A BRUSSELS MYTHOLOGICAL TAPESTRY

LATE 17TH EARLY 18TH CENTURY

Details

A BRUSSELS MYTHOLOGICAL TAPESTRY
Late 17th early 18th Century
Woven in wools and silks, probably depicting Diana awakening Endymion, his bed raised on a stepped platform sheltered by a red-coloured canopy, within an extensive landscape with a classical temple to the right and a mountainous background to the left, with hunting figures in the distance, within a later blue and yellow outer slip, the main field probably reduced in size, limited areas of reweaving, with restored vertical fold to left part
8 ft. 11 in. x 11 ft. 2 in. (273 cm. x 340 cm.)

Provenance

Sold anonymously in these Rooms, 19 May 1994, lot 351.

Lot Essay

Diana, the huntress and moon goddess, is here in the unusual role of lover and has fallen for the beautiful youth Endymion. There are several variants to this story and one describes that Endymion had been sent to sleep by Jupiter in return for having been granted perpetual youth, while another explains it as a punishment by Zeus for Endymion having fallen in love with Zeus's wife, Hera. He was visited nightly by Diana who bore him 50 daugthers while he lay asleep in a cave on Mount Latmus in Caria. Another myth tells that Endymion was put to sleep by Diana herself so that she might enjoy his beauty undisturbed.

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