282 ON THE MANUFACTURE OF GOBELINS TAPESTRY 
them a definite constitution (Statute of 16th May, 1544, on the style and 
trade in tapestry of the Pays-Bas, divided into ninety heads). 
They were empowered to supply with this precious material all the 
sovereign and princely houses ol Europe. The * Garde Meuble' in 
France contained a considerable quantity of hangings in Flemish 
tapestry, dating back to the reign of Francois I. ; but when Louis XIV. 
had given to the production of French tapestries a new and powerful 
impulse, more especially in developing their artistic character, too much 
neglected until then, the condition of affairs changed ; the manufacture 
of Flemish tapestries was eclipsed by degrees, and, about 1787, disap- 
peared entirely, (a) 
The multitude of chefs cfceuvre in painting, tapestry, sculpture, gold- 
smith's ware, engraving, mosaic, cabinet making in ebony, &c, which 
resulted from the manufacture of crown furniture, exercised a very 
marked influence upon the general taste and industry of the nation. 
This influence extended even abroad, and very soon placed in the first 
rank, the productions, arts, and manufactures of France. The work- 
shops of tapestry formed always the most important part of this estab- 
lishment, the only one which has resisted the efforts of time and of 
revolutions. 
The arts, excepting those which tended directly to the manufacture 
of tapestry, ceased to be represented at Gobelins in the latter years of 
the eighteenth century ; more than two hundred workers in haute and 
basse lice were employed there from 1662 to 1690, under the direction of 
Charles le Brun ; Jans, father and son, master workers in haute lice, 
had themselves alone the direction of sixty. A second workshop in 
haute lice was under the management of Lefebvre; Jean-Baptiste Mosin 
and Jean de Lacroix conducted each a workshop of basse lice. A Flemish 
dyer, a native of the town of Oudenarde, Yander Kerehove, was placed 
at the head of the dye-house. With regard to the productions of these 
different Workshops, we must confine ourselves to citing. The Acts of 
the Apostles, in ten pieces, raised with gold, in imitation of the cele- 
brated tapestries of Kaphael. The suite of hangings, said to be of 
the Vatican, in imitation of the frescos of the same master, in eight 
pieces ; the Elements, raised in gold, in eight pieces, from Charles le 
Brun ; History of the King (Louis XIV.), in fourteen pieces, also in 
imitation of Le Brun, and Vander Meulen ; History of Alexander, from 
Le Brun, in eleven pieces ; the Seasons, in eight pieces, raised in gold ; 
the Months, in imitation of Le Brun ; the History of Moses, in ten 
pieces, in imitation of Nicolas Poussin and Le Brun ; the History of 
Meleagre, in eight pieces, in imitation of Le Brun ; the Fruits of War, 
in eight pieces, in imitation of the ancient tapestries executed from the 
(a) At Oudenarde, the last representative of this industry, Jean-Baptiste Brandt, 
addressed to the commercial authorities, of that town, the 9th May, 1787, an 
account of the business and liabilities of the corporation of tapestry makers, 
and soon after closed his own workshops. 
