117 



BRONZE. 



BRONZE. 



ti.s 



ancient artists do not appear to have considered it important to cast 

 their statues entire, for Pliny acquaints us with the composition used 

 for soldering the parts together. The finest collection of ancient 

 bronzes, taking it as a whole, is at Naples ; among the specimens there 

 are some very curious for the manner in which the ringlets of hair, 

 worked separately, are fastened on ; many of these are the size of life. 

 Bronze-casting seems to have reached its perfection in Greece about 

 the time of Alexander the Great, 330 B.C. The accounts given of the 

 works executed about that time almost exceed credibility. After 

 Lysippus, the favourite sculptor of Alexander, who executed, according 

 to Pliny (xxxiv. 8), above 600 works, the art declined. 



The ancient statuaries seem to have been extremely choice in then- 

 selection and composition of bronze. Two of the most celebrated, 

 contemporary with Phidias, carried their rivalship so far as to employ 

 bronze of different countries; Polycletus preferring that of ^Egina, 

 while Myron always used that made at Delos. The ancients seem to 

 have had a method of running or welding various metals together, by 

 which they were enabled to produce more or less the effect of natural 

 colour. Some works are described that were remarkable for the success 

 which attended this curious, and to us unattainable, process. They 

 also tinted or painted their bronze, with the same view of more closely 

 imitating nature. (Callistrat., Stat. ; Pliu. xxxiii. 9 ; Pint., ' Symp.' 

 lib. v., and others ; see also Quatreuiere de Quincy, ' Jup. Olyrnp .') The 

 story of the accidental mixture of the most precious bronze used by 

 the ancients, namely the Corinthian, has been too often repeated to 

 require further notice here. Pliny himself refutes the story which he 

 records. He informs us also that there were three sorts of the 

 Corinthian bronze. The first, called candidum, received its name 

 from the effect of silver which was mixed with the copper ; the second 

 had a greater proportion of gold ; the third, Pliny says, was composed 

 of equal quantities of the different metals. The ancient writers mention 

 (several of the bronzes that were used ; amongst them we find ,s 

 Hepatizon, or liver-coloured; ^Es Deliacum, and JEa ^Egineticum 

 Plutarch gays the composition of the Delian brass was a secret lost in 

 his time .Es Demonnesium, JEn Nigrum, and lastly Tartcssiau bronze 

 (Tofrr^irtrios xo^tii), of which, it must be confessed, we know little or 

 nothing beyond their titles. The analysis of a few specimens of bronze 

 of undoubted antiquity, namely, a helmet with an inscription (found 

 at Delphi, and now in the British Museum), gome nails from the 

 treasury of Atreus at Mycenae, an ancient Corinthian coin, and a 

 portion of a breastplate or cuirass, of exquisite workmanship, also in 

 the British Museum, affords about 87 or 88 parts copper to about 12 or 

 13 of tin per cent. The experiments of Klaproth and others give 

 nearly the same results as to ingredients ; the quantities sometimes 

 differ slightly ; lead is contained in some specimens. Zinc has not been 

 found in any quantity sufficient to warrant a belief that it was inten- 

 tionally introduced : indeed, it is thought that its nature was not 

 understood by the ancients. In an antique sword found many years 

 ago in France, the proportion in 100 parts was 87'47 of copper to 12'53 

 of tin, with a portion of zinc so small as not to be worth noticing 

 (Mongez, ' Me'm. de 1'Instit.'). The same may be observed of minute 

 portions of silver that have sometimes appeared in bronze. (' Antichit. 

 di Ercolano.') 



The Romans never attained any great eminence in the arts of design. 

 Their earliest statues were executed for them by Etruscan artists. 

 Rome however, as the conquests of that warlike people were extended, 

 was soon filled with a prodigious number of works of the best schools 

 of Greece ; and artists of that country, unable to meet with employ- 

 ment at home, settled in the capital of the West. Zenodorus executed 

 nome magnificent works in the time of Nero, particularly a colossal 

 statue of the emperor, 110 feet high. But Pliny, who lived in the 

 reign of Vespasian, laments the decline of the art and the want of skill 

 of the artists in his time. It is even said that the art of casting bronze 

 statues was lost. This assertion is, however, totally unfounded ; for it 

 appears that a Greek sculptor, Celon, was highly distinguished under 

 Domitian, and one of his works, a colossal equestrian statue cast in 

 bronze, is much celebrated ; and there is no doubt that the art was 

 well known under Trajan, Hadrian, the Antonines, and even much 

 later. 



The practice of gilding bronze statues does not seem to have pre- 

 vailed till taste had much deteriorated, and when the richness of 

 material was more highly thought of than the excellence of workman- 

 ship. Pliny tells us that Nero commanded a statue of Alexander, by 

 Lynippua, to be gilt ; but when done it was found to have so much 

 injured the effect or beauty of the work, that the gold was by the 

 emperor's orders removed. The injury was doubtless occasioned by 

 the glitter and sparkling of the light upon the projecting and shining 

 surface*, destroying the breadth, and consequent grandeur and unity 

 of effect secured by the more sober colour of the bronze. The practice 

 of art among the Romans declining rapidly, and with but few inter- 

 ruptions, ceases to interest us about 200 A.D. In the beginning of the 

 13th century, at the taking of Constantinople, we read that some of 

 the finest works of the ancient masters were purposely destroyed, either 

 with the object of converting the material into money, or for sale to 

 the brass-founders, for the mere value of the metal. Among the few 

 work* saved from this devastation are the celebrated bronze horses, 

 which now decorate the exterior of the church of St. Mark at 

 Venice. 



