[47] The royal contract with the elder Van der Goten, dated July 30th, 1720, was the result of secret negotiations, and largely brought about by the influence of Philip's minister, Cardinal Alberoni. In 1730, when the court removed to Seville, a tapestry-factory was established at this city also. The director was Jacob Van der Goten the younger, assisted by the painter Procaccini. At the end of three years this factory closed its doors, and Van der Goten and Procaccini, returning to Madrid, established themselves at the old factory of Santa Isabel, from which, in 1744, they again removed to the factory of Santa Barbara.[48] [48] "On Saturday, May 27th, passing through the gate of Saint Barbara, I visited the tapestry manufactory, which resembles, and equals in beauty, the Gobelins, whence it originally came. I found a Frenchman at the head of it, who was civil and communicative. This fabric was brought into Spain, and established here under the direction of John de Van Dergoten, from Antwerp, in the year 1720. They now employ fourscore hands, and work only on the king's account, and for his palaces, making and repairing all the tapestry and carpets which are wanted at any of the _Sitios_, or royal residences."--Townsend, in 1786. "The elegant manufacture of tapestry is carried on without Saint Barbe's gate, at the entrance of the promenade of Los Altos, or Chamberi; it was established in 1720 by Philip the Fifth, at whose invitation John Dergoten, of Antwerp, was induced to undertake its superintendence, an office at present filled by his descendants. The productions of this manufactory are carpets and tapestry, the subjects of which are often drawn from fable or history; it sometimes copies pictures executed by superior artists, and affords daily employment to eighty persons, including dyers, drawers, designers, and all its various branches."--Laborde (about 1800). In 1774, when, with the exception of Cornelius, who was considered the most skilful of them all, the family of the Van der Gotens had died out, the direction of the Santa Barbara factory was entrusted to several Spanish artists, named Manuel Sanchez, Antonio Moreno, Tomás del Castillo, and Domingo Galan. Sanchez, who acted as general superintendent of the works, died in 1786, and was succeeded in this office by his nephew, Livinio Stuck, whose son resumed the directorship in 1815, after the factory had been paralysed by the invasion of the Peninsula, and destroyed by the French in 1808. Since then it has never ceased working, and descendants of the Stucks continue to superintend it at the present day. [Illustration: XXIII A PROMENADE IN ANDALUSIA (_Cartoon for Tapestry. By Goya_)]