Fig. 170.—Pendant, attributed to Cellini, in the Library at Paris.
Virgil Solis, of Nuremberg, Theodor de Bry, of Liége, the Collaerts—father and son—of Antwerp, are some of the principal engravers who designed very largely for jewellery and other goldsmiths’ work.
These German engravers and designers of ornament went under the designation of the “Little Masters,” but in point of fact some of their work would compare favourably with the compositions of many of the so-called “Great Masters.” Generally speaking, they were pupils or followers of Albert Dürer.
As a designer and engraver of figure work, Hans Sebald Beham must be placed first in the rank of the “Little Masters,” and for ornament purely the name of Heinrich Aldegrever must head the list.
Albert Dürer, whose great name overshadows all German art, though he tried his gifted hand at ornament, as in the car of the “Triumph” and in the “Book of the Hours,” designed for the Emperor Maximilian, was not altogether successful in the matter of ornament, for his work in this line is much too loose and florid, with much unrestrained and naturalistic flourishing.
Hans Burgkmair, of Nuremberg, his contemporary, was better at ornament than Dürer, and was the chief artist of that great work, the “Triumph of Maximilian,” in which he strove to unite the Gothic and the style of the Renaissance. His work generally takes the form of elaborate heraldry.
Hans Holbein, as well as being a great painter, was also a famous designer for goldsmiths’ work, and was a master in ornament, especially in the application of the figure to ornamental purposes. He was in some measure a pupil of Hans Burgkmair, and was thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the Renaissance. Holbein the elder—his father—was a well-known artist, who worked in the old German Gothic style.
The younger Holbein began his artistic career as a goldsmith, and his designs of sword and dagger handles, in which the figure forms so admirably follow the lines of the composition in a remarkable degree of ornamental fitness, reveal his fine sense and feeling for ornament.
In Italy the sculptor, Luca Signorelli, employed the figure and animal forms with an equal degree of skill, and with the same feeling for ornament. Both artists thoroughly understood the correct laws of ornamental composition, which was not by any means a universal gift with the artists of the Renaissance period.
Holbein designed many cups, one of which was a rich example of a standing cup and cover which was designed for Jane Seymour, one of the wives of Henry VIII. of England. The drawing for this cup is preserved in the British Museum.