514 Mr. H. Hardinge Cunynghame [March 1, 



The nature of Gothic work will never be understood, unless we 

 remember that it was chiefly used for the instruction of persons who 

 could not read, and who learned their Bible stories and the lives of 

 the saints from the painted walls and panes of some cathedral. The 

 requirements of art were subordinated to utility. The art, like the 

 literature of the Gothic period, was highly symbolic. As an example 

 of this symbolism, it may be mentioned that there was a mediaeval 

 tradition that the Creed was the joint work of the Twelve Apostles, 

 each of whom contributed a sentence. Each sentence was supposed 

 to be based on a corresponding sentence from one of the twelve 

 greater prophets, so that each apostle had his particular prototype. 

 In Chartres Cathedral the Apostles may be seen in order, each 

 actually sitting on the shoulders of his own prophet, and with the 

 corresponding sentences written above and below. 



But towards the end of the fifteenth century the public, though 

 still under the domination of Gothic traditions, had imbibed a con- 

 siderable amount of Renaissance taste and feeling, which manifested 

 itself in a desire for a more free and natural style of drawing. There 

 therefore arose a demand for fresh work in enamel, more in accordance 

 with the new style of art that was gradually gaining ground. In 

 response to this demand, a totally new mode of enamelling was in- 

 vented, derived partly from the jewellers' work of the day, partly 

 from the art of glass window painting. It is not clear where this 

 invention was made, but it seems to have been introduced simul- 

 taneously in Italy, in Germany, and in France. 



The new method consisted in covering thin plates of metal with 

 layers of coloured enamel, no longer melted into the recesses of 

 cloisonne or champleve, but made to flow over the whole plate or 

 parts of it, and in gradations of thickness, whereby gradation of tint 

 was obtained. The town of Limoges again took the lead in this 

 manufacture, and retained its supremacy so effectually that this sort 

 of work is known as " Limoges enamel." It seems certain that the 

 members of the Penicaud family who practised the art of glass painting 

 were the first to execute this new work in Limoges. They took as their 

 models the coloured pictures which adorned the breviaries of the day, 

 and which were in the Flemish style, with French influence. 



" Nardon " (that is to say " Leonard ") Penicaud was apparently 

 the eldest of the family. His method was — having covered a thin 

 plate of copper, or bronze, with a layer of opaque-white enamel — to 

 paint with a brush or pen, in dense black, upon the surface so 

 obtained, a picture in strong outline, so ns to resemble one of the 

 coarse, strongly cut woodcuts of the period. This was fired, to melt 

 the surface of the enamel and fix the black outlines, much in the 

 same way as a black print upon a piece of china. To do this, the 

 charcoal furnaces then in use by glass painters were no doubt em- 

 ployed. 



The next step was to cover the drawing with layers of transparent 

 enamel, much as one would colour a woodcut with paint. Nardon 



