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HALTON

BYZANTINE ENAMELS

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OF THE
U N I VER.S ITY
Of ILLINOIS

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Byzantine Enamels in
Mr. Pierpont Morgan's Collection

By 0. M. Dalton
With a Note by Roger Fry

LONDON
CHATTO & WINDUS
FOR THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE

1912Reprinted from The Burlington Magazine.

This edition is limited to one hundred
numbered copies, of which ninety are for sale.
This is No.BYZANTINE ENAMELS IN MR. PIERPONT MORGAN'S
COLLECTION



£
(A

Ot



I

EW collections are now more difficult
to form than those adequately repre-
sentative of Byzantine enamelling.
The best work of this kind is for the
most part preserved in churches and
their treasuries—at Venice, at Limburg, at Munich,
in Mingrelia ; few museums possess series which
can b'e described as comprehensive, certainly not
the museums of our own country. Although
specimens of secondary importance come into the
market from time to time, examples of the first
order are unlikely to appear as frequently in the
future as in the past, and they have always been
distinguished by their exceptional rarity. The
purchase by Mr. Morgan of the well-known Sweni-
gorodskoi enamels1 places his collection in the
first rank, by adding to it not only a homogeneous
group of medallions unrivalled in their magni-
ficence, but other figure-plaques and some purely
decorative pieces, such as haloes, and backgrounds
of ikons, which in their richness and the amplitude
of their development seem almost to possess the
flexibility of delicate woven stuffs. It may
be of interest to consider the more remark-
able of Mr. Morgan's Byzantine enamels; for
perhaps in no collection is it possible to study
better the achievement of this delicate art as
it flourished between the tenth and thirteenth
centuries; or better to realize the exuberance and
ease of mastery which enables it now to appro-
priate the spirit of the great designs upon the walls
of Byzantine churches, now to fabricate medallions
so diminutive2 that we almost need a magni-
fying-glass to appreciate their merit [Plate II].
In the following pages references will not be
unduly multiplied, since detailed accounts of
Byzantine enamelling are already in existence.8

1	Described by N.P. Kondakoff in his History and Monuments
of Byzantine Enamel, an edition de luxe issued both in German
and in French, and the classical work on the subject. C/. also
F. Bock, Die byzantinischen Zellenschmelze der Sammlung Dr.
A. von Swenigorodskoi, Aachen, 1896.

2	Such little medallions were fixed upon the ends of pectoral
crosses.

3	It is unnecessary to recapitulate the general history of
Byzantine enamel; the chief facts are given by Kondakoff, and
summarized in the writer's Byzantine Art and Archceology, ch. viii.
It begins to appear probable that enamelling was really known
to the early inhabitants of the ^Sgean, and that, though direct
links have yet to be discovered, the Greek enamels of about the
sixth century B.C. may attest an unbroken continuity in the art.
Greek enamels come down almost, if not quite, to the beginning
of our era ; after that our ignorance must for the moment admit a
short period almost unrepresented by fine enamelling on gold, the
Celtic and Roman work then prevalent being chiefly of the cham-
plev6 variety upon bronze. The earliest cloisonne enamels with
continuous cells covering the whole field are those discovered
by Ferlini in 1843-5, with objects of Roman date, in the upper
part of a pyramid at Meroe, a find which is still perplexing, in
view of the apparent absence of enamel from the jewellery of
dynastic, and even Ptolemaic, Egypt. It seems improbable
that the Nubia of the Roman epoch itself originated the style,
which may well have been suggested by the old jewellery inlaid
d froid with coloured stones, widely distributed before the begin-

Stress will rather be laid on the underlying prin-
ciples which lend these enamels their peculiar
distinction; on the spirit which they strive to
express ; and on some of the features which
suggest comparison or contrast with other med-
iaeval examples of the art.

Byzantine enamel shares with the enamel of
all countries two cardinal qualities : durability and
splendour of colour. It is even more permanent
than the other vitreous art of mosaic ; if only it is
kept out of the ground and protected from actual
rough usage, it will suffer little deterioration at the
hand of time. Its life does not depend upon
the consistency of stucco or the solidity of a roof;
it opposes so small a front to danger that it
escapes when the greater bulk is overtaken. Its
colours do not fade. When the furnace and the
burnisher have completed their respective tasks,
nothing but burial in damp earth can impair it.
To minds oppressed by the evanescence of beauty
in the things of man's creation, enamel has thus
often appeared the perfect form of painting, the
one form which can preserve the artist's work
through an infinity of coming time almost exactly
as it left his hands. It was by this impressive
power of resistance that it charmed the poet who
thirsted after the abiding splendour and beauty,
demanding that the substance in which they are
embodied should hold them imperishable in a world
of decay; let the hard gem perpetuate the form,

ning of our era over a region ranging from Egypt to Central
Asia, and forerunning the jewellery of our own Teutonic
ancestors. It is still unknown in what place the substitution of
a fused vitreous powder for coloured gems began ; but, if Egypt
must really be excluded, we naturally think of Syria, Mesopo-
tamia, or even Armenia, as centres likely to have initiated the
change; all the available evidence seems to rule China out.
But in whatever region cloisonnS enamelling was born or re-
born, the process probably flourished continuously from the
earliest Christian centuries ; and though authenticated examples
of this date are wanting, we are probably justified in assuming
that there were enamellers in Constantinople and other cities
from the time of Constantine. Small articles of jewellery exist
which are not likely to be much later; and for the time of
Justinian there are literary references which can hardly be
disputed. The cross from the Sancta Sanctorum at the Lateran,
in which a series of Gospel scenes is rendered in enamel not
without success, is certainly a very early work, and proves a
high development of the art. But the typical Byzantine enamel,
which the Swenigorodskoi medallions so brilliantly represent,
belongs to the great revival which succeeded iconoclasm ; and
it is this culminating period of the art with which we shall here be
chiefly concerned. It should be remembered that, though the
Byzantine craftsman could enamel a round surface, and was at
least acquainted with the champlev6 process, he consistently
preferred the cloisonnS method on gold ; and when we speak
of Byzantine enamel, we mean work of this description. We
generally also mean enamels upon plaques of comparatively
small size ; for though we find set compositions upon panels
of considerable dimensions, such as the Crucifixion in the
Reiche Capelle at Munich, the majority of examples are small
plaques intended to enrich the borders of ikons, or to adorn
crosses, ikonastases, book-covers, reliquaries, caskets, chalices,
patens and other objects. The work was sometimes executed
on electrum and, more rarely, on copper. Silver is almost
unknown, bat the plaques of Plate II are apparently of that
metal.

1141749Byzantine Enamels in Mr. Pierpont Morgans Collection

and the fused glass the colour.4 The skilled
enameller has always responded to this appeal;
the hues to which he gives existence are deep and
steadfast; and that they may never tire by same-
ness, he endows them with the added charm of
change in permanence, conspiring in this with the
light which plays over their smooth surfaces.
The figures emerge as it were, from a glowing
atmosphere, which seems to fuse the harder
lines and to impart a fugitive grace of reflec-
tion, always dying and always renewed. As,
in great mosaic, the lustre of the cubes lends
a mysterious life to the figures, so here there
are tremulous effects, as if the forms were
seen mirrored on the face of a flowing stream.
With every deflection of light there is significant
change, but the impression of durability remains
unshaken ; what we see is an effluence from
springs of colour and brightness too constant
ever to run dry.

In the production of these splendours, at once
so steadfast and so elusive, the enameller seems to
achieve with perfect ease; but that he may be
praised according to his desert, we must remember
his long apprenticeship, the price of his experience,
the peculiar difficulties and deceptions which
beset him even in attained mastery. The vitreous
art moves with a distressing slowness; a score of
inspirations may go by before even the earlier
processes are accomplished, and the strips of gold
soldered in their final position. It must live much
between suspense and faith, for even the riper
knowledge cannot always discount to the full the
capricious alteration of values, or infallibly
estimate the harmony as it will be when the last
firing is over. Of all the arts which strive after
expression of life, enamelling in cloisons seems
least likely to express with strength and sympathy.
Yet, as we shall have more than one occasion to
see, such utterance was certainly attained by the
best of the Byzantine craftsmen. Checked though
they were by meticulous and elusive processes,
they yet produced work which is instantly seen to
be confident and vital; and we ask ourselves by
what secret they attained perfection against such
incalculable odds. For, clearly, to affect us as
they do, they needed something more than
precision of touch or mere manual dexterity, a
sense higher than the instinct for nice symmetries,
another force than the force of habit.

