A BRUSSELS BAROQUE HISTORICAL TAPESTRY

MID-17TH CENTURY

Details

A BRUSSELS BAROQUE HISTORICAL TAPESTRY
Mid-17th Century
Depicting scenes from the Wars of Vespasian, with soldiers pillaging within a wooded landscape, with pitched tents before a fortress, the borders densely woven with ribbon-tied laurel wreaths suspending various armorial trophies, alternating with blossoming garlands and frolicking hounds, highlighted throughout with metal thread
12ft. 1in. x 16ft. 11in. (366cm. x 575cm.)

Provenance

Sold Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, 2 March 1984, lot 364.
Sold Christie's New York, 2 June 1993, lot 76 ($85,000).

Lot Essay

Vespasian and his son, Titus, were renowned for their military conquests in the East, culminating with the capture of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The rotunda above the city walls in the background may possibly be identified as the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem.

A tapestry woven by Jan Frans van den Hecke (d. 1653) with virtually identical borders depicting Earth and Fire from the Four Elements is illustrated in H. Göbel, Tapestries of the Lowlands, 1924, fig. 307.

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