A MARCHE HUNTING TAPESTRY

17TH CENTURY

Details

A MARCHE HUNTING TAPESTRY
17th Century
Woven in wools and silks, depicting various hunters on horseback blowing horns, chasing from right, to the left a sta pursued by hounds, to the left background with further hunters on horseback and two dogs on top of a stag, the background with various small townscapes, some on hills and with trees, within a floral scrolling border with vases of flowers and a lappeted outer band, within a blue outer slip, the top centre with a coat-of-arms within a fruiting laurel wreath, losses to the outer slip to the top, the main field probably reduced in height to top and bottom, minor reweaving and patching
11 ft. x 15 ft. 8 in. (336 cm. x 478 cm.)

Lot Essay

The hunting scenes of the Marche region (Aubusson and Felletin) tapestry manufacturers were in part directly inspired by Flemish tapestries, but also copied from engravings by Giovanni Stradanus (d. 1605) and Franois Etienne Delaune (d. 1583).

A set of five tapestries with various hunting subjects, including a stag hunt, are illustrated in D. and P. Chevalier and P.-F. Bertrand, Les Tapisseries d'Aubusson et de Felletin, Lausanne, 1988, pp. 29 - 33. Another illustrating a stag hunt and with similar central coat-of-arms is illustrated in H. Gbel, Tapestries of the Lowlands, New York, 1924, fig. 454; while another similar, depicting a bear hunt, is illustrated in W.G. Thomson, A History of Tapestry, London, 1973, opposite p. 18.

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