library of the Academy of History at Madrid, in the form of a memorial
presented to Philip the Second by a Spanish tapestry-maker of Salamanca,
named Pedro Gutierrez,[45] and setting forth, in pessimistic language,
the unhappy condition of this craft in the Peninsula. Pedro relates of
himself that in twenty-four days he made for the Cardinal-archduke no
less than a hundred and twenty _reposteros_; and that in order to
exhibit his cleverness as a tapestry-weaver, he set up a loom in the
royal palace (being officially the _tapicero_ to the Crown), and worked
for forty days where all might criticise the product of his toil.
Gutierrez also states that the township of Madrid had provided him with
six hundred ducats to enable him to establish there a tapestry-factory
for the space of ten years, together with six hundred and fifty ducats
from the Cortes for supporting his apprentices, and a thousand ducats
from the king to defray the cost of certain voyages he had made to
Lisbon, Monzón, and Barcelona, and of removing his residence from
Salamanca to the capital of Spain. He complains, however, that the house
he dwells in at Madrid is not large enough to contain his loom, and
replies to the objections of such persons as opposed his opening the
tapestry-works at all (on the ground that this craft was practised
better and more cheaply in Flanders), by asserting that Spanish makers
of _reposteros_ were now accustomed to receive a daily wage of no more
than three _reales_ and "a miserable meal." This, he urges, should
render Spanish tapestries at least as inexpensive to produce as those of
Flanders; although, upon the other hand, he admits that the colouring of
the former is likely to prove inferior to the Flemish cloths in purity
and durability. "Common tapestry," he says, "seldom keeps its colour
upward of a couple of years, so that, if such were used in open sunlight
on the backs of beasts of burden, or to cover carts, exposed to sun,
wind, dust, and mire, or else for cleaning shoes upon, as now is
practised with the _reposteros_, their imperfections would become
apparent all the sooner."
[45] At about the same time that this petition was presented by
Gutierrez, another tapestry-maker named Pedro de Espinosa, a native
of Iniesta, was living at Cordova. On February 2nd, 1560, he
married Leonor de Burgos, and received as dowry from his bride the
sum of thirty-five thousand _maravedis_. (Ramírez de Arellano,
_Artistas Exhumados_, published in the _Boletín de la Sociedad
Española de Excursiones_.)
Mention of these typically Spanish objects known as _reposteros_,[46]
induces me to quote an interesting notice relating to the visit of
Philip the Second to Cordova, in the year 1570. The train of the Duke of
Medina Sidonia, who journeyed to this city in order to receive his
sovereign, consisted of a hundred and three mules covered with "new
_reposteros_ of wool, and of six mules covered with _reposteros_ of
purple velvet, embroidered with silver and gold, and bearing the duke's
arms."
[46] "_Reposteros_," says Riaño, "is the ancient name given to the
hangings which are placed outside the balconies on state occasions
in Spain. Several splendid examples of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries may still be seen at the houses of Spanish
grandees, of which those belonging to the Conde de Oñate and
Marques de Alcañices at Madrid are the most remarkable for their
artistic design."
It is surprising that Riaño should insert so incomplete a
definition of this word, whose primitive and proper meaning,
according to the Dictionary of the Spanish Academy, is "a square
piece of cloth with the arms of a prince or Señor, which serves for
covering baggage carried by beasts of burden, and also for hanging
in antechambers." See also Vol. II., p. 16 (note) of the present
work.
If, as seems most likely, the woollen _reposteros_ above referred to
were of woven work containing a device, this passage would demonstrate
that the manufacture of the cloths in question was sometimes the
province of the tapestry-maker and sometimes that of the embroiderer.
Ramírez de Arellano, from whose instructive studies on the craftsmen of
older Spain I quote the foregoing extract, says that the making of
_reposteros_ constitutes a branch of craftsmanship distinct from
embroidery of the common class, and that the men who produced them
deserve to be included among artists of real merit. He gives the names
of two, Hernán Gonzalez and Juan Ramos, who worked at Cordova in the
middle of the sixteenth century. A document relating to the former of
these men tells us that in those days the price of a _repostero de
estambre_ measuring sixteen palms square, with a coat-of-arms worked in
the centre, and a decorative border, was ninety _reales_.
