New-York tribune., 1911-02-26
AN ANCIENT CRAFT.


The mediaval armorer' Juggling about
.-i,h him from battlefield to battleheld
no curious anvil which IS among the
soaller objects shown at the Museum,
,.,htlcss fancied himself, as he sweated
=, his work. a much abused person lie
sod great deal TO do, constantly re-
no,r,nc the damage done to the armor
"a ,,.eorors OF his masters, and the
la ,orst haze seemed TO him entirely
nlacs of hard, practical issues. or
~,nrso il was, and the student VINO
,,,ows his history and eschews senti-
a,.o,itv will instantly perceive in this
Lu5,ior a somewhat sinister atmos-
- Tho groups Of weapons have
.,.r,,lv lethal air. and here and here,
ming say. upon a close woven shirt OF
- one travels in Imagination back to
soeres Of old. unhappy. far-oif things
nd ba,tles long ago, tasting the thrills
- main and peril But one presently
s,4ers a reaction from this mood thanks
: tho taste and skill with which Mr.
pasbford Dean. the curator of arms and
,.r,or At the Museum. has arranged the
collection. To begin with, he has shown
exemplary restraint. The spacious gal
,erv js well filled but it is not crowded.
rive borsemen command the floor, and
around them. against the wall. are
arranged at judicious intervals figures
clothed in armor. Above hang a guam
titv of beautiful old banners. Strolling
about in this room one is soon envelopeG'
in the atmosphere Of romance, for one is
enyeloped in the atmosphere of beauty.
II was the opinion of Mr.. Whistler
that there never was a specificall~ ar
tstie period, in which everybody in
stinctlyely cared for beautiful things.
For the opponents of this theory the
present exhibition is a source Of cogent
argument War is practical. if anything
is and nothing could be less entangled
with a calm Rstheticism than the in
stin4 Of self-preservation which led the
soldiers Of earlier centuries to turn them
selves into walking lortresses. But side
by side with the significance Of these
suits Of armor in the history Of manners
lies their significance in the history of
art. Mr. Dean in the introduction to
catalogue which he has made a little
book Of permanent value, has this in
teresting passage on the point il ques
ton:
In former times the maker Of armor was
given the rank OF an artist rather than OF
an artisan. Thus Francis J. one of the
greatest Of art lovers. gave Negrol and
Titan equal honors, and he ennobled his
swordsmith. Serafino da Brescia. Certain
II Is that the armorer produced caSques'
plSStrOns and shields which, even in their
simpler form, were objects OF intrinsic
beauty-in contours, design. color contrasts
and decoration. In fact, detached portion
Of armor dating from the great period OIL
EurOnean armOr, from 400 10 l0D, has IN
some decree tie merit Of fragment OF
classical sculpture, not merely are It's lines
expressed beautifully, but one feels tha'
art has placed within II something living
Thus a bit OF armOr belonging TO TINS
period bears evidence, even when lacklnl
In ornament of the hand of an artist, and
Of an artist whose material was one OF
the most refractory known. For the ar
Inorer at each stage Of his work, modelling
in hard metal, had TO be skilled in subtle
processes which taxed TO the fullest botf
his hand and his judgment. II, Tor example
at any stage he CHANGED TO heat the meta
70 excess, his labor was in vain; with .
few strokes of his hammer he might weak
en his work at a critical point and render
Il valueless; or If he changed the form ol
an object in its beginning even by a mn
gers breadth. there would not remair
enough material TO complete the desired
contour The making of arms was in for
mer centuries, an art among arts, Wnlci
everybody, rich and poor appreciated II
quite a techlical way, but which TO-DAY
many. even amateurs, do not understand
The last sentence is full of meaning
This exhibition has indeed a strong edu-
cational purpose and it is needed here,
we may add, far more than it is needed
in Europe. The present writer, spend
ing long hours in the great collections at
Madrid and Turin. has been struck by
the popularity of those collections among
sll manner of people. even including
peasants Repeated observation Of the
room at the Metropolitan containing the