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Lot Essay
This tapestry is based on the Portières des Renommées originally designed by Charles Le Brun (d. 1690) while working for Nicolas Fouquet (d. 1680) and running his private tapestry workshop at Maincy. The tapestries were first woven at Maincy, which mainly supplied tapestries to the finance minister's château de Vaux-le-Vicomte. After Fouquet's fall from power in September 1661, the workshop was moved to the hôtel des Gobelins under Jean-Baptiste Colbert (d. 1683). Louis XIV approved the weaving of the Portières while Colbert also had them woven for himself with his emblem of a snake in the central cartouche.
The design of the offered lot re-employs the framing device of Le Brun, while incorporating the grotesques popularized by Jean Bérain and adopted into tapestry designs in the late 17th and early 18th century at Beauvais and Gobelins. Weavers at Gobelins occasionally wove tapestries for private patrons, particularly when Royal Commissions ceased due to financial difficulties between 1693 and 1699.
The design of the offered lot re-employs the framing device of Le Brun, while incorporating the grotesques popularized by Jean Bérain and adopted into tapestry designs in the late 17th and early 18th century at Beauvais and Gobelins. Weavers at Gobelins occasionally wove tapestries for private patrons, particularly when Royal Commissions ceased due to financial difficulties between 1693 and 1699.