There is, however, a peculiarity and character about some of the furniture of North Holland, in the town of Alkmaar, Hoorn, and others in this district, which is worth noticing. The treatment has always been more primitive and quaint than in the Flemish cities to which allusion has been made--and it was here that the old farmhouses of the Nord-Hollander were furnished with the rush-bottomed chairs, painted green; with three-legged tables, and dower chests painted in flowers and figures of a rude description; the coloring of which is chiefly green and bright red, and is extremely effective. [Illustration: A FLEMISH CITIZEN AT MEALS. (_From a XVI. Century MS._)] THE RENAISSANCE IN SPAIN. We have seen that Spain, as well as Germany and the Low Countries, was under the rule of the Emperor Charles V., and therefore it is unnecessary to look further for the sources of influence which carried the wave of Renaissance to the Spanish carvers and cabinet makers. [Illustration: SEDAN CHAIR OF CHARLES V. Probably made in the Netherlands. Arranged with movable back and uprights to form a canopy when desired. (_In the Royal Academy, Madrid._)] After Van Eyck was sent for to paint the portrait of King John's daughter, the Low Countries continued to export to the Peninsula painters, sculptors, tapestry weavers, and books on Art. French artists also found employment in Spain, and the older Gothic became superseded as in other countries. Berruguete, a Spaniard, who had studied in the atelier of Michael Angelo, returned to his own country with the new influence strong upon him, and the vast wealth and resources of Spain at this period of her history enabled her nobles to indulge their taste in cabinets, richly ornamented with repoussé plaques of silver, and later of tortoise-shell, of ebony, and of scarce woods from her Indian possessions; though in a more general way chestnut was still a favorite medium. [Illustration: SILVER TABLE, LATE 16TH OR EARLY 17TH CENTURY. (_In the King's Collection, Windsor Castle._)] Contemporaneously with decorative woodwork of Moorish design there was also a great deal of carving, and of furniture made, after designs brought from Italy and the North of Europe; and Mr. J. H. Pollen, quoting a trustworthy Spanish writer, Señor J. F. Riaño, says:--"The brilliant epoch of sculpture (in wood) belongs to the sixteenth century, and was due to the great impulse it received from the works of Berruguete and Felipe de Borgoñu. He was the chief promoter of the Italian style, and the choir of the Cathedral of Toledo, where he worked so much, is the finest specimen of the kind in Spain. Toledo, Seville, and Valladolid were at the time great productive and artistic centres."