.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
拍品專文
THE ORIGINAL COMMISSION
The first mention of the design for this tapestry is in a letter by Tommaso Vincidor, a pupil of Raphael, who was entrusted with the supervision of the execution as tapestries of another set of Raphael's designs, the Giochi di Putti made for the Sala di Constantino for Leo X in 1520. In his letter to Leo X on 20 July 1520, Vincidor describes the second project that he attempts to finish, the Letto di Paramento but for which he still needed several copies of portraits to complete the cartoons. Although Leo X died in December 1520, his successor Clement VII appears to have continued the project as tapestries for this cycle are then recorded in the inventories at the Vatican from 1544 until 1750.
The Vision of Ezekiel formed part of a suite of tapestries that adorned the ornamental state bed of Clement VII and subsequent Popes, with The Vision forming the canopy, while the back depicted a scene of The Adoration of the infant Jesus with Pople Leo X and further side panels completing the ensemble. Only The Vision appears to have survived and was recently discovered in Spain. The cartoon for The Vision is today at Boughton House, Northamptonshire, and is now attributed to Vincidor and assistants. The scene is based on the central section of a small painting in the Palazzo Pitti which is attributed to Raphael and assumed to have been painted in 1518.
SUBSEQUENT VERSIONS
A second version of The Vision designs, woven with metal-thread, was made for King François I of France around 1530. Indeed there is a record of payment for a set of Raphael's Acts of the Apostles having been made to Cornelie de Kameline, an agent for three Brussels tapestry merchants. The inventory taken at the Garde Meuble at the Louvre in 1551 confirms that weaving of the traditional nine panels and includes a tenth described as Le fons d'un ciel pour servir à ladite tappicerie, ou meillieu duquel est figuré lat trinité soustenue en l'air par les remembrances des quatre évangelistes, describing the Vision of Ezekiel tapestry. This set of ten tapestries is believed to have been destroyed during the Revolution.
Two 17th century Gobelins versions of this subject are recorded, based on the François I weaving rather than the original cartoons. A complete set of 10 panels including The Acts of the Apostles as well as The Vision was woven with metal-thread for Louis XIV between 1662 and 1668. The second incomplete set excluding metal-thread but also including the Vision was woven for Cardinal Mazarin (d. 1661) by Lefebvre to complete a partial Mortlake set of The Acts of the Apostles that he had purchased through an agent in England from the Earl of Pembroke. The Louis XIV set is today lost while the Mazarin set was subsequently bequeathed to his nephew, the Marquis de Mancini (d. 1707), and is today at the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino except for the Vision.
A 17th century document describes the gift to Mancini as la tenture de tapisserie des Actes des Apôtres, fabriquée à Paris, où sont les armes de Son Eminence, indicating that the Mazarin set bore his arms. Indeed, the surviving examples from his set of The Acts of the Apostles at the Palazzo Ducale have distinctive English borders and bear his coat-of-arms to the top. It is interesting that The Vision of Ezekiel is no longer part of this set, posing the question why all the Acts survived at the Palazzo Ducale while The Vision panel is missing. Traditionally The Vision was of a different height than the other nine panels as it was never meant to form part of The Acts of the Apostles set. Further, if it was also woven for Mazarin as a canopy it may have had borders that allowed it to be less directional than the herm-supported side borders of The Acts. No other versions of The Vision are known to have been woven at Gobelins and the Louis XIV version is not thought to have survived.
Additionally supporting the Mazarin provenance for the offered lot is that that the 18th century inventory documents suggest a descent of the Mazarin Vision tapestry to the Marquis de Mancini in Italy while the 20th century records at French & Co, who came into the possession of the tapestry in 1926, can trace the offered lot back to Marchese Casati in Rome, suggesting that the tapestry remained in Italy for nearly 200 years.
