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Exhibition of European Tapestries, by Phyllis Ackerman
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Title: Catalogue of the Retrospective Loan Exhibition of European Tapestries
Author: Phyllis Ackerman
Contributor: J. Nilsen Laurvik
Release Date: July 16, 2018 [EBook #57518]
Language: English
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[Illustration]
CATALOGUE
OF THE
RETROSPECTIVE LOAN EXHIBITION
OF
EUROPEAN TAPESTRIES
HELD IN THE
SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF ART
MCMXXII
EUROPEAN TAPESTRIES
SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF ART
CATALOGUE
OF THE
RETROSPECTIVE LOAN EXHIBITION
OF
EUROPEAN TAPESTRIES
BY
PHYLLIS ACKERMAN
M.A.; PH.D.
WITH A PREFACE BY
J. NILSEN LAURVIK
DIRECTOR
SAN FRANCISCO
PUBLISHED BY THE MUSEUM
MCMXXII
_Published September 29, 1922, in an edition of 2000 copies. Copyright,
1922, by San Francisco Museum of Art. Reprinted November 15, 1922, 500
copies._
_Printed by_ TAYLOR & TAYLOR, _San Francisco. In the making of the
type-design for the cover, the printer has introduced an illuminated
fifteenth-century woodcut by an unknown master. Its original appears,
illuminated as shown, in "L'Istoire de la Destruction de Troye la Grant,"
a book printed at Paris, dated May 12, 1484, of which only a single copy
is known to exist, that in the Royal Library at Dresden, this reproduction
having been made from the excellent facsimile of the block shown in
Claudin's "Histoire de l'Imprimerie en France." The border-design of the
cover is composed of the names of the chief tapestry-producing cities in
Europe during the Gothic and Renaissance periods._
_Halftones made by Commercial Art Company, San Francisco._
PREFACE
This historical exhibition of European Tapestries is the fourth in a
series of retrospective exhibitions which we have planned to illustrate
the chronological development of some important phase of world-art, as in
the Old Masters Exhibition, held in the fall of 1920, or of the art of
an individual in whose work is significantly reflected the spirit of his
age, as in the J. Pierpont Morgan Collection of drawings and etchings by
Rembrandt, exhibited here in the spring of 1920.
In its scope and general lines this exhibition follows closely the plan
of our Exhibition of Paintings by Old Masters, and, as will at once be
apparent from the subject-matter and treatment, covers the same period of
European history. Although important exhibitions of European tapestries
have been held at various times both here and abroad, it has remained for
our museum to arrange the first complete historical survey of this art
given in America. This collection presents in unbroken sequence the main
currents influential in the development and decadence of the great art of
tapestry-weaving in Europe, from the XIVth century down to and including
the early XIXth century, as exhibited in the work of the foremost
designers and weavers of the period, in examples that, for the most part,
are brilliantly typical and always characteristic of their particular
style.
Virtually, every loom of importance in France, Flanders, Germany,
Switzerland, Spain, England, and Russia is here represented by
historically famous pieces which run the entire gamut of subjects that
engaged the interest of the most celebrated designers and weavers of each
epoch, from allegorical, classical, historical, and mythological to genre
subjects, landscapes, religious pieces, and even portraits and still-life
subjects. The only omissions of any consequence are the Italian looms
and Soho, and the output of these was relatively small and the examples
extant are very scarce. However, their absence does not materially
affect the historical integrity of the exhibition as a whole. On the
other hand, the Gothic series is perhaps the most complete assemblage
of all the most important types ever brought together at one time in
this country, and every important type of Renaissance design is here
included; the collection comprises two of the excessively rare products
of the Fontainebleau ateliers, as well as unusually fine specimens of the
relatively scarce examples of the Spanish and Russian looms.
My chief concern in organizing this exhibition has been to make it
exemplify, first, the history of tapestry, and, second, its æsthetic
qualities as these have appeared during the different periods of its
changing and varying development, which, like the art of painting, had its
naïve, primitive beginnings, its glorious culmination, and its decline.
Therefore, every piece has been selected both to represent a distinct
and significant type in the chronology of the art and to illustrate the
artistic merits of that type, and all the tapestries shown are of the
highest worth in their particular category and many of them are among
the supreme masterpieces of European art, considered from whatever point
of view one may choose to regard them. Only too long have these noble
products of the loom been relegated to a secondary place in the history
of European culture, which they did so much to celebrate. I sincerely
trust that this exhibition, culled from seventeen collections in New
York, San Francisco, and Paris, may successfully contribute something
toward abolishing the hypnotic spell of the gold-framed oil-painting, that
artistic fetish which too long has held the uncritical enthralled to the
exclusion of other and ofttimes more authentic manifestations of the human
spirit in art.
Regarded from the standpoint of design alone, the extraordinary
co-ordination of color and pattern (not to speak of the depth and richness
of the inner content) exhibited in certain of these pieces is a sharp
challenge to the oft-repeated distinction drawn between the major and
the minor arts, and one is constrained, after studying these tapestries,
to conclude that there are no major or minor arts, only major and minor
artists, and that greatness transfigures the material to the point of art,
be it paint or potter's clay, and a simple Tanagra transcends in worth
all the gilded and bejeweled banalities of Cellini, whose essentially
flamboyant soul sought refuge in gold and precious stones. This truth, too
rarely insisted upon, is of prime importance in any consideration of art,
whether it be "fine" or applied art, and a collection such as this should
do much to make it clear. Here one may observe how the principles of
design and color that animate the immortal masterpieces of mural painting
are identical with those that give life and vitality to these masterpieces
of the loom, and thereby apprehend something of that mysterious law
governing the operation of the creative impulse which finds its expression
in all the arts, irrespective of time and place, whether it be in rugs,
porcelains, Persian tiles and manuscripts, in European primitives, or
in the works of Chinese and Japanese old masters, transcending racial
differences and attaining a universal affinity that makes a Holbein one
with a Chinese ancestral portrait. Surely such opulent fantasy of design
and color as is revealed in Nos. 1, 3, 5, and 17, to mention only four of
the Gothic pieces in the collection, is deserving of something better than
the left-handed compliment of a comparison with painting.
In their masterly filling of the allotted space, in the fine subordination
of the varied details to the general effect, as well as in the loftiness
and intensity of the emotion expressed, these glorious products of the
loom are worthy exemplars of the highest ideals of mural decoration no
less than of the aristocratic art of tapestry-weaving. Reflections such as
these are the natural consequence of a comparative study of art, and these
and kindred reasons are the impelling causes prompting one to exhibit, not
only tapestries, but rugs and textiles of all kinds, in an art museum and
to give them the same serious study one would accord a Leonardo, a Giotto,
a Rembrandt. Æsthetically and racially, they are no less revealing and
frequently more interesting in that they are the products of the earliest
expressions of those æsthetic impulses the manifestation of which has
come to be called art; nor are they less authentic and expressive because
communicated with the force and directness of the primitive loom, which
give to all its products a certain character and worth rarely equaled by
the more sophisticated products of the so-called fine arts.
It is our hope that this catalogue will serve as a helpful guide to all
those wishing to make such use of this collection. Every serious student
of the subject no less than every unbiased specialist will, I am sure,
appreciate at its true worth the scholarly work done by Dr. Ackerman,
whose researches have made such a text possible. Bringing to the task a
critical judgment and a scientific method of analysis hitherto applied
almost exclusively to the identification and interpretation of primitive
paintings, the author has been able to correct several well-established
errors and to throw new light on many doubtful and obscure points which
are so well documented as should make them contributions of permanent
value to the literature of the subject.
In conclusion we wish to thank Messrs. William Baumgarten & Company, C.
Templeton Crocker, Demotte, Duveen Brothers, P. W. French & Company, A. J.
Halow, Jacques Seligmann & Company, Dikran K. Kelekian, Frank Partridge,
Inc., W. & J. Sloane, William C. Van Antwerp, Wildenstein & Company, and
Mesdames James Creelman, William H. Crocker, Daniel C. Jackling, and
Maison Jamarin of Paris, for their kindness in lending us these priceless
examples of the European weavers' art that constitute this notable
assemblage of tapestries, and to record our deep appreciation of the
generous co-operation of the patrons and patronesses whose sponsorship has
made the exhibition possible by guaranteeing the very considerable expense
involved in bringing the collection to San Francisco. And last, but not
least, we wish to express our grateful appreciation of the unremitting
thought and attention devoted by the printer to designing and executing
the very fitting typographical form that contributes so largely to making
the varied material contained herein readily available to the reader, and
to acknowledge, on behalf of the author, the friendly help of Arthur Upham
Pope, whose suggestions and criticisms have been found of real value in
the preparation of the text of the catalogue.
J. NILSEN LAURVIK, Director
San Francisco, September 29, 1922.
* * * * *
_The patrons and patronesses of the Exhibition are: Messrs. William
C. Van Antwerp, Edwin Raymond Armsby, Leon Bocqueraz, Francis
Carolan, C. Templeton Crocker, Sidney M. Ehrman, William L. Gerstle,
Joseph D. Grant, Walter S. Martin, James D. Phelan, George A.
Pope, Laurance Irving Scott, Paul Verdier, John I. Walter, Michel
D. Weill, and Mesdames A. S. Baldwin, C. Templeton Crocker, Henry
J. Crocker, William H. Crocker, Marcus Koshland, Eleanor Martin,
George A. Pope, and Misses Helen Cowell and Isabel Cowell, and The
Emporium._
THE SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF ART
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
WILLIAM C. VAN ANTWERP, EDWIN RAYMOND ARMSBY
ARTHUR BROWN, JR., FRANCIS CAROLAN, CHARLES W. CLARK
CHARLES TEMPLETON CROCKER
WILLIAM H. CROCKER, JOHN S. DRUM, SIDNEY M. EHRMAN
JOSEPH D. GRANT, DANIEL C. JACKLING
WALTER S. MARTIN, JAMES D. PHELAN, GEORGE A. POPE
LAURANCE I. SCOTT, RICHARD M. TOBIN
JOHN I. WALTER
DIRECTOR
J. NILSEN LAURVIK
THE MUSEUM IS HOUSED IN THE PALACE OF FINE ARTS
ERECTED BY THE PANAMA-PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL
EXPOSITION IN 1915
CONTENTS
_For a detailed list of the tapestries catalogued herein see the subject
and title index at the end of the volume_
[Illustration]
PREFACE Page 5
INTRODUCTION 11
CATALOGUE 25
LIST OF WEAVERS 58
BIBLIOGRAPHY 59
SUBJECT AND TITLE INDEX 61
ILLUSTRATIONS
MAP Facing Page 16
_Showing the principal centers of production of Gothic and early
Renaissance tapestries_
TAPESTRIES
_The Annunciation_ Facing Page 24
_The Chase_ 25
_The Annunciation, the Nativity, and the Announcement to the
Shepherds_ 26
_Scenes from the Roman de la Rose_ 27
_The Vintage_ 30
_Entombment on Millefleurs_ 31
_Millefleurs with Shepherds and the Shield of the Rigaut
Family_ 32
_Pastoral Scene_ 33
_The Creation of the World_ 34
_Four Scenes from the Life of Christ_ Facing Page 35
_The Triumph of David_ 38
_Two Pairs of Lovers_ 39
_Hannibal Approaches Scipio to Sue for Peace_ 40
_Cyrus Captures Astyages, His Grandfather_ 41
_The Crucifixion_ 42
_Grotesques_ 43
_Triumph of Diana_ 46
_The Niobides_ 47
_Scene from the History of Cleopatra_ 48
_Verdure_ 49
_Verdure with Dancing Nymphs_ 50
_The Conquest of Louis the Great_ 51
_The Poisoning of a Spy_ 54
_The Arms of France and Navarre_ 55
INTRODUCTION
AN HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL SURVEY OF THE ART OF TAPESTRY WEAVING
[Illustration]
Tapestry is a compound art. It stands at the meeting-point of three
other arts, and so is beset by the problems of all three. In the first
place, it is illustrative, for while there are tapestries that show only
a sprinkling of flowers, a conventionalized landscape, or an armorial
shield, the finest and most typical pieces are those with _personnages_
that represent some episode from history, myth, or romance, or give a
glimpse of the current usages of daily life. In the second place, tapestry
is a mural decoration. It is part of the architectural setting of the
rooms, really one with the wall. And, in the third place, it is a woven
material--a solid fabric of wool or silk in the simplest of all techniques.
Since a tapestry is an illustration, it must be realistic and convincing,
accurate in details and clearly indicative of the story. Because it is
also a wall decoration, it cannot be too realistic, but must be structural
in feeling and design, and the details must fall into broad masses that
carry a strong effect from a distance. And since it is a woven material,
even if it be structural, it must be flexible, and must have a fullness of
ornament that will enrich the whole surface so that none of it will fall
to the level of mere cloth.
But if the tapestry designer have a difficult problem in resolving these
conflicting demands of the different aspects of his art, he has also wider
opportunities to realize within those limitations. As an illustration, if
he handle it with skill, he can make the design convey all the fascination
of romance and narrative. As a mural decoration his design can attain a
dignity and noble reserve denied to smaller illustrations, splendid in
itself, and valuable for counterbalancing the disproportionate literary
interest that the subject sometimes arouses. And the thick material, with
its soft, uneven surface, lends, even to a trivial design, a richness and
mellowness that the painter can achieve only in the greatest moments of
his work.
The designer of tapestry can steer his way among the difficulties of the
three phases of his art, and win the advantages of them all only if he
have a fine and sensitive feeling for the qualities that he must seek. A
realism flattened to the requirement of mural decoration and formalized
to the needs of the technique of weaving, that still retains the
informality and charm of the illustration, can best be won by considering
the design as a pattern of silhouettes; for a silhouette is flat, and so
does not violate the structural flatness of the wall by bulging out in
high modeling. Moreover, it does give a broad, strong effect that can
carry across a large room. And, finally, it permits both of adaptation
in attitude and gesture to the needs of the story and of easy-flowing
lines that can reshape themselves to the changing folds of a textile. So,
to make good silhouettes, the figures in a good tapestry design will be
arranged in the widest, largest planes possible, as they are in a fine
Greek relief, and they will be outlined with clear, decisive, continuous
lines, definitive of character, expressive and vivacious.
The strength and vivacity of the outline is of prime significance in
tapestry design, even though in its final effect it appears not primarily
as a linear art, but rather as a color art. The outlines have to be both
clearly drawn in the cartoon and forcefully presented in the weave; for
they bear the burden both of the illustrative expressiveness and of the
decorative definition. If they are weakened in delineation or submerged
by the glow of the colors, the tapestry becomes confused in import,
weak in emphasis, and blurred in all its relations, while the charm and
interest of detail is quite lost. The too heavy lines of some of the
primitive tapestries are less a defect than the too delicate lines of the
later pieces designed by those who were primarily painters, and which
were too much adapted to the painting technique. The outlines in the
best tapestries are not only indicated with a good deal of force, but
these lines themselves have unflagging energy, unambiguous direction,
diversified movement, and unfaltering control.
In order to complete and establish the silhouette effect, the color in the
best tapestries is laid on in broad flat areas, each containing only a
limited number of tones. A gradual transition of tone through many shades
is undesirable, because such modulations convey an impression of relief
modeling, which is inappropriate and superfluous in an art of silhouette.
Then, again, these gradations at a little distance tend to fuse, and
thus somewhat blur the force and purity of the color; and, finally, a
considerable number of color transitions are ill-adapted to the character
of a textile, as they tend to make it appear too much like painting. Nor
are fluctuating tones and minute value-gradations necessary for a soft
and varied effect. The very quality of tapestry material accomplishes
that--first, because the ribbed surface breaks up the flatness of any
color area and gives it shimmering variations of light and shade, and,
second, because the wide folds natural to the material throw the flat
tones now into dark and now into light, thus by direct light and shade
differentiating values that in the dyes themselves are identical. Color in
tapestry can thus be used in purer, more saturated masses than in any form
of painting, not excepting even the greatest murals.
Flat silhouetted figures cannot of course be set in a three-dimensional
world. They would not fit. So the landscape, too, must be flattened out
into artificially simplified stages. This is also necessary both for
the architectural and the decorative effect of tapestry, for otherwise
the remote vistas tend to give the effect of holes in the wall, and the
distance, dimmed by atmosphere, is too pallid and empty to be interesting
as textile design. Yet the fact of perspective cannot be altogether
denied. Often the designer can avoid or limit the problem by cutting off
the farther views with a close screen of trees and buildings, and this has
also the advantage of giving a strong backdrop against which the figures
stand out firm and clear. But there are occasions in which a wider
field is essential for the purposes of illustration. The problem is how
to show a stretch of country and still keep it flat and full of detail.
In the most skillful periods of tapestry design the difficulty was met
by reducing the perspective to three or four sharply stepped levels of
distance, laid one above the other in informal horizontal strips. Aerial
perspective was disregarded, each strip being filled with details, all
sharply drawn but diminishing in size. The scene was thus kept relatively
flat, was adapted to flat figures, and was also filled with interesting
details.
This fullness of detail is important in tapestries and is the source
of much of their richness and charm. The great periods of weaving made
lavish use of an amazing variety of incidents and effects: the pattern
of a gown, jewels, the chasing or relief on a piece of armor, bits of
decorative architecture, carved furniture, and the numerous household
utensils, quaint in shape or suddenly vivid in color--all these, with
the innumerable flowers, the veritable menagerie of beasts, real and
imaginary, gayly patterned birds, as well as rivers, groves, and
mountains, make up the properties with which the designer fills his spaces
and creates a composition of inexhaustible resource and delight.
So with flat figures, strong outlines, deep, pure, and simple colors, a
flattened setting, and a wealth of details, the artist can make a tapestry
that will be at the same time both a representative and an expressive
illustration, an architectural wall decoration, and a sumptuous piece
of material. But even then he has not solved every difficulty; for
the tapestry cannot be merely beautiful in itself. It has to serve as
a background for a room and for the lives lived in it; so it must be
consonant in color and line quality with the furniture current at the
time it is made, and it must meet the prevailing interests of the people.
Moreover, while it must be rich enough to absorb the loitering attention,
it must also have sufficient repose and reserve and aloofness not to
intrude unbidden into the eye and not to be too wearyingly exciting--and
this last was sometimes no easy problem to solve when the designer was
bidden to illustrate a rapidly moving and dramatic tale. Sometimes, in
truth, he did not solve it, but sometimes he employed with subtle skill
the device of so dispersing his major points of action that until they are
examined carefully they merge into a general mass effect.
While the designers have at different periods met these various problems
in different ways and with varying skill, the technique of the weaving
has never been modified to any extent. For centuries this simple kind of
weaving has been done. In essentials it is the same as that used in the
most primitive kind of cloth manufacture. The warps are stretched on a
frame that may rest horizontally or stand upright. The shuttle full of
thread of the desired color is passed over and under the alternate warps,
the return reversing the order, now under the warps where it was before
over, and over where it was under. A comb is used to push the wefts
thus woven close together so that they entirely cover the warps. In the
finished tapestry the warps run horizontally across the design. A change
of colors in the weft-threads creates the pattern. In the more complex
patterns of later works the weaver follows the design drawn in outline
on his warps, or sometimes, in the horizontal looms, follows the pattern
drawn on a paper laid under his warps so that he looks down through them.
