DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62931#0100
LATE LUCCHESE FABRICS
The bold radiating flower of the pomegranate tree is the
distinctive feature of plate I, opposite page 2. This design is full of
Oriental imagery, with the bird and chained dog within a boat,
floating upon water on which float swans and ducks; it is suggestive
of Persian origin.
Fig. 30 is a well-distributed ogival pattern, having a serrated
flower enclosing a pair of rabbits.
Typical ogival patterns of the later Lucchese”fabrics are given
on plate 37, where the vine is used as the motive of the national
Fig. 30.—Oriental Weaving. Pattern in
gold thread on deep blue ground.
Fig. 31.—Lucchese Pattern from Italian
Painting.
patterning. This ogival framing was suggested frequently by sym-
metrically placed birds, as in fig. 31, which is from a picture by
Spinello Aretino (1 3 30-1408) now in the National Gallery. Aretino
was probably also a designer for some of the later fabrics of Lucca.
This period of Lucchese industrial and artistic activity did not
last for more than fifty years, for in 1315 the Florentines laid siege
to the city and, capturing it, carried away many of the Lucchese and
Sicilian weavers to Florence, which now took the chief position in
the production of magnificent patterned fabrics.
58
The bold radiating flower of the pomegranate tree is the
distinctive feature of plate I, opposite page 2. This design is full of
Oriental imagery, with the bird and chained dog within a boat,
floating upon water on which float swans and ducks; it is suggestive
of Persian origin.
Fig. 30 is a well-distributed ogival pattern, having a serrated
flower enclosing a pair of rabbits.
Typical ogival patterns of the later Lucchese”fabrics are given
on plate 37, where the vine is used as the motive of the national
Fig. 30.—Oriental Weaving. Pattern in
gold thread on deep blue ground.
Fig. 31.—Lucchese Pattern from Italian
Painting.
patterning. This ogival framing was suggested frequently by sym-
metrically placed birds, as in fig. 31, which is from a picture by
Spinello Aretino (1 3 30-1408) now in the National Gallery. Aretino
was probably also a designer for some of the later fabrics of Lucca.
This period of Lucchese industrial and artistic activity did not
last for more than fifty years, for in 1315 the Florentines laid siege
to the city and, capturing it, carried away many of the Lucchese and
Sicilian weavers to Florence, which now took the chief position in
the production of magnificent patterned fabrics.
58