(M. Fenaille, Etat Général des tapisseries de la Manufacture des Gobelins, Paris, 1912, vol. II, pp. 43-49, T. Campbell, 'Pope Leo X's consistorial letto de paramento and the Boughton House cartoons', The Burlington Magazine, no. 1120, July 1996, pp. 436 - 445)
The first mention of the design for this tapestry is in a letter by Tommaso Vincidor, a pupil of Raphael, who was entrusted with the supervision of the execution as tapestries of another set of Raphael's designs, the Giochi di Putti made for the Sala di Constantino for Leo X in 1520. In his letter to Leo X on 20 July 1520, Vincidor describes the second project that he attempts to finish, the Letto di Paramento but for which he still needed several copies of portraits to complete the cartoons. Although Leo X died in December 1520, his successor Clement VII appears to have continued the project as tapestries for this cycle are then recorded in the inventories at the Vatican from 1544 until 1750.
The Vision of Ezekiel formed part of a suite of tapestries that adorned the ornamental state bed of Clement VII and subsequent Popes, with The Vision forming the canopy, while the back depicted a scene of The Adoration of the infant Jesus with Pople Leo X and further side panels completing the ensemble. Only The Vision appears to have survived and was recently discovered in Spain. The cartoon for The Vision is today at Boughton House, Northamptonshire, and is now attributed to Vincidor and assistants. The scene is based on the central section of a small painting in the Palazzo Pitti which is attributed to Raphael and assumed to have been painted in 1518.
SUBSEQUENT VERSIONS
A second version of The Vision designs, woven with metal-thread, was made for King François I of France around 1530. Indeed there is a record of payment for a set of Raphael's Acts of the Apostles having been made to Cornelie de Kameline, an agent for three Brussels tapestry merchants. The inventory taken at the Garde Meuble at the Louvre in 1551 confirms that weaving of the traditional nine panels and includes a tenth described as Le fons d'un ciel pour servir à ladite tappicerie, ou meillieu duquel est figuré lat trinité soustenue en l'air par les remembrances des quatre évangelistes, describing the Vision of Ezekiel tapestry. This set of ten tapestries is believed to have been destroyed during the Revolution.
Two 17th century Gobelins versions of this subject are recorded, based on the François I weaving rather than the original cartoons. A complete set of 10 panels including The Acts of the Apostles as well as The Vision was woven with metal-thread for Louis XIV between 1662 and 1668. The second incomplete set excluding metal-thread but also including the Vision was woven for Cardinal Mazarin (d. 1661) by Lefebvre to complete a partial Mortlake set of The Acts of the Apostles that he had purchased through an agent in England from the Earl of Pembroke. The Louis XIV set is today lost while the Mazarin set was subsequently bequeathed to his nephew, the Marquis de Mancini (d. 1707), and is today at the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino except for the Vision.
A 17th century document describes the gift to Mancini as la tenture de tapisserie des Actes des Apôtres, fabriquée à Paris, où sont les armes de Son Eminence, indicating that the Mazarin set bore his arms. Indeed, the surviving examples from his set of The Acts of the Apostles at the Palazzo Ducale have distinctive English borders and bear his coat-of-arms to the top. It is interesting that The Vision of Ezekiel is no longer part of this set, posing the question why all the Acts survived at the Palazzo Ducale while The Vision panel is missing. Traditionally The Vision was of a different height than the other nine panels as it was never meant to form part of The Acts of the Apostles set. Further, if it was also woven for Mazarin as a canopy it may have had borders that allowed it to be less directional than the herm-supported side borders of The Acts. No other versions of The Vision are known to have been woven at Gobelins and the Louis XIV version is not thought to have survived.
Additionally supporting the Mazarin provenance for the offered lot is that that the 18th century inventory documents suggest a descent of the Mazarin Vision tapestry to the Marquis de Mancini in Italy while the 20th century records at French & Co, who came into the possession of the tapestry in 1926, can trace the offered lot back to Marchese Casati in Rome, suggesting that the tapestry remained in Italy for nearly 200 years.
(M. Fenaille, Etat Général des tapisseries de la Manufacture des Gobelins, Paris, 1912, vol. II, pp. 43-49, T. Campbell, 'Pope Leo X's consistorial letto de paramento and the Boughton House cartoons', The Burlington Magazine, no. 1120, July 1996, pp. 436 - 445)