The Art of Needle-work, from the Earliest Ages Part 28

"Dive into the bottom of the deep, Where fathom-line could never touch the ground"

for her.

But she is a lady before whom strength and pride fall nerveless and abased; her gracious smiles are to be wooed, not commanded; her bright presence may be won, not forced;

"For spotless, and holy, and gentle, and bright, She glides o'er the earth like an angel of light."

Possessing all the gentleness of her mother--_Taste_, she shrinks from everything rude or abrupt; and when, as has frequently been the case, persons have attempted to lay violent hands upon her, she has invariably eluded their vigilance, by leaving in her place, tricked out in her superabundant ornaments to blind them, her half-brother--_Whim_, who sprang from the same father--_Wit_, but by another mother--_Humour_. She herself, wanderer as she is, is not without her favourite haunts, in which she lingers as if even loath to quit them at all.

Finally, wherever yet the _accomplished_ needlewoman has been found, in the Jewish tabernacle of old--in the Grecian dome where the "Tale of Troy divine" glowed on the canva.s.s--or in the bower of the high-born beauty of the "bright days of the sword and the lance"--in the cell of the pale recluse--or in the turretted prison of the royal captive--there has FANCY been her devoted friend, her inseparable companion.

FOOTNOTE:

[124] She was then a mere child, not more, if I remember rightly, than twelve years old.

CHAPTER XXI.

"LES ANCIENNES TAp.i.s.sERIES;" TAPESTRY OF ST. MARY'S HALL, COVENTRY; TAPESTRY OF HAMPTON COURT.

"There is a sanct.i.ty in the past."

Bulwer.

All monuments of antiquity are so speedily pa.s.sing away, all traces of those bygone generations on which the mind loves to linger, and which in their dim and indistinct memories exercise a spell, a holy often, and a purifying spell on the imagination are so fleeting, and when _irrevocably_ gone will be so lamented--that all testimonies which throw certain light on the habits and manners of the past, how slight soever the testimonies they afford, how trivial soever the characteristics they display, are of the highest possible value to an enlightened people, who apply the experience of the past to its legitimate and n.o.blest use, the guidance and improvement of the present.

In this point of view the work which forms the subject of this chapter[125] a.s.sumes a value which its intrinsic worth--beautiful as is its execution--would not impart to it; and it is thus rendered not less valuable as an historical record, than it is attractive as a work of taste.

"La chez eux, (we quote from the preface to the work itself,) c'est un siege ou un tournoi; ici un festin, plus loin une cha.s.se; et toujours, cha.s.se, festin, tournoi, siege, tout cela est _pourtraict au vif_, comme aurait dit Montaigne, tout cela nous retrace au naturel la vie de nos peres, nous montre leurs chateaux, leurs eglises, leurs costumes, leurs armes et meme, grace aux legendes explicatives, leur langage a diverses epoques. Il y a mieux. Si nous nous en rapportons a l'inventaire de Charles V., execute en 1379, toute la litterature francaise des siecles feconds qui precederent celui de ce sage monarque, aurait ete par ces ordres traduite en laine."

This book consists of representations of all the existing ancient tapestries which activity and research can draw from the hiding-places of ages, copied in the finest outline engraving, with letter-press descriptions of each plate. They are published in numbers, and in a style worthy of the object. We do not despair of seeing this spirited example followed in our own country, where many a beautiful specimen of ancient tapestry, still capable of renovation by care--is mouldering unthought of in the lumber-rooms of our ancient mansions.

We have seen twenty-one numbers of this work, with which we shall deal freely: excepting, however, the eight parts which are entirely occupied by the Bayeux Tapestry. Our own chapters on the subject were written before we were fortunate enough to obtain a sight of these, which include the whole of the correspondence on the tapestry to which we in our sketch alluded.

