[394] Rock, Introduction, p. cxii. This “Saracenic work” is really so like what is called by the Germans “Gobelins” when found in Egyptian tombs that one can hardly doubt whence the Moors brought their art. There are several Egyptian specimens in the British Museum. See also the catalogue of Herr Graf’schen’s collection of Egyptian textiles, from the first to the eighth century. “Katalog der Teodor Graf’schen Fünde in Ægypten, von Dr. Karabacek. Wien, 1883.”
[395] Viollet-le-Duc, “Dictionnaire du Mobilier Français, Tapis,” p. cxii; also M. Jubinal, “Tapisserie Historique.” It is difficult absolutely to assign to any known specimens a date anterior to the fifteenth century; although M. de Champeaux thinks that the “Sarazinois” were mostly or entirely carpet-weavers about the eleventh century. He says there is documentary authority to prove that these were woven with flowers and animals. There is a very deep-piled velvety carpet at Gorhambury (the Earl of Verulam’s place). Here Queen Elizabeth’s arms and cypher appear on a Persian or Moresque ground pattern surrounded with a wreath of oak leaves. It may have been a gift from Spain,—left after one of her visits to her Chancellor.
[396] “Tapisseries des Gobelins,” A. L. Lacordaire, p. 10 (1853). He considers that the Sarazinois were embroiderers as well as weavers—and this theory is supported by extracts from an inventory of Charles VI.’s hangings of 1421.
Every detail of the art and its materials was carefully regulated by the French statutes of 1625-27, containing many laws for the perfecting of the manufacture of new as well as the restoration of old tapestries—and fines were imposed for not using materials as nearly as possible matching the original ones; and likewise for any other dereliction from the rules of the craft. Ibid. pp. 9, 10, 14.
[397] At the Poldi Bezzoli Museum in Milan there are some very fine carpets; one especially, a Persian, is supposed to be of the fifteenth century. This is very finely woven of pure, tender colours, and the whole composition, flowers and animals (most beautifully drawn lions, &c.), is delicately outlined in black on a white ground. The colouring is rich and harmonious, and has the iridescent effect of mother of pearl.
[398] In the San Clemente frescoes at Rome there are hangings which show a semi-Asiatic style.
[399] “Mémoires Historiques et Ecclesiastiques d’Auxerre,” par M. l’Abbé Lebœuf, i. pp. 178, 231.
[400] There are very interesting Norwegian tapestries of the sixteenth century, which show distinctly an Eastern origin.
[401] Jubinal, “Tapisseries,” pp. 25, 26; Viollet-le-Duc, “Dic. de Mobilier Français,” p. 269.
[402] There is much splendid tapestry—German, and especially Bavarian,—to be seen at Munich; and, indeed, the more one seeks, the more one finds that private looms were constantly at work in the Middle Ages for votive offerings. There is a tapestry altar-piece at Coire, in the Grisons, of the Crucifixion, which is evidently of the fourteenth century. The colours are still brilliant, and the whole background is beautifully composed of growing flowers. No sky is seen. There is at Munich an altar frontal of tapestry, Gothic of the fifteenth century, exquisitely beautiful. The weaver has introduced a little portrait of herself at her loom, under the folds of the virgin’s cloak at her feet.