SECOND HALF OF 16TH CENTURY, POSSIBLY FLEMISH

Details

A MARCHE DISTRICT FEUILLES DE CHOUX TAPESTRY
Second half of 16th Century, possibly Flemish
Woven in wool and silks, with a hunter in the foreground flanked by an eagle on top of a wolf, the central part with an enclosed garden surrounded by a balustrade with various birds, butterflies and beasts, the background a with mountainous landscape with various towns and a shepherd with his sheep to the right, with later blue and beige outer slip, reduced in size, small areas of reweaving throughout including the blue of the right peacock and the left butterfly and bird, lower part of balustrade on left hand side possibly rewoven
7 ft. 2 in. (218 cm.) high x 9 ft. 6 in. (114 cm.) wide

Special notice

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Lot Essay

This tapestry is most closely related to works that have recently been attributed to the Marche District (Aubusson and Felletin) in France (D. and P. Chevalier and P.-F. Bertrand, Les Tapisseries d'Aubusson et de Felletin, Lausanne, 1988, pp. 26 - 27). This attribution is based on a document recording an order from the marchant-fabricant Guillaume Gommy of Aubusson for a verdure tapestry including birds, a lion and a unicorn that is dated 1538. Further, there is a set of ten tapestries at château de la Trémolière in Anglards-de-Salers (Cantal) that can be attributed to Marche and that depict animals in related large leaf foliage. They bear the arms of Gui III de Montclar and Renée de Chalus d'Orcival who married in 1586 (Idem, p. 26).

A tapestry of very similar character that depicts a similar griffin between balustrades and similarly outlined figures before a large leaf verdure background is illustrated in V. and C. Sternberg, Exhibition of Important Tapestries 1480 - 1780, London, 1965, cat. 10.

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