Abstract

The technological processes involved in the production of cloisonné enamels, despite long-standing scholarly interest, have not yet been fully clarified. The present article aims to address some of the complexities of this problem by drawing on written evidence, above all the treatise of Theophilus, as well as on the results of scientific investigations of selected archaeological finds bearing enamels. The analysis suggests that Theophilus’s description of the technological sequence for producing enamelled objects corresponds to enamels manufactured primarily in Europe and also in China. In the international literature, these are designated as Zellenemail: in this technique, meta l cloisons are soldered to the surface of a metal (typically gold) plaque with a frame soldered along its edge, and the resulting cells are filled with enamels so as to leave no exposed metal ground. A second typ e of enamel, whose origins are associated with Byzantium, is referred to in the international literature as Senkemail. Here, the cloisons are soldered to the floor of a recess sunk into a gold plaque, or produced by a more complex procedure in which the outline of the future image is cut out in the plaque and a trough-like backing is soldered on from below. As a result, the enamelled image is set against a gold background. In Russian-language scholarship, these types of enamel are not normally distinguished; the single term cloisonné (l’émail cloisonné) is applied to both. In the territories of early Rus’, enamels of the Byzantine Senkemail type are most widely attested. This circumstance appears to have contributed to confusion in attempts to reconstruct the relevant technologies on the basis of Theophilus’s text, which described the method for producing Zellenemail. The examination of several bronze archaeological objects with enamels from the territory of Vladimir-Suzdal’ Rus’ has shown that in these pieces the cloisons were not soldered either to the plaque or to the floor of a recess; rather, they were applied only after the enamelled images had already been created. The author interprets this mode of manufacture, in combination with the use of a relatively inexpensive metal — bronze — as an imitation of costly gold ornaments. It may be further hypothesized that the application of metal details onto the enamel surface to render folds of garments and drapery was also employed in the technology of Byzantine gold enamels of the Senkemail type.