a northern netherlands historical tapestry

17TH CENTURY

Details

a northern netherlands historical tapestry
17th Century
Woven in wools and silks, depicting Cleopatra's banquet, with Cleopatra holding a pearl between her finger and thumb about to dissolve it in her glass of wine, Mark Antony seated at a laid table, resting his right foot on a stool and entertaining Cleopatra, courtiers and Antony's companion Enobardus, the 'red-bearded' in the back, servants going to and fro carrying foot and drink, a servant near a basin with a ewer and a warrior in the foreground, in the background a balustrated building with horn blowers and a wooded landscape, the sides with solomonic columns with trailed vine and Corinthian capitals, the upper border with a crown, a sword and a sceptre in a cartouche flanked by swags of flower-heads, fruits, vine and foliage, the lower border with a moulded plinth with stylized fleurs-de-lis, worn, overall restorations
375cm. x 432cm.

Lot Essay

The scene theatrically framed by twisted columns and emphatic repoussoir gives a good impression of the Baroque style.

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has five tapestries from the Orestes and Iphigenia series with almost identical sides and lower borders. These tapestries date from circa 1650 and are from the workshop of Pieter the Cracht. The designs are attributed to Jan or Salomon de Bray. One of the series, Orestes and Pylades brought in captivity before Iphigenia, Priestess of Diana, is illustrated in Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Wandtapijten 2, Amsterdam, 1971, fig. 23.

See illustration

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