Jacobean Embroidery Its Forms and Fillings Including Late Tudor

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INTRODUCTION

TO redeem the monotony of plain surfaces has ever been the aim of all the arts, but especially that of the needle, which being the oldest expression of decorative intention, has, from the earliest time, been very dependent on its groundwork for its ultimate results. This is particularly the case in embroideries of the type of what is commonly known as Jacobean, where the ground fabric is extensively visible, as it is also in that wondrous achievement, the Bayeux tapestry worked in coarse wools upon homespun linen and therefore quite miscalled "tapestry."

Inaccuracy in nomenclature is one of the stumbling blocks the student encounters, and the tendency of the day to classify "styles" by the restricted formula of monarchical periods is likewise misleading. No style is ever solely distinctive of one reign, or even one century, the law of evolution rules the arts as it does nature, there is always a correlation between styles in art and circumstances of existence that is productive of gradual changes of taste, therefore, pronounced evidences in design are, actually, the culminating point in a course of combined influences which have reached the period of individual expression.

Crewel work of the type of Jacobean, was the outcome of that earlier wool embroidery that even in the zenith of fame of the Ecclesiastical broderers still quietly went on its way.

In the middle ages, furnishing of rooms was scanty, and embroidered hangings, cushion and stool covers provided the necessary notes of colour and comfort; the wall hangings of the 13th century were of coarse canvas decorated with a design executed in wools.

It is curious how in English embroideries there has always been a predilection on the part of the designers for interlacing stems, and for the inconsequent introduction of birds and beasts.

Mons de Farcy, author of La Broderie du Onzième siècle jusqu'à nos jours, remarks that "it seems that the position of England, surrounded by the sea on all sides, has provoked in its inhabitants the passion of travelling over the sea, and they came to know, before continental nations, of the parrots and other birds of brilliant plumage so often reproduced in their needlework."

Mrs. Christie, an English authority on Embroidery, admirably sums up the evolution of designs when she writes "Examination of old Embroideries gathered from all parts of the world shows that each individual specimen, every flower and bud, is a development of some existing form, and is not an original creation, invented, as some appear to think all designs are, upon the spur of the moment." In the creation of a design it is a case of assimilation of the fittest and the elimination of the unsuitable from existing examples, thus the interlacing stems of the work of the 14th century became grafted on to the version of the Tree of Life idea in the Oriental designs that came to England in the 16th, through the intercourse opened up by the formation of the East India Company, at the end of Elizabeth's reign.

To deem, as do some writers, the bold, rather ponderous crewel work of the 17th century, sole outcome of the importation of the Palampores of Musulipatan, is to ignore all the tendencies manifested in the embroideries of previous centuries; in the same way, to repudiate the emblematical significance of special features markedly introduced into old designs, is to betray a complete lack of knowledge of the mind and manners of the people of superstitious days.

Knowledge was not rapidly acquired, and even as late as the 17th century was largely disseminated through the country by allegorical narratives, while emblematical lore reflected the history of the immediate moment. There was in the poetry and in the embroidery of Elizabeth's day, a sportive quality which was not likely to be checked under the Stuarts, doubles entendres were not confined to jests! and the political and religious differences of opinion, rampant throughout the period, found expression in the most fantastic ways.

The Stump Embroidery, in vogue at the same time as the crewel hangings specially treated in this volume, was full of symbolism, and naturally the same inspiration directed the worker in crewels. Curiously enough, both these very different types of needlework, crystalised into individuality concurrently, yet one is usually designated Jacobean, the other referred to as Stuart. In this connection it is well also to remember, that the Stuart era extended, historically, from 1603 to 1714, viz., from the reign of James I (Jacobus) to that of Queen Anne, daughter of James II.

Queen Anne is so often relegated, in the public mind, to an isolated position, genealogically, and the pronounced developments in the changes of taste that took place at the commencement of the of the 18th century, left such a very definite impression, that she is rarely remembered as a Stuart; it was in her reign, however, that the vogue for the old crewel embroideries revived, and though differences of treatment crept in, the designs, were, in the main, purely Jacobean, being copies or adaptations of patterns popular in the middle of the 17th century. It is these copies that exist mostly to-day, few, indeed, are those hangings which pertain to the earlier date, but a study of those few, taken in conjunction with the still fewer that remain of the 16th century, prove the gradual growth of the designs that have the tree motif which makes them all kin....