FIRST HALF 17TH CENTURY, AFTER KAREL VAN MANDER II

Karel van Mander II first appears as a tapestry designer in the Spiering workshop in Delft in 1607, but after a conflict with Spiering, he left in 1616 and established his own atelier. Despite obtaining a major commission for 26 tapestries for Christian IV of Denmark, his firm was economically not successful. On his sudden death in 1623 the workshop was closed and the complete inventory given to Aert Spiering. Among the recorded works in the workshop at that point were three tapestries from this series. Six examples signed by him remain today in the Herron Museum of Art, Indianapolis, and another five in the Spanish Royal Collection (P.Junquera de Vega and C.Diaz Gallegos, Catalogo de Tapices del Patrimonio Nacional Madrid, 1986, vol.II, pp. 104 - 109). It is, however, probable that the series was also executed in other workshops as there are variations in the border solutions and the quality of weaving in such examples as the six in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antigua, Lisbon and the example in the collection of the Duques de Beaganca, Villa vicosa, Lisbon (M.jose de mendonca, inventario de Tapicerias Existentes em Museus e Palacios Nacionais, Lisbon, 1983, pp. 49 - 56 and 217 respectively).

(D.Heinz, Europaische Tapisseriekunst des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, Vienna, 1995, p.105)