HANGINGS.
"... Her bedchamber was hang'd
With tapestry of silk and silver...."
"Cymbeline," Act II., Scene IV.
The most important works that have been executed in embroidery, have
been hangings or carpets. We may look upon these as belonging to the
history of the past. Never again will such works be undertaken. Their
_raison d'être_, as well as the means for their production, have
ceased to exist. We have very ancient historical evidence of the use
of hangings (or tapestries), either as curtains to exclude prying
eyes, or as coverings to what was sacred or else unseemly, or as
ornamental backgrounds in public and private buildings.
There is no doubt that in pillared spaces the enclosures and
subdivisions were completed by hangings from pillar to pillar, from
the earliest times of Asiatic civilization. In Assyria, and afterwards
in Greece and Rome, the open courts and rooms were shaded from the sun
and rain by umbrella-like erections with hangings stretched over them.
From the Coliseum's vast area to that of the smallest atrium in the
Pompeian house, the covering principle was the same.
Palace-halls and temples alike were furnished in this way, and the
cold splendour of the polished marbles was enhanced by contrast with
the shadowing folds of soft textures richly embroidered in bright
colours and gold. The statues, the gold and silver vessels, the
shrines heaped with votive offerings, were all brought into higher
relief and effect by the screens, the curtains, and the veils which
classical perfect taste would plan so as to carry out the decorator's
intention. Babylonians, Persians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Greeks, and
Jews, each adorned their sacred places in similar fashions.[438]
Clemens Alexandrinus says that behind the hangings of the Egyptian
temples were hidden their "foolish images."[439]
The word "hangings" was applied to all large curtains and tapestries,
tent coverings, screens dividing empty spaces, or pendant between
pillars; also sails,[440] banners, and decorations for processional
purposes covering walls or hanging from windows; all these have been
embroidered or woven with pictures and patterns. Carpets, from having
originally the same name, "tapete," are to be added to this list, and,
in fact, their uses are often interchanged. Kosroes' famous hangings
were used as a carpet, and Persian and Babylonian carpets have been
hung on the walls. A Babylonian hanging must have resembled, in its
style (of which we have descriptions), the Persian carpet of to-day.
Semper gives excellent reasons for his theory that, next to dress,
hangings (the clothing of architecture) were the earliest phase of
art.[441] He looks upon the most ancient paintings on architecture as
absolutely representing textile coverings. Some of the earliest
Babylonian decorations show men supporting draperies, which he
believes to be the tradition of the time when the tallest slaves held
up the hangings to their own height; and above them, in tiers, were
men, dwarfs, and even children fastened on brackets, carrying the
hangings up to the roofs. This was an Assyrian custom, and was adopted
by the Romans as a mode of disposing of their prisoners of war.
Woltmann and Woermann appear to lean to the suggestion that permanent
imitations of hangings were carried out in painted or encaustic tiles
covering the masonry of Chaldean buildings at Nimroud and Khorsabad.
The pale ones associated with low reliefs, and really resembling them,
as they were partly raised, and the reliefs in alabaster and stone,
which were partly coloured, were in harmony, and yet in contrast, with
the brilliant tiles of Babylon.[442]
We know exactly what were the purple, scarlet, and white hangings of
the Sanctuary in the wilderness, designed by Bezaleel, and that the
veil of the Temple was blue, purple, crimson or scarlet, and white,
i.e. worked on white linen; and we know from Josephus, that "the veil
of the Temple, which was rent in twain" sixteen centuries later, was
that dedicated by Herod, and was Babylonian work, representing heaven
and earth[443] (see p. 23 _ante_). Its colouring was scarlet, white,
and blue. Scarlet and white hangings seem indeed to have been an
Oriental fashion; and fashion then was not ephemeral, but lasted
hundreds of years. The embroidered curtains of the Tabernacle are
repeated in the hangings of Alexander's wedding tent, after 1500
years; and a thousand years later still they reappear in the seventh
century, when Pope Sergius gave curtains to the high altar
(baldachino) in the basilica of St. Peter's at Rome of this same
scarlet and white embroidery.