His color cues he takes from the fully painted cartoon suspended somewhere
near in easy view. Occasionally, in later pieces, to enrich the effect,
the simple tapestry weave is supplemented with another technique, such as
brocading (cf. No. 52), but this is rare.
All the earliest examples left to us of this kind of weaving are akin to
tapestry as we usually know it only in technique. They have practically no
bearing on the development of its design. Of the very earliest we have no
evidence left by which to judge. Homer, the Bible, and a number of Latin
authors all mention textiles that probably could be classed as tapestries;
but the references are too general to give us any definite clue as to the
treatment of the design. But from the VIth to the VIIIth century, the
Copts in Egypt produced many pieces, showing, usually in very small scale,
birds and animals and foliage, and even groups of people. Of these we have
many samples left. From various parts of Europe, primarily from Germany,
in the next two centuries we have a few famous examples. But these are
almost wholly without significant relation to the central development of
tapestry design. Tapestry, in our sense of the word, begins, as far as
extant examples are concerned, with the XIVth century.
From the XIVth to the end of the XVth century was the Gothic period.
Then tapestry was at its greatest height. More of the requisites of its
design were met, and met more adequately and more naturally, than by any
subsequent school of designers or any looms. As illustration, the tapestry
of the Gothic period is interesting, vivid, and provocative. The stories
and episodes that it presents were, to be sure, all part of the mental
content of the audience, so that they comprehended them more immediately
than we; but even without the literary background we follow them readily,
so adequate is their delineation. Moreover, they carry successfully almost
every narrative mood--humor, romance, lyricism, excitement, pathos, and
pure adventure--and, except in the traditional religious scenes, they
wisely eschew such tenser dramatic attitudes as a momentous climax,
long-sustained suspense, or profound tragedy. Finally, when they had a
good tale to tell, the Gothic designers rendered their episodes with a
fullness of incident and a vivacity of detail never again equaled.
As mural decorations, too, the Gothic tapestries are equally successful.
For the figures are always flat and, even while natural and animated,
are often slightly formalized and structural in drawing (cf. No. 10);
the outlines are clean and active, the colors strong and broad, the
vistas either eliminated as in the millefleurs (cf. No. 11) or completely
simplified (cf. No. 13), while the details are abundant and delightful.
Finally, they are among the most sumptuous textiles ever woven in the
Western World--sumptuous, not because of costly material, for they only
rarely use metal thread, and even silk is unusual, but sumptuous because
of the variety and magnificence of their designs and the splendor and
opulence of their color.
Thus the Gothic designers both appreciated and employed to the full all
of the æsthetic conditions of their art; yet they did not do this from
any theoretical comprehension of the medium. The supremacy of Gothic
tapestry rests on a broad basis. It is the final product of one of the
most vital and creative epochs in the history of art; its designers
were brought up in a great tradition, surrounded everywhere by the most
magnificent architectural monuments, accustomed to the habit of beauty in
small as well as great things, still inspired and nourished by the fertile
spirit that had created and triumphantly solved so many problems in the
field of art. A passion for perfection and an elevated and sophisticated
taste animated all of the crafts, of which tapestry was but one. The
full flowering of tapestry is contemporaneous with that of Limoges
enamel, paralleling it in many ways, even to the employment of the same
designers (cf. No. 7). Great armor was being made at the same time--armor
that exemplified as never before or since its inherent qualities and
possibilities: perfection of form and finish, a sensitive and expressive
surface, and exquisite decoration logically developed out of construction.
Furniture also achieved at that time a combination of strength with
natural and imaginative embellishments that still defies copy, while
the first publishers were producing the most beautiful books that have
ever been printed, unsurpassable in the clear and decorative silhouette
of the type, in the perfection of tone, and in the balanced spacing of
the composition. Other textile arts, such as that of velvet and brocade
weaving, reached the utmost heights of subtlety and magnificence. This
easy achievement of masterpieces in kindred fields, so characteristic of
great epochs, doubtless stimulated tapestry-weaving as it did every other
art.
This great achievement of the Gothic period in so many fields of art
was the natural flowering of the spirit of the time. Life for all was
limited in content, education as we understand it meager and ill-diffused,
opportunities for advancement for the individual about non-existent.
Despite these limitations--partly, indeed, because of them--and despite
the physical disorders of the age, there were, none the less, a simplicity
and unity of mind and an integrity of spirit that provided the basis
for great achievement. The spontaneous and tremendous energy, the
inexhaustible fertility that was an inheritance from their Frankish and
Germanic forbears were now moulded and controlled by common institutions,
by the acceptance of common points of view and the consciousness of
unified and fundamental principles of life, the acceptance of an
authoritative social system that defined and limited each man's ambitions.
All these factors prevented the protracted self-analysis, the aimless
criticism, the uncertainties and confusion of individual aims that consume
our energies, detract from our will, and impoverish our accomplishments.
Theirs was in no sense an ambiguous age; they were conscious of a
universal spirit, continuously pressing for expression in art which could
fortunately forge straight ahead to objective embodiment.
The stimulation of all of the arts had come in part, too, from the inrush
of culture from the Byzantine Empire, where traditions and riches had
been heaping up continuously ever since the Greek civilization had at its
height spilled over into the East. Every flood-tide of culture is created
by various streams of ideas and customs that have for generations taken
separate courses. All competent ethnologists are agreed that, no matter
what the native equipment of a people is, no matter how abundant are their
natural resources, how friendly and encouraging is their environment or
how threatening and stimulating, one stream of culture flowing alone
never rises to great heights. Invention, evolved organization, and
artistic production come only with the meeting and mingling of ideas and
habits. The East had first fertilized European intellectual creativeness
when the numerous Crusades and the sacking of Constantinople by the
Franks brought a wealth of novel and exciting ideas into France and the
neighboring territories in the XIth and XIIth centuries. There followed
the great period of cathedral-building with all the minor accompanying
artistic developments of the sculpture, the glass-painting, the manuscript
illuminating, the enameling, the lyrics of Southern France, and the
romances and fabliaux of Northern. This tide was ebbing slowly when a
second rush from the East incident to the fall of Constantinople in 1453
lifted it again. The art of tapestry was especially sensitive to this
second Byzantine influence. The industry was coming to its height; the
demand was already prodigious, the prices paid enormous, the workers
highly skilled and well organized. Tapestry was ready to assimilate any
relevant contribution. It enthusiastically took unto itself the sumptuous
luxury of the decadent Orient with its splendid fabrics, encrusted
architecture, complex patterns, and heavy glowing colors. The simple
Frankish spirit of the earlier pieces (cf. No. 2) was almost submerged by
the riotously extravagant opulence of the East (cf. Nos. 17, 18). On the
other hand, too, from the jewelry of Scandinavia, a remote descendant of
an ancient Oriental precedent, tapestry adopted examples of heavy richness
of design. And at the same time it took also from the Byzantine some of
the formality, the thickness of elaborate drapery, the conventionalization
of types, and the rigidity of drawing that had paralyzed the art of
Byzantium, but that in tapestry enhanced the architectural character and
so constituted a real addition. The tendency of the late XIVth century to
an absorption in an exact naturalism which might have immediately rushed
French and Flemish taste into the scientific realism of the Florentine
Renaissance was checked and deflected by the example and the memory of the
stiff carven form, the arrested gestures, and the fixed draperies of the
mosaics and manuscript illuminations of the Eastern Empire (cf. No. 8).
But aside from these general considerations, which were vital for the
creation of great tapestries, there was at work a specific principle
perhaps even more important. The manner of treatment which the tapestry
medium itself calls for was one which was native to the mind of the time
and which declared itself in a great variety of forms.
[Illustration:
Map Showing the
Principle centers of Production
of Gothic and early Renaissance
TAPESTRIES
drawn by
Arthur Upham Pope
For the San Francisco Museum of Art
Retrospective Loan Exhibition of Tapestries
Copyright 1922
]
In the first place, the Middle Ages were in spirit narrative. The bulk of
their literature was narrative--long historical or romantic poems with
endless sequences of continued episodes that never came to any dominating
climax. Their drama, too, was narrative, a story recounted through a
number of scenes that could be cut short at almost any point or could be
carried on indefinitely without destroying the structure, because there
was no inclusive unity in them, no returning of the theme on itself such
as distinguishes Greek drama or Shakespeare and which we demand in modern
times. Their religion and their ethics also were narrative, dependent,
for the common man, upon the life history of sacred individuals that both
explained the fundamental truths of the universe and set models for moral
behavior. And they were supplemented, too, by profane histories with
moralizing symbolism contrived to point the way to the good life, such as
we find in the _Roman de la Rose_ (cf. No. 4). Even their lesser ethics,
their etiquette, was narrative, derived from the fabric of chivalric
romance. And, again, their greatest art, their architecture, was adorned
with narrative, ornamented with multiple histories, so that even the
capital of a column told a tale. The whole world about them was narrative,
so that the painters and designers must needs think in narrative terms,
and hence as illustrators. The narrative features of the other arts also
lent them valuable examples for their tapestries. Most of their renderings
of religious stories were taken direct from the Mystery Plays (cf. No.
14), and some of their scenes were already familiar to them in stained
glass and church sculptures.
Moreover, narrative decorations were interesting and important to the
people of the XVth century because they had only very limited resources
for intellectual entertainment. Books were scarce, but even if plentiful
would have been of little use, for very few could read. The theatre for
the mass of the people was limited to occasional productions on church
holidays of Mystery and Miracle plays, and even for the great dukes these
were only meagerly supplemented by court entertainers. There was no
illustrated daily news, no moving pictures, no circuses, no menageries, no
easy travel to offer ready recreation. In our distractedly crowded life
today we are apt to forget how limited were the lives of our ancestors and
what pleasure, as a result, they could get from a woven story on their
walls.
In the second place, the Gothic designers, when they came to draw
their decorative illustrations, because of their inherited traditions,
naturally fell into a technique adapted to the architectual forms of
mural decoration. For all the art of the Middle Ages was the derivative
of architecture, and at its inception was controlled by it. The original
conception of the graphic arts in this period was the delineation on
a flat surface of sculpture--sculpture, moreover, that was basically
structural, because made as part of a building. So the painted figures
were heavily outlined silhouettes in a few broad planes with the poise
and the restraint essential to sculpture. These early statuesque figures,
familiar in the primitive manuscript illumination and stained-glass
windows, had, by the time the tapestries reached their apogee, been
modified by a fast-wakening naturalism. But the underlying idea of the
silhouette and of the poised body was not yet lost, and so it was natural
for tapestry designers to meet these requirements. The naturalism, on
the other hand, was just becoming strong enough to make the lines more
gracefully flowing and the details more varied and more delicate and exact
in drawing, so that the very transitional form of the art of the time made
it especially well adapted to a woven rendition.
In the third place, the cartoons, even if they were not quite right in
feeling when they came from the painter's hand, would be modified in the
translation into the weave by the workmen themselves; for the weavers at
that time were respected craftsmen with sufficient command of design to
make their own patterns for the less important orders, and were therefore
perfectly able to modify and enrich the details of the cartoon of even a
great painter. And no designer in the one medium of paint can ever fit his
theme to the other medium of wool quite as aptly as the man who is doing
the weaving himself.
Thus because the Gothic period happened to be a time when it was natural
for the artists to make vivacious and decorative illustrations in clear,
flat silhouettes with rich details, most of the Gothic tapestries have
some measure of artistic greatness, sufficient to put them above all
but the very greatest pieces of later times. Even when we discount the
additions that time and our changed attitude make, the beauty of softened
and blended colors, the charm of the unaccustomed and the quaint, the
interest of the unfamiliar costumes, the literary flavor of old romantic
times--even discounting these, they are still inherently superior. To be
sure, they are rarely pretty and are sometimes frankly ugly, but with
a tonic ugliness which possesses the deepest of all æsthetic merits,
stimulating vitality. They have verve, energy, a pungent vividness that
sharply reminds the beholder that he is alive. Their angular emphatic
silhouettes and pure, highly saturated, abruptly contrasted colors catch
and hold the attention and quicken all the vital responses that are
essential to clear perception and full appreciation. They are a standing
refutation of the many mistaken theories that would make the essence
of beauty consist merely in the balanced form and symmetry, or smooth
perfection of rendition, or photographic accuracy of representation. They
are a forceful and convincing demonstration that in the last analysis
beauty is the quality that arouses the fullest realization of life.
Within the common Gothic character there are clearly recorded local
differences: the division between the French and the Flemish, not
marked until the middle of the XVth century, because up to that time
the Franco-Flemish school was really one and continuous. It amalgamated
influences from both regions and absorbed a rather strong contribution
from Italy. The center of activity was at first Paris and then at the
courts of the Burgundian dukes. But after the middle of the century the
divergence is rapid and clear. The French is characterized by greater
simplicity, clarity, elegance, and delicacy. Even the strong uprush of
realism was held in check in France by decorative sensitiveness. The
most characteristic designs of the time are the millefleurs, the finer
being made in Touraine (cf. No. 8), the coarser in La Marche. The Flemish
decoration, on the other hand, is sumptuous, overflowing, sometimes
confused, always energetic, and strongly varied in detail. Nothing checks
the relentless realism that sometimes runs even to caricature and often
is fantastic (cf. the punishment scenes in No. 4). Typical of Flemish
abundance are the cartoons with multiple religious scenes, heavy with rich
draperies and gorgeous with infinite detail, yet not subordinating to
theme the human interest of many well-delineated types of character (cf.
No. 18). Brussels was the great center for the production of work of this
kind, but beautiful pieces were being produced in almost every city of the
Lowlands--Bruges, Tournai, Arras, and many more.
The German Gothic tapestry is quite different from both of these. It was
developed almost entirely independently, under quite other conditions.
While the French and Flemish shops grew up under the patronage of
the great and wealthy nobles, and worked primarily for these lavish
art-patrons, in Germany the nobles were impoverished and almost outcast;
there was scarcely a real court, and all the wealth lay in the hand of
the burghers, solid, practical folk who did not see much sense in art. So
while in France and in the Lowlands the workshops were highly organized
under great _entrepreneurs_, and the profits were liberal, in Germany
the workshops were very small, and many of the pieces were not made
professionally at all, but were the work of nuns in the convents or of
ladies in their many idle hours. Thus the industry that in France and
Flanders was definitely centered in the great cities such as Paris and
Brussels, in Germany was scattered through many towns, primarily, however,
those of south Germany and Switzerland. And, too, while the designs
for the French and Flemish pieces were specially made by manuscript
illuminators, painters, or professional cartoon designers, some of whom,
like Maître Philippe (cf. Nos. 17-19), conducted great studios, for the
German pieces the weavers themselves adapted the figures from one of the
woodcuts that were the popular art of the German people or from some book
illustration. So while the French and Flemish tapestries reached great
heights of skill and luxury, and really were a great art, the German
tapestry remained naïve and simple and most of its artistic value is the
product of that very naïveté.
Toward the close of the XVth century a change begins to appear in the
character of tapestry design. More and more often paintings are exactly
reproduced down to the last detail. At first sporadic products, the
reproductions of the work of such masters as Roger Van der Weyden and
Bernard Van Orley become more and more frequent until by the end of the
first quarter of the XVIth century they are a commonplace. Yet even though
tapestry is no longer entirely true to itself, these tapestry paintings
are nevertheless beautiful and fit. A woven painting has not yet become
an anomaly because painting in Northern Europe is still narrative and
decorative. There are still poise and restraint and clear flat silhouette
and rich detail.
It was not until tapestry plunged full into the tide of the Italian
Renaissance that it entirely lost its Gothic merits. But when, beginning
in 1515 with the arrival of Raphael's cartoons for the Pope's _Apostle_
series, the weavers of the North began to depend more and more for their
designs on the painters of the South and on painters trained in the
South, the character of tapestry completely changed. True, tapestry in
the old style was still made for two decades, but in diminishing numbers.
The Renaissance had the field. In place of endlessly varied detail, the
designers sought for instantly impressive effects, and these are of
necessity obvious. Every-thing grew larger, coarser, more insistent
on attention. Figures were monumental, floreation bold and strong,
architecture massive. Even the verdures developed a new manner; great
scrolling acanthus-leaves and exotic birds (cf. No. 33) took the place of
the delicate field flowers and pigeons and songsters. Drama took the place
of narrative. On many pieces metal thread was lavished in abundance. The
whole flagrant richness of the newly modern world was called into play.
For the first time also with Renaissance tapestry, it becomes relevant to
ask, Do they look like the scenes they depict?--for realism was in the
full tide of its power. A hundred and fifty years before the Renaissance
realism had begun to develop, inspired by the naturalism of Aristotle,
whose influence had gradually filtered down from the schools to the
people, and throughout the XIVth and early XVth century it had been slowly
growing. The hunting tapestries of the first part of the XVth century are
early examples of it. But the Gothic realism was an attempt to convey
the impression of the familiar incidents of life, to get expressive
gestures, to record characteristic bits of portraiture, whether of
people or things or episodes, so that a Gothic tapestry can be adjudged
naturalistically successful if it carries strongly the spirit and effect
of a situation regardless of whether the drawing is quite true or not (cf.
No. 2). Renaissance realism, on the other hand, is not satisfied with the
impression, but strives for the fact. It wishes to depict not only the
world as one sees it, but as one knows it to be--knows it, moreover, after
long and careful study. So in all Renaissance graphic art correct anatomy
becomes of importance, solid modeling is essential, and all details must
be specific.
Yet, though tapestry in the Renaissance was no longer illustrative in
the old sense, it still was decoratively fine; for the painting of Italy
was founded on a mural art, and the decorative traditions still held
true. Outlines are still clear and expressive. There was respect for
architectural structure, and details, if less complex and sensitive, are
still rich and full. Color, too, is still strong and pure, though the key
is heightened somewhat and the number of tones increased. Moreover, the
Renaissance introduced two important new resources, the wide border and
the grotesque. Hitherto the border had been a narrow floral garland, a
minor adjunct easily omitted. Now it became of major importance, always
essential to the beauty of the piece, often the most beautiful part of
it, designed with great resource and frequently interwoven with gold and
silver. The grotesque, from being originally a border decoration, soon
spread itself over the whole field (cf. No. 36), mingling with amusing
incongruity but with decorative consistency goats and fair ladies,
trellis, flowers, and heraldic devices. What the Renaissance lacked in
subtlety it made up in abundance.
During the Renaissance the tapestry industry was dominated by the Flemish
cities, with Brussels at the head. She had the greatest looms, great both
for the exceeding skill of the workers and for the enormous quantity of
the production. Some workshops, of which the most famous was that of
the Pannemaker family, specialized in exquisitely fine work rendered in
the richest materials. Of this class, the most typical examples are the
miniature religious tapestries in silk and metal thread, in which all
the perfection of a painting was united with the sumptuousness of a most
extravagant textile (cf. No. 35). But sometimes full-sized wall-hangings
too were done with the same perfection and elaboration (cf. Nos. 23-25).
Other shops sacrificed the perfection of workmanship to a large output,
but even in the most commercially organized houses the weavers of Flanders
in the XVIth century were able and conscientious craftsmen.
These same Flemish workmen were called to different countries in Europe
to establish local looms. So Italy had several small temporary ateliers
at this period, as did England also (cf. No. 32). But though these shops
were in Italy and England, they were still predominantly Flemish. The
character of local decoration and local demand influenced the design
somewhat, but fundamentally the products both in cartoon and in weave
were still those of the mother country. In France, however, the Flemish
workmen were made the tools of the beginning of a new national revival
of the art. A group of weavers was called to Fontainebleau, where, under
the extravagant patronage of Francis I, the French Renaissance was taking
form. These Flemings, weaving designs made by Italians, nevertheless
created decorative textiles that are typically French in spirit (cf. No.
