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THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART MEDIEVAL AT THE CLOISTERS THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART THE CLOISTERS

At The Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park notable one another's tents under a flag of truce to com­ objects h

COPYRIGHT 1949 BY THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART A NEW ROOM FO THE UNICORN TAPESTRIES BY MARGARET B. FREEMAN Associate Curator of Medieval Art and The Cloisters

The Hall of the Unicorn Tapestries at The woven with the History of Jason . . . and the Cloisters has been completely remodeled to pro­ Golden Fleece." For a solemn assembly in Brus­ vide for these aristocrats among tapestries a set­ sels in 1469 the audience room of the ducal ting such as they might have had when they palace was "adorned and hung all around (cir- were designed and woven in the late Middle compendue) with a very rich tapestry of the Ages for a Queen of France. The long, narrow great King Alexander, Hannibal, and other museum gallery in which they were formerly noble ancients." Miniatures show that tapes­ shown has been transformed into a room of tries regularly reached from ceiling to floor; more gracious proportions, like a room in a frequently they turned the corners of a room, French chateau. A monumental fifteenth-cen­ and sometimes, though not always, they con­ tury mantelpiece from Alencon, installed in the tinued over windows and doors and even fire­ center of the south wall, adds scale, dignity, and places—when there was no fire—to keep out the the texture of intricately carved, creamy white draughts (see ills. pp. 2, 3). limestone. In the opposite wall a high, wide Inventories and expense accounts indicate window from a late Gothic house in Cluny ad­ that it was the fashion to furnish castle rooms mits north light and a view of the garden of the with matching ensembles and even to name the Cuxa Cloister. The tapestries are hung around rooms after the tapestries in them. One reads of the room on all four sides, instead of along one the "Hall of the Nine Heroes" of King Charles wall in a continuous line. Now, on stepping V, the "Room of the Lions Rampant" belong­ into the room, one is encompassed by move­ ing to the Queen, the "Chamber of the Swans" ment and brilliance and color. It is as if one of the Dukes of Burgundy, and many another. were no longer admiring a garden from outside Among the ensembles listed in the household the garden gate, but actually walking among accounts of Philip the Bold of Burgundy is "a the flowers. The people of the Middle Ages chamber of white tapestry all woven with many would undoubtedly have preferred the tapes­ likenesses taken from 'The Romance of the tries this way. Rose', consisting of several pieces furnished with In the countries of northern Europe, where cords and tapes ready for hanging; that is to say, winters were cold, medieval princes, dukes, and a bed cover,... a bed canopy (ciel),. . . cornice people of wealth literally clothed their rooms, bands,... a dorser, ... a tapestry (tapis) for the as well as themselves, in warm, colorful, costly couch,... four large hangings for the walls,.. .a garments. Many a contemporary chronicler de­ bench cover,... and twelve cushions,... totaling, scribes rooms entirely hung with tapestries. At in all, 374 aulnes [about 2040 square feet],... and the Peace Conference in Arras in 1435 "the three curtains [for the bed] of Arras silk checked Great Hall . . . was draped all around (tout in white and green. . . ." Another "rich cham­ autour) with tapestries made on a high-warp ber of the Duke's, called the Room of the Little loom, on which were figured the Battle and Children," had "tapestries made on a high-warp Overthrow of the People of Liege." At the mar­ loom of Arras thread,... a bed canopy, a dorser, riage of Charles the Bold and Margaret of York and a bed cover, all scattered over with trees and in 1468 the banquet room was "hung above plants and little children, and up above, on top, with draperies of wool, blue and white, and on rosebushes with roses on a crimson ground." the sides was tapestried with a rich tapestry Many such items as the following appear in the

I A tapestry in the Duke of Berry's dining hall. It rounds a corner, covers a door, and is turned under to fit over a fireplace. Miniature representing January in Les Tres Riches Heures, 1412-1416

2 An audience room hung with tapestries, and a tapestry covering a fireplace to keep out draughts. Miniatures from Vroissart's Chronicle, about 1460-1480. British Museum (MSS. Harley 43J9, 43S0) The Unicorn tapestries in a salon of tiie Rochefoucauld chateau at Verteuil

