Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages

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

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An interesting document has been found in Spain showing that craftsmen
were supplied with the necessary materials when engaged to make
valuable figures for the decoration of altars. It is dated May 12,
1367, "I, Sancho Martinez Orebsc, silversmith, native of Seville,
inform you, the Dean and Chapter of the church of Seville, that it
was agreed that I make an image of St. Mary with its tabernacle,
that it should be finished at a given time, and that you were to
give me the silver and stones required to make it."

In Spain, the most splendid triumphs of the goldsmith's skill were
the "custodias," or large tabernacles, in which the Host was carried
in procession. The finest was one made for Toledo by Enrique d'Arphe,
in competition with other craftsmen. His design being chosen, he
began his work in 1517, and in 1524 the custodia was finished. It
was in the form of a Gothic temple, six sided, with a jewelled
cross on the top, and was eight feet high. Some of the gold employed
was the first ever brought from America. The whole structure weighed
three hundred and eighty-eight pounds. Arphe made a similar custodia
for Cordova and another for Leon. His grandson, Juan d'Arphe, wrote
a verse about the Toledo custodia, in which these lines occur:

"Custodia is a temple of rich plate
Wrought for the glory of Our Saviour true...
That holiest ark of old to imitate,
Fashioned by Bezaleel the cunning Jew,
Chosen of God to work his sovereign will,
And greatly gifted with celestial skill."

Juan d'Arphe himself made a custodia for Seville, the decorations
and figures on which were directed by the learned Francesco Pacheco,
the father-in-law of Velasquez. When this custodia was completed,
d'Arphe wrote a description of it, alluding boldly to this work
as "the largest and finest work in silver known of its kind," and
this could really be said without conceit, for it is a fact.

A Gothic form of goldsmith's work obtained in Spain in the 13th,
14th and 15th centuries; it was based upon architectural models and
was known as "plateresca." The shrines for holding relics became
in these centuries positive buildings on a small scale in precious
material. In England also were many of these shrines, but few of
them now remain.

The first Mayor of London, from 1189 to 1213, was a goldsmith,
Henry Fitz Alwyn, the Founder of the Royal Exchange; Sir Thomas
Gresham, in 1520, was also a goldsmith and a banker. There is an
entertaining piece of cynical satire on the Goldsmiths in Stubbes'
Anatomy of Abuses, written in the time of Queen Elizabeth, showing
that the tricks of the trade had come to full development by that
time, and that the public was being aroused on the subject. Stubbes
explains how the goldsmith's shops are decked with chains and rings,
"wonderful richly." Then he goes on to say: "They will make you any
monster or article whatsoever of gold, silver, or what you will. Is
there no deceit in these goodlye shows? Yes, too many; if you will
buy a chain of gold, a ring, or any kind of plate, besides that you
shall pay almost half more than it is worth... you shall also perhaps
have that gold which is naught, or else at least mixed with drossie
rubbage.... But this happeneth very seldom by reason of good orders,
and constitutions made for the punishment of them that offend in
this kind of deceit, and therefore they seldom offend therein,
though now and then they chance to stumble in the dark!"

Fynes Moryson, a traveller who died in 1614, says that "the goldsmiths'
shops in London... are exceedingly richly furnished continually
with gold, with silver plate, and with jewels.... I never see any
such daily show, anything so sumptuous, in any place in the world,
as in London." He admits that in Florence and Paris the similar
shops are very rich upon special occasions; but it is the steady
state of the market in London to which he has reference.

The Company of Goldsmiths in Dublin held quite a prominent social
position in the community. In 1649, a great festival and pageant
took place, in which the goldsmiths and visiting craftsmen from
other corporations took part.

Henry III. set himself to enrich and beautify the shrine of his
patron saint, Edward the Confessor, and with this end in view he
made various extravagant demands: for instance, at one time he
ordered all the gold in London to be detailed to this object, and
at another, he had gold rings and brooches purchased to the value
of six hundred marks. The shrine was of gold, and, according to
Matthew Paris, enriched with jewels. It was commenced in 1241.
In 1244 the queen presented an image of the Virgin with a ruby
and an emerald. Jewels were purchased from time to time,--a great
cameo in 1251, and in 1255 many gems of great value. The son of
ado the Goldsmith, Edward, was the "king's beloved clerk," and was
made "keeper of the shrine." Most of the little statuettes were
described as having stones set somewhere about them: "an image of
St. Peter holding a church in one hand and the keys in the other,
trampling on Nero, who had a big sapphire on his breast;" and "the
Blessed Virgin with her Son, set with rubies, sapphires, emeralds,
and garnets," are among those cited. The whole shrine was described
as "a basilica adorned with purest gold and precious stones."

