Arts and crafts in the Middle Ages : $b a description of mediaeval workmanship in several of the departments of applied art, together with some account of special artisans in the early RenaissanceAddison, Julia de Wolf
History
Arts and crafts in the Middle Ages : $b a description of mediaeval workmanship in several of the departments of applied art, together with some account of special artisans in the early Renaissance
Addison, Julia de Wolf
Arts and crafts movement; Decoration and ornament, Medieval; Decorative arts -- History; Illumination of books and manuscripts
In the famous statue of Perseus, Cellini experienced much difficulty
in keeping the metal liquid. The account of this thrilling experience,
told in his matchless autobiography, is too long to quote at this
point; an interesting item, however, should be noted. Cellini used
pewter as a solvent in the bronze which had hardened in the furnace.
"Apprehending that the cause of it was, that the fusibility of
the metal was impaired, by the violence of the fire," he says, "I
ordered all my dishes and porringers, which were in number about
two hundred, to be placed one by one before my tubes, and part of
them to be thrown into the furnace, upon which all present perceived
that my bronze was completely dissolved, and that my mould was
filling," and, such was the relief that even the loss of the entire
pewter service of the family was sustained with equanimity; the
family, "without delay, procured earthen vessels to supply the place
of the pewter dishes and porringers, and we all dined together very
cheerfully." Edgecumb Staley, in the "Guilds of Florence," speaks
of the "pewter fattened Perseus:" this is worthy of Carlyle.
Early Britons cast statues in brass. Speed tells of King Cadwollo,
who died in 677, being buried "at St. Martin's church near Ludgate,
his image great and terrible, triumphantly riding on horseback,
artificially cast in brass, was placed on the Western gate of the
city, to the further fear and terror of the Saxons!"
In 1562 Bartolomeo Morel, who made the celebrated statue of the
Giralda Tower in Seville, executed a fifteen branched candelabrum
for the Cathedral. It is a rich Renaissance design, in remarkably
chaste and good lines, and holds fifteen statuettes, which are
displaced to make room for the candles only during the last few
days of Lent.
A curious form of mediaeval trinket was the perfume ball; this consisted
of a perforated ball of copper or brass, often ornamented with
damascene, and intended to contain incense to perfume the air, the
balls being suspended.
The earliest metal statuary in England was rendered in latten, a
mixed metal of a yellow colour, the exact recipe for which has not
survived. The recumbent effigies of Henry III. and Queen Eleanor
are made of latten, and the tomb of the Black Prince in Canterbury
is the same, beautifully chased. Many of these and other tombs were
probably originally covered with gilding, painting, and enamel.
The effigies of Richard II. and his queen, Anne of Bohemia, were
made during the reign of the monarch; a contemporary document states
that "Sir John Innocent paid another part of a certain indenture
made between the King and Nicolas Broker and Geoffrey Prest,
coppersmiths of London, for the making of two images, likenesses
of the King and Queen, of copper and latten, gilded upon the said
marble tomb."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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