[Illustration:  WROUGHT IRON FROM THE BARGELLO, FLORENCE]

Many grilles were formed by the smith’s taking an iron bar and, under the intense heat, splitting it into various branches, each of which should be twisted in a different way.  Another method was to use the single slighter bar for the foundation of the design, and welding on other volutes of similar thickness to make the scroll work associated with wrought iron.

Some of the smiths who worked at Westminster Abbey are known by name; Master Henry Lewis, in 1259, made the iron work for the tomb of Henry III.  A certain iron fragment is signed Gilibertus.  The iron on the tomb of Queen Eleanor is by Thomas de Leighton, in 1294.  Lead workers also had a place assigned to them in the precincts, which was known as “the Plumbery.”  In 1431 Master Roger Johnson was enjoined to arrest or press smiths into service in order to finish the ironwork on the tomb of Edward IV.

Probably the most famous use of iron in Spain is in the stupendous “rejas,” or chancel screens of wrought iron; but these are nearly all of a late Renaissance style, and hardly come within the scope of this volume.  The requirements of Spanish cathedrals, too, for wrought iron screens for all the side chapels, made plenty of work for the iron masters.  In fact, the “rejeros,” or iron master, was as regular an adjunct to a cathedral as an architect or a painter.  Knockers were often very handsome in Spain, and even nail heads were decorated.

An interesting specimen of iron work is the grille that surrounds the tomb of the Scaligers in Verolla.  It is not a hard stiff structure, but is composed of circular forms, each made separately, and linked together with narrow bands, so that the construction is flexible, and is more like a gigantic piece of chain mail than an iron fence.

Quentin Matsys was known as the “blacksmith of Antwerp,” and is reported to have left his original work among metals to become a painter.  This was done in order to marry the lady of his choice, for she refused to join her fate to that of a craftsman.  She, however, was ready to marry a painter.  Quentin, therefore, gave up his hammer and anvil, and began to paint Madonnas that he might prosper in his suit.  Some authorities, however, laugh at this story, and claim that the specimens of iron work which are shown as the early works of Matsys date from a time when he would have been only ten or twelve years old, and that they must therefore have been the work of his father, Josse Matsys, who was a locksmith.  The well-cover in Antwerp, near the cathedral, is always known as Quentin Matsys’ well.  It is said that this was not constructed until 1470, while Quentin was born in 1466.

The iron work of the tomb of the Duke of Burgundy, in Windsor, is supposed to be the work of Quentin Matsys, and is considered the finest grille in England.  It is wrought with such skill and delicacy that it is more like the product of the goldsmith’s art than that of the blacksmith.