This tapestry is from the same set as the preceding, but woven almost a century earlier, and it is interesting to contrast the changes that the change in taste has made in the feeling of the rendition and the color key. During the XVIIIth century the cartoon was refined with slight changes. The hand of the old man, for example, was modified to hold a fruit for the child. The piece probably is from the third or fourth weaving. If so, it was done on the horizontal looms in the atelier of Lefébvre, outside of the official work of the Gobelins.[30] [Sidenote: Lent by _Wildenstein & Company_.] This is one of the few really successful renditions of a snow scene in tapestry. [Sidenote: 59] BEAUVAIS, LATE XVII, EARLY XVIII CENTURY (1684-1711) [Sidenote: _Wool and Silk._ H. 9 _ft._ 8 _in._ W. 16 _ft._ 5 _in._ ] CHINESE GROTESQUE: _Under an arbor clowns conduct a circus. Above the arbor are scrolls, garlands, birds, musical instruments, and other decorations. On a yellow ground._ This is one of a famous series of grotesques by Berain on a yellow ground, woven several times at the Beauvais works when they were under the direction of Behagle.[31] The entertaining fantasy of the conception, together with the delicate drawing and the beautiful ground color, makes this one of the finest grotesques of the XVIIIth century. [Sidenote: Lent by _P. W. French & Company_.] Jean Berain (1638-1711) was appointed in 1674 designer to the king, and in this position designed the scenery and costumes for the court ballets. He is famous for his decorations. [Sidenote: 60, 61] BEAUVAIS, XVIII CENTURY [Sidenote: _Wool and Silk._ No. 60: H. 15½ _in._ W. 19 _in._ No. 61: H. 15½ _in._ W. 19 _in._ ] TWO STILL-LIFE PIECES: _In one_ (_No._ 60) _a glass_, _a napkin_, _and some vegetables on a table_. _In the other_ (_No._ 61) _various vegetables about a china dish_. These panels, after paintings by Chardin, are the only recorded examples of still-life composition in tapestry. From the middle of the XVth century household utensils and various other types of accessories were used to contribute richness of ornamentation to scenes, and during the Baroque period embossed metals and lavish carvings became especially important in creating a luxurious effect, but not until tapestry was thought of as a form of painting was a purely still-life subject attempted. All still-life designs depend so much on contrasted weights, and especially on textures, that they are particularly difficult to translate into a medium which, like tapestry, renders primarily silhouettes and which has such a decided texture of its own. But the extraordinary skill of the XVIIIth-century French weavers was equal even to that problem. The skillful care of the composition of the original paintings and the pure beauty of the colors of the tapestry make of rather unpromising subjects beautiful decorations.