37). France alone had a strong enough artistic character to refashion the
conventions of Italy and the technique of Flanders to a national idiom.
In the next century this revival of the art which survived at
Fontainebleau barely fifty years was carried on in several ateliers at
Paris. The workmen were still predominantly Flemish, but again their work
was unmistakably French (cf. No. 38). In Trinity Hospital looms had been
maintained since the middle of the XVIth century. In the gallery of the
Louvre looms were set up about 1607. And the third and most important
shop was established by Marc de Comans and François de la Planche at
the invitation of the king. This was most important, because it later
was moved to the Bièvre River, where the Gobelins family had its old
dye-works, and it eventually became the great state manufactory.
Thereafter for the next two centuries the looms of Flanders and France
worked in competition. Now one, now the other took precedence, but France
had a slowly increasing superiority that by the middle of the XVIIIth
century put her two royal looms, the Gobelin and Beauvais, definitely in
the forefront of the industry.
For cartoons the looms of the two countries called on the great painters
of the time, often requisitioning the work of the same painters, and
sometimes even using the very same designs. Thus Van der Meulen worked
both for Brussels manufacturers (cf. Nos. 53-56) and for the French state
looms (cf. No. 52), and the Gobelin adapted to its uses the old Lucas
_Months_ that had originated in Flanders (cf. Nos. 57, 58.)
But though they did thus parallel each other in cartoons, the finished
tapestries nevertheless retained their national differences. As in the
Gothic period, the Flemish tapestries in all respects showed a tendency
to somewhat overdo. Their figures were larger, their borders crushed
fuller of flowers and fruit, their verdures heavier, their grotesques more
heterogeneous, their metal threads solider. Their abundance was rich and
decorative, but lacking in refinement and grace. The French, on the other
hand, kept always a certain detachment and restraint that made for clarity
and often delicacy. When the Baroque taste demanded huge active figures,
the French still kept theirs well within the frame. Their borders were
always spaced and usually more abstract. The verdures of Aubusson can be
distinguished from those of Audenarde by the fewer leaves, the lighter
massing, the more dispersed lights and shades. The grotesques of France,
especially in the XVIIIth century, often controlled the random fancy
popularized among the Flemish weavers by introducing a central idea, a
goddess above whom they could group the proper attributes (cf. No. 36), or
a court fête (cf. No. 59). And when the French used metal thread it was to
enrich a limited space rather than to weight a whole tapestry. In a way
the opulence of the Flemish was better adapted to the medium. Certainly it
produced some very beautiful tapestries. But the refinement of the French
is a little more sympathetic to an overcivilized age.
With the accession of Louis XV, tapestry joined the other textile arts and
painting in following furniture styles. Thereafter, until the advent of
machinery put an end to tapestry as a significant art, the cabinetmaker
led all the other decorators. Small pieces with small designs, light
colors, delicate floral ornaments, and the reigning temporary fad--now the
Chinese taste (cf. No. 71), now the pastoral (cf. No. 68)--occupied the
attention of the cartoonmakers, so that the chief occupations of the court
beauties of each successive decade can be read in the tapestries.
During this time France was dictating the fashions of all the Western
World, so other countries were eager not only to have her tapestries, but
to have her workmen weave for them in their own capitals. Accordingly, the
royal family of Russia, always foreign in its tastes, sent for a group of
weavers to set up a royal Russian tapestry works. Similarly, Spain sent
for a Frenchman to direct her principal looms, those at Santa Barbara and
Madrid, which for a decade or so had been running under a Fleming.
And meanwhile tapestry was steadily becoming more and more another form
of painting. Until the middle of the XVIIIth century it remains primarily
illustrative. The Renaissance designers continued to tell historical and
biblical stories and to fashion the designs in the service of the tale
they had to tell. With the influence of Rubens and his school (cf. No.
44), the story becomes chiefly the excuse for the composition; but the
story is nevertheless still there and adequately presented. The artists of
Louis XIV, when called upon to celebrate their king in tapestry, respected
this quality of the art by depicting his history and his military exploits
(cf. No. 52). But illustration already begins to run thin in the series
of the royal residences done by the Gobelins during his reign, and with
the style of his successor it runs out almost altogether. If Boucher
paints the series of the _Loves of the Gods_ it is not for the sake of the
mythology, but for the rosy flesh and floating drapes, and Fragonard does
not even bother to think of an excuse, but makes his languid nudes simply
bathers (cf. No. 69). So when Louis XV is to be celebrated by his weavers
the designers make one effort to invent a story by depicting his hunts,
and then abandon episode and substitute portraiture (cf. No. 64).
Throughout most of the Renaissance, tapestry remained decorative as
a mural painting is decorative, but in the XVIIth century, with the
degeneration of all architectual feeling, tapestry lost entirely its
architectual character. It was still decorative--it was decorative as the
painting of the time was. The tapestries of the XVIIth century are giant
easel paintings, and of the XVIIIth century woven panel paintings.
As to the textile quality, during the XVIIth century the very scale of the
pieces kept them somewhat true to it. The large figures, heavy foliage,
and big floral ornaments can fall successfully into wide, soft folds. But
most of the tapestry of the XVIIIth century must be stretched and set in
panels or frames. That they are woven is incidental, a fact to call forth
wonder for the skill of the workmen, both of the dyers who perfected the
numberless slight gradations of delicate tones and kept them constant,
and of the almost unbelievably deft weavers who could ply the shuttle
so finely and exactly and grade these delicate tones to reproduce soft
modeled flesh, fluttering draperies, billowing clouds, spraying fountains,
and the sheen and folds of different materials. But that they are woven
is scarcely a fact to be considered in the artistic estimate. The only
advantage of the woven decorations over the painted panel is that they
present a softer surface to relieve the cold glitter of rooms. Otherwise
as paintings they stand or fall. Even the border has usually been reduced
to a simulated wood or stucco frame.
During this gradual change through five hundred years in the artistic
qualities of tapestry the technical tricks of the weavers underwent
corresponding modification. In the Gothic period the drawing depended
primarily upon a strong dark outline, black or brown, that was unbroken,
and that was especially important whether the design was affiliated
rather with panel painting (cf. No. 1) or with the more graphic miniature
illustration (cf. No. 5). Even the lesser accessories were all drawn
in clear outline. Within a given color area, transitions from tone to
tone were made by hatchings, little bars of irregular length of one of
the shades that fitted into alternate bars of the other shade, like the
teeth of two combs interlocked. And for shadows and emphasis of certain
outlines, some of the Gothic weavers had a very clever trick of dropping
stitches (cf. No. 1), so that a series of small holes in the fabric takes
the place of a dark line. During the Renaissance the outline becomes much
narrower, and is used only for the major figures, a device that sometimes
makes the figures look as if they had been cut out and applied to the
design. Hatching, if used at all, is much finer than in the earlier usage,
consisting now of only single lines of one color shading into the next.
In the work of Fontainbleau (cf. Nos. 36, 37), the dotted series of holes
between colors is still used to give a subordinate outline. During the
XVIIth century hatching is scarcely used at all, and the outline has
practically disappeared. During the XVIIIth century the French weavers
perfected a trick which obviated any break in the weave where the color
changes, thus enabling tapestry to approximate even closer to painting
effects.
To the weavers who adjusted these tricks to the varying demands of the
cartoons, and so translated painted patterns in a woven fabric, is due
quite as much credit for the finished work of art as to the painters who
first made the design. Famous painters did prepare tapestry designs. Aside
from the masters of the Middle Ages to whom tapestries are attributed, we
have positive evidence that, among others, Jacques Daret, Roger Van der
Weyden, Raphael, Giulio Romano (cf. Nos. 23-25), Le Brun, Rubens, Coypel
(cf. Nos. 62, 63), Boucher (cf. Nos. 67, 68), Watteau, Fragonard (cf. No.
69), and Vernet (cf. No. 70), all worked on tapestry designs. The master
weavers who could transpose their designs deserve to rank with them in
honor.
Yet we know relatively little of these master weavers. Many names of
tapicers appear in tax-lists and other documents, but not until the
XVIIIth century do the names often represent to us definite personalities,
and until then we can only occasionally credit a man with his surviving
work. From the long lists of names and the great numbers of remaining
tapestries a few only can be connected. Among the greatest of these is
Nicolas Bataille, of Paris, who wove the famous set of the _Apocalypse_
now in the Cathedral of Angers; Pasquier Grenier, of Tournai, to whom the
_Wars of Troy_ and related sets can be accredited (cf. No. 7), but who
apparently was an _entrepreneur_ rather than a weaver; Pieter Van Aelst,
who was so renowned that the cartoons of Raphael were first entrusted
to him; William Pannemaker, another Brussels man, who had supreme taste
and skill, and his relative Pierre, almost as skilful; Marc Comans and
François de la Planche, the Flemings who set up the looms in Paris that
developed into the Gobelins (cf. No. 38); Jean Lefébvre, who worked first
in the gallery of the Louvre and then had his studio in the Gobelins
(cf. Nos. 39, 40); the Van der Beurchts, of Brussels (cf. Nos. 42, 56),
and Leyniers (cf. Nos. 26, 27), and Cozette, most famous weaver of the
Gobelins. Such men as these, and many more whose names are lost or are
neglected because we do not know their work, were in their medium as
important artists as the painters whose designs they followed.
With the passing of such master craftsmen the art of tapestry died. When
men must compete with machines their work is no more respected, and so
tapestry is no longer the natural medium of expression for the culture
of the times. Tapestries are still being made, but there is no genuine
vitality in the art and little merit in its product. It exists today only
as an exhausted and irrelevant persistence from the past, and, as a fine
art, doomed to failure and ultimate extinction.
P.A.
[Illustration:
_The Annunciation_ No. 1
]
[Illustration:
_The Chase_ No. 2
]
CATALOGUE
_Abbreviations_: H. (_Height_); W. (_Width_); _ft._ (_Feet_); _in._
(_Inches_). _"Right" & "Left," refer to right & left of the spectator_
[Sidenote: 1]
FRANCO-FLEMISH, POSSIBLY ARRAS, BEGINNING OF XV OR END OF XIV CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool, Silk, Gold._
H. 11 _ft._ 4 _in._
W. 9 _ft._ 6 _in._
]
THE ANNUNCIATION: _The Virgin, in a blue robe lined with red, is seated
before a reading-desk in a white marble portico with a tile floor. Behind
her is a red and metal gold brocade. The lily is in a majolica jar.
The angel, in a green robe with yellow high lights lined with red, has
alighted in a garden without. In the sky, God the Father holding the globe
and two angels bearing a shield._
The treatment of the sky in two-toned blue and white striations, as well
as the conventional landscape without perspective, with small oak and
laurel trees, is characteristic of a number of tapestries of the opening
years of the XVth century. Most of them depicted hunting scenes. But
there was one famous religious piece, the _Passion_ of the Cathedral of
Saragossa. In the drawing of the figures and some of the details the piece
is closely related to the paintings of that Paris school of which Jean
Malouel is the most famous member. The work is by no means by Malouel,
but it is similar to that of one of his lesser contemporaries, whose only
known surviving work is a set of six panels painted on both sides, two of
which are in the Cuvellier Collection at Niort and the others in the Mayer
Van der Bergh Collection at Antwerp. The very primitively rendered Eternal
Father is almost identical with the one that appears in several of the
panels; the roughly indicated shaggy grass is the same, the rather unusual
angle of the angel's wings recurs in the Cuvellier _Annunciation_, as does
the suspended poise of the Virgin's attitude. The Virgin's reading-desk,
too, is almost identical, though shown in the panel at the other side of
the scene. The long, slim-fingered hands and the pointed nose and chin of
the Virgin are characteristic of the school.
The tiles in the portico, so carefully rendered, are of interest
because they are very similar to the earliest-known tile floor still
in position--that of the Caracciolo Chapel in Naples. Some of the same
patterns are repeated, notably that of the Virgin's initial and the star,
which is more crudely rendered. The colors, too, are approximately the
same, the brown being a fair rendering of the manganese purple of the
chapel tiles. The majolica vase is also interesting as illustrating a type
of which few intact examples are left.
[Sidenote: Exhibited:
_Chicago Art Institute, Gothic Exhibition_, 1921.]
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
The piece maintains a high level of æsthetic expression. The religious
emotion is intensely felt and is adequately conveyed in the wistful
sadness of the Virgin's face and the expectant suspense of her poised
body. The portico seems removed from reality and flooded by a direct
heavenly light, in its shining whiteness contrasting with the deep
blue-green background. This tapestry by virtue of its intense and elevated
feeling, purified by æsthetic calm and by its exceptional decorative
vividness, ranks with the very great masterpieces of the graphic arts.
[Sidenote: 2]
FRANCO-FLEMISH, EARLY XV CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Gold._
H. 5 _ft._ 5 _in._
W. 5 _ft._ 11 _in._
]
THE CHASE: _A man in a long dark-blue coat and high red hat and a lady
in a brown brocade dress and ermine turban watch a dog in leather armor
attack a bear. A landscape with trees and flowers is indicated without
perspective and a castle in simple outline is projected against a blue and
white striated sky._
[Sidenote: Exhibited:
_South Kensington Museum, French-English Retrospective Exhibition of
Textiles_, 1921.]
This tapestry is an important example of a small group of hunting scenes
of the early XVth century. It is closely related in style to the famous
pair of large hunting tapestries in the collection of the Duke of
Devonshire. It is not definitely known where any of these pieces were
woven, but Arras is taken as a safe assumption, as that was the center of
weaving at the time, and these tapestries are the finest production known
of the period.
The very simple figures sharply silhouetted against the contrasting
ground have a decidedly architectural quality, perfectly adapted to mural
decoration. Yet the scene seems very natural and the persons have marked
and attractive personalities.
[Sidenote: Illustrated:
_La Renaissance de l'Art français_, 1921, p. 104; _Burlington_, vol. 38,
opp. p. 171. _DeMotte, Les Tapisseries gothiques_, Deuxième Série.]
These exceedingly rare pieces mark the great wave of naturalism that
began sweeping over Europe about 1350 and they exemplify strikingly one
of the finest qualities of the primitive--the impressive universality and
objectivity that come from the freshness of the artist's vision. Looking
straight at the thing itself, free from all the presuppositions that
come from an inherited convention, the draftsman saw the essentials and
recorded them directly without any confusing elaboration of technique. He
was completely absorbed by the unsolved problems of the task, too occupied
with the difficulty of rendering the central outstanding features of the
scene to be diverted by personal affectations. His realization thus became
vivid and intimate, his rendition achieved a singularity and epic force
never again to be found in tapestry.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Demotte_.]
This is one of the few tapestries that have been improved by age. Time has
spread over it a slight gray bloom that seems to remove it from the actual
world, giving it the isolation that is so important a factor in æsthetic
effect; yet the depth and strength of the colors have not been weakened,
for we interpret the grayness as a fine veil through which the colors
shine with their original purity.
[Sidenote: 3]
FLANDERS, MIDDLE XV CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool._
H. 15 _ft._ 7 _in._
W. 14 _ft._ 7 _in._
]
THE ANNUNCIATION, THE NATIVITY, AND THE ANNOUNCEMENT TO THE SHEPHERDS:
_At the left in a Gothic chapel the Annunciation. The Virgin, in a richly
jeweled and brocaded robe, reads the Holy Book. The angel in rich robes
kneels before her. The lilies are in a dinanderie vase. Through the open
door a bit of landscape is seen, and in a room beyond the chapel two
women sit reading. The Nativity, at the right, is under a pent roof. The
Virgin, Joseph, and Saint Elizabeth kneel in adoration about the Holy
Babe, who lies on the flower-strewn grass. John kneels in front of his
mother, and in the foreground an angel also worships. Above and beyond the
stable the three shepherds sit tending their flocks, and an angel bearing
the announcement inscribed on a scroll flutters down to them from Heaven.
Oak-trees, rose-vines, and blossoming orange-trees in the grass._
[Illustration:
_The Annunciation, The Nativity, and The Announcement to the
Shepherds_ No. 3
]
[Illustration:
_Scenes from the Roman de la Rose_ No. 4
]
This tapestry belongs to a small and very interesting group, all evidently
the work of one designer. The three famous _Conversations Galantes_ (long
erroneously called the _Baillée des Roses_) in the Metropolitan Museum
are by the same man, as are the four panels of the _History of Lohengrin_
in Saint Catherine's Church, Cracow, the fifth fragmentary panel of the
series being in the Musée Industrielle, Cracow. A fragment from the same
designer showing a party of hunters is in the Church of Notre Dame de
Saumur de Nantilly, and another fragment depicting a combat is in the
Musée des Arts Decoratifs. Three small fragments--one with a single figure
of a young man with a swan, like the Metropolitan pieces, on a striped
ground, another showing a king reading in a portico very similar to the
portico of the _Annunciation_, and the third showing a group of people
centered about a king--were in the Heilbronner Collection.
Schmitz points out[1] a connection between the three Metropolitan pieces
and the series of seven pieces depicting the life of Saint Peter in the
Beauvais Cathedral, with an eighth piece in the Cluny Musée, and it is
quite evident that the cartoons are the work of the same man. But whereas
the other pieces all have the same characteristics in the weaving, this
series shows a somewhat different technique in such details as the outline
and the hatchings, so that one must assume they were woven on another loom.
Fortunately, there is documentary information on one set of the type
that enables us to say definitely where and when the whole group was
made. The _Lohengrin_ set was ordered by Philip the Good from the first
Grenier of Tournai in 1462. There can be no reasonable doubt that the
set in Saint Catherine's Church is the same, for in this set the knight
is quite apparently modeled after Duke Philip himself, judging from the
portraits of him in both the _Romance of Gerard de Rousillon_ (Vienna
Hof-bibliothèque) and in the _History of Haynaut_ (Bibliothèque Royale,
Brussels).
Schmitz asserts that it is almost certainly useless to seek the author
of these cartoons among contemporary painters, as they are probably the
work of a professional cartoon painter, of which the Dukes of Burgundy
kept several in their service--and this is probably true. But artists were
not as specialized then as they are now, and even a professional tapestry
designer might very well on occasion turn his hand to illustrating a
manuscript or making a sketch for an enamel, so that it is not impossible
that further research in the other contemporary arts may bring to light
more information about this marked personality who created so individual a
style.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Duveen Brothers_.]
This tapestry is exceedingly interesting, not only for its marked style
of drawing and its quaint charm, but for the direct sincerity of the
presentation and the brilliant and rather unaccustomed range of colors.
[Sidenote: 4]
FLANDERS, MIDDLE XV CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 8 _ft._ 4 _in._
W. 20 _ft._ 4 _in._
]
[Sidenote: Formerly in Skipton Castle, Ireland.]
SCENES FROM THE ROMAN DE LA ROSE: _This piece illustrates one of the most
popular romances of the Middle Ages, the Romance of the Rose, the first
part of which was written in 1337 by Guillaume de Lorris, the second part
in_ 1378 _by Jean de Meung, and translated into English by Chaucer. The
culminating scenes are represented. Jealousy has imprisoned Bel Acceuil
in a tower because he helped the Lover see the Rose after Jealousy had
forbidden it. The Lover calls all his followers, Frankness, Honor, Riches,
Nobility of Heart, Leisure, Beauty, Courage, Kindness, Pity, and a host of
others, to aid him in rescuing the prisoner. In the course of the struggle
Scandal, one of Jealousy's henchmen, is trapped by two of the Lover's
followers posing as Pilgrims, who cut his throat and cut out his tongue.