The answer would seem to be that they were
happy in the dispensation under which they lived,
and that their activity coincided with the reign of a
discipline beyond all others calculated to give this
art its chance. The art of the Middle Ages, in the
East even more than in the West, was ruled by a

4 Peintre fuis Taquarelle
Et fixe la couleur
Trop frele
Au four de l'6mailleur.

Th6ophile Gautier : VArt

high convention: theirs were methods which
could only gain by its severity. The aesthetic
of the time demanded concentration upon a limited
number of types: in the typical lay their pro-
spect of success. Mediaeval art of the graver sort
was in great measure impersonal; the men who
made it were disciplined to the point of self-
abnegation. They so lived in the consecrated
form or subject that their interpretation became
finely instinctive, natural, almost as free in effect
as the work of spontaneous fancy. All this fell
out to the advantage of a difficult and conservative
art like enamelling. The craftsman had no temp-
tation to essay vain feats of realism; the authority
of a collective wisdom held him in the range of
great quiet norms from which all that was excres-
cent or experimental had long been shorn away.
In the acceptance of these types he and everyone
about him had grown up ; the boy had learned
them almost at his mothers knee; the man found
them in the very grain of memory, and it was his
heart that gave them utterance. To the enameller
they prescribed ends not hopelessly beyond his
means; they assured him an honourable share in
the artistic expression of his day. Given a measure
of talent, and the thorough mediaeval training,
ensured a reasonable success; given a spark of
genius, and he might raise his achievement to a very
high plane indeed. His best work inspires because
it delights in the law; it is only the enforced
obedience which chills, not that to which the heart
consents. If there was no room within the borders
of his ideal for idiosyncrasies or vanities, there was
always scope for the zeal which confers the un-
solicited distinction. To our modern view, it may
seem at times that he and his fellows renounced too
far; yet they learned the great art of saying the
common thing with idiom, and they never claimed
the version as a patent of their own wit. To have
learned this was to have attained something of the
classical spirit. And in concentrating upon types
they did what the Greeks did, and what the Renais-
sance was itself content to do. How often did
the Greek reiterate the type of the athlete or the
Olympian god, and how seldom with a sup-
pressed originality ? What infinity of repetition
stales the type of the Virgin with the Child, if the
painter has once lost himself in the grace of it ?
In his more restricted sphere, the Byzantine
enameller succeeded by the same renunciation;
as a reward, the self which he tried to forget is
sometimes allowed to hover about his types,
lending them, in our fancy at least, a more human
and individual charm.

Let us examine, under this aspect, the more
perfect of the larger figures on the second plate.5
That on the left represents the Virgin, that on the
right the Evangelist, S. John. Since they are

5 E. Molinier, Les arts appliques a rIndustrie, L'Orfevrerie, p.
64. The plaques were formerly in the Greau collection.

4Byzantine Enamels in Mr.

clearly counterparts, wea might infer, even without
acquaintance with Byzantine iconography, that
they belong to the scene of the Crucifixion. And,
in fact, they are arch-types, the most typical forms
that may be, from head to foot schematic. The
crossed arms of the Virgin, the raised hands of
S. John, are the last conventions of sign-language ;
the colours of the draperies are prescribed, their
very folds predetermined. All these details of
expression are old familiar things, and might be
paralleled from many other examples; even their
synthesis, as we find it here, is nearly approached
by other representations of the same scene. Yet
these figures live ; they express. In the effort to
render the mood of absolute sorrow, we feel that
the artist has succeeded as no mere copyist could
succeed. These generalized forms render a real
feeling, because the maker of them was at unity
with their tradition ; his whole nature was con-
gruous with it, all his energies were contented. And
therefore it is that his work produces this satisfying
result; it has the inevitable and convincing
quality of the true thing well said. It is admirable,
too, in its fine economy of presentation. All is
reduced to the simplest terms, all that is redun-
dant eliminated, yet the lines that remain are
sufficient for their task. We could fancy these
delicate forms enlarged to the size of great
mosaics and remaining themselves after the trans-
lation ; or, conversely, we could see in them
mosaics reduced to the goldsmith's scale, but
keeping in the reduction the qualities of an
ampler estate. Yet they need not be supposed
unique masterpieces of their period ; it is possible
to imagine a nobler Virgin, and a more authentic
S. John ; the times were prolific in fine translations
of the ideal. But it is certain that their quality,
religious, emotional, decorative, is of a high order,
and that he would be great in his own conceit
who should undertake to do them again, and to
do them better. The plate well illustrates, in the
crushed mantle of S. John, the paper-like thin-
ness of the strips composing the cells; and,
in the damaged middle plaque,6 the method
by which the silhouette of figures was struck
in the gold plate to form a bed for the cloisons
and the enamel. Unfortunately it can give
no idea of the noble blue tones of the darker
draperies.

If the Byzantine enameller could succeed thus in
the difficult task of creating human figures instinct
with dignity and strength, he could hardly

8 The figure on this plaque, which, like the small medallions

below, formed part of the Swenigorodskoi Collection, appears
to represent an evangelist approaching our Lord with his gospel
in his hand. We may notice here the two rectangular plaques,
representing S. Nicholas and S. Peter, placed within the halo
on Plate I. These figures are not of the best period, and
in drawing are inferior to other examples ; but their colour
is bold and harmonious, and conceived with the instinct for fine
effect in which the Byzantine enameller is seldom lacking.

Pierpont Morgan's Collection

fail of success when he confined himself to deco-
rative design. In this field the oriental influences
which surrounded him have full play; luxuriant
designs content the eye with rich harmonious
effects, in which every colour tells with a clear
accent. The halo from the head of a picture of
the Virgin at the top of Plate I recalls, by
the scheme of the interlacing bands, the borders
of fine pavements, such as that in the church of
S. Luke of Stiris in Phocis ; by the designs which
these enclose, the delicate motives of a headpiece
in some contemporary illuminated manuscript.7
The flowing lines of the bands, crossing and re-
crossing each other, are a frequent feature of
middle-Byzantine ornament; the interior designs
themselves are of such delicacy and finish that
even the illuminator's brush could not surpass
them. Crosses inscribed in circles alternate with
palmette derivatives, and the enrichment of the
bands with a continuous line of white discs lends
them almost the appearance of threaded pearls ;
we think of some mediaeval orfrey, embroidered
by a skilled hand, for an effect of refined and
sumptuous charm. The remaining objects on
Plate I are for the most part borders with bands
of stepped lozenges in rich tones of blue, red and
white. They have not the opulence and beauty
of curved line distinguishing the halo, yet in their
geometrical severity they please like an arrange-
ment of fine mosaic cubes. Similar motives were,
in fact, familiar to mosaicists, and adopted by
illuminators, while for enamel we may quote the
Limburg reliquary, in which the rows of lozenge-
bands are set four deep all round the border.8
The triangular pieces above these geometrical
strips upon Plate I are delicately ornamented
with scrolls and circles on a ground of trans-
lucent green, a favourite colour at quite an
early date, but persisting into the later period to
which these pieces probably belong.

In the enamels of Plate III we recognize
many affinities to the work of the halo, though here
the execution is not quite of the same quality.
These fine gold earrings and parts of a necklace,
when worn upon the person,must have produced an
effect of barbaric splendour, and it is for a
people emerging from the barbaric state that they
were actually made.9 The region in which these
types are found is the south of Russia, and their
somewhat expansive forms may perhaps be ex-
plained by the demands of indigenous taste. Since
the consistency of the colours is often less perfect
than that found in undoubted Byzantine enamel,
it is usually supposed that we have here examples
of a local fabric; and when we remember the

7	We may also compare the border of the enamelled book cover
with a figure of S. Michael in the Treasury of S. Mark's at Venice.

8C/» also fragments upon the triptych, Plate X.

8	The Russian name for an earring of this description is kolt,
Kondakoff has discussed these ornaments at the end of his book
on the history of Byzantine enamel, mentioned above.

5Byzantine Enamels in Mr. Pierpont Morgans Collection

thoroughness with which the Russians assimilated
other Byzantine arts, there is less improbability in
the supposition than would at first sight appear:
the mosaics of the church of S. Michael at Kieff
are a reminder of their capacity. The valley of
the Dnieper was penetrated by Byzantine civiliz-
ation immediately after the conversion of Vladimir
(a.d. 980), and excavations in this region have
brought to light many interesting examples of the
Russo-Byzantine minor arts as they flourished
in the period between that event and the devas-
tating Mongolian irruption of the thirteenth
century.10 Whether these ornaments were made by
immigrant Greek artificers working for a local
market, or by pupils trained in their methods, is
really a matter of secondary consequence : the
spirit and the feeling are the same in either case,
and it is a spirit in which Persian influence is con-
spicuous. Such influences may have been simply
adopted from the Greek instructors, for they are
also predominant in Byzantine decoration. But
we should remember that Persia had influenced
Russia long before Christianity entered the country.
The south of Russia, away from the coast cities,
was always rather Asiatic than European; the
Ural Mountains were no barrier; and Persian
motives were continually crossing the Caspian and
the Black Sea. The jewellery inlaid with gems
passed into Europe by these routes, and the Goths
thus transmitted a Persian fashion to the west of
the continent. Sassanian silver plate, found with
early-Byzantine silver plate in the province of
Perm, was bartered for Russian furs as early as the
fifth century; and by one means or another the
Slavs were kept in regular touch with oriental
feeling. When, therefore, the Russian people was
converted en bloc at Vladimir's command, and
Byzantine art was allowed free access, those aspects
of it for which local taste was best prepared were
naturally preferred before any others: in jewellery
at any rate, " heraldic" creatures and "sacred
trees'' were the subjects of general predilection.
The " Sirens " of the central earring may be noticed
as types in their origin no less Asiatic than the
gryphons of the pala (Voro in S. Marco, or upon the
wonderful ewer of S. Maurice d'Agaune. They
are of inland birth, imagined first in ancient
Mesopotamia, and, as we see them here, little
modified by Hellenic culture. A zoologist might
declare the species of the birds which on the other
earrings regard each other with a certain cheerful
truculence, or walk with tails erect on the
medallions of the necklace. These tails seem
to argue them peacocks, but, if this is so,
their spotted breasts attest some latitude of

10 The disintegration of the enamel in these Russian ornaments
may in part be due to the inferior composition of the colours ;
but burial in the ground places them at a disadvantage when
compared with Byzantine enamels, most of which have never
been in the earth at all.

convention. The border of pearls round the
lower earring11 illustrates a fashion very character-
istic of Byzantine jewellery, for centuries applied
to objects of the most varied size and use, from
the earring or the brooch to the gospel-book and
the sacred vessels of the Church. Enamelled
plaques upon a book cover, and upon more than
one chalice in the treasury of S. Marco at Venice,
show that this early Byzantine mode was much
affected for the framing of enamelled plaques made
at the beginning of the second millennium after
Christ.

