Lot Essay
Louis XIV commissioned approximately one hundred and twenty-one large Savonnerie carpets during the 1660s as part of the major rebuilding project for the Palais de Louvre. The thirteen carpets woven for the Galerie d'Apollon served as a trial run for the group of ninety-three ordered for the Long Gallery. Altogether one hundred and two tapestries were woven for the Long Gallery, called the Galerie du bord de l'eau, which ran from the Salon next to the Galerie d'Apollon down to the Pavillon de Flore adjoining the Tuileries Palace. The extra nine tapestries included presents given by the king and some further replacements. The tapestries were probably executed after designs by Le Vau and Le Brun between 1670 and 1689.
The dimensions of this tapestry and the presence of the lion's paws each side indicate that it is the central section of a much larger tapestry. There are two possible carpets woven for the Long Gallery listed in the 1775 Royal Inventory under Nos. 151 and 155, each of which is recorded as having an octagonal central section, heads of Hercules and lion-masks. These are the tenth and fourteenth carpet as listed by Pierre Verlet in The James A. de Rothschild Collection, The Savonnerie, Fribourg, 1982, appendix A, pages 475-496. These were stored in the Garde-Meuble de la couronne at the time of the Revolution and delivered in An V (1797) to Raymond Bourdillon, a supplier of food to the Army, who presumably onsold them. One of the two was formerly in the Grand Hall, Mentmore Towers, and is illustrated Mentmore, privately printed catalogue, 1884, vol. I, p. 19. On this carpet identical lion-paw feet can be seen extending from under the head of Hercules. However, Verlet's description states that the ground colour for these two carpets was a faded rose pink. It is possible that the ground colour was incorrectly recorded and that this carpet was woven for the Long Gallery. It certainly does not match the description given for any of the other carpets in this commission. It is however also possible that it may have been woven as a gift or replacement and be unrecorded
The dimensions of this tapestry and the presence of the lion's paws each side indicate that it is the central section of a much larger tapestry. There are two possible carpets woven for the Long Gallery listed in the 1775 Royal Inventory under Nos. 151 and 155, each of which is recorded as having an octagonal central section, heads of Hercules and lion-masks. These are the tenth and fourteenth carpet as listed by Pierre Verlet in The James A. de Rothschild Collection, The Savonnerie, Fribourg, 1982, appendix A, pages 475-496. These were stored in the Garde-Meuble de la couronne at the time of the Revolution and delivered in An V (1797) to Raymond Bourdillon, a supplier of food to the Army, who presumably onsold them. One of the two was formerly in the Grand Hall, Mentmore Towers, and is illustrated Mentmore, privately printed catalogue, 1884, vol. I, p. 19. On this carpet identical lion-paw feet can be seen extending from under the head of Hercules. However, Verlet's description states that the ground colour for these two carpets was a faded rose pink. It is possible that the ground colour was incorrectly recorded and that this carpet was woven for the Long Gallery. It certainly does not match the description given for any of the other carpets in this commission. It is however also possible that it may have been woven as a gift or replacement and be unrecorded