The later art of Holland was largely influenced by the Dutch conquests in the East Indies at the end of the 16th century, and the subsequent founding of the Dutch East India Company. Embroideries were among the articles produced in the East under Dutch influence for exportation to Holland. Much embroidery for ecclesiastical purposes has been executed in Belgium of late years. It follows medieval models, but is lacking in the qualities which make those of so much importance in the history of the art. There is perhaps little worthy of special notice in Italy before the beginning of the 14th century, but the embroideries produced at that time show great skill and are very beautiful. The names of two Florentine embroiderers of the 14th century--both men--have come down to us, inscribed upon their handiwork. A fine frontal for an altar, very delicately worked in gold and silver and silks of many colours, is preserved in the archaeological museum at Florence. The subject in the middle is the coronation of the Virgin; on either side is an arcade with figures of apostles and saints. The embroiderer's name is worked under the central subject: _Jacobus Cambi de Floretia me fecit MCCCXXXVIII._ The other example is in the basilica at Manresa in Spain. It also is an altar-frontal, worked in silk and gold upon an embroidered gold ground. There is a large central panel representing the Crucifixion, with nine scenes from the Gospel on each side. The embroidered inscription is as follows: _Geri Lapi rachamatore me fecit in Florentia._ It is of 14th-century work. An embroidered orphrey in the Victoria and Albert Museum belongs to the early part of the same century. It represents the Annunciation, the coronation of the Virgin and figures of apostles and saints beneath arches. In the spandrels are the orders of angels with their names in Italian. In the best period of Italian art successful painters did not disdain to design for embroidery. Francesco Squarcione (1394-1474), the founder of the Paduan school of painting, and master of Mantegna, is called in a document of the year 1423 a tailor and embroiderer (_sartor et recamator_). It is recorded that Antonio del Pollaiuolo painted cartoons which were carried out in embroidery,[9] and Pierino del Vaga, according to Vasari, did likewise. In the 16th and 17th centuries large numbers of towels and linen covers were embroidered in red, green or brown silk with borders of floral patterns, sometimes (especially in the southern provinces) combined with figure subjects and bird and animal forms (Plate IV. fig. 15). Another type of embroidery popular at the same time, both in Italy and Spain, is known as appliqué (or applied) work. The pattern is cut out and applied to a bright-coloured ground, frequently of velvet, as in the example illustrated (Plate III. fig. 14). The later embroidery of Sicily follows that of the mainland. A remarkable coverlet, quilted and padded with