With the aid of Venus, the Lover finally wins._
[Sidenote: Exhibited:
_Chicago Art Institute, Gothic Exhibition_, 1921.]
The piece is very close in drawing to the illustrations of the Master of
the Golden Fleece,[2] whom Lindner has identified as Philip de Mazarolles.
The long bony, egg-shaped heads that look as if the necks were attached
as an afterthought, the shoe-button eyes, flat mouths, and peaked noses
all occur in his many illustrations. Characteristic of him, too, are
the crowded grouping of the scene and the great care in presenting the
accessories, every gown being an individual design, whereas many of
his contemporary illustrators contented themselves with rendering the
general style without variations. The conventional trees are probably the
weaver's interpolations. The top of the tapestry being gone, there is no
possibility of knowing whether his customary architectural background was
included or not.
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
The tapestry is interesting, not only because it is quaint, but because
it is a vivid illustration of the spirit of the time--virile, cruel, yet
self-consciously moralistic.
[Sidenote: 5]
FLANDERS, MIDDLE XV CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool._
H. 10 _ft._ 9 _in._
W. 17 _ft._ 5½ _in._
]
THE VINTAGE: _This piece was probably originally one of a series of the
Months, representing September. Groups of lords and ladies have strolled
down from the castle in the background to watch the peasants gathering and
pressing the grapes._
[Sidenote: Formerly in the Collection of Edouard Aynard, Paris.]
[Sidenote: Exhibited:
_Exhibition of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Old Palace of Sagan,
Paris_, 1913.]
The costumes and the drawing indicate that the piece was made in Burgundy
at the time of Philip the Good. In fact, it is so close to the work of
one of the most prolific of the illustrators who worked for Philip the
Good that it is safe to assume that the original drawing for the cartoons
was his work. In the pungency of the illustration and the vivacity
of the episodes as well as in numerous details it follows closely the
characteristics of Loysot Lyedet. Here are the same strong-featured
faces with large prominent square mouths, the same exaggeratedly long
and thin legs with suddenly bulging calves on the men, the same rapidly
sketched flat hands, and the same attitudes. The very exact drawing of
the bunches of grapes parallels the exactness with which he renders the
household utensils in his indoor scenes, and the dogs, while they are of
types familiar in all the illustrations of the time, have the decided
personalities and alert manner that he seemed to take particular pleasure
in giving them.
[Sidenote: Reproduced:
_Les Arts_, Sept., 1913; _Gazette des Beaux Arts_, 1913.]
Another tapestry that seems to be from the same hand is _Le Bal de
Sauvages_ in l'Eglise de Nantilly de Saumur.
The piece is one of the most vivid and convincing illustrations of
the life of the time that has come down to us in tapestry form. The
silhouetting of the figures against contrasting colors and the structural
emphasis of the vertical lines give the design great clarity and strength.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Jacques Seligmann & Company_.]
Loysot Lyedet was working for the Dukes of Burgundy in 1461. He died
about 1468. Among the most famous of his illustrations are those
of the _History of Charles Martel_ (Bibliothèque Royale, Brussels)
_History of Alexander_ (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris) and the
_Roman History_ (Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Paris.)
[Sidenote: 6]
GERMANY, PROBABLY NUREMBERG, MIDDLE XV CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Gold._
H. 3 _ft._ 6 _in._
W. 7 _ft._ 6 _in._
]
SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF CHRIST: _The Life of Christ is shown in eight
small scenes, beginning with the Entrance into Jerusalem, the Farewell to
his Mother, the Last Supper, the Agony in the Garden, the Carrying of the
Cross, the Crucifixion, the Pieta, and the Entombment._
The scenes in this tapestry were apparently adapted from the illustrations
from a Nuremberg manuscript of the middle of the XVth century. Of course,
the weaving may have been done later. The simplified arrangement of the
scenes with a reduction to a minimum of the number of actors, the relative
size of the figures to the small squares of the compositions, the marked
indebtedness in the use of line and light and shade to woodcuts, and the
courageous but not altogether easy use of the direct profile, all bring
the pieces into close relationship with such book illustrations as those
of George Pfinzing's book of travels (_The Pilgrimage to Jerusalem_), now
in the City Library of Nuremberg.[3] In fact, the parallelism is so very
close, the tapestry may well have been adapted from illustrations by the
same man, the curiously conventionalized line-and-dot eyes being very
characteristic of the Pfinzing illustrations and not common to all the
school.
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
In weaving many of the figures the warp is curved to follow the contours.
The naïve directness and unassuming sincerity of the piece give it great
interest.
[Sidenote: 7]
TOURNAI, THIRD QUARTER XV CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool._
H. 10 _ft._ 6 _in._
W. 8 _ft._ 9 _in._
]
THE HISTORY OF HERCULES: _Hercules, clad in a magnificent suit of shining
black armor, rides into the thickest tumult of a furious battle; with
sword in his right hand, he skillfully parries the thrust of a huge lance,
while with the other hand he deals a swinging backhand blow that smites an
enemy footman into insensibility. His next opponent, obviously bewildered
and frightened, has half-turned to flee. The whole apparatus of mediæval
combat is shown in intense and crowded action. The piece is incomplete._
This tapestry illustrates one of the favorite stories of the Middle Ages,
and was undoubtedly originally one of a set. In design it is closely
related to the famous _Wars of Troy_ series, many examples of which are
known and some of the first sketches for which are in the Louvre. It is
also closely related to the _History of Titus_ set in the Cathedrale de
Notre Dame de Nantilly de Saumur.[4] Both of these sets are signed by Jean
Van Room, and this piece also is undoubtedly from his cartoon. All of
these pieces were probably woven between 1460 and 1470.
Jean Van Room (sometimes called de Bruxelles) is one of the most
interesting personalities connected with the history of Gothic tapestry.
He was a cartoon painter and probably conducted a large studio, judging
from the number of pieces of his which are left to us. Fortunately, he
had a habit of signing his name on obscure parts of the designs, such as
the borders of garments. His work extends over sixty years and changes
markedly in style during that time, adapting itself to the changing
taste of his clients. This piece illustrates his earliest manner. In the
succeeding decades he is more and more affected by the Renaissance and the
Italian influence, until his latest pieces (cf. No. 21) are quite unlike
these first designs. At the close of the century he began to collaborate
with Maître Philippe, evidently a younger man, who had had Italian
instruction and was less restrained by early Gothic training (cf. Nos.
17-19).
Jean Van Room seems to have done designs for enamels, also, that were
executed in the studio of the so-called Monvaerni. In the collection of
Otto H. Kahn is a _Jesus before Pilate_ very close in style to Jean Van
Room's early work,[5] on which appear the letters M E R A, which might
even be a pied misspelling of Room, for similar confused signatures
appear on tapestries known to be his. A triptych with _Crucifixion_
in the collection of Charles P. Taft[6] has figures very close to the
_Crucifixion_ tapestry in the Cathedral of Angers done by Van Room in his
middle period. According to Marquet de Vasselot, this enamel bears the
letters JENRAGE, but M. de Vasselot also comments on its illegibility
in the present condition of the enamel. Could he have misread a letter
or two? Still another triptych with _Crucifixion_, in the Hermitage,[7]
actually repeats two figures from the Angers _Crucifixion_ with only very
slight variations.
Jean Van Room borrowed liberally from various other artists at different
stages of his career. In the _Wars of Troy_, the _History of Titus_,
and this piece he seems to have relied primarily on Jean le Tavernier
for his models, the affiliation being especially close in the _Wars of
Troy_. Le Tavernier is known to have illustrated the _Wars of Troy_,[8]
and Jean Van Room, judging from the close stylistic relations of his Troy
tapestries with le Tavernier's drawings, evidently took his hints from
this lost manuscript.
[Illustration:
_The Vintage_ No. 5
]
[Illustration:
_Entombment on Millefleurs_ No. 8
]
This piece was probably woven under Pasquier Grenier at Tournai, as were
the _Wars of Troy_, on which there are some documents.
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
This tapestry presents with extraordinary vividness the fury, din,
excessive effort, hot excitement, and blinding confusion of crowded
hand-to-hand conflicts that marked mediæval warfare. It must have been
conceived and rendered by an eye-witness who knew how to select and
assemble the raw facts of the situation with such honesty and directness
that an overwhelming impression of force and tumult is created, and it was
woven for patrons, the fighting Dukes of Burgundy, by whom every gruesome
incident would be observed with relish and every fine point of individual
combat noted with a shrewd and appraising eye.
[Sidenote: 8]
FRANCE, END XV CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool._
H. 2 _ft._ 10 _in._
W. 7 _ft._ 10 _in._
]
ENTOMBMENT ON MILLEFLEURS: _Christ lies on the tomb which is inscribed
"Humani Generis Redeptori." John in a red cloak, the Virgin in a blue
cloak over a red brocaded dress, and Mary Magdalene in a red cloak over
a green dress stand behind the tomb. At the head, removing the crown of
thorns, stands Joseph of Arimathea and at the foot Nicodemus. Both Joseph
and Nicodemus are in richly brocaded robes. Borders at the sides only
of alternate blue and red squares inscribed I H S and M A surrounded by
jeweled frames. Millefleurs on a blue ground. In the upper left corner the
monogram I S and in the upper right W S, with a scroll under each bearing
the inscription "de Mailly."_
This tapestry is an unusually delicately and perfectly rendered example of
the _millefleurs aux personnages_ of France of the late Gothic period. A
small piece like this was undoubtedly made for a private chapel, probably
that of the de Mailly family. This quality of millefleurs was probably
woven in Touraine. An altar frontal showing the Pieta which is very
similar in style is in the Kunstgewerbe Museum.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Demotte_.]
The drawing has the nice exactness of a finished miniature, the
workmanship the brilliance of enamel; yet both are transfigured by the
vivid conception of the tragic event. Its utter pathos is expressed with
moving power. We are in the presence of an unutterably solemn moment.
[Sidenote: 9]
FRANCE, END XV CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 4 _ft._ 6 _in._
W. 3 _ft._
]
MILLEFLEURS ARMORIAL WITH WILD MEN: _On a delicate millefleurs ground a
wild man and woman hold an armorial shield surmounted by a winged helmet._
[Sidenote: Formerly in the C. D. Barney Collection.]
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
The wild men, probably a modified revival of the classical satyrs in
modified form, were very popular in France in the XIIIth and XIVth
centuries. There are tapestries extant depicting the balls where all
the company came dressed in hairy tights to represent these creatures.
Froissart recounts an episode of a ball at the Hotel St. Pol in Paris in
1392 when the king and five of his companions came in such costumes, all
chained together, and the flax used to imitate the hair caught fire from
a torch, so that in an instant all were enveloped in flames. The king
was saved by the presence of mind of his cousin, who enveloped him in
her skirts, and another was saved by jumping into a tub of water he had
noticed earlier in the evening in an adjacent service-room. The others
were burned to death.
[Sidenote: 10]
FRANCE, BEGINNING XVI CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool._
H. 7 _ft._ 10 _in._
W. 10 _ft._ 7 _in._
]
MILLEFLEURS WITH SHEPHERDS AND THE SHIELD OF THE RIGAUT FAMILY:
_Against a background of conventionalized millefleurs, shepherds and
shepherdesses and their flock. In the center, two peasants holding a
shield, evidently of the Rigaut family. In the corners the shield of
Rigaut and of another family. The tapestry was evidently made to celebrate
a marriage, the corner shields signifying the joining of the families,
an oblique reference being intended in the pairing of the shepherds and
shepherdesses. A scroll in the center bears the inscription "Par Içi Passe
Rigaut."_
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
The naïveté both of the characterization and of the drawing that
emphasizes the structural and silhouette character of the figures
contributes greatly to the charm of this piece. The clean, sharp rendering
of the millefleurs enhances the decorative effect. The piece is probably
the work of a small provincial loom.
[Sidenote: 11]
FRANCE, PROBABLY LA MARCHE, BEGINNING XVI CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 5 _ft._ 7 _in._
W. 9 _ft._ 4 _in._
]
MILLEFLEURS WITH ANIMALS: _Against a large-scale millefleurs ground on
blue, deer are playing about a fountain within a paddock. On a fence-post
perches a peacock. Outside the fence a fox waits, watching slyly. In the
background conventional castles._
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
The floreation is rather unusual, as it shows the transition from the
Gothic millefleurs to the Renaissance verdure. The enlarged scale of the
flowers and the use of the iris and the scrolled thistle-leaves in the
foreground show the influence of the Renaissance, but the daisies and
wild roses are still Gothic in feeling, as are the unusually charming and
vivacious deer. The conventional rendering of the water is skillfully
managed. The sly fox is especially well characterized.
[Illustration:
_Millefleurs with Shepherds and the Shield of the Rigaut Family_
No. 10
]
[Illustration:
_Pastoral Scene_ No. 13
]
[Sidenote: 12]
FRANCE, PROBABLY LA MARCHE, EARLY XVI CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool._
H. 4 _ft._ 5 _in._
W. 9 _ft._ 5 _in._
]
MILLEFLEURS WITH ANIMALS: _Millefleurs with animals on a blue ground. At
the top a narrow strip of conventionalized hilly landscape._
[Sidenote: Lent by _Dikran K. Kelekian_.]
Many tapestries of this type were woven in France at the end of the XVth
and beginning of the XVIth century. They are one of the most successful
types of tapestry decoration, the quaint animals in this piece being
especially charming, and one of the most generally useful kinds of wall
decoration, so that the demand for them was large and continuous. As a
result, the style was produced almost without modification for over a
hundred years. Only the bit of landscape at the top indicates that this
was woven in the beginning of the XVIth century and not in the middle of
the XVth.
[Sidenote: 13]
FRANCE, LATE XV CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool._
H. 9 _ft._ 6 _in._
W. 9 _ft._
]
PASTORAL SCENE: _Two ladies have strolled into the country with their
lords, who are on the way to the hunt, one with a falcon and the other
with a spear and dog. On the way they have stopped to talk to a group of
peasants who are tending their flocks and to play with their children. One
young peasant girl is gathering a basket of grapes._
Such peasant scenes as this were much in demand during the XVth century.
A piece very similar both in general spirit and in detailed drawing and
facial types is in the Musée des Arts Decoratifs. In this two lords are
watching a large group of woodcutters.
[Sidenote: Formerly in the De Zolte Collection.]
The piece is an excellent illustration of the clarity of French design.
Each figure stands out almost entirely detached against the background.
Yet, nevertheless, the naturalness of the grouping is not sacrificed. The
piece conveys extraordinarily the impression of a real scene, a common
daily occurrence among people that we might reasonably expect to know,
at which we are allowed to be present in spite of the intervening four
hundred years.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Duveen Brothers_.]
Some of the tricks of drawing and the types portrayed are so very similar
to those in some of the stained-glass windows of St. Etienne du Mont and
of St. Germain-l'Auxerrois the cartoons must be by members of the same
school, one of the groups of l'Ile de France, and may quite possibly be by
the same man.
[Sidenote: 14-16]
FLANDERS, FIRST QUARTER XVI CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
No. 14:
H. 11 _ft._ 6 _in._
W. 14 _ft._ 2 _in._
]
[Sidenote:
No. 15:
H. 10 _ft._ 9 _in._
W. 7 _ft._ 3½ _in._
No. 16:
H. 11 _ft._
W. 10 _ft._ 5 _in._
]
THREE PIECES FROM A SERIES ILLUSTRATING THE CREED: _This series of
scenes illustrating the Creed begins_ (_No._ 14) _with the Creation of
the World_. _The designer, evidently with some allegorical poem in mind,
includes in the scene Sapientia, Potencia, and Benignitas, depicted, in
characteristic medieval form, as three richly dressed women. In the
center scene these three offer the world to God. On the right, Gubernacio,
Redempcio, and Caritas stand under the throne of the Trinity._
_In the second piece_ (_No._ 15) _the series continues with the Life of
Christ_, _beginning with the Annunciation_, _the Nativity_, _and the
Adoration of the Kings_.
_Reverting to the older tradition of the XIVth century that had been
almost displaced during the XVth century_, _all the events of Christ's
public life are omitted_, _and the third piece_ (_No._ 16) _depicts the
scenes of the Passion_, _including the popular interpolation of Christ's
farewell to his Mother_, _with the Apostles in the background_, _the
Resurrection_, _and finally Christ taking his place at the right hand of
God while the angels sing hosannas_.
_Below, throughout the series, is the set of the Apostles facing Prophets,
symbolic of the parallelism of the Old and New Testaments, each with a
scroll bearing his speech in the conventional responses depicted in so
many works of art of the period. So Peter (No. 14), says, "I believe in
God the Father Omnipotent," and Jeremiah, who faces him, replies, "You
invoke the Father who made the earth and builded the heavens."_ _Next_
(_No._ 15) _comes Andrew_, _who originally faced David_, _a figure now
missing_. _The next pair, John and Daniel, is also missing._ _There
follow_ (_No._ 16) _Thomas_, _who originally faced Hosea_, _and John the
Lesser_, _who is opposite Amos_. _Above_, _on either side of the Nativity_
(_No._ 15), _is introduced another pair_, _John the Greater and Isaiah_.
The complete piece, of which number 16 is the right-hand end, was formerly
in the Toledo Cathedral, then in the collection of Asher Wertheimer, of
London. The present owner is unknown.[9] Another rendition was in the
Vatican, but disappeared in the middle of the XIXth century.[10]
Tapestries illustrating the Creed were common throughout the Middle
Ages. They appear frequently in XIVth-century inventories, and a number
of examples from the XVth and early XVIth century are left to us. The
Apostles and Prophets arranged in pairs are a common feature of this type
of tapestry.
[Sidenote: Formerly in Evora Palace, Portugal.]
The cartoons are evidently the work of the painter who painted the ceiling
of the Church of St. Guy at Naarden, whom Dr. Six tentatively identifies
as Albert Claesz.[11] The similarity is too close to be overlooked. The
Christ of the Naarden _Resurrection_[12] and this _Resurrection_ are
almost identical, the face of God the Father in the _Assumption_ is
almost identical with that of an onlooker in the Naarden _Betrayal_,[13]
and Adam in the first piece of this series closely resembles the Christ
of the Naarden _Flagellation_.[14] But more indicative are the lesser
peculiarities common to both series. There are in both the same curiously
flattened and slightly distorted skulls with very large ears, the same
large eyes with heavy arched lids and eyebrows close above them, oblique
and not quite correctly placed in the three-quarter views, and always
looking beyond their focus. The mouths, too, in some of the faces are
overemphasized in the same way, and the feet have the same quaint
distortion, being seen from above, as in the figure of the Prophet John
(No. 15). And in very conspicuous minor agreement, the cross has a
strongly indicated and rigidly conventionalized graining identical in
the two renditions. The attitude of the Christ and the indication of
the garment in the Toledo tapestry is very close to that in the Naarden
painting.
