CHAPTER XXI.

"LES ANCIENNES TAPISSERIES;" TAPESTRY OF ST. MARY'S HALL, COVENTRY; TAPESTRY OF HAMPTON COURT.

"There is a sanctity in the past."

Bulwer.

All monuments of antiquity are so speedily passing away, all traces of those bygone generations on which the mind loves to linger, and which in their dim and indistinct memories exercise a spell, a holy often, and a purifying spell on the imagination are so fleeting, and when _irrevocably_ gone will be so lamented--that all testimonies which throw certain light on the habits and manners of the past, how slight soever the testimonies they afford, how trivial soever the characteristics they display, are of the highest possible value to an enlightened people, who apply the experience of the past to its legitimate and noblest use, the guidance and improvement of the present.

In this point of view the work which forms the subject of this chapter[125] assumes a value which its intrinsic worth--beautiful as is its execution--would not impart to it; and it is thus rendered not less valuable as an historical record, than it is attractive as a work of taste.

"Là chez eux, (we quote from the preface to the work itself,) c'est un siège ou un tournoi; ici un festin, plus loin une chasse; et toujours, chasse, festin, tournoi, siège, tout cela est _pourtraict au vif_, comme aurait dit Montaigne, tout cela nous retrace au naturel la vie de nos pères, nous montre leurs châteaux, leurs églises, leurs costumes, leurs armes et même, grâce aux légendes explicatives, leur langage à diverses époques. Il y a mieux. Si nous nous en rapportons à l'inventaire de Charles V., exécuté en 1379, toute la littérature française des siècles féconds qui précédèrent celui de ce sage monarque, aurait été par ces ordres traduite en laine."

This book consists of representations of all the existing ancient tapestries which activity and research can draw from the hiding-places of ages, copied in the finest outline engraving, with letter-press descriptions of each plate. They are published in numbers, and in a style worthy of the object. We do not despair of seeing this spirited example followed in our own country, where many a beautiful specimen of ancient tapestry, still capable of renovation by care--is mouldering unthought of in the lumber-rooms of our ancient mansions.

We have seen twenty-one numbers of this work, with which we shall deal freely: excepting, however, the eight parts which are entirely occupied by the Bayeux Tapestry. Our own chapters on the subject were written before we were fortunate enough to obtain a sight of these, which include the whole of the correspondence on the tapestry to which we in our sketch alluded.

LA TAPISSERIE DE NANCY.--"aurait une illustre origine, et remonterait à une assez haute antiquité. Prise dans la tente de Charles le Téméraire, lors de la mort de ce prince, en 1477, devant la capitale de la Lorraine, qu'il assiégeait, elle serait devenue un meuble de la couronne, et aurait servi au palais des ducs de ce pays, depuis René 2 jusqu'à Charles IV.----C'est une de ces anciennes tapisseries flamandes dont le tissu, de laine tres fine, est éclairé par l'or et la soie. La soie et la laine subsistent encore, mais l'or ne s'aperçoit plus que dans quelques endroits et à la faveur d'un beau soleil. Nous ferons remarquer que le costume des divers personnages que figurent dans notre monument est tout à fait caractéristique. Ce sont bien là les vêtements et les ornements en usage vers la moitié du quinzième siècle, et la disposition artistique, le choix du sujet, ainsi que l'exécution elle-même portent bien l'empreinte du style des oeuvres de 1450 environ.----La maison de Bourgogne était fort riche en joyaux, en vaisselle d'or ou d'argent et en _tapis_."

The tapestry presents an allegorical history, of which the object is to depict the inconveniences consequent on what is called "good cheer." Later on this formed the subject of "a morality." Originally this tapestry was only one vast page, the requisite divisions being wrought in the form of ornamented columns. It was afterwards cut in pieces, and unfortunately the natural divisions of the subject were not attended to in the severment. More unhappily still the pieces have since been rejoined in a wrong order; and after every possible endeavour to read them aright, the publishers are indebted to the "Morality" before referred to, which was taken from it, and was entitled "La Nef de Santé, avec le gouvernail du corps humain, et la condamnaçion des bancquetz, a la louenge de Diepte et Sobriéte, et la Traictie des Passions de l'ame."

