pecimens of
this curious work. It was introduced into England by Katherine of
Aragon, and became very popular, being exceedingly suitable and
serviceable for personal adornment. The black was often relieved
by gold or silver thread.

The Petit Point, or single square stitch on canvas, became popular
in England during the reign Elizabeth. It suggested Gobelins tapestry,
on a small scale, when finished, although the method of execution
is quite different, being needlework pure and simple.

In Elizabeth's time was incorporated the London
Company of Broderers, which flourished until about the reign of
Charles I., when there is a complaint registered that "trade was
so much decayed and grown out of use, that a great part of the
company, for want of employment, were much impoverished."

Raised embroidery, when it was padded with cotton, was called Stump
Work. This was made extensively by the nuns of Little Gidding in
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Decided changes and
developments took place in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
in all forms of embroidery, but these are not for us to consider
at present. A study of historic samples alone is most tempting,
but there is no space for the intrusion of any subject much later
than the Renaissance.

CHAPTER VII

SCULPTURE IN STONE

(_France and Italy_)

Sculpture is not properly speaking the "plastic art," as is often
understood. The real meaning of sculpture is work which is cut
into form, whereas plastic art is work that is moulded or cast
into form. Terra cotta, which is afterwards baked, is plastic;
and yet becomes hard; thus a Tanagra figurine is an example of
plastic art, while a Florentine marble statuette is a product of
sculpture. The two are often confounded. We shall allude to them
under different heads, taking for our consideration now only such
sculpture as is the result of cutting in the stone. The work of
Luca Della Robbia will not be treated as sculpture in this book.
Luca Della Robbia is a worker in plastic art, while Adam Kraft,
hewing directly at the stone, is a sculptor.

We have no occasion to study the art of the sculptor who produces
actual statues; only so far as sculpture is a companion to architecture,
and a decorative art, does it come within the scope of the arts and
crafts. Figure sculpture, then, is only considered when strictly
of a monumental character.

In attacking such a subject as sculpture in the Middle Ages it