.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
THE SERIES
The offered lot belongs to a series that is first recorded in correspondence between the 5th Earl of Exeter and his upholsterer for Burghley House, Lincolnshire, discussing the purchase of tapestries from Jean Jans in 1680 and 1681. The original seven subjects were later expanded by a further fifteen panels, known as petite tenture, that were in part based on paintings paid for between 1704 and 1706 by such artists as Jean-Baptiste de Fontenay, Louis de Boulogne, Nicolas Bertin (d.1736), Antoine Coypel and Charles de la Fosse. In the early years these tapestries appear to only have been woven for private patrons. Gobelins records the first official weaving for Louis XIV in 1714. The cartoons for the series are last mentioned in 1736 as ruined. It can thus be assumed that the series was woven between 1680 and 1736, while this particular tapestry belonging to the petite tenture would have been woven sometime between 1704 and 1736.
SUBJECT
This tapestry depicts the story of Jupiter and Io from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Io, the daughter of the first King of Argos, was seduced by Jupiter. His wife Juno, however, found out. To save her from Juno's anger Jupiter transformed Io into a white heifer, but Juno asked for it as a gift. She entrusted the heifer to the hundred-eyed giant Argus but Jupiter sent Mercury to rescue Io. Mercury lulled Argus to sleep and cut off his head. Juno set the hundred eyes of Argus in the tail of a peacock.
RELATED TAPESTRIES
A tapestry of identical design and with borders was sold anonymously, Sotheby's, New York, 23 May 2003, lot 94.
(E. Standen, 'Ovid's Metamorphoses: A Gobelins Tapestry Series', Metropolitan Museum Journal, 1988, pp. 149 - 191)
The offered lot belongs to a series that is first recorded in correspondence between the 5th Earl of Exeter and his upholsterer for Burghley House, Lincolnshire, discussing the purchase of tapestries from Jean Jans in 1680 and 1681. The original seven subjects were later expanded by a further fifteen panels, known as petite tenture, that were in part based on paintings paid for between 1704 and 1706 by such artists as Jean-Baptiste de Fontenay, Louis de Boulogne, Nicolas Bertin (d.1736), Antoine Coypel and Charles de la Fosse. In the early years these tapestries appear to only have been woven for private patrons. Gobelins records the first official weaving for Louis XIV in 1714. The cartoons for the series are last mentioned in 1736 as ruined. It can thus be assumed that the series was woven between 1680 and 1736, while this particular tapestry belonging to the petite tenture would have been woven sometime between 1704 and 1736.
SUBJECT
This tapestry depicts the story of Jupiter and Io from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Io, the daughter of the first King of Argos, was seduced by Jupiter. His wife Juno, however, found out. To save her from Juno's anger Jupiter transformed Io into a white heifer, but Juno asked for it as a gift. She entrusted the heifer to the hundred-eyed giant Argus but Jupiter sent Mercury to rescue Io. Mercury lulled Argus to sleep and cut off his head. Juno set the hundred eyes of Argus in the tail of a peacock.
RELATED TAPESTRIES
A tapestry of identical design and with borders was sold anonymously, Sotheby's, New York, 23 May 2003, lot 94.
(E. Standen, 'Ovid's Metamorphoses: A Gobelins Tapestry Series', Metropolitan Museum Journal, 1988, pp. 149 - 191)