[Illustration:
_The Creation of the World_ No. 14
]
[Illustration:
_Four Scenes from the Life of Christ_ No. 17
]
The floreation was probably introduced by the weaver. The delightfully
exact scene of the owl scolded by a magpie, while a pigeon sits near
by and another bird flutters about (No. 14), is repeated with slight
variations in a number of XVIth-century pieces.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Demotte_.]
The drawing in these tapestries is rather unusually primitive for pieces
of this period, but the figures have a broad monumental character and a
direct sincerity of bearing that make them very convincing.
[Sidenote: 17-19]
FLANDERS, PROBABLY BRUSSELS, BEGINNING XVI CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
No. 17:
H. 11 _ft._ 10 _in._
W. 17 _ft._ 6 _in._
No. 18:
H. 11 _ft._ 7 _in._
W. 7 _ft._ 5 _in._
No. 19:
H. 12 _ft._
W. 26 _ft._
]
THREE PIECES FROM A SERIES ILLUSTRATING THE CREED: _In the first piece_
(_No._ 17) _four scenes from the Life of Christ are portrayed: the
Adoration of the Kings_, _the Presentation at the Temple_, _the meeting
of Christ and John_, _and Christ among the Doctors_. _In the corner sits
a prophet, probably David. The piece undoubtedly began with the Nativity,
at the left, and possibly the Annunciation, with the Apostle Andrew in the
other corner. This would indicate that the piece was the second in the
series, the first probably having been the Creation of the Earth, with
Peter and Jeremiah._
_The second piece_ (_No._ 18) _shows the Circumcision and the Assumption
of the Virgin_, _and evidently included at least one more scene at the
right_.
[Sidenote: _The Last Judgment_ was formerly in the Evora Palace, Portugal,
and is illustrated from the Louvre example in _Migeon, Les Arts de Tissu_,
p. 220; in part, in _E. Mâle, L'Art religieux de la fin du Moyen Age en
France_, p. 501; _Burlington_, vol. 20, p. 9; _Figaro Illustré_, 1911.]
_The third piece_ (_No._ 19) _shows the full scene of the Last Judgment
with a personage who seems to be Philip in one corner and in the other
Zephaniah_. _The piece is complete except, possibly, for a border. A
tapestry from the same cartoon with a narrow border of flowers is in
the Louvre. Christ, enthroned, is surrounded by the Virgin, Saint John,
and the eleven Apostles. Angels, bearing instruments of the Passion and
sounding trumpets flutter through the sky. At the right of the throne
angels come bearing crowns for the elect. Below the dead are rising from
the graves. Before the throne of Christ Justice bearing a sword and Pity
bearing a lily come to punish the Seven Deadly Sins, Pride, Avarice,
Luxury, Greed, Anger, Envy, and Laziness, an episode adopted from the
Mystery Plays. On the border of the robe of the Virgin appear the letters
WOL and on the border of the robe of the last Apostle at Christ's left the
letters RIM DACI BAPTISTA ORADI._
[Sidenote: _The Circumcision and Assumption_ is illustrated in _Demotte,
Les Tapisseries gothiques_, Première Série, pl. 39.]
Seven other large tapestries very closely related to these are known.
They represent various episodes involving Christ and numerous allegorical
figures that have not been identified. Three of these are in the
collection of Baron de Zuylen du Nyevelt de Haar, two in the Burgos
Cathedral, and two others have passed into private collections and been
lost sight of.[15] Another smaller piece, apparently of the same series,
was number X in the Morgan Collection. Three duplicates are also in
Hampton Court.
The series is closely related also to the _Life of the Virgin_ set in the
Royal Collection at Madrid, and also the _Presentation in the Temple_
of the Martin le Roy Collection. The cartoons are clearly the work of
Maître Philippe, and the weaving was evidently done in Flanders, probably
in Brussels, about 1510. Marquet de Vasselot suggests that the cartoons
of the Martin le Roy piece and of the Madrid series were done after a
second master under the influence of Gerard David.[16] Destrée, following
Wauters, suggests Jean de Bruxelles, known author of the cartoon for the
_Communion of Herkenbald_, another Maître Philippe piece, to which he
sees a resemblance,[17] and Thièry repeats the claim, but on far-fetched
evidence.[18]
Certainly the types are very close to those of Gerard David. Some of the
figures on David's _Tree of Mary_ in the Lyons Museum[19] are repeated
almost exactly, and some of the female figures are very like the Saint
in the _Marriage of Catherine_ in the San Luca Academy at Rome.[20] But
other types, such as Zacharias in the meeting of Christ and John, are more
reminiscent of Hugo Van der Goes, being, for instance, almost identical
with Joseph of Arimathea in the _Descent from the Cross_ in the National
Museum, Naples,[21] even to such details as the drawing and placing of the
ear. The glimpses of landscapes, too, are clearly derived from Hugo in
their composition and details, and even the floreations are close to those
in some of Hugo's work, notably the _Original Sin_ in the Imperial Gallery
of Vienna,[22] where one finds the same upspringing sheaf of iris. The
work would seem to be that of a lesser eclectic, such as the author of the
_Life of Mary_ in the Bishops' Palace at Evora.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Demotte_.]
In all the pieces there are intense sincerity and real grandeur of design.
The _Last Judgment_, in the musical swinging together of the draperies,
the perfect control of the great composition, and in the fine development
of the dominance of Christ without sacrifice of the minor episodes, as
well as in the power of expression of the thrilling solemnity of the
moment, deserves to rank with the greatest interpretations of the subject.
[Sidenote: 20]
BRUSSELS, BEGINNING OF XVI CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 12 _ft._ 3 _in._
W. 13 _ft._ 2 _in._
]
SCENES FROM A ROMANCE: _A queen surrounded by her court awaits the
preparation of a document. There is a general interchange of documents
among the courtiers at the right. In the background, upper left, a knight
indites a letter, and on the opposite side two knights wait on horseback.
The scenes illustrate some contemporary_ _romance and are closely related
to the Court of Love tapestries that were so often woven at this time._
[Sidenote: Formerly in the Morgan Collection.]
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
The cartoon, like those of the _Court of Love_ scenes, is the work of the
studio of Maître Philippe. Jean Van Room probably collaborated, as his
signature appears on a very similar tapestry of _David and Bathsheba_
in the Royal Spanish Collection.[23] As in that tapestry, the elegantly
dressed persons are quite typical of the prosperous burghers of the time
and might well be used as fashion plates. The composition is skillful
in the balancing of the groups and the massing of the drapes to form a
support for the dominant figure of the queen.
[Sidenote: 21]
BRUSSELS, EARLY XVI CENTURY
[Sidenote:
H. 13 _ft._ 9 _in._
W. 22 _ft._ 1 _in._
]
[Sidenote: Barberini Collection; Ffoulke Collection. Illustrated: _Ffoulke
Collection_, opp. p. 43. Exhibited: _Exposition d'Art ancien bruxellois,
Brussels_, 1905, No. XXI. Illustrated: _Destrée, Catalogue of same_, pl.
XXIV.]
THE TRIUMPH OF DAVID: _David carrying the head of Goliath on his sword
and surrounded by musicians is followed by King Saul and Jonathan on
horseback. In the background a hilly landscape with the tents of the
Hebrews. A narrow floral border._
The cartoon was painted by Jean Van Room, his signature appearing on
another piece[24] of the same series in the Musée du Cinquantenaire,
Brussels. Maître Philippe must have collaborated with him in this work,
for a strong Italian influence is evident which appears only in the Van
Room tapestries that have had Philippe's assistance.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Mrs. Wm. C. Van Antwerp_.]
Though the drawing and details show the incoming Renaissance influence,
the full continuous narrative arrangement of the group, the strong
vertical lines of the figures, and the simple modeling show the tarrying
Gothic feeling. The groups are beautifully massed and the individual
figures show great dignity.
[Sidenote: 22]
SWITZERLAND, EARLY XVI CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool._
H. 4 _ft._ 3½ _in._
W. 7 _ft._ 9½ _in._
]
TWO PAIRS OF LOVERS: _Two pairs of lovers are pictured against a
background of vines with blue-green scrolled leaves and large red and
yellow blossoms on a dark-blue field. The pair at the right is on either
side of a Gothic pedestal on which is a small statue. The ladies are in
red robes. One man is in a blue doublet, the other in a two-toned red
brocaded cloak. Border of rose-vines and daisies._
[Sidenote: Formerly in the Collection of Comtesse Desautoy.]
The piece was probably woven in Basle, and is undoubtedly adapted from a
wood-block illustration in one of Leonhard Ysenmuth's publications. The
width and richness of the border indicate that it was done in the early
XVIth rather than in the late XVth century.
The subject of pairs of lovers was quite a favorite one with German and
Swiss weavers, and a number of them in different styles is left to us.
The piece is probably the work of an amateur, a nun, or more probably
some lady, who thus filled her long leisure hours. The wood-block print
has been closely followed for the figures, even to such minor details as
the very simple conventionalization of the hair. The vine background in
rather a large scale is common to many Swiss tapestries of the period. The
limited range of colors used is especially worthy of note, there being
only three shades of blue, three of green-blue, three of tan, and two of
red, in addition to the black for the outlines.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Wildenstein & Co._]
The work is thoroughly naïve, but it has the strong appeal of genuineness
and directness common to naïve designs and shows a strong feeling for
decorative quality.
[Sidenote: 23-25]
BRUSSELS, SECOND QUARTER XVI CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool, Silk, Gold._
No. 23:
H. 13 _ft._ 5 _in._
W. 15 _ft._ 4 _in._
No. 24:
H. 13 _ft._ 5 _in._
W. 20 _ft._
No. 25:
H. 13 _ft._ 5 _in._
W. 20 _ft._
]
THREE SCENES FROM THE DEEDS OF SCIPIO: _In the first piece_ (_No._ 23)
_Scipio enthroned offers the mural crown to Caius Laelius_. _Roman army
officers stand about. In the background the army is assembled._
_In the second piece_ (_No._ 24) _Scipio is about to land in Africa_. _In
the foreground two vessels filled with soldiers. In the background the
city of Utica._
_In the third piece_ (_No._ 25) _Hannibal approaches Scipio to sue for
peace_. _In the background the opposing armies face each other on either
side of a river._
The pieces bear the Brussels city mark and the monogram H.M. (Hubert de
Mecht). The cartoons are attributed to Giulio Romano, fifteen of the
original small drawings being in the Louvre. There are in all eighteen
pieces in this set, and two subsequent sets, the _Triumphs of Scipio_ and
the _Fruits of War_, make a total of thirty-five pieces in the complete
history, one of the largest sequences ever attempted in tapestry.
[Sidenote: Illustrated: _Hauser y Menet, Los Tapices de la Corona de
España_, vol. 2, pl. 93; _Burlington_, 1916, pp. 58-66, in connection with
article by George Leland Hunter, _Scipio Tapestries Now in America_.]
The cartoons have been woven a number of times and examples have been
included in many famous collections, including that of Francis I. These
pieces were so rich in gold that they were burned to obtain the metal
during the Revolution.
These three pieces are from one of the earliest weavings, and in
perfection of execution and sumptuousness of material far surpass most
of the renderings, ranking with the greatest productions of the early
Renaissance. The use of the metal is particularly effective, occurring as
it does in three techniques, plain weaving, basket weaving, which always
gives a heavy richness, and couching.
The borders with the classical allegorical figures under porticos are of a
very fine type, following the example set by Raphael in his panels for the
_Acts of the Apostles_.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Duveen Brothers_.]
For vividness of illustration, strength and clarity of silhouette, and
delicacy and freshness of color this set is nowhere surpassed.
[Illustration:
_The Triumph of David_ No. 21
]
[Illustration:
_Two Pairs of Lovers_ No. 22
]
[Sidenote: 26, 27]
BRUSSELS, XVI CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
No. 26:
H. 12 _ft._
W. 15 _ft._
No. 27:
H. 12 _ft._
W. 16 _ft._
]
TWO SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF CYRUS: _In the first_ (_No._ 26) _Cyrus
captures Astyages_, _his grandfather_. _Soldiers stand about, and in the
background the army is assembled._
_In the second_ (_No._ 27) _Thomyris has the head of Cyrus offered as a
human sacrifice_. _An attendant is placing the head in a gold basin and
soldiers standing about draw back in horror. In the background a battle
wages._
[Sidenote: Illustrated:
_Hauser y Menet, Los Tapices de la Corona de España_, vol. 2, pls. 119,
121.]
These two pieces, showing the moment of greatest triumph and the ultimate
defeat of Cyrus, the great world conqueror, are from a famous set that has
been woven several times. One of these sets, belonging to the royal family
of France, was used in the funeral service of Francis II. Another group
from the series is in the Royal Spanish Collection. The only set known
with a weaver's signature bears the mark of Nicolas Leyniers, and it is
entirely probable that all of the examples, including these two, are from
those looms.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Mr. & Mrs. Daniel C. Jackling_.]
They are very fine examples of a type of design perfected in the first
half of the XVIth century in Brussels. The fullness of details in the
background serves to keep the textile rich and interesting and to throw
into sharp silhouette the dominant figures. The intricate and decorative
borders that are used on these pieces well illustrate one of the most
important contributions of the Renaissance to tapestry design.
[Sidenote: 28]
BRUSSELS, XVI CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 8 _ft._ 10 _in._
W. 7 _ft._ 2 _in._
]
THE PENTECOST: _The Apostles and the members of the Early Church are
gathered together. The tongues of fire descend upon them, and the Holy
Ghost appears like a dove between the figures of God and Jesus revealed
above. A wide border of scroll with inset medallions of biblical scenes.
In the upper border a papal coat of arms._
[Sidenote: Lent by _William Baumgarten & Company_.]
Renaissance tapestries in so intimate a scale that yet are not miniature
occur rather seldom. The piece has great clarity and brilliance and
carries forcefully the religious feeling of the episode.
In the selvage the Brussels city mark and the weaver's initials, C. S. The
mark is unidentified.
[Sidenote: 29]
BRUSSELS, XVI CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 6 _ft._ 9 _in._
W. 13 _ft._ 8 _in._
]
JUDITH DEPARTS FOR THE ENEMY'S CAMP: _Judith accompanied by her maid takes
leave of her mother. Attendants await to lead her away and a slave awaits
in the background holding two camels. Wide border of fruits and flowers._
[Sidenote: Lent by _William Baumgarten & Company_.]
This is one of a very famous set of the _Story of Judith and Holofernes_,
examples of which are in a number of famous collections. The tapestry
bears on the selvage the Brussels city mark and the weaver's monogram, N.
X. The mark is unidentified.
This piece is a strong example of a set that combines characteristic
Renaissance stateliness with a less customary direct charm.
[Sidenote: 30]
BRUSSELS, MIDDLE XVI CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 11 _ft._ 3 _in._
W. 12 _ft._ 9 _in._
]
GARDEN SCENE: _Through a trellis upheld by caryatides a formal garden with
fountains and pavilions is seen. In the foreground, deer. In the garden,
various animals. Border of scrolls and flowers with inset cartouches
showing animals._
Such trellis designs as this were quite often used in the middle of the
XVIth century. A famous example very similar to this is the _Vertumnus and
Pomona_ set, one of which was in the Palace of the Escurial and two in the
Barberini Collection.[25] Another piece so like this that it must be the
work of the same designer is in the Vienna Collection, number 142.
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
It is a rich and resourceful kind of decoration well fitted to the
requirements of tapestry. The drawing of the deer is unusually graceful
and vivacious.
[Sidenote: 31]
FLANDERS, XVI CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 5 _ft._ 9 _in._
W. 12 _ft._ 9 _in._
]
VERDURE: _In the center a château surrounded by a moat on which swans and
ducks swim about. At the left fishermen on the bank and a hunter with his
dogs. On the right mounted hunters chasing rabbits through a wood._
[Sidenote: Lent by _Mrs. William H. Crocker_.]
The high-keyed landscape on a small scale was the Renaissance successor to
the Gothic millefleurs. The drawing in this piece is beautifully clean and
exact, and the color delightfully and uncommonly varied and vibrant. The
château is so carefully rendered that it is valuable as an architectural
record. The piece may have been made by Flemish weavers working in England.
[Sidenote: 32]
FLANDERS, LATE XVI CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool._
H. 9 _ft._
W. 23 _ft._
]
HUNTING SCENE: _Hunters riding through a woodland. In the foreground a
knight and lady strolling. Scroll border._
[Sidenote: Lent by _W. & J. Sloane_.]
This piece is a rather uncommon variation of a familiar type. Many
tapestries were woven in Flanders in the second part of the XVIth century
that were predominantly verdure with a few minor figures, but the figures
were seldom as delicately drawn nor the colors so high in key and clear.
It is quite possible that the piece was woven by Flemish weavers in
England, a few pieces woven there by the Poyntz family being known to have
somewhat the same quality. The relatively low height in proportion to the
great length also suggests that it was made for an English house.
[Illustration:
_Hannibal Approaches Scipio to Sue for Peace_ No. 25
]
[Illustration:
_Cyrus Captures Astyages, His Grandfather_ No. 26
]
[Sidenote: 33]
FLANDERS, ENGHIEN (?), XVI CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool._
H. 9 _ft._ 7 _in._
W. 7 _ft._ 9 _in._
]
VERDURE: _Large scrolling leaves, bluish-green, with bunches of fruit and
flowers and small finches. Wide border of fruit and flowers._
Verdures of this type were very much in demand in the Renaissance period.
They are typical of the decorative manner of the time and one of its
finest inventions.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Dikran K. Kelekian_.]
The heavy, simple leaves are often too obvious and too readily explored
for the best tapestry decoration; but in this piece the beautifully drawn
birds provide delicacy and interest of detail.
[Sidenote: 34]
BRUGES, MIDDLE XVI CENTURY (1556)
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 9 _ft._ 1 _in._
W. 8 _ft._ 9 _in._
]
ARMORIAL: _Two amorini support a shield. Above, crossed banners; below,
dolphins. Six flags radiate from the shield, each bearing the initial
P surmounted by a crown. Border of scrolls and classic figures._ _In
cartouches in the side and lower borders the initials F_, _G_, _and X
respectively_, _and in the corresponding cartouche of the top border the
date_, 1556. _On the right lower selvage is the city mark of Bruges, with
the weaver's monogram, A. F._[26]
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
This tapestry is very interesting, not only because it is a clear, strong
example of a Renaissance heraldic hanging, but because very few pieces
of the period can be ascribed definitely to Bruges although it is known
that important looms flourished there. The weaver's monogram has not
been identified. The coat of arms, which is also unidentified, seems to
be Spanish, and judging by the coronet evidently belonged to a family of
high station. The amorini are after a follower of Giulio Romano, if not by
Romano himself.
The relief effect of the design is quite extraordinary.
[Sidenote: 35]
BRUSSELS, XVI CENTURY (1574)
[Sidenote:
_Wool, Silk, Gold._
H. with frame, 4 _ft._
W. with frame, 3 _ft._ 9 _in._
]
THE CRUCIFIXION: _Christ and the two thieves on the crosses. In the
foreground, right, the Roman soldiers; left, the sorrowing Marys. Floral
border._ _Dated in cartouche in the border_, 1574.
This is one of a number of small tapestries in silk and gold of religious
subjects, most of which have been attributed to Bernard Van Orley, who
probably designed this piece also. They are all of them very exact
reproductions of paintings, remarkable in weave and very beautiful
in color. The type was first woven in the first quarter of the XVIth
century, and continued to be produced in very limited numbers until well
into the XVIIth century. They were undoubtedly woven only for special
orders--probably for private chapels.
