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Lot Essay
This tapestry belongs to a now rare set of tapestries depicting the popular story of Le Pastor Fido (The Faithful Shepherd), a pastoral tragicomedy by Giovanni Battista Guarini (1538 - 1612) that was first published in 1590. The story is set in Arcadia where the inhabitants have to sacrifice a virgin to Diana annually. The beautiful Arcadian Lucrine cheated the priest Aminto into this burden, from which, according to the oracle, they cannot be freed until two children descending from celestial parents get married. Montano, a descendant of Hercules and an Arcadian priest, thus decides to marry his son Silvio to Amarillis the daughter of Titire, a descendant of Pan. Amarillis, however, is in love with Mirtillo, the faithful shepherd, who is suddenly revealed a son of Montano and can thus marry his love, which frees Arcadia from the burden. This particular scene depicts Corisca, a nymph, fleeing from a satyr after he accuses her of unfaithfulness. He grabbed her by her hair, but is left with her wig as she flees.
This tapestry series was designed by Laurent Guyot (circa 1575 - 1644) and Guillaume Dumée (1571 - 1646), who were both appointed successors of Henri Lerambert the peintre ordinaire particulièrement ordonné pour travailler aux patrons des tapisseries [du roi] after a contest in 1609. The subject of the contest was to design images depicting Le Pastor Fido; it can therefore be assumed that this series was designed in 1609 or shortly thereafter. Stylistically this panel is slightly closer related to the work of Guillaume Dumèe, who formed part of the second school of Fontainebleau, a late mannerist European movement. He was a famous painter in his time and worked in the Louvre, the château Neuf de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the Tuileries and at Fontainebleau. Surprisingly there are only very few works that can today be attributed to him.
The workshop of François de la Planche in the faubourg Saint-Marcel lists upon his death in 1627 not fewer than 59 tapestries of this series in the atelier. It also appears that this was not the only place where these tapestries were woven, for in the inventory drawn up upon Colbert's death in 1683 lists a set of six tapestries with this subject that were from the fabrique ancienne du Louvre. Later the series was also woven, with alterations to the designs, at Aubusson, Bruges, Delft and Brussels. Of the original 16 to 18 panels that made up the set, there are today only nine differing scenes known with a total number of 18 recorded tapestries from the first half of the 17th Century, if this present one is included.
This series is recorded in some of the great collections in the 17th Century. Cardinal Barberini was proposed a set in 1630, while the first set actually mention in an inventory is a set of eight in the collection of Antoine Ruzé d'Effiat in 1633. The other collections are a set of eight in that of the state councilor Louis Brulard in 1639, another in the collection of the cardinal Richelieu in 1643, one in the collection of Colbert in 1683, a set of twenty six panels in an inventory of Louis XIV in 1665 although these were with certainty woven for Louis XIII, and finally seven pieces in the first inventory of Mazarin in the château de Vincennes in 1653. The last was probably also the first set woven between 1610 and 1617as it had the coat-of-arms of the Queen Mother Maria de Medici. (N. de Reyniés, La Tapisserie au XVIIe Siécle et les Collections Européennes, Paris, 1999, pp. 14 - 22)
The inventory taken in 1665 of the tapestries belonging to Louis XV also has a partial description by Gédéon du Metz of the set and this panel is described as follows as panel 9:
La 9e, un satyre amant mocqué et méprisé de Corsique la rencontre qui se sépare d'Amarillis et la saisit au bras, et aprés beaucoup de prières sans se laisser fleschir la prend par les cheveux pour l'emmener dans sa caverne, mais elle estoit coiffée avec une perruque la lassant aller, eschappe au satyre et luy fait faire une chute violente.
(M. Fenaille, Etat Général des Tapisseries de la Manufacture des Gobelins, Paris, 1923, vol. I, p. 229)
An identical tapestry, with slight differences to the landscape medallions of the borders and with slight differences to the vegetation of the main field, was offered anonymously Poulain - Le Fur, Paris, 2 December 1992, lot 251 and again 10 December 1995, lot 133. A nearly identical border can also be found on a tapestry depicting a scene from Orlando Furioso that was sold anonymously Sotheby's Zurich, 16 June 1998, lot 338, while another with identical border is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (E. Standen, European Post-Medieval Tapestries and Related Hangings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985, vol. I, cat. 43, p. 277)
This tapestry series was designed by Laurent Guyot (circa 1575 - 1644) and Guillaume Dumée (1571 - 1646), who were both appointed successors of Henri Lerambert the peintre ordinaire particulièrement ordonné pour travailler aux patrons des tapisseries [du roi] after a contest in 1609. The subject of the contest was to design images depicting Le Pastor Fido; it can therefore be assumed that this series was designed in 1609 or shortly thereafter. Stylistically this panel is slightly closer related to the work of Guillaume Dumèe, who formed part of the second school of Fontainebleau, a late mannerist European movement. He was a famous painter in his time and worked in the Louvre, the château Neuf de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the Tuileries and at Fontainebleau. Surprisingly there are only very few works that can today be attributed to him.
The workshop of François de la Planche in the faubourg Saint-Marcel lists upon his death in 1627 not fewer than 59 tapestries of this series in the atelier. It also appears that this was not the only place where these tapestries were woven, for in the inventory drawn up upon Colbert's death in 1683 lists a set of six tapestries with this subject that were from the fabrique ancienne du Louvre. Later the series was also woven, with alterations to the designs, at Aubusson, Bruges, Delft and Brussels. Of the original 16 to 18 panels that made up the set, there are today only nine differing scenes known with a total number of 18 recorded tapestries from the first half of the 17th Century, if this present one is included.
This series is recorded in some of the great collections in the 17th Century. Cardinal Barberini was proposed a set in 1630, while the first set actually mention in an inventory is a set of eight in the collection of Antoine Ruzé d'Effiat in 1633. The other collections are a set of eight in that of the state councilor Louis Brulard in 1639, another in the collection of the cardinal Richelieu in 1643, one in the collection of Colbert in 1683, a set of twenty six panels in an inventory of Louis XIV in 1665 although these were with certainty woven for Louis XIII, and finally seven pieces in the first inventory of Mazarin in the château de Vincennes in 1653. The last was probably also the first set woven between 1610 and 1617as it had the coat-of-arms of the Queen Mother Maria de Medici. (N. de Reyniés, La Tapisserie au XVIIe Siécle et les Collections Européennes, Paris, 1999, pp. 14 - 22)
The inventory taken in 1665 of the tapestries belonging to Louis XV also has a partial description by Gédéon du Metz of the set and this panel is described as follows as panel 9:
La 9e, un satyre amant mocqué et méprisé de Corsique la rencontre qui se sépare d'Amarillis et la saisit au bras, et aprés beaucoup de prières sans se laisser fleschir la prend par les cheveux pour l'emmener dans sa caverne, mais elle estoit coiffée avec une perruque la lassant aller, eschappe au satyre et luy fait faire une chute violente.
(M. Fenaille, Etat Général des Tapisseries de la Manufacture des Gobelins, Paris, 1923, vol. I, p. 229)
An identical tapestry, with slight differences to the landscape medallions of the borders and with slight differences to the vegetation of the main field, was offered anonymously Poulain - Le Fur, Paris, 2 December 1992, lot 251 and again 10 December 1995, lot 133. A nearly identical border can also be found on a tapestry depicting a scene from Orlando Furioso that was sold anonymously Sotheby's Zurich, 16 June 1998, lot 338, while another with identical border is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (E. Standen, European Post-Medieval Tapestries and Related Hangings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985, vol. I, cat. 43, p. 277)