Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages

J >> Julia De Wolf Addison >> Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages

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"She to the eighth king Henry married was
And afterwards divorced, when virtuously,
Although a queen, yet she her days did pass
In working with the needle curiously."

Queen Elizabeth was also a clever embroiderer; she worked a book-cover
for Katherine Parr, bearing the initials K. P., and it is now in
the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

Mary Queen of Scots was also said to be skilful with her needle;
in fact it seems to have been the consolation of most queens in
their restricted existence in those centuries. Dr. Rock considers
that the "corporal" which Mary Queen of Scots had bound about her
eyes at the time of her execution, was in reality a piece of her own
needle-work, probably wrought upon fine linen. Knight, in describing
the scene in his "Picturesque History of England," says: "Then the
maid Kennedy took a handkerchief edged with gold, in which the
Eucharist had formerly been enclosed, and fastened it over her eyes;"
so accounts differ and traditions allow considerable scope for varied
preferred interpretation.

It is stated that Catherine de Medicis was fond of needlework,
passing her evenings embroidering in silk "which was as perfect
as was possible," says Brantome.

Anne of Brittany instructed three hundred of the children of the
nobles at her court, in the use of the needle. These children produced
several tapestries, which were presented by the queen to various
churches.

The volatile Countess of Shrewsbury, the much married "Bess of
Hardwick," was a good embroideress, who worked, probably, in company
with the Queen of Scots when that unfortunate woman was under the
guardianship of the Earl of Shrewsbury. One of these pieces is
signed E. S., and dated 1590.

A form of intricate pattern embroidery in black silk on fine linen
was executed in Spain in the sixteenth century, and was known as
"black work." Viscount Falkland owns some important specimens of
this curious work. It was introduced into England by Katherine of
Aragon, and became very popular, being exceedingly suitable and
serviceable for personal adornment. The black was often relieved
by gold or silver thread.

The Petit Point, or single square stitch on canvas, became popular
in England during the reign Elizabeth. It suggested Gobelins tapestry,
on a small scale, when finished, although the method of execution
is quite different, being needlework pure and simple.

In Elizabeth's time was incorporated the London
Company of Broderers, which flourished until about the reign of
Charles I., when there is a complaint registered that "trade was
so much decayed and grown out of use, that a great part of the
company, for want of employment, were much impoverished."

Raised embroidery, when it was padded with cotton, was called Stump
Work. This was made extensively by the nuns of Little Gidding in
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Decided changes and
developments took place in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
in all forms of embroidery, but these are not for us to consider
at present. A study of historic samples alone is most tempting,
but there is no space for the intrusion of any subject much later
than the Renaissance.

CHAPTER VII

SCULPTURE IN STONE

(_France and Italy_)

Sculpture is not properly speaking the "plastic art," as is often
understood. The real meaning of sculpture is work which is cut
into form, whereas plastic art is work that is moulded or cast
into form. Terra cotta, which is afterwards baked, is plastic;
and yet becomes hard; thus a Tanagra figurine is an example of
plastic art, while a Florentine marble statuette is a product of
sculpture. The two are often confounded. We shall allude to them
under different heads, taking for our consideration now only such
sculpture as is the result of cutting in the stone. The work of
Luca Della Robbia will not be treated as sculpture in this book.
Luca Della Robbia is a worker in plastic art, while Adam Kraft,
hewing directly at the stone, is a sculptor.

We have no occasion to study the art of the sculptor who produces
actual statues; only so far as sculpture is a companion to architecture,
and a decorative art, does it come within the scope of the arts and
crafts. Figure sculpture, then, is only considered when strictly
of a monumental character.

In attacking such a subject as sculpture in the Middle Ages it
is impossible to do more than indicate the general tendencies in
different countries. But there are certain defined characteristics an
observance of which will make clear to any reader various fundamental
principles by which it is easy to determine the approximate age and
style of works.

