[403] M. Albert Castel (“Tapisserie,” p. 53) believes that the taking of Constantinople, when Earl Baldwin was elected to the throne of Byzantium, had a great effect on Flemish art, which then received a strong impulse from Oriental designs and traditions. See M. Jubinal’s very interesting account of the tapisserie de Nancy which lined the tents of Charles the Bold at the siege of Nancy (p. 439). These tapestries are an allegory against gluttony. “Tapisseries Hist.,” pp. 1-5.
[404] Charles the Bold has left us records of his taste in tent hangings of Arras at Berne, as well as at Nancy. These are the plunder from his camp equipage after the battle of Grandson. The whole suite, of many pieces, represents battles and sieges, and sacred subjects also, such as the adoration of the Magi. They are finely drawn and splendidly executed with gold lights, and are of the most perfect style of the fifteenth century. The National Museum at Munich contains most valuable specimens of very early and very fine tapestries; amongst others, a Virgin, which was certainly designed in the school of Dürer, and is of the greatest perfection of its art, both as to colour and drawing and the general effect, which has a soft, dreamy beauty, only to be seen in fine woollen tapestries, and differing from pictorial design and intention.
[405] See Rock, cxii: Among the remarkable suites of tapestry of which we find historical mention are the following: In 1334, John de Croisette, a “Tapissier Sarazinois, demeurant à Arras vendit au Duc de Touraine un tapis Sarazinois à or: de l’histoire de Charlemagne” (Voisin, p. 6). Of the many recorded as belonging to Philip, Duke of Burgundy and Brabant, one piece, “Haulte lice sanz or: de l’histoire du Duc de Normandie, comment il conquit Engleterre.”—“Les Ducs de Bourgogne,” par le Comte de Laborde, ii. p. 270, No. 4277.
[406] M. de Champeaux, the author of the “Handbook of Art Tapestry” belonging to the series of the Kensington Museum, 1878, says that the history of Arras has yet to be written. He, however, gives a great deal of interesting information, especially about the French tapestries, on which subject we fancy there is little more to tell. Their art does not come from such a distant time as that of the Belgian manufactures. After Louis IX. had decimated the inhabitants, and dispersed the remainder, Arras yet made a gallant struggle to revive her industry and compete with the rising prosperity of Brussels; but France had decreed against her.
[407] “Encyclopædia Britannica” (“Art Tapestry”), pp. 17, 97.
[408] Vasari vividly describes the design for a tapestry for the King of Portugal—the history of Adam—on which Leonardo da Vinci, then aged twenty, was engaged. He lingers tenderly over the picture of the flowery field and the careful study of the bay-trees. Vasari, tom. vii. p. 15; ed. Firenze, 1851.
[409] See M. Jubinal’s “Tapisseries Historiées,” p. 26; Viollet-le-Duc, “Mobilier Français,” i. p. 269.
[410] Froissart’s “Chronicles,” iv., chap. 23; Johnes ed. 1815.
[411] M. de Champeaux, “Handbook of Art Tapestry,” p. 24; also Rock, “Textiles,” p. 122. M. Lacordaire, “Tapisserie des Gobelins,” p. 15, tells us that under Louis XIII. the statutes of 1625-27 contain many regulations for the perfection of the materials employed in weaving new as well as in restoring old tapestries. Fines were imposed for not matching the colours carefully.
[412] English wool is still used for the finest tapestries at the Gobelins. The wool from Kent is considered the best.