Filigrana / Filigree — Twisted Strands of The Portuguese Soul
JOANA EMÍDIO MARQUES
Words
INÊS D'OREY FOR HOUSE OF FILIGREE
Photography
Filigree is more than just a goldsmith’s craft; it is a liturgy of light and lightness. Filtered among each piece’s twisted threads and empty spaces, the sun tiptoes in, creating a combination of shadow and brightness that is reminiscent of the world’s most far-flung mysteries: life and death, the eternal and transitory, the web that binds us to cosmic laws; an arachnid lace that encapsulates the abilities of this supreme human hand; a hand that has gone from using flint to handling scissors and tweezers on two super--fine threads; one that has come to understand the essence of materials and inspired alchemical dreams of transforming them into knowledge. Boasting ancient origins, filigree is a creative language that has acquired art-like status in Portugal, becoming a national symbol that embodies the Portuguese soul.
Handed down from generation to generation, this family endeavour is practised almost entirely in the Minho region (in Gondomar, the largest producer, and Póvoa de Lanhoso), where few written records of filigree’s painstaking techniques can be found. Much like myths, its history is essentially oral. The artisans who possessed its secrets passed them on to their children, who were mostly illiterate, hence the gaping holes in the history of Portuguese filigree, which is now considered among the world’s finest.
Sometimes described as "the art of honing gold", this ancient craft weaves two metal threads to create beautiful pieces that showcase an important symbol of Portuguese culture.
The Earth’s prodigal son
Of all the metals Earth bestows upon us, none has the mythological status of gold; one of humanity’s great archetypes, common to all regions, peoples and religions. Ancient man believed it was generated by the Earth, like a child in its mother's womb. Those who mined it were considered special, as if they were delivering the Earth’s child and saving its prodigal son; the one reminiscent of sun and fire, solid and ductile, mutable, like everything in life and nature changes, while exceptionally eternal.
The subsoil of Portugal’s northern region has always been richer in gold, which helps explain why filigree flourished and became more refined in the Porto-Braga-Guimarães area, especially in Gondomar and Póvoa de Lanhoso. It was also in this region that the largest collection of gold was discovered, with pieces dating back to the Iron Age. Filigree technique is already found in Phoenician jewellery, and it is likely that it was well known throughout the Mediterranean basin and Asia.
Filigree works with the most pliable aspect of this metal, which possesses a metamorphic soul. Transforming shapeless gold pearls into the finest thread, which is then entwined with another until they become one is, primarily, a marvellous metaphor of life and death, of lovers' bodies fused, of tree roots intertwining. For the German painter and printmaker Albrecht Dürer, this dual thread represented the mystery of life, while Leonardo Da Vinci saw it as a reflection of human thought.
Creating filigree is far from simple. First, metal is melted in a crucible and cast into a metal mould. This produces a thin rod, which is then stretched with a wire pulling bench. Next, with the help of two boards, the thread is made thinner so it can be intertwined to form a braid. Finally, the thread is pressed by a smooth cylinder, a task previously done with hammers, to produce the grainy characteristic of Portuguese filigree. In short, filigree thread, which varies in thickness and length, is made up of two very fine filaments that have been twisted and beaten. It takes more than ten different tools to create the lacy fauna and flora figures that evoke images of love and religion. Of all the pieces produced in Portugal, the best known is the elongated "heart of Viana".
Although traditionally undertaken by men, metalwork is often an important part of the feminine universe. In Greek mythology, the beautiful goddess Aphrodite chose the unattractive Hephaestus to be her lover because, as blacksmith to the gods, he would make her the most well-adorned deity of Olympus. Filigree is mostly made by men, which was the case in Póvoa de Lanhoso. However, in Gondomar, women (enchedeiras) were hired to fill the different pieces with gold or silver thread. And the women that parade on sunny Sundays and summer pilgrimages can be seen as the heirs of this goddess of love and fertility.
Enduring periods of greater or lesser splendour, depending on gold imports and the vagaries of fashion, filigree’s “golden age” began in the 19th century, when it ceased being the exclusive property of aristocratic families and the church and farming families began acquiring pieces. Increasing demand led to new, more creative and attractive pieces, as owning filigree became less about amassing wealth and more about adornment, whether as day-to-day items, like strings of beads tied by a red cord, or something more special during festivities and summer pilgrimages, such as beaded necklaces with different pendants (hearts, sovereigns, crosses), long, lacy earrings (also known as queen earrings), crosses (like the Maltese cross, which featured coloured enamel details), brooches, reliquaries, and braids.
