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(b Bolsward, Friesland, 1628; d Bolsward, 1691).

Dutch silversmith . He was the son of the silversmith Frans Rienckes, and he started his apprenticeship at the age of 11 or 12, becoming a master of the Bolsward guild in 1654. His use of embossed botanical decoration on silverware was part of the Dutch late 17th-century expression of floral naturalism in the decorative arts. He appears to have remained in Bolsward throughout his life, producing domestic and church silver. The small number of objects attributed to him includes presentation and alms dishes, salts and such smaller objects as hinges, plaquettes and brush backs. Three objects dating from 1680–81 (Leeuwarden, Fries Mus., 8023, 1949-260, 1955-521) demonstrate his different approaches to the floral theme: the rim of one large dish is divided into sections, each containing an individual embossed flower, whereas another has a swirling pattern of flowers tumbling out of cornucopias and fruits, vegetables and insects; a pair of hinges is decorated with a tight symmetrical design of flower heads and leaves. In other examples fish and crustacea are included in the decorative scheme, and putti playing musical instruments appear on dish rims and centres....

French family of goldsmiths and bronze-founders. Members of the Ballin family were active in Paris from the 16th century to the 18th. Claude Ballin (i) (b Paris, 3 May 1615; d Paris, 22 May 1678) became a master goldsmith in 1637. He was granted lodgings in the Louvre, Paris, before 1671 and became Orfèvre Ordinaire du Roi. Nicknamed ‘the Great Ballin’, he was one of the most prominent French goldsmiths of the 17th century. He worked extensively for Louis XIV, providing an enormous quantity of silver and silver-gilt objects, including vases, bowls, display stands and incense-burners that formed part of the silver furnishings (destr. 1690) of the château of Versailles. Ballin’s work in the classical style also included ecclesiastical pieces (untraced) for the cathedrals of Paris and Reims that are known from numerous drawings (Berlin, Kstbib. & Mus.; Stockholm, N. Mus.; Beauvais, Archvs Dépt.), and which also feature in some wall-hangings, for example the ...

(b Mantua, Sept 23, 1690; d Mantua, Aug 18, 1769).

Italian painter. He was the son of the goldsmith Giovanni Bazzani and trained in the studio of Giovanni Canti (1653–1715). Giuseppe was a refined and cultivated artist (Tellini Perina, 1988) and as a young man profited from the rich collections of art in Mantua, studying the works of Andrea Mantegna, Giulio Romano, 16th-century Venetian painters, especially Paolo Veronese, and Flemish artists, above all Rubens. His earliest works, for example the Assumption (Milan, priv. col., see Caroli, pl. 20), reveal an affinity with contemporary Venetian painters such as Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Federico Bencovich and Andrea Celesti, but Bazzani rapidly absorbed the influence of Antonio Balestra, Domenico Fetti and most of all Rubens and Veronese. The inspiration of the last two artists is apparent in a number of works that may be dated in the 1720s and early 1730s. These include the Miracles of Pius V, the Conversion of a Heretic...

(b Saint-Mihiel, Lorraine, bapt June 4, 1640; d Paris, Jan 24, 1711).

French designer, ornamentalist and engraver. The Berain family moved to Paris c. 1644. Berain’s father, also called Jean Berain, and his uncle Claude Berain were master gunsmiths. In 1659 Berain published a series of designs for the decoration of arms, Diverses pièces très utiles pour les arquebuzières, reissued in 1667. In 1662 he engraved for the guild of locksmiths a series of designs by Hugues Brisville (b 1633), Diverses inventions nouvelles pour des armoiries avec leurs ornements. It would seem that by this date Berain’s skill as an engraver was well known. Around 1667 he decorated and signed a hunting gun (Stockholm, Livrustkam.; see Arms and armour §II 2., (iii)) for Louis XIV, which probably served as his introduction to the court. Through the influence and support of Charles Le Brun, in 1670 Berain was employed by the crown as an engraver. In January 1671 he received 400 livres in payment for two engravings (Paris, Bib. N., Cab. Est.) recording the ceiling decoration by Le Brun of the Galerie d’Apollon in the Louvre, Paris, for which he also designed the painted stucco grotesques. In ...

