Hi

 

Can you shed any light on the date or location of this painting from the blacksmithing tools in it?  http://thepcf.org.uk/artdetective/discussions/discussions/do-you-know-who-painted-the-forge-of-vulcan

 

The anvil looks quite unusual, like a hexagon. 

 

 

Thanks

 

 

Variation on a church window anvil  Not that unusual for a pre london pattern 

Thanks. Would this have been primarily used for sword smithing?

Do you have any ideas on nationality?

Looks like the subject is making armor, but I would guess that he could do aboutanyrhing .... But horseshoes may be tricky! :)

Looking at the painting to left, maybe Roman...

Definitely NOT roman but this was a fairly common theme during Renaissance times (Esp variations of "Venus at the forge of Vulcan")  

 

Note that the arm armour at the base of the anvil is definitely after the 1300's and so not roman at all.The anvil looks more like a Renaissance anvil than a roman anvil too.

 

 As previously posted he's working on Armour and so it's an armouring anvil  which will look a lot like other anvils of the time.

 

BTW this painting: "The Forge of Vulcan, owned by Abingdon town council, is one of tens of thousands of publicy owned works about which information is being sought."

 

A simple google search on Forge of Vulcan painting will give you a large sample of them, most renaissance, but I did see a greek pot and Spock for that matter.Oh yes another Renaissance quirk---some of the painting show smithing  in the nude...you have been warned

Hi

Interested to hear more about why the limb armour is definitely post 1300s. And why the anvil is definitely not a Roman one. I don't see the Greek Spock?

Note that paintings of this age were not known for their realistic representations.  There's no reason to believe the anvil used as a model actually looked like what came out on canvas.

What sites on Armour have you looked at?  Post Roman and prior to 1300 armour in western europe tended to be all maille; after 1400 it tended to be all plate leaving the 14th century as the transition period from maille to plate.  As that is a plate arm armour it must therefore date to past 1300 as it is definitely not a Roman armour!

 

I suggest you research the history of anvils that church window pattern is not seen on roman anvils or migration period anvils, or early medieval anvils...there is an example of a Roman anvil at the Museum in Bath england that I commend to your attention; as well as the carvings from the stave church at Hylestad, The Viking, Bertile Almgren et al.  Cathedral Forge and Waterwheel, Gies & Gies for examples of early medieval anvils.

 

Also as mentioned; artistically when people are setting paintings in earlier centuries; they tend not to get the details right; thus many illustrations of scenes from the Bible with people wearing clothes and armour from medieval western europe and not the middle east BCE.

Not a greek spock but a greek pot and a separate image of Spock.  As an allegory this painting looks like another Venus at the Forge of Vulcan example with Mars being the guy in armour and cupid getting ready to mess things up---I'm sure you know the classical myth:  Venus was espoused to Vulcan and had an affair with Mars and they got caught by Vulcan and much classically bad behavior resulted 

I was refering to Vulcan's armor, and since he was a 'Roman god', would it nott then be resonable that HIS armor would be of roman influance? Although, as a 'mythical pagan' painting, the other armor be more in line with the artist's origin and influances of the time? As Thomas brings out, the theme being common for the renaissance, the anvil notwithstanding...
But I have to admit I am no expert on this subject, just commenting on observations and common knowledge.

The anvil is very renaissance too, so we get painting style, content armour & anvil, painting subject *all* to be renaissance (or later)   Doesn't look like a Hals though Mars is headed that way...

Great, thanks all.

i buy this one can anyone tell me is it fake or real ??

Suggest you ask over at swordforum.com, the nihonto sub forum and prepare for disappointment