. The fusing onto a metallic surface of a vitreous glaze, usually composed of 50 percent sand, 35 percent red lead, and 15 percent soda or potash, stained to various hues by the addition of metallic oxides. This is then cast in a slab, which is reduced to a fine powder and washed to remove impurities. The resultant powder is then
Chasse. Champlevé enamel and copper gilt on wood. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gift of J.Pierpont Morgan, 1914.
Plaque showing the Pentecost (Mosan 1150–75). Champlevé enamel on copper gilt. Courtesy of The Cloisters Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Enamel: Cross (French, ca. 1190), Champlevé enamel and gilding on copper. Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Gift from J.H.Wade 23.1051.
Enamel: Three Worthies in Fiery Furnace (Mosan). Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
packed into cells on the metallic base, leveled, dried, fired, ground, and polished.
Decorative enameling, practiced by the Celts and Romans in Gaul before the Middle Ages, seems to have been eclipsed during the early-medieval period by inlaid jewelry. Enameling was revived in the 12th century in Limoges and the Rhine and Moselle river valleys. Originally confined to monastic workshops, by the mid-13th century production became commercialized, with a resultant diminution in quality. Most enamelwork, whether monastic or commercial, was for religious purposes: reliquaries, pyxes, gospel covers, censers. Among secular objects, one finds candlesticks, marriage caskets, and heraldic emblems.
The enameling techniques practiced in medieval France were principally cloisonné and champlevé. In cloisonné work, the powdered enamel is placed in separate cells formed from narrow metal strips or wires, to which the fused enamel adheres. These strips form a raised design above the baseplate, to which they are often soldered; the metalwork is ancillary to the enamel. In champlevé work, which largely supplanted cloisonné by the mid-12th century, the enamel fills cells encised in the baseplate, and the metal (often gold) left after cutting away the cells takes on a design importance of its own, with the metal and enamel playing harmoniously off one another.
Mosan and Rhenish enamels are easily distinguished by their colors, with greens and yellows predominating. A rich blue dominates most Limoges work. Limoges specialized in champlevé caskets and reliquaries, to which was often riveted a head or figure in high relief by repoussé (modeling sheet metal with hammer and punches).
In the 14th century, a new style imported from Italy and Spain, basse-taille, began to predominate in French production. This is a combination of techniques including carving, engraving, and enameling. Precious gold or silver was engraved and carved in bas-relief, then transparent enamel was fused level with the uncarved parts, allowing the design to show through. The most splendid example of basse-taille is the gold cup commissioned by John, duke of Berry, as a gift for his brother, King Charles V. It is now in the British Museum.
William W.Kibler
Gauthier, Marie-Madeleine. Émaux limousins: champlevés des XIIe, XIIIe et XIVe siècles. Paris: Le Prat, 1950.
Maryon, Herbert. “Fine Metal-Work.” In A History of Technology, ed. Charles Singer. 5 vols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1954–56, Vol. 2: The Mediterranean Civilizations and the Middle Ages, c. 700 B.C. to c. A.D. 1500, pp. 449–84.
——. Metalwork and Enameling: A Practical Treatise on Gold and Silversmiths’ Work and Their Allied Crafts. 5th ed. New York: Dover, 1971.
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