File:The industrial arts in Spain (1879) (14597815227).jpg

Identifier: industrialartsin1879riao (find matches)
Title: The industrial arts in Spain
Year: 1879 (1870s)
Authors: Riaño, Juan F. (Juan Facundo), 1829-1901
Subjects: Decorative arts Pottery
Publisher: London : Chapman and Hall
Contributing Library: Boston Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Public Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
s and sapphires. The border of some of these crowns is formed of a net-work ofsmall gold massive balustrades, having between them squarespaces in Avhich pearls and sapphires are set. Others are madesimply of repousse gold, their chief interest consisting in theornamentation which has been so artistically carried out.Some of them have inscriptions and a few stones set atintervals. The pendants from these crowns are inferior inrichness to the others already described. The pendent crossesare ornamented in the same style, either with cloisonne work orrepousse inscriptions. One of the most interesting results produced by the study ofthe treasure of Guarrazar has been to show us the immenseluxury which it represents, if we remember the period of decayand poverty of the Visigothic monarchy. We find this magnifi-cence frequently alluded to by ancient writers. The i^rabs whenthey took possession of Toledo in the 8th century, mention indifferent works the immense quantity of jewels of all kinds
Text Appearing After Image:
VOTIVE CROWN OF KING SWINTHILA, MADRID. 8 SPANISH INDUSTRIAL ART. which they found and carried away. The gold and silversmithswork of this period was everywhere in a very high stateof development. We find it constantly alluded to in theworks of Paul Silentiarium and other writers of the time ofJustinian, and in the inventories and references given by DuSommerard of the jewel work anterior to the Carlovingianperiod in Italy and France. The Visigothic kings, who copiedfrom the Eastern emperors even their legal forms, followedthis rule to a great extent in everything which bore relationto their daily life. The most important question is to determine the origin andlocality where these jewels were made. M. de Lasteyrie considersthat jewellery ornamented with red glass cloisonne work was onlymade by nations of the Germanic race. To prove this hepresents, among other arguments, the comparison of a fragmentof the ornamentation which appears on the crown of Recesvinthus,with a similar one on t

Note About Images