Fig. 8.—Part of Henry VII.’s Bronze Screen.
Germany.—Unlike England, Germany in the 10th and 11th centuries produced large and elaborate works in cast bronze, especially doors for churches, much resembling the contemporary doors made in Italy under Byzantine influence. Bernward, bishop of Hildesheim, 992–1022, was especially skilled in this work, and was much influenced in design by a visit to Rome in the suite of Otho III. The bronze column with winding reliefs now at Hildesheim was the result of his study of Trajan’s column, and the bronze door which he made for his own cathedral shows classical influence, especially in the composition of the drapery of the figures in the panels. The bronze doors of Augsburg (1047–1072) are similar in style. The bronze tomb of Rudolph of Swabia in Merseburg Cathedral (1080) is another fine Work of the same school. The production of works in gold and silver was also carried on vigorously in Germany. The shrine of the three kings at Cologne is the finest surviving example. At a later time Augsburg and Nuremberg were the chief centres for the production of artistic works in the various metals. Hermann Vischer, in the 15th century, and his son and grandsons were very remarkable as bronze founders. The font at Wittenberg, decorated with reliefs of the apostles, was the work of the elder Vischer, while Peter and his son produced, among other important works, the shrine of St Sebald at Nuremberg, a work of great finish and of astonishing richness of fancy in its design. The tomb of Maximilian I., and the statues round it, at Innsbruck, begun in 1521, are perhaps the most meritorious German Work of this class in the 16th century, and show considerable Italian influence. In wrought iron the German smiths, especially during the 15th century, greatly excelled. Almost peculiar to Germany is the use of wrought iron for grave-crosses and sepulchral monuments, of which the Nuremberg and other cemeteries contain fine examples. Many elaborate well-canopies were made in wrought iron, and gave full play to the fancy and invention of the smith. The celebrated 15th-century example over the well at Antwerp, attributed to Quintin Matsys, is the finest of these.
Fig. 9.—Brass Vase, pierced and gilt; 17th century Persian work.
France.—From the time of the Romans the city of Limoges has been celebrated for all sorts of metal-work, and especially for brass enriched with enamel. In the 13th and 14th centuries many life-size sepulchral effigies were made of beaten copper or bronze, and ornamented by various-coloured “champlevé” enamels. The beauty of these effigies led to their being imported into England.; most are now destroyed, but a fine specimen still exists at Westminster on the tomb of William de Valence (1296). In the ornamental iron-work for doors the French smiths were pre-eminent for the richness of design and skilful treatment of their metal. Probably no examples surpass those on the west doors of Notre Dame in Paris—unhappily much falsified by restoration. The crockets and finials on the flèches of Amiens and Rheims are beautiful specimens of a highly ornamental treatment of cast lead, for which France was especially celebrated. In most respects, however, the development of
