DESIGN AND COLOR IN ANCIENT FABRICS 



423 



of which is a gauze or a leno. Strangely 

 enough, this same technique is used in 

 Italy today and is known as huratto. 

 The designs are made up of the repeti- 

 tion of a single figure in varying color 

 combinations. No two figures are ex- 

 actly alike in color arrangement, yet 

 each figure is a perfect color combina- 

 tion in itself and the whole fabric is 

 beautifully harmonious. An artist said 

 to me the other day that if any one could 

 analyze the rules which governed the 

 combination of colors in a single unit, he 

 would know more about colors and their 

 values than does any living man. Nine 

 of these beautiful fabrics were presented 

 by Mr. Juilliard with other only less 

 interesting material, and no finer artistic 

 inspiration can be found than in a care- 

 ful study of them. The modern theor\', 

 recently advanced, that colors and music 

 have some relation, might 

 be applied to these perfect 

 specimens and tested for 

 accuracy by their harmo- 

 nies. 



A more technical discus- 

 sion of the method of deco- 

 rating these shawls may 

 not be out of place. This 

 technique is an interesting 

 species of embroidery, and 

 fragmentary specimens 

 have occurred in the re- 

 gion around modern Lima. 

 But in lea we find the 

 technique intensified, and 

 it becomes the dominant 

 method of textile expres- 

 sion in this part of the 

 world. The object evi- 

 dently has been to obtain 

 a method of expression 



units of design are of a more or less 

 terrifying nature, yet the way in which 

 they have been arranged and the details 



The even open squares produced by a gauze weave 

 are well adapted for the application of embroidery. 

 The principle of gauze weaving is that adjoining 

 warps or groups of warps are twisted one-half turn 

 about each other and the crosses made secure by 

 insertion of weft 



which would permit a 

 repetition of the same fig- 

 ure in varying color com- 

 binations, and while the 



6 a 



The plain weave of the basic fabric in the lea shawls changes into a 

 gauze weave in the areas to be covered by the embroidery. This 

 technique explains the extreme evenness of the embroidery stitches 

 regardless of the angle at which the needle worked, a, area in which 

 the plain weave changes to gauze; h, b', plain weave of fabric outside of 

 embroidered area 



