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diff --git a/57518-0.txt b/57518-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c8c4caa --- /dev/null +++ b/57518-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4330 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57518 *** + + + + + + + + + + +-------------------------------------------+ + | Note: | + | | + | _ around word indicated italics _in._ | + | | + +-------------------------------------------+ + +[Illustration] + + + + + CATALOGUE + + OF THE + + RETROSPECTIVE LOAN EXHIBITION + + OF + + EUROPEAN TAPESTRIES + + HELD IN THE + + SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF ART + + MCMXXII + + + + +EUROPEAN TAPESTRIES + + + + + SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF ART + + CATALOGUE + + OF THE + + RETROSPECTIVE LOAN EXHIBITION + + OF + + EUROPEAN TAPESTRIES + + BY + + PHYLLIS ACKERMAN + + M.A.; PH.D. + + WITH A PREFACE BY + + J. NILSEN LAURVIK + + DIRECTOR + + SAN FRANCISCO + + PUBLISHED BY THE MUSEUM + + MCMXXII + + + + +_Published September 29, 1922, in an edition of 2000 copies. Copyright, +1922, by San Francisco Museum of Art. Reprinted November 15, 1922, 500 +copies._ + +_Printed by_ TAYLOR & TAYLOR, _San Francisco. In the making of the +type-design for the cover, the printer has introduced an illuminated +fifteenth-century woodcut by an unknown master. Its original appears, +illuminated as shown, in "L'Istoire de la Destruction de Troye la Grant," +a book printed at Paris, dated May 12, 1484, of which only a single copy +is known to exist, that in the Royal Library at Dresden, this reproduction +having been made from the excellent facsimile of the block shown in +Claudin's "Histoire de l'Imprimerie en France." The border-design of the +cover is composed of the names of the chief tapestry-producing cities in +Europe during the Gothic and Renaissance periods._ + +_Halftones made by Commercial Art Company, San Francisco._ + + + + +PREFACE + + +This historical exhibition of European Tapestries is the fourth in a +series of retrospective exhibitions which we have planned to illustrate +the chronological development of some important phase of world-art, as in +the Old Masters Exhibition, held in the fall of 1920, or of the art of +an individual in whose work is significantly reflected the spirit of his +age, as in the J. Pierpont Morgan Collection of drawings and etchings by +Rembrandt, exhibited here in the spring of 1920. + +In its scope and general lines this exhibition follows closely the plan +of our Exhibition of Paintings by Old Masters, and, as will at once be +apparent from the subject-matter and treatment, covers the same period of +European history. Although important exhibitions of European tapestries +have been held at various times both here and abroad, it has remained for +our museum to arrange the first complete historical survey of this art +given in America. This collection presents in unbroken sequence the main +currents influential in the development and decadence of the great art of +tapestry-weaving in Europe, from the XIVth century down to and including +the early XIXth century, as exhibited in the work of the foremost +designers and weavers of the period, in examples that, for the most part, +are brilliantly typical and always characteristic of their particular +style. + +Virtually, every loom of importance in France, Flanders, Germany, +Switzerland, Spain, England, and Russia is here represented by +historically famous pieces which run the entire gamut of subjects that +engaged the interest of the most celebrated designers and weavers of each +epoch, from allegorical, classical, historical, and mythological to genre +subjects, landscapes, religious pieces, and even portraits and still-life +subjects. The only omissions of any consequence are the Italian looms +and Soho, and the output of these was relatively small and the examples +extant are very scarce. However, their absence does not materially +affect the historical integrity of the exhibition as a whole. On the +other hand, the Gothic series is perhaps the most complete assemblage +of all the most important types ever brought together at one time in +this country, and every important type of Renaissance design is here +included; the collection comprises two of the excessively rare products +of the Fontainebleau ateliers, as well as unusually fine specimens of the +relatively scarce examples of the Spanish and Russian looms. + +My chief concern in organizing this exhibition has been to make it +exemplify, first, the history of tapestry, and, second, its æsthetic +qualities as these have appeared during the different periods of its +changing and varying development, which, like the art of painting, had its +naïve, primitive beginnings, its glorious culmination, and its decline. +Therefore, every piece has been selected both to represent a distinct +and significant type in the chronology of the art and to illustrate the +artistic merits of that type, and all the tapestries shown are of the +highest worth in their particular category and many of them are among +the supreme masterpieces of European art, considered from whatever point +of view one may choose to regard them. Only too long have these noble +products of the loom been relegated to a secondary place in the history +of European culture, which they did so much to celebrate. I sincerely +trust that this exhibition, culled from seventeen collections in New +York, San Francisco, and Paris, may successfully contribute something +toward abolishing the hypnotic spell of the gold-framed oil-painting, that +artistic fetish which too long has held the uncritical enthralled to the +exclusion of other and ofttimes more authentic manifestations of the human +spirit in art. + +Regarded from the standpoint of design alone, the extraordinary +co-ordination of color and pattern (not to speak of the depth and richness +of the inner content) exhibited in certain of these pieces is a sharp +challenge to the oft-repeated distinction drawn between the major and +the minor arts, and one is constrained, after studying these tapestries, +to conclude that there are no major or minor arts, only major and minor +artists, and that greatness transfigures the material to the point of art, +be it paint or potter's clay, and a simple Tanagra transcends in worth +all the gilded and bejeweled banalities of Cellini, whose essentially +flamboyant soul sought refuge in gold and precious stones. This truth, too +rarely insisted upon, is of prime importance in any consideration of art, +whether it be "fine" or applied art, and a collection such as this should +do much to make it clear. Here one may observe how the principles of +design and color that animate the immortal masterpieces of mural painting +are identical with those that give life and vitality to these masterpieces +of the loom, and thereby apprehend something of that mysterious law +governing the operation of the creative impulse which finds its expression +in all the arts, irrespective of time and place, whether it be in rugs, +porcelains, Persian tiles and manuscripts, in European primitives, or +in the works of Chinese and Japanese old masters, transcending racial +differences and attaining a universal affinity that makes a Holbein one +with a Chinese ancestral portrait. Surely such opulent fantasy of design +and color as is revealed in Nos. 1, 3, 5, and 17, to mention only four of +the Gothic pieces in the collection, is deserving of something better than +the left-handed compliment of a comparison with painting. + +In their masterly filling of the allotted space, in the fine subordination +of the varied details to the general effect, as well as in the loftiness +and intensity of the emotion expressed, these glorious products of the +loom are worthy exemplars of the highest ideals of mural decoration no +less than of the aristocratic art of tapestry-weaving. Reflections such as +these are the natural consequence of a comparative study of art, and these +and kindred reasons are the impelling causes prompting one to exhibit, not +only tapestries, but rugs and textiles of all kinds, in an art museum and +to give them the same serious study one would accord a Leonardo, a Giotto, +a Rembrandt. Æsthetically and racially, they are no less revealing and +frequently more interesting in that they are the products of the earliest +expressions of those æsthetic impulses the manifestation of which has +come to be called art; nor are they less authentic and expressive because +communicated with the force and directness of the primitive loom, which +give to all its products a certain character and worth rarely equaled by +the more sophisticated products of the so-called fine arts. + +It is our hope that this catalogue will serve as a helpful guide to all +those wishing to make such use of this collection. Every serious student +of the subject no less than every unbiased specialist will, I am sure, +appreciate at its true worth the scholarly work done by Dr. Ackerman, +whose researches have made such a text possible. Bringing to the task a +critical judgment and a scientific method of analysis hitherto applied +almost exclusively to the identification and interpretation of primitive +paintings, the author has been able to correct several well-established +errors and to throw new light on many doubtful and obscure points which +are so well documented as should make them contributions of permanent +value to the literature of the subject. + +In conclusion we wish to thank Messrs. William Baumgarten & Company, C. +Templeton Crocker, Demotte, Duveen Brothers, P. W. French & Company, A. J. +Halow, Jacques Seligmann & Company, Dikran K. Kelekian, Frank Partridge, +Inc., W. & J. Sloane, William C. Van Antwerp, Wildenstein & Company, and +Mesdames James Creelman, William H. Crocker, Daniel C. Jackling, and +Maison Jamarin of Paris, for their kindness in lending us these priceless +examples of the European weavers' art that constitute this notable +assemblage of tapestries, and to record our deep appreciation of the +generous co-operation of the patrons and patronesses whose sponsorship has +made the exhibition possible by guaranteeing the very considerable expense +involved in bringing the collection to San Francisco. And last, but not +least, we wish to express our grateful appreciation of the unremitting +thought and attention devoted by the printer to designing and executing +the very fitting typographical form that contributes so largely to making +the varied material contained herein readily available to the reader, and +to acknowledge, on behalf of the author, the friendly help of Arthur Upham +Pope, whose suggestions and criticisms have been found of real value in +the preparation of the text of the catalogue. + + J. NILSEN LAURVIK, Director + + San Francisco, September 29, 1922. + + * * * * * + + _The patrons and patronesses of the Exhibition are: Messrs. William + C. Van Antwerp, Edwin Raymond Armsby, Leon Bocqueraz, Francis + Carolan, C. Templeton Crocker, Sidney M. Ehrman, William L. Gerstle, + Joseph D. Grant, Walter S. Martin, James D. Phelan, George A. + Pope, Laurance Irving Scott, Paul Verdier, John I. Walter, Michel + D. Weill, and Mesdames A. S. Baldwin, C. Templeton Crocker, Henry + J. Crocker, William H. Crocker, Marcus Koshland, Eleanor Martin, + George A. Pope, and Misses Helen Cowell and Isabel Cowell, and The + Emporium._ + + + + + THE SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF ART + + + BOARD OF TRUSTEES + + WILLIAM C. VAN ANTWERP, EDWIN RAYMOND ARMSBY + + ARTHUR BROWN, JR., FRANCIS CAROLAN, CHARLES W. CLARK + + CHARLES TEMPLETON CROCKER + + WILLIAM H. CROCKER, JOHN S. DRUM, SIDNEY M. EHRMAN + + JOSEPH D. GRANT, DANIEL C. JACKLING + + WALTER S. MARTIN, JAMES D. PHELAN, GEORGE A. POPE + + LAURANCE I. SCOTT, RICHARD M. TOBIN + + JOHN I. WALTER + + + DIRECTOR + + J. NILSEN LAURVIK + + + THE MUSEUM IS HOUSED IN THE PALACE OF FINE ARTS + ERECTED BY THE PANAMA-PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL + EXPOSITION IN 1915 + + + + +CONTENTS + +_For a detailed list of the tapestries catalogued herein see the subject +and title index at the end of the volume_ + +[Illustration] + + PREFACE Page 5 + + INTRODUCTION 11 + + CATALOGUE 25 + + LIST OF WEAVERS 58 + + BIBLIOGRAPHY 59 + + SUBJECT AND TITLE INDEX 61 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + MAP Facing Page 16 + + _Showing the principal centers of production of Gothic and early + Renaissance tapestries_ + + + TAPESTRIES + + _The Annunciation_ Facing Page 24 + + _The Chase_ 25 + + _The Annunciation, the Nativity, and the Announcement to the + Shepherds_ 26 + + _Scenes from the Roman de la Rose_ 27 + + _The Vintage_ 30 + + _Entombment on Millefleurs_ 31 + + _Millefleurs with Shepherds and the Shield of the Rigaut + Family_ 32 + + _Pastoral Scene_ 33 + + _The Creation of the World_ 34 + + _Four Scenes from the Life of Christ_ Facing Page 35 + + _The Triumph of David_ 38 + + _Two Pairs of Lovers_ 39 + + _Hannibal Approaches Scipio to Sue for Peace_ 40 + + _Cyrus Captures Astyages, His Grandfather_ 41 + + _The Crucifixion_ 42 + + _Grotesques_ 43 + + _Triumph of Diana_ 46 + + _The Niobides_ 47 + + _Scene from the History of Cleopatra_ 48 + + _Verdure_ 49 + + _Verdure with Dancing Nymphs_ 50 + + _The Conquest of Louis the Great_ 51 + + _The Poisoning of a Spy_ 54 + + _The Arms of France and Navarre_ 55 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +AN HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL SURVEY OF THE ART OF TAPESTRY WEAVING + +[Illustration] + +Tapestry is a compound art. It stands at the meeting-point of three +other arts, and so is beset by the problems of all three. In the first +place, it is illustrative, for while there are tapestries that show only +a sprinkling of flowers, a conventionalized landscape, or an armorial +shield, the finest and most typical pieces are those with _personnages_ +that represent some episode from history, myth, or romance, or give a +glimpse of the current usages of daily life. In the second place, tapestry +is a mural decoration. It is part of the architectural setting of the +rooms, really one with the wall. And, in the third place, it is a woven +material--a solid fabric of wool or silk in the simplest of all techniques. + +Since a tapestry is an illustration, it must be realistic and convincing, +accurate in details and clearly indicative of the story. Because it is +also a wall decoration, it cannot be too realistic, but must be structural +in feeling and design, and the details must fall into broad masses that +carry a strong effect from a distance. And since it is a woven material, +even if it be structural, it must be flexible, and must have a fullness of +ornament that will enrich the whole surface so that none of it will fall +to the level of mere cloth. + +But if the tapestry designer have a difficult problem in resolving these +conflicting demands of the different aspects of his art, he has also wider +opportunities to realize within those limitations. As an illustration, if +he handle it with skill, he can make the design convey all the fascination +of romance and narrative. As a mural decoration his design can attain a +dignity and noble reserve denied to smaller illustrations, splendid in +itself, and valuable for counterbalancing the disproportionate literary +interest that the subject sometimes arouses. And the thick material, with +its soft, uneven surface, lends, even to a trivial design, a richness and +mellowness that the painter can achieve only in the greatest moments of +his work. + +The designer of tapestry can steer his way among the difficulties of the +three phases of his art, and win the advantages of them all only if he +have a fine and sensitive feeling for the qualities that he must seek. A +realism flattened to the requirement of mural decoration and formalized +to the needs of the technique of weaving, that still retains the +informality and charm of the illustration, can best be won by considering +the design as a pattern of silhouettes; for a silhouette is flat, and so +does not violate the structural flatness of the wall by bulging out in +high modeling. Moreover, it does give a broad, strong effect that can +carry across a large room. And, finally, it permits both of adaptation +in attitude and gesture to the needs of the story and of easy-flowing +lines that can reshape themselves to the changing folds of a textile. So, +to make good silhouettes, the figures in a good tapestry design will be +arranged in the widest, largest planes possible, as they are in a fine +Greek relief, and they will be outlined with clear, decisive, continuous +lines, definitive of character, expressive and vivacious. + +The strength and vivacity of the outline is of prime significance in +tapestry design, even though in its final effect it appears not primarily +as a linear art, but rather as a color art. The outlines have to be both +clearly drawn in the cartoon and forcefully presented in the weave; for +they bear the burden both of the illustrative expressiveness and of the +decorative definition. If they are weakened in delineation or submerged +by the glow of the colors, the tapestry becomes confused in import, +weak in emphasis, and blurred in all its relations, while the charm and +interest of detail is quite lost. The too heavy lines of some of the +primitive tapestries are less a defect than the too delicate lines of the +later pieces designed by those who were primarily painters, and which +were too much adapted to the painting technique. The outlines in the +best tapestries are not only indicated with a good deal of force, but +these lines themselves have unflagging energy, unambiguous direction, +diversified movement, and unfaltering control. + +In order to complete and establish the silhouette effect, the color in the +best tapestries is laid on in broad flat areas, each containing only a +limited number of tones. A gradual transition of tone through many shades +is undesirable, because such modulations convey an impression of relief +modeling, which is inappropriate and superfluous in an art of silhouette. +Then, again, these gradations at a little distance tend to fuse, and +thus somewhat blur the force and purity of the color; and, finally, a +considerable number of color transitions are ill-adapted to the character +of a textile, as they tend to make it appear too much like painting. Nor +are fluctuating tones and minute value-gradations necessary for a soft +and varied effect. The very quality of tapestry material accomplishes +that--first, because the ribbed surface breaks up the flatness of any +color area and gives it shimmering variations of light and shade, and, +second, because the wide folds natural to the material throw the flat +tones now into dark and now into light, thus by direct light and shade +differentiating values that in the dyes themselves are identical. Color in +tapestry can thus be used in purer, more saturated masses than in any form +of painting, not excepting even the greatest murals. + +Flat silhouetted figures cannot of course be set in a three-dimensional +world. They would not fit. So the landscape, too, must be flattened out +into artificially simplified stages. This is also necessary both for +the architectural and the decorative effect of tapestry, for otherwise +the remote vistas tend to give the effect of holes in the wall, and the +distance, dimmed by atmosphere, is too pallid and empty to be interesting +as textile design. Yet the fact of perspective cannot be altogether +denied. Often the designer can avoid or limit the problem by cutting off +the farther views with a close screen of trees and buildings, and this has +also the advantage of giving a strong backdrop against which the figures +stand out firm and clear. But there are occasions in which a wider +field is essential for the purposes of illustration. The problem is how +to show a stretch of country and still keep it flat and full of detail. +In the most skillful periods of tapestry design the difficulty was met +by reducing the perspective to three or four sharply stepped levels of +distance, laid one above the other in informal horizontal strips. Aerial +perspective was disregarded, each strip being filled with details, all +sharply drawn but diminishing in size. The scene was thus kept relatively +flat, was adapted to flat figures, and was also filled with interesting +details. + +This fullness of detail is important in tapestries and is the source +of much of their richness and charm. The great periods of weaving made +lavish use of an amazing variety of incidents and effects: the pattern +of a gown, jewels, the chasing or relief on a piece of armor, bits of +decorative architecture, carved furniture, and the numerous household +utensils, quaint in shape or suddenly vivid in color--all these, with +the innumerable flowers, the veritable menagerie of beasts, real and +imaginary, gayly patterned birds, as well as rivers, groves, and +mountains, make up the properties with which the designer fills his spaces +and creates a composition of inexhaustible resource and delight. + +So with flat figures, strong outlines, deep, pure, and simple colors, a +flattened setting, and a wealth of details, the artist can make a tapestry +that will be at the same time both a representative and an expressive +illustration, an architectural wall decoration, and a sumptuous piece +of material. But even then he has not solved every difficulty; for +the tapestry cannot be merely beautiful in itself. It has to serve as +a background for a room and for the lives lived in it; so it must be +consonant in color and line quality with the furniture current at the +time it is made, and it must meet the prevailing interests of the people. +Moreover, while it must be rich enough to absorb the loitering attention, +it must also have sufficient repose and reserve and aloofness not to +intrude unbidden into the eye and not to be too wearyingly exciting--and +this last was sometimes no easy problem to solve when the designer was +bidden to illustrate a rapidly moving and dramatic tale. Sometimes, in +truth, he did not solve it, but sometimes he employed with subtle skill +the device of so dispersing his major points of action that until they are +examined carefully