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Details of appliqués on Theodoric´s pictures:
a) St. George – on dress, with characteristics of imprinted seals
b) St Barbara – motif of stylised leaf indicates use of
form and technology of imprinted ladies´seals.
(Résumé) The author recently published
more extensive expositions in Restauratorenblätter 1
and in a special issue of Zprávy památkové péče 2,
to which we would refer the reader. We shall therefore,
due to lack of space, only print certain parts of the
paper delivered at the symposium. The stamping technique
described is a working hypothesis which it would
be useful to test experimentally; also the use of doubled
tin and gold foil has not yet been proved convincingly.
Discussion on the terminology for plastic decorations
will undoubtedly continue – the disadvantage of Straub's
classification is the fact that we do not always know,
nor can we prove, how the given decoration came into being,
so that we can name it exactly. The more widely used term
in the Czech Lands, »pastiglia«, does not, of course,
have any basis in the oldest period sources, for even
Cennini knows only the terms »rilievo«, »rilevare« or
»levare«. In technical descriptions Cennini uses »stampa«
and »stampare«, which relate in meaning to engraving,
casting and printing, as well as to stamping.
 annk
The use of plastic ornamental decoration
in Czech painting in the 2nd half of the 14th century
is closely connected with the Court art of Charles IV
and is related mainly to the painting production of the
sacred areas of Karlštejn Castle and St Vitus' Cathedral
in Prague. In Bohemia this type of decoration appears
suddenly after the middle of the 14th century and interest
in it dies out fairly rapidly after the death of the Emperor,
when, at the close of the 14th century, painting returns
once more to the tradition techniques of gilding with
punching, engraving or drawing 3.
The connection of these artistic procedures with the goldsmith
techniques from which they are derived and which appear
in painting led by imitative efforts after the acquisition
of surfaces prepared by goldsmiths has already been recalled
frequently. An extensive survey of Medieval art techniques
was recently elaborated by a group of German authors;
painting was dealt with by R.E.Straub 4
who, inter alia, carried out a general categorisation
of painter's techniques of plastic decoration. Straub's
terminological categorisation respects the method of preparation
and the character of this decoration also suits our need
to evaluate findings from the Czech environment. In Czech
painting of the 2nd half of the 14th century the following
basic techniques are used.
l/ the pastiglia technique, which
consists in the application of liquid material with a
longer hair brush in several layers according to pre-drawn
traced patterns after the smoothing out of gilded roughness.
This is a very old technique already known in Antiquity
(Egyptian sarcophages, Hellenist portraits). In Europe
we find it in Romanesque Catalonian panel paintings as
early as the 2nd half of the 12th century 5,
in Italy it was part of the techniques known as »maniera
greca«, i.e. a technique of Byzantine origin used
in the 13th century 6.
In this country we can study this technique in the Karlštejn
Chapel of St Catherine on the haloes of the figures, in
the window alcove of the Church of the Virgin Mary and
on one of the panel paintings in the Chapel of the Holy
Rood. Whether this technique was used in the original
decoration of the panel paintings from the Chapel of the
Holy Rood in other pictures is a question which has no
satisfactory answer; the existence of two or more coloured
ground layers under the secondary finish of some of the
paintings would not exclude this possibility.
2/ the application (appliqué) technique, which
is of basic significance for the court painting of Charles
IV as it is used to a great extent in the decoration of
Karlštejn Castle and of St Vitus' Cathedral in Prague.
In the Chapel of the Holy Rood in Karlštejn this technique
was used, at the suggestion of the Emperor, for a uniform
treatment of the backgrounds of almost all the panel paintings
in keeping with the overall interior treatment of the
Chapel.
In Europe we come up against this technique in Romanesque
Catalonian antependia from the 13th century, where this
relief decoration appears on the hems of the robes and
decorative strips 7; Folch y Torres
pointed to the connection with the stucco reliefs of architectural
elements of pre-Romanesque buildings4'5 and Straub pointed
out an early example of the retable of the Crucifixion
from Soest dating from 1230. R. Koche sees a marked formal
resemblance of the decoration of the retable of the Crucifixion
of Soest to the Romanesque goldsmith work in the Rhine-Maas
region in the 12th and 13th centuries4, A.Friedl mentions
early examples of this decoration in Italy (Sienna, Naples)
8, numerous other findings have
been collected by M. Frinta and M. Hamsík 9.
