Page 62

62                 The Slumber of Modern Goldsmiths. 
amusing to the literary student, while the minuteness of its detail could
not 
but make it useful to the professional reader. 
The Medieaval Exhibition at the Society of Arts presented, probably for the
first time to many of its visitors, what we believe to be a veritable fragment
of Benvenuto's gold- 
smiths' work, a spe- 
cimen    as   perfect, 
though not as con- 
siderable in dimen- 
sion, as any preserved 
in  the   most   cele- 
brated museums of 
Europe. The exquisite 
delicacy of the work- 
manship of the little 
brooch, of which our 
engravng     conveys 
but   an    imperfect 
idea, stamps        it at 
once   as  emanating 
from the hand of 
the same artist by 
whom    the wonders 
of the   cabinet   of 
gems    at   Florence 
were wrought. The 
graceful forms of the 
huntresses, the stag's- 
head, the dogs, the 
crowned head, and 
the style, all connect 
it with the famous 
Diana of Poictiers; 
and from   the whole 
aspect of the orna- 
ments there can be 
little doubt that this 
treasure, which now 
belongs to Mr. Farrar, 
must have been one 
(A GoL PEND nNT, wL Pearl and Precious Stones, belonging to  of those executed
by 
11. Farrar, Esq.)               Cellini during that 
visit in France, the jealousies, delights, annoyances, and squabbles, attendant
on which, the artist has so graphically depicted in his memoirs. 
In the paper read by Mr. Wyatt at the Society of Arts, some years ago, on
the art of enamelling, a careful analysis of Cellini's practice was given,
coupled 
with a comparison of his method with those in use by the contemporary 
artists of the school of Limoges, and the subsequent ones of Augsburg, the
Zamnitzers, &c. 
One of the most trying problems involved in the execution of works, 
similar to the one we have now under consideration, consists in the difficulty
of so chasing the small gold figures, over which the enamel covering or 
revdtement has to be spread, as to leave just sufficient room for the enamel
to 
bring the forms up to their right degree of fulness, without involving lumps
of enamel which would be sure to fly in cooling. In many of the modern 
works which have been executed in France in imitation of Cellini, the requisite
amount of allowance fo the coating of enamel has not been made with nicety,
and the figures a  consequently sometimes too thin, and at other times their
forms become coarse. Anlother point in which the modern works are defective,
as compared with the ancient, is, that due allowance is rarely made for modi-