corded edge, and round the rim, in pierced and
raised letters, now only partially enamelled, are the following words:
NON · SUREXSIT · INTER · NATOS · MULIERUM. The sunk centre is covered
with translucent ruby enamel, and in the middle is the head of the saint
in gold and white enamel. The head is delicately modelled, and such care
has the artist displayed in its execution that he has shown above the
eyebrow the gash which Herodias, according to the legend,[147] on
receiving the head from Salome, inflicted on it with a pin from her
hair, or with a knife seized from the table where the feast had taken
place (Pl. XXIX, 1).
[147] This legend is the subject of a striking picture by Quentin
Matsys (itself rich in representation of jewellery), which forms the
left wing of the magnificent "Deposition" (No. 245), in the Antwerp
Museum. A famous relic, the skull of the saint in Amiens Cathedral,
exhibits a hole over the eyebrow.
[Illustration: _PLATE XXIX_ RENAISSANCE ENSEIGNES]
All the four enseignes last mentioned are examples of the method of
executing these ornaments described in Cellini's famous treatise[148]
on the goldsmith's art, where he extols the goldsmith Caradosso as a
craftsman skilled above all others in their production. The work is
repoussé; the St. John's head being also worked into full relief by this
process, and then applied to the dish. Such repoussé figures were
frequently attached to an independent background formed of lapis-lazuli,
agate, or some other precious substance.
[148] _I trattati dell' oreficeria._ Ed. Milanesi, 1857.
Chapter on Minuteria.
The revival of the art of gem-engraving led to a large demand for
cameos--themselves more suitable for decorative purposes than
intaglios--as personal ornaments. "It was much the custom of that time,"
says Vasari, writing of the gem-engraver Matteo del Nassaro, "to wear
cameos and other jewels of similar kind round the neck and in the cap."
Matteo produced many admirable cameos for use as enseignes for Francis I
and the nobles of his Court, almost every one of whom carried on their
persons some example of his work. On jewels of this kind parts of the
figures were occasionally executed in cameo, and the remainder in gold,
chased and enamelled; but more frequently figures were worked entirely
in hard material, and then, in accordance with the artistic taste of
the time, enclosed in borders, enriched with enamel and jewel-work of
the most exquisite variety of design. Unhappy vicissitudes, like those
which the gems at Florence have undergone,[149] have in course of time
despoiled many a cameo of its rich setting. Yet in the great public gem
collections of London, Paris, Vienna, St. Petersburg, Berlin, Munich,
and Dresden, as well as in the cabinets of private collectors, are to be
found a number of beautiful examples of the jeweller's art at its best
period, which have been preserved on account of the cameos they served
to adorn.
[149] In the night of December 17th, 1860, the Galleria delle Gemme
of the Uffizi was entered by thieves, who carried off a large number
of gems and jewels. Most of the gems were recovered, but nearly all
robbed of their settings. All the jewels were lost (Gotti, A., _Le
Gallerie di Firenze_, pp. 229 and 388).
The finest enseigne that displays cameo and enamelled gold worked
together in combination is Cellini's exquisite "Leda and the Swan," in
the Münz-und-Antiken-Kabinet at Vienna. The head and the torso of the
figure of Leda is in cameo--the latter being an antique fragment; the
remainder of the jewel is of gold, enriched with enamels, diamonds, and
rubies. This is considered to be the actual jewel executed by Cellini at
Rome about 1524 for the Gonfalonier Gabriele Cesarini[150] (Pl. XXIX,
5).
[150] Kenner (F.), _Cameen und Modelle des XVI. Jahrhunderts_, p. 27
(_Jahrbuch der Kunsthistor. Sammlungen des Kaiserhauses, IV_), 1886.