II.

FURTHER series of these Russo-
Yf/fyhSByzantine ornaments is reproduced
tWVvJon PLATE IV, two of the earrings
showing enamelled busts of saints in
\ place of secular designs. Such
figures, though comparatively rare, occasionally
replace the usual animal and floral motives,
and the remarkable Khanenko Collection at
Kieff contains medallions from sumptuous
collars and other objects with busts of the
like character.12 A word may be added to
what has already been said with regard to the
use and probable date of this Russo-Byzantine
jewellery. The earrings are thought not to have
been worn in the pierced lobe of the ear, but to
have been attached as pendants to the side-pieces
of the headdress. Examples, apparently of a
similar kind, were discovered during the seventies
of last century in the tomb of an early Russian
prince, where they were attached to the flaps of a
cap in such a way as to hang down over the ears.13
Whether this was the general practice it is difficult
to say; it might be urged that, if such was the
case, the hinged attachment which seems to be
found in all examples would be rendered super-
fluous, since a fixed loop of smaller size would be
as well adapted for sewing to a textile material.
The date of all these ornaments necessarily falls
within the period between the conversion of
Vladimir (A.D. 988) and the Mongolian irrup-
tion—that is to say, within a space of more
than two hundred years. But the general re-
semblance of the finer foliate designs to those
of the enamelled work on the ancient Sicilian
regalia, especially those upon the Imperial mantle,
on the sheath of the ceremonial sword, and on the
crown of Constance II, empress of Frederick II,
may perhaps enable us to fix the date within

11	The other earrings were once enriched in the same way,
and the projecting loops are visible through which passed
the wire on which the pearls were threaded.

12	Collection Khanenko, Antiquites de la region du Dniepre,
Livraison V, Epoque Slave (VI—XIII siecle) ; Kieff, 1902,
PI. xxxii.

18 F. Bock, Die byzantinischen Zellenschmelze der Sammlun
Dr. Alexis von Swenigorodskoi, p. 411 (Aachen, 1896).

6Byzantine Enamels in Mr.

narrower limits.14 The similarity is close enough
to suggest that in the eleventh and twelfth centuries
a common style prevailed in Constantinople, at
Palermo, and at Kieff. It is possible that at this
time craftsmen migrated freely from place to place,
as they are known to have done in Western Europe;
in any case the fashion obtaining in the acknow-
ledged centre of the art was likely to be copied
elsewhere without delay, as the style of the
Parisian ivory-carver, at a rather later period, was
promptly imitated in all progressive countries.
The enamellers who worked for the several courts
may well have entertained relations to each other,
while men trained in the imperial Zeuxippus at
Constantinople may have passed into the service
of the Russian Grand Prince at Kieff, or of the
later Norman kings and their successors at
Palermo.15 It is legitimate to conjecture that some
at least of the Russian earrings and collars were
made in the Royal workshops of Kieff, before the
Mongol hordes broke into the valley of the Dnieper
in the first half of the thirteenth century.

It has been suggested that this Asiatic invasion
may explain the occasional discovery of jewellery
in the earth, apparently apart from human remains,
for the possessors of such things may themselves
have buried them, in the hope of saving them
from predatory hands, just as, centuries before,
when the Huns invaded Russia, the owners of the
best-known among all barbaric treasures interred
their gorgeous insignia near the site of the
Roumanian village of Petrossa. From the above
probabilities it may perhaps be inferred that
these Russo-Byzantine enamels date from the
eleventh and twelfth centuries, the workmanship
not reaching its highest point until about 1150 or
even later.16 The largest ornament embellished in
this way is a diadem in the Khanenko Collection
formed of seven large and two small plaques of
gold, all enamelled with floral designs except that
in the middle at the front, which bears a represen-
tation of Alexander's ascent into the skies in his
fabulous gryphon car.17

The objects hitherto described have illustrated

14	F. Bock, Kleinodien des Heiligen Rdmischen Reichs, PI. XXV
(the mantle), PI. XLIV (the crown), PI. XXIV (the sword). It
may be observed that a tradition of cloisonne enamelling akin
to that manifested in these objects was long preserved among
the Moors in Spain, the Saracens having, perhaps, acquired the
art in Sicily. The decoration of the swords of Boabdil affords
the most familiar instance,

15	The Zeuxippuslwas a vast workshop attached to the palace,
where artificers, especially weavers and goldsmiths, were kept
regularly employed in purveying to the needs of the court.
Industrial establishments of this kind were an old institution
in the East, and continued both under the Byzantine and
Saracenic dynasties. In the West they were early adopted,
the Frankish kings and emperors regularly maintaining them.
The Russian princes probably followed the same example.

10 It may be noted that nielloed silver earrings of similar form,

with similar designs of birds, are also found in the Government
of Kieff, Mr, Morgan some years ago presented interesting
examples to the British Museum, and there are many in the
Khanenko Collection.

17 Collection Khanenko, as above, No 1104,

Pierpont Morgan's Collection

the capacity of Byzantine enamellers and their
pupils in two distinct branches: in the figure art
which attempts the expression of emotion, and the
art of design which is satisfied to please by delicate
and harmonious ornament. Mr. Morgan's collection
contains yet more striking instances of both styles,
but before passing on to these, we may pause to
consider a work which seems to illustrate the
first branch at a more primitive stage of develop-
ment. This is the Oppenheim reliquary, which,
interpolated thus between examples of a far
more practised art, will bring home to us by
sheer force of contrast the perfection which
was finally attained. When we glance from
Plate V to Plate VI, it is as if, among Western
enamels, we compared the crude efforts of the
pioneers on the Rhine and Meuse with the chefs-
d'ceuvres of a Nicholas of Verdun or a Godefroid
de Claire. The reliquary received the name by
which it is usually known after it had passed into
the collection of Freiherr Albert von Oppenheim
of Cologne; but, according to tradition, it origi-
nally belonged to Innocent IV (Fiesco, 1243-1254),
a member of whose family is said to have brought
it home from the Crusades. It was made to con-
tain a relic of the True Cross, which the Pope
ultimately presented to the Church of Lavagna :
the enamelled case was retained, and became an
heirloom of the Fieschi. There seems no reason
to discredit the story, for it may be remembered
that the reliquaries of Limburg and Gran, with
many others now lost, came into the West in the
same way, and that in such matters scepticism
may err as far upon one side as credulity upon
the other. If the Oppenheim reliquary formed
part of a Crusader's spoil, it was probably taken in
1204, when the treasuries of Constantinople were
shamelessly plundered for our advantage.18 The
appropriator may thus have been almost a con-
temporary of his kinsman the Pope, who presu-
mably came into possession of it either by gift or
by bequest. The reliquary [Plate V ] is a shallow
box of silver, fitted with a sliding lid, like other
Byzantine reliquaries intended for the same pur-
pose.19 The top and sides are overlaid with the gold
plates on which the enamel is executed ; on the
bottom is a gilded cross within an ornamental
border. The underside of the lid has four com-
partments, enriched with the Annunciation,
Nativity, Crucifixion and Ascension in niello; the
interior of the box itself has a cavity in the shape
of a patriarchal cross, in which the relic was once
contained. The enamel upon the upper side of

18	But for the loot brought westward after the Fourth Crusade,
we should know much less about Byzantine enamel than we do.
The majority of examples in Italy and Germany came back in
the baggage of Crusaders, and if France and England are less
well provided, their comparative poverty is due rather to
successive accidents than to any superior moderation on the part
of their representatives in Constantinople.

19	E.g., those at Limburg on the Lahn, and at Gran in Hungary.
The dimensions of the Oppenheim reliquary are about 4 by
3J in., the depth being less than f in.

