Part 4

Schmitz asserts that it is almost certainly useless to seek the author of these cartoons among contemporary painters, as they are probably the work of a professional cartoon painter, of which the Dukes of Burgundy kept several in their service--and this is probably true. But artists were not as specialized then as they are now, and even a professional tapestry designer might very well on occasion turn his hand to illustrating a manuscript or making a sketch for an enamel, so that it is not impossible that further research in the other contemporary arts may bring to light more information about this marked personality who created so individual a style.

[Sidenote: Lent by _Duveen Brothers_.]

This tapestry is exceedingly interesting, not only for its marked style of drawing and its quaint charm, but for the direct sincerity of the presentation and the brilliant and rather unaccustomed range of colors.

[Sidenote: 4]

FLANDERS, MIDDLE XV CENTURY

[Sidenote:

_Wool and Silk._ H. 8 _ft._ 4 _in._ W. 20 _ft._ 4 _in._ ]

[Sidenote: Formerly in Skipton Castle, Ireland.]

SCENES FROM THE ROMAN DE LA ROSE: _This piece illustrates one of the most popular romances of the Middle Ages, the Romance of the Rose, the first part of which was written in 1337 by Guillaume de Lorris, the second part in_ 1378 _by Jean de Meung, and translated into English by Chaucer. The culminating scenes are represented. Jealousy has imprisoned Bel Acceuil in a tower because he helped the Lover see the Rose after Jealousy had forbidden it. The Lover calls all his followers, Frankness, Honor, Riches, Nobility of Heart, Leisure, Beauty, Courage, Kindness, Pity, and a host of others, to aid him in rescuing the prisoner. In the course of the struggle Scandal, one of Jealousy's henchmen, is trapped by two of the Lover's followers posing as Pilgrims, who cut his throat and cut out his tongue. With the aid of Venus, the Lover finally wins._

[Sidenote: Exhibited:

_Chicago Art Institute, Gothic Exhibition_, 1921.]

The piece is very close in drawing to the illustrations of the Master of the Golden Fleece,[2] whom Lindner has identified as Philip de Mazarolles. The long bony, egg-shaped heads that look as if the necks were attached as an afterthought, the shoe-button eyes, flat mouths, and peaked noses all occur in his many illustrations. Characteristic of him, too, are the crowded grouping of the scene and the great care in presenting the accessories, every gown being an individual design, whereas many of his contemporary illustrators contented themselves with rendering the general style without variations. The conventional trees are probably the weaver's interpolations. The top of the tapestry being gone, there is no possibility of knowing whether his customary architectural background was included or not.

[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]

The tapestry is interesting, not only because it is quaint, but because it is a vivid illustration of the spirit of the time--virile, cruel, yet self-consciously moralistic.

[Sidenote: 5]

FLANDERS, MIDDLE XV CENTURY

[Sidenote:

_Wool._ H. 10 _ft._ 9 _in._ W. 17 _ft._ 5½ _in._ ]

THE VINTAGE: _This piece was probably originally one of a series of the Months, representing September. Groups of lords and ladies have strolled down from the castle in the background to watch the peasants gathering and pressing the grapes._

[Sidenote: Formerly in the Collection of Edouard Aynard, Paris.]

[Sidenote: Exhibited:

_Exhibition of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Old Palace of Sagan, Paris_, 1913.]

The costumes and the drawing indicate that the piece was made in Burgundy at the time of Philip the Good. In fact, it is so close to the work of one of the most prolific of the illustrators who worked for Philip the Good that it is safe to assume that the original drawing for the cartoons was his work. In the pungency of the illustration and the vivacity of the episodes as well as in numerous details it follows closely the characteristics of Loysot Lyedet. Here are the same strong-featured faces with large prominent square mouths, the same exaggeratedly long and thin legs with suddenly bulging calves on the men, the same rapidly sketched flat hands, and the same attitudes. The very exact drawing of the bunches of grapes parallels the exactness with which he renders the household utensils in his indoor scenes, and the dogs, while they are of types familiar in all the illustrations of the time, have the decided personalities and alert manner that he seemed to take particular pleasure in giving them.

[Sidenote: Reproduced:

_Les Arts_, Sept., 1913; _Gazette des Beaux Arts_, 1913.]

Another tapestry that seems to be from the same hand is _Le Bal de Sauvages_ in l'Eglise de Nantilly de Saumur.

