Needlework As Art Part 31

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 a.s.sumes 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 Nomentic.u.m 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 s.h.i.ttles, 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 G.o.dstone, 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]

[Ill.u.s.tration: SUMMER English Tapestry, Temp. Henry VIII. at Hatfield]

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 inst.i.tution 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 2000 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: 2000 to be employed in buying 1000 per ann. of pensions or other gifts made of the king, and not yet payable, for ease of His Majesty's charge of 1000 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 6000. Also Sir F. Crane is allowed 1000 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 16,400 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 2500 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 270. 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 Vand.y.k.e 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 n.o.ble 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 s.p.a.ces. However, the two styles of hangings never can enter into compet.i.tion, 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 a.s.sist 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 st.i.tch 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 coa.r.s.er and simpler tapestries of our ancestors are really more beautiful and effective in large s.p.a.ces--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 subst.i.tute 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 st.i.tches 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.