A greater widespreading of the technique of stamped applications
over whole surfaces in painting and to a certain extent
also in sculpture10 occurred in the 14th century in Germany,
England, what is now Belgium and in the Czech lands. The
relationship to the production of goldsmiths is also shown
by the relief decoration on a set of German wood carvings
known as the Röttgen Pieta (Bonn, Landesmuseum) which,
according to Straub, has its direct pattern in works in
metal from the Rhine and Maas area from the 12th and 13th
centuries; similar connections are also pointed out by
further German authors in the evaluation of the character
of gold objects deponed in the Cathedral in Cologne on
Rhine 11 and the painting decoration
of the Altar of St Clare in the same Cathedral. Similar
links were also studied with Czech art in the reign of
Charles IV 12.
Investigative work on the panel paintings in the Chapel
of the Holy Rood in Karlštejn showed that there existed
several methods of preparing the applications, the two
main groups consisting of decorations stamped directly
into the material on the base covered in double tin-gold
foil 13 and then decorations prepared
separately by casting or stamping and then stuck onto
the base and gilded with double tin-gold foil.
In this connection the question arises of whether the
decorations of the first group, which include, for example,
the relief decoration within the paintings on the panel
pictures in the Chapel of the Holy Rood struck analogically
to the printed so-called female seals with the use of
their morphology (Figs. 1,2), 14
and which are of basic significance for the art of Charles
IV's time, can still be included terminologically in the
category of applications in the true sense of the world.
In the second group of applications is the relief decoration
carried out by the techniques described in the tract of
C. Cennini in chapters 95 – 102 15,
i. e. originating as casts or impressions of, for instance,
parts of relief haloes, stars, decorative brooches, etc.,
stuck onto the surface of the picture. In Czech painting
this technique has also already been described 16.
Also falling into this category are decorations imitating
so-called clothing bracteates (lamina) stamped in metal
from thin strips of gilded silver which in the 14th century
were sewn onto the hems of robes, belts, etc. These bracteates
were manufactured by goldsmiths (known as sheet-makers)
in large series; the matrices for the stamps were prepared
in cooperation with painters. This working contact indicates
a great deal also for the origin of the decoration of
the robes of the figures on the panel paintings in the
Chapel of the Holy Rood. The objects of the so-called
Karlštejn Treasury 17 show that
the relief decoration of the robes of the figures emerged
from the morphology of contemporary clothing accessories
and customs on the pictures is used in masterly manner
the imitation of goldsmith's dress elements in the form
of pressings of painter's applications in higher relief.
This technique is also closely connected with the manufacture
of seals, seal rings, jewellery and other goldsmith's
techniques.
Appliqués were also cast in metal (most frequently tin
with an admixture of lead) by the same technique as used
for the making of Gothic pilgrim's badges 18,
small prefabricated reliquaries, lithurgical instruments,
etc. These decorations were most frequently attached to
the panel of the painting with the aid of little metal
nails and gilded in the flat, as is known from the fragments
of decoration of the background of the panel painting
of St Simon from the Chapel of the Holy Rood. Clearly
similarly attached were appliqués prepared as small pieces
of jewellery and goldsmith's work, on the pictures in
the Chapel of the Holy Rood all that is left today are
openings.
Painter's and goldsmith's applications create on the background
of the paintings what might be called a geometrical
wallpaper background as we know it, for example, from
West European and Bohemian book painting, from work in
metal by Nicholas of Verdun from the end of the 12th century
12, etc. If we study carefully
the ornamental motifs of the plastic decoration used in
painting in the 2nd half of the 14th century, an inclination
is evident towards geometrical designs of West European
origin, even though in Europe at this time there was greater
popularity for Eastern decorative schemes, mainly from
China and the countries of Islam, which spread from Italy,
and also ornamentation of Italian origin. It seems that
the basis for the origin of wallpaper backgrounds in art
from as early as the 12th century was the amount of fabric
hangings in the interiors of Medieval seat and churches
– in panel painting this fact considerably relativises
the argument of some authors that this background to paintings
imitates the metal coverings of Byzantine icons 7,9.