The piece is one of the most vivid and convincing illustrations of the life of the time that has come down to us in tapestry form. The silhouetting of the figures against contrasting colors and the structural emphasis of the vertical lines give the design great clarity and strength.

[Sidenote: Lent by _Jacques Seligmann & Company_.]

Loysot Lyedet was working for the Dukes of Burgundy in 1461. He died about 1468. Among the most famous of his illustrations are those of the _History of Charles Martel_ (Bibliothèque Royale, Brussels) _History of Alexander_ (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris) and the _Roman History_ (Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Paris.)

[Sidenote: 6]

GERMANY, PROBABLY NUREMBERG, MIDDLE XV CENTURY

[Sidenote:

_Wool and Gold._ H. 3 _ft._ 6 _in._ W. 7 _ft._ 6 _in._ ]

SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF CHRIST: _The Life of Christ is shown in eight small scenes, beginning with the Entrance into Jerusalem, the Farewell to his Mother, the Last Supper, the Agony in the Garden, the Carrying of the Cross, the Crucifixion, the Pieta, and the Entombment._

The scenes in this tapestry were apparently adapted from the illustrations from a Nuremberg manuscript of the middle of the XVth century. Of course, the weaving may have been done later. The simplified arrangement of the scenes with a reduction to a minimum of the number of actors, the relative size of the figures to the small squares of the compositions, the marked indebtedness in the use of line and light and shade to woodcuts, and the courageous but not altogether easy use of the direct profile, all bring the pieces into close relationship with such book illustrations as those of George Pfinzing's book of travels (_The Pilgrimage to Jerusalem_), now in the City Library of Nuremberg.[3] In fact, the parallelism is so very close, the tapestry may well have been adapted from illustrations by the same man, the curiously conventionalized line-and-dot eyes being very characteristic of the Pfinzing illustrations and not common to all the school.

[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]

In weaving many of the figures the warp is curved to follow the contours.

The naïve directness and unassuming sincerity of the piece give it great interest.

[Sidenote: 7]

TOURNAI, THIRD QUARTER XV CENTURY

[Sidenote:

_Wool._ H. 10 _ft._ 6 _in._ W. 8 _ft._ 9 _in._ ]

THE HISTORY OF HERCULES: _Hercules, clad in a magnificent suit of shining black armor, rides into the thickest tumult of a furious battle; with sword in his right hand, he skillfully parries the thrust of a huge lance, while with the other hand he deals a swinging backhand blow that smites an enemy footman into insensibility. His next opponent, obviously bewildered and frightened, has half-turned to flee. The whole apparatus of mediæval combat is shown in intense and crowded action. The piece is incomplete._

This tapestry illustrates one of the favorite stories of the Middle Ages, and was undoubtedly originally one of a set. In design it is closely related to the famous _Wars of Troy_ series, many examples of which are known and some of the first sketches for which are in the Louvre. It is also closely related to the _History of Titus_ set in the Cathedrale de Notre Dame de Nantilly de Saumur.[4] Both of these sets are signed by Jean Van Room, and this piece also is undoubtedly from his cartoon. All of these pieces were probably woven between 1460 and 1470.

Jean Van Room (sometimes called de Bruxelles) is one of the most interesting personalities connected with the history of Gothic tapestry. He was a cartoon painter and probably conducted a large studio, judging from the number of pieces of his which are left to us. Fortunately, he had a habit of signing his name on obscure parts of the designs, such as the borders of garments. His work extends over sixty years and changes markedly in style during that time, adapting itself to the changing taste of his clients. This piece illustrates his earliest manner. In the succeeding decades he is more and more affected by the Renaissance and the Italian influence, until his latest pieces (cf. No. 21) are quite unlike these first designs. At the close of the century he began to collaborate with Maître Philippe, evidently a younger man, who had had Italian instruction and was less restrained by early Gothic training (cf. Nos. 17-19).

Jean Van Room seems to have done designs for enamels, also, that were executed in the studio of the so-called Monvaerni. In the collection of Otto H. Kahn is a _Jesus before Pilate_ very close in style to Jean Van Room's early work,[5] on which appear the letters M E R A, which might even be a pied misspelling of Room, for similar confused signatures appear on tapestries known to be his. A triptych with _Crucifixion_ in the collection of Charles P. Taft[6] has figures very close to the _Crucifixion_ tapestry in the Cathedral of Angers done by Van Room in his middle period. According to Marquet de Vasselot, this enamel bears the letters JENRAGE, but M. de Vasselot also comments on its illegibility in the present condition of the enamel. Could he have misread a letter or two? Still another triptych with _Crucifixion_, in the Hermitage,[7] actually repeats two figures from the Angers _Crucifixion_ with only very slight variations.