inventory of Philip the Good of Burgundy: "A justed as well as possible to the new surround­ rich chamber of tapestries made on a high-warp ings. A miniature in Les Ties Riches Heures loom with thread of Arras woven with gold, shows that one of the Duke of Berry's great tap­ called the Chamber of the Coronation of Our estries, full of battle action, had to be doubled Lady; consisting of a bed canopy, dorser, bed­ under to fit over the mantelpiece in the banquet spread, and six tapestries for hanging, two of hall (ill. p. 2). Moreover, his guests had to lift which are made with gold and the other four up the tapestry when they entered the room, without gold...." The Unicorn tapestries form for the hanging covered the doors. an ensemble of wall hangings such as the inven­ Several accounts tell of huge tapestries being tories list and describe. How they were intended cut into smaller hangings. One tapestry worker to furnish a room can be better appreciated now on record made "twenty-two hangings out of that they are shown on all four walls. five tapestries: King Arthur, the Queen of Flan­ In the Middle Ages, tapestries were presum­ ders, the Mirrors of Rome, Doon de Mayence, ably woven to the measurements of a given hall and Judas Maccabeus. . . . He then enlarged or bedchamber or chapel. But they were fre­ each one by an Arras aulne [about twenty-seven quently moved about from place to place. When inches] with foliage work similar to that origi­ a duke changed his residence from one of his nally in the tapestries," doing it so well that chateaux to another he often took his favorite "each tapestry seemed to have been made that tapestries with him; sometimes he lent them to way from the beginning." In 1403 Colas d'Incy, a relative for a wedding feast, gave them as a tapissier, cut down three of the tapestries be­ bribe or ransom, or bequeathed them to a longing to Philip the Bold, "which were too granddaughter. The tapestries were then ad­ large to hang in many halls and chapels and The Unicorn tapestries in the residence of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., about /055 which could not be hung well or folded or short­ the "great chamber of the new wing" and that ened because of their great size and weight." two of them were in storage in the large hall Since many of these early tapestries were sev­ outside the chapel. Along with the tapestries in enty-five to ninety feet long and sixteen to the "great chamber" was an elaborate bed of eighteen feet high, one can well understand the violet velvet embroidered in gold and silver, advantage of dividing them into two or more with curtains lined in green taffeta and "bou­ pieces. About a century later, when the Unicorn quets" of green and white feathers on the finials tapestries were made, hangings for use in pal­ of the bedposts. The bed was valued at 550 aces and castles were generally ordered in livres and all seven tapestries at 195 livres. The smaller sizes, so that they could be more easily inventory was made about the time when Goth­ handled and more successfully hung. That the ic tapestries in general were out of style and Unicorn tapestries have survived to be enjoyed many important hangings were serving as today may be due to the fact that through the cloths to protect parquet floors while ceilings centuries their owners have found them not were being repainted or as wrappings around only beautiful but definitely usable. orange trees to keep them from the frost. Dur­ How the Unicorn tapestries were arranged ing this period the Unicorn tapestries, at least, three centuries and more after they were woven were used to decorate one of the best bedrooms is indicated in the inventory of the chateau of of the chateau. the Duke of La Rochefoucauld at Verteuil. The It was not change in taste, but the French inventory, which is dated 1728, is the earliest Revolution, which brought about the only in­ record of the tapestries so far discovered. It dignities these tapestries seem to have suffered. states that five of the tapestries were hanging in In 1793 they fell into the hands of the Com- mune of Ruffec and, according to one account, was given a more were employed by peasants to cover their es­ medieval setting by Mr. and Mrs. John D. palier trees, and to spread over potatoes in their Rockefeller, Jr., in their former residence on barns, lo keep them from freezing. Presumably 54th Street in New York City (see ill. p. 5). it was at this time that the sky in several of the The tapestries covered the walls from ceiling tapestries was crudely cut away, probably to to floor; they turned the corners and continued eliminate the arms or other insignia of royalty. across the doors in a very medieval manner. A half century later they were recovered by The room was almost completely clothed in the Countess of La Rochefoucauld for the cha­ tapestry. teau. In 1888 a visitor described them as a set of In the new installation at The Cloisters, seven pieces; he noted the costumes and "naive which was developed in close co-operation with drawing which go back to the fifteenth cen­ Mr. Rockefeller, the tapestries, for obvious rea­ tury," admired their "incomparable freshness sons, do not cover the mantelpiece, the window, and grace," and regretted that there was a "la­ or the doors. Neither do they hang by tapes and cuna" in one of the tapestries where "the cords from iron hooks as in the Middle Ages. daughter of the chatelain appears, doubtless to Nor are they lighted by flickering candles or aid in the capture [of the Unicorn]." Fragments flaming torches, the best illumination the fif­ of this tapestry were saved by the Rochefou­ teenth century had to offer. Instead, a com­ cauld family and made into portieres and bed pletely modern system of electric lighting curtains. Happily, two of the pieces have sur­ through louvres in the beamed wooden ceiling vived and are at The Cloisters today. A later has been devised, providing lor these treasures account of the set mentions only six hangings illumination more brilliant and safe than any­ and states that the Departure for the Hunt was thing their original or subsequent owners could not with the rest, but outside in the corridor have dreamed possible. near the salon. How the tapestries appeared in The Unicorn tapestries have been shown in the salon of Verteuil is shown in a series of many different ways throughout the centuries. photographs, unfortunately not dated. Here, in And each era has contributed a little some­ accordance with the style prevailing in the thing of its own to whatever room the tapes­ eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they were tries have graced. There could be no better evi­ stretched tight on the walls and framed as if dence than this of the undying vitality and the they were paintings (see ill. p. 4). ageless appeal of The Hunt of the Unicorn. THE NINE HEROES TAPESTRIES AT THE CLOISTERS BY JAMES J. RORIMER, Curator, and MARGARET B. FREEMAN, Associate Curator

