Lot Essay
The design for Les Portières des Dieux, first known as Nouvelles portières des Rabesques des Dieux and comprising four panels of the Seasons and four panels of the Elements, were ordered by Mansart from Claude Audran Le Jeune (1639-1684) in 1699 (M. Fenaille, Etat général des Tapisseries de la Manufacture des Gobelins, 1699-1736, Paris, 1904, pp. 1-59). The figures of the various goddesses, gods and children were designed by Louis de Boulogne (1654-1733) and Corneille, while the animals are probably after Alexandre-François Desportes (1661-1743). The first tapestries of this series were finished in January 1701 in the atélier of Dominique De La Croix (active till 1712) and the series proved to be one of the most enduring of all the Gobelins designs, woven throughout the 18th Century with a variety of borders and in a number of colours.
It is interesting to note that the tapestries of Saturn, emblematic of 'Winter' from the Elements series, which were woven in the low loom atéliers, show the whole child below the clouds, while the high loom atéliers depict it half in the clouds. The lack of borders on this tapestry makes a certain attribution to a workshop impossible, as there were numerous weavings of this subject.
It is interesting to note that the tapestries of Saturn, emblematic of 'Winter' from the Elements series, which were woven in the low loom atéliers, show the whole child below the clouds, while the high loom atéliers depict it half in the clouds. The lack of borders on this tapestry makes a certain attribution to a workshop impossible, as there were numerous weavings of this subject.