It appears that the town now called Arras, but anciently Nomenticum, was always a centre of the trade of the weavers;[388] for Flavius Vopiscus, writing in A.D. 282, says that thence came the Byrri—woven cloaks with hoods, which were much in vogue amongst all classes in the later Roman Empire. The craft of weaving, which flourished in the Flemish and other adjacent countries, seems to have become native to that soil, and to have clung to it, surviving many historical cataclysms.[389]

Though in the fifth century the inhabitants of that country were transported wholesale to Germany by the Vandals, and among them those of the town of Arras, yet, thanks to the monasteries, there was a survival and a revival; the craftsmen grouping themselves round the religious houses. Specimens as models were brought from the East. Aster, Bishop of Amasis (a town in Asiatic Turkey), describes these Oriental hangings in one of his homilies. He says that animals and scenes from the Bible were woven on white grounds.[390]

Sidonius Apollinaris, Bishop of Clermont Ferrand,[391] says that some foreign tapestries are "pictured" with the summits of Ctesiphon and Nephates, "wild beasts running rapidly across void canvas, and also by a miracle of art, the Parthian of wild aspect with his head turned backwards." This might be a description of a Chinese composition, and probably it is so.[392]

Woven tapestry is also called "Arras,"[393] because that town in the Netherlands was the home and school of the art of picture weaving in the Middle Ages. It has been hitherto excluded from the domain of needlework, because of the different use of the needle employed in it. It has always been woven on a loom, and is, in fact, embroidery combined with the weaving; for the shuttle, or slay, or comb completes each row of stitches. It belongs as much to our art as does tambour work, which is done with a hook instead of a needle. Tapestry weaving is the intelligent craft of a practised hand guided by artistic skill. The forms of the painted design must be copied by a person who can draw; and the colours require as much care in selection, as in painting with oils or water-colours. Such a thing as a purely mechanical exact copy is impossible in any art; and the difficulties are increased a hundredfold when it is a translation into another material, and another form of art. Besides, in this case, the copies are worked from the back, and the picture is reversed. The question is this: Can it be claimed as belonging to the same craft as embroidery? I answer in the affirmative, and I claim it.

"When the Saracens began to weave tapestry we cannot tell; but the workers in woven pictures were called Sarassins, and their craft, the 'opus Saracenicum.'"[394] The French and Flemish artisans who continued to weave in the old upright frames (haute-lisse) were, whether Christians or not, called "Sarassins." Probably they came through Spain, possibly from Sicily to Flanders and to France, or else from Byzantium. Viollet-le-Duc says that the "Saracinois" was a term applied to the makers of velvety carpets (tapis veloutes).[395] This is possible.[396] Woven carpets of Oriental type were spreading themselves as articles of luxury through Europe early in the Middle Ages; and the Persian style of design was much the same then, when the first models were brought to Spain, and thence to Arras, as it is now in the carpets we buy just woven in Persia.[397] The oldest specimens known here have been exhibited in the Indian Museum, and may be of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The perishable nature of the material makes us dependent on the sculptured records of all artistic design for our knowledge of carpets and hangings of more than a thousand years ago; and we must confess that we find nothing really resembling a Persian pattern in any classical tomb or sculpture of the Dark Ages.[398]

I have allowed myself to touch upon carpet weaving, as it is germane to tapestry; though it is a branch that soon loses itself and leaves artistic work in the distance. Except the first design, it has become purely mechanical.

After what has been quoted from Ovid's "Metamorphoses," and bearing in mind the pictured webs described by Homer, and likewise the evidence of the frescoes in Egypt, and the woman weaving on the Greek fictile vase found at Chiusi, we may be justified in concluding that, like all other arts, that of tapestry existed in very early days, died out, and had to begin afresh, and gradually return to life, during the Middle Ages.

Bishop Gaudry, about 925, possessing a piece of tapestry with an inscription in Greek letters surrounded by lions "parseme," was much put about till he obtained something to match it, to hang on the opposite side of his choir at Auxerre.[399] And it is known that the monks of St. Florent, at Saumur, wove tapestries about 985, and continued to do so for two centuries. St. Angelme of Norway,[400] Bishop of Auxerre, who died in 840, caused many tapestries to be executed for his church. At Poitiers this manufactory was so famous in the eleventh century, that foreign kings, princes, and prelates sought to obtain them, "even for Italy." The rules of their order of the monks of the Abbey of Cluny, dated 1009, were followed by those of St. Wast and of the Abbey of Fleury, and others in France, who all wove wool and silk for tapestries. Le Pere Labbe, from whom much of this information is drawn and acknowledged by M. Charton (my authority), says that in 876, at Ponthievre, in presence of the Emperor Charles the Bold, the hall of the council-chamber was hung with pictured tapestries, and the seats were covered with them.[401]



Sufficient has been said to show that during the dark ages hangings were woven in France, Germany, and Belgium,[402] and that England was not behind the rest of the civilized world in this craft. I think, also, that we have indicated its Oriental origin.[403]

Arras continued to lead as the great tapestry factory till the end of the fifteenth century, when the commercial failure of the city began, at the death of Charles le Temeraire, Duke of Burgundy.[404] Plate 48 shows a portion of his tent hangings woven with the order of the golden fleece taken at the battle of Grandson—now in the museum at Berne. Till then Arras had supplied most of the splendid decorations of which we find such marvellous lists. Every possible subject—religious, romantic, historical, and allegorical—was pressed into the service, and pictured hangings were supposed to instruct, amuse, and edify the beholders. The dark ages were illuminated, and their barbarity softened, by these constant appeals to men's highest instincts, and to the memories of their noblest antecedents and aspirations, which clothed their walls, and so became a part of their daily lives. The great Flemish and French workshops became the illustrators of the history of the world, as it was then read or being enacted. It is a record of faiths, religious and political; and of national and family lives and their changes. The Exhibition at Brussels in 1880 showed, by its "Catalogue Raisonne," how much could be extracted from its storied tapestries of both archaeological and artistic information.[405]

Though the art continued to be the servant of refined luxury in the fifteenth century, Arras itself had done its work,[406] and was superseded as the greatest weaver of artistic tapestry by a neighbour and rival. Brussels, which had been gradually asserting itself as a weaving community, from that date absorbed most of the trade of Arras, and thence forwards, till Henri IV. established the works of the Savonnerie, Brussels led European taste, and employed the best artists. Brussels employed Leonardo da Vinci and Mantegna, Giovanni da Udine, Raphael, and later, Rubens and the great Dutch painters, to design cartoons for tapestry works. Raphael's pupil, Michael Coxsius, of Mechlin, superintended the copying of his master's cartoons. Shortly afterwards, Antwerp, Oudenarde, Lille, Tournai, Valenciennes, Beauvais, Aubusson, and Bruges all had their schools;[407] and the adept can trace their differences and peculiarities, and name their birthplace, without referring to their trade-mark, or to that of the manufacturer, which is usually to be found in the outer border. Poitiers, Troyes, Beauvais, Rheims, and St. Quentin likewise had their schools, and became famous.

Want of space prevents my entering more fully into this subject of the northern tapestries, and I must refer my readers to the authorities I have quoted from so largely.

ITALIAN TAPESTRY.

The word Arrazzi shows us whence the Italians drew their art. Doubtless there were looms in the Italian cities, and especially under ecclesiastical patronage, through the dark ages. Rome was in communication with the Atrebates in the third century, by whom she was supplied with the Byrri, or hooded cloaks then worn; and as it had been a centre for weaving commerce, it is probable that Rome received from Arras the craftsmen as well as the produce of their looms. At the Renaissance we find factories for pictured webs in Florence, Rome, Milan, Mantua, and elsewhere. The best artists of the Italian schools—Mantegna, Leonardo, Raphael and his scholars, &c., &c.—gave their finest designs to be executed in Italy, before they were sold to Arras, Brussels, France, or England, and they are accumulated in the treasure-room of every palace in Italy. But the finest collections are those of the Vatican, and of the Pitti in Florence. A splendid volume might be edited of these grand artistic works; such a record would be invaluable. Vasari[408] and Passevant give us occasional glimpses of local factories for tapestry, but, as we have before said, this subject has still to be investigated.

FRENCH TAPESTRY.

In France, as elsewhere, tapestry was probably woven in private looms and in the religious houses from early days. M. Jubinal believes that it was made at Poitiers, Troyes, Beauvais, Rheims, and St. Quentin as early as 1025.[409] Froissart describes the entry of Isabel of Bavaria as a bride into Paris, when the houses were covered with hangings and tapestries representing historical scenes.[410] The Cluny Museum possesses a most curious mediaeval suite of hangings from the Chateau de Boussac, of the early part of the fifteenth century. They tell the story of the "Dame au Lion," and are brilliantly coloured and charmingly quaint and gay in design. Hangings designed by Primaticcio were woven at Fontainebleau, where Francis I. started the manufacture in 1539. However, the first national school of tapestry weaving was that at Chaillot, under the experienced teaching of workmen from Arras; afterwards transferred to the town of Gobelins, 1603, by Henri Quatre.[411] Louis Quatorze and his minister Colbert splendidly protected this manufacture by law, privilege, and employment; so did Louis Quinze. Before the Revolution, other considerable tapestry works were flourishing at Aubusson in Auvergne, at Felletin in the upper Marches, and at Beauvais. These two last were especially famed for velvety tapestries (veloutes).

As usual, the French have surpassed all other nations in this textile art. The pictorial tapestries of the Gobelins have carried the beauty of wall hangings to the utmost perfection. Nothing can be more festive than a brilliantly lighted hall, glowing with these woven pictures or arabesques, framed in gilded carvings or stuccoes. Still we must acknowledge that, in choice of worthy subjects, the Flemish ideal, which had been left far behind, was the highest. The weavers of the time of Louis Quatorze aspired only to teach the glories of France, not the moralities of society and civilization, in their historical compositions, which were then superseded by classical mythology, or else by scenes from rustic life, of the Watteau School. La Fontaine's fables gave some of the prettiest and gayest designs, and were generally the centres of splendid arabesques. The drawing and execution were perfect.