Odo the Goldsmith was in charge of the works for a good while. He
was succeeded by his son Edward. Payments were made sometimes in a
regular wage, and sometimes for "task work." The workmen were usually
known by one name--Master Alexander the King's Carpenter, Master Henry
the King's Master Mason, and so forth. In an early life of Edward the
Confessor, there is an illumination showing the masons and carpenters
kneeling to receive instruction from their sovereign.

The golden shrine of the Confessor was probably made in the Palace
itself; this was doubtless considered the safest place for so valuable
a work to remain in process of construction; for there is an allusion
to its being brought on the King's own shoulders (with the assistance
of others), from the palace to the Abbey, in 1269, for its consecration.

In 1243 Henry III. ordered four silver basins, fitted with cakes
of wax with wicks in them, to be placed as lights before the shrine
of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury. The great gold shrine of Becket
appears to have been chiefly the work of a goldsmith, Master Adam.
He also designed the Coronation Chair of England, which is now
in Westminster Abbey.

The chief goldsmith of England employed by Edward I. was one Adam
of Shoreditch. He was versatile, for he was also a binder of books.
A certain bill shows an item of his workmanship, "a group in silver
of a child riding upon a horse, the child being a likeness of Lord
Edward, the King's son."

A veritable Arts and Crafts establishment had been in existence
in Woolstrope, Lincolnshire, before Cromwell's time; for Georde
Gifford wrote to Cromwell regarding the suppression of this monastery:
"There is not one religious person there but what doth use either
embrothering, wryting books with a faire hand, making garments,
or carving."

In all countries the chalices and patens were usually, designed
to correspond with each other. The six lobed dish was a very usual
form; it had a depressed centre, with six indented scallops, and
the edge flat like a dinner plate. In an old church inventory,
mention is made of "a chalice with _his_ paten." Sometimes there was
lettering around the flat edge of the paten. Chalices were-composed
of three parts: the cup, the ball or knop, and the stem, with the
foot. The original purpose of having this foot hexagonal in shape
is said to have been to prevent the chalice from rolling when it
was laid on its side to drain. Under many modifications this general
plan of the cup has obtained. The bowl is usually entirely plain,
to facilitate keeping it clean; most of the decoration was lavished
on the knop, a rich and uneven surface being both beautiful and
functional in this place.

Such Norman and Romanesque chalices as remain are chiefly in museums
now. They were usually "coffin chalices"--that is, they had been
buried in the coffin of some ecclesiastic. Of Gothic chalices, or
those of the Tudor period, fewer remain, for after the Reformation,
a general order went out to the churches, for all "chalices to be
altered to decent Communion cups." The shape was greatly modified
in this change.

In the thirteenth century the taste ran rather to a chaster form
of decoration; the large cabochons of the Romanesque, combined
with a liquid gold surface, gave place to refined ornaments in
niello and delicate enamels. The bowls of the earlier chalices
were rather flat and broad. When it became usual for the laity to
partake only of one element when communicating, the chalice, which
was reserved for the clergy alone, became modified to meet this
condition, and the bowl was much smaller. After the Reformation,
however, the development was quite in the other direction, the bowl
being extremely large and deep. In that period they were known
as communion cups. In Sandwich there is a cup which was made over
out of a ciborium; as it quite plainly shows its origin, it is
naively inscribed: "This is a Communion Coop." When this change in
the form of the chalice took place, it was provided, by admonition
of the Archbishop, in all cases with a "cover of silver... which
shall serve also for the ministration of the Communion bread." To
make this double use of cover and dish satisfactory, a foot like
a stand was added to the paten.

The communion cup of the Reformation differed from the chalice,
too, in being taller and straighter, with a deep bowl, almost in
the proportions of a flaring tumbler, and a stem with a few close
decorations instead of a knop. The small paten served as a cover
to the cup, as has been mentioned.

