qualities. The use of iron in armor is therefore so fundamentally different, excepting in the material and the methods of working it, from that of the blacksmith, that it is a separate study. Its embellishment because of the multiplicity of its examples, and also because much of the work for the nobility was perfected and beautified by every known means of inlays of gold and silver, repousees, damascening and chiselling, became most elaborate and adapted upon its surfaces every
and provided an entirely new set of motives and systems of designing. Before the geometric systems of the Mahommedans, all-over patterns were of simple repeats of isolated spots, and running and special patterns were based upon a radial growth from a central focus, as in the palmette, or upon the fret and the scroll. Once appreciated, the patterns of the East were adopted in the West, and appear upon iron as well as upon other material. The fantasies of more facile crafts at first interested
DETAIL OF WROUGHT IRON REJA, THE CATHEDRAL, SALAMANCA (c. 1437)
(From Rejeria of the Spanish Renaissance)
variety of design borrowed from textiles, modeling and painted patterns. The elaboration of the surface ornamentation of the armorers became reflected in the treatment of hinges and locks, and even in some cases upon the plate work associated with gates and grilles. There is no doubt that in the thirteenth century, and perhaps earlier, the Mahommedan geometric intricacies of pattern, compelled by the edict against graven images in the Talmud, were seen and brought back to Europe by the Crusaders, and were also part of objects captured as well as of reciprocal gifts between Saracen and Christian, which stimulated design in Europe
and then overwhelmed the smiths and they became vain of the ingenuity and supreme skill with which they made iron follow the designs of silver, of gold and even of fabrics, and the accuracy with which they interpolated architectural forms inherent in wood and in stone or even clay, and as clay is cast and wood is carved and textiles are woven, so the smiths begin to cast iron, to chisel iron, to weave strands and wires of iron. The results are masterly; they are tours de force, but in the process of the attainment of this great dexterity something is lost, which is the very soul of iron, its honest, direct, sincere virility.
and provided an entirely new set of motives and systems of designing. Before the geometric systems of the Mahommedans, all-over patterns were of simple repeats of isolated spots, and running and special patterns were based upon a radial growth from a central focus, as in the palmette, or upon the fret and the scroll. Once appreciated, the patterns of the East were adopted in the West, and appear upon iron as well as upon other material. The fantasies of more facile crafts at first interested
DETAIL OF WROUGHT IRON REJA, THE CATHEDRAL, SALAMANCA (c. 1437)
(From Rejeria of the Spanish Renaissance)
variety of design borrowed from textiles, modeling and painted patterns. The elaboration of the surface ornamentation of the armorers became reflected in the treatment of hinges and locks, and even in some cases upon the plate work associated with gates and grilles. There is no doubt that in the thirteenth century, and perhaps earlier, the Mahommedan geometric intricacies of pattern, compelled by the edict against graven images in the Talmud, were seen and brought back to Europe by the Crusaders, and were also part of objects captured as well as of reciprocal gifts between Saracen and Christian, which stimulated design in Europe
and then overwhelmed the smiths and they became vain of the ingenuity and supreme skill with which they made iron follow the designs of silver, of gold and even of fabrics, and the accuracy with which they interpolated architectural forms inherent in wood and in stone or even clay, and as clay is cast and wood is carved and textiles are woven, so the smiths begin to cast iron, to chisel iron, to weave strands and wires of iron. The results are masterly; they are tours de force, but in the process of the attainment of this great dexterity something is lost, which is the very soul of iron, its honest, direct, sincere virility.