The Arts in the Middle Ages and at the Period of the RenaissanceJacob, P. L.
History
The Arts in the Middle Ages and at the Period of the Renaissance
Jacob, P. L.
Art, Medieval; Art, Renaissance; Middle Ages
Henry II. did even more than maintain the establishment at
Fontainebleau; in addition he instituted, in compliance with the request
of the guardians of the Hôpital de la Trinité, a manufactory of tapestry
in Paris, in which the children belonging to the hospital were employed
in dyeing wool and silk, and in weaving them in the loom with a high and
low warp.
The new manufactory, whether on account of the excellence of its
productions, or from influential patronage, obtained so many privileges
that the public peace was on several occasions seriously disturbed by
the jealousy of the guild of tapestry-workers; an ancient and numerous
corporation still possessing great authority and influence.
The manufactory of the Hôpital de la Trinité continued to flourish
during the reign of Henry III.; and Sauval, in his “Histoire des
Antiquités de
PLAN OF PARIS IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY,
WITH THIS LEGEND:
_Mil cinq cents ans quarante et neuf passez_
_Du déluge: Paris le noble roy_
_Dix-huitième: fonda en grand arroy_
_Ville et cité de Paris belle assez_
_Devant que Rome eust des gens amassez_
_Six cent cinquante et huit ans comme croy._
TRANSLATION.
One thousand five hundred and forty-nine years after the Deluge,
the noble King Paris, the eighteenth of his name, founded with
great pomp the fine town and city of Paris, anterior to the
foundation of Rome, which took place, as I think, 658 (?) years
before Jesus Christ.
[Illustration: PLAN OF PARIS IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
Beauvais Tapestry (Communicated by M. Achille Jubinal.)]
Paris,” informs us that in the following reign it reached its highest
point of prosperity. In 1594, Dubourg made in these workshops, from the
designs of Lerembert, the beautiful tapestries which, to a date very
near our own, decorated the Church of Saint-Merry. Henry IV., says
Sauval, hearing this work much spoken of, desired to see it, and was so
pleased therewith that he resolved to restore the manufactories in
Paris, “which the disorder of preceding reigns had abolished.” He
therefore established Laurent, a celebrated tapestry-worker, in the
_maison professe_ of the Jesuits, which had remained closed since the
trial of Jean Chastel. He allowed one crown a day, and one hundred
francs a year, as wages to this skilful artist; his apprentices
receiving ten sous a day, and his fellow-workmen twenty-five, thirty,
and even forty sous, according to their skill. At a later period Dubourg
and Laurent, who had entered into partnership, were both installed in
the galleries of the Louvre. Henry IV., following the example of Francis
I., brought from Italy skilled workers in gold and in silk. These he
lodged in the Hôtel de la Maque, Rue de la Tisseranderie: the special
works they made were hangings in fine cloth of gold and silver
(_frisé_).
[Illustration: Fig. 32.--Banner of the Tapestry Workers of Lyons.]
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