A rare Flemish Parkland tapestry
Circa 1560s
7ft 10in x 4ft 8in : 240 x 143cm
A vertically panoramic Parkland scene depicting people at leisure strolling across the wooded landscape. In the background, a pavilion emerges over the vistas, from which paths unravel surrounded by tall trees with floral and fruit laden branches. A person on the balustrades of another pavilion, with caryatid coloumns, attempts to attract the attention of passers-by that are walking through the colonnade below, as noticed by a curious spectator. In the fore, we see an alaunt and a pair of predatory exotic animals, probably ocelots, while deer are seen behind a brook embellishing the forestry in the distance.
This style of tapestry, mainly woven in the Southern Nethherlands area, developed in the mid 16th century and two genres were popular: The Gamepark, containing combating and hunting animals from the new world and mythology and the Parkland, having Italianate designed gardens with sculptures, fountains, pergola, pavilions, with various figures strolling in pleasant environments and occasionally the two types of scene were combined where the figures are spectators to the combating or hunts of the animals.
With the publication of Conrad Gesner's Historia Animalium in 1550, Zurich, tapestry workshops had access to these animal designs which were added to landscape and parkland scenes, usually in the foreground, as in the present tapestry, a form of zoological portraits.
Price : £ 30,000
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