NEEDLEWORK AS ART ppt

NEEDLEWORK AS ART BY LADY M. ALFORD [Illustration] London: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, AND RIVINGTON, CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET. 1886. [_All rights reserved._] LONDON: PRINTED BY GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, LIMITED, ST. JOHN'S SQUARE. [Illustration: TELEMACHUS PENELOPE] DEDICATED BY PERMISSION TO THE QUEEN. TO THE QUEEN. _Your Majesty's most gracious acceptance of the Dedication of my book on "Needlework as Art" casts a light upon the subject that shows its worthiness, and my inability to do it justice. Still, I hope I may fill a gap in the artistic literature of our day, and I venture to lay my work at your Majesty's feet with loyal devotion._ MARIAN M. ALFORD. PREFACE In the Preface to the "Handbook of Art Needlework," which I edited for the Royal School at South Kensington in 1880, I undertook to write a second part, to be devoted to design, colour, and the common-sense modes of treating decorative art, as applied especially to embroidered hangings, furniture, dress, and the smaller objects of luxury. Circumstances have, since then, obliged me to reconsider this intention; and I have found it more practicable to cast the information which I have collected from Eastern and Western sources into the form of a separate work, which in no way supersedes or interferes with the technical instruction supposed to be conveyed in a handbook. I have found so much amusement in learning for myself the history of the art of embroidery, and in tracing the beginnings and the interchanges of national schools, that I cannot but hope that I may excite a similar interest in some of my readers, and so induce those who are capable, to help and lift it to a higher place than it has been allowed in these latter days to occupy. If I have given too important a position to the art of needlework, I would observe that while I have been writing, decorative embroidery has come to the front, and is at this moment one of the hobbies of the day; and I would point out that it contains in itself all the necessary elements of art; it may exercise the imagination and the fancy; it needs education in form, colour, and composition, as well as the craft of a practised hand, to express its language and perfect its beauty. I confess that when I undertook this task, I did not anticipate the time I have had to spend in collecting and epitomizing the many notices to be found in German, French, and English authors, on what has been considered among us, at least in this century, as merely a secondary art, and therefore, as such, of little importance. Cursory notices of needlework are scattered through almost every book on art; and under the head of textiles it is usual to find embroidery acknowledged as being worthy of notice, though not to be named in company with sculpture, architecture, or painting, however beautifully or thoughtfully its works may be carried out. I have tried to show that it deserves higher estimation. My first intention was simply to consider STYLE, good or bad, as it influences our embroidery of to-day, and to find some rules by which to guide that of the future in its next phase. But when we search into the fluctuations of style, and their causes, we find they have an historical succession, and that we must begin at the beginning and trace them through the life of mankind. This led me to attempt a sketch of consecutive styles, their overlap and variations. I then found that DESIGN, PATTERNS, STITCHES, MATERIALS, each require a separate study. COLOUR, as applied to dyes, claims to be regarded as differing from pigments on the painter's palette. HANGINGS, DRESS, and ECCLESIASTICAL EMBROIDERIES each require different rules, and the study of the best examples of past centuries. Finally, it seems natural to dwell on our own proficiency in decorative work. ENGLISH EMBROIDERY has always excelled; and, as we have again returned to this occupation, it is worth while to recollect what we have done of old. In writing chapters on these subjects, I have found it most convenient to separate the historical and æsthetic questions from the technical rules, and the instruction which naturally belongs to a handbook, of which the purpose should be to teach the easiest and most orthodox manner of executing the simplest, and elaborating the finest works. Such questions ought not to be overlaid with archæological inquiries, or with the information which only profits the designer; though of course it is best that the knowledge of design should be part of the education of the craft. Perhaps I may be found to have written a book too shallow for the learned, too deep for the frivolous, too technical for the general public, and too diffuse for the specialist of the craft.