The Arts and Crafts of Older Spain, Volume 3 (of 3)

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Arts and Crafts of Older Spain, Volume III (of 3), by Leonard Williams

THE GRAPE-GATHERERS ( Tapestry from Cartoon by Goya. El Escorial )
The World of Art Series
BY LEONARD WILLIAMS Corresponding Member of the Royal Spanish Academy, of the Royal Spanish Academy of History, and of the Royal Spanish Academy of Fine Arts; Author Of “The Land of the Dons”; “Toledo and Madrid”; “Granada,” etc. IN THREE VOLUMES, ILLUSTRATED VOLUME III
CHICAGO A. C. McCLURG & CO. EDINBURGH: T. N. FOULIS 1908 AMERICAN EDITION Published October 10, 1908

VOLUME THREE

Our earliest intelligence respecting textile fabrics of old Spain derives almost exclusively from Moorish sources, and shows, together with the silence of Saint Isidore, that until the subjugation of the Visigoths, the occupants of the Peninsula attached no great importance to this industry. Under the Moors, the south and east of Spain grew rapidly famous for the manufacture of all kinds of textile stuffs, and in particular those of silk. The origin of these silks, or of the most luxurious and artistic of them, may be traced to Almería. According to Al-Makkari, what made this Andalusian capital superior to all other cities of the world was her “various manufactures of silks and other dress materials, such as the dibaj , a silken fabric of many colours, surpassing, both in quality and durability, all other products made elsewhere, and also the tiraz , a costly stuff whereon are inscribed the names of sultans, princes, and other personages, and for making which there used to be no fewer than eight hundred looms. Inferior fabrics were the holol (a kind of striped silk), and brocades woven upon a thousand looms, while as many more were employed continually in making the scarlet stuffs called iskalaton . Another thousand produced the robes called al jorjani (or ‘the Georgian’), and yet another thousand the Isbahani robes, from Isfahan, and yet another thousand the robes of Atabi. The making of damask for gay-coloured curtains and turbans for the women kept busy as many persons as the articles above-mentioned.”