In studying the furniture of the early Renaissance, the works of the masters of design are most important aids. Before 1500, as we have seen, publications of purely decorative design, and even of architecture as a whole, are exceedingly scarce. From the opening of the sixteenth century, however, such publications rapidly multiply. Interior decorators who used the chisel in panel and pillar, and the contemporary joiners and cabinet-makers decorated their surfaces with details and motives taken from the Italians, and from the designs of native goldsmiths, engravers, painters and architects. As we have seen, it was no uncommon thing for one individual to be an adept in all these branches. Therefore, the decorations of the designers of the early Renaissance have a special interest for us when we want to see what motives supplanted Gothic tracery, Biblical scenes and angels on carved chests, _credences_, _armoires_, beds and seats. The first decorative designers who adopted the style of the Renaissance were Alaert Claas, Lucas van Leyden and Cornelis Bos. Claas (painter and engraver) worked in Utrecht from 1520 to 1555. Lucas van Leyden (painter and engraver), whose family name was Damesz, was born in Leyden in 1494 and died in 1533. Cornelis Bos (glass painter, architect and engraver), was born in Bois-le-Duc about 1510. He worked in Rome and was famous from 1530 to 1560. Another artist and engraver who belonged to the same school of decorative art was Martin van Heemskerck (1494–1574). He worked and died in Haarlem. A mascaron with typical floral scroll-work dated 1523, the work of Lucas van Leyden, appears in Fig. 10. Another decorative composition with grotesque sirens and floral scrolls in Fig. 11, also by the same master, is dated 1528. A third and very graceful design of the same date by Lucas van Leyden is shown in Fig. 12. Decorations for panels, or other flat surfaces in wood, stone or goldsmith’s work are represented in Figs. 13 and 14 and Figs. 15 and 16; these are by Alaert Claas (or Claasen). CHAPTER IV THE RENAISSANCE: PART II Second Period of the Renaissance—Court of Mary of Hungary—Charles V a Fleming—Influence of Burgundian Court in Spain—Gilded Leather— Wealth of the Nobles in the Netherlands—Margaret of Valois at Namur—Antwerp in the Sixteenth Century—Christopher Plantin— Cornelius and James Floris—Jerome Cock—Hans and Paul de Vries— Jacques van Noye—Famous Designers—Characteristics of the Second Period of the Renaissance—Bedsteads, Tables and Chairs, Armoires, Cabinets and Chests—Porcelain, Glass and Glass Cupboards—Windows and Glass-painters—Guicciardini on the Artists of the Low Countries—Paul de Vries—Crispin de Passe the Elder—the Collaerts— Wood-carving—Music and Musical Instruments.