DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51585#0145
RAPHAEL SANZIO D’UKBINO.
141
a present to Henry VIII., and after the death of
Charles I. sold into Spain; another or the same
set was exhibited in London about a year ago, and
has since been sold to the King of Prussia.
While all Home was indulging in ecstasies over
the rich and dearly paid tapestries, which were not
then, and are still less now, worth one of the car-
toons, these precious productions of the artist’s own
mind were lying in the warehouse of the weaver at
Arras, neglected and forgotten. Some were torn
into fragments, and parts of them exist in various
collections. Seven still remained in some garret
or cellar, when Rubens, just a century afterwards,
mentioned their existence to Charles I., and advised
him to purchase them for the use of a tapestry ma-
nufactory which King James I. had established at
Mortlake. The purchase was made. They had
been cut into long slips about two feet wide, for
the convenience of the workmen, and in this state
they arrived in England.* On Charles’s death,
Cromwell bought them at the sale of the royal
* There can be no doubt of the purpose for which Charles I.
acquired them. The entry in the king’s catalogue runs
thus:—“ In a slit wooden case some two cartoons of Raphael
Urbino’s, for hangings to be made by; and the other five are,
by the king’s appointment, delivered to Mr. Francis Cleyne,
at Mortlake, to make hangings by.” It appears that Crom-
well had some intention of continuing the manufactory of
tapestry at Mortlake as a national undertaking, and retained
the cartoons for purposes connected with it.
141
a present to Henry VIII., and after the death of
Charles I. sold into Spain; another or the same
set was exhibited in London about a year ago, and
has since been sold to the King of Prussia.
While all Home was indulging in ecstasies over
the rich and dearly paid tapestries, which were not
then, and are still less now, worth one of the car-
toons, these precious productions of the artist’s own
mind were lying in the warehouse of the weaver at
Arras, neglected and forgotten. Some were torn
into fragments, and parts of them exist in various
collections. Seven still remained in some garret
or cellar, when Rubens, just a century afterwards,
mentioned their existence to Charles I., and advised
him to purchase them for the use of a tapestry ma-
nufactory which King James I. had established at
Mortlake. The purchase was made. They had
been cut into long slips about two feet wide, for
the convenience of the workmen, and in this state
they arrived in England.* On Charles’s death,
Cromwell bought them at the sale of the royal
* There can be no doubt of the purpose for which Charles I.
acquired them. The entry in the king’s catalogue runs
thus:—“ In a slit wooden case some two cartoons of Raphael
Urbino’s, for hangings to be made by; and the other five are,
by the king’s appointment, delivered to Mr. Francis Cleyne,
at Mortlake, to make hangings by.” It appears that Crom-
well had some intention of continuing the manufactory of
tapestry at Mortlake as a national undertaking, and retained
the cartoons for purposes connected with it.