New-York tribune., 1919-04-03
Al.
A Great Pageant of Embroidered Color
By Royal Cortissoz

The peace conference may make the
world safe for democracy, but there
are some imperial things which will
never lose their sway. They are tho
! things of superlativc luxury, the kind
Of things now filling the American Art
Galleries. The collection there dis
played, which is to be sold in six
afternoon sessions, beginning on April
7, is composed of old textiles and en-
broderies forming the stock of Mcssrs.
Vital and Leopold Benguiat. In the
word stock" there Is a suggestion of
merchandise, which connotes, as d rule
something prosaic. But in this little
cosmos of velvets and the like there
dwells the poetry of handicraft. 1t is
world in which color is exploited for
its own sake to a point reaching far
beyond the dreams of the mere painter
of pictures. And it is color placed at
the service of the most gorgeous and
stately of social pomps. 1t makes one
think not of fabrics sold in shops, but
of masters working for courts, for
princes, secular and ecclesiastical.
About as representative a piece as
any in this dazzling arrav of more
than thousand examples is the bal
dachino Of sapphire blue velvet of
Italian origin (No. 1134), which the
catalogue tersely describes as mag
viii hat cOnld hn
applied to this heroic sheet of color?
Swarming over the exquisite velvet are
flowers, ribbons and various conven-
tional forms defined in gold threads
very nearly the salience OF so much
sculptured ornament. One can imagine
the effect of this, carried In some
Florentine procession of the Medcean
semble to which the costumes of priests,
courtlers, and even humble folk con-
tributed kindred notes of artistic
brilliance To-day, on a wall or flung
over some cast table, it seems start
ling episode of sensation, where all
b
as to seem almost bizarre, but even as
one recognizes the element one is con-
strained to remember how positively
austere, nevertheless, the old artists
in stuffs were when they fashioned
their Incompatible designs
This is pageant of color, if ever
there was one; but it is color organ
lied, disciplined, transmitted into har-
mony. There is a kind of wild intoxi-
cation in the sheer splendor of the
spectacle. One recalls the ,ensuous
impulse Of the poet to "Dance, and
Provencal song, and sunburst, mrth";
one associates the riot of gorgeous
hues with unbrdled emotions, and
then the genius Of old wall coverings,
of old vestments, is apprehended as
being, above all, for order and meas
ure. The true historical significance
of the exhibition will not down. 1t is
the significance of the Renaissance, of
the great epoch of mundane luxury.
These stuffs were patterned as art
fully as a church or a palace was
built. Take, for example, the famous
fifteenth century Venetian COPE which
formerly figured in the James A. Gar
land sale. The description of it reads
like plan as it follows the develop
ment of formal elements of design.
And the phrases in it, by the way, re-
vive the delectable terminology Of
rose growers catalogue. Language
turns dithyrambc as it interprets such
a masterpiece. "The field of rare,
lustrous amethyst, 'two-piled' floral
patterned velvet, pulsating with
delicate simmer Of pale lavender
The orphreys are executed in raised