Savonnerie and Aubusson carpets

The I7th-century beginnings

The most important French workshops came into being during the reign of Henri IV of Navarre (1589-1610), founder of the Bourbon dynasty. On his succession the country was exhausted by the war against Spain and the wars of religion between Catholics and Protestants, prolonged and complicated by the rivalries between the Valois, Guise and Bourbon families. In order to revive commerce and industry Jean Fortier of Melun had proposed the setting-up of workshops for the manufacture of knotted carpets. It was, however, Pierre Dupont who obtained the King's support and in 1608 opened a workshop beneath the Galerie du Louvre, where various craftsmen and artists were already working for the court.

The first production belonged to the genre described as ' Tapis afa fafon du Levant etfafon de Turquie', which Pierre Dupont later made famous in a treatise, De fa Stramatourgie, which appeared in 1632; in it he stated that he had found a method of imitating the Eastern techniques, In 1627 Simon Lourdet, Dupont's ex-pupil and partner, set up a new carpet workshop on the outskirts of Paris, in the Hospice de la Savonnerie at Chaillot.

These were the beginnings of the French carpet industry, and owed their existence 'to the interest shown by Henri IV, and by Louis XIII(161D-1643) and Louis XIV (1643-1715), who were always anxious to provide incentives for industry and commerce.

This was the period in which the great tapestry workshops-which played such an important part in the birth of the French carpet industry -were set up. Nothing was left to private initiative, since textile manufacture was a state monopoly. That is why the products were all of the highest artistic merit, extremely refined in taste, and very large.

In 1627 Savonnerie came into being, in 1662. the Manufacture Royale des Gob~elins,. in 1664 the Manufacture de Beauvais and in 1665 the Manufacture Royale d'Aubusson.' Tapestries were produced which were the source of the two great families of French carpets, Savonnerie and Aubusson.

This production no longer owed anything to Eastern carpets, which the French had already more or less abandoned. With the intention of creating a native industry, a decree of 17 April 162.7 provided the first French factory. with a constitution of eleven articles, one of which prohibited the importation of Eastern carpets into France. Carpets took over the documentary function of tapestry, which recorded events with vivacity and great detail. The softness of the material made this possible.

A treatise of the period illustrates with copious details two splendid series of tapestries, The FaN!' Seasons and The Four Elements, made at Gobelins for the Sun King from cartoons by the painter Lebrun. In the treatise Pieter van den Berge wrote: 'When men discovered the art of making verses, they• used this noble means ofexpression only to speak of God, and believed that Poetry, being a divine language, should serve only to sing'His praises. Following this example, we seek other expressions today in order to speak of the August Person of His Majesty-expressions different from those. used until now-and new forms in which to describe the great deeds of the greatest of kings/- " The new expressions and forms were tapestries in which allegory and symbolism were employed to convey the munificence of Louis XIV, the patron and protector of the arts. 'Summer', within an oval frame supported by Apollo and Minerva, shows the building of the Palace of the Louvre; the workmen engaged on it are presided over by Apollo, while Minerva presides over those executing tapestries and carpets for the palace. It is an interesting document in the history of the French carpet, and is additional proof of the high esteem in which it was held.

Savonnerie and aubusson carpets contain the same elements as those:used in tapestry to glorify the king. The eagle, the falcon and the lion, synonymous with courage and strength; the shepherd's crook with which the pastor conducts his flock; the horn, with which fame is broadcast; the pomegranate, which holds treasures of wisdom and kindness; and, most important of all, the lily, the symbol of the Royal House of France. '} In 'Winter' (The Four Seasons) , incidentally, Saturn upholds a frame in which the great palaces built by the Sun King are depicted-and they are, of course, the very palaces which provided such splendid settings for carpets of the period. For about three centuries, carpets entirely and characteristically French were produced, and for a time ,they also proyided a model for English and Eastern carpets. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries many English carpets similar to the French are . to be found; and many Caucasian (Karabak), Turkish (Ghiordes and Melas) and sometimes even Persian (Bidja1') examples have very French motifs integrated in extremely elegant fashion with those of the East.

The cause was not so much the export of French ca.rpets to the East as the arrival in France of Eastern craftsmen skilled in knotting. When such craftsmen went back to their own countries they took with them models of French designs which they blended with their own, achieving unusual and pleasing effects. Even in modern times we find faithful Asian copies of French carpets, called for example 'Indian Aubussons' or 'Chinese Savonneries'. Although these are hybrids and display the b~d taste characteristic of servile copies of the past, they bear witness to the supremacy o(French styles as models of absolute elegance. Even today, when there is intense competition from" new or revived fashions, French taste though no longer supreme-still provides the criteria by which other carpets are judged.

To appreciate French carpets to the full, it is necessary to imagine them in the splendour of the palaces for which they were made, bleriding in perfect harmony with their surroundings-part of a total visual e:xperience beginning with the architecture of the exterior and culminating in the lavish detail of ' the interior. The Tuileries, St Cloud, the Louvre, Versailles, Compiegne, Fontainebleau, might have been created on purpose to receive these superb carpets with all honour.