A Short History of Tapestry: From the Earliest Times to the End of the 18th Century

by Eugene Muntz

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1885 Excerpt: ...and in the "Festivities of Henry II." in the Egyptian Museum at Florence. Here, then, are three sets, of different origin, which exhibit similar tendencies. More than this is not required to show how great was the latitude left to the tapestry workers. Charles Blanc, "Catalogue de la Collection de S. A. lc Due de ... Read More

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1885 Excerpt: ...and in the "Festivities of Henry II." in the Egyptian Museum at Florence. Here, then, are three sets, of different origin, which exhibit similar tendencies. More than this is not required to show how great was the latitude left to the tapestry workers. Charles Blanc, "Catalogue de la Collection de S. A. lc Due de Berwick et d'Albe," p. 21. t The " Presentation in the Temple," in M. Escosura's collection, was woven in nineteen colours; the "Apocalypse" of Angers had twenty-four; for the "Virgin Glorified," in the Davillier collection, forty-one colours, including the gold, were required; for the " Story of Vulcan," fifty; and for the "Hunting of Maximilian," eightythree. (Darcel: "Gazette des Beaux-Arts," pp. 428--430, vol. ii., 1876.) The principles which directed this work of reproduction may be formulated as follows: --" The lights must rarely be of the same colour as the shade; yellow should dominate, especially in foliage and flowers, so as to impress the stamp of unity on the whole. The lights which are not yellow should generally be uncoloured; half-tones being, so to speak, merely a modified extension of light, it is by means of shade that the objects obtain their colour." The changes which took place in the composition of borders at the period which now occupies us deserve, we think, profound study. We have seen, in the preceding chapters, that until the end of the fifteenth century the borders, generally very narrow, were invariably adorned with white and black grapes, pears, apples, and different fruits, alternating with flowers of all sorts--roses, lilies, anemones--to which they were usually fastened with ribbons. The first advance was the introduction into ... Read Less