A BRUSSELS TAPESTRY from the workshop of Johann van Tiegen, woven in wools and silks, depicting Jacob at the well, he and three other figures raising the lid of the well, the background with shepherds and shepherdesses with sheep, goats and camels in a hilly landscape, the foreground with Jacob and Rebecca, the borders woven with classical vignettes including Jupiter and Juno flanked by flower-vases and herms, with dark blue outer border, with weaver's mark, 16th Century, reduced in size, lacking border and part of composition on one side and part of border lacking to top left corner, restorations

Details
A BRUSSELS TAPESTRY from the workshop of Johann van Tiegen, woven in wools and silks, depicting Jacob at the well, he and three other figures raising the lid of the well, the background with shepherds and shepherdesses with sheep, goats and camels in a hilly landscape, the foreground with Jacob and Rebecca, the borders woven with classical vignettes including Jupiter and Juno flanked by flower-vases and herms, with dark blue outer border, with weaver's mark, 16th Century, reduced in size, lacking border and part of composition on one side and part of border lacking to top left corner, restorations
123in. x 110in. (312.5cm. x 279.5cm.)

Lot Essay

Johann van Tiegen is recorded in the mid-16th century (see: H. Göbel, Tapestries of the Lowlands, New York, 1924, Glossary p.4)
This tapestry, which shows various scenes leading up to Jacob kissing Rachel and being moved to tears, is very close to a set of tapestries relating the story of Jacob in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated E. Standen, European Post-Medieval Tapestries and Related Hangings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985, Vol I, pp.137-150. Edith Standen mentions another set of the same subject with identical borders to this lot, one of which, belonging to the Galerie Ostler, Munich, was advertised in Apollo June 1974 issue, p.11. This was said to have been woven by Jan van Tieghem in 1562. This maker, whose mark also appears on the Metropolitan Museum series is probably the Johann van Tiegen listed by H. Göbel, op.cit., p.4

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