BETWEEN 1665 AND 1690, AFTER JUSTUS VAN EGMONT AND POSSIBLY BY JAN-FRANS CORNELISSEN, PHILIP WAUTERS OR ANNA MARIA WAUTERS

Details

AN ANTWERP HISTORICAL TAPESTRY Between 1665 and 1690, after Justus van Egmont and possibly by Jan-Frans Cornelissen, Philip Wauters or Anna Maria Wauters Woven in wools and silks, depicting Roma separating Augustus and Marcus Anthony from The Story of Augustus, within an illusionistic scrolling foliate and fruited arch, suspending garlands from poles, with tablets inscribed 'PAX AVG' and 'VIC AVG', reduced in size, areas of reweaving, particularly to bottom right hand corner and brown threads 10 ft. 11 in. (332 cm.) x 14 ft. 11 in. (455 cm.)

Literature

D. Heinz, Europäische Tapisseriekunst des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, Vienna, 1995, p. 80.
N. Forti Grazzini, Il Patrimonio Artistico del Quirinale, Gli Arazzi, Rome, 1994, vol. II, p. 342.
E. Duverger, 'Antwerp Tapestries of the Seventeenth Century', Connoisseur, No. 782, April 1977, p. 285, illus.
G.T. van Ysselstein, 'Een Tapijt uit een van de Scipio-series van Carel van Mander den Jonge', Maandblad voor Beeldende Kunsten, XXXII, March 1947, p. 61 - 67, plate 62.
H.C. Marillier, English Tapestries of the 18th Century, London 1930, pp. 15-18.

Exhibited

Museum Het Prinsenhof, Delft.

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)

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