Lot n° 33
Estimation :
7000 - 10000
EUR
Panel of fine Brussels tapestry. Hijacked... - Lot 33 - FEE - Stanislas Machoïr
Panel of fine Brussels tapestry. Hijacked (Flanders) Renaissance period, mid 16th century. In silk and wool
- of the mythological theme on the story of the Goddess Diana and
- of the theme of the hunt for the Aurochs,
To be compared with the Brussels panel reproduced in "European Tapestry in the Institute of Chicago" by Koenraad Brosens, p. 118/119, Yale University Press, 2008; to be compared with the series of hangings on the hunt that came out of the workshops of Philippe van Der Cammen in Enghien (Belgium), from the Louis-Philippe estate (Orléans family), and preserved in the collections of the Château de Brissac (France).
Height: 240 cm; Width: 220 cm. Restorations of maintenance
Here we can observe, on the right, in the foreground the mythological theme representing the Goddess Diana in the company of a nymph, perhaps Sylvia, inspired by the novel Aminta by Le Tasse (Italian author, 1544-1595). On the far left is a noble hunter, armed with a rifle, probably the Austrian Archduke Albert of Brussels (1559-1621) accompanied by a wolf packer, above, on the left, in the undergrowth, there are hunters, dogs and pickers fighting against an auroch that is charging them, and above, further on in the perspective, Italian-style espaliered gardens precede what appears to be an abbey and, in the distance, snow-capped mountains.
Mythological theme:
Diana is the daughter of Latona (Leto) and Jupiter, twin sister of Apollo, born on the island of Ortigia later called Delos. She came into the world a few moments before her brother. Witnessing her mother's pains, she conceived such an aversion to marriage that she asked and obtained from her father the grace to keep a perpetual virginity like her sister Minerva (Athena). It is for this reason that these two goddesses received from the oracle of Apollo the name of White Virgins. Jupiter himself armed her with a bow and arrow and made her queen of the woods. He gave her sixty nymphs, called Oceanies, and twenty others called Asies, from whom she demanded inviolable chastity.
With this numerous and graceful retinue, she indulges in hunting, her favorite occupation. All her nymphs are tall and beautiful, but the goddess surpasses them all in size and beauty. Like her brother Apollo, she has different names: on earth she is known as Diana or Artemis; in heaven, Luna (the Moon) or Phebe; in the Underworld, Hecate. She also had a great
number of nicknames, according to the qualities attributed to her, the regions she seemed to favour, the temples where she was honoured.
When Apollo (the Sun) disappears on the horizon, Diana (the Moon) shines in the Heavens and discreetly spreads her light in the mysterious depths of the Night. These two divinities have functions that are not identical, but similar: alternately, they illuminate the world; hence their fraternal character. Apollo is celebrated preferably by young boys; Diana, rather by the choirs of young girls.
Theme of hunting
Very often, these tapestries were populated with animals as well noble, as fantastic and even legendary. Thus showing that the fantastic fauna lived well in all the regions, even in the surroundings of the houses. These tapestries were suitable for telling stories of hunting, counts and legends during the evenings. In times when the real and the fabulous were often confused, some animals had a particular place in the popular imagination. Often improperly called bull hunting in the literature, the aurochs had a very particular status, it was considered as both real and fabulous. Our elders knew it, having encountered it in our forests, it was an animal whose hunting was reserved for princes.
While a significant part of the forests of Western Europe had already been cleared for agriculture, Julius Caesar, in a chapter of the Gallic War devoted to the description of the Germans, one of the peoples he fought during his conquest of Gaul, evokes the aurochs that he is told live in the immense Hercynian forest with elks and other wild animals that are no longer found in Roman Italy nor in its first colonies.
"The size of these a
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