LA TAp.i.s.sERIE DE NANCY.--"aurait une ill.u.s.tre origine, et remonterait a une a.s.sez haute antiquite. Prise dans la tente de Charles le Temeraire, lors de la mort de ce prince, en 1477, devant la capitale de la Lorraine, qu'il a.s.siegeait, elle serait devenue un meuble de la couronne, et aurait servi au palais des ducs de ce pays, depuis Rene 2 jusqu'a Charles IV.----C'est une de ces anciennes tap.i.s.series flamandes dont le tissu, de laine tres fine, est eclaire par l'or et la soie. La soie et la laine subsistent encore, mais l'or ne s'apercoit plus que dans quelques endroits et a la faveur d'un beau soleil. Nous ferons remarquer que le costume des divers personnages que figurent dans notre monument est tout a fait caracteristique. Ce sont bien la les vetements et les ornements en usage vers la moitie du quinzieme siecle, et la disposition artistique, le choix du sujet, ainsi que l'execution elle-meme portent bien l'empreinte du style des oeuvres de 1450 environ.----La maison de Bourgogne etait fort riche en joyaux, en vaisselle d'or ou d'argent et en _tapis_."

The tapestry presents an allegorical history, of which the object is to depict the inconveniences consequent on what is called "good cheer." Later on this formed the subject of "a morality." Originally this tapestry was only one vast page, the requisite divisions being wrought in the form of ornamented columns. It was afterwards cut in pieces, and unfortunately the natural divisions of the subject were not attended to in the severment. More unhappily still the pieces have since been rejoined in a wrong order; and after every possible endeavour to read them aright, the publishers are indebted to the "Morality" before referred to, which was taken from it, and was ent.i.tled "La Nef de Sante, avec le gouvernail du corps humain, et la cond.a.m.nacion des bancquetz, a la louenge de Diepte et Sobriete, et la Traictie des Pa.s.sions de l'ame."

Banquet, Bonnecompagnie, Souper, Gourmandise, Friandise, Pa.s.setemps, Je pleige d'autant, Je boy a vous, and other rare personifications, not forgetting that indispensable guest _then_ in all courtly pastime, Le fol, "go it" to their hearts' content, until they are interrupted _vi et armis_ by a ghastly phalanx in powerful array of Apoplexie, Ydropsie, Epilencie, Pleurisie, Esquinancie, Paralasie, Gravelle, Colicque, &c.

TAp.i.s.sERIE DE DIJON.--"On conviendra qu'il serait difficile de trouver un monument de ce genre plus fidele sur le rapport historique, plus interessant pour les arts, et plus digne d'etre reproduit par la gravure. Je ferai en outre remarquer combien cet immense tableau de laine, qui est unique, renferme de details precieux a la fois pour la panoplie, pour les costumes, et l'architecture du commencement du 16 siecle, ainsi que pour l'histoire monumentale de Dijon."

This tapestry, judging by the engravings in the work we quote, must be very beautiful. The groups are spirited and well disposed; and the countenances have so much _nature_ and expression in them, as to lead us readily to credit the opinion of the writer that they were portraits. The buildings are well outlined; and in the third piece an excellent effect is produced by exposing--by means of an open window, or some simple contrivance of the sort--part of the interior of the church of Notre Dame, and so displaying the brave leader of the French army, La Tremouille, as he offers thanks before the shrine of the Virgin.

The tapestry was worked immediately after the siege of Dijon, (1513) and represents in three scenes the most important circ.u.mstances relating to it; the costumes, the arms, and the architecture of the time being displayed with fidelity and exact.i.tude. The first represents the invading army before the walls; the second a solemn procession in honour of Notre-Dame-de-Bonne-Espoir. In the midst is elevated the image of the Virgin, which is surrounded by the clergy in their festal vestments, by the religious communities, by the n.o.bility, the bourgeois, and the military, all bearing torches.

To this solemn procession was attributed the truce which led to a more lasting peace, though there are some heterodox dissentients who attribute this substantial advantage to the wisdom and policy of the able commander La Tremouille, who shared with Bayard the honourable distinction of being "sans peur et sans reproche."

TAp.i.s.sERIES DE BAYARD.--A chateau which belonged to this noted hero was despoiled at the Revolution, and it was doubtless only owing to an idea of its worthlessness that some of the ancient tapestry was left there. These fragments, in a deplorable state, were purchased in 1807, and there are yet sufficient of them to bear testimony to their former magnificence, and to decide the date of their creation at the close of the fourteenth or beginning of the fifteenth century. The subjects are taken from Homer's "Iliad," and "il est probable (says M. Jubinal) que ce poeme se trouvait originairement reproduit en laine presque tout entier, malgre sa longueur, car ce n'etait pas le travail qui effrayait nos aeux."

