In this essay I will discuss the techniques of medieval enamel artist and the how and why a piece was made. In researching the subject of enamelling I became interested in both the Cloisonné and Champlevé techniques. Generally they were the major techniques used by the medieval goldsmith. But as I didn’t want this essay to read like a how to manual I wanted to elaborate on what type of pieces and the reasons why they were made.
Enamel has been in use since Mycenean metalworkers first decorated gold beads, around 1450 BC. The Celts were arguably the next to develop enamel techniques as they had been using enamel long before the expansion of the Roman Empire. Philostratus a Greek philosopher first referred to enamelling in the year 200 AD, "These colors, they say, the barbarians of the [Atlantic] Ocean spread on hot bronze; they take on body, become solid and preserve what has been depicted" (Icones, I, xxxviii). But it was the Byzantine goldsmiths between the fourth and tenth centuries that developed the technique of enamelling into an art form.
They took the technique of Cloisonné enamelling and developed it to produce highly stylised figurative works. In this technique flat wire or cloisons from the French word for partition or casement are used to outline designs, which had been incised on thin gold sheets by master designers. The cloison were then soldered to the sheets and the base roughened before the resulting cells were filled with enamel using a goose quill. They then placed the pieces in a kiln like device that was heated with a charcoal fire. Then after slowly cooling they were highly polished. The resulting enamels were beautiful works of art that would influence the development of western enamelling.
The Fiesch...
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... of artists. The quality of the workmanship is evident not only did these artists possess an acute sense of beauty, they had a highly evolved sense of design which cannot be denied.
Works Cited
Michael Camille ,The medieval art of love : objects and subjects of desire (New York : Abrams, 1998.),11-13http://www.metmuseum.org/publications/bulletins/1/pdf/3258994.pdf.bannered.pdf Internet accessed 24 March 2011
Reliquary of the True Cross (Staurotheke) [Byzantine] (17.190.715ab)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/17.190.715ab
Internet; accessed 17 March 2011
The History and Symbolism of Iconography http://www.monasteryicons.com/cgi-bin/hazel.cgi?action=SERVE&item=tools/article_detail.hzml&request=articledetail&article=1
Internet ; accessed 24 March 2011.
1432.) is a magnificent work of Christian art. The painting of the Lord is covered with symbolism from top to bottom. The background has Christian’s symbols of wine and pelicans which relates to blood of Christ. The Lord wore clothing such as the headgear that represents the trinity, and sash that reveals the Sabbath. The phrases in the painting that reveal about eternal life and power of the Lord. Finally the painting has symbols of power: the large amount of gold presented in the painting and the crown below his feet. The painting is rich with symbolism, and the work of art need to be carefully overserve to see the full
Kleiner, Fred, Gardner's Art through the Ages: A Global History, Fourteenth Edition The Middle Ages, Book B (Boston: Wadsworth, 2013), 348.
The Shang Dynasty invented and, over the years, perfected the technique of casting a bronze vessel from a clay mold assembly, which this wine vessel has also been made from using those techniques (Cantor). This mold was formed around a model of the vessel and was then cut into sections that were carved or impressed in the desired design, in this case the braided or grid design, on the inner or outer surfaces. The decorated clay piece-mold was then fired and reassembled around a clay core. Small bronze spacers were used to hold the piece-mold and the clay core apart. Then, molten bronze was poured into the mold. Using this piece-mold casting technique helped the bronze worker to achieve greater sharpness and definition in any intricate design
Black-figure painting was first established in Corinth, c 700 BCE then Athens was influenced by the technique and got control over it (Cartwright, 2012). The entire process was made out of iron clay found in the area mixed with potash pigment, water and leave it evaporate under the sun until it’s thick and settle. Move on to wedging process where human used energy to make the clay combine together and create the smoothness. The forms of potter are made on the potter wheel and are control by human’s hands, which is fascinating because people will have respect toward a finished product. After shaping the entire form, it’s then bake inside a kiln until it turns black (Britannica, 2014). Black-figure painting usually presents a storytelling by depicting animals or people in silhouette and sometime th...
The debate was how such a barbaric society could produce such sophisticated artwork. The quality of the Benin bronzes, based on...
Bloch, R. Howard. Medieval Misogyny and the Invention of Western Romantic Love. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1991.
Thousands of artists emerge from their mindless slumber to paint rosy cheeks and draw cat inspired winged eyes. These artists sketch over-plucked eyebrows and draw arches to a create strange self-described works of art, that they believe to be aesthetically pleasing. If these artists see a glimpse of imperfection, their masterpiece is ruined and their canvas has to be wiped clean. The artist is seeking the approval and acceptance from their well-known art critics, so this masterpiece has to be their finest work of art.
