Part 3

To confirm this, I need only instance the fact that these, and other earliest known specimens of lacis and linen lace existing, are almost identical in design with the forms familiar to us from the discoveries in Coptic tombs in Egypt from the first and third centuries onwards. These designs, simple and formal as they appear, are really full of meaning. Mr. Albert Gayet has pointed out, in his history of Coptic art, that the law of polygonal evolution only completed in the eleventh century the course it had steadfastly pursued from the beginning. He continues: "It seems a far cry from the early Greek tradition to this time. But the Coptic artist was never in sympathy with the Greek striving towards realism. He wished to express, not the image itself, but the impression conveyed by the image. He preferred the thought to the concrete form. The divine idea, which to the Greek must mean a precise representation, he prefers to render quite otherwise. The fidelity of the Coptic artist to this polygony renders it the key to all his art. His first efforts are blunders, but he is not discouraged, he continues without hesitation to follow his ideal. He finds in the philosophy of the polygon the impression he wishes to convey of the ideal and the invisible. His composition, according to the Gnostic definition, has its secret side, hidden under the emblem shown, while the emblem shown has also a hidden side. Then by the superposition of _entrelacs_, or strap-work, he conveys the idea of evolution, or things (mysteries) turning and repeating themselves indefinitely, but always in an inflexible circle." For example, a number of star-centred octagons, formed by a network of lines, will have a cross in the centre--other little crosses may be traced in each star--and in the arabesques of the corners crosses may also be found. "Everywhere, even in the most closely packed work, this symbol can be found; the most abstract geometrical combinations are still subject to the same system. Polygony places everywhere and always the sign of the Faith."[G]

[G] Gayet, A., "L'art Copte." Paris, 1902.

I must also make a quotation from the learned Dr. Rock, which, though written nearly forty years ago, is so apposite while considering this beautiful lacework from Assisi and its Eastern derivation.

Strengthening our idea that the old Egyptians had borrowed the cross as a spell against evil, and a symbol of eternal life, is a passage set forth by Rufinus, A.D. 397, and by Socrates B.C. 440.

"On demolishing at Alexandria a temple dedicated to Serapis, were observed several stones sculptured with letters called hieroglyphics, which showed the figures of a cross. Certain Gentile inhabitants of the city who had lately been converted to the Christian faith, initiated in the method of interpreting these enigmatic characters, declared that the figure of the cross was considered as the symbol of future life."[H]

[H] "Hist. Eccles.," lib. v., c. 17.

"We know that modifications of the form of the cross have been found on monuments already discovered; others may turn up with the so-called 'gammadion' found upon Egyptian stuff of such an early date. The recurrence of the gammadion upon Christian monuments is curious. It is shown in the catacombs, and in numerous later instances. Christianity widened the meaning of this symbol and made it teach the doctrine of the Atonement of Calvary, and that Christ is our corner-stone. In the thirteenth century it was taken to be an apt memorial of His five wounds and, remembering the stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi, this gammadion became the favourite device of such as bore that Saint's name."[I]

[I] Dr. Rock, "Introduction to Textile Fabrics at South Kensington Museum" (Chapman and Hall, 1870), p. cxxxix.

No less than twenty varieties of these polygonal ornaments, many of them introducing the gammadion, are to be found in the lacework of the Assisi alb. _See_ Plate 3.

The tradition mentioned by Dr. Rock of the device of the gammadion being identified with St. Francis may, I think, have originated in the circumstance of his having worn this alb. In Plate 6 I give two examples of early Italian punto reale of the same kind although very inferior in variety and in workmanship, but in most of these early "cartiglia," as this work is called in Italy, the polygonal idea is still predominant.