The piece is a very brilliant example of one of the richest types of
tapestry that has ever been woven.
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
Bernard Van Orley (1492-5 to 1540) was trained by his father,
Valentin, and afterwards studied under Raphael in Italy. He was
engaged to supervise the translation of Raphael's cartoons for the
famous series of the _Apostles_ into tapestry. In 1518 he became
court painter. He designed many tapestries, of which the most famous
are the _Hunts of Maximilian_ and the _Victory of Pavia_ series.
[Sidenote: 36]
FONTAINEBLEAU, MIDDLE XVI CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 11 _ft._
W. 17 _ft._
]
GROTESQUES: _On a red ground, grotesques, of which the principal features
are: in the center Flora in an arbor on the top of which stands Atlas
upholding the world; two cartouches left and two right with candelabra and
various deities. Below at the left in a small oval medallion Leda and the
Swan, and in the corresponding medallion on the other side Eve and the
Serpent. The remaining spaces are filled with amorini, garlands of fruit
and flowers, gods, and various ornaments. Narrow floral borders, and in
the center of both side borders a triangle._
The triangles in the border are the Deltas, the ciphers of Diane de
Poitiers, indicating that this piece was woven in the reign of Henry II
for Diane, possibly for the Château d'Anet.
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
For fertile and varied imagination this piece is quite uncommon even
among grotesques, the most imaginative type of decorative tapestries.
It exhibits a most entertaining sense of humor and shows a capricious
independence never found in the more formal Flemish grotesques of the time.
[Sidenote: 37]
FONTAINEBLEAU, MIDDLE XVI CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 12 _ft._ 8 _in._
W. 8 _ft._
]
TRIUMPH OF DIANA: _The goddess in a blue robe, bearing her bow and arrows,
drives a pale-blue chariot on which a nymph is tied prisoner. Love,
whose wings are beautifully multicolored, also is a prisoner. Diana's
attendants, garbed in blue and red tunics, follow on foot, one in the
foreground in a green tunic leading a large grey-hound. In the border
shells alternate with crescents on a blue ground and in the corners above
are crescents and rams' heads. The mottoes "Non Frusta Jupiter Am Bas" and
"Sic Immota Manet" are in the upper and lower borders respectively._[27]
The tapestry was evidently made for Diane de Poitiers, mistress of Henry
II, the subject being chosen as a personal tribute.
[Sidenote: Formerly in the Collection of Edouard Kann, Paris.]
Aside from its evident beauty, the piece is important because it is one
of the few remaining examples of the work of the Fontainebleau looms,
which adapted to tapestry the characteristic Italian-French Renaissance
decoration that was formulated in the frescoes of Fontainebleau. There
are few documents left on these looms, but it is known that le Primatice
made designs for tapestries woven there, and, judging from the drawing
of the figures with the long limbs and heavily marked muscles that reflect
the influence of Michael Angelo, and the contour of the small heads
with the hair flowing back and the classical features, together with
such other details as the long flexible fingers, this piece would seem
to be an example of his work. If not by le Primatice, it was certainly
done directly under his influence; but it could scarcely be by Baudouin,
judging from the recently discovered set in the Viennese exhibition,[28]
for it has more poise and clarity of space than any of those tapestries.
[Illustration:
_The Crucifixion_ No. 35
]
[Illustration: Grotesques No. 36]
For grace and charm, without any loss of strength, this surpasses most
French work of the period. It is an unusually typical illustration of
the French Renaissance which took the technique of the Italian revival
of the antique and refashioned it to her own spirit, giving the classic
goddesses, even in their dignity, youthful and feminine appeal, and
refining the Italian opulence. The floreation in the foreground is as
delicate as in a XVIth-century millefleurs, and the colors are unusually
luminous.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Wildenstein & Company_.]
Francesco Primaticcio (1504-1570) studied under a disciple of
Raphael and worked with Giulio Romano on the decorations of the
Palace de Te, Mantua. In 1532 he went from Italy to Fontainebleau
to work on the decorations there. In 1540 he returned to Italy
to collect works of art for the king. He returned to France and
continued to create decorations at Fontainebleau with a large staff
of Italian painters as his collaborators. Under Francis II he became
Superintendent of the Building.
[Sidenote: 38]
PARIS, EARLY XVII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool._
H. 13 _ft._
W. 16 _ft._ 9 _in._
]
THE NIOBIDES: _Apollo and Artemis from a cloud shoot down the children
of Niobe, thus avenging their mother, who had been outraged by Niobe's
boasting that she had the more children. Border of fruit garlands and
figures in camaieux._
[Sidenote: Formerly in Marnier-Lapostalle Collection, Paris.]
[Sidenote: Reproduced:
_Guiffrey, Les Gobelins et Beauvais_, p. 15; _Hauser y Menet, Los Tapices
de la Corona de España_, vol. 2, pl. 132.]
The tapestry is one of the Artemis series designed for Marie de Medici
by Toussaint du Breuil. It was woven on the looms which were under the
direction of Marc Comans and François de la Planche, and which later
became the Gobelins state manufactory. The cartoons were repeated many
times with different borders. Judging by the border, this piece was woven
about 1611.
The piece is a splendid example of the dramatic and monumental character
of the productions of the pre-Gobelins looms.
The sensitive feeling for decorative fitness and the reserve that are
evident in French designs from the Gothic period on differentiate such
a cartoon as this from the contemporary Flemish productions, usually so
violent and exaggerated in scale, in drawing, and in emotional expression.
For, though dramatic, the scene is restrained and the figures have an
almost sculptural detachment. This quality is sustained by the fine
architectural border, which is very typical of the Paris looms of this
period.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Jacques Seligmann & Company_.]
Toussaint du Breuil (1561-1602) painted decorations in the Pavilions
des Poêles at Fontainebleau, and also in the Galerie des Rois in the
Louvre. Most of his work has perished.
[Sidenote: 39, 40]
GOBELINS, XVI CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
No. 39:
H. 7 _ft._ 9 _in._
W. 13 _ft._ 6 _in._
No. 40:
H. 7 _ft._ 9 _in._
W. 11 _ft._
]
TWO SCENES FROM THE HISTORY OF CLEOPATRA: _In the first_ (_No._ 39)
_Cleopatra attended by two maidens greets a young prince who is being
introduced to her by a general_. _In the harbor the young stranger's ship
is seen._
_In the second_ (_No._ 40) _Cleopatra welcomes a young man_. _An attendant
holds a heavy canopy of silk. Beyond, a Greek temple is seen._
_Side borders, only, of classic decorations on a red ground with inset
medallions showing the Judgment of Paris._
[Sidenote: Formerly in the Collection of Lord Lovelace.]
The pieces both signed in the lower right corner--Lefébvre, with the
fleur-de-lis and G. They do not, however, appear on the records of the
Gobelins, so they must have been done by Lefébvre outside of the official
work.
[Sidenote: Lent by _William Baumgarten & Company_.]
They are strong and fresh examples of the early work of the Gobelins
weavers, and typical of the classicism of the late Renaissance in France.
The requirements of mural decoration are met by the monumental character
and sculptural poise of the figures, but at the same time the design is
adapted to a decorative textile through the perfection of the detail and
the richness of the colors.
[Sidenote: 41]
FLANDERS, BEGINNING OF XVII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 7 _ft._ 10 _in._
W. 13 _ft._ 4 _in._
]
VERDURE: _A formal garden with fountains and a château in the distance and
various birds in the foreground._
[Sidenote: Lent by _Mrs. C. Templeton Crocker_.]
Such landscape tapestries were a characteristic late Renaissance
interpretation of the verdure type, a transition between the Gothic
_millefleurs_, that were really originally landscapes without perspective
(cf. No. 11), and the XVIIth-century verdures (cf. No. 43). It is a very
successful form of verdure, for they are broadly effective from a distance
and yet have a sufficient wealth of detail to yield interest on closer
exploration. The birds in this piece are especially carefully observed and
well drawn, and the purity and vivacity of the color is exceptional for
this type.
[Sidenote: 42]
BRUSSELS, LATE XVII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 13 _ft._
W. 12 _ft._
]
AMERICA: _In a tropical landscape an Indian with bow and arrows caressing
a crocodile. Two children beside him smoking pipes. In the background
on a hill a mission; in the foreground a heap of fruits and flowers and
precious objects symbolic of the wealth of the New World. Border of fruits
and flowers with corner medallions representing North, East, South, and
West. On the lower selvage the Brussels city mark and the signature, I. V.
D. BEURCHT._
[Sidenote: Another example in Musée Impériale des Ecuries, Petrograd, No.
117.]
The piece is one of a set of four representing the four quarters of the
globe. It was woven by Jean Van der Beurcht, one of the great weavers of
Brussels, who is known to have been working there between 1690 and 1710.
The Van der Beurcht family had for several generations been painters,
Jean being the first to turn from that profession to tapestry weaving. He
was followed by several other members of the family (cf. No. 56), all of
whom did work of the highest quality.
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
The piece is a splendid illustration of the romantic attitude toward
America at the time and a reminder of the importance America had to
Europeans as a source of wealth. The mission on the hill, and another
mission settlement in the valley of which a glimpse can be caught, are of
especial interest.
[Sidenote: 43]
FLANDERS, XVII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 11 _ft._ 10 _in._
W. 11 _ft._
]
VERDURE WITH BEAR HUNT: _In a forest of large trees hunters shooting and
spearing bears. In place of a border, large columns at the sides with
floral garlands hung between them across the top._
The piece is a type of verdure, numbers of which with many variations were
produced in Flanders during the XVIIth century. It is one of a set of
five, and is a very strong, fresh example.
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
The substitution of massive columns for formal borders is characteristic
of the Baroque period and serves the better to adapt the tapestry to the
prevailing architecture.
[Sidenote: 44]
BRUSSELS, XVII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 11 _ft._
W. 18 _ft._ 8 _in._
]
[Sidenote: From the Morgan Collection, No. 17. Another example in the
Swedish Royal Collection.]
TRIUMPH OF AUGUSTUS AND LIVIA: _Caesar offers the crown of victory to
Augustus, who kneels before him. He is surrounded by his attendants and
his chariot waits in the background. The side borders are of flower-draped
columns, top and bottom borders of fruit and flower garlands, with
ornaments. On the side borders are cartouches bearing the insignia: Pax.
Aug. and Vic. Aug. (Pax Augusta and Victoria Augusta)._
[Sidenote: Illustrated:
_Böttiger, Svenska Statins Samling_, vol. 3, pl. XLII.]
The piece is one of a series on the _History of Julius Caesar_, three of
which were in the Morgan Collection. It has all the abundance and dramatic
emphasis characteristic of the Baroque period.
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
The massive yet active figures, the large folded, swinging drapes, the
luxurious and heavy accessories are all typical of the work of a time
when the large, the impressive, and the elaborate were sought in all
forms of art. The manner was introduced into tapestry cartoons by Rubens
and carried on by many of his pupils and imitators. Even the outline of
the composition of this piece follows closely that of Rubens' famous
_Triumphs_, from which the suggestion for the cartoon was undoubtedly
taken.
[Sidenote: 45]
FLANDERS, XVII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool, Silk, Gold._
H. 3 _ft._ 1 _in._
W. 4 _ft._
]
THE VIRGIN AND CHILD: _The Virgin in a pale red gown with a dark-blue
cloak falling about her is seated on the ground. The child holding a staff
in the form of a cross sits on her knee. Beyond is a castle, and against
the sky a high mountain. Wide floral border. The high lights are in gold._
This is a most exceptional piece of tapestry, evidently made to special
order, probably for a private chapel, after an Italian Renaissance
painting. The excessive fineness of the weave and the unstinted use of
gold to render the high lights indicate that it was made for a person of
wealth and importance.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Duveen Brothers_.]
The painting is faithfully and delicately reproduced and the border is
remarkably rich and glowing.
[Sidenote: 46]
BRUSSELS, LATE XVII, EARLY XVIII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 12 _ft._
W. 17 _ft._ 6 _in._
]
SANCHO IS TOSSED IN A BLANKET: _Sancho, following Don Quixote's example,
has refused to pay the innkeeper, as that is against the tradition of
knights-errant and their squires. So the clothmakers of Segovia and the
needlemakers of Cordova who chance to be there toss him in a blanket,
while Don Quixote sits without on his horse cursing lustily._
The piece is one of a set of illustrations of _Don Quixote_ after
David Teniers the Younger. The scene has all the casual and convincing
informality and boisterous good spirits for which Teniers' paintings are
famous. It quite catches the spirit of the romance which it illustrates.
The landscape vista is unusually lovely in color.
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
David Teniers the Younger (1610-1694) was trained principally under
his father, David the Elder, also famous for paintings of peasant
episodes. In 1633 he became Master of the Guild of St. Lukes, and
thereafter was Dean of the Guild and painter to the governor,
Archduke Leopold William, a position which he continued to hold
under the next governor, Don Juan of Austria. In 1663 he helped form
the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts. He painted innumerable pictures of
peasant scenes, many of which have been rendered in tapestry.
[Sidenote: 47, 48]
BRUSSELS, XVIII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
No. 47:
H. 11 _ft._
W. 8 _ft._ 9 _in._
No. 48:
H. 11 _ft._
W. 8 _ft._ 9 _in._
]
TWO PEASANT SCENES: _In the first_ (_No._ 47) _a group of peasants
has stopped to rest and talk beside a stream that comes tumbling down
in broken cascades beneath a high stone bridge. On the hills in the
background are farmhouses and the ruins of castles_.
_In the second_ (_No._ 48) _a group of peasants sits and stands about
under a tree in a meadow_, _in which cattle and goats wander._ _In the
background is a farmhouse._
[Sidenote: Lent by _Duveen Brothers_.]
These tapestries after Teniers are typical of his illustrations of life
among the peasants and of his decorative and romantic yet realistic
landscapes. They are in weaving and color of the best quality of examples
of this type.
[Illustration:
_Triumph of Diana_ No. 37
]
[Illustration:
_The Niobides_ No. 38
]
[Sidenote: 49]
MORTLAKE, LATE XVII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 10 _ft._ 4 _in._
W. 7 _ft._ 6 _in._
]
PEASANTS IN A LANDSCAPE: _A group of peasants has stopped by the wayside
in a mountainous landscape. Above is a shield bearing the inscription
"Iocatur in Parvis sorts ut cum Magna Mercede Fallat."_
[Sidenote: Formerly in the Collection of Sir John Ramsay.]
The cartoon is after Teniers. The Mortlake renditions of these cartoons,
which were borrowed from Flanders, have a clarity and sharpness that
give them marked distinction. The towering mountain landscape is really
impressive.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Frank Partridge, Inc._]
The rendition of the water is unusually realistic without any loss of
decorative interest. The translation of water into a woven design is
one of the most difficult problems of the craft. It has been given many
solutions, of which this is the most naturalistic.
[Sidenote: 50]
BEAUVAIS, LATE XVII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 10 _ft._
W. 8 _ft._ 8 _in._
]
HERMES AND THE SHEPHERD: _Hermes has taken the Shepherd's pipe, leaving
the caduceus on the ground, and is attempting to play. They are in a wood
with large flowers in the foreground. In the background there is a glimpse
of a hilly landscape and a formal garden with fountains. Wide floral
border._
[Sidenote: Lent by _Mrs. James Creelman_.]
The piece is one of a set of five verdures, most of which have hunting
scenes. While there is no signature, and there are no records on them, the
character of the foliage and of the floreation makes it almost certain
that these are of Beauvais manufacture. While in some details they
resemble contemporary Aubusson tapestries, the quality of the color is
rather different.
They are a particularly deep and quiet type of verdure, an excellent
background for fine furnishings. The quality of the greens is uncommonly
fine.
[Sidenote: 51]
BEAUVAIS, BEGINNING OF XVIII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 10 _ft._ 9 _in._
W. 13 _ft._ 3 _in._
]
VERDURE WITH DANCING NYMPHS: _In a wooded dell are four nymphs dancing.
Beyond is a glimpse of an open pasture with cows._
[Sidenote: Lent by _Dikran K. Kelekian_.]
The strong and brilliant trees throw into sharp contrast the delicate
perfection of the bit of landscape beyond. The nymphs are probably after
Noël Coypel. The use of the red to relieve the general tone of green is
especially successful.
[Sidenote: 52]
BEAUVAIS, 1685-1711
[Sidenote:
_Wool, Silk, Gold._
H. 15 _ft._ 8 _in._
W. 11 _ft._ 10 _in._
]
THE CONQUEST OF LOUIS THE GREAT: _Louis XIV on horseback with two
attendants points with his cane to the siege of a city whose defenses are
surrounded by water. In the upper border appear the arms of Count Bruhl of
Saxony. The piece is one of a set of seven._
[Sidenote: Formerly in the Lord Amherst Collection.]
[Sidenote: Illustrated: _Badin, La Manufacture de la Tapisserie de
Beauvais_, opp. p. 4.]
This is a very rare example from one of the earliest sets woven at
Beauvais when the factory was under the direction of Behagle. The cartoon
was designed either by Van der Meulen or his greatest pupil, Jean-Baptiste
Martin, later called Martin of the Battles, because of a famous series of
cartoons which he made for the Beauvais works illustrating the victories
of Sweden over Denmark.
The richness of the king's group stands out brilliantly against the
clear, cool color and sharp geometrical lines of the background. The city
with its canals and buildings is exquisitely rendered, an interesting
anticipation of an aeroplane view.
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
Adam Frans Van der Meulen (1632-1690) was a native of Brussels and
studied there under Peter Snayers, but on recommendation of Le Brun
was invited by Colbert to Paris, where he was pensioned by the king
and given apartments in the Gobelins. In 1673 be was received into
the Academy. He collaborated with Le Brun in making designs for the
Gobelins, notably for the series of _The History of the King_.
[Sidenote: 53-56]
BRUSSELS, BEGINNING XVIII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool._
No. 53:
H. 10 _ft._ 7 _in._
W. 29 _ft._
No. 54:
H. 10 _ft._ 4 _in._
W. 9 _ft._ 4 _in._
No. 55:
H. 10 _ft._ 3½ _in._
W. 7 _ft._ 2 _in._
No. 56:
H. 10 _ft._ 4½ _in._
W. 7 _ft._ 3 _in._
]
THE OPERATIONS OF THE SIEGE OF LILLE: _Number_ 53 _represents the battle
of Wynendael Wood._ _Lord Cobham on horseback with his sword drawn is in
the midst of his troops._
_Number_ 54 _shows the burning of Lille_. _The burning city is seen in the
background. Soldiers in the foreground are getting bundles of wood to feed
the flames._
_Number_ 55 _shows cavaliers foraging_. _Soldiers are carrying bundles of
hay for their horses and a lamb lies on the ground ready to be carried
off._
_Number_ 56 _shows the poisoning of a spy_. _The cavaliers have just given
a glass of poisoned wine to a young woman who is about to drink._
_The borders simulate wooden frames and carry the arms of Lord Cobham._
[Sidenote: Formerly in Stowe House.]
The set was designed by Van der Meulen for Lord Cobham, who served under
the Duke of Marlborough and had a brilliant military career. It was woven
at the Royal Manufactory of Brussels under the direction of Leyniers,
whose signature appears in the border of three pieces. In the fourth piece
is the signature ACASTRO, Latin for Van der Beurcht.
