No. 2 of Plate [25], is a piece of tela tirata with punto reale similar, though coarser in make, to the work on the Assisi alb.
Three specimens of sixteenth-century linen work, Plate [28], are reduced in size; one is on a huckaback with a fine macramé fringe. The drawn work of this piece is beautifully done. The cloth in the centre is worked in punto riccio and has a border of punto avorio and a curious fringe. The third is cut and worked in punto riccio and reticello, and has a border of bobbin-made lace.
In Plate [29] we have two examples of reticello, the linen almost entirely cut away and hidden by the different stitches. The punto a stuora is still used for the centres, as we have seen in the earlier laces, and the punto a festone appears for the first time. In the second example we have a curious combination of three laces—an upper border worked almost exactly like the very early lace of Plate [7]; then comes an insertion of reticello, and finally a border of Venetian bobbin-lace (merletto a fuselli). This is early fifteenth-century work.
We now come to the third division made in needle-point lace—the punto in aria, which may be said to be the starting-point of all subsequent needle-point laces. No linen or netting being used the worker had to construct her lace—in aria—out of nothing, and a splendid opening it gave, as we shall now see, for invention and for execution. This punto in aria, worked into points, was extensively used for personal adornment: these points gave the name of pizzi to lace, a name which still survives in Italy as comprehensive of all lace, as the name dentelle is in France. The first examples I give here are the two dentated (or vandyked) borders of Plate [31].
The chalice cover, Plate [32], is a very interesting combination of reticello and punto in aria; the lines of the cut-linen foundation are carried across and form a lattice behind the punto in aria devices. The beautifully worked waved pattern circling round the design may be intended to represent St. Peter's chains: the Saint stands with the Scriptures in one hand and the Keys in the other, and has a winged cherub on each side; the edge is of punto in aria.
The reticello pattern of Plate [33] is beautifully rendered in punto avorio and punto in aria. This piece, unlike the specimens given before, has no linen foundation, and therefore is classed as punto in aria and not as reticello or cutwork.
The corporal border of Plate [34], of very conventional floral pattern is, I think, undoubtedly of German early seventeenth-century work.
The border of the Venetian cloth in Plate [35], is a very fine specimen of punto in aria. The two insertions, of which one is given, are alike. They have strange winged and tailed animals alternating with scrolls and vases. The vandyked border is a wonderful piece of work containing altogether forty-eight small figures, and, as is often the case in Venetian work, the figures, birds and animals have tiny black glass beads for eyes. The animals have loops of fine buttonhole stitch to denote manes.
A very interesting and beautiful piece of punto in aria is Plate [36]. The design is still reminiscent of the East; the flowing interlaced flower-stems, with animals introduced, have quite a Persian effect. But the beautiful rendering of the pendant flowers, and the true love knots, as well as the heraldic device of the Visconti (the crowned serpent) mark the elegance and freedom of the Renaissance. It was, no doubt, made in Venice in the late sixteenth century.
The punto in aria trimming for the neck of an alb, Plate [37], is a very remarkable piece, and the execution full of interest. The work is entirely without foundation. The figures are clothed with mantles of very beautifully worked network, called in Italy mezza mandolina. The edges of the mantles are worked in punto avorio. Realism is attempted by representing the features in relief, and little black beads are added to the eyes.