Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/84

Rh 74 METAL- WORK covered with a lining of bronze plates. Of the two chief methods of working bronze, gold, and silver, it is probable that the hammer process was first practised, at least for statues, among the Greeks, who themselves attributed the invention of the art of hollow casting to Theodorus and Rhcecus, both Samian sculptors, about the middle of the 6th century B.C. Pausanias specially mentions that one of the oldest statues he had ever seen was a large figure of Zeus in Sparta, made of hammered bronze plates riveted together. With increased skill in large castings, and the discovery of the use of cores, by which the fluid bronze was poured into a mere skin-like cavity, hammered or repouss^ work (Greek, sphyrelata) was only used for small objects where lightness was desirable, or for the precious metals in order to avoid large expenditure of metal. The colossal statues of ivory and gold by Phidias were the most notable examples of this use of gold, especially his statue of Athena in the Parthenon, and the one of Zeus at Olympia. The nude parts, such as face and hands, were of ivory, while the armour and drapery were of beaten gold. The comparatively small weight of gold used by Phidias is very remarkable when the great size of the statues is considered. A graphic representation of the workshop of a Greek sculptor in bronze is given on a fictile vase now in the Berlin Museum (see Gerhard s Trinkschalen, plates xii., xiii.). One man is raking out the fire in a high furnace, while another behind is blowing the bellows. Two others are smoothing the surface of a statue with scraping tools, formed like a strigil. A fourth is beating the arm of an unfinished figure, the head of which lies at the workman s feet. Perhaps the most important of early Greek works in cast bronze, both from its size and great historical interest, is the bronze pillar (now in the Hippodrome at Constanti nople) which was erected to commemorate the victory of the allied Greek states over the Persians at Platoea in 479 B.C. (see Newton s Travels in the Levant). It is in the form of three serpents twisted together, and before the heads were broken off was at least 20 feet high. It is cast hollow, all in one piece, and has the names of the allied states engraved on the lower part of the coils. Its size and the beauty of its surface show great technical skill in the founder s art. On it once stood the gold tripod dedi cated to Apollo as a tenth of the spoils. It is described both by Herodotus and Pausanias. Marble was comparatively but little used by the earlier Greek sculptors, and even Myron, a rather older man than Phidias, seems to have executed nearly all his most im portant statues in metal. Additional richness was given to Greek bronze-work by gold or silver inlay on lips, eyes, and borders of the dress ; one remarkable statuette in the British Museum has eyes inlaid with diamonds, and fret-work inlay in silver on the border of the chiton. The mirrors of the Greeks are among the most important specimens of their artistic metal-work. These are bronze disks, one side polished to serve as a reflector, and the back ornamented with engraved outline drawings, often of great beauty (see Gerhard, Etru&ki&che Spiegel, 1843-67). The Greek workman, in fact, was incapable of making an ugly thing. Whatever the metal or whatever the object formed, whether armour, personal ornaments, or domestic vessels, the form was always specially adapted to its use, the ornament natural and graceful, so that the commonest water-jar was a delight alike to him who made it and those who used it. In metal-work, as in other arts, the Romans were pupils and imitators of the Greeks. Owing to the growth of that spirit of luxury which in time caused the extinction of the Roman empire, a considerable demand arose for magni ficent articles of gold and silver plate. The finest speci mens of these that still exist are the very beautiful set of silver plate found buried near Hildesheim in 1869, now in the Berlin Museum. They consist of drinking vessels, bowls, vases, ladles, and other objects of silver, parcel-gilt, and exquisitely decorated with figures in relief, both cast and repousse&quot;. There are electrotypes of these in the South Kensington Museum. When the seat of the empire was changed from Rome to Byzantium, the latter city became the chief centre for the production of artistic metal-work. From Byzantium the special skill in this art was transmitted in the 9th and 10th centuries to the Rhenish provinces of Germany and to Italy, and thence to the whole of Western Europe ; in this way the 18th-century smith who wrought the Hamp ton Court iron gates was the heir to the mechanical skill of the ancient metal-workers of Phoenicia and Greece. In that period of extreme degradation into which all the higher arts fell after the destruction of the Roman empire, though true feeling for beauty and knowledge of the subtleties of the human form remained for centuries almost dormant, yet at Byzantium at least there still survived great technical skill and power in the production of all sorts of metal-work. In the age of Justinian (first half of the 6th century) the great church of St Sophia at Constantinople was adorned with an almost incredible amount of wealth and splendour in the form of screens, altars, candlesticks, and other ecclesiastical furniture made of massive gold and silver. Metal-Work in Italy. It was therefore to Byzantium that Italy turned for metal-workers, and especially for gold smiths, when, in the 6th to the 8th centuries, the basilica of St Peter s in Rome was enriched with masses of gold and silver for decorations and fittings, the gifts of many donors from Belisarius to Leo III., the mere catalogue of which reads like a tale from the Arabian Nights. The gorgeous Pala d Oro, still in St Mark s at Venice, a gold retable covered with delicate reliefs and enriched with enamels and jewels, was the work of Byzantine artists during the llth century. This work was in progress for more than a hundred years, and was set in its place in 1106 A.D., though still unfinished (see Bellomo, Pala d Oro di S. Marco, 1847). It was, however, especially for the production of bronze doors for churches, ornamented with panels of cast work in high relief, that Italy obtained the services of Byzantine workmen (see Garrucci, Arte Cristiana, 1872-82). One artist named Staurachios produced many works of this class, some of which still exist, such as the bronze doors of the cathedral at Amalfi, dated 1066 A.D. Probably by the same artist, though his name was spelled dif ferently, were the bronze doors of San Paolo fuori le Mura, Rome, careful drawings of which exist, though the originals were destroyed in the fire of 1824. Other important examples exist at Ravello (1197), Salerno (1099), Amalfi (1062), Atrani (1087) ; and doors at Mon- reale in Sicily and at Trani, signed by an artist named Barisanos (end of the 12th century); the reliefs on these last are remarkable for expression and dignity, in spite of their early rudeness of modelling and ignorance of the human figure. Most of these works in bronze were enriched with fine lines inlaid in silver, and in some cases with a kind of niello or enamel. The technical skill of these Byzantine metal-workers was soon acquired by native Italian artists, who produced many important works in bronze similar in style and execution to those of the Byzantine Greeks. Such, for example, are the bronze doors of San Zenone at Verona (unlike the others, of repouss6 not cast work) ; those of the Duomo of Pisa, cast in 1 180 by Bonannus, and of the