of that age in decoration and design.
There, too, lies much of the old spirit of morality--that, whether
genuine or affected, was bound to be expressed. Morality had a vogue
in those days, was a _sine qua non_ of fashion. That famous amateur
Jean, duc de Berry, uncle of Charles VI of France, had such a book,
"Les Tres Riches Heures"; one was possessed by that gifted Milanese
lady whom Ludovico Sforza put out of the line of Lombardy's throne.
The wonderful Gothic ingenuousness lies in their careful paintings,
the ingenuousness where virtue is expressed by beauty, and vice by
ugliness, and where, with delightful seriousness, standing figures
overtop the houses they occupy--the same people, the same battlements,
we have seen on the early tapestries. Weavers must surely have
consulted the lovely books of Gothic miniature, so like is the spirit
of the designs to that in the Gothic fabrics.

"The beauties of Agnes Sorel were represented on the wool," says
Jubinal, "and she herself gave a superb and magnificent tapestry to
the church at Loches," but this quaint student is doubtful if the
lovely _amante du roi_ actually gave the tapestries that set forth her
own beauties, which beauty all can see in the quiet marble as she lies
sleeping with her spaniel curled up at her lovely feet in the big
chateau on the Loire.

By means of a rare set bought by the Rogers Fund for the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York, we can see, if not the actual tapestries of
fair Agnes Sorel, at least those of the same epoch and manner. This
set is called _The Baillee des Roses_ and comprises three pieces,
fragments one is inclined to call them, seeing the mutilations of the
ages. (Plate facing page 42.) They were woven probably before 1450,
probably in France, undoubtedly from French drawings, for the hand and
eye of the artist were evidently under the influence of the celebrated
miniaturist, Jean Fouquet of Tours. Childlike is the charm of this
careful artist of olden times, childlike is his simplicity, his
honesty, his care to retain the fundamental virtues of a good little
boy who lives to the tune of Eternal Verities.

These three tapestries of the Roses illustrate so well so many things
characteristic of their day, that it is not time lost to study them
with an eye to all their points. There is the weave, the wool, the
introduction of metal threads, the colour scale; all these besides the
design and the story it tells.

The tapestries re