7Byzantine Knamels in Mr. Pierpont Morgan*s Collection

the lid represents the Crucifixion between the
Virgin and S. John, with a border of busts of
saints in medallions ;20 round the sides of the box
are other saints.21

It is immediately apparent that the enameller
responsible for this work has attempted a task
somewhat beyond his powers. The work fasci-
nates by a certain naivete; it has many of the
attractive qualities by which archaic or exotic
forms cast a spell over us. But it does not attain
its real object. It fails where the plaques with the
Virgin and S. John succeeded ; it does not render
the emotional aspect of the Crucifixion, nor is it
able to lend character and individuality to the
several saints and apostles. Their faces suggest
the complete vacuity enjoined in a precept of Lao-
tsze rather than the devotion of Christianity;
the gesture (they share but one) is indeterminate ;
the draperies have a single arrangement, and two
varieties of colour. In the Crucifixion, the Virgin
and S. John are lay figures, badly dressed and
posed impossibly ; the Christ might be the idol of
some barbaric cult. All the work is inchoate and
only half articulate. The craftsman may have
originally envisaged the scene in a very different
way, but, coming to the point, he lacked the skill to
express, and the pathos of the scene is often
endangered. Of the two conditions requisite to
success in the enamelling of such a composition,
one, complete technical mastery, is wanting; the
importunities of a recalcitrant medium have
cheated the artist of his inspiration. It is not easy
to decide with certainty whether his imperfections
are due entirely to the influence of a primitive
period, or to a provincial environment; whether
he is really archaic, or archaizes only for the lack
of a contemporary model. If this reliquary was
not made at a remote time, then a remote place
must have given it birth ; it must be regarded as
the work of a local school, imperfectly trained and
living on obsolete traditions. To the writer, as to
most others who have studied this remarkable
object, the former alternative upon the whole
commends itself; yet it is well to remember M.
Molinier's caution that in the industrial art of the
Byzantine Empire the ordinary rules of proba-
bility are of uncertain application. The provinces
were widely separated, and inhabited by races of
different attainments ; there were countries beyond
them practising the same crafts witl} a zeal which
may often have been belated. The doubts thus
suggested compel us to look a second time at the
Oppenheim reliquary, and ask ourselves whether

20	Down the sides are apostles : on the spectator's left hand
Simon, Judas, Matthew, Bartholomew ; on his right, Luke,
Mark, Thomas and James. Along the top are SS. Demetrius,
Eustathius and Laurence ; along the bottom, SS. Gregory,
Cosmas and Damian.

21	On the long sides: Peter, Paul, John, Andrew, Plato,
Theodore, Procopius, George; on the ends : Panteleemon,
Eustratius, Mercurius, Anastasius and Nicholas. The space
between the last, now occupied by a lock, has lost its enamel.

it is possible for it to have been produced at a
comparatively late period in some such backwater
of artistic practice. But even when that is done
the balance of probability inclines the other way,
though some of the reasons adduced in favour of
a great age are not in themselves conclusive. Thus
a high antiquity has been assumed because Christ
wears the long sleeveless tunic known as the
colobium, which is generally abandoned after the
eighth century ; but unfortunately, an argument
of this kind may be invalidated by a single contrary
instance, which in the present case exists.22 Nor
are the uncertain lines of the lettering, and the
strange orthography, in themselves proofs of a
remote date ; their peculiarities might arise from
negligence or inexperience at any epoch, and good
spelling is not more certainly characteristic of
Byzantine fine art than of fine manners in Europe
in the seventeenth century. The intrusion of
foliate designs into the field, though improbable
in the period after iconoclasm, is not definitely
impossible. All these points might be urged
in favour of a suspended judgment. But we
are not entirely dependent upon details of this
kind ; and an opinion in favour of an early date
may be founded on considerations of a more
general scope, reinforced to some extent by
inference from comparative material.

In the first place the colour-scheme differs from
that of the advanced art, not only in Constanti-
nople* but in Mingrelia and Georgia, where local
peculiarities might be expected. Compared with
the production of the best period it is cold in
effect, lacking the warmth of tenth-century work ;
the fine lapis and purple, which, once known were
never abandoned, are absent; instead of them we
have rather frigid blues, or purple troubled like
wine-lees. Moreover the use of translucent green,
as we see it here, is often a primitive feature in
enamelling, since the colour is very easily obtained,
and in early cloisonne enamels, both of Western
and Eastern origin, it is frequently employed as a
ground. It is so found on the large reliquary
cross from the chapel known as the Sancta
Sanctorum at the Lateran, now in the Vatican
library, which is almost certainly pre-iconoclastic ;
it is seen on a plaque with the Crucifixion upon the
triptych-ikon at Chachuli,23 and on the Beresford-
Hope cross in the Victoria and Albert Museum,
both of which are usually regarded as anterior to
the tenth century.24 It occurs again, on the
wonderful enamelled gold ewer of S. Maurice
d'Agaune. In the Beresford-Hope cross and the
Chachuli plaque we observe the same hesitant
lettering and the same general suggestion of

22	In the Psalter of Theodore in the British Museum, dated
a.d. 1066 the Crucifixion is represented several times, and Christ
is seen now with the colobium, now with the ordinary loincloth.

23	Kondakoff, as above, p. 131 (French edition).

24	Kondakoff, however, would assign the cross to the tenth or
even the eleventh century.

8Byzantine Enamels in Mr.

immaturity. The feeling of all these objects differs
from that of such work as we have next to consider;
it suggests that more than a single century must
divide them from the golden age.

Turning now to the medallions of the Sweni-
gorodskoi Collection [Plates VI, VII], we find
the contrast sufficiently abrupt.25 The Oppenheim
reliquary presents types unrealized or only half
significant; it speaks the language of apprentice-
ship, it expresses the effort of a spirit thwarted by
intractable matter. Here, on the other hand, is
the consummate performance of an art which has
no more to learn in the control of its material; so
assured is the superiority, that the lack of obvious
blemish almost becomes a fault. All is elaborated
to the last point of perfection ; the colours flash
from the burnished surfaces, disposed inevitably
in the right contrast or alliance; the lines of the
cloisons, so clean are all the curves and angles,
suggest the masterful use of the free hand rather
than the hesitation of poising and arranging
fingers. But wide as is the distance between them,
these works are yet manifestations of the same
art; they are in the same line of development.
The material link is obvious; the intellectual link
is to be sought in that common discipline
of mediaeval expression on which particular
stress was laid above. Far apart though they
appear, the primitive and the perfect work are
essentially comparable; they share unequally in
one ideal, as the postulant and the adept are
united by devotion to the same service. In
approaching acknowledged masterpieces of the
enameller's craft, we may insist once more upon
the manner in which they succeed in breathing
the very spirit of greater contemporary art.
Neither small size nor a minute and troublesome
process is any bar to the assumption of a large
style, almost startlingly impressive in objects of
this restricted compass. This quality is apparent
in themedallion representing our Lord [Plate VI].
The figure is closely akin to those which look down
from the mosaics of cathedral domes, and is so
familiar a feature in the decoration of the middle
and later Byzantine /periods. It is the Panto-

25 The medallions once enriched a large ikon of S. Gabriel,
now no longer in existence, but formerly in the old church of
the monastery at Jumati, in Georgia. The ikon consisted of a
wooden panel covered \vith silver, embossed, probably in
Georgia itself, with a standing figure of the archangel, holding
an orb and labarum, upon a ground of foliate ornament. The
raised border or frame was covered with ornament of a similar
kind, and it was upon this that the medallions were fixed at
regular intervals ; an inscription states that the ikon was pre-
sented to the church towards the close of the eleventh century.
The medallions were originally more numerous; one—that
with S. Mark—appears to have been lost before the series was
acquired by M. Swenigorodskoi, and another, as shown in
Kondakoff's illustration of the ikon, was fixed out of its place
upon the body of the angel. Along the top of the frame, in the
most honourable position, were our Lord, the Virgin, and
S. John the Baptist, forming the group familiar to students of
Byzantine iconography under the name of the Deesis, in which
the Mother of God and the Precursor stand in attitudes of sup-
plication to right and left of the Christ. This scene

Pierpont Morgan's Collection

krator26 of S. Luke of Stiris in Phocis, and of many
other churches, with perhaps an especial affinity to
the Christ of the Martorana at Palermo. The
resemblance between these great figures and our
enamel is rendered yet more striking by their
enclosure in circular borders, which gives them
the appearance of vast medallions. The com-
parison of the great with the small reveals such an
identity of treatment that we may recall the fancy
previously expressed and wonder how many
would detect the substitution, if by some
enchantment the scale were changed, and the
enameller's design were transferred to the lofty
place of honour. Our Lord, as always, has the
cruciferous nimbus, and wears the tunic and
pallium (<chiton and himation), the former with
embroidered and jewelled bands, suggesting royal
state: the colours are the usual blue and purple,
but of more than usual purity.27

The Virgin and S. John the Baptist, logically
forming a group with the Christ (see footnote 25)
as illustrated in Plate VI, will be described
below. S. Paul, who almost always accompanies
S. Peter, is illustrated in Plate VII; but the
two apostles may conveniently be discussed
together here.

