A BRUSSELS MYTHOLOGICAL TAPESTRY

A BRUSSELS MYTHOLOGICAL TAPESTRY

SECOND HALF 16TH CENTURY

worked in silks and wool, depicting Pomona and probably Vertumnus, flanked by classical figures, beneath a panel of urns issuing fruits and cornucopia, with formal garden beyond, flanked by trees bearing fruits, animals and birds, framed by borders of scrolling acanthus and further mythological figures

332 x 380cm

Provenance

Christie's, Noble and Private Collections Part II, 27 April 2016, Lot 454 where sold as being sold as part of the Property from a Sicilian Villa.

Catalogue note

The design for this tapestry is based on a cartoon possibly by Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen (1500-1559) and commissioned by Charles V. The cartoons were for a series of nine tapestries, one set of which is in the Spanish Royal Collection. Other similar tapestries, probably woven by Jan Raes, are also found in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts having previously been in the Barberini Collection in Rome.

Another similar set were woven for Philip II by Willem de Pannemaker using cartoons probably by Pieter Cocke van Aelst.