It is to be feared that in the future, great works of textile decoration will be few and far between. It is only when the State, or the monarch that represents the dignity of the State, protects and fosters these artistic factories, that they can continue to thrive. Without such powerful encouragement, fashion, commercial depression, or a war will stop for a time the orders without which funds fail, discouragement sets in, and ruin quickly follows; and the best workman when unemployed, or forced for some years to wield the sword, loses his practised skill never to be restored. In France, whatever has been the form of government, the old traditions of protection for the Gobelins have been acted up to and maintained. The consequence is that science and art still contribute their efforts in the machinery, the colouring, and the designing of hangings of which the materials[412] and the execution are unrivalled. Probably there will never again be a Tuileries or a Versailles to adorn, but an Hotel de Ville, especially if it is occasionally destroyed, may give from time to time opportunity for such decorations.

ENGLISH TAPESTRY.

When we consider the antiquity and the excellence of the art of tapestry on the Continent, we cannot pretend that there can be the same general interest in that of our English looms. But to ourselves it naturally assumes the greatest importance; and I have tried to trace the efforts of our ancestors in this direction, by noting every certain sign of English production, in what must have been an imitation of Flemish or Oriental weaving. The few facts here collected may be of service to the future writer of the history of English tapestries.

Comnenus, Prince of Arras, fled before the Romans from Nomenticum to England; and he and his Atrebates settled themselves between Silchester and Sarum, and the Belgae and Parisi did the same. The Romans found them here when they invaded England. Wherever the Belgic tribes spread themselves, the art of weaving was established. Comnenus probably brought over, and left to his descendants, the inheritance of this craft.

Dr. Rock thinks that pictured tapestry was woven at an early period in the Middle Ages by the monks in England. The earliest proof of this that we possess, is the notice by Matthew Paris (thirteenth century) describing the three reredos for St. Alban's Abbey; the first, a large one, depicting the finding of the body of the Protomartyr; the others, "The Prodigal Son" and "The Man who fell among Thieves." All these were executed by the orders of Abbot Geoffrey.[413]

While in London in 1316, Simon, Abbot of Ramsay, bought for the use of his monks, looms, shuttles, and a slay. "Pro weblomes emptes xx^d. Et pro staves ad eadem vj^d. Item pro iiij Shittles, pro eadem opere vj^d. Item j sloy pro textoribus viii^d."[414]

In Edward II.'s time there were hangings woven in England which appear to have been absolutely tapestries. They were much valued abroad, and were called "Salles d'Angleterre." Charles V. of France (1364) possessed among his articles of costly furniture, "Une salle d'Angleterre vermeille brodee d'azur, et est la bordure a vignettes, et le dedans de Lyons, d'Aigles, et de Lyopars."[415]

Our trade with Arras must have improved our tapestries. We are told of Edward III. selling his wools to that town, and being therefore called by Philip de Valois, his "Marchant de Laine." Horace Walpole refers to an act, "De Mystera Tapiciarorum," of the time of Edward III., 1327, "regarding certain malpractices of the craft," which proves its existence in England at that period.[416]

Mr. French, in his catalogue of the Exhibition in London, 1851, quotes the tapestries of St. Mary's Hall at Coventry, to prove that there was a manufactory in England, temp. Henry VI. There were certainly individual looms, though we doubt whether it had yet become a national industry, as we have so few specimens remaining. The St. Mary's tapestries contain portraits of Henry VI., Cardinal Beaufort, &c., and are probably contemporary works. The subject is the marriage of Henry VI.

There is also a piece of tapestry at Bude, in Cornwall, the property of Mr. Maskell, which came from a royal sale. Here the marriage of Henry VII. is depicted, and the style resembles that of the Coventry hangings. The costumes are certainly English, and the original pictures must have been English, though they might have been wrought at Arras, reminding one of the groups of figures and the dresses on the Dunstable Pall (see Plate 78).

Dr. Rock also quotes the reredos belonging to the Vintners' Company, representing St. Martin sharing his cloak with a beggar. He thinks this is executed by the monks of St. Alban's, and attributes to those of Canterbury the fine tapestries of the legends of the Virgin at Aix, in Provence, of which we have the history. They were originally given to Canterbury Cathedral by Prior Godstone, and were called Arras work. There is no doubt that there were looms and artists in the convents and monasteries before there was any recognized school of such work in England. Probably till the Reformation such hangings were being woven all over Europe, and only then ceased in Germany and England. One cannot but regret that the weight of the evil which preponderated over the good in the Houses of the Church, should have caused so much that was beautiful in art to be crushed by their ruin.

Chaucer speaks of "tapestry of verd."[417] This green tapestry seems to have been intended to give a bowery effect to the room it hung; and one can imagine that it pleased the taste of the poet of the "Flower and the Leaf." It seems to have been much the fashion in England and elsewhere about that period, and generally represented landscapes and woody foregrounds only; but sometimes figures and animals were portrayed, and always in the same tints of bluish-green.

Dr. Rock gives us an extract from the wardrobe accounts of Edward II., containing the following items: "To a mercer of London for a green hanging of wool, woven with figures of kings and earls upon it; for the king's service upon solemn feast days in London;" therefore the "tapestry of verd" was not a novelty even in the time of Chaucer.[418]

Oudenarde was famous for these "hallings" or "salles." All the specimens mentioned in the catalogue of tapestries exhibited at Brussels in 1880, are said to be from thence. But we see no reason why it should not have been an English style of weaving also. The first establishment of a permanent manufactory in England, did not, however, take place until the latter end of the reign of Henry VIII., when Robert Sheldon "allowed" his manor-house at Barcheston, in Warwickshire, to "one Hicks," whom he signalizes in his will as "the author and beginner of all tapestry of Arras in England." This will is dated 1576.[419]



There are four pieces of tapestry representing the Seasons, removed from an old family house and placed by Lord Salisbury at Hatfield House, where they hang in the great corridor. These were probably woven in Barcheston. (Plate 49.) The style is English Renaissance, and the design full of intention; in fact, they have the seal of the time of Henry VIII. Only one characteristic reminds one of Flemish art, and that is the mode of drawing the plants and flowers, which might have been taken out of an old German herbal. The landscapes and peasantry are unmistakably English. The pictures are worked with strong black outlines which emphasize every detail and give the effect of a highly coloured outlined engraving; reminding one of the children's books by Marcus Ward or by Walter Crane.[420]

The tapestries called the "Spanish Armada hangings" were probably woven here late in Elizabeth's reign. In her time we find in catalogues of household goods, descriptions of splendid hangings, furnishings of palaces and private houses. The MS. inventory of the Earl of Leicester's belongings, in the library at Longleat, astonishes us with the abundance of suites of hangings of tapestry that it enumerates, as well as those embroidered by hand, and others of stamped and painted leather.

It was in the reign of James I. that the manufacture was set up at Mortlake, in Surrey. Aubrey, in his "History of Surrey, i. p. 82," however, dates the institution in the subsequent reign; but Lloyd[421] is not only positive for the former date, but affirms it was "of the motion of King James himself," who gave L2000 towards the undertaking; and we have further proofs extant that he spent largely, and encouraged it in every way. He gave to Sir Francis Crane, who erected the house at Mortlake, "the making of three Baronets" towards his project for manufacture of tapestry.[422]

Another curious item which we quote, shows that the funds for the enterprise were not easily forthcoming. It is a warrant "to Sir Francis Crane: L2000 to be employed in buying L1000 per ann. of pensions or other gifts made of the king, and not yet payable, for ease of His Majesty's charge of L1000 a year towards the maintenance of Sir Francis Crane's tapestry manufacture."[423]

Apparently this little arrangement did not succeed, for there is an acknowledgment by Charles I., in the first year of his reign,[424] that he is in debt to Sir F. Crane: "For three suits of gold tapestry we stand indebted to Sir Francis Crane L6000. Also Sir F. Crane is allowed L1000 annually for the better maintenance of said works for ten years to come." The king also granted the estate of Stoke Bruere, near Stamford, in Northamptonshire, as part payment of L16,400 due to him on the tapestry works at Mortlake.[425] The great value of these tapestries is shown by the prices named in the Domestic Papers of the State Paper Office, and in private inventories; they were woven in silk, wool, and gold, which last item accounts both for their price and for their disappearance.

William, Archbishop of York and Lord Keeper, gave L2500 for four pieces of Arras representing the four Seasons.[426] Their value, however, fell during the civil wars, for the tapestries of the five Senses from the Palace of Oatlands, which were from the Mortlake looms, were sold in 1649 for L270. The beautiful tapestries at Houghton were woven at Mortlake: these are all silk, and contain whole length portraits of James I. and Charles I., and their Queens, with heads of the royal children in the borders. A similar hanging is at Knowle, wrought in silk, containing portraits of Vandyke and Sir Francis Crane.[427]

Francis Cleyne was a decorator and painter employed in the works at Mortlake by Charles I., who, while he was still Prince of Wales, brought him over to England from Rostock, in Mecklenburg (his native place), while the Prince was in Spain wooing the Infanta. Cleyne was great in grotesques, and also undertook in historical designs.[428]

Three of the Raphael cartoons were sent to be copied at Mortlake.[429] The purchase of these cartoons by the king, showed how high was the standard to which he tried to raise the art in England. The "Triumph of Caesar," by Mantegna, was obtained for the same purpose in 1653; and certain Dutch prisoners were forwarded to the manufactory to be employed on the work.[430] It was entrusted to the care of Sir Gilbert Pickering, who was either an artist or the superintendent of the works.

After the death of Sir Francis, his brother, Sir Richard Crane, sold the premises to Charles I. During the civil wars, the property was seized upon and confiscated as having belonged to the Crown. It occupied the site of what is now Queen's Head Court. The old house opposite was built by the king for the residence of Cleyne the artist. Gibson, the dwarf, and portrait painter, who had been page to a lady at Mortlake, was one of his pupils.[431]

The value of the king's collection of tapestries was well understood during the Protectorate. The tapestry house remained in the occupation of John Holliburie, the "master-workman." After the Restoration, Charles II. appointed Verrio as designer, intending to revive the manufactory. This was not, however, carried out; but the work still lingered on, and must have been in some repute, for Evelyn names some of these hangings as a fit present among those offered by a gallant to his mistress.[432]

Arras is said to have been woven at Stamford, but we have no data of its establishment or its suppression. Burleigh House contains much of it; and there is a suite of hangings at Belton House, near Grantham, of which there are duplicates at Wroxton House, in Oxfordshire, all having the same traditional origin at Stamford. Possibly Sir Francis and Sir Richard Crane may have received orders at their house at Stoke Bruere, which lay near enough to Stamford to account for the magnates of the town and neighbourhood obtaining furnishings of their tapestries, and, perhaps, vying with each other in decorating their apartments with them.[433]

In Northumberland House there was a fine suite of tapestry, woven in Lambeth, 1758.[434] This is the only sample of that loom of which we ever find any mention. There were also works at Fulham, where furniture tapestry in the style of Beauvais was made. This manufactory was closed in 1755.[435] It may be hoped that the revival of tapestry weaving at Windsor in our own day may be a success, but without the royal and noble encouragement it receives, it would probably very soon fall into disuse.