In each case the enameller has in the
main adhered to established iconographical
rules which began in early Christian times
and were never interrupted. He renders the
Apostle of the Circumcision as a vigorous per-
sonality, with thick grey hair clustering over
a low forehead; the Apostle of the Gentiles
as a more intellectual type, with dark hair
receding from high temples. The head of
Peter is among the most successful of these
medallions ; it is full of character ; the economy
of line demanded by the enameller's process is

prayer, entreaty) is traced by Kondakoff to a Byzantine court
ceremonial of that name, known as early as the ninth century,
in which, after a distribution of gifts, a song in honour of the
Emperor was ceremonially sung, two officials standing to right
and left of the throne in attitudes of supplication. Others have
doubted this derivation, but the alternatives suggested are not
more certain. By the eleventh century the three persons of
the Deesis had become the central figures in representations of
the Last Judgment, the Virgin and S. John interceding for the
world before the Judge ; they are so seen in all Byzantine
Dooms. On the sides of the frame were SS. Peter, Paul,
Mathew, Luke and John ; along the bottom, three military
saints, Theodore, George and Demetrius.

26	Christ Pantokrator (Almighty), regarded as the Heavenly
Judge, was constantly represented in that part of the building,
the dome, which was symbolic of the Celestial Church, as the
Virgin, mediatrix between God and man, was placed in the
apse of the bema, which symbolized the Church upon Earth,
As Pantokrator, our Lord is always bearded, the hair, as here,
usually black, and the expression frequently severe.

27	It is interesting to note that in illuminations the garments
of our Lord are enriched with close parallel gold lines, like
cloisons, as early as the sixth century, when figure enamels of
the kind here seen were perhaps unknown. A description by
Paulus Silentiarius of the Christ upon the altar-covering in
Sta. Sophia suggests that the garments may have been em-
broidered with stripes of gold, in which case a fashion
peculiarly adapted for enamel might really have a textile
origin.

9Byzantine Enamels in Mr. Pierpont Morgans Collection

used with such skill that the artist's necessity is
made to appear his choice, and every accent is
in its proper place. This is the Galilaean fisher-
man to the life ; and the full flesh tint, contrast-
ing with the grey hair, suggests the bronzed face
of the worker in the open air.28 The S. Paul is
hardly upon the same plane of excellence, though
a certain forlornness of expression appeals to the
imagination, seeming to tell of fastings, vigils,
and the tribulation of the thorn in the flesh.

The medallions of SS. Matthew and John the
Evangelist29 also are illustrated in Plate VII.
They too may be conveniently considered to-
gether, especially as they may be used to demon-
strate a potential weakness of Byzantine, as indeed
of all mediaeval, art. Both of high technical ex-
cellence, they are so much alike that but for the
names at the sides, it would be hard to distinguish
them apart. In their case the rules have been too
mechanically obeyed. That has happened which
always happens when the artist is ridden by
prescription instead of guiding it; for where
theology dictates a scheme, type and stereotype
too easily become the same thing. To depict
with variety an infinite number of persons similar
in class and attribute is a task calling for a peculiar
talent; and, as the descriptions in the st Painter's
Guide " sufficiently prove, it was often beyond the
learned men who had to decide the characteristics
of ^saintly multitude. Inevitably they lapsed into
iteration ; and if the craftsman was unstirred to
sympathy with his subject, or was too obsequious
to fixed directions, he was apt to produce a correct
cold work impersonal as a geometric diagram.
Nor did his artistic conscience shrink from invest-
ing two different persons with indistinguishable
forms and features. It was all in the book,
and the book might as well be obeyed. This
weakness is less apparent in the case of S. George
[Plate VI] and S. Demetrius,80 who, as military
saints, are often found together in Byzantine
art. Here also the workmanship is of admirable
quality: the effect is rich and harmonious in the
extreme. As their costumes indicate, both saints
were youthful patricians of exalted rank; the
purple tunic and the chlamys of figured design
with its gold-embroidered inset (tablion) was
accorded only to persons of high position. Each
carries a cross in the right hand, a feature
connected by Kondakoff with a ceremony in
which the Emperor distributed crosses to

28	S. Peter carries a cross, here of somewhat unusual forma-
tion. Though the keys appear on a sarcophagus of the sixth
century at Ravenna, the cross is his regular attribute in
Byzantine art.

29	It is hardly necessary to point out that in Byzantine icono-
graphy S, John the Evangelist is represented as a young man
only when he plays a part in scenes relating to the life of Christ
on earth. When this is not the case, he is seen, as here, in the
form of an elderly man, and is distinguished from the Baptist
by the title of Theologos.

30	The medallion with S. Demetrius has been presented by Mr.
Morgan to the Louvre.

10

prominent officials. Though the colours of the
mantles may simply have been disposed according
to the artist's fancy, it is possible that they marked
grades in the hierarchical court of Byzantium.
The patterns at any rate seem to reproduce those
actually used by groups of courtiers or officials,
for the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, in
his work on ceremonies, describes a design of
" ivy leaves " which might well apply to that on
the mantle worn by S. George.81

In what has preceded it has been necessaay
to qualify much praise by some accentuation
of defect, and not to conceal the faults of
examples which in form or content fall short
of an attainable perfection. In one case matter
was intractable, in another spirit flagged; here
the embodiment of the idea was too hard for
inexperience; there the idea itself failed to inspire
a technical skill which was adequate to all ex-
pression. In what follows, the attempt will be
made to show, by the example of the two fine
medallions representing the Virgin and S. John the
Baptist, how even the rigidly typic art may sur-
mount all obstacles when the spirit and the hand
obey a single impulse.

Ill

F the medallions with the Virgin and
S. John the Baptist [Plate VI] were
shown to anyone unacquainted with
^ Byzantine iconography, he would per-
V"t>haps praise them above all for their

originality and individual character. But familiarity
with other examples of their types compels us to
admire them not for these, but for other causes;
their quality is as high as ever, but it is not to
originality that they owe their principal merit.
Like the Christ Pantokrator on the same plate,
they are not the invention of the enameller ; their
forms were gradually perfected by the experience
of a past generation before they ever came to be
imprinted upon his retentive memory. It is as
likely as not that he himself was the prisoner of a
workshop or a monastery, with a mind incurious
of life, and grown indifferent to nature, translating
both by a clever art of reminiscence. His case
may well have resembled that of the fresco painter
Joasaph, whom Didron watched in the monastery
of Esphigmenou, on Mount Athos, as he repro-
duced with a rapid and unerring hand composi-
tions learned years ago from the pages of the
Painter's Manual. It was not his part to disturb
by an impertinent use of observation a scheme
consecrated by collective wisdom and authority.
The average success he could at any time achieve;
but it was open to him to do something more, and
give his work the signature of his enthusiasm. In

81Reiske, Commentarii ad Const. Porph., p. 472, quoted by
Kondakoff, p 301. It may be noted that Byzantine hangings and
garments, as represented in art, bear three at least of the suit-
marks of our cards—the spade, the club, and (as here) the heart.Byzantine Enamels in Mr. Pierpont Morgan's Collection

these medallions he has surely done this, satisfying
himself, and not merely the requirements of a
craft. There is no trace of the perfunctory in them;
they bear the mark of something more than mere
care. It is true that there is a sense in which they are
rather reincarnations than new births, but we may
almost say that they are the better for being un-
original. Having been so often recreated, they begin
this new embodiment with the ease which comes
from a long habit of existence; they wear life with
a more assured composure than forms for the first
time made alive. It would matter little if their
prototypes or parallels were numerous; they them-
selves are absolutely good, and combine with
purity of line an opulence of colour which no
process of illustration can reproduce.

The Virgin is a figure of much grace and tender-
ness, with something of an oriental charm not
unnatural in an art permeated from the beginning
by Iranian influences; it suggests an affinity
with the delicate forms of early Persian illuminated
books. Though the attitude is that usual in the
Deesis, and therefore stereotyped, the type is
truly expressive of intercession. The S. John
affords an effective contrast. As is commonly the
case, he is depicted as the ascetic hardened by
privation, and living for an idea in the contempt
of material life. It is a strong, almost a wild,
figure, worthy of the tradition which conceived it,
but its bolder lines were perhaps less difficult to
render than the softer contours of the Virgin.
It has been well observed that a type enunciated
with such force is above all others adapted to the
enameller's art, which is at its best in the rendering
of an accented personality. Yet how hard it is to
succeed like this is well known to those who have
attempted the human figure with a few strips of
gold and a little powdered glass. It is easy to
say that with so few lines it would be ingenious
to go wrong, and that at any rate the vice of super-
fluous minuteness is made impossible. But with
these few lines it is simpler still to produce grotesque
shapes and masks which are scarcely human :
witness the work of the earliest western enamellers
in this style who attempted to follow the Byzan-
tine model. The metal strips may be bent in
similar curves, the divergence from the right curve
or angle may be a fraction of a millimetre, but
in the one case you obtain a result like that
of these medallions, in the other a caricature.
Perhaps the difficulty will be more fully under-
stood if we observe by what strait technical
conventions the fine result is obtained. One strip
of gold suffices for both eyebrows and nose,82
another does service for the mouth. In dealing
with the eye, it is hard to avoid a staring effect,

