Needlework as art . as they could go no further, there theyremained. I have often spoken of the extraordinary survivalof a pattern. This is easy to account for when fashion,• the disturber, had not yet existed. Then the ancientmotive told its own tale, and its great age was itsclaim to perpetual youth; but it is more remarkablewhere we meet with revivals at distant periods, andapparently without any connecting link of ancestry orstyle. For instance, the women of Genoa wore large cottonveils, printed with the Indian conventional tree andbeast pattern, down to thirty years ago, when the fashionc
Needlework as art . as they could go no further, there theyremained. I have often spoken of the extraordinary survivalof a pattern. This is easy to account for when fashion,• the disturber, had not yet existed. Then the ancientmotive told its own tale, and its great age was itsclaim to perpetual youth; but it is more remarkablewhere we meet with revivals at distant periods, andapparently without any connecting link of ancestry orstyle. For instance, the women of Genoa wore large cottonveils, printed with the Indian conventional tree andbeast pattern, down to thirty years ago, when the fashionchanged, and winter bonnets and summer muslin veilsdisplaced the old costume. These patterns are now beingprinted in England on scores of cotton curtains for bedsand windows. 1 See Wilkinsons Ancient Egyptians, i. p. 125. The date ofthese mural paintings may, however, be even as late as the time ofAlexander the Great. Patterns. u : 5. GEOMETRICAL. Geometrical patterns may be reduced to a very fewprimitive Varied adjustments of Square andCircle. i. The Line, including straight and wavy The Angular Forms, including squares, oblongs,cubes, &c. Q 2 u6 Needlework as Art. 3. The Triangular, including zigzags, diamonds, &c. 4. The Circular, including all spots, discs, and radia-tions. All these can be blended or mixed so as to form endlessvarieties. For instance, the square and the circle canintersect each other in different proportions, so as to givean entirely new effect to the pattern, each time thebalance is altered or the phase of the repetition illustration will explain this. (Fig. 18.) Right angles may intersect each other so as to producethe whole gamut of Chinese lattice-work decoration, andall the Celtic and Scandinavian entwined patterns, fromwhich so many of the embroideries in the Italian picturesof the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are probablydescended. The Moorish patterns are geometrical, and are createdon the principle of avoiding
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, booksubjectembroidery, booksubjectneedlework