[1] I must deprecate these criticisms by saying that I have written it for the benefit of those who know nothing of the art, and are too much engaged to seek information here and there; who yet, being women, have to select and to execute ornamental needlework; or, being artists, are vexed at the incongruities and want of intention in the decorations in daily domestic use; I have also sought to help the designer, that he or she may know something of the history of patterns and stitches. If my readers should be aware of repetitions, they must forgive them; remembering that the same idea has to be looked at sometimes from a different point of view, according to the use to which it is to be fitted. The same material may be employed for wall-hangings and dress, and then the principles which have been formulated have to be varied. I do not shrink from repetitions if they make my meaning clear, remembering the Duke of Wellington's direction to his private secretary, "Never mind repetitions; and _dot_ your i's." Portions of these chapters have been already published in No. 49 of the _Nineteenth Century_,[2] in 1881; and more was delivered in three unpublished lectures the same year. I have acknowledged and noted on each page my authorities for the facts I have quoted. The illustrations that are not original, have been copied from other works by permission of authors and publishers. To all of these I wish to express my obligations and thanks, especially to Mr. Villiers Stuart, Dr. Anderson, Sir G. Birdwood, and Sir H. Layard, for their courtesy in allowing me the use of their plates. To my old and valued friend, Mr. Newton, I wish to express my gratitude for his unstinted gifts of time and trouble, bestowed in criticizing and correcting my book, encouraging me to give it to the public, and making it more worthy of publication. I have largely quoted Charles Blanc ("Ornament in Dress," English translation), Von Bock ("Liturgische Gewänder"), Dr. Rock ("The Church of our Fathers" and "Introduction to Textiles"), Semper ("Der Stil"), Yates ("Textrinum Antiquorum"), and Yule ("Marco Polo"), besides many others. But these authorities often differ, and, after weighing their arguments, I have ventured to select for my use the facts and theories which accord with my own views. Facts are often so interdependent and closely linked, that it requires great care to distinguish where they have been shaped or coloured (however unintentionally) to fit each other or the writer's preconceived ideas. Certain it is that facts are but useless heaps till the thread of a theory is found on which to hang them. This process, like that of stringing pearls, has to be often repeated, till each occupies its right place. Only those who have adopted and cherished a theory can appreciate the pain of cutting the thread, to displace what appeared to be a pearl, but which, from its false position as to date or place, or its doubtful origin, has proved only an empty manufactured glass bead of error. This has happened to me more than once; and since I read my lectures I have had to change my opinions in several instances. If, therefore, any of my readers should observe such changes, I hope they will give me credit for trying to convey _now_ what appears to me on each subject a correct impression. FOOTNOTES: [1] Besides the art, I have sought to give something of the archæology of needlework. Now the qualifications for being a teacher on such subjects are rarely to be met with, all combined. Mr. Newton, in his "Essays on Art and Archæology," p. 37, says that "the archæologist should combine with the æsthetic culture of the artist, and the trained judgment of the historian and the philologist, that critical acumen, required for classification and interpretation; nor should that habitual suspicion which must ever attend the scrutiny and precede the warranty of evidence, give too sceptical a bias to his mind." Such authorities have been interrogated on each part of my subject. [2] Quoted by permission of the Editor. CONTENTS. PAGE INTRODUCTION. 1 CHAPTER I STYLE. Definition of style Development of style Primitive Archaic Egyptian Babylonian Phoenician influences on early Greek style Decoration of hangings of the Tabernacle in the wilderness Aryan ideas The Code of Manu Indian art Celtic style Greek art in dress and embroideries Homer's descriptions of embroideries Pallas Athene Shield of Achilles Roman art Byzantine art Art of Central Asia Its arrival in Europe Art of China, Japan, and Java Christian art Scandinavian art The Dark Ages Sicilian textile art Renaissance Arabesque Grotesque Spanish Plâteresque Style of Queen Anne and the Chippendales Louis XV. style Classical revival Young England's style Nineteenth century style 14 CHAPTER II DESIGN. Artist and artisan Prehistoric design Naturalistic design Egyptian immutability Slow evolution of design Greek perfection Necessity of following rules M. Blanc's laws of ornamentation Laws of composition Repetition Alternation Symmetry Progression Confusion Designs for hangings and dress materials Floral design Design for carpets The conventional First principles 54 CHAPTER III PATTERNS. Ancestry of patterns Classification Their historical value Primitive patterns The wave Tartan Prehistoric African patterns The naturalistic Flowers Shells Indian forms of naturalistic patterns Egyptian The lotus Sunflower Celtic Zoomorphic patterns The human figure on Greek textiles Animal forms in Oriental patterns Symbolical and conventional patterns The wave patterns The palm leaf The cone Gothic Arab Moresque The Sacred Hom Egg and tongue The cross Swastika Fylfote Gammadion The crenelated pattern The Ninevite daisy Emblematic patterns Bestiaria Volucraria Lapidaria Byzantine patterns Gothic Renaissance The cloud pattern The fundata Italian French patterns Radiated patterns The shell Patterns by repetition Balcony pattern Chinese [...]