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
Where one colour approaches another, as in the de Valence shield
(Fig. 174), it will be necessary to leave a narrow rim of metal as an
outline, and where the work is sufficiently large other details of form
will be shown in a similar way. Diaper also may be thus drawn in lines
of metal among colour, as is shown here in the running ornament, or by
lines of colour in metal, as the case may be.
The gilt outlines of the de Valence Champlevé shield somewhat suggest
the effect of Cloisonné work, the way in which the Byzantine enamels
were executed; but this method has been little, if at all, employed
heraldically. In it the spaces to be filled are made of flat wires that
are bent to the requisite form and soldered into their places on a
metal plate, and the work then proceeds as in Champlevé.
[Illustration: FIG. 174.--Shield on Champlevé Enamel from the Monument
to William de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, in Westminster Abbey.]
In the fifteenth century, when Renaissance art was beginning to look at
things in a new way and was discovering new methods by which to express
itself, a new kind of enamel work took the place of the more formal
Champlevé, just as a freer kind of heraldry was about to supersede the
decadent Gothic. This became known in time as “Limoges Enamel,” though,
as we know, that place had been celebrated for enamel in another form
for hundreds of years. This painted enamel did not, however, take the
place of Champlevé on monuments, rather the use of enamel in that way
died out. Probably the painted plaques were too tender for the purpose,
and in any case the treatment would have had to be much modified to
bring them into harmony with monumental conditions. Although the
method was new the treatment of the subjects was largely that of the
missal paintings, and figure compositions, both sacred and secular,
were accompanied by decorative borders into which heraldry naturally
entered. Fig. 175 is an heraldic example of this method as it was
practised by the celebrated Nardon Penicaud.
[Illustration: FIG. 175.--Arms in Limoges Enamel. Part of a Triptych by
Nardon Penicaud.]
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