1481.
Tapestry Wall-hanging; subject, Neptune stilling the wind-storm raised at Juno’s request by Æolus against the Trojan fleet on the Sicilian coast. Flemish, 17th century.
Evidently the designer of this tapestry meant to illustrate Virgil at the beginning of his first book of the Æneid. To the left hand is seen Boreas with a lance, which he is aiming against Neptune, in one hand, while in the other he holds by a cord a rough wooden yoke, to which are tied two boys floating in the water, and each with a pair of bellows, which he is blowing. Drawn by two steeds comes Neptune with uplifted trident, to still the winds raised by the two boys; and over his head are Eurus and the western wind in the shape of females flying in the air, one snapping the tall mast of one of Æneas’s ships, and the other pouring out broad streams of water from four vases, one in each hand. The bellows are very like those elaborately-carved ones in the Museum, out of Soulages collection.