Medieval jewelry
The
Most styles and techniques used in jewellery for personal adornment, the main subject of this article, were also used in pieces of decorated metalwork, which was the most prestigious form of art through most of this period; these were often much larger. Most surviving examples are religious objects such as
In addition to basic forms of personal jewellery such as rings, necklaces, bracelets, and brooches that remain in use today, medieval jewellery often includes a range of other forms less often found in modern jewellery, such as fittings and fasteners for clothes including, buckles, "points" for the end of laces, and
Raw materials
Precious metals
Gold has held the fascination of humans for thousands of years.[1] By the end of the fourth millennium BCE it was already being worked and refined with great technical skill.[1] Many ancient goldsmiths used alloyed gold found in nature, as it does not often occur naturally.[3] Alloyed gold can be purified through a process called refining, and due to the Hittite derivation of the Greek word, it is believed that the ancient peoples of Asia Minor were the first to refine gold.[4] Ignoring its beauty and the possible association with the sun's perceived mystical powers, the main advantage of using gold to create jewelry was its malleability.[1]
The Romans were voracious producers and consumers of gold, and all but exhausted European deposits. Some gold mined in West Africa, more at the end of the period, probably reached Europe through the Islamic world, but the main source was undoubtedly ancient Roman gold that remained above ground in coin or object form, or was recovered from buried hoards. Gold ran short at several periods, and European gold coinage was unusual throughout the period, in contrast to the Byzantine and Islamic worlds. In contrast silver was mined in Europe throughout the Middle Ages, with very large deposits discovered at Kutná Hora in Bohemia in 1298 that lasted until the end of the period.[5]
Stones
Nearly all gemstones had to be imported from outside Europe, though
Ancient
Adhesives
Various adhesives were used to stick precious metal foils to wood or any other support that functioned as a basis for the work of art. In his treatise, at book III, chapter LIX, entitled De confectione quæ dicitur tenax, Theophylus speaks about a preparation called confectio tenax. The material cited by Theophylus has a double role: it should act as an adhesive and as a filling. Current analytical evidence has shown that it has also a double composite chemical nature: the inorganic part forms the inert mass on which to work metals and can be made of sand, clay, powdered bricks and tiles, or the so-called cocciopesto (powdered bricks mixed with mortar), while the organic part works as an adhesive between metal and wood and is made of wax and/or pitch. [9]
Styles
Northern Europe in the Migration Period
Barbarian jewellery of the
Though mostly based on Roman models, styles varied with the different tribes or people, and the jewellery buried in graves can be used to trace the movement of ethnic groups, having presumably served with other aspects of costume as a cultural identifier for the living.[10]
The
Byzantine, Carolingian and Ottonian
The jewellery of the
Viking
Late Middle Ages
In the 13th century, jewelry became the province of aristocratic and noble houses, with sumptuary laws prohibiting commoners from wearing jewelry with precious stones, pearls and excess amounts of gold or silver.[24] Inventories of royal treasuries provide images of hundreds of pieces of intricate, elaborate jewelry, including brooches, rings and jeweled belts.[25] At the same time, there was some more simplistic work, using intricately worked gold, but without the precious stones adorning it.[25]
By the end of the period, the types of personal jewellery worn by wealthy women were not very different from those found today, with rings, necklaces, brooches, lockets and (less often) earrings all popular. But accessories such as belts and purses, as well as other personal possessions such as combs and book-covers might also be jewelled in a way rarely found today. Poorer women wore smaller quantities of similar styles of personal jewellery in cheaper materials, as today. Wealthy men wore far more jewellery than today, often including large chain collars, and a cap badge, which might be very extravagant.
Techniques
Due to the established tradition from ancient times in combination with the knowledge of how to process gold in order to produce jewelry, the practice of gold being the base for all jewelry continued into the Middle Ages.
Soldering, plating and gilding
Goldsmiths used the techniques of soldering, plating and gilding to create a larger workable surface or to cover a secondary metal with a thin layer of gold for jewelry design. First, the goldsmith would start with a gold ingot, which would then be hammered into a sheet, a foil or a leaf of gold.[26] Soldering is the process of joining together multiple sheets of metal to create a single larger piece.[27] The way this was achieved was by using a more impure form of gold – that is one with a higher percent of non-gold metals – as a joining tool.[27] The higher the impurity of gold, the more quickly it will melt, and as such the impure gold would melt before the pure and could then be used to attach two or more pieces of purer gold.[27] This would create a larger surface while retaining the thickness of the gold sheets. Gold sheets could be hammered to a higher level of fineness; gold foil was approximately the thickness of a piece of paper and gold leaf could be as thin as 0.005 millimeters.[26] The process of plating involved gold foil being hammered or smoothed over a core of glass or another metal.[28] Gilding used gold leaf adhered or pressed onto a base of terracotta or a metal such as copper.[29] Both of these techniques allowed for jewelry to have the appearance and associated prestige of gold, without using solid gold which was rare and expensive.
