AUDENARDE

Lot 37
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Estimation :
7000 - 12000 EUR
AUDENARDE
Oudenaarde Tapestry (Flanders) End of 16th - beginning of 17th century The Ark of the Covenant at the Tables of the Law (containing the tablets of the Ten Commandments) Under the Emperor Vespasian of Rome in the year 70, General Titus, son of Vespasian and future emperor in 79 a. J.C., brought back to Rome the ark of the law, spoils taken from the Temple of Jerusalem after its conquest. Following the siege of Jerusalem, two Roman generals were preparing to take it. In wool and silk Maintenance restorations, Rentrayages Left and bottom edges rewoven in the 19th century. Large borders with garlands of flowers, foliage and fruit in sheaves and stylized bouquets. Ht. 300cm - Width 255cm The Ark of the Covenant is described at length in the XXVth and XXXVIIth chapters of the Book of Exodus as an acacia wood chest 1.15 m (2.5 cubits) long by about 0.70 m (1.5 cubits) high and as wide. It was covered with gold on the outside as well as on the inside. At each of the 4 feet was a gold ring. The precious chest was carried by means of two bars, also made of acacia wood and covered with gold, which passed on each side through two gold rings. Above the Ark, the enormous solid gold lid, called the "mercy-seat", had the same dimensions as the chest, both in length and width. At each end, a golden cherub (two in total), while being one piece with it, spread its wings over the mercy seat as if to protect it. The precious chest was to be placed in the Holy of Holies, first in the Tabernacle (Exodus XXVI, 33, 34), then in the Temple of Jerusalem (I Kings VIII, 1-9; II Chronicles V, 1-10). According to a tradition attested in the first century A.D. and reported in the New Testament, the Ark contained three things: "a golden urn containing the manna, the branch of Aaron that grew, and the tables of the Covenant" (He
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