In early Oriental art, the enormous expenditure of work is appalling
to think of. Abulfeda describes the palace of the Caliph Moctader, on
the banks of the Tigris, as being adorned with 38,000 pieces of
tapestry, and of these 12,000 were of silk worked in gold. What a
wealth of women had to be wasted in creating such a wealth of
embroideries![444]
There is a Bedouin romance which describes the tent of Antar, and
shows the taste for large works. Five thousand horsemen could skirmish
under its embroidered shade; and Akbar's largest tent held 10,000
persons.
Nadir Shah's gorgeous tent, which was of the end of the seventeenth
and the beginning of the eighteenth century, was of scarlet cloth on
the outside, lined with violet satin embroidered with gold and
precious stones. The peacock throne was placed within it, and was kept
there during the remainder of Nadir Shah's reign.
Sir John Chardin says that "The Khan of Persia caused a tent to be
made which cost two millions: they called it the house of gold;" and
it was resplendent with embroideries.[445] These are comparatively
modern works, and sound commonplace and vulgar compared to those of
Greece and Egypt.
The Greeks imitated the tents and temporary buildings of the Eastern
monarchs. This phase of Oriental luxury was imported by Alexander the
Great, and we have the description of two of his gorgeous creations at
Alexandria, where he outrivalled the ancient traditional glories of
Assyria and Persia. His own tent was supported by fifty golden
pillars, carrying a roof of woven gold, embroidered in shimmering
colours, and divided from the surrounding court, filled with guards
and retainers, by scarlet and white curtains of splendid material and
design.
But more gorgeous is the account of the tent in which he entertained
ninety-one of his companions-in-arms on the occasion of his marriage.
This tent was supported by columns twenty cubits high, plated with
silver and gold, and inlaid with precious stones. The walls of the
court were formed by curtains adorned with figures worked in gold, and
were hung from beams plated with the precious metals, to match the
columns. The outer court was half a mile in circumference.[446]
Yet Alexander's wedding-tent was exceeded in splendour by that erected
by Ptolemy Philadelphus for his great pomp at Alexandria, described by
Kallixenos, as cited by Athenæus.[447] This tent, crowned with golden
eagles, was supported by pillars fifty cubits high. They upheld an
architrave with cross-beams covered with linen, on which were painted
coffers, to imitate the structure of a solid roof. From the centre was
suspended a veil of scarlet bordered with white. The pillars in the
four angles represented palm-trees of gold, and the intermediate
columns were fashioned as thursi, and were probably wreathed with
golden vines and bunches of grapes made of amethysts, as we know of a
Persian tent so adorned, and the whole idea of the erection was
evidently fresh from the East.[448] A frieze eight cubits high was
composed of niches containing groups of tragic, comic, and Satyric
figures "in their natural garb;" and nymphs and golden tripods from
Delphi. The tent was separated from the outer peristyle by scarlet
hangings, covered with choice skins of wild beasts. Upon these were
hung the celebrated Sikyonian pictures, the heritage of the Ptolemaic
dynasty, alternating with portraits and rich hangings, on which were
embroidered the likenesses of kings, and likewise mythological
subjects. Between these and the frieze hung gold and silver shields.
Opposite the entrance, vessels of the most costly materials and
workmanship, valued at 10,000 talents of silver, were ranged, so as to
strike the eye of all who entered there. Golden couches supported by
Sphinxes were placed along the sides of the tent, furnished with soft
purple woollen mattresses, and coverings gaily and exquisitely
embroidered. The floor was strewn with fresh blossoms, except where a
most costly Persian carpet covered the centre. In the doorways and
against the pillars stood a hundred precious statues by the greatest
artists.
This description dazzles the imagination! To be an upholsterer (a
vestiarius) in those days was to be an engineer, architect, and
artist! Semper, from whose translation we are quoting, remarks that
the luxurious "motive" of such an erection naturally arose from the
desire to make use of the mass of artistic materials acquired by
conquest, and the effort to reduce them to certain architectural
principles already accepted.[449]
That Alexander did not purposely destroy the Persian embroideries is
evident from the fact that Lucullus speaks of them 200 years later.
