Page:A record of European armour and arms through seven centuries (Volume 5).djvu/136

 "then popular" in the sense that though such names as Raphael, Correggio, Michael Angelo, Titian, and Tintoretto were held in the highest estimation, the works of Guido Reni, Sassoferrato, and their contemporaries enjoyed, we may say, an almost equal popularity, while the productions of the great Italian primitives were relegated to a very secondary position. Similarly in sculptural art, outside the recognized productions of certain world-*famous sculptors and bronze founders, such as Michael Angelo, Cellini, and Giulio dei Giannuzzi (Romano), the names of other great workers in metal meant but little. No armourer's work was known by name, though the cognoscenti of those days appreciated the fact that a great master had conceived the productions that were shown them. Therefore every elaborate pageant shield, helmet, or suit of armour was attributed to the design either of Cellini, or more often to that of Giulio Romano. Consequently, when parade armour and weapons that could be ascribed to these masters failed to be procurable in sufficient quantity to "go round," the Italian dealer of the time turned his attention to fabricating them. And it was an easy task in those early days of the XIXth century. The forgeries flourished like plants in a virgin soil and were accepted without a murmur; for then there was no knowledge of genuine armour and weapons, and consequently no comparisons were made as regards the quality of the fabrication. Some of the oldest forgeries emanate therefore from Italy. They are poor in workmanship and feeble in design, but they are now often good in colour; for in the hundred years that have elapsed since they were made they have acquired through four generations of handling and cleaning that fine patine which time alone can bestow. It was to the production of shields, helmets, breastplates, and elaborate sword and rapier hilts that the first Italian forgers mainly devoted themselves, and in the list of these fabricators three family names stand out pre-eminent: Diamante of Rome, Gaggini of Milan, and San-Quirine of Venice. Their work is to be seen in the many private and even public collections formed in the sixties of the XIXth century. In their fabrications, German and Austrian forgers appear to have neglected the flamboyant Renaissance types which their Italian colleagues imitated, and to have turned their attention to the copying of complete suits of armour of Maximilian and of so-called Gothic types. But while much of their work is of very good craftsmanship, students are fairly conversant with their productions, owing to the output being so copious and the pieces bearing such a family likeness to one another. These suits were put on the market chiefly between the years 1865 and 1880. France from about 1860 to 1870 produced some