til 



mom 



BRONZE. 



11. 



processes 

 dote both 



BTUOB* M always harder and more fusible than copper ; it U highly 

 lllslilii when it contain* 86 to 90 per cent, of copper ; tempering 

 incrnuo* it* malleability ; it oxidia** very slowly even in moist air, 

 and benoe iU application to eo many purposes, The density of bronze 

 u alwmya greater than that of the mean of the meUU which compose 

 it : (or example, an alloy of 100 part, of copper and 12 part* of tin U 

 of apadfic gravity 8 SO, whoreas by calculation it would be only 8 63. 



The precise etymology of tb word " bronie " haa not been ascer- 

 tained ; but it u first met with in Italian writers to express thin mixture 

 of metal*, and it U not very improbable that it b a corruption from 

 the Italian **, which signifies trow* ; the bronM of the Italian, and 

 particularly the eitujiu cento schools, being of that colour which u 

 nearly the original tint of the material when left in iU natural state. 

 The green hue that distinguishes ancient bronzes is acquired by oxida- 

 tion and the combination of carbonic acid : and the modem*, to imitate 

 the effect of the finer antique works, sometime* advance that process 

 by artificial meant ; usually by washing the surface with an acid. 

 Vasari alludes to this practice among the artists of his time, and to 

 the mean* they adopted to produce a brown, a block, or a green colour 

 in their bronze. (' Vit. dei Pittor.' Introd.) The Greeks and Romans, 

 in speaking of works in bronze, used words which at once referred to 

 the metal ; the Greek chain* being a mixture of copper and tin, and 

 the Roman at the same. These words are often understood by 

 modems to denote brass, which ia however a different composition, 

 being a mixture of copper and zinc. 



Though there is no doubt that the uses of some of the metals were 

 known very early, there is unfortunately little or no information either 

 on the mode of working them or of the time of their discovery. It is 

 clear however that, for a long period, copper, if not the only metal 

 known, was at least the moat abundant ; for we find it was employed 

 universally for arms, ornaments, and utensils, domestic and agricul- 

 tural. Iron was apparently of much later discover}'. The simpler 

 es of metallurgy seem to have been practised at a very remote 

 both in Asia and Egypt On this subject the Old Testament U 

 our best authority, and the accounts we there find lead us to believe 

 that considerable skill hod been attained by the very earliest nations. 

 Tubal-coin was, we are told, a great worker in metal. Among the 

 earliest allusions to works in metal in the Books of Moses is the men- 

 tion made of the presents offered to Rebecca : Abraham's servant gave 

 her " n golden ear-ring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for 

 her hands of ten shekels weight of gold ;" and spoke to her of liis 

 master's riches, particularly mentioning silver. (Gen. xxiv. 22.) The 

 account* of the ornament* and utensils in the history of Jacob, and of 

 Joseph, and in various other passages of the Old Testament, prove in 

 like manner the extensive employment of metals at that time ; and 

 their being applied to purposes of luxury indicates that considerable 

 progress had been made in the art ; long use naturally preceding any 

 attempt at refinement The earliest recorded names of sculptors (and 

 they are metal-workers) ore in the Old Testament. One was " Bezaleel, 

 of the tribe of Judah, who was filled with the spirit of God, in wisdom, 

 and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of work- 

 manship, to devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and 

 in brass," ftc. 4c. : with him is associated Aholiab, of the tribe of Dan. 

 They were the artists appointed to execute the work* of the Taber- 

 nacle. (Kxod. xxxi.) Among the Egyptians also the employment of 

 metal was known in times prior to any historical record; and it is 

 probable that the metallurgical knowledge possessed by other countries 

 was derived directly or indirectly from this source. Among other 

 proofs of this, the casting of the golden calf by the Israelites may be 

 cited. It U remarkable, however, that among the remains of bronze 

 works of art that have been discovered in various parts of Egypt, none 

 hare been found of large dimensions. Some of the most remarkable 

 early works in metal mentioned in history are those recorded by 

 Diodorus Sicilian, who in this part of his history followed Ctesias, a 

 Greek historian and physician contemporary with Xenophon. He 

 describes works in gold and bronze which decorated the gardens of 

 Semiramis, of such a magnitude, and representing so great a variety 

 of subject*, that, if we ore to place any confidence at all in the testi- 

 mony of this writer, we must conclude that the Assyrians and Baby- 

 lonians had attained very great proficiency in the arts connected with 

 metallurgy. That the statement* of Diodorus, which in fact are those 

 of Ctesias, are to be received with some qualification, must be granted ; 

 but Mr. Layard found in the course of his excavations at Nineveh 

 various bronze ornaments which had evidently been cast in a mould : 

 several of these are in the British Museum. M. Botta also discovered 

 among other metal article* in the palace of Khorsabad, a very finely 

 moulded bronze lion. 



The skill and enterprise of the Phoenician people gave them a com- 

 manding station among the ancient nations, and they must have 

 materially influenced the civilisation not merely of neighbouring but 

 of remote countries ; but unfortunately the monuments that can be 

 referred to a Phoenician origin are too few, and for the most part of 

 too distant a date from the brilliant epoch of the Phoenician nations to 

 b* fairly quoted a* specimens of original taste or practice. Their 

 nippoaed traffic with Britain furnished them tin, or probably they 

 procured it from Spain or Eastern Asia. Homer has immortalised the 

 Sidonians with tko distinguished title of " 3Mnt o*uJaWoAoi," Ott 

 tl-il/ttl mrlttn. The artificer employed by Solomon in 



the decoration of the Temple (about 1000 years before our era) was 

 Hiram, a native of Tyre, " who was cunning to work all works in 

 brass." (1 Kings vii.) These works, we ore told, were tiat and 

 wrought 



We know so little of the earlier history of the art* in India, ili.ii v,, 

 must be satisfied with observing that many specimens of thoir i 

 works, of which we ponsasn some curious examples in tlil> coun' 

 idols, utensils, Ac., may be referred, without doubt, to an extri-nn-ly 

 remote date ; but the slight changes that have taken place in the style 

 of their art and workmanship prevent any classification of them, or 

 even an approximation to the time* at which any of the more ;u 

 were executed. 