[Bertinet, François]

(b Ostia, nr Rome; d Rome, 1706).

Italian medallist, active in France. At the age of 22 he travelled from Ostia to Venice and from there, at the summons of the Finance Minister Nicolas Fouquet, to Paris, where he spent many years. In 1665 he executed a bronze medal of Fouquet. He spent eight years in prison as a result of his association with Fouquet, who had been arrested in 1661 after being denounced by Jean-Baptiste Colbert; between 1671 and 1687 Bertinetti made several bronze portrait medals of Louis XIV, one of them during his time in prison. He also made bronze medals of Maria-Theresa, Dr Jacques de Sainte-Beuve and one depicting an unknown priest. Most of his works are signed Bertinet, but one of his medals of Louis XIV is signed Bertinet et Auvy. His best medals are in a Baroque style reminiscent of Gianlorenzo Bernini.

(b ?Reims, 1622; d Lyon, Nov 17, 1692).

French medallist and sculptor. He was working in Lyon by 1657, when he produced a medallion of Archbishop Camille de Neuville de Villeroi. Further medallions worked in wax and cast in wax or lead, in the manner of Jean Warin, show members of the Consulat of Lyon and some members of their families and date from 1658–65 (e.g. Paris, Bib. N.; Lyon, Mus. B.-A.). Bidau also carved stone sculptures for buildings in Lyon, including a Virgin (before 1658), David and Goliath (1660), an Annunciation (1665) and St Catherine (1678). His relief for the Hôtel de Ville celebrating the Peace of the Pyrenees (1660–61; in situ) was made in collaboration with the local sculptor Jacques Mîmerel (fl 1649–70); in addition Bidau provided the model for a fountain (1661) in the Place des Terreaux.

In 1671 Bidau joined the team of sculptors working for ...

(b Utrecht, c. 1608; d ?London, c. 1664).

Dutch silversmith. In 1622 he was apprenticed to Adam van Vianen and was admitted to the gold- and silversmiths’ guild of Utrecht in 1630. After his marriage to Antonietta van Haerlem in 1636, he set up house in the Mariaplaats, Utrecht. His work was strongly influenced by that of Adam van Vianen and, after the latter’s death in 1627, by his son Christiaen van Vianen. A small oval dish with a seated Bacchus on the rim dates from 1637 (Laasne, Cl. D’Allemagne priv. col., see Zeldzaam zilver uit de gouden eeuw (exh. cat., Utrecht, Cent. Mus., 1984), no. 103). Bruyn van Berendrecht became known as a producer of Catholic church silver: candelabra, chalices, ewers and salvers, decorated with a mixture of swag ornament and Baroque floral designs. A pair of silver kneeling angels from 1648 is considered one of Bruyn van Berendrecht’s most important works, and a pair of Baroque wall sconces of ...

[Adalbert]

(fl first half of the 17th century; d after 1672).

Polish goldsmith. He moved from Kraków to Poznań, where he was probably apprenticed to Wojciech Schwartz, whose stepdaughter he married. He was a master in the goldsmiths’ guild from 1632 to 1672. His work is almost exclusively ecclesiastical, including monstrances, ciboria, altar crosses, chalices and reliquaries. These works show the evolution from the Mannerist forms, in which abstract motifs and shell-like decoration predominate, to the fully developed Baroque style. He adopted early the type of monstrance with radial aureola (examples in parish church of Ptaszkowo, 1665; Franciscan Church, Poznań, 1671), rejecting the architectonic, retable-like form popular among goldsmiths in Poznań in the mid-17th century. He is also known to have produced jewellery, especially chains and bells used in the Polish national costume and on church vessels as decoration (e.g. altar cross in Pakośó).

(b Córdoba, 1716; d Córdoba, 1793).

