Studio: international art (38.1906)

Austrian Peasant Embroidery

FIG. 17.—CHALICE COVER EMBROIDERED IN
SII.K AND SILVER, WITH GOLD POINT LACE

(Ferdinandeum Museum, Innsbruck)

design being the favourite vase of flowers of the
Bohemians, together with geometrical forms. Fig.
14 shows a very fine piece of embroidery on red
silk. Here much care has been shown, for it is
part of a neckerchief worked in silk, gold, and
tinsel, a style frequent in these parts. In many
districts tinsel, beads, even coloured stones are
worked into the material, always with a sure eye
both for colour and design.

With all their labours for gain and for self
these peasant women have also found time to
work for
theirchurch.

heart as a symbol of love
has its place; this is sur-
mounted by what seems to
have been meant for a cross.
This is an extremely deli-
cate piece of work which
has been done by hard and
coarse hands. Fig. 17 shows
another chalice cover from
the Tyrol. The design is
widely different from the
preceding one. Mary the
Mother is in the midst of
a chorus of angels, sur-
rounded by rich pomegra-
nates and other costly fruits.
Here, perhaps, is shown the
difference of worship in the
two nations; both are
eminently pious, but their
piety is not expressed in
the same way.

Though in Upper Austria
and the Tyrol the men do
not wear embroidered under-
clothing and jackets as do
those in the eastern pro-
vinces, still they are fond
This is expressed in their
belts, which are worked in peacocks’ feathers and
tinfoil. Each man makes his own—it is his par-
ticular pride, and he is as proud of it as the
women are of their achievements, perhaps even
more so; in fact, nothing is more characteristic with
these peoples than their love of adornment, though
it never exceeds the bounds of good taste and
always is in harmony with the particular land in-
habited by them. Only in some of the provinces has
the national garb been discarded, and not, perhaps,

TYROL, EARLY

i8th century

ot ornamentation.

Fig. t 6
shows a cha-
lice cover
from the

province of
Salzburg,
with the
traditional
stag leaping
along over
bush and
tree; in the
corners the

FIGS. 18 AND 19. -MEN’S EMBROIDERED BELTS FROM OLD STORZING AND PERTIS, TYROL

(Ethnological Museum, Vienna) 17TH and ISth CENTURIES

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