Chapter 20

Through the kindness of my friend, Lord Houghton, I am enabled to give the sequel of the story--Arachne's transformation into the Spider, as-- A PARAPHRASE AND A PARABLE.

Lo! how Minerva, recklessly defied, Struck down the maiden of artistic pride, Who, all distraught with terror and despair, Suspended her lithe body in mid-air; Deeming, if thus she innocently died, The sacred vengeance would be pacified. Not so: implacable the goddess cried-- "Live on! hang on! and from this hour begin Out of thy loathsome self new threads to spin; No splendid tapestries for royal rooms, But sordid webs to clothe the caves and tombs. Nor blame the Poet's Metamorphoses: Man's Life has Transformations hard as these; Thou shall become, as Ages hand thee down, The drear day-worker of the crowded town, Who, envying the rough tiller of the soil, Plies her monotonous unhealthy toil, Passing through joyless day to sleepless night With mind enfeebled and decaying sight, Till some good genius,[437] kindred though apart, Resolves to raise thee from the vulgar mart, And once more links thee to the World of Art."

[387] Appendix 3.

[388] Guicciardini ascribes the invention of woven tapestry to Arras, giving no dates; so we do not know whether he attributes it to the Belgic Atrebates or to their successors, the Franks. In either case the craft was probably imported from the East.

[389] The Atrebates were the inhabitants of that Belgic region till the fifth century; now it is the province of Artois, probably a corruption of the name "Atrebates." Taylor, "Words and Places" (1865), pp. 229-385.

[390] Castel, "Des Tapisseries," p. 30.

[391] Sidonius Apollinaris, Epist. ix., 13. Cited in Yule's "Marco Polo," p. 68.

[392] Castel, "Des Tapisseries," p. 31.

[393] The commentators of Vasari, MM. Lechanché and Jenron, believe that this art was coeval in the Low Countries with Roman civilization and Christianity; but it would appear that the weavers had fled to Britain to escape from the Romans. Ibid. p. 52. Traces of the name Arras have been found by Bochart and Frahn in Ar-ras, the Arabian name for the river Araxes and the people who inhabit its shores; but this may be accidental, and is at best an uncertain derivation.

[394] Rock, Introduction, p. cxii. This "Saracenic work" is really so like what is called by the Germans "Gobelins" when found in Egyptian tombs that one can hardly doubt whence the Moors brought their art. There are several Egyptian specimens in the British Museum. See also the catalogue of Herr Graf'schen's collection of Egyptian textiles, from the first to the eighth century. "Katalog der Teodor Graf'schen Fünde in Ægypten, von Dr. Karabacek. Wien, 1883."

[395] Viollet-le-Duc, "Dictionnaire du Mobilier Français, Tapis," p. cxii; also M. Jubinal, "Tapisserie Historique." It is difficult absolutely to assign to any known specimens a date anterior to the fifteenth century; although M. de Champeaux thinks that the "Sarazinois" were mostly or entirely carpet-weavers about the eleventh century. He says there is documentary authority to prove that these were woven with flowers and animals. There is a very deep-piled velvety carpet at Gorhambury (the Earl of Verulam's place). Here Queen Elizabeth's arms and cypher appear on a Persian or Moresque ground pattern surrounded with a wreath of oak leaves. It may have been a gift from Spain,--left after one of her visits to her Chancellor.

[396] "Tapisseries des Gobelins," A. L. Lacordaire, p. 10 (1853). He considers that the Sarazinois were embroiderers as well as weavers--and this theory is supported by extracts from an inventory of Charles VI.'s hangings of 1421.

Every detail of the art and its materials was carefully regulated by the French statutes of 1625-27, containing many laws for the perfecting of the manufacture of new as well as the restoration of old tapestries--and fines were imposed for not using materials as nearly as possible matching the original ones; and likewise for any other dereliction from the rules of the craft. Ibid. pp. 9, 10, 14.

[397] At the Poldi Bezzoli Museum in Milan there are some very fine carpets; one especially, a Persian, is supposed to be of the fifteenth century. This is very finely woven of pure, tender colours, and the whole composition, flowers and animals (most beautifully drawn lions, &c.), is delicately outlined in black on a white ground. The colouring is rich and harmonious, and has the iridescent effect of mother of pearl.

[398] In the San Clemente frescoes at Rome there are hangings which show a semi-Asiatic style.

[399] "Mémoires Historiques et Ecclesiastiques d'Auxerre," par M. l'Abbé Lebœuf, i. pp. 178, 231.

[400] There are very interesting Norwegian tapestries of the sixteenth century, which show distinctly an Eastern origin.

