conscientious work of the
time, a time wherein man regarded labour as a means of worshipping his
God. The subject is treated by both artist and weaver with that loving
care which approaches religion. The holy three are all engaged in
holding bunches of grapes, while the Child symbolically spills their
juice into a chalice. Other symbols are found in the book and the
cross-surmounted globe. A background of flat drapery throws into
beautiful relief the inspired faces of the group. Behind this
stretches the miniature landscape, but the foreground is unfretted by
detail, abounding in the repose of the simple surfaces of the garments
of Mother and Child. By a subtle trick of line, St. Joseph is
separated from the holier pair. The border is the familiar
well-balanced Gothic composition of flower, fruit, and leaf, all
placed as though by the hand of Nature. The materials used are silk
and gold, but one might well add that the soul of the weaver also
entered into the fabric.

[Illustration: FLEMISH TAPESTRY, END OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY

Collection of Martin A. Ryerson, Esq., Chicago. Formerly in the
Spitzer Collection]

[Illustration: THE HOLY FAMILY

Flemish Tapestry, end of Fifteenth Century. Collection of Martin
A. Ryerson, Esq., Chicago. Formerly in the Spitzer Collection]

The third piece from the Spitzer collection bears all those marks of
exquisite beauty with which Italy was teeming in the Fifteenth
Century. (Colour plate facing page 82.) Weavers from Brussels went
down into Italy and worked under the direction of Italian artists who
drew the designs. Andrea Mantegna was one of these. The patron of the
industry was the powerful Gonzaga family. This tapestry of _The
Annunciation_ which Mr. Ryerson is so fortunate as to hang in his
collection, is decorated with the arms of the Gonzaga family. The
border of veined marble, the altar of mosaics and fine relief, the
architecture of the outlying baptistry, the wreathed angel, all speak
of Italy in that lovely moment when the Gothic had not been entirely
abandoned and the Renaissance was but an opening bud.

The highest work of painter and weaver--artists both--continued
through thirty or forty years. Pity it is, the time had not been long
enough for more remains of it to have come to us than those that
scantily supply museums. After the Gothic perfection came the great
change made in Flanders by the introduction of the Renaissance.

It came throu