The other complete alb is also of linen lace, and is said to have been worn by Pope Boniface VIII. in 1298. (_See_ Plate 2.) It is preserved in the Treasury of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, where I had an opportunity of examining it closely and of obtaining the technical details I give. As to its possible history I may note that St. Nilos and his monks were driven from the East by the Saracens at the end of the tenth century, and came to Italy, where they were welcomed by Pope Gregory V. He established them in the monastery a few miles from Rome, where their successors still worship with their Eastern rites. The famous alb may have been brought by these very monks or those who followed them from the East.[J]

[J] "The Pope, Gregory V. (996-999), and the Western Emperor, Otho III. (993-1002), who was then also at Rome, went out to meet the strangers beyond the walls, and received them with all possible honour and respect. And out there in the Campagna, at Grottaferrata, St. Nilos at last built a home for his monks, and there he died. Grottaferrata has stood unchanged till now, no Pope has tried to destroy or Latinise it; after ten centuries, its monks sing out their Greek office in the very heart of the Latin Patriarchate, while outside the Latin olives shelter its Byzantine walls."--"The Orthodox Eastern Church," Adrian Fortescue, D.D. London, 1907.

Then, as now, specimens of the world's treasures of art and handicraft arrived in Rome from all parts of the known world. I see no difficulty in recognising the antiquity of this alb. That the great Pope Boniface VIII. wore it is only a tradition, and no evidence is afforded or vouched for by the authorities at the Vatican. One evidence of its origin should not be overlooked which is the material, which I believe to be the real Byssus, or fine handspun linen from the plant _Linum usitatissimum_ not at that time available in Europe. Dr. Bock remarks that this Byssus was much sought for in early Christian times under the name of Byssus of Alexandria.[K] The linen of the Assisi alb is of the same texture, which I can only describe as crisp and wiry, notwithstanding that in many parts it is much worn; on handling the linen it reminded one at once of the linen of Egyptian mummy cloths, and the Italian curators of both albs, while I must say profoundly indifferent as to the questions of design and execution, which interested me most, were all quite certain that they had known no linen texture resembling it in Italy. It was impossible not to call to mind in this connection, "Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail."[L] The linen of the alb of Pope Boniface is slightly finer than that of the Assisi alb, and is heavily worked with lace ornaments of an Eastern character. The repeated geometrical patterns, or rosettes symmetrically grouped in squares, are worked by the needle in punto a rammendo (_see_ Plate 3), and the curious stitch called punto treccia, or tress-work, is introduced, as well as the punto a stuora, or matting stitch. It may be observed that in such early lacework the punto a festone, or buttonhole stitch, is never, or very rarely found, though afterwards it became almost the only stitch used in all needle-point, until the advent of the réseau.

[K] Dr. Franz Bock, "Die textilen Byssus," Aachen, 1895.

[L] Ezechiel, xxvii. 7.

In the alb of Pope Boniface there is no buttonhole stitch--the ornaments in squares called quadri were inserted in the linen of the alb, and were surrounded by rows of punto tirato worked in the linen itself. The flounce and insertions, or "falsature," of pillow-made lace were evidently added at a later date.

It is interesting to see in the fresco by Giotto (1276-1337), preserved in St. John Lateran, that Pope Boniface VIII. is supported by two ecclesiastics, one of whom is wearing an alb with what appears to be lace on the sleeve.

The tomb of the same pope, and of others of about the same date, afford still more cogent evidence. In the Crypt of St. Peter's, Rome, Pope Boniface VIII. is represented in full pontifical vestments lying on a bier which is draped with a richly ornamental pall; this is raised to show a linen cloth with a border of reticello work in what is termed by a learned writer "the well-known geometrical design of the thirteenth century." The Pope wears an alb with an ornamental border which is repeated on the sleeves.

The fact is, of course, acknowledged that linen cloth was used for bed-linen, towels, and other articles. For albs, linen, and linen only, was ordered by the rubric; therefore, if one sees an alb represented, whether by painting or sculpture, the intention to represent linen is implied. And, if ornamented, the intention to represent linen lace is clear in many instances, although the painter or sculptor cannot, of course, give us a facsimile as satisfying as the photographs we have here.

I will here refer to the well-known pictures by Giotto and his school. One in the Louvre, of the birth of St. John the Baptist, has most unmistakable lacework on the linen of the bed, and on the long towel gracefully depicted as hanging from the shoulder of one of the attendants.