[Illustration: XXI
THE SPINNERS
(_By Velazquez. Prado Gallery_)]
Riaño says: "I do not find any information of a later date which
suggests the existence of the manufacture of tapestries in Spain during
the Middle Ages." Davillier, however, affirms that in the year 1411 two
master-makers of tapestry were living at the court of the King of
Navarre, and that other craftsmen, holding the same title, were
established at Barcelona in 1391 and 1433. This notice is accepted by
Müntz: "A la fin du XIV^e et au commencement du XV^e siècle, les
Espagnols tentèrent de fonder dans leur patrie quelques ateliers de
haute lisse. A Barcelone, en 1391 et en 1433, plusieurs tapissiers
(_maestros de tapices_) firent partie du grand Conseil. Mais ces
tentaves ne semblent pas avoir eu de résultats durables. Il était plus
commode de recourir aux manufactures flamandes, si merveilleusement
organisées. Peut-être même ce système était-il plus économique. Ne
voyons-nous pas aujourd'hui jusqu'à l'extrême Orient tirer, pour raison
d'économie, des fabriques de Manchester et de Birmingham les tissus
courants dont il a besoin?"
The history of tapestry-making at Madrid may be said to date from the
establishment in this town of a small factory by Pedro Gutierrez, whose
petition to Philip the Second I have already quoted, and who received
protection both from that monarch and from the queen, Doña Ana. In 1625
Gutierrez was succeeded by Antonio Ceron, who formally styled himself
"tapicero de nuevo, sucesor de Pedro Gutierrez" ("maker of new
tapestries, successor to Pedro Gutierrez"), and petitioned the king for
the grant of a meal a day, "in recompense of having taught his trade to
eight lads, and of having mounted eight looms in (the factory of) Santa
Isabel." This factory of Santa Isabel was so called from the street in
which it lay, and part of it is represented in the celebrated painting
by Velazquez called _Las Hilanderas_ ("The Spinners," not, as it is
translated in Riaño's handbook, "The Weavers." Plate xxi.).
This factory was unsuccessful, and declined by degrees until it ceased
completely, in spite of the efforts made to revive it in 1694 by a
Belgian named Metler, and in 1707 by a Salamanquino, Nicholas Hernández.
[Illustration: XXII
TAPESTRY MADE AT BRUSSELS FROM GRANADA SILK
(_16th Century. Spanish Crown Collection_)]
A new tapestry-factory--that of Santa Barbara--was founded shortly
afterwards in a building known as the Casa del Abreviador. The first
director, engaged in 1720 by order of Philip the Fifth, was Jacob Van
der Goten, a native of Antwerp,[47] who died in 1724, and was succeeded
at the factory by his sons, Francisco, Jacobo, Cornelius, and Adrian.
These craftsmen worked with _basse lisse_ looms till 1729, in which year
a _haute lisse_ loom was mounted by a Frenchman, Antoine Lenger.
[47] The royal contract with the elder Van der Goten, dated July 30th,
1720, was the result of secret negotiations, and largely brought
about by the influence of Philip's minister, Cardinal Alberoni.
In 1730, when the court removed to Seville, a tapestry-factory was
established at this city also. The director was Jacob Van der Goten the
younger, assisted by the painter Procaccini. At the end of three years
this factory closed its doors, and Van der Goten and Procaccini,
returning to Madrid, established themselves at the old factory of Santa
Isabel, from which, in 1744, they again removed to the factory of Santa
Barbara.[48]
[48] "On Saturday, May 27th, passing through the gate of Saint Barbara,
I visited the tapestry manufactory, which resembles, and equals
in beauty, the Gobelins, whence it originally came. I found a
Frenchman at the head of it, who was civil and communicative.
