Heraldry as art: An account of its development and practice, chiefly in EnglandEve, G. W. (George William)
History
Heraldry as art: An account of its development and practice, chiefly in England
Eve, G. W. (George William)
Heraldry -- Great Britain
In the colour treatment of mantling the tone may well be kept low in
relation to that of the shield to which it will thus lead up and give
value.
Instead of lighting with tones of their own colour the parts in which
modelling is suggested, a very beautiful and decorative effect is
produced by the mediaeval practice of heightening the whole design with
gold in lines which coalesce into masses on the high lights and trail
off into the shadows where also they help to define the form in a very
effective way. This use of gold throughout the work serves at the same
time to harmonize and pull the whole thing together into unity. It is
a method which requires considerable skill of hand and clearness of
intention, for the lines must be drawn with firm certainty, but when
successful is most effectively beautiful.
In the treatment of the helmet its relative importance in the
composition must not be forgotten, nor its brilliancy in combination
with its central position be allowed to attract undue attention. The
broad shadow which its body takes in its forward tilted position is
very useful in keeping down the general tone, in colour work as well
as in black and white. Also it may be remembered that helmets were
themselves painted and their rivets gilt.
In painting on paper, where yellow is substituted for gold, Cadmium
will be found to be the most useful kind of that colour.
Until the invention of moist colour the pigments were obtained in
powder and mixed with gum water, a great deal of small knowledge being
required in order that the colours should not rub off the surface on
the one hand, or crack or otherwise misbehave on the other. Gold was
mixed in the same way, but if with too little gum it rubbed off and if
with too much it refused to burnish. Nevertheless, the colours when
so mixed have a certain advantage in having more body, and a better
because less waxy surface. However, the greater convenience of moist
colour is undoubted and in some of them the surface is very good.
So-named luminous body colour made by Newman of Soho Square has been
recently tried with very satisfactory results, the cobalt among the
“difficult colours” being particularly good.
The notable revival of Enamelling has restored to heraldry a very
beautiful means of expression, one which has proved from the twelfth
century downwards to be especially suitable to its subject, as well
from its broad simplicity of treatment as from its permanence and
beauty. In this connexion one’s thoughts inevitably turn to the
stall-plates of the Knights of that Most Noble Order of the Garter in
its Chapel in Windsor Castle, and one is led to hope that they may once
again be done in a way not unworthy of their splendid and monumental
predecessors of the old days.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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