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Lot Essay
PRINCESSE DE CONTI
Marie-Anne, the legitimized daughter of Louis XIV and Louise Françoise de La Baume Le Blanc, created duchesse de la Vallière (in 1667) et de Vaujours, was born in 1666. Her mother was one of the favorite mistresses of Louis XIV, named his official mistress upon the death of Anne of Austria in 1666, and bore him five children. Louise Françoise came to the court through marriages of her mother and met Louis XIV when she was 17. She was offered to live in the Royal Palace upon her first pregnancy in 1663. When demoiselle Tonnay Charente, later the marquise de Montespan, arrived at the court, Louise Françoise lost her favorite status and was given the château de Vaujour in Tourraine as consolation. Not being able to bare the separation she received permission from Louis XIV to retire to a monastery in 1674.
Marie-Anne, Louis XIV's and Louise Françoise's daughter, was bestowed the title of Princesse de France and Duchesse de la Vallière. When she married Louis Armand I de Bourbon, Prince de Conti in 1680 at the age of 13, became known as 'La grande Princesse de Conti'. Louis Armand (b. 1661) had succeeded his father in 1666 and served with distinction in Flanders in 1683. He fought with the Imperialists to defeat the Turks at Gran in 1683 before dying of illness in 1685. The Princess never remarried and died in 1739.
CHOISY-LE-ROI
Just outside old Paris on the Seine the château de Choisy was acquired by Anne-Marie-Louise d'Orleans, duchesse de Montpensier in 1680 for 40,000 livres. Jacques IV Gabriel was entrusted with the extensive rebuilding of the chàteau. She then bequeathed it to the Dauphin in 1695 but Louis XIV disliked the frequent trips by his son so much that he exchanged the gift for Meudon. The château passed to the marquise de Louvois, whose descendants decided to sell it to the Princesse de Conti upon her death on 2 December 1715. Upon her death Louis XV acquired the chàteau with its contents and enlarged it. He particularly liked the convenient placement of the chàteau between Versailles and Fontainebleau and renamed it Choisy-le-Roi. It was subsequently abandoned in 1789 and the building was razed to the ground in the early 19th century.
Choisy-le-Roi served as a pleasure chàteau to both Louis XV and Louis XVI and is eloquently described by the Dauphine 'from one o'clock (in the afternoon) when we dine, to one o'clock at night we remain out. . . After dining we play until six o'clock, after which we go to the theater, which lasts until half-past nine o'clock, and next, to supper; after this, play again, until one, and sometimes half-past one, o'clock.'
HISTORY OF THE SERIES
The set to which this magnificent tapestry belongs is directly based on an early 16th century series designed by Giulio Romano. The Garde Meuble owned as series no. 33 a set which entered the Royal Collection from the Hôtel de Guise in 1661 and which was described in the inventory of 1789 as:
33. Les Douze Mois avec Crotesques. - Une tenture de tapisserie de laine et soye, rehaussé d'or, fabrique de Bruxelles, dessein de Julles Romain, représentant les Douze Mois de l'année avec crotesques et paysages, sur un fonds rouge, dans une bordure fonds d'or, avec festons de fleurs et de fruits; au milieu de celle d'en hault est un escriteau qui marque le mois; dans le milieu de celle d'en bas,un camayeu couleur de bronze, soustenu de deuz figures; , en douze pièces doublées à plein de toille verte.
Alas, this very rich set met with the same fate as so many Royal tapestries during the Revolution and was burnt in 1797 to extract the gold and silver it contained.
The Brussels version of August, an example of which by Cornelis de Ronde (d. 1569) survives in Vienna (L. Baldass, Die Wiener Gobelinssammlung, Vienna, 1920, vol. I, cat. 126) is larger, but the central motives, with the exception of the Goddess, is essentially identical. The borders are very much maintained in the same character and include identical lion's masks to the top corners as well as similar figures to the sides and corners.