Cobham inherited Stowe House in 1697, and these tapestries until recently
hung in the dining-room there.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Jacques Seligmann & Company_.]
The set ranks with the strongest and most effective pieces of the
period, rich both in illustrative action and in decoration. The weave is
technically perfect.
[Sidenote: 57]
GOBELINS, MIDDLE XVIII CENTURY (1747-1751)
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 11 _ft._ 6 _in._
W. 8 _ft._ 3 _in._
]
JULY FROM THE "MONTHS" OF LUCAS: _From a series of designs of the
Months, used in Brussels since the XVth century and attributed without
verification to Lucas Van Leyden. The scene represents a falconing party._
[Illustration:
_Scene from the History of Cleopatra_ No. 39
]
[Illustration:
_Verdure_ No. 41
]
The piece has the last type of border used for the set, the so-called
Dresden border, representing a carved and gilded wood frame with corner
ornaments surrounded by naturalistic flowers, and with a sign of the
Zodiac (Leo) in a cartouche at the top.
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
The piece was probably woven in the tenth weaving between 1741 and 1751 on
the upright looms in the atelier of Cozette.[29]
This is an unusually clear and brilliant example of a famous Gobelins set.
[Sidenote: 58]
GOBELINS, XVII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 9 _ft._ 4 _in._
W. 6 _ft._ 8 _in._
]
DECEMBER FROM THE "MONTHS" OF LUCAS: _A nobleman greets a peasant woman
and her child, while a man and woman carrying a baby wait for him. In
the background a castle and people skating on the ice. The piece is
incomplete._
[Sidenote: Another example in the Vienna Collection, No. 109.]
This tapestry is from the same set as the preceding, but woven almost a
century earlier, and it is interesting to contrast the changes that the
change in taste has made in the feeling of the rendition and the color
key. During the XVIIIth century the cartoon was refined with slight
changes. The hand of the old man, for example, was modified to hold a
fruit for the child. The piece probably is from the third or fourth
weaving. If so, it was done on the horizontal looms in the atelier of
Lefébvre, outside of the official work of the Gobelins.[30]
[Sidenote: Lent by _Wildenstein & Company_.]
This is one of the few really successful renditions of a snow scene in
tapestry.
[Sidenote: 59]
BEAUVAIS, LATE XVII, EARLY XVIII CENTURY (1684-1711)
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 9 _ft._ 8 _in._
W. 16 _ft._ 5 _in._
]
CHINESE GROTESQUE: _Under an arbor clowns conduct a circus. Above the
arbor are scrolls, garlands, birds, musical instruments, and other
decorations. On a yellow ground._
This is one of a famous series of grotesques by Berain on a yellow ground,
woven several times at the Beauvais works when they were under the
direction of Behagle.[31]
The entertaining fantasy of the conception, together with the delicate
drawing and the beautiful ground color, makes this one of the finest
grotesques of the XVIIIth century.
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
Jean Berain (1638-1711) was appointed in 1674 designer to the king,
and in this position designed the scenery and costumes for the court
ballets. He is famous for his decorations.
[Sidenote: 60, 61]
BEAUVAIS, XVIII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
No. 60:
H. 15½ _in._
W. 19 _in._
No. 61:
H. 15½ _in._
W. 19 _in._
]
TWO STILL-LIFE PIECES: _In one_ (_No._ 60) _a glass_, _a napkin_, _and
some vegetables on a table_. _In the other_ (_No._ 61) _various vegetables
about a china dish_.
These panels, after paintings by Chardin, are the only recorded examples
of still-life composition in tapestry. From the middle of the XVth century
household utensils and various other types of accessories were used to
contribute richness of ornamentation to scenes, and during the Baroque
period embossed metals and lavish carvings became especially important in
creating a luxurious effect, but not until tapestry was thought of as a
form of painting was a purely still-life subject attempted. All still-life
designs depend so much on contrasted weights, and especially on textures,
that they are particularly difficult to translate into a medium which,
like tapestry, renders primarily silhouettes and which has such a decided
texture of its own. But the extraordinary skill of the XVIIIth-century
French weavers was equal even to that problem. The skillful care of the
composition of the original paintings and the pure beauty of the colors of
the tapestry make of rather unpromising subjects beautiful decorations.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Maison Jamarin, Paris_.]
Jean Siméon Chardin (1699-1779) studied under Noël Coypel and
assisted Jean Baptiste Van Loo in restoring one of the galleries of
Fontainebleau. He was admitted to the Academy in 1728. His early
work was devoted to still-life subjects principally, his later to
peasant scenes, in which there are often fine incidental still lifes.
[Sidenote: 62]
AUBUSSON, MIDDLE XVIII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 9 _ft._ 8 _in._
W. 10 _ft._ 9 _in._
]
THE PRIEST AND CARDENIO MEET DOROTHY: _The priest and the barber while
looking for Don Quixote come across Cardenio. While Cardenio is telling
them the sad story of how his love, Lucinda, has been stolen from him by
the treachery of Don Fernando they hear someone lamenting. Following the
sound of the voice, they find Dorothy disguised as a shepherd-boy bathing
her feet in a stream. She is on her way to seek Don Fernando, who is her
pledged husband and who has deserted her for Lucinda. In the background
Don Quixote, exhausted and starved from his wanderings, lies on the
ground, while the faithful Sancho pleads with him to return to Toboso._
_The border simulates a carved frame. On the lower selvage is the
signature M. R. DAUBUSSON. MAGE. PICON._
The piece is one of a series of illustrations by Coypel, originally
designed for the Gobelins, and was engraved and used in many editions of
the romance both in France and Spain. Several looms made tapestries after
the engravings, including those of Santa Barbara in Madrid.
The signature is the mark of the royal manufacture of Aubusson, and of
Mage, a tapestry merchant in Paris in 1746, and Picon, dyer to the king
from 1748 to 1756. The piece was evidently made in the royal works of
Aubusson to the order of the dealer Mage under the supervision of Picon,
who, from his position, was evidently one of the most important members of
the staff there.
[Illustration:
_Verdure with Dancing Nymphs_ No. 51
]
[Illustration:
_The Conquest of Louis The Great_ No. 52
]
The piece shows Aubusson work at its richest and finest. The foliage of
the trees with every leaf shown and broken up into small spots of changing
color is very typical of Aubusson, and quite different from the manner of
the Flemish shops (cf. No. 55). The colors are remarkably fine.
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
Charles Antoine Coypel (1694-1752) entered the Academy in 1715, and
the next year made a series of twenty-eight designs illustrating
_Don Quixote_ for the Gobelins. A second important series which he
designed for the Gobelins illustrated scenes from the theatre. He
was a favorite painter of Queen Marie Leczinska. He wrote several
comic dramas and had an interest in an understanding of the theatre
which is reflected in his tapestry designs, which are conceived
always as a theatrical scene in a stage setting, with actors making
the proper expressive gestures.
[Sidenote: 63]
PARIS, XVIII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
Oval;
H. 28 _in._
W. 23 _in._
]
BACCHANTE: _A young bacchante wearing a tigerskin and holding Pan's pipes.
In an oval panel._
This panel is after a portrait by Coypel. Though it does not appear on the
official registers of the Gobelins, the technique would indicate that it
was probably by a Gobelins weaver, who quite often worked outside of the
official orders.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Jacques Seligmann & Company_.]
The delicate execution reproduces faithfully the piquant charm of
the painting; even the most delicate gradations of tones are exactly
reproduced.
[Sidenote: 64.]
GOBELINS, XVIII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 25 _in._
W. 21 _in._
]
PORTRAIT OF LOUIS XV: _This portrait, after a painting by Van Loo made for
the Gobelins in_ 1760, _is one of a series of the royal family. It is in
the original frame_.
[Sidenote: Illustrated: _Böttiger, Svenska Statins Samling_, vol. 2,
pl. XLI; _Fénaille, Etat général des Tapisseries de la Manufacture des
Gobelins, Dix-huitième Siècle_, 2me Partie, p. 311; as portrait of Louis
XVI, in _Migeon, Les Arts de Tissu_, p. 335.]
While tapestry is not an appropriate medium for portraiture, a portrait is
the supreme test of the skill of the weaver. In this piece the effect of
the painting is reproduced with remarkable fidelity. The warp is vertical.
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
The technical difficulty was the greater because almost the entire
piece was woven in wool, the proper material for tapestry, silk being
relied on only for a few high lights. As a portrait it has directness
and conviction, carrying the essential dignity of royalty. The XVIIIth
century, which first undertook to weave tapestry portraits, produced a
kind of portrait that was especially ill-adapted to this material; for
the likenesses depended primarily on the delicate modeling produced by a
very sensitively differentiated scale of values and scarcely at all on
lines. Even in Gothic tapestries there are many heads that are striking
portraits, but these are entirely graphic in character and so fitted for
tapestry. In rendering this portrait the weavers had literally to paint
with the shuttle.
Carle Van Loo (1705-1756) studied in Rome under Luti and Le Gros. In
his youth he painted scenery for the opera with Boucher. In 1737 he
was admitted to the Academy, and in 1762 made first painter to the
king.
[Sidenote: 65]
GOBELINS, FIRST HALF XVIII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool._
H. 13 _ft._ 3 _in._
W. 8 _ft._ 3 _in._
]
[Sidenote: Another rendering in the Vienna Collection, No. 253; another in
the Musée Impériale des Ecuries, Petrograd, No. 118.]
THE INDIAN HUNTER: _This tapestry is one of a set of eight illustrating
the New India after designs by François Desportes. The set was first woven
in 1687._ _This piece has the first type of border used with the series_,
_bearing the arms of the king_, _which means that it was woven before_
1768 _under either Cozette or Neilson_.[32]
The design is typical of the romantic primitivism that Rousseau formulated
in his conception of the Noble Savage. The accuracy of detail in the
Indian basket is interesting and rather unexpected.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Demotte_.]
François Desportes (1661-1743) studied under Bernaert, a pupil of
Snyders. He entered the Academy in 1699 and was made painter to the
king. He is famous for his paintings of animals and hunting scenes.
[Sidenote: 66]
BEAUVAIS, XVIII CENTURY (1777)
[Sidenote:
_Wool._
H. 11 _ft._ 1 _in._
W. 21 _ft._ 3 _in._
]
THE THEFT OF THE TRUNK: _A group of gypsies surround a traveler's
carriage, and while some tell the lady's fortune and receive alms others
attempt to steal a trunk from the baggage-rack behind._
[Sidenote: Formerly in Collection of Count Polovzoff, Petrograd. Another
example in the Swedish Royal Collection. Illustrated: _Böttiger, Svenska
Statins Samling_, vol. 3, pl. LXVI.]
The tapestry is one of the series _Les Bohémiens_ by François Casanova,
and was woven in Beauvais when the factory was under the direction of
André Charlemagne Charron, whose initials it bears in signature. According
to the inventories, the series has been woven only twice--once in 1777 for
the king, and again in 1799.[33]
The vividness of the minor episodes and the vivacity of characterization
of even the lesser actors make this a most interesting tapestry. The
weaving is done with exquisite skill and the color is unusually fresh and
charming.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Jacques Seligmann & Company_.]
François Casanova (1730-1805) went to Italy in 1727 where he studied
under Guardi and Francesco Simonini. He returned to France and later
studied under Parocel. In 1763 he was received into the Academy and
exhibited in the salons until 1783.
[Sidenote: 67]
BEAUVAIS, XVIII CENTURY (1735-1740)
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 11 _ft._ 9 _in._
W. 14 _ft._ 6 _in._
]
THE ARMS OF FRANCE AND NAVARRE: _Two angels on clouds support the coat of
arms before an ermine drape against a ground of fleur-de-lis on blue._
The angels are after Boucher, the only coat of arms in tapestry known to
which Boucher has contributed. It is evidently one of several fleur-de-lis
pieces listed in the accounts of Beauvais between 1735 and 1740 and may be
the one made for the Parliament of Rouen in the latter year.[34]
It is an unusually rich and interesting armorial, the angels with their
characteristic Boucher grace adding great beauty to the formal setting.
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
François Boucher (1703-1770) studied with Lemoyne and during that
time painted scenery for the Opera, a work to which he returned in
the height of his career (1737-44). In 1734 he became Academician.
In 1735 he was appointed head of the Gobelins by Marigny. In 1765
he was made first painter to the king and Director of the Academy.
In the years between 1740 and 1755 he painted many cartoons for the
Beauvais tapestry works. Among his most famous tapestry suites are
the _Loves of the Gods_, the _Chinese Hangings_, and the _Italian
Fêtes_.
[Sidenote: 68]
GOBELINS, XVIII CENTURY (1767)
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 4 _ft._ 11 _in._
W. 6 _ft._ 6 _in._
]
THE FORTUNE-TELLER: _Two peasant girls seated on the ground by a fountain
are having their fortune told by another girl. A naked baby clings to
her skirts. From one side a goat looks on inquisitively. It is signed F.
Boucher and dated._
[Sidenote: Illustrated: _Fénaille, L'Etat général des Tapisseries de la
Manufacture des Gobelins, Dix-huitième Siècle_, 2me Partie, p. 238.]
This is one of a series of cartoons in small size made by Boucher for the
Gobelins while he was director. They were very popular and have been woven
a number of times.
The piece shows how remarkably the delicate gradations of tone, on which
Boucher's essential quality depended, could be translated into the weave
by the extraordinarily skillful craftsmen of the Gobelins.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Duveen Brothers_. ]
As in all of Boucher's cartoons, the subject is only an occasion for his
own charming decorative mannerisms. As a rendition of peasant life, it
is interesting to contrast this cartoon with the honest literalness of
Teniers (cf. Nos. 47-49).
[Sidenote: 69]
AUBUSSON, LATE XVIII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 9 _ft._ 10 _in._
W. 7 _ft._ 5 _in._
]
BAIGNEUSE: _A bather attended by amorini is about to step into a woodland
stream. In an oval frame surrounded by an encadrement of garlands upheld
by amorini and satin drapes in the manner of Huet, on a gray ground._
The central panel is after Fragonard, a subject that he repeated with many
variations. The piece is typical of the Aubusson work, delicate in color
with the decorative effect depending largely on the flowery encadrement.
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
Jean Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) studied under Boucher, Greuze, and
Chardin, and is usually considered the successor of Boucher. In 1752
he was given Grand Prize for Painting. He was a favorite painter of
Madame Du Barry, for whom he did a great deal of work.
[Sidenote: 70]
AUBUSSON, LATE XVIII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 8 _ft._ 10 _in._
W. 6 _ft._ 6 _in._
]
AU BORD DU MER: _In an oval panel are peasants landing from a rowboat. In
the harbor under a cliff is a sailing vessel. In an encadrement of red and
blue flowers and ribbons on a gray ground._
[Sidenote: Formerly in the Vaffrin Collection, Bordeaux.]
The central panel is after Vernet, who was particularly famous for his
port scenes. The encadrement is unusually rich and delicate.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Wildenstein & Company_.]
Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789) first studied under his father as
a decorative painter of wall and furniture panels. Afterward he
studied under Bernardino Fergiori in Rome to be a marine painter. In
1735 he was received by the Academy. His most famous paintings, of
the seaports of France, are in the Louvre.
[Sidenote: 71]
AUBUSSON, XVIII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool._
H. 9 _ft._
W. 5 _ft._
]
CHINESE GROTESQUE: _A Chinaman, fantastically dressed, stands between two
tall tropical trees. On a pale-blue ground._
[Sidenote: Lent by _A. J. Halow_.]
The piece is a delightful example of the taste for _chinoiseries_ which
the Pompadour fostered for the benefit of the French East India Company,
in which she was interested, and which taste was eagerly followed by the
frivolous and bored French court, always seeking novelty.
[Sidenote: 72]
AUBUSSON, XVIII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 4 _ft._ 3 _in._
W. 3 _ft._ 9 _in._
]
ARMORIAL: _On a red ground, two angels support a shield. Border of
scrolls._
This crisp and delicate little armorial is a fine example of the best
quality of work done at Aubusson in the late XVIIIth century. The clear
drawing on the deep-red background makes a vivid piece of decoration.
[Sidenote: Exhibited: _Detroit Museum of Fine Arts_, 1919.]
[Sidenote: Lent by _Dikran K. Kelekian_.]
The rendition of a coat of arms in tapestry is difficult, because the
decorative value of heraldic devices depends almost entirely on the beauty
of the line-drawing, and tapestry, because of the character of the weave
and the surface, is not a good medium for clean lines. In the earlier
periods, therefore, the shield was usually made incidental to a design
better adapted to tapestry (cf. No. 9). It was only well into the XVIIIth
century that the bearings could be woven delicately enough to let them
stand alone.
[Sidenote: 73]
IMPERIAL RUSSIAN TAPESTRY WORKS, ST. PETERSBURG, 1811
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 9 _ft._ 4 _in._
W. 6 _ft._ 7 _in._
]
CATHERINE THE GREAT: _Catherine stands in her robes of state holding
the sceptre while the Imperial crown rests on a stool beside her. On
the wall is the Russian motto, NACHATOYE SOVERCHAYET ("What is begun is
accomplished"). It is signed and dated._
[Sidenote: Exhibited: _Metropolitan Museum_, 1912.]
For sheer technical skill the rendition of this portrait is unsurpassable.
The representation of textures is remarkable, quite on a par with the
cleverest paintings of the period.
[Illustration:
_The Poisoning of a Spy_ No. 56
]
[Illustration:
_The Arms of France and Navarre_ No. 67
]
[Sidenote: Illustrated: _Hunter, Tapestries_, pl. 229; also, _Candee,
Tapestry Book_, opp. p. 133,--but wrongly attributed to the Gobelins.]
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
It is, in truth, an absolutely perfect reproduction of a painting--a
painting, moreover, that from the character of all the accessories is
particularly difficult to render in wool; and while it is by no means
the business of tapestry to imitate painting, it is nevertheless an
interesting display of remarkable virtuosity. The personal power of the
forceful old Empress is strongly presented. From every aspect this is one
of the greatest portraits in a woven medium. In general color tone the
piece has remained faithful to the character of tapestry, sustaining the
rich quality that the solid texture demands. In spite, also, of the need
for many delicately graded values to render the stuffs and the modeling,
the weavers have kept the color in large enough masses to be broadly
decorative.
[Sidenote: 74]
MADRID, LATE XVIII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 5 _ft._
W. 8 _ft._
]
THE CARD PLAYERS: _A group of men and women playing at cards sit about a
table on which is thrown a rich brocade. One of the company sits to one
side playing a lute._
[Sidenote: Lent by _Duveen Brothers_.]
This piece is one of the rather uncommon examples of the work of the
Santa Barbara looms of Madrid. The skill of the weavers is remarkable
in reproducing the heavy modeling of the deep shadows and the delicate
modulations of the faces. For the perfect rendition of the effect of a
painting in tapestry it cannot be excelled.
ADDENDA
_The tapestries entered under this heading were received
too late to be entered in their proper order
in the body of the catalogue._
[Sidenote: 75]
BRUSSELS, BEGINNING OF XVI CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool, Silk, Gold._
H. 9 _ft._ 1 _in._
W. 7 _ft._ 8 _in._
]
THE RESURRECTION: _The risen Christ discovered by Peter. Upper left, the
Agony in Gethsemane; upper right, Christ appearing to Mary in the garden.
