MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE, MEDFORD. ORE.
SUNDAY, MARCH S, 19ei
B 5
THE SHAPE OF THINGS
New Tapestries
Wools Used Are
By RICHARD HIRSCH
Director Allentown Art
Museum
Hamlet's Elsinore castle had
rot been built for comfort. Its
walls were stone, naked inside
and out, pierced with open
apertures through which
raged the blasts of a North
Sea winter. No glass made
these opening what we call
windows-and this was a king
ly palace.
The queen, seeking some
small comfort, seeks to cut
down on the gale-like drafts.
Hence, in her castle chamber,
which Shakespeare calls her
"closet," those hangings
named "Arras." As eavesdrop
ping Polonius betrays his
presence behind the queen's
tapestries, young Hamlet
lunges blindly at the hang
ings. Polonius, pierced by
Hamlet's sword, dies between
the "Arras" and the wall.
This is a familiar, a famous
scene.
It Is Misunderstood
Frequently, it is misunder
stood. We think of a tapestry,
an Arras, as a wall hanging,
quite obviously against the
wall. But this will only hap
pen in the palaces of later
centuries succeeding those
earlier stone castles.
In the seventeenth century,
for example, tapestries will, in
actual fact, become wall hang
ings, hung directly against the
wall, as the curtains hung
against the new wide win
dows, rich with new-fangled
glass cut into window panes.
But not in Elsinore castle,
nor in hundreds of other cas
tles less famous but equally in
need of the barest creature
comforts. Here the tapestry
was hung well away, 18 inches
or more, from the clammy
wall, down to the drafty, icy,
floor, providing some slight
cushion of air for the unhappy
nobles shivering behind their
drawbridges, in crenellated
grandeur.
Polonius Was No Fool
It was in this air space that
Polonius went to his reward.
He had not, as many readers
think, attempted to get behind
an Arras closely hugging the
wall of the Queen's closet.
After all, he was no fool even
If his political maxims suffer
from the folly of the poli
tician. The medieval tapestry was,
thus, an expensive practical-1
jty, the product of a great ;
craft reproducing the designs ,
not of painters, as will happen 1
only later, but of the design-;
ers of stained glass. In times
when painting was found only
in the miniatures of precious!
manuscripts on parchment or
on small wood panels, monu-,
menial design could be hoped
for only from those accus
tomed to the towering dimen
sions of the windows in great
cathedrals.
It is from these hands mat
came the designs, the "car-i
toons," which the tapestry!
weavers of Arras or Tournai .
or Brussels interpreted freely .
in wool, silk and sometimes in
gold and silver yarn.
Infrequent Fading
Because of this freedom,
the medieval tapestry has
come down to us with only in
frequent fading or, where fad
ing has taken place, a uniform
degree of it from corner to
coiner, leaving the general
decorative harmonies intact.
This happy stability could
only last as long as the dyer
and the weaver controlled
their craft. But, shortly, the
painter and the decorator will
take over. Raphael was pre
narinff a catastrophe.
A poorly inspired Pope'
asked Raphael, around 1515,
to design a series of cartoons
for a set of tapestries to be
called "The Acts of the Apos
tles." These designs, painted
as if they were great frescoes
or unusually large easel paint
ings, were sent off to the tap
estry weavers of Brussels on
squares of paper which could
be assembled according to
their numbered keys.
The weavers were instruct
ed to have their dyers match
the shades and hues of each
brushstroke. Nothing of the
sort had ever been asked of
these Flemish weavers who
had been successful for cen
turies in the use of yarns
dyed in only those several
dozen colors, hues and shades
which a patient craft had
found to be light-fast and fade
proof. .Nevertheless, Raphael's tap
estries were executed in the
short space of four years. '
Hundreds of workers were set
to this single task. The master
weavers and dyers of Brussels
devised for this purpose new
and untested techniques.
When the great hangings ar
rived in Rome a new triumph
added itself to Raphael's re
nown just before his untimely
death. Response was raptur
ous on all sides. For tapestry
weaving a revolution had oc
curred. In terms of craft, tt
w as a disaster.
From here on in tapestries
will be thought of as paintings
translated into wool and liLk.
Not Painterly;
Carefully Dyed
sfcL. f r 1 fKiw ills
WOVEN TAPESTRY "The Welcome of Paris. An example of perfect collabora-
Guests," a tapestry woven at Tournai in tion between craftsmen, designer, dyer and
Flanders in the late 15th century from a de- weaver, this great hanging, 11 by 13 feet
sign by the unknown designer of stained in size, expresses a great and successful tra-
glass windows In one of the great churches . dition. (Courtesy of Duveen Brothers, Inc.)