Repoussé, inlay, enamelling, filigree and granulation
Jewellers used delicate methods to achieve delicate metalwork. These methods involved more precise work intended to create ornamentation on jewelry.[26] Repoussé was the process of laying a gold sheet on pitch and using concentrated pressure to form the pattern.[30] Other materials, such as soft wood, lead and wax could also be used underneath the gold.[26] Because these materials are malleable, they supported and held the gold in place while it was patterned and pushed into grooves in the base material to form the relief that created the jewelry.[30] Two techniques that jewellers used to incorporate gems, glass and other metals into jewelry were inlay and enamelling.[31] The main difference between these methods is that inlay can refer to any material inserted into a design, whereas enamel refers specifically to pieces of a coloured glass mixture put in place while melted.[32] The decorative pieces would be inserted into a gold setting that had been shaped out of gold strips or molten glass could be poured into contours and recesses in the gold – known respectively as cloisonné and champlevé.[31]
Filigree and granulation are two processes that are also closely related. They involve the decoration of a sheet of gold using the application of wires or grains of gold which can be worked into very intricate patterns.[33] These techniques allowed for intense detail and delicacy because the wires or grains could easily be worked into twisted patterns and minuscule facets.[34] All of these techniques enabled detailed work on gold jewelry, adding other materials or fine details.
Further reading
- Evans, Helen C. & Wixom, William D. (1997). The glory of Byzantium: art and culture of the Middle Byzantine era, A.D. 843-1261. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 9780810965072.
- Lozinski, B. Philip, review of Rheinische Goldschmiedekunst in Ottonischer Zeit by Emma Medding-Alp, The Art Bulletin, Vol. 36, No. 3 (Sep., 1954), pp. 238–240, JSTOR- a dissident view of Early Medieval jewelry
Notes
- ^ a b c d Black (1974), p. 18
- ^ Cherry (2011), pp. 50–62
- ^ Higgins (1980), p. 7
- ^ Higgins (1980), p. 8
- ^ Cherry (2011), pp. 28–33
- ^ Cherry (2011), pp. 33–36
- ^ Wixom, William D. (1999). Mirror of The Medieval World. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 157.
- ^ Cherry (2011), p. 36
- S2CID 136038809.
- ^ Evans (2004), p. 40
- ^ Black (1974), p. 112
- ^ British Museum Collection
- ^ Black (1974), p. 113
- ^ Black (1974), p. 116
- ^ Black (1974), pp. 116–117
- ^ Black (1974), p. 121
- ^ a b Black (1974), p. 122
- ^ Black (1974), p. 123
- ^ a b Black (1974), p. 125
- ^ Black (1974), p. 104
- ^ a b Black (1974), pp. 104–105
- ^ Black (1974), p. 105
- ^ S. McK. C. (1957), p. 12
- ^ Black (1974), p. 128
- ^ a b Black (1974), p. 130
- ^ a b c d Higgins (1980), p. 12
- ^ a b c Black (1974), p. 20
- ^ Higgins (1980), p. 29
- ^ Higgins (1980), p. 30
- ^ a b Black (1974), p. 22
- ^ a b Black (1974), pp. 32, 35
- ^ Higgins (1980), pp. 24, 27
- ^ Higgins (1980), p. 19
- ^ Black (1974), p. 26
References
- Black, J. Anderson (1974). A History of Jewels. London: Orbis Publishing Limited.
- Cherry, John (2011). Medieval Goldsmiths (2nd ed.). The British Museum Press. ISBN 9780714128238.
- Evans, Helen C. (2004). Byzantium: faith and power (1261–1557). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-1588391131.
- S. McK. C. (1957). "Medieval sculpture and jewelry". Bulletin of the Associates in Fine Arts at Yale University. 23 (1/2): 11–13. JSTOR 40514039.
- Higgins, Reynold (1980). Greek and Roman Jewellery. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd. ISBN 9780416712100.
External links
- Medieval Jewelry, Central European University