In the first place, the great general rule of treatment of stone
in the North and in the South is to be mentioned. In the Northern
countries, France, Germany, and England, the stone which was employed
for buildings and their decorations was obtainable in large blocks
and masses; it was what, for our purposes, we will call ordinary
stone, and could be used in the solid; therefore it was possible
for carving in the North to be rendered as deeply and as roundly as
the sculptor desired. In Southern countries, however, and chiefly in
Italy, the stone used for building was not ordinary, but semi-precious
stone. Marble, porphyry, and alabaster were available; and the use
of such material led to a different ideal in architecture and
decoration,--that of incrustation instead of solid piling. These
valuable stones of Italy could not be used, generally speaking,
in vast blocks, into which the chisel was at liberty to plough as
it pleased; when a mass of marble or alabaster was obtained, the
aesthetic soul of the Italian craftsman revolted against shutting
up all that beauty of veining and texture in the confines of a
solid square, of which only the two sides should ever be visible,
and often only one. So he cut his precious block into slices: made
slabs and shallow surfaces of it, and these he laid, as an outward
adornment to his building, upon a substructure of brick or rubble.

It is easy to perceive, then, the difference of the problem of the
sculptors of the North and the South. The plain, solid Northern
building was capable of unlimited enrichment by carving; this carving,
when deeply cut, with forcible projection, acted as a noble
embellishment in which the principal feature was a varied play of
light and shade; the stone having little charm of colour or texture
in itself, depended for its beauty entirely upon its bold relief,
its rounded statuary, and its well shaped chiselled ornament. The
shallow surface, already beautiful, both in colour and texture,
in the Southern building material, called only for enrichment in
low relief: ornament only slightly raised from the level or simply
perforating the thin slab of glowing stone on which it was used
was the more usual choice of the Italian craftsman.

This statement applies, of course, only to general principles of
the art of sculpture; there is some flat bas-relief in the North,
and some rounded sculpture in the South; but as a rule the tendencies
are as they have just been outlined.

Another difference between sculpture in the North and South is
due to the fact that in Italy the work was individual, as a rule,
and in France it was the labour of a Guild or company. In Italy
it is usually known who was the author of any striking piece of
sculpture, while in France it is the exception when a work is signed,
or the names of artisans recorded. In Italy, then, each piece was
made more with a view to its own display, than as a part of a
building, while in France statuary was regarded as an integral part
of the architecture, and rows of figures were used as commonly as
rows of columns in Italy. It is tragic to think of the personal skill
and brilliancy of all these great French craftsmen being absorbed in
one general reputation, while there were undoubtedly among them great
art personalities who would have stood equally with the Pisani if
they had been recognized.

A good deal of flat carving, especially in the interlace and acanthus
of Ravenna, was accomplished by commencing with a series of drilled
holes, which were afterwards channelled into each other and formed
patterns. When the subsequent finish is not particularly delicate,
it is quite easy to detect these symmetrical holes, but the effect,
under the circumstances, is not objectionable.

[Illustration: CARVED CAPITAL FROM RAVENNA]

The process of cutting a bas-relief was generally to outline the
whole with an incision, and then cut away the background, leaving
the simple elevated flat value, the shape of the proposed design.
The modelling was then added by degrees, until the figure looked
like half of a rounded object. While it is often unpractical to refer
one's readers to examples of work in far and various countries, and
advise them instantly to examine them, it is frequently possible
to call attention to well-produced plates in certain modern
art books which are in nearly every public library. To understand
thoroughly the use of the drill in flat sculpture, I wish my
readers would refer to Fig. 121 in Mr. Russell Sturgis's "Artist's
Way of Working," Vol. II.

In a quaint treatise on Belles Lettres in France nearly two centuries
ago, by Carlencas, the writer says: "It is to no great purpose to
speak of the Gothick sculptures: for everybody knows that they
are the works of a rude art, formed in spite of nature and rules:
sad productions of barbrous and dull spirits, which disfigure our
old churches." Fie on a Frenchman who could so express himself! We
recall the story of how Viollet le Duc made the people of Paris
appreciate the wonderful carvings on Notre Dame. All the rage in
France was for Greek and Roman remains, and the people persisted
in their adoration of the antique, but would not deign to look
nearer home, at their great mediaeval works of art. So the architect
had plaster casts made of the principal figures on the cathedral,
and these were treated so as to look like ancient marble statues;
he then opened an exhibition, purporting to show new discoveries
and excavations among antiques. The exhibition was thronged, and
everyone was deeply interested, expressing the greatest admiration
for the marvellously expressive sculptures. Viollet le Duc then
admitted what he had done, and confessing that these treasures
were to be found in their native city, advised them to pay more
attention to the beauties of Gothic art in Paris.