This fabric was brought into Spain, and established here under
the direction of John de Van Dergoten, from Antwerp, in the year
1720. They now employ fourscore hands, and work only on the king's
account, and for his palaces, making and repairing all the tapestry
and carpets which are wanted at any of the _Sitios_, or royal
residences."--Townsend, in 1786.
"The elegant manufacture of tapestry is carried on without Saint
Barbe's gate, at the entrance of the promenade of Los Altos, or
Chamberi; it was established in 1720 by Philip the Fifth, at whose
invitation John Dergoten, of Antwerp, was induced to undertake its
superintendence, an office at present filled by his descendants.
The productions of this manufactory are carpets and tapestry, the
subjects of which are often drawn from fable or history; it
sometimes copies pictures executed by superior artists, and affords
daily employment to eighty persons, including dyers, drawers,
designers, and all its various branches."--Laborde (about 1800).
In 1774, when, with the exception of Cornelius, who was considered the
most skilful of them all, the family of the Van der Gotens had died out,
the direction of the Santa Barbara factory was entrusted to several
Spanish artists, named Manuel Sanchez, Antonio Moreno, Tomás del
Castillo, and Domingo Galan. Sanchez, who acted as general
superintendent of the works, died in 1786, and was succeeded in this
office by his nephew, Livinio Stuck, whose son resumed the directorship
in 1815, after the factory had been paralysed by the invasion of the
Peninsula, and destroyed by the French in 1808. Since then it has never
ceased working, and descendants of the Stucks continue to superintend it
at the present day.
[Illustration: XXIII
A PROMENADE IN ANDALUSIA
(_Cartoon for Tapestry. By Goya_)]
The collection of tapestry belonging to the Crown of Spain is probably
the finest in the world. As far back as the reign of Ferdinand and
Isabella the walls of the royal palace were hung with decorative textile
cloths or _paños de Ras_, and among the officers in the household of
their son, the youthful Prince Don Juan, we find included a keeper of
the tapestry and _reposteros_. But it was not until the reigns of
Charles the Fifth and Philip the Second that the royal collection was
enriched with numerous sets of celebrated tapestries produced in Italy
and Flanders--countries which were then subjected to the yoke of Spain.
Frequent additions were also made throughout the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, both from abroad and subsequently (when the
Brussels industry declined) from the Spanish factories of Santa Isabel
and Santa Barbara.
As early as the year 1600 a Spaniard wrote enthusiastically of "the rich
and cunning tapestries belonging to His Majesty, to whom it would be
easier to win a kingdom than to get them made anew."[49] At the present
day it is impossible to estimate with any certainty the number of these
tapestries, the greater part of which are locked away. Only on certain
festivals, such as the days of Corpus Christi and the Candelaria
(Purification), a few are unfolded and displayed in the upper galleries
of the palace at Madrid. Their total number is believed to be not far
short of one thousand pieces;[50] but Señor Tormo calculates that were
they no more than five hundred, they would, if placed end to end, cover
more than two miles of ground.
[49] Licentiate Gaspar Gutierrez de los Ríos, _Noticia general para la
estimación de las Artes y de la manera en que se conocen las
liberales de las que son mecánicas y serviles_.
[50] Riaño estimates them at this number. See his _Report on a
collection of photographs from tapestries of the Royal Palace of
Madrid_; London, 1875; and also _Tapices de la Corona de España_,
with 135 plates in phototype, and text by Count Valencia de Don
Juan; Madrid, Hauser and Menet, 1903.
