Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1884-12-04
THE ENAMELING ART.

THE ENAMELlNG ART.
One Of the Oldest In the worId-Works Of
Leonard LImousin.
The renaissance enamels Of Limoges
in general. and Of Leonard Limousin in.
particular, must, although during many
generations they suffered under curl
Gus depreciation in price. continue to
be precious and eagerly sought for, for
the simple reason that s.grandes
pieces Of this wonderfully beautiful
ware are exceedingly scarce, and that
it was precisely in 1905 that this rare
talent had reached its acme. Enamel
ing is one of the oldest arts in the
world, but that which may be termed
painters enamel, or enamels executed
on a single surface, instead of incised
surfaces, is distinct outcome of the
Renaissance, and was provoked by the
desire to possess imperishable repro
auctions for decorative purposes of the
great works of art which had been
painted in Italy by Leonard da Vinci,
by Raphaelle, and their successors.
The movement began in the first years
of the sixteenth century; among the
first promoters of the new process was
glass painter of Limoges named
Nardon Penicaud, one of whose master
pieces, executed for the poet king Rene
of Taudemont and Lorraine, and dated
1903, is now in the Cluny Museum, at
Paris. In 1882 Francis 1. of France,
who with all his faults was as magnif-
cent patron of the arts as..our Charles
/. was afterward, caused to be established
manufacture of enamels at Limoges,
the direction of which he intrusted to
Leonard, called .sLemousin, = or
'.Limosin. The artist, by express di-
rections from his royal master, pro-
best works of Raffaelle, Giulio Roman
course to the great draughtsman and
Jean Cousin. The earlier works of LIE
Limousin had been medieval and al
most Byzantine in style, but the con-
temptation of the renaissance models
sent him from Italy led him to initiate
the purer and more correct forms of re-
vival of Greek art. His mode of treat
ment was essentially his own. The
general effect of his work was brilliant,
light and harmonious, relieved and
cheered by bright sky, blue tints and
turquoise-blue sparkling on a shining
ground. He was specially distinguish
able by bright yellow which he intro
duced into the hair of his personages,
and by pink and limpid flesh-tints,
which added to the feeling of delighted
surprise excited by his enamels, the eff
feet of which has been compared to the
chameleon-like brilliancy of shot satin.
No one knew so well as hehow to make
touches of gold with which to brighten
the effect of his medallions on black
ground During his years of active life
his productivenesss was astonishing,
but his later enamels, which come
down to 1874, show the marks of an
aged and failing hand. Yet, notwith-
standing the multitude of dishes, vases,
ewers, goblets. portraits and plaques
in grissaile, cups and bowls, signed by
his well-known monogram of 81. l., !"
sometimes accompanied by a
f1eur-de-lis, the more important
grew rare. Many of his works have
mysteriously disappeared. A large pro-
portion of these vanished enamels were,
in all probability, melted down during
the stormy days of the first revolution
in Fence, the perpetrators of the acts
of vandalism being under the impress
gold and silver plate, whereas in the
great majority of instances substratum
of copper was the material used. A
very singular fate overlook no fewer
than a score of enamels on which he
had most sedulously labored. Francis
l., being DESTROYS of decorating the sa-
looms of his newly-erected Chateau de
Madrid, in the Bots de Boulogne, with
the most splendid specimens procurable
of Limoges enamels, commissioned liz
mousin to paint twenty pictures of the
extraordinary dimensions of five feet in
length by four in height illustrative of
the heather mythology. Twenty years
were spent by the master EVANGELIST of
Limoges and his pupils in execution of
these pictures; but Francis died in 1874, 4
and not one of the twenty enameled
pictures was ever delivered. They re-
manned in the possession of the heirs OF
Leonard lie Limousin until the outbreak
of the revolutions period of more
than two hundred years land a French
critic, writing in 1910, stated that the
twenty enamels of extraordinary di-
mansions were purchased in 1908 by a
Milor Anglais, who sent them to En-
gland. Where are they, and how many
guineas apiece would they bring were