17TH CENTURY, ATTRIBUTED TO HENDRIK II REYDAMS AND POSSIBLY RETAILED THROUGH JODOCUS DE VOS

This tapestry is identical in subject and border to a wider, apparently unsigned version in a French private collection that forms part of a four panel set that illustrates hunting scenes with Diana (P.F. Bertrand, et al., Tapisseries Anciennes en Rhône-Alpes, exhibition catalogue, 1990, cat. 124, p. 88). A tapestry of differing subject matter but with identical borders is in the Musées Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire in Brussels and is signed by Jodocus de Vos (M. Crick-Kuntziger, Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst en Geschiedenis te Brussels, Catalogus van de Wandtapijten, Brussels, nd, cat. 81, p. 79, plate 86), while a tapestry of identical subject, except of slightly wider spacing and with differing borders, in the Swedish Royal Collection is signed by Marcus de Vos (J. Böttiger, Svenska Statens Sammlingar af Väfda Tapeter, Stockholm, 1896, vol. III, cat FF, p. 50, Plate Lic). However, another tapestry depicting Diana Hunting in Württtemberg is signed by Hendrik II Reydams (H. Göbel, Tapestries of the Lowlands, Leipzig, 1924, fig. 288). Dora Heinz records that Reydams owned the rights to a Diana series (Europäische Tapisseriekunst des 17, und 18. Jahrhunderts, Vienna, 1995, p. 32). The appearance of the same border on a tapestry by de Vos may at first seem surprising; De Vos was, however, not only a weaver but also an important merchant of tapestries. The large merchant firm of Nicolaus Naulaerts records in 1700 that de Vos also stored tapestries by Reydams, which would indicate that he probably commissioned other workshops to weave tapestries for him, possibly with his own borders and sometimes with his signature.