In the background, the angel appearing to the three women. Border of
fruits and flowers, grapes, roses, and iris interspersed with finches and
a paroquet._
This tapestry, the last of a series illustrating the _Passion_ of Our
Lord, was designed in the studio of Bernard Van Orley, and may be the work
of Van Orley himself, though there were some of his students and followers
who in purity of conception and elevation and sensitiveness of feeling
were superior at times to the master himself. The weaving, unsurpassable
in technical perfection, may be the work of the Pannemaker looms. The
quality of the design and weaving and the lavish use of gold all indicate
that this series was made for a great church or a noble family.
[Sidenote: Formerly in the Collection of the Duc d'Albe.]
The weavers at this period had attained complete mastery of the shuttle.
This absolute technical control made possible the exact translation into
tapestry of the intricate Renaissance patterns. The finish and elegance of
the goldsmith's art which characterized so much of Renaissance design is
perfectly rendered.
However, while the weaving was fitted to the requirements of the
Renaissance at this time, it had not yet sacrificed any of its qualities
as tapestry. Nor did the designs of Bernard Van Orley force the weavers
out of their proper limitations. For though he was Italian trained and
saturated with Renaissance influences, he was still close to the technical
problems of the weaver's art and he adjusted the new manner in painting
to them. So this piece is rich in jewel-like detail that enriches without
crowding the whole surface. The drawing of the flowers and the birds is
exquisite. The figures also, in spite of their dramatic force, keep the
aloof poise that decorative art demands. Finally, by means of a dispersion
of substantial tones, the brilliant suffusion of golden light which the
Renaissance loved is fully achieved.
Such a scene as this is, in short, one of the last great monuments of
the perfection of Gothic tapestry, reinspired by the new insights of the
Renaissance before the ostentation and mistaken conventions of Raphael
misguided the entire art.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Mrs. William H. Crocker_.]
Nor is it merely a technical triumph. It is the direct expression of a
profound religious emotion which shines through the material beauty,
elevates it above earthly things, and sets it apart in glory. Easter has
scarce had a lovelier celebration.
[Sidenote: 76]
BRUSSELS, XVI CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 15 _ft._
W. 19 _ft._
]
THE TRIUMPH OF WISDOM: _Wisdom with her two herons rides in a chariot
drawn by mythological beasts. In the upper right are Perseus and Pegasus.
Before the chariot are Ahasuerus, Abigail, David, and Saba. Cassandra
walks beside, while Titus and his soldiers, Rachel, and Judith with the
head of Holofernes bring up the rear. In the upper left Prometheus, in the
lower Cadmus, contending with the dragons._
This is one of a very famous set of tapestries illustrating the _Triumphs
of Petrarch_ and a number of other _Triumphs_ invented by French poets
in imitation of Petrarch. The cartoons are evidently the product of the
studio of Maître Philippe (cf. Nos. 19, 20), for the heads of several of
the minor characters are regular models, often repeated in his work. The
cartoons were painted and also executed before 1523, because in that year
Henry VII bought eight of the set, four of which are still at Hampton
Court. This piece, however, was woven in the middle of the century, as is
shown by the character of the heavy floral border. In the selvage is the
Brussels city mark and the mark of the Brussels weaver, Leo Van den Hecke.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Mrs. William H. Crocker_.]
The design is full of the oblique symbolism that the period loved. The
allusions are drawn with equal interest from classic tradition, secular
history, and Christian legend. The entire past has been laid under tribute
with magnificent disregard of historical, social, and religious congruity.
Such an unclassified assemblage of exciting personalities might even
cause confusion in the Day of Judgment. It is typical of the Renaissance
catholicity, the Renaissance eagerness to assimilate all knowledge and
be always as impressive as possible. Yet the figures still have some of
the stately restraint of the Gothic, and the dispersion of the points of
interest, so that the whole textile is equally covered, is a remainder
from the Gothic taste. Truly transitional, it represents the final stage
of Maître Philippe's development.
[Sidenote: 77]
FLANDERS, ENGHIEN (?), XVI CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 5 _ft._
W. 6 _ft._ 11 _in._
]
VERDURE: _Scrolling leaves in rich blue-green with red and yellow flowers
and fruits on a very deep-blue ground. A wide border of clusters of
flowers and fruits._
[Sidenote: Lent by _Mrs. William H. Crocker_.]
This is a notably brilliant example of the characteristic Renaissance
verdure. The drawing is both accurate and vivacious, the colors pure,
deep, and brilliant, the wool of extraordinary firmness and lustre, while
the weave is remarkably close for the type. Tapestries of this class are
so often perfunctory in conception and mechanical in execution that we
need a piece of this clarity, strength, and perfect finish to show how
splendid are the possibilities inherent in the simple design.
[Sidenote: 78]
FLANDERS, LATE XVII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 11 _ft._ 8 _in._
W. 15 _ft._
]
THE CABRIOLE: _A young knight shows his skill in jumping his horse. At the
left a page leads in a sumptuously caparisoned horse. At the right a large
fountain is seen through the trees, and in the background is a formal
garden with fountains._
[Sidenote: Lent by _Mrs. William H. Crocker_.]
Such very decorative verdures, half realistic landscapes, were among
the finest products of the late XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries. Audenarde
looms wove many of the best pieces of the type, and this piece probably
came from that district. The fountain is rendered with delightful detail
and animation, and the drawing of flowing waters, a trying problem for
tapestry, is managed with admirable dexterity.
[Sidenote: 79]
ANTWERP, LATE XVII CENTURY
[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
H. 32 _in._
W. 24 _in._
]
SCENES FROM THE CHILDHOOD OF CHRIST: _On a black ground strewn with
flowers, five oval panels framed with wreaths: the Annunciation; the
Nativity; the Adoration of the Magi; the Circumcision; the Flight into
Egypt._
[Sidenote: Illustrated: _Schmitz, Bild-Teppiche_, p. 265.]
[Sidenote: Lent by _Mrs. William H. Crocker_.]
This very unusual tapestry was the work of Balthasar Bosmanns, one of the
greatest weavers of Antwerp. The realistically drawn yet richly decorative
flowers show the influence of the school of flower painters of which Jan
Brueghel was the most famous. The landscape in the _Adoration_ and the
_Flight into Egypt_ are rendered with exquisite delicacy. The effect of
the panels in such light, fresh, almost pastel colors against the black
ground is a daring and striking decorative experiment. Another rendering
of the same cartoon is in the Kunstgewerbe Museum, Berlin.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: _Schmitz, Bild-Teppiche_, p. 186.]
[Footnote 2: _Lindner, Der Breslauer Froissart_.]
[Footnote 3: _Amberger Catalogue._]
[Footnote 4: _Thièry, Les Inscriptions des Tapisseries de Jean Van Room_,
pp. 23, 24E.]
[Footnote 5: _Marquet de Vasselot, Les Emaux Limousin_, No. 8, pl. II.]
[Footnote 6: _Op. cit._ 29, pl. X.]
[Footnote 7: _Op. cit._ 49, pl. XVI.]
[Footnote 8: _Order for Payment of Philip the Good_, _April_ 4, 1455,
_quoted in Van den Gheyn_, _Chroniques et Conquêtes de Charlemagne_, _by
le Tavernier_, _p._ 11.]
[Footnote 9: _See Burlington Magazine_, vol. 20, pp. 247, 309. _D. T. B.
Wood, Credo Tapestries._]
[Footnote 10: _See Barbier de Montault's inventory in Annales
Archéologiques_, tome 15, pp. 232, 296.]
[Footnote 11: _Van Kalcken, Peintures ecclésiastiques du Moyen Age. Notes
by Dr. Jan Six._]
[Footnote 12: _Op. cit._ p. 1.]
[Footnote 13: _Op. cit._ p. 3.]
[Footnote 14: _Op. cit._ p. 15.]
[Footnote 15: _Burlington Magazine_, vol. 20, p. 220. _D. T. B. Wood,
Tapestries of the Seven Deadly Sins._]
[Footnote 16: _Catalogue of the Collection of Martin le Roy_, vol. 4.]
[Footnote 17: _Destrée, Tapisseries et Sculptures bruxelloises_, p. 8.]
[Footnote 18: _Thièry, Les Inscriptions des Tapisseries de Jean Van Room._]
[Footnote 19: _Bodenhauser, Gerard David_, No. 10.]
[Footnote 20: _Op. cit._ No. 25a.]
[Footnote 21: _Destrée, Hugo Van der Goes_, opp. p. 48.]
[Footnote 22: _Op. cit._, opp. p. 32.]
[Footnote 23: _Thièry, Les Inscriptions des Tapisseries de Jean Van Room_,
p. 28.]
[Footnote 24: _Thièry, Les Inscriptions des Tapisseries de Jean Van Room_,
p. 27. Also, _Destrée and Van den Ven, Les Tapisseries_, No. 17.]
[Footnote 25: For illustration, see _Fsoulke Collection_, opp. p. 49.]
[Footnote 26: _Thomson, History of Tapestry_, p. 479.]
[Footnote 27: For further discussion, see _Gazette des Beaux Arts_, 2me
Période; _Montaiglon, Diane de Poitiers et Son Goût dans les Arts_, t.
XIX, p. 152.]
[Footnote 28: _La Renaissance de l'Art français_, 1921, p. 159 ff.; _E.
Dimier, La Tenture de la Grande Galerie_.]
[Footnote 29: _Fénaille, Etat général des Tapisseries de la Manufacture
des Gobelins, Période Louis XIV_, pp. 337, 341f., 344, 370.]
[Footnote 30: _Fénaille, Etat général des Tapisseries de la Manufacture
des Gobelins, Période Louis XIV_, pp. 337. 343f., 369.]
[Footnote 31: _Badin, La Manufacture de la Tapisserie de Beauvais_, p. 11.]
[Footnote 32: _Fénaille, Etat général des Tapisseries de la Manufacture
des Gobelins, Dix-huitième Siècle_, Partie 11, p. 40ff.]
[Footnote 33: _Badin, La Manufacture de la Tapisserie de Beauvais_, p. 64.]
[Footnote 34: _Badin, La Manufacture de la Tapisserie de Beauvais_, p. 75.]
A LIST OF WEAVERS
The following is a list of the most prominent weavers. Such men as Sir
Francis Crane, of Mortlake, and Delorme, of Fontainebleau, have not
been included because they were only administrators. It is possible
that Grenier was not a weaver, though he may have been both weaver and
contractor.
Nicolas Bataille Paris XIVth Century
Pasquier Grenier Tournai Middle of XVth Century
Pieter Van Aelst Brussels XVIth Century
Wilhelm Pannemaker Brussels XVIth Century
François Geubels Brussels XVIth Century
Hubert de Mecht Brussels XVIth Century
John Karcher Ferrara XVIth Century
Nicolas Karcher Ferrara XVIth Century
John Rost Florence XVIth Century
Philip de Mecht Mortlake XVIIth Century
Francis Poyntz Mortlake XVIIth Century
Francis Spierinx Delft XVIIth Century
John Vanderbanc England XVIIth Century
Catherine Van der Eynde Brussels XVIIth Century
Jean Raes Brussels XVIIth Century
Everard Leyniers Brussels XVIIth Century
Jacques Van der Beurcht Brussels XVIIth Century
Marc Comans Paris XVIIth Century
François de la Planche Paris XVIIth Century
Jean Lefébvre Paris XVIIth Century
Jean Jans Paris XVIIth Century
Gerard Laurent Paris XVIIth Century
Philippe Behagle Beauvais XVIIIth Century
Cozette Gobelins XVIIIth Century
Le Blond Gobelins XVIIIth Century
De la Tour Gobelins XVIIIth Century
James Neilson Gobelins XVIIIth Century
Jacques Van der Goten Madrid XVIIIth Century
Antoine Lenger Madrid XVIIIth Century
BIBLIOGRAPHY
_All the books starred_ (*) _may be consulted in the San Francisco Public
Library_
[Illustration]
There is, unfortunately, no satisfactory book in English on Tapestry and
no wholly satisfactory book for the general reader in any language. The
following are the most useful and are readily available.
*_Candee, Helen Churchill. The Tapestry Book. New York_, 1912.
A somewhat superficial and sentimental sketch of the history of
tapestry, with almost no interpretation and little indication of the
relation of tapestry to the other arts.
_DeMotte, G. J. Les Tapisseries gothiques. Paris_, 1922.
When complete will contain two hundred large color plates of
incomparable beauty and fidelity. Invaluable as a source-book. Will
contain probably the majority of important examples of the period.
_Guiffrey, J. J. L'Histoire de la Tapisserie. Tours_, 1886.
A narrative history, now superseded in a number of respects.
_Guiffrey, J. J. L'Histoire de la Tapisserie en France_ (_L'Histoire
générale de la Tapisserie_). _Paris_, 1878-85.
A compilation of all the facts available at the time, and still an
important fundamental reference work.
_Guiffrey, J. J. Les Tapisseries du XIIe à la fin du XVIe Siècle. Paris,
n. d._
The most detailed survey of the period, but unfortunately poorly
organized. Superbly illustrated.
*_Hunter, George Leland. Tapestries: Their Origin, History, and
Renaissance. New York_, 1912.
An unsystematic assemblage of facts, not all of which are correct,
and many of which are irrelevant.
_Migeon, Gaston. Les Arts de Tissu_ (_Troisième Partie_). _Paris_, 1909.
A complete and readable account of the history of tapestry, with
some excellent interpretations.
_Müntz, Eugène. L'Histoire de la Tapisserie en Italie, en Allemagne, etc._
(_L'Histoire générale de la Tapisserie_). _Paris_, 1878-85.
Similar to Guiffrey's volume in the same series.
_Müntz, Eugène. La Tapisserie. Paris_, 1883.
A brief presentation of the general history, superseded at some
points, but with valuable illuminating interpretations.
_Pinchart, A. L'Histoire de la Tapisserie dans les Flandres_ (_L'Histoire
générale de la Tapisserie_). _Paris_, 1878-85.
Similar to the other volumes of the same series.
_Schmitz, Herman. Bild-Teppiche. Berlin_, 1919.
By far the most systematic, scholarly, complete, and informing book
yet published on the subject.
*_Thomson, W. G. A History of Tapestry. New York_, 1906.
A conventional history with useful tables of marks, but limited by
being illustrated entirely with examples in England.
*_Thomson, W. G. Tapestry Weaving in England. New York_, 1914.
The fundamental reference on this aspect of the subject, with full
reproduction of documents.
In addition to the above titles, there are a great number of monographs on
various phases of the subject, many of which are excellent. For example:
_Thièry, Les Inscriptions des Tapisseries de Jean Van Room, Louvain_,
1907, is an able piece of work, a model of exact scholarship. The majority
of these monographs are of interest only to the special student. Schmitz
refers to the more important of them in his foot-notes.
SUBJECT & TITLE INDEX
_Every tapestry is listed by its respective catalogue number, and a star
(*) indicates the tapestry is illustrated._
[Illustration]
LOOMS REPRESENTED IN THE EXHIBITION Numbers
_Aubusson_ 62, 69, 70, 71, 72
_Beauvais_ *51, *52, 59, 60, 61, 66, *67
_English_ 49
_Flemish Gothic_ *3 *4, *5, 7, *14, 15, 16, *17, 18, 19, 20,
*21, 75, 76
_Flemish Renaissance_ 23, 24, *25, *26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33,
34, *35, 77
_Flemish, XVIIth Century_ *41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 78, 79
_Flemish, XVIIIth Century_ 47, 48, 53, 54, 55, *56
_Fontainebleau_ *36, *37
_French Gothic_ *1, *2, *8, 9, *10, 11, 12, *13
_French, XVIIth Century_ *38, *39, 40, 50, 58
_German and Swiss Gothic_ 6, *22
_Gobelins_ 57, 63, 64, 65, 68
_Russian_ 73
_Spanish_ 74
ALLEGORICAL, CLASSICAL, HISTORICAL, AND MYTHOLOGICAL
_America_ 42
_Augustus and Livia, Triumph of_ 44
_Bacchante_ 63
_Chinese Grotesque_ 59
_Chinese Grotesque_ 71
_Cleopatra, Two Scenes from the History of_ *39, 40
_Cyrus, Two Scenes from the Life of_ *26, 27
_December from the "Months" of Lucas_ 58
_Diana, Triumph of_ *37
_Grotesques_ *36
_Hercules, the History of_ 7
_Indian Hunter, The_ 65
_July from the "Months" of Lucas_ 57
_Louis the Great, The Conquest of_ *52
_Niobides, The_ *38
_Priest and Cardenio Meet Dorothy, The_ 62
_Roman de la Rose, Scenes from the_ *4
_Romance, Scenes from a_ 20
_Sancho is Tossed in a Blanket_ 46
_Scipio, Three Scenes from the Deeds of_ 23, 24, *25
_Siege of Lille, The Operations of the_ 53, 54, 55, *56
_Wisdom, Triumph of_ 76
ARMORIAL
_Armorial, Aubusson, XVIIIth Century_ 72
_Armorial, Bruges_, 1556 34
_Arms of France and Navarre, The_ *67
_Millefleurs Armorial with Wild Men_ 9
_Millefleurs with Shepherds and the Shield of the Rigaut Family_ *10
GENRE SCENES
_Au Bord Du Mer_ 70
_Baigneuse_ 69
_Cabriole, The_ 78
_Card Players, The_ 74
_Chase, The_ *2
_Fortune-Teller, The_ 68
_Pastoral Scene_ *13
_Peasants in a Landscape_ 49
_Peasant Scenes, Two_ 47, 48
_Theft of the Trunk, The_ 66
_Two Pairs of Lovers_ *22
_Vintage, The_ *5
LANDSCAPES
_Garden Scene_ 30
_Hunting Scene_ 32
_Millefleurs with Animals_ 11
_Millefleurs with Animals_ 12
_Verdure, Enghien_ (?) 33
_Verdure, Enghien_ (?) 77
_Verdure, Flanders, XVIth Century_ 31
_Verdure, Flanders, XVIIth Century_ *41
_Verdure: Hermes and the Shepherd_ 50
_Verdure with Bear Hunt_ 43
_Verdure with Dancing Nymphs_ *51
PORTRAITS
_Catherine the Great_ 73
_Louis XV_ 64
RELIGIOUS SUBJECTS
_Annunciation, The_ *1
_Annunciation, the Nativity and the Announcement to the Shepherds,
The_ *3
_Childhood of Christ, Scenes from the_ 79
_Creed, Three Pieces from a Series Illustrating the_ *14, 15, 16
_Creed, Three Pieces from a Series Illustrating the_ *17, 18, 19
_Crucifixion, The_ *35
_David, The Triumph of_ *21
_Entombment on Millefleurs_ *8
_Judith Departs for the Enemy's Camp_ 29
_Life of Christ, Scenes from the_ 6
_Pentecost, The_ 28
_Resurrection, The_ 75
_Virgin and Child, The_ 45
STILL LIFE
_Two Still-Life Pieces_ 60, 61
[Illustration]
TAYLOR & TAYLOR
EDWARD DE WITT & HENRY H. TAYLOR
SAN FRANCISCO
1922
* * * * *
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Transcriber Notes: |
| |
| P. 20. 'the minature' changed to 'the miniature'. |
| Footnote p. 31. 'Chroniques et Conquêtes de Charlemaine' |
| changed to 'Chroniques et Conquêtes Charlemagne'. |
| P. 60. 'Les Incriptions' changed to 'Les Inscriptions'. |
| Corrected various punctuation. |
| |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
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