Lot Essay
David, the shepherd boy who became king of Israel, was in exile in the Judean desert with his band and they survived by forcing farmers to feed and house them. One refused to do so and they threatened to punish him, but his wife Abigail 'a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance', appeased David with a peace-offering of food and drink. Abigail's husband died the next day from a stroke when hearing about it. Abigail married David thereafter.
This tapestry belongs to a group of tapestries attributed to southern Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany. A number of small workshops were established in the the late 1570s to 1580s in this area by Flemish immigrants who fled their native lands because of religious persecutions during the campaigns of the Duke of Alba in Flanders.
Small tapestries of this type were usually conceived as cushion covers, and it appears that they were frequently made as sets dealing with related subjects. Two such cushion covers, both depicting Faith, Hope and Charity, are in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (C. Adelson, European Tapestry in The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 1994, pp. 368-376, cats. 22a and 22b), while a further example depicting Pyramus and Thisbe is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (A. Cavallo, Tapestries of Europe and of Colonial Peru in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 1967, pp. 138-139, cat. 41). A panel of identical subject with a formal square border of flowers, cartouches and arms, was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 21 April 1966, lot 155.
This tapestry belongs to a group of tapestries attributed to southern Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany. A number of small workshops were established in the the late 1570s to 1580s in this area by Flemish immigrants who fled their native lands because of religious persecutions during the campaigns of the Duke of Alba in Flanders.
Small tapestries of this type were usually conceived as cushion covers, and it appears that they were frequently made as sets dealing with related subjects. Two such cushion covers, both depicting Faith, Hope and Charity, are in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (C. Adelson, European Tapestry in The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 1994, pp. 368-376, cats. 22a and 22b), while a further example depicting Pyramus and Thisbe is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (A. Cavallo, Tapestries of Europe and of Colonial Peru in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 1967, pp. 138-139, cat. 41). A panel of identical subject with a formal square border of flowers, cartouches and arms, was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 21 April 1966, lot 155.