Italian Decorative Iron Work 
STANDARD BEARER, PALAZZO STROZZI, 
FLORENCE 
bar was lowered and lashioned elbow-wise in 
order to attach to it large rings or anchors 
which served as hitching posts for horses. 
Later, with the decline of the sixteenth cen¬ 
tury, and the corruption of artistic taste, these 
horizontal rings were edged by two scrolls or 
rounded rims. 
The banner holders served to sustain the 
standards of the Republic, the flags ol the 
guilds, and the ensigns of the patricians, on 
the occasion of public rejoicings. At first, 
these resembled the torch holders, but in the 
course of time they took on the most varied 
shapes, sometimes representing cornices or 
capitals, sometimes foliage or chimerae. The 
banner holders of the Strozzi Palace are world 
famed. We have it on the authority of Vasari 
that they were the handicraft of Niccolo Ca- 
parra, a Florentine smith who worked them 
with great diligence about the year of our 
Lord 1495. They represent winged, scaly- 
necked dragons who, crouching upon the mar¬ 
velously forged capitals, ornamented with the 
three crescent moons of Casa Strozzi, grasp 
between their potent claws an incised socket, 
corresponding to the ring which the chimera supports with 
its mouth, while a large hoop incised with the graver and 
adorned with gems hangs beneath, framing the base of this 
wondrous work of art. Let us leave aside for the moment 
the exquisite taste, the movement, the classic purity of line, 
and consider rather the technical difficulties involved and 
the marvelous distinction of execution. If we remember 
that every little relief has been obtained by the hammer and 
the burin and that we have to deal with a primary material, 
much harder than granite, we are forced to ask ourselves, 
Is this really the work of one man or of another Hercules ? 
Yet another decoration in wrought iron, the greatest 
and most rare distinction which the Comune could bestow 
upon a meritorious citizen, consisted of light holders or 
cressets, placed at the corners of an edifice. P ew examples 
remain intact in Florence. Of those which the Republic 
placed upon the city gates, only one is still extant under the 
arch of the Porta S. Niccolo, a simple and bold produc¬ 
tion of the eighteenth century, whose vertical bars bloom 
out into a lily. One more is on the northeast angle of the 
ancient seat of the Arte della Seta, and yet another on the 
facade of the Palazzo Quaratesi, now Pisani, both dating 
from the early years of the fifteenth century and both in 
good preservation, incised with the graceful X design, 
SCREEN IN THE PALAZZO DELLA SIGNORIA, SIENA. 
BY NICCOLO DI PAOLO 
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