.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
ORIGIN OF SUBJECT
This tapestry forms part of a distinct group of game-park tapestries known as Pugnae Ferarum, which depict combats between animals. Possibly the most celebrated of this group of tapestries are the 44 Brussels panels at Wawel Castle in Cracow (J. Szablowski, ed., The Flemish Tapestries at Wawel Castle in Cracow, Antwerp, 1972, pp. 191 - 286). Jan van Tieghem is believed to have woven them in the 1550s or 1560s.
The rise in interest in such animal-tapestries during the period may originate in the great geographical discoveries and their accounts that became more widely known at the time. The menageries that existed at the royal and princely courts likely formed the basis for the artist that painted these designs. Many scenes are based on ideas from the research and scientific conclusions drawn by learned men from antiquity, such as Aristotle and Pliny, who mixed both reality with fiction. Towards the middle of the 16th Century scientists, such as the Swiss Conrad Gesner, started to publish new findings. These new publications further inspired the popular interest in nature and the subsequent rise in tapestries dealing with this subject matter (idem pp. 191 - 286).
SUBJECT
Pugnae ferarum are sometimes believed to incorporate allegorical meanings and a Christian morality. The overall scheme may be that described at the beginning of Genesis. The animals and plants are freely mixed from every part of the Earth, such as can be imagined after the Great Flood. The battling animals represent the old forces, while man with the divine grace empowering him, represents the new order. The animals are taken from Physiologus' tradition and its moral lessons, but also from Pliny's Natural History, the medieval bestiaries and others. Even the plants may be interpreted into the smallest details as part of this moral lesson. However, it is easy to overextend this interpretation as much of the imagery is probably purely for the pleasure of discovering nature. (M. Röthlisberger, 'La Tenture de la Licorne dans la Collection Borromée', Oud Holland, vol. 82, part 3, 1967, pp. 107 - 108)
PLACE OF MANUFACTURE AND WEAVER
Although few in overall number, tapestries of this type were manufactured in many weaving centres. Similar subjects, depicting a wild cat combating a donkey, a fox killing a cockerel, and a lion attacking a sheep and a deer, survive in the Château-Musée, Gaasbeek, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Philadelphia Museum of Art, respectively, all signed by the Enghien weaver Hendrick van der Cammen who executed these tapestries in the second quarter 17th Century (G. Delmarcel, Tapisseries anciennes d'Enghien, Mons, 1980, cats. 24 - 26, pp. 56 - 61).
It is interesting to note in that respect that the maidens suspending drapery in the upper corners of the borders reoccur in a set of tapestries from the third quarter of the 16th century depicting The Story of Jacob in the Museo Arqueologico Nacional, Madrid, that are firmly attributed to Enghien (Delmarcel, op. cit.., cats 35 - 40, pp. 78 - 89). However, as Delmarcel points out, the figures in the borders are more common in Brussels and must have been copied by Enghien weavers. Indeed, the same figures, including similar personifications on chariots to the lower corners, all against a similarly light background can be found in a set of five tapestries from The Story of Abraham of the second half 16th century that originally came from the Barberini Collection, Rome, and that are now in Boston (A. Cavallo, Textiles, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, 1986, cat. 11, pp. 58 - 65). Unfortunately the signature of the weaver has become illegible through restorations, but two suggestions are those of Jan van Tieghem, the author of the Cracow series, and Frans Geubels, who may have been the only one to use this border at the time. Both suggestions are possible as Tieghem wove the Cracow series and Geubels is recorded as having woven hunting and animal tapestries (E. Duverger, 'Tapijtwerk uit het Atelier van Frans Geubels', De Bloetijd van de vlaamse Tapijtkunst, Brussels, 1969, pp. 91 - 204).
A further set of tapestries with very similar border figures depicting The Story of Jacob is in San Francisco (A. Gray Bennett, Five Centuries of Tapestry from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, 1992, cat. 28, pp. 120 - 126). Some of these tapestries bear the signature of Pieter van Aelst, who interestingly collaborated on the tapestries in Cracow.
A further, highly important group of pugnae ferarum tapestries belong to prince Borromeo and decorate his palace at Isola Bella (Röthlisberger, op. cit., pp. 85 - 115). Particularly striking when comparing these tapestries to this lot is the dense scattering of animals surrounding the main protagonists as well as the drawing of the animals with the prominent use of vegetation to the centre. The Isola Bella tapestries are attributed to Willem Tons of Brussels by Roethlisberger and are believed to date from circa 1565. M. Hennel-Bernasikowa, who researched the Cracow tapestries, on the other hand has identified Pieter Coecke van Aelst of Antwerp as its designer.