Spanish gold- and silversmith. He qualified as master of the guild of goldsmiths in Córdoba in 1736, and his earliest-known pieces follow the Baroque tradition prevalent there in the early 18th century and in particular the work of his father-in-law, Bernabé García de los Reyes (1696–1750). By the end of the 1750s his curving outlines and decoration (e.g. fonts in Caracas Cathedral) were Rococo in form, and this was the style that was to predominate in his work from the 1760s. He was appointed Cathedral Goldsmith in 1761 and made a number of ecclesiastical pieces (e.g. pyx, 1761, Córdoba, Mezquita; monstrance, 1768, La Orotava, Tenerife, Concepción Church; several pieces for the Bishop of Segovia, Martín Descalzo, 1769). He made several monstrances, including one (1769; in situ) for S Nicolás de la Villa, Córdoba, and one (1779–80; untraced) for Sigüenza Cathedral, for Cardinal Delgado, his most important patron. Castro’s work is characterized by the use of extended and twisted shafts (e.g. chalice, ...

(fl 1670; d Jan 30, 1707).

Polish goldsmith, engraver and writer. He produced engraved frontispieces for J. Liberius’s book The Blessed Virgin Mary’s Sea Star (1670) and his own work St Elegius’s Life … (1687). He is noted in the guild records from 1689. Few of his silver pieces have been identified, as he did not use name marks. The impressive monstrance in St Mary’s church in Kraków is attributed to him. Works that are certainly by him include the ‘robes’ on the painting of the Holy Virgin in the Dominican church in Kraków and the small plate from the tabernacle in St Anne’s, Kraków. Ceypler’s most important work is an octagonal reliquary for the head of St Jan Kanty (1695; Kraków, St Anne), signed in Latin. It was designed by King John III’s court painter, Jerzy Eleuter Szymonowicz-Siemiginowski (c. 1660–1711), and was executed by Ceypler with the help of his pupil, ...

(b Paris, baptJune 10, 1646; d Paris, Dec 31, 1732).

French sculptor and bronze-caster. He came from a family of goldsmiths of Flemish origin who settled in Paris in the early 17th century. Early biographers state that he trained with Michel or François Anguier and at the Académie Royale. He spent six years at the Académie de France in Rome, where he is said to have studied above all the sculpture of Bernini. This was followed by four years in Venice. He applied for admission to the Académie in 1678, and he was received (reçu) in 1681 with a marble statuette of Polyphemus (Paris, Louvre), inspired by Annibale Carracci’s fresco in the Palazzo Farnese, Rome. From this time until 1720 he enjoyed a highly successful career in royal service and in the employ of the Church and of private clients. He devoted much energy to the affairs of the academy, eventually holding the office of Chancellor. He worked in every branch of sculpture, from monumental marble and bronze statues to small bronze statuettes and candlesticks....

(b Florence, Aug 10, 1583; d Florence, March 3, 1643).

Italian painter, draughtsman and architect. He was the son of Maria Margherita Chiosi, a Florentine woman, and Regolo Coccapani, a nobleman of Carpi who worked as a goldsmith on the Ponte Vecchio, Florence. Sigismondo studied under the architect Bernardo Buontalenti and studied painting with Lodovico Cigoli, with whom he collaborated on the fresco decoration (c.1610–12) in the dome of the Pauline Chapel in S Maria Maggiore in Rome. His first known independent work is the frescoed lunette in the cloister of the convent of S Marco, Florence, depicting St Antonino Taking Money away from Two False Mendicants (1613). Between 1615 and 1617 he received payments for the painting of Michelangelo Crowned by the Arts on the ceiling of the Galleria in the Casa Buonarroti; in the same years he painted the Adoration of the Magi, initialled and dated 1617 (Signa, S Maria in Castello). Other initialled and dated paintings include ...

(b S Payo de Ruilhe, Braga, 1710–20; d Oporto, Nov 11, 1784).