Rome accepted and adopted all the Oriental uses of hangings, in the
Temple and the house for temporary festive occasions.
By both Greeks and Romans hangings were used in triumphal processions,
covering immense moving cars or draping the temporary buildings which
lined the avenues of their progress. Also the funeral pyres which
Greece and Rome copied from Assyria were hung with splendid materials
and embroideries. Without describing one of these awful erections, it
is impossible to give any idea of how much artistic treasure was
thrown into the flames which consumed the remains of a great man. The
funeral pyre dedicated by Alexander to his friend Hephæstion recalls
that erected by Sardanapalus in one of the courts of his own palace,
on which he perished, surrounded by his wives and his treasures.
Hephæstion's catafalque was built of inflammable materials, 250 feet
high, raised in many stories, and hung with pictorial tapestries,
painted and embroidered. Each story was adorned with images of ivory
and gold. In the upper story were enormous hollow figures of Sirens,
filled with singers, who chanted the funeral odes.[450] It is to be
hoped that they were released before the conflagration.
The records of such extravagant funeral ceremonies teach us how much
of human thought, how much of art and beauty which had helped to
civilize the world, were torn from the places they were intelligently
designed to decorate, heaped up by the conquerors, and as ruthlessly
spent and destroyed for the boast of a day.[451]
Christian Rome adopted the traditions of Pagan decoration, and
introduced them in her worship, processions, and shows. A great
religious procession like that of the "Corpus Domini" in our own
times, has reminded us of a Roman triumph. The baldachini and the
banners; the torches; the streets, festooned with draperies; even the
Pagan emblems, which have been converted into Christian symbolism--all
these were the echoes of classical days; but they are fast
disappearing. Two thousand years will have worn out and effaced these
customs, and our children will not see them.
I have not space to linger over the many descriptions of Oriental,
Grecian, and Roman work to be gathered from classical authors, but
from them this lesson is to be learned that the first principle which
guided those great decorators was the individuality and
appropriateness of each design to the purpose for which it was
intended and the place it was to fill. But even their peculiar
excellences did not save them from the universal law of destruction.
When the hangings were worn, or became for any reason distasteful,
they were replaced by others, often by gifts or spoils from friendly
allies or conquered kings. The quantity of gold laid upon these great
religious or national works was the cause of their destruction as soon
as they were withdrawn and superseded by something of a newer fashion.
The intrinsic value in precious metals of such works is proved by
Pliny's statement that Nero gave four millions of sesterces for covers
of couches in a banqueting-hall.[452] The hangings or carpets taken by
the Caliph Omar from Kosroes' white palace (A.D. 651) must have been
some of the finest and most valuable embroideries ever known. They
formed a tapestry carpet or hanging, representing all the flowers of
spring, worked in coloured silks, gold, and precious stones. Kosroes
entreated Omar to keep it intact for himself, but he was so virtuous
that he cut it up into little bits and divided it amongst his
generals. Gibbon describes this wonderful piece of work.[453] We have
heard much of a marvellous carpet, given lately by the Guicowar of
Baroda to the tomb of Mahomet at Medina, which, from its description,
recalls the style of Kosroes' hangings; and their history gives us a
notable instance of how works of art in the time of war and conquest
come to be considered only for the value of their materials. War, the
enemy of culture, all but effaces whole phases of art when a country
is overrun and plundered. But there is almost always a residuum, which
has influence whenever there is a revival, beginning with the smaller
arts of luxury in more peaceful and prosperous days.[454]
To return to the classical veils and hangings. You may see them on
Babylonian bas-reliefs, on Greek fictile vases, or painted in frescoes
on the walls of Egyptian tombs and temples; in the houses in Pompeii
and Herculaneum, and in the remains of Roman villas and tombs
everywhere. From all of these we may learn something.