We will not enter into a discussion of the relative merits of Northern
and Southern art; whether the great revival really originated in
France or Italy; but this is certain: Nicolo Pisano lived in the
latter half of the thirteenth century, while the great sculptures
of Notre Dame, Paris, and those of Chartres, were executed half
a century earlier.

But prior to either were the Byzantine and Romanesque sculptures
in Italy and Southern France. Our attention must first be turned
to them. Charles Eliot Norton's definition of this word Romanesque
is as satisfactory as any that could be instanced: "It very nearly
corresponds to the term of Romance as applied to language. It signifies
the derivation of the main elements, both in plan and construction,
from the works of the later Roman Empire. But Romanesque architecture"
(and this applies equally to sculpture) "was not, as it has been
called, a corrupted imitation of the Roman architecture, any more
than the Provencal or the Italian language was a corrupted imitation
of the Latin. It was a new thing, the slowly matured product of
a long period of many influences."

All mediaeval carving was subordinate to architecture, therefore
every piece of carving was designed with a view to being suitable to
appear in some special place. The most striking difference between
mediaeval and later sculpture is that the latter is designed as
a thing apart, an object to be stood anywhere to be admired for
its intrinsic merit, instead of being a functional component
in a general scheme for beautifying a given building.

The use of the interlace in all primitive arts is very interesting.
It undoubtedly began in an unconscious imitation of local architecture.
For instance, in the British Isles, the building in earliest times
was with wattles: practically walls of basket work. William of
Malmsbury says that Glastonbury was "a mean structure of wattle
work," while of the Monastery of Iona, it is related that in 563,
Columba "sent forth his monks to gather twigs to build his hospice."
British baskets were famous even so far away as Rome. So the first
idea of ornament was to copy the interlacing forms. The same idea
was worked out synchronously in metal work, and in illuminated
books. Carving in stone, wood, and ivory, show the same influence.

Debased Roman sculptural forms were used in Italy during the fourth
and fifth centuries. Then Justinian introduced the Byzantine which
was grafted upon the Roman, producing a characteristic and fascinating
though barbaric combination. This was the Romanesque, or
Romano-Byzantine, in the North of Italy generally being recognized
as the Lombard style. The sculptures of this period, from the fifth
to the thirteenth century, are blunt and heavy, but full of quaint
expression due to the elemental and immature conditions of the
art. Many of the old Byzantine carvings are to be seen in Italy.

The Lombards, when invading Northern Italy,
brought with them a mighty smith, Paul the Deacon, who had much
skill with the hammer. When these rude Norsemen found themselves
among the aesthetic treasures of Byzantium, and saw the fair Italian
marbles, and the stately work of Theodoric and Justinian, they were
inflamed with zeal for artistic expression, and began to hew and
carve rough but spirited forms out of the Pisan and Carrara stones.
The animals which they sculptured were, as Ruskin has said, "all alive:
hungry and fierce, wild, with a life-like spring." The Byzantine
work was quiescent: the designs formal, decent, and monumental. But
the Lombards threw into their work their own restless energy, and
some of their cruelty and relentlessness. Queen Theodolinda, in
her palace at Monza, encouraged the arts; it was because of her
appreciative comprehension of such things that St. Gregory sent
her the famous Iron Crown, of which a description has been given, on
the occasion of the baptism of her son. Under the influence of these
subsequently civilized barbarians many of the greatest specimens of
carving in North Italy came into being. The most delightful little
stumpy saints and sacred emblems may be found on the facade of
St. Michele at Pavia, and also at Lucca, and on the Baptistery
at Parma. The sculptor who produced these works at Parma was a
very interesting craftsman, named Antelami. His Descent from the
Cross is one of the most striking pieces of early sculpture before
the Pisani. He lived in the twelfth century. The figures are of
Byzantine proportions and forms, but have a good deal of grace and
suggestion of movement.

Among the early names known in Italy is that of Magister Orso,
of Verona. Another, in the ninth century, was Magister Pacifico,
and in the twelfth there came Guglielmus, who carved the charming
naive wild hunting scenes on the portal of St. Zeno of Verona.
These reliefs represent Theodoric on horseback, followed by an
able company of men and horses which, according to legend, were
supplied by the infernal powers. The eyes of these fugitives have
much expression, being rendered with a drill, and standing out
in the design as little black holes--fierce and effective.

