Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 318 pages of information about Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages.

Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 318 pages of information about Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages.

Probably the most colossal jewel of ancient times was the Peacock Throne of Delhi.  It was in the form of two spread tails of peacocks, composed entirely of sapphires, emeralds and topazes, feather by feather and eye by eye, set so as to touch each other.  A parrot of life size carved from a single emerald, stood between the peacocks.

In 1161 the throne of the Emperor in Constantinople is described by Benjamin of Tudela:  “Of gold ornamented with precious stones.  A golden crown hangs over it, suspended on a chain of the same material, the length of which exactly admits the Emperor to sit under it.  The crown is ornamented with precious stones of inestimable value.  Such is the lustre of these diamonds that even without any other light, they illumine the room in which they are kept.”

The greatest mediaeval jeweller was St. Eloi of Limoges.  His history is an interesting one, and his achievement and rise in life was very remarkable in the period in which he lived.  Eloi was a workman in Limoges, as a youth, under the famous Abho, in the sixth century; there he learned the craft of a goldsmith.  He was such a splendid artisan that he soon received commissions for extensive works on his own account.  King Clothaire II. ordered from him a golden throne, and supplied the gold which was to be used.  To the astonishment of all, Eloi presented the king with two golden thrones (although it is difficult to imagine what a king would do with duplicate thrones!), and immediately it was noised abroad that the goldsmith Eloi was possessed of miraculous powers, since, out of gold sufficient for one throne, he had constructed two.  People of a more practical turn found out that Eloi had learned the art of alloying the gold, so as to make it do double duty.

A great many examples of St. Eloi’s work might have been seen in France until the Revolution in 1792, especially at the Abbey of St. Denis.  A ring made by him, with which St. Godiberte was married to Christ, according to the custom of mediaeval saints, was preserved at Noyon until 1793, when it disappeared in the Revolution.  The Chronicle says of Eloi:  “He made for the king a great numer of gold vesses enriched with precious stones, and he worked incessantly, seated with his servant Thillo, a Saxon by birth, who followed the lessons of his master.”  St. Eloi founded two institutions for goldsmithing:  one for the production of domestic and secular plate, and the other for ecclesiastical work exclusively, so that no worker in profane lines should handle the sacred vessels.  The secular branch was situated near the dwelling of Eloi, in the Cite itself, and was known as “St. Eloi’s Enclosure.”  When a fire burned them out of house and shelter, they removed to a suburban quarter, which soon became known in its turn, as the “Cloture St. Eloi.”  The religious branch of the establishment was presided over by the aforesaid Thillo, and was the Abbey of Solignac, near Limoges.  This school was inaugurated in 631.

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Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.