Among the sets which form this wonderful collection, distributed between
the palaces of Madrid, the Prado, and the Escorial, none is of greater
merit or magnificence than the series of twelve cloths depicting the
_Conquest of Tunis_ (Plate xxii.), designed for Charles the Fifth by his
Court painter, Jan Vermay or Vermeyen, of Beverwyck, near Haarlem, and
executed by William Pannemaker, of Brussels. It was agreed by Pannemaker
in 1549 that the materials employed upon this tapestry should consist of
the finest wool, Granada silk, and, for the woof, the choicest Lyons
_fillet_--the very best that money could procure. The Emperor himself
was to provide the gold and silver thread. Accordingly, Pannemaker was
supplied with five hundred and fifty-nine pounds and one ounce of silk,
dyed and spun in the city of Granada, where one of Charles' agents
resided for two years seven months and twenty-five days, for the purpose
of superintending its preparation. The cost of this silk, exclusive of
the agent's expenses, amounted to 6,637 florins. Nineteen colours were
employed in the dyeing, each colour consisting of from three to seven
shades, and a hundred and sixty pounds of the finest silk were consumed
in trying to obtain a special shade of blue.
After receiving these materials, Pannemaker kept seven workmen
constantly engaged upon each _paño_ of this tapestry, or eighty-four
workmen in all. As soon as any one of the pieces was concluded, he
submitted it to experts who pointed out such details as they recommended
for correction. The entire work required a little more than five years,
and was therefore terminated in 1554. The price paid for it was twelve
florins per ell, and the number of these was 1246, representing a total
cost of 14,952 florins, while Pannemaker, subject to the Emperor's being
satisfied with the work, was further promised a yearly pension of a
hundred florins.[51]
[51] Müntz, _La Tapisserie_, pp. 217, 218. Wauters, _Les Tapisseries
Bruxelloises_, pp. 76, 77. Houdoy, _Tapisseries représentant la
Conqueste du Royaulme de Thunes par l'empereur Charles-Quint_.
Equally remarkable are the spirited design and the flawless execution of
this series of elaborate cloths, recalling, in their swarms of armed
figures and the lofty point of view, which reduces the sky to a mere
strip, the vivacious war and camp pictures of Snyders. The titles of the
subjects, forming, as it were, a pictured epitome of the expedition led
by Charles in person against the Barbary pirates, are as follows: (1) A
map of the Spanish coast; (2) The review of the troops at Barcelona; (3)
The landing of the forces; (4) A skirmish; (5) The camp; (6) Foraging;
(7) The capture of La Goleta; (8) The battle of Los Pozos, Tunis; (9) A
sortie of the besieged; (10) The sack of Tunis; (11) The victors
returning to the harbour; (12) The forces embarking.
According to Müntz, this tapestry has been copied at least on two
occasions; once in the eighteenth century by Josse de Vos, of Brussels,
and also, in the same century, in Spain, partly at Seville, and partly
at the factories of Santa Isabel and Santa Barbara.
[Illustration: XXIV
TAPESTRY. ARRAS WORK, FROM ITALIAN CARTOONS
(_First half of 15th Century. Zamora Cathedral_)]
Other most valuable and beautiful tapestries belonging to the Spanish
Crown are the series titled _The History of the Virgin_, believed to be
from cartoons by Van Eyk, _The Passion_, from cartoons attributed to Van
der Weyden, the _History of David_ and _History of Saint John the
Baptist_, the _Mass of Saint Gregory_, and the _Founding of Rome_. All
of these series date from the fifteenth century and early in the
sixteenth. Belonging to a later period are the reproductions of rustic
scenes and hunting subjects by Teniers and others, executed in Spain
between 1721 and 1724, the _Scenes from Don Quixote_, made at Santa
Barbara from Procaccini's cartoons, and the eminently national series
produced at the same factory from designs by Francisco Goya y Lucientes.
This latter group amounts to several dozen pieces, including the
well-known _Blind Man's Buff_, _A Promenade in Andalusia_ (Plate
xxiii.), _The Crockery-seller_, _The Grape-Gatherers_ (_Frontispiece_),
and other spirited and charming scenes of popular Spanish life--"tout
cela," as Lefort describes it, "spirituel, vif, pittoresque, très
mouvementé, bien groupé, s'élevant sur des fonds champêtres ou baignant
gaiement en pleine lumière."
