A BRUSSELS BIBLICAL TAPESTRY FRAGMENT

SECOND HALF 16TH CENTURY

Details

A BRUSSELS BIBLICAL TAPESTRY FRAGMENT
Second half 16th Century
Woven in wools and silks and depicting the Last Supper, with Jesus shown surrounded by his disciples seated at a banqueting table, blessing the wine and bread and with Judas clutching the purse of 30 silver coins the foreground, in an extensive marble atrium with columns standing upon arabesque and griffin-headed pedestals and with three further Elders beyond, the foreground woven with a greyhound, a ewer and pitcher standing on a marble floor and with flowers around, within a later mustard border and associated acanthus and bead-and-reel outer border on a red ground, in a later yellow outer slip
71in. x 123¼in. (180cm. x 313.5cm.)

Lot Essay

The greyhound is closely related to that in Albrecht Dürer's engraving of the Vision of St. Eustace of circa 1500-02. A related greyhound, together with the distinctive marbleised areas and Mannerist vases featured on a Brussels Biblical tapestry woven by the unidentified weaver IFC and depicting the Passover (Anonymous sale, Christie's London, 15 December 1994, lot 304).

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