Lot Essay
This carpet is part of one of the thirteen carpets commissioned by Louis XIV for the Galerie d'Apollon at the Louvre. In 1661, Louis XIV and his chief minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, undertook a grand refurbishment of the Louvre to glorify the King and the French State. Part of their restoration schemes included the creation of a series of carpets of a scale and splendour hitherto unseen in French carpet weaving to adorn the Louvre's Galerie d'Apollon and the Grande Galerie. Up until this time, the majority of French pile-woven carpets were of relatively small size and outdated design produced by either the Dupont family on looms in the ateliers of the Louvre or the the Lourdet family who had established competitive workshops in a former soap factory at Chaillot. Initially, Colbert planned to commission the new carpets for the Louvre from the Ottoman weaving workshops in Cairo because it was believed that the required size of the carpets could not be produced by the fledgling carpet workshops in France. Simon Lourdet, working in conjunction with his son Philippe, proposed that he could fufill the Louvre commission on new, specially built looms. Colbert agreed to this proposition as he desired to promote domestic industries and keep crown funds in France (Sherrill, Sarah B., Carpets and Rugs of Europe and America, New York, 1996, p.69). The thirteen carpets for the Galerie d'Apollon were woven as a trial run for the larger commission of the ninety-three carpets for the Grande Galerie. Amazingly, Lourdet completed his commission for the Galerie d'Apollon carpets in less than five years and delivered the carpets to the Louvre on 7 October 1667. The significance of his accomplishment in weaving the carpets is underscored by the fact that they were not only woven quickly but that they were also of a size and, more importantly, of a style never woven before by the French workshops. The Galerie d'Apollon carpets were the first French carpets woven in the fully developed baroque style characteristic of architecture and furniture of the period.
The specific designs of the Galerie d'Apollon carpets were most likely developed under the supervision of Charles LeBrun, first painter to the King, and Louis LeVau, the architect in charge of the Louvre refurbishments (Verlet, Pierre, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, The Savonnerie, pp.181-182). There were seven different designs created for the thirteen Galerie d'Apollon carpets with six of the designs woven twice to symmetrically flank a central carpet within the gallery. The seven designs for each of the carpets are remarkably diverse in their overall design scheme considering that they were intended to lay side-by-side as a group. The cohesion of the group, however, was created by the use of shared design elements, coloration and a basic tripartite division of the design. The carpet offered here originally formed an end panel of one of the Galerie d'Apollon carpets with its current longest dimension representing the carpet's original width. Unfortunately, there is little documentation existing for the individual Galerie d'Apollon carpets and it is difficult to ascertain which carpet the present example is from. The central rosette, c-scroll brackets and acanthus sprays of the central medallion seen here can also be found on two paired Galerie d'Apollon carpets in the collection of the Musée du Louvre (see Verlet, op. cit., p. 176, fig. 109). The field surround on the two Louvre carpets also incorporate lush cornucopia but they have an architectural frame instead of the lush floral garlands of the present piece. The realistically drawn snakes seen in this example, entwined around the cornucopia, can also be found in at least two other Galerie d'Apollon carpets: in the field of a nearly complete carpet currently in a private collection (formerly in the Stavros Niarchos, J.P. Morgan and Countess Sala collections) and in a fragment of the original central Galerie d'Apollon carpet in the collecton of the Mobilier National (see Verlet, op. cit.,, p.177, fig. 110 and p.183, fig. 114). The presence of the snakes in the design of these carpets may indicate that Colbert had a close involvement in the development of this series, as well as his influence with the French Court. Serpents were a prominent device of Colbert's arms and were also used as a design element in a carpet woven for him circa 1670 (Verlet, op. cit., p.99, fig. 56).
Unfortunately, most extant French carpets from the seventeenth century exist today only as fragments. While the importance of these carpets has been appreciated since their manufacture, many examples have been cut down to fit less palatial spaces or have fallen into disrepair through neglect after their dispersal from the Royal Collections during the revolution. Of the original thirteen carpets woven for the Galerie d'Apollon, we only know for certain of three carpets that remain in or close to their original dimensions. Regardless of the fragmentary state of the current example, it is still a noble testament to the magnificence and grandeur of this remarkable group of early French carpets.
The specific designs of the Galerie d'Apollon carpets were most likely developed under the supervision of Charles LeBrun, first painter to the King, and Louis LeVau, the architect in charge of the Louvre refurbishments (Verlet, Pierre, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, The Savonnerie, pp.181-182). There were seven different designs created for the thirteen Galerie d'Apollon carpets with six of the designs woven twice to symmetrically flank a central carpet within the gallery. The seven designs for each of the carpets are remarkably diverse in their overall design scheme considering that they were intended to lay side-by-side as a group. The cohesion of the group, however, was created by the use of shared design elements, coloration and a basic tripartite division of the design. The carpet offered here originally formed an end panel of one of the Galerie d'Apollon carpets with its current longest dimension representing the carpet's original width. Unfortunately, there is little documentation existing for the individual Galerie d'Apollon carpets and it is difficult to ascertain which carpet the present example is from. The central rosette, c-scroll brackets and acanthus sprays of the central medallion seen here can also be found on two paired Galerie d'Apollon carpets in the collection of the Musée du Louvre (see Verlet, op. cit., p. 176, fig. 109). The field surround on the two Louvre carpets also incorporate lush cornucopia but they have an architectural frame instead of the lush floral garlands of the present piece. The realistically drawn snakes seen in this example, entwined around the cornucopia, can also be found in at least two other Galerie d'Apollon carpets: in the field of a nearly complete carpet currently in a private collection (formerly in the Stavros Niarchos, J.P. Morgan and Countess Sala collections) and in a fragment of the original central Galerie d'Apollon carpet in the collecton of the Mobilier National (see Verlet, op. cit.,, p.177, fig. 110 and p.183, fig. 114). The presence of the snakes in the design of these carpets may indicate that Colbert had a close involvement in the development of this series, as well as his influence with the French Court. Serpents were a prominent device of Colbert's arms and were also used as a design element in a carpet woven for him circa 1670 (Verlet, op. cit., p.99, fig. 56).
Unfortunately, most extant French carpets from the seventeenth century exist today only as fragments. While the importance of these carpets has been appreciated since their manufacture, many examples have been cut down to fit less palatial spaces or have fallen into disrepair through neglect after their dispersal from the Royal Collections during the revolution. Of the original thirteen carpets woven for the Galerie d'Apollon, we only know for certain of three carpets that remain in or close to their original dimensions. Regardless of the fragmentary state of the current example, it is still a noble testament to the magnificence and grandeur of this remarkable group of early French carpets.