There is a fine round window at St. Zeno at Verona, designed and
executed by one Briolottus, which, intended to represent the Wheel
of Fortune, is decorated all over with little clinging figures,
some falling and some climbing, and has the motto: "I elevate some
mortals and depose others: I give good or evil to all: I clothe
the naked and strip the clothed: in me if any one trust he will
be turned to derision."

Perhaps the most wonderful carvings on the church of St. Zeno at
Verona are over the arched entrance to the crypt. These, being
chiefly grotesque animal forms, are signed by Adaminus. Among the
humourous little conceits is a couple of strutting cocks carrying
between them a dead fox slung on a rod. Ruskin has characterized
the carvings at Verona, especially those on the porch, as being
among the best examples of the true function of flat decorative
carving in stone. He says: "The primary condition is that the mass
shall be beautifully rounded, and disposed with due discretion and
order;... sculpture is essentially the production of a pleasant
bossiness or roundness of surface. The pleasantness of that bossy
condition to the eye is irrespective of imitation on one side, and
of structure on the other." The more one considers this statement,
the more he is convinced of its comprehensiveness. If the lights
and shadows fall pleasantly, how little one stops to inquire, "What
is the subject? Do I consider that horse well proportioned, or do
I not? Is that woman in good drawing?" Effectiveness is almost
independent of detail, except as that detail affects the law of
proportion. There are varying degrees of relief: from flat (where
the ornament is hardly more than incised, and the background planed
away) to a practically solid round figure cut almost entirely free
of its ground.

In Venice, until the revival in the thirteenth century, the Greek
Byzantine influence was marked. There is no more complete storehouse
of the art of the East adapted to mediaeval conditions than the
Church of St. Mark's. If space permitted, nothing could be more
delightful than to examine in detail these marvellous capitals and
archivolts which Ruskin has so lovingly immortalized for English
readers. Of all decorative sculpture there is none more satisfying
from the ornamental point of view than the Byzantine interlace
and vine forms so usual in Venice. The only place where these
may be seen to even greater advantage is Ravenna. The pierced
marble screens and capitals, with their restful combinations of
interlacing bands and delicate foliate forms, are nowhere surpassed.
The use of the acanthus leaf conventionalized in a strictly primitive
fashion characterizes most of the Byzantine work in Italy. With
these are combined delightful stiff peacocks, and curious bunches
of grapes, rosettes, and animal forms of quaint grotesqueness.
Such work exemplifies specially what has been said regarding the
use of flat thin slabs for sculptural purposes in the South of
Europe. Nearly all these carvings are executed in fine marbles
and alabasters. The chief works of this period in the round are
lions and gryphons supporting columns as at Ancona and Perugia,
and many other Italian cities.

In Rome there were several sculptors of the name of Peter. One
of them, Peter Amabilis, worked about 1197; and another, Peter
le Orfever, went to England and worked on the tomb of Edward the
Confessor at Westminster.

In Bologna is an interesting crucifix probably carved in the eighth
or ninth century. Christ's figure is upon the cross and that of
his mother stands near. The sculptor was Petrus Albericus. On the
cross is an inscription in the form of a dialogue: "My son?" "What,
Mother?" "Are you God?" "I am." "Why do you hang on the cross?"
"That Mankind may not perish."

The Masters of Stone and Wood were among the early Guilds and
Corporations of Florence. Charlemagne patronized this industry and
helped to develop it. Of craftsmen in these two branches exclusive
of master builders, and recognized artists, there were, in 1299,
about a hundred and forty-six members of the Guild.

Italy was backward for a good while in the progress of art, for
while great activities were going on in the North, the Doge of
Venice in 976 was obliged to import artists from Constantinople
to decorate St. Mark's church.

The tombs of this early period in Italy, as elsewhere, are significant
and beautiful. Recumbent figures, with their hands devoutly pressed
together, are usually seen, lying sometimes on couches and sometimes
under architectural canopies.

