Rambles of an Archaeologist Among Old Books and in Old Places - Being Papers on Art, in Relation to Archaeology, Painting, - Art-Decoration, and Art-Manufacture

F. W. (Frederick William) Fairholt

Informations

• Publié par: seren
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 42
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rambles of an
Archaeologist Among Old Books
and in Old Places, by Frederick William Fairholt
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no
cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it,
give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg
License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Rambles of an Archaeologist Among Old Books
and in Old Places
Being Papers on Art, in Relation to Archaeology,
Painting,
Art-Decoration, and Art-Manufacture
Author: Frederick William Fairholt
Release Date: August 28, 2008 [EBook #26449]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
RAMBLES OF AN ARCHAEOLOGIST ***Produced by Julia Miller and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file
was
produced from images generously made available by
The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
Transcriber’s Note
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. A
list of corrections is found at the end of the text.
Inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation have been
maintained. A list of inconsistently spelled and
hyphenated words is found at the end of the text.
Text printed in a black-letter typeface in the original
has been rendered in bold in this text.
A horse, facing away, with a man in armor standing
behind the horse. Buidlings in the background THE
GREAT HORSE.
From an Allegorical Engraving by Albert Dürer.
RAMBLES OF AN
ARCHÆOLOGISTAMONG OLD BOOKS
AND IN OLD PLACES:
BEING
Papers on Art,
IN RELATION TO
Archæology, Painting,
Art-Decoration, and Art-
Manufacture.
By FREDERICK WILLIAM FAIRHOLT, F.S.A.,
AUTHOR OF “DICTIONARY OF TERMS IN ART,”
ETC.
Illustrated with Two Hundred and Fifty-nine Wood
Engravings.
LONDON:
VIRTUE AND CO., 26, IVY LANE,PATERNOSTER ROW.
1871.
EDITORIAL NOTE.
The following Papers originally appeared in the Art-
Journal, for which they were specially written. They
are from the pen of that painstaking and accurate
archæologist, the late F. W. Fairholt, F.S.A. The
illustrations also were engraved from original sketches
by the Author. It has been suggested that the results
of so much labour and research should be still further
utilised; and that the merit and value of these Essays
entitle them to a more lasting form than is afforded by
the pages of a magazine. The Editor confidently
believes that the popular style in which these articles
are written, and the fund of anecdote and curious
information they contain, will render them acceptable
to a large number of general readers.
A second series of Art-papers, by the same Author, is
in the press, and will shortly be published, under the
title of “Homes, Haunts, and Works of Rubens,
Vandyke, Rembrandt, and Cuyp; and of the Dutch
Genre-Painters.”
January, 1871.
CONTENTS.RAMBLES OF AN ARCHÆOLOGIST AMONG OLD
BOOKS AND IN OLD PLACES.
Ancient art—Mediæval art—The Renaissance—
Heraldry—Enamelling—Mosaic—Glass-painting—
Gothic metal work—Raffaelle ware—Wood panelling—
Decorative furniture—Book illumination—Engraved
book ornaments—Metal-workers—Ancient jewellery—
Decorative art in the sixteenth century—The
Renaissance style—Italian art—The Gothic 1-44
GROTESQUE DESIGN, AS EXHIBITED IN
ORNAMENTAL AND INDUSTRIAL ART.
Origin of the term grotesque—Egyptian boxes and
spoons—Roman knives and lamps—Mediæval
grotesque—Misereres, bosses, and capitals—
Domestic utensils—The Ars Memorandi—Decorative
plate—The Italian, German, and French goldsmiths—
Book illustrations—Grotesque pottery 45-70
FACTS ABOUT FINGER-RINGS.
Antique rings:—Egyptian rings—Legend concerning
the ring of Polycrates—Assyrian, Etruscan, and Greek
rings—Roman rings— Inscriptions and devices—Key
rings—Gaelic, Celtic, and Saxon rings. Mediæval
rings:—Episcopal rings—Thumb rings—Religious rings
—Charm rings—The crapaudine, or toad-stone—The
“Kings of Cologne”—Mottoes, or “reasons”—“Tower”
rings—Martin Luther’s wedding-ring. Modern rings:—
