Lot Essay
This tapestry originally formed part of a set of eight tapestries depicting The Story of Augustus that were designed by Justus van Egmont (d. 1674) in the 1660s. It has been suggested that The Story of Augustus can be linked to a commission of 31 March 1659. The first certain mention of the series, however, is in the records of the merchant family Forchoudt in 1669 which list two such hangings woven by Jan Frans Cornelissen (d. 1678), who appears to have had the cartoons at that point. When he died they passed to his cousin Michiel Wauters (d. 1679) and then to his daughter Anna Maria Wauters (d. 1703). The Forchoudt records further uncover Michiel's brother Philip Wauters (d. 1680s) as a weaver of this series. The last mention of a weaving of the series is as late as 1688. The Forchoudt archives further reveal the widespread interest in these tapestries as a set was sold to the Swedish Royal Collection and further sets were sent to the Forchoudt representation in Vienna and others to England.
(N. Forti Grazzini, Il Patrimonio Artistico del Quiriniale, Gli Arazzi, Rome, 1994, vol. II, pp. 341 - 342)
(N. Forti Grazzini, Il Patrimonio Artistico del Quiriniale, Gli Arazzi, Rome, 1994, vol. II, pp. 341 - 342)