It is probable, on the basis of comparisons, that the Isola Bella and Cracow tapestries were designed in the same workshop as this tapestry and may even have been woven by the same weaver, such as Jan van Tieghem and the other still unidentified workshops. The probability of the same designer having worked on all these sets is heightened by the re-appearance of identically drawn animals such as the tortoise and the bird perched to the right in the Cracow tapestries and illustrated in Szablowski, op. cit., pp. 261 and 272, respectively. The flying parrot, on the other hand is identical to that in the Isola Bella tapestry illustrated in Roethlisberger, op. cit., p. 90.
DESIGNER
According to Röthlisberger there are very few literary references to Willem Tons. Van Mander mentions 'before our times there was in Brussels a good master named Willem Tons who excelled in the painting of tapestry models. He introduced many types of trees, plants, animals, birds, eagles, etc, all very well painted from nature'. The next mention is by Felbien in his Entretiens sur la vie des peintres of 1685 specifying 'one named Tons, great landscape painter, who worked on the Maximilian's Hunts' and then again in 1724 in Sauval's Antiquités de Paris that praises 'le plus grand paysagiste qui ait jamais existé'.
M Hennel-Bernaskiowa has found a drawing in the British Museum that is attributed to the workshop of Pieter Coecke van Aelst (d. 1550) and that depicts very similar animals in a forest, including the famous Dürer rhinoceros, to support her argument (M. Ferrero Viale, 'Quelques nouvelles données sur les tapisseries de l'Isola Bella', L'Art brabançon au milieu du XVIe siècle et les tapisseries du château de Wawel à Cracovie, Brussels, 1974, p. 109). Pieter Coecke van Aelst is believed to have studied under Bernard van Orley. He travelled to Italy in 1527 and was sent to Constantinople by the Dermoyen firm in 1533, an experience that resonates in many of his works as they often display Ottoman costumes. Three tapestry series have been firmly attributed to him, The Life of St. Paul, The Life of Joshua and The Seven Deadly Sins, and many bear resemblance to his style but cannot be ascribed to him with certainty.
This tapestry forms part of a distinct group of game-park tapestries known as Pugnae Ferarum, which depict combats between animals. Possibly the most celebrated of this group of tapestries are the 44 Brussels panels at Wawel Castle in Cracow (J. Szablowski, ed., The Flemish Tapestries at Wawel Castle in Cracow, Antwerp, 1972, pp. 191 - 286). Jan van Tieghem is believed to have woven them in the 1550s or 1560s.
The rise in interest in such animal-tapestries during the period may originate in the great geographical discoveries and their accounts that became more widely known at the time. The menageries that existed at the royal and princely courts likely formed the basis for the artist that painted these designs. Many scenes are based on ideas from the research and scientific conclusions drawn by learned men from antiquity, such as Aristotle and Pliny, who mixed both reality with fiction. Towards the middle of the 16th Century scientists, such as the Swiss Conrad Gesner, started to publish new findings. These new publications further inspired the popular interest in nature and the subsequent rise in tapestries dealing with this subject matter (idem pp. 191 - 286).
SUBJECT
Pugnae ferarum are sometimes believed to incorporate allegorical meanings and a Christian morality. The overall scheme may be that described at the beginning of Genesis. The animals and plants are freely mixed from every part of the Earth, such as can be imagined after the Great Flood. The battling animals represent the old forces, while man with the divine grace empowering him, represents the new order. The animals are taken from Physiologus' tradition and its moral lessons, but also from Pliny's Natural History, the medieval bestiaries and others. Even the plants may be interpreted into the smallest details as part of this moral lesson. However, it is easy to overextend this interpretation as much of the imagery is probably purely for the pleasure of discovering nature. (M. Röthlisberger, 'La Tenture de la Licorne dans la Collection Borromée', Oud Holland, vol. 82, part 3, 1967, pp. 107 - 108)
PLACE OF MANUFACTURE AND WEAVER
Although few in overall number, tapestries of this type were manufactured in many weaving centres. Similar subjects, depicting a wild cat combating a donkey, a fox killing a cockerel, and a lion attacking a sheep and a deer, survive in the Château-Musée, Gaasbeek, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Philadelphia Museum of Art, respectively, all signed by the Enghien weaver Hendrick van der Cammen who executed these tapestries in the second quarter 17th Century (G. Delmarcel, Tapisseries anciennes d'Enghien, Mons, 1980, cats. 24 - 26, pp. 56 - 61).
