Italian drawings for jewelry, 1700-1875; an introduction to an exhibition at the Cooper union museum for the arts of decoration. September 9 through October 19, 1940

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ITALIAN DRAWINGS
FOR JEWELRY
1700-1875

An Iniroduction to an Exhibition
at the ! 3
Cooper Union Museum for the Arts of Decoration
September 9 through October 19, 1940

ITALIAN DRAWINGS FOR JEWELRY

1700-1875

INTRODUCTION

This pamphlet has been prepared to facilitate the appreciation of the
jewelry drawings in the exhibition. It does not presume to provide a chapter
in the unwritten history of Italian jewelry. The book, La Bijouterie au XIX°
Siecle, by Henri Vever, Paris, 1906-08, is very helpful for an understanding
of the period it covers.

The drawings, approximately six hundred, represent three acquisitions.
Series 1901-39-, purchased by Miss Eleanor G. Hewitt with funds contrib-
uted by ten of the early friends of the Museum, was a selection from the
collection of Cavaliere Giovanni Piancastelli (1845-1926), Curator of the
Borghese Gallery in Rome. This was the source also of series 1938-88-,
which Cavaliere Piancastelli had sold in 1904 to Mrs. Edward D. Brandegee,
of Boston, who generously made it possible for the Museum to acquire the
greater part of her purchase in 1938. Cavaliere Piancastelli’s reunited collec-
tion contains more than eleven thousand drawings related to the arts of
decoration, and the jewelry designs give clear evidence of his attempt to
acquire as many as possible of drawings which had accumulated within
individual workshops.

A third series, 1940-86-, has just been acquired through the Mrs. John I.
Kane Bequest Fund. It contains several groups of jewelry drawings covering
roughly the period 1800 to 1880. The largest group by far is composed of
drawings closely related to one another, attributable to one goldsmith’s work-
shop operating between 1800 and 1860 and apparently conducted by an older
man, “A.M.”, and a younger, “N.M.”, who worked in close collaboration.
Other groups are connected with the Florentine jewelry firm Rodolfo
‘Tanagli Pagani, with Francesco Tanagli, a designer “Z.C.”, and G. Campani.

THE NATURE OF THE WORKSHOP COLLECTIONS

The collections of the various workshops consist of drawings which origi-
nated in one of the following ways:

(1). During his apprenticeship, the jeweler frequently needed to exercise
his creative and decorative faculties. As the materials of his craft were most
expensive, drawings formed an indispensable substitute for the actual
execution.

(2). The matured master brought his ideas to life on paper. Sometimes
he made drawings “‘for study,” as indicated by the notations which Girolamo
Venturi, a Sienese goldsmith, wrote upon the back of some of his drawings
about 1740.

(3). There is always the possibility that when the means were forthcoming
the designs produced as above may have been intended for printed reproduc-
tion as models. ‘These reproductions served not only to advertise the designer
but to give him an influential share in the general development of the craft.
Very elaborate sets, such as those that occur among the drawings of Giovanni
Sebastiano Meyandi and of the jeweler referred to below as “the Neapolitan,”
give the impression that they were prepared with this end in view. Such draw-
ings tend toward a richer and more complicated design than can be executed
with facility in actual objects.

(4). In general, the means of advertising were few and the clientele re-
stricted. Ther efore the jeweler could not Aiiond to carry out all of his ideas.
But when a customer came, he had to be able to demonstrate his ability, sup-
ported by a pictorial record of work that he had done. In this respect, the
drawings were put to much the same use as photographs would be today.

(5). A customer likes to choose. In general, therefore, the jeweler had to
give him the choice of several Peet Although he could draw upon his
stock of old drawings, he often would be obliged to present new ones to
indicate that he was in step with changing fashions.

Drawings prepared for a customer were not always made by the head of a
workshop. Copies of existing drawings could easily be executed by another
hand. Furthermore, the master often may have prepared a sketch from which
another man could execute an elaborate drawing in the manner character-
istic of the workshop.