Other tapestry collections of great merit belong to the cathedrals of
Burgos, Zamora (where they line the walls of the Sacristy; Plate xxiv.),
Zaragoza, Toledo, Tarragona, and Santiago. The first of these temples
possesses the following sets, which are displayed to decorate the
cloisters on the feast of Corpus Christi:--
(1) The History of Cleopatra and Mark Antony.
(2) The History of David.
(3) The Creation.
(4) An Historical Subject.
(5) The Theological and Cardinal Virtues.
(6) A series of five Gothic tapestries, which represent some
mystery or allegory, and seem to be of Flemish
manufacture. One other _paño_, of a similar character,
accompanies them.
All but the last of the above sets are marked with two B's separated by
a shield, denoting Brussels workmanship. The _Theological and Cardinal
Virtues_ were presented to the cathedral about the end of the sixteenth
century. They are evidently executed from Italian cartoons, and the
_haute-lisse_ craftsman who made them, in or towards the year 1571, was
named Francis Greubels.[52]
[52] See an article on these tapestries by Señor Lamperez y Romea,
published in No. 55 of the _Boletín de la Sociedad Española de
Excursiones_; and also Nos. 156 and 157 of the same publication,
for an article on the Crown and other Spanish collections, by
Elías Tormo y Monzó.
[Illustration: XXV
FLEMISH TAPESTRY
(_Late 15th Century. Collection of the late Count of Valencia de Don
Juan_)]
The tapestries which belong to the cathedral of Zaragoza number some
sixty or seventy pieces, including a series (fifteenth century)
representing _The Life of Saint John the Baptist_, from designs by Lucas
of Holland. Good tapestries were also the property of Valencia
cathedral, but have been dispersed and sold in recent years. The convent
of the Descalzas Reales at Madrid possesses a set from designs by
Rubens. Ten pieces of this series formerly belonged to the Count-Duke of
Olivares, who sent them to his town of Loeches; four passing
subsequently to the Duke of Westminster's collection. The small though
valuable collection formed by the late Count of Valencia de Don Juan
(Plate xxv.), passed at this nobleman's death to his daughter, Señora de
Osma, who has presented part of it to the Archæological Museum at
Madrid. Another collector resident in Spain, Mons. Mersmann, of Granada,
possesses a series of fine Brussels cloths representing scenes from _Don
Quixote_, by Van den Hecke.
LACE
Although the Spaniards have enjoyed, and still enjoy, a widespread fame
for lace-making, their written records of this craft are unsubstantial.
Originally, perhaps, they borrowed it from the Arabs or Venetians.
Certainly, the earliest Spanish lace was such as is made with a needle,
that is, point, not pillow lace. In this form, _à la aguja_, and in the
sixteenth century, the Spaniards possibly conveyed the secrets of its
manufacture to the Netherlands, receiving from the natives of this
country, in exchange, the art of making lace by means of bobbins,
including the characteristic "Flemish net," or _red flandés_.
Towards the sixteenth century the parts of Spain where lace was
manufactured in the largest quantity were some of the Manchegan towns
and villages, the coast of Finisterre, and nearly the whole of Cataluña.
In La Mancha lace was made, and still is so, at Manzanares, Granatula,
Almagro, and other places. That of Almagro (the celebrated _punto de
Almagro_, resembling the lace of Cataluña), is mentioned by nearly all
the older travellers. In _Don Quixote_, Teresa writes to Sancho Panza
that their daughter Sanchita was engaged in making bobbin-lace at a
daily wage of eight _sueldos_.
[Illustration: XXVI
THE MARCHIONESS OF LA SOLANA
(_By Goya_)]
In 1877, at the Exhibition of Sumptuary Arts which was held in
Barcelona, a magnificent lace _toca_ was shown, which was affirmed by
its possessor, Señor Parcerisa, to be the work of a Spaniard of the
later part of the fifteenth century, and to have belonged to Isabella
the Catholic. The cathedral of the same city owns three thread-lace albs
of sixteenth century workmanship, and the South Kensington Museum other
pieces of Spanish lace of a comparatively early date, probably made by
nuns and subtracted from the convents during the stormy scenes of 1835.
Dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, we have a number of
notices, though scrappy and inexplicit as a rule, relating to Spanish
lace. One of the more complete and interesting is quoted by Riaño from
the _Microcosmia y Gobierno Universal del Hombre Cristiano_ (Barcelona,
1592) of Father Marcos Antonio de Campos. "I will not be silent," wrote
this austere _padre_, "and fail to mention the time lost these last
years in the manufacture of _cadenetas_, a work of thread combined with
gold and silver; this extravagance and excess reached such a point that
100 and 1000 ducats were spent in this work, in which, besides
destroying the eyesight, wasting away the lives, and rendering
consumptive the women who worked it, and preventing them from spending
their time with more advantage to their souls, a few ounces of thread
and years of time were wasted with so unsatisfactory a result. I ask
myself, after this fancy shall have passed away, will the lady or
gentleman find that the chemises that cost them 50 ducats, or the
_basquiña_ (petticoat) that cost them 300, are worth half their price,
which certainly is the case with other objects in which the material
itself is worth more?"
[Illustration: XXVII
A SPANISH _MAJA_
(_A.D. 1777_)]
Several of the other notices relating to the lace-makers' craft are from
the pen of Countess d'Aulnoy. Of the Countess of Lemos this writer says:
"Her hair was white, but she carefully concealed it beneath a black
blonde"; and of another Spanish lady, Doña Leonor de Toledo, that she
wore "a green velvet skirt trimmed with Spanish blonde." In the
apartments of the young Princess of Monteleón the countess saw "a bed of
green and gold damask, decorated with silver brocade and Spanish blonde.
The sheets were fringed with English point-lace, extremely broad and
handsome." The countess also says that the petticoats of the Spanish
ladies were of English point-lace,[53] and that these ladies, when they
visited each other, wore on their heads "a _toca_ of the richest English
black point-lace, half a yard broad, forming points like the antique
laces, beautiful to look at, and very dear. This head-dress suits them
rarely."
[53] Upon the other hand, a notice dated 1562 says that at that time
Spanish-made black lace was largely used at the Court of England.
According to Balsa de la Vega, whose interesting articles on Spanish
lace (published in the newspaper _El Liberal_) are worth perusal by all
who are interested in this craft, about the middle of the seventeenth
century the custom originated in Spain of making lace in broader pieces,
dividing the pattern into a number of strips or _fajas_ which were
subsequently sewn together. In Belgium, on the contrary, the design was
cut out, following the contour of the floral or other decoration.
In former ages gold and silver lace was made in France, and also at
Genoa. I think it possible that Genoese merchants, many of whom are
known to have settled in Granada and other Spanish cities, may first
have introduced this branch of lace-making among the Spaniards. The
sumptuary laws of Aragon, Castile, León, and Navarre would seem to show
that lace of these materials, known as _punto_ or _redecilla de oro_ (or
_plata_) was manufactured by the Spanish Jews between the twelfth and
fifteenth centuries. During the seventeenth century and part of the
eighteenth, the quantity produced in the Peninsula was very large. In
his _Fenix de Cataluña_, a work which was published at Barcelona in
1683, Feliu de la Peña says that Spanish _randa_ or _réseuil_, of gold
and silver, silk, thread, and aloe fibre, was better made in Spain than
in the Netherlands. The journal of Bertaut de Rouen contains the
following notice of this silver lace: "Le Roy y envoya le Lieutenant du
Maistre des Postes, avec huit postillons, couverts de clinquant, et
quarante chevaux de poste, dont il y en avoit huit avec des selles et
des brides du Roy où il y avoit de la dentelle d'argent, que Monsieur le
Mareschal fit distribuer à environ autant de gens que nous estions, sur
une liste qu'il avoit envoyée quelques jours auparavant."
[Illustration: XXVIII
A _MAJA_
(_By Goya_)]