Regarding the Brussels tapestries, the same old traveller tells us:

"Especially admirable and yielding great profit, is the trade of the tapestry-makers, who weave, design and warp pieces in high warp in silk, gold and silver, at great expense, and with an industry that wins everybody's admiration and wonder."

During the sixteenth century, the looms of Flanders enjoyed great vogue and received orders from all the princes of Europe. When the merchants of Florence wished to enrich the Church of St. John with tapestry, they sent to Flanders; when Francis I, who possessed some magnificent pieces of Flemish tapestry, wanted to make a present to the Pope, he had twelve scenes from the Life of Christ made at Arras, from cartoons by Raphael; and from 1518-39 there are many entries in the accounts of the Treasury of France for sums paid for Flemish tapestries for the King. As there was no manufactory for high-warp tapestry in France, Francis I decided to establish one in Fontainebleau in 1539, and gathered there fifteen skilled Flemish workmen whom he placed under the direction of Philibert Babou, Sieur de la Bourdaiziere, and Sebastian Serlio, the Italian architect.

Throughout the Renaissance, tapestry was regarded on a level with painting. The Pope, the Doges of Venice and the wealthy families - the D'Estes, the Medicis and Sforzas - made superb collections and decorated their halls with splendid hangings. The greater number of these were made in Flanders, although a few lords - the D'Estes and Sforzas, for example - had looms of their own, worked by Flemings.

Subjects from mythology, the Scriptures and martyr-ology are still popular, but scenes from the old romances of chivalry are banished. Valiant princes and prosperous cities make use of the weaver's art to commemorate their victories and triumphs, and many gorgeous sets depicting current events are hung in mansions, villas, and town halls. Antwerp, for example, orders The Course of the Scheldt for her Town Hall. Flanders also makes such pieces as The Hunts of Maximilian, Battle of Pavia, Victories of the Duke of Alva, Destruction of the Armada, The Deliverance of Leyden in 1574, The Defeat of the Spaniards by the Zealanders, Genealogy of the Princes of Nassau, etc.

Brussels produced the famous set of ten, The Acts of the Apostles, ordered by Leo X in 1515. The cartoons, for which Raphael received 100 ducats each (£200), were sent to Peter van Aelst, the most noted tapestry-worker in Flanders. The Pope paid him 15,000 gold ducats (£30,000) for the set. Peter van Aelst was varlet de chambre and weaver to Philippe le Beau, in 1504, and later to his son, Charles V. Bernard van Orley, a pupil of Raphael, was associated with him in the production of The Acts of the Apostles, which were hung in the Sistine Chapel, December 26, 1519. In 1549, Vasari wrote of them: "One is astonished at the sight of this series; its execution is marvellous. One can hardly imagine how it was possible, with simple threads, to produce such delicacy in the hair and beards, and to express the suppleness of flesh. It is a work more Godlike than human; the waters, the animals and the habitations are so perfectly represented that they appear painted with a brush and not woven."

Another beautiful set, The Loves of Vertumnus and Pomona, now in Madrid, was also made by Flemish weavers from Italian cartoons; and were bought by Charles V in Antwerp, before 1546.

Bernard van Orley designed The Grand Hunts of Guise, or of Maximilian, formerly attributed to Durer. In these realistic pictures of costume, landscape and national types, there is a return to the Flemish disregard for perspective and grouping.

Mention should be made of the famous Lucas Months, long believed to be the work of Lucas van Leyden, but certainly by a Flemish artist. These were frequently copied at the Gobelins. In the month "January" a superb sideboard is represented.

A very celebrated tapestry-worker, William de Panne-maker, was commissioned by Charles V to weave The Conquest of Tunis, the cartoons for which were made by Jan Vermay,'or Vermeyen, of Beverwyck, near Haarlem. Although eighty-four workers were employed, it took five years to complete it.

Pannemaker also made The Victories of the Duke of Alva.

What the principal centres of tapestry were, we learn from an edict of Charles V, in 1544, that says: "It is forbidden to manufacture tapestries outside of Brussels, Louvain, Antwerp, Bruges, Oudenarde, Alost, Enghien, Binche, Ath, Lille, Tournay and other free towns, where the craft is organized and regulated by ordinances."

Holland also produced tapestry in this century. Looms were set up in Middelburg in 1562; and later in Delft, where Franz Spierinck worked.

A little tapestry was produced in Italy, but even there the greater number of weavers were Flemings. Two Flemish tapestry-workers, Nicholas and John Karcher, were employed by the Duke d'Este, at his court in Ferrara; and Cosmo I employed Nicholas Karcher and John Rost of Brussels at his establishment, the "Arazzeria Medicea," in Florence.

The store-rooms of royalty and nobles in England were filled with superb sets that were brought out for decoration on occasions. Most of these were imported from the Continent; but towards the end of Henry VIII's reign, William Sheldon orders one Robert Hicks to make maps of Oxford, Worcester, Gloucester and Warwick counties at his manor in Warwickshire, and calls Hicks "the only auter and beginner of tapestry and arras within this realm."

Returning now to the consideration of furniture as an architectural accessory, we find that Margaret of Austria's tastes were shared by many of her contemporaries. The Gothic style lingered here and there far into the sixteenth century, and even those whose sympathies were frankly in favour of the Renaissance did not entirely cast away Gothic traditions. (See Plate X.)

For example, let the student examine the beautiful choir of St. Gertrude in Louvain. The stalls are adorned with statuettes and twenty-eight reliefs of scenes from the lives of Our Lord, of St. Augustine, and of the patron saint, Gertrude. The ornamentation recalls the last days of the Gothic style. The work ranks among the finest examples of wood-carving in Belgium. It was executed by Mathias de Waydere, of Brussels in 1550.