Lot Essay
HISTORY OF THE SERIES
Charles LeBrun (d. 1690) submitted the complete designs for this highly successful series depicting The Battles and The Triumphs of Alexander the Great to the Gobelins workshops between 1660 and 1673. The set consisted of five main panels, but the three battle scenes were of such proportions that the designs of each of these were divided into three separate panels, thus making a total of eleven subjects. This particular tapestry forms the middle section of The Defeat of Porus.
The set was extensively copied in Brussels and Aubusson from engravings made before 1679 by Gerard Edelinck. Two unsigned Brussels versions are at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (E. Standen, Post-Mediaeval Tapestries and Related Hangings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985, vol. I, pp. 233 - 235, cat. 37), while further Brussels versions of this series by the weavers Jacob and Pieter van den Hecke, Geraert Peemans, Frans van der Borght, and Jodocus and Marcus de Vos are recorded.
Charles LeBrun (d. 1690) submitted the complete designs for this highly successful series depicting The Battles and The Triumphs of Alexander the Great to the Gobelins workshops between 1660 and 1673. The set consisted of five main panels, but the three battle scenes were of such proportions that the designs of each of these were divided into three separate panels, thus making a total of eleven subjects. This particular tapestry forms the middle section of The Defeat of Porus.
The set was extensively copied in Brussels and Aubusson from engravings made before 1679 by Gerard Edelinck. Two unsigned Brussels versions are at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (E. Standen, Post-Mediaeval Tapestries and Related Hangings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985, vol. I, pp. 233 - 235, cat. 37), while further Brussels versions of this series by the weavers Jacob and Pieter van den Hecke, Geraert Peemans, Frans van der Borght, and Jodocus and Marcus de Vos are recorded.