which was probably of extreme beauty both in design and workmanship. Little or nothing of this Moslem plate now remains, and it is only possible to judge of its style and magnificence from the fine works in brass and other less valuable metals which have survived to our time.
Towards the end of the 10th century the Rhine valley became the centre of a school of goldsmiths, who produced splendid examples of their work—a mixture of Byzantine art with their own original designs. The book-covers, portable altars and other objects, preserved at Trier and Aix-la-Chapelle, are notable examples produced at that centre. The magnificent book-cover from Echternach, now at Gotha, is of the school of Trier.
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Fig. 11.—Gold Ewer, 15 in. high, from the Petrossa treasure. |
Early Medieval Plate.—The Gothic, Gaulish and other semi-barbarian peoples, who in the 6th century were masters of Spain, France and parts of central Europe, produced great quantities of work in the precious metals, especially gold, often of great magnificence of design and not without some skill in workmanship. The Merovingians encouraged the art of the goldsmith by spending immense sums of money on plate and jewelry, though only two examples of their great wealth in church vessels have survived—the gold chalice and paten of Gourdon, now at Paris. Fine examples of Carlovingian work, which was mainly wrought in the monasteries in the north of the Frankish dominions and on the Rhine, may be studied in the covers for the Gospels, in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. In 1837 a large number of pieces of very massive gold plate were found at Petrossa in Rumania, much of this find was unfortunately broken up and melted, but a considerable portion was saved, and is now in the museum at Bucharest. These magnificent objects are all of solid gold, and consist of large dishes, vases, ewers, baskets of open work, and personal ornaments (fig. 11). Some of them show a strong Roman influence in their design, others are more purely barbaric in style. To the first of these classes belongs a very line phiale or patera, 10 in. in diameter. In the centre is a seated statuette of a goddess, holding a cup, while all round, in high relief, are standing figures of various male and female deities, purely Roman in style. Though the execution is somewhat clumsy, there is much reminiscence of classical grace in the attitudes and drapery of these figures. A large basket and other pieces, made of square bars of gold arranged so as to form an open pattern of stiff geometrical design, have nothing in common with the vessels in which Roman influence is apparent, and can hardly be the work of the same school of goldsmiths.[1] The date of this Petrossa treasure is supposed to be the 6th century. The celebrated Gourdon gold cup and tray now preserved in Paris belong to about the same date. They are very rich and magnificent, quite free from any survival of classic influence, and in style resemble the Merovingian gold work which was found in the tomb of Childeric I. The cup is 3 in. high, shaped like a miniature two-handled chalice, its companion oblong tray or plate has a large cross in high relief in the centre. They are elaborately ornamented with inlaid work of turquoises and garnets, and delicate filigree patterns in gold, soldered on.
In the 6th century Byzantium was the chief centre for the production of large and magnificent works in the precious metals. The religious fervour and the great wealth of Justinian and his successors filled the churches of Byzantium, not only with enormous quantities of gold and silver chalices, shrines, and other smaller pieces of ecclesiastical plate, but even large altars, with tall pillared baldacchini over them, fonts, massive candelabra, statues, and high screens, all made of the precious metals. The wealth and artistic splendour with which St Peter's in Rome and St Sophia in Constantinople were enriched is now almost inconceivable. To read the mere inventories of these treasures dazzles the imagination—such as that given in the Liber pontificalis of Anastasius Bibliothecarius, which includes the long list of treasures given by Constantine to St Peter's before he transferred his seat of empire to Byzantium (330), and the scarcely less wonderful list of gold and silver plate presented to the same basilica by Pope Symmachus (498-514).[2]
Some early Byzantine plate of the 6th century is in the British Museum; an inscribed paten of the 10th and 11th centuries is in Halberstadt Cathedral in Germany, and numerous ecclesiastical vessels are in the Treasury of St Mark's, Venice.
Early in the medieval period France and other Western countries were but little behind Italy and Byzantium in their production of massive works, both secular and religious, in the precious metals. At this time every cathedral or abbey church in Germany, France and even England began to accumulate rich treasures of every kind in gold and silver, enriched with jewels and enamel; but few specimens, however, still exist of the work of this early period. The most notable are Charlemagne's regalia[3] and other treasures at Aix-la-Chapelle, a few preserved at St Peter's in Rome, and the remarkable set of ecclesiastical utensils which still exist in the cathedral of Monza near Milan—the gift of Queen Theodelinda in the early part of the 7th century.[4] The treasure of Nagy-Szent-Miklos, consisting of several vessels of gold, of Hungarian origin (8th-9th century), is in the Imperial Museum at Vienna.
The existing examples of magnificent early work in the precious metals mostly belong to a somewhat later period. The chief are the gold and silver altar in Sant' Ambrogio at Milan, of the 9th century; the “Pala d'Oro,” or gold retable, in St Mark's at Venice, begun in the 10th century; the silver altar-front in St Domenico's Church at Palermo; the shrine of silver-gilt (with later additions) in the church of St Simeon at Zara, Dalmatia, by Francesco di Antonio of Sesto near Milan, 1380; and the gold altar-frontal given by the emperor Henry II. and his wife Cunigunde, at the beginning of the 11th century, to the cathedral at Basel. The last is about 4 ft. high by 6 ft. long, repoussé in high relief, with figures of Christ, the three archangels, and St Benedict, standing under an arcade of round arches; it is now in the Musée Cluny in Paris.[5] A similar gold frontal, of equal splendour, was that made for the archbishop of Sens in 999. This was melted down by Louis XV. in 1760, but fortunately a drawing of it was preserved, and is published by Du Sommerard (Album, 9th series, pl. xiii.). Reliquaries of great splendour were made of the precious metals, one of the most notable being that containing the skulls of the three kings in Cologne Cathedral. This shrine, which resembles in form a building of two storeys, was wrought in the 12th century. The covers of the Textus in the Victoria and Albert Museum are highly important examples of goldsmiths' work; they are of gold and silver, decorated with enamel and set with stones, probably dating from the 12th century.
Celtic.-The skill in metal-working of the Celtic people in the British Islands, especially in Ireland, in Pagan and Christian times, is well known, and need hardly be emphasized here. While much has perished, much happily remains in proof of their extraordinary skill in working gold and silver, particularly in jewelry. The most remarkable specimen of their technical skill and artistic perception is the famous Ardagh chalice of the 9th-10th century (in the museum at Dublin) (Plate II., fig. 31), which is composed chiefly of silver, with enrichment's of gold and gilt bronze, and with exquisite enamels. The interlaced ornament is a feature of Celtic work, and may further be studied in the celebrated Tara brooch, with its seventy-six varieties of designs as well as in other exquisite examples of jewelry. Further evidence of Celtic skill is forthcoming in the shrines for the sacred bells in Ireland, not to mention other ecclesiastical
