ITALIAN DECORATIVE IRON WORK 
By the Marchese Ridolfo Peruzzi Medici 
T HE subject that I am about to treat is voluminous 
and also in great part virgin—voluminous, 
because the Italian people have ever loved the beauti¬ 
ful; virgin, because none have as yet devoted due 
attention to this branch of decorative art, which is 
so beautiful and so full of interest. Iron, as a pri¬ 
mary material, was familiar from very early times. 
It was the cause, and at the same time the immediate 
effect, of many civilizations, from the remote to the 
modern. Employed at first as an aid to art, it became 
in the end an art in itself. The centre of human 
dominion,gradually shift¬ 
ing from the East to the 
West, diffused throughout 
the world the use of this 
metal; a use limited it 
is true, but which served 
to prepare the ground for 
the development it was 
to undergo in the Middle 
Ages. For it was the 
Middle Ages that were 
destined to see the expan¬ 
sion of the blacksmith’s 
art. In earliest years iron 
was chiefly employed as 
a means of fortification, 
when, in the dissolution 
of the Roman Empire, 
the irruption of the bar¬ 
barians, and the migra¬ 
tions of the peoples, 
dwelling houses became 
very fortresses. In the 
second half of this epoch, 
however, owing to the 
unifying character in¬ 
duced by weariness of 
such unstable existences, 
by the new religion that 
pervaded each and all, 
and by the gradual soften¬ 
ing of the barbarian conquerors as they came in closer 
contact with the vanquished, iron served no longer 
solely for defence but also as a decoration. Domes¬ 
tic utensils and weapons grew lighter and more 
elegant. Each piece, even though destined to the 
smallest and humblest services, was individualized 
by a profile, an incision, a shaping more or less 
marked. Such a slow evolution, at first almost im¬ 
perceptible, seems to have taken birth in England 
where the very ancient remains testifying to such an 
artistic movement have been found. Gardner repro¬ 
duces several and among them the iron door of Still- 
ingfleet Church in Yorkshire that shows some deco¬ 
rative taste. 
I he Crusades and the continual emigration for 
politico-religious reasons of the English and Scotch 
carried the taste for decorating edifices with iron 
work to the eastward in Europe. Hence, this 
fashion spread over all France, Spain and a part of 
Germany, and thus there arose very rapidly a new 
school of decorative blacksmiths, worthy to be 
enumerated among the 
great artists of the epoch. 
But if the West of Europe 
hailed this new art and 
gave it a special develop¬ 
ment, this was not the 
case with Italy. Now 
what was the reason for 
this indifference ? Must 
it be sought in the abso¬ 
lute lack of any popular 
tradition in this respect or 
to the politico-financial 
conditions prevailing in 
the bel paese ? It was, 
however, perhaps quite 
natural, seeing that the 
Romans rarely worked 
in iron and that this art, 
new to Italy, took spon¬ 
taneous birth there and 
could not at once feel the 
effect of foreign influ¬ 
ences. In the course of 
time, however, new ideas, 
new artistic conceptions 
filtered into the peninsula. 
One set came from the 
North, passing through 
the kingdom of Savoy, 
which, politically speak¬ 
ing, is half in Italy and half in France, and 
through Lombardy, which is so purely German on 
its northern confines. The other influences came 
from the East and first touched Venice, the great 
commercial emporium of those times. 1 hese ele¬ 
ments, fusing gradually with the traditional native 
art, necessarily produced a very beautiful artistic 
hybrid. 
The brief space at my disposal does not allow me 
to make a detailed examination of all Italy can boast 
PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR 
37 
