mysteries of the craft to a number of French workmen. Cartoons were supplied by Simon Vouet and other distinguished French painters. In the reign of Louis XIV. a great impulse was given to the factory, and from 1667 the whole establishment became the property of the crown. Louis XIV. s minister, Colbert, did much to encourage this and other industries. Charles Le Brun the painter was made director of the works, and a number of artists prepared the cartoons under his supervision. In the 18th century Coypel, Jouvenet, Boucher, Watteau, and many other popular painters made designs, often of great size and elaboration, for the Gobelin looms, but all in the very worst possible taste; these include large series of sacred, mythological, and historical subjects, landscapes, sea-pieces, and even portraits, the last being perhaps the most ridiculous misuse of the textile art that could possibly be invented. Other tapestry looms were worked in the 18th century at Aubusson, Felletin, and other places in France.
English.High-warp looms appear to have been worked in England in the l5th century, though by far the greater part of the rich stores of tapestry in this country came from Flanders. One very beautiful example of English work of this time exists in St Mary's Hall at Coventry; it represents the marriage of Henry VI. Part of another series with the marriage of Henry VII. is preserved in a house in Cornwall. In the latter part of the 15th and the first half of the 16th century enormous sums were spent by the rich in England on Flemish tapestry. Cardinal Wolsey's private accounts and inventories, which still exist,[1] give an astonishing picture of the wealth which he lavished on the adornment of his palace at Hampton Court. In 1522 he bought 132 large pieces of Brussels tapestry, woven with Scriptural subjects, and mostly made to order, so as to fit exactly the various wall spaces. He also bought large quantities of costly Oriental carpets. In the inventories are enumerated "foot carpets," "table carpets," and "window carpets," "hanging peces," "borders with arms," and "window peces," the last being strips of tapestry woven in narrow lengths to fit the sills and jambs of windows. Among the "wall peces," in addition to the numerous sacred subjects, are mentioned mythological scenes, romances, historical pieces, and "hangings of verdures," the last being decorative work in which trees and foliage formed the main design, with accessory figures of hunting, hawking, and the like. The catalogue of Wolsey's linen napery is no less sumptuous and abundant; he possessed an immense quantity of finest linen for sheets and "board-cloths" (table-cloths), mostly patterned with "damaske diaper" or "paned losinge-wise." This example of the wealth of textile work possessed by one rich prelate will give some notion of what England and other countries possessed in the 16th century.
In the reign of James I. tapestry looms were set up at Mortlake, and the industry was carried on during the following reign under the direction of the painter Francis Crane. Charles I. introduced skilled weavers from Oudenarde in Belgium, and the whole existing series of cartoons by Raphael were copied on the Mortlake looms.[2] Most of the Mortlake tapestry has distinct marks, such as the shield of St George with F. C. (F. Crane). Some pieces are inscribed "Car. Re. Reg. Mortl." (Carolus rex regnans). Though closed during the Commonwealth, the Mortlake fabrique was again worked after the Restoration until the death of Crane in 1703. In the 18th century tapestry was woven on a small scale in Soho and at Fulham, and within recent years a new royal fabrique has been established at Windsor, where very costly and skilful weaving in the pictorial Gobelin style is carried on. The only modern tapestry which has any of the merits of the best old productions is that made on a small scale by Mr William Morris at Merton Abbey (Surrey), where work of the highest beauty has been produced. Unfortunately, however, the modern taste for feeble imitations of oil paintings has as yet shown little appreciation of this revival of the true textile art.
Italian.As in England, by far the greater part of the tapestry used in Italy was a Flemish import. But in the 16th century, under the patronage of the dukes of Ferrara, tapestry looms were set up in Ferrara; these were, however, worked by Flemish weavers, and closely resemble contemporary tapestry woven at Brussels. Other fabriques were established in Florence by the Medici princes, and continued to be worked till the end of the 17th century. Factories for tapestry existed also at Venice, Turin, and other northern cities, but the industry was purely an exotic, and never attained to any great importance. Since the pontificate of Clement XI., in 1702,[3] a papal factory for tapestry has existed in Rome, and is still carried on in the Vatican. The papal looms have produced a large number of most costly and elaborate copies of celebrated paintings, executed with wonderful skill, but utterly worthless as works of art.