Valenciennes was celebrated for the peculiar fineness and gloss of its tapestry. By the indefatigable industry of certain antiquarians, some pieces in good preservation representing a tournament, have lately been taken from a garret, dismantled of their triple panoply of dust, cleaned and hung up; after being traced from their original abode in the state apartments of a prince through various gradations, to the damp walls of a registry office, where, from their apparent fragility alone, they escaped being cut into floor mats.

Those of the CHATEAU D'HAROUE, and of the COLLECTION DUSOMMERARD, are also named here; but there is little to say about them, as the subjects are more imaginary than historical. They are of the sixteenth century, representing scenes of the chase, and are enlivened with birds in every position, some of them being, in proportion to other figures, certainly _larger_ than life, and "twice as natural."

TAp.i.s.sERIES DE LA CHAISE DIEU.--"L'Abbaye de la Chaise Dieu fut fondee en 1046 par Robert qu'Alexandre 2de canonisa plus tard en 1070; et dont l'origine se rattachait a la famille des comtes de Poitou.

"Robert fut destine de bonne heure aux fonctions du sacerdoce." He went on pilgrimage to the tombs of some of the Apostles, and it was on his return thence that he was first struck with the idea of founding a coen.o.bitical establishment.

"Reuni a un soldat nomme Etienne, a un solitaire nomme Delmas, et a un chanoine nomme Arbert, il se retira dans la solitude, et s'emparant du desert au profit de la religion, il planta la croix du Sauveur dans les lieux jusqu'a-la couverts de forets et de bruyeres incultes, et ra.s.sembla quelques disciples pour vivre aupres de lui sous la regle qu'un ange lui avait, disait il, apportee du ciel.

"Bientot la reputation des cen.o.bites s'etendit; Robert fut reconnu comme leur chef. De toutes parts on accourut les visiter. Des donations leur furent faites, et sur les ruines d'une ancienne eglise une nouvelle basilique s'eleva.

"Telle est a peu pres l'histoire primitive de l'abbaye de la Chaise-Dieu."

The Chaise-Dieu tapestries are fourteen in number, three of them are ten feet square, and the others are six feet high by eighteen long, excepting one which measures nearly twenty-six feet. Twelve are hung on the carved wood-work of the choir of the great church, and thus cover an immense s.p.a.ce. Further off is the ancient choir of the monks, of which the wood-work of sculptured oak is surprisingly rich. Not even the cathedral of Rheims, of which the wood-work has long been regarded as the most beautiful in the kingdom, contains so great a number. Unhappily in times of intestine commotion this chef d'oeuvre has been horribly mutilated by the axes of modern iconoclasts, more ferocious than the barbarians of old. The two other tapestries are placed in the Church of the Penitents, an ancient refectory of the monks which now forms a dependent chapel to the great temple.

These magnificent hangings are woven of wool and silk, and one yet perceives almost throughout, golden and silver threads which time has spared. When the artist prepared to copy them for the work we are quoting, no one dreamt of the richness buried beneath the acc.u.mulated dust and dirt of centuries. They were carefully cleaned, and then, says the artist, "Je suis ebloui de cette magnificence que nous ne soupconnions plus. C'est admirable. Les Gobelins ne produisent pas aujourd'hui de tissus plus riches et plus eclatans. Imaginez-vous que les robes des femmes, les ornemens, les colonnettes sont emailles, ruisselants de milliers de pierres fines et de perles," &c.

It would be tedious to attempt to describe individually the subjects of these tapestries. They interweave the histories of the Old and New Testaments; the centre of the work generally representing some pa.s.sage in the life of our Saviour, whilst on each side is some correspondent typical incident from the Old Testament. Above are rhymed quatrains, either legendary or scriptural; and below and around are sentences drawn from the prophets or the psalms.

These tapestries appear to have been the production of the close of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries, denoting in the architecture and costumes _more_ the reigns of Charles VIII.

and Louis XI., than of Louis XII. and Francis I. Such pieces were probably long in the loom, since the tapestry of Dijon, composed of a single _lai_ of twenty-one feet, required not less, according to a competent judge, than ten years' labour.