It should not be forgotten that the head of a workshop regarded all draw-
ings made by his journeymen as his own. Surely the master grown old but not
yet retired made every use he could of his son or some other relative who
would follow him in proprietorship, retaining for himself the general direc-
tion of the business and probably handling the accounting. It is interesting
to observe in the collection from “the 1] Jeapolitan’s * shop that another person
supplies the drawings although the price and other comments continue to be
written in the same hand. Where this ceases to appear it may be assumed that
the workshop acquired a new head.

(6). Some are working drawings, made for the purpose of enabling a
journeyman to make the actual objects. These show details of construction.

(7). When the master himself wanted inspiration during the eighteenth
century, he could refer to engraved models, which were provided in the course
of the nineteenth century by professional literature. Immediately after 1850
began the influence of the great expositions. But it was natural that the
master should seek to perpetuate the memory of his father or other predeces-
sor in the workshop, or of his teachers. Similarly, each master craftsman
enjoyed keeping representations of the work of other masters, which he some-
times received as a gift. He liked to have a graphic record of work that had
impressed him. And finally, it was only human of him to keep some record
of his own progress.

9

GIROLAMO VENTURI. COLORED PROJECTS FOR BROOCHES. LATIN CAPTION ON THE REVERSE
READS, “JEROME VENTURI, GOLDSMITH IN SIENA, MADE IT FOR STUDY ON THE TWELFTH
DAY OF SEPTEMBER IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1739.” 1938-88-7410

‘There is no reason to assume that any of the exhibited drawings represent
the stage of production where the head of the enterprise was primarily con-
cerned with the general administration of the business, leaving the designing
and execution to an employee.

GRAPHIC ASPECTS

Evidently the collection of drawings which a workshop owned at any given
moment contained differing elements: the drawings certainly were different
in their graphic character, and very probably different in their authorship.
One category is that of sketches, which are drawings that have been made
more or less rapidly and lightly to indicate the general shape and decoration
of an object in its entirety or in its essential parts. Other drawings may be
classified as projects. These have been refined to a point where they would
permit a customer to get a sufficient idea of the finished object and by the
same token enable a journeyman to execute the piece of jewelry or, where
necessary, prepare a working drawing from which the finished object could

3

be made. This double purpose allows for a great variety in the appearance
of projects.

Often a project will lend itself to the representation of merely one half or
one side of the object, as in the case of a symmetrical design. At times there
are alternative suggestions within a single drawing to facilitate the choice.
Projects are often ieee to black and white even are fashion required the
use of gems of more than one color. In general the customer had to choose
the stones to be employed in the Accent he selected, as this choice greatly
influenced the price. Therefore the color scheme probably was settled for the
most part by verbal discussion. It may be assumed that the drawings which
are elaborate in color were made for study or for impressing the designers’
high craftsmanship upon employers, agents, and publishers rather than
prospective buyers of the jewelry depicted.

CLASSIFICATIONS AND ATTRIBUTIONS

The great diversity of appearance makes it difficult to reassemble the
collections of the various workshops after they have been dispersed. It is not
always possible to recognize a personal style in drawings which were made
over a period of decades with the intention of being as objective as possible
with respect to their graphic appearance and emphasizing only the material
aspect of the subjects depicted. Only much research and a measure of good
luck will bring about the identification of the authors of collections of draw-
ings which are now anonymous. It is often helpful to find a jeweler’s remarks
upon the drawings. Giovanni Sebastiano Meyandi occasionally made notes
on the back of a project revealing, for example, the kinds of stones used, the
dates of beginning the work and of delivery, the name of the customer, and
the name of the person who was to receive the jewel as a gift. They make it
possible to recognize many unsigned drawings as belonging to his shop, and
to fix the stages of the development of his style, and they point to Siena as
the home of this jeweler with the un-Italian name. The dates range from 1762
to 1794. A large number of drawings by “the Neapolitan” have Pier and
price indications in an identical handwriting. They are of a somewhat later
period than the collection of Meyandi. Inscriptions upon some drawings
prove that people living in Florence were customers of the workshop of
“A.M.” and “N.M.”, and a few hint at “A.M.” as court jeweler. Because of
the somewhat confused conditions in Italian accounting before the unifica-
tion of Italy in 1870, notes regarding prices do not help very much to locate
a workshop. Nevertheless, the simultaneous use of piasters and scudi points
to Naples and Sicily, and that of zecchini, lire, and other denominations
points to Tuscany. Sometimes later owners wrote numbers upon drawings:
or sheets of drawings, one of them using a framing line; but this offers no
help in the identification of the workshops.