By far the most extensive collection of mounted cameos is preserved in
the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris. The majority of these jewels which
follow the cartouche form are presumably of French fabrique, though a
decision as to their precise provenance is here, as ever, a matter of
considerable difficulty. Among brooches or medallions for the hat, whose
purpose is clearly indicated by the presence of a pin or holes for
attachment, the most noticeable are four, numbered respectively 595,
465, 513, and 1002. The first, bearing the head of a negro in agate,
encircled with a band of rubies, has an outer border of open
scrollwork, of white, heightened with red enamel. On each side and below
is a table diamond; and above, a crown set with triangular faceted
diamonds (Pl. XXIX, 4). Lack of space precludes detailed reference to
the other three _enseignes de chaperon_. They are equally attractive,
both on account of their design and the high quality of their
workmanship.
Those unable to afford such costly ornaments wore hat-brooches or
medallions in cheaper materials, either bronze or copper. These were
cast or stamped, and not, like the more magnificent enseignes of gold,
executed by the repoussé process. The work of the earlier medallists was
produced by means of casting, the medallions being afterwards delicately
chased. From the beginning of the sixteenth century, medallists, who, it
may be remembered, were mostly jewellers and gem-engravers as well,
executed engraved dies, from which their medallions were struck instead
of cast. The majority of smaller medallions so generally worn as
hat-badges were multiplied by the newer process of stamping, and pierced
with holes for attachment to the head-dress. They were afterwards gilded
and occasionally enriched with enamel. Further information about the
cheaper class of enseignes is met with in Bernard Palissy's _Art de la
terre_, according to which the enamellers of Limoges, owing to
competition, had to supply figured hat-badges at _trois sols la
douzaine_. "Which badges were so well worked and their enamels so well
melted over the copper that no picture could be prettier." Brooches of
even cheaper materials are alluded to by Shakespeare in _Love's Labour's
Lost_, when Biron and Dumain, ridiculing Holofernes, who acts as Judas
in the pageant of the Nine Worthies, exclaim:--
_Biron._ Saint George's half-cheek in a brooch.
_Dumain._ Ay, and in a brooch of lead.
_Biron._ Ay, and worn in the cap of a tooth-drawer.
The fashion for enseignes lasted until about the second quarter of the
seventeenth century. During this later period they were generally worn
in the hats of persons of wealth and distinction, in the form of a
cluster of precious stones[151] (Pl. XXXIV, 3); while the enseignes with
figured compositions appear to have fallen into disuse. The remarkable
letter addressed by James I to Charles and Buckingham in Spain, in
1623, deals chiefly with jewelled hat-brooches of this kind (p. 300).
Hat-bands richly jewelled were likewise worn; and among the jewels sent
to Spain for the use of the Prince was a magnificent hat-band "garnished
with 20 diamonds set in buttons of gold in manner of Spanish work." It
was made up of the following stones, representing every mode of cutting
employed at the time: 8 four-square table diamonds, 2 six-square table
diamonds, 2 eight-square table diamonds, 2 four-square table diamonds
cut with facets, 2 large pointed diamonds, 1 fair heart diamond, and 3
triangle diamonds.[152]
[151] A jewelled enseigne known as the "Star Jewel," once the property
of Sir Francis Drake, belongs to Sir F. Fuller-Eliott-Drake. It is
enriched with translucent red enamel, and has rubies set in the rays,
with opals and diamonds interspersed in the border, round an engraved
ruby in the centre. It has four loops behind for attaching to the hat.
[152] _Archæologia_, XXI, p. 152.
AIGRETTES
At the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century
an aigrette was often worn in the hat, a jewelled brooch being employed
to hold it. The latter was sometimes in the form of a pipe or socket
into which the stems of the feathers were inserted. A fine example of
this class of ornament, discovered at Lauingen in the coffin of Otto
Henry, Count Palatine of Neuburg (d. 1604), is now preserved with the
rest of the jewels of the same family in the Bavarian National Museum at
Munich. It is in the shape of a heart open-worked and enriched with
enamel, and has in the centre the letters D.M.--initials of his wife
Dorothea Maria--set with rubies. Behind is a tube for the reception of
an aigrette of herons' feathers (Pl. XXX, 3).
[Illustration: _PLATE XXX_ JEWELLED HAT-ORNAMENTS, (AIGRETTES, ETC.)
