Writing case. Inlaid damasquino iron, 11 cm.

Castle of Écouen, Musée national de la Renaissance.

 

 

We enter now on a special series; that of monuments of the Middle Ages in which the traditions of antiquity have vanished before the new ideas and art becomes essentially Christian. It is known that two opinions are held among scholars as to the character of this transformation: one set would ascribe it altogether to the influence of the Eastern Empire and the Byzantine Schools; the other, to which we ourselves incline, assign a large share in this new style of art to the local genius of the people and the influences proceeding from the Norman invaders of the North and from the Far East.

It must be remembered that the Far East introduced the art of enamelling to Constantinople. But at the very time this was happening, Gaul, as yet almost uncivilised, and the British Isles were inlaying their primitive jewellery with enamels and coloured pastes. Later, gold took the place of bronze and we see plaques of coloured glass inserted in its cells, a system foreign to the Byzantine but analogous to the works of the Sassanids. As for the ornaments of these early specimens of our civilisation, we must assuredly assign a large share to the inspirations of the Eastern Empire. But we must at the same time revert back to the Norman and Anglo-Saxon ideas, all those grotesque monsters of distorted shapes, the first appearance of interlacings between the opening blossoms of the chestnut, the delicately-cut leaves of the sycamore and ivy; in a word, all that national flora, so far removed from the acanthus, transmitted by Roman art.

Continuing the course of time, we seek the characteristic features of gold and silver work by the monuments which are within our reach. We will cite the famous crowns of Guarrazar, preserved at the Cluny, as one of the finest examples of the art under the Gothic kings. The most important one, bearing letters hanging from its rim to form the inscription Reccesvinthus rex offeret, gives us an exact date as we know that this Gothic king reigned from 649 to 672. From an artistic point of view, the pieces comprising the Guarrazar treasure show us the combination of precious stones and pearls with the use of inlaid red stones. It partakes, then, of the character both of Merovingian and Byzantine goldsmith work. The distinguishing characteristic of this latter school is the perfection of the filigree work and the regularity displayed in the stone arrangement.