Riaño says: "I do not find any information of a later date which suggests the existence of the manufacture of tapestries in Spain during the Middle Ages." Davillier, however, affirms that in the year 1411 two master-makers of tapestry were living at the court of the King of Navarre, and that other craftsmen, holding the same title, were established at Barcelona in 1391 and 1433. This notice is accepted by Müntz: "A la fin du XIV^e et au commencement du XV^e siècle, les Espagnols tentèrent de fonder dans leur patrie quelques ateliers de haute lisse. A Barcelone, en 1391 et en 1433, plusieurs tapissiers (_maestros de tapices_) firent partie du grand Conseil. Mais ces tentaves ne semblent pas avoir eu de résultats durables. Il était plus commode de recourir aux manufactures flamandes, si merveilleusement organisées. Peut-être même ce système était-il plus économique. Ne voyons-nous pas aujourd'hui jusqu'à l'extrême Orient tirer, pour raison d'économie, des fabriques de Manchester et de Birmingham les tissus courants dont il a besoin?" The history of tapestry-making at Madrid may be said to date from the establishment in this town of a small factory by Pedro Gutierrez, whose petition to Philip the Second I have already quoted, and who received protection both from that monarch and from the queen, Doña Ana. In 1625 Gutierrez was succeeded by Antonio Ceron, who formally styled himself "tapicero de nuevo, sucesor de Pedro Gutierrez" ("maker of new tapestries, successor to Pedro Gutierrez"), and petitioned the king for the grant of a meal a day, "in recompense of having taught his trade to eight lads, and of having mounted eight looms in (the factory of) Santa Isabel." This factory of Santa Isabel was so called from the street in which it lay, and part of it is represented in the celebrated painting by Velazquez called _Las Hilanderas_ ("The Spinners," not, as it is translated in Riaño's handbook, "The Weavers." Plate xxi.). This factory was unsuccessful, and declined by degrees until it ceased completely, in spite of the efforts made to revive it in 1694 by a Belgian named Metler, and in 1707 by a Salamanquino, Nicholas Hernández. [Illustration: XXII TAPESTRY MADE AT BRUSSELS FROM GRANADA SILK (_16th Century. Spanish Crown Collection_)] A new tapestry-factory--that of Santa Barbara--was founded shortly afterwards in a building known as the Casa del Abreviador. The first director, engaged in 1720 by order of Philip the Fifth, was Jacob Van der Goten, a native of Antwerp,[47] who died in 1724, and was succeeded at the factory by his sons, Francisco, Jacobo, Cornelius, and Adrian. These craftsmen worked with _basse lisse_ looms till 1729, in which year a _haute lisse_ loom was mounted by a Frenchman, Antoine Lenger.