E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Frank van Drogen,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
THE BROCHURE SERIES
OF ARCHITECTURAL ILLUSTRATION.
VOL. I. JULY, 1895. No. 7.
ITALIAN WROUGHT IRON.
The wrought iron of the middle ages, and of the time of the Renaissance,and even down to the last century, in Italy, France, and Germany showed,in the crudest examples, the principal virtues of all true decorativeart. The reason is not far to seek. The difficulties in the way ofworking the material with ease imposed certain limitations in design andexecution which could not well be disregarded. The lack of machinery(which is responsible for much of the uninteresting character of ourmodern work) necessarily compelled the use of comparatively simple andstraightforward methods. It was difficult to avoid the tell-tale marksof the smith's work, and there were limits beyond which his skill couldnot carry it. Furthermore the designer, taking these limitations intoaccount, learned to make the most of his possibilities, and to adapt hisdesign to the material—to design in the material. How different fromthe methods generally in use now! Designs made to imitate something donein another material, turned out by the hundred from a machine whichleaves no indication of its work, with all interest of craftsmanshiplacking, except in places where it may be vulgarly thrown in your faceto make it look as if it had been "hand-made."
Clever imitations of old work are produced, and indeed some of theexamples shown in our plates are reproductions and not originals; and ifwe cannot have new designs of equal excellence this is the next mostdesirable thing. And so far as the illustrations are concerned thedifference between the original and the reproduction could never bedistinguished.
The subjects chosen for the illustrations of this number are lanternsand torch-bearers. The lanterns were in reality torch-bearers, as theywere made for holding masses of combustible material which were held inplace by the central spike.
The curious lanterns that decorate the Strozzi Palace at Florence, andof which similar specimens are still attached to the angles of theRiccardi Palace, once the famous residence of the Medici, in the samecity, are among, the best examples of their kind still remaining. We areinformed by Vasari that these "lumière miravigliosi" were the work ofone Nicolo Grosso Caparra, a celebrated artificer of the time, by whomit is not unlikely that many of the beautiful rings and cressets whichstill decorate the old palaces of Siena may have been executed. On thecentre spike was fixed a little iron barrel, containing tow and pitch,while on each of the other spikes a torch was fastened. In some of theold engravings of the festivities given at night by the Grand Dukes ofTuscany, the representations of the effect of this mode of illuminationmay be seen. It is said that the privilege of affixing such cressets toa residence was one conferred by the State only on the mostdistinguished citizens, as a peculiar honor, in acknowledgment ofservices performed.
This is one of the finest examples of Italian wrought iron work stillexisting, and has frequently served as a