The
art of enamelling… the summary of many, endless hours of
study, application, precision. There are rules that follow one
another respecting methods which, applied in succession, create
unique objects... but also creative moment, deep intuition,
but weak at the same time, that has to be gathered in the passing
moment... And when we talk about profession we may think only
about the ability to use hands and tools, smooth or assemble
pieces...
The craftsmanship of the jewel is the happy union amongst rigour,
humility, deep knowledge of the quality of the substances and
of the tools.
It is experience, precision, fatigue, and meticulousness. It
is the profession that meets fantasy, the dream found again...in
a word the genius.
I dedicate to You, the most diligent visitors, the following
passage extracted from the "Treaty of the goldsmith's art:
the art of enamelling" by Benvenuto Cellini. In his words
we can discover the same rigour that rendered his Jewels unique.
Benvenuto
Cellini (1500-1571) a Florentine sculptor and goldsmith, lived
an intense life of adventure and of work. When he was 59 years'
old, he began to write about his life "to avoid inactivity
and not to seek fortune" ( his first literary work: one
of the liveliest of the Renaissance literature) and subsequently
followed by "Treaty of Jewellery" and the "Treaty
of Sculpture" and many other works of art.
"...now
we'll start to talk about the art of working with enamels, and
we should
remember those men who rendered it possible, their efforts in
this art and with their experience we'll show how much that
art is difficult and beautiful, and the different way of doing
it well and badly.
You have to make a golden or silver plate, and has to be quite
big to transform it in a work of art. Then you have to apply
on to it the filler, made of black pitch mixed with a brick
finely crushed and a bit of wax, depending the season you are
in: if in winter, more wax is necessary; if it is summer, wax
is not needed.
And
the filler has to be applied onto a great or small stick, depending
on the size of your work, and then you take the plate and warm
it up; and when it is hot you apply it on the wax and then mark
its profile with the edge of a knife; and after this is done,
lower the plate with a square graver till to the point of the
thickness of the enamel. And you have to do this very carefully.
Then you have to draw on this plaster all the things that you
want to cut, a figure, an animal, or more figures, and then
cut them with a burin with the greatest care.
Afterwards it is necessary to draw on the plaster all the things
which have to be cut, with the utmost attention.
...and yet I don't want to think about how enamels are made
because that is a great art, invented by the ancients, and has
been rediscovered by skilled men, experts in powder of minerals
extracted from mines…".
