OUDENAARDE, SECOND HALF 16TH CENTURY

Large-Leaf Verdure or ‘Feuilles-de-Choux’ Tapestries, with this distinctive ground of exuberantly scrolling acanthus leaves, were woven in the second half of the 16th century in several weaving centres, including Grammont, Bruges, Enghien and Oudenaarde. The distinctive curved balustrade that appears to shield the viewer from the thicket of the scrolling foliage and the wild beasts within can similarly be found on an Oudenaarde tapestry in the Art Institute of Chicago, while the central stag, about to jump the balustrade, can be found in a related tapestry at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see G. Delmarcel, Flemish Tapestries, London, 1999, pp. 191-194 and A. Cavallo, Medieval Tapestries in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993, pp. 600-607, No. 52 a & b respectively).