Every subject lent itself to reproduction. The inventory of a princely
but small collector in 1406–7 mentions: _A Stag in a Wood_, _Story of
Pyramus and Thisbe_, _History of the God of Love_, _History of King
Pepin_, _Hawking_, _A Lord and Lady playing at Chess_, _A Trapped Hare_,
_Monkeys_, _Castles_, _Parrots_, and _Verdures_. The latter shows how
early the beautiful landscapes were valued. Throughout this century the
tapestries show charming backgrounds of daisies, violets, strawberries,
jessamine, primroses, bellflowers and lovely leaves often scattered in
artistic disorder.
The influence of Memling and the Van Eycks and their school was
insistent, although comparatively few of their pictures were translated
into tapestry. One of the pupils of the Van Eycks, Roger van der Weyden,
designed many cartoons, among which were the _Legend of Trajan_ and
_Story of Heckenbald_ for the Town Hall of Brussels.
The great impetus to the Flemish looms was given by the Dukes of
Burgundy. Philip the Bold (1384–1404) encouraged the weavers of Arras by
giving orders and large payments in advance. Finally, he owned such a
superb collection that he had a special officer, a _garde de la
tapisserie_, to take charge of it.
Philip the Good (1419–1467) inherited this taste for beautiful tapestry
and gave numerous orders to the tapestry-makers of Flanders. The
inventory of his treasury made in Dijon in 1420, shows that he possessed
at the beginning of his reign five _chambres_ of tapestry, each
comprising several pieces, and more than seventy high warp “storied”
tapestries to ornament the halls and the chapel. Among them was a set of
eleven pieces containing portraits of “the late Duke Jehan and Madame
his wife on foot and on horseback,” hawking, with birds on their wrists
and birds flying all around them. The same prince also had: “A red room
of high-warp tapestry woven with gold, on which were represented ladies,
pheasants, persons of distinction and rank, nobles, simple folk, and
others, with a canopy ornamented with falcons.”
Then there was a rich “chamber,” “with high-warp tapestry of Arras
thread, called the _chambre_ of the little children, furnished with the
canopy, head-board, and coverlet of a bed, worked with gold and silk,
the head-board and coverlet being strewn with trees, grasses, and little
children, and the canopy representing trails of flowering rose-trees on
a red background.”
Another set of “high-warp tapestry, worked in Arras thread and gold” was
called “The Chamber of the Coronation of Our Lady.” It was furnished
with “a canopy, a head-board, a bed coverlet, and six curtains two of
which were worked with gold, and the remaining four without gold. On
each of these were two figures, the late Duke Anthony of Brabant and his
wife and their children, screened with a small _dosser_; the whole was
of Brabant work.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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