So rare are surviving fourteenth-century tapestries. The fragments, fourteenth-century tap­ ranging from mere scraps to pieces eight feet estries that the acquisi­ high, were haphazardly sewn together with tion for The Cloisters bands of modern blue cloth decorated with of The Nine Heroes fleurs-de-lis. These tapestries, like the made for Jean, Duke of Apocalypse series, had been cut up in the course Berry, is an event of his­ of centuries. We recognized them at once as toric importance in the part and parcel of the series to which the King annals of the Museum. Arthur belonged. In fact, three cardinals that The famous Angers originally surmounted the figure of the king Apocalypse tapestries were among the fragments in the curtains, and are the only other set of two figures cut from the right of the Hebrew which substantial por­ Heroes were sewn to the left side of the Arthur tions have survived; —an association dating back at least as far as and there are but a few 1877, the year the Arthur, thus composed, was other single pieces of shown in the Retrospective Exhibition at Lyons. the period in existence. Although there are no written records to con­ The Cloisters set has firm the story, it has been said that the Arthur been assembled from was sold by J. J. Duveen, the father of the late ninety-four fragments Lord Duveen, to Monsieur Chabrieres-Arles, of various sizes. Origi­ who lent it to the Lyons exhibition. The tapes­ nally it consisted of try fragments in the curtains were sold by the three tapestries, each Duveen firm to Baron Arthur Schickler just more than twenty-one feet wide and about six­ after the Franco-Prussian War. His daughter, teen feet high and each representing three Countess Hubert de Pourtales, recalls seeing Heroes surrounded by smaller figures in an ar­ the fragments lying in a bundle on the floor of chitectural setting. The recovery of five of the her father's castle at Martinvast, five miles from nine Heroes and almost all of the accompany­ Cherbourg, about 1872. From about 1876 until ing smaller figures has made possible the recon­ recent times the curtains made from these pre­ struction of one almost complete tapestry (ill. cious fourteenth-century hangings and lined pp. 12, 13) and major portions of the other with a heavy red material were used in the two (ill. pp. g-i 1). castle windows. Fortunately the curtains were In 1932, when, with funds from the Munsey no longer at Martinvast during the German in­ Bequest, the King Arthur tapestry (ill. p. 9) vasion of France, for the aerial bombing of was purchased from the Clarence Mackay col­ January 14, 1944, virtually destroyed the room lection, it was believed that this was the only in which they had hung. One old tapestry that large fourteenth-century piece the Museum remained there was consumed by the resulting would ever be able to acquire. Yet only four fire; others were saved by German soldiers who years later Joseph Brummer, New York collec­ had been using the castle and outlying build­ tor and antiquarian, opened packing cases in ings for a headquarters. which he pointed proudly to five pairs of win­ Encouraged by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., the dow curtains made up of ninety-one pieces of Museum tried for more than ten years to obtain the fragments for The Cloisters, and when the fought as "never man had fought" before; he protracted and difficult negotiations were con­ fought more bravely than even the nine great cluded, Mr. Rockefeller gave the funds for the heroes of yore. With the medieval poet's aware­ acquisition and proper rehabilitation of the ness of the value of three and three times three, tapestries. To help complete the series, a frag­ Jacques chose for his roster of heroes three ment showing a knight holding a banner dis­ pagans, three Hebrews, and three Christians. playing a crescent and three balls (see ill. p. The pagans are Hector, Alexander, and Julius 13) was presented by Mr. and Mrs. George A. Caesar; the Hebrews, David, Joshua, and Judas Douglass. Maccabeus; the Christians, Arthur, Charle­ The tapestries have been pieced together in magne, and Godfrey de Bouillon. Conquerors temporary workrooms at The Cloisters. It has all, their claim to "worthiness" was summed up taken two years of enthusiastic effort on the by a fifteenth-century poet in The Flower and part of expert needleworkers to complete the the Leaf: painstaking task. In assembling the fragments "Nine, crowned, be very exemplair every effort has been made to preserve each and .Of all honour, longing to chivalry, every thread. The individual pieces were de­ And those, certain, be called the nine tached from the modern fabric on which they worthie." had been mounted, and were separated from one another where they had been sewn together The idea of the "nine worthie" caught the without rhyme or reason. The pieces were then imagination of the people of the time and in­ washed individually with soap and water on spired many a work of art. A pageant of the specially prepared stretchers. Fitting together Nine Heroes was presented at Arras in 1336. the various pieces was like putting together a Nine Heroes were sculptured on the mantel­ jigsaw puzzle that lacked a number of parts. As piece at the chateau of Coucy before 1387. They most of the vertical cuts had been made with a decorated the Hansa Saal in Cologne and the sharp instrument, it was comparatively easy to fourteenth-century Scheme Brunnen at Nurem­ reweave the fragments once their positions had berg. They were frescoed, about 1390, on the been determined. Most of the earlier restora­ walls of Castle Runkelstein outside Bolzano. tions, including the letters at the top of the They appeared on enameled cups and playing Hebrew Heroes, have not been removed. Patch­ cards, in manuscripts and stained-glass win­ ing has been kept to a minimum, and where dows. Many a great fourteenth-century noble­ the design is entirely missing, no effort has been man owned tapestries of the Nine Heroes: made to reconstruct it. Plain, colored replace­ Charles V, Louis of Anjou, Philip of Burgundy, ments for the missing areas are being woven at Charles VI, the Count of Hainaut, and Jean, the National Manufactory of the Gobelins in Duke of Berry. Besides his Nine Heroes tapes­ Paris, and when they have been completed, they tries', the Duke of Berry had statues of the Nine will be substituted for the linen and gauze now Heroes on his fireplace at Bourges and, by used for fill. 1385, on his keep, called Maubergeon, at Poi­ Our Heroes tapestries illustrate a theme of tiers. He owned a "nef" (a table ornament in chivalry well loved by noblemen and townsmen the form of a ship) which was decorated with alike, especially in the fourteenth century. The the Nine Heroes and a "basin" (for washing Nine Heroes, called in medieval English the the hands at meals) on which the Heroes were Nine Worthies (in French the Neuf Preux), enameled in red. As a counterpart to the were first systematized and made popular about "worthie" men artists of the fourteenth century 1310 by a jongleur named Jacques de Lon- soon developed a similar series of "worthie" guyon in his "Vows of the Peacock" (Voeux du women, and many a group of Heroes in wall Paon), which he added to the older "Romance paintings and tapestries, in sculpture, manu­ of Alexander." In this courtly poem of vows scripts, and goldsmith's work had its balancing and daring deeds he told how his hero, Porus, group of Heroines. Occasionally, too, there was