[401] Jubinal, "Tapisseries," pp. 25, 26; Viollet-le-Duc, "Dic. de Mobilier Français," p. 269.

[402] There is much splendid tapestry--German, and especially Bavarian,--to be seen at Munich; and, indeed, the more one seeks, the more one finds that private looms were constantly at work in the Middle Ages for votive offerings. There is a tapestry altar-piece at Coire, in the Grisons, of the Crucifixion, which is evidently of the fourteenth century. The colours are still brilliant, and the whole background is beautifully composed of growing flowers. No sky is seen. There is at Munich an altar frontal of tapestry, Gothic of the fifteenth century, exquisitely beautiful. The weaver has introduced a little portrait of herself at her loom, under the folds of the virgin's cloak at her feet.

[403] M. Albert Castel ("Tapisserie," p. 53) believes that the taking of Constantinople, when Earl Baldwin was elected to the throne of Byzantium, had a great effect on Flemish art, which then received a strong impulse from Oriental designs and traditions. See M. Jubinal's very interesting account of the tapisserie de Nancy which lined the tents of Charles the Bold at the siege of Nancy (p. 439). These tapestries are an allegory against gluttony. "Tapisseries Hist.," pp. 1-5.

[404] Charles the Bold has left us records of his taste in tent hangings of Arras at Berne, as well as at Nancy. These are the plunder from his camp equipage after the battle of Grandson. The whole suite, of many pieces, represents battles and sieges, and sacred subjects also, such as the adoration of the Magi. They are finely drawn and splendidly executed with gold lights, and are of the most perfect style of the fifteenth century. The National Museum at Munich contains most valuable specimens of very early and very fine tapestries; amongst others, a Virgin, which was certainly designed in the school of Dürer, and is of the greatest perfection of its art, both as to colour and drawing and the general effect, which has a soft, dreamy beauty, only to be seen in fine woollen tapestries, and differing from pictorial design and intention.

[405] See Rock, cxii: Among the remarkable suites of tapestry of which we find historical mention are the following: In 1334, John de Croisette, a "Tapissier Sarazinois, demeurant à Arras vendit au Duc de Touraine un tapis Sarazinois à or: de l'histoire de Charlemagne" (Voisin, p. 6). Of the many recorded as belonging to Philip, Duke of Burgundy and Brabant, one piece, "Haulte lice sanz or: de l'histoire du Duc de Normandie, comment il conquit Engleterre."--"Les Ducs de Bourgogne," par le Comte de Laborde, ii. p. 270, No. 4277.

[406] M. de Champeaux, the author of the "Handbook of Art Tapestry" belonging to the series of the Kensington Museum, 1878, says that the history of Arras has yet to be written. He, however, gives a great deal of interesting information, especially about the French tapestries, on which subject we fancy there is little more to tell. Their art does not come from such a distant time as that of the Belgian manufactures. After Louis IX. had decimated the inhabitants, and dispersed the remainder, Arras yet made a gallant struggle to revive her industry and compete with the rising prosperity of Brussels; but France had decreed against her.

[407] "Encyclopædia Britannica" ("Art Tapestry"), pp. 17, 97.

[408] Vasari vividly describes the design for a tapestry for the King of Portugal--the history of Adam--on which Leonardo da Vinci, then aged twenty, was engaged. He lingers tenderly over the picture of the flowery field and the careful study of the bay-trees. Vasari, tom. vii. p. 15; ed. Firenze, 1851.

[409] See M. Jubinal's "Tapisseries Historiées," p. 26; Viollet-le-Duc, "Mobilier Français," i. p. 269.

[410] Froissart's "Chronicles," iv., chap. 23; Johnes ed. 1815.

[411] M. de Champeaux, "Handbook of Art Tapestry," p. 24; also Rock, "Textiles," p. 122. M. Lacordaire, "Tapisserie des Gobelins," p. 15, tells us that under Louis XIII. the statutes of 1625-27 contain many regulations for the perfection of the materials employed in weaving new as well as in restoring old tapestries. Fines were imposed for not matching the colours carefully.

[412] English wool is still used for the finest tapestries at the Gobelins. The wool from Kent is considered the best.

[413] "Vitæ St. Alban. Abbatum," p. 40; Rock, p. cxi. That the walls were covered with tapestry in the thirteenth century is supposed to be proved by the description of Hrothgar's house in the Romance of Beowulf. We are told that the hangings were rich with gold, and a wondrous sight to behold. "History of Domestic Manners, &c., in England during the Middle Ages," by Thomas Wright, p. 2.

[414] Matthew Paris, in Dugdale Monast., ed. 1819, ii. p. 185.

[415] Quoted by Michel from MSS. in the Imperial Library, Paris.

