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.
1297.
Piece of Tapestry Hanging; ground, green sprinkled with flowers, and sentence-bearing scrolls; design, steps in a religious life, figured in five compartments. West German, late 15th century. 12 feet by 2 feet 10 inches.
1. A young well-born maiden, with a narrow wreath about her unveiled head, and dressed in pink, is saying her prayers kneeling on the flowery green ground, with these words traced on the scrolls twined gracefully above her,—“Das wir Maria kindt in trew mage werden so ... t ich myn gnade ... n af erden;” “Let us become like to Mary’s child, (so) we shall deserve mercy on earth.”
2. Seated on a chair, with a book upon his lap, is an ecclesiastic, in a white habit and black scapular. To this priest the same young lady is making confession of her sins; and the scrolls about this group say,—“Vicht di sunde mit ernst sonder spot so findestic Godez trew gnadt;” “Fight against sin with earnestness and without feigning; you will find the true mercy of God.”—“Her myn sunde vil ich ach dagen uff das mir Gots trew moge behagen;” “Lord, I will mourn over my sin, in order that the truth of God may comfort me.”
3. The same youthful maiden is bending over a wooden table, upon which lies a human heart that she is handling; and the inscriptions about her tell us the meaning of this action of hers, thus,—“Sol ich myn sund hi leschen so musz ich ich mȳ hertz im blude wesche;” “To cleanse away my sin here, I must wash my heart in the blood.”
4. We here see an altar; upon its table are a small rood or crucifix with S. Mary and S. John, two candlesticks, having prickets for the wax-lights, the outspread corporal cloth, upon which stands the chalice, and under which, in front and not at the right side, lies the paten somewhat hidden. At the foot of this altar kneels the maiden, clad in blue, and wearing on her head a plain, closely-fitting linen cap, like that yet occasionally worn at church in Belgium, by females of the middle classes,—and the priest who is saying mass there is giving her Communion. The priest’s alb is ornamented with crimson apparels on its cuffs and lower front hem, inscribed with the word “haus,” house, is well rendered. The inscriptions above are, as elsewhere, mutilated, so that much of their meaning is lost; but they run thus,—“Wer he ... versorget mich mit Gottes trew das bitten ich;” “If ... not procure me the love of God that I pray for.”—“Emphang in trewen den waren Crist dmit dyn;” “Receive with fidelity the very Christ in order....”