Collections.The South Kensington Museum possesses the best and most illustrative collection of woven fabrics of various dates. The church of St Mary at Dantzic has a magnificent collection of early textiles, mostly used for vestments; these are well illustrated by Hinz, Die Schatzkammer der Marien-Kirche zu Dantzig, 1870. Fine examples of early tapestry exist in the cathedrals of Rheims, Bruges, Tournay, Angers, Beauvais, Aix, Sens, and in the church of St Remy at Rheims. Other fine collections are preserved in the Louvre, the Cluny Museum, at Chartres, Amiens, Dijon, Orleans, Auxerre, Nancy, Bern, Brussels, Munich, Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, and Nuremberg.[4] In Italy the richest collections (mostly of later tapestry) are those of the Vatican, the Pitti, the Bargello, Palazzo del Tè at Mantua, Turin (royal palace), Milan (royal palace), Como (cathedral), and the museum of Naples. The Spanish collections have been already mentioned. In England, besides the South Kensington Museum, fine tapestries exist in the palaces of Windsor and Hampton Court. Those formerly in the House of Lords were destroyed in the fire of 1834. St Mary's Hall at Coventry contains the finest examples of the 15th century.
Literature.—By far the best work for its well-chosen coloured illustrations is that of Fischbach, Textile Fabrics, English ed., 1883; see also Dupont-Auberville, L'ornement des tissus, Paris, 1875-77; Michel, Recherches sur la fabrication des étoffes, Paris, 1852 (a very valuable work); Jubinal, Anciennes tapisseries, Paris, 1858-59; De Ronchaud, Le péplos d'Athèné, Paris, 1872; Id., La tapisserie, Paris, 1885; Müntz, La tapisserie dans l'antiquité, Paris, 1878; Lessing, Modèles de tapis Orientaux, Paris, 1879; Id., Ancient Oriental Carpets, London, 1879; Vincent Robinson, Oriental Carpets, London, 1882 (the illustrations are better than the text); Lady Alford, Needlework as Art, London, 1886 (deals partly with textiles). Though few works treat of the general history of textiles, a very large number exist about tapestry weaving. The chief are—Depping, Reglements sur les arts . . . au XIIIme siècle, Paris, 1837; De Montault, Tapisserie de la cath. d'Angers, Paris, 1863; De Farcy on the same subject, 1875; Barraud, Tap. de la cath. de Beauvais, Beanvais, 1853; Rock, Textile Fabrics, S.K.M., London, 1870; Bock, Cat. des tissus, &c., au Musée German., Nuremberg, 1869; Pinchart, Tap. dans les Pays-Bos, and other works, Brussels, 1859-64; Dehaisnes, Tap. d" Arras avant le XV"* siecle, Paris, 1879; Proyart, Recherches sur les tap. d Arras, Arras, 1863; Voisin, Tap. de la cath. de Tournay, Tom-nay, 1863; Van Drival, Tap. d Arras, Arras, 1864; Gorse, Tap. du chateau de Pan, Paris, 1881; De la Fons-Melicoq, Hautlisseurs des XlVme an XVIme siedes, Paris, 1870; Santerre, Tap. de Beauvais, Clermont, 1842; Deville, Statuts, &c., relatifs a la carp, des tap. de 1253 a 1275, Paris, 1875; Darcel, Gaz. d. b.-arts, xiv. pp. 185, 273, and 414; Van de Graft, De Tapijt-Fabrieken de XVI. en XVII. Eeuw, Middelburg, 1869. On Italian tapestry, see De Montault, Tap. de haute lisse d Rome, Arras, 1879; Conti, L arte degli arazziin Firenze, Florence, 1875; Campori, L arazzeria Estense, Modena, 1876; Braghirolli, Arazzi in Mantova, Mantua, 1879; Farabnlini, L arte degli arazzi, Rome, 1884; Gentili, L art des tapis, Rome, 1878; and Miintz, Tap. Jtaliennes, Paris, 1880. On French and other late tapestry, sec Darcel and Guichard, Les tap. decoratives, Paris, 1881; Lacordaire, Hist, de tap isserie, Paris, 1855; Gnillaumot, L Origine . . . des Gobelins, Paris, 1860; Perathon, Top. d Aubusson, de Felletin, et de Bellegarde, Paris, 1857; Roy-Pierrefi tte, Let tap. de Felletin, Limoges, 1855; Durieux, Tap. de Cambrai, Cambrai, 1879; About and Bauer, Tap. apres Us cartons de Raphael, Paris, 1875; Houdoy, Tap. de la, fabrication Lilloise, Lille, 1871; Vergnaud-Romagnesi, Tap. au Musee tf Orleans, Orleans, 1859; De St Genois, Tap. ffOudenarde, Paris, 1864; Talcot, Fabric, des tissus, Paris, 1852; Guiffrey, Hist, de la tapisserie, Tours, 1886; Pine, Tapestry of the House of Lords, London, 1739; and De Champeaux, Tapestry, S.K.M. handbook, London, 1878; Ashenhurst, Treatise on Weaving, London, 1886.(J. H. M.)
