DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67683#0548
374
FRANCE
ficiality and conventionality were inevitable. One misses the
charm, spontaneity, and sincerity of the fifteenth century. An
excellent result, however, was the high standard of workmanship
that characterized the furniture, porcelain, silks, tapestries, and
metal work.
We have already spoken of the furniture because it formed so
intimate a part of architectural and decorative design. Another
important factor in this architectural design was the great
series of tapestries that covered the walls and contributed so
much to the color. We have seen the splendid accomplishments
of the Flemish as tapestry weavers. Under Louis XIV, the craft
was established at Paris; and the Gobelins, since its purchase by
Louis in 1662. a.d., has been the center for the finest production.
The tapestries of the period were of great size. Their subjects
were taken chiefly from history and mythology, and the composi-
tions were designed by the most important artists of the day.
Technically, they show the great skill of the weavers in their
complicated compositions and elaborate borders. But artistically
many of them fail to attain their purpose of decorating the wall,
as the Gothic tapestries so successfully did, because they sought
primarily not so much to produce a decorative color harmony
as to create an illusion of reality after the fashion of a painting
with the use of distance, perspective, light and shade, and thus
transgressed their medium.
Other textiles also reveal a deviation from tradition. The
all-over design consisting of large repeated pattern that originated
in the Near East began to break up into a lighter framework and
by the time of Louis XV had taken on the form of a delicate
pattern of vines, garlands, flowers, and ribbons that well harmo-
nized with the interior decoration and the furnishings of the period.
The brocade reproduced in Pl. 146 b makes an exquisite pattern
of blue, light and dark rose, and green and gold on a ground of
ribbed white. These brocades and silks were made largely at
Lyons, which had become an important center for silk textiles;
and, like the tapestries, they show the great technical skill of
the weavers.
Another important product of the French craftsman was por-
celain. Chinese porcelains had made their way to Europe per-
haps as early as the eleventh or twelfth century; and, because of
their thinness and translucency, were greatly admired. The
potters did not understand the process of their manufacture until
finally in the eighteenth century both the German and the
French potters discovered the nature of true porcelain. Of several
FRANCE
ficiality and conventionality were inevitable. One misses the
charm, spontaneity, and sincerity of the fifteenth century. An
excellent result, however, was the high standard of workmanship
that characterized the furniture, porcelain, silks, tapestries, and
metal work.
We have already spoken of the furniture because it formed so
intimate a part of architectural and decorative design. Another
important factor in this architectural design was the great
series of tapestries that covered the walls and contributed so
much to the color. We have seen the splendid accomplishments
of the Flemish as tapestry weavers. Under Louis XIV, the craft
was established at Paris; and the Gobelins, since its purchase by
Louis in 1662. a.d., has been the center for the finest production.
The tapestries of the period were of great size. Their subjects
were taken chiefly from history and mythology, and the composi-
tions were designed by the most important artists of the day.
Technically, they show the great skill of the weavers in their
complicated compositions and elaborate borders. But artistically
many of them fail to attain their purpose of decorating the wall,
as the Gothic tapestries so successfully did, because they sought
primarily not so much to produce a decorative color harmony
as to create an illusion of reality after the fashion of a painting
with the use of distance, perspective, light and shade, and thus
transgressed their medium.
Other textiles also reveal a deviation from tradition. The
all-over design consisting of large repeated pattern that originated
in the Near East began to break up into a lighter framework and
by the time of Louis XV had taken on the form of a delicate
pattern of vines, garlands, flowers, and ribbons that well harmo-
nized with the interior decoration and the furnishings of the period.
The brocade reproduced in Pl. 146 b makes an exquisite pattern
of blue, light and dark rose, and green and gold on a ground of
ribbed white. These brocades and silks were made largely at
Lyons, which had become an important center for silk textiles;
and, like the tapestries, they show the great technical skill of
the weavers.
Another important product of the French craftsman was por-
celain. Chinese porcelains had made their way to Europe per-
haps as early as the eleventh or twelfth century; and, because of
their thinness and translucency, were greatly admired. The
potters did not understand the process of their manufacture until
finally in the eighteenth century both the German and the
French potters discovered the nature of true porcelain. Of several