Unless it is supported by the State, such an exceptionally expensive machinery cannot possibly be kept at work. It requires the superintendence of the best artists, and the weavers themselves must needs have the highest technical education to enable them to copy really fine designs. These artistic requirements, besides the extreme tediousness of the work, make it the most expensive of all luxurious decorations—even more costly than embroideries by the hand, covering the same spaces. However, the two styles of hangings never can enter into competition, except in a financial point of view. Tapestries are the best fitted for wall coverings, and embroideries for curtains of all kinds—for beds, for windows, and for portieres.

The old hangings are now again having their day, and we are striving to save and restore all that remain to us. We must continue to guard these treasures from the moths, their worst enemies; and science should be invoked to assist us in the preservation of these precious works of art, of which the value is now again understood and appreciated, and which increases with every decade that is added to their antiquity.

Tapestry, as art, has its own peculiar beauties, and one of them is the softening, yet brilliant effect of the alternate lights and shadows of the ridge-like surface; the separation of each stitch and thread also casting minute shadows in the opposite direction, and giving an iridescent effect. It is a mistake to struggle against this inherent quality, instead of seeking to utilize it. The coarser and simpler tapestries of our ancestors are really more beautiful and effective in large spaces—flat in the arrangement of colours, and sharply outlined—than the imitations of paintings of the last two centuries, in which every detail of form and colour is sought to be expressed.[436]

M. Blanc says that tapestries were intended to cover the bare walls, but not to make us forget their existence. The wall being intended for comfort and defence, the mind is solaced with the idea it conveys. It is a mistake, therefore, to substitute a surface picture, so real that it at once does away with this impression of security, while a certain conventional art should amuse the mind with shadowy representations and suggestions.

It is, perhaps, fortunate that the possibilities of tapestry weaving are restricted, and thus its very imperfections become the sources of its best qualities as decoration and comfort. One element of textile weaving, the use of gold, both in the backgrounds and in the draperies, takes it at once out of the region of naturalism, while giving it light and splendour.

The designer for tapestry need not be a great genius. Harmony, repose, grace, and tender colouring are the qualities most valuable to such an artist. Battle-pieces, and other exciting and awful subjects, are only bearable in apartments that are used for state occasions, or for hanging corridors and anterooms. They are painful to live with.

All tapestries are liable to suffer by the double nature of their materials—their woollen surface and linen threads which are affected by both damp and heat crinkling the forms and puckering the faces, and bringing out unexpected expressions and deformities. For this reason the design should be as flat and as simple in its outline and shading as is consistent with beauty.

FOOTNOTES:

[317] Birdwood, "Indian Arts," p. 283.

[318] "The word in Sanskrit for a needle is suchi, from such, to sew or pierce. This is the same word as the Latin suo, to sew; so probably the common word used by the Aryans in their primeval habitations was su, and they clearly knew how to sew at that remote period. Eve sewed fig-leaves together. Adam sewed also. The Hebrew word is tafar, and clearly meant sewing, not pinning together with thorns. Sewing is the first recorded art of our forefathers."—Letter from Mr. Robert Cust.

[319] Semper, "Der Stil," Textile Kunst, i. pp. 77-90.

[320] Semper, Textile Kunst, "Der Stil," i. p. 77. The German word "naht," here literally translated, would be, uniting, weaving, bringing together.

[321] "Handbook of Plain Needlework," by Mrs. Floyer. See also her "Plain Hints for Examiners," &c.

[322] Dr. Rock, "Introduction," pp. cix, cx, calls it "thread embroidery," and names some specimens in the South Kensington Museum. He says it was sometimes done in darning stitches for ecclesiastical purposes, for instance, for coverings for the pyx. It is mentioned in the Exeter inventory of the fourteenth century. There is notice of white knotted thread-work belonging to St. Paul's, London, in 1295, by Dugdale (p. 316).

[323] St. Catherine of Sienna's winding-sheet is described as being cut work (punto tagliato) on linen. This sounds like embroidery of the type now sold as "Madeira work," the pattern being cut out and the edges overcast.

[324] Semper, "Der Stil," i. pp. 132, 203.

[325] See Semper, "Der Stil," i. p. 289.

[326] Ibid. He cites Athenaeus, iv. 64.

[327] Phrygia in general, and especially Babylon, were famed for their embroideries. "Colores diversos picturae intexere Babylon maxime celebravit et nomen imposuit."—Pliny, lib. viii. 74. See D'Auberville, "Ornement des Tissus," p. 7.

[328] "Der Stil," i. p. 196. "Opus Phrygium," in the Middle Ages, included all gold work in flat stitches. The cloak worked by Queen Gisela in the ninth century, for her husband, St. Stephen, King of Hungary, the imperial mantle at Bamberg, of the date of 1024, and the robes of Bishop William de Blois (thirteenth century), in the library at Worcester Cathedral, are all "opus Phrygium," and resemble each other in style.

[329] In the Museum at Munich are two remarkable examples of these imitations. There is an embroidered badge of the Order of the Dragon, worked in gold and woven over with coloured silks, so as to present the appearance of enamel (sixteenth century). The second is a dress for a herald of the Order of St. Hubertus, which is richly embroidered in gold and silver, and the badge and collar are imitated in the most extraordinary manner, and laid on entirely in gold needlework. This is of the seventeenth century.

[330] In Salt's collection from Saccarah (British Museum); also at Turin, in the Egyptian Museum; and in the collections in the Louvre, figured by Auberville in the "Ornamentation des Tissus."

[331] Hence the French name, pointes comptees.

[332] See Semper, ii. p. 213, for wood-work at Panticapaeum, Kertch, in the Crimea, which evidently has descended in style from panelled needlework hangings. Chaldean wall decoration at Khorsabad and Warka, near Nimroud, recalls the effect of "opus pulvinarium" according to Loftus. See Semper, i. p. 327.

[333] "Der Stil," i. pp. 196, 248. This is known from the archaic books of imperial commerce.

[334] Peacocks' feathers, either woven or onlaid, are those most commonly used in China and Japan. "Ka Moolelo Hawaii," by M. Jules Remy, Paris, 1861. See Ferdinand Denis, "Arte Plumaria," p. 66.

[335] Yates, "Textrinum Antiquorum," p. 373, translates from Publius Syrus the word plumata, "feathered." The word "embroidered" would have here improved the sense, even though it is a peacock that is described.

"Thy food the peacock, which displays his spotted train, As shines a Babylonian shawl with feather'd gold."

He also quotes Lucan, who is praising the furnishings of Cleopatra's palace: "Part shines with feathered gold; part sheds a blaze of scarlet."—Yates, p. 373.

[336] Sir G. Birdwood, with all his enthusiasm for Indian art and its forms, yet cannot resist a touch of humour when he describes a state umbrella, of which the handle and ribs are pure gold, tipped with rubies and diamonds, the silken covering bordered with thirty-two fringed loops of pearls, and "also appropriately decorated with the feathers of the peacock, heron, parrot, and goose."—Birdwood, "Indian Arts," ii. p. 182.

[337] "History of the Kingdom of Congo," c. viii. p. 55, by Filippo Pigafetta (translated by Mrs. M. Hutchinson).

[338] In the Tyrol certain embroideries are called "Federstickerei."

[339] For the feather hangings at Moritzburg, see Appendix 2.

[340] "Arte Plumaria," by M. Ferdinand Denis. Paris, 1875.

[341] The Plumarii mentioned by Pliny were craftsmen in the art of acu pingere, or painting with the needle. Though Seneca speaks of the "opus plumarium" as if it were absolutely feather-work, yet it may have been at that time undergoing its transition into embroidery, suggested by feathers, and imitating them in gold, silver, wool, or thread. When Lucan describes the extraordinary change introduced into Roman habits and luxury by Cleopatra's splendours, his use of the words, "pars auro plumata nitet," probably means their imitation or mixture with gold embroidery, and would, therefore, come under the head of "opus Phrygium."

[342] It is said that the work, named "Plumarium," was made by the needle; and the Greeks, from the variety of the threads, called it "Polymitum." "Plumarium dicitur opus acu factum quod Graeci a licionum varietate multiplici polymitarium appellant."—Robert Stephan. "Thesaurus Linguae Latinae," s.v. Plumarius.

[343] Bluemner, i. p. 209. "The Plumarii were a class of persons mentioned by Vitruvius, and found likewise in inscriptions. It cannot be decided with certainty what was their occupation; their name would lead us to suppose that it has something to do with feathers."—Becker's "Gallus," ii. p. 288. But see Marquardt, "Handbuch d. Roem. Altert." vii. pt. 2, p. 523.

[344] "Plumarium qui acu aliquod depingit super culcitris plumeis."—R. Steph., "Thesaur. Lat."

[345] See "The Funeral Tent of an Egyptian Queen," by Villiers Stuart.

[346] See Auberville's "Tissus," Plate i.

[347] "Compte Rendu de la Commission Archeologique, St. Petersburg, 1881." Pl. iii. pp. 112,119.

[348] In the British Museum is the lining of a shield which shows the arms of Redvers, third Earl of Albemarle (who died 1260), applied in different coloured silks.

[349] Lent by the Archaeological Museum at Madrid.

[350] Rees' Cyclopaedia speaks of embroideries "on the stamp or stump," as being so named "when the figures are high and prominent, supported by cotton, wool, or hair;" also in "low and plain embroideries, without enrichment between." He speaks of work "cut and laid on the cloth, laid down with gold, enriched with tinsel and spangles." Rees' Cyclopaedia, "Embroidery," 1819.

[351] "Opus consutum." The way in which this applied work is used in India, for the special adornment of horse-cloths, saddles, and girths, is very interesting.

