A FLEMISH MYTHOLOGICAL TAPESTRY

FIRST HALF 18TH CENTURY

Details

A FLEMISH MYTHOLOGICAL TAPESTRY
FIRST HALF 18TH CENTURY
Woven in wools and silks, depicting Diana and attendant with two dogs, discovering Endymion and a dog lying by a pool of water and fountain with a youth pouring water from a vase, in a landscape with a river and ruins, a large fortified building, a forest and hilly landscape in the background, within an inner slip, a floral and foliate scrolling border to each side, a lappeted outer slip and a further blue outer slip, the foliate border lacking to top and bottom, the blue outer slip to top and bottom later, minor reweaving and patching
8 ft. 5 in. x 14 ft. 5 in. (257 x 435 cm.)

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Victoria von Westenholz

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Lot Essay

Diana, the huntress and moon goddess, is here in the unusual role of lover and has fallen for the beautiful youth Endymion. There are several variants to the myth and one describes that Endymion had been sent to sleep by Jupiter in return for having been granted perpetual youth, while another explains it as a punishment by Jupiter for Endymion having fallen in love with his wife Juno. He was visited nightly by Diana who bore him fifty daughters while he lay asleep in a cave on Mount Latmus in Caria. Another myth tells that Endymion was put to sleep by Diana herself so that she might enjoy his beauty undisturbed.

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