The obvious intention of hangings in household decoration is to cover
bare walls, so as to adorn at once that which was rough or common,
without delay or trouble. They were also used as curtains to shut out
the cold or the heat, and to give privacy to rooms without doors or
windows. Hangings on bare walls have always been meant to hang
straight down, undisturbed by folds, whereas curtains and portières
would probably have to be looped up or continually drawn aside. The
designs to be worked upon them should necessarily be regulated by
their shape and use.
Semper considers that a square is an expressionless form, and that it
should be avoided.[455] If you wish to give dignity to a room, its
hanging decorations should be divided into panels of greater height
than breadth, so as to elevate the spaces they cover. Horizontal
stripes bring down the ceiling, and even in furniture, look ill except
as borders. Nothing can be more ugly or inartistic than the curtains
one finds in old illuminations, covered with bands of the same pattern
throughout the surface, but even this is less unpleasant on the walls
than lines crossing each other at right angles. The Romans looked on
chequers as barbarous national characteristics, and left them to the
Gauls and Britons. Chequers should be avoided unless they express a
meaning, as in Scotch tartans. Semper observes that the striped
stuffs, especially those of Oriental fabrics, were never intended to
be spread out flat, but to be draped in folds and loops, and the lines
only seen broken up. He continues:--"One rule, which cannot be
neglected with impunity, is this: that whether the hanging or screen
is supposed to stand or to hang, there must be an above and a below to
every pattern, and it must, moreover, be upright." All foliage
designs, and those containing animals, must start from below, and grow
upwards. Another of his laws is that the heaviest colours should be
placed below, and the palest and brightest above. This may be
disputed. It must be first determined where contrast is needed. If
the darkest part of the pattern is below, it may be necessary to give
it the lightest background, on the principle of balancing quantities
in colour. The dado, or lowest border, will often give the necessary
weight to the design. Semper goes on to say, "A surface may be made to
appear to stand, or to hang down, according to its decoration. For
instance, a triangle will hang or stand, according as its apex points
downwards or upwards. But in draped curtains all symmetry of design is
lost, and the rich forms and fulness of folds rather tend to destroy
the effect of elaborate patterns, and to take their place."
Another important difference between standing and hanging tapestries
is their finish or edge, the upper one being an upright continuous
border, and the lower one a fringe. In both cases it is a continuation
of the main threads of the material, and these belong exclusively to
the hanging tapestries and curtains. The fringe is so essential a part
of hanging decoration, that we must pause and give it our best
consideration. In Babylonian art it is most important. The extreme
solidity of the knotted fringes in their dress and hangings show
either the thickness of the woven substance, or that the fringes were
made by enriching the warp and adding to it. They are almost always,
on the Assyrian sculptures, simply knotted fringes; but the little
portable Chaldean temple on the bronze gates from Balawat (near
Nimroud), in the British Museum, shows fringes of bells or fruit like
those of the Jewish tabernacle in the wilderness (fig. 2). On Egyptian
linen we sometimes see, woven or worked, a reticulated pattern which
imitates a fringe.
The carpets of the Egyptians, Babylonians, and Persians were evidently
used sometimes as hangings, though many of their designs would not
have served both purposes equally well. That the Babylonian weavers,
however, understood that a carpet lying on the ground should be
covered with an even pattern, and be finished with a border all round,
is evident from the exquisitely chiselled designs, imitating carpets,
on two portions of pavements in the British Museum (pl. 27); and we
may compare these with the different treatment of designs for the
veils of the temples, both in Babylon and Egypt, on which were
represented the signs of the zodiac and all the heavenly bodies, and
other symbolical and unconventional forms. The Atrium of the Greek and
Pompeian houses, which was modelled on the same idea, was separated
from the Court by curtains, hung on rods or nails. On festive
occasions these may have been garlanded with natural flowers. If so,
we may be sure that the little wreaths worked on them, as we learn
from frescoes, would combine with the gala day's decorations, and
would be designed with that view. The Greek artist would never have
approved of natural flowers or trees, embroidered as if growing out of
a dado, simulating a garden worked in wool. This would have been
considered a bad attempt at pictorial art.
