“Though the King sat at the head of the table, arrayed in regal attire, with the crown upon his head, he was still the guest of his fair uncle, whose cooks had provided the dinner, whose plate was displayed upon the sideboards and whose servants waited upon the company. In the midst of the repast, the doors were opened and porters entered bearing a costly present for the new sovereign. Such of the guests as were strangers, except from hearsay, to the splendours of the Burgundian Court, gazed in astonishment at the images, goblets, miniature ships, and other articles of the finest gold and rarest workmanship—amounting in value to more than two hundred thousand crowns—which Philip presented to the King as an emphatic token of his loyalty and good-will.”
Chastelain’s note of the great number of wagons that were required to carry the Duke’s tapestries in his journeyings is of interest. The products of the Flemish looms were highly prized by the Burgundian dukes, and great encouragement was given by them to the best work of this nature.
It was from Arras that they chiefly filled their superb store-chambers in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The Arras looms had become famous, far and wide; for, when Philip the Bold’s son was taken prisoner at the Battle of Nicopolis (1396), the Sultan Bajazet said to the Duke of Burgundy’s envoy that he “would be pleased to see some high-warp tapestries worked in Arras and Picardy,” and that “they should represent good old stories.” Philip thereupon sent two pack-horses laden with “high-warp cloths, collected and made at Arras, the finest that could be found on this side of the mountains.” The set he chose was The History of Alexander. In 1374, there is an entry in the accounts of the Duke of Burgundy “to Colin Bataille, tapissier et bourgeois de Paris,” for six pieces of tapestry “of Arras workmanship,” with the arms of M. the Duke of Burgundy “to cover the pack-horses of Monseigneur when he travelled.” The favourite subjects produced at Arras were romances of chivalry, such as Charlemagne and his Peers, Doon de la Roche, Baudouin de Sebourg, Percival the Gaul, Renaud de Montauban, Aubri de Bourguignon, etc.; stories from Greek mythology, such as Theseus, Jason, Paris and Helen, The Destruction of Troy, etc.; and contemporary events such as The Battle of Rosbeck, The Battle of Liège, History of Bertrand Duguesclin, The Jousts of St. Denis and The Battle of the Thirty. Hunting scenes and pictures of cavaliers and ladies in everyday life were popular, and stories from the Old and New Testaments, Lives of the Saints and Acts of the Martyrs. Allegory also makes its appearance as a subject for cartoons, such as the Virtues and Vices, the Seven Cardinal Sins, the Tree of Life, Fountain of Youth, etc.
When Philip the Good married Isabella of Portugal, Le Fèvre de Saint Rémy notes that on each side of the hall there was a dressoir twenty feet long on a platform two feet high and well enclosed by barriers three feet high, on the side of which was a little gate for entrance and exit; and both dressoirs had five stages, each two and a half feet high. The three upper tiers were covered and loaded with vessels of fine gold; and the two lower ones with many great vessels of silver gilt.
Again, Chastelain, describing a banquet given by Philip the Good, says: “The Duke had made in the great hall a dressoir constructed in the form of a round castle, ten steps (degrés) in height filled with gold plate in pots and flagons of various kinds, amounting to 6,000 marks (argent doré) not counting those on the top which were of fine gold set with rich gems of marvellous price.”
The above gives some idea of the importance of the dressoir, which undoubtedly was the most showy piece of furniture in hall or chamber. It often assumed enormous proportions on great state occasions.
A very ornate one of this period is reproduced in Plate [III]. It is beautifully carved with Gothic tracery, leaf-work, Biblical scenes and personages, and coats-of-arms. It is interesting to compare this with the simple form of Plate [IV], which has no intermediate shelf for the display of plate; but is also interesting on account of its carving. This, with its drawers and cupboards, was a most serviceable piece of furniture and must have produced a fine effect in a room when the cupboard head was decked with plate.
The great celebrations in honour of the Knights of the Golden Fleece also offered occasion for the display of the greatest splendour at the Burgundian Court. A veritable army of painters, sculptors, illuminators, carvers and machinists was employed to design and prepare the entremets exhibited during the banquets. Among the huchiers who worked for the banquet given to the Knights of the Golden Fleece in 1453 were Guillaume Maussel and his son, Jacob Haquinet Penon, Jehan Daret and his two companions, and Jehan de Westerhem.
Plate IV.—Credence (Fifteenth Century).
CLUNY MUSEUM, PARIS.