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Sig nary oy vi nm ee fis
328 RENAISSANCE OF ART IN ITALY.
The Flemish factories, which were the most famous in the world, date from
the twelfth century to the fifteeenth. Guicciardini ascribes the invention to
Flanders; but this is not proved, because it is known that the Orientals wove
figured hangings some centuries before. The famous manufactory at Arras gave
a generic name to European tapestries ; they are still called avazze in Italy. The
arras was woven in wool, with sometimes a mixture of hemp or cotton. If there
is silk or gold work in a tapestry, it may be known as Italian work from either
Venice or Florence, or as French.
In a.p. 1385 Philippe le Hardi bought at Arras a haute-lisse tapestry worked
in gold, 36 ells long. It represented the history of Virtue and Vice ; its price was
700 francs; and in 1419 Jean sans Peur gave 4,000 francs to the same factory for
a piece 210 ells square, representing all the kings, archbishops and bishops of
the “ Union of the Holy Church.” Another celebrated French tapestry was the
tent of Maréchal Saint André, in the sixteenth century, which represented the
battle of Pharsalia. Several fine pieces of arras were sold with his other
possessions, among them a haute-lisse tapestry in gold and silk, an “ Annunciation ;”
another representing the “Siege of Rhodes;” and a “ciel de toile dor”
embroidered with the image of St. John the Baptist.
From the Flanders factories both the French and Italian factories sprung.
About 1526 Francis I., of France, induced some Flemish workmen to go to
Paris, and he established them at Fontainebleau; but he sent to Italy for artists
to design for them. Primaticcio was one of the chief of these. The tapestries
were woven all in one piece, threads of silk and gold being introduced to enrich
the woollen fabric. The manufactory was not established permanently, and
declined after the death of Francis. In 1594 Henri IV., being much pleased
with the tapestries of Du Bourg at St. Meru, re-established the Paris works, and
again brought over Italian artists to draw designs, in 1597. For the famous
Gobelins we are indebted to Louis XIV. and his minister Colbert, who set up a
manufactory, with Lebrun as artistic designer, in the building previously occupied
by Jean Gobelin. After Colbert, Monsieur de Louvois became director, and he
brought French tapestry to its culminating point.
The introduction of the art into England was almost earlier than in France.
Sheldon lent his house, in Henry VIII.’s time, to a weaver called Robert Hicks,
but the feeling for high art was evidently wanting. The looms of Hicks pro-
duced such matter-of-fact things as maps of Oxfordshire and Worcestershire.
James I. revived the manufacture at Mortlake, in 1619, with an artist from
Mecklenburg called Franz Klein. Charles I., at the suggestion of Rubens,
bought the cartoons of Raphael, which were reproduced in England, after
having been originally worked in Flanders, and Charles II. employed Verrio to
design for his tapestries, -