[Sidenote:
_Wool._
H. 15 _ft._ 7 _in._
W. 14 _ft._ 7 _in._
]
THE ANNUNCIATION, THE NATIVITY, AND THE ANNOUNCEMENT TO THE SHEPHERDS:
_At the left in a Gothic chapel the Annunciation. The Virgin, in a richly
jeweled and brocaded robe, reads the Holy Book. The angel in rich robes
kneels before her. The lilies are in a dinanderie vase. Through the open
door a bit of landscape is seen, and in a room beyond the chapel two
women sit reading. The Nativity, at the right, is under a pent roof. The
Virgin, Joseph, and Saint Elizabeth kneel in adoration about the Holy
Babe, who lies on the flower-strewn grass. John kneels in front of his
mother, and in the foreground an angel also worships. Above and beyond the
stable the three shepherds sit tending their flocks, and an angel bearing
the announcement inscribed on a scroll flutters down to them from Heaven.
Oak-trees, rose-vines, and blossoming orange-trees in the grass._
[Illustration:
_The Annunciation, The Nativity, and The Announcement to the
Shepherds_ No. 3
]
[Illustration:
_Scenes from the Roman de la Rose_ No. 4
]
This tapestry belongs to a small and very interesting group, all evidently
the work of one designer. The three famous _Conversations Galantes_ (long
erroneously called the _Baillée des Roses_) in the Metropolitan Museum
are by the same man, as are the four panels of the _History of Lohengrin_
in Saint Catherine's Church, Cracow, the fifth fragmentary panel of the
series being in the Musée Industrielle, Cracow. A fragment from the same
designer showing a party of hunters is in the Church of Notre Dame de
Saumur de Nantilly, and another fragment depicting a combat is in the
Musée des Arts Decoratifs. Three small fragments--one with a single figure
of a young man with a swan, like the Metropolitan pieces, on a striped
ground, another showing a king reading in a portico very similar to the
portico of the _Annunciation_, and the third showing a group of people
centered about a king--were in the Heilbronner Collection.
Schmitz points out[1] a connection between the three Metropolitan pieces
and the series of seven pieces depicting the life of Saint Peter in the
Beauvais Cathedral, with an eighth piece in the Cluny Musée, and it is
quite evident that the cartoons are the work of the same man. But whereas
the other pieces all have the same characteristics in the weaving, this
series shows a somewhat different technique in such details as the outline
and the hatchings, so that one must assume they were woven on another loom.
Fortunately, there is documentary information on one set of the type
that enables us to say definitely where and when the whole group was
made. The _Lohengrin_ set was ordered by Philip the Good from the first
Grenier of Tournai in 1462. There can be no reasonable doubt that the
set in Saint Catherine's Church is the same, for in this set the knight
is quite apparently modeled after Duke Philip himself, judging from the
portraits of him in both the _Romance of Gerard de Rousillon_ (Vienna
Hof-bibliothèque) and in the _History of Haynaut_ (Bibliothèque Royale,
Brussels).
Schmitz asserts that it is almost certainly useless to seek the author
of these cartoons among contemporary painters, as they are probably the
work of a professional cartoon painter, of which the Dukes of Burgundy
kept several in their service--and this is probably true. But artists were
not as specialized then as they are now, and even a professional tapestry
designer might very well on occasion turn his hand to illustrating a
manuscript or making a sketch for an enamel, so that it is not impossible
that further research in the other contemporary arts may bring to light
more information about this marked personality who created so individual a
style.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Duveen Brothers_.]
This tapestry is exceedingly interesting, not only for its marked style
of drawing and its quaint charm, but for the direct sincerity of the
presentation and the brilliant and rather unaccustomed range of colors.
[Sidenote: 4]