It is not always easy to see old church plate where it originally
belonged. On the Scottish border, for instance, there were constant
raids, when the Scots would descend upon the English parish churches,
and bear off the communion plate, and again the English would cross
the border and return the compliment. In old churches, such as the
eleventh century structure at Torpenhow, in Cumberland, the deep
sockets still to be seen in the stone door jambs were intended
to support great beams with which the church had constantly to
be fortified against Scottish invasion. Another reason for the
disappearance of church plate, was the occasional sale of the silver
in order to continue necessary repairs on the fabric. In a church
in Norfolk, there is a record of sale of communion silver and "for
altering of our church and fynnishing of the same according to our
mindes and the parishioners." It goes on to state that the proceeds
were appropriated for putting new glass in the place of certain windows
"wherein were conteined the lives of certain prophane histories,"
and for "paving the king's highway" in the church precincts. At the
time of the Reformation many valuable examples of Church plate were
cast aside by order of the Commissioners, by which "all monuments
of feyned miracles, pilgrimages, idolatry, and superstition," were
to be destroyed. At this time a calf or a sheep might have been seen
browsing in the meadows with a sacring-bell fastened at its neck,
and the pigs refreshed themselves with drinking from holy-water
fonts!

Croziers of ornate design especially roused the ire of the Puritans.
In Mr. Alfred Maskell's incomparable book on Ivories, he translates
a satirical verse by Guy de Coquille, concerning these objectionable
pastoral staves (which were often made of finely sculptured ivory).

"The staff of a bishop of days that are old
Was of wood, and the bishop himself was of gold.
But a bishop of wood prefers gorgeous array,
So his staff is of gold in the new fashioned way!"

During the Renaissance especially, goldsmith's work was carried
to great technical perfection, and yet the natural properties of
the metal were frequently lost sight of, and the craftsmen tried
to produce effects such as would be more suitable in stone or
wood,--little architectonic features were introduced, and gold
was frequently made to do the work of other materials. Thus it
lost much of its inherent effectiveness. Too much attention was
given to ingenuity, and not enough to fitness and beauty.

[Illustration: RELIQUARY AT ORVIETO]

In documents of the fourteenth century, the following list of goldsmiths
is given: Jean de Mantreux was goldsmith to King Jean. Claux de
Friburg was celebrated for a gold statuette of St. John which he
made for the Duke of Normandy. A diadem for this Duke was also
recorded, made by Jean de Piguigny. Hannequin made three golden crowns
for Charles V. Hans Crest was goldsmith to the Duke of Orleans, while
others employed by him were Durosne, of Toulouse, Jean de Bethancourt,
a Flemish goldsmith. In the fifteenth century the names of Jean de
Hasquin, Perrin Manne, and Margerie d'Avignon, were famous.

Artists in the Renaissance were expected to undertake several branches
of their craft. Hear Poussin: "It is impossible to work at the
same time upon frontispieces of books: a Virgin: at the picture
for the congregation of St. Louis, at the designs for the gallery,
and for the king's tapestry! I have only a feeble head, and am
not aided by anyone!"

A goldsmith attached to the Court of King Rene of Anjou was Jean
Nicolas. Rene also gave many orders to one Liguier Rabotin, of
Avignon, who made him several cups of solid gold, on a large tray
of the same precious metal. The king often drew his own designs
or such bijoux.

Among the famous men of Italy were several who practised the art of
the goldsmith. Ugolino of Siena constructed the wonderful reliquary
at Orvieto; this, is in shape somewhat similar to the facade of
the cathedral.

Verocchio, the instructor of Leonardo da Vinci, accomplished several
important pieces of jewelery in his youth: cope-buttons and silver
statuettes, chiefly, which were so successful that he determined to
take up the career of a sculptor. Ghirlandajo, as is well known,
was trained as a goldsmith originally, his father having been the
inventor of a pretty fashion then prevailing among young girls of
Florence, and being the maker of those golden garlands worn on
the heads of maidens. The name Ghirlandajo, indeed, was derived
from these garlands (ghirlandes).

Francia began life as a goldsmith, too, and was never in after life
ashamed of his profession, for he often signed his works Francesco
Francia Aurifex. Francia was a very skilful workman in niello,
and in enamels. In fact, to quote the enthusiastic Vasari, "he
executed everything that is most beautiful, and which can be performed
in that art more perfectly than any other master had ever done."
Baccio Baldini, also, was a goldsmith, although a greater portion
of his ability was turned in the direction of engraving. His pupil
Maso Finniguerra, who turned also to engraving, began his career
as a goldsmith.

