The royal palaces of Spain and many of her noble houses have possessed, from about the fifteenth century, splendid collections of the costliest tapestries, consisting principally of _paños de Ras_, or "Arras cloths" (as they were called among the Spaniards, and especially in Aragon). Until a later period all, or very nearly all, these objects were imported from the Flemish workshops.[42] At the palace of a nobleman in Madrid, Bertaut de Rouen observed "les plus belles tapisseries du monde." The same author tells us that in the seventeenth century, when he visited Spain and wrote his entertaining _Journal_, it was customary for the walls of the royal palace to be hung with tapestry in winter, these hangings being removed for greater coolness in the summer months. In reading descriptions of Spanish life referring to the same period, one is struck by the craze which prevailed among the Spaniards for displaying tapestries and other gay-coloured fabrics in all kinds of places and on every possible occasion. Thus, Bertaut de Rouen relates that when he saw a play performed in the Alcázar, "le long de ces deux costez de la salle estoient seulement deux grands bancs couverts de tapis de Perse"; that the boxes at the bull-fights, both at Madrid and in the country, were "tapissées de brocatelle de soye"; and that the lower part of the dome in one of the chapels of Seville cathedral was decorated with the same material. At the haunted castle of Quebaro, on the road from Galareta to Vitoria, Countess d'Aulnoy saw upon the walls of a large chamber, some tapestries representing the amours of Don Pedro the Cruel and of Doña María de Padilla. "This lady was depicted seated, like a queen, among various other ladies, while the king crowned her with a chaplet of flowers. Elsewhere Doña María was reposing in a forest, as the king offered her a falcon. I also saw her dressed as a warrior while the king, in armour, offered her a sword. This set me thinking whether she had ever accompanied Don Pedro in one of his campaigns. All the figures in these tapestries were badly drawn, but Don Fernando assured me that all well-executed likenesses of Doña María de Padilla represented her to be a woman of rare charm, the loveliest of her century." [42] "A côté de l'Italie, il faut citer l'Espagne, tributaire comme elle des ateliers flamands. Les résidences royales regorgeaient de ces précieux tissus, qui aujourd'hui encore, à Madrid ou à l'Escurial, se chiffrent par centaines. Parmi les présents que le roi de Castille envoya à Tamerlan ([dagger] 1405), on remarquait des tapisseries dont les portraits étaient faits avec tant de délicatesse, dit un chroniqueur persan, que si on voulait leur comparer les ouvrages merveilleux autrefois exécutés par le peintre Mani sur la toile d'Artène, Mani serait couvert de honte et ses ouvrages paraîtraient difformes."--Müntz, _La Tapisserie_, p. 172.