Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/207

 ORNAMENT AND INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 191 and tracings on the warp, 1 in which the Gobelin tapestry is manu- factured at the present day, with seven or eight skilled artisans at work on the same piece. Nevertheless, guided by racial instinct, the poor Turkish woman, with her imperfect tottering frame, will turn out so marvellous a picture of the native wilder- ness of flowers as will justly rank, in the eyes of a true connoisseur, far above the costliest products of Paris or Manchester. None but high-warp frames have been traced on ancient monu- ments, an instance of which appears in a painting at Beni Hassan, 2 whilst Greece furnishes a vase from Chiusi, in which Penelope is figured sitting at her loom with a vertical frame. 3 It is probable, however, that the low-warp or flat frame was known in antiquity ; in which, as the name implies, the cylinders are horizontal or parallel to the ground, and the crossing of the warp is done by a downward movement of the treadle, which is moved with the foot. 4 Work made on the horizontal frame is analogous to our calicoes. This frame is used at the present day in those towns of Asia Minor where carpet manufacture has acquired a certain importance. 5 Phrygian women, writes Pliny, 6 were the inventors of work done with the needle or embroidery, in which they excelled. Even now, whether along the coasts or in the interior of the peninsula, women adorn their bodices, aprons, and head-coverings, the towels presented to the guests before and after meals, coverlets, etc., with geometric shapes, clustering flowers and leaves, 1 This is done by means of a transparent paper, on which a sketch of the picture to be copied is countertraced in sections as the work advances. TRS. 2 Hist, of Art, torn. i. Fig. 25. 8 The vase in question has been published by CONZE, Monumenti delF Istituto Arche., torn. ix. Plate XLII. Fig. i ; reproduced by MUNTZ, La Tapisserie, p. 31. 4 In both looms the weaver is obliged to work on the back of the piece ; but as the face is downward in the flat frame, it is much more difficult to detect and mend a fault ; for in the vertical loom he can step in front and correct, as he advances, the smallest mistake. With regard to tapestry, woven stuffs, and so ferth, the reader will find valuable information in the South Kensington Handbooks The Industrial Art of India, by G. C. M. Birdwood ; Textile Fabrics, by the Rev. D. Rockford. Consult also HAMILTON, Researches, vol. ii. p. in. TRS. 5 Plate VII. (Rcisen} has a photograph of one of these primitive frames. It is certainly helpful in giving a general idea of the apparatus, but it would perhaps be difficult to make a satisfactory drawing from it. 6 H. N., viil 74 : " Pictas vestes apud Homerum fuisse (accipio), unde trium- phales natse. Acu facere id Phryges invenerunt, ideoque Phrygioniae appellate sunt. ,