Fig. 267.—Silk Damask; Sicilian; Fifteenth Century. (L.P.)
During the sixteenth century the pineapple was used very much under a variety of modifications as an ornamental form in fabrics (Fig. 269), and often in company with the pomegranate. This came about after the discovery of the West Indies, from where the pineapple had been imported into Europe (Fig. 270). Large-pattern damask diapers, brocades, and velvets were now made in many places in Italy, with patterns based on waving lines or ogival forms enclosing bilateral schemes of ornament, all of which were reminiscences of the “tree of life” patterns, and in all may be traced the strong influences of Saracenic design.
Fig. 268.—Silk Damask; Florentine; Fifteenth Century.
From the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries, and even later, Lucca in Tuscany, Genoa, Florence, and Venice were celebrated for the manufacture of silken brocades and velvets, which have been used for the dresses of priests, kings, and noblemen, as well as for hangings.
Fig. 269.—Diaper in Velvet Brocade; Italian; Sixteenth Century.
The dress patterns of those days were all of a very large size of diaper, such as are now only used for hangings and furniture coverings. The Venetian and Spanish pictures of the period contain many illustrations of these patterns on the dresses of the figures and hangings of the chambers.
