ge of false gods, notwithstanding the
seriousness given to distortions of the Matisse and post-impressionist
school.

A careful copying of old tapestries--and in this case old means those
of the high periods of perfection--has led to a result from which much
may be expected. This is the enormous reduction in the number of tones
used. Gothic tapestries of stained glass effect had a restricted range
of colour. By this brief gamut the weaver made his own gradations of
colour, and the passage from light to shadow, by hatching, which was
in effect but a weaving of alternating lines of two colours, much as
an artist in pen-and-ink draws parallel lines for shading. Tapestries
thus woven resist well the attacks of light and time.

To sum up the present attitude of the Gobelins, then, is to say that
the director of to-day encourages the education of taste in the
weavers by encouraging them to copy old tapestries instead of
paintings old or new, and in a reduction of the number of the tones
employed. The talent of an artist is thus made necessary to the
tapissier, for shadings are left to him to accomplish by his own skill
instead of by recourse to the forty thousand shades that are stored on
the shelves of the store-room.

The manufactory at Beauvais, being also under the State, is associated
with the greater factory in the glance at modern conditions. Both
factories weave primarily for the State. Both factories keep alive an
ancient industry, and both have permission to sell their precious
wares to the private client. That such sales are rarely made is due to
the indifference of the State, which stipulates that its own work
shall have first place on the looms, that only when a loom is idle may
it be used for a private patron. The length of time, therefore, that
must elapse before an order is executed--two or three years,
perhaps--is a tiresome condition that very few will accept.

[Illustration: THE ADORATION

Merton Abbey Tapestry. Figures by Burne-Jones]

[Illustration: DAVID INSTRUCTING SOLOMON IN THE BUILDING OF THE
TEMPLE

Merton Abbey Tapestry. Burne-Jones, Artist]

Beauvais, with its low-warp looms, is more celebrated for its small
pieces of work than for large hangings. The tendency toward the latter
ended some time ago, and in our time Beauvais makes mainly those
exquisite coverings for seats and screens that give the beholder a
thrill of artistic joy and a determination to possess something