Banquet, Bonnecompagnie, Souper, Gourmandise, Friandise, Passetemps, Je pleige d'autant, Je boy à vous, and other rare personifications, not forgetting that indispensable guest _then_ in all courtly pastime, Le fol, "go it" to their hearts' content, until they are interrupted _vi et armis_ by a ghastly phalanx in powerful array of Apoplexie, Ydropsie, Epilencie, Pleurisie, Esquinancie, Paralasie, Gravelle, Colicque, &c.

TAPISSERIE DE DIJON.--"On conviendra qu'il serait difficile de trouver un monument de ce genre plus fidèle sur le rapport historique, plus intéressant pour les arts, et plus digne d'être reproduit par la gravure. Je ferai en outre remarquer combien cet immense tableau de laine, qui est unique, renferme de détails précieux à la fois pour la panoplie, pour les costumes, et l'architecture du commencement du 16 siècle, ainsi que pour l'histoire monumentale de Dijon."

This tapestry, judging by the engravings in the work we quote, must be very beautiful. The groups are spirited and well disposed; and the countenances have so much _nature_ and expression in them, as to lead us readily to credit the opinion of the writer that they were portraits. The buildings are well outlined; and in the third piece an excellent effect is produced by exposing--by means of an open window, or some simple contrivance of the sort--part of the interior of the church of Nôtre Dame, and so displaying the brave leader of the French army, La Tremouille, as he offers thanks before the shrine of the Virgin.

The tapestry was worked immediately after the siege of Dijon, (1513) and represents in three scenes the most important circumstances relating to it; the costumes, the arms, and the architecture of the time being displayed with fidelity and exactitude. The first represents the invading army before the walls; the second a solemn procession in honour of Notre-Dame-de-Bonne-Espoir. In the midst is elevated the image of the Virgin, which is surrounded by the clergy in their festal vestments, by the religious communities, by the nobility, the bourgeois, and the military, all bearing torches.

To this solemn procession was attributed the truce which led to a more lasting peace, though there are some heterodox dissentients who attribute this substantial advantage to the wisdom and policy of the able commander La Tremouille, who shared with Bayard the honourable distinction of being "sans peur et sans reproche."

TAPISSERIES DE BAYARD.--A château which belonged to this noted hero was despoiled at the Revolution, and it was doubtless only owing to an idea of its worthlessness that some of the ancient tapestry was left there. These fragments, in a deplorable state, were purchased in 1807, and there are yet sufficient of them to bear testimony to their former magnificence, and to decide the date of their creation at the close of the fourteenth or beginning of the fifteenth century. The subjects are taken from Homer's "Iliad," and "il est probable (says M. Jubinal) que ce poëme se trouvait originairement reproduit en laine presque tout entier, malgré sa longueur, car ce n'était pas le travail qui effrayait nos aïeux."

Valenciennes was celebrated for the peculiar fineness and gloss of its tapestry. By the indefatigable industry of certain antiquarians, some pieces in good preservation representing a tournament, have lately been taken from a garret, dismantled of their triple panoply of dust, cleaned and hung up; after being traced from their original abode in the state apartments of a prince through various gradations, to the damp walls of a registry office, where, from their apparent fragility alone, they escaped being cut into floor mats.

Those of the CHATEAU D'HAROUE, and of the COLLECTION DUSOMMERARD, are also named here; but there is little to say about them, as the subjects are more imaginary than historical. They are of the sixteenth century, representing scenes of the chase, and are enlivened with birds in every position, some of them being, in proportion to other figures, certainly _larger_ than life, and "twice as natural."

TAPISSERIES DE LA CHAISE DIEU.--"L'Abbaye de la Chaise Dieu fut fondée en 1046 par Robert qu'Alexandre 2de canonisa plus tard en 1070; et dont l'origine se rattachait à la famille des comtes de Poitou.

"Robert fut destiné de bonne heure aux fonctions du sacerdoce." He went on pilgrimage to the tombs of some of the Apostles, and it was on his return thence that he was first struck with the idea of founding a coenobitical establishment.

"Réuni à un soldat nommé Etienne, à un solitaire nommé Delmas, et à un chanoine nommé Arbert, il se retira dans la solitude, et s'emparant du désert au profit de la religion, il planta la croix du Sauveur dans les lieux jusqu'à-là couverts de forêts et de bruyères incultes, et rassembla quelques disciples pour vivre auprès de lui sous la règle qu'un ange lui avait, disait il, apportée du ciel.

"Bientôt la réputation des cénobites s'étendit; Robert fut reconnu comme leur chef. De toutes parts on accourut les visiter. Des donations leur furent faites, et sur les ruines d'une ancienne église une nouvelle basilique s'éleva.

