A BRUSSELS BAROQUE HISTORICAL TAPESTRY

Details

A BRUSSELS BAROQUE HISTORICAL TAPESTRY
SECOND QUARTER 17TH CENTURY

Depicting a scene from the Story of Scipio with Masimiss kneeling and swearing his allegiance before the King who sits under a baldaquin within a landscape, the borders woven with fruit and bold scrolling alternating with cartouches, the upper border inscribed 'MASINISSA SCIPIONV OBSEQUIVM ADIURATUR' within a cartouche, within later guard borders, extensively rewoven
14ft. 10in. x 13ft. (4m. 52cm. x 3m. 96cm.)

Further details

This lot may be exempt from sales tax, as set forth in the Sales Tax Notice at the front of the catalogue.

Lot Essay

The story of Scipio, the Roman general whose campaigns against the Carthaginians in North Africa brought the Second Punic War to a close, was popular during the Renaissance due to Petrarch's epic poem Africa. The most famous tapestry series of this series was woven in Brussels in 1532 for François I after cartoons by Giulio Romano. This series was burnt in 1797 for the gold threads. Other versions were woven in Brussels and copied at the Gobelins (see Jules Romain, L'Histoire de Scipion: tapisseries et dessins, Paris, 1978, for a complete discussion).