The blazenniers and cuireurs then covered with leather the packs and the saddles prepared by the chapuissiers; and, finally, saddle-painters were employed to ornament them, either in compliance with fashion, which has always been omnipotent in France, or according to the laws of heraldry, when intended for men of rank for purposes of state or war.
Fig. 84.—Banner of the Corporation of the Saddlers of Tonnerre.
GOLD AND SILVER WORK.
Its Antiquity.—The Trésor de Guarrazar.—The Merovingian and Carlovingian Periods.—Ecclesiastical Jewellery.—Pre-eminence of the Byzantine Goldsmiths.—Progress of the Art consequent on the Crusades.—The Gold and Enamels of Limoges.—Jewellery ceases to be restricted to Purposes of Religion.—Transparent Enamels.—Jean of Pisa, Agnolo of Sienna, Ghiberti.—Great Painters and Sculptors from the Goldsmiths’ Workshops.—Benvenuto Cellini.—The Goldsmiths of Paris.
It is known that in old times, even the most remote, the goldsmith’s art flourished. There is scarcely any ancient narrative which does not allude to jewels; and every day the discovery of precious objects, found in ruins and in tombs, still attests the high state of perfection the art of gold and silver work had attained among races long since extinct.
The Gauls, when under Roman dominion, applied themselves successfully to the business of the gold-worker. We may again say that the triumph of the Christian religion, under Constantine the Great, while encouraging the interior decoration of places of worship, added a fresh impulse to the development of this beautiful art.