1296.
Pieces of Tapestry Hanging, figured with poetic pastoral scenes. Flemish, perhaps wrought at Audenaerde, in the first half of the 16th century. 29 feet 4 inches by 11 feet.
Soon after the early part of the 16th century, there sprang up throughout Europe a liking for pastoral literature as seen in Virgil’s eclogues: poets sung their dreams of the bliss to be found in rustic life, in which sports and pastimes, amid well-dressed revelry and music, with nought of toil or drudgery belonging to it, formed the yearly round; and in summer tide, nobles and their ladies loved to rove the woods and fields, and play at gentle shepherdism. How such frolics were carried out we learn from the tapestry before us, which, in many of its features, is near akin to those low reliefs of the same subject that adorn the walls in the court-yard of the curious and elaborately ornamented Hotel de Bourgtheroud, at Rouen.
At the left-hand side, lying on a flowery bank, is a gentleman shepherd, whose broad-toed shoes and thick cloth leggings, fastened round the knees and about the ancles, are rather conspicuous. On the brim of his large round white hat is a sort of square ticket, coloured. From his waist hangs a white satchel, bearing outside various appliances, such as countrymen want. Over him stands, with a tall spud in her hands, a youthful lady dressed in a scarlet robe, and wearing her satchel by her side, a thin gauze cap, not a hat, is on her head, and with her hand upraised she seems to be giving emphasis to what she says to her friend upon the ground.
In the middle of this piece is a group, consisting of four characters, all of whom are playing at some game of forfeits. A young lady clad in blue satin, with the usual rustic pouch slung at her side, is sitting on the flowery grass, with her hands on the shoulders of a youth at her feet, and hiding his face in her lap. Standing over him and about to strike his open palm is another youth in a blue tunic turned up with red, and holding a spud. Behind the blindfolded youth stands a young lady, whose flaxen locks fall from under a broad-brimmed crimson hat, upon her shoulders over her splendid robe, the crimson ground of which is nearly hidden by the broad diapering of gold most admirably shown upon it.
In the other corner, to the right, is a lady, kerchiefed and girded with her rustic wallet, with both hands grasping a man, who seems as if he asked forgiveness. Overhead is a swineherd leading a pig, and going towards a farm-labourer who is making faggots; further on is another clown, hard at work, with his coat thrown down by him on the ground, lopping trees; and last of all, a gentleman and lady, both clad in the costume of the first half of the sixteenth century. These groups on the high part of the canvas are evidently outside the subject of the games below, and are merely passers by. All about the field are seen grazing sheep; and to the right, a golden pheasant on the foreground is so conspicuous as to lead to the thought that it was placed there to tell, either the name of the noble house for which this beautifully-wrought and nicely-designed tapestry was made, or of the artist who worked it.
In a second, but much smaller pane of tapestry, the same subject is continued. Upon the flowery banks of a narrow streamlet sit a lady and a little boy, bathing their feet in its waters. A gentleman—a swain for the nonce—on his bended knee, holds up triumphantly one of the lady’s stockings over the boy’s head. Just above and striding towards her comes another gentleman-shepherd, with both his hands outstretched as if in wonderment, over whom we find a real churl in the person of a shepherd playing a set of double pipes—the old French “flahuter à deux dois”—to the no small delight of a little dog by his side. Serving as a background to this group, we have a comfortable homestead amid trees. Somewhat to the right and lower down, over a brick arch leans a lady, to whom a gaily-dressed man is offering money or a trinket, which he has just drawn forth from his open gipcière hanging at his girdle. Below sits a lady arrayed in a white robe, the skirts of which she has drawn and folded back upon her lap to show her scarlet petticoat. She is listening to a huntsman pranked out with a belt strung with little bells; falling from his girdle hangs in front a buglehorn, and his left hand holds the leash of his dog with a fine collar on. Over this spruce youth is an unmistakable real field labourer with a Flemish hotte?, or wooden cradle, filled with chumps and sticks, upon his back; and before him walk two dogs, one of which carries a pack or cloth over his shoulders. Still higher up is a wind-mill, toward which a man bearing a sack is walking.
In both these pieces, which are fellows, and wrought for the hangings of the same chamber, the drawing of the figures, with the accessories of dress, silks, and even field-flowers, is admirable, and the grouping well managed: altogether, they are valuable links in the chain for the study and illustration of the ancient art of tapestry.