[Sidenote:
_Wool._
H. 9 _ft._ 6 _in._
W. 9 _ft._
]
PASTORAL SCENE: _Two ladies have strolled into the country with their
lords, who are on the way to the hunt, one with a falcon and the other
with a spear and dog. On the way they have stopped to talk to a group of
peasants who are tending their flocks and to play with their children. One
young peasant girl is gathering a basket of grapes._
Such peasant scenes as this were much in demand during the XVth century.
A piece very similar both in general spirit and in detailed drawing and
facial types is in the Musée des Arts Decoratifs. In this two lords are
watching a large group of woodcutters.
[Sidenote: Formerly in the De Zolte Collection.]
The piece is an excellent illustration of the clarity of French design.
Each figure stands out almost entirely detached against the background.
Yet, nevertheless, the naturalness of the grouping is not sacrificed. The
piece conveys extraordinarily the impression of a real scene, a common
daily occurrence among people that we might reasonably expect to know,
at which we are allowed to be present in spite of the intervening four
hundred years.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Duveen Brothers_.]
Some of the tricks of drawing and the types portrayed are so very similar
to those in some of the stained-glass windows of St. Etienne du Mont and
of St. Germain-l'Auxerrois the cartoons must be by members of the same
school, one of the groups of l'Ile de France, and may quite possibly be by
the same man.
[Sidenote: 14-16]