8 King Arthur witti bishops and cardinals. One of the Nine Heroes tapestries at The Cloisters. The lower panel was purchased in 1932 with funds from the Munsey Bequest; the cardinals above were among the ninety-one fragments acquired in 1947 with funds given by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Alexander the Great with courtiers. One of the Nine Heroes tapestries at The Cloisters. Orig inally at the left of a tapestry showing the three pagan Heroes. Rockefeller Gift, 1947

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Julius Caesar with courtiers. One of the Nine Heroes tapestries at The Cloisters. From the right of the tapestry of the pagan Heroes. Rockefeller Gift, 194-]

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13 One of five pairs of window curtains made about 1872 from fragments of fourteenth- century tapestries of the Nine Heroes woven for Jean, Duke of Berry

14 a temptation, though it spoiled the symmetry, to add a tenth hero of local or contemporary fame. Thus Bertrand du Guesclin, defender of the French crown in the Hundred Years' War, was often added to the group of Nine Heroes in France. Of the three pagan Heroes originally shown in one hanging in our set there still exist two, who can be recognized by their coats of arms; Alexander has a lion in a chair emblazoned on his shield, and Julius Caesar a double-headed imperial eagle in sable on gold. Of the three Hebrew Heroes we again have two: David, with a golden harp on an azure ground, and Joshua, with a dragon on his shield and a "sun in its glory" on the drapery at his feet. Of the three Christian Heroes only Arthur remains. He is clearly identified by the three crowns of gold on an azure ground. All the Heroes are seated impressively on Gothic thrones in elaborate Gothic niches. All of them are bearded, and all of them are crowned, even Joshua, in complete disregard for historical accuracy. They are clothed in medieval garments and medieval armor, with no attempt to recreate an impres­ sion of bygone days. The Middle Ages liked to bring its heroes up to date. The five large figures in our tapestries are surrounded by little people who might have stepped out of a fourteenth-century ducal castle. There are spearmen and archers, musi­ The salon in the chateau of Martinvast, in Nor­ cians and churchmen. A lady plays a psaltery, mandy, xvith a pair of curtains composed of another a harp; one holds a leopard, another fragments of the Nine Heroes tapestries at one a falcon; one a dog, and another a lily. They of the windows. Detail from an old postcard are lively and pert, and contribute largely to the interest of the tapestries. There is no prec­ edent for these little figures in Jacques de of Jean, Duke of Berry and Auvergne, Count of Longuyon's poem or in any other description of Poitou, fitampes, and Boulogne, third son of the Nine Heroes so far discovered. They are ap­ King Jean of France, and one of the greatest art parently the invention of the designer of the collectors of the Middle Ages or of any time. tapestries and thus make this series unicpie It can be assumed from the presence of the arms among the known representations of the that the tapestries were made to Berry's order Heroes. or woven for him as a gift. Ten of the thirteen banners flying from tur­ There is no mention of tapestries in Berry's rets in the tapestry depicting the Hebrew He­ inventories of 1401-1403 and 1413-1416, as they roes and the escutcheons in the vaults above were undertaken by his Keepers of the Jewels David and Joshua display the golden fleurs-de- and consist only of the objects entrusted to lis of France on an azure ground within an their care. The more complete inventory of indented border of red. These are the arms Berry's valuable possessions taken at the order

