A FLEMISH MYTHOLOGICAL TAPESTRY

17TH CENTURY

Details

A FLEMISH MYTHOLOGICAL TAPESTRY
17th Century
Woven in wools, depicting Meleager and his companions fleeing from the fire spewing Calydonian boar, to the right the virgin huntress Atlanta with her bow attacking the boar, in an open landscape with a building beyond, within a fruiting and floral border and yellow outer slip, reduced in size and extensive reweaving and patching, with some heightening with colour
4 ft. 10 in. x 4 ft. (145 cm. x 122 cm.)

Provenance

Anonymous sale in these Rooms, 15 December 1994, lot 303.

Lot Essay

Meleager's father had offended Diana, who in revenge sent a boar to ravage the countryside. Meleager set out with a group of men to hunt it down, but the first to wound it was Atalanta, the virgin huntress Meleager loved. When the Calydonian boar finally died, Meleager gave Atalanta its pelt and head. This caused a quarrel among his companions in which he killed his two uncles. The Fates decreed at his birth that Meleager would live as long as a log they had placed in a fire survived. His mother had taken it out to preserve it, but upon hearing that Meleager had killed two of her brothers, she threw it back again, sending Meleager slowly to his death.

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