Seven Centuries of Lace 6

Seven Centuries of Lace 6

Why should not this have inspired a laceworker of the same period to

attempt a similar design? At a little later date a "Sacramentaire" has

most realistic flowers and leaves ornamenting the initials in the

Manuscript. These beautiful works of art were executed by religious

persons and monks, probably of the Benedictine Order. A great part of

the lace made at the same time was undoubtedly the work of nuns. What

more likely than that mutual assistance was given to carry out the

principal aim of both--the ornamentation and glory of the Sacred

scriptures, and the services of the Church?

 

Many of the earlier albs are decorated with passemens or apparels, which

are squares or oblongs of ornamental work often enriched with gold

thread. These were sewn on the lower part of the front of the alb and on

the cuff of the sleeve. The alb preserved at the Cathedral of Sens, and

said to have been worn by St. Thomas of Canterbury, is ornamented in

this way. In some of the old books of patterns for lace, the

straight-edged laces are all called passemens, and only the pointed ones

dentelles, or pizzi.

 

Later the apparels gave place to ornament worked on the linen itself,

and often forming a continuous band of decoration more or less wide

round the edge. A tombstone on the floor of the church of St. Sabina in

Rome has a recumbent figure with an alb decorated with a band of this

kind. The inscription denotes that the figure represents a German abbot,

named Egidius Varnsprach; the date is 1312. Later still, lace of all

kinds was merely sewn on to the alb as a flounce, in the way usually

adopted at the present time.

 

As far as I am aware, only two complete albs of early linen lace exist.

They are both of very fine texture, the thread of the linen having been

spun with great care and the weaving very closely done. The oldest is

the alb, Plate 1, which is said to have been woven and ornamented by

St. Clare of Assisi and her nuns, and is still preserved in the

monastery of that place. The tradition is that it was worn by St.

Francis of Assisi. I was fortunately able to examine it closely and to

obtain details of the lacework, which is worked on the linen itself in

tela tirata and punto reale. Symbolic animals and chimeras are

introduced, but the polygonal character of the design is preserved

throughout, and establishes, I consider, its Coptic derivation.

 

To confirm this, I need only instance the fact that these, and other

earliest known specimens of lacis and linen lace existing, are almost

identical in design with the forms familiar to us from the discoveries

in Coptic tombs in Egypt from the first and third centuries onwards.

These designs, simple and formal as they appear, are really full of

meaning. Mr. Albert Gayet has pointed out, in his history of Coptic art,

that the law of polygonal evolution only completed in the eleventh

century the course it had steadfastly pursued from the beginning. He

continues: "It seems a far cry from the early Greek tradition to this

time. But the Coptic artist was never in sympathy with the Greek

striving towards realism. He wished to express, not the image itself,

but the impression conveyed by the image. He preferred the thought to

the concrete form. The divine idea, which to the Greek must mean a

precise representation, he prefers to render quite otherwise. The

fidelity of the Coptic artist to this polygony renders it the key to all

his art. His first efforts are blunders, but he is not discouraged, he

continues without hesitation to follow his ideal. He finds in the

philosophy of the polygon the impression he wishes to convey of the

ideal and the invisible. His composition, according to the Gnostic

definition, has its secret side, hidden under the emblem shown, while

the emblem shown has also a hidden side. Then by the superposition of

_entrelacs_, or strap-work, he conveys the idea of evolution, or things

(mysteries) turning and repeating themselves indefinitely, but always in

an inflexible circle." For example, a number of star-centred octagons,

formed by a network of lines, will have a cross in the centre--other

little crosses may be traced in each star--and in the arabesques of the

corners crosses may also be found. "Everywhere, even in the most closely

packed work, this symbol can be found; the most abstract geometrical

combinations are still subject to the same system. Polygony places

everywhere and always the sign of the Faith."[G]

 

[G] Gayet, A., "L'art Copte." Paris, 1902.

 

I must also make a quotation from the learned Dr. Rock, which, though

written nearly forty years ago, is so apposite while considering this

beautiful lacework from Assisi and its Eastern derivation.

 

Strengthening our idea that the old Egyptians had borrowed the cross as

a spell against evil, and a symbol of eternal life, is a passage set

forth by Rufinus, A.D. 397, and by Socrates B.C. 440.

 

"On demolishing at Alexandria a temple dedicated to Serapis, were

observed several stones sculptured with letters called hieroglyphics,

which showed the figures of a cross. Certain Gentile inhabitants of the

city who had lately been converted to the Christian faith, initiated in

the method of interpreting these enigmatic characters, declared that the

figure of the cross was considered as the symbol of future life."[H]

 

[H] "Hist. Eccles.," lib. v., c. 17.