During the Discoveries, precious stones supplanted gold. As a result, filigree incorporated gems, displaying symbols of the empire, such as caravels. The church ordered reliquaries and crosses but with encrusted stones. In the 20th century, filigree was also used to make ethnographic pieces, depicting things such as oxcarts, rabelo boats and caravels, which were typical of Neo-Manueline revivalism, created within the nationalist context of the post-1920 period.
In the 19th century, filigree was popular with women, becoming a symbol of wealth and social status among peasants and farmers, who were often the people who made the pieces themselves. It was common for goldsmiths to work in the fields during the day and craft pieces in the evenings, sometimes with the help of family members, including children. The fillers (enchedeiras) also did this work at night, helping family finances along the way.
Buying gold jewellery became a ritual rewarding arduous days at work. As a result, Minho families started their own golden nest eggs. These savings would grow over the generations and become an inheritance, especially among young women, who used them as a dowry for a good marriage. It was this new status as a popular art that lent filigree the appeal, as well as the artistic and social importance it has today.
From the mid-19th century onwards, and particularly in the 20th century, other objects found new and creative forms by using filigree: safes, jewellery boxes, cigarette and powder cases, as well as men's watch chains.
Surveying these objects, curiously, most belong to the world of women and are important symbols of it. Indeed, these adornments are designed for sensual parts of the female body: the ears, neck and bust. Threads, spheres and hearts are stacked up, as if meant to hide breasts. The heart, which has become the most symbolic object of Portuguese filigree signifies life, courage and memory. The typical Minho bride would marry in black, so that her collection of gold would shine all the brighter.
Nowadays, the filigree designed by new designers already includes other pieces, such as bracelets and rings.
Another reason why filigree has been so successful with the working class and jewellers is the ratio of actual and apparent gold used. The lace-like design, which features very fine strands and open spaces, makes the pieces much lighter and therefore much cheaper than solid gold items. In shop windows, filigree used to be displayed facing south to catch the sunlight, creating an aura of pure magic. In Porto’s Rua das Flores alone, the street’s nineteen jewellers must have blinded potential customers. At the end of the 19th century, jewellery had become one of the region’s most developed industries, and by 1955 a total of 3,000 workers were registered in the gold industry.
This can be explained because an exhibition of Portuguese filigree in Geneva 1935, followed by the Portuguese World Exhibition in 1940, resulted in greater exposure of the technique, associated with Portuguese identity.
If it was important for the women of Minho to parade on summer Sundays during festivities and pilgrimages, dressed in traditional garments of each village and adorned with the family’s filigree, for the Portuguese State it meant exploiting something that had acquired an ethnographic and symbolic status of Portuguese soul and expertise. At the beginning of the 20th century, inspired by Art Nouveau and various Modernisms, filigree began being used with new materials, such as glass and ceramics.
After years of decline, the 21st century has seen new interest in filigree, with new designers seeking ways to create modern goldsmithery and jewellery. The country's sizeable tourist sector is another reason for such a resurgence, as demonstrated by over one million filigree pieces having been produced in 2017 alone, using 1,707 tonnes of gold.
In Greek mythology, the three Fates are the great spinners through whose hands passes the thread of destiny, chthonic divinities, who see, know and judge everything. They alone make, extend or cut the thread of life.
House of filigree museum
In the same way that art of filigree has been passed down the generations, an appreciation and recognition of this unique craft is also personal and transmissible. A good example of this is Porto’s House of Filigree Museum, which was founded by Pedro and Luísa Rosas to guard the memory of their great-grandfathers (Vicente Gaspar Vieira and Domingos Martins Ferreira), who created two of Portugal’s most important filigree businesses.
The son and daughter of renowned jewellery and watch trader David Rosa, these siblings were concerned that filigree was being adulterated by cheap imitations and decided to set up a museum that houses the family's collection, as well as pieces acquired from collectors, auctioneers and antique dealers. The exhibition boasts tools for making filigree, everyday items used by farming families and others, primarily for women, crafted for celebrations and pilgrimages, not forgetting a host of objects that reflect both the region and country. A designer of several collections of filigree jewellery, Luísa Rosas demonstrates how this craft has both a past and future, and how the union of both is the key to maintaining this ancestral tradition.
