AIGRETTES
Posted by Alex on Jul 03 2009 | Comment now »
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 3J 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, enameled 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. 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.
AIGRETTES
Posted by Alex on Jul 03 2009 | Comment now »
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 openworked and enriched with enamel, and has in the centre the letters D. M.—initials of his wife Dorothea Maria — et with rubies. Behind is a tube for the reception of an aigrette of herons’ feathers. Though never in general use, feathers with settings mounted with precious stones and attached by jeweled brooches were worn long before this date ; and Charles the Bold’s hat—chapean montaaban—(Lambecius, Bib. Cues. Vindobon., II, p. 516) was enriched with feathers of this description magnificently jewelled.
RENAISSANCE HEAD-ORNAMENTS
Posted by Alex on Jul 03 2009 | Comment now »
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 ; 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). Hatbands 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.
RENAISSANCE HEAD-ORNAMENTS
Posted by Alex on Jul 03 2009 | Comment now »
From the beginning of the sixteenth century, medallists, who, it may be remembered, were mostly jewelers 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 douzaiue. “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 Loves 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.
RENAISSANCE HEAD-ORNAMENTS
Posted by Alex on Jul 02 2009 | Comment now »
The finest enseigne that displays cameo and enameled gold worked together in combination is Cellini’s exquisite ” Leda and the Swan,” in the Miinz- 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 2.
By far the most extensive collection of mounted cameos is preserved in the Bibliotheque 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. 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 repousse process. The work of the earlier medallists was produced by means of casting, the medallions being afterwards delicately chased.
RENAISSANCE HEAD-ORNAMENTS
Posted by Alex on Jul 02 2009 | Comment now »
All the four enseignes last mentioned are examples of the method of executing these ornaments described in Cellini’s famous treatise 2 on the goldsmith’s art, where he extols the goldsmith Caradosso as a craftsman skilled above all others in their production. The work is repousse” ; the St. John’s head being also worked into full relief by this process, and then applied to the dish. Such repousse” figures were frequently attached to an independent background formed of lapislazuli, agate, or some other precious substance.
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 jewelwork of the most exquisite variety of design. Unhappy vicissitudes, like those which the gems at Florence have undergone, 1 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.
RENAISSANCE HEAD-ORNAMENTS
Posted by Alex on Jul 02 2009 | Comment now »
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 mediaeval 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 VI IPs 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, 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.
RENAISSANCE HEAD-ORNAMENTS
Posted by Alex on Jul 02 2009 | Comment now »
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, repousse^ 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.
RENAISSANCE HEAD-ORNAMENTS
Posted by Alex on Jul 02 2009 | Comment now »
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.
One of the most exquisite jewels of the Renaissance is a medallion of enamelled gold numbered 5583 in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris. It is oval, and in a space of 2 by 2y\ 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.
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 socalled Gallery of Constantine in the Vatican.