32 The convention recalls those often found in incised or
punched outline work in stone or metal—e.£., on English
monumental brasses—where a single line will in like manner
include eyebrows and nose, the latter feature sometimes ending
in a formal trefoil.

and, perhaps as much for this reason as for any
other, the majority of figures glance sideways or
upwards; in enamels of the best period the stare
is constantly thus avoided. Again, it is no easy task
to obtain a flesh tint which suggests transparency ;
only the best craftsmen avoid the brick red or the
opaque white which spoils the impression of the
picture. Even in the painted enamels of Limoges
this old problem is still insistent; the work of good
artists fails in this particular, from the salmon-
hued men of Pierre Reymond to the chalk-faced
women of Suzanne de Court. Some of the short-
comings incident to these difficulties are apparent
even in these admirable medallions; the con-
ventional treatment of the mouth, which usually
follows one of two patterns, is a further source of
trouble. In the first of these, adopted for
youthful or feminine faces, the upper lip may have
the lines of a Cupid's bow, while the lower is
straight; in the second, used for older masculine
types, the corners are drawn sharply down.
However skilful the artist, it is hard to avoid
in the one case a suggestion of the prim or the
peevish, and in the other a certain monotony
of gloom. In the best enamels these limita-
tions produce their effect; the Virgin and the
S. John themselves do not quite escape their
influence.

Of the remaining medallions, the S. John the
Evangelist and the S. Paul of Plate VII have
been already noticed, the one as being almost
identical with the S. Matthew, the other as habitually
associated in Christian art with S. Peter; both
conform to the usual schemes. The S. Luke83
[Plate VIII] in like manner follows precedent.
S. Theodore Tyron, on a medallion not illustrated
here, was a martyr of the early fourth century,
and a native of Amasea, in Asia Minor :84 he was
probably of humble birth, rising to high rank by
his own merit. His enamelled portrait yields to
none in its presentment of a strong personality ;
Kondakoff has well remarked that it renders with
much success the type of those able military
adventurers who in the later centuries of the
empire raised themselves to supreme power in the
state : you might say a Basil of Macedon or an
Andronicus Comnenus in his prime.

The remaining pieces in the Swenigorodskoi
collection bear continuous decorative designs,
recalling the diapers of rich silk fabrics, or of
mosaic vaults, like those in S. Sophia, Constanti-
nople, and other churches, where the scheme of

83	The baldness of the head suggests a tonsure, but this is
improbable, tonsures not being usual in the Eastern church at
the period. With this head and that of the S. Matthew mosaic
heads of the same Evangelists may be compared, as well as
those of the seated Evangelists which commonly precede the
text in Byzantine illuminated Gospels.

84	The word " Tyron of which the root appears in various
forms, apparently relates to a military body which in the
Middle Byzkntine period formed part of the Imperial Guard.

II

iwiwasirv OF ILUhuUi

L!BRAR %Byzantine Enamels in Mr. Pierpont Morgans Collection

ornament probably descends from a textile origin:
the most remarkable are plaques of irregular
shape, made to fill the background in ikons of the
Virgin [Plate VIII], The effect here is more
frankly oriental than in the other subjects; there
is no Hellenistic figure-tradition; all salience is
gone, and pattern, endless and unaccented as the
music of the East, flows over the whole field with-
out obtruding a single feature upon the atten-
tion.85 The colour is of great beauty, and the effect
that of a purely Asian art. Yet in one piece, and
that not the least Eastern in appearance, the
initials of the Greek title "Mother of God " are
inserted as if to recall the dual nature of East-
Christian art, which even in its least Hellenic forms
would thus affirm its debt to Hellenism. Exotic
though these plaques appear, it does not follow
that they are far removed in date from the
halo reproduced in Plate I, the designs of
which are closely allied to those on the border
of the enamelled book-cover with S. Michael
in the treasury of S. Marco at Venice. The
colours used are mostly the same, though a lilac
shade is introduced, which may perhaps indicate
a later period: the place of origin may well be
Georgia or Armenia, where, as in other parts of
Western Asia, the "arabesque" was known before
Islam. So effective is this purely ornamental
style, in which background and design are alike
enamelled, that the rarity of such plaques is a matter
both of surprise and regret. The contemporary
enamellers of Limoges freely used the diaper to
cover the surfaces of caskets and other objects not
required for figures; but unless ornamental plaques
have been peculiarly exposed to disaster,86 it would
seem that the Byzantine craftsman did not care
to cover broad spaces, and therefore seldom
required the "pattern without end". Yet on
book covers, iconostases and frames there was
scope enough for the effective use of the con-
tinuous ornament.37

IV

HE last place in this brief review of
Mr. Morgan's Byzantine enamels is
occupied by two small triptychs
mounted in the middle of the great
western triptych, by Godefroid de
Claire or a member of his school,88 formerly pre-
served at Hanau, near Frankfort-on-the-Main.
From the time of the French Revolution down to
a fewr years ago, when Mr, Morgan acquired it,
this admirable work of art had belonged to the

35	Other pieces are in the Botkine Collection at S. Petersburg,
and in the Louvre, the example in Paris having been presented
by Mr. Morgan.

36	This may have been the case. Their greater size may have
tempted the Vandals of every period, who destroy enamels for
the sake of the gold setting.

87	It is employed on the background of the S. Michael at Venice,
of which mention has just been made.

88	Described by Sir Hercules Bead in Archceologia, LXII,
pp. 2i etc.

family of Walz, which, in 1792, had given shelter to
the then Abbot of Stavelot on his flight into
Germany from the French invasion of his country.
There is at least presumptive evidence to justify us
in attributing both the great and little triptychs
to about the time of Wibald (a.d. 1130-1158), an
earlier Abbot of Stavelot, one of those competent
ecclesiastics who played so prominent a part in the
history of the Middle Ages. On more than one
occasion diplomatic missions brought him to
Constantinople, and he may well have carried back
with him, perhaps as imperial gifts, the two small
Byzantine triptychs, the larger of which contains
a relic of the wood of the True Cross. It is a
natural inference that the great triptych was made
to enshrine the others, since the fine enamelled
medallions with which its leaves are enriched
form a series illustrating the Invention of the
Cross. But the present arrangement of the smaller
works, one above the other on a void space, like
pictures on a wall, can hardly be that of the
twelfth century ; we have to suppose the loss or
destruction of additional ornament, perhaps in
the form of supporting gilt metal figures. The
Byzantine enamels would not appear to be much
earlier than the time of Wibald. It has been
observed89 that the figures are not upon the same
high artistic level as those of the Swenigorodskoi
collection; neither in composition nor colour
can they compare with the best work of the tenth
or eleventh centuries; they can but hold their own
with the magnificent Western work beside them.
The effect is in general somewhat spiritless ; while
the opaque yellow used to represent gold is too
predominant in certain figures. None the less,
these triptychs are very pleasing to the eye, and
the scene of the angelic message is of a peculiar
charm [Plate IX].

In the larger triptych [Plate X] four enamelled
plaques surround the relic, which is contained in a
cruciform cavity and secured by two gold strips in
saltire ending in pearls. Below the arms of the
cross stand Constantine and Helen, with their
names beside them; above them are the busts of
the archangels Gabriel and Michael.** The leaves
have enamelled plaques on both sides. In the
interior, within borders of rather coarse orfevrerie
cloisonnee,41 are four saints,42 all similarly attired in
the long tunic and chlamys, each holding crosses
in the right hand : the letters of their names are
in vertical columns at their sides. On the outer
sides are busts of the four Evangelists, enamelled
strips of geometrical design dividing the leaves

89 By Kondakoff, French edition, p. 206.

40 This is the traditional way of ornamenting reliquaries for
wood of the True Cross: Constantine and Helen are almost
invariably represented.

41,These borders, like other ornamental parts of these triptychs,
may well be of Western workmanship. Orfevrerie cloisonnee
was certainly used in a similar way in the East—for instance,
on the Limburg reliquary—but the work was of better quality,

42 ss. George, Procopius, Theodore and Demetrius.

12Byzantine Enamels in Mr. Pierpont Morgan's Collection

when closed. The smaller triptych has the Cruci-
fixion between the Virgin and S. John, with the
sun and moon above the arms of the cross, and
the usual inscriptions accompany the standing
figures. The interior of each leaf is ornamented
with cabochon stones and filigree, within borders
similar to those of the other example. On the ex-
terior of the leaves are the two persons of the
Annunciation, the angel advancing from the left,
the Virgin erect before her seat, holding the purple
wool in her left hand.

The neighbourhood of Byzantine and Western
enamels upon the Hanau triptych affords an in-
teresting opportunity of contrasting two styles
which illustrate different possibilities of the art.
Here it may fitly suggest a few concluding reflec-
tions on the merits of Byzantine enamel compared
with the work produced in the West at about the
same period.