Jean Van Room borrowed liberally from various other artists at different stages of his career. In the _Wars of Troy_, the _History of Titus_, and this piece he seems to have relied primarily on Jean le Tavernier for his models, the affiliation being especially close in the _Wars of Troy_. Le Tavernier is known to have illustrated the _Wars of Troy_,[8] and Jean Van Room, judging from the close stylistic relations of his Troy tapestries with le Tavernier's drawings, evidently took his hints from this lost manuscript.

This piece was probably woven under Pasquier Grenier at Tournai, as were the _Wars of Troy_, on which there are some documents.

[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]

This tapestry presents with extraordinary vividness the fury, din, excessive effort, hot excitement, and blinding confusion of crowded hand-to-hand conflicts that marked mediæval warfare. It must have been conceived and rendered by an eye-witness who knew how to select and assemble the raw facts of the situation with such honesty and directness that an overwhelming impression of force and tumult is created, and it was woven for patrons, the fighting Dukes of Burgundy, by whom every gruesome incident would be observed with relish and every fine point of individual combat noted with a shrewd and appraising eye.

[Sidenote: 8]

FRANCE, END XV CENTURY

[Sidenote:

_Wool._ H. 2 _ft._ 10 _in._ W. 7 _ft._ 10 _in._ ]

ENTOMBMENT ON MILLEFLEURS: _Christ lies on the tomb which is inscribed "Humani Generis Redeptori." John in a red cloak, the Virgin in a blue cloak over a red brocaded dress, and Mary Magdalene in a red cloak over a green dress stand behind the tomb. At the head, removing the crown of thorns, stands Joseph of Arimathea and at the foot Nicodemus. Both Joseph and Nicodemus are in richly brocaded robes. Borders at the sides only of alternate blue and red squares inscribed I H S and M A surrounded by jeweled frames. Millefleurs on a blue ground. In the upper left corner the monogram I S and in the upper right W S, with a scroll under each bearing the inscription "de Mailly."_

This tapestry is an unusually delicately and perfectly rendered example of the _millefleurs aux personnages_ of France of the late Gothic period. A small piece like this was undoubtedly made for a private chapel, probably that of the de Mailly family. This quality of millefleurs was probably woven in Touraine. An altar frontal showing the Pieta which is very similar in style is in the Kunstgewerbe Museum.

[Sidenote: Lent by _Demotte_.]

The drawing has the nice exactness of a finished miniature, the workmanship the brilliance of enamel; yet both are transfigured by the vivid conception of the tragic event. Its utter pathos is expressed with moving power. We are in the presence of an unutterably solemn moment.

[Sidenote: 9]

FRANCE, END XV CENTURY

[Sidenote:

_Wool and Silk._ H. 4 _ft._ 6 _in._ W. 3 _ft._ ]

MILLEFLEURS ARMORIAL WITH WILD MEN: _On a delicate millefleurs ground a wild man and woman hold an armorial shield surmounted by a winged helmet._

[Sidenote: Formerly in the C. D. Barney Collection.]

[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]

The wild men, probably a modified revival of the classical satyrs in modified form, were very popular in France in the XIIIth and XIVth centuries. There are tapestries extant depicting the balls where all the company came dressed in hairy tights to represent these creatures. Froissart recounts an episode of a ball at the Hotel St. Pol in Paris in 1392 when the king and five of his companions came in such costumes, all chained together, and the flax used to imitate the hair caught fire from a torch, so that in an instant all were enveloped in flames. The king was saved by the presence of mind of his cousin, who enveloped him in her skirts, and another was saved by jumping into a tub of water he had noticed earlier in the evening in an adjacent service-room. The others were burned to death.

