Lot Essay
The present drawing is by the same hand as a group of seven sheets by Henri Lerambert in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, related to a series of tapestries representing the story of Artemisia two of which are illustrated in S. Béguin, L'Ecole de Fontainebleau, exhib. cat., Grand Palais, Paris, 1972, no. 127 and J. Adhémar, Le dessin français au XVIe siècle, Lausanne, 1954, p. 89 (all are illustrated in M. Fenaille, Etat général des tapisseries de la manufacture des Gobelins, Paris, 1923, I, pp. 109-212).
An album of 28 drawings for a series of tapestries of the Life of Christ commissioned in 1584 for the Church of Saint Merry is also in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, S. Béguin, op. cit., no. 128, illustrated.
Lerambert was the son of the painter Louis Lerambert, and came to Fontainebleau in 1570. In 1600 he was named peintre pour les tapissiers du Roi. In 1608 he was working for the Louvre and the Tuileries with Jacques Bunel. He also designed a series of engravings of the story of Coriolan, of Il Pastor Fido.
The present drawing is probably related to the series of tapestries of the story of Artemisia, queen of Caria, who lived circa 355 B.C. The iconography was provided by the apothecary Nicolas Houel and dedicated to Queen Catherine de'Medici, wife of King Henri II, in 1562. The poem compared her life to the imaginary life of Artemisia who had lost her husband Mausoleus. The present drawing probably illustrates chapter VII of Houet's manuscript 'Furents faicts les sacrificies funébres et en toute pompe et grande magnificence selon le coutume du temps et pays auxquels assistèrent le Roy et le Royne sa Mère, et un grand nombre de noblesse'. This story was the 29th plate that was woven, Fenaille, op. cit., p. 152. The series consisted of 74 tapestries for which 59 drawings are extant in the Bibliothèque Nationale and the Louvre. Caron exectued 44 of these compositions and Lerambert executed a few of the remaining ones.
Lerambert was in charge of designing the tapestry cartoons and from 1607 onward he was helped by Laurent Guyot who finished the work after his death in 1610. The tapestries were the first to be woven by the newly created manufacture des Gobelins founded in 1601 by Comans and Laplance in the Hôtel of the Gobelin family, under the protection of King Henri IV.
An album of 28 drawings for a series of tapestries of the Life of Christ commissioned in 1584 for the Church of Saint Merry is also in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, S. Béguin, op. cit., no. 128, illustrated.
Lerambert was the son of the painter Louis Lerambert, and came to Fontainebleau in 1570. In 1600 he was named peintre pour les tapissiers du Roi. In 1608 he was working for the Louvre and the Tuileries with Jacques Bunel. He also designed a series of engravings of the story of Coriolan, of Il Pastor Fido.
The present drawing is probably related to the series of tapestries of the story of Artemisia, queen of Caria, who lived circa 355 B.C. The iconography was provided by the apothecary Nicolas Houel and dedicated to Queen Catherine de'Medici, wife of King Henri II, in 1562. The poem compared her life to the imaginary life of Artemisia who had lost her husband Mausoleus. The present drawing probably illustrates chapter VII of Houet's manuscript 'Furents faicts les sacrificies funébres et en toute pompe et grande magnificence selon le coutume du temps et pays auxquels assistèrent le Roy et le Royne sa Mère, et un grand nombre de noblesse'. This story was the 29th plate that was woven, Fenaille, op. cit., p. 152. The series consisted of 74 tapestries for which 59 drawings are extant in the Bibliothèque Nationale and the Louvre. Caron exectued 44 of these compositions and Lerambert executed a few of the remaining ones.
Lerambert was in charge of designing the tapestry cartoons and from 1607 onward he was helped by Laurent Guyot who finished the work after his death in 1610. The tapestries were the first to be woven by the newly created manufacture des Gobelins founded in 1601 by Comans and Laplance in the Hôtel of the Gobelin family, under the protection of King Henri IV.