4

GIOVANNI SEBASTIANO MEYANDI. COLORED PROJECT FOR A NECKLACE WITH A MATCHING

EARRING. ABOUT 1755. 1938-88-6235

SOCIAL BACKGROUND

Most of these drawings refer to jewelry within the reach of only the wealthy
classes, many of only the very rich. Neither the prices nor the designs show
any regard for the means or the taste of the common people, whose demands
required other sources of supply than those represented in the collection. In
the eighteenth century the wealthiest city in Europe was Naples.

With a very few exceptions, these jewels were intended for the use of the
laity, although the sphere of the Church is not altogether lacking. A precious
pendant suggests a prelate as its wearer, while an enamelled Maltese Cross
with the Instruments of the Passion apparently was intended for a member
of a Maltese community.

Little is known about the social background of the craft itself. The period
under consideration began with guilds and corporations still in existence,
but these shortly were attacked as preventing free enterprise and protecting
the producer without considering the needs of the public. However, the
religious purposes of Italian corporations, which always played an important
part in guild activities, survived.

Probably the most important consequence of the dissolution of the corpo-
rations as economic units for such a craft as jewelry was that professional
education could no longer be confined exclusively to the workshops. It
appears to be more than a coincidence that the teaching of decorative art in
schools began at the time of the disappearance of the guilds.

Jewelry becomes a very specialized craft whenever gems are the most impor-
tant parts of the jewels. Only a man familiar with the problems of technique
is able to be the designer. On the other hand, if the jewel is a product of
sculpture though in a small size and a specific material, the design can be
made by any artist capable of invention.

Most of the drawings exhibited are quite certainly the work of professional
jewelers. There is evidence, however, that at least two of the groups were
drawn by painters who practiced as decorative designers and very probably
were unable to execute a piece of jewelry with their own hands. One of these
groups is drawn either by Felice Giani (17572-1823) or, less probably, by one
of his pupils. Giani was a famous decorative painter and designer of decora-
tive art who founded in Faenza in 1793 a public drawing school. The jewelry
drawings may be connected with the work of the school. The drawings of
the second group are very similar in style to that of Giani, and possibly were
made by another teacher in the school.

By transferring the general artistic education of youths from the workshops
to the schools, and by divorcing it from the technical education of the work-
shops, there arose the danger of losing the artistic tradition accumulated in
the craft. The more general artistic viewpoint of the schools tended to prevail.

The period under consideration saw among other changes the transition
from production without copyright to the economic benefits and the poten-
tial qualitative setbacks of copyright. It is well to remember that the decora-
tive arts up into the nineteenth century placed no restraint upon the use of
another man’s ideas. The enormous production of engraved models begin-
ning with the fifteenth and ending with the early nineteenth century was
based upon a principle expressed in a motto of the second half of the six-
teenth century: “Nobody asks where your art comes from provided that you
have it.’ The engravings could enjoy a limited protection, but not the ideas
which they embodied. The difference in procedure between the two stages is
this: before copyright existed, less inventive workers followed the lead of
those who really were masters, and took every possible advantage of their
work; under copyright, however, they had to conceal as much as possible the
fact that they were copying. The result was that by putting so much of their
own individuality into the work they lowered the quality of the examples
which they were using.