15 of his nephew, Charles VI, after the Duke's the late scenes of the Angers Apocalypse tapes­ death in 1416 lists a Nine Heroes set with tries. Berry's close connection with the court of dimensions similar to those of our set; but it is France suggests that the y's of our tapestry may described as "of the work of Arras, made of be a tribute to Queen Ysabeau of Bavaria, con­ gold, silver, and wool of many colors." Since sort of Charles VI, as were undoubtedly the our set has no gold or silver threads, we cannot, "Y's with crowns" on nine tapestries listed as even by stretching a point here and there, one item in the Duke's inventory. It is possible identify it with the one in the inventory. Of that the controversial y's of the Apocalypse tap­ course, makers of inventories are sometimes estry also refer to Ysabeau. That they appear in careless or ignorant; certainly the compilers of our tapestry behind a lady holding a white lily, the 1416 inventory were more concerned with but in the Apocalypse tapestry behind the har­ the assessed value of the objects listed than with lot combing her hair, may be a significant indi­ precise descriptions. cation of the change in the reputation of the Disappointing as it may be to find no written Queen between the time of her marriage to the record that our Heroes tapestries belonged to King in 1385 and the years of her liaison with the Duke of Berry, there is still the internal evi­ the Duke of Orleans after her husband became dence of the arms on the banners. There is per­ insane for the first time in 1392. Since, in the haps further evidence in the tapestry with the Middle Ages, the y was occasionally used for j, pagan Heroes. The u's scattered over the dark it is not impossible that our y's refer to Jeanne blue ground behind the lady with the lily, in d'Armagnac, Berry's first wife, who died in the alcove above Alexander, recall the English 1386, or to Jeanne de Boulogne, the young girl girl whom Berry is said to have met and loved whom he married in 1389. in his youth, when he was in England as hostage Innumerable other explanations of the y's for his father, King Jean. King Rene of Anjou could be suggested. Unfortunately, any attempt recorded the incident in his romance "Le Livre to explain them can result, at best, in little more de cueur d'armours espris" and indicated that than reasonable or ingenious hypotheses. It so Berry's life-long devotion to the lady, "servant happens that the people of the Middle Ages of the God of Love," was shown by the inclu­ delighted in cryptic letters, secret ciphers, and sion of a swan along with the bear in his device. obscure devices, many of which are still secret, A sixteenth-century French historian ingen­ cryptic, and obscure to the twentieth-century iously inferred from the combination of the mind. We feel certain, however, that the u's and "Ours" and the "Cygne" that the unknown y's in our tapestry were intended to have some lady was called Ursine. Modern scholars tend to meaning for the owner and were not used support this view, and some of them even inter­ merely for decorative effect. pret the famous secret cipher of Berry, the in­ The fact that our Heroes tapestries seem not terlaced V (or U) E, as representing the first to have been in Berry's possession at the time of and last letters of the lady's name. If the u's in his death leads to the conclusion that he must our tapestry do not refer to Ursine, they may have given them away sometime previously, at least be equated with the U of the cipher. possibly to a son or a daughter as a wedding They are even closer in form to the letters on present or to a favorite brother or nephew at the liveries worn by retainers in the miniatures New Year's. Perhaps he exchanged the tapes­ representing January and May in the Duke's tries for illuminated manuscripts or precious well-known manuscript, Les Tres Riches goldsmith's work, having no need for our set of Heures, at Chantilly (see ill. p. 2). Heroes after he had acquired the set noted in The y's which appear in the same hanging the inventory as enriched with silver and gold. with the u's cannot be associated as directly, What appears to have been the companion either in fact or in fancy, with the Duke of set of Heroines for our set of Heroes is listed Berry, and may be interpreted in as many dif­ and described in an inventory of the possessions ferent ways as the almost identical y's in one of of Berry's nephew, Charles VI, made shortly

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ABOVE: Pari o/ the stonework represented in the tapestry of the Hebrew Heroes, BELOW: The stonework forming the breast of a mantelpiece in the Duke of Berry's palace at Bourges before his death in 1422. The set consisted of tapestries from the Hall of the Nine Heroes" three hangings, all of which had "up above, on and again, ten years later, for the repair of "the top . . . , the arms of Berry and many little Nine Heroes." (The "two Heroines" tapestries shields." The three Heroines in one of the were mended in 1396.) It may be that these two hangings are noted as being "large personages Nine Heroes were "the two tapestries of the with their names in writing below ... and many Nine Heroes" which the King inherited from other small personages above them." By the his father, Charles V, in 1380. It would be description it would seem that Charles owned pleasant to believe that one of these sets of Nine the exact female counterpart to our Heroes. Heroes was ours, possibly presented to Charles The presence of the Berry arms on Charles's by his uncle, the Duke of Berry, along with the set proves that these Heroines, like our Heroes, similar set of Heroines described in the King's belonged to Berry at some time or were ordered inventory as showing the Berry arms. It may or by him to be given away. Although Charles's may not be of significance that two of the ban­ tapestries are listed as "very old and worn" ners in our tapestries bear the arms of France. (bien viels et use), two of them were claimed The presence of the arms of Burgundy on after his death by the English regent, the Duke one of the banners in the tapestry of the Hebrew of Bedford, who was something of a connoisseur Heroes led to an examination of the accounts of art and knew a good thing when he saw it. and inventories of Philip the Bold of Burgundy, There were no Heroes sets listed in Charles's the younger brother of Jean of Berry and an inventory of 1422. But that the King and Queen even greater collector of richly woven tapestries. owned at least one such set, and probably two, Philip's set of Heroes and Heroines was deliv­ is shown by the record of payments to Jau- ered to him in July 1388, was lined and "cord­ doigne of Paris in 1389 for the repair of "two ed for hanging" shortly thereafter, had the

