VARIOUS PROPERTIES
A BRUSSELS BAROQUE HISTORICAL TAPESTRY

CIRCA 1680, BY GERAERT PEEMANS

Details
A BRUSSELS BAROQUE HISTORICAL TAPESTRY
circa 1680, by geraert peemans
From the story of Titus and Vespasian, and depicting the siege of Jerusalem with soldiers pillaging within a landscape with pitched tents before a fortress and the temple of Jerusalem in the distance, some metallic-thread highlights, within elaborate scrolling foliate borders and later guard borders with the inserted signature and town mark, areas of reweaving thoughout
11ft. 10in. x 16ft. 6in. (3m. 60cm. x 5m. 92cm.)
Provenance
Schloss Karlsruhe
The Collection of the Markgrafen and Grossherzöge von Baden, sold Sotheby's Baden-Baden, 5-21 October 1995, lot 1002

Lot Essay

Geraert Peemans, recorded as working in Brussels 1660-1705

Vespasian and his son Titus, were renowned for their military conquests in the East, culminating with the capture of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The rotunda above the city walls in the background may possibly be identified as the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem.

On June 17, 1715, Margrave Carl Wilhelm of Baden-Durlach (1679-1738) laid the foundation of a new city. In the center of the city layout was an octagonal tower built by Johann Heinrich Schwartz. On the southside of tower Friedrich von Batzenberg built a triple-winged schloss which was connected with the tower by a gallery.

In 1752, Margrave Karl Friedrich (1728-1811) and his wife Caroline Louise (1723-83) appointed Friedrich von Kesslau, with the task of rebuilding the castle. The interior documents this change of style from Rococo to Louis XVI. In the 19th century some rooms were decorated in the Empire and the Neo-Rococo styles.

Until 1918 Schloss Karlsruhe served as the residence of the Margraves of Baden-Durlach and the Grand Dukes of Baden. After the abdication of Friedrich II the castle became the home for the Badische Landesmuseum, which was rebuilt after its destruction in World War II.