[Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.]
The floreation is rather unusual, as it shows the transition from the Gothic millefleurs to the Renaissance verdure. The enlarged scale of the flowers and the use of the iris and the scrolled thistle-leaves in the foreground show the influence of the Renaissance, but the daisies and wild roses are still Gothic in feeling, as are the unusually charming and vivacious deer. The conventional rendering of the water is skillfully managed. The sly fox is especially well characterized.
_Millefleurs with Shepherds and the Shield of the Rigaut Family_ No. 10 ]
FRANCE, PROBABLY LA MARCHE, EARLY XVI CENTURY
_Wool._ H. 4 _ft._ 5 _in._ W. 9 _ft._ 5 _in._ ]
MILLEFLEURS WITH ANIMALS: _Millefleurs with animals on a blue ground. At the top a narrow strip of conventionalized hilly landscape._
[Sidenote: Lent by _Dikran K. Kelekian_.]
Many tapestries of this type were woven in France at the end of the XVth and beginning of the XVIth century. They are one of the most successful types of tapestry decoration, the quaint animals in this piece being especially charming, and one of the most generally useful kinds of wall decoration, so that the demand for them was large and continuous. As a result, the style was produced almost without modification for over a hundred years. Only the bit of landscape at the top indicates that this was woven in the beginning of the XVIth century and not in the middle of the XVth.
PASTORAL SCENE: _Two ladies have strolled into the country with their lords, who are on the way to the hunt, one with a falcon and the other with a spear and dog. On the way they have stopped to talk to a group of peasants who are tending their flocks and to play with their children. One young peasant girl is gathering a basket of grapes._
Such peasant scenes as this were much in demand during the XVth century. A piece very similar both in general spirit and in detailed drawing and facial types is in the Musée des Arts Decoratifs. In this two lords are watching a large group of woodcutters.
[Sidenote: Formerly in the De Zolte Collection.]
The piece is an excellent illustration of the clarity of French design. Each figure stands out almost entirely detached against the background. Yet, nevertheless, the naturalness of the grouping is not sacrificed. The piece conveys extraordinarily the impression of a real scene, a common daily occurrence among people that we might reasonably expect to know, at which we are allowed to be present in spite of the intervening four hundred years.