[352] The chapter on "application," in the Handbook of Embroidery of the Royal School of Art Needlework, will be useful to those who need instruction in the most practical, and therefore the quickest way of doing cut work.

[353] Mrs. Palliser's "History of Lace." The origin of needle-made lace-work is attributed by M. de Gheltof to the necessity for disposing of the frayed edges of worn-out garments. This I think somewhat fanciful. Fringes may have been so suggested.

[354] See M. Blanc's "Art in Ornament and Dress" (p. 200).

[355] Mrs. Bayman (late Superintendent in the School of Art Needlework) writes thus: "I see no reason to doubt that the word guipure is derived from 'guipa' or 'guiper,' a ribbon-weaver's term for spinning one thread round another; and that guipure was originally more like what we now call 'guimp,' or like 'point de Raguse,' first being made of thread, of more or less thickness and commoner material, wound round with a finer flax, silk, or metal; then they cut shapes, bold scrolls, and leaves out of cartisane, vellum, or parchment, winding and covering them over with the more precious thread. These figures were then connected by brides, only as close as was required to hold them together, and leaving large open spaces, thus forming the large scroll patterns seen in so many old pictures." No doubt the heavy "Fogliami" and "Rose point" laces developed themselves from these still older kinds of point. As the cord and card lace disappeared, the name slid on to all laces with large, bold patterns and open brides, though the special method which first created it had been effaced. Latterly, embroidered netting or laces have been called "guipure d'art." Littre gives the derivation of the word; he says it is from the Gothic Vaipa, or German Weban or Weben (g and p replacing the w and b).

[356] The word lace came from France, where it was called lacis or lassis, derived from the Latin laqueus (a noose). These words originally applied to narrow ribbons—their use being to lace or tie.

[357] The Venetians early made much lace for furniture or ecclesiastical linen adornment, of what they called "maglia quadrata," which was usually squared netting, afterwards filled in with patterns in darned needlework. This somewhat primitive style of lace trimming was popular on account of its simplicity, and descended to the peasantry for their domestic decorations in Spain, Germany, France, and Italy. There are specimens of this work believed to be of the thirteenth century. At the time of the Renaissance the simple geometrical designs developed into animals, fruits, flowers, and human figures.

[358] See Rock, p. cix, cx. He says that a sort of embroidery was called network, and certain drawn work he calls "opus filatorium." See Catalogue of Textiles in the South Kensington Museum, by D. Rock, p. cxxvii.

[359] Reminding us of the description of a net—"holes tied together by a string." As a contrast in descriptive style, we would quote Dr. Johnson on network: "Anything reticulated or decussated at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections."—Johnson's Dictionary.

[360] Isaiah iii. 18, xix. 9.

[361] The nets of chequer work which hung round the capitals, with the wreaths of chain work, were designed by Hiram of Tyre, at Solomon's desire (1 Kings vii. 17).

[362] A fringe lace is made on the Riviera, of the fibres of the aloe, and is called "macrame," which is an Arabic word. Mrs. Palliser's "History of Lace," p. 64.

[363] A collar of fine white human hair was made in point lace stitches at Venice, and worn at his coronation by Louis Quatorze. It cost 250 pieces of gold. "Scritti di V. Zanon da Udine" (1829). Cited by Urbani de Gheltof, "Merletti di Venezia," pp. 22, 23.

[364] See, for example, the inventory of the household goods of the great Earl of Leicester at Longleat; also the lists of the possessions of Ippolito and Angela Sforza (sixteenth century).

[365] Coloured thread and silk laces are still made in Venice.

[366] In the British Museum.

[367] M. Blanc's use of the word "guipure" is different from that found in the notices of the art by other authorities.

[368] The first lace-making machine was contemporary, or nearly so, with the stocking-making frame. About the year 1768 it was altered, and adapted for making open-work patterns. In 1808, the Heathcot machine was started for bobbin net. In 1813, John Leaver improved on this idea, with machine-woven patterns. The Jacquard apparatus achieved the flat patterns, and the new "Dentelliere" has perfected the art. Lace-making by machinery employed by the latest official returns in 1871, 29,370 women in England, and 24,000 in France. See Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th edition, p. 183-5.

[369] M. Charles Blanc, "Art in Ornament and Dress," p. 211.

[370] The information contained in these volumes is most valuable, for the lace-worker as well as the collector.

[371] Lady Layard suggests that the cut lace work, which was the earliest made in Venice ("punto tagliato," "point coupe"), simply consists of button-hole stitch with purl ornaments. These are varied with geometrical stitches and needle-weaving in those solid laces called "punti tagliati Fogliami," and "Rose point de Venise," of the finest kinds.

[372] Urbani de Gheltof, in his book, "Merletti di Venezia," p. 9, says that Venetian laces and fringes were furnished thence for the coronation of Richard III. (1483). I fancy that gold guimps or braid, rather than netted laces, must be here intended, as we have no other notice of lace so early. See Ibid. pp. 10-20.

[373] Henry VIII. had a pair of hose of purple silk, edged and trimmed with a lace of purple silk and gold, of Milanese manufacture. Harl. MSS., 1519.

[374] The manufacture of point d'Alencon was created under the special orders of Louis Quatorze, by Colbert, in 1673. Now more than 200,000 women, besides the machinists, are employed in lace-making in France. Colbert imported the teachers from Venice.

[375] Yriarte says that Alencon, Argenton, Sedan, Mercourt, Honiton, Bedford, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Mechlin, Bruges, Brussels, all followed in imitation of Venice. Yriarte's "Venise," p. 250.

[376] Titian drew the designs for one of these books for "punti tagliati." The laces made in the Greek islands probably owe their origin to Venice, showing the same "punti in aria."

[377] I have already spoken of "lacis" as either darned netting or drawn work. Of this there is an English specimen at Prague, said by tradition to be the gift of Queen Anne of Bohemia, wife of Richard II. It originally trimmed or bordered an ecclesiastical garment.

[378] For further information, we refer the reader to M. Urbani de Gheltof's book on Venice laces already cited (Organia, Venice, 1876), and Lady Layard's translation (1882).

[379] I am assured on the best authority that this is unknown as yet at Burano; but the workers, as well as the revived industry, are very young. The modern school of Burano has only been established eleven years. It is certainly delightful to see the 320 happy faces, singing, chattering, and smiling over their graceful occupation; and the beauty of the Buranese women, which is celebrated, has not suffered from their occupation. There is a charming little article of the Revista di Torino, 1883, which describes the improvement in the social condition of Burano, morally and physically, and the way it is recognized by the inhabitants. Instead of signs of miserable poverty, the promoters of the lace school are greeted by the women leaning from the windows with, "Siestu benedetta!" ("Be thou blessed!").

[380] The word "tapestry" comes from the Greek tapes, which is used equally for hangings or carpets. The Italians call carpets "tapeti" to this day. It is believed to have been originally an Egyptian word for such fabrics.

[381] For instance, the embroidered hangings of the eighth century at Gerona, in Spain, have been more than once quoted as proofs of tapestries having been manufactured there at that period.

[382] The "slay" means the "strike." The word had the same meaning originally: to slay a man was to strike him.

[383] See De Champeaux, South Kensington Museum Art Handbook, 1878.

[384] "Bibliotheque des Merveilles" (sur les Tapisseries), publie sous la direction de M. Edouard Charton, a Paris, 1876.

[385] Martial, xiv. 150.

[386] Minerva accepts the challenge of the Maeonian Arachne, who will not yield to her in the praises of being first in weaving wool. The girls desert the vineyards round the little town of Hypaepa, to look at her admirable workmanship. She boasts that hers is finer than that of Pallas, and, desiring a vain victory, rushes upon her own destruction. "... They stretch out two webs on the loom, with a fine warp. The web is tied to the beam; the slay separates the warp; the woof is inserted in the middle with sharp shuttles, while the fingers hurry along, and being drawn with the warp, the teeth (notched in the moving slay) strike it. Both hasten on their labour, and girding up their garments to their bosoms, they move their skilful arms, their eagerness beguiling their fatigue. There are being woven both the purples, which are subjected to the Tyrian brazen (dyeing) vessel with fine shades of minute difference; as in the rainbow with its mighty rays reflected by the shower, where, though a thousand colours are shining, yet the very transition eludes the eyes that look upon it; to such a degree is that which is adjacent the same, and yet the extremes are different. The pliant gold is mingled with the threads, and ancient subjects are represented on the webs." Then follows the list of the subjects. The web of Pallas had a large central design, and a smaller one on each corner, surrounded with a border of olive leaves. Arachne's contained nineteen pictures, of two or more figures each, and was surrounded by a border of flowers, interwoven with the twining ivy. Ovid's "Metamorphoses," book vi.

Through the kindness of my friend, Lord Houghton, I am enabled to give the sequel of the story—Arachne's transformation into the Spider, as— A PARAPHRASE AND A PARABLE.

Lo! how Minerva, recklessly defied, Struck down the maiden of artistic pride, Who, all distraught with terror and despair, Suspended her lithe body in mid-air; Deeming, if thus she innocently died, The sacred vengeance would be pacified. Not so: implacable the goddess cried— "Live on! hang on! and from this hour begin Out of thy loathsome self new threads to spin; No splendid tapestries for royal rooms, But sordid webs to clothe the caves and tombs. Nor blame the Poet's Metamorphoses: Man's Life has Transformations hard as these; Thou shall become, as Ages hand thee down, The drear day-worker of the crowded town, Who, envying the rough tiller of the soil, Plies her monotonous unhealthy toil, Passing through joyless day to sleepless night With mind enfeebled and decaying sight, Till some good genius,[437] kindred though apart, Resolves to raise thee from the vulgar mart, And once more links thee to the World of Art."

[387] Appendix 3.

[388] Guicciardini ascribes the invention of woven tapestry to Arras, giving no dates; so we do not know whether he attributes it to the Belgic Atrebates or to their successors, the Franks. In either case the craft was probably imported from the East.

[389] The Atrebates were the inhabitants of that Belgic region till the fifth century; now it is the province of Artois, probably a corruption of the name "Atrebates." Taylor, "Words and Places" (1865), pp. 229-385.

[390] Castel, "Des Tapisseries," p. 30.

[391] Sidonius Apollinaris, Epist. ix., 13. Cited in Yule's "Marco Polo," p. 68.

[392] Castel, "Des Tapisseries," p. 31.

