It is a rich and resourceful kind of decoration well fitted to the requirements of tapestry. The drawing of the deer is unusually graceful and vivacious.
31 FLANDERS, XVI CENTURY
Wool and Silk.
H. 5 ft. 9 in.
W. 12 ft. 9 in.
Lent by Mrs. William H. Crocker.
VERDURE: In the center a château surrounded by a moat on which swans and ducks swim about. At the left fishermen on the bank and a hunter with his dogs. On the right mounted hunters chasing rabbits through a wood.
The high-keyed landscape on a small scale was the Renaissance successor to the Gothic millefleurs. The drawing in this piece is beautifully clean and exact, and the color delightfully and uncommonly varied and vibrant. The château is so carefully rendered that it is valuable as an architectural record. The piece may have been made by Flemish weavers working in England.
32 FLANDERS, LATE XVI CENTURY
Wool.
H. 9 ft.
W. 23 ft.
Lent by W. & J. Sloane.
HUNTING SCENE: Hunters riding through a woodland. In the foreground a knight and lady strolling. Scroll border.
This piece is a rather uncommon variation of a familiar type. Many tapestries were woven in Flanders in the second part of the XVIth century that were predominantly verdure with a few minor figures, but the figures were seldom as delicately drawn nor the colors so high in key and clear. It is quite possible that the piece was woven by Flemish weavers in England, a few pieces woven there by the Poyntz family being known to have somewhat the same quality. The relatively low height in proportion to the great length also suggests that it was made for an English house.
