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diff --git a/26151-8.txt b/26151-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..639e735 --- /dev/null +++ b/26151-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9474 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Tapestry Book, by Helen Churchill Candee + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Tapestry Book + +Author: Helen Churchill Candee + +Release Date: July 30, 2008 [EBook #26151] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TAPESTRY BOOK *** + + + + +Produced by Eileen Gormly, Alicia Williams (who did the +scanning, image prep, and OCR), Sam W. and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + THE + TAPESTRY + BOOK + + + BY + + HELEN CHURCHILL CANDEE + + AUTHOR OF "DECORATIVE STYLES AND PERIODS" + + +_WITH FOUR PLATES IN COLOUR AND NINETY-NINE + ILLUSTRATIONS IN BLACK-AND-WHITE_ + + + NEW YORK + FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY + MCMXII + + + + + [Illustration: HERSE AND MERCURY + + Renaissance Brussels Tapestry, Italian Cartoon. W. de Pannemaker, + weaver. + + Collection of George Blumenthal, Esq., New York] + + + + +_Copyright, 1912, +by_ FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY + +_All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign +languages, including the Scandinavian_ + +_October, 1912_ + + + + + TO + TWO CERTAIN BYZANTINE MADONNAS + AND THEIR OWNERS + + + + +AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT + + +Modesty so dominates the staff in art museums that I am requested not +to make mention of those officers who have helped me with friendly +courtesy and efficiency. To the officers and assistants at the +Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, +the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Print Department in the +Library of Congress in Washington, indebtedness is here publicly +acknowledged with the regret that I may not speak of individuals. +Photographs of tapestries are credited to Messrs. A. Giraudon, Paris; +J. Laurent, Madrid; Alinari, Florence; Wm. Baumgarten, and Albert +Herter, New York, and to those private collectors whose names are +mentioned on the plates. + + H. C. C. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I A FOREWORD 1 + + II ANTIQUITY 15 + + III MODERN AWAKENING 25 + + IV FRANCE AND FLANDERS, 15TH CENTURY 32 + + V HIGH GOTHIC 51 + + VI RENAISSANCE INFLUENCE 64 + + VII RENAISSANCE TO RUBENS 72 + + VIII ITALY, 15TH THROUGH 17TH CENTURIES 81 + + IX FRANCE 90 + + X THE GOBELINS FACTORY 105 + + XI THE GOBELINS FACTORY (_Continued_) 117 + + XII THE GOBELINS FACTORY (_Continued_) 126 + + XIII THE GOBELINS FACTORY (_Continued_) 135 + + XIV BEAUVAIS 145 + + XV AUBUSSON 154 + + XVI SAVONNERIE 159 + + XVII MORTLAKE 163 + + XVIII IDENTIFICATIONS 172 + + XIX IDENTIFICATIONS (_Continued_) 186 + + XX BORDERS 201 + + XXI TAPESTRY MARKS 216 + + XXII HOW IT IS MADE 226 + + XXIII THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY 241 + + XXIV TO-DAY 249 + + BEST PERIODS AND THEIR DATES 265 + + INDEX 267 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + HERSE AND MERCURY (_Coloured Plate_) _Frontispiece_ + Renaissance Brussels Tapestry, Italian Cartoon. W. de + Pannemaker, weaver. Collection of George Blumenthal, + Esq., New York + + FACING PAGE + + CHINESE TAPESTRY 14 + Chien Lung Period + + COPTIC TAPESTRY 15 + About 300 A. D. + + COPTIC TAPESTRY 16 + Boston Museum of Fine Arts + + COPTIC TAPESTRY 17 + Boston Museum of Fine Arts + + TAPESTRY FOUND IN GRAVES IN PERU 18 + Date prior to Sixteenth Century + + THE SACRAMENTS (_Coloured Plate_) 34 + Arras Tapestry, about 1430. Metropolitan Museum of Art, + New York + + THE SACRAMENTS 38 + Arras Tapestry, about 1430 + + THE SACRAMENTS 39 + Arras Tapestry, about 1430 + + FIFTEENTH CENTURY, FRENCH TAPESTRY 40 + Boston Museum of Fine Arts + + THE LIFE OF CHRIST 41 + Flemish Tapestry, second half of Fifteenth Century. + Boston Museum of Fine Arts + + LA BAILLÉE DES ROSES 42 + French Tapestry, about 1450. Metropolitan Museum of Art, + New York + + FIFTEENTH CENTURY MILLEFLEUR WITH ARMS 43 + Cathedral of Troyes + + THE LADY AND THE UNICORN 44 + French Tapestry, Fifteenth Century. Musée de Cluny, Paris + + THE LADY AND THE UNICORN 45 + French Tapestry, Fifteenth Century. Musée de Cluny, Paris + + THE SACK OF JERUSALEM (DETAIL) 46 + Burgundian Tapestry, about 1450. Metropolitan Museum of + Art, New York + + SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF CHRIST, WITH ARMORIAL SHIELDS 48 + Flemish Tapestry, Fifteenth Century. Institute of Art, + Chicago + + HISTORY OF THE VIRGIN 49 + Angers Cathedral + + DAVID AND BATHSHEBA 50 + German Tapestry, about 1450 + + FLEMISH TAPESTRY. ABOUT 1500 51 + Collection of Alfred W. Hoyt, Esq. + + DAVID AND BATHSHEBA 52 + Flemish Tapestry, late Fifteenth Century + + HISTORY OF ST. STEPHEN 53 + Arras Tapestry, Fifteenth Century + + VERDURE 54 + French Gothic Tapestry + + "ECCE HOMO" 55 + Brussels Tapestry, about 1520. Metropolitan Museum of + Art, New York + + ALLEGORICAL SUBJECT 56 + Flemish Tapestry, about 1500. Collection of Alfred W. + Hoyt, Esq. + + CROSSING THE RED SEA 57 + Brussels Tapestry, about 1500. Boston Museum of Fine Arts + + THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN 58 + Flemish Tapestry, about 1510. Collection of J. Pierpont + Morgan, Esq., New York + + FLEMISH TAPESTRY, END OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY 60 + Collection of Martin A. Ryerson, Esq., Chicago. Formerly + in the Spitzer Collection + + THE HOLY FAMILY 61 + Flemish Tapestry, end of Fifteenth Century. Collection + of Martin A. Ryerson, Esq., Chicago. Formerly in the + Spitzer Collection + + CONQUEST OF TUNIS BY CHARLES V (DETAIL) 62 + Cartoon by Jan Vermeyen. Woven by Pannemaker. Royal + Collection at Madrid + + DEATH OF ANANIAS.--FROM ACTS OF THE APOSTLES BY RAPHAEL 64 + From the Palace of Madrid + + THE STORY OF REBECCA 65 + Brussels Tapestry, Sixteenth Century. Collection of + Arthur Astor Carey, Esq., Boston + + THE CREATION 66 + Flemish Tapestry. Italian Cartoon, Sixteenth Century + + THE ORIGINAL SIN 67 + Flemish Tapestry. Italian Cartoon, Sixteenth Century + + MELEAGER AND ATALANTA 68 + Flemish design, second half of Seventeenth Century. + Woven in Paris workshops by Charles de Comans + + PUNIC WAR SERIES 69 + Brussels Tapestry. Sixteenth Century. Collection of + Arthur Astor Carey, Esq., Boston + + EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF CÆSAR 70 + Flemish Tapestry. Sixteenth Century. Gallery of the + Arazzi, Florence + + WILD BOAR HUNT 71 + Flemish Cartoon and Weaving, Sixteenth Century. Gallery + of the Arazzi, Florence + + VERTUMNUS AND POMONA 72 + First half of Sixteenth Century. Royal Collection of + Madrid + + VERTUMNUS AND POMONA 73 + First half of Sixteenth Century. Royal Collection of + Madrid + + VERTUMNUS AND POMONA 74 + First half of Sixteenth Century. Royal Collection of + Madrid + + VERTUMNUS AND POMONA 75 + First half of Sixteenth Century. Royal Collection of + Madrid + + TAPESTRIES FOR HEAD AND SIDE OF BED 76 + Renaissance designs. Royal Collection of Madrid + + THE STORY OF REBECCA 77 + Brussels Tapestry. Sixteenth Century. Collection of + Arthur Astor Carey, Esq., Boston + + BRUSSELS TAPESTRY. LATE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 78 + Weaver, Jacques Geubels. Institute of Art, Chicago + + MEETING OF ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 79 + Brussels Tapestry. Woven by Gerard van den Strecken. + Cartoon attributed to Rubens + + THE ANNUNCIATION (_Coloured Plate_) 82 + Italian Tapestry. Fifteenth Century. Collection of + Martin A. Ryerson, Esq., Chicago + + ITALIAN TAPESTRY, MIDDLE OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY 84 + Cartoon by Bacchiacca. Woven by Nicholas Karcher + + ITALIAN TAPESTRY. MIDDLE OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY 85 + Cartoon by Bacchiacca. Woven by G. Rost + + ITALIAN VERDURE. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 86 + + THE FINDING OF MOSES 90 + Gobelins, Seventeenth Century. Cartoon after Poussin. + The Louvre Museum + + TRIUMPH OF JUNO 91 + Gobelins under Louis XIV + + TRIUMPH OF THE GODS (DETAIL) 94 + Gobelins, Seventeenth Century + + TRIUMPH OF THE GODS (DETAIL) 95 + Gobelins Tapestry + + GOBELINS BORDER (DETAIL) SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 98 + + CHILDREN GARDENING 99 + After Charles Lebrun. Gobelins, Seventeenth Century. + Château Henri Quatre, Pau + + CHILDREN GARDENING 102 + After Charles Lebrun. Gobelins, Seventeenth Century. + Château Henri Quatre, Pau + + GOBELINS GROTESQUE 103 + Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris + + GOBELINS TAPESTRY, AFTER LEBRUN, EPOCH LOUIS XIV 104 + Collection of Wm. Baumgarten, Esq., New York + + THE VILLAGE FÊTE 105 + Gobelins Tapestry after Teniers + + DESIGN BY RUBENS 110 + + DESIGN BY RUBENS 111 + + DESIGN BY RUBENS 112 + + GOBELINS TAPESTRY. DESIGN BY RUBENS 113 + Royal Collection, Madrid + + LOUIS XIV VISITING THE GOBELINS FACTORY 114 + Gobelins Tapestry, Epoch Louis XIV + + GOBELINS TAPESTRY. TIME OF LOUIS XV 126 + + HUNTS OF LOUIS XV 130 + Gobelins, G. Audran after Cartoon by Oudry + + ESTHER AND AHASUERUS SERIES 131 + Gobelins, about 1730. Cartoon by J. F. de Troy; + G. Audran, weaver + + CUPID AND PSYCHE 132 + Gobelins Tapestry. Eighteenth Century. Design by Coypel + + PORTRAIT OF CATHERINE OF RUSSIA 133 + Gobelins under Louis XVI. + + CHAIR OF TAPESTRY. STYLE OF LOUIS XV 136 + + GOBELINS TAPESTRY (DETAIL) CRAMOISÉE. STYLE LOUIS XV 137 + + HENRI IV BEFORE PARIS 146 + Beauvais Tapestry, Seventeenth Century. Design by Vincent + + HENRI IV AND GABRIELLE D'ESTRÉES 147 + Design by Vincent + + BEAUVAIS TAPESTRY. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 148 + Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York + + BEAUVAIS TAPESTRY. TIME OF LOUIS XVI 149 + Collection of Wm. Baumgarten, Esq., New York + + BEAUVAIS TAPESTRY. TIME OF LOUIS XIV 150 + + BEAUVAIS TAPESTRY 152 + + CHAIR COVERING 153 + Beauvais Tapestry. First Empire + + SAVONNERIE. PORTRAIT SUPPOSABLY OF LOUIS XV 162 + Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York + + VULCAN AND VENUS SERIES. MORTLAKE 163 + Collection of Philip Hiss, Esq., New York + + VULCAN AND VENUS SERIES. MORTLAKE 168 + Collection of Philip Hiss, Esq., New York + + VULCAN AND VENUS SERIES. MORTLAKE 169 + Collection of Philip Hiss, Esq., New York + + THE EXPULSION OF VULCAN FROM OLYMPUS (_Coloured Plate_) 170 + + WEAVER AT WORK ON LOW LOOM. HERTER STUDIO 228 + + SEWING AND REPAIR DEPARTMENT. BAUMGARTEN ATELIERS 229 + + BAUMGARTEN TAPESTRY. LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY 230 + + BAUMGARTEN TAPESTRY. MODERN CARTOON 231 + + BAUMGARTEN TAPESTRY. MODERN CARTOON 234 + + BAYEUX TAPESTRY. (DETAIL) 1066 242 + + BAYEUX TAPESTRY. (DETAIL) 1066 243 + + BAYEUX TAPESTRY. (DETAIL) 1066 244 + + MODERN AMERICAN TAPESTRY, LOUIS XV INSPIRATION 250 + + MODERN AMERICAN TAPESTRY FROM FRENCH INSPIRATION 251 + + GOBELINS TAPESTRY. LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY 252 + Luxembourg, Paris + + GOBELINS TAPESTRY. LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY 253 + Pantheon, Paris + + THE ADORATION 256 + Merton Abbey Tapestry. Figures by Burne-Jones + + DAVID INSTRUCTING SOLOMON IN THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE 257 + Merton Abbey Tapestry. Burne-Jones, Artist + + TRUTH BLINDFOLDED 258 + Merton Abbey Tapestry. Byram Shaw, Artist + + THE PASSING OF VENUS 260 + Merton Abbey Tapestry. Cartoon by Burne-Jones + + ANGELI LAUDANTES 261 + Merton Abbey Tapestry + + AMERICAN (BAUMGARTEN) TAPESTRY COPIED FROM THE GOTHIC 262 + + DRYADS AND FAUNS 263 + From Herter Looms, New York, 1910 + + + + +THE TAPESTRY BOOK + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A FOREWORD + + +The commercial fact that tapestries have immeasurably increased in +value within the last five years, would have little interest were it +not that this increase is the direct result of America's awakened +appreciation of this form of art. It has come about in these latter +days that tapestries are considered a necessity in the luxurious and +elegant homes which are multiplying all over our land. And the +enormous demand thus made on the supply, has sent the prices for rare +bits into a dizzy altitude, and has made even the less perfect pieces +seem scarce and desirable. + +The opinion of two shrewd men of different types is interesting as +bearing on the subject of tapestries. One with tastes fully cultivated +says impressively, "Buy good old tapestries whenever you see them, for +there are no more." The other says bluffly, "Tapestries? You can't +touch 'em. The prices have gone way out of sight, and are going higher +every day." The latter knows but one view, the commercial, yet both +are right, and these two views are at the bottom of the present keen +interest in tapestries in our country. Outside of this, Europe has +collections which we never can equal, and that thought alone is +enough to make us snatch eagerly at any opportunity to secure a piece. +We may begin with our ambition set on museum treasures, but we can +come happily down to the friendly fragments that fit our private +purses and the wall-space by the inglenook. + +Tapestries are not to be bought lightly, as one buys a summer coat, to +throw aside at the change of taste or circumstance. They demand more +of the buyer than mere money; they demand that loving understanding +and intimate appreciation that exists between human friends. A +profound knowledge of tapestries benefits in two ways, by giving the +keenest pleasure, and by providing the collector--or the purchaser of +a single piece--with a self-protection that is proof against fraud, +unconscious or deliberate. + +The first step toward buying must be a bit of pleasant study which +shall serve in the nature of self-defence. Not by books alone, +however, shall this subject be approached, but by happy jaunts to +sympathetic museums, both at home and abroad, by moments snatched from +the touch-and-go talk of afternoon tea in some friend's salon or +library, or by strolling visits to dealers. These object lessons +supplement the book, as a study of entomology is enlivened by a chase +for butterflies in the flowery meads of June, or as botany is made +endurable by lying on a bank of violets. All work and no play not only +makes Jack a dull boy, but makes dull reading the book he has in hand. + +The tale of tapestry itself carries us back to the unfathomable East +which has a trick at dates, making the Christian Era a modern epoch, +and making of us but a newly-sprung civilisation in the history of the +old grey world. After showing us that the East pre-empted originality +for all time, the history of tapestry lightly lifts us over a few +centuries and throws us into the romance of Gothic days, then trails +us along through increasing European civilisation up to the great +awakening, the Renaissance. Then it loiters in the pleasant ways of +the kings of France during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, +and finally falls upon modern effort, not limited to Europe now, but +nesting also in the New World which is especially our own. + +Tapestry, according to the interpretation of the word used in this +book, is a pictured cloth, woven by an artist or a talented craftsman, +in which the design is an integral part of the fabric, and not an +embroidery stitched on a basic tissue. With this flat statement the +review of tapestries from antiquity until our time may be read without +fear of mistaking the term. + + +THE LOOM + +The looms on which tapestries are made are such as have been known as +long as the history of man is known, but we have come to call them +high-warp and low-warp, or as the French have it, _haute lisse_ and +_basse lisse_. In the celebrated periods of weaving the high loom has +been the one in use, and to it is accredited a power almost +mysterious; yet the work of the two styles of loom are not +distinguishable by the weave alone, and it is true that the low-warp +looms were used in France when the manufacture of tapestries was +permanently established by the Crown about 1600. So difficult is it to +determine the work of the two looms that weavers themselves could not +distinguish without the aid of a red thread which they at one time +wove in the border. Yet because the years of the highest perfection in +tapestries have been when the high loom was in vogue, some peculiar +power is supposed to reside within it. That the high movements of the +fine arts have been contemporary with perfection in tapestries, seems +not to be taken into consideration. + + +NECESSARY FRENCH TERMS + +French terms belong so much to the art of tapestry weaving that it is +hard to find their English equivalent. Tapestries of _verdure_ and of +_personnages_ describe the two general classes, the former being any +charming mass of greenery, from the Gothic _millefleurs_, and curling +leaves with animals beneath, to the lovely landscapes of sophisticated +park and garden which made Beauvais famous in the Eighteenth Century. +_Tapisseries des personnages_ have, as the name implies, the human +figure as the prominent part of the design. The shuttle or bobbin of +the high loom is called a _broche_, and that of the low loom a +_flute_. Weavers throughout Europe, whether in the Low Countries or in +France, were called _tapissiers_, and this term was so liberal as to +need explaining. + + +WORKERS' FUNCTIONS + +The tapestry factory was under the guidance of a director; under him +were the various persons required for the work. Each tapestry woven +had a directing artist, as the design was of primary importance. This +man had the power to select the silks and wools for the work, that +they might suit his eye as to colour. But there was also a _chef +d'atelier_ who was an artist weaver, and he directed this matter and +all others when the artist of the cartoons was not present. Under him +were the tapissiers who did the actual weaving, and under these, +again, were the apprentices, who began as boys and served three years +before being allowed to try their hands at a "'prentice job" or essay +at finished work. + + +WEAVERS + +The word weaver means so little in these days that it is necessary to +consider what were the conditions exacted of the weavers of tapestries +in the time of tapestry's highest perfection. A tapissier was an +artist with whom a loom took place of an easel, and whose brush was a +shuttle, and whose colour-medium was thread instead of paints. This +places him on a higher plane than that of mere weaver, and makes the +term tapissier seem fitter. Much liberty was given him in copying +designs and choosing colours. In the Middle Ages, when the Gothic +style prevailed, the master-weaver needed often no other cartoon for +his work than his own sketches enlarged from the miniatures found in +the luxurious missals of the day. These historic books were the +luxuries of kings, were kept with the plate and jewels, so precious +were considered their exquisitely painted scenes in miniature. From +them the master-weaver drew largely for such designs as _The Seven +Deadly Sins_ and other "morality" subjects. + +Master-weavers were many in the best years of tapestry weaving; +indeed, a man must have attained the dignity and ability of that +position before being able to produce those marvels of skill which +were woven between 1475 and 1575 in Flanders, France and Italy. Their +aids, the apprentices, pique the fancy, as Puck harnessed to labour +might do. They were probably as mischievous, as shirking, as +exasperating as boys have ever known how to be, but those little +unwilling slaves of art in the Middle Ages make an appeal to the +imagination more vivid than that of the shabby lunch-box boy of +to-day. + + +DYERS + +Accessory to the weavers, and almost as important, were the dyers who +prepared the thread for use. The conscientiousness of their work cries +out for recognition when the threads they dyed are almost unaltered in +colour after five hundred years of exposure to their enemies, light +and air. Dye stuffs were precious in those days, and so costly that +even threads of gold and silver (which in general were supplied by the +client ordering the tapestry) hardly exceeded in value certain dyed +wools and silk. All of these workers, from director down to +apprenticed lad, were bound by the guild to do or not do, according to +its infinite code, to the end that the art of tapestry-making be held +to the highest standards. The laws of the guilds make interesting +reading. The guild prevailed all over Europe and regulated all crafts. +In Florence even to-day evidences of its power are on every side, and +the Guildhall in London attests its existence there. Moreover, the +greatest artists belonged to the guilds, uniting themselves usually by +work of the goldsmith, as Benvenuto Cellini so quaintly describes in +his naïve autobiography. + + +GUILDS + +It was these same protective laws of the guilds that in the end +crippled the hand of the weaver. The laws grew too many to comply +with, in justice to talent, and talent with clipped wings could no +longer soar. At the most brilliant period of tapestry production +Flanders was to the fore. All Europe was appreciating and demanding +the unequalled products of her ateliers. It was but human to want to +keep the excellence, to build a wall of restrictions around her +especial craft that would prevent rivals, and at the same time to +press the ateliers to execute all the orders that piled in toward the +middle of the Sixteenth Century. + +But although the guilds could make wise laws and enforce them, it +could not execute in haste and retain the standard of excellence. And +thus came the gradual decay of the art in Brussels, a decay which +guild-laws had no power to arrest. + + +GOTHIC PERIOD + +The first period in tapestries which interests--except the remnants of +Egyptian and aboriginal work--is that of the Middle Ages, the early +Gothic, because that is when the art became a considerable one in +Europe. It is a time of romance, of chivalry, of deep religious +feeling, and yet seems like the childhood of modernity. Is it the +fault of crudity in pictorial art, or the fault of romances that we +look upon those distant people as more elemental than we, and thus +feel for them the indulgent compassion that a child excites? However +it is, theirs is to us a simple time of primitive emotion and romance, +and the tapestries they have left us encourage the whim. + +The time of Gothic perfection in tapestry-making is included in the +few years lying between 1475 and 1520. Life was at that time getting +less difficult, and art had time to develop. It was no longer left to +monks and lonely ladies, in convent and castle, but was the serious +consideration of royalty and nobility. No need to dwell on the story +of modern art, except as it affects the art of tapestry weaving. With +the improvement of drawing that came in these years, a greater +excellence of weave was required to translate properly the meaning of +the artist. The human face which had hitherto been either blank or +distorted in expression, now required a treatment that should convey +its subtlest shades of expression. Gifted weavers rose to the task, +became almost inspired in the use of their medium, and produced such +works of their art as have never been equalled in any age. These are +the tapestries that grip the heart, that cause a _frisson_ of joy to +the beholder. And these are the tapestries we buy, if kind chance +allows. If they cannot be ours to live with, then away to the museum +in all haste and often, to feast upon their beauties. + + +RENAISSANCE + +That great usurper, the Renaissance, came creeping up to the North +where the tapestry looms were weaving fairy webs. Pope Pius X wanted +tapestries, those of the marvellous Flemish weave. But he wanted those +of the new style of drawing, not the sweet restraint and finished +refinement of the Gothic. Raphael's cartoons were sent to Brussels' +workshops, and thus was the North inoculated with the Renaissance, and +thus began the second phase of the supreme excellency of Flemish +tapestries. It was the Renaissance expressing itself in the wondrous +textile art. The weavers were already perfect in their work, no change +of drawing could perplex them. But to their deftness with their medium +was now added the rich invention of the Italian artists of the +Renaissance, at the period of perfection when restraint and delicacy +were still dominant notes. + +It was the overworking of the craft that led to its decadence. Toward +the end of the Sixteenth Century the extraordinary period of Brussels +perfection had passed. + +But tapestry played too important a part in the life and luxury of +those far-away centuries for its production to be allowed to languish. +The magnificence of every great man, whether pope, king or dilettante, +was ill-expressed before his fellows if he were not constantly +surrounded by the storied cloths that were the indispensable +accessories of wealth and glory. Palaces and castles were hung with +them, the tents of military encampments were made gorgeous with their +richness, and no joust nor city procession was conceivable without +their colours flaunting in the sun as background to plumed knights and +fair ladies. Venice looked to them to brighten her historic stones on +days of carnival, and Paris spread them to welcome kings. + + +FRANCE + +When, therefore, Brussels no longer supplied the tissues of her former +excellence, opportunity came for some other centre to rise. The next +important producer was Paris, and in Paris the art has consistently +stayed. Other brief periods of perfection have been attained +elsewhere, but Paris once establishing the art, has never let it drop, +not even in our own day--but that is not to be considered at this +moment. + +Divers reigns of divers kings, notably that of Henri IV, fostered the +weaving of tapestry and brought it to an interesting stage of +development, after which Louis XIV established the Gobelins. From that +time on for a hundred years France was without a rival, for the +decadent work of Brussels could not be counted as such. Although the +work of Italy in the Seventeenth Century has its admirers, it is +guilty of the faults of all of Italy's art during the dominance of +Bernini's ideals. + + +AMERICAN INTEREST + +America is too late on the field to enter the game of antiquity. We +have no history of this wonderful textile art to tell. But ours is the +power to acquire the lovely examples of the marvellous historied +hangings of other times and of those nations which were our forebears +before the New World was discovered. And we are acquiring them from +every corner of Europe where they may have been hiding in old château +or forgotten chest. To the museums go the most marvellous examples +given or lent by those altruistic collectors who wish to share their +treasures with a hungry public. But to the mellow atmosphere of +private homes come the greater part of the tapestries. To buy them +wisely, a smattering of their history is a requisite. Within the brief +compass of this book is to be found the points important for the +amateur, but for a profounder study he must turn to those huge volumes +in French which omit no details. + +Not entirely by books can he learn. Association with the objects +loved, counts infinitely more in coming to an understanding. Happy he +who can make of tapestries the _raison d'être_ for a few months' +loitering in Europe, and can ravish the eye and intoxicate the +imagination with the storied cloths found hanging in England, in +France, in Spain, in Italy, in Sweden, and learn from them the +fascinating tales of other men's lives in other men's times. + +Then, when the tour is finished and a modest tapestry is hung at home, +it represents to its instructed owner the concentrated tale of all he +has seen and learned. In the weave he sees the ancient craftsman +sitting at his loom. In the pattern is the drawing of the artist of +the day, in the colours, the dyes most rare and costly; in the metal, +the gold and silver of a duke or prince; and in the tale told by the +figures he reads a romance of chivalry or history, which has the +glamour given by the haze of distant time to human action. + +To enter a house where tapestries abound, is to feel oneself welcomed +even before the host appears. The bending verdure invites, the +animated figures welcome, and at once the atmosphere of elegance and +cordiality envelopes the happy visitor. + +To live in a house abundantly hung with old tapestries, to live there +day by day, makes of labour a pleasure and of leisure a delight. It is +no small satisfaction in our work-a-day life to live amidst beauty, to +be sure that every time the eyes are raised from the labour of writing +or sewing--or of bridge whist, if you like--they encounter something +worthy and lovely. In the big living-room of the home, when the hours +come in which the family gathers, on a rainy morning, or on any +afternoon when the shadows grow grim outside and the afternoon +tea-tray is brought in whispering its discreet tune of friendly +communion, the tapestries on the walls seem to gather closer, to +enfold in loving embrace the sheltered group, to promise protection +and to augment brotherly love. + +In the dining-room the glorious company assembles, so that he who eats +therein, attends a feast on Olympus, even though the dyspeptic's fast +be his lot. If the eyes gaze on Coypel's gracious ladies, under fruit +and roses, with adolescent gods adoring, what matters if the palate is +chastised? In a dining-room soft-hung with piquant scenes, even +buttermilk and dog-biscuit, burnt canvasback and cold Burgundy lose +half their bitterness. + +When night is well started in its flight, perhaps one only, one lover +of the silence and the solitude, loath to give away to soft sleep the +quiet hours, this one remains behind when all the others have flown +bedward, and to him the neighbouring tapestries speak a various +language. From the easy chair he sees the firelight play on the +verdure with the effect of a summer breeze, the gracious foliage all +astir. The figures in this enchanted wood are set in motion and +imagination brings them into the life of the moment, makes of them +sympathetic playmates coaxing one to love, as they do, the land of +romance. Before their imperturbable jocundity what bad humour can +exist? All the old songs of mock pastoral times come singing in the +ears, "It happened on a day, in the merry month of May," "Shepherds +all and maidens fair," "It was a lover and his lass," "Phoebus arise, +and paint the skies," _et cetera_. Animated by the fire, in the +silence of the winter night the loving horde gathers and ministers to +the mind afflicted with much hard practicality and the strain of +keeping up with modern inexorable times. This sweet procession on the +walls, thanks be to lovely art, needs no keeping up with, merely asks +to scatter joy and to soften the asperities of a too arduous day. + +All the way up the staircase in the house of tapestries are dainty +bits of _millefleurs_, that Gothic invention for transferring a block +of the spring woods from under the trees into a man-made edifice. It +may have a deep indigo background or a dull red--like the shades of +moss or like last year's fallen leaves--but over it all is abundantly +sprinkled dainty bluebells, anemones, daisies, all the spring beauties +in joyous self-assertion and happy mingling. With such flowery guides +to mark the way the path to slumberland is followed. Once within the +bedroom, the poppies of the hangings spread drowsy influence, and the +happy sleeper passes into unconsciousness, passes through the flowered +border of the ancient square, into the scene beyond, becomes one of +those storied persons in the enchanted land and lives with them in +jousts and tourneys or in _fêtes champêtres_ at lovely châteaux. The +magic spell of the house of tapestries has fallen like the dew from +heaven to bless the striver in our modern life of exigency and +fatigue. + + [Illustration: CHINESE TAPESTRY + + Chien Lung Period] + + [Illustration: COPTIC TAPESTRY + + About 300 A. D.] + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ANTIQUITY + + +Egypt and China, India and Persia, seem made to take the conceit from +upstart nations like those of Europe and our own toddling America. +Directly we scratch the surface and look for the beginning of applied +arts, the lead takes us inevitably to the oldest civilisation. It +would seem that in a study of fabrics which are made in modern Europe, +it were enough to find their roots in the mediæval shades of the dark +ages; but no, back we must go to the beginning of history where man +leaped from the ambling dinosaur, which then modestly became extinct, +and looking upon the lands of the Nile and the Yangtsi-kiang found +them good, and proceeded to pre-empt all the ground of applied arts, +so that from that time forward all the nations of the earth were and +are obliged to acknowledge that there is nothing new under the sun. + +In the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is a bit of tapestry, +Coptic, that period where Greek and Egyptian drawing were intermixed, +a woman's head adorned with much vanity of head-dress, woven two or +three centuries after Christ. (Plate facing page 15.) In the Boston +Museum of Fine Arts are other rare specimens of this same time. +(Plates facing pages 16 and 17.) Looking further back, an ancient +decoration shows Penelope at her high loom, four hundred years before +the Christian era; and one, still older, shows the Egyptians weaving +similarly three thousand years before that epoch. + +It is not altogether thrilling to read that civilised people of +ancient times wove fabrics for dress and decoration, but it certainly +is interesting to learn that they were masters of an art which we +carelessly attribute to Europe of six centuries back, and to find that +the weaving apparatus and the mode of work were almost identical. The +Coptic tapestry of the Third Century is woven in the same manner as +the tapestries that come to us from Europe as the flower of +comparatively recent times, and its dyes and treatment of shading are +identical with the Gothic times. Penelope's loom as pictured on an +ancient vase, is the same in principle as the modern high-warp loom, +although lacking a bit in convenience to the weaver; and so we can +easily imagine the lovely lady at work on her famous web, "playing for +time," during Ulysses' absence, when she sat up o' nights undoing her +lovely stint of the day. + +And the Egyptian loom shown in ancient pictures--that is even more +modern than Penelope's, although it was set up three thousand years +before, a last guide-post on the backward way to the misty land called +prehistoric. + +But as there is really little interest except for the archeologist in +digging so far into the past for an art that has left us but +traditions and museum fragments, let us skim but lightly the surface +of this time, only picking up the glistening facts that attract the +mind's eye, so that we may quickly reach the enchanted land of more +recent times which yet appear antique to the modern. + + [Illustration: COPTIC TAPESTRY + + Boston Museum of Fine Arts] + + [Illustration: COPTIC TAPESTRY + + Boston Museum of Fine Arts] + +There are those to whom reading the Bible was a forced task during +childhood, a class which slipped the labour as soon as years gave +liberty of choice. There are others who have always turned as +naturally to its accounts of grand ceremony and terrible battles as to +the accounts of Cæsar, Coeur de Lion, Charlemagne. But in either case, +whatever the reason for the eye to absorb these pages of ancient +Hebrew history, the impression is gained of superb pomp. And always +concerned with it are descriptions of details, lovingly impressed, as +though the chronicler was sure of the interest of his audience. In +this enumeration, decorative textiles always played a part. Such +textiles as they were exceed in extravagance of material any that we +know of European production, for in many cases they were woven +entirely of gold and silver, and even set with jewels. These gorgeous +fabrics shone like suns on the magnificent pomp of priest and ruler, +and declared the wealth and power of the nation. They departed from +the original intention of protecting shivering humanity from chill +draughts or from close and cold association with the stones of +architectural construction, and became a luxury of the eye, a source +of bewilderment to the fancy and a lively intoxication to those +who--irrespective of class, or of century--love to compute display in +coin. + +But, dipping into the history of one ancient country after another, it +is easy to see that the usual fabric for hanging was woven of wool, of +cotton and of silk, and carried the design in the weaving. Babylon +the great, Egypt under the Pharaohs, Greece in its heroic times, Rome +under the Emperors--not omitting China and India of the Far +East--these countries of ancient peoples all knew the arts of dyeing +and weaving, of using the materials that we employ, and of introducing +figures symbolic, geometric, or realistic into the weaving. Beyond a +doubt the high loom has been known to man since prehistoric times. It +may be discouraging to those who like to feel that tapestry properly +belongs to Europe only,--Europe of the last six centuries--to find +that the art has been sifted down through the ages; but in reality it +is but one more link between us and the centuries past, the human +touch that revivifies history, that unites humanity. People of the +past wear a haze about them, are immovable and rigid as their pictured +representations. The Assyrian is to us a huge man of impossible beard, +the Egyptian is a lean angle fixed in posture, the Greek is eternally +posed for the sculptor. + +But once we can find that these people were not forever transfixed to +frieze, but were as simple, as industrious, as human as we, the +kinship is established, and through their veins begins to flow the +stream that is common to all humanity. These people felt the same need +for elegantly covering the walls of their homes that we in this +country of new homes feel, and the craftsmen led much the same lives +as do craftsmen of to-day. Even in the matter of expense, of money +which purchasers were willing to spend for woven decorative fabrics, +we see no novelty in the high prices of to-day, the Twentieth +Century. _The Mantle of Alcisthenes_ is celebrated for having been +bought by the Carthaginians for the equal of a hundred thousand +dollars. + + [Illustration: TAPESTRY FOUND IN GRAVES IN PERU + + Date prior to Sixteenth Century] + +Thus we connect ourselves with the remote past in making a continuous +history. But as the purpose of this book is to assist the owner of +tapestries to understand the story of his hangings and to enable the +purchaser or collector to identify tapestries on his own knowledge +instead of through the prejudiced statements of the salesman, it is +useless to dwell long upon the fabrics that we can only see through +exercise of the imagination or in disintegrated fragments in museums. + +Then away with Circe and her leisure hours of weaving, with Helen and +her heroic canvas, and the army of grandiose Biblical folk, and let us +come westward into Europe in short review of the textiles called +tapestry which were produced from the early Christian centuries to the +time of the Crusades, and thus will we approach more modern times. + +So far as known, high-warp weaving was not universally used in Europe +in the first part of the Middle Ages. Whether plain or figured, most +of the fabrics of that time that have come down to us for hangings or +for clothing, are woven, with the decorative pattern executed by the +needle on woven cloth. In Persia and neighbouring states, however, the +high-warp loom was used.[1] + +Europe in the Middle Ages was a place so savage, so devastated by war +and by neighbouring malice, that to consider it is to hear the clash +of steel, to feel the pangs of hunger, to experience the fearsome +chill of dungeons or moated castles. It was a time when those who +could huddle in fortresses mayhap died natural deaths, but those who +lived in the world were killed as a matter of course. Man was man's +enemy and to be killed on sight. + +In such gay times of carnage, art is dead. Men there were who drew +designs and executed them, for the _luxe_ of the eye is ever +demanding, but the designs were timid and stunted and came far from +the field of art. Fabrics were made and worn, no doubt, but when looms +were like to be destroyed and the weavers with them, scant attention +was given to refinements. + +By the time the Tenth Century was reached matters had improved. We +come into the light of records. It is positively known that the town +of Saumur, down in the lovely country below Tours, became the +destination of a quantity of wall-hangings, carpets, curtains, and +seat covers woven of wool. This was by order of the third Abbot Robert +of the Monastery of St. Florent, one of those vigorous, progressive +men whose initiative inspires a host. It is recorded that he also +ordered two pieces of tapestry executed, not of wool exclusively, but +with silk introduced, and in these the figures of the designs were the +beasts that were then favourites in decoration and that still showed +the influence of Oriental drawing. + +Before enumerating other authentic examples of early tapestries it is +well to speak of the reason for their being invariably associated with +the church. The impression left by history is that folk of those days +must have been universally religious when not cutting each other in +bits with bloody cutlass. The reason is, of course, that when poor +crushed humanity began to revive from the devastating onslaughts of +fierce Northern barbarians, it was with a timid huddling in +monasteries, for there was found immunity from attack. The lord of the +castle was forced to go to war or to resist attack in his castle, but +the monastery was exempt from whatever conscription the times imposed, +and frocked friars were always on hand were defence needed. Thus it +came about that monasteries became treasure-houses, the only safe +ones, were built strong, were sufficiently manned, and therefore were +the safe-deposit of whatever articles of concentrated value the great +lord of the Middle Ages might accumulate. Many tapestries thus +deposited became gifts to the institution which gave them asylum. + +The arts and crafts of the Middle Ages were in the hands of the +monasteries, monks and friars being the only persons with safety and +leisure. Weaving fell naturally to them to execute as an art. In the +castles, necessary weaving for the family was done by the women, as on +every great lord's domains were artisans for all crafts; and great +ladies emulated Penelope and Helen of old in passing their hours of +patience and anxiety with fabricating gorgeous cloths. But these are +exceptional, and deal with such grand ladies as Queen Matilda, who +with her maidens embroidered (not wove) the Bayeux Tapestry, and with +the Duchess Gonnor, wife of Richard First, who embroidered for the +church of Notre Dame at Rouen a history of the Virgin and Saints.[2] + +To the monasteries must be given the honour of preserving this as +many other arts, and of stimulating the laity which had wealth and +power to present to religious institutions the best products of the +day. The subjects executed inside the monastery were perforce +religious, many revelling in the horrors of martyrology, and those +intended as gifts or those ordered by the clergy were religious in +subject for the sake of appropriateness. It is interesting to note the +sweet childlike attitude of all lower Europe toward the church in +these years, a sort of infantile way of leaving everything in its +hands, all knowledge, all wisdom, all power. It was not even necessary +to read or write, as the clergy conveniently concerned themselves with +literacy. As late as the beginning of the Fifteenth Century Philip the +Hardy, the great Duke of Burgundy, in ordering a tapestry, signed the +order, not with his autograph, for he could not, but with his mark, +for he, too, left pen-work to the clerks of the church. + +That pile of concentrated royal history, the old abbey of St. Denis, +received, late in the Tenth Century, one of the evidences of royal +patronage that every abbey must have envied. It was a woven +representation of the world, as scientists of that day imagined our +half-discovered planet, and was presented by Queen Adelaide, the wife +of Hugh Capet, whose descendants reigned for three hundred years.[3] + +While dealing with records rather than with objects on which the eye +can gaze and the hand can rest, note must be made of an order of a +Count of Poitou, William V, to a factory for tapestries then existing +in Poitiers, showing that the art of weaving had in that spot jumped +the monastery walls in 1025.[4] The order was for a large hanging with +subjects taken from the Scriptures, but given the then modern touch by +introducing portraits of kings and emperors and their favourite +animals transfixed in ways peculiar to the nature of the day. + +A century later, another Abbot of St. Florent in Saumur had hangings +made important enough to be recorded. One of these represented the +four and twenty elders of the Apocalypse with musical instruments, and +other subjects taken from the Revelation of John. This subject was one +of unending interest to the artists of that time who seemed to find in +its depicting a serving of both God and imagination. + +Among the few tapestries of this period, those of the Cathedral at +Halberstadt must be mentioned, partly by way of conscientious +chronicling, partly that the interested traveller may, as he travels, +know where to find the rare specimens of the hobby he is pursuing. +This is a high-warp tapestry which authorities variously place as the +product of the Eleventh or the Twelfth Centuries. Entirely regardless +of its age, it has for us the charm of the craft of hands long +vanished, and of primitive art in all its simplicity of artifice. The +subject is religious--could hardly have been otherwise in those +monastic days--and for church decoration, and to fit the space they +were woven to occupy, each of the two parts was but three and a half +feet high although more than fourteen yards long. + +Each important event recorded in history has its expression in the +material product of its time, and this is one of the charms of +studying the liberal arts. Tapestry more than almost any other +handicraft has left us a pictured history of events in a time when +records were scarce. The effect of the Crusades was noticeable in the +impetus it gave to tapestry, not only by bringing Europe into fresh +contact with Oriental design but by increasing the desire for +luxurious stuffs. The returning crusaders--what traveller's tales did +they not tell of the fabrics of the great Oriental sovereigns and +their subjects, the soft rugs, the tent coverings, the gorgeous +raiment; and these tales they illustrated with what fragments they +could port in their travellers' packs. Here lay inspiration for a +continent. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Eugene Müntz, "History of Tapestry." + +[2] Jubinal, "Recherches," Vol. I. + +[3] F. Michel, "Recherches." + +[4] Jubinal, "Recherches." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +MODERN AWAKENING + + +In the Fourteenth Century, tapestry, the high-warp product, began to +play an important part in the refinements of the day. We have seen the +tendency of the past time to embellish and soften churches and +monastic institutions with hangings. Records mostly in clerical Latin, +speak of these as curtains for doorways, dossers for covering seats, +and the backs of benches, and baldachins, as well as carpets for use +on the floor. Subjects were ecclesiastic, as the favourite Apocalypse; +or classic, like that of the Quedlimburg hanging which fantastically +represents the marriage of Mercury and Philology. + +But in the Thirteenth Century the political situation had improved and +men no longer slept in armour and women no longer were prepared to +thrust all household valuables into a coffer on notice that the enemy +was approaching over the plains or up the rocks. Therefore, homes +began to be a little less rude in their comforts. Stone walls were +very much the rule inside as well as out, but it became convenient +then to cover their grim asperities with the woven draperies, the +remains of which so interest us to-day, and which we in our accession +of luxuriousness would add to the already gently finished apartments. +To put ourselves back into one of those castle homes we are to +imagine a room of stone walls, fitted with big iron hooks, on which +hung pictured tapestry which reached all around, even covering the +doors in its completeness. To admit of passing in and out the door a +slit was made, or two tapestries joined at this spot. Set Gothic +furniture scantily about such a room, a coffer or two, some +high-backed chairs, a generous table, and there is a room which the +art of to-day with its multiple ingenuity cannot surpass for beauty +and repose. + +But such a room gave opportunity for other matters in the Thirteenth +Century. Customs were less polite and morals more primitive. Important +people desiring important information were given to the spying and +eavesdropping which now has passed out of polite fashion. And those +ancient rooms favoured the intriguer, for the hangings were suspended +a foot or two away from the wall, and a man or a woman, for that +matter, might easily slip behind and witness conversations to which +the listener had not been invited. So it was customary on occasions of +intimate and secret converse lightly to thrust a sharpened blade +behind the curtains. If, as in the case in "Hamlet," the sword pierced +a human quarry, so much the worse for the listener who thus gained +death and lost its dignity. + +Before leaving this ancient chamber it is well to impress ourselves +with the interesting fact that tapestries were originally meant to be +suspended loosely, liberally, from the upper edge only, and to fall in +folds or gentle undulations, thus gaining in decorative value and +elegance. This practice had an important effect on the design, and +also gave an appearance of movement to human figures and to foliage, +as each swayed in light folds. + +When considering tapestries of the Thirteenth Century we are only +contemplating the stones of history, for the actual products of the +looms of that time are not for us; they are all gathered into museums, +public or ecclesiastic. The same might be said of tapestries of the +Fourteenth Century, and almost of the Fifteenth. But those old times +are so full of romance, that their history is worth our toying with. +It adds infinite joy to the possessing of old tapestries, and converts +museum visits into a keen chase for the elusive but fascinating +figures of the past. + +Let us then absorb willingly one or two dry facts. High-warp tapestry +we have traced lightly from Egypt through Greece and Rome and, almost +losing the thread in the Middle Ages, have seen it rising a virile +industry, nursed in monasteries. It was when the stirrings of artistic +life were commencing under the Van Eycks in the North and under Giotto +and the Tuscans in the South that the weaving of tapestries reached a +high standard of production and from that time until the Nineteenth +Century has been an important artistic craft. The Thirteenth Century +saw it started, the Fourteenth saw the beginnings of important +factories, and the Fifteenth bloomed into full productions and beauty +of the style we call Gothic. + +In these early times of the close of the Thirteenth Century and the +beginning of the Fourteenth, the best known high-warp factories were +centred in northern and midland provinces of France and Flanders, +Paris and Arras being the towns most famed for their productions. As +these were able to supply the rest of Europe, the skilled technique +was lost otherwheres, so that later, when Italy, Germany and England +wished to catch up again their ancient work, they were obliged to ask +instruction of the Franco-Flemish high-warp workers.[5] + +It is not possible in the light of history for either Paris or Arras +to claim the invention of so nearly a prehistoric art as that of +high-warp tapestry, and there is much discussion as to which of these +cities should be given the honour of superiority and priority in the +work of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries. + +Factories existed at both places and each had its rules of manufacture +which regulated the workman and stimulated its excellence. The +factories at Paris, however, were more given to producing copies of +carpets brought from the East by returning crusaders, and these were +intended for floors. The craftsmen were sometimes alluded to as +_tapissiers Sarrazinois_, named, as is easily seen, after the Saracens +who played so large a part in the adventurous voyages of the day. But +in Paris in 1302, by instigation of the Provost Pierre le Jumeau, +there were associated with these tapissiers or workmen, ten others, +for the purpose of making high-warp tapestry, and these were bound +with all sorts of oaths not to depart from the strict manner of +proceeding in this valued handicraft. + +Indeed, the Articles of Faith, nor the Vows of the Rosicrucians, +could not be more inviolable than the promises demanded of the early +tapestry workers. In some cases--notably a factory of Brussels, +Brabant, in the Sixteenth Century--there were frightful penalties +attendant upon the breaking of these vows, like the loss of an ear or +even of a hand. + +The records of the undertaking of the Provost Pierre le Jumeau in +introducing the high-warp (_haute lisse_) workers into the factory +where Sarrazinois and other fabrics were produced, means only that the +improvement had begun, but not that Paris had never before practised +an art so ancient. + +The name of Nicolas Bataille is one of the earliest which we can +surround with those props of records that please the searcher for +exact detail.