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Lot Essay
History of Millefleurs
The millefleurs design in tapestries evolved in circa 1450 -1460, one of the first fully developed examples to survive being the Armorial Tapestry of Philip the Good of Burgundy, woven in Brussels in circa 1466 (now in the Bernisches Historisches Museum, Berne). The genre of tapestry, however, remained popular until the mid-16th Century so that a large number of plain millefleurs tapestries were manufactured as wall coverings, chair covers and bed hangings while the millefleurs populated with animals were more scarce because they were more expensive.
Millefleurs tapestries were woven quite generically throughout Flanders and attributions to weaving centres are difficult unless documentary evidence can be linked to specific examples.
A. Cavallo indeed notes to a closely related millefleurs tapestry entitled A Falconer with Two Ladies, a Page, and a Foot Soldier (A. Cavallo, Medieval Tapestries in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1993, cat. 36, p. 493):
'We have no scientific grounds for asserting that any of these hangings were woven in France. Since we have evidence that millefleurs tapestries were produced in Brussels and Bruges and probably also other centres in the Southern Netherlands, it seems reasonable to attribute this example to that region'.
He further notes to another example depicting A Hawking Party (Cavallo,op. cit., cat. 37, p. 495):
'Here, as in many millefleurs tapestries, the groups of figures are completely self-contained. Perhaps derived from one or more prints, they were probably stock patterns in a weaver's shop.'
Related Tapestries
A millefleurs tapestry depicting a shepherd, two shepherdesses and sheep on a very closely related ground and another depicting a shepherd and shepherdess flanking an orange tree with sheep in the background are in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Cavallo, op. cit., cats. 34 and 35, pp. 479 - 487). The latter's companion piece in The Detroit Institute of Arts incorporates a goat that is not unlike the one of the offered lot (A. Darr, Woven Splendor, exhibition catalogue, Detroit, 1996, cat. 2, pp. 20 - 23).
A tapestry of very similar character depicting the Jeu de Marelle et Cueillette de Fruits from a series entitled Noble Pastorale in the Louvre depicts a pastoral tapestry with small groups of shepherds and shepherdesses that are conversing. That tapestry bears the arms of Thomas Bohier (d. 1524) and of Catherine Briçonnet (d. 1526) and is believed to have been woven between 1510 and 1520. It is speculated that they either acquired or commissioned the tapestry on the occasion of the construction of their château de Chenonceau 1513 (Chefs-d'Oeuvre de la Tapisserie du XIVe au XVIe Siècle, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1973, cat. 31, pp. 99 - 100).
Symbolism
The earliest inventories listing tapestries with figures do already mention shepherd scenes. That of Louis I, duc d'Anjou, lists a tapestry described as 'deux tapis des Berchiers' in 1364 while the weavers of Arras supplied 'une tapisserie de Bergerettes' and 'bergers et bergeres' in 1385 and 1393, respectively. During the 15th Century numerous mentions of such tapestries are found in inventories. This fascination for the life of shepherds, the lowest social level of medieval society, appears to be based on the bold sexuality and eroticism that was associated with their lives. This allowed the raised social society to view sexuality as being associated with nature and the lower classes, thus the opposite of their cultured and artificial lives. From their earliest appearance in tapestries shepherds represented the unburdened life as servants to the god of love.
(G. Delmarcel and E. Duverger, Bruges et la Tapisserie, exhibition catalogue, Bruges, 1987, p. 249)
The goat between a shepherd and shepherdess in this Noble Pastoral tapestry may very possibly be emblematic of lust. Male goats are generally associated with the worship of Bacchus and are used as symbols for love and lust. In Christianity, on the other hand, the goat represents the means with which humans can free themselves from their sins, the goat becoming a scapegoat and it was also the symbol of the damned in the Last Judgment. In Renaissance art the goat was often shown in order to distinguish the sinners from the righteous.
The millefleurs design in tapestries evolved in circa 1450 -1460, one of the first fully developed examples to survive being the Armorial Tapestry of Philip the Good of Burgundy, woven in Brussels in circa 1466 (now in the Bernisches Historisches Museum, Berne). The genre of tapestry, however, remained popular until the mid-16th Century so that a large number of plain millefleurs tapestries were manufactured as wall coverings, chair covers and bed hangings while the millefleurs populated with animals were more scarce because they were more expensive.
Millefleurs tapestries were woven quite generically throughout Flanders and attributions to weaving centres are difficult unless documentary evidence can be linked to specific examples.
A. Cavallo indeed notes to a closely related millefleurs tapestry entitled A Falconer with Two Ladies, a Page, and a Foot Soldier (A. Cavallo, Medieval Tapestries in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1993, cat. 36, p. 493):
'We have no scientific grounds for asserting that any of these hangings were woven in France. Since we have evidence that millefleurs tapestries were produced in Brussels and Bruges and probably also other centres in the Southern Netherlands, it seems reasonable to attribute this example to that region'.
He further notes to another example depicting A Hawking Party (Cavallo,op. cit., cat. 37, p. 495):
'Here, as in many millefleurs tapestries, the groups of figures are completely self-contained. Perhaps derived from one or more prints, they were probably stock patterns in a weaver's shop.'
Related Tapestries
A millefleurs tapestry depicting a shepherd, two shepherdesses and sheep on a very closely related ground and another depicting a shepherd and shepherdess flanking an orange tree with sheep in the background are in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Cavallo, op. cit., cats. 34 and 35, pp. 479 - 487). The latter's companion piece in The Detroit Institute of Arts incorporates a goat that is not unlike the one of the offered lot (A. Darr, Woven Splendor, exhibition catalogue, Detroit, 1996, cat. 2, pp. 20 - 23).
A tapestry of very similar character depicting the Jeu de Marelle et Cueillette de Fruits from a series entitled Noble Pastorale in the Louvre depicts a pastoral tapestry with small groups of shepherds and shepherdesses that are conversing. That tapestry bears the arms of Thomas Bohier (d. 1524) and of Catherine Briçonnet (d. 1526) and is believed to have been woven between 1510 and 1520. It is speculated that they either acquired or commissioned the tapestry on the occasion of the construction of their château de Chenonceau 1513 (Chefs-d'Oeuvre de la Tapisserie du XIVe au XVIe Siècle, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1973, cat. 31, pp. 99 - 100).
Symbolism
The earliest inventories listing tapestries with figures do already mention shepherd scenes. That of Louis I, duc d'Anjou, lists a tapestry described as 'deux tapis des Berchiers' in 1364 while the weavers of Arras supplied 'une tapisserie de Bergerettes' and 'bergers et bergeres' in 1385 and 1393, respectively. During the 15th Century numerous mentions of such tapestries are found in inventories. This fascination for the life of shepherds, the lowest social level of medieval society, appears to be based on the bold sexuality and eroticism that was associated with their lives. This allowed the raised social society to view sexuality as being associated with nature and the lower classes, thus the opposite of their cultured and artificial lives. From their earliest appearance in tapestries shepherds represented the unburdened life as servants to the god of love.
(G. Delmarcel and E. Duverger, Bruges et la Tapisserie, exhibition catalogue, Bruges, 1987, p. 249)
The goat between a shepherd and shepherdess in this Noble Pastoral tapestry may very possibly be emblematic of lust. Male goats are generally associated with the worship of Bacchus and are used as symbols for love and lust. In Christianity, on the other hand, the goat represents the means with which humans can free themselves from their sins, the goat becoming a scapegoat and it was also the symbol of the damned in the Last Judgment. In Renaissance art the goat was often shown in order to distinguish the sinners from the righteous.