[393] The commentators of Vasari, MM. Lechanche and Jenron, believe that this art was coeval in the Low Countries with Roman civilization and Christianity; but it would appear that the weavers had fled to Britain to escape from the Romans. Ibid. p. 52. Traces of the name Arras have been found by Bochart and Frahn in Ar-ras, the Arabian name for the river Araxes and the people who inhabit its shores; but this may be accidental, and is at best an uncertain derivation.

[394] Rock, Introduction, p. cxii. This "Saracenic work" is really so like what is called by the Germans "Gobelins" when found in Egyptian tombs that one can hardly doubt whence the Moors brought their art. There are several Egyptian specimens in the British Museum. See also the catalogue of Herr Graf'schen's collection of Egyptian textiles, from the first to the eighth century. "Katalog der Teodor Graf'schen Fuende in AEgypten, von Dr. Karabacek. Wien, 1883."

[395] Viollet-le-Duc, "Dictionnaire du Mobilier Francais, Tapis," p. cxii; also M. Jubinal, "Tapisserie Historique." It is difficult absolutely to assign to any known specimens a date anterior to the fifteenth century; although M. de Champeaux thinks that the "Sarazinois" were mostly or entirely carpet-weavers about the eleventh century. He says there is documentary authority to prove that these were woven with flowers and animals. There is a very deep-piled velvety carpet at Gorhambury (the Earl of Verulam's place). Here Queen Elizabeth's arms and cypher appear on a Persian or Moresque ground pattern surrounded with a wreath of oak leaves. It may have been a gift from Spain,—left after one of her visits to her Chancellor.

[396] "Tapisseries des Gobelins," A. L. Lacordaire, p. 10 (1853). He considers that the Sarazinois were embroiderers as well as weavers—and this theory is supported by extracts from an inventory of Charles VI.'s hangings of 1421.

Every detail of the art and its materials was carefully regulated by the French statutes of 1625-27, containing many laws for the perfecting of the manufacture of new as well as the restoration of old tapestries—and fines were imposed for not using materials as nearly as possible matching the original ones; and likewise for any other dereliction from the rules of the craft. Ibid. pp. 9, 10, 14.

[397] At the Poldi Bezzoli Museum in Milan there are some very fine carpets; one especially, a Persian, is supposed to be of the fifteenth century. This is very finely woven of pure, tender colours, and the whole composition, flowers and animals (most beautifully drawn lions, &c.), is delicately outlined in black on a white ground. The colouring is rich and harmonious, and has the iridescent effect of mother of pearl.

[398] In the San Clemente frescoes at Rome there are hangings which show a semi-Asiatic style.

[399] "Memoires Historiques et Ecclesiastiques d'Auxerre," par M. l'Abbe Leboeuf, i. pp. 178, 231.

[400] There are very interesting Norwegian tapestries of the sixteenth century, which show distinctly an Eastern origin.

[401] Jubinal, "Tapisseries," pp. 25, 26; Viollet-le-Duc, "Dic. de Mobilier Francais," p. 269.

[402] There is much splendid tapestry—German, and especially Bavarian,—to be seen at Munich; and, indeed, the more one seeks, the more one finds that private looms were constantly at work in the Middle Ages for votive offerings. There is a tapestry altar-piece at Coire, in the Grisons, of the Crucifixion, which is evidently of the fourteenth century. The colours are still brilliant, and the whole background is beautifully composed of growing flowers. No sky is seen. There is at Munich an altar frontal of tapestry, Gothic of the fifteenth century, exquisitely beautiful. The weaver has introduced a little portrait of herself at her loom, under the folds of the virgin's cloak at her feet.

[403] M. Albert Castel ("Tapisserie," p. 53) believes that the taking of Constantinople, when Earl Baldwin was elected to the throne of Byzantium, had a great effect on Flemish art, which then received a strong impulse from Oriental designs and traditions. See M. Jubinal's very interesting account of the tapisserie de Nancy which lined the tents of Charles the Bold at the siege of Nancy (p. 439). These tapestries are an allegory against gluttony. "Tapisseries Hist.," pp. 1-5.

[404] Charles the Bold has left us records of his taste in tent hangings of Arras at Berne, as well as at Nancy. These are the plunder from his camp equipage after the battle of Grandson. The whole suite, of many pieces, represents battles and sieges, and sacred subjects also, such as the adoration of the Magi. They are finely drawn and splendidly executed with gold lights, and are of the most perfect style of the fifteenth century. The National Museum at Munich contains most valuable specimens of very early and very fine tapestries; amongst others, a Virgin, which was certainly designed in the school of Duerer, and is of the greatest perfection of its art, both as to colour and drawing and the general effect, which has a soft, dreamy beauty, only to be seen in fine woollen tapestries, and differing from pictorial design and intention.

[405] See Rock, cxii: Among the remarkable suites of tapestry of which we find historical mention are the following: In 1334, John de Croisette, a "Tapissier Sarazinois, demeurant a Arras vendit au Duc de Touraine un tapis Sarazinois a or: de l'histoire de Charlemagne" (Voisin, p. 6). Of the many recorded as belonging to Philip, Duke of Burgundy and Brabant, one piece, "Haulte lice sanz or: de l'histoire du Duc de Normandie, comment il conquit Engleterre."—"Les Ducs de Bourgogne," par le Comte de Laborde, ii. p. 270, No. 4277.

[406] M. de Champeaux, the author of the "Handbook of Art Tapestry" belonging to the series of the Kensington Museum, 1878, says that the history of Arras has yet to be written. He, however, gives a great deal of interesting information, especially about the French tapestries, on which subject we fancy there is little more to tell. Their art does not come from such a distant time as that of the Belgian manufactures. After Louis IX. had decimated the inhabitants, and dispersed the remainder, Arras yet made a gallant struggle to revive her industry and compete with the rising prosperity of Brussels; but France had decreed against her.

[407] "Encyclopaedia Britannica" ("Art Tapestry"), pp. 17, 97.

[408] Vasari vividly describes the design for a tapestry for the King of Portugal—the history of Adam—on which Leonardo da Vinci, then aged twenty, was engaged. He lingers tenderly over the picture of the flowery field and the careful study of the bay-trees. Vasari, tom. vii. p. 15; ed. Firenze, 1851.

[409] See M. Jubinal's "Tapisseries Historiees," p. 26; Viollet-le-Duc, "Mobilier Francais," i. p. 269.

[410] Froissart's "Chronicles," iv., chap. 23; Johnes ed. 1815.

[411] M. de Champeaux, "Handbook of Art Tapestry," p. 24; also Rock, "Textiles," p. 122. M. Lacordaire, "Tapisserie des Gobelins," p. 15, tells us that under Louis XIII. the statutes of 1625-27 contain many regulations for the perfection of the materials employed in weaving new as well as in restoring old tapestries. Fines were imposed for not matching the colours carefully.

[412] English wool is still used for the finest tapestries at the Gobelins. The wool from Kent is considered the best.

[413] "Vitae St. Alban. Abbatum," p. 40; Rock, p. cxi. That the walls were covered with tapestry in the thirteenth century is supposed to be proved by the description of Hrothgar's house in the Romance of Beowulf. We are told that the hangings were rich with gold, and a wondrous sight to behold. "History of Domestic Manners, &c., in England during the Middle Ages," by Thomas Wright, p. 2.

[414] Matthew Paris, in Dugdale Monast., ed. 1819, ii. p. 185.

[415] Quoted by Michel from MSS. in the Imperial Library, Paris.

[416] This was a writ to the Aldermen and Sheriffs of the City of London, principally levelled against the dealings of "certain Frenchmen which were against the well-being of the trade of the Tapissiarii ... by petition of Parliament at Westminster." Calend. Rot. Pat. Edward III., p. 148, "De Mystera Tapiciarorum," Lond. M. 41.

[417] Called "verdures" in French inventories.

[418] Rock's Introduction, p. lxxix.

[419] "The art of weaving tapestry was brought to England by William Sheldon, Esq., about the end of the reign of Henry VIII."—See Dugdale's "Warwickshire" ("Stemmata:" Sheldon), 2nd edition, folio, vol. i. p. 584; also Lloyd's "State Worthies," p. 953, quoted by Manning and Bray, "Hist. of Surrey," vol. iii. p. 82. But we have an earlier notice of a spirited attempt to make fine tapestries at Kilkenny. Piers, Earl of Ormonde, married the daughter of Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, "a person of great wisdom and courage." They brought from Flanders and the neighbouring provinces artificers and manufacturers, whom they employed at Kilkenny in working tapestries, diaper, Turkey carpets, cushions, &c. Piers died 1539. Carte's Introduction to the "Life of James, Duke of Ormonde," vol. i. p. 93 (Oxford, 1851).

[420] William Sheldon at his own expense brought workmen from Flanders, and employed them in weaving maps of the different counties of England. Of these, three large maps, the earliest specimens, were purchased by the Earl of Orford (Horace Walpole), by whom they were given to Earl Harcourt. He had them repaired and cleaned, and made as fresh as when out of the loom, and eventually gave them to Gough, the antiquary, who bequeathed them to the University of Oxford. The Armada tapestry, which is stated to have been designed by Henry Cornelius Vroom, the Dutch marine painter, and woven by Francis Spiering, appears to have been, in 1602, in the possession of Lord Howard, Lord High Admiral and the hero of the Armada. Fuller particulars are given in Walpole's "Anecdotes," i. p. 246, under the name of Vroom, Sandart being the principal authority. Part of them were in the House of Lords till 1834, when they perished in the fire. These had been engraved in 1739 by John Pine, but it appears that at that time there were in the royal wardrobe other pieces, now lost.

[421] Lloyd's "Worthies."

[422] Calendar of State Papers, cx. No. 26, James I., 1619-23.

[423] Calendar of State Papers, vol. clxxxi. No. 48.

[424] Rymer, "Foedera," vol. viii. p. 66, ed. 1743.

[425] Brydges, "Northamptonshire," i. p. 323, under the head of "Stoke Bruere," pt. 1, p. 48.

[426] Manning and Bray's "History of Surrey," vol. iii. p. 302.

[427] Horace Walpole, "Anecdotes of Painting in England," vol. ii. p. 22.

[428] Macpherson, "Annals of Commerce."

