DOI Heft:
No. 180 (February, 1912)
DOI Artikel:Hunter, George Leland: Tapestries at the Metropolitan Museum
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43448#0441
INTERNATIONAL
• STUDIO
VOL. XLV. No. 180 Copyright, 1912, by John Lane Company FEBRUARY, 1912
Tapestries at the metropoli-
tan museum
BY GEORGE LELAND HUNTER
Many persons look at tapestries as
if they were paintings. They criticise them for
their value as photographic imitations or inter-
pretations of nature, without understanding that
the peculiar virtue of tapestries depends not on the
qualities that they possess in common with paint-
ings, but on the qualities that distinguish them
from paintings.
The purpose of this article is to present the
tapestry point of view.
Decoratively the most important tapestries at
the Museum are the three extraordinary Gothic
panels which illustrate La Baillee des Roses (The
Giving of the Roses). They show wide vertical
bands of green, white and red, strewn with rose
foliage and flowers, against which appear' ladies
and gentlemen in fifteenth-century costumes of
great variety and interest. They are not marred
by any attempt at photographic perspective.
Personages and florals alike are in strong sil-
houette, with flat, simple colors to mark contrasts.
The basis of the whole design is not paint style, but
pen style, not photographic light and shade in
delicate tones, but strong line work that gets
effects easily and vigorously.
The texture is a coarse, flat rep with only
twelve horizontal ribs to the inch. These give a
lined background against which the lines of the
personages and rose branches—predominatingly
vertical—stand out boldly. Note also the strong
hatchings of the draperies—long, vertical lines
and spires of one color running up into another
color. These hatchings are the most distinctive
single characteristic of tapestry, and in combina-
tion with the horizontal ribs that they cross give
tapestry a more interesting and individual tex-
ture than any other textile.
Much more ambitious pictorially, and woven
about half a century later (1490-1520), are the
Gothic tapestries lent by Mr. Hoyt. All of these
CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM^BY TITUS GOTHIC TAPESTRY
LXXXIII
• STUDIO
VOL. XLV. No. 180 Copyright, 1912, by John Lane Company FEBRUARY, 1912
Tapestries at the metropoli-
tan museum
BY GEORGE LELAND HUNTER
Many persons look at tapestries as
if they were paintings. They criticise them for
their value as photographic imitations or inter-
pretations of nature, without understanding that
the peculiar virtue of tapestries depends not on the
qualities that they possess in common with paint-
ings, but on the qualities that distinguish them
from paintings.
The purpose of this article is to present the
tapestry point of view.
Decoratively the most important tapestries at
the Museum are the three extraordinary Gothic
panels which illustrate La Baillee des Roses (The
Giving of the Roses). They show wide vertical
bands of green, white and red, strewn with rose
foliage and flowers, against which appear' ladies
and gentlemen in fifteenth-century costumes of
great variety and interest. They are not marred
by any attempt at photographic perspective.
Personages and florals alike are in strong sil-
houette, with flat, simple colors to mark contrasts.
The basis of the whole design is not paint style, but
pen style, not photographic light and shade in
delicate tones, but strong line work that gets
effects easily and vigorously.
The texture is a coarse, flat rep with only
twelve horizontal ribs to the inch. These give a
lined background against which the lines of the
personages and rose branches—predominatingly
vertical—stand out boldly. Note also the strong
hatchings of the draperies—long, vertical lines
and spires of one color running up into another
color. These hatchings are the most distinctive
single characteristic of tapestry, and in combina-
tion with the horizontal ribs that they cross give
tapestry a more interesting and individual tex-
ture than any other textile.
Much more ambitious pictorially, and woven
about half a century later (1490-1520), are the
Gothic tapestries lent by Mr. Hoyt. All of these
CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM^BY TITUS GOTHIC TAPESTRY
LXXXIII