AND SAVONNERIE CARPETS. 283 
drawings of Lucas de Leyde ; the Battles of Scipio, in ten pieces ; the 
History of Constantine, in eight pieces, &c., A specimen of this latter 
hanging, in five pieces only, was issued from a manufactory founded 
at Mincy by the Superintendent Fouquet, but which was closed at the 
time of the disgrace of this minister ; the Gobelin workers in tapestry 
having been commanded to place upon this hanging the arms of the 
king instead of those of the superintendent, and to add bordures (in 
heraldry) to them. 
We do not purpose speaking of the well-known works of the cele- 
brated engravers Audran, Rousselet, Sebastien Leclerc, nor of those of 
the sculptors Tuby and Coisevoix, who all resided at Gobelins, nor of 
the fine works of chased gold, the artistic value of which tar surpassed 
that of the material, yet could not preserve them from complete de- 
struction, for Louis XIV., in 1690, in consequence of the penury of the 
royal treasury, thought that he ought to convert them into money ; 
they had been in part executed at Gobelins by the goldsmiths Alexis, 
Loir, da Tel, Claude de Villers and his sons. 
The manufactory of the Savonnerie executed, at the same time, in 
imitation of models of the most skilful masters, works which, from 
their multiplicity and being of a character exclusively decorative, 
have escaped almost any description ; a carpet for Versailles and 
the Louvre, seats of every form, folding screens, portieres (pieces of 
tapestry hung before a door to keep out the wind), &c. The carpet of 
the great gallery uniting the Louvre to the Tuileries, and that of the 
little gallery of the Louvre, called d'Apollon, were finished at this 
period. 
The first, commenced in the reign of Henry IV., contained ninety- 
two compartments, seven yards and a half in length uniformly, by from 
four to five yards in breadth, and of a varied composition, where were 
represented landscapes, military trophies, different symbolical figures, 
War, Peace, Music, Astronomy, &c. The second carpet, that of the 
small gallery of the Louvre, was composed of thirteen pieces in designs 
appropriate to the place ; that is to say, all the characters produced 
upon it were connected in some measure with the god of day. 
To Oh. Le Brun succeeded P. Mignard as governor of the Gobelins 
manufactory ; but this illustrious painter, already aged, did not leave 
many traces of his rule. It was besides partly under his direction that 
the only total interruption of the works took place which that estab- 
lishment experienced since its foundation. 
In 1694, a ruinous war obliged Louis XIV. to dismiss the greater 
part of the workmen assembled at Gobelins. Some of them entered 
the French army, others returned to Flanders, their native country ; 
the greater number were collected by the Master Behayle, one of the 
most skilful directors and master tapestry-makers which the manu- 
factory of Beauvais ever had. 
The peace of Kyswick restored work to its former activity. Robert 
