n celebrated men were trained.

It may easily have been that Louis XIV discovered on that day at Vaux
the excellence of Lebrun whom he made director at the Gobelins in
Paris when they were but newly formed. Foucquet, wasting in prison,
had many hours in which to think on this and on the advancement of the
very man who had been keenest in running him to cover, the great
Colbert. It was well for France, it was well for the artistic industry
whose history occupies our attention, that these things happened; but
we, nevertheless, feel a weakness towards the man of genius and energy
caged and fretted by prison bars, for he had shown initiative and
daring, qualities of which the world has ever need.

Foucquet's factory lasted three years. It was directed by Louis
Blamard or Blammaert of Oudenarde, and employed a weaver named Jean
Zegre, who came from the works at Enghien, works sufficiently known to
be remarked. Lebrun composed here and fell under the influence of
Rubens, an influence that pervaded the grandiose art of the day. The
earliest works of Lebrun, three pieces, were later used to complete a
set of Rubens' _History of Constantine_. _The Muses_ was a set by
Lebrun, also composed for the Chateau of Vaux. The charm of this set
is a matter for admiration even now when, alas, all is destroyed but a
few fragments.

The disgrace of Foucquet was the last determining cause of the
establishment of the Gobelins factory under Louis XIV, an act which
after this brief review of Paris factories (and an allusion to
sporadic cases outside of Paris) we are in position at last to
consider. Pursuit of knowledge in regard to the Gobelins factory leads
us through ways the most flowery and ways the most stormy, through
sunshine and through the dark, right up to our own times.

[Illustration: GOBELINS TAPESTRY, AFTER LEBRUN, EPOCH LOUIS XIV

Collection of Wm. Baumgarten, Esq., New York]

[Illustration: THE VILLAGE FETE

Gobelins Tapestry after Teniers]

FOOTNOTES:

[14] For the facts here cited see E. Muentz, "Histoire de la
Tapisserie," and Jules Guiffrey, "Les Gobelins."

[15] See Loriquet, "Les Tapisseries de Notre Dame de Rheims."

CHAPTER X

THE GOBELINS FACTORY, 1662

Colbert saw the wisdom of taking direction for the king, Louis XIV, of
the looms of Foucquet's chateau. Travel being difficult enough to make
desirable the concentration of points of interest, Colbert transferred
the looms of Vaux to