AUDENARDE

Lot 51
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Estimation :
3000 - 4000 EUR
AUDENARDE
Tapestry panel from Oudenaarde (Flanders) end of 16th - beginning of 17th century The Pillage of Troy, a scene from Greek mythology In wool and silk Good general condition Some maintenance restorations Beautiful freshness of colours Hind braids added Ht. 225cm - Width 200cm Trojan Prince Aeneas, who fled Troy with some survivors, tells the story of the capture of the city to the Queen of Carthage, Dido. They made a horse as high as a mountain, inspired by the divine Pallas, and they braided its flanks into cut-out fir planks. They make the noise that it is an offering to get the gods to return home. But in secret they lock up elite warriors drawn by lot: the sale of the huge animal is filled with armed soldiers [...] They wax in chorus that this offering must be carried in its place and implore the almighty goddess. We make a breach in our walls, we open the city walls: everyone gets to work. We slide wheels under the horse's feet, hang hemp ropes around his neck and pull: the machine of death crosses the ramparts, full of armed men. All around her, children, boys and girls, sing sacred hymns, playfully touch the rope that drags her. The horse advances, it slides, threatening, to the heart of the city. Meanwhile, the sky is turning: night emerges from the ocean, it envelops the land and the sea with its endless shadow, it hides the trap of Myrmidons. The Trojans are silent: they have slumped down along the walls: exhausted by the party, they have fallen asleep. But already, taking advantage of the complicity of the moon, the Danaens arrive from Tenedos: they return to their ship. As soon as the flagship has sent a light signal, Sinon unties the fir planks and delivers the Danaens locked in the horse. All joyful, they come out of his wood sale: the troop leaders Thessander and Sthénélus, the
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