M. Louis de Ronchaud, in his "Tapisseries des Anciens," speaks of the
hangings which he supposes to have decked the recess that contained
the chryselephantine statue of Athenè Parthenos in her temple at
Athens. He says these votive hangings dressed the pillars that
surrounded the Hecatompedon, and formed a tent over the head of the
goddess. M. de Ronchaud believes that among the subjects of the
Delphic embroideries, described by Euripides in the tragedy of Ion,
may be recognized some derived from the designs on saffron-coloured
hangings, spoken of by the poet as "the wings of the peplos."[456]
The downfall of decorative art, domestic as well as national, kept
pace with the downfall of the Roman Empire. During the Dark Ages, of
such art there seems to have been very little; and of that the best
was Celtic or Anglo-Saxon. But the darkness shrouds from our view the
artistic life of the world, and the dawn was very long in breaking. We
must therefore return to the subject of hangings, after a gap of
nearly a thousand years, when the first stirrings of the European
revival came, in the twelfth century.[457] Symonds says: "The arts and
the inventions, the knowledge and the books, which suddenly became
vital at the time of the Renaissance, had long lain neglected on the
shores of that Dead Sea which we call 'The Middle Ages.'"[458]
There can be no doubt that, during the Dark Ages, hangings woven and
embroidered continued to be the custom throughout Europe. Our own
Anglo-Saxon records prove that such furnishings were employed to
mitigate the cold bareness of our northern homes from the earliest
times. Sir G. Dasent informs me that in Icelandic Sagas, as early as
the eleventh century, there are frequent notices of hangings both in
churches and in the halls of houses; such, for instance, as the Saga
of Charlemagne, i.e. scenes out of Charlemagne's life, worked on
hangings 20 ells long. In Scaldic poetry, a periphrasis for a "lady"
is "the ground of hangings," or "the bridge of hangings," all pointing
to embroidery.
From illuminated MSS. engraved in Strutt's "Antiquities of the
English," and contemporary European work of the tenth to the
thirteenth centuries, we find that the favourite style of embroidery,
when not representing historical or sacred subjects, was a _parsemé_
pattern. Armorial bearings were generally reserved for cushions,
chair-backs, and the baldachinos of altars, beds, and thrones.[459]
Richer and more flowing designs were later introduced.
In the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, splendid
tapestries of Arras, and hangings even of cloth of gold, were common
as palatial decorations. Sometimes we have a glimpse of less ambitious
hangings; for instance, in the London house of Sir Andrew Larkynge,
Knight, in the fifteenth century, the hall was hung with sage-green
panels, bordered with gold "darned work," and the "parler" with
sage-green, bordered with crimson.
French embroidered hangings were very fine in the sixteenth century.
Jeanne d'Albret, the mother of Henri IV., was a great patroness of
such works. Miss Freer tells us that--
"When Jeanne and Antoine took possession of the Castle of Pau, they
found their new abode rich in works of art and splendid decorations.
The refined taste of Marguerite d'Angoulême was visible everywhere.
Jeanne's presence-chamber was adorned with hangings of crimson satin,
embroidered by the hand of Marguerite herself. The embroidery
represented a passage from the history of the Queen's own life."
"During the hours which the Queen allowed herself for relaxation, she
worked tapestry, and discoursed with some one of the learned men whom
she protected."
"The Queen daily attended the afternoon sermon, preached by her
chaplains in rotation. Often, however, weary with the excess of her
mental labours, and lulled by the drowsy intonation of some of these
ministers, the Queen slept during part of the discourse. Jeanne always
felt severe reproach of conscience when she had thus involuntarily
yielded to fatigue; and finding the inclination grow upon her, she
demanded permission from the Synod to work tapestry during the sermon.
This request was granted; and from thenceforth, Queen Jeanne, bending
decorously over her tapestry-frame, and busy with her needle, gave due
attention to the rambling addresses of her preachers."
