George N. M. Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 Here is a link to The History Blog which was posted today. It is not iron or a weapon but I am sharing it because it depicts Vulcan working on a helmet. Note that while Mars and Venus are au naturale, Vulcan is wearing at least a rudimentary apron over his nether regions. Also, note the little cupid in the lower right working a double bellows. http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/63433#comments This may be an ongoing thread because I periodically see and am intrigued by blacksmiths and anvils shown in paintings, sculpture, coins, vignettes, etc.. Lots of times they are stylized but they can also be an interesting primary/secondary resource. Add your own favorite artistic blacksmith or anvil. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 If you do a search on: Venus at the forge of Vulcan you can probably turn up a dozen paintings on that theme some of them showing a lot of blacksmithing tools of that period. Valezquez's Apollo in the forge of Vulcan And a bit later there is Goya's "The Forge". A fairly common topic for art. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott NC Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 We Will, We Will Rock You! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott NC Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 I had it made into a poster to remind me what I have. Not what I wish for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 Smith sitting comfortably while apprentice does the heavy hammering... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott NC Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 He's on eye level for a shot of quartzite in the eye though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rojo Pedro Posted February 26, 2022 Share Posted February 26, 2022 Safety third. cool link George Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott NC Posted February 28, 2022 Share Posted February 28, 2022 Hey, George. Did I start your thread off on the wrong foot with my image? Can we just post images or do think a description or discussion of them would help? I don't have a desktop so it's hard to type from this phone. I can sure add a link though. Here's one I like of smelting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 28, 2022 Share Posted February 28, 2022 Foundry work as they were not teeming steel until the 1700's in Europe, (Benjamin Huntsman) and I don't think they were copper casting from the smelt in Bronze age. My guess would be a bronze pour with the person on the left holding back the dross. Now they were make crucible steel in Central Asia pre 1000 CE; but were letting the pucks solidify in the crucibles and then breaking them out. "Crucible Steel in Central Asia" Dr A. Feuerbach's PhD thesis. They then would be forged by techniques we would recognize---remember not all Crucible Steel was Wootz; but all Wootz was Crucible steel! I was thinking about the many Venus at the Forge of Vulcan pictures done in the renaissance and decided that the theme of Beauty contrasted with the strength and vigor of the smith(s) was considered a popular one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott NC Posted February 28, 2022 Share Posted February 28, 2022 Good heavens, you are right. Would you believe me if I told you I know the difference? I suffer a disconnect between my eye's and my brain from time to time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 28, 2022 Share Posted February 28, 2022 Not a problem; I'm just being picky about using smelting for foundry work lately...or "I zinc they are doing it wrong;" Tom said brazenly while upset by his tinnitus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott NC Posted February 28, 2022 Share Posted February 28, 2022 My questions stand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBones Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 St, Dunstan Patron Saint of blacksmiths. Born in England in the 900's. The Devil was annoyed at the healing properties of a spring, at Tunbridge Wells in Kent, and poked his nose right below the surface causing it to go red and taste of sulphur. St Dunstan pulled him out by the nose using a set of blacksmiths tongs. Those tongs can be seen at Mayfield Convent, a Roman Catholic boarding school in the village of Mayfield in Sussex. he repeated the same trick at a forge when the devil disguised himself as a beautiful young lady to tempt him. However he would not look up from his work and then noticed the hooves beneath the dress. St Dunstan then grabbed the Devil by the nose with tongs again which caused the Devil to unfurl his wings in order to fly away in pain. St Dunstan is reputed to have nailed horseshoes to the Devils hooves and refused to remove them until Old Nick promised to stay away from Blacksmiths. It is also said that the legend of a horseshoe being lucky comes from this tale as the devil also promised not to enter a building with a horseshoe nailed above the door. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 "In the Forge" by Francisco Goya, ca. 1817 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forge_(Goya) -- "Patrick Lyon in the Forge" by John Nagle, ca. 1826 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Lyon_(blacksmith) (Make sure to read the whole story; Lyon sounds like a real character.) -- "Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan" by Diego de Velázquez ca. 1630 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_in_the_Forge_of_Vulcan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott NC Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hephaestus "The Greek god of blacksmiths, metalworking, carpenters, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 Clearly a modern work, although I haven't been able to figure out who the original artist might be. Plenty of websites selling "cast alabaster" replicas, though. If we want to do sculpture, here's one from the French sculptor Guillaume Coustou the Younger, which he submitted to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1742, as part of his application for membership. So far as I know, there aren't many ancient sculptures of Hephaestus/Vulcan that have survived to the present day, and I don't know of any that present him standing at the anvil (not least because ancient Greek smiths squatted on the floor). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 However, there are lots of vase paintings, such as this one showing Hephaestus presenting the shield of Achilles to Thetis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 1, 2022 Share Posted March 1, 2022 BTW: notice those Spanish smiths using "Japanese hammers" in Velasquez's painting back in the 1600's! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 A couple more Hephaestus statues. This is a modern one (1996) entitled "Pathos Hephaestus Eros" by John Whitcomb Robinson, on the campus of Florida State University: (Couldn't find a photo showing the full height including the base, alas.) And then we have this excrescence, from the approach to the main entrance of the Chimei Museum in Taiwan. I have no clue what's supposed to be happening here, apart from demonstrating the patron's excess of money and absence of taste and the sculptor's total ignorance of blacksmithing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBones Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 You mean we are not supposed to forge with our buts resting on the anvil? Looks like he is trying to forge a new loin cloth, or what ever that skirt looking thing is supposed to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 Perhaps it was to indicate his lameness; of which John, at least, should be familiar with. Would have done better with a ragged tree branch crutch propped under his armpit in my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 Probably, but that's no excuse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott NC Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 Far be it for me to criticize, but that sculpture by our friend Robinson makes my eyes hurt to look at it... Maybe it's different up close and in person. Almost kooks more like one of his automatons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 2, 2022 Share Posted March 2, 2022 Is he being represented as making a butt weld? Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.