The reputation of Byzantine enamel does not
depend upon a single quality; but perhaps its
most signal distinction lies in its ambitious use of
the cloisonne method to render human person-
ality. This is its true differentia ; it is really this
that we remember first when we wish to recall its
salient features. So bold a pretence as this, of
characterizing men in pulverized glass and soldered
metal strips, could succeed only upon certain well-
defined conditions ; it required at once complete
mastery of technique and perfect consciousness
of limitations. For the large resources of painted
enamel are denied to the process which works with
cells; it cannot attempt fluency or intricate com-
position ; success must come by renunciations
which at first might seem impossible. Yet
undoubtedly these enam^llers did succeed, if only
because they renounced with full comprehension
of loss and gain. It has been suggested above
that they did so by virtue of their absorption
in the general spirit of Byzantine art, which
was most often grave and sedate, idealistic,
and governed by serene convention. Imbued
with this spirit, they preferred the subjects in which
it was most manifest, religious subjects, and they
treated them according to the best tradition of
their time with the economy, the restraint, and
much of the high dignity of greater art. Now the
cloisonne method, to which they almost exclusively
adhered, has a certain natural congruity with the
Byzantine spirit; its adoption was thus, in a way,
predestined. We have already noted that this
method is not adapted to swiftly creative work;
it is too close to jewellery and to all the minute
and elaborated concerns which that patient craft
implies. But, like mosaic, it responds to the
{juiet appeal of ceremonial and religious thought;
it renders accepted types of sanctity or devotion
with a success unsurpassed by any of its rivals.
We are tempted to indulge the fancy that the
various processes have each their ethnical affinities,

and that the preferences shown by different races
are founded upon good reasons of psychology.
Arguing so, we should find cloisonne appropriate
to the contemplative Byzantine or Chinese nature,
and champleve the appointed style of imperative
Romans, or of the strenuous mediaeval peoples who
succeeded to the Roman estate. Certain it is that
the mood of an adventurous stock finds better
expression in the latter method, while the former
is, perhaps, more equal to subtle problems of
design, or to implications of individual tempera-
ment. The Hanau triptych itself might serve as a
commentary upon this fancy, for one at least of
the great medallions upon its leaves exhibits the
trenchant and massive style which champleve at
its best is able to assume. This is the roundel with
the battle of the Milvian Bridge,43 where the group
of charging knights with lances couched and
fluttering pennons suggests the force and impetus
of onset with an astonishing success." No cloisonne
enameller could render the movement and shock
of war like this, nor would any Byzantine
craftsman have essayed the task. His was a
mind attuned to other moods, preferring effects
of delicate concordance, and averse from all
violences of act or passion. Perhaps it was partly
for this reason that the secular pleased him less
than the religious subject ;44 he was not so sure of
his steps in this field ; there underlay it volcanic
possibilities alien to the still bent of his imagin-
ation. Where we are in a position to make fair
comparison, we seem to find him here inferior to
the Western artist. The dancers on the crown of
Constantine Monomachos at Budapest are some-
what angular; they lack the ease of the analogous
figure standing before the minstrel on the beautiful
Limoges casket in the British Museum. This is
instinct with a more spontaneous power : we feel
that if the spirit moved her, she could dance with
a far more natural grace. If, on the other hand,
we compare a saint enamelled in Byzantium with
a similar subject from the Rhine or Meuse, the
Eastern work will worthily sustain the com-
parison.

Byzantine enamelling, then, stands in the first
place on its achievement in the province of figure art.
But the striking merit of the few purely decorative
pieces which remain might almost justify the
doubt whether, with all their power of psycho-
logical expression, the enamellers might not have
better fulfilled their destiny if they had followed
the same instinct as the Chinese, and confined
their art to ornamental motives. There can be
little doubt that the cloisonne method, whether in
gold or copper, lends itself most admirably to
decorative design. It produces good " heraldic "

43	Reproduced in colours, Archceologia, LXII, pi. iv.

44	Partly, but not entirely ; for the destruction of secular work
was probably greater than that of enamels made for a religious
purpose and more often preserved in the sanctuaries of churches.Byzantine Enamels in Mr. Pierpont Morgatfs Collection

animals; where a whole field has] to be covered
with continuous pattern, it is conspicuously
successful; there is about it a delicacy and a
lightness unattainable by the harder champlev£
style. The restriction of the colours to un-
graduated tones is also a reason for success in
ornament; it is the principle of the oriental, the
master of splendid pattern. There is, indeed,
nothing in cloisonne enamel which tempts the
emulation of sculptural or picturesque effects
The enameller on sunk relief (basse taille), and the
worker in champlev6 both yielded in some
measure to this temptation, in so far abandoning
the oriental ideal with its frank and bright appeal.
But the Byzantine remained true to contour and
to ungraded hues; and it may well be that his
work in pattern, had we more of it, would rank
among his most exquisite and satisfying achieve-
ments.

It has been already stated that Byzantine
enamels, in view of their costly material, are
usually of small compass, and that in consequence
of this, plaques with numerous figures are rare :
the Crucifixion in the Reiche Capelle at Munich
was cited as among the larger examples in existence.
This comparatively restricted scope distinguishes
them from the work of the enameller on copper,
which is more naturally adapted to the bigger
scale and the architectonic treatment. The
Byzantine enamel is less suited than champlev6
work to the enrichment of large objects ; the altar
at Kloster Neuburg is more appropriately adorned
than the pala d'oro in S. Marco at Venice. The
pala has real magnificence; but its delicate enamels
are misused for an effect which coarser work
might have produced even better ; the figures are
not able to assert their several values at the dis-
tance from which a reredos should be regarded;
they are lost in the general splendour, and like
printed type held too far from the eye, refuse to
be properly deciphered. It might be urged that,
just as the designs of mediaeval stained glass often
seem of little consequence, the sheer beauty of the
colour being alone significant, so these enamelled
figures matter nothing, while their beautiful colour
is all. But that is hardly a point of view with
which the enameller himself would have agreed.

It is unnecessary to dilate further upon that fine
sense for colour which is so habitually manifested
in Byzantine enamel: something has been said
above upon the matter, which, indeed, lies beyond
discussion. The practice of centuries counted for
much in the formation of a taste which seldom
errs ;46 and the enameller may have profited not
a little by the experience of other arts, chiefly
those of the mosaicist and the illuminator. The

45 Occasionally the choice or juxtaposition of colours may
surprise our taste : in the larger of the two triptychs described
above, and illustrated in Plate X, the heavy yellow upon the
garments of Constantine and Helen beplasters the figures and
reduces the effect of the gold background.

influence of mosaic might be assumed from the
identity of the material which it employed ; but the
colour of many illuminated books is also closely
akin to that of enamels, and if the painter makes
free use of gold, the analogy is often striking in
the case of individual figures. A full-length of
our Lord in one MS., a bust of S. John in
another, a Crucifixion in a third, may be so clearly
inspired by the same feeling and taste as that of
the enameller that they at once persuade us of an
aesthetic relationship. The headpieces of con-
temporary books, with their conventional floral
scrolls on a gold ground, may in their turn be
compared with ornamental enamels; the leaf design
upon the halo, for example, illustrated in Plate
I, is of a kind popular with the illuminator; the
very perfect scrolls in the decorative band at
the base of the large enamel in the Museo Kir-
cheriano at Rome might almost have been copied
from illumination.48 In brilliance and depth the
work of the Byzantine craftsman may be excelled
by the finest enamels on sunk relief, such, for
example as the Royal Gold Cup in the British
Museum, where the tones have the lucent
splendour of gems; in the bold use of massed
colour it may not equal the perfected work of
Limoges, of the Rhine or the Meuse; yet in
harmony and balance, in its assured exclusion of
vulgarity, it is in the first rank, and is likely to
remain unrivalled.

Though Byzantine art as a whole was more
amenable to change than is supposed, the con-
servatism of the Byzantine enameller is certainly
conspicuous. His types altered but little, his pro-
cess never, because the first were in harmony with
a very stable environment, the second suited these
so well that change seemed only vanity. With
the champlevd process on copper he was ac-
quainted, but he appears rarely to have used it;
the best-known instance of its occurrence is the
panel with S. Theodore, formerly in the Basilew-
sky collection, and now in the Hermitage at S.
Petersburg. Enamelling upon surfaces in high
relief he equally knew; but that also is represented
almost alone by the book cover at Venice with S.
Michael, to which allusion has already been made.
While his Western contemporaries in Europe were
abandoning cloisonne for champlev£, champleve
for basse taille, basse taille for painted, he re-
mained steadfastly loyal to the first; the latest
specimens of his expiring art still follow the tech-
nical principles adopted in its youth and con-
sistently maintained throughout its prime. We
observe this same immutability, this same aversion
from experiment, in all the goldsmith's work of the
East-Roman Empire, a characteristic which may
be explained by various causes both general and
particular. Among the latter may be noted the

<8 This enamel is in many ways of an exceptional character,
but the inspiration is evidently Byzantine.

