A BRUSSELS TAPESTRY from the History of Venus depicting the Challenge between Venus and Cupid, woven in wools and silks with The Three Graces standing in the centre of a landscape, one with the inscription CHARITES, the foreground with Venus and Peristera flanking a flower basket and holding bunches of flowers in their flowing robes, with Cupid gathering flowers and holding a flower basket and with inscription CUPIO, the background with putti climbing a tree and gathering fruit, hunting stags and making music, the foreground with a putto blowing a hunting horn with a hound beside a lake, the border woven with fruiting foliage upon a palm stem, parrots, storks and other birds on an orange ground, mid-16th Century, restoration and some reweaving in places, reduced one end

Details

A BRUSSELS TAPESTRY from the History of Venus depicting the Challenge between Venus and Cupid, woven in wools and silks with The Three Graces standing in the centre of a landscape, one with the inscription CHARITES, the foreground with Venus and Peristera flanking a flower basket and holding bunches of flowers in their flowing robes, with Cupid gathering flowers and holding a flower basket and with inscription CUPIO, the background with putti climbing a tree and gathering fruit, hunting stags and making music, the foreground with a putto blowing a hunting horn with a hound beside a lake, the border woven with fruiting foliage upon a palm stem, parrots, storks and other birds on an orange ground, mid-16th Century, restoration and some reweaving in places, reduced one end
145in. x 234in. (368cm. x 594.5cm.)

Provenance

Major-General Sir George Burns, K.C.V.O., C.B., D.S.O., O.B.E., M.C., North Mymms Park, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, sold Christie's house sale, September 24-26 1979, lot 496

Lot Essay

This tapestry depicts the challenge between Venus and Cupid. It was part of a set of three tapestries from a series of the History of Venus at North Mymms. A set of nine tapestries from this series in the Spanish Royal Collection is discussed in Catalogo de Tapices del Patrimonio Nacional, Volumen 1: Siglo XVI, Madrid, 1986, pp.297-303; another example of this particular tapestry but with some differences and different borders is illustrated p.301

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