[6] He was both manufacturer and merchant and was a man +of Paris in the reign of Charles VI, a king who patronised him so well +that the workshops of Paris benefited largely. The king's brother +becoming envious, tried to equal him in personal magnificence and gave +orders almost as large as those of the king. Philip the Hardy, uncle +of the king, also employed this designer whose importance has not +lessened in the descent of the centuries. + +What makes Bataille of special interest to us is that we cannot only +read of him in fascinating chronicles as well as dry histories, but we +can ourselves see his wondrous works. In the cathedral at Angers hangs +a tapestry executed by him; it is a part of the _Apocalypse_ +(favourite subject) drawn by Dourdin, who was artist of the cartoons +as well as artist to Charles V. + +In those days the weaver occupied much the same place in relation to +the cartoonist as the etcher does now to the painter. That is to say, +that because the drawing was his inspiration, the weaver was none the +less an artist of originality and talent. + +These celebrated hangings at Angers, although commenced in 1376 for +Louis of Anjou, were not completed in all the series until 1490, +therefore Bataille's work was on the first ones, finished on +Christmas, 1379. The design includes imposing figures, each seated on +a Gothic throne reading and meditating. The larger scenes are topped +with charming figures of angels in primitive skies of the "twisted +ribbon" style of cloud, angels whose duty and whose joy is to trump +eternally and float in defiance of natural laws of gravitation. + +The museum at the Gobelins factory in Paris shows to wondering eyes +the other authentic example of late Fourteenth Century high-warp +tapestry, as woven in the early Paris workshops. It portrays with a +lovely naïve simplicity _The Presentation in the Temple_. This with +the pieces of the _Apocalypse_ at Angers are all that are positively +known to have come from the Paris workshops of the late Fourteenth +Century. + +History steps in with an event that crushed the industry in Paris. +Just when design and execution were at their highest excellence, and +production was prolific, political events began to annihilate the +trade. The English King, Henry V, crossed the Channel and occupied +Paris in 1422. Thus, under the oppression of the invaders, the art of +tapestry was discouraged and fell by the way, not to rise lustily +again in Paris for two hundred years. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[5] Eugene Müntz, "La Tapisserie." + +[6] For extensive reading see Guiffrey, "Nicolas Bataille, tapissier +parisien," and "L'Histoire General de la Tapisserie," the section +called "Les Tapisseries Francaises." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +FIFTEENTH CENTURY IN FRANCE AND FLANDERS + + +Whether Arras began as early as Paris is a question better left +unsettled if only for the sake of furnishing a subject of happy +controversy between the champions of the two opinions. But certain it +is that with fewer distractions to disturb her craftsmen, and under +the stimulus of certain ducal and royal patrons, Arras succeeded in +advancing the art more than did her celebrated neighbour. It was +Arras, too, that gave the name to the fabric, a name which appears in +England as arras and in Italy as arazzo, as though there was no other +parent-region for the much-needed and much-prized stuffs than the busy +Flemish town. + +Among the early records is found proof that in 1311, a countess of the +province of Artois, of which Arras was the capital, bought a figured +cloth in that city, and two years later ordered various works in high +warp.[7] It is she who became ruler of the province. To patronise the +busy town of her own domains, Arras, she ordered from there the +hangings that were its specialty. Paris also shared her patronage. She +took as husband Otho, Count of Burgundy, and set his great family the +fashion in the way of patronising the tapestry looms. + +It was in the time of Charles V of France, that the Burgundian duke +Philip, called the Hardy, began to patronise conspicuously the Arras +factories. In 1393, as de Barante delightfully chronicles, the +gorgeous equipments of this duke were more than amazing when he went +to arrange peace with the English at Lelingien.[8] + +The town chosen for the pourparlers, wherein assembled the English +dukes, Lancaster and Gloucester and their attendants, as well as the +cortége attending the Duke of Burgundy, was a poor little village +ruined by wars. The conferences were held by these superb old fighters +and statesmen in an ancient thatched chapel. To make it presentable +and worthy of the nobles, it was covered with tapestries which +entirely hid the ruined walls. The subject of the superb pieces was a +series of battles, which made the Duke of Lancaster whimsically +critical of a subject ill-chosen for a peace conference, he suggesting +that it were better to have represented "_la Passion de notre +Seigneur_." + +Not satisfied with having the meeting place a gorgeous and luxurious +temple, this Philip, Duke of Burgundy, demonstrated his magnificence +in his own tent, which was made of wooden planks entirely covered with +"toiles peintes" (authorities state that tapestries with personages +were thus described), and was in form of a château flanked with +towers. As a means of pleasing the English dukes and the principal +envoys, Philip gave to them superb gifts of tapestries, the beautiful +tapestries of Flanders such as were made only in the territory of the +duke. It is interesting to note this authentic account of the +importation of certain Arras tapestries into England. + +Subjects at this time introduced, besides Bible people, figures of +Clovis and of Charlemagne. Two hangings represented, the one _The +Seven Cardinal Vices_, with their conspicuous royal exponents in the +shape of seven vicious kings and emperors; the other, _The Seven +Cardinal Virtues_, with the royalties who had been their notable +exponents. Here is a frank criticism on the lives of kings which +smacks of latter-day democracy. All these tapestries were enriched +with gold of Cyprus, as gold threads were called. + +This same magnificent Philip the Hardy, had other treaties to make +later on, and seeing how much his tapestries were appreciated, +continued to make presents of them. One time it was the Duke of +Brittany who had to be propitiated, all in the interests of peace, +peace being a quality much sought and but little experienced at this +time in France. Perhaps this especial Burgundian duke had a bit of +self-interest in his desire for amity with the English, for he was +lord of the Comité of Artois (including Arras) and this was a district +which, because of its heavy commerce with England, might favour that +country. A large part of that commerce was wool for tapestry weaving, +wool which came from the _prés salés_ of Kent, where to-day are seen +the same meadows, salt with ocean spray and breezes, whereon flocks +are grazing now as of old--but this time more for mutton chops than +for tapestry wools. + + [Illustration: THE SACRAMENTS + + Arras Tapestry, about 1430. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York] + +The history of the Dukes of Burgundy, because their patronage was +so stimulating to the factories of Flanders, leads us to recall the +horrors of the war with Bajazet, the terrible Sultan of Turkey, and +the way in which this cool monster bartered human lives for human +luxuries. It was when the flower of France (1396) invaded his country +and was in the power of his hand, that he had the brave company of +nobles pass in review before his royal couch that he might see them +mutilated to the death. Three or four only he retained alive, then +sent one of these, the Sire de Helly, back to his France with _parole +d'honneur_ to return--to amass, first, as big a ransom as could be +raised; this, if in the Turk's demanding eyes it appeared sufficient, +he would accept in exchange for the remaining unhappy nobles. + +Added to the money which de Helly was able to collect, were superb +tapestries of Arras contributed by the Burgundian duke, Philip the +Hardy. It was argued that of these luxurious hangings, Bajazet had +none, for the looms of his country had not the craft to make +tapestries of personages. Cloth of gold and of silver, considered an +extreme elegance in France, they argued was no rarity to the terrible +Turk, for it was from Damascus in his part of the world that this +precious fabric came most plentifully. So de Helly took Arras +tapestries into Turkey, a suite representing the history of Alexander +the Great, and the avaricious monarch was persuaded by reason of this +and other ransom to let his prisoners free.[9] + +After the death of Philip the Hardy in 1404, his accumulated luxuries +had to be sold to help pay his fabulous debts. To this end his son +sold, among other things, his superb tapestries, and thus they became +distributed in Paris. And yet John without Fear, who succeeded Philip, +continued to stimulate the Arras weavers. In 1409 he ordered five big +hangings representing his victories of Liége, all battle subjects.[10] + +Philip the Good was the next head of the Burgundian house, and he it +was who assisted in the sumptuous preparations for the entry of the +king, Louis XI, into Paris. The king himself could scarcely equal in +magnificence this much-jewelled duke, whose splendour was a matter of +excitement to the populace. People ran to see him in the streets or to +the church, to feast their eyes on his cortége, his mounted escort of +a hundred knights who were themselves dukes, princes and other nobles. + +His house, in the old quarter of Paris, where we are wont to wander +with a Baedeker veiled, was the wonder of all who were permitted to +view its interior. Here he had brought his magnificent Arras +tapestries and among them the set of the _History of Gideon_, which he +had had made in honour of the order of the Golden Fleece founded by +him at Bruges, in 1429, for, he said, the tale of Gideon was more +appropriate to the Fleece than the tale of Jason, who had not kept his +trust--a bit of unconventionalism appreciable even at this distance of +time. + +Charles le Téméraire--the Bold or rather the foolhardy--how he used +and lost his tapestries is of interest to us, because his possessions +fell into a place where we can see them by taking a little trouble. +Some of them are among the treasures in the museum at Nancy and at +Berne in Switzerland. How they got there is in itself a matter of +history, the history of a war between Burgundy and Switzerland. + +Like all the line of these half-barbaric, picturesque dukes, Charles +could not disassociate himself from magnificence, which in those days +took the place of comfort. When making war, he endeavoured to have his +camp lodgment as near as possible reproduce the elegance of his home. +In his campaign against Switzerland, his tent was entirely hung with +the most magnificent of tapestries. After foolhardy onslaughts on a +people whose strength he miscalculated, he lost his battles, his +life--and his tapestries. And this is how certain Burgundian +tapestries hang in the cathedral at Berne, and in the museums at +Nancy.[11] + +The simple Swiss mountaineers, accustomed more to expediency than to +luxury, are said to have been entirely ignorant of the value of their +spoils of war. Tapestries they had never seen, nor had they the +experienced eye to discern their beauties; but cloth, thick woollen +cloth, that would protect shivering man from the cold, was a commodity +most useful; so, many of the fine products of the high-warp looms that +had augmented the pride of their noble possessor, found their way into +shops and were sold to the Swiss populace in any desired length, +according to bourgeois household needs, a length for a warm bed-cover, +or a square for a table; and thus disappeared so many that we are +thankful for the few whole hangings of that time which are ours to +inspect, and which represent the best work of the day both from Arras +and from Brussels, which was then (about 1476) beginning to produce. + +There is a special and local reason why we should be interested in the +products of the high-warp tapestries in the time of the greatest power +of the Dukes of Burgundy. It is that we can have the happy experience +of studying, in our own country, a set of these hangings, and this +without going farther than to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New +York, where repose the set called _The Sacraments_. (Plates facing +pages 34, 38 and 39.) There are in all seven pieces, although the +grounds are well taken that the set originally included one more. They +represent the four Sacraments of Baptism, Marriage, Confirmation and +Extreme Unction, first by a series of ideal representations, then by +the everyday ceremonies of the time--the time of Joan of Arc. Thus we +have the early Fifteenth Century folk unveiled to us in their ideals +and in their practicality. The one shows them to be religionists of a +high order, the other reveals a sumptuous and elegant scale of living +belonging to the nobility who made resplendent those early times. + + [Illustration: THE SACRAMENTS + + Arras Tapestry, about 1430] + + [Illustration: THE SACRAMENTS + + Arras Tapestry, about 1430] + +The drawing is full of simplicity and honesty, the composition limited +to a few individuals, each one having its place of importance. In +this, the early work differed from the later, which multiplied figures +until whole groups counted no more than individuals. The background is +a field of conventionalised fleur-de-lis of so large a pattern as not +to interfere with the details thrown against it. Scenes are divided +by slender Gothic columns, and other architectural features are +tessellated floors and a sketchy sort of brick-work that appears +wherever a limit-line is needed. It is the charming naïveté of its +drawing that delights. Border there is none, but its lack is never +felt, for the pictures are of such interest that the eye needs no +barrier to keep it from wandering. Whatever border is found is a +varying structure of architecture and of lettering and of the happy +flowers of Gothic times which thrust their charm into all possible and +impossible places. + +The dress, in the suite of ideals, is created by the imagining of the +artist, admixed with the fashion of the day; but in scenes portraying +life of the moment, we are given an interesting idea of how a bride à +la mode was arrayed, in what manner a gay young lord dressed himself +on his wedding morning, and how a young mother draped her proud +brocade. The colouring is that of ancient stained glass, simple, rich, +the gamut of colours limited, but the manner of their combining is +infinite in its power to please. The conscientiousness of the ancient +dyer lives after him through the centuries, and the fresh ruby-colour, +the golden yellow of the large-figured brocades, glow almost as richly +now as they did when the Burgundian dukes were marching up and down +the land from the Mediterranean, east of France, to the coast of +Flanders, carrying with them the woven pictures of their ideals, their +religion and their conquests. The weave is smooth and even, speaking +for the work of the tapissier or weaver, although time has distorted +the faces beyond the lines of absolute beauty; and hatching +accomplishes the shading. + +The repairer has been at work on this valuable set, not the +intelligent restorer, but the frank bungler who has not hesitated to +turn certain pieces wrong side out, nor to set in large sections +obviously cut from another tapestry. It is surmised that the set +contained one more piece--it would be regrettable, indeed, if that +missing square had been cut up for repairs. + +The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York owns these tapestries +through the altruistic generosity of J. Pierpont Morgan, Esq. They are +the most interesting primitive work which are on public view in our +country, and awake to enthusiasm even the most insensate dullard, who +has a half hour to stand before them and realise all they mean in art, +in morals and in history. + +To the lives of the Prophets and Saints we can always turn; from the +romance of men and women we can never turn away. And so when a Gothic +tapestry is found that frankly omits Biblical folk and gives us a true +picture of men and women of the almost impenetrable time back of the +fifteen hundreds, tells us what they wore, in what manner they +comported themselves, that tapestry has a sure and peculiar value. The +surviving art of the Middle Ages smacks strong of saints, paints at +full length the people of Moses' time, but unhappily gives only a bust +of their contemporaries. + + [Illustration: FIFTEENTH CENTURY FRENCH TAPESTRY + + Boston Museum of Fine Arts] + + [Illustration: THE LIFE OF CHRIST + + Flemish Tapestry, second half of Fifteenth Century. Boston Museum + of Fine Arts] + +Hangings portraying secular subjects were less often woven than those +of religion and morals, but also the former have less lustily outlived +the centuries, owing to the habit of tearing them from the +suspending hooks and packing them about from château to château, to +soften surroundings for the wandering visitor. Thus it comes that we +have little tapestried record of a time when knights and ladies and +ill-assorted attributes walked hand in hand, a time of chivalry and +cruelty, of roses and war, of sumptuousness and crudity, of privation +and indulgence, of simplicity and deceit. + +If prowling among old books has tempted the hand to take from the +shelves one of those quaint luxuries known as a "Book of Hours," there +before the eye lies the spirit of that age in decoration and design. +There, too, lies much of the old spirit of morality--that, whether +genuine or affected, was bound to be expressed. Morality had a vogue +in those days, was a _sine qua non_ of fashion. That famous amateur +Jean, duc de Berry, uncle of Charles VI of France, had such a book, +"Les Très Riches Heures"; one was possessed by that gifted Milanese +lady whom Ludovico Sforza put out of the line of Lombardy's throne. +The wonderful Gothic ingenuousness lies in their careful paintings, +the ingenuousness where virtue is expressed by beauty, and vice by +ugliness, and where, with delightful seriousness, standing figures +overtop the houses they occupy--the same people, the same battlements, +we have seen on the early tapestries. Weavers must surely have +consulted the lovely books of Gothic miniature, so like is the spirit +of the designs to that in the Gothic fabrics. + +"The beauties of Agnes Sorel were represented on the wool," says +Jubinal, "and she herself gave a superb and magnificent tapestry to +the church at Loches," but this quaint student is doubtful if the +lovely _amante du roi_ actually gave the tapestries that set forth her +own beauties, which beauty all can see in the quiet marble as she lies +sleeping with her spaniel curled up at her lovely feet in the big +château on the Loire. + +By means of a rare set bought by the Rogers Fund for the Metropolitan +Museum of Art in New York, we can see, if not the actual tapestries of +fair Agnes Sorel, at least those of the same epoch and manner. This +set is called _The Baillée des Roses_ and comprises three pieces, +fragments one is inclined to call them, seeing the mutilations of the +ages. (Plate facing page 42.) They were woven probably before 1450, +probably in France, undoubtedly from French drawings, for the hand and +eye of the artist were evidently under the influence of the celebrated +miniaturist, Jean Fouquet of Tours. Childlike is the charm of this +careful artist of olden times, childlike is his simplicity, his +honesty, his care to retain the fundamental virtues of a good little +boy who lives to the tune of Eternal Verities. + +These three tapestries of the Roses illustrate so well so many things +characteristic of their day, that it is not time lost to study them +with an eye to all their points. There is the weave, the wool, the +introduction of metal threads, the colour scale; all these besides the +design and the story it tells. + +The tapestries represent a custom of France in the time when Charles +VII, the Indolent (and likewise through Jeanne d'Arc, the victorious) +had as his favourite the fascinating Agnes Sorel. During the late +spring, when the roses of France are in fullest flower, various +peers of France had as political duty to present to each member of the +Parliament a rose when the members answered in response to roll call. + + [Illustration: LA BAILLÉE DES ROSES + + French Tapestry, about 1450. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York] + + [Illustration: FIFTEENTH CENTURY MILLEFLEUR WITH ARMS + + Cathedral of Troyes] + +The great chamber where the body met was for the occasion transformed +into a bower; vines and sprays of roses covered all the grim walls, as +the straying vines in the tapestry reveal. The host of the day, who +might be a foreign prince or cardinal, or one of the "children of +France," began the day with giving a great breakfast which took place +in the several chambers. During the feast the noble host paid a +courtly visit to each chamber, accompanied by a servitor who bore a +huge salver on which were the flowers and souvenirs to be presented. +The air was sweet with blossoms and pungent herbs, music penetrated +from the halls outside as the man of conspicuous elegance played mock +humility and served all with the dainty tribute of a fragrant tender +rose. This part of the ceremony over, the company moved on to the +great audience chamber, where mass was said. + +Our tapestries show the figures of ladies and gentlemen present at +this pretty ceremony--too pretty to associate with desperate Jeanne +d'Arc, who at that very time was rousing France to war to throw off +the foreign yoke. The ladies fair and masters bold are intensely human +little people, for the most part paired off in couples as men and +women have been wont to pair in gardens since Eden's time. They are +dressed in their best, that is evident, and by their distant, +courteous manners show good society. The faces of the ladies are +childlike, dutiful; those of the men more determined, after the +manner of men. + +But the interest of the set centres in the tableau wherein are but +three figures, those of two men and a woman. Here lies a piquant +romance. Who is she, the grand and gracious lady, bending like a lily +stalk among the roses, with a man on either side? A token is being +exchanged between her and the supplicant at her right. He, wholly +elegant, half afraid, bends the knee and fixes her with a regard into +which his whole soul is thrown. She, fair lady, is inclining, yet +withdrawing, eyes of fear and modesty cast down. Yet whatever of +temerity the faces tell, the hands are carrying out a comedy. Hid in +the shadow of a copious hat, which the gentleman extends, lurks a +rose; proffered by the lady's hand is a token--fair exchange, indeed, +of lover's symbols--provided the strong, hard man to the left of the +lady has himself no right of command over her and her favours. Thus +might one dream on forever over history's sweets and romance's +gallantries. + +It is across the sea, in the sympathetic Museum of Cluny that the +beauty of early French work is exquisitely demonstrated. The set of +_The Lady and the Unicorn_ is one of infinite charm. (Plates facing +pages 44 and 45.) In its enchanted wood lives a noble lady tall and +fair, lithe, young and elegant, with attendant maid and two faithful, +fabulous beasts that uphold the standards of maidenhood. A simple +circle denotes the boundary of the enchanted land wherein she dwells, +a park with noble trees and lovely flowers, among which disport the +little animals that associate themselves with mankind. For four +centuries these hangings have delighted the eye of man, and are +perhaps more than ever appreciated now. Certain it is that the art +student's easel is often set before them for copying the quaint design +and soft colour. + + [Illustration: THE LADY AND THE UNICORN + + French Tapestry, Fifteenth Century. Musée de Cluny, Paris] + + [Illustration: THE LADY AND THE UNICORN + + French Tapestry, Fifteenth Century. Musée de Cluny, Paris] + +As the early worker in wools could not forget the beauties of earth, +the foreground of many Gothic tapestries is sprinkled with the loved +common flowers of every day, of the field and wood. This is one of the +charming touches in early tapestry, these little flowers that thrust +themselves with captivating inappropriateness into every sort of +scene. The grave and awesome figures in the _Apocalypse_ find them at +their feet, and in scenes of battle they adorn the sanguinary sod and +twinkle between fierce combatants. + +Occasionally a weaver goes mad about them and refuses to produce +anything else but lily-bells newly sprung in June, cowslips and +daisies pied, rosemary and rue, and all these in decorous courtesy on +a deep, dark background like twilight on a bank or moonlight in a +dell--and lo, we have the marvellous bit of nature-painting called +_millefleurs_. + +A Burgundian tapestry that has come to this country to add to our +increasing riches, is the large hanging known as _The Sack of +Jerusalem_. (Plate facing page 46.) Almost more than any other it +revivifies the ancient times of Philip the Hardy, John without Fear, +and Charles the Bold, when these dukes, who were monarchs in all but +name, were leading lives that make our own Twentieth Century fretting +seem but the unrest of aspens. Such hangings as this, _The Sack of +Jerusalem_, were those that the great Burgundian dukes had hung about +their tents in battle, their castles in peace, their façades and +bridges in fêtes. + +The subject chosen hints religion, but shouts bloodshed and battle. +Those who like to feel the texture of old tapestries would find this +soft and pliable, and in wondrous state of preservation. Its colours +are warm and fresh, adhering to red-browns and brown-reds and a +general mellow tone differing from the sharp stained-glass contrasts +noticed in _The Sacraments_. Costumes show a naïve compromise between +those the artist knew in his own time and those he guessed to +appertain to the year of our Lord 70, when the scene depicted was +actually occurring. The tapestry resembles in many ways the famous +tapestries of the Duke of Devonshire which are known as the Hardwick +Hall tapestries. In drawing it is similar, in massing, in the placing +of spots of interest. This large hanging is a part of the collection +at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. + +The Boston Museum of Fine Arts exhibits a primitive hanging which is +probably woven in France, Northern France, at the end of the Fifteenth +Century. (Plate facing page 40.) It represents, in two panels, the +power of the church to drive out demons and to confound the heathen. +Fault can be found with its crudity of drawing and weave, but +tapestries of this epoch can hold a position of interest in spite of +faults. + + [Illustration: THE SACK OF JERUSALEM (DETAIL) + + Burgundian Tapestry, about 1450. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New + York] + +A fine piece at the same museum is the long, narrow hanging +representing scenes from the life of Christ, with a scene from +Paradise to start the drama. (Plate facing page 41.) This tapestry, +which is of great beauty, is subdivided into four panels by slender +columns suggesting a springing arch which the cloth was too low to +carry. All the pretty Gothic signs are here. The simple flowers +upspringing, the Gothic lettering, the panelling, and a narrow border +of such design as suggests rose-windows or other lace-like carving. +Here is noticeable, too, the sumptuous brocades in figures far too +large for the human form to wear, figures which diminished greatly a +very few decades later. + +The Institute of Art, Chicago, possesses an interesting piece of the +period showing another treatment of a similar subject. (Plate facing +page 48.) In this the columns are omitted, the planes are increased, +and there is an entire absence of the triptych or altar-piece style of +drawing which we associate with the primitive artists in painting. + +We have seen in this slight review that Paris was in a fair way to +cover the castle walls and floors of noble lords with her high loom +and _sarrazinois_ products, when the English occupation ruined the +prosperity of the weaver's guild. Arras supplied the enormous demand +for tapestries through Europe, and made a lasting fame. But this +little city, too, had to go down before the hard conditions of the +Conqueror. Louis XI, in 1477, possessed himself of the town after the +death of the last-famed Burgundian duke, Charles the Bold, and under +his eccentric persecutions the guild of weavers scattered. He saw too +late his mistake. But other towns benefited by it, towns whither the +tapissiers fled with their art. + +There had also been much trouble between the last Duke of Burgundy and +his Flemish cities. His extravagances and expeditions led him to make +extraordinary demands upon one town and another for funds, and even to +make war upon them, as at Liége, the battles of which conflict were +perpetuated in tapestries. Let us trust that no Liégois weaver was +forced to the humiliation of weaving this set. + +This disposition to work to his own ultimate undoing was encouraged in +the duke, wherever possible, by the crafty Louis XI, who had his own +reasons for wishing the downfall of so powerful a neighbour. And thus +it came that Arras, the great tapestry centre, was at first weakened, +then destroyed by the capture of the town by Louis XI immediately +after the tragic death of the duke in 1477. + +Thus everything was favourable to the Brussels factories, which began +to produce those marvels of workmanship that force from the world the +sincerest admiration. It is frankly asserted that toward the end of +the century, or more accurately, during the reigns of Charles VIII and +Louis XII (1483-1515), tapestry attained a degree of perfection which +has never been surpassed. + + [Illustration: SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF CHRIST, WITH ARMORIAL SHIELDS + + Flemish Tapestry, Fifteenth Century. Institute of Art, Chicago] + + [Illustration: HISTORY OF THE VIRGIN + + Angers Cathedral] + +We have a very clear idea of what use to make of tapestries in these +days--to hang them in a part of the house where they will be much seen +and much protected, on an important wall-space where their figures +become the friend of daily life, or the bosky shades of their +verdure invite to revery. They are extended flat against the wall, or +even framed, that not one stroke of the artist's pencil or one flash +of the weaver's shuttle be hid. But, many were their uses and grand +were their purposes in the days when high-warp and low-warp weaving +was the important industry of whole provinces. Palaces and castles +were hung with them, but apart from this was the sumptuous use of a +reserve of hangings for outdoor fêtes and celebrations of all sorts. +These were the great opportunities for all to exhibit their +possessions and to make a street look almost as elegant and habitable +as the grandest chamber of the king. + +On the occasion of the entry of a certain queen into Paris, all the +way from Porte St. Denis to the Cathedral of Notre Dame was hung with +such specimens of the weaver's art as would make the heart of the +modern amateur throb wildly. They were hung from windows, draped +across the fronts of the houses, and fluttered their bright colours in +the face of an illuminating sun that yet had no power to fade the +conscientious work of the craftsman. The high lights of silk in the +weave, and the enrichment of gold and silver in the pattern caught and +held the sunbeams. In all the cavalcade of mounted knights and ladies, +there was the flashing of arms, the gleam of jewelled bridles, the +flaunting of rich stuffs, all with a background of unsurpassed +blending of colour and texture. The bridge over the Seine leading to +Notre Dame, its ramparts were entirely concealed, its asperities +softened, by the tapestries which hung over its sides, making the +passage over the river like the approach to a throne, the luxury of +kings combined with the beauty of the flowing river, the blue sky, the +tender green of the trees. + +Indeed, it was so lovely a sight that the king himself was not content +to see it from his honoured but restricted post, but needs must doff +his crown--monarchs wore them in those fairy days--and fling a leg +over a gentleman's charger, behind its owner, and thus ride double to +see the sights. So great was his eagerness to enjoy all the display +that he got a smart reproof from an officer of ceremonies for +trespassing.[12] + +When Louis XI was the young king, and had not yet developed the taste +for bloodshed and torture that as a crafty fox he used later to the +horror of his nation, he, too, had similar festivals with similar +decorations. On one occasion the Pont des Changes was made the chief +point in the royal progress through the streets of Paris. The bridge +was hung with superb tapestries of great size, from end to end, and +the king rode to it on a white charger, his trappings set with +turquoise, with a gorgeous canopy supported over his head. Just as he +reached the bridge the air became full of the music of singing birds, +twenty-five hundred of them at that moment released, and all +fluttering, darting, singing amid the gorgeous scene to tickle the +fancy of a king. + + [Illustration: DAVID AND BATHSHEBA + + German Tapestry, about 1450] + + [Illustration: FLEMISH TAPESTRY. ABOUT 1500 + + Collection of Alfred W. Hoyt, Esq.] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] Canon de Haisnes, "La Tapisserie." + +[8] M. de Barante, "Histoire des Ducs de Bourgogne." + +[9] Froissart, manuscript of the library of Dijon. + +[10] De Barante, "Histoire." + +[11] See M. Pinchart, "Roger van der Weyden et les Tapisseries de +Berne." + +[12] Enguerrand de Monstrelet, "Chronicles." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +HIGH GOTHIC + + +The wonderful time of the Burgundian dukes is gone; Charles le +Téméraire leaves the world at Nancy, where the pitying have set up a +cross in memory of his unkingly death, and where the lover of things +Gothic may wander down a certain way to the exquisite portico of the +Ducal Palace and, entering, find the Gothic room where the duke's +precious tapestries are hung. In this sympathetic atmosphere one may +dream away hours in sheer joy of association with these shadowy hosts +of the past, the relentless slayers in the battle scenes, relentless +moralists in the religious subjects--for morality plays had a parallel +in the morality tapestry, issuing such rigid warnings to those who +make merry as is seen in _The Condemnation of Suppers and Banquets_, +_The Reward of Virtue_, _The Triumph of Right_, _The Horrors of the +Seven Deadly Sins_, all of which were popular subjects for the weaver. + +With the artists who might be called primitives we have almost +finished in the end of the Fifteenth Century. The simplicity of the +very early weavers passed. They were content with comparatively few +figures, and these so strongly treated that in composition one scarce +took on more importance than another. When Arras and other Flemish +towns, as well as Paris and certain French towns, developed the +industry and employed more ambitious artists, the designs became more +crowded, and the tendency was to multiply figures in an effort to +crowd as many as possible into the space. When architecture appeared +in the design, towers and battlements were crowded with peeping heads +in delightful lack of proportion, and forests of spears springing from +platoons of soldiers, filled almost the entire height of the cloth. +The naïve fashion still existed of dressing the characters of an +ancient Biblical or classic drama in costumes which were the mode of +the weaver's time, disregarding the epoch in which the characters +actually lived. + +An adherence to the childlike drawing of the early workers continues +noticeable in their quaint way of putting many scenes on one tapestry. +Interiors are readily managed, by dividing--as in _The Sacraments_ set +in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York--with slender Gothic +columns, than which nothing could be prettier, especially when framed +in at the top with the Gothic arch. In outdoor scenes the frank +disregard of the probable adds the charm of audacity. Side by side +with a scene of carnage, a field of blood with victims lying prone, is +inserted an island of flowers whereon youths and dogs are pleasantly +sporting; and adjoining that may be another section cunningly +introduced where a martyred woman is enveloped in flames which spring +from the ground around her as naturally as grass in springtime. + + [Illustration: DAVID AND BATHSHEBA + + Flemish Tapestry, late Fifteenth Century] + + [Illustration: HISTORY OF ST. STEPHEN + + Arras Tapestry, Fifteenth Century] + +And flowers, flowers everywhere. Those little blossoms of the Gothic +with their perennial beauty, they are one of the smiles of that far +time that shed cheer through the centuries. They are not the +grandiose affairs of the Renaissance whose voluptuous development +contains the arrogant assurance of beauty matured. They do not crown a +column or trail themselves in foliated scrolls; but are just as Nature +meant them to be, unaffected bits of colour and grace, upspringing +from the sod. In the cathedral at Berne is a happy example of the use +of these sweet flowers, as they appear at the feet of the sacred +group, and as they carry the eye into the sky by means of the feathery +branches like fern-fronds which tops the scene; but we find them +nearer home, in almost every Gothic tapestry. + +It was about the end of the last Crusade when Italy began to produce +the inspired artists who broke the bonds of Byzantine traditions and +turned back to the inspiration of all art, which is Nature. Giotto, +tending his sheep, began to draw pictures of things as he saw them, +Savonarola awoke the conscience, Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio--a string +of names to conjure with--all roused the intellect. The dawn of the +Renaissance flushed Europe with the life of civilisation. But before +the wonderful development of art through the reversion to classic +lines, came a high perfection of the style called Gothic, and with +that we are pleased to deal first. It is so full of beauty to the eye +and interest to the intellect that sometimes we must be dragged away +from it to regard the softer lines of later art, with the ingratitude +and reluctance of childhood when torn from its fairy tales to read of +real people in the commonplace of every day. + +We are now in the time when the perfection of production was reached +in the tapestries we call Gothic. Artists had grown more certain of +their touch in colour and design, and weavers worked with such +conscientious care as is now almost unknown, and produced a quality of +tapestry superior to that of their forebears. The Fifteenth Century +and the first few years of the Sixteenth were spent in perfecting the +style of the preceding century, and so great was the perfection +reached, that it was impossible to develop further on those lines. + +It must not be supposed from their importance that Brussels and Bruges +were the sole towns of weavers. There were many high-warp looms, and +low-warp as well, in many towns in Flanders and France, and there were +also beginnings in Spain, England and Germany. Italy came later. The +superb set in the Cluny Museum in Paris, _The Lady and the Unicorn_, +than which nothing could be lovelier in poetic feeling as well as in +technique, is accorded to French looms. But as it is impossible in a +cursory survey to mention all, the two most important cities are dwelt +upon because it is from them that the greatest amount of the best +product emanated. + +Tapestries could not well decline with the fortunes of a town, for +they were a heavy article of commerce at the time when Louis XI +attacked Arras. Trade was made across the Channel, whence came the +best wool for their manufacture; they were bought by the French +monarchs and nobility; many drifted to Genoa and Italy, to be sold by +the active merchants of the times to whoever could buy. When, +therefore, Arras was crushed, her able workmen flew to other centres +of production, principally in Flanders, notably to Bruges and +Brussels, and helped to bring these places into their high position. + + [Illustration: VERDURE + + French Gothic Tapestry] + + [Illustration: "ECCE HOMO" + + Brussels Tapestry, about 1520. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New + York] + +Stories of kings and their magnificence breathe ever of romance, but +kings could not be magnificent were it not for the labour of the +conscientious common people, those who go daily to their task, asking +nothing better than to live their little span in humble endeavour. The +weavers, the tapissiers of that far-away time in Flanders are +intensely appealing now when their beautiful work hangs before us +to-day. They send us a friendly message down through the centuries. It +is this makes us inquire a bit into the conditions of their lives, and +so we find them scattered through the country north of France working +with single-hearted devotion toward the perfection of their art. That +they arrived there, we know by such tapestries as are left us of their +time. + +Bruges was the home of a movement in art similar to that occurring in +Italy. Old traditions of painting were being thrown aside--the +revolution even attacking the painter's medium, tempera, which was +criticised, discarded and replaced by oil on the palettes. Memling, +the brothers Van Eyck, were painting things as they saw them, not as +rules prescribed. Bernard Van Orley was at work with bold originality. + +It were strange if this Northern school of painters had not influenced +all art near by. It is to these men that Brussels owes the beauty of +her tapestries in that apogee of Gothic art which immediately preceded +the introduction of the Renaissance from Italy. + +Cartoons or drawings for tapestries took on the rules of composition +of these talented and original men. Easily distinguishable is the +strong influence of the religious feeling, the fidelity to standards +of the church. When a rich townsman wished to express his praise or +gratitude to God, he ordered for the church an altar-piece or dainty +gilded Gothic carving to frame the painted panels of careful +execution. When Jean de Rome executed a cartoon, he treated it in much +the same way; built up an airy Gothic structure and filled the spaces +with pretty pictures. The so-called Mazarin tapestry of Mr. Morgan's +shows this treatment at its best. Unhappily, the atelier of Jean de +Rome or Jan von Room is too sketchily portrayed in the book of the +past; its records are faint and elusive. We only hear now and then an +interested allusion, a suggestion that this or that beautiful specimen +of work has come from his atelier. + +Cartoons at the beginning of the Sixteenth Century were not all +divided into their different scenes by Gothic column and arch. In much +of the fine work there was no division except a natural one, for the +picture began to develop the modern scheme of treating but one scene +in one picture. Although this might be filled with many groups, yet +all formed a harmonious whole. The practice then fell into disuse of +repeating the same individual many times in one picture. + +A good example of the change and improvement in drawing which assisted +in making Brussels' supremacy and in bringing Gothic art to +perfection, is the fine hanging in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. +(Plate facing page 57.) It depicts with beautiful naïveté and much +realism the discomfiture of Pharaoh and his army floundering in the +Red Sea, while the serene and elegant children of Israel contemplate +their distress with well-bred calm from the flowery banks of an +orderly park. + + [Illustration: ALLEGORICAL SUBJECT + + Flemish Tapestry, about 1500. Collection of Alfred W. Hoyt, Esq.] + + [Illustration: CROSSING THE RED SEA + + Brussels Tapestry, about 1500. Boston Museum of Fine Arts] + +This tapestry illustrates so many of the important features of work +during the first period of Brussels' supremacy that it is to be +lingered over, dissected and tasted like a dessert of nuts and wine. +Should one speak first of the cartoon or of the weave, of the artist +or of the craftsmen? If it is to be the tapissier, then to him all +credit, for in this and similar work he has reached a care in +execution and a talent in translation that are inspired. Such quantity +of detail, so many human faces with their varying expressions, could +only be woven by the most adroit tapissier. + +The drawing shows, first, one scene of many groups but a sole +interest, with none but probable divisions. Much grace and freedom is +shown in the attitudes of the persons on the shore, and strenuous +effort and despair among the engulfed soldiers. Extreme attention to +detail, the making one part as finished as another, even to the least +detail, is noticeable. The exaggerated patterns of the stuffs +observable in earlier work is absent, and a sense of proportion is +displayed in dress ornament. The free movement of men and beasts, and +the variety of facial expression all show the immense strides made in +drawing and the perfection attained in this brilliant period. + +It was a time when the artist perfected the old style and presaged the +new, the years before the Renaissance had left its cradle and marched +over Europe. This perfection of the Gothic ideal has a purity and +simplicity that can never fail to appeal to all who feel that +sincerity is the basic principle of art as it is of character. The +style of Quentin Matsys, of the Van Eycks, was the mode at the end of +the Fifteenth Century and the beginning of the Sixteenth, and after +all this lapse of time it seems to us a sweet and natural expression +of admirable human attributes. + +In the new wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the +labels of certain exhibits, purchases and loans allude briefly to +"studio of Jean de Rome." It is an allusion which especially interests +us, as our country now holds examples of this atelier which make us +wish to know more about its master. He was a designer in the +marvellous transition period of about 1500, when art trembled between +the restraint of ecclesiastic Gothic and the voluptuous freedom of the +Renaissance; hesitated between the conventions of religion and the +abandonment to luxury, to indulgence of the senses. It is the fashion +to regard periods of transition as times of decadence, of false +standards of hybrid production, but at least they are full of deepest +interest to the student of design who finds in the tremulous dawn of +the new idea a flush which beautifies the last years of the old +method. + + [Illustration: THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN + + Flemish Tapestry, about 1510. Collection of J. Pierpont Morgan, + Esq., New York] + +Attributed to this newly unearthed studio of Jean de Rome hangs a +marvellous tapestry in the new wing alluded to, one which deserves +repeated visits. (Plate facing page 58.) Indeed, to see it once +creates the desire to see it again, so beautiful is it in drawing and +so exquisite in colour and weave. It is suggested that Quentin +Matsys is responsible for the drawing, and it is known that only +Bruges or Brussels could produce such perfection of textile. Indeed, +Jean de Rome is by some authorities spoken of as Jean de Brussels, for +it is there that he worked long and well, assisting to produce those +wonders of textile art that have never been surpassed, not even by the +Gobelins factory in the Seventeenth Century. The tapestry in the +Metropolitan Museum is now the property of J. Pierpont Morgan, Esq., +but began life as the treasure of the King and Queen of Spain who, at +the time when Brussels was producing its best, were sitting firmly on +a throne but just wrested from the Saracenic occupancy. Spain, while +unable to establish famous and enduring tapestry factories of her own, +yet was known always as a lavish buyer. Later, Cardinal Mazarin, with +his trained Italian eye, detected at once the value of the tapestry +and became possessed of it, counting it among his best treasures of +art. It is a woven representation of the triptych, so favourite in the +time of the Van Eycks, and is almost as rich with gold as those +ancient altar decorations. The tapestry is variously called _The +Kingdom of Heaven_, and _The Adoration of the Eternal Father_ and is +the most beautiful and important of its kind in America. Fortunate +they who can go to the museum to see it--only less fortunate than +those who can go to see it many times. + +In the private collection of Martin A. Ryerson, Esq., of Chicago, are +three examples of great perfection. They belonged to the celebrated +art collection of Baron Spitzer, which fact, apart from their beauty, +gives them renown. The first of these (plate facing page 60) is an +appearance of Christ to the Magdalen after the Entombment, and is +Flemish work of late in the Fifteenth Century. It is woven in silk and +gold with infinite skill. With exquisite patience the weaver has +brought out the crowded detail in the distance; indeed, it is this +background, stretching away to the far sky, past the Tomb, beyond +towns and plains of fruited trees to yet more cities set on a hill, +that constitutes the greatest charm of the picture, and which must +have brought hours of happy toil to the inspired weaver. + +The second tapestry of Mr. Ryerson's three pieces is also Flemish of +the late Fifteenth Century. (Plate facing page 61.) This small group +of the Holy Family shows at its best the conscientious work of the +time, a time wherein man regarded labour as a means of worshipping his +God. The subject is treated by both artist and weaver with that loving +care which approaches religion. The holy three are all engaged in +holding bunches of grapes, while the Child symbolically spills their +juice into a chalice. Other symbols are found in the book and the +cross-surmounted globe. A background of flat drapery throws into +beautiful relief the inspired faces of the group. Behind this +stretches the miniature landscape, but the foreground is unfretted by +detail, abounding in the repose of the simple surfaces of the garments +of Mother and Child. By a subtle trick of line, St. Joseph is +separated from the holier pair. The border is the familiar +well-balanced Gothic composition of flower, fruit, and leaf, all +placed as though by the hand of Nature. The materials used are silk +and gold, but one might well add that the soul of the weaver also +entered into the fabric. + + [Illustration: FLEMISH TAPESTRY, END OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY + + Collection of Martin A. Ryerson, Esq., Chicago. Formerly in the + Spitzer Collection] + + [Illustration: THE HOLY FAMILY + + Flemish Tapestry, end of Fifteenth Century. Collection of Martin + A. Ryerson, Esq., Chicago. Formerly in the Spitzer Collection] + +The third piece from the Spitzer collection bears all those marks of +exquisite beauty with which Italy was teeming in the Fifteenth +Century. (Colour plate facing page 82.) Weavers from Brussels went +down into Italy and worked under the direction of Italian artists who +drew the designs. Andrea Mantegna was one of these. The patron of the +industry was the powerful Gonzaga family. This tapestry of _The +Annunciation_ which Mr. Ryerson is so fortunate as to hang in his +collection, is decorated with the arms of the Gonzaga family. The +border of veined marble, the altar of mosaics and fine relief, the +architecture of the outlying baptistry, the wreathed angel, all speak +of Italy in that lovely moment when the Gothic had not been entirely +abandoned and the Renaissance was but an opening bud. + +The highest work of painter and weaver--artists both--continued +through thirty or forty years. Pity it is, the time had not been long +enough for more remains of it to have come to us than those that +scantily supply museums. After the Gothic perfection came the great +change made in Flanders by the introduction of the Renaissance. + +It came through the excellence of the weavers. It was not the worth of +the artists that brought Brussels its greatest fame, but the humbler +work of its tapissiers. Their lives, their endeavours counted more in +textile art than did the Flemish school of painting. No such weavers +existed in all the world. They were bound together as a guild, had +restrictions and regulations of their own that would shame a trades +union of to-day, and in change of politics had scant consideration +from new powers. But in the end they were the ones to bring fame to +the Brussels workshops. + +In 1528 they were banded together by organisation, and from that time +on their work is easily followed and identified. It was in that year +that a law was made compelling weavers--and allowing weavers--to +incorporate into the encompassing galloon of the tapestry the Brussels +Brabant mark of two B's with a shield between. And it was about this +time and later that the celebrated family of weavers named Pannemaker +came into prominence through the talent of Wilhelm de Pannemaker, he +who accompanied the Emperor Charles V on his expedition to Tunis. + +This expedition flaunts itself in the set of tapestries now in Madrid. +(Plate facing page 62.) The emperor seems, from our point of view, to +have done it all with dramatic forethought. There was his special +artist on the spot, Jan Vermeyen, to draw the superb cartoons, and +accompanying him was Wilhelm de Pannemaker, the ablest weaver of his +day, to set the loom and thrust the shuttle. Granada was the place +selected for the weaving, and the finest of wool was set aside for it, +besides lavish amounts of silk, and pounds of silver and gold. In +three years, by the help of eighty workmen, Pannemaker completed his +colossal task. Such was the master-weaver of the Sixteenth Century. + + [Illustration: CONQUEST OF TUNIS BY CHARLES V (DETAIL) + + Cartoon by Jan Vermeyen. Woven by Pannemaker. Royal Collection at + Madrid] + +As for Pannemaker's imperial patron, John Addington Symonds +discriminatingly says of him: "Like a gale sweeping across a forest of +trees in blossom, and bearing their fertilising pollen to far distant +trees, the storm of Charles Fifth's army carried far and wide through +Europe the productive energy of the Renaissance." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +RENAISSANCE INFLUENCE + + +Brussels in 1515, with her workmen at the zenith of their perfection, +was given the order to weave the set of the _Acts of the Apostles_ for +the Pope to hang in the Sistine Chapel. (Plate facing page 64.) The +cartoons were by the great Raphael. Not only did he draw the splendid +scenes, but with his exquisite invention elaborated the borders. Thus +was set in the midst of the Brussels ateliers a pattern for the new +art that was to retire the nice perfection of the previous school of +restraint. From that time, all was regulated by new standards. + +Before considering the change that came to designs in tapestry, it is +necessary that both mind and eye should be literally savants in the +Gothic. Without this the greatest point in classifying and +distinguishing is missed. The dainty grace of the verdure and flowers, +the exquisite models of the architectural details, the honest, simple +scheme of colour, all these are distinguishing marks, but to them is +added the still greater one of the figures and their grouping. In the +very early work, these are few in number, all equally accented in size +and finish, but later the laws of perspective are better understood, +and subordinates to the subject are drawn smaller. This gives +opportunity for increase in the number of personages, and for the +introduction of the horses and dogs and little wild animals that cause +a childish thrill of delight wherever they are encountered, so like +are they to the species that haunt childhood's fairyland. + + [Illustration: DEATH OF ANANIAS.--FROM ACTS OF THE APOSTLES BY + RAPHAEL + + From the Palace of Madrid] + + [Illustration: THE STORY OF REBECCA + + Brussels Tapestry. Sixteenth Century. Collection of Arthur Astor + Carey, Esq., Boston] + +Indeed, the Gothic tapestries more than any other existing pictures +take us back to that epoch of our lives when we lived in romance, when +the Sleeping Beauty hid in just such towers, when the prince rode such +a horse and appeared an elegant young knight. The inscrutable mystery +of those folk of other days is like the inscrutable mystery of that +childhood time, the Mediæval time of the imagination, and those of us +who remember its joys gaze silent and happy in the tapestry room of +the Ducal Palace at Nancy, or in Mary's Chamber at Holyrood, or in any +place whatever where hang the magic pictured cloths. + +When the highest development of a style is reached a change is sure to +come. It may be a degeneration, or it may be the introduction of a new +style through some great artistic impulse either native or introduced +by contact with an outside influence. Fortunately, the Gothic passed +through no pallid process of deterioration. The examples that nest +comfortably in the museums of the world or in the homes of certain +fortunate owners, do not contain marks of decadence--only of +transition. It is a style that was replaced, but not one that died the +death of decadence. + +It is with reluctance that one who loves the Gothic will leave it for +the more recent art of the Renaissance. Its charm is one that embodies +chasteness, grace, and simplicity, one that is so exquisitely +finished, and so individual that the mind and eye rest lovingly upon +its decorative expressions. It is averred that the introduction of the +revived styles of Greece and Rome into France destroyed an art +superior. One is inclined to this opinion in studying a tapestry of +the highest Gothic expression, a finished product of the artist and +the craftsman, both having given to its execution their honest labour +and highest skill. Unhappily it is often, with the tapestry lover, a +case similar to that of the penniless boy before the bakeshop +window--you may look, but you may not have,--for not often are +tapestries such as these for sale. Only among the experienced +dealer-collectors is one fortunate enough to find these rare remnants +of the past which for colour, design and texture are unsurpassed. + +But the Gothic was bound to give way as a fashion in design. Politics +of Europe were at work, and men were more easily moving about from one +country to another. The cities of the various provinces over which the +Burgundian dukes had ruled were prevented by natural causes, from +being united. Arras, Ghent, Liége instead of forming a solidarity, +were separate units of interest. This made the subjugation of one or +the other an easy matter to the tyrant who oppressed. As Arras +declined under the misrule of Charles le Téméraire (whose possessions +at one time outlined the whole northern and eastern border of France) +Brussels came into the highest prominence as a source of the finest +tapestries. + + [Illustration: THE CREATION + + Flemish Tapestry. Italian Cartoon, Sixteenth Century] + + [Illustration: THE ORIGINAL SIN + + Flemish Tapestry. Italian Cartoon, Sixteenth Century] + +The great change in tapestries that now occurs is the same that +altered all European art and decoration and architecture. Indeed it +cannot be limited to these evidences alone, for it affected +literature, politics, religion, every intellectual evidence. Man was +breaking his bonds and becoming freed for centuries to come. The time +was well-named for the new birth. Like another Birth of long ago, it +occurred in the South, and its influence gradually spread over the +entire civilised world. The Renaissance, starting in Italy, gradually +flushed the whole of Europe with its glory. Artists could not be +restrained. Throbbing with poetry to be expressed, they threw off +design after design of inspired beauty and flooded the world with +them. The legitimate field of painting was not large enough for their +teeming originality which pre-empted also the field of decorative +design as well. Many painters apprenticed themselves to goldsmiths and +silversmiths to become yet more cunning in the art of minute design, +and the guilds of Florence held the names best known in the fine arts. + +Tapestry weaving seems a natural expression in the North, the +impulsive supplying of a local need. Possibly Italy felt no such need +throughout the Middle Ages. However that may be, when her artists +composed designs for woven pictures there were no permanent artisans +at home of sufficient skill to weave them. + +But up in the North, craftsmen were able to produce work of such +brilliant and perfect execution that the great artists of Italy were +inspired to draw cartoons. And so it came, that to make sure of having +their drawings translated into wool and silk with proper artistic +feeling, the cartoons of Raphael were bundled off by trusty carriers +to the ateliers of Flanders. Thus Italy got her tapestries of the +Renaissance, and thus Flanders acquired by inoculation the rich art of +the Renaissance. + +The direct cause of the change in Flemish style of tapestries was in +this way brought about by the Renaissance of Italy. New rules of +drawing were dominating. Changes were slower when travelling was +difficult, and the average of literacy was low; but gradually there +came creeping up to Brussels cartoon after cartoon in the new method, +for her skilled workmen to transpose into wool and silk and metal, +"thread of Arras," and "gold and silver of Cyprus." Italy had the +artists, Brussels had the craftsmen--what happier combination could be +made than the union of these two? Thus was the great change brought +about in tapestries, and this union is the great fact to be borne in +mind about the difference between the Gothic tapestries and those +which so quickly succeeded them. + +From now on the old method is abandoned, not only in Brussels, but +everywhere that the high-warp looms are set up. The "art nouveau" of +that day influenced every brush and pencil. The great crowding of +serried hosts on a single field disappeared, and fewer but perfect +figures played their parts on the woven surface. Wherever +architectural details, such as porticoes or columns, were introduced, +these dropped the old designs of "pointed" style or battlements, and +took on the classic or the high Renaissance that ornaments the façade +of Pavia's Certosa. One by one the wildwood flowers receded before the +advance of civilisation, very much as those in the veritable land +are wont to do, and their place was taken by a verdure as rich as the +South could produce, with heavy foliage and massive blossoms. + + [Illustration: MELEAGER AND ATALANTA + + Flemish design, second half of Seventeenth Century. Woven in Paris + workshops by Charles de Comans] + + [Illustration: PUNIC WAR SERIES + + Brussels Tapestry. Sixteenth Century. Collection of Arthur Astor + Carey, Esq., Boston] + +It is impossible to overestimate the importance to Brussels of the +animating experience and distinguished commission of executing the set +of tapestries for the Sistine Chapel after cartoons by Raffaelo +Sanzio. The date is one to tie to (1515) and the influence of the work +was far-reaching. The Gothic method could no longer continue. + +The Renaissance spread its influence, established its standards and +introduced that wave of productiveness which always followed its +introduction. There are many who doubt the superiority of the +voluptuous art of the high Renaissance. There are those who prefer +(perhaps for reasons of sentiment) the early Gothic, and many more who +love far better the sweet purity of the early Renaissance. Before us +Raphael presents his full figures replete with action, rich with +broad, open curves in nudity, and magnificent with lines of flowing +drapery. To him be accorded all due honour; but, if it is the +privilege of the artist's spirit to wander still on earth, he must +find his particular post-mortem punishment in viewing the deplorable +school of exaggeration which his example founded. Who would not prefer +one of the chaste tapestries of perfected Gothic to one of those which +followed Raphael, imitating none of his virtues, exaggerating his +faults? It is these followers, the virilities of whose false art is as +that of weeds, who have come almost to our own day and who have +succeeded in spoiling the historical aspect of the New Testament for +many an imaginative Sunday-school attendant by giving us Bible folk in +swarthy undress, in lunatic beards and in unwearable drapings. These +terrible persons, descendants of Raphael's art, can never stir a human +sympathy. + +Just here a word must be said of the workmen, the weavers of Brussels. +For them certain fixed rules were made, but also they were allowed +much liberty in execution. The artist might draw the big cartoons and +thus become the governing influence, but much of the choice of colour +and thread was left to the weaver. This made of him a more important +factor in the composition than a mere artisan; he was, in fact, an +artist, must needs be, to execute a work of such sublimity as the +Raphael set. + +And as a weaver, his patience was without limit. Thread by thread, the +warp was set, and thread by thread the woof was woven and coerced into +place by the relentless comb of the weaver. Perhaps a man might make a +square foot, by a week of close application; but "how much" mattered +nothing--it was "how well" that counted. Haste is disassociable from +labour of our day; we might produce--or reproduce--tapestries as good +as the old, but some one is in haste for the hanging, and excellency +goes by the board. The weaver of those days of perfection was content +to be a weaver, felt his ambition gratified if his work was good. + + [Illustration: EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF CÆSAR + + Flemish Tapestry. Sixteenth Century. Gallery of the Arazzi, + Florence] + + [Illustration: WILD BOAR HUNT + + Flemish Cartoon and Weaving, Sixteenth Century. Gallery of the + Arazzi, Florence] + +Peter van Aelst was the master chosen to execute the Raphael +tapestries, and the pieces were finished in three or four years. Those +who think present-day prices high, should think on the fact that Pope +Leo X paid $130,000 for the execution of the tapestries, which in +1515 counted for more than now. Raphael received $1,000 each for the +cartoons, almost all of which are now guarded in England. The +tapestries after a varied history are resting safely in the Vatican, a +wonder to the visitor. + +When Van Aelst had finished his magnificent work, the tapestries were +sent to Rome. Those who go now to the Sistine Chapel to gaze upon +Michael Angelo's painted ceiling, and the panelled sidewalls of +Botticelli and other cotemporary artists, are more than intoxicated +with the feast. But fancy what the scene must have been when Pope Leo +X summoned his gorgeous guard and cardinals around him in this chapel +enriched also with the splendour of these unparalleled hangings. + +And thus it came that Italy held the first place--almost the only +place--in design, and Brussels led in manufacture. + +In 1528 appeared a mark on Brussels' tapestries which distinguished +them from that time on. Prior to that their works, except in certain +authenticated instances, are not always distinguishable from those of +other looms--of which many existed in many towns. The mark alluded to +is the famous one of two large B's on either side of a shield or +scutcheon. This was woven into a plain band on the border, and the +penalty for its misuse was the no small one of the loss of the right +hand--the death of the culprit as a weaver. This mark and its laws +were intended to discourage fraud, to promote perfection and to +conserve a high reputation for weavers as well as for dealers. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +RENAISSANCE TO RUBENS + + +When the Raphael cartoons first came to Brussels the new method was a +little difficult for the tapissier. His hand had been accustomed to +another manner. He had, too, been allowed much liberty in his +translations--if one may so call the art of reproducing a painted +model on the loom. He might change at will the colour of a drapery, +even the position of a figure, and, most interesting fact, he had on +hand a supply of stock figures that he might use at will, making for +himself suitable combination. The figures of Adam and Eve gave a +certain cachet to hangings not entirely secular and these were slipped +in when a space needed filling. There were also certain lovely ladies +who might at one time play the rôle of attendant at a feast _al +fresco_, at another time a character in an allegory. The weaver's hand +was a little conventional when he began to execute the Raphael +cartoons, but during the three years required for their execution he +lost all restriction and was ready for the freer manner. + + [Illustration: VERTUMNUS AND POMONA + + First half of Sixteenth Century. Royal Collection of Madrid] + + [Illustration: VERTUMNUS AND POMONA + + First half of Sixteenth Century. Royal Collection of Madrid] + +It must not be supposed the Flemish artists were content to let the +Italians entirely usurp them in the drawing of cartoons. The lovely +refinement of the Bruges school having been thrust aside, the Fleming +tried his hand at the freer method, not imitating its classicism but +giving his themes a broader treatment. The Northern temperament +failed to grasp the spirit of the South, and figures grew gross and +loose in the exaggerated drawing. Borders, however, show no such +deterioration; the attention to detail to which the old school was +accustomed was here continued and with good effect. No stronger +evidence is needed than some of these half savage portrayals of life +in the Sixteenth Century to declare the classic method an exotic in +Flanders. + +But with the passing of the old Gothic method, there was little need +for other cartoonists than the Italian, so infinitely able and +prolific were they. Andrea del Sarto, Titian, Paolo Veronese, Giulio +Romano, these are among the artists whose work went up to Brussels +workshops and to other able looms of the day. We can fancy the fair +face of Andrea's wife being lovingly caressed by the weaver's fingers +in his work; we can imagine the beauties of Titian, the sumptuousness +of Veronese's feasts, and the fat materialism of Giulio Romano's heavy +cherubs, all contributing to the most beautiful of textile arts. + +Still earlier, Mantegna supplied a series of idealised Pompeian +figures exquisitely composed, set in a lacy fancy of airy +architectural detail, in which he idealised all the gods of Olympus. +Each fair young goddess, each strong and perfect god, stood in its +particular niche and indicated its _penchant_ by a tripod, a peacock, +an apple or a caduceus, as clue to the proper name. Such airy beauty, +such dainty conception, makes of the gods rulers of æsthetics, if not +of fate. This series of Mantegna was the inspiration two centuries +later of the _Triumphs of the Gods_, and similar hangings of the +newly-formed Gobelins. + +Giulio Romano drew, among other cartoons, a set of _Children Playing_, +which were the inspiration later at the Gobelins for Lebrun's _Enfants +Jardiniers_. + +As classic treatment was the mode in the Sixteenth Century, so classic +subject most appealed. The loves and adventures of gods and heroes +gave stories for an infinite number of sets. As it was the fashion to +fill a room with a series, not with miscellaneous and contrasting +bits, several tapestries similar in subject and treatment were a +necessity. The gods were carried through their adventures in varying +composition, but the borders in all the set were uniform in style and +measurement. + +In those prolific days, when ideas were crowding fast for expression, +the border gave just the outlet necessary for the superfluous designs +of the artist. He was wont to plot it off into squares with such +architectonic fineness as Mina da Fiesole might have used, and to make +of each of these a picture or a figure so perfect that in itself it +would have sufficient composition for an entire tapestry. All honour +to such artists, but let us never once forget that without the skill +and talent of the master-weaver these beauties would never have come +down to us. + + [Illustration: VERTUMNUS AND POMONA + + First half of Sixteenth Century. Royal Collection of Madrid] + + [Illustration: VERTUMNUS AND POMONA + + First half of Sixteenth Century. Royal Collection of Madrid] + +The collection of George Blumenthal, Esquire, of New York, contains as +beautiful examples of Sixteenth Century composition and weaving as +could be imagined. Two of these were found in Spain--the country +which has ever hoarded her stores of marvellous tapestries. They +represent the story of _Mercury_. (Frontispiece.) The cartoon is +Italian, and so perfect is its drawing, so rich in invention is the +exquisite border, that the name of Raphael is half-breathed by the +thrilled observer. But if the artist is not yet certainly identified, +the name of the weaver is certain, for on the galloon he has left his +sign. It is none other than the celebrated Wilhelm de Pannemaker. + +In addition to this is the shield and double B of the Brussels +workshop, which after 1528 was a requirement on all tapestries beyond +a certain small size. In 1544 the Emperor Charles V made a law that +the mark or name of the weaver and the mark of his town must be put in +the border. It was this same Pannemaker of the Blumenthal tapestries +who wove in Spain the _Conquest of Tunis_ for Charles V. (Plate facing +page 62.) + +Mr. Blumenthal's tapestries must have carried with them some such +contract for fine materials as that which attended the execution of +the _Tunis_ set, so superb are they in quality. Indeed, gold is so +lavishly used that the border seems entirely made of it, except for +the delicate figures resting thereon. It is used, too, in an unusual +manner, four threads being thrown together to make more resplendent +the weave. + +The beauty of the cartoon as a picture, the decorative value of the +broad surfaces of figured stuffs, the marvellous execution of the +weaver, all make the value of these tapestries incalculable to the +student and the lover of decorative art. Mr. Blumenthal has graciously +placed them on exhibition in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New +York. Fortunate they who can absorb their beauty. + +That treasure-house in Madrid which belongs to the royal family +contains a set which bears the same ear-marks as the Blumenthal +tapestries. It is the set called _The Loves of Vertumnus and Pomona_. +(Plates facing pages 72, 73, 74 and 75.) Here is the same manner of +dress, the same virility, the same fulness of decoration. Yet the +Mercury is drawn with finer art. + +The delight in perfected detail belonging to the Italian school of +artists resulted in an arrangement of _grotesques_. Who knows that the +goldsmith's trade was not responsible for these tiny fantastics, as so +many artists began as apprentices to workers in gold and silver? This +evidence of talented invention must be observed, for it set the +fashion for many a later tapestry, notably the _Grotesque Months_ of +the Seventeenth Century. Mingled with verdure and fruit, it is seen in +work of the Eighteenth Century. But in its original expression is it +the most talented. There we find that intellectual plan of design, +that building of a perfect whole from a subtle combination of +absolutely irreconcilable and even fabulous objects. Yet all is done +with such beguiling art that both mind and eye are piqued and pleased +with the impossible blending of realism and imagination. + +Bacchiacca drew a filigree of attenuated fancies, threw them on a +ground of single delicate colour, and sent them for weave to the +celebrated masters, John Rost and Nicholas Karcher. (Plates facing +pages 84 and 85.) These men at that time (1550) had set their +Flemish looms in Italy. + + [Illustration: TAPESTRIES FOR HEAD AND SIDE OF BED + + Renaissance designs. Royal Collection of Madrid] + + [Illustration: THE STORY OF REBECCA + + Brussels Tapestry. Sixteenth Century. Collection of Arthur Astor + Carey, Esq., Boston] + +And so it came that the Renaissance swept all before it in the world +of tapestry. More than that, with the increase of culture and of +wealth, with the increased mingling of the peoples of Europe after the +raid of Charles V into Italy, the demand for tapestries enormously +increased. They were wanted for furnishing of homes, they were wanted +as gifts--to brides, to monarchs, to ambassadors. And they were wanted +for splendid decoration in public festivals. They had passed beyond +the stage of rarity and had become almost as much a matter of course +as clothing. + +Brussels being in the ascendency as a producer, the world looked to +her for their supply, and thereby came trouble. More orders came than +it was possible to fill. The temptation was not resisted to accept +more work than could be executed, for commercialism has ever a hold. +The result was a driving haste. The director of the ateliers forced +his weavers to quick production. This could mean but one thing, the +lessening of care in every department. + +Gradually it came about that expedition in a tapissier, the ability to +weave quickly, was as great a desideratum as fine work. Various other +expedients were resorted to beside the Sixteenth Century equivalent of +"Step lively." Large tapestries were not set on a single loom, but +were woven in sections, cunningly united when finished. In this manner +more men could be impressed into the manufacture of a single piece. A +wicked practice was introduced of painting or dyeing certain woven +parts in which the colours had been ill-selected. + +All these things resulted in constantly increasing restrictions by the +guild of tapissiers and by order of royal patrons. But fraud is hard +to suppress when the animus of the perpetrator is wrong. Laws were +made to stop one fault after another, until in the end the weavers +were so hampered by regulations that work was robbed of all enthusiasm +or originality. + +It was at this time that Brussels adopted the low-warp loom. In other +words, after a brilliant period of prolific and beautiful production, +Brussels began to show signs of deterioration. Her hour of triumph was +past. It had been more brilliant than any preceding, and later times +were never able to touch the same note of purity coupled with +perfection. The reason for the decline is known, but reasons are of +scant interest in the face of the deplorable fact of decadence. + +The Italian method of drawing cartoons was adopted by the Flemish +cartoonists at this time, but as it was an adoption and not a natural +expression of inborn talent, it fell short of the high standard of the +Renaissance. But that is not to say that we of to-day are not ready to +worship the fruit of the Italian graft on Flemish talent. A tapestry +belonging to the Institute of Art in Chicago well represents this +hybrid expression of drawing. (Plate facing page 78.) The principal +figures are inspired by such as are seen in the _Mercury_ of Mr. +Blumenthal's collection, or the _Vertumnus and Pomona_ series, but +there the artist stopped and wandered off into his traditional +Flemish landscape with proper Flemings in the background dressed in +the fashion of the artist's day. + + [Illustration: BRUSSELS TAPESTRY. LATE SIXTEENTH CENTURY + + Weaver, Jacques Geubels. Institute of Art, Chicago] + + [Illustration: MEETING OF ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA + + Brussels Tapestry. Woven by Gerard van den Strecken. Cartoon + attributed to Rubens] + +The border was evidently inspired by Raphael's classic figures and +arabesques, but the column of design is naïvely broken by the far +perspective of a formal garden. The Italian cartoonist would have +built his border, figure and arabesque, one above another like a +fantastic column (_vide_ Mr. Blumenthal's _Mercury_ border). The +Fleming saw the intricacy, the multiplied detail, but missed the +intellectual harmony. But, such trifles apart, the Flemish examples of +this style that have come to us are thrilling in their beauty of +colour, and borders such as this are an infinite joy. This tapestry +was woven about the last quarter of the Sixteenth Century by a weaver +named Jacques Geubels of Brussels, who was employed by Carlier, a +merchant of Antwerp. + +As the fruit of the Renaissance graft on Flanders coarsened and +deteriorated, a new influence arose in the Low Countries, one that was +bound to submerge all others. Rubens appeared and spread his great +decorative surfaces before eyes that were tired of hybrid design. This +great scene-painter introduced into all Europe a new method in his +voluptuous, vigorous work, a method especially adapted to tapestry +weaving. It is not for us to quarrel with the art of so great a +master. The critics of painting scarce do that; but in the lesser art +of tapestry the change brought about by his cartoons was not a happy +one. + +His great dramatic scenes required to be copied directly from the +canvas, no liberty of line or colour could be allowed the weaver. In +times past, the tapissier--with talent almost as great as that of the +cartoonist--altered at his discretion. Even he to whom the Raphael +cartoons were entrusted changed here and there the work of the master. + +But now he was expected to copy without license for change. In other +words, the time was arriving when tapestries were changing from +decorative fabrics into paintings in wool. It takes courage to avow a +distaste for the newer method, seeing what rare and beautiful hangings +it has produced. But after a study of the purely decorative hangings +of Gothic and Renaissance work, how forced and false seem the later +gods. The value of the tapestries is enormous, they are the work of +eminent men--but the heart turns away from them and revels again in +the Primitives and the Italians of the Cinque Cento. + +Repining is of little avail. The mode changes and tastes must change +with it. If the gradual decadence after the Renaissance was +deplorable, it was well that a Rubens rose in vigour to set a new and +vital copy. To meet new needs, more tones of colour and yet more, were +required by the weaver, and thus came about the making of woven +pictures. + +As one picture is worth many pages of description, it were well to +observe the examples given (plate facing page 79) of the superb set of +_Antony and Cleopatra_, a series of designs attributed to Rubens, +executed in Brussels by Gerard van den Strecken. This set is in the +Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +ITALY + +FIFTEENTH THROUGH SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES + + +The history of tapestry in Italy is the story of the great families, +their romances and achievements. These families were those which +furnished rulers of provinces--kings, almost--which supplied popes as +well, and folk who thought a powerful man's pleasurable duty was to +interest himself seriously in the arts. + +With the fine arts all held within her hand, it was but logical that +Italy should herself begin to produce the tapestries she was importing +from the land of the barbarians as those beyond her northern borders +were arrogantly called. First among the records is found the name of +the Gonzaga family which called important Flemish weavers down to +Mantua, and there wove designs of Mantegna, in the highest day of +their factory's production, about 1450. + +Duke Frederick of Urbino is one of the early Italian patrons of +tapestry whose name is made unforgettable in this connexion by the +product of the factory he established toward the end of the Fifteenth +Century, at his court in the little duchy which included only the +space reaching from the Apennines to the Adriatic and from Rimini to +Ancona. The chief work of this factory was the _History of Troy_ which +cost the generous and enthusiastic duke a hundred thousand dollars. + +The great d'Este family was one to follow persistently the art, +possibly because it habited the northern part of the peninsula and was +therefore nearer Flanders, but more probably because the great Duke of +Ferrara was animated by that superb pride of race that chafes at +rivalry; this, added to a wish to encourage art, and the lust of +possession which characterised the great men of that day. + +It was the middle of the Sixteenth Century that Ercole II, the head of +the d'Este family, revived at Ferrara the factory of his family which +had suffered from the wars. The master-weavers were brought from +Flanders, not only to produce tapestries almost unequalled for +technical perfection, but to instruct local weavers. These two +important weavers were Nicholas and John Karcher or Carcher as it is +sometimes spelled, names of great renown--for a weaver might be almost +as well known and as highly esteemed as the artist of the cartoons in +those days when artisan's labour had not been despised by even the +great Leonardo. The foremost artist of the Ferrara works was chosen +from that city, Battista Dosso, but also active as designer was the +Fleming, Lucas Cornelisz. In Dosso's work is seen that exquisite and +dainty touch that characterises the artists of Northern Italy in their +most perfect period, before voluptuous masses and heavy scroll-like +curves prevailed even in the drawing of the human figure. + + [Illustration: THE ANNUNCIATION + + Italian Tapestry. Fifteenth Century. Collection of Martin A. + Ryerson, Esq., Chicago] + +The House of Este had a part to play in the visit of the Emperor +Charles V when he elected to be crowned with Lombardy's Iron Crown, in +1530, at Bologna instead of in the cathedral at Monza where the relic +has its home. "Crowns run after me; I do not run after them," he +said, with the arrogance of success. At this reception at Bologna +we catch a glimpse of the brilliant Isabella d'Este amid all the +magnificence of the occasion. It takes very little imagination to +picture the effect of the public square at Bologna--the same buildings +that stand to-day--the square of the Palazzo Publico and the +Cathedral--to fancy these all hung with the immense woven pictures +with high lights of silk and gold glowing in the sun, and through this +magnificent scene the procession of mounted guards, of beautiful +ladies, of church dignitaries, with Charles V as the central object of +pomp, wearing as a clasp to the cope of state the great diamond found +on the field of Marat after the defeat of the Duke of Burgundy. The +members of the House of Este were there with their courts and their +protégés, their artists and their literati, as well as with their +display of riches and gaiety. + +The manufactory at Ferrara was now allowed to sell to the public, so +great was its success, and to it is owed the first impetus given to +the weaving in Italy and the production of some of the finest hangings +which time has left for us to enjoy to-day. It is a sad commentary on +man's lust of novelty that the factory at Ferrara was ultimately +abandoned by reason of the introduction into the country of the +brilliant metal-illuminated leathers of Cordova. The factory's life +was comprised within the space of the years 1534 to 1597, the years in +which lived Ercole II and Alfonso II, the two dukes of the House of +Este who established and continued it. + +It was but little wonder that the great family of the Medici looked +with envious eyes on any innovation or success which distinguished a +family which so nearly approached in importance its own. When Ercole +d'Este had fully proved the perfection of his new industry, the +weaving of tapestry, one of the Medici established for himself a +factory whereby he, too, might produce this form of art, not only for +the furtherance of the art, but to supply his own insatiable desires +for possession. + +The _Arazzeria Medicea_ was the direct result of the jealousy of +Cosimo I, Grand Duke of Tuscany, 1537-1574. It was established in +Florence with a success to be anticipated under such powerful +protection, and it endured until that patronage was removed by the +extinction of the family in 1737. + +It was to be expected that the artists employed were those of note, +yet in the general result, outside of delicate grotesques, the drawing +is more or less the far-away echo of greater masters whose faults are +reproduced, but whose inspiration is not obtainable. After Michael +Angelo, came a passion for over-delineation of over-developed muscles; +after Raphael--came the debased followers of his favourite pupil, +Giulio Romano, who had himself seized all there was of the carnal in +Raphael's genius. But if there is something to be desired in the +composition and line of the cartoons of the Florentine factory, there +is nothing lacking in the consummate skill of the weavers. + + [Illustration: ITALIAN TAPESTRY. MIDDLE OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY + + Cartoon by Bacchiacca. Woven by Nicholas Karcher] + + [Illustration: ITALIAN TAPESTRY. MIDDLE OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY + + Cartoon by Bacchiacca. Woven by G. Rost] + +The same Nicholas Karcher who set the standard in the d'Este works, +gave of his wonderful skill to the Florentines, and with him was +associated John Rost. These were both from Flanders, and although +trade regulations for tapestry workers did not exist in Italy, Duke +Cosimo granted each of these men a sufficient salary, a habitat, as +well as permission to work for outsiders, and in addition paid them +for all work executed for himself. + +The subjects for the set of tapestries had entirely left the old +method of pious interpretation and of mediæval allegory and revelled +in pictured tales of the Scriptures and of the gods and heroes of +mystical Parnassus and of bellicose Greece, not forgetting those +dainty exquisite impossibilities called grotesques. It was about the +time of the death of Cosimo I (1574), the founder of the Medicean +factory, that a new and unfortunate influence came into the +directorship of the designs. This was the appointment of Stradano or +Johan van der Straaten, to give his Flemish name, as dominating +artist. + +He was a man without fine artistic feeling, one of those whose eye +delighted in the exaggerations of decadence rather than in the +restraint of perfect art. He was inspired, not by past perfection of +the Italians among whom he came to live, but by those of the decline, +and on this he grafted a bit of Northern philistinism. His brush was +unfortunately prolific, and at this time the fine examples of weaving +set by Rost and Karcher had been replaced by quicker methods so that +after 1600 the tapestries poured out were lamentably inferior. +Florentine tapestry had at this time much pretence, much vulgar +display in its drawing, missing the fine virtues of the time when +Cosimo I dictated its taste, the fine virtues of "grace, gaiety and +reflectiveness." + +Leo X, the great Medicean pope, was elected in 1513, he who ordered +the great Raphael set of the _Acts of the Apostles_, but it was before +the establishment of important looms in Italy, so to Flanders and Van +Aelst are due the glory of first producing this series which afterward +was repeated many times, in the great looms of Europe. Leo X emulated +in the patronage of the arts his father Lorenzo, well-named +Magnificent. What Lorenzo did in Florence, Leo X endeavoured to do in +Rome; make of his time and of his city the highest expression of +culture. His record, however, is so mixed with the corruption of the +time that its golden glory is half-dimmed. It was from the +licentiousness of cardinals and the wanton revels of the Vatican in +Leo's time that young Luther the "barbarian" fled with horror to nail +up his theses on the doors of the churches in Wittenberg. + +The history of tapestry in Italy at the Seventeenth Century was all in +the hands of the great families. Italy was not united under a single +royal head, but was a heterogeneous mass of dukedoms, of foreign +invaders, with the popes as the head of all. But Italy had experienced +a time of papal corruption, which had, as its effect, wars of +disintegration, the retarding of that unity of state which has only +recently been accomplished. State patronage for the factories was not +known, that steady beneficent influence, changeless through changing +reigns. Popes and great families regulated art in all its +manifestations, and who shall say that envy and rivalry did not act +for its advancement. + + [Illustration: ITALIAN VERDURE. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY] + +The desire to imitate the cultivation and elegance of Italy was +what made returning invaders carry the Renaissance into the rest of +Europe; and in a lesser degree the process was reversed when, in the +Seventeenth Century, a cardinal of the House of Barberini visited +France and, on viewing in the royal residences a superb display of +tapestries, his envy and ambition were aroused to the extent of +emulation. He could not, with all his power, possess himself of the +hangings that he saw, but he could, and did, arrange to supply himself +generously from another source. He was the powerful Francesco +Barberini, the son of the pope's brother (Pope Urban VIII, 1623-1644), +and it was he who established the Barberini Library and built from the +ruins of Rome's amphitheatres and baths the great palace which to-day +still dominates the street winding up to its aristocratic elegance. It +was to adorn this palace that Cardinal Francesco established ateliers +and looms and set artists and weavers to work. This tapestry factory +is of especial interest to America, for some of its chief hangings +have come to rest with us. _The Mysteries of the Life and Death of +Jesus Christ_, one set is called, and is the property of the Cathedral +of St. John, the Divine, in New York, donated by Mrs. Clarke. + +Cardinal Francesco Barberini chose as his artists those of the school +of Pietro di Cortona with Giovanni Francesco Romanelli as the head +master. The director of the factory was Giacomo della Riviera allied +with M. Wauters, the Fleming.[13] The former was especially concerned +with the pieces now owned by the Cathedral of St. John, the Divine, +in New York, and which are signed with his name. Romanelli was the +artist of the cartoons, and his fame is almost too well known to dwell +upon. His portrait, in tapestry, hangs in the Louvre, for in Paris he +gained much fame at the Court of Louis XIV, where he painted portraits +of the Grand Monarch, who never wearied of seeing his own magnificence +fixed on canvas. + +It was the hard fate of the Barberini family to lose power and wealth +after the death of their powerful member, Pope Urban VIII, in 1644. +Their wealth and influence were the shining mark for the arrows of +envy, so it was to be expected that when the next pope, Innocent X, +was elected, they were robbed of riches and driven out of the country +into France. This ended for a time the work of the tapestry factory, +but later the family returned and work was resumed to the extent of +weaving a superb series picturing scenes especially connected with the +glory of the family, and entitled _History of Urban VIII_. + +Although Italy is growing daily in power and riches under her new +policy of political unity, there were dreary years of heavy expense +and light income for many of her famous families, and it was during +such an era that the Barberini family consented to let their +tapestries pass out from the doors of the palace they were woven to +decorate. In 1889, the late Charles M. Ffoulke, Esq., became the +possessor of all the Barberini hangings, and added them to his famous +collection. Thus through the enterprise and the fine artistic +appreciation of Mr. Ffoulke, is America able to enjoy the best +expression of Italian tapestry of the Seventeenth Century. + +The part that Venice ever played in the history of tapestry is the +splendid one of consumer. In her Oriental magnificence she exhibited +in palace and pageant the superb products of labour which others had +executed. Without tapestries her big stone palaces would have lacked +the note of soft luxury, without coloured hangings her balconies would +have been but dull settings for languid ladies, and her water-parades +would have missed the wondrous colour that the Venetian loves. Yet to +her rich market flowed the product of Europe in such exhaustless +stream that she became connoisseur-consumer only, nor felt the need of +serious producing. Workshops there were, from time to time, but they +were as easily abandoned as they were initiated, and they have left +little either to history or to museums. Venice was, in the Sixteenth +Century, not only a buyer of tapestries for her own use, but one of +the largest markets for the sale of hangings to all Europe. Men and +monarchs from all Christendom went there to purchase. The same may be +said of Genoa, so that although these two cities had occasional +unimportant looms, their position was that of middleman--vendors of +the works of others. In addition to this they were repairers and had +ateliers for restoring, even in those days. + + +FOOTNOTE: + +[13] E. Müntz, "La Tapisserie." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +FRANCE + +WORKING UP TO GOBELINS FACTORY + + +In following the great sweep of tapestry production we arrive now in +France, there to stay until the Revolution. The early beginnings were +there, briefly rivalling Arras, but Arras, as we have seen, caught up +the industry with greater zeal and became the ever-famous leader of +the Fifteenth Century, ceding to Brussels in the Sixteenth Century, +whence the high point of perfection was carried to Paris and caused +the establishment of the Gobelins. The English development under James +I, we defer for a later considering. + +Francis I stands, an over-dressed, ever ambitious figure, at the +beginning of things modern in French art. He still smacks of the +Middle Ages in many a custom, many a habit of thought; his men clank +in armour, in his châteaux lurk the suggestion of the fortress, and +his common people are sunk in a dark and hopeless oppression. Yet he +himself darts about Europe with a springing gait and an elegant +manner, the type of the strong aristocrat dispensing alike arts of war +and arts of the Renaissance. + +Was it his visits, bellicose though they were, to Italy and Spain, +that turned his observant eye to the luxury of woven story and made +him desire that France should produce the same? The Sforza Castle at +Milan had walls enough of tapestry, the pageants of Leonardo da +Vinci, organised at royal command of the lovely Beatrice d'Este, +displayed the wealth of woven beauty over which Francis had time to +deliberate in those bad hours after the battle at Milan's noted +neighbour, Pavia. + + [Illustration: THE FINDING OF MOSES + + Gobelins, Seventeenth Century. Cartoon after Poussin. The Louvre + Museum] + + [Illustration: TRIUMPH OF JUNO + + Gobelins under Louis XIV.] + +The attention of Francis was also turned much to Spain through envy of +that extraordinary man of luck and ability, the Emperor Charles V, and +from whom he made abortive and sullen efforts to wrest Germany, Italy, +anything he could get. In his imprisonment in Madrid, Francis had time +in plenty on which to think of many things, and why not on the +wonderful tapestries of which Spain has always had a collection to +make envious the rest of Europe. He might forget his two poor little +boys who were left as hostages on his release, but he forgot not +whatever contributes to the pleasure of life. That peculiarity was one +which was yielding luscious fruit, however, for Francis was the bearer +of the torch of the Renaissance which was to illumine France with the +same fire that flashed and glowed over Italy. This is a fact to +remember in regard to the class of designs of his own and succeeding +periods in France. + +How he got his ideas we can reasonably trace, and the result of them +was that he established a royal tapestry factory in beautiful +Fontainebleau, which lies hid in grateful shade, stretching to +flowered fields but a reasonable distance from the distractions of +Paris. + +It pleased Francis--and perhaps the beautiful Diane de Poitiers and +Duchesse d'Étampes--to critique plays in that tiny gem of a theatre at +the palace, or to feed the carp in the pool; but also it gave him +pleasure to wander into the rooms where the high-warp looms lifted +their utilitarian lengths and artists played at magic with the wools. + +Alas, one cannot dress this patronage of art with too much of +disinterestedness, for these marvellous weavings were for the +adornment of the apartments of the very persons who caused their +productions. + +The grand idea of state ateliers had not yet come to bless the +industry. For this reason the factory at Fontainebleau outlasted the +reign of its founder, Francis I, but a short time. + +Nevertheless, examples of its works are still to be seen and are of +great beauty, notably those at the Museum of the Gobelins in Paris. +That a series called the _History of Diana_ was produced is but +natural, considering the puissance at court of the famous Diane de +Poitiers. + +When Francis' son, Henri II, enfeebled in constitution by the Spanish +confinement, inherited the throne, it was but natural that he should +neglect the indulgences of his father and prefer those of his own. The +Fontainebleau factory strung its looms and copied its cartoons and +produced, too, certain hangings for Henri's wife, the terrible +Catherine de Medici, on which her vicious eyes rested in forming her +horrid plots; but Henri had ambitions of his own, small ambitions +beside those which had to do with jealousy of Charles Quint. He let +the factory of Francis I languish, but carried on the art under his +own name and fame. + +To give his infant industry a home he looked about Paris and decided +upon the Hôpital de la Trinité, an institution where asylum was found +for the orphans of the city who seem, in the light of the general +brutality of the time, to have been even in more need of a home than +the parentless child of modern civilisation. A part of the scheme was +to employ in the works such children as were sufficiently mature and +clever to work and to learn at least the auxiliary details of a craft +that is also an art. + +In this way the sixty or so of the orphans of La Trinité were given a +means of earning a livelihood. Among them was one whose name became +renowned. This was Maurice du Bourg, whose tapestries surpassed all +others of his time in this factory--an important factory, as being one +of the group that later was merged into the Gobelins. + +It must be remembered in identifying French tapestries of this kind +that things Gothic had been vanquished by the new fashion of things +Renaissance, and that all models were Italian. Giulio Romano and his +school of followers were the mode in France, not only in drawing, but +in the revival of classic subject. This condition in the art world +found expression in a set of tapestries from the factory of La Trinité +that are sufficiently celebrated to be set down in the memory with an +underscoring. This set was composed of fifteen pieces illustrating in +sweeping design and gorgeous colouring the _History of Mausolus and +Artemisia_. Intense local and personal interest was given to the set +by making an open secret of the fact that by Artemisia, the Queen of +Halicarnassus, was meant the widowed Queen of France, Catherine de +Medici, who adored posing as the most famous of widows and adding +ancient glory to her living importance. To this _History_ French +writers accord the important place of inspirer of a distinctively +French Renaissance. + +The weaver being Maurice du Bourg, the chief of the factory of La +Trinité, the artists were Henri Lerambert and Antoine Carron, but the +set has been many times copied in various factories, and Artemisia has +symbolised in turn two other widowed queens of France. + +Into the throne of France climbed wearily a feeble youth always under +the influence of his mother, Catherine de Medici; and then it was +filled by two other incapable and final Orleans monarchs, until at +last by virtue of inheritance and sword, it became the seat of that +grand and faulty Henri IV, King of Navarre. By fighting he got his +place, and the habit being strong upon him, he was in eternal +conflict. Some there be who are developed by sympathy, but Henri IV +was developed by opposition, and thus it was that although opposed in +the matter by his Prime Minister, Sully, he established factories for +the weaving of tapestries in both high and low warps. + +With the desire to see the arts of peace instead of evidences of war +throughout his kingdom just rescued from conflict, he took all means +to set his people in the ways of pleasing industry. The indefatigable +Sully was plucking the royal sleeve to follow the path of the plough, +to see man's salvation, material and moral, in the ways of +agriculture. But Henri favoured townspeople as well as country +people, and with the Edict of Nantes, releasing from the bondage of +terror a large number of workers, he showed much industry in +encouraging tapestry factories in and near Paris, and as these all +lead to Gobelins we will consider them. + + [Illustration: TRIUMPH OF THE GODS (DETAIL) + + Gobelins, Seventeenth Century] + + [Illustration: TRIUMPH OF THE GODS (DETAIL) + + Gobelins Tapestry] + +Henri IV, notwithstanding his Prime Minister Sully's opposition to +what he considered a favouring of vicious luxury, began to occupy +himself in tapestry factories as early in his reign as his people +could rise from the wounds of war. Taking his movements +chronologically we will begin with his establishment in 1597 (eight +years after this first Bourbon took the throne) of a high-warp +industry in the house of the Jesuits in the Faubourg St. Antoine, +associating here Du Bourg of La Trinité and Laurent, equally renowned, +and the composer of the St. Merri tapestries.