[Sidenote:
_Wool and Gold._
H. 3 _ft._ 6 _in._
W. 7 _ft._ 6 _in._
]
SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF CHRIST: _The Life of Christ is shown in eight
small scenes, beginning with the Entrance into Jerusalem, the Farewell to
his Mother, the Last Supper, the Agony in the Garden, the Carrying of the
Cross, the Crucifixion, the Pieta, and the Entombment._
The scenes in this tapestry were apparently adapted from the illustrations
from a Nuremberg manuscript of the middle of the XVth century. Of course,
the weaving may have been done later. The simplified arrangement of the
scenes with a reduction to a minimum of the number of actors, the relative
size of the figures to the small squares of the compositions, the marked
indebtedness in the use of line and light and shade to woodcuts, and the
courageous but not altogether easy use of the direct profile, all bring
the pieces into close relationship with such book illustrations as those
of George Pfinzing's book of travels (_The Pilgrimage to Jerusalem_), now
in the City Library of Nuremberg.[3] In fact, the parallelism is so very
close, the tapestry may well have been adapted from illustrations by the
same man, the curiously conventionalized line-and-dot eyes being very
characteristic of the Pfinzing illustrations and not common to all the
school.
[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
In weaving many of the figures the warp is curved to follow the contours.
The naïve directness and unassuming sincerity of the piece give it great
interest.
[Sidenote: 7]