Metal-work, ARTISTIC. Leaving celebrated statues and groups cast in bronze to be described under the head SCULPTURE, we shall briefly notice here a few important examples of artistic work in metal which are rather classed as specimens of decorative art than of pure sculpture. Of early gold and silver work one of the most renowned objects is the altar made of these two metals in the church of St Ambrose at Milan. It was executed by Wolvinus in the 9th century, and contains figures in relief of Christ and the Apostles with ornamental borders in enamel. Another very fine example of work in gold and enamel is the Pala d'Oro (altar front) of St Mark's, Venice, by Byzantine artists of the 10th or 11th century. Some specimens of Celtic art, partly in precious metal, such as the Tara Brooch and the Ardagh Chalice—the latter supposed to be of the 10th century—are of exquisite beauty (see BROOCH). The shrine of the Magi in Cologne Cathedral is a magnificent reliquary of the 12th century, in which the figures are of gold and the architectural decorations covered with enamels and precious stones. A considerable number of specimens of ecclesiastical gold and silver work of the 13th century remain, including a few of great interest. Of 14th-century examples—a time when the goldsmith's art ceased to be employed exclusively in the service of the church—the splendid silver reliquary in the church of Orvieto, by Ugolino of Siena, is very remarkable. Perhaps the two most important monuments of the goldsmith's art made in the middle ages are the altar of St James, Pistoia, and that of the Baptistry of St John at Florence. They were begun in the 14th century, and a number of the most famous Italian artists were in succession engaged upon them for a period of 150 years. Both are of silver, one of them being decorated with subjects from the life of St James, and the other with scenes from the life of St John. Giglio of Pisa, Pietro Tedesco, Ricciardi, Cipriano, and Filippo were among the artists engaged on the St James' altar; and Cioni, Ghiberti, Cenni, Verrocchio, and Pollaiuolo worked at that of St John. Some of the greatest artists in Italy in the 14th and 15th centuries practised to some extent the goldsmith's art, including Lucca della Robbia, Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Donatello, and Jacopo della Quercia. In the 16th century Cellini's is the greatest name, although well-authenticated works by him in the precious metals are few in number. There are some very artistic productions in pewter by the French artist François Briot, who lived in the 16th century.
Bronze is a metal in which many fine works have been executed, and these are often of large size. Few early examples exist of which the artists are known. Stanracius of Constantinople cast in the 11th century the bronze gates of St Paul's without the Walls at Rome, destroyed in 1823, but of which drawings exist. A century later an artist named Barisanus made the fine bronze door of the cathedral of Monreale in Sicily. One of the most artistic productions in this metal of the 13th century is the candelabrum in Milan Cathedral, 15 feet high. The east door of the Baptistry at Florence, upon which Ghiberti was engaged from 1425 to 1452, is considered a marvellous work of art. Another door in this building, by A. Pisano, completed in 1430, after being in progress for twenty years, is also an admirable production. P. Vischer's shrine of St Sebald at Nuremberg is a beautiful monument which, though quite different in form from the objects named above, resembles them in the design being an intimate combination of small works in sculpture and architectural ornament. A fountain in the Maximilian-strasse, Augsburg, executed by H. Gerhard in 1593, has been much admired. For want of space we can only name two more bronzists—B. Morel, who did the great candelabrum in Seville Cathedral, and L. Bernini, who in the 17th century executed many clever works in Italy.
There is perhaps no class of metal objects in which artistic skill is more marvellously displayed than in some of the rich suits of armour made in the end of the 15th, but chiefly in the 16th century. These are for the most part of iron or steel, with ornament in repoussé or engraved; sometimes with both combined, and occasionally with damascening in gold and silver. Among those who practised the armourer's art in Italy the most famous names are Michelagnolo, Filippo Negrolo, Romero, and some members of the Piccini family. In Germany Kollman of Augsburg, and in France Antoine Jacquard stood high. Some of the finest suits of armour made at this period are in the Museum of Arms at Dresden, and in the Louvre and Musée d'Artillerie, Paris.
Wrought-iron work, rude but effective, appears on the wooden doors of some Romanesque churches of the 12th century. In the 13th and 14th centuries the work in this metal became more refined, and among admirable examples of the latter period may be mentioned the screens round the tombs of the Scala family at Verona, and a screen in the church of Santa Croce, Florence. Screens, grilles, and other objects with open wrought-iron ornament, beautifully designed, and ranging over a period from the 13th to the 16th century, but especially those made during the 15th and 16th, are found in many churches in Germany, Spain, France, and England. In the latter country the early grille over Queen Eleanor's tomb, Westminster, and the later screen to Edward IV.'s at Windsor are fine examples; so also are the still later (18th century) railing-panels made for Hampton Court Palace by Huntington Shaw. The canopy of a draw-well at Antwerp by Quentin Matsys is one of the best works of its kind in hammered iron. Many of the elaborately chiselled iron locks and hinges made at Nuremberg and Augsburg in the 15th and 16th centuries are wonderfully beautiful. The National Museum at Munich is especially rich in specimens of these.
See Digby-Wyatt, Metal-work (1852); the South Kensington Museum [Descriptive] Catalogue of Bronzes, by Fortnum, and of Gold and Silversmith's Work, by J. H. Pollen; Hefner-Alteneck, Serrurerie (1870); Raschdorf, Abbildungen Deutscher Schmiedewerke (1878); Œuvres de Richard de Lalonde; E. Plon, B. Cellini, Recherches sur sa Vie et sur son Œuvre (1883); G. W. Yapp, Metal-work (chiefly modern).