THE OBJECTS REPRESENTED

Most of the drawings represent jewelry for the use of women. It would be
as wrong to draw the conclusion that men of the eighteenth century wore
little jewelry as it would be to conclude from the very few rings or watch
chains that are to be found that women seldom wore these. In both cases the
Opposite is true, as even the slightest acquaintance with the customs of the
period would indicate. It is well to remember that men of fashion also wore

6

sprays of flowers in jewelry upon their chests and even wore earrings until
about 1820; so the same design occasionally could have served both sexes.

Among men, the most highly esteemed jewels were badges of the orders of
chivalry. Of those represented, two deserve special mention. One is the Order
of the Iron Crown, founded by Napoleon in 1805 after his coronation as King
of Italy, at which ceremony the iron crown of the Lombard kings was used.
The order was renewed after 1816 by the Austrian Emperor Francis I. The
other is the Ordine del Moreto, founded by Pope Pius VII, (1800-1823) ,
which was given only to presidents of the Roman Academy of Arts of
Saint Luke.

Nosegays, as brooches or pins, were worn upon the body, in the hair,
or upon the hat. They constituted, together with rings, the most abundant
kind of jewelry used by women of the first half of the eighteenth century.
For this reason they enjoyed a greater prominence among jewelers than neck-
laces, earrings, corsages, and all other kinds of brooches. Soon after the

PROJECT FOR A BROOCH BY THE ITALIAN JEWELER REFERRED TO AS “THE NEAPOLITAN.”
1770-1790. 1938-88-799

middle of the century the bracelet came into a new favor, and the change of
style put a new emphasis upon the earring. The fashionable notion of wearing
a portrait of a beloved or revered person as part of a jewel is represented by
a few drawings. The bow-knot, already favored in the seventeenth century
as a brooch, regained its popularity in the second half of the eighteenth
century. It was worn at times upon the sleeve, as was jewelry in the sixteenth
century. It also formed the central portion of a necklace. With the beginning
of the nineteenth century a new emphasis was put upon jewelry as headgear,
first in the form of diadems, of which as many as three were sometimes worn
at one time. The diadems were soon joined by combs with richly decorated
cresting. In the second and third quarters of the nineteenth century, fillets
were highly fashionable. The ferroniére or frontlet worn upon a golden chain
across the forehead gained a degree of popularity from about 1810 to 1840
after having been in disuse for nearly three centuries.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The appearance of a jewel is determined by the quality of the material of
which it is made as well as by the design. Among the drawings exhibited it
may be assumed that those up to about 1810 aatae to objects that were in-
tended to be made in a workshop, while some of the later period were pos-
sibly meant for an extended and industrialized form of production which
corresponds to the factory method. This may be especially true of designs
intended to be executed in stamped gold by a process of mass production
which permitted the use of an extremely thin leaf of gold and gave shape
and decoration by means of a machine rather than by tools in the hands
of a workman.

Most of the earlier drawings refer to objects in which emphasis is laid
upon the gems or in a fescer degree upon the harmony of gems and the
mounts or Anaaiies of gold or siiee, ‘The importance of the metallic compo-
nents increases greatly while that of the gems diminishes with the advent of
the nineteenth century. This was connected with the general impoverishment
following the revolutions and the Napoleonic wars, and with the increasing
importance of the middle classes with their modest fortunes. The art of the
chiseler acquired a new appreciation in the early nineteenth century. Small
metallic sculpture was enjoyed as it had not been since the periods of the
Renaissance and the early baroque.

It may be assumed that in the whole period considered the jewelers bought
their gems already cut. The period included two events of the highest impor-
tance for bringing gems into the market: the melting down of jewels in
France in 1759 and the financial distress of the former quling classes during
the revolutionary period at the close of the eighteenth century.