"Comme elle (Jeanne d'Albret) estoit grandement adonnée aux devises,
elle fit de sa main de belles et grandes tapisseries, entre lesquelles
il y a une tente de douze ou quinze pièces excellente qui s'appelle
_les Prisons brisées_, par lesquelles elle donnoit à connôistre
qu'elle avoit brisé les liens et secoué le joug de la captivité du
Pape. Au milieu de chaque pièce, il y a une histoire du Vieu Testament
qui resent la liberté, comme la délivrance de Suzanne, la sortie du
peuple de la captivité d'Egypte, l'élargissement de Joseph. Et à tous
les coins il y a des chaisnes rompues, des menottes brisées, des
strapades et des gibbets en pièces, et par-dessus en grosses lettres
ce sont ces paroles de la deuxième aux Corinthiens, ch. iii.: _Ubi
spiritus, ibi libertas._"[460]
Cluny boasts a most curious suite of hangings from the Chateau de
Boussac, of the early part of the fifteenth century, which are
charming, quaint, and gay, and historically and archæologically
interesting. They tell the story of the "Dame au Lion."
Modern French tapestries, from the manufactories of the Savonnerie,
the Gobelins, and elsewhere, are decorative to the highest degree.
Nothing can be more festive than these works of the time of Louis
XIII., XIV., and XV., framed in white and gold, carved wood, or
stucco, reflected in mirrors, and lighted by crystal or glass
chandeliers and girandoles. Such hangings have nothing in common with
those of early times; they are not temporary coverings of bare spaces,
but panels in decorated walls, where they form an integral part of the
architectural composition and design. They do not merely serve to give
warmth, comfort, and colour to desolate halls, as did those ancient
tapestries belonging to the furniture of the great man who sent them
on before him from palace to palace, carrying them away with his
baggage lest some one else should do so in his absence. These were
probably merely attached by loops and nails, as one sees in country
villas or castles in Italy to this day.
We find that the Italians in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
often hung their walls with upright strips of work, in the guise of
pilasters. The walls were thus divided into panelled spaces, which
separated pictures, statues, and cabinets, of which the style did not
agree in juxtaposition. These pilasters were generally of "opus
consutum," or "appliqué" in its different forms. Above, next to the
cornice, and below, next to the dado, or even touching the floor, they
were connected by borders of similar work. The spaces between were
mostly filled in with rich brocades or velvets of one colour, so as to
make the best backgrounds for the artistic treasures grouped against
them. Sometimes fine tapestries filled the intervening spaces, and
sometimes splendid embroideries. There is a beautiful example of this
sort of decoration at Holland House, where the dining-room is adorned
with pilasters worked on velvet in gold and coloured silks, with
tapestries between them. This is Florentine work, of the sixteenth or
beginning of the seventeenth century.
Hangings entirely in needlework, to cover large spaces, are rare, but
a few are to be found all over Europe in museums, palaces, and private
houses, which are interesting as objects of art. The genealogical tree
of the Counts of Kyburg, designed in the sixteenth century, and
carried to France as plunder, and now restored to its home near
Zurich, is a remarkable instance of a piece of needlework that
deserved the value placed on it. Many splendid pieces of embroidered
tapestries are at the Cluny Museum. The beatitudes of St. Catherine,
from the castle at Tarrascon, and the hangings worked in appliqué and
flat stitches with portraits of Henri IV., Jeanne d'Albret, &c., are
monuments of industry, and design; and are very beautiful.
There, is a large room at Castle Ashby hung with tapestry in cross
stitches, worked by the ladies of the family, and finished 150 years
ago. The industry shown here is indubitable, but the designs are
barbarously bad and funny. In the Palazzo Giustini at Florence there
is a suite of hangings worked also in cross stitches of the same
period, of which the design is very clever and graceful, and the
effect beautiful and artistic. An irregular bank of brown earth is
crowded with grasses and small flowers about a foot above the dado,
and from this grow rose-bushes, covered with blossoms of different
shades, held back to a treillage of delicate "cane colours." The
leafage is brown, against a sky that is not blue, but which rather
reminds one of blue than of grey. It is conventionally treated, and
the effect is singularly rich and harmonious. Had it been a little
more naturalistic, it would have looked too much like a painted
picture; but as it is, the decoration is charming, and so universally
admired that we cannot but wonder it has never been imitated. In the
Borghese Palace at Rome there is a ball-room hung with white satin
embroidered with wreaths of flowers, and a similar one in the Caetani
Palace, on crimson satin. These are about 150 years old, and are so
far above being mere objects of fashion, that they must be placed by
their beauty of design and execution amongst objects of art, and so
will probably survive more centuries of change, holding their own, and
increasing in value and esteem.
