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拍品專文
This carpet is part of one of the thirteen carpets commissioned by Louis XIV for the Galerie d'Apollon at the Louvre in 1661. Until this time, the majority of French pile-woven carpets were of relatively small size and outdated design produced by either the Dupont family at the Louvre or the Lourdet family, who had established competitive workshops in a former soap factory at Chaillot. Initially, the plan was to commission new carpets for the Louvre from the Ottoman weaving workshops in Cairo, as it was believed that carpets of such large size could not be produced locally. Simon and Philippe Lourdet, however, proposed that they could fulfill the commission domestically on new, specially-built looms (S.B. Sherrill, Carpets and Rugs of Europe and America, New York, 1996, p. 69). The thirteen carpets for the galerie d'Apollon were thus woven as a trial run for the larger commission of the ninety-three carpets for the grande galerie. Lourdet completed his commission for the Galerie d'Apollon carpets in less than five years, delivering them on 7 October 1667. Tis accomplishment is underscored by the carpets being woven not only very quickly, but that also at a size and of a style never before achieved by French workshops.
The galerie d'Apollon carpets were the first French carpets woven in the fully developed Baroque style that characterized the majestic architecture and furnishing of the period. The specific designs of the Galerie d'Apollon carpets were most likely developed under the supervision of Charles Le Brun, first painter to the King, and Louis Le Vau, the architect in charge of the Louvre refurbishments (P. Verlet, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, The Savonnerie, pp. 181-182). Seven distinct designs were created for the thirteen Galerie d'Apollon carpets, with six of the designs each woven twice to symmetrically flank a central carpet within the gallery. Although the carpets were intended as a unified group to be placed side-by-side, the seven patterns are remarkably diverse in design. The cohesion of the group, however, was created by the use of shared design elements, coloration and a basic tripartite division of the design.
This carpet originally formed the central panel of one of the Galerie d'Apollon carpets with its current width representing the carpet's original width, less the narrow side borders. A carpet fragment of similar dimensions and of this design, woven with the same quiver in its central panel but with a large fireplace cut-out, was deposited at the château de Rambouillet in 1894 and is now at the Mobilier National (inv. # GMT-2000-000). To understand how the present fragment was originally incorporated into the intact carpet, see a complete example with the same overall concept and borders but with variant secondary design elements, and with torches in its central panel, also at the Mobilier National (inv. no. GMT-4063-000), published in E. Federspiel, "La salle du Trône de Louis XIV au Louvre: un projet inachevé du Grand Dessein," Versalia, 2022, no. 25, p. 140. A further fragmentary carpet, part of an original piece woven for the galerie d'Apollon, was sold Christie's, Paris, 27 November 2018, lot 507 (€187,500).
The galerie d'Apollon carpets were the first French carpets woven in the fully developed Baroque style that characterized the majestic architecture and furnishing of the period. The specific designs of the Galerie d'Apollon carpets were most likely developed under the supervision of Charles Le Brun, first painter to the King, and Louis Le Vau, the architect in charge of the Louvre refurbishments (P. Verlet, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, The Savonnerie, pp. 181-182). Seven distinct designs were created for the thirteen Galerie d'Apollon carpets, with six of the designs each woven twice to symmetrically flank a central carpet within the gallery. Although the carpets were intended as a unified group to be placed side-by-side, the seven patterns are remarkably diverse in design. The cohesion of the group, however, was created by the use of shared design elements, coloration and a basic tripartite division of the design.
This carpet originally formed the central panel of one of the Galerie d'Apollon carpets with its current width representing the carpet's original width, less the narrow side borders. A carpet fragment of similar dimensions and of this design, woven with the same quiver in its central panel but with a large fireplace cut-out, was deposited at the château de Rambouillet in 1894 and is now at the Mobilier National (inv. # GMT-2000-000). To understand how the present fragment was originally incorporated into the intact carpet, see a complete example with the same overall concept and borders but with variant secondary design elements, and with torches in its central panel, also at the Mobilier National (inv. no. GMT-4063-000), published in E. Federspiel, "La salle du Trône de Louis XIV au Louvre: un projet inachevé du Grand Dessein," Versalia, 2022, no. 25, p. 140. A further fragmentary carpet, part of an original piece woven for the galerie d'Apollon, was sold Christie's, Paris, 27 November 2018, lot 507 (€187,500).