Paulina Fedotova
Lomonosov Moscow State University; Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Russia
The decorative designs of the Italian Renaissance reached Britain in the second half of the 16th century, particularly through published prints of Continental artists. English watchmakers and chasers frequently turned to mainland art and used it as a source. Especially important moment of the English watchmaking evolution was the fact, that in London original and distinctive horological tradition had already existed for a very long time, since the very beginning of the 16th century. In addition to the phenomenon of the origin of the British horology, the very important matter is the fact that an early English watch signed, for example, by a Dutch immigrant, may well have German and French constitutional overtones.
Hence, the problem of the formation and development of the new ornamental system is linked to a subject of the evolution of the English decorative tradition and its interaction with artistic currents of the Continental Europe during the period.
Besides, being one of the greatest horological and casemaking centers, Britain will influence profoundly the development of world watchmaking in the following years and will take a crucial place in the history of horology. The unique artistic approach of British makers and decorators will not master the Renaissance tradition, but will adopt it and change within the limits of their own artistic system influencing deeply the decorative designs of horological centers outside England.
Watch, being an object of a special value, becomes an obligatory attribute of power and luxury. At the same time watch is an essential part of costume, which means that watch as an accessory formed an appearance of the man of those days and determined main fashion tendencies of the 16th–17th centuries.
The main purposes of the paper are to reveal the influence of the artistic tradition of the Italian Renaissance on independently formed ornamental designs of English watchmakers, to mark main characteristics and attributes of the center in the context of European art and to determine the influence of the English art school on the evolutionary processes in the field of horology. Moreover, the paper is to examine a special culturalogical emphasis of watch during the period in question.