The works that remain of the Greeks, whether considered with 

 reference to the illustration of their history, or for the exquisite 

 specimens which they offer of their taste and feeling in imitative art, 

 claim our especial regard, and the names of few sculptors, or rather 

 statuaries, of celebrity have reached us who were not chiefly distin- 

 guixhed for the excellence of their productions in bronze. In the time 

 of Homer, the scarcity of iron occasioned the general use of other 

 metals; and we find the arms, offensive and defensive, are ahvav.s 

 described as being made of bronze, or perhaps copper atom-, whirh it i* 

 possible they had some means of tempering and hardening. The art 

 of casting statues seems to have been first practised in Asia Minor ; 

 Greece, properly so called, being probably too uncivilised to undertake 

 such works. The Lydians and the Phrygians were early distinguished 

 for their skill in these art*, and they were probably the teachers of the 

 Greeks. 



The records to be depended upon as to Greek art go as far back as 

 between 600 and 700 years B.C., and the mode of working metal at that 

 time seems to have been the same, or nearly so, as far as there are 

 means of judging, as that adopted by other and earlier nations. Tin- 

 first and most simple process appears to have been hammer-work ; that 

 is, lumps of the material were beaten into the proposed form ; and if 

 the work were too large to be made of one piece, several were shaped, 

 and the different parts fitted and fastened together by means of pins or 

 keys. Paueanias (iii. 1 7) particularly describes this process in speaking 

 of a very ancient brass statue of Jupiter, at Sparta ; and this mode of 

 working (mentioned by Herodotus, vii. 69) is called by him and 

 others a<f>vpfi\terov (tphurtlaton), " hammer-worked," in opposition to 

 the term (pya xwccvra (clionenta), applied to " works that were cast" 

 This statue of Jupiter was the work of Leorchus of Rhegium, and 

 Pausonios says it was the most ancient statue of the kind ; by wlm-h 

 he probably only means that it was of the most archaic or ancient 

 style, as Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and others, as well as Pausanios 

 himself, refer to other works of a more remote date. Pliny (xxxiii. 4), 

 in spanking of a solid gold statue of Diana Anaitis, refers to a mode of 

 execution termed Holosphyraton (derived from three Greek \vnK. 

 signifying " entire," " solid," and " hammer "). It was so called pro- 

 bably to distinguish it from another kind of hammer-work, in which 

 plates of metal were beaten out into the form desired on a nucleus of 

 another material, of which, as some believe, a curious specimen of 

 ancient Egyptian workmanship may be seen in the British Museum. 

 This process is alluded to in Homer (' Odyss.' iii. 425) ; and as early as 

 Moses, the brazen censers of the disobedient were, by the lawgiver's 

 command, beaten out into plata for covering the Tabernacle. The most 

 ancient civilised inhabitants of India seem to have adopted the same 

 manner of working in Uniintc, or plates ; there is an example of it in 

 the British Museum, in a figure of Buddha. A great saving of metal 

 was effected by this process. 



Soldering (KCJAATJO-IS), or tbo art of uniting the parts of metals, is 

 attributed (Herod, i. 25) to Glaucus of Chios, a contemporary of 

 Alyattes, king of Lydio. The art of soldering iron is attributed solely 

 to Glaucus. (Compare Pausan. x. Ifl. with Herod, i. 25.) 



It is extremely difficult to determine when the art of metal-costing 

 in regular moulds was first practised. It was undoubtedly known 

 very early, though its adoption in European Greece is probably of a 

 comparatively late date. Its progress was evidently marked by three 

 distinct stages. The first was simply melting the metal into a mass, 

 and then beating it out cither as solid hammer-work, or in plates. The 

 next was casting it into a mould or form ; the statue being of course 

 made solid. The lost, which argues considerable knowledge and skill, 

 was casting it into a mould, with a centre or core to limit the thickness 

 of the metal. The first artist* who are celebrated by the historians of 

 Greek art for their success in metal-casting are Rhoccus (who is said to 

 have invented the casting of metal), Theodorus, and Telecles, natives of 

 Samos (Herod, i. 60; Pan*, viii. 14 ; 1'lin. ' X. H.' xxxv. 12); anil tin- 

 iiiainn -r in which they are spoken of proves that their works were held 

 in high estimation long after their own time. There is some difficulty 

 in fixing their date with precision, as there were two or three of the 

 same names, but it seems probable that the first artist* so colled lived 

 between 700 and 600 B.C. Theodorus is made by Herodotus the con- 

 temporary of Cronus, who was defeated by Cyrus B.C. 557. Gitiadas 

 of Sparta and Glaucias of .'Egina hold also a distinguished rank among 

 the earlier artists in bronte; to whom we might add a long list. 

 Herodotus (v. 77) says that four bronze horses were made by tin- 

 Athenians from the tenth part of the value of the ransom of tin- 

 Boeotians and Chalcidians : the horses were placed at the entr.i: 

 the propykca on the Acropolis, with an appropriate inscription. The 



