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拍品專文
HISTORY OF THE DESIGN
The Portières de Mars tapestry belongs to a group of Portières that included the Renommés, Lion, Licorne and the Char de Triomphe, all probably designed by Charles Le Brun (d. 1690) while working for Nicolas Fouquet (d. 1680) and running his private tapestry workshop at Maincy. The early history of the weaving and the designs of this group is unclear. The tapestries were first woven at Maincy, which mainly supplied tapestries to the finance minister's château de Vaux-le-Vicomte. After the fall from power of Fouquet in September 1661, the workshop was moved to the hôtel des Gobelins under Jean-Baptiste Colbert (d. 1683). Louis XIV approved the weaving of the Portières while Colbert also had them woven for himself with his emblem of a snake in the central cartouche.
Four designs by Le Brun for the series survive, two for the Renommés and one for the Licorne (of which no woven examples are known), and one for the Mars. It is believed that the latter was designed while Le Brun was working at Maincy, but the preparations of the central cartouche for the double coat-of-arms and the Order of the Saint Esprit would indicate that it was always intended for the King. The designs seem to have been translated to cartoons by Baudouin Yvart for Maincy in 1659 - 1660 and by François van der Meulen, Joseph Yvart and Pierre Mathieu at Gobelins thereafter.
WEAVINGS
Gobelins wove a total of approximately sixty-seven tapestries to the Portières de Mars design in nine weavings, usually accompanied by an equal number of Portières du Char de Triomphe between 1662 and 1724 (Forty eight versions were completed before 1703 and nineteen more between 1714 and 1726). Two weavings of a total of 12 tapestries from the series were woven with gold thread. The lack of a weaver's signature, date or Royal inventory number on this tapestry makes it impossible to ascribe a specific weaver or date of manufacture.
These Portières were used year-round in the Royal parade rooms to cover doorways where they remained used throughout the 18th century. No less than sixty-three such heraldic tapestries still decorated Versailles in 1789, of which twenty-five to this design. However, few survive today due to the use as door covers and the rich use of Royal emblems, which were destroyed during the Revolution and only twelve remained in the garde-meuble by 1900. It is interesting to note that not all the tapestries were actually kept in France; five were sent to the Académie in Rome in 1726 ant two were given to Baron af Spaar, the Swedish Ambassador to Paris in 1717.
A tapestry of this design, but inversed is in the Mobilier National, France, and illustrated in Les Gobelins, Trois Siècles de Tapisserie, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1965, cat 1, p. 15 and others are at château de Pau and at château de Chambord.
(M. Fenaille, Etat Général des Tapisseries de la Manufacture des Gobelins, Paris, 1903, vol. II, pp. 9 - 15; H. Göbel, Die Wandteppiche und ihre Manufakturen, in Frankreich Italian Spanien und Portugal, Leipzig, 1928, vol. I, pp. 120 - 121; C. Bremer-David, French Tapestries & Textiles in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 1997, pp. 4 - 8)
The Portières de Mars tapestry belongs to a group of Portières that included the Renommés, Lion, Licorne and the Char de Triomphe, all probably designed by Charles Le Brun (d. 1690) while working for Nicolas Fouquet (d. 1680) and running his private tapestry workshop at Maincy. The early history of the weaving and the designs of this group is unclear. The tapestries were first woven at Maincy, which mainly supplied tapestries to the finance minister's château de Vaux-le-Vicomte. After the fall from power of Fouquet in September 1661, the workshop was moved to the hôtel des Gobelins under Jean-Baptiste Colbert (d. 1683). Louis XIV approved the weaving of the Portières while Colbert also had them woven for himself with his emblem of a snake in the central cartouche.
Four designs by Le Brun for the series survive, two for the Renommés and one for the Licorne (of which no woven examples are known), and one for the Mars. It is believed that the latter was designed while Le Brun was working at Maincy, but the preparations of the central cartouche for the double coat-of-arms and the Order of the Saint Esprit would indicate that it was always intended for the King. The designs seem to have been translated to cartoons by Baudouin Yvart for Maincy in 1659 - 1660 and by François van der Meulen, Joseph Yvart and Pierre Mathieu at Gobelins thereafter.
WEAVINGS
Gobelins wove a total of approximately sixty-seven tapestries to the Portières de Mars design in nine weavings, usually accompanied by an equal number of Portières du Char de Triomphe between 1662 and 1724 (Forty eight versions were completed before 1703 and nineteen more between 1714 and 1726). Two weavings of a total of 12 tapestries from the series were woven with gold thread. The lack of a weaver's signature, date or Royal inventory number on this tapestry makes it impossible to ascribe a specific weaver or date of manufacture.
These Portières were used year-round in the Royal parade rooms to cover doorways where they remained used throughout the 18th century. No less than sixty-three such heraldic tapestries still decorated Versailles in 1789, of which twenty-five to this design. However, few survive today due to the use as door covers and the rich use of Royal emblems, which were destroyed during the Revolution and only twelve remained in the garde-meuble by 1900. It is interesting to note that not all the tapestries were actually kept in France; five were sent to the Académie in Rome in 1726 ant two were given to Baron af Spaar, the Swedish Ambassador to Paris in 1717.
A tapestry of this design, but inversed is in the Mobilier National, France, and illustrated in Les Gobelins, Trois Siècles de Tapisserie, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1965, cat 1, p. 15 and others are at château de Pau and at château de Chambord.
(M. Fenaille, Etat Général des Tapisseries de la Manufacture des Gobelins, Paris, 1903, vol. II, pp. 9 - 15; H. Göbel, Die Wandteppiche und ihre Manufakturen, in Frankreich Italian Spanien und Portugal, Leipzig, 1928, vol. I, pp. 120 - 121; C. Bremer-David, French Tapestries & Textiles in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 1997, pp. 4 - 8)