‘The drawings which indicate the colors of the gems refer in the eighteenth
century to white, green, and red stones, to which are added in the nineteenth

8

COLORED PROJECT FOR A COMB. ITALY, ABOUT 1810. 1938-88-967

century blue, yellow, and amethyst. It may be assumed that the drawings of
the eighteenth century generally took only costly stones into consideration,
and that the nineteenth century produced another of its changes in this
regard, for at that time much use evidently was made of large gems of small
value and of the so-called Roman pearl, a substitute made of powdered
mother-of-pearl upon a core of alabaster. There is no indication of any use
made of the false diamonds invented by and named after Georges-Frédéric
Strass, (1700-1770). “The Neapolitan’s’” drawings include some of jewels
with colored woven ribbons forming an integral part, in accordance with the
fashion of the late eighteenth century. Cameos make their first appearance in
the drawings of the early nineteenth century. Enamel was intended for several
objects of the eighteenth century, especially pendants. Beginning with 1825
it gained a new importance, being used for jewelry of high artistic value as
well as for jewels in the stamped technique. A novelty of the time was the
use of black enamel. Among metals, gold and silver were taken into consider-
ation, and a small use was made of ornaments of cut steel, so favored in
English jewelry since the end of the eighteenth century and in continental
jewelry during the early nineteenth century. Genuine pearls gained an
ever-increasing importance following 1850.

9

STYLISTIC CONSIDERATIONS

‘The drawings indicate that from about 1750 the jewelers of Paris set the
style of the design generally applied by the Italian jewelers. Too much
jewelry was imported direct from France for the Italian jewelers not to have
realized that they had to follow the example if they intended to compete.

The design of the late seventeenth century had proved itself very adapt-
able, and the period 1725-1750 saw further attempts to transform it. Asym-
metry became symmetry, the blade curve and the blade-volute lost their shape
gradually to become rocaille, and the pedestal-shaped support was included.

French jewelry of the styles of Louis XV and XVI dominated the design
soon alter 1750, especially with respect to necklaces and earrings. The result
was that design as a whole received more subtlety, articulation, variety, and
eccentricity, as exemplified by the combination of an extreme naturalism
with traditional objectivity in a single object, indicated by so many of the
drawings of earrings perpetuating a type invented in the seventeenth cen-
tury. The transformation from the broad type of earrings with three drops
into an elongated type consisting of only two or three parts; the use of archi-
tectural motifs for the design; or the reduction of the design to primitive
motifs of grouping the stones; all are in line with French developments
up to 1795.

The style of “the Neapolitan’s” workshop transformed itself without an
interlude to satisfy the exigencies of the taste of about 1820 to 1830, keeping
a generally classicistic character without making sudden changes.

Elsewhere the usual interlude known as Empire style occurs. The bracelet
1938-88-969 offers a parallel to the jewels worn by Paola Borghese Bonaparte
in a portrait by Robert Lefevre dated 1806. In it can be seen a strikingly rich
realization of the usually dominant principles of the Empire style. These
include the preference for shining and contrasting unbroken surfaces. Em-
phasis was placed upon the harmony of the colored gems and the metalwork.
The latter gained in importance, and often took the shape of a band.

There is another more purely Italian variety of this style. It is character-
ized chiefly by the use of the curve and even more by the volute in the shape
of a circular pediment with a shell inside. This was a motif as foreign to the
tradition of jewelry as it was firmly established in the general ornamentation
of the eighteenth century. At this point the influence of an artist not bound
by the traditions of jewelry becomes especially evident. Perhaps it can be
attributed to Giani.

When the Napoleonic period closed in 1815, its predecessors acquired
a new importance. The very restricted decorative quality of the Empire style
allowed it only a short period of survival in jewelry. But the favor which the
motif of ears of grain enjoyed during some years may be attributed to it, and
the motif of the volute retained a very important place for many years. The
most important inheritance from the Empire style was the framing of one,

10

or the connecting of a few, principal units by filigree or other linear elements,
a practice which had developed in jewelry employing cameos but not gems.

‘Traditions had been discontinued nearly everywhere, and a new beginning
was imperative. The first phase was a mixture of the styles of the Empire and
the latest Louis XVI, with designs less clear and uniform, more complicated
and diversified, and with a growing emphasis upon naturalistic forms. But it
was no longer possible for one style alone to dominate. Several fashions ran
concurrently or followed each other in rapidly changing sequence. Predilec-
tions of individuals could be the determining factor. Romanticism blossomed.
Medievalism, orientalism, and the later New Greek style find only slight
expression among the drawings. But the drawings show that parallel to the
development in other countries there occurred a revival of the style of the
second half of the eighteenth century, which was favored especially during
the second quarter of the nineteenth century.

