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THE PROPERTY OF A SWISS COLLECTOR LOTS 127-129 & 219The following three tapestries are part of a series depicting ‘The Life and Adventures of Telemachus’.According to myth, Telemachus, the son of Ulysses, set out in search of his father when he failed to return after the Trojan war. He was accompanied by the goddess Minerva who was disguised as his old mentor. Telemachus was, as his father had been earlier, shipwrecked on the island of the goddess Calypso, who fell in love with the youth. She convinced him to stay and tell her his previous adventures. Telemachus while on the island fell, however, in love with one of her nymphs, Eucharis, and provoked the goddess' wrath. His mentor rescued him by throwing them into the sea against his will, and a passing vessel saved him (illustrated in lot 129).It is interesting to note this series was based on a preliminary and not complete version of the liberal French archbishop and theologian François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon's Les Aventures de Télémaque, which was published in 1699. This incomplete version was banned by the French court and was only re-issued as a complete version in 1717, from which van Orley and Coppens designed this tapestry series that was woven by the Leyniers workshops between 1724 and 1736 (see D. Heinz, Europäische Tapisseriekunst des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, Vienna, 1995, p. 222 and G. Delmarcel, Flemish Tapestry, Tielt, 1999, pp. 316 - 317).Jan van Orley (d. 1735) was one of the most important and talented tapestry designers of the early 18th Century in Brussels. He was an established painter by the time he joined the Brussels painter's guild in November 1709. Augustin Coppens (d. 1740), who collaborated on the set, was a highly skilled landscape painter who usually worked with history painters to produce tapestry designs and is recorded as cartoon painter as early as 1689. This series is believed to be the first set supplied in this collaboration to Jodocus de Vos and the Auwercx workshops before 1710.

A FLEMISH MYTHOLOGICAL TAPESTRY

BY URBAIN AND DANIEL LEYNIERS, BRUSSELS, SECOND QUARTER 18TH CENTURY, AFTER JAN VAN ORLEY AND AUGUSTIN COPPENS

Details

A FLEMISH MYTHOLOGICAL TAPESTRY
BY URBAIN AND DANIEL LEYNIERS, BRUSSELS, SECOND QUARTER 18TH CENTURY, AFTER JAN VAN ORLEY AND AUGUSTIN COPPENS
Woven in wools and silks, depicting 'Calypso's Supper' from 'The Story of Telemachus', with courtly-dressed figures seated at a table in a wooded landscape, with attendants serving food and wine and musicians to the side, a stranded ship beyond, lacking borders, within a later blue guard border
110 ¼ x 212 ½ in. (280 x 540 cm.)

Literature

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
G. Delmarcel, Flemish Tapestry from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century, Paris, 1999,
p. 328 (illustrated).
M. Jarry, La Tapisserie des origines a nos jours, 1968, pp. 257-259.
H. Goebel, Tapestries of the low lands, 1974.

Special notice

These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

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Lot Essay

D. Heinz (po. Cit, p. 212) indicates that Marcus or Jodocus de Vos supplied a set of eight tapestries of this series to Franz Adam von Schwarzenberg in 1712. A tapestry depicting the present subject of ‘Calypso’s Supper’ is also in the Palacio de los Borbones del Escorial, Madrid (K. Brosens, A Contextual Study of Brussels Tapestry, 1670 - 1770, Brussels, 2004, fig. 27, p. 531) and another examples was sold at Christie’s, London, 15 November 2001, lot 237.

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