In point of size, scope and general interest, this little book is perhaps the least considerable of the score of volumes comprised in The Spanish Series, but the collection would have lacked something of the completeness I have endeavoured to secure for it, if the subject of which it treats had not been included. As is inevitable in a series of this kind, many of the books are devoted to aspects and monuments of Spanish history and achievement, which have served the purpose of writers in all ages, but which could not, on that account, be omitted, while others have an imperative claim to inclusion on the ground that, though of secondary importance, they have never been dealt with elsewhere.

The Tapestries which are here reproduced in greater number and variety than has hitherto been attempted are known to students and connoisseurs the world over, but the measure of that knowledge is limited. Many of the pieces in the possession of the Spanish Crown were acquired by purchase or inheritance, and others were woven in the Netherlands to the command of its Burgundian rulers, Margaret of Austria and Mary of Hungary. The fabrics designed by Goya owed their existence to the extraordinary interest displayed in the products of the looms by Charles III., while the famous Tunis Tapestries were designed and woven by Jan Vermay or Vermeyen, the Court painter and Wilhelm Pannemaker, the celebrated Flemish weaver, under the personal direction of the Emperor Charles V. Vermeyen accompanied the expedition which was launched against Tunis by Charles in 1535 and made his sketches on the spot; the contract given to Pannemaker by his Imperial patron stipulated the amount and quality of the silk and the number and value of the gold and silver threads to be employed; and both designs and finished pieces had to be submitted to the Emperor’s scrutiny and approval before the purchase price was paid.

The Tunis Series was completed in 1554. The Tapestries were displayed in England on the occasion of the marriage of Philip and Mary in that year, and were not seen again in this country until 360 years later. They subsequently figured in all the great functions of the Spanish Court, and it was due to the Emperor’s fear that constant usage would injure the fabrics that a duplicate set, but on a smaller scale, was woven. The twelve pieces were again reproduced, on the same scale as the original frames, in 1740 by order of Philip V. A third copy is preserved in the Museum at Vienna, and a fourth, woven by Pannemaker, was found by the MarÉchal de Contades in a castle near Mecklin during the Seven Years War.

This collection of Spanish Royal Tapestries has been steadily accumulating since the thirteenth century, but the practice of weaving was not introduced into Spain until the first quarter of the seventeenth century when a little colony of Flemish weavers, subsidised by the King of Spain, settled at Pastrau in New Castile. A century later, at the invitation of Philip V., Jacques Van Der Goten and his four sons, established themselves in an atalier in Madrid, and in 1776 Goya drew the first of the forty-five designs for Tapestries which, in the following fifteen years, were woven in the Royal workshops of Santa Barbara in Madrid.

Although this wonderful collection has been added to by successive Spanish sovereigns over a period of six centuries, no effort was made to arrange, classify, or catalogue the fabrics until the work was put in hand at the instigation of Alfonso XII., and carried to completion by the late Queen Isabella. In 1903 an album of photographic reproductions of many of the finest specimens was published with historical and descriptive notes by Count Valencia de Don Juan, and this remained the only volume on the subject until 1914, when I prepared an illustrated handbook of the Tunis Series which, by gracious permission of King Alfonso, were displayed at the Anglo-Spanish Exhibition in London. The present book is the first attempt that has been made to present in English a record of the most valuable and interesting examples in the Royal Collection.

ALBERT. F. CALVERT.

“Royston,”
Eton Avenue,
London.