A fresco, also by Giotto, in the Basilica of Assisi, represents the figure of the Divine Infant in a shirt with reticello ornament.

Duccio di Buoninsegna (1260-1340) and Lorenzetti (1276-1348) may be mentioned among many others, as in their paintings linen cloths are rendered with unmistakable needle-point ornament. It is quite clear that these laces were in general use before the fourteenth century, although it is not surprising that few specimens remain to us.

The pattern of the lacis, or sfilatura, in Plate No. 7, is geometrical, with an Eastern tendency, as in Pope Boniface's alb. It is singularly like the dresses of saints in some of the Ravenna mosaics, and the more ancient stitches can be seen in the specimen given, but there is no buttonhole stitch.

In describing the design of this piece of old lacis, I am again tempted to quote M. Gayet's description of lace found in the Coptic tomb. He says: "It is lace as it is made to-day. All the threads of the réseau are drawn together to one point, and the meshes start from the centre like rays crossing and recrossing and thus forming various patterns." The pieces of network from these Coptic tombs, preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum fully justify this description, and no doubt the Eastern tradition can be traced in Plate 7.

As we have seen, the ornament of the earliest laces was simple, or quasi-simple, in design; but even then the craving to represent life often appears. The band down the front of the Assisi alb, for example, has a row of stags thoroughly subservient to the distinctly polygonal idea.

In Plate 11 a portion of an early lacis or modano border is represented. Conventional peacocks and numerous smaller birds are added to the central design of I.H.S. in Gothic letters--quaint little angels are at the ends of some of the rays. The inscription has so far found no interpreter.

The altar-cloth in Plate 12 may possibly have been made for Richard II.; his two wives were both French, and this piece has the stag, which was the royal device.

No. 1 of Plate 13 is an interesting border of Sicilian lacis, the design Eastern, introducing the gammadion, the netting is all made obliquely. Two stitches are used for the pattern, the punto a rammendo and also the punto scritto. A vandyked border of punto avorio is added.

In Plate 14 the squares of lacis or modano are alternated with linen worked with reticello. The design in each square is different.

The effect of the gold thread added to the pattern worked in punto a tela, or linen-stitch, in Plate 15, is very good, and there is much variety in the execution of this piece.

No. 1 of Plate 16 is lacis of possibly German work with a design of vine-leaves and grapes worked in punto a tela. No. 2 is a vandyked border of English lacis with a pattern of large and small blossoms--the larger ones resemble Tudor roses. Both these pieces have the punto riccio introduced.

Plate 17 is a specimen of lacis called buratto in Italy, as the netting is twisted and not knotted. The pattern is punto a rammendo, worked with very coarse thread, but the result is satisfactory. This piece must be early sixteenth-century work.

The two examples of buratto work in the following plate, Plate 18, are much more finely worked with punto a rammendo. The narrow border is probably the earliest.

Alençon has certainly more romantic associations than any other lace-producing town. For the making of lace at Alençon did not begin only with the establishment of that industry in 1660, of which I shall speak later. More than a century before that date Marguérite d'Angoulême, Duchess of Alençon, and afterwards Queen of Navarre, while living at her castle of Alençon, worked and caused to be worked, beautiful ornaments for albs and other articles for use at the altar of St. Leonard's, her parish church. Some of these are preserved in the Alençon Museum; a specimen of early lacis is especially interesting, worked in squares with radiating threads, and the centres worked with punto a stuora as in Plate 17. The specimen of lacis, with gold thread introduced similar to that in Plate 15, may very likely be the very piece alluded to by Clément Marot in his odes to Queen Marguérite. She died in 1549.

"Elle adonnait son courage A faire maint bel ouvrage Dessus la toile et encore a Joindre la soie et or." "Vous d'un pareil exercice Mariez par artifice Dessus la toile a maint tract L'or et la soie en pourtract."