 

"We know that modifications of the form of the cross have been found on

monuments already discovered; others may turn up with the so-called

'gammadion' found upon Egyptian stuff of such an early date. The

recurrence of the gammadion upon Christian monuments is curious. It is

shown in the catacombs, and in numerous later instances. Christianity

widened the meaning of this symbol and made it teach the doctrine of the

Atonement of Calvary, and that Christ is our corner-stone. In the

thirteenth century it was taken to be an apt memorial of His five wounds

and, remembering the stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi, this gammadion

became the favourite device of such as bore that Saint's name."[I]

 

[I] Dr. Rock, "Introduction to Textile Fabrics at South Kensington

Museum" (Chapman and Hall, 1870), p. cxxxix.

 

No less than twenty varieties of these polygonal ornaments, many of them

introducing the gammadion, are to be found in the lacework of the Assisi

alb. _See_ Plate 3.

 

The tradition mentioned by Dr. Rock of the device of the gammadion being

identified with St. Francis may, I think, have originated in the

circumstance of his having worn this alb. In Plate 6 I give two examples

of early Italian punto reale of the same kind although very inferior in

variety and in workmanship, but in most of these early "cartiglia," as

this work is called in Italy, the polygonal idea is still predominant.

 

The other complete alb is also of linen lace, and is said to have been

worn by Pope Boniface VIII. in 1298. (_See_ Plate 2.) It is preserved in

the Treasury of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, where I had an

opportunity of examining it closely and of obtaining the technical

details I give. As to its possible history I may note that St. Nilos and

his monks were driven from the East by the Saracens at the end of the

tenth century, and came to Italy, where they were welcomed by Pope

Gregory V. He established them in the monastery a few miles from Rome,

where their successors still worship with their Eastern rites. The

famous alb may have been brought by these very monks or those who

followed them from the East.[J]

 

[J] "The Pope, Gregory V. (996-999), and the Western Emperor, Otho

III. (993-1002), who was then also at Rome, went out to meet the

strangers beyond the walls, and received them with all possible

honour and respect. And out there in the Campagna, at Grottaferrata,

St. Nilos at last built a home for his monks, and there he died.

Grottaferrata has stood unchanged till now, no Pope has tried to

destroy or Latinise it; after ten centuries, its monks sing out

their Greek office in the very heart of the Latin Patriarchate,

while outside the Latin olives shelter its Byzantine walls."--"The

Orthodox Eastern Church," Adrian Fortescue, D.D. London, 1907.

 

Then, as now, specimens of the world's treasures of art and handicraft

arrived in Rome from all parts of the known world. I see no difficulty

in recognising the antiquity of this alb. That the great Pope Boniface

VIII. wore it is only a tradition, and no evidence is afforded or

vouched for by the authorities at the Vatican. One evidence of its

origin should not be overlooked which is the material, which I believe

to be the real Byssus, or fine handspun linen from the plant _Linum

usitatissimum_ not at that time available in Europe. Dr. Bock remarks

that this Byssus was much sought for in early Christian times under the

name of Byssus of Alexandria.[K] The linen of the Assisi alb is of the

same texture, which I can only describe as crisp and wiry,

notwithstanding that in many parts it is much worn; on handling the

linen it reminded one at once of the linen of Egyptian mummy cloths, and

the Italian curators of both albs, while I must say profoundly

indifferent as to the questions of design and execution, which

interested me most, were all quite certain that they had known no linen

texture resembling it in Italy. It was impossible not to call to mind in

this connection, "Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that

which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail."[L] The linen of the alb of

Pope Boniface is slightly finer than that of the Assisi alb, and is

heavily worked with lace ornaments of an Eastern character. The repeated

geometrical patterns, or rosettes symmetrically grouped in squares, are

worked by the needle in punto a rammendo (_see_ Plate 3), and the

curious stitch called punto treccia, or tress-work, is introduced, as

well as the punto a stuora, or matting stitch. It may be observed that

in such early lacework the punto a festone, or buttonhole stitch, is

never, or very rarely found, though afterwards it became almost the only

stitch used in all needle-point, until the advent of the réseau.

 

[K] Dr. Franz Bock, "Die textilen Byssus," Aachen, 1895.

 

[L] Ezechiel, xxvii. 7.

 

In the alb of Pope Boniface there is no buttonhole stitch--the ornaments

in squares called quadri were inserted in the linen of the alb, and were

surrounded by rows of punto tirato worked in the linen itself. The

flounce and insertions, or "falsature," of pillow-made lace were

evidently added at a later date.

 

It is interesting to see in the fresco by Giotto (1276-1337), preserved

in St. John Lateran, that Pope Boniface VIII. is supported by two

ecclesiastics, one of whom is wearing an alb with what appears to be

lace on the sleeve.

 

The tomb of the same pope, and of others of about the same date, afford

still more cogent evidence. In the Crypt of St. Peter's, Rome, Pope