Flanders and Italy together dispute the invention of lace. In many towns of the Low Countries are pictures of the fifteenth century, in which are portrayed personages adorned with lace,[317] and Baron Reiffenberg, a Belgian writer, asserts that lace cornettes, or caps, were worn in that country as early as the fourteenth century. As evidence for the early origin of pillow-lace in the Low Countries, Baron Reiffenberg mentions an altar-piece, attributed to Quentin Matsys (in a side chapel of the choir of St. Peter's, at Louvain), in which a girl is represented making lace with bobbins on a pillow with a drawer, similar to that now in use.[318] There exists a series of engravings after Martin de Vos (1580-85), giving the occupations of the seven ages of life: in the third,[319] assigned to _âge mûr_, is seen a girl, sitting with a pillow on her knees, making lace (Fig. 50). The occupation must have been then common, or the artist would scarcely have chosen it to characterise the habits of his country. Of the two paintings attributed to Matsys--that in St. Peter's, at Louvain, and that in Lierre, only the former is now assigned to the artist. Both pictures are said to be of the end of the fifteenth century or beginning of the sixteenth. {110}[Illustration: Fig. 50. LACE-MAKING.--(After Martin de Vos.)] The triptych at Louvain is reproduced and described in detail by Van Even in his work, _Louvain dans le passé et dans le présent_;[320] it consists of five panels, the centre panel representing "La famille de Sainte Anne"; but among all the figures none, however, appear to be engaged in making lace or, indeed, in any form of needlework. PLATE XXXVI. [Illustration: FLEMISH. PORTION OF BED COVER, BOBBIN-MADE.--First half of seventeenth century. This is said to have belonged to Philip IV. of Spain. Above the Austrian eagle and crown is the collar of the Golden Fleece. The workmanship is of great skill. Victoria and Albert Museum.] _To face page 110._ {111}It has been suggested that the "Lace-maker making lace with bobbins on a pillow with a drawer" (alluded to by Baron Reiffenberg) in the triptych is taken from the above-mentioned engravings by Nicholas de Bruyel and Assuerus van Londonzeel, after the drawings of Martin de Vos. The historian of the Duke of Burgundy[321] declares Charles the Bold to have lost his _dentelles_ at the battle of Granson, 1476; he does not state his authority. Probably they were gold or silver, for no other exist among his relics. In Vecellio's _Corona_ of 1593 and 1596 are two designs of geometrical lace--"ponto fiamengho" and "Manegetti di ponto Fiamengo," point de Flandre. In 1651, Jacob v. Eyck, a Flemish poet, sang the praises of lace-making in Latin verse. "Of many arts one surpasses all; the threads woven by the strange power of the hand, threads which the dropping spider would in vain attempt to imitate, and which Pallas would confess she had never known;" and a deal more in the same style.[322]