The great silver altar in the Baptistery in Florence occupied nearly
all the goldsmiths in that city. In 1330 the father of the Orcagnas,
Cione, died; he had worked for some years before that on the altar.
In 1366 the altar was destroyed, but the parts in bas-relief by
Cione were retained and incorporated into the new work, which was
finished in 1478. Ghiberti, Orcagna, Verocchio, and Pollajuolo,
all executed various details of this magnificent monument.

Goldsmiths did not quite change their standing and characteristics
until late in the sixteenth century. About that time it may be said
that the last goldsmith of the old school was Claude Ballin, while
the first jeweller, in the modern acceptation of the word, was Pierre
de Montarsy.

Silver has always been selected for the better household utensils,
not only on account of its beauty, but also because of its ductility,
which is desirable in making larger vessels; its value, too, is
less than that of gold, so that articles which would be quite out
of the reach of most householders, if made in gold, become very
available in silver. Silver is particularly adapted to daily use,
for the necessary washing and polishing which it receives keeps
it in good condition, and there is no danger from poison through
corrosion, as with copper and brass.

In the middle ages the customary pieces of plate in English homes
were basins, bottles, bowls, candlesticks, saucepans, jugs, dishes,
ewers and flagons, and chafing-dishes for warming the hands, which
were undoubtedly needed, when we remember how intense the cold
must have been in those high, bare, ill-ventilated halls! There
were also large cups called hanaps, smaller cups, plates, and
porringers, salt-cellars, spoons, and salvers. Forks were of much
later date.

There are records of several silver basins in the Register of John
of Gaunt, and also in the Inventory of Lord Lisle: one being "a
basin and ewer with arms" and another, "a shaving basin." John of
Gaunt also owned "a silver bowl for the kitchen." If the mediaeval
household lacked comforts, it could teach us lessons in luxury
in some other departments! He also had a "pair of silver bottles,
partly gilt, and enamelled, garnished with tissues of silk, white
and blue," and a "casting bottle" for distributing perfume: Silver
candelabra were recorded; these, of course, must have been in constant
service, as the facilities for lighting were largely dependent upon
them. When the Crown was once obliged to ask a loan from the Earl
of Salisbury, in 1432, the Earl received, as earnest of payment,
"two golden candelabra, garnished with pearls and precious stones."

In the Close Roll of Henry III. of England, there is found an
interesting order to a goldsmith: "Edward, son of Eudo, with all
haste, by day and by night, make a cup with a foot for the Queen:
weighing two marks, not more; price twenty marks, against Christmas,
that she may drink from it in that feast: and paint it and enamel it
all over, and in every other way that you can, let it be decently
and beautifully wrought, so that the King, no less than the said
Queen, may be content therewith." All the young princes and princesses
were presented with silver cups, also, as they came to such age as
made the use of them expedient; Lionel and John, sons of Edward
III., were presented with cups "with leather covers for the same,"
when they were one and three years old respectively. In 1423 the
chief justice, Sir William Hankford, gave his great-granddaughter
a baptismal gift of a gilt cup and a diamond ring, together with a
curious testimonial of eight shillings and sixpence to the nurse!

Of dishes, the records are meagre, but there is an amusing entry
among the Lisle papers referring to a couple of "conserve dishes"
for which Lady Lisle expressed a wish. Husee had been ordered to
procure these, but writes, "I can get no conserve dishes... however,
if they be to be had, I will have of them, or it shall cost me hot
water!" A little later he observes, "Towards Christmas day they
shall be made at Bevoys, betwixt Abbeville and Paris."

Flagons were evidently a novelty in 1471, for there is an entry
in the Issue Roll of Edward IV., which mentions "two ollas called
silver flagons for the King." An olla was a Latin term for a jar.
Lord Lisle rejoiced in "a pair of flagons, the gilt sore worn."
Hanaps were more usual, and appear to have been usually in the form
of goblets. They frequently had stands called "tripers." Sometimes
these stands were very ornate, as, for instance, one owned by the
Bishop of Carpentras, "in the shape of a flying dragon, with a
crowned damsel sitting upon a green terrace." Another, belonging
to the Countess of Cambridge, was described as being "in the shape
of a monster, with three buttresses and three bosses of mother of
pearl... and an ewer,... partly enamelled with divers babooneries"--a
delightful expression! Other hanaps were in the forms of swans, oak
trees, white harts, eagles, lions, and the like--probably often
of heraldic significance.

