Lot Essay
This tapestry is the last subject from of a set of six tapestries representing incidents from the life of Diogenes. Diogenes was an extremely austere and cynical philosopher of the 4th Century B.C. who lived in Athens and Corinth. He despised worldly possessions to such a degree that he even lived in a barrel. When Alexander the Great visited him he is said to have requested that the Emperor stand aside as he was shading him from the sun.
This series appears to be exclusively English in origin and was probably designed at Mortlake in the late 1660s or early 1670s. It was repeatedly woven and later copied at Soho. The lack of borders on this example makes a certain attribution impossible. A Mortlake version of a panel from this series was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 26 November 1996, lot 226, while a Soho version of the same subject was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 16 May 1996, lot 214. A set of five panels from this series, this subject now lost, is at the Palace of Holyroodhouse (M. Swain, Tapestries and Textiles at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, 1988, pp. 12-15, figs. 2a-2e).
This series appears to be exclusively English in origin and was probably designed at Mortlake in the late 1660s or early 1670s. It was repeatedly woven and later copied at Soho. The lack of borders on this example makes a certain attribution impossible. A Mortlake version of a panel from this series was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 26 November 1996, lot 226, while a Soho version of the same subject was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 16 May 1996, lot 214. A set of five panels from this series, this subject now lost, is at the Palace of Holyroodhouse (M. Swain, Tapestries and Textiles at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, 1988, pp. 12-15, figs. 2a-2e).