"toile d'arraignée," made in silk or thread by a needle on a cardboard pattern by the copper-coloured natives as an industry; also embroidery and drawn thread-work on linen, of which there are specimens in the Victoria and Albert Museum—all traditions of the European missionaries and traders who first colonised the country.
Plate XXXIV.
Spanish.—Pillow made nineteenth century. Réseau of two threads twisted and crossed. Slightly reduced.
Plate XXXV
Paraguay. "Nanduti."—End of nineteenth century. Reduced rather over half.
Photos by A. Dryden from private collections.
To face page 108.
CHAPTER VII.
FLANDERS.
"For lace, let Flanders bear away the belle."
—Sir C. Hanbury Williams.
"In French embroidery and in Flanders lace
I'll spend the income of a treasurer's place."
—The Man of Taste, Rev. W. Bramstone.
Flanders and Italy together dispute the invention of lace. In many towns of the Low Countries are pictures of the fifteenth century, in which are portrayed personages adorned with lace,[317] and Baron Reiffenberg, a Belgian writer, asserts that lace cornettes, or caps, were worn in that country as early as the fourteenth century. As evidence for the early origin of pillow-lace in the Low Countries, Baron Reiffenberg mentions an altar-piece, attributed to Quentin Matsys (in a side chapel of the choir of St. Peter's, at Louvain), in which a girl is represented making lace with bobbins on a pillow with a drawer, similar to that now in use.[318] There exists a series of engravings after Martin de Vos (1580–85), giving the occupations of the seven ages of life: in the third,[319] assigned to âge mûr, is seen a girl, sitting with a pillow on her knees, making lace (Fig. 50). The occupation must have been then common, or the artist would scarcely have chosen it to characterise the habits of his country.
Of the two paintings attributed to Matsys—that in St. Peter's, at Louvain, and that in Lierre, only the former is now assigned to the artist. Both pictures are said to be of the end of the fifteenth century or beginning of the sixteenth.
Fig. 50.
Lace-Making.—(After Martin de Vos.)
The triptych at Louvain is reproduced and described in detail by Van Even in his work, Louvain dans le passé et dans le présent;[320] it consists of five panels, the centre panel representing "La famille de Sainte Anne"; but among all the figures none, however, appear to be engaged in making lace or, indeed, in any form of needlework.
Plate XXXVI.
Flemish. Portion of Bed Cover, Bobbin-made.—First half of seventeenth century. This is said to have belonged to Philip IV. of Spain. Above the Austrian eagle and crown is the collar of the Golden Fleece. The workmanship is of great skill.
Victoria and Albert Museum.
To face page 110.
It has been suggested that the "Lace-maker making lace with bobbins on a pillow with a drawer" (alluded to by Baron Reiffenberg) in the triptych is taken from the above-mentioned engravings by Nicholas de Bruyel and Assuerus van Londonzeel, after the drawings of Martin de Vos.
The historian of the Duke of Burgundy[321] declares Charles the Bold to have lost his dentelles at the battle of Granson, 1476; he does not state his authority. Probably they were gold or silver, for no other exist among his relics.
In Vecellio's Corona of 1593 and 1596 are two designs of geometrical lace—"ponto fiamengho" and "Manegetti di ponto Fiamengo," point de Flandre.
In 1651, Jacob v. Eyck, a Flemish poet, sang the praises of lace-making in Latin verse. "Of many arts one surpasses all; the threads woven by the strange power of the hand, threads which the dropping spider would in vain attempt to imitate, and which Pallas would confess she had never known;" and a deal more in the same style.[322]
The lace-manufacture of the Netherlands, as Baron Reiffenberg writes, has a glorious past. After exciting the jealousy of other European nations, in the sixteenth century, when every industrial art fled from the horrors of religious persecution, the lace fabric alone upheld itself, and by its prosperity saved Flanders from utter ruin. Every country of Northern Europe,[323] Germany, and England, has learned the art of lace-making from Flanders. After the establishment of the Points de France by Colbert, Flanders was alarmed at the number of lace-makers who emigrated, and passed an act, dated Brussels, December 26th, 1698, threatening with punishment any who should suborn her workpeople.
Lace-making forms an abundant source of national wealth to Belgium, and enables the people of its superannuated cities to support themselves, as it were, on female industry.[324] One-fourth of the whole population (150,000 women) were said to be thus engaged, in 1861. But a small number assemble in the ateliers; the majority work at home. The trade now flourishes as in the most palmy days of the Netherlands.
Fig. 51.
Cap of the Emperor Charles V.—(Musée de Cluny.)
This engraving is not accurately drawn. The spaces contain birds and crosses, and not sprigs.
Fig. 52.
Isabella Clara Eugenia, Daughter of Philip II., Archduchess of Austria, Governess of the Netherlands.—Died 1633.
To face page 112.
Lace forms a part of female education in Belgium. Charles V. commanded it to be taught in the schools and convents. Examples of the manufactures of his period may be seen in the cap said to be worn by him under his crown, and in the contemporary portrait of his sister Mary, Queen of Hungary. This cap, long preserved in the treasury of the bishop-princes of Basle, has now passed into the Musée de Cluny (Fig. 51). It is of fine linen; the imperial arms are embroidered in relief, alternate with designs in lacis of exquisite workmanship.[325]
Fig. 53.
Mary, Queen of Hungary, Governess of the Low Countries. +1558.—(From her portrait, Musée de Versailles.)
Queen Mary's cuffs (Fig. 53) are of the geometric pattern of the age, and we may presume, of Flanders make, as she was Governess of the Low Countries from 1530 till her death. The grand-daughter of Charles V., the Infanta Isabella, who brought the Low Countries as her dower,[326] appears in her portraits (Fig. 52) most resplendent in lace, and her ruff rivals in size those of our Queen Elizabeth, or Reine Margot.