FILIGRANA. —
I. IN ART
This name designates a goldsmith’s work made of gold or silver wires twisted together and often interwoven to form arabesques or designs, soldered at the points of contact. The concealment of the soldered joints is precisely the secret that for a long time made the work of f. the prerogative of certain goldsmiths.The Far East perhaps knew f. from very remote times, and from the East the fashion passed to Byzantium; then, during the Middle Ages, it became widespread in Genoa and Venice. In France, by contrast, it was introduced rather late, around the sixteenth century.
In Venice, f. ornaments appear on the gilded silver altarpiece donated by Patriarch Pellegrino II (1195–1264) to the cathedral of Cividale, but many other objects in the Marciana treasury also prove to have been worked using this technique. Toseca likewise supposes the clasp found in the tomb of Clement IV (d. in 1268) at Viterbo to be Venetian work, as well as the ornaments on the crystal candelabra donated by Carlo II d’Angiò to S. Nicola in Bari. In addition to the Venetian examples, some works by the Byzantines themselves should be recalled: in Sicily they left, for example, the rich gold tiara found in the tomb of Costanza (now in the cathedral of Palermo), with enamels, gems, and pearls; in it, f. covers the entire cap. Filigree similar to this Sicilian example (distinguished from the Venetian pieces by the fact that the f. is not twisted but curled), and in which the work of Muslim artists may perhaps also be discerned, is likewise found on many other objects in the Norman treasury of Vienna.
Since it was impressed at the centre of the sheet, its position in the leaves of a book varies according to the format, depending on the folds to which the sheet itself has been subjected. It is an extremely important critical element for detecting forgeries and determining the date and provenance of undated manuscripts and documents on paper. Today it is found only in fine papers and in banknote paper.