"Telle est à peu prés l'histoire primitive de l'abbaye de la Chaise-Dieu."

The Chaise-Dieu tapestries are fourteen in number, three of them are ten feet square, and the others are six feet high by eighteen long, excepting one which measures nearly twenty-six feet. Twelve are hung on the carved wood-work of the choir of the great church, and thus cover an immense space. Further off is the ancient choir of the monks, of which the wood-work of sculptured oak is surprisingly rich. Not even the cathedral of Rheims, of which the wood-work has long been regarded as the most beautiful in the kingdom, contains so great a number. Unhappily in times of intestine commotion this chef d'oeuvre has been horribly mutilated by the axes of modern iconoclasts, more ferocious than the barbarians of old. The two other tapestries are placed in the Church of the Penitents, an ancient refectory of the monks which now forms a dependent chapel to the great temple.

These magnificent hangings are woven of wool and silk, and one yet perceives almost throughout, golden and silver threads which time has spared. When the artist prepared to copy them for the work we are quoting, no one dreamt of the richness buried beneath the accumulated dust and dirt of centuries. They were carefully cleaned, and then, says the artist, "Je suis ébloui de cette magnificence que nous ne soupçonnions plus. C'est admirable. Les Gobelins ne produisent pas aujourd'hui de tissus plus riches et plus éclatans. Imaginez-vous que les robes des femmes, les ornemens, les colonnettes sont émaillés, ruisselants de milliers de pierres fines et de perles," &c.

It would be tedious to attempt to describe individually the subjects of these tapestries. They interweave the histories of the Old and New Testaments; the centre of the work generally representing some passage in the life of our Saviour, whilst on each side is some correspondent typical incident from the Old Testament. Above are rhymed quatrains, either legendary or scriptural; and below and around are sentences drawn from the prophets or the psalms.

These tapestries appear to have been the production of the close of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries, denoting in the architecture and costumes _more_ the reigns of Charles VIII. and Louis XI., than of Louis XII. and Francis I. Such pieces were probably long in the loom, since the tapestry of Dijon, composed of a single _lai_ of twenty-one feet, required not less, according to a competent judge, than ten years' labour.

There are some most beautiful, even amongst these all-beautiful engravings, which we much regret to see there--engravings of the tapestry in the cathedral of Aix, which tapestry ought still to enrich our own country. Shame on those under whose barbarous rule these, amongst other valuable and cherished monuments, were, as relics of papistry, bartered for foreign gold. "L'histoire manuscrite de la ville d'Aix dit que cette tapisserie avait servi à l'église de St. Paul de Londres ou à toute autre église cathédrale d'Angleterre; qu'à l'époque de la Réformation, les tableaux et les tapisseries ayant été exclus des temples, les Anglais cherchèrent à vendre dans les pays étrangers quelques-unes des tapisseries qui ornaient leurs cathédrales, et _qu'ils en brûlèrent un plus grand nombre_!"

This tapestry represents the history of our Saviour, in twenty seven compartments, being in the whole about 187 feet long. It is supposed to have been woven about 1511, when William Warham was Archbishop of Canterbury, and Chancellor. Warham had been previously Bishop of London; and as his arms are on this tapestry, and also the arms of two prior bishops of London who are supposed to have left legacies to ornament the church which were applied towards defraying the expenses of this manufacture, it seems quite probable that its destination was St. Paul's, and not any other cathedral church. The arms of the king are inwrought in two places; for Henry contributed to the embellishment of this church. He loved the arts; he decorated churches; and though he seceded from the Roman communion, he maintained throughout his life magnificent decorations in his favourite churches as well as the worship of the ancient Catholic Church. It was first under Edward, and more decidedly under Elizabeth, that the ceremonies of the church were completely changed, and that those which had been considered only decent and becoming were stigmatised as popish. Nor did this fantasy reach its height until the time of Cromwell.

Lord Douglas, Earl of Buchan, who founded the Society of Antiquaries in Edinburgh, endeavoured during the interval of the Peace of Amiens, to treat with the Archbishop of Aix for the repurchase of this tapestry. He would have placed it in a Gothic church belonging to an ancient Scotch Abbey on his domains. He had already ornamented this church with several beautiful monuments of antiquity, and he wished to place this tapestry there as a national monument, but the treaty was broken off.