17 names of the Heroes and Heroines added in afford a suitable basis for comparison with ours. 1389, and was finally paid for in 1390. It was In 1947-48, duringtheLoanExhibitionof French woven of Arras thread and the "heroes [were] Tapestries, pieces from both sets were examined plainly worked in large figures with their coats side by side. Both series are woven with approxi­ of arms and their armor entirely of fine gold mately twelve and a half ribs, or warp threads, and fine silver from Cyprus." Neither the de­ to the inch, with double threads for the weft. scription nor the dimensions of this set corre­ The same restricted colors, with similar shading spond with those of our Heroes, and its history in the same light and dark tones, appear in both shows that it had no connection with the Duke sets. Shaded reds and blues predominate, recur­ of Berry. ring at intervals in the pattern. In both sets the The Heroes tapestries are very closely related stonework, woven in a golden tan color, slightly to the Angers Apocalypse tapestries, especially in more faded in some places than in others, is their technique. In fact, the Apocalypse tapes­ silhouetted against a very dark blue, almost tries are the only woven pictures surviving that black sky. Similarities of design are apparent in the illustrations. For example, our five Heroes, like the Angers figures (see ill., left), are seated under vaulted architectural structures. More­ over, such details as the butterflies and the foli­ age at the outer edges of the tapestries are com­ parable. If the Heroes tapestries were not woven in the same workshops as the Angers Apoca­ lypse, they must have been produced under vir­ tually identical supervision and with similarly trained weavers. We know that most of the Angers Apocalypse tapestries were woven before 1384 for the Duke of Berry's brother, Louis, Duke of Anjou, by Nicolas Bataille, master tapestry-weaver and merchant of Paris (d. about 1400). And we know that Berry also ordered textiles from Bataille. Payments to Bataille as early as 1374 are re­ corded in the voluminous but incomplete ac­ count books kept by Berry's treasurers, al­ though the entries do not describe or itemize the purchases, merely noting their cost. The fact that Bataille's widow is listed among the creditors claiming settlements from the Duke's estate in 1416 indicates that further orders were received from him. The Heroes tapestries may have been made for the Duke of Berry's palace at Bourges and may actually have been woven there. This pos­ sibility is suggested by an extract from a con­ temporary document which can no longer be found in the Bibliotheque Nationale but which was noted by A. de Champeaux and P. Gauch- ery in their Travaux d'art execute's pour Jean One of the large figures from the Angers Apoca­ de France,Due de Berry (Paris, 1894). According lypse tapestries. Woven in Paris before 1)84 to this record there was a "payment made in

18 1385 to Jehan le Prestre, roofer and plasterer, for having completely reroofed the great hall of the palace at Bourges, where formerly the grain received as tithes by the Duke had been kept and where they were noxu making his tap­ estry at the same time that they were cutting stones for the palace." Could "they" refer to Paris craftsmen sum­ moned to Bourges to weave the Duke's tapes- tries? In the absence of more complete docu­ mentation it would be rash to conclude that the account cited above refers to our Heroes. Some seventeen castles were built or remodeled for the Duke's personal use, and there were many other buildings under his patronage where the tapestries might have hung. Several convincing points, however, strengthen the plausibility of the association of our tapestries with Bourges. It is more than coincidence that certain works of art at Bourges bear a striking relationship to the Heroes tapestries. As we have already noted, the Duke had statues of the Nine Heroes placed in gabled niches above one of the great mantel­ pieces of his palace at Bourges. An exterior wall, with turrets and balustrades, still standing among the remains of this fourteenth-century castle may well have inspired the framework 1 #ksk*L of one of our tapestries. High up on several of The Annunciation. From an illuminated page the remaining interior walls there are friezes in Berry's Petites Heures (B.N. ms. lat. 18014, with leaf motives which are similar lo the fol. 22) schematic frieze that divides the upper and lower sections of the Heroes tapestries. Little ihe figures are very similar. The tonality of the turrets with open windows appear again and faces and hair is remarkably close. But even again in the Bourges stonework; for instance, more striking is the similar use of yellow, out­ the breast of one of the mantelpieces is divided lined in red, for the crockets and finials of the by five such structures (ill. p. 17). architecture. Nothing in the architecture of the Further, the relationship between the Heroes period would have suggested this selection of tapestries and Bourges stained-glass windows colors, which is obviously borrowed from (ill. p. 21), especially those from the Saintc stained glass. Chapelle of the palace, is impressive. Elements The Pope granted permission for the build­ in the design and coloring of both the tapestries ing of the Sainte Chapelle in 1391, fourteen and the glass suggest a definite dependence of years before its dedication, and it may well be the one upon the other. The placing of large that the designs for the stained-glass windows figures in niches and the silhouetting of some of had been prepared long before their execution. the figures against Italian brocades are common If we could only discover who designed the to both. The architectural structures with stained-glass windows from the Sainte Chapelle groined vaults, the thin columnar sections sup­ or the related early fifteenth-century windows porting gables ornamented with crockets and in the chapels of Pierre Trousseau and Simon finials, and the quatrefoil tracery below some of Aligrel, the Duke's physician, in the Cathedral

