拍品專文
The Marillier Catalogue (Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Textiles) contains several similar Flemish examples dating from circa 1500 with sumptuously dressed courtly figures within various borders of fruiting foliage.
It is most likely that this is an allegorical betrothal scene as there are neither priests nor lawyers as in most versions, including the somewhat earlier example in the Burrell Collection, celebrating the marriage of Maximilian and Mary of Burgundy in 1478. Perhaps the central female figure represents Fortuna and bears tokens of royalty and wealth in her left hand.
An early 16th century Flemish panel in the A. Clement Bayard sale, Paris, 22 June, 1937, with a partriarch blessing a knight, has an attendant with an identical robe to that worn by the courtier on the left side of this tapestry. Another example noted by Marillier as being Brussels, circa 1500, has an almost identical black cloth and central figures clad very similarly to the allegorical lady depicted here.
The most sumptuous betrothal of this period, celebrated in three panels of Brussels tapestry, was that of Philibert le Beau, Duke of Savoy to Margaret of Austria, in 1501.
It is most likely that this is an allegorical betrothal scene as there are neither priests nor lawyers as in most versions, including the somewhat earlier example in the Burrell Collection, celebrating the marriage of Maximilian and Mary of Burgundy in 1478. Perhaps the central female figure represents Fortuna and bears tokens of royalty and wealth in her left hand.
An early 16th century Flemish panel in the A. Clement Bayard sale, Paris, 22 June, 1937, with a partriarch blessing a knight, has an attendant with an identical robe to that worn by the courtier on the left side of this tapestry. Another example noted by Marillier as being Brussels, circa 1500, has an almost identical black cloth and central figures clad very similarly to the allegorical lady depicted here.
The most sumptuous betrothal of this period, celebrated in three panels of Brussels tapestry, was that of Philibert le Beau, Duke of Savoy to Margaret of Austria, in 1501.