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Lot Essay
THE DESIGN
'Feuilles de Choux' tapestries, so-called because of the mass of huge cabbage-like leaves dominating their fields, are among the most striking and mysterious of all tapestries. The wild, untamed nature of the foliage of 'feuilles de choux' tapestries, almost surrealistic in its imagery, first appeared at the beginning of the second quarter of the 16th Century and probably evolved from millefleurs tapestries. Large-leaf verdure tapestries introduced a three-dimensional and naturalistic appearance that was reinforced by the inclusion of naturalistic birds and occasionally mythological animals.
COMPARABLE TAPESTRIES AND ATTRIBUTION:
A tapestry that almost certainly originates from the same workshop or same designer as this tapestry is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (A. Cavallo, Tapestries of Europe and of Colonial Peru in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 1967, vol. I, cat. 28, pp. 108 - 109, vol. II, p. 28). Not only are the large 'cabbage' leaves serrated and twisted in the same, distinctive manner, but also it has nearly identical side borders. Such close parallels are rare to find for this type of feuilles de choux, indicating that their origin must be very closely related. Interestingly, the Boston tapestry bears a weaver's mark that unfortunately is unidentified, but which relates to those of the van der Cammen and Nicolaus de Dobbeleer of Enghien and an unidentified weaver of Brussels. The same mark is said to be on a verdure tapestry at Leeds Castle, Kent.
The borders of these tapestries are further very closely related to two examples in the Austrian State Collection which bear the town mark of Grammont (Geraardsbergen) and which are believed to date from 1540 - 1550 (L. Baldass, Die Wiener Gobelinssammlung, Vienna, 1920, plates 105 - 106). A further tapestry that includes side borders that use the same design for the tall lanceolate leaves and their nearly identical vases is in the Musée du Cinquantenaire, Brussels (M. Crick-Kuntziger, Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst en Geschiedenis te Brussel, Catalogus van de Wandtapijten, Brussels, circa 1956, cat. 41, p. 54, plate 50b). The foliage of the central panel is also related to a fragmentary example that survives in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (C. Adelson, European Tapestry in The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 1994, cat. 10, pp. 116 - 121).
'Feuilles de Choux' tapestries, so-called because of the mass of huge cabbage-like leaves dominating their fields, are among the most striking and mysterious of all tapestries. The wild, untamed nature of the foliage of 'feuilles de choux' tapestries, almost surrealistic in its imagery, first appeared at the beginning of the second quarter of the 16th Century and probably evolved from millefleurs tapestries. Large-leaf verdure tapestries introduced a three-dimensional and naturalistic appearance that was reinforced by the inclusion of naturalistic birds and occasionally mythological animals.
COMPARABLE TAPESTRIES AND ATTRIBUTION:
A tapestry that almost certainly originates from the same workshop or same designer as this tapestry is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (A. Cavallo, Tapestries of Europe and of Colonial Peru in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 1967, vol. I, cat. 28, pp. 108 - 109, vol. II, p. 28). Not only are the large 'cabbage' leaves serrated and twisted in the same, distinctive manner, but also it has nearly identical side borders. Such close parallels are rare to find for this type of feuilles de choux, indicating that their origin must be very closely related. Interestingly, the Boston tapestry bears a weaver's mark that unfortunately is unidentified, but which relates to those of the van der Cammen and Nicolaus de Dobbeleer of Enghien and an unidentified weaver of Brussels. The same mark is said to be on a verdure tapestry at Leeds Castle, Kent.
The borders of these tapestries are further very closely related to two examples in the Austrian State Collection which bear the town mark of Grammont (Geraardsbergen) and which are believed to date from 1540 - 1550 (L. Baldass, Die Wiener Gobelinssammlung, Vienna, 1920, plates 105 - 106). A further tapestry that includes side borders that use the same design for the tall lanceolate leaves and their nearly identical vases is in the Musée du Cinquantenaire, Brussels (M. Crick-Kuntziger, Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst en Geschiedenis te Brussel, Catalogus van de Wandtapijten, Brussels, circa 1956, cat. 41, p. 54, plate 50b). The foliage of the central panel is also related to a fragmentary example that survives in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (C. Adelson, European Tapestry in The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 1994, cat. 10, pp. 116 - 121).