For hangings in church decoration, the reader is referred to the
chapters on ecclesiastical art and on tapestry.
Having discussed the origin and reason for hangings, and having tried
to draw from what has been accepted as beautiful and perfect in taste,
some guidance in hanging our modern rooms, supposing always that the
spaces are fitted for really fine decorations, I yet would add a few
more words on this subject. There are in general some previous
conditions which will help us to choose the style and design of such
furnishings. In the first place, we should study what is appropriate
to the persons who will first inhabit the rooms. The bride's apartment
may be white and gold, garlanded with roses, and gay with groups of
Cupids; but such prettinesses would not be suitable to the home of a
mourning Queen. Tender or subdued colouring equally sets off groups of
young and lovely faces, and the bent form robed in black. Embroideries
are always agreeable on such backgrounds, and it is as a vehicle for
needlework that I now allude to the design of the artist in hangings.
We are somewhat restricted, or we ought to be, when there are
treasures of art already in the house, by the desire to exhibit them
to the best advantage. The hangings should be of a colour which suits
all pictures, and if the walls are either embroidered or tapestried
with woven designs, they should be very much subdued, both in form and
colour, so as not to prevent the eye from perceiving at once the
precious objects hung against them. A fine brocade or velvet of one
colour suits pictures best; but if our object is to show off our
cabinets, which are generally black, and our statues, which are mostly
white, then richly embroidered backgrounds in brilliant colours are
the best, compensating the eye in variety and splendour.
FOOTNOTES:
[438] The "women who wove the hangings for the grove"
were probably priestesses of the worship of Astarte
(2 Kings xxiii. 7).
[439] He says that within the sacred shrine was revealed
their god--a beast rolling on a purple couch--veiled
with gold embroidered hangings; and he describes the
magnificent temples, gleaming with gold, silver, and
electrum. Quoted from Clemens Alexandrinus, in Renouf's
"Hibbert Lectures," p. 2.
[440] "Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was
that which thou spreadest forth to be thy
sail."--Ezekiel xxvii. 7. Egyptian sails were woven and
painted; sometimes they were blazoned with embroidered
patterns. The Phœnix was set there to indicate the
traveller's return. See Wilkinson's "Ancient Egyptians,"
vol. iii., ed. 1837, p. 211.
[441] See Semper, "Der Stil," vol. i. p. 273.
[442] The figure-painting of the nations we have spoken
of, successful so far as it concerns its special purpose
of exhibiting a clear and comprehensive chronicle of
events, is at the same time no more, so far as it
concerns its artistic effect, than a piece of tapestry
or embroidery done into stone, and can only be estimated
... as a piece of coloured wall decoration. Woltmann and
Woermann, "History of Painting," Eng. Trans., pp. 23-30.
See also Perrot and Chipiez, "Histoire de l'Art dans
l'Antiquité," for tile decorations at Nimroud; vol. ii.
p. 704.
[443] Compare this record with Solomon's veil for the
Temple, of blue, and purple, and crimson, and fine linen
(2 Chron. iii. 14), and the hangings designed by
Bezaleel, of scarlet, blue, purple, and embroidered with
gold (Exod. xxxix. 2, 3, 5; see also Josephus, "Wars of
the Jews," Whiston's trans., p. 895).
