“Intelligible Beauty” Introduction The development of pierced openwork jewellery is a characteristic phenomenon of Late Antiquity. 2 The distinctive feature of this type of object compared to other forms of art is the high value of the raw material – mostly gold. Consequently, the way in which this costly material was used became a central preoccupation of the goldsmith. During Late Antiquity at least six different techniques were invented to improve the way in which the gold could be economised, to simplify the manufacturing process or for aesthetic purposes. The question of the importance of each of these factors has to be dealt with here briefly before discussing the techniques. Whether techniques or aesthetics are the primary factor in the evolution of art is a debate which goes back to the end of the 19th century and is of specific concern with regards to the works of art of Late Antiquity. 3 By studying jewellery strictly from a technical point of view, this paper does not intend to take issue with a materialistic vision of the evolution of Late Antique Art. The aesthetic changes that one can see on pierced jewellery are a transposition on a smaller scale of the chang”es which occur in the monumental arts of the 3rd century. These general aesthetic changes had a great impact on the “techniques employed on pierced jewellery, because the liberty taken with naturalistic shapes freed the figures and the vegetal ornaments used on jewellery from the formal conventions of the classical tradition, which were technically too constraining. When there was no aesthetic objection to flattening shapes or to deforming their proportions, new techniques could freely develop, naturally going in the direction of an economy of material and of time necessary for the manufacture of objects. But these technical changes would hardly have been possible without the aesthetic changes which occurred in the major arts in the 3rd century such as sculpture, painting, etc., which were the formal models used for the figures and the ornamentation on jewellery. Two important works of the 1990’s initiated research on the techniques of pierced jewellery. 4 Ogden’s and Schmidt’s paper in 1990 dealt with the techniques used for piercing jewellery as well as of the method of creating hollow beaded wire. 5 They distinguish two techniques: the first one is called ‘chisel-cut’ pierced work and consists of simply cutting out the pierced pattern with a sharp chisel in a thin sheet of gold; the second technique is based on round perforations punched into the metal, which were afterwards ‘opened out’ with a triangular- sectioned chisel. 6 This technique uses a thicker sheet of gold and creates smaller patterns. It was successfully reproduced in experiments carried out by Ogden and Schmidt. According to them the round perforations are obtained by pressing a tapered round-section punch through the sheet. I rather think that the perforations were achieved with a small round-section punch with a convex end, according to the marks made by this tool in those places where it did not entirely perforate the sheet (see p. 7). The triangular-sectioned chisel (comparable to a graver) used by Ogden and Schmidt during their experiments to carve the metal is useful in creating the angles, but most of the time the tool marks bear witness to an ordinary chisel. The example they select for the ‘chisel-cut’ technique – the fragmentary jewel from the Fayoum, now in the British Museum 7 – has patterns which were not just simply cut out. It corresponds to what I call the chasing-cutting technique which means that the patterns were first chased in order to give them relief before being cut out. This technique has been explained by Niemeyer in a study which focussed on the great necklace from the Assiût treasure. 8 Niemeyer also distinguishes the two techniques described by Ogden and Schmidt, emphasising more the chasing-cutting technique which is used on the necklace. She explains that the cutting out of the patterns is brought out on a soft support by chasing all around the patterns, that is, by pressing the chisel in a repeated way against the sheet which creates strong deformations on the obverse. The cut-out piece is then pressed from the obverse in order to be removed from the sheet. She suggests that the repeated chasing of the patterns was enough to cut them practically out and to remove them easily by pressing from behind. I rather think that the work of chasing and cutting are two separate phases of the technique, the first one usually using a blunt chisel, the second a sharp chisel which is pushed in an oblique way against the inner wall of the patterns (see the drawing in Pl. 4). These studies agreed about the existence of two different techniques, but the reasons for their development were not clear. In fact, these techniques appear only at an advanced stage of the evolution of pierced jewellery, towards the end of the 3rd or the beginning of the 4th century. Several other techniques existed before their appearance and some other techniques appeared after them. They take part in a long evolution which is different in the West and the East. 9 I will argue here that the evolution of the different techniques can be explained by the constant search for reducing the cost of pierced jewellery and for simplifying the work of the goldsmith. In order to study the different techniques of pierced jewellery it is necessary to have a precise terminology. As far as possible I have tried to find simple words which sum up the principle of each of the techniques in order, as for example the cutting-carving technique, in which the holes are first cut out and then carved out, or the chasing-cutting technique in which the patterns are chased before cutting them out. There are three elements in an openwork object: the surface, the depth and the opening (Pl. 1). The surface is that part of the openwork which is in the foreground. It is usually flat and creates the patterns depicted by the openwork. The The Six Techniques of Pierced Openwork Jewellery 1 Bálint László Tóth