However, the artefacts brought to England from Benin in 1897 were an anomaly. The craftsmanship and sophistication were such that some were reminiscent of the beautiful figures in the Hofkiche, Innsbruck 1502-1563 (plate 3.1.12. Visited...
The oldest two pieces of jewelry were from Mesopotamia. The oldest, the headdress was made around 2500 BC and the second oldest, a head of a female wearing a necklace was made in the 9th- 8th century BC. Even within these two pieces of jewelry, one can tell that people began to make their jewelry more intricately with time because there are more beads shown in the necklace than in the headdress. The miniature broad collar found in Egypt made around 300 BC is much more elaborate than the two prior pieces. The pair of gold earrings found in Greece made around 300 BC do not include gemstones like the prior three examples of jewelry, but used much more complex details in the way the gold is shaped. The fifth oldest piece of jewelry, the gold armband is also quite intricate by using both gemstones and transforming the shape of the gold. The final piece of jewelry, the brooch, is the most different of all the jewelry in the set. It was made in Rome from around 100-300 AD. This piece is much different, because it is not made of gold, like all the others, but is made of copper. Even though it is not made of gold, it is much more innovative and complex than all the other jewelry because it was made by using a new process called the niello process to create a cat, the most complex figure on a piece of jewelry in the whole set (MMA).
First, new materials like metal clay, polymer clay, natural clay, ivory, bones, shells, wood, enamel, plastics and glass are being used. Second, some developments have taken place, improving the quality of artificial stones and making jewelry available to larger population segments from an economic point of view. Furthermore, the influence from other cultures and artistic forms is also changing the traditional jewelry. According to several publications, at the end of the 20th century a mix between Oriental and European techniques has been taking place. A case in point is Hawaiian jewelry which is highly fashionable and is enjoying of an increasing popularity during the last decades.
The first art that interested me was the art of Indonesia which in this exhibit depicted the culture, history and art of Indonesian people. For instance, Bali a small island in the Indonesia valued most of its art based on the rich resources they occupied such as most art was composed of gold, diamond and sapphires which people of Bali believed that it will resemble their higher standards in the society. Art of Bali amazed me the most when it came to their “King’s crown” and “Queen’s crown” which was completely “fashioned in pure gold with diamonds, rubies, and sapphires” (Bali). The king’s crown was much simpler compare to queen’s crown which contained many varied of gold decorative that looked like gold flowers, and all of its designs such as rubies or sapphires were perfectly horizontally lined to each other that sort of depicted as a shiny necklace. The Bali’s art that I observed was very interesting know about the society they lived in those centuries with representation of their upscale society (Bali).
“The Wife of Bath’s Tale” is written in an entertaining and adventurous spirit, but serves a higher purpose by illustrating the century’s view of courtly love. Hundreds, if not thousands, of other pieces of literature written in the same century prevail to commemorate the coupling of breathtaking princesses with lionhearted knights after going through unimaginable adventures, but only a slight few examine the viability of such courtly love and the related dilemmas that always succeed. “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” shows that women desire most their husband’s love, Overall, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” shows that the meaning of true love does not stay consistent, whether between singular or separate communities and remains timeless as the depictions of love from this 14th century tale still hold true today.
The early French periods began in 1600, after the Louis XIII style, which became the transition period into the French Baroque. Royalty began to introduce workshops and supported the creative industries with funding, which centralized the arts under the reigning monarchy. However, progress was discouraged and deterred by foreign influences (Harwood, May, & Sherman, 2002). Henry IV encouraged marked strides in the arts by creating free workshops in the Louvre, and also provided apartments to these artists and craftsmen. Several periods will be overviewed over the course of this paper, particularly specifying the ceiling and wall finishes during the specific periods.
The paintings of the Celto-Germanic period, similar the metal work, involve many intricate spiral designs, interlaced with different shapes and animal figures. “They were colored with gum, glue or gelatin binders that were used on parchment” (Cleaver151). Used to illuminate scriptures, the paintings often depicted religious themes. Celto-Germanic architecture made extensive use of wood. Between 750 and 987 A.D. the Celto-Germanic style went through some changes and new styles evolved in different geographic locations. It was during this time the second period of medieval art began.
As stated above, bronze casting is associated with ancient societies. The first bronze was cast, by accident, in the third millennium B.C.