href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@44393@[email protected]#img_124.jpg" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">124

XIV. Embroidered Altar-Front 126 XV. Embroidered Altar-Front; Toledo Cathedral 128 XVI. Embroidered Altar-Front; Palencia Cathedral 130 XVII. Embroidered Altar-Fronts; Palencia Cathedral 132 XVIII. Costume of Woman of the Balearic Islands; about a.d. 1810 134 XIX. The “Genesis Tapestry”; Gerona Cathedral 138 XX. Tapiz of Crimson Velvet worked in gold tissue; Monastery of Las Huelgas, Burgos 144 XXI. “The Spinners,” by Velazquez; Prado Gallery, Madrid 148 XXII. Tapestry made at Brussels from Granada Silk 150 XXIII. “A Promenade in Andalusia”; Cartoon for Tapestry, by Goya 152 XXIV. Tapestry; Arras-Work, from Italian Cartoons; Zamora Cathedral 156 XXV. Flemish Tapestry; Collection of the late Count of Valencia de Don Juan 158 XXVI. The Marchioness of La Solana, by Goya 160 XXVII. A Spanish Maja; a.d. 1777 162 XXVIII. A Maja, by Goya 164 XXIX. A Lady of Soria; about a.d. 1810 166 XXX. Handkerchief of Catalan Lace, presented to Queen Victoria of Spain on her marriage 168 XXXI. Curtain of Spanish Lace; Point and Pillow Work, modern 170 XXXII. Point Lace Fan, of Mudejar Design, modern 172

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TEXTILE FABRICS

INTRODUCTION

Our earliest intelligence respecting textile fabrics of old Spain derives almost exclusively from Moorish sources, and shows, together with the silence of Saint Isidore, that until the subjugation of the Visigoths, the occupants of the Peninsula attached no great importance to this industry. Under the Moors, the south and east of Spain grew rapidly famous for the manufacture of all kinds of textile stuffs, and in particular those of silk. The origin of these silks, or of the most luxurious and artistic of them, may be traced to Almería. According to Al-Makkari, what made this Andalusian capital superior to all other cities of the world was her “various manufactures of silks and other dress materials, such as the dibaj, a silken fabric of many colours, surpassing, both in quality and durability, all other products made elsewhere, and also the tiraz, a costly stuff whereon are inscribed the names of sultans, princes, and other personages, and for making which there used to be no fewer than eight hundred looms. Inferior fabrics were the holol (a kind of striped silk), and brocades woven upon a thousand looms, while as many more were employed continually in making the scarlet stuffs called iskalaton. Another thousand produced the robes called al jorjani (or ‘the Georgian’), and yet another thousand the Isbahani robes, from Isfahan, and yet another thousand the robes of Atabi. The making of damask for gay-coloured curtains and turbans for the women kept busy as many persons as the articles above-mentioned.”

Edrisi, a chronicler of the twelfth century, says of the same capital that she was the principal city belonging to the Moors in the time of the Moravides. In fact, she was then a great and prosperous industrial centre, possessing, together with other kinds of looms, eight hundred which produced the fabrics known as holla, debady, siglaton, espahani, and