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Lot Essay
Ovid's Metamorphoses experienced a renewed interest with its translation by Renouard, which was richly illustrated and first printed in 1619. Simon Vouet (d. 1649) very successfully took up this theme and designed eight panels for this series, which shortly after was extended by two further panels, including the design of the offered lot. The Royal Gobelins workshops sometimes combined scenes by differing artists to enlarge sets which further confuses the history of this series. The first mention of these tapestries is in 1635 in the workshop of the Paris weavers Charles de Comans and Alexandre de Comans. Alexandre also led the workshop in Amiens, apart from working in the Comans center in the faubourg Saint-Marcel.
This series is relatively rare with probably only six woven sets, but a tapestry of identical design with differing borders is at the hôtel de Sully while another was sold anonymously at Drouot, Paris, 7-8 December 1936, lot 277 (Denis, op. cit, p. 180).
This series is relatively rare with probably only six woven sets, but a tapestry of identical design with differing borders is at the hôtel de Sully while another was sold anonymously at Drouot, Paris, 7-8 December 1936, lot 277 (Denis, op. cit, p. 180).