Lot Essay
This tapestry is related to a large group of garden or pergola tapestries generally associated with the Brussels workshops. There is an extensive group in the Spanish Royal Collection illustrated in P. Junquera de Vega and C. Diaz Gallegos, Catalogo de Tapices del Patrimonio Nacional, Madrid, 1986, vol. II, pp. 199-242. A further set of five tapestries of this design is in the Royal Collection at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh (M. Swain, Tapestries and Textiles at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, London, 1988, pp. 17-19, fig. 3).
This tapestry most closely relates to a tapestry in the Spanish Royal Collection, op. cit., p. 227, panel VII of series 67. It has an identical architectural setting, with nearly identical decorative features with the exception of the small flower bouquets suspended from the columns, which are lacking in the Spanish version, and the variations to the background. The main bouquets of flowers are identical, but have small colouristic differences. The main columns and landscape vignette to the top are further found identically on the whole series 67 (11 panels) and 68 (10 panels), illustrated op. cit., pp. 220-242. A further tapestry of nearly identical design but different main flower vases and plinth, formerly in the collection of the Rt. Hon. Lord Lytton, was sold from the collection of Viscount Leverhulme [+], at Anderson Galleries, New York, 9-13 February 1926, lot 119.
This tapestry most closely relates to a tapestry in the Spanish Royal Collection, op. cit., p. 227, panel VII of series 67. It has an identical architectural setting, with nearly identical decorative features with the exception of the small flower bouquets suspended from the columns, which are lacking in the Spanish version, and the variations to the background. The main bouquets of flowers are identical, but have small colouristic differences. The main columns and landscape vignette to the top are further found identically on the whole series 67 (11 panels) and 68 (10 panels), illustrated op. cit., pp. 220-242. A further tapestry of nearly identical design but different main flower vases and plinth, formerly in the collection of the Rt. Hon. Lord Lytton, was sold from the collection of Viscount Leverhulme [+], at Anderson Galleries, New York, 9-13 February 1926, lot 119.