One panel from a series of Mortlake tapestries of Playing Boys, showing young children playing in oak trees supporting vines. In the background a river landscape with castle. Border in the form of a gilded frame with medallions. One of four panels from this series in the Royal Collection. This was an enormously popular subject, starting with the set woven with gold and silver in Brussels for Pope Leo X in 1523. DIfferent versions were produced in many centres. Even at Mortlake different series were woven, one designed by Cleyn. The Holyrood set, however, has picture frame borders similar to the Sheldon tapestry maps, woven at Barcheston, that flourished before the foundation of Mortlake by Charles I. It is probably that they were woven by weavers who came from Barcheston, and that the cartoons may have been bought in Brussels, as similar panels occur in the set in the Spanish Royal Collection at Madrid woven by Pannemaker in Brussels. Other panels from these cartoons are at Castle Peles, Sinaia, Romania. They had new borders applied when they were bought in Germany around 1910. Other sets of Playing Boys are at Boughton, Burleigh, and Belvoir. Guilio Romano is credited with the cartoons, chiefly on account of his decoration of the rooms at the Palazzo del Te, Mantua.