[Sidenote: 10]

FRANCE, BEGINNING XVI CENTURY

[Sidenote:

_Wool._ H. 7 _ft._ 10 _in._ W. 10 _ft._ 7 _in._ ]

MILLEFLEURS WITH SHEPHERDS AND THE SHIELD OF THE RIGAUT FAMILY: _Against a background of conventionalized millefleurs, shepherds and shepherdesses and their flock. In the center, two peasants holding a shield, evidently of the Rigaut family. In the corners the shield of Rigaut and of another family. The tapestry was evidently made to celebrate a marriage, the corner shields signifying the joining of the families, an oblique reference being intended in the pairing of the shepherds and shepherdesses. A scroll in the center bears the inscription "Par Içi Passe Rigaut."_

[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]

The naïveté both of the characterization and of the drawing that emphasizes the structural and silhouette character of the figures contributes greatly to the charm of this piece. The clean, sharp rendering of the millefleurs enhances the decorative effect. The piece is probably the work of a small provincial loom.

[Sidenote: 11]

FRANCE, PROBABLY LA MARCHE, BEGINNING XVI CENTURY

[Sidenote:

_Wool and Silk._ H. 5 _ft._ 7 _in._ W. 9 _ft._ 4 _in._ ]

MILLEFLEURS WITH ANIMALS: _Against a large-scale millefleurs ground on blue, deer are playing about a fountain within a paddock. On a fence-post perches a peacock. Outside the fence a fox waits, watching slyly. In the background conventional castles._

[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]

The floreation is rather unusual, as it shows the transition from the Gothic millefleurs to the Renaissance verdure. The enlarged scale of the flowers and the use of the iris and the scrolled thistle-leaves in the foreground show the influence of the Renaissance, but the daisies and wild roses are still Gothic in feeling, as are the unusually charming and vivacious deer. The conventional rendering of the water is skillfully managed. The sly fox is especially well characterized.

[Sidenote: 12]

FRANCE, PROBABLY LA MARCHE, EARLY XVI CENTURY

[Sidenote:

_Wool._ H. 4 _ft._ 5 _in._ W. 9 _ft._ 5 _in._ ]

MILLEFLEURS WITH ANIMALS: _Millefleurs with animals on a blue ground. At the top a narrow strip of conventionalized hilly landscape._

[Sidenote: Lent by _Dikran K. Kelekian_.]

Many tapestries of this type were woven in France at the end of the XVth and beginning of the XVIth century. They are one of the most successful types of tapestry decoration, the quaint animals in this piece being especially charming, and one of the most generally useful kinds of wall decoration, so that the demand for them was large and continuous. As a result, the style was produced almost without modification for over a hundred years. Only the bit of landscape at the top indicates that this was woven in the beginning of the XVIth century and not in the middle of the XVth.

[Sidenote: 13]

FRANCE, LATE XV CENTURY

[Sidenote:

_Wool._ H. 9 _ft._ 6 _in._ W. 9 _ft._ ]

PASTORAL SCENE: _Two ladies have strolled into the country with their lords, who are on the way to the hunt, one with a falcon and the other with a spear and dog. On the way they have stopped to talk to a group of peasants who are tending their flocks and to play with their children. One young peasant girl is gathering a basket of grapes._

Such peasant scenes as this were much in demand during the XVth century. A piece very similar both in general spirit and in detailed drawing and facial types is in the Musée des Arts Decoratifs. In this two lords are watching a large group of woodcutters.

[Sidenote: Formerly in the De Zolte Collection.]

The piece is an excellent illustration of the clarity of French design. Each figure stands out almost entirely detached against the background. Yet, nevertheless, the naturalness of the grouping is not sacrificed. The piece conveys extraordinarily the impression of a real scene, a common daily occurrence among people that we might reasonably expect to know, at which we are allowed to be present in spite of the intervening four hundred years.

[Sidenote: Lent by _Duveen Brothers_.]

Some of the tricks of drawing and the types portrayed are so very similar to those in some of the stained-glass windows of St. Etienne du Mont and of St. Germain-l'Auxerrois the cartoons must be by members of the same school, one of the groups of l'Ile de France, and may quite possibly be by the same man.