[429] There is in Brydges' "Northamptonshire," under the head of "Stoke Bruere" (the estate which King James gave to Sir F. Crane as part payment of the deficit of L16,400 in his tapestry business), mention of the cartoons of "Raphael of Urbin, ... had from Genoa," and their cost, L300, besides the transport. M. Blanc says, with great justness, that Raphael, when he prepared these cartoons for tapestry, made designs for weaving, and did not paint pictures. If they had been intended for oil pictures, they would have been very differently treated.

[430] Calendar State Papers, Domestic, Sept. 28th, 1653.

[431] Horace Walpole's "Anecdotes of Painting," vol. iii. p. 64.

[432] See Evelyn's very scarce tract, entitled "Mundus Muliebris," printed 1690, p. 8.

[433] Lord Tyrconnell, Lord Exeter, and Lord Guildford had married three of the Brownlow heiresses of Belton, who had a winter residence at Stamford.

[434] Designed by Francesco Zuccharelli. Rock, Introduction, p. cxiv.

[435] It has been at different periods the crowning glory of the craft of the weaver to place different patterns or pictures on the two sides of the web. This would almost appear to be impossible, but that it has been done in late years, according to Rock, who tells us that he saw a banner so woven, with the Austrian eagle on one side and the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception on the other. He says that the same manufacturer was then being employed in producing ecclesiastical garments with the colours and patterns so varied.

[436] In old tapestries three tints only were employed for the complexions of men, women, and children—the man's reddish, the woman's yellow, and the child's whiter than either. It is an agreeable economy of colours, simple and effective, and avoids the pictorial imitation that one deprecates. See M. Charles Blanc's "Grammaire des Arts Decoratifs: Tapisserie," p. 112.

[437] The poet here refers to H.R.H. the Princess Christian.



CHAPTER VII.

HANGINGS.

"... Her bedchamber was hang'd With tapestry of silk and silver...."

"Cymbeline," Act II., Scene IV.

The most important works that have been executed in embroidery, have been hangings or carpets. We may look upon these as belonging to the history of the past. Never again will such works be undertaken. Their raison d'etre, as well as the means for their production, have ceased to exist. We have very ancient historical evidence of the use of hangings (or tapestries), either as curtains to exclude prying eyes, or as coverings to what was sacred or else unseemly, or as ornamental backgrounds in public and private buildings.

There is no doubt that in pillared spaces the enclosures and subdivisions were completed by hangings from pillar to pillar, from the earliest times of Asiatic civilization. In Assyria, and afterwards in Greece and Rome, the open courts and rooms were shaded from the sun and rain by umbrella-like erections with hangings stretched over them. From the Coliseum's vast area to that of the smallest atrium in the Pompeian house, the covering principle was the same.

Palace-halls and temples alike were furnished in this way, and the cold splendour of the polished marbles was enhanced by contrast with the shadowing folds of soft textures richly embroidered in bright colours and gold. The statues, the gold and silver vessels, the shrines heaped with votive offerings, were all brought into higher relief and effect by the screens, the curtains, and the veils which classical perfect taste would plan so as to carry out the decorator's intention. Babylonians, Persians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Jews, each adorned their sacred places in similar fashions.[438] Clemens Alexandrinus says that behind the hangings of the Egyptian temples were hidden their "foolish images."[439]

The word "hangings" was applied to all large curtains and tapestries, tent coverings, screens dividing empty spaces, or pendant between pillars; also sails,[440] banners, and decorations for processional purposes covering walls or hanging from windows; all these have been embroidered or woven with pictures and patterns. Carpets, from having originally the same name, "tapete," are to be added to this list, and, in fact, their uses are often interchanged. Kosroes' famous hangings were used as a carpet, and Persian and Babylonian carpets have been hung on the walls. A Babylonian hanging must have resembled, in its style (of which we have descriptions), the Persian carpet of to-day.

Semper gives excellent reasons for his theory that, next to dress, hangings (the clothing of architecture) were the earliest phase of art.[441] He looks upon the most ancient paintings on architecture as absolutely representing textile coverings. Some of the earliest Babylonian decorations show men supporting draperies, which he believes to be the tradition of the time when the tallest slaves held up the hangings to their own height; and above them, in tiers, were men, dwarfs, and even children fastened on brackets, carrying the hangings up to the roofs. This was an Assyrian custom, and was adopted by the Romans as a mode of disposing of their prisoners of war. Woltmann and Woermann appear to lean to the suggestion that permanent imitations of hangings were carried out in painted or encaustic tiles covering the masonry of Chaldean buildings at Nimroud and Khorsabad. The pale ones associated with low reliefs, and really resembling them, as they were partly raised, and the reliefs in alabaster and stone, which were partly coloured, were in harmony, and yet in contrast, with the brilliant tiles of Babylon.[442]

We know exactly what were the purple, scarlet, and white hangings of the Sanctuary in the wilderness, designed by Bezaleel, and that the veil of the Temple was blue, purple, crimson or scarlet, and white, i.e. worked on white linen; and we know from Josephus, that "the veil of the Temple, which was rent in twain" sixteen centuries later, was that dedicated by Herod, and was Babylonian work, representing heaven and earth[443] (see p. 23 ante). Its colouring was scarlet, white, and blue. Scarlet and white hangings seem indeed to have been an Oriental fashion; and fashion then was not ephemeral, but lasted hundreds of years. The embroidered curtains of the Tabernacle are repeated in the hangings of Alexander's wedding tent, after 1500 years; and a thousand years later still they reappear in the seventh century, when Pope Sergius gave curtains to the high altar (baldachino) in the basilica of St. Peter's at Rome of this same scarlet and white embroidery.

In early Oriental art, the enormous expenditure of work is appalling to think of. Abulfeda describes the palace of the Caliph Moctader, on the banks of the Tigris, as being adorned with 38,000 pieces of tapestry, and of these 12,000 were of silk worked in gold. What a wealth of women had to be wasted in creating such a wealth of embroideries![444]

There is a Bedouin romance which describes the tent of Antar, and shows the taste for large works. Five thousand horsemen could skirmish under its embroidered shade; and Akbar's largest tent held 10,000 persons.

Nadir Shah's gorgeous tent, which was of the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century, was of scarlet cloth on the outside, lined with violet satin embroidered with gold and precious stones. The peacock throne was placed within it, and was kept there during the remainder of Nadir Shah's reign.

Sir John Chardin says that "The Khan of Persia caused a tent to be made which cost two millions: they called it the house of gold;" and it was resplendent with embroideries.[445] These are comparatively modern works, and sound commonplace and vulgar compared to those of Greece and Egypt.

The Greeks imitated the tents and temporary buildings of the Eastern monarchs. This phase of Oriental luxury was imported by Alexander the Great, and we have the description of two of his gorgeous creations at Alexandria, where he outrivalled the ancient traditional glories of Assyria and Persia. His own tent was supported by fifty golden pillars, carrying a roof of woven gold, embroidered in shimmering colours, and divided from the surrounding court, filled with guards and retainers, by scarlet and white curtains of splendid material and design.

But more gorgeous is the account of the tent in which he entertained ninety-one of his companions-in-arms on the occasion of his marriage. This tent was supported by columns twenty cubits high, plated with silver and gold, and inlaid with precious stones. The walls of the court were formed by curtains adorned with figures worked in gold, and were hung from beams plated with the precious metals, to match the columns. The outer court was half a mile in circumference.[446]

Yet Alexander's wedding-tent was exceeded in splendour by that erected by Ptolemy Philadelphus for his great pomp at Alexandria, described by Kallixenos, as cited by Athenaeus.[447] This tent, crowned with golden eagles, was supported by pillars fifty cubits high. They upheld an architrave with cross-beams covered with linen, on which were painted coffers, to imitate the structure of a solid roof. From the centre was suspended a veil of scarlet bordered with white. The pillars in the four angles represented palm-trees of gold, and the intermediate columns were fashioned as thursi, and were probably wreathed with golden vines and bunches of grapes made of amethysts, as we know of a Persian tent so adorned, and the whole idea of the erection was evidently fresh from the East.[448] A frieze eight cubits high was composed of niches containing groups of tragic, comic, and Satyric figures "in their natural garb;" and nymphs and golden tripods from Delphi. The tent was separated from the outer peristyle by scarlet hangings, covered with choice skins of wild beasts. Upon these were hung the celebrated Sikyonian pictures, the heritage of the Ptolemaic dynasty, alternating with portraits and rich hangings, on which were embroidered the likenesses of kings, and likewise mythological subjects. Between these and the frieze hung gold and silver shields. Opposite the entrance, vessels of the most costly materials and workmanship, valued at 10,000 talents of silver, were ranged, so as to strike the eye of all who entered there. Golden couches supported by Sphinxes were placed along the sides of the tent, furnished with soft purple woollen mattresses, and coverings gaily and exquisitely embroidered. The floor was strewn with fresh blossoms, except where a most costly Persian carpet covered the centre. In the doorways and against the pillars stood a hundred precious statues by the greatest artists.

This description dazzles the imagination! To be an upholsterer (a vestiarius) in those days was to be an engineer, architect, and artist! Semper, from whose translation we are quoting, remarks that the luxurious "motive" of such an erection naturally arose from the desire to make use of the mass of artistic materials acquired by conquest, and the effort to reduce them to certain architectural principles already accepted.[449]

That Alexander did not purposely destroy the Persian embroideries is evident from the fact that Lucullus speaks of them 200 years later.

Rome accepted and adopted all the Oriental uses of hangings, in the Temple and the house for temporary festive occasions.

By both Greeks and Romans hangings were used in triumphal processions, covering immense moving cars or draping the temporary buildings which lined the avenues of their progress. Also the funeral pyres which Greece and Rome copied from Assyria were hung with splendid materials and embroideries. Without describing one of these awful erections, it is impossible to give any idea of how much artistic treasure was thrown into the flames which consumed the remains of a great man. The funeral pyre dedicated by Alexander to his friend Hephaestion recalls that erected by Sardanapalus in one of the courts of his own palace, on which he perished, surrounded by his wives and his treasures. Hephaestion's catafalque was built of inflammable materials, 250 feet high, raised in many stories, and hung with pictorial tapestries, painted and embroidered. Each story was adorned with images of ivory and gold. In the upper story were enormous hollow figures of Sirens, filled with singers, who chanted the funeral odes.[450] It is to be hoped that they were released before the conflagration.

