The piece is a very brilliant example of one of the richest types of tapestry that has ever been woven.
Lent by P. W. French & Company.
Bernard Van Orley (1492-5 to 1540) was trained by his father, Valentin, and afterwards studied under Raphael in Italy. He was engaged to supervise the translation of Raphael's cartoons for the famous series of the Apostles into tapestry. In 1518 he became court painter. He designed many tapestries, of which the most famous are the Hunts of Maximilian and the Victory of Pavia series.
36 FONTAINEBLEAU, MIDDLE XVI CENTURY
Wool and Silk.
H. 11 ft.
W. 17 ft.
GROTESQUES: On a red ground, grotesques, of which the principal features are: in the center Flora in an arbor on the top of which stands Atlas upholding the world; two cartouches left and two right with candelabra and various deities. Below at the left in a small oval medallion Leda and the Swan, and in the corresponding medallion on the other side Eve and the Serpent. The remaining spaces are filled with amorini, garlands of fruit and flowers, gods, and various ornaments. Narrow floral borders, and in the center of both side borders a triangle.
The triangles in the border are the Deltas, the ciphers of Diane de Poitiers, indicating that this piece was woven in the reign of Henry II for Diane, possibly for the Château d'Anet.
Lent by P. W. French & Company.
For fertile and varied imagination this piece is quite uncommon even among grotesques, the most imaginative type of decorative tapestries. It exhibits a most entertaining sense of humor and shows a capricious independence never found in the more formal Flemish grotesques of the time.
37 FONTAINEBLEAU, MIDDLE XVI CENTURY