They were a substitute for real tapestries, which could not be obtained in sufficient numbers, or for which there was neither the time nor the skill to embroider them with images appropriate to the occasion. It is true that this view contradicts that of Raoul-Rouchette, who remains faithful to his marotte, which admits only paintings on wood, because they are called tabulae. (2004, Gottfried Semper, translated by Harry Francis Malgrave, Style in the technical and tectonic arts, or, Practical aesthetics, Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, page 286)