Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/194

Rh 184 (1500-1571) was perhaps the ablest, and certainly the most prominent. His graphic and often shameless auto biography makes him one of the foremost and most vivid figures; of this wonderful 16th century, in which the most bestial self-indulgence was mingled with the keenest enthusiasm for art. Cellini s work is always perfect in execution, but very unequal in merit of design ; some of his silver pieces, such as the large salt-cellar made for Francis I., are much marred by an attempt to produce a massive grandeur of effect, on a scale and in a material quite unsuited to such ambitious and sculpturesque effects. Cellini s influence on the design of silver plate was very great, not only in Italy and France, where his life was spent, but also on the great silversmiths of Augsburg and Nuremberg, many of whose finest pieces are often attri buted to Cellini. 1 During the 17th and even the 18th centuries fine pieces of plate were produced in Italy, many of them still retaining some of the grace and refine ment of the earlier Renaissance. Germany. From very early times Germany was speci ally famed for its works in the precious metals, mostly, as in other countries, for ecclesiastical use. In the loth century a large quantity of secular plate was pro duced, of very beauti ful design and the most skilful work manship. Tall cov ered cups or hanaps on slender stems, modelled with a series of bosses some thing like a pineapple and surmounted by a cleverly wrought flower, or beakers, cylindrical tankards with lids, enriched with delicate Gothic cresting or applied foliage, are the most beautiful in form and decoration. On the lids of these cups are frequently placed ., i 1 FIG. 10. Stiver Beaker, decorated with open work, heraldic figures, hold- filled in with translucent enamels. German or ing shields with the Flemish - of the 15th centuly &quot; (s &quot; K &quot; M -&amp;gt; owner s arms, modelled and cast with great spirit and finish. One celebrated silver beaker, of about 1400, now in the South Kensington Museum (fig. 10), is ornamented with Gothic traceried windows filled in with translucent enamels. 2 Another, 3 rather later in date, preserved in the print room of the British Museum, is covered with figures and foliage in minute niello work, a most elaborate and splendid piece of plate. During the first half of the 16th century Augsburg and Nuremberg, long celebrated for their silver work, developed a school of artists in plate whose productions are of the most unrivalled beauty, at once graceful in general form and decorated in slight relief with arabesques, strap-work, wreaths, and figure subjects arranged with the utmost good taste, and modelled and chased with the most perfect precision of touch. Though influenced by the contempo rary silver-work of Italy, the works of Paul Flint, Wenzel 1 See the valuable work by Eugene PI on, Ben. Cellini, sa vie, etc., Pari,, 1883; also Cellini s own work, Dell Oreficeria, 1568. 2 Shaw, Decorative Arts of the Middle Ages, 1851. 3 Shaw, Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Aries, 1858. Jamnitzer (1508-1585), and Theodor de Bry of Liege (1528-98) are free from the extravagance of outline and over-elaboration of detail which often disfigure the grand silver pieces of men like Cellini (see fig. 11). In Germany the traditions of earlier Gothic art were less rapidly broken with ; and many purely Gothic forms survived there till quite the end of the 16th century. In the first half of the 17th century the technical skill of the German silversmiths reached its highest point of perfection, but there was some falling off in their designs, which rapidly lost their purity of outline. Switzerland produced several silversmiths whose work is similar to that of this German school, especially their large plateaux and ewers, most richly and gracefully covered with ornament, all finished with nlmnst rrprn Hkp FlG - n -~ silver 11Ke 8 * inches higll&amp;gt; usua &quot;&amp;gt; attributed to Jamnitzer, but more probably by minuteness. The prill- Paul Flint. Made at Nuremberg about the , middle of the ICtli century. (S. K. JI.) cipal among these art ists was Fra^ois Briot, all of whose productions are of extreme beauty. The majority of his existing works are not in silver, but in pewter, and thus by their absence of intrinsic value have escaped the melting pot (fig. 12). Gaspar Enderlein was an other workman of this school, whose productions cannot always be distin guished from those of Briot. Though born in Switzerland, these artists really belong to the great Augsburg and Nuremberg school. Many of the famous 15th and 16th century painters. such as Martin Schon, Israel von Mecken, and Holbein, used to supply the silver- workers with elaborate de signs for plate. Virgil Solis of Nuremberg (1514-1562) was especially fertile in this sort of invention, and exe cuted a large series of etchings of designs for vases, cups, ewers, tazze, and all sorts of plate. 4 cv rm. l ii, FIG. 12. Ewer by Francois Briot, about bpain. Ihroughout the 10 incncs nig i,. ^ddio of ictu con- Middle Ages Spain was un remarkable for its large and magnificent works in the precious metals. The cathedral of Gerona still possesses a most massive silver retable, made by a Valencian silver smith called Peter Bernec. The gold and silver altar- 4 See twenty- me facsimiles of these rare etchings published by J. Rimell, London, 1862.