they merge into a general mass effect. + +While the designers have at different periods met these various problems +in different ways and with varying skill, the technique of the weaving +has never been modified to any extent. For centuries this simple kind of +weaving has been done. In essentials it is the same as that used in the +most primitive kind of cloth manufacture. The warps are stretched on a +frame that may rest horizontally or stand upright. The shuttle full of +thread of the desired color is passed over and under the alternate warps, +the return reversing the order, now under the warps where it was before +over, and over where it was under. A comb is used to push the wefts +thus woven close together so that they entirely cover the warps. In the +finished tapestry the warps run horizontally across the design. A change +of colors in the weft-threads creates the pattern. In the more complex +patterns of later works the weaver follows the design drawn in outline +on his warps, or sometimes, in the horizontal looms, follows the pattern +drawn on a paper laid under his warps so that he looks down through them. +His color cues he takes from the fully painted cartoon suspended somewhere +near in easy view. Occasionally, in later pieces, to enrich the effect, +the simple tapestry weave is supplemented with another technique, such as +brocading (cf. No. 52), but this is rare. + +All the earliest examples left to us of this kind of weaving are akin to +tapestry as we usually know it only in technique. They have practically no +bearing on the development of its design. Of the very earliest we have no +evidence left by which to judge. Homer, the Bible, and a number of Latin +authors all mention textiles that probably could be classed as tapestries; +but the references are too general to give us any definite clue as to the +treatment of the design. But from the VIth to the VIIIth century, the +Copts in Egypt produced many pieces, showing, usually in very small scale, +birds and animals and foliage, and even groups of people. Of these we have +many samples left. From various parts of Europe, primarily from Germany, +in the next two centuries we have a few famous examples. But these are +almost wholly without significant relation to the central development of +tapestry design. Tapestry, in our sense of the word, begins, as far as +extant examples are concerned, with the XIVth century. + +From the XIVth to the end of the XVth century was the Gothic period. +Then tapestry was at its greatest height. More of the requisites of its +design were met, and met more adequately and more naturally, than by any +subsequent school of designers or any looms. As illustration, the tapestry +of the Gothic period is interesting, vivid, and provocative. The stories +and episodes that it presents were, to be sure, all part of the mental +content of the audience, so that they comprehended them more immediately +than we; but even without the literary background we follow them readily, +so adequate is their delineation. Moreover, they carry successfully almost +every narrative mood--humor, romance, lyricism, excitement, pathos, and +pure adventure--and, except in the traditional religious scenes, they +wisely eschew such tenser dramatic attitudes as a momentous climax, +long-sustained suspense, or profound tragedy. Finally, when they had a +good tale to tell, the Gothic designers rendered their episodes with a +fullness of incident and a vivacity of detail never again equaled. + +As mural decorations, too, the Gothic tapestries are equally successful. +For the figures are always flat and, even while natural and animated, +are often slightly formalized and structural in drawing (cf. No. 10); +the outlines are clean and active, the colors strong and broad, the +vistas either eliminated as in the millefleurs (cf. No. 11) or completely +simplified (cf. No. 13), while the details are abundant and delightful. +Finally, they are among the most sumptuous textiles ever woven in the +Western World--sumptuous, not because of costly material, for they only +rarely use metal thread, and even silk is unusual, but sumptuous because +of the variety and magnificence of their designs and the splendor and +opulence of their color. + +Thus the Gothic designers both appreciated and employed to the full all +of the æsthetic conditions of their art; yet they did not do this from +any theoretical comprehension of the medium. The supremacy of Gothic +tapestry rests on a broad basis. It is the final product of one of the +most vital and creative epochs in the history of art; its designers +were brought up in a great tradition, surrounded everywhere by the most +magnificent architectural monuments, accustomed to the habit of beauty in +small as well as great things, still inspired and nourished by the fertile +spirit that had created and triumphantly solved so many problems in the +field of art. A passion for perfection and an elevated and sophisticated +taste animated all of the crafts, of which tapestry was but one. The +full flowering of tapestry is contemporaneous with that of Limoges +enamel, paralleling it in many ways, even to the employment of the same +designers (cf. No. 7). Great armor was being made at the same time--armor +that exemplified as never before or since its inherent qualities and +possibilities: perfection of form and finish, a sensitive and expressive +surface, and exquisite decoration logically developed out of construction. +Furniture also achieved at that time a combination of strength with +natural and imaginative embellishments that still defies copy, while +the first publishers were producing the most beautiful books that have +ever been printed, unsurpassable in the clear and decorative silhouette +of the type, in the perfection of tone, and in the balanced spacing of +the composition. Other textile arts, such as that of velvet and brocade +weaving, reached the utmost heights of subtlety and magnificence. This +easy achievement of masterpieces in kindred fields, so characteristic of +great epochs, doubtless stimulated tapestry-weaving as it did every other +art. + +This great achievement of the Gothic period in so many fields of art +was the natural flowering of the spirit of the time. Life for all was +limited in content, education as we understand it meager and ill-diffused, +opportunities for advancement for the individual about non-existent. +Despite these limitations--partly, indeed, because of them--and despite +the physical disorders of the age, there were, none the less, a simplicity +and unity of mind and an integrity of spirit that provided the basis +for great achievement. The spontaneous and tremendous energy, the +inexhaustible fertility that was an inheritance from their Frankish and +Germanic forbears were now moulded and controlled by common institutions, +by the acceptance of common points of view and the consciousness of +unified and fundamental principles of life, the acceptance of an +authoritative social system that defined and limited each man's ambitions. +All these factors prevented the protracted self-analysis, the aimless +criticism, the uncertainties and confusion of individual aims that consume +our energies, detract from our will, and impoverish our accomplishments. +Theirs was in no sense an ambiguous age; they were conscious of a +universal spirit, continuously pressing for expression in art which could +fortunately forge straight ahead to objective embodiment. + +The stimulation of all of the arts had come in part, too, from the inrush +of culture from the Byzantine Empire, where traditions and riches had +been heaping up continuously ever since the Greek civilization had at its +height spilled over into the East. Every flood-tide of culture is created +by various streams of ideas and customs that have for generations taken +separate courses. All competent ethnologists are agreed that, no matter +what the native equipment of a people is, no matter how abundant are their +natural resources, how friendly and encouraging is their environment or +how threatening and stimulating, one stream of culture flowing alone +never rises to great heights. Invention, evolved organization, and +artistic production come only with the meeting and mingling of ideas and +habits. The East had first fertilized European intellectual creativeness +when the numerous Crusades and the sacking of Constantinople by the +Franks brought a wealth of novel and exciting ideas into France and the +neighboring territories in the XIth and XIIth centuries. There followed +the great period of cathedral-building with all the minor accompanying +artistic developments of the sculpture, the glass-painting, the manuscript +illuminating, the enameling, the lyrics of Southern France, and the +romances and fabliaux of Northern. This tide was ebbing slowly when a +second rush from the East incident to the fall of Constantinople in 1453 +lifted it again. The art of tapestry was especially sensitive to this +second Byzantine influence. The industry was coming to its height; the +demand was already prodigious, the prices paid enormous, the workers +highly skilled and well organized. Tapestry was ready to assimilate any +relevant contribution. It enthusiastically took unto itself the sumptuous +luxury of the decadent Orient with its splendid fabrics, encrusted +architecture, complex patterns, and heavy glowing colors. The simple +Frankish spirit of the earlier pieces (cf. No. 2) was almost submerged by +the riotously extravagant opulence of the East (cf. Nos. 17, 18). On the +other hand, too, from the jewelry of Scandinavia, a remote descendant of +an ancient Oriental precedent, tapestry adopted examples of heavy richness +of design. And at the same time it took also from the Byzantine some of +the formality, the thickness of elaborate drapery, the conventionalization +of types, and the rigidity of drawing that had paralyzed the art of +Byzantium, but that in tapestry enhanced the architectural character and +so constituted a real addition. The tendency of the late XIVth century to +an absorption in an exact naturalism which might have immediately rushed +French and Flemish taste into the scientific realism of the Florentine +Renaissance was checked and deflected by the example and the memory of the +stiff carven form, the arrested gestures, and the fixed draperies of the +mosaics and manuscript illuminations of the Eastern Empire (cf. No. 8). + +But aside from these general considerations, which were vital for the +creation of great tapestries, there was at work a specific principle +perhaps even more important. The manner of treatment which the tapestry +medium itself calls for was one which was native to the mind of the time +and which declared itself in a great variety of forms. + +[Illustration: + + Map Showing the + Principle centers of Production + of Gothic and early Renaissance + TAPESTRIES + + drawn by + Arthur Upham Pope + + For the San Francisco Museum of Art + Retrospective Loan Exhibition of Tapestries + Copyright 1922 +] + +In the first place, the Middle Ages were in spirit narrative. The bulk of +their literature was narrative--long historical or romantic poems with +endless sequences of continued episodes that never came to any dominating +climax. Their drama, too, was narrative, a story recounted through a +number of scenes that could be cut short at almost any point or could be +carried on indefinitely without destroying the structure, because there +was no inclusive unity in them, no returning of the theme on itself such +as distinguishes Greek drama or Shakespeare and which we demand in modern +times. Their religion and their ethics also were narrative, dependent, +for the common man, upon the life history of sacred individuals that both +explained the fundamental truths of the universe and set models for moral +behavior. And they were supplemented, too, by profane histories with +moralizing symbolism contrived to point the way to the good life, such as +we find in the _Roman de la Rose_ (cf. No. 4). Even their lesser ethics, +their etiquette, was narrative, derived from the fabric of chivalric +romance. And, again, their greatest art, their architecture, was adorned +with narrative, ornamented with multiple histories, so that even the +capital of a column told a tale. The whole world about them was narrative, +so that the painters and designers must needs think in narrative terms, +and hence as illustrators. The narrative features of the other arts also +lent them valuable examples for their tapestries. Most of their renderings +of religious stories were taken direct from the Mystery Plays (cf. No. +14), and some of their scenes were already familiar to them in stained +glass and church sculptures. + +Moreover, narrative decorations were interesting and important to the +people of the XVth century because they had only very limited resources +for intellectual entertainment. Books were scarce, but even if plentiful +would have been of little use, for very few could read. The theatre for +the mass of the people was limited to occasional productions on church +holidays of Mystery and Miracle plays, and even for the great dukes these +were only meagerly supplemented by court entertainers. There was no +illustrated daily news, no moving pictures, no circuses, no menageries, no +easy travel to offer ready recreation. In our distractedly crowded life +today we are apt to forget how limited were the lives of our ancestors and +what pleasure, as a result, they could get from a woven story on their +walls. + +In the second place, the Gothic designers, when they came to draw +their decorative illustrations, because of their inherited traditions, +naturally fell into a technique adapted to the architectual forms of +mural decoration. For all the art of the Middle Ages was the derivative +of architecture, and at its inception was controlled by it. The original +conception of the graphic arts in this period was the delineation on +a flat surface of sculpture--sculpture, moreover, that was basically +structural, because made as part of a building. So the painted figures +were heavily outlined silhouettes in a few broad planes with the poise +and the restraint essential to sculpture. These early statuesque figures, +familiar in the primitive manuscript illumination and stained-glass +windows, had, by the time the tapestries reached their apogee, been +modified by a fast-wakening naturalism. But the underlying idea of the +silhouette and of the poised body was not yet lost, and so it was natural +for tapestry designers to meet these requirements. The naturalism, on +the other hand, was just becoming strong enough to make the lines more +gracefully flowing and the details more varied and more delicate and exact +in drawing, so that the very transitional form of the art of the time made +it especially well adapted to a woven rendition. + +In the third place, the cartoons, even if they were not quite right in +feeling when they came from the painter's hand, would be modified in the +translation into the weave by the workmen themselves; for the weavers at +that time were respected craftsmen with sufficient command of design to +make their own patterns for the less important orders, and were therefore +perfectly able to modify and enrich the details of the cartoon of even a +great painter. And no designer in the one medium of paint can ever fit his +theme to the other medium of wool quite as aptly as the man who is doing +the weaving himself. + +Thus because the Gothic period happened to be a time when it was natural +for the artists to make vivacious and decorative illustrations in clear, +flat silhouettes with rich details, most of the Gothic tapestries have +some measure of artistic greatness, sufficient to put them above all +but the very greatest pieces of later times. Even when we discount the +additions that time and our changed attitude make, the beauty of softened +and blended colors, the charm of the unaccustomed and the quaint, the +interest of the unfamiliar costumes, the literary flavor of old romantic +times--even discounting these, they are still inherently superior. To be +sure, they are rarely pretty and are sometimes frankly ugly, but with +a tonic ugliness which possesses the deepest of all æsthetic merits, +stimulating vitality. They have verve, energy, a pungent vividness that +sharply reminds the beholder that he is alive. Their angular emphatic +silhouettes and pure, highly saturated, abruptly contrasted colors catch +and hold the attention and quicken all the vital responses that are +essential to clear perception and full appreciation. They are a standing +refutation of the many mistaken theories that would make the essence +of beauty consist merely in the balanced form and symmetry, or smooth +perfection of rendition, or photographic accuracy of representation. They +are a forceful and convincing demonstration that in the last analysis +beauty is the quality that arouses the fullest realization of life. + +Within the common Gothic character there are clearly recorded local +differences: the division between the French and the Flemish, not +marked until the middle of the XVth century, because up to that time +the Franco-Flemish school was really one and continuous. It amalgamated +influences from both regions and absorbed a rather strong contribution +from Italy. The center of activity was at first Paris and then at the +courts of the Burgundian dukes. But after the middle of the century the +divergence is rapid and clear. The French is characterized by greater +simplicity, clarity, elegance, and delicacy. Even the strong uprush of +realism was held in check in France by decorative sensitiveness. The +most characteristic designs of the time are the millefleurs, the finer +being made in Touraine (cf. No. 8), the coarser in La Marche. The Flemish +decoration, on the other hand, is sumptuous, overflowing, sometimes +confused, always energetic, and strongly varied in detail. Nothing checks +the relentless realism that sometimes runs even to caricature and often +is fantastic (cf. the punishment scenes in No. 4). Typical of Flemish +abundance are the cartoons with multiple religious scenes, heavy with rich +draperies and gorgeous with infinite detail, yet not subordinating to +theme the human interest of many well-delineated types of character (cf. +No. 18). Brussels was the great center for the production of work of this +kind, but beautiful pieces were being produced in almost every city of the +Lowlands--Bruges, Tournai, Arras, and many more. + +The German Gothic tapestry is quite different from both of these. It was +developed almost entirely independently, under quite other conditions. +While the French and Flemish shops grew up under the patronage of +the great and wealthy nobles, and worked primarily for these lavish +art-patrons, in Germany the nobles were impoverished and almost outcast; +there was scarcely a real court, and all the wealth lay in the hand of +the burghers, solid, practical folk who did not see much sense in art. So +while in France and in the Lowlands the workshops were highly organized +under great _entrepreneurs_, and the profits were liberal, in Germany +the workshops were very small, and many of the pieces were not made +professionally at all, but were the work of nuns in the convents or of +ladies in their many idle hours. Thus the industry that in France and +Flanders was definitely centered in the great cities such as Paris and +Brussels, in Germany was scattered through many towns, primarily, however, +those of south Germany and Switzerland. And, too, while the designs +for the French and Flemish pieces were specially made by manuscript +illuminators, painters, or professional cartoon designers, some of whom, +like Maître Philippe (cf. Nos. 17-19), conducted great studios, for the +German pieces the weavers themselves adapted the figures from one of the +woodcuts that were the popular art of the German people or from some book +illustration. So while the French and Flemish tapestries reached great +heights of skill and luxury, and really were a great art, the German +tapestry remained naïve and simple and most of its artistic value is the +product of that very naïveté. + +Toward the close of the XVth century a change begins to appear in the +character of tapestry design. More and more often paintings are exactly +reproduced down to the last detail. At first sporadic products, the +reproductions of the work of such masters as Roger Van der Weyden and +Bernard Van Orley become more and more frequent until by the end of the +first quarter of the XVIth century they are a commonplace. Yet even though +tapestry is no longer entirely true to itself, these tapestry paintings +are nevertheless beautiful and fit. A woven painting has not yet become +an anomaly because painting in Northern Europe is still narrative and +decorative. There are still poise and restraint and clear flat silhouette +and rich detail. + +It was not until tapestry plunged full into the tide of the Italian +Renaissance that it entirely lost its Gothic merits. But when, beginning +in 1515 with the arrival of Raphael's cartoons for the Pope's _Apostle_ +series, the weavers of the North began to depend more and more for their +designs on the painters of the South and on painters trained in the +South, the character of tapestry completely changed. True, tapestry in +the old style was still made for two decades, but in diminishing numbers. +The Renaissance had the field. In place of endlessly varied detail, the +designers sought for instantly impressive effects, and these are of +necessity obvious. Every-thing grew larger, coarser, more insistent +on attention. Figures were monumental, floreation bold and strong, +architecture massive. Even the verdures developed a new manner; great +scrolling acanthus-leaves and exotic birds (cf. No. 33) took the place of +the delicate field flowers and pigeons and songsters. Drama took the place +of narrative. On many pieces metal thread was lavished in abundance. The +whole flagrant richness of the newly modern world was called into play. + +For the first time also with Renaissance tapestry, it becomes relevant to +ask, Do they look like the scenes they depict?