LATE SIXTEENTH AND EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES]
Though never in general use, feathers with settings mounted with
precious stones and attached by jewelled brooches were worn long before
this date; and Charles the Bold's hat--_chapeau montauban_--(Lambecius,
_Bib. Caes. Vindobon._, II, p. 516) was enriched with feathers of this
description magnificently jewelled.
About the commencement of the seventeenth century the feather aigrette
was often replaced by one of precious stones. A jewel of this form is in
the Waddesdon Bequest. It is 3½ inches in height, and formed of five
plumes--three jewelled with rubies and diamonds and the others enamelled
white--rising from an open-worked ornament in the form of military
trophies, enamelled and set with four diamonds. A design for an aigrette
of almost exactly the same style may be seen among the engravings for
jewellery by the Augsburg goldsmith Daniel Mignot. The engravings of
Paul Birckenhultz (_c._ 1617) likewise contain designs for similar
ornaments. These jewelled aigrettes were much in fashion in England at
the time of James I, and a "feather jewel" or "jewel of gold in fashion
of a feather, set with diamonds," is mentioned several times in the
royal accounts. The finely executed drawings for jewellery in the
Victoria and Albert Museum by Arnold Lulls, jeweller to James I, include
four coloured designs for jewelled aigrettes (Pl. XXX, 1). They are
provided with short, stout pins, and set with rubies, sapphires,
emeralds, and diamonds, arranged in the most tasteful manner, and are
evidently intended to be further enriched with enamel. Other jewelled
aigrettes in favour in the seventeenth century were composed solely of
precious stones. Reference will be made to these in a later chapter
dealing with the ornaments of that period.
HAIR-PINS
Besides the enseigne worn occasionally by ladies, the jewelled aigrettes
of more frequent use, and the gold circlets set with precious stones,
more elaborate forms of head-decoration were employed. Though these were
often entwined with ropes of pearls and sprinkled with precious stones,
they belong rather to costume proper. There remain, however, hair-pins,
of which we obtain a certain amount of information from the inventories,
and from the few actual specimens that still remain.
Hair-pins, like other articles of Renaissance jewellery, are remarkable
for their variety of design, particularly as far as the heads of the
pins are concerned. In the Germanic Museum at Nuremberg are several
hair-pins with heads variously ornamented, one of them being in the
form of a small enamelled hand. The shaft of the pin is often flat,
open-worked and enamelled; occasionally the head is attached to it by a
ring and hangs loosely from it. A gold enamelled hair-pin is among the
jewels of Princess Amalia Hedwig (d. 1607), the contents of whose
coffin, opened in the eighteenth century with those of the Counts
Palatine of Neuburg at Lauingen, are now in the Bavarian National
Museum. This pin has a small open rosette hanging loosely from it set
with five diamonds and five pendent pearls. Contemporary portraits show
how these pins were worn, and in a portrait of a young woman by Peter
Moreelse in the Rotterdam Gallery, just such a pin is seen thrust in
under the close-fitting lace cap so that the pendent head rests upon the
forehead.
In the inventories of the time hair-pins are termed _bodkins_; and among
Queen Elizabeth's New Year's gifts are several of these richly decorated
bodkins. Thus: "A bodkyn of golde, garnished at the ende with four
smale diamondes and a smale rubye, with a crown of ophales, and a very
smale perle pendant peare fashone." "A bodkin of golde, with a flower
thearat, garnished with smale rubyes and ophals on one side." "A
bodkinne of silver, with a little ostridg of gold, pendant, enamuled,
and two waspes of golde lose enamuled." In the inventory of jewels of
Anne, Duchess of Somerset, second wife of the Protector Somerset (1587),
is "a bodkynne of golde, with clawes in the ende, inamyled blacke."