19 The Prophets at the left were painted for the Duke of Berry's Psalter (B. N. ms. fr. 13091) by Andre Beauneveu. The stone Prophet at the upper right, the figure from a stained-glass window at the lower right, and the stained glass shown on the opposite page were made for Berry's Sainte Chapelle at Bourges. The glass is now in the crypt of Bourges Cathedral, the sculpture in the House of Jacques Coeur.

20 21 The lady with a wind-swept veil (right), shown for comparison with a similar figure from the Caesar tapestry (left), and the seated figure of Saturn (opposite) are in the Albumasar astrological treatises presented to Berry in 1403. In the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York (M. 785)

of Bourges, we might learn more about the are twenty-four miniatures painted in the thir- Heroes tapestries. It is certain that this Bourges teen-eighties for the Duke of Berry's Psalter glass has a definite character of its own, and it (B. N. ms. fr. 13091). Although the seated fig­ should not be confused with stained glass in ures in the Psalter (see ill. p. 20) may be com­ other pans of Europe which was also under the pared in composition and in general style to influence of the International style. the Heroes in the tapestries, such figures were The stained glass and the stylistically related similarly treated by other artists. There are statues of prophets and apostles (ill. p. 20) from other manuscript paintings which seem closer the Sainte Chapelle are generally believed to in some respects to the Heroes tapestries. have been influenced if not actually designed A manuscript in the Pierpont Morgan Li­ by Andre Beauneveu (d. before 1403). The im­ brary, the Albumasar astrological treatises (M. portance of this master, the general superinten­ 785), not only shows seated figures comparable dent of Berry's artistic enterprises, in the last to the Heroes (ill. p. 23), but also has certain quarter of the fourteenth century is described details, in particular the wind-swept veils (ill. in a contemporary document. Jean Froissai t, in above), which have definite affinities to the a passage in his Chronicle referring to the year drawing in our tapestries. This manuscript, 1393, relates that the Duke of Berry gave "or­ presented on June 7, 1403, to the Duke of Berry, ders for sculptures and paintings to Master was "created" by Abbot Lubertus, who from Andre Beauneveu, who was well qualified be­ 1394 until 1417 directed a flourishing center for cause no one was superior to him and no one the illumination of manuscripts in the Abbey was his equal in any land; nor is there any mas­ of St. Bartholomew of Eechoutte, near Bruges. ter by whom there remain so many good works A page in Berry's Petites Heures (B. N. ms. in France or in Hainaut, where he was born, or lat. 18014, folio 22), reproduced on page 19, in the Kingdom of England." recalls the general composition of the Heroes The only paintings unquestionably accepted tapestries. The principal scene, the Annuncia­ by modern scholars as the work of Beauneveu tion, is surrounded by small niches in which

22 saints and other figures are placed against back­ interpreting the cartoons supplied by a de­ grounds of red and blue alternately. Although signer. It is only by the records that we know this manuscript was not inventoried in Berry's that Hennequin of Bruges (Jean Bandol) made library until 1402, it is believed to have been "the portraits and the patterns" for the Apoca­ painted in the eighties. Authorities differ as to lypse tapestries. Although there are marked the painter of the Annunciation; was it Jacque- similarities in design between this set and ours, mart de Hesdin or one of the other artists who as has already been noted, the differences in worked for the Duke? drawing make it seem unlikely that Jean Ban­ The attribution of manuscript illuminations dol was the designer of both. All the evidence of this period to specific artists is sometimes concerning the designer of the Heroes tapestries difficult. The attribution of tapestries on the points to a Flemish master, perhaps from basis of their relation to manuscript paintings is Bruges, working in France under the influence even more difficult, for comparison is compli­ of Beauneveu. But it is not possible to single out cated by our inability to know what latitude a a Beauneveu, a Jacquemart de Hesdin, a Ban­ master weaver and his fellow craftsmen had in dol, or any of the other masters who may have