[416] This was a writ to the Aldermen and Sheriffs of the City of London, principally levelled against the dealings of "certain Frenchmen which were against the well-being of the trade of the Tapissiarii ... by petition of Parliament at Westminster." Calend. Rot. Pat. Edward III., p. 148, "De Mysterâ Tapiciarorum," Lond. M. 41.

[417] Called "verdures" in French inventories.

[418] Rock's Introduction, p. lxxix.

[419] "The art of weaving tapestry was brought to England by William Sheldon, Esq., about the end of the reign of Henry VIII."--See Dugdale's "Warwickshire" ("Stemmata:" Sheldon), 2nd edition, folio, vol. i. p. 584; also Lloyd's "State Worthies," p. 953, quoted by Manning and Bray, "Hist. of Surrey," vol. iii. p. 82. But we have an earlier notice of a spirited attempt to make fine tapestries at Kilkenny. Piers, Earl of Ormonde, married the daughter of Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, "a person of great wisdom and courage." They brought from Flanders and the neighbouring provinces artificers and manufacturers, whom they employed at Kilkenny in working tapestries, diaper, Turkey carpets, cushions, &c. Piers died 1539. Carte's Introduction to the "Life of James, Duke of Ormonde," vol. i. p. 93 (Oxford, 1851).

[420] William Sheldon at his own expense brought workmen from Flanders, and employed them in weaving maps of the different counties of England. Of these, three large maps, the earliest specimens, were purchased by the Earl of Orford (Horace Walpole), by whom they were given to Earl Harcourt. He had them repaired and cleaned, and made as fresh as when out of the loom, and eventually gave them to Gough, the antiquary, who bequeathed them to the University of Oxford. The Armada tapestry, which is stated to have been designed by Henry Cornelius Vroom, the Dutch marine painter, and woven by Francis Spiering, appears to have been, in 1602, in the possession of Lord Howard, Lord High Admiral and the hero of the Armada. Fuller particulars are given in Walpole's "Anecdotes," i. p. 246, under the name of Vroom, Sandart being the principal authority. Part of them were in the House of Lords till 1834, when they perished in the fire. These had been engraved in 1739 by John Pine, but it appears that at that time there were in the royal wardrobe other pieces, now lost.

[421] Lloyd's "Worthies."

[422] Calendar of State Papers, cx. No. 26, James I., 1619-23.

[423] Calendar of State Papers, vol. clxxxi. No. 48.

[424] Rymer, "Fœdera," vol. viii. p. 66, ed. 1743.

[425] Brydges, "Northamptonshire," i. p. 323, under the head of "Stoke Bruere," pt. 1, p. 48.

[426] Manning and Bray's "History of Surrey," vol. iii. p. 302.

[427] Horace Walpole, "Anecdotes of Painting in England," vol. ii. p. 22.

[428] Macpherson, "Annals of Commerce."

[429] There is in Brydges' "Northamptonshire," under the head of "Stoke Bruere" (the estate which King James gave to Sir F. Crane as part payment of the deficit of £16,400 in his tapestry business), mention of the cartoons of "Raphael of Urbin, ... had from Genoa," and their cost, £300, besides the transport. M. Blanc says, with great justness, that Raphael, when he prepared these cartoons for tapestry, made designs for weaving, and _did not paint pictures_. If they had been intended for oil pictures, they would have been very differently treated.

[430] Calendar State Papers, Domestic, Sept. 28th, 1653.

[431] Horace Walpole's "Anecdotes of Painting," vol. iii. p. 64.

[432] See Evelyn's very scarce tract, entitled "Mundus Muliebris," printed 1690, p. 8.

[433] Lord Tyrconnell, Lord Exeter, and Lord Guildford had married three of the Brownlow heiresses of Belton, who had a winter residence at Stamford.

[434] Designed by Francesco Zuccharelli. Rock, Introduction, p. cxiv.

[435] It has been at different periods the crowning glory of the craft of the weaver to place different patterns or pictures on the two sides of the web. This would almost appear to be impossible, but that it has been done in late years, according to Rock, who tells us that he saw a banner so woven, with the Austrian eagle on one side and the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception on the other. He says that the same manufacturer was then being employed in producing ecclesiastical garments with the colours and patterns so varied.

[436] In old tapestries three tints only were employed for the complexions of men, women, and children--the man's reddish, the woman's yellow, and the child's whiter than either. It is an agreeable economy of colours, simple and effective, and avoids the pictorial imitation that one deprecates. See M. Charles Blanc's "Grammaire des Arts Décoratifs: Tapisserie," p. 112.

[437] The poet here refers to H.R.H. the Princess Christian.