[444] As cited from Abulfeda by Gibbon, chap. lii. ix.
p. 37, ed. 1797. When one is moved to pity, thinking of
the enforced labour of thousands of captive women,
fallen, perhaps, from high estate, and only valued for
the toil of their hands, it comforts one to believe that
they would hardly have produced beautiful works without
enjoying some happiness in the creation of that beauty.
[445] Yule's "Marco Polo," vol. i. p. 394, note 7.
[446] See Semper, "Der Stil," i. pp. 310, 311; Chares,
ap. Athen. xii. 54, p. 538.
[447] Semper's "Der Stil," i. p. 311; Athen. v. 25, p.
196.
[448] Phylarchus, ap. Athen. xii. 55, describes a
Persian tent in which were golden palm-trees, and vines
fruited with precious stones, under which the Persian
kings held their state. On an Assyrian sculpture at the
British Museum is seen Assurbanipal on a couch, the
queen opposite to him, under an arbour of jewelled
vines; unless it represents a rural entertainment, which
is unlikely.
[449] The art of the "tapezziere," "tapissier,"
"tapestry-hanger," is not a recognized one with us,
though it is in Italy and France, where the hangings for
special occasions in churches and houses are stored
away, treasured for hundreds of years, cleaned and
mended, and hung and placed to the best advantage by men
educated for the purpose. In poor churches which possess
no fine materials for decoration, one has often wondered
at and admired the picturesque effects extracted from
yards of muslin, gold tinsel, and box wreaths,
artistically combined. Our house carpenter is the only
representative we have of the vestiarius, and he is but
a feeble descendant from the ancestors of his craft, who
were expected to study and evolve the adornments of the
building for its completion, the materials of decoration
for special occasions, and lastly, the mechanical means
for hanging and stretching the draperies. These were
sometimes movable frames or posts--"scabella" (whence
"escabeau," échafaudage, scaffolding).
[450] Semper, "Der Stil," i. pp. 314, 315.
[451] Never again will such great works be executed with
the needle. In civilized countries, sovereign splendours
are at a discount. The East occasionally produces
something fine, because there they still have harems and
slaves; but even these ancient institutions are losing
their stability and in the interest of humanity, if not
in that of needlework, we may soon hope there will be
neither the one nor the other. We must allow, however,
that the purple and gold embroideries now being executed
for the King of Bavaria in his school at Munich are
royally splendid, and, by their execution, worthy of
past days.
[452] Pliny, viii. 44, 196.
[453] Gibbon's "Roman History," ix. c. 51, p. 370, ed.
1797; also see Crichton's "History of Arabia," i. p.
383.
[454] The utter dispersal of accumulated family and
household treasures has had a sad illustration in the
loads of Turkish and Slav embroideries which have
flooded the markets of Europe since the Russo-Turkish
war. Work, treasured for generations, sold for a piece
of bread, robbed from the deserted home or the bazaar,
stolen from the dying or the dead. These are so
suggestive of the horrors of war, and touch us so nearly
in connection with the rights and wrongs of the Eastern
question, that they cause us more pain than pleasure
when we study these beautiful specimens of well-blended
colours and designs, that show their Aryan (Persian or
Indian) origin. Lady Layard's residence in
Constantinople was, perhaps, the "happy accident" which
will have preserved the secrets and practice of this
work for future generations, by her active and generous
institution of a working organization for the poor
exiled and starving women, and for the sale of their
work in England.
[455] Semper, "Der Stil," i. p. 30, § 10.
[456] This subject has been ably treated in the
Introduction to "La Tapisserie," by Eug. Müntz; Paris,
1885.
[457] I refer to the chapter on "English Embroideries"
for the _parsemé_ patterns of our mediæval hangings, and
to the section on tapestry in the chapter on "Stitches."
[458] "Renaissance in Italy," J. A. Symonds, p. 4.
[459] But to this rule there are notable exceptions, of
which Charles the Bold's hangings for his tent (now at
Berne) furnish a brilliant example. Here the Order of
the Golden Fleece is repeated on a field of flowers,
exquisitely designed.
[460] "Life of Jeanne d'Albret," by Miss Freer, pp. 68,
123, 330.