... While the great pendulum of Time has swung art in sculpture, painting, and architecture, from its cradle as in Mycenæ, to its throne in Athens in the days of Pericles, and then back again to the basest poverty of decaying Rome needle work, continually refreshed from Eastern inspiration, never has fallen so low, though it had never aspired as high as its greater sister arts The stuffs and fabrics of various... the world, would be a task worthy of a master-hand and a pen of gold But less ambitious labourers in the field of investigation which is only as yet partly cultivated, may each assist, by carefully collecting a little heap of ascertained facts; and it is, indeed, the duty of each as he passes to add his pebble to the slowly accumulating cairn of recorded human knowledge Some one has said, "Build your... ORIENTAL "TREE AND BEAST" PATTERN Cockayne-Hatley | | 85 | 391 | | Temp James I | ENGLISH CREWEL WORK Indian design Temp James I NEEDLEWORK AS ART INTRODUCTION The book of the Science of Art has yet to be written Art has been called the Flower of Life, and also the Consoler; adorning the existence of the strong and bright, sheltering and comforting the sad and solitary ones of the earth But, rather,... hope for more ere long The secondary or smaller arts have been hitherto neglected by us, either treated merely as crafts, to which artistic education may give help, or as the natural or inferior outcome of the primal arts, having no claim to the possession of special laws and history And yet, when Moses wrote and Homer sang, needlework was no new thing It was already consecrated by legendary and traditionary... tints Authorities for theories Art of colouring Expression of colouring-Purple Red Crimson Blue Yellow Pliny Renouf Chinese colours Indian dyes Persian colours Dyes of the Gauls Romans Scotch Scales of colour MM Charton and Chevreul on tones of colour Gas colours 175 CHAPTER VI. STITCHES Stitches Part I.: The needle Gammer Gurton's needle Art of needlework Lists of stitches Part II.: Plain work-The seam... abiding place to needlework, and they have regarded it as a branch of painting But I cannot endorse this classification According to Semper, indeed, it is the mother -art of sculpture and painting, instead of being the offspring of either or both, as others have maintained.[4] They have, indeed, such distinct functions that each may justly boast its own original sources Painting is the art of colour;... beauty of the eye, rather than to the imagination The designer for needlework should be an artist, but he need not be a poet You may omit this art altogether, and you need be none the less sumptuously clothed and lodged Yet it is worthy of careful study as historical evidence, and that in the present and future, as in the past, it may be an _art_ , and not merely a _craft_ For the great web of history is... stitches Queen Elizabeth's embroideries Institution of Embroiderers' Company East India Company Oriental taste discouraged on Protectionist grounds Decay of the art in England Style of James I. Dutch style Cushion stitches Miss Linwood-Miss Moritt Mrs Delany Mrs Pawsey Postscript Revival of the art of needlework "Royal School of Art Needlework" 356 APPENDIX I Charles T Newton on Votive Dresses 400 II The... Canneh, Haran, and Eden, as well as of their cloths of purple and blue, and their chests of garments of divers colours[6] All these fabrics are named as merchandise, and were carried to the sea-coast, and thence over the ancient world, by the Phoenicians, the great shipowners and dealers of the East Indian needlework and design is 4000 years old; and the long perspective of Egyptian art, while leading us... Jute-Honduras grass Spartum Pinna silk Hair Leather-Feathers Asbestos Coral Pearls Beads Wool Classical notices of wool Careful improvement of wool by the ancients Tanaquil Homeric woollen carpets Crimson textile fragments Scandinavian woollen garments Qualities of wool English wool Goats' hair Flax Lake cities-Byssus Fine linen of Egypt The Atrebates Embroidery on linen Cotton Indian origin Carbasa Buckram . ideas The Code of Manu Indian art Celtic style Greek art in dress and embroideries Homer's descriptions of embroideries Pallas Athene Shield of Achilles Roman art Byzantine art Art. among us, at least in this century, as merely a secondary art, and therefore, as such, of little importance. Cursory notices of needlework are scattered through almost every book on art; and under. my book on " ;Needlework as Art& quot; casts a light upon the subject that shows its worthiness, and my inability to do it justice. Still, I hope I may fill a gap in the artistic literature