EARRINGS
The fashion of wearing the hair over the ears, which, as we have seen,
completely banished earrings from among the ornaments of the Middle
Ages, greatly checked their use during the sixteenth century. In Italian
pictures one finds here and there some traces of them, but compared with
the profusion of other ornaments, their almost complete absence is
somewhat surprising. The most remarkable instance of their use is the
beautiful portrait of a lady by Sodoma, or by Parmigianino, in the
Städel Institute at Frankfort, where are seen elaborate earrings of
open-work scroll pattern with three pendent pearls. They measure upwards
of two and a half inches in length. The so-called Fornarina in the
Tribuna of the Uffizi wears a small gold pendant in the form of an
amphora attached to a simple ring; while in the portrait by Angelo
Bronzino in the Pitti Gallery, supposed to be that of Bianca Cappello
(1548-87), wife of Francesco de' Medici, the lobe of the ear is pierced
twice, and the two rings placed in it support a pendant formed of two
pearls mounted in gold, with three hanging pearls below.
[Illustration: Earring, from Portrait of a Lady by Sodoma
(Frankfort Gallery).]
In the second half of the sixteenth century, with the altered mode of
wearing the hair, earrings, though still rare in pictures, appear to
have come more into fashion, and the prints of Woeiriot, Collaert,
Birckenhultz, and other engravers of the day, as well as a number of
examples in the various museums, show the types then in use.
English portraits of the first half of the sixteenth century do not
exhibit these ornaments, but when they appear later on, as in the
numerous portraits of Queen Elizabeth, they are usually in the form of
pear-shaped pearl drops. Mary Queen of Scots appears to have generally
worn earrings, judging by the inventory of her jewels in 1561,[153]
which contains a very large number, including the following: "Deux
pendans doreille faictz en facon de croix de Hierusalem esmaillez de
blanc--Deux petis pendans doreille garniz de deux petittes perles de
facon de doubles ames--Deux petis pendans doreille dor emplis de
senteure."
[153] _Inuentaires de la Royne Descosse Douairiere de France_
(published by the Bannatyne Club), p. 87.
The use of earrings, curiously enough, was not confined to women, and we
find men, even the sedatest, wearing them. "Women," says Philip Stubbes
in his _Anatomie of Abuses_ (1583), "are so far bewitched as they are
not ashamed to make holes in their ears, whereat they hang rings, and
other jewels of gold and precious stones; but this," he adds, "is not so
much frequented among women as among men." This custom appears to have
originated in Spain, where the use of earrings was pretty general among
both sexes, and as the result of Spanish influence was introduced into
France at the luxurious Court of Henry III. The fashion subsequently
came to England, where it was generally affected by the courtiers of
Elizabeth and James I, as is clear from contemporary male portraits,
where an earring is worn, as a rule, in one ear only. Robert Carr, Earl
of Somerset, is seen in the National Portrait Gallery wearing a ruby
earring; while the Duke of Buckingham was particularly noticeable for
the splendour of his diamond earrings. Commenting on the degeneracy of
his contemporaries, Holinshed in his _Chronicle_ (1577) observes: "Some
lusty courtiers also and gentlemen of courage do wear either rings of
gold, stones, or pearl in their ears, whereby they imagine the
workmanship of God to be not a little amended." In a splendour-loving
time one might expect to find such ornaments among courtiers, but that
earrings were worn also by men of action and men of parts is evident
from the portraits of Shakespeare, Sir Walter Raleigh, and the Earl of
Southampton.
The use of earrings among men continued to the time of Charles I, and in
Lenton's _Young Gallant's Whirligigg_ (1629) a fop is described with--
Haire's curl'd, eares pearl'd, with Bristows[154] brave and bright,
Bought for true Diamonds in his false sight.
[154] Crystal quartz found in the Clifton limestone, and known
as Bristol diamonds.
King Charles himself followed the general fashion and hung a large pearl
in his left ear. This he wore even on the scaffold, where he took it
from his ear and gave it to a faithful follower. It is still preserved,
and is now owned by the Duke of Portland. It is pear-shaped, about
five-eighths of an inch long, and mounted with a gold top, and a hook
to pass through the ear.
Earrings, together with similar luxuries, vanished at the time of the
Protectorate; men are not seen wearing them after the Restoration,
though they are still in use among certain classes on account of their
supposed value as preservatives against affections of the eyes.