The records of such extravagant funeral ceremonies teach us how much of human thought, how much of art and beauty which had helped to civilize the world, were torn from the places they were intelligently designed to decorate, heaped up by the conquerors, and as ruthlessly spent and destroyed for the boast of a day.[451]

Christian Rome adopted the traditions of Pagan decoration, and introduced them in her worship, processions, and shows. A great religious procession like that of the "Corpus Domini" in our own times, has reminded us of a Roman triumph. The baldachini and the banners; the torches; the streets, festooned with draperies; even the Pagan emblems, which have been converted into Christian symbolism—all these were the echoes of classical days; but they are fast disappearing. Two thousand years will have worn out and effaced these customs, and our children will not see them.

I have not space to linger over the many descriptions of Oriental, Grecian, and Roman work to be gathered from classical authors, but from them this lesson is to be learned that the first principle which guided those great decorators was the individuality and appropriateness of each design to the purpose for which it was intended and the place it was to fill. But even their peculiar excellences did not save them from the universal law of destruction. When the hangings were worn, or became for any reason distasteful, they were replaced by others, often by gifts or spoils from friendly allies or conquered kings. The quantity of gold laid upon these great religious or national works was the cause of their destruction as soon as they were withdrawn and superseded by something of a newer fashion. The intrinsic value in precious metals of such works is proved by Pliny's statement that Nero gave four millions of sesterces for covers of couches in a banqueting-hall.[452] The hangings or carpets taken by the Caliph Omar from Kosroes' white palace (A.D. 651) must have been some of the finest and most valuable embroideries ever known. They formed a tapestry carpet or hanging, representing all the flowers of spring, worked in coloured silks, gold, and precious stones. Kosroes entreated Omar to keep it intact for himself, but he was so virtuous that he cut it up into little bits and divided it amongst his generals. Gibbon describes this wonderful piece of work.[453] We have heard much of a marvellous carpet, given lately by the Guicowar of Baroda to the tomb of Mahomet at Medina, which, from its description, recalls the style of Kosroes' hangings; and their history gives us a notable instance of how works of art in the time of war and conquest come to be considered only for the value of their materials. War, the enemy of culture, all but effaces whole phases of art when a country is overrun and plundered. But there is almost always a residuum, which has influence whenever there is a revival, beginning with the smaller arts of luxury in more peaceful and prosperous days.[454]

To return to the classical veils and hangings. You may see them on Babylonian bas-reliefs, on Greek fictile vases, or painted in frescoes on the walls of Egyptian tombs and temples; in the houses in Pompeii and Herculaneum, and in the remains of Roman villas and tombs everywhere. From all of these we may learn something.

The obvious intention of hangings in household decoration is to cover bare walls, so as to adorn at once that which was rough or common, without delay or trouble. They were also used as curtains to shut out the cold or the heat, and to give privacy to rooms without doors or windows. Hangings on bare walls have always been meant to hang straight down, undisturbed by folds, whereas curtains and portieres would probably have to be looped up or continually drawn aside. The designs to be worked upon them should necessarily be regulated by their shape and use.

Semper considers that a square is an expressionless form, and that it should be avoided.[455] If you wish to give dignity to a room, its hanging decorations should be divided into panels of greater height than breadth, so as to elevate the spaces they cover. Horizontal stripes bring down the ceiling, and even in furniture, look ill except as borders. Nothing can be more ugly or inartistic than the curtains one finds in old illuminations, covered with bands of the same pattern throughout the surface, but even this is less unpleasant on the walls than lines crossing each other at right angles. The Romans looked on chequers as barbarous national characteristics, and left them to the Gauls and Britons. Chequers should be avoided unless they express a meaning, as in Scotch tartans. Semper observes that the striped stuffs, especially those of Oriental fabrics, were never intended to be spread out flat, but to be draped in folds and loops, and the lines only seen broken up. He continues:—"One rule, which cannot be neglected with impunity, is this: that whether the hanging or screen is supposed to stand or to hang, there must be an above and a below to every pattern, and it must, moreover, be upright." All foliage designs, and those containing animals, must start from below, and grow upwards. Another of his laws is that the heaviest colours should be placed below, and the palest and brightest above. This may be disputed. It must be first determined where contrast is needed. If the darkest part of the pattern is below, it may be necessary to give it the lightest background, on the principle of balancing quantities in colour. The dado, or lowest border, will often give the necessary weight to the design. Semper goes on to say, "A surface may be made to appear to stand, or to hang down, according to its decoration. For instance, a triangle will hang or stand, according as its apex points downwards or upwards. But in draped curtains all symmetry of design is lost, and the rich forms and fulness of folds rather tend to destroy the effect of elaborate patterns, and to take their place."

Another important difference between standing and hanging tapestries is their finish or edge, the upper one being an upright continuous border, and the lower one a fringe. In both cases it is a continuation of the main threads of the material, and these belong exclusively to the hanging tapestries and curtains. The fringe is so essential a part of hanging decoration, that we must pause and give it our best consideration. In Babylonian art it is most important. The extreme solidity of the knotted fringes in their dress and hangings show either the thickness of the woven substance, or that the fringes were made by enriching the warp and adding to it. They are almost always, on the Assyrian sculptures, simply knotted fringes; but the little portable Chaldean temple on the bronze gates from Balawat (near Nimroud), in the British Museum, shows fringes of bells or fruit like those of the Jewish tabernacle in the wilderness (fig. 2). On Egyptian linen we sometimes see, woven or worked, a reticulated pattern which imitates a fringe.

The carpets of the Egyptians, Babylonians, and Persians were evidently used sometimes as hangings, though many of their designs would not have served both purposes equally well. That the Babylonian weavers, however, understood that a carpet lying on the ground should be covered with an even pattern, and be finished with a border all round, is evident from the exquisitely chiselled designs, imitating carpets, on two portions of pavements in the British Museum (pl. 27); and we may compare these with the different treatment of designs for the veils of the temples, both in Babylon and Egypt, on which were represented the signs of the zodiac and all the heavenly bodies, and other symbolical and unconventional forms. The Atrium of the Greek and Pompeian houses, which was modelled on the same idea, was separated from the Court by curtains, hung on rods or nails. On festive occasions these may have been garlanded with natural flowers. If so, we may be sure that the little wreaths worked on them, as we learn from frescoes, would combine with the gala day's decorations, and would be designed with that view. The Greek artist would never have approved of natural flowers or trees, embroidered as if growing out of a dado, simulating a garden worked in wool. This would have been considered a bad attempt at pictorial art.

M. Louis de Ronchaud, in his "Tapisseries des Anciens," speaks of the hangings which he supposes to have decked the recess that contained the chryselephantine statue of Athene Parthenos in her temple at Athens. He says these votive hangings dressed the pillars that surrounded the Hecatompedon, and formed a tent over the head of the goddess. M. de Ronchaud believes that among the subjects of the Delphic embroideries, described by Euripides in the tragedy of Ion, may be recognized some derived from the designs on saffron-coloured hangings, spoken of by the poet as "the wings of the peplos."[456]

The downfall of decorative art, domestic as well as national, kept pace with the downfall of the Roman Empire. During the Dark Ages, of such art there seems to have been very little; and of that the best was Celtic or Anglo-Saxon. But the darkness shrouds from our view the artistic life of the world, and the dawn was very long in breaking. We must therefore return to the subject of hangings, after a gap of nearly a thousand years, when the first stirrings of the European revival came, in the twelfth century.[457] Symonds says: "The arts and the inventions, the knowledge and the books, which suddenly became vital at the time of the Renaissance, had long lain neglected on the shores of that Dead Sea which we call 'The Middle Ages.'"[458]

There can be no doubt that, during the Dark Ages, hangings woven and embroidered continued to be the custom throughout Europe. Our own Anglo-Saxon records prove that such furnishings were employed to mitigate the cold bareness of our northern homes from the earliest times. Sir G. Dasent informs me that in Icelandic Sagas, as early as the eleventh century, there are frequent notices of hangings both in churches and in the halls of houses; such, for instance, as the Saga of Charlemagne, i.e. scenes out of Charlemagne's life, worked on hangings 20 ells long. In Scaldic poetry, a periphrasis for a "lady" is "the ground of hangings," or "the bridge of hangings," all pointing to embroidery.

From illuminated MSS. engraved in Strutt's "Antiquities of the English," and contemporary European work of the tenth to the thirteenth centuries, we find that the favourite style of embroidery, when not representing historical or sacred subjects, was a parseme pattern. Armorial bearings were generally reserved for cushions, chair-backs, and the baldachinos of altars, beds, and thrones.[459] Richer and more flowing designs were later introduced.

In the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, splendid tapestries of Arras, and hangings even of cloth of gold, were common as palatial decorations. Sometimes we have a glimpse of less ambitious hangings; for instance, in the London house of Sir Andrew Larkynge, Knight, in the fifteenth century, the hall was hung with sage-green panels, bordered with gold "darned work," and the "parler" with sage-green, bordered with crimson.

French embroidered hangings were very fine in the sixteenth century. Jeanne d'Albret, the mother of Henri IV., was a great patroness of such works. Miss Freer tells us that—

"When Jeanne and Antoine took possession of the Castle of Pau, they found their new abode rich in works of art and splendid decorations. The refined taste of Marguerite d'Angouleme was visible everywhere. Jeanne's presence-chamber was adorned with hangings of crimson satin, embroidered by the hand of Marguerite herself. The embroidery represented a passage from the history of the Queen's own life."

"During the hours which the Queen allowed herself for relaxation, she worked tapestry, and discoursed with some one of the learned men whom she protected."

"The Queen daily attended the afternoon sermon, preached by her chaplains in rotation. Often, however, weary with the excess of her mental labours, and lulled by the drowsy intonation of some of these ministers, the Queen slept during part of the discourse. Jeanne always felt severe reproach of conscience when she had thus involuntarily yielded to fatigue; and finding the inclination grow upon her, she demanded permission from the Synod to work tapestry during the sermon. This request was granted; and from thenceforth, Queen Jeanne, bending decorously over her tapestry-frame, and busy with her needle, gave due attention to the rambling addresses of her preachers."