AHT8 AlfD SCI. 1)1 V. VOL. II. 



Passing over the intermediate age of darkness and barbarism, we 

 arrive at the epoch of the revival of art in Italy, under the Pisaui and 

 others, about the 14th and 15th centuries. The celebrated bronze 

 gates of the Baptistery at Florence, by Ghiberti, which M. Angelo said 

 were fit to be the gates of Paradise, are among the more remarkable 

 works of the time. In the succeeding century we find Guglielmo 

 della Porto, practising the art with so great success, that he obtained 

 the flattering notice of Michel Angelo ; and he is distinguished by 

 Vasari (' Vit. di Leone Leoni ') for adopting a mode of easting that 

 was considered quite original, in executing his colossal statue of Paul 

 III. The metal, when run from the furnace, was carried downwards 

 by a duct, and then admitted into the underside or bottom of the 

 mould (nel bagno da basso) ; and thus, acted upon by superior pressure, 

 as hi a common fountain, was forced upwards till the mould was 

 entirely filled. It is necessary in this process that the mould should be 

 kept in a state of great heat, in order that the metal may not cool 

 before the whole is run. But among the artists who are celebrated for 

 their skill in bronze-casting, Benveuuto Cellini holds a most distin- 

 guished rank : there are few collections that cannot boast some 

 specimens of his smaller productions, while the larger works that 

 remain, particularly at Florence, prove that his high reputation was 

 not undeserved. In his interesting and romantic autobiography he 

 gives some curious particulars on metal-casting ; and an anecdote 

 which he tells respecting one of his works illustrates an important fact 

 in the process, while, at the same time, it is highly characteristic of the 

 impetuosity of the man. Copper alone is thick and pasty, and there- 

 fore incapable, without some alloy, of running into all the cavities and 

 sinuosities of the mould ; a small mixture of tin is therefore usually 

 added to give it the quality necessary for producing what is called a 

 true cast. He was engaged on his fine group of Perseus and Medusa, 

 during which, by the jealousy of rivals and the ill-conduct of his 

 workmen, he had been subjected to every kind of annoyance and 

 disappointment. At length his labours seemed to be nearly at an end : 

 his mould was lowered into the pit, the furnace heated, and the metal 

 thrown in. At this time, while a violent storm raged without, the 

 roof of his study, as if to increase the confusion, caught fire ; but 

 though ill and harassed, he still directed the works and encouraged his 

 assistants, till overcome by anxiety and fatigue he retired in a raging 

 fever to lie down, leaving instructions respecting the opening of the 

 mouth of the furnace, and the running of the bronze. He had not, he 

 says, been reposing very long before one came running to him to 

 announce evil tidings : the metal was melted but would not run. He 

 jumped from his bed, rushed into his studio like a madman, and 

 threatened the lives of his assistants, who being frightened got out of 

 his way, till one of them, to appease him, desired him to give his 

 orders and they would obey him at all risks. He commanded fresh 

 fuel to be thrown into the furnace, and presently, to his satisfaction, 

 the metal began to boil. Again however it appeared thick and sluggish, 

 and refused to run. He then ordered all the plates, dishes, and other 

 articles of domestic use in his house to be brought to him, which he 

 threw pell-mell on the metal, when it immediately became fluid and 

 the mould was soon filled. He adds, that he fell down on his knees, 

 and poured forth a fervent thanksgiving to Almighty God for the 

 success that had crowned his exertions. In the processes above 

 described the metal was allowed to flow at once from the furnace into 

 the channels or ducts of the moulds. The statue of Louis XIV., by 

 Girardon, one of the most celebrated sculptors of France, was cast 

 somewhat differently, though with equal success. The wax which 

 regulated the thickness of the metal being entirely melted out, and the 

 mould fixed in the pit, with the necessary vents for the escape of the 

 air, the metal was allowed to run from a furnace, placed considerably 

 above, into a sort of trough or basin. In this were three apertures, 

 closed by plugs, immediately over the chief channel or conduit by 

 which the metal was to be conveyed into the mould. These, by a 

 mechanical contrivance, were opened simultaneously, when the metal 

 descended at once into the mould. This group was cast entire. 



The more modern practice of the English, French, Italian, and 

 German artists does not differ materially in its principle from that of 

 the earlier Italians. Some however use what is called a cupola-furnace, 

 and others a blast-furnace. The mode practised in Sir R. Westmacott's 

 foundry, where many of the chief colossal as well as other works that 

 have been produced in this country have been cast, will serve to 

 explain the methods now adopted : of course, there are variations of 

 more or less extent in the modes of procedure peculiar to every 

 foundry. The moulds, composed of a mixture of plaster of Paris and 

 brick -dust, are made in the usual way on the plaster-cast models. A 

 lining of wax or clay is then made within the mould, of the proposed 

 thickness of the metal. The mould thus lined being then put carefully 

 together, the space or interior is filled up solid with a mixture of plaster 

 and brick-dust, Ac. : this is called the core. The whole now'consists 

 of three parts the mould, the lining of wax or clay (which represents 

 the metal), and the core. When the mass forming the core is set, and 

 fixed with irons and keys to preserve it in its just position, the mould 

 is again taken to pieces, and the wax or clay removed ; the channels for 

 distributing the metal and vents for the escape of the air are then 

 made, and the whole being put together is placed in a stove or oven to 

 be dried. When perfectly free from any humidity (a most important 

 point, as the slightest damp might occasion fatal consequences by the 



