PLATE CXXIII.
EMBROIDERED BAGS FROM
We take this crpportunity of resuming the subject of Byzantine embroidery from our notice of Plate LXXX.,and we shall proceed to trace the very extensive influence of the costume and workmanship of the Easternempire in the middle ages. Many events contributed to render Byzantium the art-capital of the world fromthe time of its rebuilding down to the end of the twelfth century, when Christian art began to assume a newand peculiar character. The Emperor Constantine transported the most skilful workmen from Rome to hisnewly-founded capital; and it is by no means unlikely that the misfortunes which befell the former city fromthe armies of Alaric and Genseric , and the extinction of the Persian empire by the followers of Mahometat a later period, rendered Constantinople almost the only city where the arts could be patronised or cultivatedwith any degree of security.
Numerous contemporary authorities agree in informing us that a decided similarity existed for nearlyseven centuries between the costume of the Western nations and that of the Byzantine court; and this notonly as respects the Imperial and regal ornaments, which might naturally be supposed to be imitated from theEastern emperors. Even the MSS. of our own country show us that there was but little essential differencebetween the “ kirtle,” “ mantel,” “ gunna,” and “ headrail” of the Saxon lady, and the “ parure” of the matronsof Constantinople . The same observation holds good with regard to the costume of the other sex; the onlydifference being that the severity of our climate demanded a few additions in the shape of “ hosen,” “ hoods,” &c.
M. Potier has noticed a still more singular coincidence in his learned description prefixed to “Willemin’sMonumens inedits,” where he mentions a Greek MS. now in the Bibliotheque Nationale, containing no less thanfour portraits of the Emperor Nicephorus in his Imperial robes. In each case the shape of the garments issimilar; but the small “plaques” of metal with which they are powdered, have their forms varied, and areremarkable as presenting us with the exact shapes of the spades, diamonds, clubs, and hearts, so familiar onthe common playing cards of the present day.
By far the most common decoration of the garments of the nobility were the figures of birds, beasts,dragons, &c., which were generally woven in gold on thread upon a silk ground. So great was the exportationof these fabrics through the medium of the Venetians , that it may safely be asserted that they constituted thematerial of the more valuable garments of the higher classes throughout the whole of Europe . The firstblow to this trade was the forcible settlement in Sicily of the silk-weavers from Corinth and Thebes in 1146, byGeorge, the lieutenant of Roger I., who, having ravaged the whole of Greece , brought away these poorworkmen as no inconsiderable addition to the plunder. They were, however, well received by the king, abuilding was allotted for their especial use in Palermo , and they no doubt contributed to improve themanufacture of the fabrics which were already in use among the Saracenic inhabitants.
This may account for the fact that nearly all the fragments of precious stuffs of that era, which havecome down to our time, present us with inscriptions in Cufic characters. Almost all of these are generallysupposed to have been imported from the East; but that theory is inconsistent with the fact that the Cuficinscriptions are frequently found in connexion with animals, birds, &c., which, by the rules of their leligion, theMahometans were expressly forbidden to imitate. The question however is, to a certain degree, settled by thediscoveries of such fabrics in the tombs of Roger I., Arrigo VI., Arrigo VIII., and Constanza II., all kings of Sicily, *
* Vide Danieli’s “ Regali Sepolchri,” in which interesting work many of these robes are figured.