ies, were also to
be found "Arras Workers" during the sixteenth century.

There was an amusing law suit in 1598, which was brought by a gentleman,
Charles Lister, against one Mrs. Bridges, for accepting from him, on
the understanding of an engagement in marriage, a suite of tapestries
for her apartment. He sued for the return of his gifts!

Among the State Papers of James I., there is a letter in which
the King remarks "Sir Francis Crane desires to know if my baby
will have him to-hasten the making of that suite of tapestry that
he commanded him."

In Florence, the art flourished under the Medici. In 1546 a regular
Academy of instruction in tapestry weaving was set up, under the
direction of Flemish masters. All the leading artists of the Golden
Age furnished designs which, though frequently inappropriate for
being rendered in textile, were fine pictures, at any rate. In
Venice, too, there were work shops, but the influence of Italy was
Flemish in every case so far as technical instruction was concerned.
The most celebrated artists of the Renaissance made cartoons: Raphael,
Giulio Romano, Jouvenet, Le Brun, and numerous others, in various
countries.

[Illustration: TAPESTRY, REPRESENTING PARIS IN THE 15TH CENTURY]

The Gobelins work in Paris was inaugurated in the fifteenth century
under Jean Gobelins, a native of Rheims. His son, Philibert, and
later, many descendants persevered steadily at the work; the art
prospered under Francis I., the whole force of tapestry weavers being
brought together at Fontainebleau, and under Henry II., the direction
of the whole was given to the celebrated artist Philibert Delorme. In
1630 the Gobelins was fully established as a larger plant, and has
never made another move. The work has increased ever since those days,
on much the same general lines. Celebrated French artists have
designed tapestries: Watteau, Boucher, and others were interpreted
by the brilliant manager whose signature appears on the works,
Cozette, who was manager from 1736 until 1792. With this technical
perfection came the death of the art of tapestry: the pictures
might as well have been painted on canvas, and all feeling for the
material was lost, so that the naive charm of the original workers
ceased to be a part of the production.

Among European collections now visible, the best is in Madrid,
where over six hundred tapestries may be seen, chiefly Flemish,
of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The coll