THE FOUNDATION OF THE SPANISH ROYAL COLLECTION
In order to understand how the finest collection of Renaissance
tapestries in the world came to be in the royal palace at Madrid, it is
necessary to know something of the complicated history of the
Netherlands during the later fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when the
Flemish tapestry weaving industry was at the height of its reputation.
During the earlier decades of the fifteenth century the Dukes of
Burgundy were employed in the consolidation of their power by the
acquisition of province after province in the Low Countries. By 1443
these territories included, in addition to the French duchy of Burgundy,
Flanders, Artois, Namur, Holland, Zeeland, Friesland, Brabant, Limbourg,
and the duchy of Luxembourg, and Burgundy had to be reckoned with as a
great European power. The Court of Philip the Good was, indeed, the most
luxurious in Europe, enriched with the finest paintings, the rarest
books, and the most beautiful tapestries. Charles the Bold added Liége
and Gelderland to the territories inherited from his father. On his
death in 1477, Burgundy, Franche Comté, and Artois reverted to France.
The rest of Charles’s dominions passed to his daughter Mary, who married
Maximilian of Austria. On Maximilian’s election as Emperor, he made his
son, Philip the Handsome, ruler of the Netherlands. The marriage of
Philip with Joanna of Aragon secured to their son Charles the kingdoms
of Aragon and Castile. On Charles’s election as Emperor in 1519, in
succession to his grandfather Maximilian, he united the sovereignties of
Spain and of the Netherlands.
Margaret of Austria had already been appointed by Maximilian as ruler of
the Netherlands. In this position the new Emperor left her, showing
therein great wisdom, as Margaret proved a popular ruler. On her death
he appointed his widowed sister, Mary of Hungary, as her successor.
Under the beneficent rule of these two Burgundian ladies, the industry
of tapestry weaving flourished and reached its height. The Netherlands
enjoyed a long term of peace and prosperity. Both Margaret of Austria
and Mary of Hungary were enthusiastic patrons of the art, and many
well-known series of tapestries were woven at their command. These
pieces passed, almost without exception, into the hands of Charles V and
Philip II on the death of their original owners. During the long and
bitter struggle against the Catholic Philip, the industry, as was
inevitable, languished and never again recovered its ancient vigour.
It has been asserted that the Spanish kings used their power in the
Netherlands to extort from the weavers the finest products of their
looms by blackmail, or even torture. There seems to be little
foundation, if any, for this charge. With one exception, where the
origin of the tapestries is known, they were acquired by inheritance or
purchase, or were made, as in the case of the _Conquest of Tunis_,
directly to the royal command.
Besides the tapestries dealt with in the following pages the Spanish
royal collection contains an even greater number of pieces of less
importance and artistic value, disposed upon the walls of the palace.
These also are almost entirely of Flemish origin, except those which
were the product, at a later date, of the Spanish looms established by
the much persecuted Van der Goten. A large number of the tapestries here
described were shown at the Paris Exhibition of 1900, when, for the
first time, the world became aware of the artistic wealth so long hidden
in the Royal Palace of Madrid.
The accumulated treasures of the Spanish Court had remained for many
years neglected and uncatalogued, their history and origin uncertain or
unknown. It was King Alfonso XII who first conceived the idea of
arranging the royal tapestries, studying their history, discovering,
where possible, their designers and makers, and classifying them into
groups and series, and making photographs of the whole collection. This
work was subsequently completed by the late Queen Isabella of Spain.
In 1903 an excellent series of photographic plates representing the
finest of the tapestries was published in book form, accompanied by
critical and historical notes from one of the finest art critics of
Spain--the Count Valencia de Don Juan. It is to this learned and
discerning writer that I am most indebted for the explanatory notes
which accompany the reproductions included in this volume. The
tapestries are, as far as possible, treated in groups connected by
similarity of subject except where several pieces form a continuous
series.