International studio (82.1925)

mceRnACionAL

^^^W^——""■■"■iii .....,i ...... iii.iiuiiiiiiiil i ii, in j

group of courtiers" in the late manner of valentine van orley

produced the cartoons for some
of the best of these, for although
Antoine could be quite French
on occasion, as in the personages
for the Cluny mille fleurs, he was
basically Flemish and, when the
theme gave him scope, broke out
in the boisterous grotesqueness
common in the artists of his
country. Jean, on the other
hand, was almost wholly Flem-
ish, never successful m a French
role, so that his tapestries are
perhaps as typically Tournai-
sian as any could be said to be.
Something of the old vitality
and ugliness of Piat appears,
with the crude strength of action
and superabundance of anec-
dote which distinguished him.

The other Flemish type
shows again Tournai's keen
commercial consciousness. Brus-
sels at this time held the fore-

i t t The suave elegance which Valentine acquired from Italian influences toward the

most place m the industry. , ,,. . , .,„'.. /, , . ,

r . end of bis career gives place in the 1 ournai interpretations oj the style to blemish

Fine tapestries were being made directness. Collection of Frank Cair Macomher
in both Tournai and Audenarde

and decorative pieces were produced probably on School of Philip pieces really made in Brussels, but

a number of lesser looms, but Brussels had the the Valentine style must have been copied by a

great prestige. Two types especially she produced designer not trained in that genre. Valentine,

in quantity, the illustrations of romances and judging from the quantity of his output, did not

Bible stories in the style of the studio of Philip run a cartoon factory as Philip did. In both cases,

and, finer and hence produced in smaller numbers, however, there is enough of the local Tournai

the closely related but richer and more delicate flavor to make the Tournai copies unmistakable

illustrations, also filled with many personages, once the diagnostic marks have been noted. The

designed by his father Valentine in his latest style, architecture is of the same heavy red that appears

Philip and his studio were so very productive it is in the Germanic type of Tournai designs; the hair

difficult to choose any one example to typify him, is rendered with fine lines that give a stringy effect;

but among the best of his personal designs are and accessories of dress are exaggerated in detail,

some of the pieces in the David series in the Cluny As in most derived work the faces are particularly

and entirely characteristic of the studio work are revealing being, m all but the. best Tournai

the two small Court of Love panels in the Metro- examples, rather wooden.

politan Museum. Valentine's latest manner is Thus the looms of this one little city, made

exemplified in the Life of the Virgin belonging to adjustable by a sharply fluctuating history, pro-

the Spanish State. duced six distinct styles of tapestry; first, one to

The Tournai weavers evidently were impressed suit the Dukes of Burgundy, then one to please

by the commercial success of these two types that the French buyer, a slight variation on this to

were issuing from the rival city and so undertook suit an Italian client, a quantity of coarser pieces

to imitate the styles, in a grade, however, that for the German trade and two types of Flemish,

must at the time have undercut the Brussels one indigenous and one in imitation of her most

price. prosperous rival. Commercialism in an industrial

Judging from the relations between the Brus- art could go no further. Yet many of these tap-

sels work and the Tournai copies it would seem estries rank among the finest of the greatest of

probable that the Tournai shops got workmen tapestry ages. Where taste and skill and knowl-

from Philip's studio to make the cartoons in this edge are combined evidently great decoration can

manner for they approximate very closely the be produced even at the behest of trade.

October 1925

forty-Jive