Illustration IV. is taken from part of an orphrey in the Victoria and Albert Museum, designed by Rafaelino del Garbo, and represents, I think, the highest point to which ‘effect’ should go in the matter of shading and appearance of relief, perspective, &c. It is a piece of Florentine work, and shows distinctly the influence of the place and the age. This reproduction of course does not do it justice; it is a perfect marvel of colour, while the drawing shows a master’s hand. The whole of the architectural background is worked in gold thread laid horizontally, the effect both of colour and shading being entirely produced by means of the silk it is couched with. In places the gold is completely veiled by the stitches, in others it gleams through, and again it is left quite bare and shining with its own lustre alone. Every line of the architecture is accentuated with gold twist of different degrees of thickness, and sometimes varied again by being twisted in the opposite direction.
(a) English Thirteenth Century
(b) Westphalian Early Fifteenth Century
V. & A. Museum, S. Kensington (No. 459—1905).
(c) Modern, Stitches Vertical
The garments consist of the same gold thread which forms the background; it is simply carried through the whole of the work,[4] with the exception of the head and nimbus, which are worked separately and appliqué to it afterwards. The hands, even, are done over the gold in short satin-stitch. The flesh-tints are coloured strongly but finely, and the shading is put in boldly. The sympathy between design and work is so marked as almost to indicate the same hand; but we have other examples, which are known to have been designed by one person and worked by another, which show the same rapport, such as the designs by Pollaiuolo embroidered by Paolo da Verona (in the church of S. Giovanni at Florence).[5]