[Sidenote:
_Wool and Silk._
No. 60:
H. 15½ _in._
W. 19 _in._
No. 61:
H. 15½ _in._
W. 19 _in._
]
TWO STILL-LIFE PIECES: _In one_ (_No._ 60) _a glass_, _a napkin_, _and
some vegetables on a table_. _In the other_ (_No._ 61) _various vegetables
about a china dish_.
These panels, after paintings by Chardin, are the only recorded examples
of still-life composition in tapestry. From the middle of the XVth century
household utensils and various other types of accessories were used to
contribute richness of ornamentation to scenes, and during the Baroque
period embossed metals and lavish carvings became especially important in
creating a luxurious effect, but not until tapestry was thought of as a
form of painting was a purely still-life subject attempted. All still-life
designs depend so much on contrasted weights, and especially on textures,
that they are particularly difficult to translate into a medium which,
like tapestry, renders primarily silhouettes and which has such a decided
texture of its own. But the extraordinary skill of the XVIIIth-century
French weavers was equal even to that problem. The skillful care of the
composition of the original paintings and the pure beauty of the colors of
the tapestry make of rather unpromising subjects beautiful decorations.
[Sidenote: Lent by _Maison Jamarin, Paris_.]
Jean Siméon Chardin (1699-1779) studied under Noël Coypel and
assisted Jean Baptiste Van Loo in restoring one of the galleries of
Fontainebleau. He was admitted to the Academy in 1728. His early
work was devoted to still-life subjects principally, his later to
peasant scenes, in which there are often fine incidental still lifes.
[Sidenote: 62]