International studio (50.1913)

Tapestries in American Museums

captions make clear, are paired, Old Testament
with New Testament, from left to right: Jeremiah
and Peter, David and Andrew, Isaiah and James,
Hosea and John, prophets and apostles intimately
associated with the story and the life of Christ.
All but Isaiah are luxuriously robed in brocaded
velvet; he is dressed like a man of action, in short
coat and trousers, with a sword by his side.
Bands of letters adorn his clothing—letters the
meaning of which is not clear. Jeremiah is repre-
sented as an aged man, clean shaven and wearing
a skull cap. Peter, who faces him, wears specta-
cles and is reading a scroll that bears his name.
David holds a sceptre and wears a crown. Isaiah

In the second panel an angel holds Christ’s robe,
while John the Baptist performs the sacred cere-
mony. John wears the traditional “raiment of
camel’s hair,” but over it a rich brocaded mantle
like the others.
In the third panel Joseph and Mary kneel in
adoration before the Christ Child, watched by the
animals and by two angels. Through the open
side of the stable can be seen three shepherds, to
whom an angel appears, bearing a scroll with the
words, Gloria in exsexlis (excelsis') deo et in terra
pax hominibus bona voluntatis.
Of course the cross in the fourth panel bears the
letters I N R I (Ihesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaorumf

CRUCIFIXION WITH OTHER SCENES CHICAGO ART INSTITUTE


kneels opposite James, who is apparently convers-
ing with Hosea.
Also helping to tie the different panels together
are the two ribbon scrolls that cross the lower part
of the tapestry. The pink one bears in Latin the
opening words of the Apostles’ Creed. The blue
one bears Patrem invocabimus qui terram fecit et
condidit celos, and sentences from Psalms (II, 7)
and from Hosea (XIII, 14).
The only nude figures in the tapestry are Christ
in each of the last three scenes—Baptism, Nativ-
ity, Crucifixion—and Adam and Eve in the first,
Eve rising straight and fair from out the side of
the sleeping Adam. The central personage in the
first scene is God, standing erect, wearing the
imperial crown and holding the imperial sceptre,
with a group of angels behind Him. The orphreys
of the copes are richly ornamented with jewels.

(Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews). Beside
the cross stand the Virgin, Mary of Magdalen and
the disciple John. On the other side of the cross
are three men, one of whose hats bears the letters
0 F E R I, and the appearance of A or M. Miss
Flint very happily suggests that this may stand
for the Latin offerimus (we offer), and that the
group may be the donors of the tapestry. The
sword-sheath of the man with the lettered hat
bears the letters V J H, possibly his initials. In
the distance behind the cross can be seen Joseph
of Arimathea laying the body of Christ in the
sepulchre.
A wonderful tapestry this, representing the art
of tapestry weaving at its best. It is worthy of
favorable comparison with any, although without
the gold and silver that enrich some others, not-
ably the Mazarin Triumph of Christ at the Metro-

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