Pastoral Scene No. 13
12 FRANCE, PROBABLY LA MARCHE, EARLY XVI CENTURY
Wool.
H. 4 ft. 5 in.
W. 9 ft. 5 in.
Lent by Dikran K. Kelekian.
MILLEFLEURS WITH ANIMALS: Millefleurs with animals on a blue ground. At the top a narrow strip of conventionalized hilly landscape.
Many tapestries of this type were woven in France at the end of the XVth and beginning of the XVIth century. They are one of the most successful types of tapestry decoration, the quaint animals in this piece being especially charming, and one of the most generally useful kinds of wall decoration, so that the demand for them was large and continuous. As a result, the style was produced almost without modification for over a hundred years. Only the bit of landscape at the top indicates that this was woven in the beginning of the XVIth century and not in the middle of the XVth.
13 FRANCE, LATE XV CENTURY
Wool.
H. 9 ft. 6 in.
W. 9 ft.
PASTORAL SCENE: Two ladies have strolled into the country with their lords, who are on the way to the hunt, one with a falcon and the other with a spear and dog. On the way they have stopped to talk to a group of peasants who are tending their flocks and to play with their children. One young peasant girl is gathering a basket of grapes.