THOUGH introduced early into Germany, the style of the Italian Renaissance made its way but slowly in a country where the ideas of the Middle Ages long held possession of people's minds. It was not till after about 1515, when the spread of books and engravings quickened its general acceptance, that the new movement gained ground there. The German goldsmiths, when once they had cast aside the Gothic style, seized upon Renaissance ornament with such avidity that by the second half of the sixteenth century they had acquired a widespread fame, and would seem by their richness of invention to have completely cast into the shade the Italian jewellers of their own day.
From an early period there had been a steady flow of artists leaving Germany to study in the great Italian ateliers. The principal of these, and one who influenced his countrymen more than any, was Albert Dürer, who showed in the engravings produced after his journey to Italy a perfect apprehension of Italian design. As it travelled northward, Renaissance ornament increased in freedom from classic rule, and in the hands of the later draughtsmen and engravers who executed patterns for the goldsmiths, it lost much of its original purity, and assumed a mixed style, composed of strap and ribbon work, cartouches, and intricate complications of architectural members; while the industrious affectation of the jewellers of the day for manipulative difficulties led to the production of ornaments whose effect is sometimes marred by over-elaboration of detail.
In addition to other circumstances, we must remember that the greater wealth of the middle classes was a powerful factor in the increasing production of jewellery. The goldsmiths consequently occupied an important position; and that there was a great demand for their services is proved by the fact that patterns for jewellery executed on their behalf by the foremost engravers of the day form no unimportant part of the engraved work produced by these artists.
In Germany, as elsewhere, success in trade resulted in a demand for objects of luxury. The city of Augsburg, situated on a great trade route, early attained to a height of commercial prosperity, while Munich, and especially Nuremberg, not far distant, flourished to an equal degree. Under the stimulating patronage of wealthy families, such as the Fugger family of Augsburg, articles of jewellery of every kind were produced in abundance, and throughout the sixteenth century found their way over nearly the whole of Europe. In addition to these three cities, Prague during the last few years of the sixteenth and the commencement of the seventeenth century was likewise a centre for the manufacture of an immense amount of enamelled jewellery. This industry, carried on with considerable activity owing to the influence of the Archduke Ferdinand of Tirol (1520-1595), brother of Maximilian II, was most flourishing in the time of the Emperor Rudolph II (1552-1612), King of Hungary and Bohemia, under whose patronage several remarkable specimens of German goldsmith's work now at Vienna were executed, such as the Austrian Imperial Crown, made in the year 1602.
The epoch of about forty years that terminated at the death of Rudolph II in 1612, and known as the Rudolphine period, witnessed the production, mainly in Southern Germany, of the greater part of the enamelled jewellery now extant. Renaissance jewellery, as we speak of it, may be said to have almost ceased after that period, at a date which coincided with the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War in Germany, and the Civil War in England.
Its proximity to Italy rendered Augsburg more quickly subject to the influence of the Italian style than Nuremberg and Munich, though by the middle of the sixteenth century the whole of Southern Germany followed the style of decoration of the Italian masters so thoroughly, that it is difficult to assign a large proportion of the ornaments of the period to either nation, since the distinguishing feature of the hall-mark finds no place on jewellery, as on other objects in the precious metals. It is true that the extraordinary development of cartouche and strap ornament on German work, as on that of the Netherlands, serves in many cases to distinguish it from the Italian, yet there is sufficient similarity in details of ornamentation, in masks and figures, as well as in the method of enamel-work and the setting of gems, to account for the divergence of opinion that exists as to the provenance of all the jewels of the period. Such is the glamour that surrounds Italian art, that it has been the custom to assign every fine jewel of the Renaissance to Italy; but a careful examination of existing examples has left us convinced that by far the greater number of them are not Italian, but of German origin, and belong to the second half of the sixteenth century and the early years of the seventeenth. Portraits, alone, by such German painters as Wolgemut, Strigel, Burgkmair, Altdorfer, Hans Baldung Grien, Lucas Cranach, and Bartholomäus Bruyn, show that by the very commencement of the sixteenth century the wealth of the merchant princes of Southern Germany resulted in an even greater display of jewellery than was indulged in by the Italians.
Various other considerations contribute to this conviction. First and foremost is the question of the designs from which the jewellers drew their ideas. A certain number of original drawings for jewellery by German artists exist. Of these there are examples of the work of the two greatest, namely Dürer (1471-1528) and Holbein (1497-1543). To Holbein's drawings, which were executed in England, detailed reference is made in a later chapter. In his designs for jewellery, as in all else, Dürer, the son of a goldsmith and descended from one on his mother's side, maintains a high standard of excellence.
His drawings (as catalogued by Lippmann) include the following: (1) In the Kunsthalle, Bremen. Three sketches for pendent whistles, where the sound-producing part is formed of a ball with a hole in it, into which the air is carried by a pipe. In two cases the ball is held in the mouth of a lion, and in the third in the beak of a cock. The animals stand each on a curved pipe, and have a ring above for suspension (L. 124). (2) In the British Museum. Two sketches for ring-shaped pendants—apparently whistles ([Pl. XXVI, 1]). In both cases is air blown from a mouthpiece half-way round the ring into a ball held in an animal's mouth (L. 252). (3) In the possession of Herr von Feder, Karlsruhe. Four designs for brooches and clasps, richly ornamented (L. 433-435, and 437). Two of these sketches (L. 433 and 437) and several others (the whereabouts of the originals of which is not known) were etched by Wenzel Hollar in the seventeenth century, and are enumerated in Parthey's catalogue of Hollar's works. The etchings after the two known originals are numbered 2565 and 2561. The other jewels etched by Hollar from Dürer's designs are the following: (1) A pendant in the form of St. George and the Dragon within a laurel wreath, with a ring above and below (P. 165). (2) A girdle-end formed of two dolphins with a chain attached (P. 2559). (3) A buckle and buckle-plate—the buckle formed of two dolphins, the plate ornamented with two cornucopiæ (P. 2560). (4) A round scent-case or pomander (P. 2567). In addition are miscellaneous designs for ornaments, erroneously considered to be patterns for embroidery (P. 2562-3-4 and 2566). A charming representation of a pendent jewel is seen in Dürer's woodcut of the Emperor Maximilian's Triumphal Arch suspended from the Imperial Crown held by the figure of Genius.
PLATE XXVI