Another interesting record of this Queen is to be found in a manuscript of the expenses of "Madame Marguérite," sister of the King (Francis I.). "For 60 yards fine Florence lace for her collars."[M] This lace was probably fine punto in aria worked in points, as in Plate 30, but it may, of course, also have been bobbin-made lace similar to the edging in Plate 29.

[M] Manuscript in "Bibliothèque Nationale." MS. FF2, 10,394.

The earliest example of tela tirata here is a piece representing St. Francis of Assisi and events of his life, Plate 19. Under the saint's feet is an inscription imperfectly rendered by the pious worker. St. Michael is above, and still higher is the Madonna and many emblems or perhaps fancies of the worker. This lace may have been worked in Assisi itself in the thirteenth or fourteenth century.

Another early specimen has a man in armour with a helmet of thirteenth-century shape. _See_ Plate 20.

Another piece, Plate 21, which is very fine and was no doubt worked for a wedding, represents a bride and bridegroom standing dressed in sixteenth-century costume and surrounded by attendants. Below is a hawking party with dogs.

The infant's swaddling band, Plate 22, is interesting, as these bands are no longer ornamented.

The specimen of tela tirata No. 1, in Plate 25, is of singular make, the whole piece to be worked being prepared by drawing threads at regular intervals. These same threads are then darned in with a needle to form the pattern. In this specimen a small piece has been unpicked to show the way the threads were drawn before beginning the work. This method has, I believe, not hitherto been noticed, as the plan of cutting threads and leaving the pattern in the linen is more usual; but, of course, no cut threads at all remaining in the work rendered it more even and durable, and so justified the extra trouble.

No. 2 of Plate 25, is a piece of tela tirata with punto reale similar, though coarser in make, to the work on the Assisi alb.

Three specimens of sixteenth-century linen work, Plate 28, are reduced in size; one is on a huckaback with a fine macramé fringe. The drawn work of this piece is beautifully done. The cloth in the centre is worked in punto riccio and has a border of punto avorio and a curious fringe. The third is cut and worked in punto riccio and reticello, and has a border of bobbin-made lace.

In Plate 29 we have two examples of reticello, the linen almost entirely cut away and hidden by the different stitches. The punto a stuora is still used for the centres, as we have seen in the earlier laces, and the punto a festone appears for the first time. In the second example we have a curious combination of three laces--an upper border worked almost exactly like the very early lace of Plate 7; then comes an insertion of reticello, and finally a border of Venetian bobbin-lace (merletto a fuselli). This is early fifteenth-century work.

We now come to the third division made in needle-point lace--the punto in aria, which may be said to be the starting-point of all subsequent needle-point laces. No linen or netting being used the worker had to construct her lace--in aria--out of nothing, and a splendid opening it gave, as we shall now see, for invention and for execution. This punto in aria, worked into points, was extensively used for personal adornment: these points gave the name of pizzi to lace, a name which still survives in Italy as comprehensive of all lace, as the name dentelle is in France. The first examples I give here are the two dentated (or vandyked) borders of Plate 31.

The chalice cover, Plate 32, is a very interesting combination of reticello and punto in aria; the lines of the cut-linen foundation are carried across and form a lattice behind the punto in aria devices. The beautifully worked waved pattern circling round the design may be intended to represent St. Peter's chains: the Saint stands with the Scriptures in one hand and the Keys in the other, and has a winged cherub on each side; the edge is of punto in aria.

The reticello pattern of Plate 33 is beautifully rendered in punto avorio and punto in aria. This piece, unlike the specimens given before, has no linen foundation, and therefore is classed as punto in aria and not as reticello or cutwork.

The corporal border of Plate 34, of very conventional floral pattern is, I think, undoubtedly of German early seventeenth-century work.

The border of the Venetian cloth in Plate 35, is a very fine specimen of punto in aria. The two insertions, of which one is given, are alike. They have strange winged and tailed animals alternating with scrolls and vases. The vandyked border is a wonderful piece of work containing altogether forty-eight small figures, and, as is often the case in Venetian work, the figures, birds and animals have tiny black glass beads for eyes. The animals have loops of fine buttonhole stitch to denote manes.

