EARLY 16TH CENTURY

Details

A TOURNAI BIBLICAL TAPESTRY
Early 16th Century
Woven in wools and silks, probably depicting Absalom before David, with David holding a sceptre seated on an architectural throne with an arcaded back with portrait-medallions to the spandrels, flanked on either side by courtly figures, to the front left with the kneeling Tamar, and to the left with the kneeling Amnon, the left with Absalom and the front with a recumbent dog and a flower spray, the background with a wooded landscape and to the right with a townscape, the border with alternating fruiting vines and flowering foliage and within a green and yellow outer slip, reduced in height and width, the majority of the right hand border and a section of the top border rewoven and further patching and reweaving to the borders, the central panel with minor restorations
9 ft. 2 in. (278 cm.) x 11 ft. 10 in. (361 cm.)

Provenance

Anonymous sale in these Rooms, 27 June 1963, lot 168.

Exhibited

By repute, this panel was one of a set of seven Brussels tapestries exhibited in the Brussels Exibition, 1935, no. 615.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

This scene appears to be taken from the story of David and Absalom. Tamar, the daughter of King David and Absalom's brother, was raped by her half-brother Amnon. The king refused to punish his son. Absalom, who was determined to avenge his sister, slew Amnon at a sheep-shearing contest he had organised. Absalom fled to another tribe while the King mourned his son. David's love for his son Absalom eventually overcame his anger and they reconciled.
A closely related border appears on a tapestry illustrating the Triumph of Fame which was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 14 June 1990, lot 178.

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