succeeded in spoiling the historical aspect of the New Testament for
many an imaginative Sunday-school attendant by giving us Bible folk in
swarthy undress, in lunatic beards and in unwearable drapings. These
terrible persons, descendants of Raphael's art, can never stir a human
sympathy.

Just here a word must be said of the workmen, the weavers of Brussels.
For them certain fixed rules were made, but also they were allowed
much liberty in execution. The artist might draw the big cartoons and
thus become the governing influence, but much of the choice of colour
and thread was left to the weaver. This made of him a more important
factor in the composition than a mere artisan; he was, in fact, an
artist, must needs be, to execute a work of such sublimity as the
Raphael set.

And as a weaver, his patience was without limit. Thread by thread, the
warp was set, and thread by thread the woof was woven and coerced into
place by the relentless comb of the weaver. Perhaps a man might make a
square foot, by a week of close application; but "how much" mattered
nothing--it was "how well" that counted. Haste is disassociable from
labour of our day; we might produce--or reproduce--tapestries as good
as the old, but some one is in haste for the hanging, and excellency
goes by the board. The weaver of those days of perfection was content
to be a weaver, felt his ambition gratified if his work was good.

[Illustration: EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF CAESAR

Flemish Tapestry. Sixteenth Century. Gallery of the Arazzi,
Florence]

[Illustration: WILD BOAR HUNT

Flemish Cartoon and Weaving, Sixteenth Century. Gallery of the
Arazzi, Florence]

Peter van Aelst was the master chosen to execute the Raphael
tapestries, and the pieces were finished in three or four years. Those
who think present-day prices high, should think on the fact that Pope
Leo X paid $130,000 for the execution of the tapestries, which in
1515 counted for more than now. Raphael received $1,000 each for the
cartoons, almost all of which are now guarded in England. The
tapestries after a varied history are resting safely in the Vatican, a
wonder to the visitor.

When Van Aelst had finished his magnificent work, the tapestries were
sent to Rome. Those who go now to the Sistine Chapel to gaze upon
Michael Angelo's painted ceiling, and the panelled sidewalls of
Botticelli and other cotemporary artists, are more than intoxicated
with the feast. But fan