MEDIAEVAL GEM ENGRAVING. 11
his
bonnet-pieces), the latter would have been in profile in somewhat
slight intaglio, stiffly drawn, yet full of character, like the
contemporary relief in ruby of Louis XII. just mentioned.
The
Marlborough gem was described in the old catalogue as the " Head of a
Lombard king;" but not only does the form of the crown contravene this
explanation, for these barbarians, as their coins and the contemporary
Frankish sous dor attest, aped the diadem of the Byzantine
Cajsars ; whilst for their signets they had their own image and
superscription cut on massy gold rings, of which Childeric's is a
specimen, or on large gems of the softer kinds, as in the two seals of
Lotharius above described.
Mr.
Albert Way discovers in this little portrait a resemblance to that of
our Henry VI. upon his great seal. Of this similarity there can be no
doubt, yet, unfortunately, such a coincidence is far from deciding the
question, such portraits being entirely conventional, and suiting
equally well any number of contemporary princes. He conjectures that
the ring, a lady's from its small dimensions, may have belonged to
Margaret of Anjou, which is, indeed, supported by the loving motto, "
There is no one like him." This pleasing and romantic theory has,
doubtless, several circumstances in its favor. This princess coming
from the south of France (if we allow that the art in Italy was
sufficiently advanced to produce such a work), her position would have
enabled her to procure its best and earliest performances. Her marriage
with Henry VI. took place in 1445, a sufficient time after the first
epoch (1415), named as that of an improvement in the art in Italy. Her
father, the " good king Rene," had been dispossessed of Naples in 1442,
only three years before; he was himself an artist as well as a poet,
and introduced many useful arts into Provence, glass-making amongst the
rest. The last being then chiefly cultivated with a reference to art in
the production of elegant vessels or of painted windows, there is a
probability that gem-engraving likewise may have shared his patronage.
Such an attribution of the ring would also explain the appearance of
the black letter, used till late in the following century by the
French, in the motto, and the general style of the jewel itself, which
certainly is not of Italian workmanship. But enough of attributions
founded upon mere probabilities. In
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