More important for the future, however, and more in line with the general
artistic tendencies of the period, was a style that was thought of as continuing
the Renaissance. It was already widely current soon after 1840. In reality the
style frequently has a greater affinity to the baroque than to the Renaissance.
In jewelry it seems to have begun with jewels in the shape of escutcheons
which proved adaptable to the stamped process. They appear at first as not
altogether in contradiction to the Empire style. Characteristic of most of the
jewels in the New Renaissance style is their general shape of either an
escutcheon or a tablet reposing upon a console, both attached to a wall. The
tablet points to a connection with the console motif which was much favored
in the system of ornamentation of the style of Louis XVI. A feeling which
corresponds to this style in a general way is strikingly evident in many draw-
ings in the main section of this group.

It is not known which center had the precedence in taking up this New
Renaissance style in jewelry. Certain suggestions point to France, but the
question has not yet really been investigated. This group of drawings offers
other problems. Most of its divisions are interrelated through certain simi-
larities, not enough to allow their attribution to one designer but enough to
point to an interrelationship. This raises the question of whether we do not
have evidence here of the influence of school training in the arts of design.
Most of these drawings give the impression of being older than they are, and
much handled. It may be asked whether the original designer or a later
owner attempted to give them an antique appearance. It seems more likely,
however, that we are dealing with a style of drawings for decorative art
inspired by one artist or one artistic school. Probably the early specimens
looked like the escutcheons and other projects of this kind in a romantic
Louis XVI style, which were certainly executed in the beginning of the
nineteenth century. This may have given rise to the sketchy and somewhat
indefinite appearance of the drawings. At least one of them bears the price
of the object if it were to be executed.

ll

‘The nineteenth century was a period of artistic naturalism, which was
expressed in jewelry in a degree far surpassing that of former styles. The
drawings of the workshop of “A.M.” and “N.M.” show the use made of the
naturalism of the early Renaissance after the transitional phase had passed.
But “N.M.” at his latest goes beyond this and follows contemporary French
naturalism. ‘he extreme phases make use of fantastic forms of a not unnatu-
ral appearance, or of close imitations of plants and animals. Especially fav-
ored was the employment of the serpent. An extreme in naturalism was
reached in the designs making use of the motif of the Milky Way. This was
an invention of Eugene Julienne in Paris, who was one of the influential
designers for decorative art in his time (1808-1875) .

Classical jewelry occasionally had been copied since the beginning of the
century in Naples. But the real revival of classical jewelry is connected with
Pio Fortunato Castellani (1793- 1865) and his sons. Alessandro Castellani
defined the aims of their efforts in a pamphlet, Antique Jewelry and its
Revival, printed privately in London in 1862 and in pean Nobu by the
Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art. “The new school of
jewelry established by us at Rome aims at the perfect imitation of ancient
and medieval works of art in gold and precious stones; each object being so
executed as to show by its style to what epoch and nation it belongs.” “He
told of making copies of Renaissance jewels after having reached this goal.
‘This phase of jewelry design is represented among the drawings by those of
Salvatori, with dates ranging from 1855 to 1872. But Salvatori did not suc-
ceed in producing designs able to compete with those of the periods he
intended to revive. Too much of the contemporary nineteenth century has
infiltrated into his drawings, and they belong in reality to the Etruscan and
the New Renaissance styles, as the latter is represented in drawings of
Rodolfo Tanagli Pagani.

Nothing is known about the existence of any of the pieces of jewelry for
which the drawings were made. In any case, such a collection of drawings as
is exhibited is likely to display the general scope of the development much
more broadly than might be possible with actual jewels.

RuDOLF BERLINER

The writer wishes to acknowledge the assistance received from
members of the Museum staff, especially Mr. Carl C. Dauterman.

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