HByzantine Enamels in Mr. Pierpont Morgan's Collection

persistence of a single architectural style, because
in old days it was the way of architecture to set
the style for the imitative industrial arts. The
use of enamelling in the West was gravely modi-
fied by the change from Romanesque to Gothic ;
in the East the general principles of building and
decoration remained more nearly the same, and in
so far as they affected the minor arts, they had
never been prejudicial to enamel. This circum-
stance contributed, perhaps, to strengthen the
natural affinities between Byzantine enamel and
mural mosaic. For mosaic was never ousted, as in
the West, by a great architectural change; its unin-
terrupted reign, as long as there was wealth to
support it, may well have reacted upon the
enameller's art and contributed to its longevity.

It would be possible to prolong comparison
between the vitreous art of other countries and
this Byzantine enamel, in so many ways incompar-
able ; it would be easy further to enlarge upon the
merits which assure to it an elect place in a chosen
company. But it is not the aim of these short notes
to exhaust a subject which may be more fully studied
elsewhere; their purpose is to strike a keynote,
not to follow the theme through all its variations.
They may fitly close with the reassertion of one
quality which Byzantine enamel possesses in an
eminent degree, that of resuming in its narrow
compass the sentiment of a whole age and culture.
As from the study of a single fine Greek intaglio
one might half divine the Hellenic spirit, so from
one enamelled medallion of Mr. Morgan's
splendid series we might almost infer the bias
of the Byzantine genius, were every monument of
its greater art destroyed.

A recent addition to Mr. Morgan's collection of
enamels is illustrated in Plate XI.

It is a medallion with a half-figure of our Lord
holding a scroll and blessing with His right hand:
the head is surrounded by the cruciferous nimbus,
and in the field to right and left is the abbreviated
inscription " Jesus Christ", with the Slavonic hard
breathings. The medallion is enclosed in a mount,
with loop for suspension, now much damaged, the
metal being apparently gold with a considerable
alloy of silver. It appears to have formed the
ornament of a collar or necklace worn by a Russian
prince in the eleventh or twelfth centuries, similar
examples being in the Khanenko collection at
Kieff.47 The enamel is considerably damaged,
and much is lost, especially from the hair and the
halo; but the body is almost perfect, and the
colours conform in general to the Byzantine
scheme.

47 Cf. La Collection Khanenko, Livraison V, Plate XXXII. The
inscriptions of these examples are, however, in Greek.

AN APPRECIATION OF THE SWENIGO-
RODSKOI ENAMELS

The aesthete (if one may use once more a word
that ought by now to have lost its unfortunate
associations) looks with suspicion upon collections
as such. This suspicion is natural, for the
aesthete and the collector have different methods
of valuation. None the less, the aesthete occasion-
ally owes much to the habit of mere curiosity and
the desire to complete a series. It is doubtful
whether, while we were still hypnotized by the
belief in the unique supremacy of Hellenistic
beauty, anyone would have given prolonged
attention to the Swenigorodskoi enamels, except
as curiosities and bibelots. The first approach to
such an art must have been for us through their
obvious fitness for collection. They have indeed
the quaintness, the exotic flavour, the richness and
weight of material which make a strong appeal to
the possessive instinct. No wonder, then, that
Byzantine enamels were collected, classified, and
studied by archaeologists before they were
admired and understood for their intrinsic
aesthetic value. Now at last our attention has
been fixed on them long enough to reveal their
qualities as pure works of art. It is no longer
needful to excuse them on grounds of curiosity ;
they have become clearly expressive; their
language is no longer strange or antiquated.

As Mr. Dalton has pointed out, these heads of
the Apostles are oft-repeated traditional types;
types established and accepted by the common
consciousness of Christianity, and refined and
intensified by the common effort of innumerable
nameless artists. And yet no one could think of
these heads as being merely derivative and
second-hand. They have no taint of the pastiche
or the replica. They have in a high degree that
vitality which is peculiar to works of creative
art.

Now as far as our experience of the psychology
of the modern artist goes, such a phenomenon is
paradoxical in the extreme. For we notice that
with us only original invention has this vital
force ; that whenever an artist accepts the idea of
another he is overtaken by a peculiar discourage-
ment and uneasiness. However much he tries to
conceal this by bravura and technical skill, it
betrays itself in deadness, emptiness, and flaccidity
of form. It seems as though for the modern
artist the necessity was imposed to quarry for
himself in the rough, unorganized material of
phenomenal nature. He cannot accept forms
that have once been synthetized without diminish-
ing the expressiveness that has already been
attained.

How comes it, then, that these Byzantine
enamellers could repeat the same schematic
types of character, not only without loss, but
up to a certain point with continual increase

r5Byzantine Enamels in Mr, Pierpont Morgan's Collection

of power. It would seem that the artist, in
order to maintain the quality of vital force in
his design, must always be pressing against some
resistance. With us the resistance arises out
of the intractability of phenomena. The artist's
difficulty is with the proper organizing of that
chaos of sensation into expressive form. The
Byzantine artist accepted for the comparatively
restricted range of his expression a series of forms
already highly elaborated and organized. The
artists who executed the Swenigorodskoi enamels
may, one supposes, have had for stimulus the
difficulty of the material in which they wrought.
To make this rigid and resistant material continually
more and more elastic, more subtly responsive to
their ideal demands, may have afforded the neces-
sary stimulus. And this problem was not, indeed,
one of mere craftsmanship, but of incessant choice
and co-ordination of the design. More and more
the general idea of these type-characters of the
Virgin and the Apostles had to be condensed,
intensified and purified of all that was superfluous
and redundant, in order that they might admit of
perfect execution within the hard limits of the
material.

So long as more or less complete representation
of natural appearance was regarded as the only
efficient mode of artistic expression, such designs
as these must have appeared at best as inadequate
adumbrations. It is only now, when we have begun
to learn the meaning of pure design, the effective-
ness for the imagination of certain abstract rela-
tions of form and colour, that we are prepared to
see how complete and definitive these figures are.
How exactly, by what subtle and certain pro-
cesses of distortion the character of each saint is
fixed ; the tender exaltation of the Virgin, the
savage outrecuidance of the Baptist, the more
polished vehemence of the S. Paul and the
debonnaire grace of the S. George, all these are fixed
in lines of unrelenting certainty and by an art of
drawing which the greatest of modern masters
might envy. In every figure the movement is
ascertained and expressed with that perfect unity
and coherence of each part with the whole which
more than anything else assures us of the inner
life of the figure. That such decisive design as
this must be of the nature of caricature may be
admitted, but it is a caricature in which the
emphasis is laid on central and fundamental, not,
as with our comic caricature, on accessory, and
eccentric qualities.

At one time, certainly, art historians would have
written of such works as these as being barbaric,
simply because they do not conform to the general
idea of representation which we inherited from
Hellenistic art. They might have been called
quaint, curious, interesting, but hardly beautiful,
and their authors would have been pictured as
naif and ingenuous craftsmen struggling to attain
a symmetry and imitative accuracy that were
beyond their feeble powers. Now, having had the
opportunity of examining these designs in great
detail and for a very long time, what has become
most evident to me is the extreme modernity, the
complete self-consciousness, one might almost say
the sophistication of these artists. There is cer-
tainly nothing casual or accidental about their
work. The artist has had from the first a clear
grasp of his idea, and has realised it by perfectly
ascertained methods.

It would perhaps be hard to prove conclusively
that the asymmetry and strangeness of these designs
is purposeful, but one fact, at least, makes this
probable. The artists who could bend and fix
the tiny gold cloisons in the robe of the Christ
could surely attain any desired form with unerring
certainty. Indeed, one may suppose that with
this technique mechanical regularity of form was
actually the easiest to produce. Thus in the halos
of the Apostles it would be easy to arrange for
accurate circles, and we must suppose that the
odd bluntness and irregularity, which we notice
in them, is the result of a conscious desire to
produce throughout the same vital quality in the
line. Such a feeling is exactly comparable to that
of the architectural refinements of early art, where
the strict mathematical form was avoided as
destructive of material beauty and expressiveness.

A study of the lettering brings one to the
same conclusion; everywhere the idea of free
asymmetrical unity predominates. For instance,
in the design of the Baptist the word HP0AP0M02
is divided into three parts, a single O is isolated
from all the rest of the inscription in order to give
exactly the right filling to the whole design. The
relation of the 0EOY to the design of the Virgin's
hand is equally evident in its deliberate purposeful-
ness. One feels throughout these works the
conscious control of a subtle and highly educated
taste. It is the work of learned and conscious
designers, and not the happy accident of indus-
trious craftsmanship.

Roger Fry.

i 6S. JOHN THE DIVINE

THE VIRGIN

LARGER PLAQUE, AN EVANGELIST.	SMALLER PLAQUES,

S. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, CHRIST AND AN ANGEL

BYZANTINE ENAMELS IN MR. PIERPONT MORGAN S COLLECTION.
PLATE IIUf IKt
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BYZANTINE ENAMELS IN MR. PIERPONT MORGAN'S COLLECTION
PLATE IIILIBRARY
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LARGER BYZANTINE RELIQUARY OF THE HOLY CROSS IN THE STAVELOT TRIPTYCH

BYZANTINE ENAMELS IN MR. PIERPONT MORGAN'S COLLECTION
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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. ...

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