A BRUSSELS MYTHOLOGICAL TAPESTRY

LATE 17TH EARLY 18TH CENTURY, AFTER DESIGNS BY JAN VAN ORLEY (1765-1794)

Details

A BRUSSELS MYTHOLOGICAL TAPESTRY
Late 17th Early 18th Century, After designs by Jan van Orley (1765-1794)
Depicting "The Concert of Apollo" and woven with seven of the nine muses with their instruments, Apollo appears overhead in a cloud, holding his lyre, Diana raises a sunburst over his head
8ft. 8in. x 13ft. 5in. (264cm. x 409cm.)

Lot Essay

The present tapestry is from a series depicting the 'Triumphs of the Gods' which was composed of at least five pieces including the Triumph of Diana, Mars, Minerva and Venus. The cartoons have been attributed to Jan van Orley (1665-1735), a painter and one of the leading designers in Brussels and Augustin Coppens, who provided the landscape backgrounds. A more complete version of this tapestry signed by Frans van der Borgh (active 1720-1765) was sold Htel Drouet 24-25 March 1954, lot 252; it included the other two muses on the far right.

A series of the 'Triumphs of the Gods' commissioned in 1716 for the castle governor's house in Ghent are signed 'F. DVL ET HR' (Daniel and Urban Leyniers and Henry Reydams). One tapestry bears the arms of the Vieux Bourg family (Chtellenie du Vieux Bourg, Ghent) see R. D'Hulst, Tapisseries Flamandes du XIVe au XVIIIe sicle, Brussels, 1960, pp. 289-293.