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拍品專文
SUBJECT
This tapestry forms part of the exotic and highly elaborate l'Histoire de l'Empereur de la Chine series, illustrating the life of the Chinese Emperor, believed to be Shun Chih (reigned 1644 - 1661). The series traditionally included The Audience of the Emperor, The Emperor Sailing, The Empress Sailing, Gathering Pineapples, The Astronomers, The Return from the Hunt, The Empress' Tea, The Collation, The Gathering of Tea (as yet unidentified) and The Emperor on a Journey, with many of the images are based on Johan Nieuhof's Legatio batavica ad magnum Tartatiae chamum sungteium, modernum sinae imperatorem of 1665. Nieuhof's engravings derived from the 1655-57 visit of a delegation of the Dutch East India Company to China, while the botanical details appear to have been inspired by Athanasius Kircher's China Monumentis qua Sacris qua Profanis of 1667.
THE DESIGNERS AND FIRST WEAVING
The first set of l'Histoire de l'Empereur de la Chine, consisting of nine or ten subjects, was woven when Philippe Behagle (d. 1705) was the directeur of the Royal Beauvais Tapestry Manufactory. In a memorandum of tapestries made during his directorship Behagle mentions this series: 'Chinoise faict par quatre illustre peintre'. Noël-Antoine Mérou (director 1722-1734) further reveals in a document of 1731 : 'Une Tenture du dessin des chinois, par les sieurs Batiste, Fontenay et Vernensal, en six pièces'. The painters referred to are Guy Vernansal (d. 1729), the flower-painter Jean-Baptiste Belin de Fontenay (d. 1715) and Baptiste (the name used by contemporaries for the flower-painter Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer (d. 1699) and an unidentified fourth painter. Vernansal's signature on various models implies that he was the main designer of the series while the exact dating of the first woven set is difficult to ascertain with certainty. It is probable that it was after Behagle took over the directorship in 1684 but before Monnoyer left for England in 1690. A further undated memorandum by Behagle states that the first set, woven with gold-thread (rarely used by Beauvais) was 'vendu par M. d'Isrodeà Monseigneur le duc du Maine (Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, d. 1736) for 20,000 livres. M. d'Isrode, who later had two further sets made, acted as an intermediary, while the set was actually manufactured for Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, duc du Maine (1670-1736).
ORIGINS
The success of the series was undoubtedly due to the increased interest in China at the end of the 17th century, which was already manifested with the importation of enormous quantities of goods from the Far East to France by the Compagnie des Indes Orientales. The enthusiasm was further heightened when the Mercure Galant published a long description of the travels of father Couplet to China in 1684. The young duc du Maine, the legitimized son of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan, met the Jesuit Couplet (d. 1693) and his Chinese convert, Michael Alphonusus Shen Fu-Tsung (d. 1691), when they first returned from China and was deeply interested in his adventures. A second event that possibly arose even more interest was Louis XIV's glamorous reception at Versailles for the ambassadors of Siam on 1 September 1686 who had been sent by the King of Siam Phra Narai (d. 1688). Among the participants in the reception at Versailles was again the duc du Maine, illustrated in an etching in the Almanach Royal of 1687 recording the presenting of the gifts to Louis XIV. The ambassadors of Siam are even recorded visiting the site of the Beauvais tapestry workshop in October of 1686.
COMPARABLE EXAMPLES
A set of six tapestries (originally 10) from this series executed for Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, comte de Toulouse and duc de Penthièvre (d. 1737), which was woven between 1697 and 1705, is in The J. Paul Getty Museum (Bremer-David, op. cit., cat. 9, pp. 80-97). A tapestry depicting the Emperor Sailing from the Akram Ojjeh Collection and originally supplied to Frangois-Louis (d.1732), Count Palatine and Prince Elector, in circa 1710, was sold Christie's Monaco, 12 December 1999, lot 21. Two tapestries with identical borders originally from the collection of the Earl of Cadogan and depicting The Emperor Sailing and Gathering Pineapples, was sold at Christie's, New York, 21 October 2004.
(C. Bremer-David, 'Tapestries in the Wernher Collection', Apollo, May 2002, pp. 29 - 34, C. Bremer-David, French Tapestries & Textiles in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 1997, pp. 80 - 97, E. Standen, European Post-Medieval Tapestries and Related Hangings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985, vol. II, pp. 461 - 468, F. Windt, Jean II Barraband, Bildteppich 'Die Audienz beim Kaiser von China', Potsdam, 2000).
