DOI Heft:
No. 70 (January 1899)
DOI Artikel:Strange, Edward F.: Textile patterns from Suffolk rood-screens
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19230#0273
Textile Patterns
The subsidiary decoration consisted of arrangements
of sprigs of flowers, the sacred monograms and
similar ornaments having evidently been worked out
with the help of stencils or some similar device ; but
our present interest lies with the beautiful and often
well-preserved patterns of the robes in which the
saints are arrayed.
As will be seen by a reference to Fig. i, the
patterns are taken from the robes of the various
saints represented on the screens, and from a
record of the gorgeous brocades of silk and gold
in use during the Middle Ages, especially for
sacerdotal vestments. Although they vary in-
finitely in detail, there is a striking uniformity of
general treatment which at once and easily refers
them to their place of origin—Italy and Sicily .
and thus accounts for the Oriental skill in distribu.
tion as well as for the educated conventionality of
the forms used—in itself an evidence that they
fig. 4.—diaper on the alb of st. thomas
southwold screen
a A -y-Jy 3 are the product of a carefully developed school of
T ^v^^^jy-y I ^ft^r^ts design of some antiquity and not the product
' '^^B^nr^^^/^S^y^f( °^ any self-taught local industry. Fig. 2 is, indeed,
Ti^TpOf ri'^H^^^/r^^ ' ' strongly impregnated with Persian influence, and
/ k its heraldic treatment of the lion is as remarkable
ttT^l '?~V~"K as ^e ext:reme simplicity of the convention to
Vrw^,M%^-^/'" '^^^'^3y fi, f which the palm-tree has been reduced. But in
/SCT^t ^S' 3 we fmd, with its more complex arrangement
1( ^^jA^^kv/t^^ I of the repeat, that the animals—again a lion, and a
fiSHr*-1' / "^<s£3J15/ I ML io| / spaniel attacking a water-fowl—are treated less
U j I A^hfe^Mt'TOsilii broadly and more as so much mere decorative
(Lk 1 p-~^f;Nx ^"SJq-i filling with little relation to the rest of the design.
fL) C_J^::'^^\\ \ The ^ora^ details, however, show an ingenious
\ \ ^^^^^^^S * - \ an<^ consisteiit growth, and the flower-bearing vine,
T\ \ ^^^fJ^j/^P^^C f ^ we may cau so' *s composed with great skill
/ vO (u\T *0 an<^ effect- Fig. 5 is again suggestive of the chase,
Kj^Ty' yf^^ J^-/ \Qy the subject being a hawk in the act of striking a
■' — ^ rabbit. In this case the repeat is also a simple
fig. 3.—diaper on the robes of ss. paul and one, but it is interesting to note the purely Persian
matthew. southwold screen form at the junction of the ogee-shaped compart-
242
The subsidiary decoration consisted of arrangements
of sprigs of flowers, the sacred monograms and
similar ornaments having evidently been worked out
with the help of stencils or some similar device ; but
our present interest lies with the beautiful and often
well-preserved patterns of the robes in which the
saints are arrayed.
As will be seen by a reference to Fig. i, the
patterns are taken from the robes of the various
saints represented on the screens, and from a
record of the gorgeous brocades of silk and gold
in use during the Middle Ages, especially for
sacerdotal vestments. Although they vary in-
finitely in detail, there is a striking uniformity of
general treatment which at once and easily refers
them to their place of origin—Italy and Sicily .
and thus accounts for the Oriental skill in distribu.
tion as well as for the educated conventionality of
the forms used—in itself an evidence that they
fig. 4.—diaper on the alb of st. thomas
southwold screen
a A -y-Jy 3 are the product of a carefully developed school of
T ^v^^^jy-y I ^ft^r^ts design of some antiquity and not the product
' '^^B^nr^^^/^S^y^f( °^ any self-taught local industry. Fig. 2 is, indeed,
Ti^TpOf ri'^H^^^/r^^ ' ' strongly impregnated with Persian influence, and
/ k its heraldic treatment of the lion is as remarkable
ttT^l '?~V~"K as ^e ext:reme simplicity of the convention to
Vrw^,M%^-^/'" '^^^'^3y fi, f which the palm-tree has been reduced. But in
/SCT^t ^S' 3 we fmd, with its more complex arrangement
1( ^^jA^^kv/t^^ I of the repeat, that the animals—again a lion, and a
fiSHr*-1' / "^<s£3J15/ I ML io| / spaniel attacking a water-fowl—are treated less
U j I A^hfe^Mt'TOsilii broadly and more as so much mere decorative
(Lk 1 p-~^f;Nx ^"SJq-i filling with little relation to the rest of the design.
fL) C_J^::'^^\\ \ The ^ora^ details, however, show an ingenious
\ \ ^^^^^^^S * - \ an<^ consisteiit growth, and the flower-bearing vine,
T\ \ ^^^fJ^j/^P^^C f ^ we may cau so' *s composed with great skill
/ vO (u\T *0 an<^ effect- Fig. 5 is again suggestive of the chase,
Kj^Ty' yf^^ J^-/ \Qy the subject being a hawk in the act of striking a
■' — ^ rabbit. In this case the repeat is also a simple
fig. 3.—diaper on the robes of ss. paul and one, but it is interesting to note the purely Persian
matthew. southwold screen form at the junction of the ogee-shaped compart-
242