Lot Essay
Borders of this type were first used on the Story of Noah tapestry set, woven by Willem de Pannemaker for Philip II between 1563 and 1567. The idea was later adopted by several weavers and such borders appear also on Antwerp tapestries. Simpler borders are found on the Story of Ulysses in the Royal Spanish Collection, illustrated in P. Junquera de Vega and C. Diaz Gallegos, Catalogo de Tapices del Patrimonio Nacional, Madrid, 1986, vol. II, pp. 1-5, and more elaborate and closely related to this example, on a late 16th Century tapestry depicting the Colosseum in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (E. Standen, European Post-Medieval Tapestries and Related Hangings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985, vol. I, pp. 154-161, cat. 19).