Portuguese silversmith. Nothing is known of his early career. He was established in Oporto as a member of the Confraria de S Eloi (Confraternity of St Eligius) by 1747, as his name appears in a list of signatories to the ‘Covenant and Statutes of the workers in silver of the city of Oporto’ and to later additions to the Covenant, which was of major importance for the regulation of the craft in the city. In 1755 he was a guarantor for another goldsmith, Domingos Sousa Coelho, and he worked on the silver altarpiece (in situ) of Oporto Cathedral. This altarpiece was designed by the architect Nicolau Nasoni, whose work greatly influenced Sampaio. He also worked for the church of Clérigos from 1756 and for the church of S Ildefonso between 1760 and 1781. He was considered one of the best silversmiths in Oporto, being elected a judge of the goldsmiths’ guild in ...

(b Cologne, ?1595; d Copenhagen, May 6, 1647).

Dutch engraver and medallist, son of Crispijn de Passe (Arnemuiden). In his youth he contributed to various of his father’s series of prints, but he soon began to specialize in portraits. His first known example is of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (1612; Hollstein, no. 61), and there is a portrait of Hendrick Goltzius (1614; Hollstein, no. 57). From 1616 Simon was probably working in London, where he made numerous portraits, for example of King Charles I and such noblemen as Francis Bacon, which were published either by his father or in London. In 1623 Simon probably visited his brother Crispijn (Cologne) in Paris, where he engraved a portrait of Antoine de Pluvinel (Hollstein, no. 105).

In 1624 Simon moved to Copenhagen, and from 1625 he signed his prints as Royal Engraver to Christian IV. In February 1637 he was commissioned by Christian IV to recruit Dutch artists for a series of drawings of events in Danish history, which were probably intended to be made into prints. He worked in Denmark until his death, occasionally returning to the Netherlands. In some of his portraits the oval surround is decorated with a characteristic frame of scrollwork. Apart from portraits, Simon engraved title-pages for German, English and Danish publishers. A few silver portrait medallions have survived; these could also be used to make prints. His last dated engravings were made in ...

(b Biberbach, Dec 26, 1664; d Dresden, March 6, 1731).

German goldsmith and jeweller. He was one of the most famous goldsmiths of his time, and almost all his works are in the Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden. After his training in Ulm he travelled as a journeyman to Augsburg, Nuremberg and Vienna. He is first recorded in Dresden in 1692. His two brothers, the enameller Georg Friedrich Dinglinger (1666–1720) and the jeweller Georg Christoph Dinglinger (1668–1728), are documented as active there in 1693; they remained his closest collaborators, particularly Georg Friedrich.

From the beginning of his career, Johann Melchior Dinglinger worked for Frederick-Augustus I of Saxony, even before the latter became Elector in 1694. The jewellery produced for Frederick-Augustus’s coronation as King Augustus II of Poland (also known as Augustus the Strong) in 1697 was Dinglinger’s first important commission. In 1698 he was appointed Court Jeweller, and all his projects were personally supervised by the King. In the late 17th century and early 18th Dinglinger probably produced most of the jewellery for the court: almost all the orders of chivalry and military decorations came from his workshop, including those in emeralds and diamonds for the revived Polish Order of the Knights of the White Eagle. Various designs for banquets for the King are also kept in the Grünes Gewölbe....

[Giovan Domenico; Giandomenico]

(b Florence, June 15, 1692; d Aug 18, 1768).

Italian painter. He was the son of the goldsmith Antonio di Giovanni da Imola and Margherita di Domenico Gori. His mother’s family, which included her brother, the antiquarian Antonio Francesco Gori, was extremely influential in Florence and proved very important for Ferretti. In the first years of his life he lived in Imola, where he was sent to study (1708) with the local painter Francesco Chiusuri. After the family moved to Florence, Ferretti was taught there by Tommaso Redi and Sebastiano Galeotti. Later he spent five years in Bologna, an important centre for the practice and teaching of academic painting, where, in the workshop of Felice Torelli, his work acquired its characteristic style.

On returning to Florence in 1715, Ferretti frescoed the ceiling of S Chiara, the scenes of which are practically illegible. Two years later he became a member of the Accademia del Disegno. Between 1718 and ...

