[Illustration: FIG. 140.--Diapered Shield from the Percy Shrine in Beverley Minster. Fourteenth Century.] In the early examples the diaper, like the semée already referred to, was treated as though it were a piece of an ornamental fabric stretched over the shield and passing behind the charges without being affected or displaced by them. The Renaissance work shows the diaper more especially adapted to the occasion, as in a Florentine shield from the Palazzo Guadagni and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is beautifully decorated in raised lines of gesso which follow the outline of the figure at a little distance from it, and the rest of the decoration accommodates itself to the shape of the spaces in a manner that is especially satisfactory, as conveying the impression of being carefully designed for its particular purpose, with each part in due relation to the others. [Illustration: FIG. 141.--Diapered Shield in Painted Gesso at Alloa House. The Arms of Henricus de Erskine. 1224. Geo. W. Eve.] The illuminations of the manuscripts were frequently diapered with designs drawn in lines of gold on the ground colour, and a lighter or darker tint of the ground colour was similarly employed, sometimes also in combination with gold. Indeed, the possibilities of diapering as surface decoration are almost without limit if it is reasonably handled. Its effect in enriching and adding interest to simple forms and spaces is shown in the treatment of the Arms of Henricus de Erskine (Fig. 141) and the shield of John, fifth Lord Erskine, and his wife, Lady Margaret Campbell (Fig. 142), two of the series of shields executed in painted gesso for the hall, Alloa House, Clackmannanshire. It is very useful in monochrome, as in engraving for instance, as a means of distinguishing contiguous spaces; in the way that line tints were employed to do before a colour value was ascribed to them. Being, of course, completely under control to be employed or omitted at will, it has none of the objections of the tincture lines. [Illustration: FIG. 142.--Shield of John, Fifth Lord Erskine. Painted gesso. Geo. W. Eve.] The tone effect of diapering must be taken into account, and the consequent emphasis of the charges, unless their character is very elaborate and broken up, and in that case there may be a tendency to confuse their lights and thus obscure and spoil the whole effect. Discretion is therefore very necessary in applying that which properly handled is a very useful and decorative device. It has been said that diaper must have no design of heraldic significance, and this must be so wherever it is employed on the actual armorials. When, however, it is used as a background or other extra-armorial decoration the converse is the case, and badges and charges of an allusive character become the most suitable motives that can be employed.