[Sidenote: 14-16]

FLANDERS, FIRST QUARTER XVI CENTURY

[Sidenote:

_Wool and Silk._

No. 14: H. 11 _ft._ 6 _in._ W. 14 _ft._ 2 _in._ ]

[Sidenote:

No. 15: H. 10 _ft._ 9 _in._ W. 7 _ft._ 3½ _in._

No. 16: H. 11 _ft._ W. 10 _ft._ 5 _in._ ]

THREE PIECES FROM A SERIES ILLUSTRATING THE CREED: _This series of scenes illustrating the Creed begins_ (_No._ 14) _with the Creation of the World_. _The designer, evidently with some allegorical poem in mind, includes in the scene Sapientia, Potencia, and Benignitas, depicted, in characteristic medieval form, as three richly dressed women. In the center scene these three offer the world to God. On the right, Gubernacio, Redempcio, and Caritas stand under the throne of the Trinity._

_In the second piece_ (_No._ 15) _the series continues with the Life of Christ_, _beginning with the Annunciation_, _the Nativity_, _and the Adoration of the Kings_.

_Reverting to the older tradition of the XIVth century that had been almost displaced during the XVth century_, _all the events of Christ's public life are omitted_, _and the third piece_ (_No._ 16) _depicts the scenes of the Passion_, _including the popular interpolation of Christ's farewell to his Mother_, _with the Apostles in the background_, _the Resurrection_, _and finally Christ taking his place at the right hand of God while the angels sing hosannas_.

_Below, throughout the series, is the set of the Apostles facing Prophets, symbolic of the parallelism of the Old and New Testaments, each with a scroll bearing his speech in the conventional responses depicted in so many works of art of the period. So Peter (No. 14), says, "I believe in God the Father Omnipotent," and Jeremiah, who faces him, replies, "You invoke the Father who made the earth and builded the heavens."_ _Next_ (_No._ 15) _comes Andrew_, _who originally faced David_, _a figure now missing_. _The next pair, John and Daniel, is also missing._ _There follow_ (_No._ 16) _Thomas_, _who originally faced Hosea_, _and John the Lesser_, _who is opposite Amos_. _Above_, _on either side of the Nativity_ (_No._ 15), _is introduced another pair_, _John the Greater and Isaiah_.

The complete piece, of which number 16 is the right-hand end, was formerly in the Toledo Cathedral, then in the collection of Asher Wertheimer, of London. The present owner is unknown.[9] Another rendition was in the Vatican, but disappeared in the middle of the XIXth century.[10]

Tapestries illustrating the Creed were common throughout the Middle Ages. They appear frequently in XIVth-century inventories, and a number of examples from the XVth and early XVIth century are left to us. The Apostles and Prophets arranged in pairs are a common feature of this type of tapestry.

[Sidenote: Formerly in Evora Palace, Portugal.]

The cartoons are evidently the work of the painter who painted the ceiling of the Church of St. Guy at Naarden, whom Dr. Six tentatively identifies as Albert Claesz.[11] The similarity is too close to be overlooked. The Christ of the Naarden _Resurrection_[12] and this _Resurrection_ are almost identical, the face of God the Father in the _Assumption_ is almost identical with that of an onlooker in the Naarden _Betrayal_,[13] and Adam in the first piece of this series closely resembles the Christ of the Naarden _Flagellation_.[14] But more indicative are the lesser peculiarities common to both series. There are in both the same curiously flattened and slightly distorted skulls with very large ears, the same large eyes with heavy arched lids and eyebrows close above them, oblique and not quite correctly placed in the three-quarter views, and always looking beyond their focus. The mouths, too, in some of the faces are overemphasized in the same way, and the feet have the same quaint distortion, being seen from above, as in the figure of the Prophet John (No. 15). And in very conspicuous minor agreement, the cross has a strongly indicated and rigidly conventionalized graining identical in the two renditions. The attitude of the Christ and the indication of the garment in the Toledo tapestry is very close to that in the Naarden painting.

The floreation was probably introduced by the weaver. The delightfully exact scene of the owl scolded by a magpie, while a pigeon sits near by and another bird flutters about (No. 14), is repeated with slight variations in a number of XVIth-century pieces.

[Sidenote: Lent by _Demotte_.]

The drawing in these tapestries is rather unusually primitive for pieces of this period, but the figures have a broad monumental character and a direct sincerity of bearing that make them very convincing.

[Sidenote: 17-19]

FLANDERS, PROBABLY BRUSSELS, BEGINNING XVI CENTURY

[Sidenote:

_Wool and Silk._

No. 17: H. 11 _ft._ 10 _in._ W. 17 _ft._ 6 _in._

No. 18: H. 11 _ft._ 7 _in._ W. 7 _ft._ 5 _in._

No. 19: H. 12 _ft._ W. 26 _ft._ ]