The first great original Italian sculptor of the Renaissance was
Nicola Pisano. He lived through almost the whole of the thirteenth
century, being born about 1204, and dying in 1278. What were the
early influences of Nicola Pisano, that helped to make him so much
more more modern, more truly classic, than any of his age? In the
first place, he was born at the moment when interest in ancient
art was beginning to awaken; the early thirteenth century. In the
Campo Santo of Pisa may be seen two of the most potent factors in
his aesthetic education, the Greek sarcophagus on which was carved the
Hunting of Meleager, and the Greek urn with Bacchic figures wreathing
it in classic symmetry. With his mind tuned to the beautiful, the
boy Nioola gazed at the work of genuine pagan Greek artists,
who knew the sinuousness of the human form and the joy of living
with no thought of the morrow. These joyous pagan elements, grafted
on solemn religious surroundings and influences, combined to produce
his peculiar genius. Basing his early endeavours on these specimens
of genuine classical Greek art, there resulted his wonderful pulpits
at Pisa and Siena, and his matchlessly graceful little Madonnas
denote the Hellenistic sentiment for beauty. His work was a marked
departure from the Byzantine and Romanesque work which constituted
Italian sculpture up to that period. An examination of his designs
and methods proves his immense originality. By profession he was
an architect. Of his pulpit in Siena Charles Eliot Norton speaks
with much appreciation. Alluding to the lions used as bases to its
columns, he says: "These are the first realistic representations
of living animals which the mediaeval revival of art has produced;
and in vivacity and energy of rendering, and in the thoroughly
artistic treatment of leonine spirit and form, they have never
been surpassed." It is usually claimed that one may learn much of
the rise of Gothic sculpture by studying the models in the South
Kensington Museum. In a foot-note to such a statement in a book
edited by Ruskin, the indignant editor has observed, "You cannot
do anything of the kind. Pisan sculpture can only be studied in
the original marble: half its virtue is in the chiselling!" Nicola
was assisted in the work on his shrine of St. Dominic at Bologna
by one Fra Guglielmo Agnelli, a monk of a very pious turn, who,
nevertheless, committed a curious theft, which was never discovered
until his own death-bed confession. He absconded with a bone of
St. Dominic, which he kept for private devotions all his subsequent
life! An old chronicler says, naively: "If piety can absolve from
theft, Fra Guglielmo is to be praised, though never to be imitated."

[Illustration: PULPIT OF NICOLA PISANO, PISA]

Andrea Pisano was Nicola's greatest scholar, though not his son.
He took the name of his master after the mediaeval custom. His work
was largely in bronze, and the earlier gates of the Baptistery in
Florence are by him. We have already alluded to the later gates
by Ghiberti, when speaking of bronze. Andrea had the honour to
teach the celebrated Orcagna,--more painter than sculptor,--whose
most noted work in this line was the Tabernacle at Or San Michele.
Among the loveliest of the figures sculptured by the Pisani are
the angels standing in a group, blowing trumpets, on the pulpit at
Pistoja, the work of Giovanni. Among Nicola's pupils were his son
Giovanni, Donatello, Arnolfo di Cambio, and Lorenzo Maitani, who
executed the delightful sculptures on the facade of the Cathedral
of Orvieto,--perhaps the most interesting set of bas-reliefs in
detail of the Early Renaissance, although in general symmetrical
"bossiness" of effect, so much approved by Ruskin, they are very
uneven. In this respect they come rather under the head of realistic
than of decorative art.

Lorenzo Maitani was a genuine leader of his guild of craftsmen,
and superintended the large body of architects who worked at
Orvieto, stone masons, mosaicists, bronze founders, painters,
and minor workmen. He lived until 1330, and practically devoted
his life to Orvieto. It is uncertain whether any of the Pisani
were employed in any capacity, although for a time it was
popularly supposed that the four piers on the facade were their
work. An iconographic description of these sculptures would occupy
too much time here, but one or two features of special interest
should be noted: the little portrait relief of the master Maitani
himself occurs on the fourth pier, among the Elect in heaven, wearing
his workman's cap and carrying his architect's square. Only his
head and shoulders can be seen at the extreme left of the second
tier of sculptures. In accordance with an early tradition, that
Virgil was in some wise a prophet, and that he had foretold the
coming of Christ, he is here introduced, on the second pier, near
the base, crowned with laurel. The incident of the cutting off of
the servant's ear, by Peter, is positively entertaining. Peter
is sawing away industriously at the offending member; a fisherman
ought to understand a more deft use of the knife! In the scenes
of the Creation, depicted on the first pier, Maitani has proved
himself a real nature lover in the tender way he has demonstrated
the joy of the birds at finding the use of their wings.

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