There are some most beautiful, even amongst these all-beautiful engravings, which we much regret to see there--engravings of the tapestry in the cathedral of Aix, which tapestry ought still to enrich our own country. Shame on those under whose barbarous rule these, amongst other valuable and cherished monuments, were, as relics of papistry, bartered for foreign gold. "L'histoire ma.n.u.scrite de la ville d'Aix dit que cette tap.i.s.serie avait servi a l'eglise de St.

Paul de Londres ou a toute autre eglise cathedrale d'Angleterre; qu'a l'epoque de la Reformation, les tableaux et les tap.i.s.series ayant ete exclus des temples, les Anglais chercherent a vendre dans les pays etrangers quelques-unes des tap.i.s.series qui ornaient leurs cathedrales, et _qu'ils en brlerent un plus grand nombre_!"

This tapestry represents the history of our Saviour, in twenty seven compartments, being in the whole about 187 feet long. It is supposed to have been woven about 1511, when William Warham was Archbishop of Canterbury, and Chancellor. Warham had been previously Bishop of London; and as his arms are on this tapestry, and also the arms of two prior bishops of London who are supposed to have left legacies to ornament the church which were applied towards defraying the expenses of this manufacture, it seems quite probable that its destination was St. Paul's, and not any other cathedral church. The arms of the king are inwrought in two places; for Henry contributed to the embellishment of this church. He loved the arts; he decorated churches; and though he seceded from the Roman communion, he maintained throughout his life magnificent decorations in his favourite churches as well as the worship of the ancient Catholic Church. It was first under Edward, and more decidedly under Elizabeth, that the ceremonies of the church were completely changed, and that those which had been considered only decent and becoming were stigmatised as popish. Nor did this fantasy reach its height until the time of Cromwell.

Lord Douglas, Earl of Buchan, who founded the Society of Antiquaries in Edinburgh, endeavoured during the interval of the Peace of Amiens, to treat with the Archbishop of Aix for the repurchase of this tapestry. He would have placed it in a Gothic church belonging to an ancient Scotch Abbey on his domains. He had already ornamented this church with several beautiful monuments of antiquity, and he wished to place this tapestry there as a national monument, but the treaty was broken off.

The TAPESTRIES OF AULHAC, representing the siege of Troy, and those of BEAUVAIS, embracing a variety of subjects from history both sacred and profane; of the LOUVRE, representing the Miracle of St. Quentin, tapestry representing ALEXANDER, King of Scotland; and those of ST.

REMI, at Rheims, are all engraven and described.

Those of the magnificent cathedral church at Rheims, consisting of forty tapestries, forming different collections, but all on religious subjects, will probably form the material for future numbers.

That there are ancient tapestries existing in England fully equal to those in France is, we think, almost certain; but of course they are not to be summoned from the "vasty deep" of neglect and oblivion by the powerless voice of an obscure individual. Gladly would we, had it been in our power, have enriched our sketch by references to some of them.

The following notice of a tapestry at Coventry is drawn from "Smith's Selections of the ancient Costume of Britain;" and the names of the tapestries at Hampton Court Palace from "Pyne's Royal Residences." We have recently visited Hampton Court for the express purpose of viewing the tapestries. There, we believe, they were, entirely (with the exception of a stray inch or two here and there) hung over with paintings.

The splendid though neglected tapestry of St. Mary's Hall at Coventry offers a variety of materials no less interesting on account of the sanct.i.ty and misfortunes of the prince (Henry VI.) who is there represented, than curious as specimens of the arts of drawing, dyeing, and embroidery of the time in which it was executed.

It is thirty feet in length and ten in height; and is divided into six compartments, three in the upper tier and three in the lower, containing in all upwards of eighty figures or heads. The centre compartment of the upper row, in its perfect and original state, represented the usual personification of the Trinity--(the Trinity Guild held its meetings in the hall of St. Mary) surrounded by angels bearing the various instruments of the Pa.s.sion. But the zeal of our early reformers sacrificed this part of the work, and subst.i.tuted in its stead a tasteless figure of Justice, which now holds the scales amidst the original group of surrounding angels.