The Royal Gobelins workshop copied this series in reverse for the first time in 1686 - 87 for the Trianon. It was identical to this tapestry with the exception that a God was prominently featured in the central arcade; For August that was Ceres. M. Fenaille in his Etat Général des Tapisseries de la Manufacture des Gobelins, Paris, 1903, vol. II, mentions in the descriptions of the various subjects of the series that there is a cartoon for a wheat sharer that was drawn by Chastelain to replace Ceres. This specially commissioned series was the second and last weaving of this subject, which was inventoried as no. 229 in the Mobilier de la Couronne. It was recorded in the chàteau de Choisy upon the Princess' death on 3 May 1739 as follows:
Item trois pièces de tapisseries des Gobelins, dans le goût de portiques, paysages et grotesques, contenant 12 aunes de cours sur 3 aunes un quart environ de haut, lesquelles ne seront point prisées en cet endroit, et sont jointes avec trois autres pareilles pièces qui sont dans l'appartement du Roy pour du tout n'en faire q'un seul article de prisée.
Item trois pièces de tapisserie des Gobelins, dans le goût de portiques, paysages et grotesques, faisant avec les 3 pièces cy-dessus dans l'appartement dudit lit blanc l'aunage de 19 aunes sur la hauteur de 3 aunes et un quart, prisé de tout ensemble 7,600 livres.
The tapestries are again mentioned in the Royal 1789 inventory at Choisy-le-Roi with measurements and the annotation 'Fort jolie et dans le meilleur état'. By 1900 two tapestries of the set of six, April and December, remained in the chàteau de Pau and the Garde Meuble, although they appear to have been cut up into smaller fragments. June remains in a private collection and is illustrated in Les Fastes de la Tapisserie, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1984, cat. 28, pp. 64 - 65, while September remained with August until their sale in 1993, and is now in a private collection. The last subject is unrecorded and untraced.
The reference to Chastelain by Fenaille is interesting as Charles Chastelain (d. 1755) does not appear in the accounts of Gobelins until 1709. This implies that the Conti tapestries must almost certainly have been woven after that date and probably before the death of Louis XIV.
Marie-Anne, the legitimized daughter of Louis XIV and Louise Françoise de La Baume Le Blanc, created duchesse de la Vallière (in 1667) et de Vaujours, was born in 1666. Her mother was one of the favorite mistresses of Louis XIV, named his official mistress upon the death of Anne of Austria in 1666, and bore him five children. Louise Françoise came to the court through marriages of her mother and met Louis XIV when she was 17. She was offered to live in the Royal Palace upon her first pregnancy in 1663. When demoiselle Tonnay Charente, later the marquise de Montespan, arrived at the court, Louise Françoise lost her favorite status and was given the château de Vaujour in Tourraine as consolation. Not being able to bare the separation she received permission from Louis XIV to retire to a monastery in 1674.
Marie-Anne, Louis XIV's and Louise Françoise's daughter, was bestowed the title of Princesse de France and Duchesse de la Vallière. When she married Louis Armand I de Bourbon, Prince de Conti in 1680 at the age of 13, became known as 'La grande Princesse de Conti'. Louis Armand (b. 1661) had succeeded his father in 1666 and served with distinction in Flanders in 1683. He fought with the Imperialists to defeat the Turks at Gran in 1683 before dying of illness in 1685. The Princess never remarried and died in 1739.
CHOISY-LE-ROI
Just outside old Paris on the Seine the château de Choisy was acquired by Anne-Marie-Louise d'Orleans, duchesse de Montpensier in 1680 for 40,000 livres. Jacques IV Gabriel was entrusted with the extensive rebuilding of the chàteau. She then bequeathed it to the Dauphin in 1695 but Louis XIV disliked the frequent trips by his son so much that he exchanged the gift for Meudon. The château passed to the marquise de Louvois, whose descendants decided to sell it to the Princesse de Conti upon her death on 2 December 1715. Upon her death Louis XV acquired the chàteau with its contents and enlarged it. He particularly liked the convenient placement of the chàteau between Versailles and Fontainebleau and renamed it Choisy-le-Roi. It was subsequently abandoned in 1789 and the building was razed to the ground in the early 19th century.