Signet rings—Story connected with the ring of the Earlof Essex—Shakespere’s ring—“Gimmal” rings—
Wedding-rings and their “poesies”—Poison rings—
Modern versions of the Eastern tale of “The Fish and
the Ring”—Memorial and relic rings—Death’s-head
rings—“Giardinetti” rings—Indian and Moorish rings
—“Harlequin-rings”—“Regard-rings”—“Fisherman’s
ring” of the Pope 71-157
ANCIENT BROOCHES AND DRESS FASTENINGS.
Greek and Roman fibulæ—Roman enamelled
brooches—Bow or harp-shaped fibulæ—Bust of the
Emperor Constantine Pogonatus—Early grotesque
brooches—Circular fibulæ—Anglo-Saxon pins—Irish
and Scotch brooches and pins 159-183
ALBERT DÜRER: HIS WORKS, HIS COMPATRIOTS,
AND HIS TIMES.
Nürnberg—Birth of Dürer—His early youth—Michael
Wohlgemuth—Dürer’s early works—He settles at
Nürnberg—His house—Martin Kötzel—Nürnberg
Castle—Dürer’s paintings, woodcuts, and engravings
—Melchior Pfintzing—Pirkheimer—Peter Vischer—
Shrine of St. Sebald—Adam Krafft—Veit Stoss—Hans
Sachs, “the cobbler-bard”—Albert Kügler—Death of
Dürer—The Cemetery of St. John, Nürnberg—Grave
of Dürer 185-259
decorative
RAMBLES OF ANARCHÆOLOGIST AMONG OLD
BOOKS AND IN OLD PLACES.
RAMBLES OF AN
ARCHÆOLOGIST AMONG OLD
BOOKS AND IN OLD PLACES.
CHAPTER I.
Long after the extinction of the practical art-power
evolved from the master-minds of Greece and Rome,
though rudely shattered by the northern tribes, it failed
not to enforce from them an admission of its grandeur.
Loving, as all rude nations do, so much of art as goes
to the adornment of life, they also felt that there was a
still higher aim in the enlarged spirit of classic
invention. It is recorded that one of these ancient
chieftains gazed thoughtfully in Rome upon the noble
statuary of the fallen race, and declared it the work of
men superior to any then remaining, and that all the
creations of such lost power should be carefully
preserved. The quaint imaginings of uncivilised art-
workmanship bore the impress of a strong but ruder
nature; elaboration took the place of elegance,
magnificence that of grandeur. Slowly, as centuries
evolved, the art-student came back to the purity of
antique taste; but the process was a tardy one, each
era preferring the impress of its own ideas: and
though the grotesque contortions of mediævalstatuary be occasionally modified by the influence of
better art on the Gothic mind, it was not till the revival
of the study of classic literature, in the fifteenth
century, that men began to inquire into the art of the
past ages, and endeavoured to obtain somewhat of its
sacred fire for the use of their own time. The study
was rewarded, and the style popularly known as that
of the Renaissance rapidly spread its influence over
the world of art, sanctioned by the favour of such
master-minds as Raphael, and the great men of his
era.
Fig. 1. Fig. 1.
It was not, however, to be expected that any style
should be resuscitated in all its purity without the
admixture of some peculiarity emanating from the art
which adopted it, and which was more completely the
mode of the era. The Renaissance is, therefore, a
Gothic classicality, engrafting classic form and
freedom on the decorative quaintnesses of the middle
ages. Fig. 1 is as pertinent a specimen as could be
obtained of this characteristic: the Greek volute and
the Roman foliage are made to combine with the
hideous inventions of monkery, the grotesque heads
that are exhibited on the most sacred edifices, and
which are simply the stone records of the strife and
rivalry that prevailed between monks and friars up to
the date of the Reformation, and are therefore of
great value to the student of ecclesiology and
ecclesiastical history. In this instance they seem to
typify death and hell, over whom the Saviour was
victorious by his mortal agony: the emblems of which
occupy the central shield, and tell with much simpleforce the story of man’s redemption. Mediæval art has
not unfrequently the merit of much condensation of
thought, always particularly visible in its choice of
types by which to express in a simple form a precise
religious idea, at once appealing to the mind of the
spectator, and bringing out a train of thought singularly
diffuse when its slight origin is considered.
Fig. 2. Fig. 2.
The easy applicability of the reviv