simple straight-forward use of the material was its
best expression. The method of making a painted enamel was as follows.
The design was laid out with a stilus on a copper plate. Then a
flux of plain enamel was fused on to the surface, all over it. The
drawing was then made again, on the same lines, in a dark medium,
and the colours were laid flat inside the dark lines, accepting
these lines as if they had been wires around cloisons. All painted
enamels had to be enamelled on the back as well, to prevent warping
in the furnace when the shrinkage took place. After each layer of
colour the whole plate was fired. In the fifteenth century these
enamels were popular and retained some semblance of respect for the
limitation of material; later, greater facility led, as it does in
most of the arts, to a decadence in taste, and florid pictures, with
as many colours and shadows as would appear in an oil painting,
resulted. Here and there, where special metallic brilliancy was
desired, a leaf of gold was laid under the colour of some transparent
enamel, giving a decorative lustre. These bits of brilliant metal
were known as _paillons_.

When Limoges had finally become the royal manufactory of enamels,
under Francis I., the head of the works was Leonard Limousin, created
"Valet de Chambre du Roi," to show his sovereign's appreciation.
Remarkable examples of the work of Leonard Limousin, executed in
1547, are the large figures of the Apostles to be seen in the church
of St. Pierre, at Chartres, where they are ranged about the apsidal
chapel. They are painted enamels on copper sheets twenty-four by
eleven inches, and are in a wonderful state of preservation. They
were the gift of Henri II. to Diane de Poictiers and were brought
to Chartres from the Chateau d'Anet. These enamels, being on a
white ground, have something the effect of paintings in Faience;
the colouring is delicate, and they have occasional gold touches.

A treatise by William of Essex directs the artist how to prepare
a plate for a painted enamel, such as were used in miniature work.
He says "To make a plate for the artist to paint upon: a piece of
gold or copper being chosen, of requisite dimensions, and varying
from about 1/18 to 1/16 of an inch in thickness, is covered with
pulverized enamel, and passed through the fire, until it becomes
of a white heat; another coating of enamel is then added, and the
plate again fired; afterwards a thin layer of a substance ca