Choisy-le-Roi served as a pleasure chàteau to both Louis XV and Louis XVI and is eloquently described by the Dauphine 'from one o'clock (in the afternoon) when we dine, to one o'clock at night we remain out. . . After dining we play until six o'clock, after which we go to the theater, which lasts until half-past nine o'clock, and next, to supper; after this, play again, until one, and sometimes half-past one, o'clock.'
HISTORY OF THE SERIES
The set to which this magnificent tapestry belongs is directly based on an early 16th century series designed by Giulio Romano. The Garde Meuble owned as series no. 33 a set which entered the Royal Collection from the Hôtel de Guise in 1661 and which was described in the inventory of 1789 as:
33. Les Douze Mois avec Crotesques. - Une tenture de tapisserie de laine et soye, rehaussé d'or, fabrique de Bruxelles, dessein de Julles Romain, représentant les Douze Mois de l'année avec crotesques et paysages, sur un fonds rouge, dans une bordure fonds d'or, avec festons de fleurs et de fruits; au milieu de celle d'en hault est un escriteau qui marque le mois; dans le milieu de celle d'en bas,un camayeu couleur de bronze, soustenu de deuz figures; , en douze pièces doublées à plein de toille verte.
Alas, this very rich set met with the same fate as so many Royal tapestries during the Revolution and was burnt in 1797 to extract the gold and silver it contained.
The Brussels version of August, an example of which by Cornelis de Ronde (d. 1569) survives in Vienna (L. Baldass, Die Wiener Gobelinssammlung, Vienna, 1920, vol. I, cat. 126) is larger, but the central motives, with the exception of the Goddess, is essentially identical. The borders are very much maintained in the same character and include identical lion's masks to the top corners as well as similar figures to the sides and corners.
The Royal Gobelins workshop copied this series in reverse for the first time in 1686 - 87 for the Trianon. It was identical to this tapestry with the exception that a God was prominently featured in the central arcade; For August that was Ceres. M. Fenaille in his Etat Général des Tapisseries de la Manufacture des Gobelins, Paris, 1903, vol. II, mentions in the descriptions of the various subjects of the series that there is a cartoon for a wheat sharer that was drawn by Chastelain to replace Ceres. This specially commissioned series was the second and last weaving of this subject, which was inventoried as no. 229 in the Mobilier de la Couronne. It was recorded in the chàteau de Choisy upon the Princess' death on 3 May 1739 as follows:
Item trois pièces de tapisseries des Gobelins, dans le goût de portiques, paysages et grotesques, contenant 12 aunes de cours sur 3 aunes un quart environ de haut, lesquelles ne seront point prisées en cet endroit, et sont jointes avec trois autres pareilles pièces qui sont dans l'appartement du Roy pour du tout n'en faire q'un seul article de prisée.
Item trois pièces de tapisserie des Gobelins, dans le goût de portiques, paysages et grotesques, faisant avec les 3 pièces cy-dessus dans l'appartement dudit lit blanc l'aunage de 19 aunes sur la hauteur de 3 aunes et un quart, prisé de tout ensemble 7,600 livres.
The tapestries are again mentioned in the Royal 1789 inventory at Choisy-le-Roi with measurements and the annotation 'Fort jolie et dans le meilleur état'. By 1900 two tapestries of the set of six, April and December, remained in the chàteau de Pau and the Garde Meuble, although they appear to have been cut up into smaller fragments. June remains in a private collection and is illustrated in Les Fastes de la Tapisserie, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1984, cat. 28, pp. 64 - 65, while September remained with August until their sale in 1993, and is now in a private collection. The last subject is unrecorded and untraced.
The reference to Chastelain by Fenaille is interesting as Charles Chastelain (d. 1755) does not appear in the accounts of Gobelins until 1709. This implies that the Conti tapestries must almost certainly have been woven after that date and probably before the death of Louis XIV.