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Lot Essay
Prized by the high nobility of Europe and the New York bankers of the Gilded Age alike, this tapestry illustrates the longstanding supremacy of the Brussels workshops and the influence of the Italian renaissance in the Low Countries during the 16th century. Depicting a scene from the fifth book of the Iliad, where Venus saves her son Aeneas from the Greek hero Diomedes, this tapestry is part of a mythological series ‘The Story of Venus’. The foreground depicts Diomedes towering above the prone Aeneas ready to kill him and Aeneas’s mother Venus rushing forward to save her son. The background depicts the city of Troy and to the right, Venus being wounded in the arm by Diomedes, the conclusion to this scene in the Iliad.
A typical subject for the period, this tapestry displays the Italian influence on the Brussels workshops both in its mannerist aesthetic as well as the renaissance evocation of the myths of classical antiquity. The quality of the design and details of the background in particular make it likely that this tapestry, and the others in its series, follow a design by Bernard van Orley (c. 1487-1591). The Habsburg inheritance of the Low Countries in the late 15th century sustained and augmented the desirability of Flemish, and particularly Brussels, tapestries across their vast domains and the rest of Europe. The presence of six related tapestries of the same series as this taperstry currently in the Spanish Royal Collection (acquired in the 1550s by the Governor of the Netherlands Mary of Hungary (1505-1588) and then inherited by Philip II of Spain (1527-1598)) indicate that the present tapestry was commissioned by a patron of singular importance. The Royal Spanish tapestry ‘Venus saving Aeneas from the wrath of Diomedes’ is of the same design except for minor differences to the background.
J.P. MORGAN AND NORTH MYMMS
The present lot was acquired by John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) and was given on his death to his sister and her husband Mr and Mrs Walter Hayes Burns. J.P. Morgan was the most influential and powerful American banker of the 19th century and dominated the U.S. economy throughout his working life. A great benefactor of art, he amassed a large collection in his homes in America and London and was instrumental in the founding of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After J.P. Morgan’s death, the tapestry and two others from the series The bet of Venus and Cupid and Venus disclosing to Diomedes the conduct of his wife hung in the Burns’ home at North Mymms Park in Hertfordshire.
A late Elizabethan manor house dating from the end of the 16th century, North Mymms Park is one of the architectural jewels of Hertfordshire, and was home to the Coningsby, Hyde and Greville families successively for the bulk of its early history. In 1893 the house was sold to Mr and Mrs Walter Hayes Burns. The Burns extended the house and undertook extensive renovations to the interior and exterior. Home to their large collections, the house was famed in particular for the tapestries acquired by John Pierpont Morgan.
A typical subject for the period, this tapestry displays the Italian influence on the Brussels workshops both in its mannerist aesthetic as well as the renaissance evocation of the myths of classical antiquity. The quality of the design and details of the background in particular make it likely that this tapestry, and the others in its series, follow a design by Bernard van Orley (c. 1487-1591). The Habsburg inheritance of the Low Countries in the late 15th century sustained and augmented the desirability of Flemish, and particularly Brussels, tapestries across their vast domains and the rest of Europe. The presence of six related tapestries of the same series as this taperstry currently in the Spanish Royal Collection (acquired in the 1550s by the Governor of the Netherlands Mary of Hungary (1505-1588) and then inherited by Philip II of Spain (1527-1598)) indicate that the present tapestry was commissioned by a patron of singular importance. The Royal Spanish tapestry ‘Venus saving Aeneas from the wrath of Diomedes’ is of the same design except for minor differences to the background.
J.P. MORGAN AND NORTH MYMMS
The present lot was acquired by John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) and was given on his death to his sister and her husband Mr and Mrs Walter Hayes Burns. J.P. Morgan was the most influential and powerful American banker of the 19th century and dominated the U.S. economy throughout his working life. A great benefactor of art, he amassed a large collection in his homes in America and London and was instrumental in the founding of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After J.P. Morgan’s death, the tapestry and two others from the series The bet of Venus and Cupid and Venus disclosing to Diomedes the conduct of his wife hung in the Burns’ home at North Mymms Park in Hertfordshire.
A late Elizabethan manor house dating from the end of the 16th century, North Mymms Park is one of the architectural jewels of Hertfordshire, and was home to the Coningsby, Hyde and Greville families successively for the bulk of its early history. In 1893 the house was sold to Mr and Mrs Walter Hayes Burns. The Burns extended the house and undertook extensive renovations to the interior and exterior. Home to their large collections, the house was famed in particular for the tapestries acquired by John Pierpont Morgan.