.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
HISTORY OF MILLEFLEURS
This striking tapestry represents the last flowering of the millefleurs tradition epitomizing the courtly medieaval ideal of a 'ver perpetuum', or eternal spring. The millefleurs design in tapestries evolved in circa 1450 -1460 but remained popular until the mid-16th Century. The wide variations in quality, the relative short period in which they were produced and the number of pieces known, indicate that numerous workshops made this type of tapestry.
ATTRIBUTION
The denseness and colouring of the flowers allows for an attribution to Bruges for this type of millefleurs. A pair of tapestries, formerly with Blondeel and Deroyan, with a more elaborate central cartouche depicting The Story of Abraham, but on a similar ground, bears the town mark of Bruges on the outer slip (G. Delmarcel and E. Duverger, 'Bruges et la Tapisserie', exhibition catalogue, Bruges, 1987, pp. 188 - 189, figs. 3/8 and 3/9). A further tapestry, more closely related to this tapestry with a landscape medallion within a wreath headed by a similar cherub's head, can on the basis of its border, be related to the Abraham tapestries (op. cit., p. 189, fig.) and links the offered lot to this group.
COMPARABLE EXAMPLES
Examples of this type include a tapestry of circa 1540 - 1545 with the arms of Paolo Giovio of Como now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (C. Adelson, European Tapestry in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 1994, p. 111, fig. 50) and a six medallion version which is illustrated in H. Göbel, Tapestries of the Lowlands, New York, 1924, fig. 253. A tapestry with a single medallion also depicting a pastoral scene was sold anonymously at Christie's, London, 13 November 2003, lot 179.
This striking tapestry represents the last flowering of the millefleurs tradition epitomizing the courtly medieaval ideal of a 'ver perpetuum', or eternal spring. The millefleurs design in tapestries evolved in circa 1450 -1460 but remained popular until the mid-16th Century. The wide variations in quality, the relative short period in which they were produced and the number of pieces known, indicate that numerous workshops made this type of tapestry.
ATTRIBUTION
The denseness and colouring of the flowers allows for an attribution to Bruges for this type of millefleurs. A pair of tapestries, formerly with Blondeel and Deroyan, with a more elaborate central cartouche depicting The Story of Abraham, but on a similar ground, bears the town mark of Bruges on the outer slip (G. Delmarcel and E. Duverger, 'Bruges et la Tapisserie', exhibition catalogue, Bruges, 1987, pp. 188 - 189, figs. 3/8 and 3/9). A further tapestry, more closely related to this tapestry with a landscape medallion within a wreath headed by a similar cherub's head, can on the basis of its border, be related to the Abraham tapestries (op. cit., p. 189, fig.) and links the offered lot to this group.
COMPARABLE EXAMPLES
Examples of this type include a tapestry of circa 1540 - 1545 with the arms of Paolo Giovio of Como now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (C. Adelson, European Tapestry in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 1994, p. 111, fig. 50) and a six medallion version which is illustrated in H. Göbel, Tapestries of the Lowlands, New York, 1924, fig. 253. A tapestry with a single medallion also depicting a pastoral scene was sold anonymously at Christie's, London, 13 November 2003, lot 179.