EMBROIDERY 161 The book of Exodus describes how the curtains of the tabernacle were embroidered by hand, and the garments of Aaron and his sons were wrought in needle-work. Aholiab, the chief embroiderer, is specially appointed to assist in the work of decoration. In celebrating the triumph of Sisera, his mother is made to say that he has a " prey of divers colours of needle-work on both sides," evidently meaning that the stuff was wrought on both sides alike, a style of embroidery exhibiting a degree of patience and skill only practised by the nations of the East. Homer makes constant allusion to embroidery. Penelope (to say nothing for her immortal web) throws over Ulysses on his departure for Troy an embroidered garment of gold on which she had depicted incidents of the chase. Helen is described as sitting apart, engaged in working a gorgeous suit upon which she had portrayed the wars of Troy ; and Andromache was embroidering flowers of various hues upon a purple cloth when the cries of the people without informed her of the tragic end of Hector. In Greece the art was held in the greatest honour, and its invention ascribed to Minerva, and prompt was her punishment of the luckless Arachne for daring to doubt her supremacy in the art. The maidens who took part in the procession of the Panathenaea embroidered the veil or peplum, upon which the deeds of t he goddess were worked in embroidery and gold. Phrygia became celebrated for the beauty of its needle work. The " toga picta " ornamented with Phrygian embroidery was worn by the Roman generals at their triumphs, and by their consuls when they celebrated the games hence embroidery itself in Latin is styled Phrygian," and the Romans knew it under no other name. Babylon was no less renowned for its embroideries, and maintained its reputation up to the first century of the Christian era. Josephus tells us that the veils given by Herod for the temple were of Babylonian workmanship, the women excelling, says Apollonius, in executing designs of varied colours. The Sidonian women brought by Paris to Troy embroidered veils of such rich embroidery that Hecuba deemed them worthy of being presented as an offering to Minerva ; and Lucau speaks with enthusiasm of the magnificent Sidonian veil worn by Cleopatra at the feast she gave Ciesar after the death of Pompey. The embroidered robe of Servius Tullius was ornamented all over with the imago of the goddess Fortune, to whom he ascribed his success, and to whom he built several temples. Tarquin the elder first appeared at Rome in a robe embroidered all over with gold, and Cicero describes Damocles as reclining on his bed with a coverlet of magnificent embroidery. Passing to the first ages of the Christian era, we find the pontifical ornaments, the tissues that decorated the altars, and the curtains of the churches all worked with the holy images ; and in the 5th century the art of weaving stuffs and enriching them with embroidery was carried to the highest degree of perfection. The whole history of the church was embroidered on the toga of a Christian senator ; and Anastasius, who has left a description of ornaments of this kind given by popes and emperors to the churches from the 4th to the 9th century, has even recorded .the subjects of these embroideries, which are executed in gold and silver thread upon silk stuffs of the most brilliant colours, producing a wonderful effect. " Opus plumarium " was then the general term for embroidery, and so given because stitches were laid down lengthwise and so put together that they seemed to overlap one another like the feathers in the plumage of a bird. Not inaptly, therefore, was this style called feather-stitch, in contradistinction to cross-stitch. Pope Paschal (5th century), a great admirer of needle-work, made many splendid donations to the church. On one of his vestments were portrayed the Wise Virgins, miraculously worked ; on another a peacock, in all the gorgeous and changing colours of its plumage, on an amber ground. In mediaeval times, spinning and embroidery were the occupation of women of all ranks, from the palace to the cloister, and a sharp rivalry existed in the production of sacerdotal vestments and ornaments. So early as the Gth century, St Ce"saire, bishop of Aries, forbade the nuns under his rule from embroidering robes adorned with paintings, flowers, and precious stones. This prohibition, however, was not of a general character. Near Ely, an Anglo- Saxon lady brought together a number of girls who pro duced admirable embroidery for the benefit of the monastery ; and in the 7th century, St Eustadiole, abbess of Bourges, made sacred vestments and decorated the altar with works by herself and her community. A century later, two sisters, abbesses of Valentina, in Belgium, became famous for their excellence in all feminine pursuits, and imposed embroidery work upon the inmates of their convent as a protection from idleness, the most dangerous of all evils. At the beginning of the 9th century, ladies of rank are to be found engaged in embroidery. St Yiborade, living at St Gall, adorned beautiful coverings for the sacred books of that monastery, it being then the custom to wrap in silk and carry on a linen cloth the Gospels used for the offices of the church ; and the same abbey received from Hadwiga, daughter of Henry duke of Swabia, chasubles and ornaments embroidered by the hand of that princess. Judith of Bavaria, mother of Charles the Bald, was also a skilful embroideress. When Harold, king of Denmark, came to be baptized at Ingelheim with all his family, the empress Judith, who stood sponsor for the queen, presented her with a roLe enriched by herself with gold and precious stones. In the 10th century, Queen Adhelais, wife of Hugh Capet, presented to the church of St Martin at Tours, and another to the abbey of St Denis, two chasubles of different designs but of wonderful workmanship. Long before theConquestEuglish ladies were much skilled with the needle. The beautiful "opus Anglicum" was pro duced under the Anglo-Saxons, and so highly was it valued that we find (800) Deubart, bishop of Durham, granting the lease of a farm of 200 acres for life to the embroideress Eauswitha for the charge of scouring, repairing, and renewing the embroidered vestments of the priests. In the 7th century, St Ethelreda, queen and first abbess of Ely, presented to St Cuthbert a stole and maniple marvellously embroidered and embellished with gold and precious stones. The four daughters of Edward the Elder are all praised for their needles skill ; and in the 10th century, /Elfleda, a high-born Saxon lady, gave to the church at Ely a curtain on which she had wrought in needle-work the deeds of daring of her husband Brithnoth, who was slain by the Danes. Later on, Emma, wife of Canute, enriched the same minster with costly stuffs, of which one at least had been embroidered all over with crfrays by the queen herself, and embellished with gold and gems disposed with such art and profusion as could not be matched at that time in all England. The excellence of the English work was maintained as time went on, a proof of which is found in an anecdote re lated by Matthew of Paris: "About this time" (1246), he tells us, "the Lord Pope (Innocent IV.), having observed that the ecclesiastical ornaments of some Englishmen, such as choristers copes and mitres, were embroidered in gold thread after a very desirable fashion, asked where these works were made, and received in answer, in England. Then, said the Pope, England is surely a gnrden of delights for us. It is truly a never-failing spring, and there, where many things abound, much may be extorted,
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