A set of platters was sent from Paris to Richard II., all of gold,
with balas rubies, pearls and sapphires set in them. It is related
of the ancient Frankish king, Chilperic, that he had made a dish of
solid gold, "ornamented all over with precious stones, and weighing
fifty pounds," while Lothaire owned an enormous silver basin bearing
as decoration "the world with the courses of the stars and the
planets."

The porringer was a very important article of table use, for pap,
and soft foods such as we should term cereals, and for boiled pudding.
These were all denominated porridge, and were eaten from these vessels.
Soup was doubtless served in them as well. They were numerous in
every household. In the Roll of Henry III. is an item, mentioning
that he had ordered twenty porringers to be made, "like the one
hundred porringers" which had already been ordered!

An interesting pattern of silver cups in Elizabethan times were
the "trussing cups," namely, two goblets of silver, squat in shape
and broad in bowl, which fitted together at the rim, so that one
was inverted as a sort of cover on top of the other when they were
not in use. Drinking cups were sometimes made out of cocoanuts,
mounted in silver, and often of ostrich eggs, similarly treated,
and less frequently of horns hollowed out and set on feet. Mediaeval
loving cups were usually named, and frequently for some estates
that belonged to the owner. Cups have been known to bear such names
as "Spang," "Bealchier," and "Crumpuldud," while others bore the
names of the patron saints of their owners.

A kind of cruet is recorded among early French table silver, "a
double necked bottle in divisions, in which to place two kinds
of liquor without mixing them." A curious bit of table silver in
France, also, was the "almsbox," into which each guest was supposed
to put some piece of food, to be given to the poor.

Spoons were very early in their origin; St. Radegond is reported
by a contemporary to have used a spoon, in feeding the blind and
infirm. A quaint book of instructions to children, called "The
Babee's Booke," in 1475, advises by way of table manners:

"And whenever your potage to you shall be brought,
Take your sponys and soupe by no way,
And in your dish leave not your spoon, I pray!"

And a later volume on the same subject, in 1500, commends a proper
respect for the implements of the table:

"Ne playe with spoone, trencher, ne knife."

Spoons of curious form were evidently made all the way from 1300
to the present day. In an old will, in 1477, mention is made of
spoons "wt leopards hedes printed in the sponself," and in another,
six spoons "wt owles at the end of the handles." Professor Wilson
said, "A plated spoon is a pitiful imposition," and he was right.
If there is one article of table service in which solidity of metal
is of more importance than in another, it is the spoon, which must
perforce come in contact with the lips whenever it is used. In England
the earliest spoons were of about the thirteenth century, and the first
idea of a handle seems to have been a plain shaft ending in a ball or
knob. Gradually spoons began to show more of the decorative instinct
of their designers; acorns, small statuettes, and such devices
terminated the handles, which still retained their slender proportions,
however. Finally it became popular to have images of the Virgin on
individual spoons, which led to the idea, after a bit, of decorating
the dozen with the twelve apostles. These may be seen of all periods,
differently elaborated. Sets of thirteen are occasionally met with,
these having one with the statue of Jesus as the Good Shepherd,
with a lamb on his shoulders: it is known as the "Master spoon."

[Illustration: APOSTLE SPOONS]

The first mention of forks in France is in the Inventory, of Charles
V., in 1379. We hear a great deal about the promiscuous use of
knives before forks were invented; how in the children's book of
instructions they are enjoined "pick not thy teeth with thy knife,"
as if it were a general habit requiring to be checked. Massinger
alludes to a

"silver fork
To convey an olive neatly to thy mouth,"

but this may apply to pickle forks. Forks were introduced from Italy
into England about 1607.

A curiosity in cutlery is the "musical knife" at the Louvre; the
blade is steel, mounted in parcel gilt, and the handle is of ivory.
On the blade is engraved a few bars of music (arranged for the
bass only), accompanying the words, "What we are about to take
may Trinity in Unity bless. Amen." This is a literal translation.
It indicates that there were probably three other knives in the
set so ornamented, one with the soprano, one alto, and one tenor,
so that four persons sitting down to table together might chant
their "grace" in four-part harmony, having the requisite notes
before them! It was a quaint idea, but quite in keeping with the
taste of the sixteenth century.

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