"Comme elle (Jeanne d'Albret) estoit grandement adonnee aux devises, elle fit de sa main de belles et grandes tapisseries, entre lesquelles il y a une tente de douze ou quinze pieces excellente qui s'appelle les Prisons brisees, par lesquelles elle donnoit a connoistre qu'elle avoit brise les liens et secoue le joug de la captivite du Pape. Au milieu de chaque piece, il y a une histoire du Vieu Testament qui resent la liberte, comme la delivrance de Suzanne, la sortie du peuple de la captivite d'Egypte, l'elargissement de Joseph. Et a tous les coins il y a des chaisnes rompues, des menottes brisees, des strapades et des gibbets en pieces, et par-dessus en grosses lettres ce sont ces paroles de la deuxieme aux Corinthiens, ch. iii.: Ubi spiritus, ibi libertas."[460]

Cluny boasts a most curious suite of hangings from the Chateau de Boussac, of the early part of the fifteenth century, which are charming, quaint, and gay, and historically and archaeologically interesting. They tell the story of the "Dame au Lion."

Modern French tapestries, from the manufactories of the Savonnerie, the Gobelins, and elsewhere, are decorative to the highest degree. Nothing can be more festive than these works of the time of Louis XIII., XIV., and XV., framed in white and gold, carved wood, or stucco, reflected in mirrors, and lighted by crystal or glass chandeliers and girandoles. Such hangings have nothing in common with those of early times; they are not temporary coverings of bare spaces, but panels in decorated walls, where they form an integral part of the architectural composition and design. They do not merely serve to give warmth, comfort, and colour to desolate halls, as did those ancient tapestries belonging to the furniture of the great man who sent them on before him from palace to palace, carrying them away with his baggage lest some one else should do so in his absence. These were probably merely attached by loops and nails, as one sees in country villas or castles in Italy to this day.

We find that the Italians in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries often hung their walls with upright strips of work, in the guise of pilasters. The walls were thus divided into panelled spaces, which separated pictures, statues, and cabinets, of which the style did not agree in juxtaposition. These pilasters were generally of "opus consutum," or "applique" in its different forms. Above, next to the cornice, and below, next to the dado, or even touching the floor, they were connected by borders of similar work. The spaces between were mostly filled in with rich brocades or velvets of one colour, so as to make the best backgrounds for the artistic treasures grouped against them. Sometimes fine tapestries filled the intervening spaces, and sometimes splendid embroideries. There is a beautiful example of this sort of decoration at Holland House, where the dining-room is adorned with pilasters worked on velvet in gold and coloured silks, with tapestries between them. This is Florentine work, of the sixteenth or beginning of the seventeenth century.

Hangings entirely in needlework, to cover large spaces, are rare, but a few are to be found all over Europe in museums, palaces, and private houses, which are interesting as objects of art. The genealogical tree of the Counts of Kyburg, designed in the sixteenth century, and carried to France as plunder, and now restored to its home near Zurich, is a remarkable instance of a piece of needlework that deserved the value placed on it. Many splendid pieces of embroidered tapestries are at the Cluny Museum. The beatitudes of St. Catherine, from the castle at Tarrascon, and the hangings worked in applique and flat stitches with portraits of Henri IV., Jeanne d'Albret, &c., are monuments of industry, and design; and are very beautiful.

There, is a large room at Castle Ashby hung with tapestry in cross stitches, worked by the ladies of the family, and finished 150 years ago. The industry shown here is indubitable, but the designs are barbarously bad and funny. In the Palazzo Giustini at Florence there is a suite of hangings worked also in cross stitches of the same period, of which the design is very clever and graceful, and the effect beautiful and artistic. An irregular bank of brown earth is crowded with grasses and small flowers about a foot above the dado, and from this grow rose-bushes, covered with blossoms of different shades, held back to a treillage of delicate "cane colours." The leafage is brown, against a sky that is not blue, but which rather reminds one of blue than of grey. It is conventionally treated, and the effect is singularly rich and harmonious. Had it been a little more naturalistic, it would have looked too much like a painted picture; but as it is, the decoration is charming, and so universally admired that we cannot but wonder it has never been imitated. In the Borghese Palace at Rome there is a ball-room hung with white satin embroidered with wreaths of flowers, and a similar one in the Caetani Palace, on crimson satin. These are about 150 years old, and are so far above being mere objects of fashion, that they must be placed by their beauty of design and execution amongst objects of art, and so will probably survive more centuries of change, holding their own, and increasing in value and esteem.

For hangings in church decoration, the reader is referred to the chapters on ecclesiastical art and on tapestry.

Having discussed the origin and reason for hangings, and having tried to draw from what has been accepted as beautiful and perfect in taste, some guidance in hanging our modern rooms, supposing always that the spaces are fitted for really fine decorations, I yet would add a few more words on this subject. There are in general some previous conditions which will help us to choose the style and design of such furnishings. In the first place, we should study what is appropriate to the persons who will first inhabit the rooms. The bride's apartment may be white and gold, garlanded with roses, and gay with groups of Cupids; but such prettinesses would not be suitable to the home of a mourning Queen. Tender or subdued colouring equally sets off groups of young and lovely faces, and the bent form robed in black. Embroideries are always agreeable on such backgrounds, and it is as a vehicle for needlework that I now allude to the design of the artist in hangings. We are somewhat restricted, or we ought to be, when there are treasures of art already in the house, by the desire to exhibit them to the best advantage. The hangings should be of a colour which suits all pictures, and if the walls are either embroidered or tapestried with woven designs, they should be very much subdued, both in form and colour, so as not to prevent the eye from perceiving at once the precious objects hung against them. A fine brocade or velvet of one colour suits pictures best; but if our object is to show off our cabinets, which are generally black, and our statues, which are mostly white, then richly embroidered backgrounds in brilliant colours are the best, compensating the eye in variety and splendour.

FOOTNOTES:

[438] The "women who wove the hangings for the grove" were probably priestesses of the worship of Astarte (2 Kings xxiii. 7).

[439] He says that within the sacred shrine was revealed their god—a beast rolling on a purple couch—veiled with gold embroidered hangings; and he describes the magnificent temples, gleaming with gold, silver, and electrum. Quoted from Clemens Alexandrinus, in Renouf's "Hibbert Lectures," p. 2.

[440] "Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail."—Ezekiel xxvii. 7. Egyptian sails were woven and painted; sometimes they were blazoned with embroidered patterns. The Phoenix was set there to indicate the traveller's return. See Wilkinson's "Ancient Egyptians," vol. iii., ed. 1837, p. 211.

[441] See Semper, "Der Stil," vol. i. p. 273.

[442] The figure-painting of the nations we have spoken of, successful so far as it concerns its special purpose of exhibiting a clear and comprehensive chronicle of events, is at the same time no more, so far as it concerns its artistic effect, than a piece of tapestry or embroidery done into stone, and can only be estimated ... as a piece of coloured wall decoration. Woltmann and Woermann, "History of Painting," Eng. Trans., pp. 23-30. See also Perrot and Chipiez, "Histoire de l'Art dans l'Antiquite," for tile decorations at Nimroud; vol. ii. p. 704.

[443] Compare this record with Solomon's veil for the Temple, of blue, and purple, and crimson, and fine linen (2 Chron. iii. 14), and the hangings designed by Bezaleel, of scarlet, blue, purple, and embroidered with gold (Exod. xxxix. 2, 3, 5; see also Josephus, "Wars of the Jews," Whiston's trans., p. 895).

[444] As cited from Abulfeda by Gibbon, chap. lii. ix. p. 37, ed. 1797. When one is moved to pity, thinking of the enforced labour of thousands of captive women, fallen, perhaps, from high estate, and only valued for the toil of their hands, it comforts one to believe that they would hardly have produced beautiful works without enjoying some happiness in the creation of that beauty.

[445] Yule's "Marco Polo," vol. i. p. 394, note 7.

[446] See Semper, "Der Stil," i. pp. 310, 311; Chares, ap. Athen. xii. 54, p. 538.

[447] Semper's "Der Stil," i. p. 311; Athen. v. 25, p. 196.

[448] Phylarchus, ap. Athen. xii. 55, describes a Persian tent in which were golden palm-trees, and vines fruited with precious stones, under which the Persian kings held their state. On an Assyrian sculpture at the British Museum is seen Assurbanipal on a couch, the queen opposite to him, under an arbour of jewelled vines; unless it represents a rural entertainment, which is unlikely.

[449] The art of the "tapezziere," "tapissier," "tapestry-hanger," is not a recognized one with us, though it is in Italy and France, where the hangings for special occasions in churches and houses are stored away, treasured for hundreds of years, cleaned and mended, and hung and placed to the best advantage by men educated for the purpose. In poor churches which possess no fine materials for decoration, one has often wondered at and admired the picturesque effects extracted from yards of muslin, gold tinsel, and box wreaths, artistically combined. Our house carpenter is the only representative we have of the vestiarius, and he is but a feeble descendant from the ancestors of his craft, who were expected to study and evolve the adornments of the building for its completion, the materials of decoration for special occasions, and lastly, the mechanical means for hanging and stretching the draperies. These were sometimes movable frames or posts—"scabella" (whence "escabeau," echafaudage, scaffolding).

[450] Semper, "Der Stil," i. pp. 314, 315.

[451] Never again will such great works be executed with the needle. In civilized countries, sovereign splendours are at a discount. The East occasionally produces something fine, because there they still have harems and slaves; but even these ancient institutions are losing their stability and in the interest of humanity, if not in that of needlework, we may soon hope there will be neither the one nor the other. We must allow, however, that the purple and gold embroideries now being executed for the King of Bavaria in his school at Munich are royally splendid, and, by their execution, worthy of past days.

[452] Pliny, viii. 44, 196.

[453] Gibbon's "Roman History," ix. c. 51, p. 370, ed. 1797; also see Crichton's "History of Arabia," i. p. 383.

[454] The utter dispersal of accumulated family and household treasures has had a sad illustration in the loads of Turkish and Slav embroideries which have flooded the markets of Europe since the Russo-Turkish war. Work, treasured for generations, sold for a piece of bread, robbed from the deserted home or the bazaar, stolen from the dying or the dead. These are so suggestive of the horrors of war, and touch us so nearly in connection with the rights and wrongs of the Eastern question, that they cause us more pain than pleasure when we study these beautiful specimens of well-blended colours and designs, that show their Aryan (Persian or Indian) origin. Lady Layard's residence in Constantinople was, perhaps, the "happy accident" which will have preserved the secrets and practice of this work for future generations, by her active and generous institution of a working organization for the poor exiled and starving women, and for the sale of their work in England.