Needlework As Art Part 51

The woof the shuttle in doth bring, The nimble fingers guide its way; And still from either work-frame ring The blows inflicted by the slay.

Each to her bosom binds her vest: The arms of each, quick moving, feel No sense of toil, no need of rest, For weariness is quench'd by zeal.

And all the gorgeous tints of Tyre In varying shades are mingled there; And every hue the sun's bright fire Can kindle in the showery air,--

When the wide rainbow spans the sky; The bow whose colours, in the end So different, yet so like when nigh, In harmony's own concord blend,--

And precious threads of glittering gold Enrich the growing web. But say!

What ancient tale by each was told?

What legend of an earlier day?

Pallas her well-known triumph drew; The G.o.ds a.s.sembled in their force, And Neptune with his trident, too, Exulting in the fiery horse,--

Which from the rock he made to bound: But she herself, more deeply wise, A greater blessing from the ground The olive brought, and gain'd the prize.

The border of this main design With Rhodope's sad tale was set; And all who dared the G.o.ds divine To rival--and the fate they met.

Meanwhile Arachne wove the wool: The web with many a picture shone.

She drew Europa with her bull, And Leda with her snow-white swan.

Deois with her snake display'd, And Danae with her shower of gold; And many a tale besides the maid, Had fate permitted, would have told.

But the dread G.o.ddess now no more To check her rising envy strove; The half-completed task she tore, And all the pictured crimes of Jove.

The shuttle thrice the air did rend, Thrice did the heaven-directed blow Full on Arachne's head descend, And made her purple blood to flow.

Arachne's soul was proud and high: She drew a cruel cord around Her tender neck--and, driven to die, Was from a beam suspended found.

Her death the unpitying G.o.ddess stay'd; "Henceforth, vain fool! for such a crime For ever shall thou hang," she said; "A warning to the end of time."

In scorn she spoke, and over all Her rival's face and form she smear'd A deadly drug. The head grew small, And each fair feature disappear'd.

And off the beauteous tresses fell; The tender waist that was so slim, In loathly sort was seen to swell, Shrivell'd and shrank each comely limb.

The spider's fingers still remain To spin for ever.--We may vie With fellow mortals, but 'tis vain To struggle with the G.o.ds on high.

_January, 1885._ COWPER.

APPENDIX IV., TO PAGE 318.

_Extract from "History of Christian Art." By Lord Lindsay. Vol. i. pp.

136-139._

"But perhaps the n.o.blest testimony to the revival under the Comneni is afforded by the designs on the Dalmatic or sacerdotal robe, commonly styled 'Di Papa San Leone,' preserved in the sacristy of St.

Peter's--said to have been embroidered at Constantinople for the coronation of Charlemagne as Emperor of the West, but fixed by German criticism as a production of the twelfth, or the early part of the thirteenth century. The Emperors wore it ever after, when serving as deacons at the Pope's altar during their coronation-ma.s.s. You will think little of it at first sight, and lay it aside as a piece of darned and faded tapestry, yet I would stake on it, alone, the reputation of Byzantine art. And you must recollect, too, that embroidery is but a poor subst.i.tute for the informing hand and the lightning stroke of genius.

It is a large robe of stiff brocade, falling in broad and unbroken folds in front and behind,--broad and deep enough for the Goliath-like stature and the Herculean chest of Charlemagne himself. On the breast, the Saviour is represented in glory, on the back the Transfiguration, and on the two shoulders Christ administering the Eucharist to the Apostles.

The composition on the breast is an amplification of No. V. (as above enumerated) of the Personal traditional compositions.--In the centre of a golden circle of glory, 'Jesus Christ, the Resurrection and the Life,' robed in white, with the youthful and beardless face, his eyes directly looking into yours, sits upon the rainbow, his feet resting on the winged wheels[617] of Ezekiel, his left hand holding an open book, inscribed with the invitation, 'Come, ye blessed of My Father,'--his right raised in benediction. At the four corners of the circular glory, resting on them, half within it, half without, float the emblems of the four Evangelists; the Virgin and the Baptist stand to the right and left of our Saviour, the Baptist without, the Virgin entirely within the glory, the only figure that is so placed; she is sweet in feature and graceful in att.i.tude, in her long white robe.

Above Our Saviour's head, and from the top of the golden circle, rises the Cross, with the crown of thorns suspended upon it, the spear resting on one side, the reed with the sponge on the other, and the sun and moon looking down upon it from the sky.

The heavenly host and the company of the blessed form a circle of adoration around this central glory; angels occupying the upper part, emperors, patriarchs, monks and nuns the lower; at the extremity, on the left side, appears Mary Magdalen, in her penitence--a thin emaciated figure, imperfectly clothed, and with dishevelled hair.