This tapestry forms part of the exotic and highly elaborate l'Histoire de l'Empereur de la Chine series, illustrating the life of the Chinese Emperor, believed to be Shun Chih (reigned 1644 - 1661). The series traditionally included The Audience of the Emperor, The Emperor Sailing, The Empress Sailing, Gathering Pineapples, The Astronomers, The Return from the Hunt, The Empress' Tea, The Collation, The Gathering of Tea (as yet unidentified) and The Emperor on a Journey, with many of the images are based on Johan Nieuhof's Legatio batavica ad magnum Tartatiae chamum sungteium, modernum sinae imperatorem of 1665. Nieuhof's engravings derived from the 1655-57 visit of a delegation of the Dutch East India Company to China, while the botanical details appear to have been inspired by Athanasius Kircher's China Monumentis qua Sacris qua Profanis of 1667.
THE DESIGNERS AND FIRST WEAVING
The first set of l'Histoire de l'Empereur de la Chine, consisting of nine or ten subjects, was woven when Philippe Behagle (d. 1705) was the directeur of the Royal Beauvais Tapestry Manufactory. In a memorandum of tapestries made during his directorship Behagle mentions this series: 'Chinoise faict par quatre illustre peintre'. Noël-Antoine Mérou (director 1722-1734) further reveals in a document of 1731 : 'Une Tenture du dessin des chinois, par les sieurs Batiste, Fontenay et Vernensal, en six pièces'. The painters referred to are Guy Vernansal (d. 1729), the flower-painter Jean-Baptiste Belin de Fontenay (d. 1715) and Baptiste (the name used by contemporaries for the flower-painter Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer (d. 1699) and an unidentified fourth painter. Vernansal's signature on various models implies that he was the main designer of the series while the exact dating of the first woven set is difficult to ascertain with certainty. It is probable that it was after Behagle took over the directorship in 1684 but before Monnoyer left for England in 1690. A further undated memorandum by Behagle states that the first set, woven with gold-thread (rarely used by Beauvais) was 'vendu par M. d'Isrodeà Monseigneur le duc du Maine (Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, d. 1736) for 20,000 livres. M. d'Isrode, who later had two further sets made, acted as an intermediary, while the set was actually manufactured for Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, duc du Maine (1670-1736).
ORIGINS
The success of the series was undoubtedly due to the increased interest in China at the end of the 17th century, which was already manifested with the importation of enormous quantities of goods from the Far East to France by the Compagnie des Indes Orientales. The enthusiasm was further heightened when the Mercure Galant published a long description of the travels of father Couplet to China in 1684. The young duc du Maine, the legitimized son of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan, met the Jesuit Couplet (d. 1693) and his Chinese convert, Michael Alphonusus Shen Fu-Tsung (d. 1691), when they first returned from China and was deeply interested in his adventures. A second event that possibly arose even more interest was Louis XIV's glamorous reception at Versailles for the ambassadors of Siam on 1 September 1686 who had been sent by the King of Siam Phra Narai (d. 1688). Among the participants in the reception at Versailles was again the duc du Maine, illustrated in an etching in the Almanach Royal of 1687 recording the presenting of the gifts to Louis XIV. The ambassadors of Siam are even recorded visiting the site of the Beauvais tapestry workshop in October of 1686.
COMPARABLE EXAMPLES
A set of six tapestries (originally 10) from this series executed for Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, comte de Toulouse and duc de Penthièvre (d. 1737), which was woven between 1697 and 1705, is in The J. Paul Getty Museum (Bremer-David, op. cit., cat. 9, pp. 80-97). A tapestry depicting the Emperor Sailing from the Akram Ojjeh Collection and originally supplied to Frangois-Louis (d.1732), Count Palatine and Prince Elector, in circa 1710, was sold Christie's Monaco, 12 December 1999, lot 21. Two tapestries with identical borders originally from the collection of the Earl of Cadogan and depicting The Emperor Sailing and Gathering Pineapples, was sold at Christie's, New York, 21 October 2004.
(C. Bremer-David, 'Tapestries in the Wernher Collection', Apollo, May 2002, pp. 29 - 34, C. Bremer-David, French Tapestries & Textiles in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 1997, pp. 80 - 97, E. Standen, European Post-Medieval Tapestries and Related Hangings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985, vol. II, pp. 461 - 468, F. Windt, Jean II Barraband, Bildteppich 'Die Audienz beim Kaiser von China', Potsdam, 2000).