In the 15th century the decorative background of panel
paintings achieved a high degree of virtuosity in
Dutch painting in the pictures of enthroned Madonnas with
realistically depicted textiles.
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3/ Technique of incrustations of precious
stones in gilded relief frames and the sticking on of
semi-precious stones polished to the shape of lenses and
ovals, which we find in Karlštejn Castle, St Vitus Cathedral
and also in the Castle in Tangermünde 19.
The method of setting the little plates of semi – precious
stones into relief-decorated gilded frames is analogical
to that used by goldsmiths for liturgical objects such
as reliquaries, small altars, etc. from the Rhine and
Maas areas, including demonstrable tiny details 20.
The lense shaped semi-precious stones were used on the
haloes of figures on the wall-paintings in the St Wenceslas
Chapel in St Vitus' Cathedral in Prague.
In conclusion the author recalls striking parallels with
wall paintings in the St Stephen Chapel in Westminster
Abbey in London 21 and the paintings
on the inner side of the choir screen in the Cathedral
of Cologne on the Rhine 22. In
both cases it recalls the striking coincidence of the
existence of two phases of work separated in time – in
the second phase the original decoration on the backgrounds
of the paintings was always replaced with a new uniform
decoration – as in the Chapel of the Holy Rood in Karlštejn
23. The exposition of a Western
origin for the techniques of relief decoration used in
the Czech lands closes with an interesting comment: »In
the decoration of the Emmaus Monastery where, due Charles'
presumed concept, tendencies utilising the heritage and
advantages of Byzantine painting could have flourished
to the full, plastic decoration is not used on the wall
paintings which have been preserved.« Her paper ends with
the basic thesis on the orientation of the Emperor Charles
IV towards the art of the Rhine and Maas area in accordance
with his presentation and imperial efforts, i.e. the emphasis
on continuity with the rule of Charlemagne.
1.
H.Blochová: Untersuchung der plastischen Schmucktechnik
gotischer Tafelbilder in der Hl.Kreuz Kapelle auf der
Burg Karlstein, in: Restauratorenblätter, Bd.13, Wien
1992, p.153 – 6
2. H.Blochová: Zhodnocení výsledků
průzkumu souboru deskových obrazů z kaple sv. Kříže
na Karlštejně, in: Zprávy památkové péče 52/1992, No.ll,
pp. l5−25
3. Charles IV became wellacquainted
with French goldsmiths’work
and the goldsmiths’production
of the Rhine and Maas district during his seven years
in the French Court, whither he was sent by his father
for an education. With the dedication of the relics of
St Eligius he later confirmed the exceptional standing
of the Guild of Goldsmiths.
4. Straub, R.E., ed.: Tafel
und Leinwandmalerei in: Reclams Handbuch der künstlerischen
Techniken, Band 1, Stuttgart, p. 170…
5. Chadraba,
R.: Východní prvky Karlovského umění, Umění a řemesla,
1978, pp.132 - 133
The author describes how the gilded relief stucco decoration
has a very ancient tradition, clearly Persian in origin,
maintained in the Middle Ages mainly by the Arabs – could
not, then, this technology have reached Europe, Spain
to be exact, in this way?
6. The Karlštejn diptych of
Tommaso dá Modena with the Madonna and Suffering Christ,
where the haloes of the figures are adorned with vegetable
ornaments, is an export of this technique to the Czech
lands. The triptych with the Madonna and Child between
St Wenceslas and St Palmatius (?) from the Chapel of the
Holy Rood went through secondary alterations in the area
of the background during which the original Italian decoration
disappeared (today we can see on the picture alterations
from last century).
7. Frinta, M.: The puzzling
raised decorations in paintings of Master Theodoric, Simiolus
3, 1976, pp.49−68
8. Friedl,
A.: Master Theodoricus, Prague 1956, p.98
In the Museo Opera del Duomo in Sienna there is a panel
painting of the Madonna Enthroned with Child, Sienna work
from the beginning of the 13th century, where stamped
applications are used on the frame with the motif of tctrarosettes.
Raised elements are also used on the halo of the Madonna
and on the throne.