The TAPESTRIES OF AULHAC, representing the siege of Troy, and those of BEAUVAIS, embracing a variety of subjects from history both sacred and profane; of the LOUVRE, representing the Miracle of St. Quentin, tapestry representing ALEXANDER, King of Scotland; and those of ST. REMI, at Rheims, are all engraven and described.

Those of the magnificent cathedral church at Rheims, consisting of forty tapestries, forming different collections, but all on religious subjects, will probably form the material for future numbers.

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That there are ancient tapestries existing in England fully equal to those in France is, we think, almost certain; but of course they are not to be summoned from the "vasty deep" of neglect and oblivion by the powerless voice of an obscure individual. Gladly would we, had it been in our power, have enriched our sketch by references to some of them.

The following notice of a tapestry at Coventry is drawn from "Smith's Selections of the ancient Costume of Britain;" and the names of the tapestries at Hampton Court Palace from "Pyne's Royal Residences." We have recently visited Hampton Court for the express purpose of viewing the tapestries. There, we believe, they were, entirely (with the exception of a stray inch or two here and there) hung over with paintings.

The splendid though neglected tapestry of St. Mary's Hall at Coventry offers a variety of materials no less interesting on account of the sanctity and misfortunes of the prince (Henry VI.) who is there represented, than curious as specimens of the arts of drawing, dyeing, and embroidery of the time in which it was executed.

It is thirty feet in length and ten in height; and is divided into six compartments, three in the upper tier and three in the lower, containing in all upwards of eighty figures or heads. The centre compartment of the upper row, in its perfect and original state, represented the usual personification of the Trinity--(the Trinity Guild held its meetings in the hall of St. Mary) surrounded by angels bearing the various instruments of the Passion. But the zeal of our early reformers sacrificed this part of the work, and substituted in its stead a tasteless figure of Justice, which now holds the scales amidst the original group of surrounding angels.

The right hand division of this tier is occupied with sundry figures of saints and martyrs, and the opposite side is filled with a group of female saints.

In the centre compartment below is represented the Virgin Mary in the clouds, standing on the crescent, surrounded by the twelve Apostles and many cherubs. But the two remaining portions of this fine tapestry constitute its chief value and importance to the city of Coventry, as they represent the figures of Henry VI., his Queen, the ambitious, and crafty, and cruel, yet beautiful and eloquent and injured Margaret of Anjou, and many of their attendants. During all the misfortunes of Henry, the citizens of Coventry zealously supported him; and their city is styled by historians "Queen Margaret's secret bower." As the tapestry was purposely made for the hall, and probably placed there during the lives of the sovereigns, the figures may be considered as authentic portraits.

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The first Presence Chamber in Hampton Court is (or was) hung with rich ancient tapestry, representing a landscape, with the figures of Nymphs, Fawns, Satyrs, Nereides, &c.

There is some fine ancient tapestry in the King's Audience Chamber, the subjects being, on one side, Abraham and Lot dividing their lands; and on the other, God appearing to Abraham purchasing ground for a burying-place.

The tapestry on the walls of the King's Drawing-Room represents Abraham entertaining the three Angels; also Abraham, Isaac, and Rebecca.

The tapestry which covers three sides of the King's State Bedchamber represents the history of Joshua.

The walls of the Queen's Audience Chamber are covered with tapestry hangings, which represent the story of Abraham and Melchisedec, and Abraham and Rebecca.

The Ball Room is called also the Tapestry Gallery, from the superb suite of hangings that ornament its walls, which was brought from Flanders by General Cadogan, and set up by order of George I. The series of seven compartments describes the history of Alexander the Great, from the paintings of the celebrated Charles le Brun. The first represents the story of Alexander and his horse Bucephalus; the second, the visit of Alexander to Diogenes; the third, the passage of Alexander over the Granicus; the fourth, Alexander's visit to the mother and wife of Darius, in their tent, after the battle of Arbela; the fifth, Alexander's triumphal entrance into Babylon; the sixth, Alexander's battle with Porus; the seventh, his second entrance into Babylon.--These magnificent hangings were wrought at the Gobelins.

The tapestry hangings in the king's private bedchamber describe the naval battle of Solebay between the combined fleets of England and France and the Dutch fleet, in 1672.

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Of all the tapestries here recorded, the last only, representing the Battle of Solebay, are now visible.

FOOTNOTE:

[125] "Les Anciennes Tapisseries Historiées, ou Collection des Monumens les plus remarquables, de ce genre, qui nous soient restés du moyen age." A Paris.