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Lot Essay
This magnificent tapestry depicting exotic creatures within a wild giant-leaf environment is most closely related to a tapestry that was anonymously sold in these Rooms, 14 December 1978, lot 123, which showed two very similar beasts, one a dromedary and the other a camel within identically conceived foliage. The foliage includes the same type of thistles and leaves while the exotic beasts, which clearly belong to the same group but omit the riders, are adorned with similar hangings and neckbands. These two tapestries along with others sold at Christie's in 1934 clearly belong to the same group and were thus probably woven in the same workshop and may even have belonged to the same set.
The two fragmentary tapestries in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Arts, New York (A. Cavallo, Medieval Tapestries in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1993, pp. 586 - 593, cat. 50), belong to a closely related group that include a further example which is illustrated in H. Göbel, Tapestries of the Lowlands, New York, 1924, fig. 256. These tapestries depict similar fantastic beasts with riders within similar foliage. The scenes are set between ornamental columns surmounted by garlanded canopies. The basis of the design, with the riders within foliage, is the same, but the weave of the tapestries seems to be less fine and the colours less stable than in this tapestry.
Cavallo points out that in previous catalogues these figures were described as inspired by the European 'wild men' figures so popular during the period. These usually hairy, unkempt and slightly threatening humans were seen as having left the civilised world and had become part of a fashionable fascination for the unknown. It is however more probable that the figures of these tapestries were simply compared to a generic homme sauvage that included any human who did not live in the 'civilised' parts of Europe. Comparisons to other tapestries of similar nature suggest that these figures rather represent Gypsies and East Indians who appear in great numbers in tapestries of the first quarter of the 16th Century. Many such tapestries are recorded as having been produced and sold by tapestry weavers, merchants and upholsterers in Tournai during that period. Documents relating to the tapestry stocks of Arnould Poissonnier (d. 1522) and Jean and Antoine Grenier of Tournai list tapestries with the titles A la manière de Portugal et de Indye (1504), La Caravane (1508), L'Histoire de Gens et de Bestes Sauvaiges à la Manière de Calcut (1510), Le Voyage de Caluce (1513) and L'Histoire de la Carvene (1522). Charles V purchased six tapestries with the title L'Histoire Indienne à Oliffans et Jeraffes from the Brussels producer-merchant Pieter van Aelst in 1522. Cavallo thus suggests that the figures in the Metropolitan Museum's tapestries are meant to depict Gypsy, East Indian or other ethnically indefinable caravan hands or hunters, which is certainly also possible for this tapestry. The designer of the tapestries combined the exotic men with the lush thickets of the European 'wild men' and thus catered to the contemporary fascination and romantic perception for the wild and exotic; a taste that may have been born out of the reports brought back by Vasco da Gama from Calicut and the Malabar coast as well as Columbus's voyage in the New World.
(Cavallo, op. cit., pp. 586 - 593)
A further tapestry most closely related to the Metropolitan Museum's fragments was sold anonymously at Phillips London, 26 April 1994, lot 53, while another related tapestry with similar foliage and mainly birds is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
The two fragmentary tapestries in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Arts, New York (A. Cavallo, Medieval Tapestries in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1993, pp. 586 - 593, cat. 50), belong to a closely related group that include a further example which is illustrated in H. Göbel, Tapestries of the Lowlands, New York, 1924, fig. 256. These tapestries depict similar fantastic beasts with riders within similar foliage. The scenes are set between ornamental columns surmounted by garlanded canopies. The basis of the design, with the riders within foliage, is the same, but the weave of the tapestries seems to be less fine and the colours less stable than in this tapestry.
Cavallo points out that in previous catalogues these figures were described as inspired by the European 'wild men' figures so popular during the period. These usually hairy, unkempt and slightly threatening humans were seen as having left the civilised world and had become part of a fashionable fascination for the unknown. It is however more probable that the figures of these tapestries were simply compared to a generic homme sauvage that included any human who did not live in the 'civilised' parts of Europe. Comparisons to other tapestries of similar nature suggest that these figures rather represent Gypsies and East Indians who appear in great numbers in tapestries of the first quarter of the 16th Century. Many such tapestries are recorded as having been produced and sold by tapestry weavers, merchants and upholsterers in Tournai during that period. Documents relating to the tapestry stocks of Arnould Poissonnier (d. 1522) and Jean and Antoine Grenier of Tournai list tapestries with the titles A la manière de Portugal et de Indye (1504), La Caravane (1508), L'Histoire de Gens et de Bestes Sauvaiges à la Manière de Calcut (1510), Le Voyage de Caluce (1513) and L'Histoire de la Carvene (1522). Charles V purchased six tapestries with the title L'Histoire Indienne à Oliffans et Jeraffes from the Brussels producer-merchant Pieter van Aelst in 1522. Cavallo thus suggests that the figures in the Metropolitan Museum's tapestries are meant to depict Gypsy, East Indian or other ethnically indefinable caravan hands or hunters, which is certainly also possible for this tapestry. The designer of the tapestries combined the exotic men with the lush thickets of the European 'wild men' and thus catered to the contemporary fascination and romantic perception for the wild and exotic; a taste that may have been born out of the reports brought back by Vasco da Gama from Calicut and the Malabar coast as well as Columbus's voyage in the New World.
(Cavallo, op. cit., pp. 586 - 593)
A further tapestry most closely related to the Metropolitan Museum's fragments was sold anonymously at Phillips London, 26 April 1994, lot 53, while another related tapestry with similar foliage and mainly birds is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.