DOI Heft:
No. 86 (May, 1900)
DOI Artikel:Maus, Octave: The ornamentation of textiles: Mme. Paul Errera's collection at Brussels
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19784#0269
The Ornamentation of Textiles
fifteenth centuries, sprang
an admirable growth of
art which invests the woven
products of that period
with everlasting interest
and value.
The invention of in-
diennes, or calicoes—cloths
printed first on the wood-
block principle, and later
from copper-plates — gave
fresh impulse to the textile
industry about the close of
the seventeenth century;
but the decorative taste of
the day was for the most
part so poor that the
process cannot be said to
have had a fair chance.
One must go back to
the thirteenth, fourteenth,
fifteenth, and sixteenth
centuries to discover origi-
nal and typical decorative
compositions. Here we
find the same elements
frequently repeated and
diversely applied. In the
thirteenth century the types
were ordinarily the lion and
the eagle, symbolical of
^^ft^'^i-i I W'".p-HJti.^. '.SE• M force and majesty; the lion
~- J^^^^sE^ and the goose' to siSnif>-
^ffiplXit^?;yA'' strength combined with
prudence ; or the lion and
fig. 2.—Sicilian : silk and gold xii. centurv the dove, representing
power and gentleness in
one. Occasionally figures
vestments. A striking contrast this to Christ's of angels were introduced into the designs. In
poor robe of brown serge and the camel's hair the next century we find the aster employed in
loin-cloth of John the Baptist! Later still, the infinite forms, together with an ornamental style
Crusades spread the new artistic movement through- borrowed from that of the workers in iron,
out Europe. Italy and France became inspired The weaver's art reached its apogee at this
by the novel elements derived from the fertile period. Later the decorative schemes based on
sources of the East, while Spain—with Andalusia flora and fauna gave place to others, in which
rivalling Persia itself in the luxury of its ornamented were incorporated scrolls and rings and floral
fabrics—followed the path indicated by the Arabs, ornaments geometrical in design. This brings
The Renaissance brought into touch the artist us to the seventeenth century, where we find
and the craftsman, and the most celebrated masters landscapes and uprooted trees, birds on the wing
of the day, both in Italy and in France, thought it or at rest, none of these bearing the stamp of
in no way derogatory to devote their genius—as in the sincerity of the earlier times. Still worse
our own time William Morris and his colleagues was the eighteenth century, with its ribbons
devoted theirs—to the invention of designs for and shells and rock-work, its feathers and serpen-
textile materials. Hence, in the fourteenth and tine figures, and its depressing pastorals, all of
256
fifteenth centuries, sprang
an admirable growth of
art which invests the woven
products of that period
with everlasting interest
and value.
The invention of in-
diennes, or calicoes—cloths
printed first on the wood-
block principle, and later
from copper-plates — gave
fresh impulse to the textile
industry about the close of
the seventeenth century;
but the decorative taste of
the day was for the most
part so poor that the
process cannot be said to
have had a fair chance.
One must go back to
the thirteenth, fourteenth,
fifteenth, and sixteenth
centuries to discover origi-
nal and typical decorative
compositions. Here we
find the same elements
frequently repeated and
diversely applied. In the
thirteenth century the types
were ordinarily the lion and
the eagle, symbolical of
^^ft^'^i-i I W'".p-HJti.^. '.SE• M force and majesty; the lion
~- J^^^^sE^ and the goose' to siSnif>-
^ffiplXit^?;yA'' strength combined with
prudence ; or the lion and
fig. 2.—Sicilian : silk and gold xii. centurv the dove, representing
power and gentleness in
one. Occasionally figures
vestments. A striking contrast this to Christ's of angels were introduced into the designs. In
poor robe of brown serge and the camel's hair the next century we find the aster employed in
loin-cloth of John the Baptist! Later still, the infinite forms, together with an ornamental style
Crusades spread the new artistic movement through- borrowed from that of the workers in iron,
out Europe. Italy and France became inspired The weaver's art reached its apogee at this
by the novel elements derived from the fertile period. Later the decorative schemes based on
sources of the East, while Spain—with Andalusia flora and fauna gave place to others, in which
rivalling Persia itself in the luxury of its ornamented were incorporated scrolls and rings and floral
fabrics—followed the path indicated by the Arabs, ornaments geometrical in design. This brings
The Renaissance brought into touch the artist us to the seventeenth century, where we find
and the craftsman, and the most celebrated masters landscapes and uprooted trees, birds on the wing
of the day, both in Italy and in France, thought it or at rest, none of these bearing the stamp of
in no way derogatory to devote their genius—as in the sincerity of the earlier times. Still worse
our own time William Morris and his colleagues was the eighteenth century, with its ribbons
devoted theirs—to the invention of designs for and shells and rock-work, its feathers and serpen-
textile materials. Hence, in the fourteenth and tine figures, and its depressing pastorals, all of
256