23 worked for the Duke of Berry in the last decades Other inventories and expense accounts which of the fourteenth century. have been referred to in this article are Bernard The relationship of our tapestries to the arts Prost, Inventaires mobiliers et extraits des of the last quarter of the fourteenth century is comptes des dues de Bourgogne de la maison de clear. From their close resemblance to the Valois, 2 vols., Paris, 1902-1913, and Jules La- Angers Apocalypse tapestries, most of which barte, Inventaire du mobilier de Charles V, roi were completed before 1384, and to the manu­ de France, Paris, 1879. Excerpts from the ac­ scripts mentioned above, which were executed counts of Charles VI are included in Guiffrey's in the eighties and nineties, we may conclude Histoire generale, mentioned above. that the Heroes tapestries were designed and The manuscript illuminations reproduced on woven about 1385. page 20 were photographed by Harry Bober, and the stone Prophet (on the same page) by The inventories of Jean, Duke of Berry, were Robert Gauchery. The Bourges stained glass is published by Jules Guiffrey, in Inventaires de reproduced through the courtesy of M. Gauch­ Jean, due de Berri (1401-1416), 2 vols., Paris, ery and the Direction de Beaux Arts, Monu­ 1894-1896. Certain of Berry's expense accounts, ments Historiques; and the illuminations from namely, the "Registre de Barthelemi de Noces," the Albumasar manuscript through the courtesy were published in Bibliotheque de l'ficole des of the Pierpont Morgan Library. The Annunci­ Chartes, vol. LII (1891); and excerpts from his ation (ill. p. 19) was brought to our attention accounts are quoted in Jules Guiffrey, Histoire by Louis Grodecki. generale de la tapisserie, part 1, Paris, 1878-1885. BELOW: The arms of Jean, Duke of Berry. Most of the existing unpublished accounts are From his Grandes Heures in the Bibliotheque in the Archives Nationales, Paris. Nationale, Paris (ms. lat. 919)

24 3 0620 00691846 9 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

OFFICERS NEAR EASTERN ART William Church Osborn, Honorary President Maurice S. Dimand, Curator Roland L. Redmond. President MEDIEVAL ART AND THE CLOISTERS Elihu Root, Jr., Vice-President James J. Rorimer, Curator Thomas J. Watson, Vice-President William H. Forsyth, Associate Curator Robert Lehman, Vice-President Margaret B. Freeman, Associate Curator Dudley T. Easby, Jr., Secretary J. Kenneth Loughry, Treasurer RENAISSANCE AND MODERN ART Preston Remington, Curator TRUSTEES EX OFFICIO C. Louise Avery, Associate Curator William O'Dwyer, Mayor of the City of New York John Goldsmith Phillips, Associate Curator Lazarus Joseph, Comptroller of the City of New York Faith Dennis, Associate Curator Robert Moses, Commissioner of the Department of Parks De Witt M. Lockma n, President of the National Academy AMERICAN ART Joseph Downs, Consultant in Decorative Arts ELECTIVE TRUSTEES Robert Eeverly Hale, Associate Curator of Painting and Sculpture Henry C. Alexander Arthur W. Page Walter C. Baker Roland L. Redmond Vincent D. Andrus, Assistant Curator of Decorative Arts Harry Payne Bingham Nelson A. Rockefeller John W. Davis Elihu Root, Jr. PAINTINGS Dwight D. Eisenhower John Godfrey Saxe Harry B. Wehle, Research Curator Marshall Field Arthur Hays Sulzberger Theodore Rousseau, Jr., Curator Walter S. Gifford Francis Henry Taylor Margaretta M. Salinger, Senior Research Fellow Myron C. Taylor Devereux C. Josephs Charles Sterling, Foreign Adviser Samuel H. Kress Stephen Francis Voorhees Robert Lehman Thomas J. Watson PRINTS Henry R. Luce Vanderbilt Webb A. Hyatt Mayor, Curator Irving S. Olds Francis M. Weld Alice Newlin, Associate Curator William Church Osborn Arnold Whitridge ARMS AND ARMOR Horace Havemeyer, Advisory Trustee Stephen V. Grancsay, Curator

THE STAFF THE COSTUME INSTITUTE ADMINISTRATION Polaire Weissman, Executive Director Francis Henry Taylor, Director SPECIAL DEPARTMENTS Dudley T. Easby, Jr., Secretary Theodore Y. Hobby, Keeper of the Benjamin J. Kenneth Loughry, Treasurer Altman Collection Laurence S. Harrison, Business Administrator Murray Pease, Associate Curator in Conservation Robert P. Sugden, Registrar and Technical Research John J. Wallace, Superintendent John Goldsmith Phillips, Co-ordinator for EGYPTIAN ART Industry Ambrose Lansing, Curator Emanuel Winternitz, Keeper of the Collections Ludlow Bull, Associate Curator of Musical Instruments William C. Hayes, Associate Curator Gerald F. Warburg, Associate in Music Charles K. Wilkinson, Associate Curator of Near East­ EDUCATION AND MUSEUM EXTENSION ern Archaeology Richard F. Bach, Dean GREEK AND ROMAN ART THE LIBRARY Gisela M. A. Richter, Honorary Curator Walter Hauser, Librarian Christine Alexander. Acting Curator Marjorie J. Milne, Senior Research Fellow THE CATALOGUE Irma Bezold, Supervisor FAR EASTERN ART Alan Priest, Curator INFORMATION AND SALES Theodore Y. Hobby, Associate Curator Evelyn B. Grier, Supervisor NK 3005 M4 8 1949

WARC