9. Hamsík, M.: Pastiglia −
původ a technika, Technologia Artis 1992, pp. 45−49
10. This problem is also dealt
with in connection with the sculpture of Parler by A.
Koenigsmarková
11. Hamsik, M.: Reliéfní dekor
středověké malby – pastiglia, původ a technika, Umění
1992, p. 106
12. Legner, A.: Rhein und Maas
−
Kunst und Kultur 800 – 1400 Eine Ausstelung des Schnütgen-Museum
der Stadt Köln und der belgischen Ministerien furfranzösische
und niederländische Kultur, Köln 1972, pp. 140−160
13. The manner of degradation
of relief decoration on the panel paintings in the Chapel
of the Holy Rood indicate the following method of stamping:
in the course of the stamping the most strained part of
the foil - i.e. the highest points of the applications
- was subject to hairline cracking through which the humidity
of the atmosphere and oxygen could penetrate, causing
corrosion of the tinfoil.
14. The stamping of seals was
carried out by applying wax to the stamp and the second
part of the wax −
known as the wax core was placed on the
sheet and with the application of pressure the two parts
of the wax combined. The wax was often coloured red with
the addition of minium. Similarly, on the stamped decorations
of the clothes in the panel paintings in the Chapel of
the Holy Rood it may be presumed that a core was
applied to the painting of stiffish adherent material
with the addition of ochres and minium, which in some
cases, for better adhesion to the base, was stuck to a thin
transparent layer of glue. Into the dye there was carefully
packed double tin-gold foil and then the application material
and with the application of pressure, as in the case of
the seals, the two materials combined. The removal of
the filling from the die was facilitated in addition by
the pieces of metal foil protruding from the die, which
were then cut off in the shape of the dye as can be seen
by the marks of cuts preserved on some of the pictures.
15. Cennino
Cennini, II libro dell’arte,
Czech translation Prague 1946
16. Josefík J.: Průzkum a restaurování
gotické nástěnné malby »Klanění
tří králů« v katedrále sv. Víta v Praze,
in: Zprávy památkové péče 11, 1992, pp.40-44
17. Urešová, L.: Karlštejnský
poklad, Umění 1987, p. 494
18. These were tiny castings
from an alloy of tin and lead from a mould of slate.
Only one proof of this has been preserved in Bohemia -
a pilgrim's badge related to the Feast Day of the
Spear of St Longinus, newly introduced by Charles IV −
viz: Katalog sbírky středověkého uměleckého řemesla, Praha
1986, pp. 18−25
(Prague Museum of Applied Arts)
19. Skřivánek, F.: Inkrustace
z drahého kamene −
vrcholný projev interiérové úpravy v české gotické
architektuře, in: Památky a příroda 10, 1985, p.583
20. See, for instance, the
panel of a small altar with an inset small plate
of agate from the beginning of the 13th century, Lower
Saxony, to be found in the State Art Museum in Berlin.
A gilded frame decorated with stamping, engraving and
punching. Also similar are the tiny details of the corners
with an ornamental motif. The incrustations of the Karlštejn
Chapels were dealt with by F.Skřivánek: Inkrustace karlštejnských
kaplí, Technologia Artis 2, 1992, pp. 39−42.
Master Theodoric, St Margaret: detail
of stamped appliqués on background of painting. Imitation
of goldsmith's work on stamped surface, including imitation
of rivets in corners of square ornamental unit, (photo
J. Bartoníček).
21. Plesters J., Mills J.:
Preliminary Report on the Examination of a Part of
the Wall Paintings from St Stephen's Chapel, now in the
British Museum, National Gallery London, 1973, pp. 1−3.
22. Bentchev I.: Zur Maltechnik
der Chorschranken-Malereien in: Sonderdruck aus dem Jahrbuch
der Rheinischen Denkmalpflege, Band 29, Koln, 1983
23. The technique of secondarily
stamped applications from England is close to the secondary
layer on the panel paintings in the Chapel of the Holy
Rood. The primary decoration of the paintings from England,
Germany and also from Bohemia is marked by the use of
analogical materials and processes.
author
RNDr. mgr. Hana Blochová, AHVT A 044
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