[il Sarzana]

(b Sarzana, Aug 12, 1589; d Genoa, Oct 19, 1669).

Italian painter. He was the son of Giovanni Fiasella, a silversmith. At the age of 11 he studied briefly with Aurelio Lomi (1556–1622), who was in Genoa from 1597 to 1604, and then with Giovanni Battista Paggi. Around 1607 he left for Rome, where he copied paintings by Raphael and frequented the Accademia del Nudo. His painting of a Nativity (untraced) was admired by Guido Reni when it was on view for a celebration in S Maria della Scala, Rome (Soprani). Consequently Domenico Passignano and Giuseppe Cesari Arpino (1568–1640) asked him to work with them, and the Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani commissioned paintings from him.

After about ten years in Rome, Fiasella returned to Sarzana, perhaps in 1616 when he painted an altarpiece, Virgin and Child with St Lazzaro (Sarzana, S Lazzaro). The heavy figures, precise modelling and strong lighting in this, his earliest dated painting, show that he had both learnt the classical language of Roman art and absorbed the naturalism and ...

(b Settignano, nr Florence, 1670; d Florence, 1736).

Italian sculptor, medallist, architect and festival designer. He was a leading figure in the generation of sculptors trained in Florence after the dissolution of the Accademia Fiorentina in Rome (1686). Taught by Carlo Marcellini and Giuseppe Piamontini, he worked under Giovanni Battista Foggini on sculpture for the Feroni Chapel in SS Annunziata, Florence (1691–3), and the nave of SS Michele e Gaetano (1694–6). His principal sculptures are marble works for the high altar of SS Annunziata (1704–6) and portraits. His statues of St Filippo Benizzi and St Giuliana Falconieri for the Annunziata altar, with their animated balance and restrained intensity, are among the best of their date in Florence. Several portrait busts and reliefs, with an unsparingly detailed realism tempered by coolly imperious expression, have been attributed to him. The basis for these attributions is the signed marble effigy of Baron Philipp Bertram Degenhard Joseph von Hochkirchen...

(b Tordesillas, c. 1698; d Salamanca, 1766).

Spanish goldsmith. He worked in Salamanca from 1713, where he produced mostly ecclesiastical pieces, although some secular works are also extant. About 50 pieces of various types by him survive. In 1728 he made the andas (processional litter) for Salamanca Cathedral after a design by Alberto Churriguera and in 1734 a Maundy Thursday coffer and a set of altar-cards for the Carmelite Convent of Peñaranda de Bracamonte, near Avila. He was commissioned by Bishop Osorio to make a collection of pieces (1738–48) for Nuestra Señora de la Encina, Ponferrada, León. His processional crosses were original on account of their high-relief supports to the arms (examples at Madrigal de las Altas Torres, 1745; Tordesdillas, 1747–8; Becerril de Campos). His monstrances, on which seraphim support the sun above the world, followed 17th-century French models already known in Salamanca but which he refined and standardized (examples at Astorga Cathedral, 1757; La Seca, ...

(b Forlì, 1646; d Rome, 1721).

Italian draughtsman, silversmith, bronze-caster and gem-carver. Between 1665 and 1668 he was apprenticed to the silversmith Marco Gamberucci (fl 1656–80) in Rome. In 1675 he qualified as a master silversmith and rapidly achieved a position of prestige in the silversmiths’ guild. He ran a productive workshop, in which he was joined in 1680 by his brother Alessandro Giardini (b 1655). In 1698 he was appointed bronze-founder for the Papacy. Only a few of his works in silver have survived, most of them church furnishings that escaped the depredations of the Napoleonic army. These show a strong sense of form and a technical mastery that earned him important commissions from the papal court, including an imposing papal mace in silver and parcel-gilt (c. 1696; London, V&A), a tabernacle in silver, gilt copper, porphyry and rock-crystal (1711; Vienna, Ksthist. Mus.) and a cross and two candlesticks in silver and malachite (...