[14] + +Flemish workers in Paris were at this same time, about 1601, +encouraged by the king and under protection of his steward. These +Flemings were the nucleus of a great industry, for it was over them +that two famous masters governed, namely, François de la Planche and +Marc Comans or Coomans. In 1607 Henri IV established the looms which +these men were called upon to direct. + +These two Flemings, great in their art, were men of family and of some +means, for their first venture in the manufacture of tapestry was a +private enterprise like any of to-day. They looked to themselves to +produce the money for the support of the industry. Combining +qualities of both the artist and the business man, they took on +apprentices and also established looms in the provinces (notably Tours +and Amiens) where commercialism was as prominent as in modern methods; +that is to say, that by turning off a lot of cheaper work for smaller +purses, a quick and ready market was found which supplied the money +necessary for the production of those finer works of art which are +left to delight us to-day. + +This manner of procedure of De la Planche and Comans has an interest +far deeper than the mere financial venture of the men of the early +Seventeenth Century, because it forces upon us the fact that at that +time, and earlier, no state ateliers existed. It was Henri IV who +first saw the wisdom of using the public purse in advancing this +industry. He established Du Bourg in the Louvre. With Henri Laurent he +was placed in the Tuileries, in 1607, and that atelier lasted until +the ministry of Colbert in the reign of Louis XIV. + +In about 1627 the great De la Planche died and his son, Raphael, +established ateliers of his own in the Faubourg St. Germain, turning +out from his looms productions which were of sufficient excellence to +be confused with those of his father's most profitable factory. +Chronologically this fact belongs later, so we return to the influence +of Henri IV and the master gentleman tapissiers, De la Planche and +Comans. + +The very name of the old palace, Les Tournelles, calls up a crowd of +pictures: the death of Henri II at the tournament in honour of the +marriage of his son with Marie Stuart, the subsequent razing of this +ancient home of kings by Catherine de Medici, and its reconstruction +in its present form by Henri IV. It is here that Richelieu honoured +the brief reign of Louis XIII by a statue, and it is here that Madame +de Sevigné was born. But more to our purpose, it was here that, in +1607, Henri IV cast his kingly eye when establishing a certain +tapestry factory. It was here he placed as directors the celebrated +Comans and De la Planche. It happened in time, that the looms of Les +Tournelles were moved to the Faubourg St. Marceau and these two men +came in time to direct these and all other looms under royal +patronage. + +Examples are not wanting in museums of French work of this time, +showing the development of the art and the progress that France was +making under Henri IV, whose energy without limit, and whose interests +without number, would to-day have given him the epithet of strenuous. + +Under his reign we see the activity that so easily led France up to +the point where all that was needed was the assembling of the +factories under the direction of one great master. The factories +flourishing under Henri IV were La Trinité, the Louvre, the +Savonnerie, the Faubourg St. Marceau and one in the Tuileries. But it +needed the power of Louis XIV to tie all together in the strength of +unity. + +The assassin Ravaillac, fanatically muttering through the streets of +Paris, alternately hiding and swaggering throughout the loveliest +month of May, when he thrust his murderous dagger through the royal +coach, not only gave a death blow to Henri IV, but to many of these +industries that the king had cherished for his people against the +opposition of his prime minister. The tale of tapestry is like a vine +hanging on a frame of history, and frequent allusion therefore must be +made to the tales of kings and their ministers. + +As it is not always a monarch, but often the power behind the throne +that rules, we see the force of Richelieu surging behind the reign of +the suppressed Louis XIII, whose rule followed that of the regretted +Henri IV. The master of the then new Palais-Royal had minor interests +of his own, apart from his generous plots of ruin for the Protestants, +for all the French nobility, and for the House of Austria to which the +queen belonged. Luxurious surroundings were a necessity to this man, +refined in the arts of cruelty and of living. It was no wonder that +under him tapestry weaving was not allowed to die, but was fostered +until that day when the Grand Monarch would organise and perfect. + +In 1643, Louis XIV came to the throne under the guidance of Anne of +Austria, but it was many years before he was able to make his +influence appreciable. Meanwhile, however, others were fostering the +elegant industry. It was as early as 1647 that two celebrated tapestry +weavers came to Paris from Italy. They were Pierre Lefèvre or Lefebvre +and his son Jean. The first of these was the chief of a factory in +Florence, whither he presently returned. Jean Lefebvre stayed in +Paris, won his way all the better for being released from parental +rule, and in time received the great honour of being appointed one +of the directors of the Gobelins, when that factory was finally +organised as an institution of the state. + + [Illustration: GOBELINS BORDER (DETAIL) SEVENTEENTH CENTURY] + + [Illustration: CHILDREN GARDENING + + After Charles Lebrun. Gobelins, Seventeenth Century. Château Henri + Quatre, Pau] + +During the regency of Louis XIV there were also factories outside of +Paris. The high-warp looms of Tours were of such notable importance +that the great Richelieu placed here an order for tapestries of great +splendour with which to soften his hours of ease. Rheims Cathedral +still harbours the fine hangings which were woven for the place they +now adorn, an unusual circumstance in the world of tapestry. These +hangings (_The Story of Christ_) were woven at Rheims, where the +factory existed well known throughout the first half of the +Seventeenth Century. The church had previously ordered tapestries from +another town executed by one Daniel Pepersack, and so highly approved +was his work that he was made director of the Rheims factory.[15] + +A factory which lasted but a few years, yet has for us a special +interest, is that of Maincy, founded in 1658. It is here that we hear +of the great Colbert and of Lebrun, whose names are synonymous with +prosperity of the Gobelins. For the factory at Maincy, Lebrun made +cartoons of great beauty, notably that of _The Hunt of Meleager_, +which now hangs in the Gobelins Museum in Paris. Louis Blamard was the +director of the workmen, who were Flemish, and who were afterwards +called to Paris to operate the looms of the newly-formed Gobelins, and +the reason of the transference forms a part of the history of the +great people of that day. + +Richelieu in dying had passed over his power to Mazarin, who had used +it with every cruelty possible to the day. He had coveted riches and +elegance and had possessed himself of them; had collected in his +palace the most beautiful works of art of his day or those of a +previous time. After Mazarin came Foucquet, the great, the +iconoclastic, the unfortunate. + +It was at Foucquet's estate of Vaux near Maincy that this tapestry +factory of short duration was established and soon destroyed. The +powerful Superintendent of Finance, with his eye for the beautiful and +desire for the luxury of kings, built for himself such a château as +only the magnificence of that time produced. It was situated far +enough from Paris to escape any sort of ennui, and was surrounded by +gardens most marvellous, within a beauteous park. It lay, when +finished, like a jewel on the fair bosom of France. The great +superintendent conceived the idea of pleasing the young king, Louis +XIV, by inviting the court for a wondrous fête in its lovely +enclosure. + +Foucquet was a man of the world, and of the court, knew how to please +man's lighter side, and how to use social position for his own ends. +France calls him a "dilapidateur," but when his power and incidentally +the revenues of state, were laid out to produce a day of pleasure for +king and court, his taste and ability showed such a fête as could +scarce be surpassed even in those days of artistic fêtes champêtres. + +The great gardens were brought into use in all the beauty of flower +and vine, of lawn and bosquet, of terrace and fountain. When the +guests arrived, weary of town life, they were turned loose in the +enchanting place like birds uncaged, and to the beauty of Nature was +added that of folk as gaily dressed as the flowers. The king was +invited to inspect it all for his pleasure, asked to feast in the +gardens, and to repose in the splendid château. + +He was young then, in the early twenties, and luxury was younger then +than now, so he was pleased to spend the time in almost childish +enjoyments. A play _al fresco_ was almost a necessity to a royal +garden party, which was no affair of an hour like ours in the busy +to-day, but extended the livelong day and evening. Molière was ready +with his sparkling satires at the king's caprice, and into the garden +danced the players before an audience to whom vaudeville and _café +chantant_ were exclusively a royal novelty arranged for their +delectation. + +It is easy to see the elegant young king and his court in the setting +of a sophisticated out-of-doors, wandering on grassy paths, lingering +under arches of roses, plucking a flower to nest beside a smiling +face, stopping where servants--obsequious adepts, they were +then--supplied dainty things to eat and drink. Madame de Sevigné was +there, she of the observant eye, an eye much occupied at this time +with the figure of Superintendent Foucquet, the host of this glorious +occasion. This gracious lady lacked none of the appearance of +frivolity, coiffed in curls, draped in lace and soft silks, but her +mind was deeply occupied with the signs of the times. All the elegance +of the château, all the seductive beauty of terrace, garden, and +bosquet, all the piquant surprises of play and pyrotechnics, what were +they? Simply the disinterested effort of a subject to give pleasure +to His Majesty, the King. + +There were those present who had long envied Foucquet, with his +ever-increasing power and wealth, his ability to patronise the arts, +to collect, and even to establish his tapestry looms like a king, for +his own palace and for gifts. This grand fête in the lovely month of +June did more than shower pleasure, more than gratify the lust of the +eye. In effect, it was a gathering of exquisite beauties and charming +men, lost in light-hearted play; in reality, it proved to be an +incitive to envy and malice, and a means to ruin. + +Among the observant guests at this wondrous fête champêtre was +Colbert, young, ambitious, keen. He was not slow to see the holes in +Foucquet's fabric, nor were others. And so, whispers came to the king. +Foucquet's downfall is the old story of envy, man trying to climb by +ruining his superiors, hating those whose magnificence approaches +their own. Foucquet's unequalled entertainment of the king was made to +count as naught. Louis, even before leaving for Paris, had begun to +ask whence came the money that purchased this wide fertile estate +stretching to the vision's limit, the money that built the château of +regal splendour, the money that paid for the prodigal pleasures of +that day of delights? Foucquet thought to have gained the confidence +and admiration of the king. But, on leaving, Louis said coldly, "We +shall scarce dare ask you to our poor palace, seeing the superior +luxury to which you are accustomed." A fearful cut, but only a straw +to the fate which followed, the investigations into the affairs of +Superintendent Foucquet. His arrest and his conviction followed and +then the eighteen dreary years of imprisonment terminating only with +the superintendent's life. Madame de Sevigné saw him in the beginning, +wept for her hero, but after a while she, too, fell away from his +weary years. + + [Illustration: CHILDREN GARDENING + + After Charles Lebrun. Gobelins, Seventeenth Century. Château Henri + Quatre, Pau] + + [Illustration: GOBELINS GROTESQUE + + Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris] + +With his arrest came the end of the glories of the Château of Vaux +near Maincy, and so, too, came an end to the factory where so fine +results had been obtained in tapestry weaving. Yet the effort was not +in vain, for some of the tapestries remain and the factory was the +school where certain celebrated men were trained. + +It may easily have been that Louis XIV discovered on that day at Vaux +the excellence of Lebrun whom he made director at the Gobelins in +Paris when they were but newly formed. Foucquet, wasting in prison, +had many hours in which to think on this and on the advancement of the +very man who had been keenest in running him to cover, the great +Colbert. It was well for France, it was well for the artistic industry +whose history occupies our attention, that these things happened; but +we, nevertheless, feel a weakness towards the man of genius and energy +caged and fretted by prison bars, for he had shown initiative and +daring, qualities of which the world has ever need. + +Foucquet's factory lasted three years. It was directed by Louis +Blamard or Blammaert of Oudenarde, and employed a weaver named Jean +Zègre, who came from the works at Enghien, works sufficiently known to +be remarked. Lebrun composed here and fell under the influence of +Rubens, an influence that pervaded the grandiose art of the day. The +earliest works of Lebrun, three pieces, were later used to complete a +set of Rubens' _History of Constantine_. _The Muses_ was a set by +Lebrun, also composed for the Château of Vaux. The charm of this set +is a matter for admiration even now when, alas, all is destroyed but a +few fragments. + +The disgrace of Foucquet was the last determining cause of the +establishment of the Gobelins factory under Louis XIV, an act which +after this brief review of Paris factories (and an allusion to +sporadic cases outside of Paris) we are in position at last to +consider. Pursuit of knowledge in regard to the Gobelins factory leads +us through ways the most flowery and ways the most stormy, through +sunshine and through the dark, right up to our own times. + + [Illustration: GOBELINS TAPESTRY, AFTER LEBRUN, EPOCH LOUIS XIV + + Collection of Wm. Baumgarten, Esq., New York] + + [Illustration: THE VILLAGE FÊTE + + Gobelins Tapestry after Teniers] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[14] For the facts here cited see E. Müntz, "Histoire de la +Tapisserie," and Jules Guiffrey, "Les Gobelins." + +[15] See Loriquet, "Les Tapisseries de Notre Dame de Rheims." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE GOBELINS FACTORY, 1662 + + +Colbert saw the wisdom of taking direction for the king, Louis XIV, of +the looms of Foucquet's château. Travel being difficult enough to make +desirable the concentration of points of interest, Colbert transferred +the looms of Vaux to Paris. To do this he had first to find a habitat, +and what so suitable as the Hotel des Gobelins, a collection of +buildings on the edge of Paris by which ran a little brook called the +Bièvre. The Sieur Leleu was then the owner, and the sale of the +buildings was made on June 6, 1662. + +This was the beginning only of the purchase, for Louis XIV added +adjoining houses for the various uses of the large industries he had +in mind, for the development of arts and crafts of all sorts, and for +the lodging of the workers. + +The story of the original occupants of the premises is almost too well +known to recount. The simple tale of the conscientious "dyers in +scarlet" is told on the marble plaque at the present entry into the +collection of buildings still standing, still open to visitors. It is +a tale with a moral, an obvious simple moral with no need of Alice's +Duchess to point it out, and it smacks strong of the honesty of a +labour to which we owe so much. + +Late in the Fifteenth Century the brothers Gobelin came to the city +of Paris to follow their trade, which was dyeing, and their ambition, +which was to produce a scarlet dye like that they had seen flaunting +in the glowing city of Venice. The trick of the trade in those days +was to find a water of such quality that dyes took to it kindly. The +tiny river, or rather brook, called the Bièvre, which ran softly down +towards the Seine had the required qualities, and by its murmuring +descent, Jean and Philibert pitched the tents of their fortune. + +They succeeded, too, so well that we hear of their descendants in +later centuries as having become gentlemen, not of property only, but +of cultivation, and far removed from trades or bartering. Their name +is ever famous, for it tells not only the story of the two original +dyers, but of their subsequent efforts in weaving, and finally it has +come to mean the finest modern product of the hand loom. Just as Arras +gave the name to tapestry in the Fourteenth Century, so the Gobelins +has given it to the time of Louis XIV, even down to our own day--more +especially in Europe, where the word tapestry is far less used than +here. + +The tablet now at the Gobelins--let us re-read it, for in some hasty +visit to the Latin Quarter we may have overlooked it. Translated +freely it reads, "Jean and Philibert Gobelin, merchant dyers in +scarlet, who have left their name to this quarter of Paris and to the +manufacture of tapestries, had here their atelier, on the banks of the +Bièvre, at the end of the Fifteenth Century." + +Another inscription takes a great leap in time, skips over the +centuries when France was not in the lead in this art, and +recommences with the awakening strength under the wise care of Henri +IV. It reads: + +"April 1601. Marc Comans and François de la Planche, Flemish tapestry +weavers, installed their ateliers on the banks of the Bièvre." + +"September 1667, Colbert established in the buildings of the Gobelins +the manufacture of the furniture (_meubles_) of the Crown, under the +direction of Charles Lebrun." + +The tablet omits the date that is fixed in our mind as that of the +beginning of the modern tapestry industry in France, the year 1662, +but that is only because it deals with a date of more general +importance, the time when the Gobelins was made a manufactory of all +sorts of gracious products for the luxury of palaces and châteaux, not +tapestries alone, but superb furniture, and metal work, inlay, +mounting of porcelains and all that goes to furnish the home of +fortunate men. + +In that year of 1667 was instituted the ateliers supported by the +state, not dependent upon the commercialism of the workers. This made +possible the development of such men as Boulle with his superb +furniture, of Riesner with his marquetry, of Caffieri with his marvels +in metal to decorate all _meubles_, even vases, which were then coming +from China in their beauty of solid glaze or eccentric ornament. + +Here lies the great secret of the success of Louis XIV in these +matters, with the coffers of the Crown he rewarded the artists above +the necessity of mere living, and freed each one for the best +expression of his own especial art. The day of individual financial +venture was gone. The tapestry masters of other times had both to work +and to worry. They had to be artists and at the same time commercial +men, a chimerical combination. + +The expense of maintaining a tapestry factory was an incalculable +burden. A man could not set up a loom, a single one, as an artist sets +up an easel, and in solitude produce his woven work of art. Other +matters go to the making of a tapestry than weaving, matters which +have to do with cartoons for the design, dyes, wools, threads, etc.; +so that many hands must be employed, and these must all be paid. The +apprentice system helped much, but even so, the master of the atelier +was responsible for his finances and must look for a market for his +goods. + +What a relief it was when the king took all this responsibility from +the shoulders and said to the artists and artisans, "Art for Art's +sake," or whatever was the equivalent shibboleth of that day. Here was +comfort assured for the worker, with a housing in the Gobelins, or in +that big asylum, the Louvre, where an apartment was the reward of +virtue. And now was a market assured for a man's work, a royal market, +with the king as its chief, and his favourites following close. + +The ateliers scattered about Paris were allied in spirit, were all the +result of the encouragement of preceding monarchs, but it remained for +Le Grand Monarque to gather all together and form a state solidarity. + +Kings must have credit, even though others do the work. It was the +labour of the able Colbert to organise this factory. He was in favour +then. It was after his acuteness had helped in deposing the splendid +brigand Foucquet, and his power was serving France well, so well that +he brought about his head the inevitable jealousy which finally threw +him, too, into unmerited disgrace. + +Colbert, then, although a Minister of State, head of the Army of +France, and a few other things, had the fate of the Gobelins in his +hand. As the ablest is he who chooses best his aids, Colbert looked +among his countrymen for the proper director of the newly-organised +institution. He selected Charles Lebrun. + +The very name seems enough, in itself. It is the concrete expression +of ability, not only as an artist, but as a leader of artists, a +director, an assembler, a blender. He called to the Gobelins, as +addition to those already there, the apprentices from La Trinité, the +weavers from the Faubourg St. Germain, and from the Louvre. He +established three ateliers of high-warp under Jean Jans, Jean Lefebvre +and Henri Laurent; also two ateliers of low-warp under Jean Delacroix +and Jean-Baptiste Mozin. When charged with the decoration of +Versailles he had under his direction fifty artists of differing +scopes, which alone would show his power of assembling and leading, of +blending and ordering. Workers at the Gobelins numbered as many as two +hundred fifty, and apprentices were legion. + +Ten or twelve important artists composed the designs for tapestries, +yet the mind of Lebrun is seen to dominate all; his genius was their +inspiration. It was he whose influence pervaded the decorative art of +the day. More than any others in that grand age he influenced the +tone of the artistic work. We may say it was the king, we may have +styles named for the king, but it was Lebrun who made them what they +were. The spirit of the time was there, monarch and man made that, but +it was Lebrun who had the talent to express it in art. It was a time +when France was fully awake, more fully awake than Italy who had, in +fact, commenced the somnolence of her art; she was strong with that +brutal force that is recently up from savagery, and she took her +grandeur seriously. + +At least that was the attitude of the king. No lightness, no +effervescing cynical humour ever disturbed the heavy splendour of his +pose. And this grand pose of the king, Lebrun expressed in the heavy +sumptuousness of decoration. The tapestries of that time show the mood +of the day in subject, in border and in colour. All is superb, +grandiose. + +Rubens, although not of France, dominated Europe with his magnificence +of style, a style suited to the time, expressing force rather than +refinement, yet with a splendid decorative value in the art we are +considering. Flanders looked to him for inspiration, and his lead was +everywhere followed. His virile work had power to inspire, to transmit +enthusiasm to others, and thus he was responsible for much of the +improvement in decorative art, the re-establishment of that art upon +an intellectual basis. Designs from his hands were full, splendid and +self-assertive; harmony and proportion were there. A study of the +_Antony and Cleopatra_ series and of the plates given in this volume +will establish and verify this. + + [Illustration: DESIGN BY RUBENS] + + [Illustration: DESIGN BY RUBENS] + +Lebrun's century was the same as that of Rubens, but the former had +the fine feeling for art of the Latin, who knows that its first +province is to please. A comparison between the two men must not be +carried too far, for Rubens was essentially a painter, attacking the +field of decoration only with the overflow of imagination, while +Lebrun's life and talent were wholly directed in the way of +beautifying palaces and châteaux. Yet Rubens' work gave a fresh +impulse to tapestry weaving in Brussels while Lebrun was inspiring it +in France. + +Lebrun had, then, to direct the talent and the labour of an army of +artists and artisans, and to keep them working in harmony. It was no +mean task, for one artist alone was not left to compose an entire +picture, but each was taken for his specialty. One artist drew the +figures, another the animals, another the trees, and another the +architecture; but it was the director, Lebrun, who composed and +harmonised the whole. Thus, although the number of tapestries actually +composed by him is few, it was his great mind that ordered the work of +others. He was the leader of the orchestra, the others were the +instruments he controlled. + +It was while at Vaux that Lebrun had more time for his own +composition. He there produced a series called _Les Renommés_, +masterpieces of pure decorative composition. These were designed as +portières for the Château of Maincy. They came to be models for the +Gobelins, and were woven to hang at royal doors, the doors of Foucquet +being at this time dressed with iron bars. + +The Gobelins wove seventy-two sets after this beautiful model which +had made Lebrun's début as an artist. Foucquet had given him a more +pretentious work; it was to complete a suite, the _History of +Constantine_, after Raphael. Rubens had given a fresh flush of +popularity to this subject, which again became the mode. The _History +of Meleager_ was begun at Vaux and finished at the Gobelins. Later, +Vaux forgotten, or at least a thing of the past, Lebrun's decorative +genius found expression in the series called _The Months_ or _The +Royal Residences_, of which there were twelve hangings. + +In these last the scheme is the perfection of decoration, with the +subject well subdued, yet so subtly placed that notwithstanding its +modesty, the eye promptly seeks it. The castle in the distance, the +motive holding aloft the sign of the Zodiac, are seen even before the +splendid columns and the foliage of the middle-ground. + +Such a hanging has power to play pretty tricks with the imagination of +him who gazes upon it. The columns, smooth and solid, declare him at +once to be in a place of luxury. Beyond the foreground's columns, but +near enough for touching, are trees to make a pleasant shade, and +beyond, in the far distance, is the château set in fair gardens, even +the château where the lovely Louise de la Vallière held her court +until conscience drove her to the convent. + +The set of most renown, woven under Lebrun's generalship, was that +splendid advertisement of the king's magnificence known as the +_History of the King_. Louis demanded above all else that he should +appear splendidly before men. He was jealous of the magnificence of +all kings and emperors, whether living or dead. Even Solomon's +glory was not to typify greater than his. With this end in view, pomp +was his pleasure, ceremony was his gratification. Add to these an +insatiable vanity that knows not the disintegrating assaults of a +sense of humour, and we have a man to be fed on profound adulation. + + [Illustration: DESIGN BY RUBENS] + + [Illustration: GOBELINS TAPESTRY. DESIGN BY RUBENS + + Royal Collection, Madrid] + +The subjects for the _History of the King_ were chosen from official +solemnities during the first twelve years of his reign. Lebrun's task, +into which he threw his whole soul, was to celebrate the power and the +glory of his master, to show the king in perpetual picture as the +greatest living personage, and to still his fears with regard to long +defunct royal rivals. His life as a man was pictured, his marriage, +his treaties with other nations, and his actions as a soldier in the +various battles or military conquests. In the latter affairs he had +not even been present, but poet's license was given where the +glorification of the king was concerned. The flattery that surrounds a +king thus gave him reason to think that his persecutions in the +Palatinate and his constant warfare were greatly to his glory. + +It is the tapestry in this set that is called _Visit of Louis XIV to +the Gobelins_ that interests us strongly, as being delightfully +pertinent to our subject. The picture shows the king in chary +indulgence standing just within the court of the Royal Factory, while +eager masters of arts and crafts strenuously heap before him their +masterpieces. (Plate facing page 114.) + +The borders of these sumptuous hangings are to be enjoyed when the +original set can be seen, for the borders are Lebrun's special care. +The three pieces added late in the reign are drawn with different +borders, and no stronger example of deteriorating change can be given, +the change in the composition of the border which took place after the +passing of Lebrun. The pieces in the set of the _Life of the King_ +numbered forty; with the addition of the later ones, forty-three. They +were repeated many times in the succeeding years, but on low-warp, +reduced in size, and without the superb decorative border which was +composed by Lebrun's own hand for the original series. + +François de la Meulen was Lebrun's able coadjutor in the direction of +this famous set. Eight artists accustomed to the work were charged +with the cartoons, but Lebrun headed it all. It is interesting to note +that the temptation to sport in the fields of pure decoration, led him +into the personal composition of the border. These borders are the +very acme of perfection in decoration, full of strength, of grace, and +of purity. They suggest the classic, yet are full of the warm blood of +the hour; they are Greek, yet they are French, and they foreshadow the +centuries of beautiful design which France supplies to the world. + +The colouring of these tapestries seems to us strong, but it is not a +strength of tone that offends, rather it adds force to the subject. The +charge is made that in this suite the deplorable change had taken place +which lifted tapestries from their original intent and made of them +paintings in wool. That change certainly did come later, as we shall +see and deplore, but at present the colours kept comparatively low +in number. The proof of this was that only seventy-nine tones were +discoverable when the Gobelins factory in recent years examined this +hanging for the purposes of reproducing it. + + [Illustration: LOUIS XIV VISITING THE GOBELINS FACTORY + + Gobelins Tapestry, Epoch Louis XIV] + +Lebrun's task in this series seems to us far more simple in point of +picturesqueness than it did to him, for the affairs of the time were +those depicted. They were the events of the moment, and the personages +taking part in them were given in recognisable portraiture. Figure a +tapestry of to-day depicting the laying of a cornerstone by our +National President, every one in modern dress, every face a portrait, +and Lebrun's task appears in a new light. Yet he was able to +accomplish it in a way which gratified the overfed vanity of Louis and +which more than gratifies the art lover of to-day. + +The set called the _History of Alexander_ is one of Lebrun's famous +works. In subject it departs from the affairs of the time of the Sun +King, to portray the Greek Conqueror, to whom Louis liked to be +compared. For us the classic dress is less piquant than the gorgeous +toilettes of France in the Seventeenth Century, and the battle of the +Granicus is less engaging than scenes from the life of Louis XIV. But +this is a famous set, and paintings of the same may be found in the +Louvre. + +Originally the tapestries were but five, but the larger ones having +been divided into three each, the number is increased. The Gobelins +factory wove several sets, and, the model becoming popular, it was +copied many times in Brussels and elsewhere, often with distressing +alterations in drawing, in border, and in colour. + +There were other suites produced at the Gobelins at this wonderful +time of co-operation between Colbert, the minister, and Lebrun, the +artist. Colbert, in his wisdom of state economy, had repaired the +ravages of the previous ministry, and had the coffers full for the +government's necessities and the king's indulgences. Well for the +liberal arts, that he counted these among the matters to be fostered +in this wonderful time, which rises like a mountain ridge between +feudal savagery and modern civilisation. + +But Colbert, powerful as was his position, had yet to suffer by reason +of the despotism of the absolute monarch who ruled every one within +borders of bleeding France. Louis began, before youth had left him, +the terrible persecution of the people in the name of religion, and +established also an indulgent left-hand court. The prodigious +expenditures for these were bound to be liquidated by Colbert. +Faithful to his master, he produced the money. + +The charm of royalty surrounded Louis, he was idealised by a people +proud of his position as the most magnificent monarch of Europe; but +Colbert was denounced as a tax collector and a persecutor, yet +suffered in silence, if he might protect his king. Before he died, +Louvois had undermined his credit even with the king, and his funeral +at night, to avoid a mob, was a pathetic fact. France has now +reinstated him, say modern men--but that is the irony of fate. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE GOBELINS FACTORY (_Continued_) + + +Colbert died most inopportunely in 1684 and was succeeded by his +enemy, and for that matter, the enemy of France, the man of jealousy +and cruelty, Louvois. He had long hated Colbert for his success, +counting as an affront to himself Colbert's marvellous establishment +of a navy which he felt rivalled in importance the army, over which +the direction was his own. + +On finding Colbert's baton in his hand, it was but human to strike +with it as much as to direct, and one of his blows fell upon the head +of the Gobelins, Lebrun. Thus history is woven into tapestry. Lebrun +was not at once deposed; first his magnificent wings were clipped, so +that his flights into artistic originality were curtailed. This petty +persecution had a benumbing effect. New models were not encouraged. +Strangely enough, the scenes that glorified the king were no longer +reproduced, nor those of antique kings like Alexander, whose greatness +Louis was supposed to rival. + +It is not possible to tell the story of tapestry without telling the +story of the times, for the lesser acts are but the result of the +greater. There are matters in the life of Louis XIV that are +inseparable from our account. These are the associating of his life +with that of the three women whom he exalted far higher than his +queen, Marie Thérèse, the well-known, much-vaunted mesdames, de la +Vallière, de Montespan and de Maintenon. + +Even before the death of Colbert, Louvois, with his army, had +encouraged the religious persecutions and wars of the king, and +shortly after, the widow of the poet Scarron became the royal spouse. +Relentless, indeed, were the persecutions then. It was in the same +year of the marriage that Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes, through +the hand of the weak Le Tellier, an action which gave Louvois ample +excuse for depleting the state coffers. Making military expense an +excuse, he turned his blighting hand toward the Gobelins and +restricted the director, Lebrun, even to denying him the golden +threads so necessary for the production of the sumptuous tapestries. + +And so for a time the productions of the looms lacked their accustomed +elegance. Under Madame de Maintenon, the spirit of a morose religion +pervaded the court. All France was suffering under it, and in its name +unbelievable horrors were perpetrated in every province. Paris was not +too well informed of these to interfere with bourgeois life, but at +court the hypocritical soul of Madame de Maintenon made +self-righteousness a virtue. + +An almost laughable result of this pious rectitude was a certain order +given at the Gobelins. Madame de Maintenon had thrust her leading nose +between the doors of the factory and had scented outraged modesty in +the reproduction there of the tapestries woven from models of Raphael, +Giulio Romano and the classicists, cartoons in great favour after the +hampering of Lebrun's imagination. The naked gods from Olympus must +be clothed, said this pious and modest lady. + +This was very well for her rôle, as her influence over the king lay +deep-rooted in her pose of heavy virtue; but at the Gobelins, the +tapestry-makers must have laughed long and loud at the prudery which +they were set to further by actually weaving pictured garments and +setting them into the hangings where the lithe limbs of Apollo, and +Venus' lovely curves, had been cut away. The hanging called _The +Judgment of Paris_ is one of those altered to suit the refinement of +the times. + +Louvois' dominance lasted as long as Lebrun, so the genius of the +latter never reasserted itself in the factory. Two methods of supply +for designs came in vogue, and mark the time. One was to turn to the +old masters of Italy's high Renaissance for drawings. This brought a +quantity of drawings of fables and myths into use, so that palace +walls were decorated with Greek gods instead of modern ones. Raphael, +as a master in decoration, was carefully copied, also other men of his +school. The second source of cartoons was chosen by Louvois, who +searched among previous works for the most celebrated tapestries and +had them copied without change. + +Thus came the Gobelins to reproduce hangings that had not originated +in their ateliers. All this traces the change that came from the +clipping of Lebrun's wings of genius. Identification marks they are, +when old tapestries come our way. + +Pierre Mignard succeeded Lebrun as director of the Gobelins after the +death of the greatest genius of decoration in modern times. Lebrun +had seen such prosperity of tapestry weaving that eight hundred +workers had scarcely been enough to supply the tapestries ordered. +When Mignard came for his five years of direction, things had mightily +changed, and he did nothing to revive or encourage the work. He owed +his appointment entirely to Louvois, whose protégé he had long been. +The same year, 1691, saw the death of them both. + +Until 1688 the factory was at its best time of productiveness, +reaching the perfection of modern drawing in its cartoons, and, in its +weaving, equalling the manner of Brussels in the early Sixteenth +Century. + +From then on began the decline, for the reasons so forcibly written on +pages of history. The French king's ambition to conquer, his +animosity--jealousy, if you will--toward Holland, his unceasing +conflict with England, added to his fierce attacks on religionists, +especially in the Palatinate--all these things required the most +stupendous expenditures. The Mississippi was now discovered, the +English colonists were in conflict with the French, here in America, +and the New World was becoming too desirable a possession for Louis to +be willing to cede his share without a struggle; and thus came the +expense of fighting the English in that far land which was at least +thirty days' sail away. + +Perhaps Mignard worked against odds too great for even a strong +director. Such drains on the state treasury as were made by the +self-indulgent court, and by the political necessities, demanded not +only depriving the Gobelins of proper expensive materials, but in the +department of furniture and ornaments, demanded also the establishment +of a sinister melting pot, a hungry mouth that devoured the precious +metals already made more precious by the artistic hands of the +gold-working artists. + +Mignard's futile work was finished by his demise in 1695. Such was +then the pitiable conditions at the Gobelins that it was not +considered worth while to fill his place. Thus ended the first period +of that beautiful conception, art sustained by the state, artists +relieved from all care except that of expressing beauty. + +The ateliers were closed; the weavers had to seek other means of +gaining their living. The busy Gobelins, a very Paradise of workers, +an establishment which felt itself the pride of Paris and the pet of +the king, full of merry apprentices and able masters, this happy +solidarity fell under neglect. The courtyards were lonely; the Bièvre +rippled by unused; the buildings were silent and deserted. Some of the +workers were happy enough to be taken in at Beauvais, some returned to +Flanders, but many were at the miserable necessity of dropping their +loved professions and of joining the royal troops, for which the +relentless ambition of the king had such large and terrible use. + +The time when the factory remained inactive were the dolorous years +from 1694 to 1697. It was in the latter year that peace was signed in +the Holland town of Ryswick, which ended at least one of Louis' bloody +oppressions, the fierce attacks in the Palatinate. + +The place of Colbert was never filled, so far as the Gobelins was +concerned. Louvois had not its interests in his hard hands, nor had +his immediate followers in state administrations up to 1708, which +included Mansard (of the roofs) and the flippity courtesan, the Duc +d'Antin. But power was later given to Jules Robert de Cotte to raise +the fallen Gobelins by his own wise direction, assisted by his +father's political co-operation (1699-1735). Once again can we smile +in thinking of the factory where the wares of beauty were produced. Of +course, the artists flocked to the centre, eager to express +themselves. The one most interesting to us was Claude Audran. Others +there were who contributed adorable designs and helped build up the +most exquisite expressions of modern art, but, alas, their modesty was +such that their names are scarce known in connexion with the art they +vivified. + +The aged Louis was ending his forceful reign in increasing weakness, +deserted at the finish by all but the rigid de Maintenon; and +four-year-old Louis, the grandson of the Grand Dauphin, was succeeding +under the direction of the Regent of Orleans. New monarchs, new +styles, the rule was; for the newly-crowned must have his waves of +flattery curling about the foot of the throne. Louis XIV, the Grand +Monarque, lived to his pose of heavy magnificence even in the +furnishing and decorating of the apartments where he ruled as king and +where he lived as man. Sumptuous splendour, expressed in heavy design, +in deep colouring, with much red and gold, these were the order of the +day, and best expressed the reign. + +But with Philip as regent, and the young king but a baby, a gayer mood +must creep into the articles of beauty with which man self-indulgently +decorates his surroundings. Pomp of a heavy sort had no place in the +regent's heart. He saw life lightly, and liked to foster the belief +that a man might make of it a pretty play. + +Thus, given so good excuse for a new school of decoration, Claude +Audran snatched up his talented brush and put down his dainty +inspirations with unfaltering delicacy of touch. He wrote upon his +canvas poems in life, symphonies in colour, created a whole world of +tasteful fancy, a world whose entire intent was to please. He left the +heavy ways of pomp and revelled in a world where roses bloom and +ribbons flutter, where clouds are strong to support the svelte deity +upon them, and where the rudest architecture is but an airy trellis. + +The classic, the Greek, he never forgot. It was ever his inspiration, +his alphabet with which he wrote the spirit of his composition, but it +was a classic thought played upon with the most talented of +variations. Pure Greek was too cold and chaste for the temper of the +time in which he lived and worked and of which he was the creature; +and so his classic foundation was graced with curves, with colour, +with artful abandon, and all the charming fripperies of one of the +most exquisite periods of decoration. Gods and goddesses were a +necessary part of such compositions, and a continual playing among +amorini, but such deities lived not upon Olympus, nor anywhere outside +France of the Eighteenth Century. The heavy human forms made popular +by the inflation of the Seventeenth Century were banished to some dark +haven reserved for by-gone modes, and these new gods were exquisite +as fairies while voluptuous as courtesans. They were all caught young +and set, while still adolescent and slender, in suitable niches of +delicate surroundings. + +The talent of Audran, not content with figures alone, was lavishly +expended on those ingenious decorative designs which formed the frame +and setting of the figures, the airy world in which they lived and in +the borders that confined the whole. + +Only a study of tapestries or their photographs can show the radical +depth of the change from the styles prevailing under the influence of +Madame de Maintenon to those produced by Audran and his school under +the regence. The difference in character of the two dominations is the +very evident cause. It is as though the severe moral pose of de +Maintenon had suppressed a whole Pandora's box of loves and graces +who, when the lid was lifted by the Regent, flew, a happy crew, to fix +themselves in dainty decorative effect, trailing with them their +complement of accessory flowers, butterflies, clouds and tempered +grotesques. + +Philippe d'Orleans, under the influence of the corrupt cleverness of +Cardinal du Bois, celebrated the few years of his regency by +bankrupting France with John Law's financial fallacies (this was the +time of the South Sea Bubble and the Mississippi scheme) and by +returning to Spain her princess as unsuited for the boy king's +mate--with war as the natural result of that insult. + +But he also let artists have their way, and the style that they +supplied him, shows a talented invention unsurpassed. Audran we will +place at the top, but only to fix a name, for there was a whole army +of men composing the tapestry designs that so delighted the people of +those days and that have gone on thrilling their beholders for two +hundred years, and which distinguish French designs from all +others--which give them that indefinable quality of grace and softness +that we denominate French. Wizards in design were the artists who +developed it and those who continue it in our own times. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE GOBELINS FACTORY (_Continued_) + + +Audran had in his studio André Watteau, whose very name spells +sophisticated pastorals of exceeding loveliness. Watteau worked with +Audran when he was producing his most inspired set of tapestry, on +which we must dwell for a bit for pure pleasure. This set is called +the _Portières des Dieux_. + +That they were portières, only door-hangings, is a fact too important +to be slipped by. It denotes one of the greatest changes in tapestries +when the size of a hanging comes down from twenty or thirty feet to +the dimensions of a doorway. It speaks a great change in interiors, +and sets tapestries on a new plane. Later on, they are still further +diminished. But the sadness of noting this change is routed by the +thrills of pleasure given by the exquisite design, colour and weave. + +The _Portières of the Gods_ was, then, a series of eight small +hangings, four typifying the seasons and four the elements, with an +appropriate Olympian forming the central point of interest and the +excuse for an entourage of thrilling and graceful versatility. This +set has been copied so many times that even the most expert must fail +in trying to identify the date of reproduction. Two hundred and thirty +times this set is known to have been reproduced, and such talented +weavers were given the task as Jans and Lefebvre. + + [Illustration: GOBELINS TAPESTRY. TIME OF LOUIS XV] + +In this exquisite period, which might be called the adolescence of +the style Louis XV, Audran and his collaborators produced another +marvellous and inspired set of portières. These were executed for the +Grand Dauphin, to decorate his room in the château at Meudon, and were +called the _Grotesque Months in Bands_. The most self-sufficient of +pens would falter at a description of design so exquisite, which is +arranged in three panels with a deity in each, a composition of +extraordinary grace above and below them, and a bordering band of +losenge or diaper, on which is set the royal double L and the +significant dolphin who gave his name to kings' sons. The exquisite +art of Audran and of the regence cannot be better seen than in this +set of tapestries which was woven but once at the royal factory, +although repeated many times elsewhere with the border altered, +Audran's being too personal for other chambers than that of the prince +for whom it was composed. Recently copies have been made without +border. + +The name of the artist, Charles Coypel, must not be overlooked, for it +was he who composed the celebrated suite of _Don Quixote_. +Twenty-eight pieces composed the series, and they were drawn with that +exquisite combination of romantic scenes and fields of pure decorative +design that characterised the charm of the regence. In the centre of +each piece (small pieces compared to those of Louis XIV) was a scene +like a painting representing an incident from the adventure of the +humorously pathetic Spanish wanderer; and this was surrounded with so +much of refined decoration as to make it appear but a medallion on +the whole surface. This set was so important as to be repeated many +times and occupied the factory of the Gobelins from 1718 to 1794. +Charles Coypel was but twenty when he composed the first design for +this suite. Each year thereafter he added a new design, not supplying +the last one until 1751. But, while all honour is due Coypel, Audran +and Le Maire and their collaborators must be remembered as having +composed the borders, the pure decorative work which expresses the +tender style of transition, the suggestive period of early spring that +later matured into the fulsome Rococo. America is enriched by five of +these exquisite pieces through Mr. Morgan's recent purchase. + +But while artists were producing purity in art, those in political +power were, with ever-increasing effect, plunging morals into the mud. +Philippe, the Regent, died, the corrupt Duke of Bourbon took the place +of minister, and poor Louis XV was still but thirteen years old, and +unavoidably influenced by the lives of those around him. Even the +Gobelins was under the hand of the shallow Duke d'Antin. Yet even when +the king matured and became himself a power for corruption, the +artists of the Gobelins reflected only beauty and light. It is to +their credit. + +It is an ungrateful task to pick flaws with a period so firmly +enthroned in the affections as that of the regence and the early years +of the reign of Louis XV. The beauties of its pure decoration lead us +into Elysian fields that are but reluctantly left behind. But the +designs and tapestry weavers of that time left us two distinct +classes of production, and to be learned in such matters, the amateur +contemplates both. This second style is ungrateful because it trains +us away from art, delicate and ingenious, and plants us before +enormous woven paintings. + +Now it never had been the intention of tapestry to replace painting. +Whenever it leaned that way a deterioration was evident. It was by the +lure of this fallacy that Brussels lost her pre-eminence. It was +through this that the number of tones was increased from the twenty or +more of Arras to the twenty thousand of the Gobelins. It was through +this that the true mission of tapestry was lost, which was the mission +of supplying a soft, undulating lining to the habitat of man, and +flashes of colour for his pageants. + +Under Louis XIV the pictures came thick and fast, as we have seen, but +in deep-toned, simple colour-scheme. Now, with the De Cottes as +directors at the Gobelins, and with a new reign begun, more pictures +were called for. + +The splendid _History of the King_ of Louis XIV could not be +forgotten; the history of his successor must be similarly represented, +and what could this be but a series of woven paintings. The flower of +the time was an exquisitely complicated decoration on a small scale. +The larger expression was not spontaneous. + +Louis XV, poor boy, was not old enough to have had many events outside +the nursery, so it took imagination--perhaps that of the elegant +profligate, Duke d'Antin--to suggest an occasion of appropriate +splendour and significance. The official reception of the Turkish +ambassador in 1721 was the subject chosen, and under the direction of +Charles Parrocel became a superb work, full of court magnificence of +the day and a valuable portrayal to us of the boyhood of the king. + +The same type of big picture was continued in the series of _Hunts of +Louis XV_, lovely forest scenes wherein much unsportsmanlike elegance +displays itself in the persons of noble courtiers. The Duc d'Antin +favoured these and they were reproduced until 1745. + +It is probable that the Bible fell into neglect in those days, too +heavy a volume for pointed, perfumed fingers accustomed to no books at +all. Bossuet, Voltaire, were they not obliged to set to the sonorous +music of their voices the reforming and satirical attacks on manners +and morals of the aristocrats at a time when books lay all unread? But +at the Gobelins ateliers the Bible, wiped clean of dust, was much +consulted for inspiration in cartoons. Charles Coypel dipped into the +Old Testament, and Jouvenet into the New, with the result of several +suites of tapestries of great elegance--all of which might much better +have been painted on canvas and framed. + +Charles Coypel, the talented member of a talented family of painters, +also made popular the heroine _Armide_, who seemed almost to come of +the Bible, since Tasso had set her in his Christian _Jerusalem +Delivered_. The seductive palace and entrancing gardens where Renaud +was kept a prisoner, gave opportunity for fine drawing in this set. + + [Illustration: HUNTS OF LOUIS XV + + Gobelins, G. Audran after Cartoon by Oudry] + + [Illustration: ESTHER AND AHASUERUS SERIES + + Gobelins, about 1730. Cartoon by J. F. de Troy; G. Audran, weaver] + +The Iliad of Homer came in for its share of consideration at the hands +of Antoine and Charles Coypel, who made of it a set of five scenes. It +was Romanelli, the Italian, who painted a similar set, a hundred +years before, for Cardinal Barberini, which set came to America in the +Ffoulke collection. After the death, in 1730, of the Duke d'Antin, +that interesting son of Madame de Montespan, several directors had the +management of the Gobelins in hand, the Count of Vignory and the Count +of Angivillier being the most important prior to the Revolution. These +were men who held the purse-strings of the state, and could thereby +foster or crush a state institution, but the direction of the Gobelins +itself, as a factory, was in the hands of architects, beginning with +the able De Cotte. As the factory had many ateliers, these were each +directed by painters, among whom appear such interesting men of talent +as Oudry, Boucher, Hallé. + +Although d'Antin was dead when it commenced, he is accredited with +having inspired and ordered the important hanging known as the +_History of Esther_. (Plate facing page 131.) The first piece, from +cartoons by Jean François de Troy, was sent to the weavers in 1737, +and the last piece, which was painted in Rome, was finished in 1742. +This set shows as ably as any can, the magnificent style of production +of the period. It had from the beginning an immense popularity and was +copied many times. Even now it is a favourite subject for those whose +perverted taste leads them into the dubious art of copying tapestry in +paints on cloth. + +The serious accusation against this set, which in composition seems +much like the tableaux in grand opera, is that it invades the art of +painting. And that is the fault of woven art at that period. The +decline in tapestry in Paris began when both weavers and painters +struggled for the same results, the weavers quite forgetting the +strength and beauty that were peculiar to their art alone. + +This fault cannot be laid to the weavers only, who numbered such men +as Neilson the able Scot, and Cozette, who, with wondrous touch, wove +the set of _Don Quixote_; nor were the artists at fault, for they +included such men as Audran and Boucher. No, it was the director who +blighted and subverted talent, and the vitiated public taste that +shifted restlessly and demanded novelty. The novelty that came in +large hangings was a suppressing of the delicate subjects that delight +the imagination by their playful grace, their association of human +life with all that is gaily exquisite. The mode was for leaving the +land of idealised mythology, for discarding the flowers, the scrolls, +the happy loves and charming crew that lived among them, and for +plunging into Roman history, real and ugly, enwrapped in drapings too +full, cumbered with forced accessory, or into such mythology as is +represented in _Cupid and Psyche_. (Plate facing page 132.) + +The _History of Esther_ illustrates the loss of imagination sustained +by the border which had come to be a mere woven imitation, in shades +of brown and yellow, of a carved and gilded, wooden frame. At the +close of the reign of Louis XV, borders were frankly abandoned +altogether. Compare this state of things with the days when Audran and +Coypel were producing the sets of _The Seasons_, _The Months_, and +_Don Quixote_. It is aridness compared to talented invention. + + [Illustration: CUPID AND PSYCHE + + Gobelins Tapestry. Eighteenth Century. Design by Coypel] + + [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF CATHERINE OF RUSSIA + + Gobelins under Louis XVI.] + +The top note of the imitation of painting was struck when the Gobelins +set the task of becoming a portrait maker. (Plate facing page 133.) +The work was done, it was bound to be, as royalty backed the demand. +Portraits were woven of Louis XV (to be seen now at Versailles), and +his queen, of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, and others less well +known. A better scheme for limiting the talent of the weaver could not +have been suggested by his most ingenious enemy. He was a man of +talent or his art had not reached so high, and as such must be +untrammelled; but here was given him a work where personal discretion +was not allowed, where he must copy tone for tone, shade by shade, the +myriad indefinite blendings of the brush. + +It is this practice, pursued to its end, that has made of the tapestry +weaver a mere part of a machine, and tapestry-making a lost art, to +remain in obscurity until weavers return to the time before the French +decadence. + +The temper of those who hold in their hands the direction of the +people, these are the determining causes of the products of that age. +If d'Angivillier was responsible for displacing a transcendent art +with a false one, if he routed a dainty mythology and its accessories +with the heavy effort and paraphernalia of the Romans, on whom shall +we place the entirely supportable responsibility of diminishing +tapestries from noble draperies down to mere furniture coverings? + +The result came happily, with much fluttering of fans, dropping of +handkerchiefs, with powder, patches, intrigues, naughty sports, and a +general necessity for a gay company to divide itself into groups of +four or two--a lady and a cavalier, forsooth--the inevitable man and +maid. In the time of the preceding king, Louis XIV, the court lived in +masses. Life was a pageant, a grand one, moving in slow dignity of +gorgeous crowds, but a pageant on which beat the fierce light of a +throne jealous of its grandeur. No chance was here for sweet escape +and no chance for light communing. + +But all that saw a change. The needs of the lighter court and the +lighter people, were for reminders that life is a merry dance in which +partners change often, and sitting-out a figure with one of them is +part of the game. + +Perhaps the huge apartments were not to the taste of Regent Philippe, +and certainly they were not convenient to the life of the king when he +came to man's estate. So, down came the ceiling's height, and closer +drew the walls, until the model of the Petit Trianon was reached and +considered the ideal--if that were not indeed the miniature Swiss +Cottage. + +What place had an acre of tapestry in these little rooms? How could +yards of undulating colour hang over walls that were already overlaid +with the most exquisite low relief in wood that has ever been carved +this side of the Renaissance in Italy? No place for it whatever. So, +out with it--the fashions have changed. + +But there was the furniture. That, too, was smaller than hitherto. But +this was the day of artists skilled in small design, and they must +fill the need. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE GOBELINS FACTORY (_Continued_) + + +And so it came about that tapestry fell from the walls, shrunk like a +pricked balloon and landed in miniature on chairs, sofas and screens. + +How felt the artists about this domesticating of their art? We are not +told of the wry face they made when, with ideals in their souls, they +were set to compose chair-seats for the Pompadour. Her preference was +for Boucher. Perhaps his revenge showed itself by treating the +bourgeoise courtisane to a bit of coarseness now and then, slyly hid +in dainties. + +The artist, Louis Tessier, appeased himself by composing for furniture +a design of simple bouquets of flowers thrown on a damask background; +but, with such surety of hand, such elegance, are these ornaments +designed and composed, that he who but runs past them must feel the +power of their exquisite beauty. + +In this manufacture of small pieces the Gobelins factory unhappily put +itself on the same footing as Beauvais and much confusion of the +products has since resulted. The dignity of the art was lowered when +the size and purpose of tapestries were reduced to mere furniture +coverings. The age of Louis XV, looked at decoratively, was an age of +miniature, and the reign that followed was the same. When small +chambers came into vogue, furniture diminished to suit them, and not +only were walls too small for tapestries to hang on, but chairs, sofas +and screens offered less space than ever before for woven designs, now +preciously fine in quality and minutiæ. + +Tapestry weaving now entered the region of fancy-work for the +drawing-room's idle hour, and we see even the king himself, lounging +idly among his favourite companions, working at a tiny loom, his +latest pretty toy. Compare this trifling with the attitude of Henri IV +and Louis XIV toward tapestry weaving, and we have the situation in a +nutshell. + +Louis XV passed from the scene, likewise the charming bits of +immorality who danced through his reign. However much we may +disapprove their manner of life, we are ever glad that their taste +sanctioned--more than that--urged, the production of a decorative +style almost unsurpassed. To the artists belong the glory, but times +were such that an artist must die of suppression if those in power +refuse to patronise his art. So we are glad that Antoinette Poisson +appreciated art, and that Jeanne Verbernier made of it a serious +consideration, for, what was liked by La Pompadour and Du Barry must +needs be favoured by the king. + +When Louis XVI came to the throne, the return to antiquity for +inspiration had already begun, but did not fully develop until later +on, when David became court painter under Napoleon. Yet the tonic note +of decoration was classic. Designs were still small and details were +from Greek inspiration. As tapestries were still but furniture +coverings, this was not to be regretted, for nothing could be +better suited to small spaces, nor could drawing be more exquisitely +pure and chaste than when copied from Greek detail. + + [Illustration: CHAIR OF TAPESTRY. STYLE OF LOUIS XV] + + [Illustration: GOBELINS TAPESTRY (DETAIL) CRAMOISÉE. STYLE LOUIS XV] + +Count d'Angivillier kept the Gobelins factory from all originality, +sanctioned only the small wares for original work, and forced a +slavish copying of paintings for the larger pieces. It is not deniable +that some beautiful hangings were produced, but the sad result is that +pieces of so many tones lose in value year by year, through the +gentle, inexorable touch of time; and, more deplorable yet, the +ambition and the originality of the master-weavers was deprived of its +very life-blood, and in time was utterly atrophied. + +In the time of Louis XVI, when Marie Antoinette was in the flower of +her inconsiderate elegance, the note of the day was for art to be +small, but perfect; the worth of a work of art was determined by its +size--in inverse ratio. It was a time lively and intellectual and +frivolous, and its art was the reflection of its desire for +concentrated completeness. + +In the reign of Louis XVI ripened, not the art of Louis XIV, but the +political situation whose seeds he had planted. The idea of revolution +which started in the little-considered American colonies, took hold of +the thinkers of France, even to the king of little power. But instead +of being a theory of remedy for important men to discuss, it acted as +a fire-brand thrown among the inflammable, long-oppressed Third +Estate--with results deplorable to the art which occupies our +attention. + +The Gobelins was already suffering at the début of the Revolution. +Its management had been relegated to men more or less incapable; its +art standards had been forced lower and lower. Added to that its +operatives were engaged at lessened rates and often had to whistle for +their pay at that. The contractors asked for nothing better than to be +engaged as masters of ateliers at fixed rates. + +Then came the full force of the Revolution with such deplorable and +tragic results for the Gobelins. In the madness of the time the +workers here were not exempt from the terrible call of Robespierre. +The almoner of the factory was arrested, and at the end of two months +not even a record existed of his execution, which took place among the +daily feasts of La Guillotine. A high-warp weaver named Mangelschot +met the same fate. Jean Audran, once contractor for high-warp, then +placed at the head of the factory, was arrested, but escaped with +imprisonment only. + +During his absence he was replaced as head by Augustin Belle, whose +respect for the Republic and for his head made him curry favour with +the mob in a manner most deplorable. He caused the destruction by fire +of many and many a superb tapestry at the Gobelins, giving as his +reason that they contained emblems of royalty, reminders of the hated +race of kings. The amateur can almost weep in thinking of this +ruthless waste of beauty. + +It was a celebrated bonfire that was built in the courtyard of the +Gobelins when, by order of the Committee on Selection, all things +offensive to an over-sensitive republican irritability were heaped for +the holocaust. As the Gobelins was instituted by a king, patronised by +kings, its works made in the main for palaces and pageants after the +taste of kings, it was only too easy to find tapestries meet for a +fire that had as object the destruction of articles displaying +monarchical power. + +During the four horrid years when terror reigned, the workers at the +Gobelins continued under a constant threat of a cessation of work. Not +only was their pay irregular, but it was often given in paper that had +sadly depreciated in value. Then the decision was made to sell certain +valuable tapestries and pay expenses from this source of revenue. But, +alas, in those troublous times, who had heart or purse to acquire +works of art. A whole skin and food to sustain it, were the serious +objects of life. + +Under the Directory, funds were scarce in bleeding France, and all +sorts of ways were used to raise them. In the past times when Louis +XIV had by relentless extravagance and wars depleted the purse, he +caused the patiently wrought precious metals to be melted into +bullion. Why not now resort to a similar method? So thought a minister +of one of the Two Chambers, and suggested the burning of certain +tapestries of the royal collection in order that the gold and silver +used in their weaving might be converted into metal. + +Sixty pieces, the most superb specimens of a king's collection, were +transported to the court of La Monnaie, and there burned to the last +thread the wondrous work of hundreds of talented artists and artisans. +The very smoke must have rolled out in pictures. The money gained was +considerable, 60,000 livres, showing how richly endowed with metal +threads were these sumptuous hangings. The commission sitting by, +judicial, dispassionate, presided with cold dignity over the +sacrifice, and pronounced it good. + +A hundred workers only remained at the Gobelins which had once been a +happy hive of more than eight times that number, and these were +constrained to follow orders most objectionable and restrictive. +Models to copy were chosen by a jury of art, and such were its +prejudices that but little of interest remained. Ancient religious +suites, and royal ones were disapproved. New orders consisted of +portraits. But if we thought it a prostitution of the art to weave +portraits of Louis XV in royal costume, or Marie Antoinette in the +loveliness of her queenly fripperies, what can be said of the low +estate of a factory which must give out a portrait of Marat or +Lepelletier, even though the great David painted the design to be +copied. The hundred men at the Gobelins must have worked but sadly and +desultorily over such scant and distasteful commissioning. + +There were works upon the looms when the Commission began inspecting +the works of art to see if they were proper stuff for the newly-made +Republic to nurse upon. In September, 1794, they found and condemned +twelve large pieces on the looms unfinished, and on which work was +immediately suspended. Of three hundred and twenty-one models +examined, which were the property of the factory, one hundred and +twenty were rejected. In fact, only twenty were designated as truly +fit for production, not falling under the epithets "anti-republican, +fanatic or insufficient." The latter description was applied to all +those exquisite fantasies of art that make the periods Louis XV and +Louis XVI a source of transcendent delight to the lover of dainty +intellectual design, and include particularly the work of Boucher. + +The mental and moral workings of the commission on art may be tested +by quoting from their own findings on the _Siege of Calais_, a hanging +by Berthélemy, depicting an event of the Fourteenth Century. This is +what the temper of the times induced the Commission--among whom were +artists too--to say: "Subject regarded as contrary to republican +ideas; the pardon accorded to the people of Calais was given by a +tyrant through the tears and supplications of the queen and child of a +despot. Rejected. In consequence the tapestry will be arrested in its +execution." + +The models allowed in this benumbing period were those of hunting +scenes, and antique groups such as the _Muses_, or scenes from the +life of Achilles. + +A vicious system of pay was added to the vicious system of art +restriction. And so fell the Gobelins, to revive in such small manner +as was accorded it in the Nineteenth Century. + +Its great work was done. It had lifted up an art which through +inflation or barrenness Brussels had let train on the ground like a +fallen flag, and it had given to France the glory of acquiring the +highest period of perfection. + +To France came the inspiration of gathering the industry under the +paternal care of the government, of relieving it from the exigencies +of private enterprise which must of necessity fluctuate, of keeping +the art in dignified prosperity, and of devoting to its uses the +highest talent of both art and industry. + +The Revolution and the Directory both hesitated to kill an institution +that had brought such glory to France, that had placed her above all +the world in tapestry producing. But what deliberate intent did not +accomplish, came near being a fact through scant rations. Operators at +the Gobelins were irregularly paid, and the public purse found onerous +the burden of support. + +But with the coming of Napoleon the personal note was struck again. A +man was at the head, a man whose ambition invaded even the field of +decoration. The Emperor would not be in the least degree inferior in +splendour to the most magnificent of the hereditary kings of France. +The Gobelins had been their glory, it should add to his. + +Louis David was the painter of the court, he whose head was ever +turned over his shoulder toward ancient Greece and Rome, who not only +preferred that source of inspiration, but who realised the flattery +implied to the Emperor by using the designs of the countries he had +conquered. It was a graceful reminder of the trophies of war. + +So David not only painted Josephine as a lady of Pompeii elongated on +a Greek lounge, but he set the classic style for the Gobelins factory +when Napoleon gave to the looms his imperial patronage. It was David +who had found favour with Revolutionary France by his untiring efforts +to produce a style differing fundamentally from the style of kings, +when kings and their ways were unpopular. Technical exactness, with +classic motives, characterises his decorative work for the Gobelins. + +The Emperor was hot for throne-room fittings that spoke only of +himself and of the empire he had built. David made the designs, +beautiful, chaste, as his invention ever was, and dotted them with the +inevitable bees and eagles. Percier, the artist, helped with the +painting, but the throne itself was David's and shows his talent in +the floating Victory of the back and the conventionalised wreaths of +the seat. The whole set, important enough to mention, embraced eight +arm chairs and six smaller ones, besides two dozen classic seats of a +kingly pattern, and screens for fire and draughts, all with a red +background on which was woven in gold the pattern of wreaths and +branches of laurel and oak. + +The Emperor made the Gobelins his especial care. He committed it to +the discretion of no one, but was himself the director, and allowed no +loom to set up its patterns unsanctioned by his order. Even his +campaigns left this order operative. Is it to his credit as a genius, +or his discredit as a tyrant, that the chiefs of the Gobelins had to +follow him almost into battle to get permission to weave a new +hanging? + +Portraits were woven--but let us not dwell on that. That portraits +were woven at the Gobelins (portraits as such, not the resemblance of +one figure out of a mass to some great personage) brings ever a sigh +of regret. It is like the evidence of senility in some grand statesman +who has outlived his vigour. It is like the portrait of your friend +done in butter, or the White House at Washington done in a paste of +destroyed banknotes. In other words, there is no excuse for it while +paint and canvas exist. + +Napoleon's own portrait was made in full length twice, and in bust ten +times. The Empress was pictured at full length and in bust, and the +young King of Rome came in for one portrait. The summit of bad art +seemed reached when it was proposed to copy in wool a painting of +portrait busts, carved in marble. This work was happily unfinished +when the empire gave place to the next form of government. + +It is unthinkable that Napoleon would not want his reign glorified in +manner like to that of hereditary kings with pictured episodes, the +conquests of his life, dramatic, superb. David the court painter, +supplied his canvas _Napoleon Crossing the Alps_, and others followed. +Copying paintings was the order at the Gobelins, remember, and that +kind of work was done with infinite skill. Numbers of grand scenes +were planned, some set up on the looms, but the great part were not +done at all. Napoleon's triumph was full but brief; the years of his +reign were few. He interrupted work on large hangings by his +impatience to have the throne-room furniture ready for the reception +of Europe's kings and ambassadors. And when the time came that another +man received in that room, the big series of hangings which were to +picture his reign, even as the _Life of the King_ pictured that of +Louis XIV, were scarcely begun. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +BEAUVAIS + + +Another name to conjure with, after Gobelins is Beauvais. In general +it means to us squares of beautiful foliage,--foliage graceful, +acceptably coloured, and of a pre-Raphaelite neatness. But it is not +limited to that class of work, nor yet to the chair-coverings for +which the factory of Beauvais is so justly celebrated. This factory +has woven even the magnificent series of Raphael, the designs without +which the Sistine Chapel was considered incomplete. But this is +anticipating, and an inquiry into how these things came about is a +pleasure too great to miss. + +The factory at Beauvais was founded by Colbert, under Louis XIV, in +1664. In that respect it resembles the Gobelins factory, but there +existed an enormous difference which had to do with the entire fate of +the enterprise. The Gobelins was founded for the king; Beauvais was +founded for commerce. The Gobelins was royally conceived as a source +of supply for palaces and châteaux of royalty and royalty's friends. +Beauvais was intended to supply with tapestry any persons who cared to +buy them, to the end that profit (if profit there were) should be to +the good of the country. + +So the factory was founded at Beauvais as being convenient to Paris, +although it was not known as a place where the industry had +flourished hitherto, notwithstanding the old tapestries still in the +cathedral which are accorded a local origin in the first half of the +Sixteenth Century. And the king granted it letters patent, and large +sums of money to start the enterprise, which had to be given a +building, and men to manage it and to work therein, and materials to +work with, in fact, the duplicate in less degree of the appropriations +for the Gobelins, except that the furniture department was omitted. + +The idea was practically the same as that in the mind of the paternal +Henri IV when he united the scattered factories with royal interest +and patronage, but with always the large end in view of benefiting his +people financially, as well as in the province of art. With our modern +republican views we can criticise the disinterestedness of a monarch +who maintains a factory at enormous public expense exclusively for the +indulgence of kings. + +And yet, it seems impossible to make both an artistic and commercial +success of a tapestry factory--at least this is the conclusion to +which one is forced in a study of the Beauvais factory. + +Louis Hinart was the man appointed to construct the buildings and to +stock them, and the royal appropriation therefor, was 60,000 livres. +He was to engage a hundred workers for the first year, more to be +added; and special prizes were temptingly offered for workmen coming +from other countries, and to the contractor for each tapestry sold for +exportation. + + [Illustration: HENRI IV BEFORE PARIS + + Beauvais Tapestry, Seventeenth Century. Design by Vincent] + + [Illustration: HENRI IV AND GABRIELLE D'ESTRÉES + + Design by Vincent] + +Thus was trade to be encouraged, and the venture put on its feet +commercially. But alas, the factory was not a success. Tapestries were +woven, hundreds of them, and they delight us now wherever we can find +them, whether low warp or high, whether large pieces with figures or +smaller pieces almost entirely verdure of an entrancing kind. But the +orders for large hangings, the heavy patronage from outside France, +was of the imagination only, and the verdures for home consumption did +not meet the expenses of the factory. After twenty years of struggle, +Hinart was completely ruined and ceded the direction of the factory to +a Fleming of Tournai, Philip Béhagle. As most of the workers were +Flemish, this was probably not disagreeable to them. + +Béhagle, more energetic than Hinart, with a gift for initiative, set +the high-warp looms to work with extraordinary activity. As though he +would rival the great Gobelins itself, he reproduced the most +ambitious of pieces, the Raphael series, _Acts of the Apostles_, and a +long list of ponderous groups wherein oversized gods disport +themselves in a heavy setting of architecture and voluminous +draperies. He also produced some contemporary battle scenes which are +now in the royal collection of Sweden. + +Not content with copying, Béhagle set up a school of design in the +factory, realising that the base of all decorative art was design. Le +Pape was the artist set over it. From this grew many of the lovely +smaller patterns which have made the factory famous. Its garlands have +ever been inspired, and its work on borders is of exquisite conception +and execution. + +It is considered a great fact in the history of the factory that the +king paid it a visit in 1686; that he paraded and rested his important +person under the shade of the living verdure in its garden. But it +seems more to the point that Béhagle made for it a success both +artistic and commercial, and this continued as long as he had breath. + +Also was it a feather in his cap that at the time when the Gobelins +factory was sighing and dying for lack of funds, the provincial +factory of Beauvais not only remained prosperous, but opened its doors +to many of the starving operatives from the Gobelins ateliers, thus +saving them from the horrid fate of joining the Dragonades, as some of +their fellows had done. + +But the followers of the able Béhagle had not his capability. After +his twenty years of prosperity the factory languished under the +direction of his widow and sons, and that of the brothers Filleul, and +Micou, up to the time when the Regent Philip was fumbling the reigns +of government, and when everything but scepticism and Les Precieuses +was sinking into feeble disintegration. The factory became a financial +failure from which the regent had not power to lift it. + +Again we see the name of the son of Madame de Montespan, the Duke +d'Antin, who was at this time director of buildings for the crown and +in this capacity had the power of choosing the directors of both the +Gobelins and Beauvais. The place of director at Beauvais was empty; +d'Antin must have the credit of filling it wisely with the painter +Jean-Baptiste Oudry. He was a man endowed with the sort of energy we +are apt to consider modern and American. He already occupied a high +place in the Gobelins, and retained it, too, while he lifted Beauvais +from the Slough of Despond, and carried it to its most brilliant +flowering. + + [Illustration: BEAUVAIS TAPESTRY. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY + + Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York] + + [Illustration: BEAUVAIS TAPESTRY. TIME OF LOUIS XVI + + Collection of Wm. Baumgarten, Esq., New York] + +It is only as the history of a factory touches us that we are +interested in its changes. The result of Oudry's direction is one that +we see so frequently in a small way that it is agreeable to recognise +its cause. Oudry was pre-eminently a painter of animals. Add to this +the tendency to draw cartoons in suites and the demand for furniture +coverings, and at once we have the _raison d'être_ of the design seen +over and over again nowadays on old tapestried chairs, the designs +picturing the _Fables of La Fontaine_. These were the especial work of +Oudry who composed them, who put into them his best work as animal +painter, and who set them on the looms of Beauvais many times. + +They had a success immediate. They became the fashion of the day, and +the pride of the factory. If the artist had drawn with inspiration, +the weavers copied with a fidelity little short of talent. So it is +not surprising that a set of sofa and chairs on which these tapestries +are displayed brings now an average of a thousand dollars a piece, +even though the furniture frames are not excessively rich. + +Beauvais set the fashion for this suite, but as success has imitators +who hope for success, many factories both in and out of France copied +this series. How shall we know the true from the false? By that sixth +sense that has its origin in a taste at once instinctive and +cultivated. + +Oudry drew hangings for the small panelled spaces of the walls, to +accompany this set of _Fables_. He also painted scenes from Molière's +comedies, which at least show him master of the human figure as well +as of the lines of animals. + +We are now, it must be remembered, in the time of Louis XV, the time +of beautiful gaiety and light sarcasm, of epigramme, and miniature, +and of all that declared itself _multum in parvo_. Therefore it was +that even wall-hangings were reduced in size and polished, so to +speak, to a perfection most admirable. Paintings were copied, actually +copied, on the looms, but however much the fact may be deplored that +tapestry had wandered far from its original days of grand simplicity, +it were unjust not to recognise the exquisite perfection of the manner +in vogue in the middle of the Eighteenth Century, and of the +perfection of the craftsman. + +The pieces of Beauvais that are accessible to us are indeed charming +to live with, especially the verdures of Oudry on which he left the +trace of his talent, never omitting the characteristic fox or dog, or +ducks, or pheasants that give vital interest to a peep into the +enchanted woodland. At the same time the factory of Aubusson, and +looms in Flanders, were throwing upon the market a quantity of +verdures, of which the amateur must beware. Oudry verdures or outdoor +scenes are but few in model, and beautifully woven. + + [Illustration: BEAUVAIS TAPESTRY. TIME OF LOUIS XIV] + +In the prosperity of Beauvais, ambition carried Oudry into a gay +rivalry with the Gobelins. Charles Coypel had gained fame by a set of +hangings in which scenes were taken from Don Quixote. Oudry asked +himself why he should not rival them at Beauvais. The result was a +similar series, but composed by Charles Natoire, the artist who had +drawn a set of _Antony and Cleopatra_ for the Gobelins. The same idea +extended to the furniture coverings which ran to this design as well +as to the _Fables_. Thus originated a set familiar to those of us +nowadays who covet and who buy the rare old bits that the niggard hand +of the past accords to the seeker after the ancient. + +Exquisite indeed are the hangings by the great interpreter of the +spirit of his time, François Boucher. His designs broke from the limit +of the Gobelins, and were woven at Beauvais with the care and skill +required for proper interpretation of his land of mythology. Such +flushed skies of light, such clean, soft trees waving against them and +such human elegance and beauty grouped beneath, have seldom been +reproduced in tapestry, and almost make one wonder if, after all, the +weavers of the Eighteenth Century were not right in copying a finished +painting rather than in interpreting a decorative cartoon. But such +thoughts border on heresy and schism; away with them. + +Casanova, Leprince, and a host of others are tacked onto the list of +artists who painted models. We can no longer call them cartoons, so +changed is the mode for Beauvais. But Oudry and Boucher are +pre-eminent. + +To the former, who was director as well as artist, is attributed the +fame of the factory and the resulting commercial success. The factory +had a house for selling its wares under the very nose of the Gobelins; +had another in the enemy's country, Leipzig. And kings were the +patrons of these, as we know through the royal collections in Italy, +and Stockholm, where the King of Sweden was an important collector. + +It was in 1755 that Beauvais found itself without the support of its +leaders. Both Oudry and his partner in business matters, Besnier, had +died. And we are well on toward the time when kingly support was a +feeble and uncertain quantity. The factory lacked the inspiration and +patronage to continue its importance. + +In a few years more fell the blight of the Revolution. The factory was +closed. + +It re-opened again under new conditions, but its brilliant period was +past. Will the conditions recur that can again elevate to its former +state of perfection this factory that has given such keen delight, +whose ancient works are so prized by the amateur? It has given us +thrilling examples of the highly developed taste of tapestry weaving +of the Eighteenth Century, it has left us lovable designs in +miniature. We repulse the thought that these things are all of the +past. The factory still lives. Will not the Twentieth Century see a +restoration of its former prestige? + +If it were only for the reproduction of the sets of furniture of the +style known as Louis XVI, the Beauvais loom would have sufficient +reason for existing at the present day. Scenes from Don Quixote, +however, and the pictured fables of La Fontaine which we see on old +chairs, seem to need age to ripen them. These sets, when made new, +shown in all the freshness and unsoiled colour, and unworn wool, and +unfaded silk do not give pleasure. + + [Illustration: BEAUVAIS TAPESTRY] + + [Illustration: CHAIR COVERING + + Beauvais Tapestry. First Empire] + +But the familiar garlands and scrolls adapted from the Greek, that +were woven for the court of Marie Antoinette, these are ever old and +ever new, like all things vital. On a background of solid colour, pale +and tawny, is curved the foliated scroll to reach the length of a +sofa, and with this is associated garlands or sprays of flowers that +any flower-lover would worship. Nothing more graceful nor more +tasteful could be conceived, and by such work is the Beauvais factory +best known, and on such lines might it well continue. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +AUBUSSON + + +Perhaps because of certain old and elegant carpets lying under-foot in +the glow and shadows of old drawing-rooms that we love, the name of +Aubusson is one of interesting meaning. And yet history of tapestry +weaving at Aubusson lacks the importance that gilds the Gobelins and +Beauvais. + +It just escaped that _sine qua non_, the dower of a king's favour. But +let us be chronological, and not anticipate. + +If antiquity is the thing, Aubusson claims it. There is in the town +this interesting tradition that when the invincible Charles Martel +beat the enemies of Christianity and hammered out the word peace with +his sword-blade, a lot of the subdued Saracens from Spain remained in +the neighbourhood. It was at Poitiers in 732 that the final blow was +given to show the hordes of North Africa that while a part of Spain +might be theirs, they must stop below the Pyrenees. + +When swords are put by, the empty hand turns to its accustomed crafts +of peace. Poitiers is a weary journey from Africa if the land ways are +hostile, and all to be traversed afoot. Rather than return, the +conquered Saracens stayed, so runs the legend of Aubusson, and quite +naturally fell into their home-craft of weaving. They had a pretty +gift indeed to bestow, for at that time, as in ages before, the +world's best fabrics came from the luxurious East. And so the +Saracens, defeated at Poitiers by Charles Martel, wandered to nearby +Aubusson, wove their cloths and gave the town the chance to set its +earliest looms at a date far back in the past. + +The centuries went on, however, without much left in the way of +history-fabric or woven fabric until we approach the time when +tapestry-history begins all over France, like sparse flowers glowing +here and there in the early spring wood. + +When the Great Louis, with Colbert at his sumptuous side, was by way +of patronising magnificently those arts which contributed to his own +splendour, he set his all-seeing eye upon Aubusson, and thought to +make it a royal factory. + +He was far from establishing it--that was more than accomplished +already, not so much by the legendary Saracens as by the busy populace +who had as early as 1637 as many as two thousand workers. Going back a +little farther we find a record of four tapestries woven there for +Rheims. + +It was, perhaps, this very prosperity, this ability to stand alone +that made Louis and Colbert think it worth while to patronise the +works at Aubusson. But it must be said that at this time (1664) the +factory was deteriorating. Tapestry works are as sensitive as the +veriest exotic, and without the proper conditions fail and fade. The +wrong matter here was primarily the cartoons, which were of the +poorest. No artist controlled them, and the workers strayed far from +the copy set long before. Added to that, the wool was of coarse, +harsh quality and the dyeing was badly done. All three faults +remediable, thought the two chief forces in the kingdom. + +So Louis XIV announced to the sixteen hundred weavers of Aubusson that +he would give their works the conspicuous privilege of taking on the +name of the Royal Manufactory at Aubusson. And, moreover, he declared +his wish to send them an artist to draw worthily, and a master of the +important craft of dyeing fast and lovely colours. + +Colbert drew up a series of articles and stipulations, long papers of +rules and restrictions which were considered a necessary part of fine +tapestry weaving. These papers are tiresome to read--the constitution +of many a nation or a state is far less verbose. They give the +impression that the craft of tapestry weaving is beset with every sort +of small deceit, so protection must be the arrangement between master +and worker, and between the factory and the great outside world, lying +in wait to tear with avaricious claws any fabric, woven or written, +that this document leaves unprotected. You get, too, the impression +that weavers took themselves a little too seriously. There must have +been other arts and crafts in the world than theirs, but if so these +men of long documents ignored it. + +Aubusson, then, took heart at the encouragement of the king and his +prime minister, enjoyed their fine new title to flaunt before the +world which lacked it, pored over their new Articles of Faith, and +awaited the new artist and the new alchemist of colours. + +But Louis XIV was a busy man, and Paris presented enough activity to +consume all his hours but the scant group he allowed himself for +sleep. So Aubusson was forgot. Wars and pleasures both ravaged the +royal purse, and no money was left for indulgences to a tapestry +factory lying leagues distant from Paris and the satisfying Gobelins. + +Then came the agitation of religious conflict during which Louis XIV +was persuaded, coerced, nagged into the condition of mind which made +him put pen to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the document +that is ever playing about the fortunes of tapestry weaving. This was +in 1685. Aubusson had struggled along on hope for twenty years, under +its epithet Royal, but now it had to lose its best workers to the +number of two hundred. The Protestants had ever been among the best +workers in Louis' kingdom, and by his prejudice he lost them. Germany +received some of the fugitives, notably, Pierre Mercier. + +Near Aubusson were Felletin and Bellegarde, the three towns forming +the little group of factories of La Marche. When the king's act +brought disaster to Aubusson, her two neighbours suffered equally. + +There was also another reason for a sagging of prosperity. Beauvais +was rapidly gaining in size and importance under the patronage of the +king and the wise rule of its administrators. Beauvais with her +high- and low-warp looms, her artists from Paris and her privilege to +sell in the open market, lured from Aubusson the patronage that might +have kept her strong. + +Thus things went on to the end of the Seventeenth Century and the +first quarter of the Eighteenth. Then in 1731 came deliverers in the +persons of the painters, Jean Joseph du Mons and Pierre de Montezert, +and an able dyer who aided them. Prosperity began anew. Not the +prosperity of the first half of the Seventeenth Century, which was its +best period, but a strong, healthy productiveness which has lasted +ever since. Two articles of faith it adheres to--that the looms shall +be invariably low, and that the threads of the warp shall be of wool +and wool only. + +Large quantities of strong-colour verdures from La Marche and notably +from Aubusson are offered to the buyer throughout France. They are as +easily adapted to the wood panels of a modern dining-room as is stuff +by the yard, the pattern being merely a mass of trees divisible almost +anywhere. The colour scheme is often worked out in blues instead of +greens; a narrow border is on undisturbed pieces, and the reverse of +the tapestry is as full of loose threads as the back of a cashmere +rug. For the most part these fragments are the work of the Eighteenth +Century. Older ones, with warmer colours introduced bring much higher +prices. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +SAVONNERIE + + +Those who hold by the letter, leave out the velvety product of La +Savonnerie from the aristocratic society of hangings woven in the +classic stitch of the Gobelins. They have reason. Yet, because the +weave is one we often see in galleries, also on furniture both old and +new, it is as well not to ignore its productions in lofty silence. + +Besides, it is rather interesting, this little branch of an exotic +industry that tried to run along beside the greater and more artistic. +It never has tried to be much higher than a man's feet, has been +content for the most part to soften and brighten floors that before +its coming were left in the cold bareness of tile or parquet. It crept +up to the backs and seats of chairs, and into panelled screens a +little later on, but never has it had much vogue on the walls. + +When we go back to its beginnings we come flat against the Far East, +as is usual. The history of the fabric which is woven with a pile like +that of heavy wool velvet, and which is called Savonnerie, runs +parallel to the long story of tapestry proper, but to make its scant +details one short concrete chronicle it is best to put them all +together. + +From the East, then, came the idea of weaving in that style of which +only the people of the East were masters. Oriental rugs as such were +not attempted in either colour or design, but one of the rug stitches +was copied. + +We have to run back to the time of Henri IV, a pleasing time to turn +to with its demonstration of how much a powerful king loved the +welfare of his people. When he interested himself in tapestry, one of +the three important existing factories was stationed in the Louvre. +This was primarily for the hangings properly called tapestry, but in +the same place were looms for the production of work "after the +fashion of Turkey." Sometimes it was called work of "long wool" +(_longue laine_) and sometimes also "_a la façon de Perse, ou du +Levant_," as well as "of the fashion of Turkey,"--all names giving +credit to the East from whence the stitch came by means of crusades, +invasions and other storied movements of the people of a dim past. + +How long ago this stitch came, is as uncertain as most things in the +Middle Ages. We know how persistently the cultivated venturesome East +overflowed Eastern Europe, and how religious Europe thrust itself into +the East, and on these broad bases we plant our imaginings. + +Away back in Burgundian times there are traces of the use of this +velvet stitch. Tapestries of Germany also woven in the Fifteenth +Century, use this stitch to heighten the effect of details. + +But the formation of an actual industry properly set down in history +and dignified by the name of its directors, comes in the very first +years of the Seventeenth Century when Henri IV of France was living up +to his high ideals. + +Pierre Dupont is the name to remember in this connexion. He is styled +the inventor of the velvet pile in tapestry, but it were better to +call him the adaptor. The name of Savonnerie came from the building in +which the first looms were set up, an old soap factory, and thus the +velvet pile bears the misnomer of the Savonnerie. + +Pierre Dupont (whose book "La Stromaturgie" might be consulted by the +book-lover) was one of the enthusiasts included by Henri IV along with +the best high-and low-warp masters of France at that time. Being +placed under royal patronage, the Savonnerie style of weaving acquired +a dignity which it has ever had trouble in retaining for the simple +reason that the legitimate place for its products seems to be the +floor. + +The Gobelins factory finally absorbed the Savonnerie, but that was +after it had been established in the Louvre. Pierre Dupont who was +director of tapestry works under Henri IV even goes so far as to vaunt +the works of French production over those of "La Turquie." The taste +of the day was doubtless far better pleased with the French colour and +drawing than with the designs of the East. + +At any rate, this pretty wool velvet found such favour with kings that +even Louis XIV encouraged its continuance, gathering it under the roof +of the all-embracing Gobelins. + +A large royal order embraced ninety-two pieces, intended to cover the +Grand Galerie of the Louvre. Many of these pieces are preserved to-day +and are conserved by the State. + +If Savonnerie has never produced much that is noteworthy in the line +of art, at least it has given us many pretty bits of an endearing +softness, bits which cover a chair or panel a screen, to the delight +of both eye and touch. The softness of the weave makes it especially +appropriate to furniture of the age of luxurious interiors which is +represented by the styles of Louis XV and Louis XVI. + +Portraits in this style of weave were executed at a time when +portraits were considered improved by translation into wool, but +except as curiosities they are scarcely successful. An example hangs +in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Plate facing page 162.) +In the Gobelins factory of to-day are four looms for the manufacture +of Savonnerie. + + [Illustration: SAVONNERIE. PORTRAIT SUPPOSABLY OF LOUIS XV + + Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York] + + [Illustration: VULCAN AND VENUS SERIES. MORTLAKE + + Collection of Philip Hiss, Esq., New York] + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +MORTLAKE + +1619-1703 + + +The three great epochs of tapestry weaving, with their three +localities which are roughly classed as Arras in the Fifteenth +Century, Brussels in the Sixteenth Century, and Paris in the +Seventeenth, had, as a matter of course, many tributary looms. It is +not supposable that a craft so simple, when it is limited to +unambitious productions, should not be followed by hundreds of modest +people whose highest wish was to earn a living by providing the market +with what was then considered as much a necessity as chairs and +tables. + +To take a little retrospective journey through Europe and linger among +these obscurer weavers would be delectable pastime for the leisurely, +and for the enthusiast. But we are all more or less in a hurry, and +incline toward a courier who will point out the important spots +without having to hunt for them. Artois had not only Arras; Flanders +had not only Brussels; France had not only the State ateliers of Paris +and Beauvais; but all these countries had smaller centres of +production. The tapestries from some of these we are able to identify, +even to weave a little history about them. These products are +recognisable through much study of marks and details and much digging +in learned foreign books, where careful records are kept--a congenial +business for the antiquary. + +But even though we may neglect in the main the lesser factories, there +is one great development which must have full notice. It is the +important English venture known as Mortlake. + +Sully, standing at the elbow of Henri IV of France, called James I of +England the wisest fool in Europe. A part of his wisdom was the +encouraging in his own kingdom the royal craft of tapestry-making. To +this end he followed the example set by that grand Henri of Navarre, +and gave the crown's aid to establish and maintain works for tapestry +production. + +The elegance of the Stuart came to the front, desiring gratification; +but craftiness had a hand in the matter, too. After the introduction +of Italian luxury into England by Henry VIII, and the continuance of +art's revival through the brilliant period of Elizabeth, it is not +supposable that no tapestry looms existed throughout the length and +breadth of the land at the time that James came down from Scotland. + +They were there; documents prove it. But they were not of such +condition as pleased the fastidious son of Marie Stuart, who needs +must import his weavers and his artists. And therein was shown his +craftiness, for he had coaxed secretly from Flanders fifty expert +weavers before the canny Dutch knew their talented material was thus +being filched away. Every weaver was bound to secrecy, lest the Low +Countries, knowing the value of her clever workmen, put a ban upon +their going before the English king had his full quota for the new +venture. + +Wandering about old London, one can identify now the place where the +king's factory had habitat. The buildings stood where now we find +Queen's Court Passage, and near by, at Victoria Terrace, was the house +set aside for the limners or artists who drew and painted for the +works. + +To copy Henri IV in his success was dominant in the mind of James I. +To the able Sir Francis Crane he gave the place of director of the +works, and made with him a contract similar to that made with François +de la Planche and Marc Comans in Paris by their king. + +If to James I is owed the initial establishment, to Crane is owed all +else at that time. It was in 1619 that the works were founded and Sir +Francis took charge. He was a gentleman born, was much seen at Court, +had ambitions of his own, too, and was cultivated in many ways of mind +and taste. Besides all this, he had a head for business and an +enthusiasm rampant, which could meet any discouragement--and needed +this faculty later, too. + +The king then gave him the management of the venture, started him with +the royal favour, which was as good as a fortune, with a building for +the looms, with imported workers who knew the tricks of the trade, and +with a pretty sum of money to boot. + +Prudence was born with the enterprise; so the men from the Low +Countries were advised to become naturalised to make them more likely +to stay, and to bring other workers over, Walloons, malcontents, +religious fugitives, or whatever, so long as the hands were skilful. +Down in Kent, they say those cottages were built for weavers,--those +lovable nests of big timbers, curved gables and small leaded panes +which we are so keen to restore and live in these days. + +To swell the number of workers, and to have an eye for the future, +there must be apprentices. The king looked about among the city's +"hospitals" and saw many goodly boys living at crown expense, with no +specified occupation during their adolescence. These he put as +apprentices, for a term of seven years, to work under the fifty +Flemish leaders. They were happy if they fell under the care of Philip +de Maecht, he of Flanders, who had wandered down to Paris and served +under De la Planche and Comans, and now had been enticed to the new +Mortlake. He has left his visible mark on tapestries of his +production--his monogram, P.D.M. (Plate facing page 70.) + +A designer for the factory, one who lived there, was an inseparable +part of it. And thus it came that Francis Clein (or Cleyn) was +permanently established. He came from Denmark, but had taken an +enlightening journey to Italy, and had a fine equipment for the work, +which he carried on until 1658. His name is on several tapestries now +existing. + +Even kings tire of their fulfilled wishes. James wanted royal tapestry +works, yet, when they were an established fact, he wearied of the +drafts on his purse for their support. It was the old story of +unfulfilled obligations, of a royal purse plucked at by too many vital +interests to spend freely on art. + +And Sir Francis Crane bore the brunt of the troubles. Contracts with +the king counted but lightly in face of his enthusiasm. He continued +the work, paid his men the best he could, and let the king's debt to +him stand unsued. + +In a few years--a very few, as it was then but 1623--he was obliged to +petition the king. His private fortune was gone by the board, the +workmen were clamouring for wages past due, and the factory trembled. + +Then it was the Prince of Wales showed the value of his interest in +the tapestries that were demonstrating the artistic enterprise of +England. The Italian taste was the ultimate note in England as well as +elsewhere--the Italy of the Renaissance; and from Italy the prince had +ordered paintings and drawings. What was more to the purpose at this +hour of leanness, he ordered paid by the crown a bill of seven hundred +pounds, which covered their expense. The king, unwillingly,--for needs +pressed on all sides--paid also Sir Francis Crane in part for moneys +he had expended, but left him struggling against the hard conditions +of a ruined private purse and a thin royal one. + +At this juncture, 1625, James I died, and his son reigned in his +stead. The Prince of Wales was now become that beribboned, +picturesque, French-spirited monarch, whose figure on Whitehall +eternally protests his tragic death. + +As Charles I, he had the power to foster the elegant industry which +now grew and flowered to a degree that brought satisfaction then, and +which yields a harvest of delight in our own times. Sir Francis Crane +was at last to get the reward of enthusiasm and fidelity. Too much +reward, said the envious, who tried in all ways, fair and foul, to +drive him from what was now a lucrative and conspicuous post. The +money he had advanced the factory came back to him, and more also. +Ever a well-known figure at court, he now even aspired to closer +relations with royalty, and built a magnificent country home, which +was large enough to accommodate a visiting court. He even persuaded +the king to visit the Mortlake factory, that the royal presence might +enhance the value of art in the occult way known only to the subjects +of kings. + +Debts from the crown were not always paid in clinking coin, but often +in grants of land, and by these grants Sir Francis Crane became rich. +But the prosperity of Crane was not worth our recording were it not +that it evidenced the prosperity of Mortlake. From the death of James +I in 1625 for a period of ten years, the factory flowered and fruited. +Its productions were of the very finest that have ever been produced +in any country. + +The reasons for this superiority were evident. First of all, Mortlake +was the pet of the king; next, Crane was an able and devoted minister +of its affairs; its artistic inspiration came from the home of the +highest art--Italy--and its weavers were from that locality of sage +and able weavers--Flanders. Add to this, tapestries were the fashion. +Every man of wealth and importance felt them a necessary chattel to +his elegance. And add to this, too, that Mortlake had almost a clean +field. It was nearly without rival in fine tapestry-making at that +time. Brussels had declined, and the Gobelins was not formed in its +inspired combination. + + [Illustration: VULCAN AND VENUS SERIES. MORTLAKE + + Collection of Philip Hiss, Esq., New York] + + [Illustration: VULCAN AND VENUS SERIES. MORTLAKE + + Collection of Philip Hiss, Esq., New York] + +Besides this, were not the materials for the industry found best +within the confines of the kingdom? What sheep in all the world +produced such even, lustrous wool as the muttons huddling or wandering +on the undulating _prés salés_ of Kent; and was not wool, par +excellence, the ideal material for picture-weaving, better than silk +or glittering gold? + +The hangings made then were superb. Thanks to destiny, we have some +left on which to lavish our enthusiasm. The cartoons preferred came +from Italy's great dead masters. First was Raphael. The Mortlake would +try its hand at nothing less than the great series made to finish and +soften the decoration of the Sistine Chapel. And so the _Acts of the +Apostles_ were woven, and in such manner as was worthy of them. They +can be seen now in the Garde Meuble. Van Dyck, the great Hollander, +made court painter to the king, drew borders for them, and was proud +to do it, too. Van Dyck's other work here was a portrait of Sir +Francis Crane and one of himself. + +Rubens likewise associated his great decorative genius with the +factory and gave to it his suite of six designs for the _Story of +Achilles_. Cleyn, the Mortlake art-director, furnished a _History of +Hero and Leander_, which found home among the marvellous tapestries of +the King of Sweden. + +There were other classic subjects, and the months as well, but of +especial interest to us is the _Story of Vulcan_. Several pieces of +this series have been lent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New +York, by their owners, Mrs. von Zedlitz, and Philip Hiss, Esq. Thus, +without going far from home, thousands have been able to see these +delightful examples of the highest period of England's tapestry +production. The series was woven for Charles I when he was Prince of +Wales, from cartoons by Francis Cleyn, and woven by the master, Philip +de Maecht. The borders are especially interesting, and carry the +emblematic three feathers of the prince, as well as his monogram, in +Mrs. von Zedlitz's example, _The Expulsion of Vulcan_. (Coloured plate +facing page 170.) + +It was this same series of _Vulcan_ that was used as a text by Crane's +enemy to prove to the king, in 1630, that Crane was profiting unduly +and dishonestly from the land grants given him in payment for arrears. +The plaintiff speaks of this set as being "the foundation of all good +tapestries in England." We are fortunate in having pieces from it in +America. + +Only by actual contact with the tapestry itself can the beauty of the +colour and the work be known. We well believe the superior quality of +the English wool when it lies before us in smooth expanse of subtle +colour. And as for even weaving, it is there unsurpassed. Every inch +declares the talent and patience of the craftsman. As for colour, it +is on a low scale that makes blues seem like remembrance of the sea, +and reds like faint flushings planned in warm contrast, while over all +is thrown a veil of delicate mist that may be of years, or may have +been done with intent, but is there to give poetic value to the whole +of the artist's scheme. + + [Illustration: THE EXPULSION OF VULCAN FROM OLYMPUS] + +Sir Francis Crane died in 1636, and Captain Richard Crane succeeded +him. And then began the decline of a factory which should have lived +to save us deep regret. This second Crane could not carry on the work, +and besought the king to relieve him by taking over the factory, which +was thenceforth known as King's Works. + +But civil wars came on in 1642 and other matters were more urgent than +the production of works of art. So evil days fell upon the weavers. + +Then came the black day when Charles was beheaded. The Commonwealth, +to do it justice, tried to keep alive the industry. They put at its +head a nobleman, Sir Gilbert Pickering, and, to inspire the workers, +brought a new model for design. + +They went to Hampton Court and took from there _The Triumph of Cæsar_, +by Mantegna, to serve as new models. Some hope, too, lay in the +weavers of the hour, clever Hollanders taken prisoners in the war; and +all this while Cleyn directed. + +But there were too many circumstances in the way, too many hard knocks +of fate. People were too poor to buy good tapestries, and loose-woven, +cheaper ones were heavily imported--to the amount of $500,000 +yearly--from France and the Low Countries. Anti-Catholic feeling +displayed hatred toward the able Catholic weavers, who were forced out +of the country by proclamation. + +The sad end of this story is that in 1702 a petition was placed before +the king asking permission to discontinue the Mortlake works. It was +granted in 1703, and thus ended the English royal venture in England. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +IDENTIFICATIONS + + +Identifying tapestries is like playing a game, like the solving of a +piquant problem, like pursuing the elusive snark. I know of no keener +pleasure than that of standing before a tapestry for the first time +and giving its name and history from one's own knowledge, and not from +a museum catalogue or a friend's recital. The latter sources of +information may be faulty, but your own you can trust, for by +delightful association with tapestries and their literature you have +become expert. The catalogue is to be read, the friend is to be heard, +in all humility, because these supply points that one may not know; +but, who shall not say that an intensely human gratification is +experienced when the owner of a tapestry with the Brussels mark tells +you that it is a Gobelins, or one with the _History of Alexander_ +tells you it is the only set of that series ever woven, and you know +better. + +The first thing that strikes the eye and the intelligence is the +drawing, the general school to which it belongs. There is matter for +placing the piece in its right class. It might be said to place it in +its right century or quarter century, but that tapestries were so +often repeated in later times, the cartoon having no copyright and +therefore open to all countries in all centuries. Next, then, to fix +it better, comes a study of the border, for therein lies many a +secret of identity, and borders were of the epoch in which the weaving +was done, even though the cartoon for the centre came from an earlier +time. + +Last, as a finishing touch, come the marks in the galloon. This is put +last because so often they are absent, and so often unknown, the sign +of some ancient weaver lost in the mists of years, although a +well-known mark so instantly identifies, that study of other details +is secondary. + +But under these three generalising heads comes all the knowledge of +the savant, for the truth about tapestries is most elusive. Knowledge +is to be gained only by a lover of the objects, a lover willing to +spend long hours in association with his love, prowling among +collections, comparing, handling, studying designs, discerning +colours, searching for details, and indulging withal a nice feeling +for textures, a vision that feels them even without touch of the hand. + +If the study of design has not given a keen scent for the vague +quality which we call "feeling," the eye would better be trained still +further, for herein lies the secret of success in difficult places, +and not only that, but if he have not this sense he is deprived of one +of the most subtile thrills that the arts can excite. + +But this sense is not a matter of untrained intuition. It is the +flower of erudition, the flame from a full heart, or whatever dainty +thing you choose to call it. It has its origin primarily in keen +observation of the various important schools of design that have +interested the world for centuries. We unconsciously augment it even +in following the side-path of history in this modest volume. Our +studies here are but those of a summer morn or a winter eve, yet they +are in vain if they have not set up a measuring standard or two within +the mind. + + +GOTHIC DRAWING + +First, and dearest to the lover of designs, comes the Gothic, the +style practised by those conscientious romantic children-in-art, the +Primitives. Their characteristics in tapestry are much the same as in +painting, as in sculpture; for, weavers, painters, book-makers, +sculptors, were all expressing the same matter, all following the same +fashion. Therefore, to one's help comes any and every work of the +primitive artists. Making allowance for the difference in medium, the +same religious feeling is seen in the Burgundian set of _The +Sacraments_ in the Metropolitan Museum of Arts, New York, as is found +in stone carving of the time which decorated churches and tombs. + +The figures in the Gothic tapestries show a dignified restraint, a +solemnity of pose, recalling the deadly seriousness with which +children play the game of grown-ups. The artists of that day had to +keep to their traditions; to express without over-expression, was +their difficult task (as it is ours), but they had behind them the +rigidity of the Byzantine and Early Christian, so that every free +line, every vigorous pose or energetic action, was forging ahead into +a new country, a voyage of adventure for the daring artist. Quite +another affair was this from modern restraint which consists in +pruning down the voluptuous lines following the too high Renaissance. + +Faces are serious, but not animated. Dress reveals charming matter +concerning stuffs and modes in that far time. But apart from these +characteristics is the one great feature of the arrangement of the +figures, almost without perspective. And therein lies one immense +superiority of the ancient designs of tapestries over the modern as +pure decorative fabric. Men and women are placed with their +accessories of furniture or architecture all in the foreground, and +each man has as many cubits to his stature as his neighbour, not being +dwarfed for perspective, but only for modesty, as in the case of the +Lady's companion in the _Unicorn_ series--but that series is of a +later Gothic time than the early works of Arras. + +A noticeable feature is that the centre of vision is placed high on +the tapestry. The eye must look to the top to find all the strength of +the design. The lower part is covered with the sweeping robes or +finished figures of the folk who are playing their silent parts for +the delight of the eye. This covers well the space with large and +simple motive. No recourse is had to such artifice as distant lands +seen in perspective, nor angles of rooms, but all is flat, brought +frankly into intimate association with the room that is lived in, so +that these people of other days seem really to enter into our very +presence, to thrust vitally their quaint selves into our company. This +feature of simple flatness is in so great contrast to later methods of +drawing that one becomes keenly conscious of it, and deeply satisfied +with its beauty. The purpose of decoration and of furnishing seems to +be most adequately met when the attention is retained within the +chamber and not led out of it by trick of background nor lure of +perspective, no matter how enticing are the distant landscapes or how +noble the far palace of royalty. Thus the Primitives struck a more +intimately human note than the artists of later and more sophisticated +times. + +The more archaic the tapestry, the simpler the motive, is the rule. +The early weavers of Arras and of France were telling stories as +naturally as possible, perhaps because the ways of their times were +simple, and brushed aside all filigree with a directness almost +brutal; but also, perhaps, because technique was not highly developed, +either in him who drew with a pencil or him who copied that drawing in +threads of silk and wool and gold. Whatever the cause, we can but +rejoice at the result, which, alas, is shown to us by but lamentably +few remnants outside of museums. These very archaic simple pieces are, +for the most part, work of the latter part of the Fourteenth Century +and the first part of the Fifteenth, and as the history of tapestry +shows, were almost invariably woven in France or in Flanders. At the +end of the time mentioned, designs, while retaining much the same +characteristics already described, became more ambitious, more +complicated, and introduced many scenes into one piece. This is easily +proved by a comparison of the illustration of _The Baillée des Roses_, +or _The Sacraments_, with _The Sack of Jerusalem_, all in the +Metropolitan Museum. + +The idea in the earliest Gothic cartoons--if the word may be allowed +here, was to make a single picture, a unified group. Into the later +cartoons came the fashion of multiplying these groups on one field, so +that a tapestry had many points of interest, many scenes where +tragedies or comedies were being enacted. Ingenious were the ways of +the early artist to accomplish the separation between the various +scenes, which were sometimes divided merely by their own attitudes, as +folk dispose themselves in groups in a large drawing-room; and +sometimes were divided by natural obstructions, like brooks and trees, +or by columns. + +Later yet, all the antique eccentricities passed away, and the laws of +perspective and balance were fully developed in an art which has an +unspeakable charm. All the things that modern art has decreed as crude +or childish has passed away, and the sweet flower of the Gothic +perfection unfolded its exquisite beauty. This Gothic perfection was +the Golden Age of tapestry. + + +ARCHITECTURAL DETAIL + +The use of architecture in the old Gothic designs makes a pleasing +necessity of fastening our attention upon it. In the very oldest +drawing the sole use is to separate one scene from another, in the +same hanging. For this purpose slender columns are used. It is +intensely interesting to note that these are the same variety of +column that meets us on every delightful prowl among old relics of +North Europe, relics of the days when man's highest and holiest energy +expressed itself at last in the cathedral. Those slender stems of the +northern Gothic are verily the stems of plants or of aspiring young +trees, strong when grouped, dainty when alone, and forming a refined +division for the various scenes in a picture. It must be confessed +that in the medium of aged wool they sometimes totter with the effect +of imminent fall, but that they do not fall, only inspires the +illusion that they belong to the marvellous age of fairy-tale and +fancy. + +The careful observer takes a keen look at these columns as a clue to +dates. The shape of the shaft, whether round or hectagonal, the +ornament on the capitals, are indications. It is not easy to know how +long after a design is adopted its use continues, but it is entirely a +simple matter to know that a tapestry bearing a capital designed in +1500 could not have been made prior to that time. + +The columns, later on, took on a different character. They lifted +slender shafts more ornamented. It is as though the restless men of +Europe had come up from the South and had brought with them +reminiscences of those tender models which shadowed the art of the +Saracens, the art which flavoured so much the art of Southern Europe. +The columns of many a cloister in Italy bear just such lines of +ornament, including the time when the brothers Cosmati were +illuminating the pattern with their rich mosaic. + +Then, later still, the columns burst into the exquisite bloom of the +early Renaissance, their character profoundly different, but their use +the same, that of dividing scenes from one another on the same woven +picture. But as any allusion to the Renaissance seems to thrust us far +out onto a radiant plain, let us scamper back into the mysterious wood +of the Gothic and pick up a few more of its indicative pebbles, even +as did Hans and Gretel of fairyland. + +A use of Gothic architectural detail gives a religious look to +tapestry, quite other than the later introduction of castles. These +castle strongholds of the Middle Ages wasted no daintiness of +construction, nor favoured light ornament, nor dainty hand. They were, +par excellence, places of defence against the frequent enemy; so, in +bastion and tower they were piled in curving masses around the scenes +of the later Gothic tapestries. Even more, they began to play an +important part in the _mise en scène_, and were drawn on tiny scale as +habitations of the actors in the play who thrust heads from windows no +larger than their throats, or who gathered in gigantic groups on +disproportioned tessellated roofs. + +Occasionally a lovely lady in distress is seen in fine raiment praying +high Heaven for deliverance from the top of a feudal pile not half as +high as her stately figure. Laws of proportion are quite lost in this +naïve way of telling a story, and one wonders whether the wise old +artist of other times, with his rigid solemnity was heroically +overcoming difficulties of traditional technique, or whether he was +smiling at the infantile taste of his wealthy patrons. The past +fashion in history was to record only the lives and expressions of +those great in power. The artist is ever the servant of such, but may +he not have had his own private thoughts, unpurchaseable, unsold, and +therefore only for our divining. There must have been a sense of +humour then as now, and twinkling eyes with which to see it. + + +GOTHIC FLOWERS + +Always, in studying a Gothic tapestry, we find flowers. The flowers of +nature, they are, a simple nature at that, and never to be thought of +in the same day as the gorgeous, expansive, proud flowers of the +Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century decoration. Those splendid later +blossoms flaunt their richness with assured swagger and demand of man +his homage, quite forgetting it is the flower's best part to give. + +Botticelli had not outgrown the Gothic flowers when he sprinkled them +on the ambient air and floating robe of his chaste and dreamy _Venus_, +nor when he set them about the elastic tripping feet of the _Spring_. +He knew their simple power, and so do we. Scarce a Gothic tapestry is +complete without them, happily for those bent on identification, for +rarely can one discover them without the same thrill that accompanies +the discovery of the first violets and snowdrops in the awakening +woods. + +The old weavers set them low in the picture, used them as +space-fillers wherever space lay happily before them, and they never +exaggerated their size, a virtue of which the full Renaissance cannot +boast. They are the simplest sort of flowers, the corolla of petals +turning as frankly toward the observer as the sunflower turns toward +her god, and little bells hanging as regularly as a chime. These are +their characteristics, easily recognisable and expressing the +unsophisticated charm of the creations of honest childish hands. +Irrelevancy is theirs, too. They spring from stones or pavement as +well as from turf or garden, and thus express the more ardently their +love for man and for close association with him. When they are seen +after this manner, it is sure that the early men have set them, just +as Shakespeare, at the same epoch, set violets blue and daisies pied, +cowslip, rosemary "for remembrance," and other familiar dainties, in +the grim foundation stones of his tragedies. + +A comparison of the different hangings available to the amateur, or of +the pictured examples given in this book, will reveal more than can be +well set down with the pen. The use of flowers in the set of _The +Baillée des Roses_ is exceptional, in that here the flowers form a +harmonious decorative scheme and are at the same time an important +part of the story which is pictured. + +In other earliest examples they playfully peep within the limits of +the hanging. Important use is, however, made of them in that +altogether entrancing set of _The Lady and the Unicorn_, where they +indicate the beauties of a fascinating park in which the delicate lady +and her attendant led a wondrous life guarded by two beasts as +fabulous as faithful, and the whole region of leaves and petals but +serving as a paradise for delectable white rabbits and piquant +monkeys. Could any modern indicate by sophistry of brush or brain so +intoxicating a fairyland, so gracious a field of dear delights? + + +COSTUMES + +A minute study of all the details of costume and accessories is one of +the measuring sticks with which we count the years of a tapestry's +life. This applies more particularly to the work prior to the +Renaissance, to the time when all characters were dressed in the mode +of the day--another evidence of that ingenuousness that delights us +who have passed the period where it is possible. + +As we have noted before, a costume cannot be used before its time, so, +as much as anything can, the study of its details prevents us from +going too far back with its date. When one has reached the point of +identifying a Gothic tapestry to where the exact decade is questioned, +the century having been ascertained, a careful study of costumes +outside the region of tapestries is necessary. This leads one into a +department all by itself and means delightful hours in libraries +poring over illustrated books on costume. It means to learn in what +manner our gods and heroes of fact and fancy habited themselves, how +Berengaria wore her head-dress and Jehane de Bourgogne her brocades, +and how the eternally various sleeve differed in its fashioning for +both men and women. + +Head-dresses were of such size and variety that they form a study in +themselves, and dates have been fixed by these alone. The turban in +its evolution is an interesting study, and makes one wonder if that, +too, did not wander north from the Moorish occupancy of Spain and the +wave of inspiration which flowed unceasingly from the Orient in the +years when Europe created little without inspiration from outside. + +A patriarchal bearded man in sacerdotal robes of costly elegance +seriously impresses his fellows all through the Gothic tapestries, and +his rival is a swaggering, important person, clean-shaven, in full +brocaded skirt, fur-bound, whose attitude declares him royal or near +it. The first of these is the model nowadays for stage kings, and even +a woman's toilet must vaunt itself to get notice beside his gorgeous +array. He wears about his waist a jewelled girdle of great splendour, +and on his head some impressive matter of either jewels or draping. +His face is usually full-bearded, but even when smooth, youth is not +expressed upon him. Youths of the same time are more _débonnaire_, are +springing about, clean-faced, clad in short, belted pelisse, showing +sprightly legs equally ready to step quickly towards a lovely lady or +to a field of battle. + +Soldiers--let a woman hesitate to speak of their dress and arms in any +tone but that of self-depreciating humility. Suffice it to say that in +the early work they wore the armour of the time, whether the scene +depicted were an event of history cotemporaneous, or of the time of +Moses. Fashions in dress changed with deliberation then, and it is to +the arms carried by the men that we must sometimes look for exactness +of date. + + +LETTERING + +The presence of letters is often noticed in hangings of the +Fourteenth, Fifteenth and early Sixteenth Centuries. It was a fashion +eminently satisfactory, a great assistance to the observer. It helped +tell the story, and, as these old pictures had always a story to tell, +it was entirely excusable--at least, so it seems to one who has stood +confounded before a modern painting without a catalogue or other +indication as to the why of certain agitated figures. + +The lettering was, in the older Gothic, explicit and unstinted, in +double or quadruple lines, in which case it counts as decoration +banded across top or bottom. Again, it is as trifling as a word or two +affixed to the persons of the play to designate them. This lettering +may be French or Latin. + + +EARLY BACKGROUNDS + +Backgrounds of the early Fifteenth Century deal much in +conventionalised, flat patterns, but fifty or sixty years later, when +figures began to be more crowded, there was but little space left +unoccupied by the participants in the allegory, and this was filled by +the artifices of architecture or herbage that formed the divisions +into the various scenes. Later the designing artists decided to let +into the picture the light of distant fields and skies, and thus was +introduced the suggestion of space outside the limit of the canvas. + + +LATER DRAWING + +After the Gothic drawing, came the avalanche of the Renaissance. That +altered all. The Italian taste took precedence, and from that time on +the cartoons of tapestries represent modern art, trailing through its +various fashions or modes of the hour. The purest Renaissance is +direct from the Italian artist, in tapestry as well as in painting, +but it is interesting to see the maladroitness of the Flemish hand +when left to draw cartoons for himself after the new manner. + +After the Renaissance came exaggeration and lack of sincerity; then +the improvement of the Seventeenth Century, notably in France, and +after that the dainty fancies of the Eighteenth Century, and here we +are dealing with art so modern that it needs no elucidation. The +drawing in tapestries is a subject as fascinating as it is +inexhaustible, but, however much one may read on it, nothing equals +actual association with as many tapestries as are available, for the +eye must be trained by vision and not by intellectual process alone. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +IDENTIFICATIONS (_Continued_) + + +If the amateur can have the fortune to see in the same hour a tapestry +of the early Fifteenth Century, and one a hundred years later, and +then one about 1550, from Brussels, drawn by an Italian artist, he has +before him an exposition of tapestry weaving in its golden age when it +sweeps through its greatest periods and phases to marvellous +perfection. The earliest example gives acquaintance with that almost +fabled time of the Gothic primitives in art; the second shows the +highest development of that art under the influence of civilisation, +and the third shows the obsession of the new art of the Renaissance. +It is, perhaps, superfluous to say that after the revival of classic +art the power of producing spontaneous Gothic was lost forever. From +that time on, every drawing has had certain characteristics, certain +sophistications that the artist cannot escape except in a deliberate +copy. + +Modern art, we call it. In tapestry it began with a freedom of drawing +in figures, and an adoption of classic ornament and architecture. In +this connexion it is interesting to note the introduction of Greek or +Roman detail in the columns that divide the scenes, to see saints +gathered by temples of classic form instead of Gothic. If Renaissance +details appear in a hanging called Gothic, it is easy to see that the +piece was woven after Europe was infected with modern art, and this is +an assistance in placing dates; at least, it checks the tendency to +slip back too far in antiquity, a tendency of which we in a new +country are entirely guilty. + +Lest too long a lingering on the subject of design become wearisome, a +mention of later designs is made briefly. The simplicity of the early +Renaissance, the perfection of the high Renaissance, are both shown in +tapestry as well as in paintings, and so, too, is exemplified the +inflation that ended in tiresome exuberance. + +After the fruit was ripe it fell into decay. After Sixteenth Century +perfection, Seventeenth Century designs fell of their own overweight, +figures were too exaggerated, draperies billowed out as in a perpetual +gale, architecture and landscapes were too important, and tapestries +became frankly pictures to attract the attention. To this class of +design belong all those monstrosities which reflected and distorted +the art of Raphael, and which have been intimately associated with +Scriptural subjects down to our own times. + +After Raphael, Rubens. Familiarity with this heroic painter is the key +to placing all the magnificent designs similar to the set of _Antony +and Cleopatra_ (Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York). + +Then came the easily recognisable designs of the French ateliers of +the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. These are so frequently +brought before us as to seem almost like products of our own day. The +earlier ones seem (as ever) the purer art, the less sensual, +appealing to the more impersonal side of man, dealing in battles and +in classic subjects. Later, the drawings, becoming more directly +personal, in the time of Louis XIV portrayed events in the _Life of +the King_; in the next reign, slipping into the pleasures of the +_Royal Hunts_, from which the descent was easy into depicting nothing +higher than the soft loveliness of the fantastic life of the time as +led by those of high estate. From Lebrun to Watteau one can trace the +gradual seductive decline, where heroic ideal lowers softly in +alluring decadence into a mere tickling of the senses. And at this +time the productions of great tapestries stopped. + +Before leaving the review of drawing or design, it is well to recall +that the fleeting fashions of the day usually set the models, not in +the manner of treatment which we have been considering broadly, but in +the subject of designs. For example, the tendency to religious and +morality subjects in the Gothic, the love for Greek gods and heroes in +the Renaissance, the glorification of kings and warriors at all times, +and the portrayal of royal pleasures in modern times. The months of +the year were woven in innumerable designs and formed an endless theme +for artists' ingenuity during and after the Renaissance. + + +BORDERS + +It is but natural that, with the expansion in drawing, the freedom +given the pencil, imagination leaped outside the pictured scene and +worked fantastically on the border, and it is to the border that we +turn for many a mark of identification. The subject being a full one, +it has longer consideration in a separate chapter. First there is the +simple outlying tape, then the designed border. The early Gothic was +but a narrow line of flowers and berries; the later more sophisticated +Gothic enlarged and elaborated this same motive without introducing +another. The blossoms grew larger, the fruit fuller and the modest +cluster of berries was crowded by pears, apples and larger fruit, +until a general air of full luxury was given. The design was at first +kept neatly within bordering lines of tape, but later, overleaped them +with a flaunting leaf or mutinous flower. + +Ribbons appeared early, then came fragmentary glimpses of dainty +columns which gave nice reasons for the erect upstanding of so heavy a +decoration. These all were Gothic, but what came after shows the +riotous imagination of the Renaissance. It seemed in that fruitful +time, space itself were not large enough to hold the designs within +the artist's brain. Certainly no corner of a tapestry could be left +unfilled, and not that alone, but filled with perfect pictures instead +of with a simple repeated scheme of decoration. It was in this rich +time of production that the borders of tapestries grew to exceeding +width, and were divided into squares, each square containing a scene. +These scenes were often of sufficient importance in composition to +serve as models for the centre of a tapestry, each one of them, which +thought gives a little idea of the fertility of the artists in that +untired period. + +It was the delight of the great Raphael himself to expend his talent +on the border of his cartoons. From this artist others took their cue +with varying skill, but with fine effect, and with unlimited interest +to us. Those who run have time to remark only the great central +picture in a hanging; but, to those who live with it, this added line +of exquisite panorama is an unceasing delight for the contemplative +hours of solitude. From this rich departure from Gothic simplicity the +artists grew into the same fulness of design that ended in decadence. +The border became almost obnoxious in its inflated importance and from +voluptuous elegance changed to coarse overweight; and by these signs +we know the early inspired work from its rank and monstrous +aftergrowth in the Eighteenth Century. + +A quick glance at the plates showing the work of tapestry's next +highwater mark, the hundred years of the Gobelins' best work, +illustrates the difference between that time and others, and shows +also the gradual drop into the border which is merely a woven +representation of a gilded wood frame to enclose the woven picture as +a painted one would be framed. The plate of _Esther and Ahasuerus_ +illustrates this sort of border in the unmistakable lines of Louis XV +ornament. + + +POINT OF INTEREST + +Allusion has been made to the placing of the point of interest in a +tapestry, but this is a matter to be studied by much exercise of the +eye. Perhaps the amateur knows already much about it, an unconscious +knowledge, and needs only to be directed to his own store of +observations. As much as anything this change of design depended on +the uses the varying civilisation made of the hangings. So much +interest lies in this that I find myself ever prone to recapitulate +the very human facts of the past; the lining of rude stone walls and +the forming of interior doors, which was the office of the early +tapestries, and the loose full draping of the same; then the gradual +increase of luxury in the finish of dwellings themselves, until +tapestries were a decoration only; and then the minimising of grandeur +under Louis XV when everything fell into miniature and tapestries were +demanded only in small pieces that could be applied to screens or +chairs--a prostitution of art to the royal demand for prettiness. + +Keeping these general ideas of the uses of tapestries in mind, it is +easy to reason out the course of the point of interest in the design. +The Gothic aim was to make warm and comfortable the austere apartment; +the Renaissance sought to produce big decorative pictures to hang in +place of frescoes; and the French idea--beginning with that same +ideal--fell at last into the production of something that should +accompany the other arts in making minutely ornate the home of man. +Therefore, the Gothic artist placed the point of interest high; the +artists of the Renaissance followed the rules of modern painting (even +to the point of becoming academic); and the last good period of the +Gobelins dropped into miniature and decoration. + + +COLOURS + +Colours we have not yet considered, in this chapter of review for +identification's sake. They follow the same line, have the same +history, and this makes the beauty, the logic and the consistency of +our work, the work of tracing to their source the products of other +men and other times. + +Colours in the early Gothic--of what do they remind one so strongly as +of the marvels of old stained glass, that rich, pure kaleidoscope +which has lived so long in the atmosphere of incense ascending from +censer and from heart. The same scale, rich and simple, unafraid of +unshaded colour, characterise both glass and tapestry. + +The dyeing of colours in those days was a religion, a religion that +believed in holding fast to the forefathers' tenets. Red was known to +be a goodly colour, and blue an honest one; yellow was to conjure +with, and brown to shade; but beyond twelve or perhaps twenty colours, +the dyer never ventured. To these he gave the hours of his life, with +these he subjugated the white of Kentish wool, and gave it honest and +soft into the hand of the artist-weaver who, we must add, should have +been thankful for this brief gamut. To say the least, we of to-day are +grateful, for to this we owe the effect of cathedral glass seen in old +tapestries like that of _The Sacraments_. The Renaissance having more +sophisticated tales to tell, a higher intellectual development to +portray, demanded a longer scale of colour, so more were introduced to +paint in wool the pictures of the artists. At first we see them pure +and true, then muddy, uncertain, until a dull confusion comes, and the +hanging is depressing. When, at the last, it came that a tapestry was +but a painting in wool, with as many thousand differently united +threads as would reproduce the shading of brush-blended paint, the +whole thing fell of its own weight, and we of to-day value less the +unlimited pains of the elaborate dyer and weaver than we do the +simpler work. The reason is plain. Time fades a little even the +securest dyes, and that little is just enough to reduce to flat +monotones a work in which perhaps sixty thousand tones are set in +subtle shading. + + +HAUTE LISSE + +The worker on tapestries, the modern restorer--to whom be much +honour--finds a sign of identification in the handling of old +tapestries that is scarcely within the province of the amateur, but is +worth mentioning. It is the black tracing on the warp with which +high-warp weavers assist their work of copying the artist's cartoon. +Where this is present, the work is of the prized haute lisse or +high-warp manufacture, instead of the basse lisse or low-warp. But the +latter is not to be spoken of disparagingly, for in the admirable time +of French production about the time of the formation of the Gobelins, +low-warp work was almost as well executed as high-warp, and as much +valued. Brussels made her fame by haute-lisse, but in France the +low-warp was dubbed "_á la façon de Flandres_"; and as Flanders stood +for perfection, the weavers did their best to make the low-warp +production approach in excellence the famed work of the ateliers to +the north, which had formerly so prospered. + +To find this black line is to establish the fact that the tapestry was +woven on a high-warp loom, if nothing more. But that in itself means, +as is explained in the chapter on looms and _modus operandi_, that a +superior sort of weaver, an artist-artisan, did the work, and that he +had enormous difficulties to overcome in his patient task. + +A black outline woven in the fabric is one which artists prior to the +Seventeenth Century used to give greater strength to figures. It was +the habit thus to trace the entire human form, to lift it clearly from +its background, after the "poster" manner of to-day. It is as though a +dark pencil had outlined each figure. This practice stopped in later +years, and is not seen at all in the softer methods of the Gobelins. + + +THE WEAVE + +The materials of tapestries we know to be invariably wool, silk and +metal threads, yet the weaving of these varies with the talent of the +craftsman. The manner of the oldest weavers was to produce a fabric +not too thick, flexible rather--for was it not meant to hang in +folds?--and of an engagingly even surface. It was not too fine, yet +had none of the looseness associated with the coarse, hurried work of +later and degenerate times. It was more like the even fabric we +associate with machine work, yet as unlike that as palpitating flesh +is like a graven image. It was the logical production of honest +workmen who counted time well spent if spent in taking pains. + +This ability, to take detail as a religion, has left us the precious +relics of the exquisite period immediately before the Italian artists +had their way in Brussels. Notice the weave here. See the pattern of +the fabrics worn by the personages of high estate. You could almost +pluck it from the tapestry, shake out its folds, measure it flat, by +the yard, and find its delicate, intelligent pattern neat and +unbroken. Wonderful weaver, magic hands, infinite pains, were those to +produce such an effect on our sated modern vision, all with a few +threads of silk and wool and gold. + +Then there is the human face--it takes an artist to describe the +various faces with their beauty of modelling, their infinite variety +of type, their subtlety of expression. You can almost see the flushing +of the capillaries under the translucent skin, so fine are the mediums +of silk and wool under the magic handling of the talented weavers in +brilliant epochs. Not a detail in one of these older canvases of the +highest Gothic development has been neglected. + +The modern places his point of interest, and, knowing the observer's +eye is to obediently linger there, he splashes the rest of his drawing +into careless subserviency. But these careful older drawings showed in +every inch of their execution a conscience that might put the Puritan +to shame. Note, even, the ring that is being handed to the lady in the +Mazarin tapestry of Mr. Morgan's (if yours is the happy chance to see +it). It was not sufficient for the weaver that it be a ring, but it +must be a ring set with a jewel, and that jewel must be the one +celebrated ever for its value; so in the canvas glows a carefully +rounded spot of pigeon-blood. + +This exquisitely fine weaving of the period which trembled between the +Gothic and the Renaissance made possible the execution of the later +work--and yet, and yet, who shall say that the later is the superior +work? Vaunted as it is, one turns to it because one must, but with +entire fidelity of heart for the preceding manner. + +In the high period of Brussels production, when the Renaissance was +well established there, through the cartoons of the Italian artists, +it is interesting to note the richness given to surfaces solidly +filled in with gold by throwing the thread in groups of four. The +light is thus caught and reflected, almost as though from a heap of +cut topaz. This characterises the tapestries of the _Mercury_ series +in the Blumenthal collection. + +Naturally, the evenness of the weaving has much to do with the value +of the piece--otherwise the pains of the old weavers would have been +futile. The surface smooth, free from lumps or ridges, strong with the +even strength of well-matched threads, this is the beauty that +characterises the best work this side of the Fifteenth Century. + +It is the especial prerogative of the merchant to touch with his own +hands a great number of tapestries. It is by this handling of the +fabric that he acquires a skill in determining the make of many a +tapestry. There is an indefinable quality about certain wools, and +about the manner of their weaving that is only revealed by the touch. +Not all hands are wise to detect, but only those of the sympathetic +lover of the materials they handle--and I have found many such among +the merchant collector. But even he finds identification a task as +difficult as it is interesting, and spends hours of thought and +research before arriving at a conclusion--and even then will retract +on new evidence. + + +COPIES + +There are certain pitfalls into which one may so easily fall that they +must never be out of mind. The worst of these, the pit which has the +most engaging and innocent entrance, is that of the copy, the modern +tapestry copied from the old a few decades ago. + +It is easy to find by reference to the huge volumes of French writers +on tapestry just when certain sets of cartoons were first woven. Take, +for example, the _Acts of the Apostles_ by Raphael; Brussels, 1519, is +the authentic date. But after that the Mortlake factory in England +wove a set, and others followed. This instance is too historic to be +entirely typical, but there are others less known. It was the habit of +factories that possessed a valuable set of cartoons to repeat the +production of these in their own factory, and also to make some +arrangement whereby other factories could also produce the same set of +hangings. + +In the evil days that fell upon Brussels after her apogee, copying her +own works took the place of new matters. Also, in the French factories +in their prime, the same set was repeated on the same looms and on +different ones, _vide_ _The Months_, _The Royal Residences_, _History of +Alexander_, etc., and the gorgeous _Life of Marie de Medici_. If these +notable examples were copied it is safe to conclude that many others +were. + +The study of marks is left for another chapter, for, by this time, +even the enthusiast is wearying. There seems so much to learn in this +matter of investigating and identifying, and, after all, everything is +uncertain. One looks about at identified pieces in museums and private +collections, even among the dealers, and the discouraging thought +comes that other people can tell at a glance. But this is very far +from being true. + +Even the savant studies long and investigates much before he gives a +positive classification of a piece that is not "pedigreed." Here is a +Flemish piece, here is a French, he will declare, and for the life of +you you cannot see the ear-marks that tell the ancestry. And so in all +humility you ask, "How can you tell with a glance of the eye?" But he +does not. No one can do that in every case. He must spend days at it, +reflecting, reading, handling, if the piece is evidently one of value. +He will show you, perhaps, as an honest dealer-collector showed me, a +set of five fine pieces which he could not identify at all. "The +weave," said he, "is Mortlake, the design in part German, these are +Italian _putti_--yet when all is told, I put down the work as an +Eighteenth Century copy of decadent Renaissance. But I am far from +sure." + +If a dealer, surrounded by experienced helpers, can thus be +nonplussed, there is little cause for humiliation on the part of the +amateur who hesitates. It is not expected that one can know at a +glance whether a piece of work was executed in France, or in Flanders +at a given epoch. But the more difficult the work of identification, +the keener the zest of the hunt. It is then that one calls into +requisition all the knowledge of art that the individual has been +unconsciously accumulating all the years of his life. The applied +arts reflect the art feeling of the age to which they belong, and the +diluted influence of the great artists directs them. This is true of +drawing and of colour. + +History has ever its reflection on arts and crafts, but perhaps it has +in tapestry its most intentional record. It is a forced and deliberate +piece of egoism when a monarch or a conqueror has a huge picture drawn +exhibiting his grandeur in battle or his elegance at home. In some +hangings modesty limits to the border of an imaginary and decorative +scene the monogram of the heroine of history for whose apartments the +tapestry was woven. And so history is given a grace, a delicate +meaning, a warm interest, which is one of the side-gardens of delight +that show from the long path of identification study. + +This little book has as its aim the gentle purpose of pointing the way +to a knowledge that shall be a guide in knowing gold from--not from +dross, that is too simple, but gold from gold-plating let us say, for +the mad lover of tapestries will not admit that any hand-woven +tapestry is on the low level of dross. Any work which human hands have +touched and lingered on in execution is deserving of the respect of +the modern whose life must of necessity be lived in hasty execution. +Every chapter, then, is but a caution or a counsel, and this one but a +briefer statement of the same matter. If onto the fringe of the main +thought hangs much of history, it is history inseparable from it, for +history of nations gives the history of great men, and these regulate +the doings of all the lesser ones below them. + +Identification, pure and simple, is for the rapt lover of art who +pursues his game in museums and has his quiet delights that others +little dream of. But in general, to the practical yet cultivated +American, it is a means to expend wisely the derided dollars that we +impress upon other nations to the artistic enrichment of our own +country. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +BORDERS + + +If the artists of tapestries had never drawn nor ever woven anything +but the borders that frame them, we would have in that department +alone sufficient matter for happy investigation and acutely refined +pleasure. I even go so far as to think that in certain epochs the +border is the whole matter, and the main design is but an enlargement +of one of the many motives of which it is composed. But that is in one +particularly rich era, and in good time we shall arrive at its joys. + +First then--for the orderly mind grows stubborn and confused at any +beginning that begins in the middle--we must hark back to the earliest +tapestries. Tracing the growth of the border is a pleasant pastime, a +game of history in which amorini, grotesques and nymphs are the +personages, and garlands of flowers their perpetual accessories, but +first comes the time when there were no borders, the Middle Ages. + +There were none, according to modern parlance, but it was usual to +edge each hanging with a tape of monotone, a woven galloon of quiet +hue, which had two purposes; one, to finish neatly the work, as the +housewife hems a napkin; the other, to provide space of simple +material for hanging on rude hooks the big pictured surface. + +This latter consideration was one of no small importance, as we can +readily see by sending the thought back to the time when tapestries +led a very different life (so human they seem in their association +with men that the expression must be allowed) from that of to-day, +when they are secured to stretchers, or lined, or even framed behind +glass like an easel painting. + +In those other times of romance and chivalry a great man's tapestries +were always en route. Like their owner, they were continually going on +long marches, nor were they allowed to rest long in one place. From +the familiar castle walls they were taken down to line the next +habitat of their owner, and that might be the castle of some other +lord, or it might be the tent of an encampment. Again, it might be +that an open-air exposition for a pageant, was the temporary use. + +The tapestries thus bundled about, forever hung and unhung on hooks +well or ill-spaced, handled roughly by unknowing varlets or dull +soldiers, these tapestries suffered much, even to the point of +dilapidation, and thus arose the need for a tape border, and thus it +happens also that the relics of that time are found mainly among the +religious pieces. These last found safe asylum within convent walls or +in the sombre quiet of cathedral shades, and like all who dwell within +such precincts were protected from contact with a rude world. + +One day, sitting solitary at his wools, it occurred to the weaver of +the early Fifteenth Century to spill some of his flowers out upon the +dark galloon that edged his work. The effect was charming. He +experimented further, went into the enchanted wood of such a design as +that of _The Lady and the Unicorn_ to pluck more flowers, and of them +wove a solid garland, symmetrical, strong, with which to frame the +picture. To keep from confounding this with the airy bells and starry +corollas of the tender inspiring blossoms of the work, he made them +bolder, trained them to their service in solid symmetric mass, and +edged the whole, both sides, with the accustomed two-inch line of +solid rich maroon or blue. + +It is easy to see the process of mind. For a long time there had been +gropings, the feeling that some sort of border was needed, a division +line between the world of reality and the world of fable. Examine the +Arras work and see to what tricks the artist had recourse. The +architectural resource of columns, for example; where he could do so, +the artist decoyed one to the margin. Thus he slipped in a frame, and +broke none of the canons of his art, and no more beautiful frame could +have been devised, as we see by following up the development and use +of the column. Once out from its position in the edge of the picture +into its post in the border, it never stops in its beauty of growth +until it reaches such perfection as is seen in the twisted and +garlanded columns which flank the Rubens series, and those superb +shafts in _The Royal Residences_ of Lebrun at the Gobelins under Louis +XIV. + +The other trick of framing in his subject which was open to the Arras +weaver whom we call Gothic, was to set verses, long lines of print in +French or Latin at top or bottom. + +But his first real legitimate border was made of the same flowers and +leaves that made graceful the finials and capitals of Gothic carving. +Small clustered fruit, like grapes or berries, came naturally mixed +with these, as Nature herself gives both fruit and flowers upon the +earth in one fair month. + +Simplicity was the thing, and a continued turning to Nature, not as to +a cult like a latter-day nature-student, but as a child to its mother, +or a hart to the water brook. As even in a border, stayed between two +lines of solid-coloured galloon, flowers and fruit do not stand +forever upright without help, the weaver gave probability to his +abundant mass by tying it here and there with a knot of ribbon and +letting the ribbon flaunt itself as ribbons have ever done to the +delight of the eye that loves a truant. + +By this time--crawling over the top of the Fourteen Hundreds--the +border had grown wider, had left its meagre allowance of three or four +inches, and was fast acquiring a foot in width. This meant more +detail, a broader design, coarser flowers, bigger fruit, and these +spraying over the galloon, and all but invading the picture. It was +all in the way of development. The simplicity of former times was +lost, but design was groping for the great change, the change of the +Renaissance. + +The border tells quickly when it dawned, and when its light put out +all candles like a glorious sun--not forgetting that some of those +candles would better have been left burning. By this time Brussels was +the centre of manufacture and the cartoonist had come to influence all +weavings. Just as carpenters and masons, who were the planners and +builders of our forefathers' homes, have now to submit to the +domination of the _École des Beaux Arts_ graduates, so the man at the +loom came under the direction of Italian artists. And even the border +was not left to the mind of the weaver, but was carefully and +consistently planned by the artist to accompany his greater work, if +greater it was. + +Raphael himself set that fashion. He was a born decorator, and in +laying out the borders of his tapestries unbridled his wonderful +invention and let it produce as many harmonies as could be crowded +into miniature. He set the fashion of dividing the border into as many +sections as symmetry would allow, dividing them so daintily that the +eye scarce notes the division, so purely is it of the intellect. In +the border for the _Acts of the Apostles_, this style of treatment is +the one he preferred. This set has no copy in America, but an almost +unrivalled example of this style of border is in the private +collection of George Blumenthal, Esq., the _Herse and Mercury_.