--for realism was in the +full tide of its power. A hundred and fifty years before the Renaissance +realism had begun to develop, inspired by the naturalism of Aristotle, +whose influence had gradually filtered down from the schools to the +people, and throughout the XIVth and early XVth century it had been slowly +growing. The hunting tapestries of the first part of the XVth century are +early examples of it. But the Gothic realism was an attempt to convey +the impression of the familiar incidents of life, to get expressive +gestures, to record characteristic bits of portraiture, whether of +people or things or episodes, so that a Gothic tapestry can be adjudged +naturalistically successful if it carries strongly the spirit and effect +of a situation regardless of whether the drawing is quite true or not (cf. +No. 2). Renaissance realism, on the other hand, is not satisfied with the +impression, but strives for the fact. It wishes to depict not only the +world as one sees it, but as one knows it to be--knows it, moreover, after +long and careful study. So in all Renaissance graphic art correct anatomy +becomes of importance, solid modeling is essential, and all details must +be specific. + +Yet, though tapestry in the Renaissance was no longer illustrative in +the old sense, it still was decoratively fine; for the painting of Italy +was founded on a mural art, and the decorative traditions still held +true. Outlines are still clear and expressive. There was respect for +architectural structure, and details, if less complex and sensitive, are +still rich and full. Color, too, is still strong and pure, though the key +is heightened somewhat and the number of tones increased. Moreover, the +Renaissance introduced two important new resources, the wide border and +the grotesque. Hitherto the border had been a narrow floral garland, a +minor adjunct easily omitted. Now it became of major importance, always +essential to the beauty of the piece, often the most beautiful part of +it, designed with great resource and frequently interwoven with gold and +silver. The grotesque, from being originally a border decoration, soon +spread itself over the whole field (cf. No. 36), mingling with amusing +incongruity but with decorative consistency goats and fair ladies, +trellis, flowers, and heraldic devices. What the Renaissance lacked in +subtlety it made up in abundance. + +During the Renaissance the tapestry industry was dominated by the Flemish +cities, with Brussels at the head. She had the greatest looms, great both +for the exceeding skill of the workers and for the enormous quantity of +the production. Some workshops, of which the most famous was that of +the Pannemaker family, specialized in exquisitely fine work rendered in +the richest materials. Of this class, the most typical examples are the +miniature religious tapestries in silk and metal thread, in which all +the perfection of a painting was united with the sumptuousness of a most +extravagant textile (cf. No. 35). But sometimes full-sized wall-hangings +too were done with the same perfection and elaboration (cf. Nos. 23-25). +Other shops sacrificed the perfection of workmanship to a large output, +but even in the most commercially organized houses the weavers of Flanders +in the XVIth century were able and conscientious craftsmen. + +These same Flemish workmen were called to different countries in Europe +to establish local looms. So Italy had several small temporary ateliers +at this period, as did England also (cf. No. 32). But though these shops +were in Italy and England, they were still predominantly Flemish. The +character of local decoration and local demand influenced the design +somewhat, but fundamentally the products both in cartoon and in weave +were still those of the mother country. In France, however, the Flemish +workmen were made the tools of the beginning of a new national revival +of the art. A group of weavers was called to Fontainebleau, where, under +the extravagant patronage of Francis I, the French Renaissance was taking +form. These Flemings, weaving designs made by Italians, nevertheless +created decorative textiles that are typically French in spirit (cf. No. +37). France alone had a strong enough artistic character to refashion the +conventions of Italy and the technique of Flanders to a national idiom. + +In the next century this revival of the art which survived at +Fontainebleau barely fifty years was carried on in several ateliers at +Paris. The workmen were still predominantly Flemish, but again their work +was unmistakably French (cf. No. 38). In Trinity Hospital looms had been +maintained since the middle of the XVIth century. In the gallery of the +Louvre looms were set up about 1607. And the third and most important +shop was established by Marc de Comans and François de la Planche at +the invitation of the king. This was most important, because it later +was moved to the Bièvre River, where the Gobelins family had its old +dye-works, and it eventually became the great state manufactory. + +Thereafter for the next two centuries the looms of Flanders and France +worked in competition. Now one, now the other took precedence, but France +had a slowly increasing superiority that by the middle of the XVIIIth +century put her two royal looms, the Gobelin and Beauvais, definitely in +the forefront of the industry. + +For cartoons the looms of the two countries called on the great painters +of the time, often requisitioning the work of the same painters, and +sometimes even using the very same designs. Thus Van der Meulen worked +both for Brussels manufacturers (cf. Nos. 53-56) and for the French state +looms (cf. No. 52), and the Gobelin adapted to its uses the old Lucas +_Months_ that had originated in Flanders (cf. Nos. 57, 58.) + +But though they did thus parallel each other in cartoons, the finished +tapestries nevertheless retained their national differences. As in the +Gothic period, the Flemish tapestries in all respects showed a tendency +to somewhat overdo. Their figures were larger, their borders crushed +fuller of flowers and fruit, their verdures heavier, their grotesques more +heterogeneous, their metal threads solider. Their abundance was rich and +decorative, but lacking in refinement and grace. The French, on the other +hand, kept always a certain detachment and restraint that made for clarity +and often delicacy. When the Baroque taste demanded huge active figures, +the French still kept theirs well within the frame. Their borders were +always spaced and usually more abstract. The verdures of Aubusson can be +distinguished from those of Audenarde by the fewer leaves, the lighter +massing, the more dispersed lights and shades. The grotesques of France, +especially in the XVIIIth century, often controlled the random fancy +popularized among the Flemish weavers by introducing a central idea, a +goddess above whom they could group the proper attributes (cf. No. 36), or +a court fête (cf. No. 59). And when the French used metal thread it was to +enrich a limited space rather than to weight a whole tapestry. In a way +the opulence of the Flemish was better adapted to the medium. Certainly it +produced some very beautiful tapestries. But the refinement of the French +is a little more sympathetic to an overcivilized age. + +With the accession of Louis XV, tapestry joined the other textile arts and +painting in following furniture styles. Thereafter, until the advent of +machinery put an end to tapestry as a significant art, the cabinetmaker +led all the other decorators. Small pieces with small designs, light +colors, delicate floral ornaments, and the reigning temporary fad--now the +Chinese taste (cf. No. 71), now the pastoral (cf. No. 68)--occupied the +attention of the cartoonmakers, so that the chief occupations of the court +beauties of each successive decade can be read in the tapestries. + +During this time France was dictating the fashions of all the Western +World, so other countries were eager not only to have her tapestries, but +to have her workmen weave for them in their own capitals. Accordingly, the +royal family of Russia, always foreign in its tastes, sent for a group of +weavers to set up a royal Russian tapestry works. Similarly, Spain sent +for a Frenchman to direct her principal looms, those at Santa Barbara and +Madrid, which for a decade or so had been running under a Fleming. + +And meanwhile tapestry was steadily becoming more and more another form +of painting. Until the middle of the XVIIIth century it remains primarily +illustrative. The Renaissance designers continued to tell historical and +biblical stories and to fashion the designs in the service of the tale +they had to tell. With the influence of Rubens and his school (cf. No. +44), the story becomes chiefly the excuse for the composition; but the +story is nevertheless still there and adequately presented. The artists of +Louis XIV, when called upon to celebrate their king in tapestry, respected +this quality of the art by depicting his history and his military exploits +(cf. No. 52). But illustration already begins to run thin in the series +of the royal residences done by the Gobelins during his reign, and with +the style of his successor it runs out almost altogether. If Boucher +paints the series of the _Loves of the Gods_ it is not for the sake of the +mythology, but for the rosy flesh and floating drapes, and Fragonard does +not even bother to think of an excuse, but makes his languid nudes simply +bathers (cf. No. 69). So when Louis XV is to be celebrated by his weavers +the designers make one effort to invent a story by depicting his hunts, +and then abandon episode and substitute portraiture (cf. No. 64). + +Throughout most of the Renaissance, tapestry remained decorative as +a mural painting is decorative, but in the XVIIth century, with the +degeneration of all architectual feeling, tapestry lost entirely its +architectual character. It was still decorative--it was decorative as the +painting of the time was. The tapestries of the XVIIth century are giant +easel paintings, and of the XVIIIth century woven panel paintings. + +As to the textile quality, during the XVIIth century the very scale of the +pieces kept them somewhat true to it. The large figures, heavy foliage, +and big floral ornaments can fall successfully into wide, soft folds. But +most of the tapestry of the XVIIIth century must be stretched and set in +panels or frames. That they are woven is incidental, a fact to call forth +wonder for the skill of the workmen, both of the dyers who perfected the +numberless slight gradations of delicate tones and kept them constant, +and of the almost unbelievably deft weavers who could ply the shuttle +so finely and exactly and grade these delicate tones to reproduce soft +modeled flesh, fluttering draperies, billowing clouds, spraying fountains, +and the sheen and folds of different materials. But that they are woven +is scarcely a fact to be considered in the artistic estimate. The only +advantage of the woven decorations over the painted panel is that they +present a softer surface to relieve the cold glitter of rooms. Otherwise +as paintings they stand or fall. Even the border has usually been reduced +to a simulated wood or stucco frame. + +During this gradual change through five hundred years in the artistic +qualities of tapestry the technical tricks of the weavers underwent +corresponding modification. In the Gothic period the drawing depended +primarily upon a strong dark outline, black or brown, that was unbroken, +and that was especially important whether the design was affiliated +rather with panel painting (cf. No. 1) or with the more graphic miniature +illustration (cf. No. 5). Even the lesser accessories were all drawn +in clear outline. Within a given color area, transitions from tone to +tone were made by hatchings, little bars of irregular length of one of +the shades that fitted into alternate bars of the other shade, like the +teeth of two combs interlocked. And for shadows and emphasis of certain +outlines, some of the Gothic weavers had a very clever trick of dropping +stitches (cf. No. 1), so that a series of small holes in the fabric takes +the place of a dark line. During the Renaissance the outline becomes much +narrower, and is used only for the major figures, a device that sometimes +makes the figures look as if they had been cut out and applied to the +design. Hatching, if used at all, is much finer than in the earlier usage, +consisting now of only single lines of one color shading into the next. +In the work of Fontainbleau (cf. Nos. 36, 37), the dotted series of holes +between colors is still used to give a subordinate outline. During the +XVIIth century hatching is scarcely used at all, and the outline has +practically disappeared. During the XVIIIth century the French weavers +perfected a trick which obviated any break in the weave where the color +changes, thus enabling tapestry to approximate even closer to painting +effects. + +To the weavers who adjusted these tricks to the varying demands of the +cartoons, and so translated painted patterns in a woven fabric, is due +quite as much credit for the finished work of art as to the painters who +first made the design. Famous painters did prepare tapestry designs. Aside +from the masters of the Middle Ages to whom tapestries are attributed, we +have positive evidence that, among others, Jacques Daret, Roger Van der +Weyden, Raphael, Giulio Romano (cf. Nos. 23-25), Le Brun, Rubens, Coypel +(cf. Nos. 62, 63), Boucher (cf. Nos. 67, 68), Watteau, Fragonard (cf. No. +69), and Vernet (cf. No. 70), all worked on tapestry designs. The master +weavers who could transpose their designs deserve to rank with them in +honor. + +Yet we know relatively little of these master weavers. Many names of +tapicers appear in tax-lists and other documents, but not until the +XVIIIth century do the names often represent to us definite personalities, +and until then we can only occasionally credit a man with his surviving +work. From the long lists of names and the great numbers of remaining +tapestries a few only can be connected. Among the greatest of these is +Nicolas Bataille, of Paris, who wove the famous set of the _Apocalypse_ +now in the Cathedral of Angers; Pasquier Grenier, of Tournai, to whom the +_Wars of Troy_ and related sets can be accredited (cf. No. 7), but who +apparently was an _entrepreneur_ rather than a weaver; Pieter Van Aelst, +who was so renowned that the cartoons of Raphael were first entrusted +to him; William Pannemaker, another Brussels man, who had supreme taste +and skill, and his relative Pierre, almost as skilful; Marc Comans and +François de la Planche, the Flemings who set up the looms in Paris that +developed into the Gobelins (cf. No. 38); Jean Lefébvre, who worked first +in the gallery of the Louvre and then had his studio in the Gobelins +(cf. Nos. 39, 40); the Van der Beurchts, of Brussels (cf. Nos. 42, 56), +and Leyniers (cf. Nos. 26, 27), and Cozette, most famous weaver of the +Gobelins. Such men as these, and many more whose names are lost or are +neglected because we do not know their work, were in their medium as +important artists as the painters whose designs they followed. + +With the passing of such master craftsmen the art of tapestry died. When +men must compete with machines their work is no more respected, and so +tapestry is no longer the natural medium of expression for the culture +of the times. Tapestries are still being made, but there is no genuine +vitality in the art and little merit in its product. It exists today only +as an exhausted and irrelevant persistence from the past, and, as a fine +art, doomed to failure and ultimate extinction. + + P.A. + +[Illustration: + + _The Annunciation_ No. 1 +] + +[Illustration: + + _The Chase_ No. 2 +] + + + + +CATALOGUE + +_Abbreviations_: H. (_Height_); W. (_Width_); _ft._ (_Feet_); _in._ +(_Inches_). _"Right" & "Left," refer to right & left of the spectator_ + + +[Sidenote: 1] + +FRANCO-FLEMISH, POSSIBLY ARRAS, BEGINNING OF XV OR END OF XIV CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool, Silk, Gold._ + H. 11 _ft._ 4 _in._ + W. 9 _ft._ 6 _in._ +] + +THE ANNUNCIATION: _The Virgin, in a blue robe lined with red, is seated +before a reading-desk in a white marble portico with a tile floor. Behind +her is a red and metal gold brocade. The lily is in a majolica jar. +The angel, in a green robe with yellow high lights lined with red, has +alighted in a garden without. In the sky, God the Father holding the globe +and two angels bearing a shield._ + +The treatment of the sky in two-toned blue and white striations, as well +as the conventional landscape without perspective, with small oak and +laurel trees, is characteristic of a number of tapestries of the opening +years of the XVth century. Most of them depicted hunting scenes. But +there was one famous religious piece, the _Passion_ of the Cathedral of +Saragossa. In the drawing of the figures and some of the details the piece +is closely related to the paintings of that Paris school of which Jean +Malouel is the most famous member. The work is by no means by Malouel, +but it is similar to that of one of his lesser contemporaries, whose only +known surviving work is a set of six panels painted on both sides, two of +which are in the Cuvellier Collection at Niort and the others in the Mayer +Van der Bergh Collection at Antwerp. The very primitively rendered Eternal +Father is almost identical with the one that appears in several of the +panels; the roughly indicated shaggy grass is the same, the rather unusual +angle of the angel's wings recurs in the Cuvellier _Annunciation_, as does +the suspended poise of the Virgin's attitude. The Virgin's reading-desk, +too, is almost identical, though shown in the panel at the other side of +the scene. The long, slim-fingered hands and the pointed nose and chin of +the Virgin are characteristic of the school. + +The tiles in the portico, so carefully rendered, are of interest +because they are very similar to the earliest-known tile floor still +in position--that of the Caracciolo Chapel in Naples. Some of the same +patterns are repeated, notably that of the Virgin's initial and the star, +which is more crudely rendered. The colors, too, are approximately the +same, the brown being a fair rendering of the manganese purple of the +chapel tiles. The majolica vase is also interesting as illustrating a type +of which few intact examples are left. + +[Sidenote: Exhibited: + +_Chicago Art Institute, Gothic Exhibition_, 1921.] + +[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] + +The piece maintains a high level of æsthetic expression. The religious +emotion is intensely felt and is adequately conveyed in the wistful +sadness of the Virgin's face and the expectant suspense of her poised +body. The portico seems removed from reality and flooded by a direct +heavenly light, in its shining whiteness contrasting with the deep +blue-green background. This tapestry by virtue of its intense and elevated +feeling, purified by æsthetic calm and by its exceptional decorative +vividness, ranks with the very great masterpieces of the graphic arts. + + +[Sidenote: 2] + +FRANCO-FLEMISH, EARLY XV CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Gold._ + H. 5 _ft._ 5 _in._ + W. 5 _ft._ 11 _in._ +] + +THE CHASE: _A man in a long dark-blue coat and high red hat and a lady +in a brown brocade dress and ermine turban watch a dog in leather armor +attack a bear. A landscape with trees and flowers is indicated without +perspective and a castle in simple outline is projected against a blue and +white striated sky._ + +[Sidenote: Exhibited: + +_South Kensington Museum, French-English Retrospective Exhibition of +Textiles_, 1921.] + +This tapestry is an important example of a small group of hunting scenes +of the early XVth century. It is closely related in style to the famous +pair of large hunting tapestries in the collection of the Duke of +Devonshire. It is not definitely known where any of these pieces were +woven, but Arras is taken as a safe assumption, as that was the center of +weaving at the time, and these tapestries are the finest production known +of the period. + +The very simple figures sharply silhouetted against the contrasting +ground have a decidedly architectural quality, perfectly adapted to mural +decoration. Yet the scene seems very natural and the persons have marked +and attractive personalities. + +[Sidenote: Illustrated: + +_La Renaissance de l'Art français_, 1921, p. 104; _Burlington_, vol. 38, +opp. p. 171. _DeMotte, Les Tapisseries gothiques_, Deuxième Série.] + +These exceedingly rare pieces mark the great wave of naturalism that +began sweeping over Europe about 1350 and they exemplify strikingly one +of the finest qualities of the primitive--the impressive universality and +objectivity that come from the freshness of the artist's vision. Looking +straight at the thing itself, free from all the presuppositions that +come from an inherited convention, the draftsman saw the essentials and +recorded them directly without any confusing elaboration of technique. He +was completely absorbed by the unsolved problems of the task, too occupied +with the difficulty of rendering the central outstanding features of the +scene to be diverted by personal affectations. His realization thus became +vivid and intimate, his rendition achieved a singularity and epic force +never again to be found in tapestry. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Demotte_.] + +This is one of the few tapestries that have been improved by age. Time has +spread over it a slight gray bloom that seems to remove it from the actual +world, giving it the isolation that is so important a factor in æsthetic +effect; yet the depth and strength of the colors have not been weakened, +for we interpret the grayness as a fine veil through which the colors +shine with their original purity. + + +[Sidenote: 3] + +FLANDERS, MIDDLE XV CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool._ + H. 15 _ft._ 7 _in._ + W. 14 _ft._ 7 _in._ +] + +THE ANNUNCIATION, THE NATIVITY, AND THE ANNOUNCEMENT TO THE SHEPHERDS: +_At the left in a Gothic chapel the Annunciation. The Virgin, in a richly +jeweled and brocaded robe, reads the Holy Book. The angel in rich robes +kneels before her. The lilies are in a dinanderie vase. Through the open +door a bit of landscape is seen, and in a room beyond the chapel two +women sit reading. The Nativity, at the right, is under a pent roof. The +Virgin, Joseph, and Saint Elizabeth kneel in adoration about the Holy +Babe, who lies on the flower-strewn grass. John kneels in front of his +mother, and in the foreground an angel also worships. Above and beyond the +stable the three shepherds sit tending their flocks, and an angel bearing +the announcement inscribed on a scroll flutters down to them from Heaven. +Oak-trees, rose-vines, and blossoming orange-trees in the grass._ + +[Illustration: + + _The Annunciation, The Nativity, and The Announcement to the + Shepherds_ No. 3 +] + +[Illustration: + + _Scenes from the Roman de la Rose_ No. 4 +] + +This tapestry belongs to a small and very interesting group, all evidently +the work of one designer. The three famous _Conversations Galantes_ (long +erroneously called the _Baillée des Roses_) in the Metropolitan Museum +are by the same man, as are the four panels of the _History of Lohengrin_ +in Saint Catherine's Church, Cracow, the fifth fragmentary panel of the +series being in the Musée Industrielle, Cracow. A fragment from the same +designer showing a party of hunters is in the Church of Notre Dame de +Saumur de Nantilly, and another fragment depicting a combat is in the +Musée des Arts Decoratifs. Three small fragments--one with a single figure +of a young man with a swan, like the Metropolitan pieces, on a striped +ground, another showing a king reading in a portico very similar to the +portico of the _Annunciation_, and the third showing a group of people +centered about a king--were in the Heilbronner Collection. + +Schmitz points out[1] a connection between the three Metropolitan pieces +and the series of seven pieces depicting the life of Saint Peter in the +Beauvais Cathedral, with an eighth piece in the Cluny Musée, and it is +quite evident that the cartoons are the work of the same man. But whereas +the other pieces all have the same characteristics in the weaving, this +series shows a somewhat different technique in such details as the outline +and the hatchings, so that one must assume they were woven on another loom. + +Fortunately, there is documentary information on one set of the type +that enables us to say definitely where and when the whole group was +made. The _Lohengrin_ set was ordered by Philip the Good from the first +Grenier of Tournai in 1462. There can be no reasonable doubt that the +set in Saint Catherine's Church is the same, for in this set the knight +is quite apparently modeled after Duke Philip himself, judging from the +portraits of him in both the _Romance of Gerard de Rousillon_ (Vienna +Hof-bibliothèque) and in the _History of Haynaut_ (Bibliothèque Royale, +Brussels). + +Schmitz asserts that it is almost certainly useless to seek the author +of these cartoons among contemporary painters, as they are probably the +work of a professional cartoon painter, of which the Dukes of Burgundy +kept several in their service--and this is probably true. But artists were +not as specialized then as they are now, and even a professional tapestry +designer might very well on occasion turn his hand to illustrating a +manuscript or making a sketch for an enamel, so that it is not impossible +that further research in the other contemporary arts may bring to light +more information about this marked personality who created so individual a +style. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Duveen Brothers_.] + +This tapestry is exceedingly interesting, not only for its marked style +of drawing and its quaint charm, but for the direct sincerity of the +presentation and the brilliant and rather unaccustomed range of colors. + + +[Sidenote: 4] + +FLANDERS, MIDDLE XV CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 8 _ft._ 4 _in._ + W. 20 _ft._ 4 _in._ +] + +[Sidenote: Formerly in Skipton Castle, Ireland.] + +SCENES FROM THE ROMAN DE LA ROSE: _This piece illustrates one of the most +popular romances of the Middle Ages, the Romance of the Rose, the first +part of which was written in 1337 by Guillaume de Lorris, the second part +in_ 1378 _by Jean de Meung, and translated into English by Chaucer. The +culminating scenes are represented. Jealousy has imprisoned Bel Acceuil +in a tower because he helped the Lover see the Rose after Jealousy had +forbidden it. The Lover calls all his followers, Frankness, Honor, Riches, +Nobility of Heart, Leisure, Beauty, Courage, Kindness, Pity, and a host of +others, to aid him in rescuing the prisoner. In the course of the struggle +Scandal, one of Jealousy's henchmen, is trapped by two of the Lover's +followers posing as Pilgrims, who cut his throat and cut out his tongue. +With the aid of Venus, the Lover finally wins._ + +[Sidenote: Exhibited: + +_Chicago Art Institute, Gothic Exhibition_, 1921.] + +The piece is very close in drawing to the illustrations of the Master of +the Golden Fleece,[2] whom Lindner has identified as Philip de Mazarolles. +The long bony, egg-shaped heads that look as if the necks were attached +as an afterthought, the shoe-button eyes, flat mouths, and peaked noses +all occur in his many illustrations. Characteristic of him, too, are +the crowded grouping of the scene and the great care in presenting the +accessories, every gown being an individual design, whereas many of +his contemporary illustrators contented themselves with rendering the +general style without variations. The conventional trees are probably the +weaver's interpolations. The top of the tapestry being gone, there is no +possibility of knowing whether his customary architectural background was +included or not. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] + +The tapestry is interesting, not only because it is quaint, but because +it is a vivid illustration of the spirit of the time--virile, cruel, yet +self-consciously moralistic. + + +[Sidenote: 5] + +FLANDERS, MIDDLE XV CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool._ + H. 10 _ft._ 9 _in._ + W. 17 _ft._ 5½ _in._ +] + +THE VINTAGE: _This piece was probably originally one of a series of the +Months, representing September. Groups of lords and ladies have strolled +down from the castle in the background to watch the peasants gathering and +pressing the grapes._ + +[Sidenote: Formerly in the Collection of Edouard Aynard, Paris.] + +[Sidenote: Exhibited: + +_Exhibition of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Old Palace of Sagan, +Paris_, 1913.] + +The costumes and the drawing indicate that the piece was made in Burgundy +at the time of Philip the Good. In fact, it is so close to the work of +one of the most prolific of the illustrators who worked for Philip the +Good that it is safe to assume that the original drawing for the cartoons +was his work. In the pungency of the illustration and the vivacity +of the episodes as well as in numerous details it follows closely the +characteristics of Loysot Lyedet. Here are the same strong-featured +faces with large prominent square mouths, the same exaggeratedly long +and thin legs with suddenly bulging calves on the men, the same rapidly +sketched flat hands, and the same attitudes. The very exact drawing of +the bunches of grapes parallels the exactness with which he renders the +household utensils in his indoor scenes, and the dogs, while they are of +types familiar in all the illustrations of the time, have the decided +personalities and alert manner that he seemed to take particular pleasure +in giving them. + +[Sidenote: Reproduced: + +_Les Arts_, Sept., 1913; _Gazette des Beaux Arts_, 1913.] + +Another tapestry that seems to be from the same hand is _Le Bal de +Sauvages_ in l'Eglise de Nantilly de Saumur. + +The piece is one of the most vivid and convincing illustrations of +the life of the time that has come down to us in tapestry form. The +silhouetting of the figures against contrasting colors and the structural +emphasis of the vertical lines give the design great clarity and strength. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Jacques Seligmann & Company_.] + + Loysot Lyedet was working for the Dukes of Burgundy in 1461. He died + about 1468. Among the most famous of his illustrations are those + of the _History of Charles Martel_ (Bibliothèque Royale, Brussels) + _History of Alexander_ (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris) and the + _Roman History_ (Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Paris.) + + +[Sidenote: 6] + +GERMANY, PROBABLY NUREMBERG, MIDDLE XV CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Gold._ + H. 3 _ft._ 6 _in._ + W. 7 _ft._ 6 _in._ +] + +SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF CHRIST: _The Life of Christ is shown in eight +small scenes, beginning with the Entrance into Jerusalem, the Farewell to +his Mother, the Last Supper, the Agony in the Garden, the Carrying of the +Cross, the Crucifixion, the Pieta, and the Entombment._ + +The scenes in this tapestry were apparently adapted from the illustrations +from a Nuremberg manuscript of the middle of the XVth century. Of course, +the weaving may have been done later. The simplified arrangement of the +scenes with a reduction to a minimum of the number of actors, the relative +size of the figures to the small squares of the compositions, the marked +indebtedness in the use of line and light and shade to woodcuts, and the +courageous but not altogether easy use of the direct profile, all bring +the pieces into close relationship with such book illustrations as those +of George Pfinzing's book of travels (_The Pilgrimage to Jerusalem_), now +in the City Library of Nuremberg.[3] In fact, the parallelism is so very +close, the tapestry may well have been adapted from illustrations by the +same man, the curiously conventionalized line-and-dot eyes being very +characteristic of the Pfinzing illustrations and not common to all the +school. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] + +In weaving many of the figures the warp is curved to follow the contours. + +The naïve directness and unassuming sincerity of the piece give it great +interest. + + +[Sidenote: 7] + +TOURNAI, THIRD QUARTER XV CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool._ + H. 10 _ft._ 6 _in._ + W. 8 _ft._ 9 _in._ +] + +THE HISTORY OF HERCULES: _Hercules, clad in a magnificent suit of shining +black armor, rides into the thickest tumult of a furious battle; with +sword in his right hand, he skillfully parries the thrust of a huge lance, +while with the other hand he deals a swinging backhand blow that smites an +enemy footman into insensibility. His next opponent, obviously bewildered +and frightened, has half-turned to flee. The whole apparatus of mediæval +combat is shown in intense and crowded action. The piece is incomplete._ + +This tapestry illustrates one of the favorite stories of the Middle Ages, +and was undoubtedly originally one of a set. In design it is closely +related to the famous _Wars of Troy_ series, many examples of which are +known and some of the first sketches for which are in the Louvre. It is +also closely related to the _History of Titus_ set in the Cathedrale de +Notre Dame de Nantilly de Saumur.[4] Both of these sets are signed by Jean +Van Room, and this piece also is undoubtedly from his cartoon. All of +these pieces were probably woven between 1460 and 1470. + +Jean Van Room (sometimes called de Bruxelles) is one of the most +interesting personalities connected with the history of Gothic tapestry. +He was a cartoon painter and probably conducted a large studio, judging +from the number of pieces of his which are left to us. Fortunately, he +had a habit of signing his name on obscure parts of the designs, such as +the borders of garments. His work extends over sixty years and changes +markedly in style during that time, adapting itself to the changing +taste of his clients. This piece illustrates his earliest manner. In the +succeeding decades he is more and more affected by the Renaissance and the +Italian influence, until his latest pieces (cf. No. 21) are quite unlike +these first designs. At the close of the century he began to collaborate +with Maître Philippe, evidently a younger man, who had had Italian +instruction and was less restrained by early Gothic training (cf. Nos. +17-19). + +Jean Van Room seems to have done designs for enamels, also, that were +executed in the studio of the so-called Monvaerni. In the collection of +Otto H. Kahn is a _Jesus before Pilate_ very close in style to Jean Van +Room's early work,[5] on which appear the letters M E R A, which might +even be a pied misspelling of Room, for similar confused signatures +appear on tapestries known to be his. A triptych with _Crucifixion_ +in the collection of Charles P. Taft[6] has figures very close to the +_Crucifixion_ tapestry in the Cathedral of Angers done by Van Room in his +middle period. According to Marquet de Vasselot, this enamel bears the +letters JENRAGE, but M. de Vasselot also comments on its illegibility +in the present condition of the enamel. Could he have misread a letter +or two? Still another triptych with _Crucifixion_, in the Hermitage,[7] +actually repeats two figures from the Angers _Crucifixion_ with only very +slight variations. + +Jean Van Room borrowed liberally from various other artists at different +stages of his career. In the _Wars of Troy_, the _History of Titus_, +and this piece he seems to have relied primarily on Jean le Tavernier +for his models, the affiliation being especially close in the _Wars of +Troy_. Le Tavernier is known to have illustrated the _Wars of Troy_,[8] +and Jean Van Room, judging from the close stylistic relations of his Troy +tapestries with le Tavernier's drawings, evidently took his hints from +this lost manuscript. + +[Illustration: + + _The Vintage_ No. 5 +] + +[Illustration: + + _Entombment on Millefleurs_ No. 8 +] + +This piece was probably woven under Pasquier Grenier at Tournai, as were +the _Wars of Troy_, on which there are some documents. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] + +This tapestry presents with extraordinary vividness the fury, din, +excessive effort, hot excitement, and blinding confusion of crowded +hand-to-hand conflicts that marked mediæval warfare. It must have been +conceived and rendered by an eye-witness who knew how to select and +assemble the raw facts of the situation with such honesty and directness +that an overwhelming impression of force and tumult is created, and it was +woven for patrons, the fighting Dukes of Burgundy, by whom every gruesome +incident would be observed with relish and every fine point of individual +combat noted with a shrewd and appraising eye. + + +[Sidenote: 8] + +FRANCE, END XV CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool._ + H. 2 _ft._ 10 _in._ + W. 7 _ft._ 10 _in._ +] + +ENTOMBMENT ON MILLEFLEURS: _Christ lies on the tomb which is inscribed +"Humani Generis Redeptori." John in a red cloak, the Virgin in a blue +cloak over a red brocaded dress, and Mary Magdalene in a red cloak over +a green dress stand behind the tomb. At the head, removing the crown of +thorns, stands Joseph of Arimathea and at the foot Nicodemus. Both Joseph +and Nicodemus are in richly brocaded robes. Borders at the sides only +of alternate blue and red squares inscribed I H S and M A surrounded by +jeweled frames. Millefleurs on a blue ground. In the upper left corner the +monogram I S and in the upper right W S, with a scroll under each bearing +the inscription "de Mailly."_ + +This tapestry is an unusually delicately and perfectly rendered example of +the _millefleurs aux personnages_ of France of the late Gothic period. A +small piece like this was undoubtedly made for a private chapel, probably +that of the de Mailly family. This quality of millefleurs was probably +woven in Touraine. An altar frontal showing the Pieta which is very +similar in style is in the Kunstgewerbe Museum. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Demotte_.] + +The drawing has the nice exactness of a finished miniature, the +workmanship the brilliance of enamel; yet both are transfigured by the +vivid conception of the tragic event. Its utter pathos is expressed with +moving power. We are in the presence of an unutterably solemn moment. + + +[Sidenote: 9] + +FRANCE, END XV CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 4 _ft._ 6 _in._ + W. 3 _ft._ +] + +MILLEFLEURS ARMORIAL WITH WILD MEN: _On a delicate millefleurs ground a +wild man and woman hold an armorial shield surmounted by a winged helmet._ + +[Sidenote: Formerly in the C. D. Barney Collection.] + +[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] + +The wild men, probably a modified revival of the classical satyrs in +modified form, were very popular in France in the XIIIth and XIVth +centuries. There are tapestries extant depicting the balls where all +the company came dressed in hairy tights to represent these creatures. +Froissart recounts an episode of a ball at the Hotel St. Pol in Paris in +1392 when the king and five of his companions came in such costumes, all +chained together, and the flax used to imitate the hair caught fire from +a torch, so that in an instant all were enveloped in flames. The king +was saved by the presence of mind of his cousin, who enveloped him in +her skirts, and another was saved by jumping into a tub of water he had +noticed earlier in the evening in an adjacent service-room. The others +were burned to death. + + +[Sidenote: 10] + +FRANCE, BEGINNING XVI CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool._ + H. 7 _ft._ 10 _in._ + W. 10 _ft._ 7 _in._ +] + +MILLEFLEURS WITH SHEPHERDS AND THE SHIELD OF THE RIGAUT FAMILY: +_Against a background of conventionalized millefleurs, shepherds and +shepherdesses and their flock. In the center, two peasants holding a +shield, evidently of the Rigaut family. In the corners the shield of +Rigaut and of another family. The tapestry was evidently made to celebrate +a marriage, the corner shields signifying the joining of the families, +an oblique reference being intended in the pairing of the shepherds and +shepherdesses. A scroll in the center bears the inscription "Par Içi Passe +Rigaut."_ + +[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] + +The naïveté both of the characterization and of the drawing that +emphasizes the structural and silhouette character of the figures +contributes greatly to the charm of this piece. The clean, sharp rendering +of the millefleurs enhances the decorative effect. The piece is probably +the work of a small provincial loom. + + +[Sidenote: 11] + +FRANCE, PROBABLY LA MARCHE, BEGINNING XVI CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 5 _ft._ 7 _in._ + W. 9 _ft._ 4 _in._ +] + +MILLEFLEURS WITH ANIMALS: _Against a large-scale millefleurs ground on +blue, deer are playing about a fountain within a paddock. On a fence-post +perches a peacock. Outside the fence a fox waits, watching slyly. In the +background conventional castles._ + +[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] + +The floreation is rather unusual, as it shows the transition from the +Gothic millefleurs to the Renaissance verdure. The enlarged scale of the +flowers and the use of the iris and the scrolled thistle-leaves in the +foreground show the influence of the Renaissance, but the daisies and +wild roses are still Gothic in feeling, as are the unusually charming and +vivacious deer. The conventional rendering of the water is skillfully +managed. The sly fox is especially well characterized. + +[Illustration: + + _Millefleurs with Shepherds and the Shield of the Rigaut Family_ + No. 10 +] + +[Illustration: + + _Pastoral Scene_ No. 13 +] + + +[Sidenote: 12] + +FRANCE, PROBABLY LA MARCHE, EARLY XVI CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool._ + H. 4 _ft._ 5 _in._ + W. 9 _ft._ 5 _in._ +] + +MILLEFLEURS WITH ANIMALS: _Millefleurs with animals on a blue ground. At +the top a narrow strip of conventionalized hilly landscape._ + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Dikran K. Kelekian_.] + +Many tapestries of this type were woven in France at the end of the XVth +and beginning of the XVIth century. They are one of the most successful +types of tapestry decoration, the quaint animals in this piece being +especially charming, and one of the most generally useful kinds of wall +decoration, so that the demand for them was large and continuous. As a +result, the style was produced almost without modification for over a +hundred years. Only the bit of landscape at the top indicates that this +was woven in the beginning of the XVIth century and not in the middle of +the XVth. + + +[Sidenote: 13] + +FRANCE, LATE XV CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool._ + H. 9 _ft._ 6 _in._ + W. 9 _ft._ +] + +PASTORAL SCENE: _Two ladies have strolled into the country with their +lords, who are on the way to the hunt, one with a falcon and the other +with a spear and dog. On the way they have stopped to talk to a group of +peasants who are tending their flocks and to play with their children. One +young peasant girl is gathering a basket of grapes._ + +Such peasant scenes as this were much in demand during the XVth century. +A piece very similar both in general spirit and in detailed drawing and +facial types is in the Musée des Arts Decoratifs. In this two lords are +watching a large group of woodcutters. + +[Sidenote: Formerly in the De Zolte Collection.] + +The piece is an excellent illustration of the clarity of French design. +Each figure stands out almost entirely detached against the background. +Yet, nevertheless, the naturalness of the grouping is not sacrificed. The +piece conveys extraordinarily the impression of a real scene, a common +daily occurrence among people that we might reasonably expect to know, +at which we are allowed to be present in spite of the intervening four +hundred years. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Duveen Brothers_.] + +Some of the tricks of drawing and the types portrayed are so very similar +to those in some of the stained-glass windows of St. Etienne du Mont and +of St. Germain-l'Auxerrois the cartoons must be by members of the same +school, one of the groups of l'Ile de France, and may quite possibly be by +the same man. + + +[Sidenote: 14-16] + +FLANDERS, FIRST QUARTER XVI CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + + No. 14: + H. 11 _ft._ 6 _in._ + W. 14 _ft._ 2 _in._ +] + +[Sidenote: + + No. 15: + H. 10 _ft._ 9 _in._ + W. 7 _ft._ 3½ _in._ + + No. 16: + H. 11 _ft._ + W. 10 _ft._ 5 _in._ +] + +THREE PIECES FROM A SERIES ILLUSTRATING THE CREED: _This series of +scenes illustrating the Creed begins_ (_No._ 14) _with the Creation of +the World_. _The designer, evidently with some allegorical poem in mind, +includes in the scene Sapientia, Potencia, and Benignitas, depicted, in +characteristic medieval form, as three richly dressed women. In the +center scene these three offer the world to God. On the right, Gubernacio, +Redempcio, and Caritas stand under the throne of the Trinity._ + +_In the second piece_ (_No._ 15) _the series continues with the Life of +Christ_, _beginning with the Annunciation_, _the Nativity_, _and the +Adoration of the Kings_. + +_Reverting to the older tradition of the XIVth century that had been +almost displaced during the XVth century_, _all the events of Christ's +public life are omitted_, _and the third piece_ (_No._ 16) _depicts the +scenes of the Passion_, _including the popular interpolation of Christ's +farewell to his Mother_, _with the Apostles in the background_, _the +Resurrection_, _and finally Christ taking his place at the right hand of +God while the angels sing hosannas_. + +_Below, throughout the series, is the set of the Apostles facing Prophets, +symbolic of the parallelism of the Old and New Testaments, each with a +scroll bearing his speech in the conventional responses depicted in so +many works of art of the period. So Peter (No. 14), says, "I believe in +God the Father Omnipotent," and Jeremiah, who faces him, replies, "You +invoke the Father who made the earth and builded the heavens."_ _Next_ +(_No._ 15) _comes Andrew_, _who originally faced David_, _a figure now +missing_. _The next pair, John and Daniel, is also missing._ _There +follow_ (_No._ 16) _Thomas_, _who originally faced Hosea_, _and John the +Lesser_, _who is opposite Amos_. _Above_, _on either side of the Nativity_ +(_No._ 15), _is introduced another pair_, _John the Greater and Isaiah_. + +The complete piece, of which number 16 is the right-hand end, was formerly +in the Toledo Cathedral, then in the collection of Asher Wertheimer, of +London. The present owner is unknown.[9] Another rendition was in the +Vatican, but disappeared in the middle of the XIXth century.[10] + +Tapestries illustrating the Creed were common throughout the Middle +Ages. They appear frequently in XIVth-century inventories, and a number +of examples from the XVth and early XVIth century are left to us. The +Apostles and Prophets arranged in pairs are a common feature of this type +of tapestry. + +[Sidenote: Formerly in Evora Palace, Portugal.] + +The cartoons are evidently the work of the painter who painted the ceiling +of the Church of St. Guy at Naarden, whom Dr. Six tentatively identifies +as Albert Claesz.[11] The similarity is too close to be overlooked. The +Christ of the Naarden _Resurrection_[12] and this _Resurrection_ are +almost identical, the face of God the Father in the _Assumption_ is +almost identical with that of an onlooker in the Naarden _Betrayal_,[13] +and Adam in the first piece of this series closely resembles the Christ +of the Naarden _Flagellation_.[14] But more indicative are the lesser +peculiarities common to both series. There are in both the same curiously +flattened and slightly distorted skulls with very large ears, the same +large eyes with heavy arched lids and eyebrows close above them, oblique +and not quite correctly placed in the three-quarter views, and always +looking beyond their focus. The mouths, too, in some of the faces are +overemphasized in the same way, and the feet have the same quaint +distortion, being seen from above, as in the figure of the Prophet John +(No. 15). And in very conspicuous minor agreement, the cross has a +strongly indicated and rigidly conventionalized graining identical in +the two renditions. The attitude of the Christ and the indication of +the garment in the Toledo tapestry is very close to that in the Naarden +painting. + +[Illustration: + + _The Creation of the World_ No. 14 +] + +[Illustration: + + _Four Scenes from the Life of Christ_ No. 17 +] + +The floreation was probably introduced by the weaver. The delightfully +exact scene of the owl scolded by a magpie, while a pigeon sits near +by and another bird flutters about (No. 14), is repeated with slight +variations in a number of XVIth-century pieces. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Demotte_.] + +The drawing in these tapestries is rather unusually primitive for pieces +of this period, but the figures have a broad monumental character and a +direct sincerity of bearing that make them very convincing. + + +[Sidenote: 17-19] + +FLANDERS, PROBABLY BRUSSELS, BEGINNING XVI CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + + No. 17: + H. 11 _ft._ 10 _in._ + W. 17 _ft._ 6 _in._ + + No. 18: + H. 11 _ft._ 7 _in._ + W. 7 _ft._ 5 _in._ + + No. 19: + H. 12 _ft._ + W. 26 _ft._ +] + +THREE PIECES FROM A SERIES ILLUSTRATING THE CREED: _In the first piece_ +(_No._ 17) _four scenes from the Life of Christ are portrayed: the +Adoration of the Kings_, _the Presentation at the Temple_, _the meeting +of Christ and John_, _and Christ among the Doctors_. _In the corner sits +a prophet, probably David. The piece undoubtedly began with the Nativity, +at the left, and possibly the Annunciation, with the Apostle Andrew in the +other corner. This would indicate that the piece was the second in the +series, the first probably having been the Creation of the Earth, with +Peter and Jeremiah._ + +_The second piece_ (_No._ 18) _shows the Circumcision and the Assumption +of the Virgin_, _and evidently included at least one more scene at the +right_. + +[Sidenote: _The Last Judgment_ was formerly in the Evora Palace, Portugal, +and is illustrated from the Louvre example in _Migeon, Les Arts de Tissu_, +p. 220; in part, in _E. Mâle, L'Art religieux de la fin du Moyen Age en +France_, p. 501; _Burlington_, vol. 20, p. 9; _Figaro Illustré_, 1911.] + +_The third piece_ (_No._ 19) _shows the full scene of the Last Judgment +with a personage who seems to be Philip in one corner and in the other +Zephaniah_. _The piece is complete except, possibly, for a border. A +tapestry from the same cartoon with a narrow border of flowers is in +the Louvre. Christ, enthroned, is surrounded by the Virgin, Saint John, +and the eleven Apostles. Angels, bearing instruments of the Passion and +sounding trumpets flutter through the sky. At the right of the throne +angels come bearing crowns for the elect. Below the dead are rising from +the graves. Before the throne of Christ Justice bearing a sword and Pity +bearing a lily come to punish the Seven Deadly Sins, Pride, Avarice, +Luxury, Greed, Anger, Envy, and Laziness, an episode adopted from the +Mystery Plays. On the border of the robe of the Virgin appear the letters +WOL and on the border of the robe of the last Apostle at Christ's left the +letters RIM DACI BAPTISTA ORADI._ + +[Sidenote: _The Circumcision and Assumption_ is illustrated in _Demotte, +Les Tapisseries gothiques_, Première Série, pl. 39.] + +Seven other large tapestries very closely related to these are known. +They represent various episodes involving Christ and numerous allegorical +figures that have not been identified. Three of these are in the +collection of Baron de Zuylen du Nyevelt de Haar, two in the Burgos +Cathedral, and two others have passed into private collections and been +lost sight of.[15] Another smaller piece, apparently of the same series, +was number X in the Morgan Collection. Three duplicates are also in +Hampton Court. + +The series is closely related also to the _Life of the Virgin_ set in the +Royal Collection at Madrid, and also the _Presentation in the Temple_ +of the Martin le Roy Collection. The cartoons are clearly the work of +Maître Philippe, and the weaving was evidently done in Flanders, probably +in Brussels, about 1510. Marquet de Vasselot suggests that the cartoons +of the Martin le Roy piece and of the Madrid series were done after a +second master under the influence of Gerard David.[16] Destrée, following +Wauters, suggests Jean de Bruxelles, known author of the cartoon for the +_Communion of Herkenbald_, another Maître Philippe piece, to which he +sees a resemblance,[17] and Thièry repeats the claim, but on far-fetched +evidence.[18] + +Certainly the types are very close to those of Gerard David. Some of the +figures on David's _Tree of Mary_ in the Lyons Museum[19] are repeated +almost exactly, and some of the female figures are very like the Saint +in the _Marriage of Catherine_ in the San Luca Academy at Rome.[20] But +other types, such as Zacharias in the meeting of Christ and John, are more +reminiscent of Hugo Van der Goes, being, for instance, almost identical +with Joseph of Arimathea in the _Descent from the Cross_ in the National +Museum, Naples,[21] even to such details as the drawing and placing of the +ear. The glimpses of landscapes, too, are clearly derived from Hugo in +their composition and details, and even the floreations are close to those +in some of Hugo's work, notably the _Original Sin_ in the Imperial Gallery +of Vienna,[22] where one finds the same upspringing sheaf of iris. The +work would seem to be that of a lesser eclectic, such as the author of the +_Life of Mary_ in the Bishops' Palace at Evora. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Demotte_.] + +In all the pieces there are intense sincerity and real grandeur of design. +The _Last Judgment_, in the musical swinging together of the draperies, +the perfect control of the great composition, and in the fine development +of the dominance of Christ without sacrifice of the minor episodes, as +well as in the power of expression of the thrilling solemnity of the +moment, deserves to rank with the greatest interpretations of the subject. + + +[Sidenote: 20] + +BRUSSELS, BEGINNING OF XVI CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 12 _ft._ 3 _in._ + W. 13 _ft._ 2 _in._ +] + +SCENES FROM A ROMANCE: _A queen surrounded by her court awaits the +preparation of a document. There is a general interchange of documents +among the courtiers at the right. In the background, upper left, a knight +indites a letter, and on the opposite side two knights wait on horseback. +The scenes illustrate some contemporary_ _romance and are closely related +to the Court of Love tapestries that were so often woven at this time._ + +[Sidenote: Formerly in the Morgan Collection.] + +[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] + +The cartoon, like those of the _Court of Love_ scenes, is the work of the +studio of Maître Philippe. Jean Van Room probably collaborated, as his +signature appears on a very similar tapestry of _David and Bathsheba_ +in the Royal Spanish Collection.[23] As in that tapestry, the elegantly +dressed persons are quite typical of the prosperous burghers of the time +and might well be used as fashion plates. The composition is skillful +in the balancing of the groups and the massing of the drapes to form a +support for the dominant figure of the queen. + + +[Sidenote: 21] + +BRUSSELS, EARLY XVI CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + H. 13 _ft._ 9 _in._ + W. 22 _ft._ 1 _in._ +] + +[Sidenote: Barberini Collection; Ffoulke Collection. Illustrated: _Ffoulke +Collection_, opp. p. 43. Exhibited: _Exposition d'Art ancien bruxellois, +Brussels_, 1905, No. XXI. Illustrated: _Destrée, Catalogue of same_, pl. +XXIV.] + +THE TRIUMPH OF DAVID: _David carrying the head of Goliath on his sword +and surrounded by musicians is followed by King Saul and Jonathan on +horseback. In the background a hilly landscape with the tents of the +Hebrews. A narrow floral border._ + +The cartoon was painted by Jean Van Room, his signature appearing on +another piece[24] of the same series in the Musée du Cinquantenaire, +Brussels. Maître Philippe must have collaborated with him in this work, +for a strong Italian influence is evident which appears only in the Van +Room tapestries that have had Philippe's assistance. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Mrs. Wm. C. Van Antwerp_.] + +Though the drawing and details show the incoming Renaissance influence, +the full continuous narrative arrangement of the group, the strong +vertical lines of the figures, and the simple modeling show the tarrying +Gothic feeling. The groups are beautifully massed and the individual +figures show great dignity. + + +[Sidenote: 22] + +SWITZERLAND, EARLY XVI CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool._ + H. 4 _ft._ 3½ _in._ + W. 7 _ft._ 9½ _in._ +] + +TWO PAIRS OF LOVERS: _Two pairs of lovers are pictured against a +background of vines with blue-green scrolled leaves and large red and +yellow blossoms on a dark-blue field. The pair at the right is on either +side of a Gothic pedestal on which is a small statue. The ladies are in +red robes. One man is in a blue doublet, the other in a two-toned red +brocaded cloak. Border of rose-vines and daisies._ + +[Sidenote: Formerly in the Collection of Comtesse Desautoy.] + +The piece was probably woven in Basle, and is undoubtedly adapted from a +wood-block illustration in one of Leonhard Ysenmuth's publications. The +width and richness of the border indicate that it was done in the early +XVIth rather than in the late XVth century. + +The subject of pairs of lovers was quite a favorite one with German and +Swiss weavers, and a number of them in different styles is left to us. +The piece is probably the work of an amateur, a nun, or more probably +some lady, who thus filled her long leisure hours. The wood-block print +has been closely followed for the figures, even to such minor details as +the very simple conventionalization of the hair. The vine background in +rather a large scale is common to many Swiss tapestries of the period. The +limited range of colors used is especially worthy of note, there being +only three shades of blue, three of green-blue, three of tan, and two of +red, in addition to the black for the outlines. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Wildenstein & Co._] + +The work is thoroughly naïve, but it has the strong appeal of genuineness +and directness common to naïve designs and shows a strong feeling for +decorative quality. + + +[Sidenote: 23-25] + +BRUSSELS, SECOND QUARTER XVI CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool, Silk, Gold._ + + No. 23: + H. 13 _ft._ 5 _in._ + W. 15 _ft._ 4 _in._ + + No. 24: + H. 13 _ft._ 5 _in._ + W. 20 _ft._ + + No. 25: + H. 13 _ft._ 5 _in._ + W. 20 _ft._ +] + +THREE SCENES FROM THE DEEDS OF SCIPIO: _In the first piece_ (_No._ 23) +_Scipio enthroned offers the mural crown to Caius Laelius_. _Roman army +officers stand about. In the background the army is assembled._ + +_In the second piece_ (_No._ 24) _Scipio is about to land in Africa_. _In +the foreground two vessels filled with soldiers. In the background the +city of Utica._ + +_In the third piece_ (_No._ 25) _Hannibal approaches Scipio to sue for +peace_. _In the background the opposing armies face each other on either +side of a river._ + +The pieces bear the Brussels city mark and the monogram H.M. (Hubert de +Mecht). The cartoons are attributed to Giulio Romano, fifteen of the +original small drawings being in the Louvre. There are in all eighteen +pieces in this set, and two subsequent sets, the _Triumphs of Scipio_ and +the _Fruits of War_, make a total of thirty-five pieces in the complete +history, one of the largest sequences ever attempted in tapestry. + +[Sidenote: Illustrated: _Hauser y Menet, Los Tapices de la Corona de +España_, vol. 2, pl. 93; _Burlington_, 1916, pp. 58-66, in connection with +article by George Leland Hunter, _Scipio Tapestries Now in America_.] + +The cartoons have been woven a number of times and examples have been +included in many famous collections, including that of Francis I. These +pieces were so rich in gold that they were burned to obtain the metal +during the Revolution. + +These three pieces are from one of the earliest weavings, and in +perfection of execution and sumptuousness of material far surpass most +of the renderings, ranking with the greatest productions of the early +Renaissance. The use of the metal is particularly effective, occurring as +it does in three techniques, plain weaving, basket weaving, which always +gives a heavy richness, and couching. + +The borders with the classical allegorical figures under porticos are of a +very fine type, following the example set by Raphael in his panels for the +_Acts of the Apostles_. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Duveen Brothers_.] + +For vividness of illustration, strength and clarity of silhouette, and +delicacy and freshness of color this set is nowhere surpassed. + +[Illustration: + + _The Triumph of David_ No. 21 +] + +[Illustration: + + _Two Pairs of Lovers_ No. 22 +] + + +[Sidenote: 26, 27] + +BRUSSELS, XVI CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + + No. 26: + H. 12 _ft._ + W. 15 _ft._ + + No. 27: + H. 12 _ft._ + W. 16 _ft._ +] + +TWO SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF CYRUS: _In the first_ (_No._ 26) _Cyrus +captures Astyages_, _his grandfather_. _Soldiers stand about, and in the +background the army is assembled._ + +_In the second_ (_No._ 27) _Thomyris has the head of Cyrus offered as a +human sacrifice_. _An attendant is placing the head in a gold basin and +soldiers standing about draw back in horror. In the background a battle +wages._ + +[Sidenote: Illustrated: + +_Hauser y Menet, Los Tapices de la Corona de España_, vol. 2, pls. 119, +121.] + +These two pieces, showing the moment of greatest triumph and the ultimate +defeat of Cyrus, the great world conqueror, are from a famous set that has +been woven several times. One of these sets, belonging to the royal family +of France, was used in the funeral service of Francis II. Another group +from the series is in the Royal Spanish Collection. The only set known +with a weaver's signature bears the mark of Nicolas Leyniers, and it is +entirely probable that all of the examples, including these two, are from +those looms. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Mr. & Mrs. Daniel C. Jackling_.] + +They are very fine examples of a type of design perfected in the first +half of the XVIth century in Brussels. The fullness of details in the +background serves to keep the textile rich and interesting and to throw +into sharp silhouette the dominant figures. The intricate and decorative +borders that are used on these pieces well illustrate one of the most +important contributions of the Renaissance to tapestry design. + + +[Sidenote: 28] + +BRUSSELS, XVI CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 8 _ft._ 10 _in._ + W. 7 _ft._ 2 _in._ +] + +THE PENTECOST: _The Apostles and the members of the Early Church are +gathered together. The tongues of fire descend upon them, and the Holy +Ghost appears like a dove between the figures of God and Jesus revealed +above. A wide border of scroll with inset medallions of biblical scenes. +In the upper border a papal coat of arms._ + +[Sidenote: Lent by _William Baumgarten & Company_.] + +Renaissance tapestries in so intimate a scale that yet are not miniature +occur rather seldom. The piece has great clarity and brilliance and +carries forcefully the religious feeling of the episode. + +In the selvage the Brussels city mark and the weaver's initials, C. S. The +mark is unidentified. + + +[Sidenote: 29] + +BRUSSELS, XVI CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 6 _ft._ 9 _in._ + W. 13 _ft._ 8 _in._ +] + +JUDITH DEPARTS FOR THE ENEMY'S CAMP: _Judith accompanied by her maid takes +leave of her mother. Attendants await to lead her away and a slave awaits +in the background holding two camels. Wide border of fruits and flowers._ + +[Sidenote: Lent by _William Baumgarten & Company_.] + +This is one of a very famous set of the _Story of Judith and Holofernes_, +examples of which are in a number of famous collections. The tapestry +bears on the selvage the Brussels city mark and the weaver's monogram, N. +X. The mark is unidentified. + +This piece is a strong example of a set that combines characteristic +Renaissance stateliness with a less customary direct charm. + + +[Sidenote: 30] + +BRUSSELS, MIDDLE XVI CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 11 _ft._ 3 _in._ + W. 12 _ft._ 9 _in._ +] + +GARDEN SCENE: _Through a trellis upheld by caryatides a formal garden with +fountains and pavilions is seen. In the foreground, deer. In the garden, +various animals. Border of scrolls and flowers with inset cartouches +showing animals._ + +Such trellis designs as this were quite often used in the middle of the +XVIth century. A famous example very similar to this is the _Vertumnus and +Pomona_ set, one of which was in the Palace of the Escurial and two in the +Barberini Collection.[25] Another piece so like this that it must be the +work of the same designer is in the Vienna Collection, number 142. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] + +It is a rich and resourceful kind of decoration well fitted to the +requirements of tapestry. The drawing of the deer is unusually graceful +and vivacious. + + +[Sidenote: 31] + +FLANDERS, XVI CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 5 _ft._ 9 _in._ + W. 12 _ft._ 9 _in._ +] + +VERDURE: _In the center a château surrounded by a moat on which swans and +ducks swim about. At the left fishermen on the bank and a hunter with his +dogs. On the right mounted hunters chasing rabbits through a wood._ + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Mrs. William H. Crocker_.] + +The high-keyed landscape on a small scale was the Renaissance successor to +the Gothic millefleurs. The drawing in this piece is beautifully clean and +exact, and the color delightfully and uncommonly varied and vibrant. The +château is so carefully rendered that it is valuable as an architectural +record. The piece may have been made by Flemish weavers working in England. + + +[Sidenote: 32] + +FLANDERS, LATE XVI CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool._ + H. 9 _ft._ + W. 23 _ft._ +] + +HUNTING SCENE: _Hunters riding through a woodland. In the foreground a +knight and lady strolling. Scroll border._ + +[Sidenote: Lent by _W. & J. Sloane_.] + +This piece is a rather uncommon variation of a familiar type. Many +tapestries were woven in Flanders in the second part of the XVIth century +that were predominantly verdure with a few minor figures, but the figures +were seldom as delicately drawn nor the colors so high in key and clear. +It is quite possible that the piece was woven by Flemish weavers in +England, a few pieces woven there by the Poyntz family being known to have +somewhat the same quality. The relatively low height in proportion to the +great length also suggests that it was made for an English house. + +[Illustration: + + _Hannibal Approaches Scipio to Sue for Peace_ No. 25 +] + +[Illustration: + + _Cyrus Captures Astyages, His Grandfather_ No. 26 +] + + +[Sidenote: 33] + +FLANDERS, ENGHIEN (?), XVI CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool._ + H. 9 _ft._ 7 _in._ + W. 7 _ft._ 9 _in._ +] + +VERDURE: _Large scrolling leaves, bluish-green, with bunches of fruit and +flowers and small finches. Wide border of fruit and flowers._ + +Verdures of this type were very much in demand in the Renaissance period. +They are typical of the decorative manner of the time and one of its +finest inventions. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Dikran K. Kelekian_.] + +The heavy, simple leaves are often too obvious and too readily explored +for the best tapestry decoration; but in this piece the beautifully drawn +birds provide delicacy and interest of detail. + + +[Sidenote: 34] + +BRUGES, MIDDLE XVI CENTURY (1556) + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 9 _ft._ 1 _in._ + W. 8 _ft._ 9 _in._ +] + +ARMORIAL: _Two amorini support a shield. Above, crossed banners; below, +dolphins. Six flags radiate from the shield, each bearing the initial +P surmounted by a crown. Border of scrolls and classic figures._ _In +cartouches in the side and lower borders the initials F_, _G_, _and X +respectively_, _and in the corresponding cartouche of the top border the +date_, 1556. _On the right lower selvage is the city mark of Bruges, with +the weaver's monogram, A. F._[26] + +[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] + +This tapestry is very interesting, not only because it is a clear, strong +example of a Renaissance heraldic hanging, but because very few pieces +of the period can be ascribed definitely to Bruges although it is known +that important looms flourished there. The weaver's monogram has not +been identified. The coat of arms, which is also unidentified, seems to +be Spanish, and judging by the coronet evidently belonged to a family of +high station. The amorini are after a follower of Giulio Romano, if not by +Romano himself. + +The relief effect of the design is quite extraordinary. + + +[Sidenote: 35] + +BRUSSELS, XVI CENTURY (1574) + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool, Silk, Gold._ + H. with frame, 4 _ft._ + W. with frame, 3 _ft._ 9 _in._ +] + +THE CRUCIFIXION: _Christ and the two thieves on the crosses. In the +foreground, right, the Roman soldiers; left, the sorrowing Marys. Floral +border._ _Dated in cartouche in the border_, 1574. + +This is one of a number of small tapestries in silk and gold of religious +subjects, most of which have been attributed to Bernard Van Orley, who +probably designed this piece also. They are all of them very exact +reproductions of paintings, remarkable in weave and very beautiful +in color. The type was first woven in the first quarter of the XVIth +century, and continued to be produced in very limited numbers until well +into the XVIIth century. They were undoubtedly woven only for special +orders--probably for private chapels. + +The piece is a very brilliant example of one of the richest types of +tapestry that has ever been woven. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] + + Bernard Van Orley (1492-5 to 1540) was trained by his father, + Valentin, and afterwards studied under Raphael in Italy. He was + engaged to supervise the translation of Raphael's cartoons for the + famous series of the _Apostles_ into tapestry. In 1518 he became + court painter. He designed many tapestries, of which the most famous + are the _Hunts of Maximilian_ and the _Victory of Pavia_ series. + + +[Sidenote: 36] + +FONTAINEBLEAU, MIDDLE XVI CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 11 _ft._ + W. 17 _ft._ +] + +GROTESQUES: _On a red ground, grotesques, of which the principal features +are: in the center Flora in an arbor on the top of which stands Atlas +upholding the world; two cartouches left and two right with candelabra and +various deities. Below at the left in a small oval medallion Leda and the +Swan, and in the corresponding medallion on the other side Eve and the +Serpent. The remaining spaces are filled with amorini, garlands of fruit +and flowers, gods, and various ornaments. Narrow floral borders, and in +the center of both side borders a triangle._ + +The triangles in the border are the Deltas, the ciphers of Diane de +Poitiers, indicating that this piece was woven in the reign of Henry II +for Diane, possibly for the Château d'Anet. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] + +For fertile and varied imagination this piece is quite uncommon even +among grotesques, the most imaginative type of decorative tapestries. +It exhibits a most entertaining sense of humor and shows a capricious +independence never found in the more formal Flemish grotesques of the time. + + +[Sidenote: 37] + +FONTAINEBLEAU, MIDDLE XVI CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 12 _ft._ 8 _in._ + W. 8 _ft._ +] + +TRIUMPH OF DIANA: _The goddess in a blue robe, bearing her bow and arrows, +drives a pale-blue chariot on which a nymph is tied prisoner. Love, +whose wings are beautifully multicolored, also is a prisoner. Diana's +attendants, garbed in blue and red tunics, follow on foot, one in the +foreground in a green tunic leading a large grey-hound. In the border +shells alternate with crescents on a blue ground and in the corners above +are crescents and rams' heads. The mottoes "Non Frusta Jupiter Am Bas" and +"Sic Immota Manet" are in the upper and lower borders respectively._[27] + +The tapestry was evidently made for Diane de Poitiers, mistress of Henry +II, the subject being chosen as a personal tribute. + +[Sidenote: Formerly in the Collection of Edouard Kann, Paris.] + +Aside from its evident beauty, the piece is important because it is one +of the few remaining examples of the work of the Fontainebleau looms, +which adapted to tapestry the characteristic Italian-French Renaissance +decoration that was formulated in the frescoes of Fontainebleau. There +are few documents left on these looms, but it is known that le Primatice +made designs for tapestries woven there, and, judging from the drawing +of the figures with the long limbs and heavily marked muscles that reflect +the influence of Michael Angelo, and the contour of the small heads +with the hair flowing back and the classical features, together with +such other details as the long flexible fingers, this piece would seem +to be an example of his work. If not by le Primatice, it was certainly +done directly under his influence; but it could scarcely be by Baudouin, +judging from the recently discovered set in the Viennese exhibition,[28] +for it has more poise and clarity of space than any of those tapestries. + +[Illustration: + + _The Crucifixion_ No. 35 +] + +[Illustration: Grotesques No. 36] + +For grace and charm, without any loss of strength, this surpasses most +French work of the period. It is an unusually typical illustration of +the French Renaissance which took the technique of the Italian revival +of the antique and refashioned it to her own spirit, giving the classic +goddesses, even in their dignity, youthful and feminine appeal, and +refining the Italian opulence. The floreation in the foreground is as +delicate as in a XVIth-century millefleurs, and the colors are unusually +luminous. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Wildenstein & Company_.] + + Francesco Primaticcio (1504-1570) studied under a disciple of + Raphael and worked with Giulio Romano on the decorations of the + Palace de Te, Mantua. In 1532 he went from Italy to Fontainebleau + to work on the decorations there. In 1540 he returned to Italy + to collect works of art for the king. He returned to France and + continued to create decorations at Fontainebleau with a large staff + of Italian painters as his collaborators. Under Francis II he became + Superintendent of the Building. + + +[Sidenote: 38] + +PARIS, EARLY XVII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool._ + H. 13 _ft._ + W. 16 _ft._ 9 _in._ +] + +THE NIOBIDES: _Apollo and Artemis from a cloud shoot down the children +of Niobe, thus avenging their mother, who had been outraged by Niobe's +boasting that she had the more children. Border of fruit garlands and +figures in camaieux._ + +[Sidenote: Formerly in Marnier-Lapostalle Collection, Paris.] + +[Sidenote: Reproduced: + +_Guiffrey, Les Gobelins et Beauvais_, p. 15; _Hauser y Menet, Los Tapices +de la Corona de España_, vol. 2, pl. 132.] + +The tapestry is one of the Artemis series designed for Marie de Medici +by Toussaint du Breuil. It was woven on the looms which were under the +direction of Marc Comans and François de la Planche, and which later +became the Gobelins state manufactory. The cartoons were repeated many +times with different borders. Judging by the border, this piece was woven +about 1611. + +The piece is a splendid example of the dramatic and monumental character +of the productions of the pre-Gobelins looms. + +The sensitive feeling for decorative fitness and the reserve that are +evident in French designs from the Gothic period on differentiate such +a cartoon as this from the contemporary Flemish productions, usually so +violent and exaggerated in scale, in drawing, and in emotional expression. +For, though dramatic, the scene is restrained and the figures have an +almost sculptural detachment. This quality is sustained by the fine +architectural border, which is very typical of the Paris looms of this +period. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Jacques Seligmann & Company_.] + + Toussaint du Breuil (1561-1602) painted decorations in the Pavilions + des Poêles at Fontainebleau, and also in the Galerie des Rois in the + Louvre. Most of his work has perished. + +[Sidenote: 39, 40] + +GOBELINS, XVI CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + + No. 39: + H. 7 _ft._ 9 _in._ + W. 13 _ft._ 6 _in._ + + No. 40: + H. 7 _ft._ 9 _in._ + W. 11 _ft._ +] + +TWO SCENES FROM THE HISTORY OF CLEOPATRA: _In the first_ (_No._ 39) +_Cleopatra attended by two maidens greets a young prince who is being +introduced to her by a general_. _In the harbor the young stranger's ship +is seen._ + +_In the second_ (_No._ 40) _Cleopatra welcomes a young man_. _An attendant +holds a heavy canopy of silk. Beyond, a Greek temple is seen._ + +_Side borders, only, of classic decorations on a red ground with inset +medallions showing the Judgment of Paris._ + +[Sidenote: Formerly in the Collection of Lord Lovelace.] + +The pieces both signed in the lower right corner--Lefébvre, with the +fleur-de-lis and G. They do not, however, appear on the records of the +Gobelins, so they must have been done by Lefébvre outside of the official +work. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _William Baumgarten & Company_.] + +They are strong and fresh examples of the early work of the Gobelins +weavers, and typical of the classicism of the late Renaissance in France. +The requirements of mural decoration are met by the monumental character +and sculptural poise of the figures, but at the same time the design is +adapted to a decorative textile through the perfection of the detail and +the richness of the colors. + + +[Sidenote: 41] + +FLANDERS, BEGINNING OF XVII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 7 _ft._ 10 _in._ + W. 13 _ft._ 4 _in._ +] + +VERDURE: _A formal garden with fountains and a château in the distance and +various birds in the foreground._ + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Mrs. C. Templeton Crocker_.] + +Such landscape tapestries were a characteristic late Renaissance +interpretation of the verdure type, a transition between the Gothic +_millefleurs_, that were really originally landscapes without perspective +(cf. No. 11), and the XVIIth-century verdures (cf. No. 43). It is a very +successful form of verdure, for they are broadly effective from a distance +and yet have a sufficient wealth of detail to yield interest on closer +exploration. The birds in this piece are especially carefully observed and +well drawn, and the purity and vivacity of the color is exceptional for +this type. + + +[Sidenote: 42] + +BRUSSELS, LATE XVII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 13 _ft._ + W. 12 _ft._ +] + +AMERICA: _In a tropical landscape an Indian with bow and arrows caressing +a crocodile. Two children beside him smoking pipes. In the background +on a hill a mission; in the foreground a heap of fruits and flowers and +precious objects symbolic of the wealth of the New World. Border of fruits +and flowers with corner medallions representing North, East, South, and +West. On the lower selvage the Brussels city mark and the signature, I. V. +D. BEURCHT._ + +[Sidenote: Another example in Musée Impériale des Ecuries, Petrograd, No. +117.] + +The piece is one of a set of four representing the four quarters of the +globe. It was woven by Jean Van der Beurcht, one of the great weavers of +Brussels, who is known to have been working there between 1690 and 1710. +The Van der Beurcht family had for several generations been painters, +Jean being the first to turn from that profession to tapestry weaving. He +was followed by several other members of the family (cf. No. 56), all of +whom did work of the highest quality. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] + +The piece is a splendid illustration of the romantic attitude toward +America at the time and a reminder of the importance America had to +Europeans as a source of wealth. The mission on the hill, and another +mission settlement in the valley of which a glimpse can be caught, are of +especial interest. + + +[Sidenote: 43] + +FLANDERS, XVII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 11 _ft._ 10 _in._ + W. 11 _ft._ +] + +VERDURE WITH BEAR HUNT: _In a forest of large trees hunters shooting and +spearing bears. In place of a border, large columns at the sides with +floral garlands hung between them across the top._ + +The piece is a type of verdure, numbers of which with many variations were +produced in Flanders during the XVIIth century. It is one of a set of +five, and is a very strong, fresh example. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] + +The substitution of massive columns for formal borders is characteristic +of the Baroque period and serves the better to adapt the tapestry to the +prevailing architecture. + + +[Sidenote: 44] + +BRUSSELS, XVII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 11 _ft._ + W. 18 _ft._ 8 _in._ +] + +[Sidenote: From the Morgan Collection, No. 17. Another example in the +Swedish Royal Collection.] + +TRIUMPH OF AUGUSTUS AND LIVIA: _Caesar offers the crown of victory to +Augustus, who kneels before him. He is surrounded by his attendants and +his chariot waits in the background. The side borders are of flower-draped +columns, top and bottom borders of fruit and flower garlands, with +ornaments. On the side borders are cartouches bearing the insignia: Pax. +Aug. and Vic. Aug. (Pax Augusta and Victoria Augusta)._ + +[Sidenote: Illustrated: + +_Böttiger, Svenska Statins Samling_, vol. 3, pl. XLII.] + +The piece is one of a series on the _History of Julius Caesar_, three of +which were in the Morgan Collection. It has all the abundance and dramatic +emphasis characteristic of the Baroque period. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] + +The massive yet active figures, the large folded, swinging drapes, the +luxurious and heavy accessories are all typical of the work of a time +when the large, the impressive, and the elaborate were sought in all +forms of art. The manner was introduced into tapestry cartoons by Rubens +and carried on by many of his pupils and imitators. Even the outline of +the composition of this piece follows closely that of Rubens' famous +_Triumphs_, from which the suggestion for the cartoon was undoubtedly +taken. + + +[Sidenote: 45] + +FLANDERS, XVII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool, Silk, Gold._ + H. 3 _ft._ 1 _in._ + W. 4 _ft._ +] + +THE VIRGIN AND CHILD: _The Virgin in a pale red gown with a dark-blue +cloak falling about her is seated on the ground. The child holding a staff +in the form of a cross sits on her knee. Beyond is a castle, and against +the sky a high mountain. Wide floral border. The high lights are in gold._ + +This is a most exceptional piece of tapestry, evidently made to special +order, probably for a private chapel, after an Italian Renaissance +painting. The excessive fineness of the weave and the unstinted use of +gold to render the high lights indicate that it was made for a person of +wealth and importance. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Duveen Brothers_.] + +The painting is faithfully and delicately reproduced and the border is +remarkably rich and glowing. + + +[Sidenote: 46] + +BRUSSELS, LATE XVII, EARLY XVIII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 12 _ft._ + W. 17 _ft._ 6 _in._ +] + +SANCHO IS TOSSED IN A BLANKET: _Sancho, following Don Quixote's example, +has refused to pay the innkeeper, as that is against the tradition of +knights-errant and their squires. So the clothmakers of Segovia and the +needlemakers of Cordova who chance to be there toss him in a blanket, +while Don Quixote sits without on his horse cursing lustily._ + +The piece is one of a set of illustrations of _Don Quixote_ after +David Teniers the Younger. The scene has all the casual and convincing +informality and boisterous good spirits for which Teniers' paintings are +famous. It quite catches the spirit of the romance which it illustrates. +The landscape vista is unusually lovely in color. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] + + David Teniers the Younger (1610-1694) was trained principally under + his father, David the Elder, also famous for paintings of peasant + episodes. In 1633 he became Master of the Guild of St. Lukes, and + thereafter was Dean of the Guild and painter to the governor, + Archduke Leopold William, a position which he continued to hold + under the next governor, Don Juan of Austria. In 1663 he helped form + the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts. He painted innumerable pictures of + peasant scenes, many of which have been rendered in tapestry. + + +[Sidenote: 47, 48] + +BRUSSELS, XVIII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + + No. 47: + H. 11 _ft._ + W. 8 _ft._ 9 _in._ + + No. 48: + H. 11 _ft._ + W. 8 _ft._ 9 _in._ +] + +TWO PEASANT SCENES: _In the first_ (_No._ 47) _a group of peasants +has stopped to rest and talk beside a stream that comes tumbling down +in broken cascades beneath a high stone bridge. On the hills in the +background are farmhouses and the ruins of castles_. + +_In the second_ (_No._ 48) _a group of peasants sits and stands about +under a tree in a meadow_, _in which cattle and goats wander._ _In the +background is a farmhouse._ + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Duveen Brothers_.] + +These tapestries after Teniers are typical of his illustrations of life +among the peasants and of his decorative and romantic yet realistic +landscapes. They are in weaving and color of the best quality of examples +of this type. + +[Illustration: + + _Triumph of Diana_ No. 37 +] + +[Illustration: + + _The Niobides_ No. 38 +] + + +[Sidenote: 49] + +MORTLAKE, LATE XVII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 10 _ft._ 4 _in._ + W. 7 _ft._ 6 _in._ +] + +PEASANTS IN A LANDSCAPE: _A group of peasants has stopped by the wayside +in a mountainous landscape. Above is a shield bearing the inscription +"Iocatur in Parvis sorts ut cum Magna Mercede Fallat."_ + +[Sidenote: Formerly in the Collection of Sir John Ramsay.] + +The cartoon is after Teniers. The Mortlake renditions of these cartoons, +which were borrowed from Flanders, have a clarity and sharpness that +give them marked distinction. The towering mountain landscape is really +impressive. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Frank Partridge, Inc._] + +The rendition of the water is unusually realistic without any loss of +decorative interest. The translation of water into a woven design is +one of the most difficult problems of the craft. It has been given many +solutions, of which this is the most naturalistic. + + +[Sidenote: 50] + +BEAUVAIS, LATE XVII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 10 _ft._ + W. 8 _ft._ 8 _in._ +] + +HERMES AND THE SHEPHERD: _Hermes has taken the Shepherd's pipe, leaving +the caduceus on the ground, and is attempting to play. They are in a wood +with large flowers in the foreground. In the background there is a glimpse +of a hilly landscape and a formal garden with fountains. Wide floral +border._ + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Mrs. James Creelman_.] + +The piece is one of a set of five verdures, most of which have hunting +scenes. While there is no signature, and there are no records on them, the +character of the foliage and of the floreation makes it almost certain +that these are of Beauvais manufacture. While in some details they +resemble contemporary Aubusson tapestries, the quality of the color is +rather different. + +They are a particularly deep and quiet type of verdure, an excellent +background for fine furnishings. The quality of the greens is uncommonly +fine. + + +[Sidenote: 51] + +BEAUVAIS, BEGINNING OF XVIII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 10 _ft._ 9 _in._ + W. 13 _ft._ 3 _in._ +] + +VERDURE WITH DANCING NYMPHS: _In a wooded dell are four nymphs dancing. +Beyond is a glimpse of an open pasture with cows._ + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Dikran K. Kelekian_.] + +The strong and brilliant trees throw into sharp contrast the delicate +perfection of the bit of landscape beyond. The nymphs are probably after +Noël Coypel. The use of the red to relieve the general tone of green is +especially successful. + + +[Sidenote: 52] + +BEAUVAIS, 1685-1711 + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool, Silk, Gold._ + H. 15 _ft._ 8 _in._ + W. 11 _ft._ 10 _in._ +] + +THE CONQUEST OF LOUIS THE GREAT: _Louis XIV on horseback with two +attendants points with his cane to the siege of a city whose defenses are +surrounded by water. In the upper border appear the arms of Count Bruhl of +Saxony. The piece is one of a set of seven._ + +[Sidenote: Formerly in the Lord Amherst Collection.] + +[Sidenote: Illustrated: _Badin, La Manufacture de la Tapisserie de +Beauvais_, opp. p. 4.] + +This is a very rare example from one of the earliest sets woven at +Beauvais when the factory was under the direction of Behagle. The cartoon +was designed either by Van der Meulen or his greatest pupil, Jean-Baptiste +Martin, later called Martin of the Battles, because of a famous series of +cartoons which he made for the Beauvais works illustrating the victories +of Sweden over Denmark. + +The richness of the king's group stands out brilliantly against the +clear, cool color and sharp geometrical lines of the background. The city +with its canals and buildings is exquisitely rendered, an interesting +anticipation of an aeroplane view. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] + + Adam Frans Van der Meulen (1632-1690) was a native of Brussels and + studied there under Peter Snayers, but on recommendation of Le Brun + was invited by Colbert to Paris, where he was pensioned by the king + and given apartments in the Gobelins. In 1673 be was received into + the Academy. He collaborated with Le Brun in making designs for the + Gobelins, notably for the series of _The History of the King_. + + +[Sidenote: 53-56] + +BRUSSELS, BEGINNING XVIII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool._ + + No. 53: + H. 10 _ft._ 7 _in._ + W. 29 _ft._ + + No. 54: + H. 10 _ft._ 4 _in._ + W. 9 _ft._ 4 _in._ + + No. 55: + H. 10 _ft._ 3½ _in._ + W. 7 _ft._ 2 _in._ + + No. 56: + H. 10 _ft._ 4½ _in._ + W. 7 _ft._ 3 _in._ +] + +THE OPERATIONS OF THE SIEGE OF LILLE: _Number_ 53 _represents the battle +of Wynendael Wood._ _Lord Cobham on horseback with his sword drawn is in +the midst of his troops._ + +_Number_ 54 _shows the burning of Lille_. _The burning city is seen in the +background. Soldiers in the foreground are getting bundles of wood to feed +the flames._ + +_Number_ 55 _shows cavaliers foraging_. _Soldiers are carrying bundles of +hay for their horses and a lamb lies on the ground ready to be carried +off._ + +_Number_ 56 _shows the poisoning of a spy_. _The cavaliers have just given +a glass of poisoned wine to a young woman who is about to drink._ + +_The borders simulate wooden frames and carry the arms of Lord Cobham._ + +[Sidenote: Formerly in Stowe House.] + +The set was designed by Van der Meulen for Lord Cobham, who served under +the Duke of Marlborough and had a brilliant military career. It was woven +at the Royal Manufactory of Brussels under the direction of Leyniers, +whose signature appears in the border of three pieces. In the fourth piece +is the signature ACASTRO, Latin for Van der Beurcht. + +Cobham inherited Stowe House in 1697, and these tapestries until recently +hung in the dining-room there. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Jacques Seligmann & Company_.] + +The set ranks with the strongest and most effective pieces of the +period, rich both in illustrative action and in decoration. The weave is +technically perfect. + + +[Sidenote: 57] + +GOBELINS, MIDDLE XVIII CENTURY (1747-1751) + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 11 _ft._ 6 _in._ + W. 8 _ft._ 3 _in._ +] + +JULY FROM THE "MONTHS" OF LUCAS: _From a series of designs of the +Months, used in Brussels since the XVth century and attributed without +verification to Lucas Van Leyden. The scene represents a falconing party._ + +[Illustration: + + _Scene from the History of Cleopatra_ No. 39 +] + +[Illustration: + + _Verdure_ No. 41 +] + +The piece has the last type of border used for the set, the so-called +Dresden border, representing a carved and gilded wood frame with corner +ornaments surrounded by naturalistic flowers, and with a sign of the +Zodiac (Leo) in a cartouche at the top. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] + +The piece was probably woven in the tenth weaving between 1741 and 1751 on +the upright looms in the atelier of Cozette.[29] + +This is an unusually clear and brilliant example of a famous Gobelins set. + + +[Sidenote: 58] + +GOBELINS, XVII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 9 _ft._ 4 _in._ + W. 6 _ft._ 8 _in._ +] + +DECEMBER FROM THE "MONTHS" OF LUCAS: _A nobleman greets a peasant woman +and her child, while a man and woman carrying a baby wait for him. In +the background a castle and people skating on the ice. The piece is +incomplete._ + +[Sidenote: Another example in the Vienna Collection, No. 109.] + +This tapestry is from the same set as the preceding, but woven almost a +century earlier, and it is interesting to contrast the changes that the +change in taste has made in the feeling of the rendition and the color +key. During the XVIIIth century the cartoon was refined with slight +changes. The hand of the old man, for example, was modified to hold a +fruit for the child. The piece probably is from the third or fourth +weaving. If so, it was done on the horizontal looms in the atelier of +Lefébvre, outside of the official work of the Gobelins.[30] + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Wildenstein & Company_.] + +This is one of the few really successful renditions of a snow scene in +tapestry. + + +[Sidenote: 59] + +BEAUVAIS, LATE XVII, EARLY XVIII CENTURY (1684-1711) + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 9 _ft._ 8 _in._ + W. 16 _ft._ 5 _in._ +] + +CHINESE GROTESQUE: _Under an arbor clowns conduct a circus. Above the +arbor are scrolls, garlands, birds, musical instruments, and other +decorations. On a yellow ground._ + +This is one of a famous series of grotesques by Berain on a yellow ground, +woven several times at the Beauvais works when they were under the +direction of Behagle.[31] + +The entertaining fantasy of the conception, together with the delicate +drawing and the beautiful ground color, makes this one of the finest +grotesques of the XVIIIth century. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] + + Jean Berain (1638-1711) was appointed in 1674 designer to the king, + and in this position designed the scenery and costumes for the court + ballets. He is famous for his decorations. + + +[Sidenote: 60, 61] + +BEAUVAIS, XVIII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + + No. 60: + H. 15½ _in._ + W. 19 _in._ + + No. 61: + H. 15½ _in._ + W. 19 _in._ +] + +TWO STILL-LIFE PIECES: _In one_ (_No._ 60) _a glass_, _a napkin_, _and +some vegetables on a table_. _In the other_ (_No._ 61) _various vegetables +about a china dish_. + +These panels, after paintings by Chardin, are the only recorded examples +of still-life composition in tapestry. From the middle of the XVth century +household utensils and various other types of accessories were used to +contribute richness of ornamentation to scenes, and during the Baroque +period embossed metals and lavish carvings became especially important in +creating a luxurious effect, but not until tapestry was thought of as a +form of painting was a purely still-life subject attempted. All still-life +designs depend so much on contrasted weights, and especially on textures, +that they are particularly difficult to translate into a medium which, +like tapestry, renders primarily silhouettes and which has such a decided +texture of its own. But the extraordinary skill of the XVIIIth-century +French weavers was equal even to that problem. The skillful care of the +composition of the original paintings and the pure beauty of the colors of +the tapestry make of rather unpromising subjects beautiful decorations. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Maison Jamarin, Paris_.] + + Jean Siméon Chardin (1699-1779) studied under Noël Coypel and + assisted Jean Baptiste Van Loo in restoring one of the galleries of + Fontainebleau. He was admitted to the Academy in 1728. His early + work was devoted to still-life subjects principally, his later to + peasant scenes, in which there are often fine incidental still lifes. + + +[Sidenote: 62] + +AUBUSSON, MIDDLE XVIII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 9 _ft._ 8 _in._ + W. 10 _ft._ 9 _in._ +] + +THE PRIEST AND CARDENIO MEET DOROTHY: _The priest and the barber while +looking for Don Quixote come across Cardenio. While Cardenio is telling +them the sad story of how his love, Lucinda, has been stolen from him by +the treachery of Don Fernando they hear someone lamenting. Following the +sound of the voice, they find Dorothy disguised as a shepherd-boy bathing +her feet in a stream. She is on her way to seek Don Fernando, who is her +pledged husband and who has deserted her for Lucinda. In the background +Don Quixote, exhausted and starved from his wanderings, lies on the +ground, while the faithful Sancho pleads with him to return to Toboso._ + +_The border simulates a carved frame. On the lower selvage is the +signature M. R. DAUBUSSON. MAGE. PICON._ + +The piece is one of a series of illustrations by Coypel, originally +designed for the Gobelins, and was engraved and used in many editions of +the romance both in France and Spain. Several looms made tapestries after +the engravings, including those of Santa Barbara in Madrid. + +The signature is the mark of the royal manufacture of Aubusson, and of +Mage, a tapestry merchant in Paris in 1746, and Picon, dyer to the king +from 1748 to 1756. The piece was evidently made in the royal works of +Aubusson to the order of the dealer Mage under the supervision of Picon, +who, from his position, was evidently one of the most important members of +the staff there. + +[Illustration: + + _Verdure with Dancing Nymphs_ No. 51 +] + +[Illustration: + + _The Conquest of Louis The Great_ No. 52 +] + +The piece shows Aubusson work at its richest and finest. The foliage of +the trees with every leaf shown and broken up into small spots of changing +color is very typical of Aubusson, and quite different from the manner of +the Flemish shops (cf. No. 55). The colors are remarkably fine. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] + + Charles Antoine Coypel (1694-1752) entered the Academy in 1715, and + the next year made a series of twenty-eight designs illustrating + _Don Quixote_ for the Gobelins. A second important series which he + designed for the Gobelins illustrated scenes from the theatre. He + was a favorite painter of Queen Marie Leczinska. He wrote several + comic dramas and had an interest in an understanding of the theatre + which is reflected in his tapestry designs, which are conceived + always as a theatrical scene in a stage setting, with actors making + the proper expressive gestures. + + +[Sidenote: 63] + +PARIS, XVIII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + + Oval; + H. 28 _in._ + W. 23 _in._ +] + +BACCHANTE: _A young bacchante wearing a tigerskin and holding Pan's pipes. +In an oval panel._ + +This panel is after a portrait by Coypel. Though it does not appear on the +official registers of the Gobelins, the technique would indicate that it +was probably by a Gobelins weaver, who quite often worked outside of the +official orders. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Jacques Seligmann & Company_.] + +The delicate execution reproduces faithfully the piquant charm of +the painting; even the most delicate gradations of tones are exactly +reproduced. + + +[Sidenote: 64.] + +GOBELINS, XVIII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 25 _in._ + W. 21 _in._ +] + +PORTRAIT OF LOUIS XV: _This portrait, after a painting by Van Loo made for +the Gobelins in_ 1760, _is one of a series of the royal family. It is in +the original frame_. + +[Sidenote: Illustrated: _Böttiger, Svenska Statins Samling_, vol. 2, +pl. XLI; _Fénaille, Etat général des Tapisseries de la Manufacture des +Gobelins, Dix-huitième Siècle_, 2me Partie, p. 311; as portrait of Louis +XVI, in _Migeon, Les Arts de Tissu_, p. 335.] + +While tapestry is not an appropriate medium for portraiture, a portrait is +the supreme test of the skill of the weaver. In this piece the effect of +the painting is reproduced with remarkable fidelity. The warp is vertical. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] + +The technical difficulty was the greater because almost the entire +piece was woven in wool, the proper material for tapestry, silk being +relied on only for a few high lights. As a portrait it has directness +and conviction, carrying the essential dignity of royalty. The XVIIIth +century, which first undertook to weave tapestry portraits, produced a +kind of portrait that was especially ill-adapted to this material; for +the likenesses depended primarily on the delicate modeling produced by a +very sensitively differentiated scale of values and scarcely at all on +lines. Even in Gothic tapestries there are many heads that are striking +portraits, but these are entirely graphic in character and so fitted for +tapestry. In rendering this portrait the weavers had literally to paint +with the shuttle. + + Carle Van Loo (1705-1756) studied in Rome under Luti and Le Gros. In + his youth he painted scenery for the opera with Boucher. In 1737 he + was admitted to the Academy, and in 1762 made first painter to the + king. + + +[Sidenote: 65] + +GOBELINS, FIRST HALF XVIII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool._ + H. 13 _ft._ 3 _in._ + W. 8 _ft._ 3 _in._ +] + +[Sidenote: Another rendering in the Vienna Collection, No. 253; another in +the Musée Impériale des Ecuries, Petrograd, No. 118.] + +THE INDIAN HUNTER: _This tapestry is one of a set of eight illustrating +the New India after designs by François Desportes. The set was first woven +in 1687._ _This piece has the first type of border used with the series_, +_bearing the arms of the king_, _which means that it was woven before_ +1768 _under either Cozette or Neilson_.[32] + +The design is typical of the romantic primitivism that Rousseau formulated +in his conception of the Noble Savage. The accuracy of detail in the +Indian basket is interesting and rather unexpected. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Demotte_.] + + François Desportes (1661-1743) studied under Bernaert, a pupil of + Snyders. He entered the Academy in 1699 and was made painter to the + king. He is famous for his paintings of animals and hunting scenes. + + +[Sidenote: 66] + +BEAUVAIS, XVIII CENTURY (1777) + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool._ + H. 11 _ft._ 1 _in._ + W. 21 _ft._ 3 _in._ +] + +THE THEFT OF THE TRUNK: _A group of gypsies surround a traveler's +carriage, and while some tell the lady's fortune and receive alms others +attempt to steal a trunk from the baggage-rack behind._ + +[Sidenote: Formerly in Collection of Count Polovzoff, Petrograd. Another +example in the Swedish Royal Collection. Illustrated: _Böttiger, Svenska +Statins Samling_, vol. 3, pl. LXVI.] + +The tapestry is one of the series _Les Bohémiens_ by François Casanova, +and was woven in Beauvais when the factory was under the direction of +André Charlemagne Charron, whose initials it bears in signature. According +to the inventories, the series has been woven only twice--once in 1777 for +the king, and again in 1799.[33] + +The vividness of the minor episodes and the vivacity of characterization +of even the lesser actors make this a most interesting tapestry. The +weaving is done with exquisite skill and the color is unusually fresh and +charming. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Jacques Seligmann & Company_.] + + François Casanova (1730-1805) went to Italy in 1727 where he studied + under Guardi and Francesco Simonini. He returned to France and later + studied under Parocel. In 1763 he was received into the Academy and + exhibited in the salons until 1783. + + +[Sidenote: 67] + +BEAUVAIS, XVIII CENTURY (1735-1740) + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 11 _ft._ 9 _in._ + W. 14 _ft._ 6 _in._ +] + +THE ARMS OF FRANCE AND NAVARRE: _Two angels on clouds support the coat of +arms before an ermine drape against a ground of fleur-de-lis on blue._ + +The angels are after Boucher, the only coat of arms in tapestry known to +which Boucher has contributed. It is evidently one of several fleur-de-lis +pieces listed in the accounts of Beauvais between 1735 and 1740 and may be +the one made for the Parliament of Rouen in the latter year.[34] + +It is an unusually rich and interesting armorial, the angels with their +characteristic Boucher grace adding great beauty to the formal setting. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] + + François Boucher (1703-1770) studied with Lemoyne and during that + time painted scenery for the Opera, a work to which he returned in + the height of his career (1737-44). In 1734 he became Academician. + In 1735 he was appointed head of the Gobelins by Marigny. In 1765 + he was made first painter to the king and Director of the Academy. + In the years between 1740 and 1755 he painted many cartoons for the + Beauvais tapestry works. Among his most famous tapestry suites are + the _Loves of the Gods_, the _Chinese Hangings_, and the _Italian + Fêtes_. + + +[Sidenote: 68] + +GOBELINS, XVIII CENTURY (1767) + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 4 _ft._ 11 _in._ + W. 6 _ft._ 6 _in._ +] + +THE FORTUNE-TELLER: _Two peasant girls seated on the ground by a fountain +are having their fortune told by another girl. A naked baby clings to +her skirts. From one side a goat looks on inquisitively. It is signed F. +Boucher and dated._ + +[Sidenote: Illustrated: _Fénaille, L'Etat général des Tapisseries de la +Manufacture des Gobelins, Dix-huitième Siècle_, 2me Partie, p. 238.] + +This is one of a series of cartoons in small size made by Boucher for the +Gobelins while he was director. They were very popular and have been woven +a number of times. + +The piece shows how remarkably the delicate gradations of tone, on which +Boucher's essential quality depended, could be translated into the weave +by the extraordinarily skillful craftsmen of the Gobelins. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Duveen Brothers_. ] + +As in all of Boucher's cartoons, the subject is only an occasion for his +own charming decorative mannerisms. As a rendition of peasant life, it +is interesting to contrast this cartoon with the honest literalness of +Teniers (cf. Nos. 47-49). + + +[Sidenote: 69] + +AUBUSSON, LATE XVIII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 9 _ft._ 10 _in._ + W. 7 _ft._ 5 _in._ +] + +BAIGNEUSE: _A bather attended by amorini is about to step into a woodland +stream. In an oval frame surrounded by an encadrement of garlands upheld +by amorini and satin drapes in the manner of Huet, on a gray ground._ + +The central panel is after Fragonard, a subject that he repeated with many +variations. The piece is typical of the Aubusson work, delicate in color +with the decorative effect depending largely on the flowery encadrement. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] + + Jean Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) studied under Boucher, Greuze, and + Chardin, and is usually considered the successor of Boucher. In 1752 + he was given Grand Prize for Painting. He was a favorite painter of + Madame Du Barry, for whom he did a great deal of work. + + +[Sidenote: 70] + +AUBUSSON, LATE XVIII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 8 _ft._ 10 _in._ + W. 6 _ft._ 6 _in._ +] + +AU BORD DU MER: _In an oval panel are peasants landing from a rowboat. In +the harbor under a cliff is a sailing vessel. In an encadrement of red and +blue flowers and ribbons on a gray ground._ + +[Sidenote: Formerly in the Vaffrin Collection, Bordeaux.] + +The central panel is after Vernet, who was particularly famous for his +port scenes. The encadrement is unusually rich and delicate. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Wildenstein & Company_.] + + Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789) first studied under his father as + a decorative painter of wall and furniture panels. Afterward he + studied under Bernardino Fergiori in Rome to be a marine painter. In + 1735 he was received by the Academy. His most famous paintings, of + the seaports of France, are in the Louvre. + + +[Sidenote: 71] + +AUBUSSON, XVIII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool._ + H. 9 _ft._ + W. 5 _ft._ +] + +CHINESE GROTESQUE: _A Chinaman, fantastically dressed, stands between two +tall tropical trees. On a pale-blue ground._ + +[Sidenote: Lent by _A. J. Halow_.] + +The piece is a delightful example of the taste for _chinoiseries_ which +the Pompadour fostered for the benefit of the French East India Company, +in which she was interested, and which taste was eagerly followed by the +frivolous and bored French court, always seeking novelty. + + +[Sidenote: 72] + +AUBUSSON, XVIII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 4 _ft._ 3 _in._ + W. 3 _ft._ 9 _in._ +] + +ARMORIAL: _On a red ground, two angels support a shield. Border of +scrolls._ + +This crisp and delicate little armorial is a fine example of the best +quality of work done at Aubusson in the late XVIIIth century. The clear +drawing on the deep-red background makes a vivid piece of decoration. + +[Sidenote: Exhibited: _Detroit Museum of Fine Arts_, 1919.] + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Dikran K. Kelekian_.] + +The rendition of a coat of arms in tapestry is difficult, because the +decorative value of heraldic devices depends almost entirely on the beauty +of the line-drawing, and tapestry, because of the character of the weave +and the surface, is not a good medium for clean lines. In the earlier +periods, therefore, the shield was usually made incidental to a design +better adapted to tapestry (cf. No. 9). It was only well into the XVIIIth +century that the bearings could be woven delicately enough to let them +stand alone. + + +[Sidenote: 73] + +IMPERIAL RUSSIAN TAPESTRY WORKS, ST. PETERSBURG, 1811 + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 9 _ft._ 4 _in._ + W. 6 _ft._ 7 _in._ +] + +CATHERINE THE GREAT: _Catherine stands in her robes of state holding +the sceptre while the Imperial crown rests on a stool beside her. On +the wall is the Russian motto, NACHATOYE SOVERCHAYET ("What is begun is +accomplished"). It is signed and dated._ + +[Sidenote: Exhibited: _Metropolitan Museum_, 1912.] + +For sheer technical skill the rendition of this portrait is unsurpassable. +The representation of textures is remarkable, quite on a par with the +cleverest paintings of the period. + +[Illustration: + + _The Poisoning of a Spy_ No. 56 +] + +[Illustration: + + _The Arms of France and Navarre_ No. 67 +] + +[Sidenote: Illustrated: _Hunter, Tapestries_, pl. 229; also, _Candee, +Tapestry Book_, opp. p. 133,--but wrongly attributed to the Gobelins.] + +[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] + +It is, in truth, an absolutely perfect reproduction of a painting--a +painting, moreover, that from the character of all the accessories is +particularly difficult to render in wool; and while it is by no means +the business of tapestry to imitate painting, it is nevertheless an +interesting display of remarkable virtuosity. The personal power of the +forceful old Empress is strongly presented. From every aspect this is one +of the greatest portraits in a woven medium. In general color tone the +piece has remained faithful to the character of tapestry, sustaining the +rich quality that the solid texture demands. In spite, also, of the need +for many delicately graded values to render the stuffs and the modeling, +the weavers have kept the color in large enough masses to be broadly +decorative. + + +[Sidenote: 74] + +MADRID, LATE XVIII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 5 _ft._ + W. 8 _ft._ +] + +THE CARD PLAYERS: _A group of men and women playing at cards sit about a +table on which is thrown a rich brocade. One of the company sits to one +side playing a lute._ + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Duveen Brothers_.] + +This piece is one of the rather uncommon examples of the work of the +Santa Barbara looms of Madrid. The skill of the weavers is remarkable +in reproducing the heavy modeling of the deep shadows and the delicate +modulations of the faces. For the perfect rendition of the effect of a +painting in tapestry it cannot be excelled. + + +ADDENDA + + _The tapestries entered under this heading were received + too late to be entered in their proper order + in the body of the catalogue._ + + +[Sidenote: 75] + +BRUSSELS, BEGINNING OF XVI CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool, Silk, Gold._ + H. 9 _ft._ 1 _in._ + W. 7 _ft._ 8 _in._ +] + +THE RESURRECTION: _The risen Christ discovered by Peter. Upper left, the +Agony in Gethsemane; upper right, Christ appearing to Mary in the garden. +In the background, the angel appearing to the three women. Border of +fruits and flowers, grapes, roses, and iris interspersed with finches and +a paroquet._ + +This tapestry, the last of a series illustrating the _Passion_ of Our +Lord, was designed in the studio of Bernard Van Orley, and may be the work +of Van Orley himself, though there were some of his students and followers +who in purity of conception and elevation and sensitiveness of feeling +were superior at times to the master himself. The weaving, unsurpassable +in technical perfection, may be the work of the Pannemaker looms. The +quality of the design and weaving and the lavish use of gold all indicate +that this series was made for a great church or a noble family. + +[Sidenote: Formerly in the Collection of the Duc d'Albe.] + +The weavers at this period had attained complete mastery of the shuttle. +This absolute technical control made possible the exact translation into +tapestry of the intricate Renaissance patterns. The finish and elegance of +the goldsmith's art which characterized so much of Renaissance design is +perfectly rendered. + +However, while the weaving was fitted to the requirements of the +Renaissance at this time, it had not yet sacrificed any of its qualities +as tapestry. Nor did the designs of Bernard Van Orley force the weavers +out of their proper limitations. For though he was Italian trained and +saturated with Renaissance influences, he was still close to the technical +problems of the weaver's art and he adjusted the new manner in painting +to them. So this piece is rich in jewel-like detail that enriches without +crowding the whole surface. The drawing of the flowers and the birds is +exquisite. The figures also, in spite of their dramatic force, keep the +aloof poise that decorative art demands. Finally, by means of a dispersion +of substantial tones, the brilliant suffusion of golden light which the +Renaissance loved is fully achieved. + +Such a scene as this is, in short, one of the last great monuments of +the perfection of Gothic tapestry, reinspired by the new insights of the +Renaissance before the ostentation and mistaken conventions of Raphael +misguided the entire art. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Mrs. William H. Crocker_.] + +Nor is it merely a technical triumph. It is the direct expression of a +profound religious emotion which shines through the material beauty, +elevates it above earthly things, and sets it apart in glory. Easter has +scarce had a lovelier celebration. + + +[Sidenote: 76] + +BRUSSELS, XVI CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 15 _ft._ + W. 19 _ft._ +] + +THE TRIUMPH OF WISDOM: _Wisdom with her two herons rides in a chariot +drawn by mythological beasts. In the upper right are Perseus and Pegasus. +Before the chariot are Ahasuerus, Abigail, David, and Saba. Cassandra +walks beside, while Titus and his soldiers, Rachel, and Judith with the +head of Holofernes bring up the rear. In the upper left Prometheus, in the +lower Cadmus, contending with the dragons._ + +This is one of a very famous set of tapestries illustrating the _Triumphs +of Petrarch_ and a number of other _Triumphs_ invented by French poets +in imitation of Petrarch. The cartoons are evidently the product of the +studio of Maître Philippe (cf. Nos. 19, 20), for the heads of several of +the minor characters are regular models, often repeated in his work. The +cartoons were painted and also executed before 1523, because in that year +Henry VII bought eight of the set, four of which are still at Hampton +Court. This piece, however, was woven in the middle of the century, as is +shown by the character of the heavy floral border. In the selvage is the +Brussels city mark and the mark of the Brussels weaver, Leo Van den Hecke. + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Mrs. William H. Crocker_.] + +The design is full of the oblique symbolism that the period loved. The +allusions are drawn with equal interest from classic tradition, secular +history, and Christian legend. The entire past has been laid under tribute +with magnificent disregard of historical, social, and religious congruity. +Such an unclassified assemblage of exciting personalities might even +cause confusion in the Day of Judgment. It is typical of the Renaissance +catholicity, the Renaissance eagerness to assimilate all knowledge and +be always as impressive as possible. Yet the figures still have some of +the stately restraint of the Gothic, and the dispersion of the points of +interest, so that the whole textile is equally covered, is a remainder +from the Gothic taste. Truly transitional, it represents the final stage +of Maître Philippe's development. + + +[Sidenote: 77] + +FLANDERS, ENGHIEN (?), XVI CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 5 _ft._ + W. 6 _ft._ 11 _in._ +] + +VERDURE: _Scrolling leaves in rich blue-green with red and yellow flowers +and fruits on a very deep-blue ground. A wide border of clusters of +flowers and fruits._ + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Mrs. William H. Crocker_.] + +This is a notably brilliant example of the characteristic Renaissance +verdure. The drawing is both accurate and vivacious, the colors pure, +deep, and brilliant, the wool of extraordinary firmness and lustre, while +the weave is remarkably close for the type. Tapestries of this class are +so often perfunctory in conception and mechanical in execution that we +need a piece of this clarity, strength, and perfect finish to show how +splendid are the possibilities inherent in the simple design. + + +[Sidenote: 78] + +FLANDERS, LATE XVII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 11 _ft._ 8 _in._ + W. 15 _ft._ +] + +THE CABRIOLE: _A young knight shows his skill in jumping his horse. At the +left a page leads in a sumptuously caparisoned horse. At the right a large +fountain is seen through the trees, and in the background is a formal +garden with fountains._ + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Mrs. William H. Crocker_.] + +Such very decorative verdures, half realistic landscapes, were among +the finest products of the late XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries. Audenarde +looms wove many of the best pieces of the type, and this piece probably +came from that district. The fountain is rendered with delightful detail +and animation, and the drawing of flowing waters, a trying problem for +tapestry, is managed with admirable dexterity. + + +[Sidenote: 79] + +ANTWERP, LATE XVII CENTURY + +[Sidenote: + + _Wool and Silk._ + H. 32 _in._ + W. 24 _in._ +] + +SCENES FROM THE CHILDHOOD OF CHRIST: _On a black ground strewn with +flowers, five oval panels framed with wreaths: the Annunciation; the +Nativity; the Adoration of the Magi; the Circumcision; the Flight into +Egypt._ + +[Sidenote: Illustrated: _Schmitz, Bild-Teppiche_, p. 265.] + +[Sidenote: Lent by _Mrs. William H. Crocker_.] + +This very unusual tapestry was the work of Balthasar Bosmanns, one of the +greatest weavers of Antwerp. The realistically drawn yet richly decorative +flowers show the influence of the school of flower painters of which Jan +Brueghel was the most famous. The landscape in the _Adoration_ and the +_Flight into Egypt_ are rendered with exquisite delicacy. The effect of +the panels in such light, fresh, almost pastel colors against the black +ground is a daring and striking decorative experiment. Another rendering +of the same cartoon is in the Kunstgewerbe Museum, Berlin. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: _Schmitz, Bild-Teppiche_, p. 186.] + +[Footnote 2: _Lindner, Der Breslauer Froissart_.] + +[Footnote 3: _Amberger Catalogue._] + +[Footnote 4: _Thièry, Les Inscriptions des Tapisseries de Jean Van Room_, +pp. 23, 24E.] + +[Footnote 5: _Marquet de Vasselot, Les Emaux Limousin_, No. 8, pl. II.] + +[Footnote 6: _Op. cit._ 29, pl. X.] + +[Footnote 7: _Op. cit._ 49, pl. XVI.] + +[Footnote 8: _Order for Payment of Philip the Good_, _April_ 4, 1455, +_quoted in Van den Gheyn_, _Chroniques et Conquêtes de Charlemagne_, _by +le Tavernier_, _p._ 11.] + +[Footnote 9: _See Burlington Magazine_, vol. 20, pp. 247, 309. _D. T. B. +Wood, Credo Tapestries._] + +[Footnote 10: _See Barbier de Montault's inventory in Annales +Archéologiques_, tome 15, pp. 232, 296.] + +[Footnote 11: _Van Kalcken, Peintures ecclésiastiques du Moyen Age. Notes +by Dr. Jan Six._] + +[Footnote 12: _Op. cit._ p. 1.] + +[Footnote 13: _Op. cit._ p. 3.] + +[Footnote 14: _Op. cit._ p. 15.] + +[Footnote 15: _Burlington Magazine_, vol. 20, p. 220. _D. T. B. Wood, +Tapestries of the Seven Deadly Sins._] + +[Footnote 16: _Catalogue of the Collection of Martin le Roy_, vol. 4.] + +[Footnote 17: _Destrée, Tapisseries et Sculptures bruxelloises_, p. 8.] + +[Footnote 18: _Thièry, Les Inscriptions des Tapisseries de Jean Van Room._] + +[Footnote 19: _Bodenhauser, Gerard David_, No. 10.] + +[Footnote 20: _Op. cit._ No. 25a.] + +[Footnote 21: _Destrée, Hugo Van der Goes_, opp. p. 48.] + +[Footnote 22: _Op. cit._, opp. p. 32.] + +[Footnote 23: _Thièry, Les Inscriptions des Tapisseries de Jean Van Room_, +p. 28.] + +[Footnote 24: _Thièry, Les Inscriptions des Tapisseries de Jean Van Room_, +p. 27. Also, _Destrée and Van den Ven, Les Tapisseries_, No. 17.] + +[Footnote 25: For illustration, see _Fsoulke Collection_, opp. p. 49.] + +[Footnote 26: _Thomson, History of Tapestry_, p. 479.] + +[Footnote 27: For further discussion, see _Gazette des Beaux Arts_, 2me +Période; _Montaiglon, Diane de Poitiers et Son Goût dans les Arts_, t. +XIX, p. 152.] + +[Footnote 28: _La Renaissance de l'Art français_, 1921, p. 159 ff.; _E. +Dimier, La Tenture de la Grande Galerie_.] + +[Footnote 29: _Fénaille, Etat général des Tapisseries de la Manufacture +des Gobelins, Période Louis XIV_, pp. 337, 341f., 344, 370.] + +[Footnote 30: _Fénaille, Etat général des Tapisseries de la Manufacture +des Gobelins, Période Louis XIV_, pp. 337. 343f., 369.] + +[Footnote 31: _Badin, La Manufacture de la Tapisserie de Beauvais_, p. 11.] + +[Footnote 32: _Fénaille, Etat général des Tapisseries de la Manufacture +des Gobelins, Dix-huitième Siècle_, Partie 11, p. 40ff.] + +[Footnote 33: _Badin, La Manufacture de la Tapisserie de Beauvais_, p. 64.] + +[Footnote 34: _Badin, La Manufacture de la Tapisserie de Beauvais_, p. 75.] + + + + +A LIST OF WEAVERS + + +The following is a list of the most prominent weavers. Such men as Sir +Francis Crane, of Mortlake, and Delorme, of Fontainebleau, have not +been included because they were only administrators. It is possible +that Grenier was not a weaver, though he may have been both weaver and +contractor. + + Nicolas Bataille Paris XIVth Century + Pasquier Grenier Tournai Middle of XVth Century + Pieter Van Aelst Brussels XVIth Century + Wilhelm Pannemaker Brussels XVIth Century + François Geubels Brussels XVIth Century + Hubert de Mecht Brussels XVIth Century + John Karcher Ferrara XVIth Century + Nicolas Karcher Ferrara XVIth Century + John Rost Florence XVIth Century + Philip de Mecht Mortlake XVIIth Century + Francis Poyntz Mortlake XVIIth Century + Francis Spierinx Delft XVIIth Century + John Vanderbanc England XVIIth Century + Catherine Van der Eynde Brussels XVIIth Century + Jean Raes Brussels XVIIth Century + Everard Leyniers Brussels XVIIth Century + Jacques Van der Beurcht Brussels XVIIth Century + Marc Comans Paris XVIIth Century + François de la Planche Paris XVIIth Century + Jean Lefébvre Paris XVIIth Century + Jean Jans Paris XVIIth Century + Gerard Laurent Paris XVIIth Century + Philippe Behagle Beauvais XVIIIth Century + Cozette Gobelins XVIIIth Century + Le Blond Gobelins XVIIIth Century + De la Tour Gobelins XVIIIth Century + James Neilson Gobelins XVIIIth Century + Jacques Van der Goten Madrid XVIIIth Century + Antoine Lenger Madrid XVIIIth Century + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +_All the books starred_ (*) _may be consulted in the San Francisco Public +Library_ + +[Illustration] + +There is, unfortunately, no satisfactory book in English on Tapestry and +no wholly satisfactory book for the general reader in any language. The +following are the most useful and are readily available. + + +*_Candee, Helen Churchill. The Tapestry Book. New York_, 1912. + + A somewhat superficial and sentimental sketch of the history of + tapestry, with almost no interpretation and little indication of the + relation of tapestry to the other arts. + +_DeMotte, G. J. Les Tapisseries gothiques. Paris_, 1922. + + When complete will contain two hundred large color plates of + incomparable beauty and fidelity. Invaluable as a source-book. Will + contain probably the majority of important examples of the period. + +_Guiffrey, J. J. L'Histoire de la Tapisserie. Tours_, 1886. + + A narrative history, now superseded in a number of respects. + +_Guiffrey, J. J. L'Histoire de la Tapisserie en France_ (_L'Histoire +générale de la Tapisserie_). _Paris_, 1878-85. + + A compilation of all the facts available at the time, and still an + important fundamental reference work. + +_Guiffrey, J. J. Les Tapisseries du XIIe à la fin du XVIe Siècle. Paris, +n. d._ + + The most detailed survey of the period, but unfortunately poorly + organized. Superbly illustrated. + +*_Hunter, George Leland. Tapestries: Their Origin, History, and +Renaissance. New York_, 1912. + + An unsystematic assemblage of facts, not all of which are correct, + and many of which are irrelevant. + +_Migeon, Gaston. Les Arts de Tissu_ (_Troisième Partie_). _Paris_, 1909. + + A complete and readable account of the history of tapestry, with + some excellent interpretations. + +_Müntz, Eugène. L'Histoire de la Tapisserie en Italie, en Allemagne, etc._ +(_L'Histoire générale de la Tapisserie_). _Paris_, 1878-85. + + Similar to Guiffrey's volume in the same series. + +_Müntz, Eugène. La Tapisserie. Paris_, 1883. + + A brief presentation of the general history, superseded at some + points, but with valuable illuminating interpretations. + +_Pinchart, A. L'Histoire de la Tapisserie dans les Flandres_ (_L'Histoire +générale de la Tapisserie_). _Paris_, 1878-85. + + Similar to the other volumes of the same series. + +_Schmitz, Herman. Bild-Teppiche. Berlin_, 1919. + + By far the most systematic, scholarly, complete, and informing book + yet published on the subject. + +*_Thomson, W. G. A History of Tapestry. New York_, 1906. + + A conventional history with useful tables of marks, but limited by + being illustrated entirely with examples in England. + +*_Thomson, W. G. Tapestry Weaving in England. New York_, 1914. + + The fundamental reference on this aspect of the subject, with full + reproduction of documents. + + +In addition to the above titles, there are a great number of monographs on +various phases of the subject, many of which are excellent. For example: +_Thièry, Les Inscriptions des Tapisseries de Jean Van Room, Louvain_, +1907, is an able piece of work, a model of exact scholarship. The majority +of these monographs are of interest only to the special student. Schmitz +refers to the more important of them in his foot-notes. + + + + +SUBJECT & TITLE INDEX + +_Every tapestry is listed by its respective catalogue number, and a star +(*) indicates the tapestry is illustrated._ + +[Illustration] + + + LOOMS REPRESENTED IN THE EXHIBITION Numbers + + _Aubusson_ 62, 69, 70, 71, 72 + + _Beauvais_ *51, *52, 59, 60, 61, 66, *67 + + _English_ 49 + + _Flemish Gothic_ *3 *4, *5, 7, *14, 15, 16, *17, 18, 19, 20, + *21, 75, 76 + + _Flemish Renaissance_ 23, 24, *25, *26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, + 34, *35, 77 + + _Flemish, XVIIth Century_ *41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 78, 79 + + _Flemish, XVIIIth Century_ 47, 48, 53, 54, 55, *56 + + _Fontainebleau_ *36, *37 + + _French Gothic_ *1, *2, *8, 9, *10, 11, 12, *13 + + _French, XVIIth Century_ *38, *39, 40, 50, 58 + + _German and Swiss Gothic_ 6, *22 + + _Gobelins_ 57, 63, 64, 65, 68 + + _Russian_ 73 + + _Spanish_ 74 + + + ALLEGORICAL, CLASSICAL, HISTORICAL, AND MYTHOLOGICAL + + _America_ 42 + + _Augustus and Livia, Triumph of_ 44 + + _Bacchante_ 63 + + _Chinese Grotesque_ 59 + + _Chinese Grotesque_ 71 + + _Cleopatra, Two Scenes from the History of_ *39, 40 + + _Cyrus, Two Scenes from the Life of_ *26, 27 + + _December from the "Months" of Lucas_ 58 + + _Diana, Triumph of_ *37 + + _Grotesques_ *36 + + _Hercules, the History of_ 7 + + _Indian Hunter, The_ 65 + + _July from the "Months" of Lucas_ 57 + + _Louis the Great, The Conquest of_ *52 + + _Niobides, The_ *38 + + _Priest and Cardenio Meet Dorothy, The_ 62 + + _Roman de la Rose, Scenes from the_ *4 + + _Romance, Scenes from a_ 20 + + _Sancho is Tossed in a Blanket_ 46 + + _Scipio, Three Scenes from the Deeds of_ 23, 24, *25 + + _Siege of Lille, The Operations of the_ 53, 54, 55, *56 + + _Wisdom, Triumph of_ 76 + + + ARMORIAL + + _Armorial, Aubusson, XVIIIth Century_ 72 + + _Armorial, Bruges_, 1556 34 + + _Arms of France and Navarre, The_ *67 + + _Millefleurs Armorial with Wild Men_ 9 + + _Millefleurs with Shepherds and the Shield of the Rigaut Family_ *10 + + + GENRE SCENES + + _Au Bord Du Mer_ 70 + + _Baigneuse_ 69 + + _Cabriole, The_ 78 + + _Card Players, The_ 74 + + _Chase, The_ *2 + + _Fortune-Teller, The_ 68 + + _Pastoral Scene_ *13 + + _Peasants in a Landscape_ 49 + + _Peasant Scenes, Two_ 47, 48 + + _Theft of the Trunk, The_ 66 + + _Two Pairs of Lovers_ *22 + + _Vintage, The_ *5 + + + LANDSCAPES + + _Garden Scene_ 30 + + _Hunting Scene_ 32 + + _Millefleurs with Animals_ 11 + + _Millefleurs with Animals_ 12 + + _Verdure, Enghien_ (?) 33 + + _Verdure, Enghien_ (?) 77 + + _Verdure, Flanders, XVIth Century_ 31 + + _Verdure, Flanders, XVIIth Century_ *41 + + _Verdure: Hermes and the Shepherd_ 50 + + _Verdure with Bear Hunt_ 43 + + _Verdure with Dancing Nymphs_ *51 + + + PORTRAITS + + _Catherine the Great_ 73 + + _Louis XV_ 64 + + + RELIGIOUS SUBJECTS + + _Annunciation, The_ *1 + + _Annunciation, the Nativity and the Announcement to the Shepherds, + The_ *3 + + _Childhood of Christ, Scenes from the_ 79 + + _Creed, Three Pieces from a Series Illustrating the_ *14, 15, 16 + + _Creed, Three Pieces from a Series Illustrating the_ *17, 18, 19 + + _Crucifixion, The_ *35 + + _David, The Triumph of_ *21 + + _Entombment on Millefleurs_ *8 + + _Judith Departs for the Enemy's Camp_ 29 + + _Life of Christ, Scenes from the_ 6 + + _Pentecost, The_ 28 + + _Resurrection, The_ 75 + + _Virgin and Child, The_ 45 + + + STILL LIFE + + _Two Still-Life Pieces_ 60, 61 + + +[Illustration] + + TAYLOR & TAYLOR + EDWARD DE WITT & HENRY H. TAYLOR + SAN FRANCISCO + 1922 + + * * * * * + + +----------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber Notes: | + | | + | P. 20. 'the minature' changed to 'the miniature'. | + | Footnote p. 31. 'Chroniques et Conquêtes de Charlemaine' | + | changed to 'Chroniques et Conquêtes Charlemagne'. | + | P. 60. 'Les Incriptions' changed to 'Les Inscriptions'. | + | Corrected various punctuation. | + | | + +----------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Catalogue of the Retrospective Loan +Exhibition of European Tapestries, by Phyllis Ackerman + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57518 *** |