The Early History of Gilding
The ancient art of gilding, which has accompanied human history since the dawn of civilization , continues to surprise and enchant to this day with its combination of technique and alchemy.
It began with the successful production of sufficiently thin sheets of gold, dating to the late Chalcolithic period (4500–4200 BCE). The earliest artifacts from this era associated with artistically crafted gold leaf (decorative plates 0.5 mm thick) come from the northwestern Black Sea coast and are attributed to the Proto-Thracian culture: the necropolises near Varna, Devnya, Durankulak, and Hotnitsa in Bulgaria, and the necropolis near Moigrad in Romania.
About a millennium later , the ancient Egyptians and Sumerians, taking advantage of gold’s exceptional malleability, began to produce even thinner sheets, reaching the thickness of modern tin foil. A relief dating from 2500 B.C., preserved in an Egyptian tomb in Saqqara, depicts the melting of gold using a bellows and its hammering by hand on an anvil with a rounded stone.
The earliest examples of water gilding with gold leaf also originated in Egypt (wooden and papyrus inner sarcophagi, personal effects, furniture, and statues discovered in the tombs of the pharaohs). During the reign of the 12th Dynasty (1991–1786 BCE), the Egyptians succeeded in producing gold leaf thinner than 1/100 mm.
After Christ
Although the production of gold leaf and the technique of water gilding have evolved over time, such artifacts allow us to conclude that, at its core, this ancient artistic craft has remained virtually unchanged to this day. In Ancient Greece, the coffered ceilings of the Propylaea were gilded with gold leaf, and according to the description by the historian Diodorus Siculus, the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus was entirely adorned with gold leaf.
In A.D. 55, to demonstrate the power of his empire to the Armenian king Tiridates, Emperor Nero ordered that the stone structure of Rome’s most important theater—the Theater of Pompey—be covered with gold. In his encyclopedic work *Natural History*, Pliny the Elder, describing his impressions of the first gilding he saw on the Capitoline Hill, notes that after the destruction of Carthage, luxury swept through the capital so rapidly that even poor people could be seen gilding the walls and vaults of their homes.
Over the following centuries, the technique of water gilding, used in ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, was adopted by Christian iconography and continues to be used to this day in Orthodox icon painting.
Although scattered chronologically, the annals of history contain evidence of the craft of master goldsmiths, who provided the raw materials for all this splendor.
Mastering the Craft
A complex and intricate process, the production of gold leaf was a craft in its own right. From ancient Egypt to the present day, the quest to achieve even and mirror-polished surfaces has defined the main trend in its development, which has focused on making the sheets as thin as possible.
If, in Pliny the Elder’s time, about 750 leaves of gold were produced from one ounce, in the 8th century, the Codex Lucensis 490—which describes all stages of gold leaf production—notes that 1,028 leaves were produced from one ounce of Byzantine gold.
During the period of the Crusades, with the inevitable cultural exchange between the East and the West, the technique of water gilding was introduced from Byzantium into Western civilization, where, at the end of the Romanesque period and especially during the Gothic period, its use became widespread in the creation of all types of sacred objects—pediments, altarpieces, church furnishings, and more. The Gothic period also saw the widespread use of gilding on various surfaces—plaster, stone, wood, and leather.
The art of gilding reached its peak (in architecture, sculpture, furniture, and clothing) during the Renaissance and especially during the Baroque period.
The Rise of Machine Production
The production of gold leaf by hand-hammering required complete control of the hammer and great precision of the eye. With the invention of the roller mill and the cast-iron hammer in the 18th century, the production of gold leaf became somewhat easier, but hand-hammering remained an extremely labor-intensive process.
In the early 19th century, the use of gilding gradually declined, which in turn limited the practice of this ancient craft. In the 20th century, a number of technical innovations emerged, driven by the desire to minimize production costs (materials and time).
“Hammering” begins to be done by machine, which allows the gold leaf to be thinned as much as possible (its thickness is measured in microns). Today, the desire to achieve the same results as the original technique—but more quickly and more cheaply—combined with a lack of knowledge about its traditions, will gradually lead to its being forgotten and disappearing.
The publication of this series of brief technical and technological guides, based on knowledge and many years of practical experience, is an effort to prevent this from happening.
By helping beginners in this challenging field, to use both traditional and modern techniques and materials competently and correctly, and helping viewers develop the ability to evaluate the results achieved by contemporary gilders, we hope that the ancient art of gilding will continue to thrive.
Authors: Radoslav Hristov and Assoc. Prof. Svetozara Georgieva Ratsova-Hristova, Ph.D.