In the corners, below this grand composition, appear, to the right, St. John the Baptist, holding the cross, and pointing upwards to Our Saviour; to the left, Abraham seated, a child on his lap, and resting his hand on another by his side.

The background and scene of the whole composition is of blue, to represent heaven,--studded with stars, shaped like the Greek cross.

The Transfiguration, which corresponds to this subject on the back of the robe, is the traditional composition, only varied by the unusual shape of the vesica piscis which encloses Our Saviour. The two compositions representing the Inst.i.tution of the Eucharist, on the shoulders, are better executed and more original. In each of them, Our Saviour, a stiff but majestic figure, stands behind the altar, on which are deposited a chalice and a paten or basket containing crossed wafers. He gives, in the one case, the cup to St. Paul, in the other the bread to St. Peter,--they do not kneel, but bend reverently to receive it; five other disciples await their turn in each instance,--all are standing.

I do not apprehend your being disappointed with the 'Dalmatica di San Leone,' or your dissenting from my conclusion, that a master, a Michael Angelo I might almost say, then flourished at Byzantium.

It was in this Dalmatic--then _semee_ all over with pearls and glittering in freshness--that Cola di Rienzi robed himself over his armour in the sacristy of St. Peter's, and thence ascended to the Palace of the Popes, after the manner of the Caesars, with sounding trumpets and his hors.e.m.e.n following him--his truncheon in his hand and his crown on his head--'terribile e fantastico,' as his biographer describes him--to wait upon the legate.[618]"

FOOTNOTES:

[617] In the 'Manual of Dionysius,' recently published by M. Didron (p. 71, &c.), these winged wheels are interpreted as signifying the order of angels commonly distinguished as Thrones. Their interpretation as the Covenants of the Law and Gospel, sanctioned by St.

Gregory the Great in his Homilies, is certainly more sublime and instructive.

[618] Cited from the original life, printed in Muratori's 'Antiquit. Ital. Medii aevi,' tom. viii., by M. Sulpice Boisseree, in his essay, 'Ueber die Kaiser-Dalmatica,' &c.

APPENDIX V., TO PAGE 320.

The Hon. and Rev. Ignatius Clifford has permitted me to make extracts from his "Memoranda of some remarkable Specimens of Ancient Church Embroidery." First on his list is the Cope now in the possession of Colonel Butler Bowden, of Pleasington, near Blackburn, Lancashire. I give his account of the mutilated condition, from which he has made his beautifully drawn restoration. "Formerly," he says, "portions of this cope, some made up into chasuble, stole, maniple, and some sc.r.a.ps detached, were at Mount St. Mary's College, Spink Hill, near Chesterfield, Derbyshire."

The well-known architect, the late Augustus Welby Pugin, having seen them (or at least the chasuble), wrote on the 20th April, 1849, to the Rector of the College, "I found it to be of English work of the time of Edward I., and have no hesitation in p.r.o.nouncing it to be the most interesting and beautiful specimen of church embroidery I have ever seen."

Other portions of the cope had been made up into an altar-frontal, and were in the possession of Henry Bowden, Esq., of Southgate House, Derbyshire, some four or five miles from the college.

The ground is crimson velvet. The designs are wrought in gold, silver, silk, and seed pearls. The silks are worked in chain, or rather in split st.i.tch. It contains between seventy and eighty figures.

Only two small fragments remain of the quasi-hood.

In the orphrey are kings, queens, archbishops, and bishops. In the body of the cope are the Annunciation--Adoration of the Magi--Our Lady enthroned at the right of her Divine Son. _Lowest row_ of single figures--St. Simon, St. Jude, St. James, St. Thomas, St. Andrew, St.

Peter, St. Paul, St. Barnabas, St. Matthew, St. Philip, St. James, St.

Bartholomew. _Middle row_--St. Edward the Confessor--a Bishop--St.

Margaret, St. John the Evangelist, St. John the Baptist, St.

Catherine, an Archbishop, St. Edmund king and martyr. _Top row_--St.

Lawrence, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Martha (or St. Helen?), St. Stephen.

In the intervals, angels seated on faldstool thrones, and bearing stars; also two popinjays.

Mr. Clifford describes the Steeple Aston Cope. The ground is of a richly ribbed faded silk. The design worked in gold and silks is enclosed in quatrefoils of oak and ivy. The Syon Cope he refers to Rock's "Textile Fabrics." See Appendix.

The Dalmatic from Anagni, exhibited at Rome in 1870, he thinks is probably English.

The Pluvial in the Basilica of St. John Lateran at Rome, he speaks of as "having much the appearance of the celebrated Opus Anglicanum."