House and Garden 
Italian Renaissance Tapestry, n feet 8 by 17 feet 2, sold at tbe Stanford White sale to C. I. Hudson for $5,100, a low price. It 
is in the Italian Grotesque style that was introduced by Rafael, and was probably woven in Italy in tbe Sixteenth Century. 
Another series by Audran was the Grotesque 
Months in Bands. The decorative inspiration came 
from the same source, as the name shows. The 
twelve months are represented by the twelve great 
gods of Olympus, each surmounted by one of the 
signs of the zodiac and richly adorned with symbols 
and attributes. 
The famous Don Quixote series that employed the 
Gobelin weavers almost continuously from 1718 to 
1794 was designed by Charles Coypel, and pictured 
twenty-eight different scenes in the life of the sorrow¬ 
ful knight. Much of the success of the series is 
undoubtedly due to the decorators who designed the 
elaborate and exquisite borders and woven frames. 
Designed by Oudry were the Hunts of Louis XV.; 
Scenes from the Old Testament, by Antoine and 
Charles Coypel; Scenes from the New Testament, by 
jouvenet and Restout; Opera f ragments, by Charles 
Coypel; the History of Esther and the Metamor¬ 
phoses, by de Troy; the Loves of the Gods and Sub¬ 
jects from Ancient History, by Boucher. 
The tapestries woven at the Gobelins in the nine¬ 
teenth century were of an inferior type, owing partly 
to the substitution of day wages for piece work, 
partly to the attempt to imitate oil painting. Recently 
important reforms have been introduced. The 
number of colors employed has been reduced and 
the weavers have been instructed to interpret cartoons 
broadly rather than copy them minutely. Since 1819 
the high warp only is used at the Gobelins, the low 
warp only at the other Government tapestry works 
at Beauvais. The product of both ateliers is not 
sold but used to decorate the public buildings of 
France and to present to foreign dignitaries. 1 he 
marriage present of the French Government to 
President Roosevelt’s daughter was a tapestry woven 
at the Gobelins. 
The museum of the Gobelins is most interesting 
though housed in a very small gallery. Among the 
exhibits are Le Brun’s Autumn, Marriage of Alexan¬ 
der and Roxane, Dance of the Nymphs, Triumph 
of Minerva, Audience of Cardinal Chigi, and one of 
the Royal Residences. 
The atelier of Comans and Planche under Louis 
XIII. is represented by the Sacrifices of Abraham, and 
the Transfiguration of Elijah. Two fine Flemish 
tapestries of the early sixteenth century are the 
Annunciation and the Adoration of the Magi. The 
Raising of the Siege of Dole was woven in Bruges 
in 1480. Four reduced copies of Rafael’s Acts of 
the Apostles were woven on Foucquet’s looms at 
Maincy. 
( 7 "o be Continued.) 
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