This historical exhibition of European Tapestries is the fourth in a
series of retrospective exhibitions which we have planned to illustrate
the chronological development of some important phase of world-art, as in
the Old Masters Exhibition, held in the fall of 1920, or of the art of
an individual in whose work is significantly reflected the spirit of his
age, as in the J. Pierpont Morgan Collection of drawings and etchings by
Rembrandt, exhibited here in the spring of 1920.
In its scope and general lines this exhibition follows closely the plan
of our Exhibition of Paintings by Old Masters, and, as will at once be
apparent from the subject-matter and treatment, covers the same period of
European history. Although important exhibitions of European tapestries
have been held at various times both here and abroad, it has remained for
our museum to arrange the first complete historical survey of this art
given in America. This collection presents in unbroken sequence the main
currents influential in the development and decadence of the great art of
tapestry-weaving in Europe, from the XIVth century down to and including
the early XIXth century, as exhibited in the work of the foremost
designers and weavers of the period, in examples that, for the most part,
are brilliantly typical and always characteristic of their particular
style.
Virtually, every loom of importance in France, Flanders, Germany,
Switzerland, Spain, England, and Russia is here represented by
historically famous pieces which run the entire gamut of subjects that
engaged the interest of the most celebrated designers and weavers of each
epoch, from allegorical, classical, historical, and mythological to genre
subjects, landscapes, religious pieces, and even portraits and still-life
subjects. The only omissions of any consequence are the Italian looms
and Soho, and the output of these was relatively small and the examples
extant are very scarce. However, their absence does not materially
affect the historical integrity of the exhibition as a whole. On the
other hand, the Gothic series is perhaps the most complete assemblage
of all the most important types ever brought together at one time in
this country, and every important type of Renaissance design is here
included; the collection comprises two of the excessively rare products
of the Fontainebleau ateliers, as well as unusually fine specimens of the
relatively scarce examples of the Spanish and Russian looms.
My chief concern in organizing this exhibition has been to make it
exemplify, first, the history of tapestry, and, second, its æsthetic
qualities as these have appeared during the different periods of its
changing and varying development, which, like the art of painting, had its
naïve, primitive beginnings, its glorious culmination, and its decline.
Therefore, every piece has been selected both to represent a distinct
and significant type in the chronology of the art and to illustrate the
artistic merits of that type, and all the tapestries shown are of the
highest worth in their particular category and many of them are among
the supreme masterpieces of European art, considered from whatever point
of view one may choose to regard them. Only too long have these noble
products of the loom been relegated to a secondary place in the history
of European culture, which they did so much to celebrate. I sincerely
trust that this exhibition, culled from seventeen collections in New
York, San Francisco, and Paris, may successfully contribute something
toward abolishing the hypnotic spell of the gold-framed oil-painting, that
artistic fetish which too long has held the uncritical enthralled to the
exclusion of other and ofttimes more authentic manifestations of the human
spirit in art.
Regarded from the standpoint of design alone, the extraordinary
co-ordination of color and pattern (not to speak of the depth and richness
of the inner content) exhibited in certain of these pieces is a sharp
challenge to the oft-repeated distinction drawn between the major and
the minor arts, and one is constrained, after studying these tapestries,
to conclude that there are no major or minor arts, only major and minor
artists, and that greatness transfigures the material to the point of art,
be it paint or potter's clay, and a simple Tanagra transcends in worth
all the gilded and bejeweled banalities of Cellini, whose essentially
flamboyant soul sought refuge in gold and precious stones. This truth, too
rarely insisted upon, is of prime importance in any consideration of art,
whether it be "fine" or applied art, and a collection such as this should
do much to make it clear. Here one may observe how the principles of
design and color that animate the immortal masterpieces of mural painting
are identical with those that give life and vitality to these masterpieces
of the loom, and thereby apprehend something of that mysterious law
governing the operation of the creative impulse which finds its expression
in all the arts, irrespective of time and place, whether it be in rugs,
porcelains, Persian tiles and manuscripts, in European primitives, or
in the works of Chinese and Japanese old masters, transcending racial
differences and attaining a universal affinity that makes a Holbein one
with a Chinese ancestral portrait. Surely such opulent fantasy of design
and color as is revealed in Nos. 1, 3, 5, and 17, to mention only four of
the Gothic pieces in the collection, is deserving of something better than
the left-handed compliment of a comparison with painting.
In their masterly filling of the allotted space, in the fine subordination
of the varied details to the general effect, as well as in the loftiness
and intensity of the emotion expressed, these glorious products of the
loom are worthy exemplars of the highest ideals of mural decoration no
less than of the aristocratic art of tapestry-weaving. Reflections such as
these are the natural consequence of a comparative study of art, and these
and kindred reasons are the impelling causes prompting one to exhibit, not
only tapestries, but rugs and textiles of all kinds, in an art museum and
to give them the same serious study one would accord a Leonardo, a Giotto,
a Rembrandt. Æsthetically and racially, they are no less revealing and
frequently more interesting in that they are the products of the earliest
expressions of those æsthetic impulses the manifestation of which has
come to be called art; nor are they less authentic and expressive because
communicated with the force and directness of the primitive loom, which
give to all its products a certain character and worth rarely equaled by
the more sophisticated products of the so-called fine arts.
It is our hope that this catalogue will serve as a helpful guide to all
those wishing to make such use of this collection. Every serious student
of the subject no less than every unbiased specialist will, I am sure,
appreciate at its true worth the scholarly work done by Dr. Ackerman,
whose researches have made such a text possible. Bringing to the task a
critical judgment and a scientific method of analysis hitherto applied
almost exclusively to the identification and interpretation of primitive
paintings, the author has been able to correct several well-established
errors and to throw new light on many doubtful and obscure points which
are so well documented as should make them contributions of permanent
value to the literature of the subject.
In conclusion we wish to thank Messrs. William Baumgarten & Company, C.
Templeton Crocker, Demotte, Duveen Brothers, P. W. French & Company, A. J.
Halow, Jacques Seligmann & Company, Dikran K. Kelekian, Frank Partridge,
Inc., W. & J. Sloane, William C. Van Antwerp, Wildenstein & Company, and
Mesdames James Creelman, William H. Crocker, Daniel C. Jackling, and
Maison Jamarin of Paris, for their kindness in lending us these priceless
examples of the European weavers' art that constitute this notable
assemblage of tapestries, and to record our deep appreciation of the
generous co-operation of the patrons and patronesses whose sponsorship has
made the exhibition possible by guaranteeing the very considerable expense
involved in bringing the collection to San Francisco. And last, but not
least, we wish to express our grateful appreciation of the unremitting
thought and attention devoted by the printer to designing and executing
the very fitting typographical form that contributes so largely to making
the varied material contained herein readily available to the reader, and
to acknowledge, on behalf of the author, the friendly help of Arthur Upham
Pope, whose suggestions and criticisms have been found of real value in
the preparation of the text of the catalogue.