  The counting of alternating tangles in terms of their crossing number, number
of external legs and connected components is presented here in a unified
framework using quantum field-theoretic methods applied to a matrix model of
colored links. The overcounting related to topological equivalence of diagrams
is removed by means of a renormalization scheme of the matrix model; the
corresponding ``renormalization equations'' are derived. Some particular cases
are studied in detail and solved exactly.
