The drawing is full of simplicity and honesty, the composition limited
to a few individuals, each one having its place of importance. In
this, the early work differed from the later, which multiplied figures
until whole groups counted no more than individuals. The background is
a field of conventionalised fleur-de-lis of so large a pattern as not
to interfere with the details thrown against it. Scenes are divided
by slender Gothic columns, and other architectural features are
tessellated floors and a sketchy sort of brick-work that appears
wherever a limit-line is needed. It is the charming naivete of its
drawing that delights. Border there is none, but its lack is never
felt, for the pictures are of such interest that the eye needs no
barrier to keep it from wandering. Whatever border is found is a
varying structure of architecture and of lettering and of the happy
flowers of Gothic times which thrust their charm into all possible and
impossible places.
The dress, in the suite of ideals, is created by the imagining of the
artist, admixed with the fashion of the day; but in scenes portraying
life of the moment, we are given an interesting idea of how a bride a
la mode was arrayed, in what manner a gay young lord dressed himself
on his wedding morning, and how a young mother draped her proud
brocade. The colouring is that of ancient stained glass, simple, rich,
the gamut of colours limited, but the manner of their combining is
infinite in its power to please. The conscientiousness of the ancient
dyer lives after him through the centuries, and the fresh ruby-colour,
the golden yellow of the large-figured brocades, glow almost as richly
now as they did when the Burgundian dukes were marching up and down
the land from the Mediterranean, east of France, to the coast of
Flanders, carrying with them the woven pictures of their ideals, their
religion and their conquests. The weave is smooth and even, speaking
for the work of the tapissier or weaver, although time has distorted
the faces beyond the lines of absolute beauty; and hatching
accomplishes the shading.
The repairer has been at work on this valuable set, not the
intelligent restorer, but the frank bungler who has not hesitated to
turn certain pieces wrong side out, nor to set in large sections
obviously cut from another tapestry. It is surmised that the set
contained one more piece--it would be regrettable, indeed, if that
missing square had been cut up for repairs.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York owns these tapestries
through the altruistic generosity of J. Pierpont Morgan, Esq. They are
the most interesting primitive work which are on public view in our
country, and awake to enthusiasm even the most insensate dullard, who
has a half hour to stand before them and realise all they mean in art,
in morals and in history.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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