Under this perspective, rob
bing the craftsman of his free
dom, his judgment, his com
mand over quality and con
tent, the dyer produced yarns
which he knew could not re
main color-fast while the
weaver abdicated much of his
creative role.
Rubens, living close to the
weavers of Flanders, will con
tinue the tradition started by
Raphael, imposing on them
the exacting demand that they
reproduce every blending of
color from his brush. As a re
sult, few are the Rubens tap
estries today which have not
faded and, worse luck, faded
unevenly.
Here and there an ancient
blue, dyed according to the
medieval tradition, stands up
against the centuries and sings
out boldly. Surrounding it,
however, are vast areas of
greying wool. These were
once flesh tones, blended yel
lows, spring greens and hun
dreds of gradations which
could not survive, tones which
the medieval dyer and the
weaver for whom he worked
would have turned down as
shoddy.
But not Rubens, nor yet the
court painters of France who,
later, were to be given con
trol over the manufactories
set up by royal decree. For
them the purpose of the tow
ering tapestry looms could
only be to produce decorative
hangings from painterly de
signs. This will be done solely
in painterly terms.
As might be expected, these
once-luscious tapestries of the
eighteenth century are, with
few exceptions, but ghosts of
their first state, while the me
dieval "Arras" of several cen
turies earlier are still alive
with bold color, undimmed by
age.
It was poetic justice that, in
our century, it should be a
group of painters who set
themselves the task of reviv
ing the lost traditions of me
dieval tapestry weaving as a
craft.
People such as Jean Lurrat,
Jean Picart Le Doux and a
number of others have, in loss
than 20 years, taught the
weavers of Aubusson the old
principles of their craft which I
had been forgotten by genera
tions of their forbears work
ing in this old French town.
The result can now be seen
in museums and galleries
around this country. The new
tapestries, which the design
ers call "murals in wool," are
not painterly. This is due to
the insistence of the painter
designer involved.
Rather, woven with wools
carefully dyed in a bold, bril
liant and carefully limited
spectrum, they join up, by
their craft, with the great tra
ditions of the medieval cen
turies while, by their design,
often whimsical and always
decorative, they belong to
today.
And tomorrow they will re
main alive.
(Copyright 1961, General
Features Corp.)
Boulder Lake Snow Less Than Normal
nip gam II
Jij
liimiWrfrimflHa
Yreka - Wilbur V. Howard,
district ranger of the Callahan
district Klamath National for
est, has reported considerably
less than normal snow in the
Boulder Lake area.
Measurements taken March
1 by Howard am1 Glenn Fowl
er show that at Middle Boul
der lake, with an elevation of
6,600 feet, the snow depth was
55.1 inches, compared to a
normal of 66.1 inches. Water
content was 24.1 inches, com
pared to a normal of 28 inches,
Howard said.
At Lower Middle Boulder,
6.200 feet elevation, there
wore 44 inches of snow, com
pared to a normal of 68.7
inches. Water content was 17.!)
inches, compared to a normal
of 27.8 inches.
There were 21.6 inches of
snow at Dynamite Meadows:
snow course, with an eleva-:
tion of 5,700 feet, with a wa- j
ter content of 6.3 inches. Nor
mal snow at the course is 64 8
inches with a water content of
23 3 inches, Howard said.
Swampy John snow course,
elevation 5,500 feet, has a
snow depth of 60.6 inches
with a water content of 21.fi
inches. I
LEATHER USER
Detroit - The automobile in
dustry consumes about 85 per
cent of all the upholstery
leather produced in the U.S.
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Actor John Payne in
Satisfactory Condition
New York -OIPII- Movie and
TV sta- John Payne was re
ported in satisfactory condi
tion Friday but faces seven
weeks in the hospital.
Payne, 48, was struck by
an automobile Wednesday
night as he was walking in
the rain to a restaurant. Suf
fering from a fractured leg
and several head and face
cuts, he was reported in criti
cal condition Thursday at
at Roosevelt Hospital, but
improved quickly.
Volkswagen's output of 891,000
units in 1960 exceeded all domestic
makes except Ford and Chevrolet!!!
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rfv -'"'SpVliSQ .,b.ih, ,.,.
KiVuMFV J r m s-i. ''iT.'fc.H' 'u.i-;, rm
r growing by leaps and
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