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Lot Essay
David, the shepherd boy who became King of Israel, was in exile in the Judean desert and kept himself and his band of outlaws alive with 'strong-arm' methods. One rich farmer refused to supply them and they threatened to punish him. The farmer's wife, Abigail, went out to meet David with a peace-offering of food and drink, which was graciously received. Abigail's husband, hearing of the incident the next day, died of a severe stroke, upon which Abigail married David.
Two suites of tapestries, one depicting The Story of Scipio and Hannibal and the other of an unidentified scene with a man and a woman before each other, employ very similar borders, incorporating to the lower corners the story of Susannah and the Elders (I. De Meüter, M. Vanwelden, Tapisseries d'Audenarde du XVIe au XVIIIe Siècle , Tielt, 1999, pp. 183 and 187). The first bears the town-mark believed to be that of Audenarde and an unidentified weaver's mark. Interestingly another tapestry, depicting The Story of Julius Caesar in the collection of Dalle Rose, Venice, bears a weaver's mark of the Brussels weaver Cornelis Mattens. ( Op. cit., pp. 183 - 184) It is thus almost certain that this tapestry was also woven in Brussels or Audenarde between 1590 and 1620.
Two suites of tapestries, one depicting The Story of Scipio and Hannibal and the other of an unidentified scene with a man and a woman before each other, employ very similar borders, incorporating to the lower corners the story of Susannah and the Elders (I. De Meüter, M. Vanwelden, Tapisseries d'Audenarde du XVIe au XVIIIe Siècle , Tielt, 1999, pp. 183 and 187). The first bears the town-mark believed to be that of Audenarde and an unidentified weaver's mark. Interestingly another tapestry, depicting The Story of Julius Caesar in the collection of Dalle Rose, Venice, bears a weaver's mark of the Brussels weaver Cornelis Mattens. ( Op. cit., pp. 183 - 184) It is thus almost certain that this tapestry was also woven in Brussels or Audenarde between 1590 and 1620.