BASILIO, JAZZE LAUREN

EARLY FRENCH RENAISSANCE – DECORATIVE ART RESEARCH OUTPUT

Decorative art, any of those arts that are concerned with the design and decoration of
objects that are chiefly prized for their utility, rather than for their purely aesthetic qualities.
Ceramics, glassware, basketry, jewelry, metalware, furniture, textiles, clothing, and other
such goods are the objects most commonly associated with the decorative arts. Many
decorative arts, such as basketry or pottery, are also commonly considered to be craft,
but the definitions of both terms are arbitrary. It should also be noted that the separation
of decorative arts from art forms such as painting and sculpture is a modern distinction.
The decorative arts are treated in several articles. For treatments of particular decorative
arts, see basketry, enamelwork, floral decoration, furniture, glassware, interior
design, lacquerwork, metalwork, mosaic, pottery, rug and carpet, stained glass,
and tapestry. For a discussion of clothing and accessories, see dress and jewelry.

The promotion of the fine arts over the decorative in European thought can largely be
traced to the Renaissance, when Italian theorists such as Vasari promoted artistic values,
exemplified by the artists of the High Renaissance, that placed little value on the cost of
materials or the amount of skilled work required to produce a work, but instead valued
artistic imagination and the individual touch of the hand of a supremely gifted master such
as Michelangelo, Raphael or Leonardo da Vinci, reviving to some extent the approach of
antiquity. Most European art during the Middle Ages had been produced under a very
different set of values, where both expensive materials and virtuoso displays in difficult
techniques had been highly valued. In China both approaches had co-existed for many
centuries: ink and wash painting, mostly of landscapes, was to a large extent produced
by and for the scholar-bureaucrats or "literati", and was intended as an expression of the
artist's imagination above all, while other major fields of art, including the very
important Chinese ceramics produced in effectively industrial conditions, were produced
according to a completely different set of artistic values.

GLASSWARE
Medieval stained glass is the coloured and painted glass of medieval Europe from the
10th century to the 16th century. For much of this period stained glass windows were the
major pictorial art form, particularly in northern France, Germany and England, where
windows tended to be larger than in southern Europe (in Italy, for example, frescos were
more common).
Stained glass windows were used predominantly in churches, but were also found in
wealthy domestic settings and public buildings such as town halls, though surviving
examples of secular glass are very rare indeed. The purpose of stained glass windows in
a church was both to enhance the beauty of their setting and to inform the viewer through
narrative or symbolism. The subject matter was generally religious in churches, though
"portraits" and heraldry are often included, and many narrative scenes give valuable
insights into the medieval world.

TAPESTRY AND TEXTILES

Tapestries were a principal aspect of the ostentatious "magnificence" used during the
Renaissance by powerful religious and secular rulers to broadcast their wealth and their
might. This sumptuously illustrated book presents the first major survey of tapestry
production between 1460 and 1560, and it catalogues the first monographic loan
exhibition of tapestries in the United States in twenty-five years. It highlights the finest
tapestry cycles of the age as one of the greatest achievements of Renaissance art.
Examples from many of the most important surviving set—which still dazzle today as they
did five hundred years ago in the palaces and cathedrals of Europe—illustrate the
contribution that the medium made to the art, liturgy, and propaganda of the time.

METALWORKS
A nef is an extravagant table ornament and container used in the Middle
Ages and Renaissance, made of precious metals in the shape of a ship – nef was
another word for a carrack in French. If not just used for decoration, it could
hold salt or spices (the latter being very expensive in the Middle Ages), or cutlery, or
even napkins. The large nef depicted in the well-known calendar miniature for January
from the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry is being used to hold, and perhaps wash,
gilt dishes from the table service. Nefs are recorded in France as early as 1239,[2] initially
consisting of just the hull, and perhaps initially used to drink from; by the 14th century the
most elaborate had masts, sails and even crew, and had become too crowded with such
details to be used as containers for anything. The so-called Mechanical Galleonin
the British Museum is a late 16th-century German nef which was also a clock
and automaton, with moving figures and music.
A nef was usually made of silver, silver-gilt or gold, often further embellished
with enamel and jewels. A nautilus shell often formed the hull of the ship, as in
the Burghley Nef (illustrated). Some nefs had wheels to allow them to be rolled from one
end of the table to the other, but most had legs or pedestals. The nef was placed in front
of the most important person at table as a mark of their status.
The equivalent in religious plate is a navicula, Latin for small ship, and also a term in
English for a boat-shaped incense-holder.
Reference:

◦ Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica (2019). Decorative Art.

◦ Retrieved from: https://www.britannica.com/art/decorative-art

◦ Campbell, Thomas P. “European Tapestry Production and Patronage, 1400 –

1600.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, 2000–.
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/taps/hd_taps.htm (Oct ober 2002)

Definition of terms:
Glassware – ornaments and articles made from glass.
Tapestry - a piece of thick textile fabric with pictures or designs formed by weaving colored
weft threads or by embroidering on canvas, used as a wall hanging or furniture covering.
Metalworks - the product of metalworking especially : a metal object of artistic merit.