[16] +Here picture follows picture in charming succession, in that purity +and perfection of design with which the early Renaissance delights us. +The classic note set by the subject of the hanging is never forgotten, +but on this key is played a varied harmony of line and colour. For +dainty invention, this sort of border reaches a very high expression +of art. + +If Raphael set the fashion, others at least were not slow in seizing +the new idea and from that time on, until a period much later--that of +the Gobelins under Louis XV--it was the fashion to introduce great and +distracting interest into the border. Even the little galloon became a +twist of two ribbons around a repeated flower, or a small reciprocal +pattern, so covetous was design of all plain spaces. + +Lesser artists than Raphael also divided the border into squares and +oblongs, and with charming effect. The sides were built up after the +same fashion, but instead of the delicate architectural divisions he +affected, partitions were made with massed fruit and flowers, vines +and trellises. The scenes were surprisingly dramatic, Flemish artists +showing a preference for such Biblical reminders as Samson with his +head being shorn in Delilah's lap, while Philistines just beyond +waited the enervating result of the barber's work; or, any of the +loves and conflicts of the Greek myths was used. + +The colouring--too much cannot be seen of the warm, delicate +blendings. There is always the look of a flowerbed at dawn, before +Chanticleer's second call has brought the sun to sharpen outlines, +before dreams and night-mist have altogether quitted the place. Plenty +of warm wood colours are there, of lake blues, of smothered reds. +Precious they are to the eye, these scenes, but hard to find now +except in bits which some dealer has preserved by framing in a screen +or in the carved enclosure of some nut-wood chair. + +For a time borders continued thus, all marked off without conscious +effort, into countless delicious scenes. Then a change begins. After +perfection, must come something less until the wave rises again. If in +Raphael's time the border claimed a two-foot strip for its imaginings, +it was slow in coming narrower again, and need required that it be +filled. But here is where the variance lay: Raphael had so much to +say that he begged space in which to portray it; his imitators had so +much space to fill that their heavy imagination bungled clumsily in +the effort. They filled it, then, with a heterogeneous mass of +foliage, fruit and flowers, trained occasionally to make a bower for a +woman, a stand for a warrior, but all out of scale, never keeping to +any standard, and lost absolutely in unintelligent confusion. + +The Flemings in their decadence did this, and the Italians in the +Seventeenth Century did more, they introduced all manner of cartouche. +The cartouche plays an important part in the boasting of great +families and the sycophancy of those who cater to men of high estate, +for it served as a field whereon to blazon the arms of the patron, who +doubtless felt as man has from all time, that he must indeed be great +whose symbols or initials are permanently affixed to art or +architecture. The cartouche came to divide the border into medallions, +to apportion space for the various motives; but with a far less subtle +art than that of the older men who traced their airy arbours and +trailed their dainty vines and set their delicate grotesques, in a +manner half playful and wholly charming. + +But when the cartouche appeared, what is the effect? It is as though a +boxful of old brooches had been at hand and these were set, +symmetrically balanced, around the frame, and the spaces between +filled with miscellaneous ornament on a scale of sumptuous size. +Confusing, this, and a far cry from harmony. Yet, such are the +seductions of tapestry in colour and texture, and so caressing is the +hand of time, that these borders of the Seventeenth Century given us +by Italy and Flanders, are full of interest and beauty. + +The very bombast of them gives joy. Who can stand before the Barberini +set, _The Mysteries of the Life and Death of Jesus Christ_, bequeathed +to the Cathedral of St. John, the Divine, in New York, by Mrs. Clarke, +without being more than pleased to recognise in the border the +indefatigable Barberini bee? We are human enough to glance at the +pictures of sacred scenes as on a tale that is told, but that potent +insect makes us at once acquainted with a family of renown, puts us on +a friendly footing with a great cardinal of the house, reminds us of +sundry wanderings of our own in Rome; and then, suddenly flashes from +its wings a memory of the great conqueror of Europe, who after the +Italian campaign, set this bee among his own personal symbols and +called it Napoleonic. Yes, these things interest us enormously, +personally, for they pique imagination and help memory to fit together +neatly the wandering bits of history's jigsaw puzzle. Besides this, +they help the work of identifying old tapestries, a pleasure so keen +that every sense is enlivened thereby. + +When decorative design deserts the Greek example, it strays on +dangerous ground, unless Nature is the model. The Italians of the +Seventeenth Century, tired of forever imitating and copying, lost all +their refinement in the effort to originate. Grossness, sensuality +took the place of fine purity in border designs. Inflation, so to +speak, replaced inspiration. + +Amorini--the word can hardly be used without suggesting the gay babes +who tumble deliciously among Correggio's clouds or who snatch flowers +in ways of grace, on every sort of decoration. In these later +drawings, these tapestry borders of say 1650, they are monsters of +distortion, and resemble not at all the rosy child we know in the +flesh. They are overfed, self-indulgent, steeped in the wisdom of a +corrupt and licentious experience. I cannot feel that anyone should +like them, except as curiosities of a past century. + +Heavy swags of fruit, searching for larger things, changed to +pumpkins, melons, in the gross fashion of enlarged designs for +borders. Almost they fell of their own weight. Cornucopias spilled +out, each one, the harvest of an acre. And thus paucity of imagination +was replaced by increase in the size of each object used in filling up +the border's allotted space. + +After this riot had continued long enough in its inebriety, the +corrective came through the influence of Rubens in the North and of +Lebrun in France. These two geniuses knew how to gather into their +control the art strength of their age, and to train it into +intellectual results. Mere bulk, mere space-filling, had to give way +under the mind force of these two men, who by their superb invention +gave new standards to decorative art in Flanders and in France. +Drawings were made in scale again, and designs were built in harmony, +constructed not merely to catch the eye, but to gratify the logical +mind. + +The day was for the grandiose in borders. The petite and _mignonne_ of +Raphael's grotesques was no longer suited to the people, or, to put +it otherwise, the people were not such as seek expression in +refinement, for all art is but the visible evidence of a state of mind +or soul. + +The wish to be sumptuous and superb, then, was a force, and so the art +expressed it, but in a way that holds our admiration. A stroll in the +Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, shows us better than words the +perfection of design at this grandiose era. There one sees _Antony and +Cleopatra_ of Rubens--probably. On these hangings the border has all +the evidences of genius. If there were no picture at all to enclose, +if there were but this decorative frame, a superb inspiration would be +flaunted. From substantial urns at right and left, springs the design +at the sides which mounts higher and higher, design on design, but +always with probability. That is the secret of its beauty, its +probability, yet we are cheated all the time and like it. No vase of +fruit could ever uphold a cupid's frolic, nor could an emblematic bird +support a chalice, yet the artist makes it seem so. Note how he hangs +his swags, and swings his amorini, from the horizontal borders. He +first sets a good strong architectural moulding of classic +egg-and-dart, and leaf, and into this able motive thrusts hooks and +rings. From these solid facts he hangs his happy weight of fruit and +flower and peachy flesh. Nothing could be more simple, nothing could +be more logical. The cartouche at the top, he had no choice but to put +it there, to hold the title of the picture, and at the bottom came a +tiny landscape to balance. So much for fashion well executed. + +Colours were reformed, too, at this time, for we are now at the era +when tapestry had its last run of best days, that is to say, at the +time when France began her wondrous ascendency under Louis XIV. In +Italy colours had grown garish. Too much light in that country of the +sun, flooded and over-coloured its pictured scenes. Tints were too +strong, masses of blue and yellow and red glared all in tones purely +bright. They may have suited the twilight of the church, the gloom of +a palace closed in narrow streets, but they scourge the modern eye as +does a blasting light. The Gothic days gave borders the deep soft +tones of serious mood; the Renaissance played on a daintier scale; the +Seventeenth Century rushed into too frank a palette. + +It remained for Rubens and Lebrun to find a scheme both rich and +subdued, to bring back the taste errant. Here let me note a +peculiarity of colour, noticeable in work of Seventeenth and +Eighteenth Century borders. The colour tone varies in different pieces +of the same set, and this is not the result of fading, but was done by +deliberate intent, one side border being light and another dark, or +one entire border being lighter than others of the same set. + +Lest in speaking of borders, too much reference might be made to the +history of tapestry in general, I have left out Simon Vouet and Henri +Lerambert as inspired composers of the frame which enclosed their +cartoons; but it is well to say briefly that these men at least had +not followed false gods, and were not guilty of the flagrant offence +to taste that put a smirch on Italian art. These are the men who +preceded the establishment of State ateliers under Louis XIV and who +made productive the reign of Henri IV. + +If Rubens kept to a style of large detail, that was a popular one and +had many followers in a grandiose age. Lebrun in borders harked back +to the classics of Greece and Rome, thus restoring the exquisite +quality of delicacy associated with a thousand designs of amphoræ, +foliated scrolls and light grotesques. But he expressed himself more +individually and daringly in the series called _The Months_ and _The +Royal Residences_. This set is so celebrated, so delectable, so +grateful to the eye of the tapestry lover, that familiarity with it +must be assumed. You recollect it, once you have seen no more than a +photograph of one of its squares. But it cannot be pertinent here, for +it has no important border, say you. No, rather it is all border. Look +what the cunning artist has done. His problem was to picture twelve +country houses. To his mind it must have seemed like converting a room +into an architect's office, to hang it full of buildings. But genius +came to the front, his wonderful feeling for decoration, and lo, he +filled his canvas with glorious foreground, full of things man lives +with; columns, the size appropriate to the salon they are placed in; +urns, peacocks, all the ante-terrace frippery of the grand age, +arranged in the foreground. Garlands are fresh hung on the columns as +though our decorator had but just posed them, and beyond are clustered +trees--with a small opening for a vista. Way off in the light-bathed +distance stands the faithfully drawn château, but here, here where the +observer stands, is all elegance and grace and welcome shade, and +close friendship with luxury. + +This work of Lebrun's is then the epitome of border. Greater than this +hath no man done, to make a tapestry all border which yet so +intensified the value of the small central design, that not even the +royal patron, jealous of his own conspicuousness, discovered that art +had replaced display. + +After that a great change came. As the picture ever regulates the +border, that change was but logical. After the "Sun King" came the +regency of the effeminate Philippe, whom the Queen Mother had kept +more like a court page than a man. Artists lapped over from the +previous reign, and these were encouraged to develop the smaller, +daintier, more effeminate designs that had already begun to assert +their charm. Borders took on the new method. And as small space was +needed for the curves and shells and latticed bands, the border +narrower grew. + +Like Alice, after the potent dose, the border shrank and shrank, until +in time it became a gold frame, like the _encadrement_ of any easel +picture. And that, too, was logical, for tapestries became at this +time like painted pictures, and lost their original significance of +undulating hangings. + +The well-known motives of the Louis XV decoration rippled around the +edge of the tapestry, woven in shades of yellow silk and imitated well +the carved and gilded wood of other frames, those of chairs and +screens and paintings. There are those who deplore the mode, but at +least it seems appropriate to the style of picture it encloses. + +And here let us consider a moment this matter of appropriateness. So +far we have thought only of tapestries and their borders as +inseparable, and as composed at the same time. But, alas, this is the +ideal; the fact is that in the habit which weavers had of repeating +their sets when a model proved a favourite among patrons, led them +into providing variety by setting up a different border around the +drawing. As this reproducing, this copying of old cartoons was +sometimes done one or two hundred years after the original was drawn, +we find an anachronism most disagreeable to one who has an orderly +mind, who hates to see a telephone in a Venus' shell, for instance. +The whole thing is thrown out of key. It is as though your old family +portrait of the Colonial Governor was framed in "art nouveau." + +The big men, the almost divine Raphael, and later Rubens, felt so +keenly the necessity of harmony between picture and frame, that they +were not above drawing their own borders, and it is evident they +delighted in the work. But Raphael's cartoons went not only to +Brussels, but elsewhere, and somehow the borders got left behind; and +thus we see his celebrated suite of _Acts of the Apostles_ with a +different entourage in the Madrid set from what it bears in Rome. + +There is another matter, and this has to do with commerce more than +art. An old tapestry is of such value that mere association with it +adds to the market price of newer work. So it is that sometimes a +whole border is cut off and transferred to an inferior tapestry, and +the tapestry thus denuded is surrounded with a border woven nowadays +in some atelier of repairs, copied from an old design. + +Let such desecrators beware. The border of a tapestry must appertain, +must be an integral part of the whole design for the sake of artistic +harmony. + + +FOOTNOTE: + +[16] Frontispiece. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +TAPESTRY MARKS + + +Regardless of what a man's longing for fame may have been in the +Middle Ages, he let his works pass into the world without a sign upon +them that portrayed their author. This is as true of the lesser arts +as of the greater. It was not the fashion in the days of Giotto, nor +of Raphael, to sign a painting in vermillion with a flourished +underscore. The artist was content to sink individuality in the +general good, to work for art's sake, not for personal fame. + +This was true of the lesser artists who wove or directed the weaving +of the tapestries called Gothic, not only through the time of the +simple earnest primitives, but through the brilliant high development +of that style as shown at the studio of Jean de Rome, of the Brussels +ateliers, through the years lying between the close of the Fifteenth +Century and the Raphael invasion. + +Even that important event brought no consequence of that sort. The +freemasonry among celebrities in those days showed its perfection by +this very lack of signed work. Everybody knew the man by his works, +and the works by their excellence. + +Tapestry marks were non-existent as a system until the Brussels edict +of 1528 made them compulsory in that town. Documents and history have +been less unkind to those early workers, and to those of us who like +to feel the thrill of human brotherhood as it connects the artist and +craftsman centuries dead with our own strife for the ideal. Nicolas +Bataille in 1379 cannot remain unknown since the publishing of certain +documents concerning his Christmas task of the _Apocalypse_, and there +are scores of known master weavers reaching up through the ages to the +time when marks began. + +The Brussels mark was the first. It was a simple and appropriate +composition, a shield flanked with two letters B. These were capitals +or not. One was reversed or not, with little arbitrariness, for the +mark was legible and unmistakable in any case, even though the weaver +took great liberties--as he sometimes did. The place for this mark was +the galloon, and it was usually executed in a lighter colour, but a +single tone. + + [Illustration: BRUSSELS] + +So much for the town mark, which has a score or more of variations. In +addition to this was the mark of the weaver or of the merchant who +gave the commission. A pity it was thus to confound the two, to give +such confusion between a gifted craftsman and a mere dealer. One was +giving the years of his life and the cunning of his hand to the work, +while the other did but please a rich or royal patron with his wares. +But so it was, and we can but study over the symbols and glean at +least that the tapestry was considered a worthy one, reached the high +standard of the day, or it would have had no mark at all. + +For it was thus that the marks were first adopted. They were for the +protection of every one against fraud. High perfection made Brussels +famous, but fame brought with it such a rush of patronage that only by +lessening the quality of productions could orders be filled in such +hot haste. + +Tricks of the trade grew and prospered; there were tricks of dyeing +after a tapestry was finished, in case the flesh tints or other light +shades were not pleasing. There was a trick of dividing a large square +into strips so that several looms might work upon it at once. And +there was all manner of slighting in the weave, in the use of the comb +which makes close the fabric, in the setting of the warp to make a +less than usual number of threads to the inch. In fact, men tricked +men as much in those days as in our own. + +The fame of the city's industry was in danger. It was the province of +the guild of tapestry-makers to protect it against its own evils. +Thus, in 1528, a few years after the weaving of the Raphael +tapestries, the law was made that all tapestries should bear the +Brussels mark and that of the weaver or the client. Small tapestries +were exempt, but at that time small tapestries were not frequent, or +were simple verdures, and, charming as they are, they lacked the same +intellectual effort of composition. + +The Brussels guild stipulated the size at which the tapestry should be +marked. It was given at six ells, a Flemish ell being about 27½ +inches. Therefore, a tapestry under approximately thirteen feet might +escape the order. But that was the day of large tapestries, the day +of the Italian cartoonists, and important pieces reached that measure. + +The guild of the tapissiers in Brussels, once started on restrictions, +drew article after article, until it seemed that manacles were put on +the masters' hands. To these restrictions the decadence of Brussels is +ascribed, but that were like laying a criminal's fault to the laws of +the country. Primarily must have been the desire to shirk, the intent +to do questionable work. And behind that must have been a basic cause. +Possibly it was one of those which we are apt to consider modern, that +is, the desire to turn effort into the coin of the realm. All of the +enormous quantity of orders received by Brussels in the days of her +highest prosperity could not have been accepted had not the master of +the ateliers pressed his underlings to highest speed. + +Speed meant deterioration in quality of work, and so Brussels tried by +laws to prevent this lamentable result, and to protect the fair fame +of the symbol woven in the bordering galloon. The other sign which +accompanied the town mark, of the two letters B, should have had +excellent results, the personal mark of the weaver that his work might +be known. + +In spite of this spur to personal pride, the standard lessened in a +few years, but not until certain weavers had won a fame that thrills +even at this distance. Unfortunately, a great client was considered as +important as a weaver, and it was often his arbitrary sign that was +woven. And sometimes a dealer, wishing glory through his dealings, +ordered his sign in the galloon. And thus comes a long array of signs +which are not identifiable always. In general, one or two initials +were introduced into these symbols, which were fanciful designs that +any idle pencil might draw, but in the lapse of years it is not +possible to know which able weaver or what great purveyor to royalty +the letter A or B or C may have signified. + +Happily the light of Wilhelm de Pannemaker could not be hid even by +piling centuries upon it. His works were of such a nature that, like +those of Van Aelst, who had no mark, they would always be known for +their historic association. In illustration, there is his set of the +_Conquest of Tunis_ (plate facing page 62), woven under circumstances +of interest. Even without a mark, it would still be known that the +master weaver of Brussels (whom all acknowledged Pannemaker to be) set +up his looms, so many that it must have seemed to the folk of Granada +that a new industry had come to live among them. And it is a matter of +Spanish history that the great Emperor Charles V carried in his train +the court artist, Van Orley, that his exploits be pictured for the +gratification of himself and posterity. + +But Wilhelm de Pannemaker lived and worked in the time of marks, so +his tapestries bear his sign in addition to the Brussels mark. Of +symbols he had as many as nine or ten, but all of the same general +character, taking as their main motive the W and the P of his name. + + [Illustration: WILHELM DE PANNEMAKER] + +Incorporated into his sign, as into many others of the period, was a +mark resembling a figure 4. Tradition has it that when this four was +reversed, the tapestry was not for a private client, but for a dealer. +One set of the _Vertumnus and Pomona_ at Madrid (plates facing pages +72, 73, 74, 75) bears De Pannemaker's mark, while others have a +conglomerate pencilling. + +The sign of Jacques Geubels is, like W. de Pannemaker's, made up of +his initials combined with fantastic lines which doubtless were full +of meaning to their inventor, little as they convey to us. The example +of Jacques Geubels' weaving given in the plate is from the Chicago +Institute of Art. His time was late Sixteenth Century. + +The _Acts of the Apostles_ of Raphael, the first set, was woven by +Peter van Aelst without a mark, but the set at Madrid bears the marks +of several Brussels weavers, some attributed to Nicolas Leyniers. + +The desirability of distinguishing tapestries by marks in the galloon +appealed to other weaving centres, and the method of Brussels found +favour outside that town. Presently Bruges adopted a sign similar to +that of her neighbour, by adding to the double B and shield a small b +traversed by a crown. + + [Illustration: JACQUES GEUBELS] + + [Illustration: NICOLAS LEYNIERS] + + [Illustration: BRUGES] + +In Oudenarde, that town of wonderful verdures, the weavers, as though +by trick of modesty, often avoided such clues to identity as a woven +letter might be, and adopted signs. However significant and famous +they may have been in the Sixteenth Century, they mean little now. The +town mark with which these were combined was distinctly a striped +shield with decoration like antennæ. + + [Illustration: OUDENARDE] + +Enghien is one of the tapestry towns of which we are gradually +becoming aware. Its products have not always been recognised, but of +late more interest is taken in this tributary to the great stream of +the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. + +The famous Peter or Pierre van Aelst, selected from all of Flanders' +able craftsmen to work for Raphael and the Pope, was born in this +little town, wove here and, more yet, was known as Pierre of Enghien. +Yet it is the larger town of Brussels which wore his laurels. + + [Illustration: ENGHIEN] + +The Enghien town marks are an easy adaptation of the arms of the +place, and the weavers' marks are generally monograms. + +Weavers' marks, after playing about the eccentricities of cipher, +changed in the Seventeenth Century to easily read initials, sometimes +interlaced, sometimes apart. Later on it became the mode to weave the +entire name. An example of these is the two letters C of Charles de +Comans on the galloon of _Meleager and Atalanta_ (plate facing page +68); and the name G. V. D. Strecken in the _Antony and Cleopatra_ +(plate facing page 79). + +Other countries than Flanders were wise in their generation, and +placed the marks that are so welcome to the eye of the modern who +seeks to know all the secrets of the tapestry before him. In the +Seventeenth Century, when Paris was gathering her scattered decorative +force for later demonstration at the Gobelins, the city had a pretty +mark for its own, a simple fleur-de-lis and the initial P, and the +initials of the weaver. + + [Illustration: PARIS] + + [Illustration: ALEX. DE COMANS] + + [Illustration: CHARLES DE COMANS] + +That Jean Lefèvre, who with his father Pierre was imported into Italy +to set the mode of able weaving for the Florentines, had a sign +unmistakable on the Gobelins tapestries of the _History of the King_. +(Plate facing page 114.) It was a simple monogram or union of his +initials. In the Eighteenth Century the Gobelins took the fleur-de-lis +of Paris, and its own initial letter G. The modern Gobelins' marks +combined the G with an implement of the craft, a _broche_ and a +straying thread. + + [Illustration: JEAN LEFÈVRE] + + [Illustration: GOBELINS, 18TH CENTURY] + + [Illustration: GOBELINS, MODERN] + +In Italy, in the middle of the Sixteenth Century, we find the able +Flemings, Nicholas Karcher and John Rost, using their personal marks +after the manner of their country. Karcher thus signed his +marvellously executed grotesques of Bacchiacca which hang in the +gallery of tapestries in Florence. (Plates facing pages 48 and 49.) +John Rost's fancy led him to pun upon his name by illustrating a fowl +roasting on the spit. Karcher had a little different mark in the +Ferrara looms, where he went at the call of the d'Este Duke. + + [Illustration: KARCHER, FLORENCE] + + [Illustration: JOHN ROST] + + [Illustration: KARCHER, FERRARA] + +The Florence factory made a mark of its own, refreshingly simple, +avoiding all of the cabalistic intricacies that are so often made +meaningless by the passing of the years, and which were affected by +the early Brussels weavers. The mark found on Florence tapestries is +the famous Florentine lily, and the initial of the town. The mark of +Pierre Lefèvre, when weaving here, was a combination of letters. + + [Illustration: PIERRE LEFÈVRE, FLORENCE] + + [Illustration: MORTLAKE] + +When the Mortlake factory was established in England, the date was +sufficiently late, 1619, for marking to be considered a necessity. The +factory mark was a simple shield quartered by means of a cross thrown +thereon. Sir Francis Crane contented himself with a simple F. C., one +a-top the other, as his identification. Philip de Maecht, he whose +family went from Holland to England as tapissiers, directed at +Mortlake the weaving of a part of the celebrated _Vulcan_ and _Venus_ +series, and his monogram can be seen on _The Expulsion of Vulcan from +Olympus_ (coloured plate facing page 170), owned by Mrs. A. von +Zedlitz, as well as in the other rare _Vulcan_ pieces owned by Philip +Hiss, Esq. This same Philip de Maecht worked under De Comans in Paris, +he having been decoyed thence by the wise organisers of Mortlake. + + [Illustration: SIR FRANCIS CRANE] + + [Illustration: PHILIP DE MAECHT] + +The marks on tapestries are as numerous as the marks on china or +silver, and the absence of marks confronts the hunter of signs with +baffling blankness, as is the case of many very old wares, whether +china, silver or tapestries. Also, late work of poor quality is +unmarked. Having thus disposed of the situation, it remains to +identify the marks when they exist. The exhaustive works of the French +writers must be consulted for this pleasure. There are hundreds of +known signs, but there exist also many unidentified signs, yet the +presence of a sign of any kind is a keen joy to the owner of a hanging +which displays it. + + [Illustration: TOURNAY] + + [Illustration: LILLE] + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +HOW IT IS MADE + + +Wanting to see the wheels go 'round is a desire not limited to babes. +We, with our minds stocked with the history and romance of tapestry, +yet want to know just how it is made in every particular, just how the +loom works, how the threads are placed. + +It seems that there must be some obscure and occult secret hidden +within the looms that work such magic, and we want to pluck it out, +lay it in the sunlight and dissect its intricacies. Well, then, let us +enter a tapestry factory and see what is there. But it is safe to +forecast the final deduction--which must ever be that the god of +patience is here omnipotent. Talent there must be, but even that is +without avail if patience lacks. + +The factory for tapestries seems, then, little like a factory. The +belt and wheel, the throb and haste are not there. The whole place +seems like a quiet school, where tasks are done in silence broken by +an occasional voice or two. It is a place where every one seems bent +on accomplishing a brave amount of fancy-work; a kindergarten, if you +like, for grown-ups. + +Within are many departments of labour. The looms are the thing, of +course, so must be considered first, although much preparing is done +before their work can be begun. + +The looms are classic in their method, in their simplicity. They have +scarcely changed since the days when Solomon built his Temple and +draped it with such gorgeous hangings that even the inspired writers +digress to emphasise their richness with long descriptions that could +not possibly have assisted the cause of their religion. + +The stitch made by the modern loom is the same as that made by the +looms of the furthermost-back Egyptian, by the Greeks, by the Chinese, +of primitive peoples everywhere, by the people of the East in the +familiar Khelim rugs, and by the aborigines of the two Americas. There +is nothing new, nothing obscure about it, being a simple weaving of +warp and woof. Penelope's loom was the same almost as that in use +to-day at the Gobelins factory in Paris. Archeologists have discovered +pictures of the ancient Egyptian loom, and of Penelope's, and there is +but little change from the times of these ladies to our days. + +The fact is, the work is hand-work, must always be so, and the loom is +but a tool for its working, a tool which keeps in place the threads +set by hand. That is why tapestry must always be valuable and original +and no more possible to copy by machine than is a painting. + +High warp and low warp are the terms so often used as to seem a +shibboleth. _Haute lisse_ and _basse lisse_ are their French +equivalents. They describe the two kinds of looms, the former +signifying the loom which stands upright, or high; the latter +indicating the loom which is extended horizontally or low. On the high +loom, the instrument which holds the thread is called the _broche_, +and on the low loom it is called the _flute_. + +The stitch produced by the two is the same. The manner of producing +it varies in convenience to the operators, the low-warp being the +easier, or at least the more convenient and therefore the quicker +method. + +The cynic is ever ready to say that the tyrant living within a man +declares only for those things which represent great sacrifice of time +and effort on the part of other men. Perhaps it is true, and that +therein lies the preference of the connoisseur in tapestry for the +works of the high-warp loom. Even the wisest experts cannot always +tell by an examination of a fabric, on which sort of loom it was +woven, high warp or low, other evidence being excluded. + +The high loom has, then, the threads of its warp hung like a weighted +veil, from the top of the loom to the floor, with a huge wooden roller +to receive the finished fabric at the bottom and one at the top for +the yet unneeded threads. Each thread of the warp is caught by a loop, +which in turn is fastened to a movable bar, and by means of this the +worker is able to advance or withdraw the alternate threads for the +casting of the _broche_ or _flute_, which is the shuttle. Behind the +veil of the warp sits the weaver--_tissier_ or _tapissier_--with his +supply of coloured thread; back of him is the cartoon he is copying. +He can only see his work by means of a little mirror the other side of +his warp, which reflects it. The only indulgence that convenience +accords him is a tracing on the white threads of the warp, a copy of +the picture he is weaving. Thus stands the prisoner of art, sentenced +to hard labour, but with the heart-swelling joy of creating, to +lighten his task. + + [Illustration: WEAVER AT WORK ON LOW LOOM. HERTER STUDIO] + + [Illustration: SEWING AND REPAIR DEPARTMENT. BAUMGARTEN ATELIERS] + +High-warp looms were those that made famous the tapestries of Arras in +the Fifteenth Century, of Brussels in the Sixteenth, and of Paris in +the Seventeenth, therefore it is not strange that they are worshipped +as having a resident, mysterious power. + +To-day, the age of practicality, they scarcely exist outside the old +Gobelins in Paris. But this is not the day of tapestry weaving. + +A shuttle, thrown by machine, goes all the width of the fabric, back +and forth. The _flute_ or _broche_, which is the shuttle of the +tapestry weaver, flies only as far as it is desired to thrust it, to +finish the figure on which its especial colour is required. Thus, a +leaf, a detail of any small sort, may mount higher and higher on the +warp, to its completion, before other adjacent parts are attempted. + +The effect of this is to leave open slits, petty gashes in the fabric, +running lengthwise of the warp, and these are all united later with +the needle, in the hands of the women who thus finish the pieces. + +Unused colours wound on the hundreds of flutes are dropped at the +demand of the pattern, left in a rich confusion of shades to be +resumed by the workmen at will; but the threads are not severed, if +the colour is to be used again soon. + +Low-warp work is the same except for the weaver's position in relation +to his work. Instead of the warp like a thin wall before his face, on +which he seems to play as on one side of a harp, the warp is extended +before him as a table. It is easy to see how much more convenient is +this method. + +The wooden rollers are the same, one for the yet unused length of +warp, the other for the finished fabric, and over one of these rollers +the worker leans, protected from its hostile hardness by a pillow. + +The pattern lies below, just beneath the warp, and easily seen through +it, not the mere tracing as on the threads of the high-warp loom, but +the coloured cartoon, so that shades may be followed as well as lines. +It sometimes happens, however, in copying a valuable old tapestry, +that a black and white drawing only is placed under the warp while the +original is suspended behind the weavers, who look to it for colour +suggestion. + +In low-warp the worker has the privilege of laying his flutes on top +the work, the flutes not at the moment in use, and there they lie in +convenient mass ready to resume for the figure abandoned for another. +If the right hand thrusts the flute, it is the duty of the left to see +that the alternate and the limiting threads of the warp are properly +lifted. First comes a pressure of the foot on a long, lath-like pedal +which is attached to the bar holding in turn the loops which pass +around alternate threads. + +That pressure lifts the threads, and the fingers of the left hand, +deft and agile, limit and select those which the flute shall cover +with its coloured woof. + +After the casting of a thread, or of a group of threads, the weaver +picks up a comb of steel or of ivory, and packs hard the woof, one +line against another, to make the fabric firm and even in the weaving. + + [Illustration: BAUMGARTEN TAPESTRY. LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY] + + [Illustration: BAUMGARTEN TAPESTRY. MODERN CARTOON] + +Such then is the simple process of the looms, far simpler seen than +described and yet depending absolutely for its beauty on the talent +and patience of gifted workers. It is as simple as the alphabet, yet +as complicated as the dictionary. + +Patient years of apprenticeship must a man spend before he can become +a good weaver, and then must he give the best years of his life to +becoming perfect in the craft. But if the work is exacting, at least +it is agreeable, almost lovable, and in delightful contrast to the +labour of those who but tend machines driven by power. And if the art +of tapestry weaving is almost a lost one to-day, at least the weavers +can find in history much matter for pride. It is no mean ambition to +follow the profession of conscientious Nicolas Bataille, of the able +Pannemaker, of La Planche and Comans, of Tessier, Cozette, and a +hundred others of family and fame. + +Much preparation is necessary before the loom can be set going. First +is the design, the cartoon. There we are in the department of the +artist, and must talk in whispers. Raphael belongs there, and +Leonardo; and Rubens, Teniers, Lebrun, Boucher and David, train us +through the past centuries into our own. + +But the cartoon of to-day is not so sacred a matter, and we may speak +of it frankly--regretfully, too. Cartoons hang all over the walls of +the tapestry factory, so much property for the setting of future +scenes, and besides, they make a decoration which alone would lift the +tapestry factory into the regions of art and class it among ateliers, +instead of factories. The cartoons are painted, however, where the +artist will, in his own studio or in one provided for the purpose by +the director, as in the case of the Baumgarten works. They have the +look of special designs. They are not done in the manner of a painting +to be hung on a wall. Their brushwork is smooth and broad, dividing +lines well distinguished by marked contrasts in colour to make +possible their translation into the language of silk and wool. + +After the cartoon is ready, comes the warp. That is set with the +closeness agreed upon. Naturally, the smaller the thread of the warp, +the closer is it set, the more threads to the inch, and thus comes +fine fabric. Coarser warp means fewer threads to the inch, quicker +work for the weaver and less value to the tapestry. From ten to twenty +threads to the inch carries the limits of coarseness and fineness. In +fine weaving, a weaver will accomplish but a square foot a week. Think +of that, you who wonder at the price of tapestries ordered for the new +drawing-room. + +The warp comes to the factory all in big hanks of even thread. +Nowadays it is usually of cotton, although they contend at the +Gobelins that wool warp is preferable, for it gives the finished +fabric a lightness and flexibility that the heavier, stiffer cotton +destroys. + +Setting the warp is a matter of patience and precision, and we will +leave the workman with it, to make it the whole length of the tapestry +to be woven, and to fasten the loops of thread around each _chaîne_ +and to fasten those in turn, alternating, to the bar by means of +which they may be shifted to make the in-and-out of the weaving. + +Then after choosing the colours, the weaving begins. It is like +nothing so much as a piece of fancy-work. If it were not for the +cumbersome loom, I am sure ladies would emulate the king who wove for +amusement, and would make chair-pieces on the summer veranda. + +But before the silks and wools go to the weaving they are treated to a +beauty-bath in the dye-room. Hanks of wool and skeins of silk are but +neutral matters, coming to the factory devoid of individuality, mere +pale, soft bulk. + +A room apart, somewhere away from the studio of design and the rooms +where the looms stand stolid, is a laboratory of dyes, a place which +looks like a farmhouse kitchen on preserving day. You sniff the air as +you go in, the air that is swaying long bunches of pendulous colour, +and it smells warm and moist and full of the suggestions of magic. + +Over a big cauldron two men are bending, stirring a witches' broth to +charm man's eye. One of the wooden paddles brings up a mass from the +heavy liquid. It is silk, glistening rich, of the colour of melted +rubies. Upstairs the looms are making it into a damask background onto +which are thrown the garlands Boucher drew and Tessier loved to work. + +Dainties fished up from another cauldron are strung along a line to +dry, soft wool and shining silk, all in shades of grapes, of asters, +of heliotropes, telling their manifest destiny. And beyond, are great +bunches of colour, red which mounts a quivering scale to salmon pink, +blue which sails into tempered gray, greens dancing to the note of +the forest. It is a nature's workshop, a laboratory where the rainbow +serves, apprenticed. + +Jars, stone jars, little kegs, all ugly enough, are standing against +the wall. But uncover one, touch the thick dark stuff within, and +feast your eye on the colour left on a curious finger-tip. You are +close to the cochineal, to indigo, and all the wonderful alchemy of +colour. + +Aniline? Not a bit of the treacherous stuff. It takes the eye, but it +is a fickle friend. They say a mordant has been found to stay the +flight of its lovely colours. Perhaps; it may be. But what weaver of +tapestry would be willing to confide his labour to the care of a dye +that has not known the test of ages? Aniline dye, says the director of +a tapestry factory, may last twenty years--but twenty years is nothing +in the life of a tapestry. Over in Paris, at the Gobelins, a master +rules as chemist of the dyes, with the dignity of a special laboratory +for making them. + +In America, with no government assuming the expense, the dyes are +bought in such form that only expert dyers can use them in the few +factories which exist. But no new hazards are taken. The matter is too +serious. Economy in dyes brings too great disaster to contemplate. It +is only too true that a man, several men, may labour a year to produce +a perfect work, and that all the labour may be ruined by an ephemeral +dye, by the escape of tones skilfully laid. Let commerce cheat in some +other way, if it must, but not in this. Let the dye be honest, as +enduring as the colours imprisoned in gems. + + [Illustration: BAUMGARTEN TAPESTRY. MODERN CARTOON] + +It is a modern economy. The ancients knew not of it, and were +willing to spend any amount on colours. More than that a port, or a +nation, was willing to rest its fame on a single colour. Purple of +Tyre, red of Turkey, yellow of China, are terms familiar through the +ages, and think not these colours were to be had for the asking. They +brought prices which we do not pay now even in this age of money. The +brothers Gobelins--their fame originally rested on their ambition to +be "dyers of scarlet," that being an ultimate test of skill. + +It is a serious matter, that of dyeing wools and silks for tapestries, +and one which the directors conduct within the walls of the tapestry +factory. The Gobelins uses for its reds, cochineal or the roots of the +madder; for blue, indigo and Prussian blue; for yellow, the vegetable +colour extracted from gaude. + +In America there is a specialist in dyes: Miss Charlotte Pendleton, who +gives her entire attention to rediscovering the dyes of the ancients, +the dyes that made a city's fame. It is owing to her conscientious +work that the tapestry repairers of museums can find appropriate +threads. + +It is interesting to trace the differing gamut of colour through the +ages. Old dyes produced, old weavers needed, but twenty tones for the +old work. Tapestries of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries were as +simple in scale as stained glass, and as honest. Flesh tints were +neutral by contrast to the splendid reds, honest yellows and rich +greens. Colours meant something, then, too; had a sentimental language +all their own. When white predominated, purity was implied; black was +mortification of the flesh; livid yellow was tribulation; red, +charity; green, meditation. + +An examination of the colours in the series which depicts the life of +Louis XIV, reveals a use of but seventy-nine colours. So up to that +time, great honesty of dye, and fine decorative effect were preserved. +The shades were produced by two little tricks open as the day, +hatching being one, the other, winding two shades on the same broche +or shuttle. Hatching, as we know, is merely a penman's trick, of +shading with lines of light and dark. + +It was when they began to paint the lily, in the days of pretty +corruption, that the whole matter of dyeing changed. In the Eighteenth +Century when the Regent Philip, and then La Pompadour, set the mode, +things greatly altered. When big decorative effects were no more, the +stimulating effect of deep strong colour was considered vulgar, and, +only the suave sweetness of Boucher, Nattier, Fragonard, were admired. +Every one played a pretty part, all life was a theatre of gay comedy, +or a flattered miniature. + +So, as we have seen, new times and new modes caused the Gobelins to +copy paintings instead of to interpret cartoons--and there lay the +destruction of their art. Instead of four-score tones, the dyers hung +on their lines tens and tens of thousands. And the weavers wove them +all into their fabric-painting, with the result that when the light +lay on them long, the delicate shades faded and with them was lost the +meaning of the design. And that is why the Gobelins of the older time +are worth more as decoration than those of the later. + +We are doing a little better nowadays. There is a limit to the tones, +and in all new work a decided tendency to abandon the copying of +brush-shading in favour of a more restricted gamut of colour. By this +means the future worker may regain the lost charm of the simple old +pieces of work. + +Another room in the factory of tapestry interests those who like to +see the creation of things. It is one of the prettiest rooms of all, +and is more than ever like a kindergarten for grown-ups. Or, if you +like, it is a chamber in a feudal castle where the women gather when +the men are gone to war. + +Here the workers are all girls and women, each bending over a large +embroidery frame supported at a convenient level from the floor. On +one frame is a long flowered border with cartouches in the strong rich +colours of Louis XIV. On another a sofa-seat copied from Boucher. They +are both new, but like all work fresh from the loom are full of the +open slits left in the process of weaving, a necessity of the changing +colours and the requirements of the drawing. + +All these little slits, varying from half an inch to several inches in +length, must be sewed with strong, careful stitches before the +tapestry can be considered complete. + +On other frames are stretched old tapestries for repairs. At the +Gobelins as many as forty women are thus employed. The malapropos +deduction springs here that the demand for repaired old work is +greater than that for new in the famous factory, for only six or eight +weavers are there occupied. + +Repairing is almost an art in itself. The emperor established a small +school at Berlin for training girls in this trade. The studio of the +late Mr. Ffoulke in Florence kept twenty or thirty girls occupied. The +Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has a repair studio under a +graduate of the Berlin school. The factories of Baumgarten and of +Herter, in New York, also conduct repairs; and the museum at Boston as +well. + +We cannot make old tapestries, but we can restore and preserve them by +skilled labour in special ateliers. Restoration by the needle is the +only perfect restoration, and this is as yet but little done here, +although the method is so well known in Europe. We deplore the quicker +way, to use the loom for weaving large sections of border or large +bits which have gone into hopeless shreds, or have disappeared +altogether by reason of the bitter years when tapestries had fallen +into neglect. But the quicker way is the poorer, with these great +claimants for time. The woven figures are relentless in this, that +they claim of the living man a lion's share of his precious days. His +reward is that they outlast him. Food for cynics lies there. + +The careful worker looks close and sees the warp exposed like fiddle +strings here and there. She matches the colour of silk and wool to the +elusive shades and covers stitch by stitch the bare threads, in +perfect imitation of the loom's way. + +Sometimes the warp is gone. Then the work tests the best skill. The +threads, the _chaîne_, must be picked up, one by one, and united +invisibly to the new, and then the pattern woven over with the needle. +It happens that large holes remain to be filled entirely, the pattern +matched, the design caught or imagined from some other part of the +fabric. That takes skill indeed. But it is done, and so well, that the +repairer is called not that, but a restorer. + +The two factories in New York, the Baumgarten and Herter ateliers, +have certain employés always busy with repairs and restorations. Given +even a fragment, the rest is supplied to make a perfect whole, in +these studios where the manner of the old workers is so closely +studied. For big repairs a drawing is made, a cartoon on the same +principle as that of large cartoons, in colours, these following the +old. Then it remains for the weaver to set his loom with the +corresponding number of threads, that the new fabric may match the old +in fineness. Then, too, comes the test of matching colours, a test +that almost never discovers a worker equal to its exactions. That is +as often as not the fault of the dyer who has supplied colours too +fresh. + +It is the repairs done by the needle that give the best effect, +although such restorations are costly and slow. + +Old repairs on old tapestries have been made, in some instances, very +long ago. It often happens, in old sets, that a great piece of another +tapestry has been roughly set in, like the knee-patches of a farm boy. +The object has been merely to fill the hole, not to match colour +scheme or figure. And these patches are by the judicious restorer +taken out and their place carefully filled with the needle. + +Moths, say some, do not devour old tapestries. The reason given is +that the ancient wool is so desiccated as to be no longer nutritious. +A pretty argument, but not to be trusted, for I have seen moths +comfortably browsing on a Burgundian hanging, keeping house and +raising families on such precious stuff. + +Commerce demands that tricks shall be played in the repair room, but +not such great ones that serious corruption will result. The coarse +verdures of the Eighteenth Century that were thrown lightly off the +looms with transient interest are sought now for coverings to antique +chairs. To give the unbroken greens more charm, an occasional bird is +snipped from a worn branch where he has long and mutely reposed, and +is posed anew on the centre of a back or seat. It is the part of the +repairer to see that he looks at home in his new surroundings. + +If metal threads have not been spoken of in this chapter on _modus +operandi_, it is because metal is so little used since the time of +Louis XV as to warrant omitting it. And the little that appears seems +very different from the "gold of Cyprus" that made gorgeous and +valuable the tapestries of Arras, of Brussels and of old Paris. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY + +A. D. 1066 + + +So long as one word continues to have more than one meaning, civilised +man will continue to gain false impressions. The word tapestry suffers +as much as any other--witness the attempt made for hundreds of years +among all nations to set apart a word that shall be used only to +designate the hand-woven pictured hangings and coverings discussed in +this book; arras, gobelins, _toile peinte_, etc. In English, tapestry +may mean almost any decorative stuff, and so comes it that we speak of +the wonderful hanging which gives name to this chapter as the tapestry +of Bayeux (plates facing pages 242, 243 and 244), when it is in +reality an embroidery. But so much is it confused with true tapestry, +and so poignantly does it interest the Anglo-Saxon that we will +introduce it here, even while acknowledging its extraneous character. + +To begin with, then, we say frankly that it is not a tapestry; that it +has no place in this book. And then we will trail its length through a +short review of its history and its interest as a human document of +the first order. + +In itself it is a strip of holland--brown, heavy linen cloth, +measuring in length about two hundred and thirty-one feet, and in +width, nineteen and two-thirds inches--remarkable dimensions which are +accounted for in the neatest way. The hanging was used in the +cathedral of the little French city of Bayeux, draped entirely around +the nave of the Norman Cathedral, which space it exactly covered. This +indicates to archeologists the original purpose of the hanging. + +On the brown linen is embroidered in coloured wools a panoramic +succession of incidents, with border top and bottom. The colours are +but eight, two shades each of green and blue, with yellow, +dove-colour, red and brown. + +This, in brief, is the great Bayeux tapestry. But its threads breathe +history; its stitches sing romance; and we who love to touch +humorously the spirits of brothers who lived so long ago, find here +the matter that humanly unites the Eleventh Century with the +Twentieth. + +The subject is the conquest of England by William the Conqueror in +1066. That is fixed beyond a doubt, so that the precious cloth cannot +trail its ends any further back into antiquity than that event. +However, even the most insatiable antiquarian of European specialties +is smilingly content with such a date. + +Legend has it that Queen Matilda, the wife of the conqueror, executed +the work as an evidence of the devotion and adulation that were his +due and her pleasure: There are lovely pictures in the mind of Matilda +in the safety of the chambers of the old castle at Caen, directing +each day a corps of lovely ladies in the task of their historic +embroidery, each one sewing into the fabric her own secret thoughts of +lover or husband absent on the great Conqueror's business. In absence +of direct testimony to the contrary, why not let us believe this +which comes as near truth as any legend may, and fits the case most +pleasantly? + + [Illustration: BAYEUX TAPESTRY (DETAIL), 1066] + + [Illustration: BAYEUX TAPESTRY (DETAIL), 1066] + +The history it portrays in all its seventy-odd yards is easy enough to +verify. That is like working out a puzzle with the key in hand. But +the history of this keenly interesting embroidery is not so easy. + +The records are niggardly. Inventories record it in 1369 and 1476. In +an inventory of the Bishop of Bayeux it is mentioned in 1563. About +this time it was in ecclesiastical hands and used for decorating the +nave of the Bayeux Cathedral. + +Then the world forgot it. + +How the world rediscovered that which was never lost is interesting +matter. Here is the story: + +In 1724 an antiquarian found a drawing of about ten yards long, taken +from the tapestry. Here, said he and his fellow sages, is the drawing +of some wonderful, ancient work of art, most probably a frieze or +other decoration carved in wood or stone. Naturally, the desire was to +find such a monument. But no one could remember such a carving in any +church or castle. + +Father Montfaucon, of Saint Maur, with interest intelligent, wrote to +the prior of St. Vigor's at Bayeux, and received the most satisfactory +reply, that the drawing represented not a carving but a hanging in +possession of his church, and associated with many yards more of the +same cloth. + +So all this time the wonderful relic had lain safe in Bayeux, and +never was lost, but only forgotten by outsiders. The rediscovery, +so-called, aroused much comment, and England declared the cloth the +noblest monument of her history. + +It was in use at that time, and after, once a year. It was hung around +the cathedral nave on St. John's Day, and left for eight days that all +the people might see it. + +The fact that it was not religious in subject, that it could not +possibly be interpreted otherwise than as a secular history, makes +remarkable its place in the cathedral. This is explained by the +suggestion that while Bishop Odo established that precedent, all +others but followed without thought. + +Since 1724 the world outside of Bayeux has never forgotten this +panorama of a past age, and its history is known from that time on. + +The Revolution of France had its effect even on this treasure; or +would have had if the clergy had not been sufficiently capable to +defend it. It was hidden in the depositories of the cathedral until +the storm was over. + +It seems there was no treasure in Europe unknown to Napoleon. He +commanded in 1803 that the Bayeux tapestry, of which he had heard so +much, be brought to the National Museum for his inspection. The +playwrights of Paris seized on the pictured cloth as material for +their imagination, and, refusing to take seriously the crude figures, +wrote humorously of Matilda eternally at work over her ridiculous +task, surrounded with simple ladies equally blind to art and nature. +It is only too easy to let humour play about the ill-drawn figures. +They must be taken grandly serious, or ridicule will thrust tongue in +cheek. It is to these French plays of 1804 that we owe the firmness +of the tradition that Queen Matilda in 1066 worked the embroidery. + + [Illustration: BAYEUX TAPESTRY (DETAIL), 1066] + +Napoleon returned the cloth to Bayeux, not to the church, but to the +Hotel de Ville, in which manner it became the property of the civil +authorities, instead of the ecclesiastic. It was rolled on cylinders, +that by an easy mechanism it might be seen by visitors. But the fabric +suffered much by the handling of a curious public. Even the most +enlightened and considerate hands can break threads which time has +played with for eight centuries. + +It was decided, therefore, to give the ancient _toile fatiguée_ a +quiet, permanent home. For this purpose a museum was built, and about +1835 the great Bayeux tapestry was carefully installed behind glass, +its full length extended on the walls for all to see who journey +thither and who ring the guardian's bell at the courtyard's handsome +portico. + +Once since then, once only, has the venerable fabric left its cabinet. +This was at the time of the Prussians when, in 1871, France trembled +for even her most intimate and special treasures. + +The tapestry was taken from its case, rolled with care and placed in a +zinc cylinder, hermetically sealed. Then it was placed far from harm; +but exactly where, is a secret that the guardians of the tapestry do +well to conserve. There might be another trouble, and asylum needed +for the treasure in the future. + +The pictures of the great embroidery are such as a child might draw, +for crudeness; but the archeologist knows how to read into them a +thousand vital points. History helps out, too, with the story of +Harold, moustached like the proper Englishman of to-day, taking a +commission from William, riding gaily out on a gentleman's errand, not +a warrior's. This is shown by the falcon on his wrist, that wonderful +bird of the Middle Ages that marked the gentleman by his associations, +marked the high-born man on an errand of peace or pleasure. + +In these travelling days, no sooner do we land in Normandy than Mount +St. Michael looms up as a happy pilgrimage. So to the same religious +refuge Harold went on the pictured cloth, crossed the adjacent river +in peril, and--how pleasingly does the past leap up and tap the +present--he floundered in the quicksands that surround the Mount, and +about which the driver of your carriage across the _passerelle_ will +tell you recent tales of similar flounderings. + +And when in Brittany, who does not go to tumbley-down Dinan to see its +ancient gates and walls, its palaces of Queen Anne, its lurching crowd +of houses? It is thither that Harold, made of threads of ancient wool, +sped and gave battle after the manner of his time. + +Another link to make us love this relic of the olden time: It is the +star, the star so great that the space of the picture is all too small +to place it; so the excited hands of the embroiderers set it outside +the limit, in the border. + +It flames over false Harold's head and he remembers sombrely that it +is an omen of a change of rule. He is king now, has usurped a throne, +has had himself crowned. But for how long is he monarch, with this +flaming menace burning into his courage? The year finishing saw the +prophecy fulfilled by the coming of the conqueror. + +It was this section of the tapestry that, when it came to Paris, had +power to startle Napoleon, ever superstitious, ever ready to read +signs. The star over Harold's head reminded him of the possible +brevity of his own eminence. + +The star that blazed in 1066--we have found it. It was not imaginary. +Behold how prettily the bits of history fit together, even though we +go far afield to find those bits. This one comes from China. Records +were better kept there in those times than in Christian Europe; and +the Chinese astronomers write of a star appearing April 2, 1066, which +was seen first in the early morning sky, then after a time disappeared +to reappear in the evening sky, with a flaming tail, most agreeably +sensational. It was Halley's comet, the same that we watched in 1910 +with no superstitious fear at all for princes nor for powers. But it +is interesting to know that our modern comet was recorded in China in +the Eleventh Century, and has its portrait on the Bayeux tapestry, and +that it frightened the great Harold into a fit of guilty conscience. + +The archeologist gives reason for the faith that is in him concerning +the Bayeux tapestry by reading the language of its details, such as +the style of arms used by its preposterous soldiers; by gestures; by +groupings of its figures; and we are only too glad to believe his +wondrous deductions. + +There are in all fifteen hundred and twelve figures in this celebrated +cloth, if one includes birds, beasts, boats, _et cetera_, with the +men; and amidst all this elongated crowd is but one woman. Queen +Matilda, left at home for months, immured with her ladies, probably +had quite enough of women to refrain easily from portraying them. +Needless to say, this one embroidered lady interests poignantly the +archeologist. + +Most of the animals are in the border--active little beasts who make a +running accompaniment to the tale they adorn. This excepts the very +wonderful horses ridden by knights of action. + +Scenes of the pictured history of William's conquest are divided one +from the other by trees. Possibly the archeologist sees in these +evidences of extinct varieties, for not in all this round, green world +do trees grow like unto those of the Bayeux tapestry. They are dream +trees from the gardens of the Hesperides, and set in useful decoration +to divide event from event and to give sensations to the student of +the tree in ornament. + +Such is the Bayeux tapestry, which, as was conscientiously forewarned, +is not a tapestry at all, but the most interesting embroidery of +Europe. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +TO-DAY + + +The making of inspired tapestry does not belong to to-day. The _amour +propre_ suffers a distinct pain in this acknowledgment. It were far +more agreeable to foster the feeling that this age is in advance of +any other, that we are at the front of the world's progress. + +So we are in many matters, but those matters are all bent toward one +thing--making haste. Economy of time occupies the attention of +scientist, inventor, labourer. Yet a lavish expenditure of time is the +one thing the perfect tapestry inexorably demands, and that is the +fundamental reason why it cannot now enter a brilliant period of +production like those of the past. + +It is not that one atelier cannot find enough weavers to devote their +lives to sober, leisurely production; it is that the stimulating +effect is gone, of a craft eagerly pursued in various centres, where +guilds may be formed, where healthy rivalry spurs to excellence, where +the world of the fine arts is also vitally concerned. + +The great hangings of the past were the natural expression of +decoration in those days, the natural demand of pomp, of splendour and +of comfort. As in all things great and small, the act is but the +visible expression of an inward impulse, and we of to-day have not the +spirit that expresses itself in the reverent building of cathedrals, +or in the inspired composition of tapestries. + +This is to be entirely distinguished from appreciation. That gift we +have, and it is momentarily increasing. To be entirely commercial, +which view is of course not the right one, one need only watch the +reports of sales at home and abroad to see what this latter-day +appreciation means in pelf. In England a tapestry was recently +unearthed and identified as one of the series of seven woven for +Cardinal Woolsey. It is not of extraordinary size, but was woven in +the interesting years hovering above and below the century mark of +1500. The time was when public favour spoke for the upholding of +morality with a conspicuousness which could be called Puritanism, were +the anachronism possible. Pointing a moral was the fundamental excuse +for pictorial art. This tapestry represents one of _The Seven Deadly +Sins_. Hampton Court displays the three other known pieces of the +series, and he who harbours this most recent discovery has paid +$33,000 for the privilege. + +But that is a tiny sum compared to the price that rumour accredits Mr. +Morgan with paying for _The Adoration of the Eternal Father_ (called +also _The Kingdom of Heaven_). And this is topped by $750,000 paid for +a Boucher set of five pieces. One might continue to enumerate the +sales where enormous sums are laid down in appreciation of the men +whose excellence of work we cannot achieve, but these sums paid only +show with pathetic discouragement the completeness with which the +spirit of commercialism has replaced the spirit of art, at least in +the expression of art that occupies our attention. + + [Illustration: MODERN AMERICAN TAPESTRY, LOUIS XV INSPIRATION] + + [Illustration: MODERN AMERICAN TAPESTRY FROM FRENCH INSPIRATION] + +If, then, this is not an age of production, but of appreciation, +it, too, has its natural expression. First it is the acquiring at any +sacrifice of the ancient hangings wherever they are found; and after +that it is their restoration and preservation. This is the reason for +recent high prices and the reason, too, for the establishment of +ateliers of repair, which are found in all large centres in Europe as +well as wherever any important museum exists in America. + +It would not be possible nor profitable to dwell on the tapestry +repair shops of Europe. They have always been; the industry is one +that has existed since the Burgundian dukes tore holes in their +magnificent tapestries by dragging them over the face of Europe, and +since Henry the Eighth, in eager imitation of the continentals, +established in the royal household a supervisor of tapestry repairs. +Paris is full of repairers, and in the little streets on the other +side of the Seine old women sit in doorways on a sunny day, defeating +the efforts of time to destroy the loved _toiles peintes_. But this +haphazard repair, done on the knee, as a garment might be mended, is +not comparable to the careful, exact work of the restorer at her +frame. One ranks as woman's natural task of nine stitches, while the +other is the work of intelligent patience and skilled endeavour. + +Wherever looms are set up, a department of repair is the logical +accompaniment. As every tapestry taken from the loom appears punctured +with tiny slits, places left open in the weaving, and as all of these +need careful sewing before the tapestry is finished, a corps of +needlewomen is a part of a loom's equipment. This is true in all but +the ateliers of the Merton Abbey factory, of which we shall speak +later. + +Apart from repairs, what is being done in the present day? So little +that historians of the future are going to find scant pickings for +their record. + + +FRANCE + +The Gobelins factory being the last one to make a permanent +contribution to art, the impulse is to ask what it is doing now. That +is easily answered, but there is no man so optimistic that he can find +therein matter for hope. + +France is commendably determined not to let the great industry die. It +would seem a loss of ancient glory to shut down the Gobelins. Yet why +does it live? It lives because a body of men have the patriotic pride +to keep it alive. But as for its products, they are without +inspiration, without beauty to the eye trained to higher expressions +of art. + +The Gobelins to-day is almost purely a museum, not only in the +treasures it exposes in its collection of ancient "toiles," but +because here is preserved the use of the high-warp loom, and the same +method of manufacture as in other and better times. A crowd of +interested folk drift in and out between the portals, survey the +Pavilion of Louis XIV and the court, the garden and the stream, then, +turning inside, the modern surveys the work of the ancient, the +remnants of time. And no less curious and no less remote do the old +tapestries seem than the atelier where the high looms rear their +cylinders and mute men play their colour harmonies on the warp. It +all seems of other times; it all seems dead. And it is a dead art. + + [Illustration: GOBELINS TAPESTRY. LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY + + Luxembourg, Paris] + + [Illustration: GOBELINS TAPESTRY. LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY + + Pantheon, Paris] + +The tapestries on the looms are garish, crude, modern art in its +cheapest expression; or else they are brilliant-hued copies of +time-softened paintings that were never meant to be translated into +wool and silk. + +The looms are always busy, nevertheless. There is always preserved a +staff of officers, the director, the chemist of dyes, and all that; +and the tapissiers are careful workmen, with perfection, not haste, in +view. The State directs the work, the State pays for it, the State +consumes the products. That is the Republic's way of continuing the +craft that was the serious pleasure of kings. But there is now no +personal element to give it the vital touch. There is no Gabrielle +d'Estrées, nor Henri IV; no Medici, no Louis XIV, no Pompadour. All is +impersonal, uninspired. + +Men who have worked in the deadening influence of the Gobelins declare +that the factory cannot last much longer. But it is improbable that +France--Republican France, that holds with bourgeois tenacity to +aristocratic evidences--will abandon this, her expensive toy, her +inheritance of the time of kings. + +In the time of the Second Empire it was the fashion to copy, at the +Gobelins, the portraits of celebrated personages executed by +Winterhalter. The exquisite portrait of the beautiful Empress Eugénie +by this delectable court painter has a delicacy and grace that is all +unhurt by contrast with more modern schools of painting. But fancy the +texture of the lovely flesh copied in the medium of woven threads, no +matter how delicately dyed and skilfully wrought. Painting is one art, +tapestry-making is entirely another. + +But that is just where the fault lay and continued, the inability of +the Gobelins ateliers to understand that the two must not be confused. +The same false idea that caused Winterhalter's portraits to be copied, +gave to the modern tapissiers the paintings of the high Renaissance to +reproduce. Titian's most celebrated works were set up on the loom, as +for example the beautiful fancy known as _Sacred and Profane Love_, +which perplexes the loiterer of to-day in the Villa Borghese. Other +paintings copied were Raphael's _Transfiguration_, Guido René's +_Aurora_, Andrea del Sarto's _Charity_. There were many more, but this +list gives sufficiently well the condition of inspiration at the +Gobelins up to the third quarter of the Nineteenth Century. + +Paul Baudry appeared at about this time striking a clear pure note of +delicate decoration. The few panels that he drew for the Gobelins +charm the eye with happy reminiscences of Lebrun, of Claude Audran, a +potpourri of petals fallen from the roses of yesterday mixed with the +spices of to-day. + +But if the work of this talented artist illustrates anything, it is +the change in the uses of tapestries. The modern ones are made to be +framed, as flat as the wall against which they are secured. In a word, +they take the place of frescoes. The pleasure of touching a mobile +fabric is lost. A fold in such a dainty piece would break its beauty. +Almost must a woven panel of our day fit the panel it fills as +exactly as the wood-work of a room fits its dimensions. + +The Nineteenth Century at the Gobelins was finished by mistakenly +copying Ghirlandajo, Correggio, others of their time. + +In the beginning of this century, the spirit of pure decoration again +became animated. Instead of copying old painters, the Gobelins began +to copy old cartoons. The effect of this is to increase the +responsibility of the weaver, and with responsibility comes strength. + +The models of Boucher, and the _Grotesques_ of Italian Renaissance +drawing are given even now to the weavers as a training in both taste +and skill. But better than all is the present wisdom of the Gobelins, +which has directly faced the fact that it were better to copy the +tapestries of old excellence than to copy paintings of no matter what +altitude of art. + +Modern cartoons are used, as we know, commanded for various public +buildings in France, but the copying of old tapestries exercises a far +happier influence on the weavers. If this is not an age of creation in +art, at least it need not be an age of false gods, notwithstanding the +seriousness given to distortions of the Matisse and post-impressionist +school. + +A careful copying of old tapestries--and in this case old means those +of the high periods of perfection--has led to a result from which much +may be expected. This is the enormous reduction in the number of tones +used. Gothic tapestries of stained glass effect had a restricted range +of colour. By this brief gamut the weaver made his own gradations of +colour, and the passage from light to shadow, by hatching, which was +in effect but a weaving of alternating lines of two colours, much as +an artist in pen-and-ink draws parallel lines for shading. Tapestries +thus woven resist well the attacks of light and time. + +To sum up the present attitude of the Gobelins, then, is to say that +the director of to-day encourages the education of taste in the +weavers by encouraging them to copy old tapestries instead of +paintings old or new, and in a reduction of the number of the tones +employed. The talent of an artist is thus made necessary to the +tapissier, for shadings are left to him to accomplish by his own skill +instead of by recourse to the forty thousand shades that are stored on +the shelves of the store-room. + +The manufactory at Beauvais, being also under the State, is associated +with the greater factory in the glance at modern conditions. Both +factories weave primarily for the State. Both factories keep alive an +ancient industry, and both have permission to sell their precious +wares to the private client. That such sales are rarely made is due to +the indifference of the State, which stipulates that its own work +shall have first place on the looms, that only when a loom is idle may +it be used for a private patron. The length of time, therefore, that +must elapse before an order is executed--two or three years, +perhaps--is a tiresome condition that very few will accept. + + [Illustration: THE ADORATION + + Merton Abbey Tapestry. Figures by Burne-Jones] + + [Illustration: DAVID INSTRUCTING SOLOMON IN THE BUILDING OF THE + TEMPLE + + Merton Abbey Tapestry. Burne-Jones, Artist] + +Beauvais, with its low-warp looms, is more celebrated for its small +pieces of work than for large hangings. The tendency toward the latter +ended some time ago, and in our time Beauvais makes mainly those +exquisite coverings for seats and screens that give the beholder a +thrill of artistic joy and a determination to possess something +similar. The models of Béhagle, Oudry, Charron are copied with +fidelity to their loveliness, and it is these that after a few years +of wear on furniture take on that mellowness which long association +with human hands alone can give. It is scarcely necessary to say that +antique furniture tapestry is rare; its use has been too hard to +withstand the years. Therefore, we may with joy and the complacency of +good taste acquire new coverings of the Don Quixote or Æsop's Fables +designs for our latter-day furniture or for the fine old pieces from +which the original tapestries have vanished. + + +ENGLAND + +The chapter on Mortlake looms shows what was accomplished by +deliberate importation of an art coveted but not indigenous. It is +interesting to compare this with England's entirely modern and +self-made craft of the last thirty years. I allude to the tapestry +factory established by William Morris and called Merton Abbey. Mr. +Morris preferred the word arras as attached to his weavings, tapestry +having sometimes the odious modern meaning of machine-made figured +stuffs for any sort of furniture covering. But as Arras did not invent +the high-warp hand-loom, nor did the Saracens, nor the Egyptians, it +is but quibbling to give it arbitrarily the name of any particular +locale. + +It seems that enough can never be said about the versatility of +William Morris and the strong flood of beauty in design that he sent +rippling over arid ground. It were enough had he accomplished only the +work in tapestry. It is not too strong a statement that he produced at +Merton Abbey the only modern tapestries that fill the primary +requirements of tapestries. + +How did he happen upon it in these latter days? By worshipping the old +hangings of the Gothic perfection, by finding the very soul of them, +of their designers and of their craftsmen; then, letting that soul +enter his, he set his fingers reverently to work to learn, as well, +the secret of the ancient workman. + +It was as early as 1885 that he began; was cartoonist, dyer, +tapissier, all, for the experiment, which was a small square of +verdure after the manner of the Gothic, curling big acanthus leaves +about a softened rose, a mingling of greens of ocean and shady reds. +Perhaps it was no great matter in the way of tapestry, but it was to +Morris like the discovery of a new continent to the navigator. + +His was the time of a so-called æsthetic school in England. Watts, +Rossetti and Burne-Jones were harking back to antiquity for +inspiration. Morris associated with him the latter, who drew wondrous +figures of maids and men and angels, figures filled with the devout +spirit of the time when religion was paramount, and perfect with the +art of to-day. + +The romance of _The Holy Grail_ gave happy theme for the work, and +three beautiful tapestries made the set. _The Adoration of the Magi_ +was another, made for Exeter College, Oxford. Sir Edward Burne-Jones +designed all these wondrous pictures, and the wisdom of Morris +decreed that the _Grail_ series should not be oft repeated. The +first figure tapestry woven on the looms was a fancy drawn by Walter +Crane, called _The Goose Girl_. + + [Illustration: TRUTH BLINDFOLDED + + Merton Abbey Tapestry. Byram Shaw, Artist] + +The most enchantingly mediæval and most modernly perfect piece is by +Burne-Jones, called _David Instructing Solomon in the Building of the +Temple_. (Plate facing page 257.) In this the time of Gothic beauty +lives again. Planes are repeated, figures are massed, detail is clear +and impressive, yet modern laws of drawing concentrate the interest on +the central action as strongly as though all else were subservient. + +_The Passing of Venus_ was Burne-Jones' last cartoon for Merton Abbey +looms. (Plate facing page 260.) Although a critique of the art of this +great painter would be out of place in a book on the applied arts, at +least it is allowable to express the conviction that more beautiful, +more fitting designs for tapestry it would be difficult to imagine. +Modern work of this sort has produced nothing that approaches them, +preserving as they do the sincerity and reverence of a simple people, +the ideality of a conscientious age, yet softening all technical +faults with modern finish. An unhappy fact is that this tapestry, +which was considered by the Merton Abbey works as its _chef d'oeuvre_, +was destroyed by fire in the Brussels Exhibition of 1910. + +Alas for tapestry weaving of to-day, the usual modern cartoon is a +staring anachronism, and a conglomerate of modes. An "art nouveau" +lady poses in a Gothic setting, a Thayer angel stands in a Boucher +entourage, and both eye and intelligence are revolted. The master +craftsman and artist, William Morris, alone has known how to produce +acceptable modern work from modern cartoons. Other examples are +_Angeli Laudantes_, and _The Adoration_. (Plates facing pages 261 and +256.) + +A false note is sometimes struck, even in this factory of wondrous +taste. In _Truth Blindfolded_ (plate facing page 258), Mr. Byram Shaw +has drawn the central figure as Cabanel might have done a decade ago, +while every other figure in the group might have been done by some +hand dead these four hundred years. + +Morris' manner of procedure differed little from that of the decorator +Lebrun, although his work was a private enterprise and in no way to be +compared with the royal factory of a rich king. Burne-Jones drew the +figures; H. Dearle, a pupil, and Philip Webb drew backgrounds and +animals, but Morris held in his own hands the arrangement of all. It +was as though a gardener brought in a sheaf of cut roses and the +master hand arranged them. Mr. Dearle directed some compositions with +skill and talent. + +With the passing of William Morris an inevitable change is visible in +the cartoons. The Gothic note is not continued, nor the atmosphere of +sanctity, which is its usual accompaniment. A tapestry of 1908 from +the design of _The Chace_ by Heyward Sumner suggests long hours with +the Flemish landscapists of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, +with a jarring note of Pan dragged in by the ears to huddle under +foliage obviously introduced for this purpose. + + [Illustration: THE PASSING OF VENUS + + Merton Abbey Tapestry. Cartoon by Burne-Jones] + + [Illustration: ANGELI LAUDANTES + + Merton Abbey Tapestry] + +But criticism of this aberration cannot hurt the wondrous inspired +work directed by Morris, and which it were well for a beauty-loving +world to have often repeated. Unhappily, the Merton Abbey works are +bound not to repeat the superb series of the _Grail_. The entire set +has been woven twice, and three pieces of it a third time--and there +it ends. This is well for the value of the tapestries, but is it not a +providence too thrifty when the public is considered? In ages to come, +perhaps, other looms will repeat, and our times will glow with the +fame thereof. + +Before leaving the subject of the Merton Abbey tapestries, it is +interesting to note a technical change in the weaving. By +intertwisting the threads of the chain or warp at the back, a way is +found to avoid the slits in weaving that are left to be sewn together +with the needle in all old work. This method has been proved the +stronger of the two. The strain of hanging proves too great for the +strength of the stitches, and on many a tapestry appear gaping wounds +which call for yet more stitching. But in the new method the fabric +leaves the loom intact. + +The determination of William Morris to catch old secrets by fitting +his feet into old footsteps, led him to employ only the loom of the +best weavers in the ancient long ago. The high-warp loom is the only +one in use at the Merton Abbey works. + + +AMERICA + +America makes heavy demands for tapestries, but the art of producing +them is not indigenous here. We are not without looms, however. The +first piece of tapestry woven in America--to please the ethnologist +we will grant that it was woven by Zuñi or Toltec or other aborigine. +But the fabric approaching that of Arras or Gobelins, was woven in New +York, in 1893, in the looms of the late William Baumgarten. It is +preserved as a curiosity, as being the first. It is a chair seat woven +after the designs popular with Louis XV and his court, a plain +background of solid colour on which is thrown a floral ornament. + +The loom was a small affair of the low-warp type, and was operated by +a Frenchman who came to this country for the purpose of starting the +craft on new soil. + +The sequence to this small beginning was the establishment of tapestry +ateliers at Williamsbridge, a suburb of New York. Like the Gobelins +factory, this was located in an old building on the banks of a little +stream, the Bronx. Workmen were imported, some from Aubusson, who knew +the craft; these took apprentices, as of old, and trained them for the +work. The looms were all of the low-warp pattern. + +It may be of interest to those who like figures, to know that the work +of the Baumgarten atelier averages in price about sixty dollars a +square yard. Perhaps this will help a little in deciding whether or +not the price is reasonable when a dealer seductively spreads his +ancient wares. Modern cartoons of the Baumgarten factory lack the +charm of the old designs, but the adaptations and copies of ancient +pieces are particularly happy. No better execution could be wished +for. The factory has increased its looms to the number of twenty-two, +and has its regular corps of tapissiers, dyers, repairers, etc. +Nowhere is the life of the weaver so nearly like that of his prototype +in the golden age of tapestry. The colony on the Bronx is like a bit +of old Europe set intact on American soil. + + [Illustration: AMERICAN (BAUMGARTEN) TAPESTRY COPIED FROM THE GOTHIC] + + [Illustration: DRYADS AND FAUNS + + From Herter Looms, New York, 1910] + +It is odd that New York should have more tapestry looms at work than +has Paris. The Baumgarten looms exceed in number the present Gobelins, +and the Herter looms add many more. The ateliers of Albert Herter are +in the busiest part of New York, and here are woven by hand many +fabrics of varying degrees of excellence. It is not Mr. Herter's +intention to produce only fine wall hangings, but to supply as well +floor coverings "a la façon de Perse," as the ancient documents had +it, and to make it possible for persons of taste, but not necessarily +fortune, to have hand-woven portières of artistic value. + +Apart from this commendable aim, the Herter looms are also given to +making copies of the antique in the finest of weaving, and to +producing certain original pieces expressing the decorative spirit of +our day. Besides this, the work is distinguished by certain +combinations of antique and modern style that confuse the seeker after +purity of style. That the effect is pleasing must be acknowledged as +illustrated in the plate showing a tapestry for the country house of +Mrs. E. H. Harriman. (Plate facing page 263.) It is not easy in a +review of tapestry weaving of to-day to find any great encouragement. + +These are times of commerce more than of art. If art can be made +profitable commercially, well and good. If not, it starves in a garret +along with the artist. If the demand for modern tapestries was large +enough, the art would flourish--perhaps. But it is not a large demand, +for many reasons, chief among which is the incontrovertible one that +the modern work is seldom pleasing. The whole world is occupied with +science and commerce, and art does not create under their influence as +in more ideal times. What can the trained eye and the cultivated taste +do other than turn back to the products of other days? + +We have artists in our own country whose qualities would make of them +marvellous composers of cartoons. The imagination and execution of +Maxfield Parrish, for example, added to his richness of colouring, +would be translatable in wool under the hands of an artist-weaver. And +the designs which take the name of "poster" and are characterised by +strength, simplicity and few tones, why would they not give the same +crispness of detail that constitutes one of the charms of Gothic work? +Perhaps the factories existent in America will work out this line of +thought, combine it with honesty of material and labour, and give us +the honour of prominence in an ancient art's revival. + + +FINIS + + + + +BEST PERIODS AND THEIR DATES + + + EARLIEST TAPESTRY LOOMS Prehistoric + EUROPEAN EARLY ATTEMPTS Twelfth To Fourteenth Centuries + ARRAS AND BURGUNDIAN TAPESTRY Early Fifteenth Century + GOTHIC PERFECTION, FLANDERS About Fifteen Hundred + GOTHIC PERFECTION, FRANCE About Fifteen Hundred + ITALIAN FACTORIES Fifteenth Century + RAPHAEL CARTOONS IN FLANDERS 1515-1519 + RENAISSANCE PERFECTION, FLANDERS 1515 To Second Half of Century + BRUSSELS MARK 1528 + FLEMISH DECADENCE End of Sixteenth Century + FRENCH RISE End of Sixteenth Century + FRENCH ORGANISATION 1597, Reign of Henri IV + ENGLISH SUPREMACY, MORTLAKE + ESTABLISHED 1619 + ESTABLISHMENT OF GOBELINS 1662, Reign of Louis XIV + BEST HEROIC PERIOD OF GOBELINS Last Half of Seventeenth Century + BEST DECORATIVE PERIOD OF + GOBELINS Middle of Eighteenth Century + DECADENCE OF GOBELINS End of Eighteenth Century + RECENT TIMES, ENGLAND, WM. MORRIS End of Nineteenth Century + RECENT TIMES, AMERICA End of Nineteenth Century + + + + +INDEX + + + Abbot Robert, 20. + + _Achilles, Story of_, 169. + + Adelaide, Queen, 22. + + _Adoration of the Eternal Father, The_, 59, 250, 260. + + _Adoration of the Magi, The_, 258. + + _Acts of the Apostles_, 64, 86, 147, 169, 197, 205, 214, 221. + + _Alcisthenes, Mantle of_, 19. + + _Alexander, History of_, 115, 172, 197. + + Alfonso II (d'Este), 83. + + America, 261-264. + + American interest, 10. + + Amorini, 209. + + Andrea del Sarto, 73. + + _Angeli Laudantes_, 260. + + Angers, 29, 30. + + Angivillier, Count of, 131, 133, 137. + + _Annunciation, The_, 61. + + Antin, Duke d', 128, 130, 131, 148. + + _Antony and Cleopatra_, 80, 110, 151, 187, 210, 222. + + _Apocalypse_, 23, 25, 30, 45, 217. + + Apprentices, 5. + + Architectural detail, 177-179. + + _Armide_, 130. + + Arras, 28, 32, 34, 38, 47, 48, 51, 54, 66, 90, 106, 129, 163, 176, + 203, 229. + + Arazzeria Medicea, 84. + + Artemisia, 93, 94. + + Artois, 32, 34, 163. + + Aubusson, 150, 152-158. + + Audran, Claude, 122-124, 126-128, 132. + + Audran, Jean, 138. + + _Aurora_, 254. + + + Babylon, 18. + + Bacchiacca, 76, 223. + + Backgrounds, 185. + + _Baillée des Roses_, 42, 176, 181. + + Bajazet, 35. + + Barberini, 87, 88, 131, 208. + + Basse lisse, 3, 193, 227. + + Bataille, Nicolas, 29, 30, 217. + + Baudry, Paul, 254. + + Baumgarten, 232, 238, 239, 262. + + Bayeux Tapestry, 21, 241-248. + + Beauvais, 4, 121, 135, 145-153, 154, 163, 256. + + Beaux Art, École des, 204. + + Béhagle, Philip, 147, 148, 257. + + Belle, Augustin, 138. + + Bellegarde, 157. + + Berne, Cathedral of, 37, 53. + + Bernini, 10. + + Berthélemy, 141. + + Besnier, 152. + + Bible, influence of, 130. + + Bièvre, 105, 106, 107. + + Blamard, Louis, 99, 103. + + Blumenthal collection, 74, 75, 78, 196, 205. + + Bobbin, 4. + + _Book of Hours_, 41. + + Borders, 132, 147, 158, 169, 170, 172, 173, 188-190, 201-215. + + Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 15, 46, 56, 238. + + Botticelli, 180. + + Boucher, 131, 132, 135, 141, 151. + + Boulle, 107. + + Bourg, Maurice du, 93, 94, 95, 96. + + Broche, 4, 223, 227, 228, 229. + + Bruges, 54, 55, 221. + + Brussels, 7, 9, 10, 29, 38, 48, 54, 55, 57, 64, 66, 68-72, 76, 78, + 90, 111, 129, 141, 163, 194, 197, 216, 218, 219, 221, 229. + + Brussels Mark, 217. + + Burgundian tapestry, 37, 45, 160, 174. + + Burgundy, Dukes of, 22, 33, 34, 36, 38, 39, 46, 47, 48, 51. + + Burne-Jones, 258, 259. + + + Caffieri, 107. + + Carron, Antoine, 94. + + Carthaginians, 19. + + Cartoons, 56, 151, 155, 173, 176, 231, 255. + + Cartouche, 207. + + Casanova, 151. + + Cellini, Benvenuto, 7. + + _Charity_, 254. + + Charles I, 167, 168, 170, 171. + + Charles V, 32. + + Charles V, Emperor, 62, 75, 82, 83, 220. + + Charles VI, 29. + + Charles VII, 42. + + Charles VIII, 48. + + Charles le Téméraire, 36, 45, 47, 51, 66. + + Chef d'atelier, 5. + + Chicago Institute of Art, 47, 78, 221. + + China, 18. + + Circe, 19. + + Clein, or Cleyn, Francis, 166, 169, 170, 171. + + Cluny Museum of Paris, 44, 54. + + Colbert, 99, 102, 103, 107, 108, 109, 116, 117, 118, 121, 145, + 155, 156. + + Colours, 191-193, 210, 211, 233-236. + + Comans, Charles de, 222. + + Comans, or Coomans, Marc, 95-97, 107, 165, 166, 231. + + _Condemnation of Suppers and Banquets, The_, 51. + + _Conquest of Tunis_, 75, 220. + + _Constantine, History of_, 112. + + Copies, 197-200. + + Coptic, 15, 16. + + Cornelisz, Lucas, 82. + + Correggio, 209. + + Cortona, Pietro di, 87. + + Cosimo I, Duke of Tuscany, 84, 85. + + Cosmati brothers, 178. + + Costumes, 181-183. + + Cotte, Jules Robert de, 122, 129, 131. + + Coypel, Antoine, 130. + + Coypel, Charles, 12, 127, 128, 130, 132, 150. + + Cozette, 132. + + Crane, Richard, 171. + + Crane, Sir Francis, 165, 167, 168, 170, 171, 223. + + Crane, Walter, 259. + + Crusades, 19, 24. + + _Cupid and Psyche_, 132. + + + David, 136, 140, 142, 143, 144. + + _David Instructing Solomon, etc._, 259. + + Dearle, H., 260. + + Delacroix, Jean, 109. + + Devonshire, Duke of, 46. + + _Diana, History of_, 92. + + Directing artist, 5. + + Director, 4. + + Directory, 139, 142. + + _Don Quixote_, 127, 132, 133, 152. + + Dosso, Battista, 82. + + Dourdin, 30. + + Ducal Palace at Nancy, tapestry room of, 51, 65. + + Du Mons, Jean Joseph, 158. + + Dupont, Pierre, 161. + + Dye, scarlet, of the Gobelin brothers, 106. + + Dyes, 6, 218, 233, 234. + + Dyes at Aubusson, 156. + + + Edward the Confessor, 260. + + Egypt, 18, 27. + + Egyptian drawing, 15. + + Egyptian loom, 16. + + Egyptian weaving, 16. + + Egyptian work, 7. + + Eighteenth Century, 76, 123, 152, 158, 180, 185, 187, 190, 211, + 222, 236, 257-261. + + Eleventh Century, 23. + + Elizabeth, Queen, 164. + + _Enfants Jardiniers_, 74. + + Enghien, 103, 221, 222. + + England, 54, 223. + + Ercole II (d'Este), 82-84. + + Este, d', 82-84, 91, 223. + + _Esther and Ahasuerus_, 190. + + Europe, 18, 19. + + + _Fables of La Fontaine_, 149-152. + + Felletin, 157. + + Ferrara, 82, 83, 223. + + Ffoulke collection, 88, 89, 131. + + Fifteenth Century, 22, 27, 46, 51, 54, 58, 81, 106, 160, 163, 176, + 183, 184, 196, 202. + + Filleul, 148. + + Flanders, 6, 7, 28, 54, 68, 110, 121, 150, 163, 169, 176, 208. + + Flemish tapestry, 9, 79. + + Fleur-de-lis, use of, 38, 222. + + Florence factory, 223. + + Flowers, use of, 52, 180, 181. + + Flute, 4, 227, 228, 229. + + Fontainebleau, 91, 92. + + Foucquet, 100-105. + + Fouquet, Jean, 42. + + Fourteenth Century, 25, 27, 30, 106, 176, 183. + + France, 10, 28, 54, 90, 110, 163, 176, 252-257. + + Francis I, 90, 91. + + French terms, 4. + + Furniture, 133, 134, 135, 146, 149, 152, 159, 162. + + + Galloon, 173, 201, 204, 219, 221. + + Genoa, 89. + + Germany, 54, 160. + + Geubels, Jacques, 79, 221. + + Ghent, 66. + + Giotto, 27, 216. + + Giulio Romano, 73, 74, 84, 93, 118. + + Gobelin, Jean and Philibert, 105, 106. + + Gobelins, 10, 30, 90, 93, 99, 103-107, 109, 111, 112, 115-122, + 128-131, 133, 135, 137-145, 154, 159, 161, 162, 203, 205, 222, + 236, 252. + + Gobelins Museum (Paris), 92, 99, 252. + + Gold, use of, 6. + + Gonnor (Duchess), 21. + + Gonzaga, 61, 81. + + _Goose Girl, The_, 259. + + Gothic border, 60, 61. + + Gothic columns, use of, 39, 52, 177, 178. + + Gothic drawing, 174-177. + + Gothic flowers, 180, 181. + + Gothic period, 7, 8, 16, 52, 69, 188, 192. + + Gothic style, 5, 27, 53, 66. + + Greece, 18, 27. + + Greek drawing, 15. + + Greek influence, 186. + + _Grotesque Months_, 76, 127. + + Guildhall, 7. + + Guilds, 6, 7. + + + Halberstadt, Cathedral at, 23. + + Hallé, 131. + + Hardwick Hall tapestries, 46. + + Harriman, Mrs. E. H., 263. + + Haute lisse, 3, 193, 194, 227. + + Helen, 19, 21. + + Helly, 35. + + Henri II, 92. + + Henri IV, 10, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 107, 146, 160, 161, 164, 165, + 212. + + Henry V, 31. + + Henry VIII, 164, 251. + + _Hero and Leander, History of_, 169. + + _Herse and Mercury_, 205. + + Herter, 238, 239, 263. + + High-loom, 15, 18. + + High-warp, 3, 16, 19, 27, 29, 95, 109, 157, 193, 227, 228, 229. + + Hinart, Louis, 146, 147. + + Hiss, Philip, 170, 224. + + _History of Alexander_, 115, 172, 197. + + _History of Constantine_, 112. + + _History of Esther_, 131, 132. + + _History of Gideon_, 36. + + _History of Hero and Leander_, 169. + + _History of Meleager_, 112. + + _History of the King_, 112, 113, 129, 222. + + _Holy Grail, The_, 258. + + _Horrors of the Seven Deadly Sins, The_, 51. + + _Hunt of Meleager_, 99. + + _Hunts of Louis XV_, 130, 188. + + + Identifications, 172-200. + + Iliad, influence of, 130. + + India, 18. + + Italy, 6, 10, 54, 71, 81, 86, 110, 152, 168, 208, 223. + + + James I, 164-167. + + Jans, Jean, 109, 126. + + John, Revelation of, 23. + + John without Fear, 36, 45. + + Jouvenet, 130. + + _Judgment of Paris, The_, 119. + + Jumeau, Pierre le, 28, 29. + + + Karcher, John, 82. + + Karcher, Nicholas, 76, 82, 84, 85, 223. + + _Kingdom of Heaven, The_, 59. + + King's Works, 171. + + + _Lady and the Unicorn, The_, 44, 54, 175, 181, 203. + + Lancaster, Duke of, 33. + + La Marche, 157, 158. + + La Planche, Raphael de, 96, 165, 166. + + Laurent, Henri, 95, 96, 109. + + Lebrun, 74, 99, 103, 104, 107, 109-120, 188, 203, 209, 211, 212, + 213. + + Lefèvre (or Lefebvre), 98, 109, 126, 222, 223. + + Leipzig, 152. + + Leleu, 105. + + Leo X, Pope, 70, 71, 86. + + Leonardo da Vinci, 90. + + Le Pape, 147. + + Leprince, 151. + + Lerambert, Henri, 94, 211. + + Lettering, 183-184, 203. + + Leyniers, Nicolas, 221. + + Liége, tapestries of, 48. + + _Life of Marie de Medici_, 197. + + _Life of the King_, 114, 144, 188. + + Lisse, 3, 193. + + Loches, church of, 41. + + London, 165. + + "Long wool" (_longue laine_), 160. + + Looms, 3, 226-230. + + Lorenzo the Magnificent, 86. + + Louis XI, 36, 47, 48, 50, 54. + + Louis XII, 48. + + Louis XIII, 98. + + Louis XIV, 10, 97-107, 117, 118, 122, 129, 145, 155-157, 161, 188, + 203, 211, 212. + + Louis XV, 127, 128, 129, 132, 133, 135, 136, 150, 162, 191, 205, + 213. + + Louis XVI, 133, 136, 137, 152, 162. + + Louvois, 116-121. + + Louvre, 97, 108, 109, 115, 160, 161. + + _Loves of the Gods_, 132. + + Low-warp, 3, 78, 109, 114, 147, 157, 158, 193, 227, 228, 230. + + + Maecht, Philip de, 166, 170, 223, 224. + + Maincy, factory of. _See_ Vaux. + + Maintenon, Mme. de, 118, 122, 124. + + Mangelschot, 138. + + Mantegna, Andrea, 61, 73, 81, 171. + + Manufactory, Royal (Aubusson), 156. + + Marie Antoinette, 133, 137, 152. + + _Marie de Medici, Life of_, 197. + + Marie Thérèse, 118. + + Marks, 216-224. + + Martel, Charles, 154, 155. + + Mary's Chamber at Holyrood, 65. + + Master-weaver, 6. + + Matilda (Queen), 21, 242, 245. + + _Mausolus and Artemisia_, 93. + + Mazarin, Cardinal, 59, 100. + + Mazarin tapestry, 56, 196. + + Medici, 84, 92, 94. + + _Meleager and Atalanta_, 222. + + Memling, 55. + + Mercier, Pierre, 157. + + _Mercury_, 75, 76, 78, 196. + + Merton Abbey, 252, 257-261. + + Metropolitan Museum of Art, 15, 40, 42, 46, 52, 58, 59, 76, 80, + 162, 170, 174, 176, 187, 210, 238. + + Meulen, François de la, 114. + + Michael Angelo, 84. + + Micou, 148. + + Middle Ages, 5, 6, 7, 19, 21, 27, 42, 201. + + Mignard, Pierre, 119, 120, 121. + + Millefleurs, 4, 13. + + Missals, 5. + + Monasteries, influence of, 21, 22. + + Montespan, Mme. de, 118, 131, 148. + + Montezert, Pierre de, 158. + + _Months, The_, 112, 133, 197, 212. + + Morgan, J. P., 40, 56, 59, 128, 196, 250. + + Morris, William, 257-261. + + Mortlake, 163-171, 197, 223. + + Mozin, Jean Baptiste, 109. + + _Muses_, 104, 141. + + Museums, Boston Fine Arts, 15, 46, 56, 238; + Chicago Institute of Art, 47, 78, 221; + Cluny, 44, 54; + Gobelins (Paris), 92, 99, 252; + Metropolitan (New York), 15, 40, 42, 52, 58, 59, 76, 80, 162, + 170, 174, 176, 187, 210, 238; + Nancy, 37. + + _Mysteries of the Life and Death of Jesus Christ, The_, 87, 208. + + + Nancy, Museum of, 37. + + Nantes, Edict of; its effect, 95, 118, 157. + + Napoleon, 136, 142, 143, 144, 208. + + _Napoleon Crossing the Alps_, 144. + + Natoire, Charles, 151. + + Neilson, 132. + + Nineteenth Century, 255. + + Notre Dame, 21. + + + Otho, Count of Burgundy, 32. + + Oudenarde, 221. + + Oudry, 131, 148-152, 257. + + + Pannemaker, Wilhelm de, 62, 75, 220. + + Paris, 10, 28, 29, 30, 47, 51, 90, 98, 132, 163, 222, 229. + + Parrish, Maxfield, 264. + + Parrocel, Charles, 130. + + _Passing of Venus, The_, 259. + + Pendleton, Charlotte, 235. + + Penelope, 15, 16, 21, 227. + + Pepersack, Daniel, 99. + + Percier, 143. + + "_Perse, à la façon de, ou du Levant_," 160. + + Persia, 19. + + Personages, 4. + + Perspective, 175-177. + + Pharaohs, 18, 57. + + Philip the Good, 36. + + Philip the Hardy, 22, 29, 33, 34, 35, 45. + + Philippe (Regent), 122, 128, 134, 148, 236. + + Pickering, Sir Gilbert, 171. + + Pius X, Pope, 9. + + Planche, François de la, 95, 96, 97, 107. + + Poitiers, 23, 154, 155. + + Poitou, Count of, 23. + + _Portières des Dieux_, 126. + + Portraits, 133, 140, 143, 162, 253. + + _Presentation in the Temple, The_, 30. + + + Quedlimburg Hanging, 25. + + Quentin Matsys, 58, 59. + + + Raphael, 9, 64, 67, 69, 70, 71, 79, 84, 118, 119, 145, 169, 187, + 189, 205, 207, 214, 216, 221. + + Ravaillac, 97. + + Renaissance, influence of, 9, 53, 61, 67, 68, 69, 70, 77, 78, 174, + 178, 182, 184, 186, 187, 188, 189, 191, 192. + + _Renommés, Les_, 111. + + Repairs, 237-240. + + Revolution, French, 137, 138, 139, 140, 142, 152. + + _Reward of Virtue, The_, 51. + + Rheims, 99, 155. + + Richelieu, 99. + + Riesner, 107. + + Riviera, Giacomo della, 87. + + Rococo, 128. + + Roman influence, 186. + + Romanelli, 87, 88, 130. + + Romano, Giulio, 73, 74, 84, 93, 118. + + Rome, 18, 27. + + Rome, Jean de, or Jan von Room, 56, 58, 59, 216. + + Rost, John, 76, 84, 85, 223. + + Rouen, 21. + + Royal Collection, Madrid, 187. + + _Royal Hunts, The_, 130, 188. + + _Royal Residences, The_, 112, 197, 203, 212. + + Rubens, 79, 104, 110, 111, 112, 169, 187, 209, 210, 211, 214. + + Ryerson collection, 59, 60, 61. + + Ryswick, Peace of, 121. + + + _Sack of Jerusalem, The_, 45, 176. + + _Sacraments, The_, 38, 46, 52, 174, 176, 192. + + _Sacred and Profane Love_, 254. + + St. Denis, abbey of, 22. + + St. Florent, Abbot of, 23. + + St. Germain, 109. + + St. John the Divine, Cathedral of, 87, 88, 208. + + St. Marceau, 97. + + St. Merri, 95. + + Saracens, 28, 154, 155, 178. + + Sarrazinois, 28, 29, 47. + + Saumur, 20. + + Savonnerie, 97, 159-162. + + _Seasons, The_, 132. + + _Seven Cardinal Virtues, The_, 34. + + _Seven Cardinal Vices, The_, 34. + + _Seven Deadly Sins, The_, 6, 250. + + Seventeenth Century, 10, 76, 86, 96, 99, 123, 158, 160, 163, 180, + 185, 187, 194, 207, 208, 211. + + Sevigné, Mme. de, 101, 103. + + Sforza Castle, 90. + + Shaw, Byram, 260. + + Shuttle, 4. + + _Siege of Calais_, 141. + + Silver, use of, 6. + + Sixteenth Century, 29, 54, 56, 58, 62, 73, 74, 79, 163, 183, 187, + 221, 223. + + Sorel, Agnes, 41. + + Spain, 54. + + Spitzer, collection of Baron, 59, 60, 61. + + _Spring_, 180. + + Stockholm, 152. + + _Story of Christ, The_, 99. + + "Stromaturgie, La," 161. + + Stradano, 85. + + Sully, 94, 95, 164. + + Sumner, Howard, 260. + + + Tapissiers, 4, 5, 228. + + Tenth Century, 20, 22. + + Tessier, Louis, 135. + + Thirteenth Century, 25, 26, 27, 28. + + Titian, 73. + + Tournelles, 96, 97. + + Tours, 99. + + _Transfiguration, The_, 254. + + "Très Riches Heures, Les," 41. + + Trinité, Hôpital de la, 92, 93, 95, 97, 109. + + _Triumph of Cæsar, The_, 171. + + _Triumph of Right, The_, 51. + + _Triumphs of the Gods_, 74. + + _Troy, History of_, 81. + + Troy, J. F. de, 131. + + _Truth Blindfolded_, 260. + + Tuileries, 97. + + Tuscans, 27. + + Twelfth Century, 23, 28. + + + Urban VIII, History of, 88. + + Urbino, Duke Frederick of, 81. + + + Vallière, Mme. de la, 118. + + Van Aelst, 70, 71, 86, 220, 221, 222. + + Van den Strecken, Gerard, 80, 222. + + Van der Straaten, Johan, 85. + + Van Dyck, 169. + + Van Eycks, 27, 55, 58. + + Van Orley, Bernard, 55, 220. + + Vaux, factory of, 99, 103, 105, 111, 112. + + Venice, 10, 89. + + _Venus_, 180. + + Verdure, 4, 158, 222. + + Vermeyen, Jan, 62. + + Veronese, Paolo, 73. + + Versailles, 109. + + _Vertumnus and Pomona, The Loves of_, 76, 78, 220. + + Vignory, Count of, 131. + + _Virgin and Saints_, 21. + + _Visit of Louis XIV to the Gobelins_, 113. + + Von Zedlitz, Anna, 170, 224. + + Vouet, Simon, 211. + + _Vulcan, The Expulsion of_, 170, 224. + + _Vulcan, Story of_, 169. + + + Warp, 232. + + Watteau, André, 126, 188. + + Wauters, 87. + + Weave, 194-196. + + Weavers, 5. + + Webb, Philip, 260. + + William the Conqueror, 242. + + Williamsbridge, 262. + + Winterhalter, 253. + + Woolsey, Cardinal, 250. + + + Zègre, Jean, 103. + + + + +Transcriber's Note + +Minor typographic errors of spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have +been repaired. Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved as +printed. + +The following errors in facing page number references have been repaired: + + Page 61--plate reference to page 81 amended to 82. + + Page 76--plate references for the "Vertumnus and Pomona" + series amended from 39 through 42 to 72 through 75. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Tapestry Book, by Helen Churchill Candee + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TAPESTRY BOOK *** + +***** This file should be named 26151-8.txt or 26151-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/1/5/26151/ + +Produced by Eileen Gormly, Alicia Williams (who did the +scanning, image prep, and OCR), Sam W. and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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