It is interesting to note in that respect that the maidens suspending drapery in the upper corners of the borders reoccur in a set of tapestries from the third quarter of the 16th century depicting The Story of Jacob in the Museo Arqueologico Nacional, Madrid, that are firmly attributed to Enghien (Delmarcel, op. cit.., cats 35 - 40, pp. 78 - 89). However, as Delmarcel points out, the figures in the borders are more common in Brussels and must have been copied by Enghien weavers. Indeed, the same figures, including similar personifications on chariots to the lower corners, all against a similarly light background can be found in a set of five tapestries from The Story of Abraham of the second half 16th century that originally came from the Barberini Collection, Rome, and that are now in Boston (A. Cavallo, Textiles, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, 1986, cat. 11, pp. 58 - 65). Unfortunately the signature of the weaver has become illegible through restorations, but two suggestions are those of Jan van Tieghem, the author of the Cracow series, and Frans Geubels, who may have been the only one to use this border at the time. Both suggestions are possible as Tieghem wove the Cracow series and Geubels is recorded as having woven hunting and animal tapestries (E. Duverger, 'Tapijtwerk uit het Atelier van Frans Geubels', De Bloetijd van de vlaamse Tapijtkunst, Brussels, 1969, pp. 91 - 204).
A further set of tapestries with very similar border figures depicting The Story of Jacob is in San Francisco (A. Gray Bennett, Five Centuries of Tapestry from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, 1992, cat. 28, pp. 120 - 126). Some of these tapestries bear the signature of Pieter van Aelst, who interestingly collaborated on the tapestries in Cracow.
A further, highly important group of pugnae ferarum tapestries belong to prince Borromeo and decorate his palace at Isola Bella (Röthlisberger, op. cit., pp. 85 - 115). Particularly striking when comparing these tapestries to this lot is the dense scattering of animals surrounding the main protagonists as well as the drawing of the animals with the prominent use of vegetation to the centre. The Isola Bella tapestries are attributed to Willem Tons of Brussels by Roethlisberger and are believed to date from circa 1565. M. Hennel-Bernasikowa, who researched the Cracow tapestries, on the other hand has identified Pieter Coecke van Aelst of Antwerp as its designer.
It is probable, on the basis of comparisons, that the Isola Bella and Cracow tapestries were designed in the same workshop as this tapestry and may even have been woven by the same weaver, such as Jan van Tieghem and the other still unidentified workshops. The probability of the same designer having worked on all these sets is heightened by the re-appearance of identically drawn animals such as the tortoise and the bird perched to the right in the Cracow tapestries and illustrated in Szablowski, op. cit., pp. 261 and 272, respectively. The flying parrot, on the other hand is identical to that in the Isola Bella tapestry illustrated in Roethlisberger, op. cit., p. 90.
DESIGNER
According to Röthlisberger there are very few literary references to Willem Tons. Van Mander mentions 'before our times there was in Brussels a good master named Willem Tons who excelled in the painting of tapestry models. He introduced many types of trees, plants, animals, birds, eagles, etc, all very well painted from nature'. The next mention is by Felbien in his Entretiens sur la vie des peintres of 1685 specifying 'one named Tons, great landscape painter, who worked on the Maximilian's Hunts' and then again in 1724 in Sauval's Antiquités de Paris that praises 'le plus grand paysagiste qui ait jamais existé'.
M Hennel-Bernaskiowa has found a drawing in the British Museum that is attributed to the workshop of Pieter Coecke van Aelst (d. 1550) and that depicts very similar animals in a forest, including the famous Dürer rhinoceros, to support her argument (M. Ferrero Viale, 'Quelques nouvelles données sur les tapisseries de l'Isola Bella', L'Art brabançon au milieu du XVIe siècle et les tapisseries du château de Wawel à Cracovie, Brussels, 1974, p. 109). Pieter Coecke van Aelst is believed to have studied under Bernard van Orley. He travelled to Italy in 1527 and was sent to Constantinople by the Dermoyen firm in 1533, an experience that resonates in many of his works as they often display Ottoman costumes. Three tapestry series have been firmly attributed to him, The Life of St. Paul, The Life of Joshua and The Seven Deadly Sins, and many bear resemblance to his style but cannot be ascribed to him with certainty.