A very interesting and beautiful piece of punto in aria is Plate 36. The design is still reminiscent of the East; the flowing interlaced flower-stems, with animals introduced, have quite a Persian effect. But the beautiful rendering of the pendant flowers, and the true love knots, as well as the heraldic device of the Visconti (the crowned serpent) mark the elegance and freedom of the Renaissance. It was, no doubt, made in Venice in the late sixteenth century.

The punto in aria trimming for the neck of an alb, Plate 37, is a very remarkable piece, and the execution full of interest. The work is entirely without foundation. The figures are clothed with mantles of very beautifully worked network, called in Italy mezza mandolina. The edges of the mantles are worked in punto avorio. Realism is attempted by representing the features in relief, and little black beads are added to the eyes.

A curious border of the Venetian rose-point is No. 1, Plate 38, worked entirely in punto a festone. Birds and serpents occur, and the thick cordonnet which outlines the pattern is also used to denote the scales of the serpents and the feathers of the birds, tiny black beads mark the eyes as in Plate 37. The edging is of very fine punto avorio. A specimen of the so-called coraline Venice needle-point is also on this Plate.

In Plate 39 we have a very interesting specimen of needle-point as applied to personal use--a lady's camisia, or shirt, of the sixteenth century. The linen has a square hole cut for the head, and this opening is beautifully worked in punto in aria. The sleeves are ornamental with oblique bands of cut-work, and the seams everywhere worked with drawn stitches and insertions of punto avorio. The handwoven linen is in good condition, although the garment must have been much worn, as the cuffs have been replaced by bobbin-made frills, trine a fuselli. It is doubtful whether three hundred years hence any linen garment worn at the present time will survive.

From the beginning of the sixteenth century the fashion began of working portions of the lace separately, and joining them together by brides, and modes or fillings were also introduced, into the pattern. Later, from about 1630, the réseau ground was introduced, covering the whole space between the patterns; the patterns themselves also changed, and from being geometric and conventional became more and more realistic. The stately lace of Venice, however, may be said to have always preserved its conventional tradition, whether in the heavy rose or raised point or the delicate point à réseau.

Venice obtained her pre-eminence of lace-making in the sixteenth century. The flat point is probably the earliest distinctive lace; but this was soon enriched by work upon work, stitch upon stitch, which gave the name of rose-point or punto in rilievo. The characteristic ornament in the heavy so-called gros point de Venise consists of conventional blossoms like leaves and scrolls treated as though carved in ivory or bone, and to it applies the title of punto tagliato a fogliami. The brides are sometimes quite plain, but later are adorned with picots.

We now come to the period when lace, so long only made for church purposes, was very extensively made and used by lay persons for their personal adornment, and for furnishing purposes. The bed cover Plate 40 was, no doubt, one of many made for a household of simple tastes; the coarse linen is cut into a fine flowing pattern edged with buttonhole stitch, and ornamented with various fillings. But in houses of greater pretension the use of the richest rose-point became lavish, not only on the dress of the mistress, the collar of the master, but on table covers and hangings of every kind. Examples of this splendid lace are given in No. 42 and following plates. No. 44 has, perhaps, the finest toilé; but the design of No. 45 is very beautiful. No. 46 is a flounce for an alb of very fine scroll design with brides picotées and occasional raised work; the beauty of the pattern is better seen in the enlargement, Plate 47. The paten cover, No. 48, and the enlargement of it, No. 49, give a complete idea of the style and execution of this lace.

The design of the flounce, No. 51, is of the style usually associated with point de France, the stitches and brides picotées are identical in workmanship with the Venetian point. It was probably made at Alençon, Sedan, or one of the other lace-making centres which were started upon the importation of Venetian laceworkers into France after the middle of the seventeenth century.

The specimens of Spanish rose-point, Nos. 53 and 54, show the stately and elaborate design, rather overloaded with ornament, which is characteristic of this lace.