Astrologia, A Flemish Allegorical tapestry, Bruges, from the workshop of Carlos Janssens, from the series of The Seven Liberal Arts, after Cornelis Schut (1631-1655), circa 1650

woven with a winged female figure representing the Science of Heavenly Bodies and her astrological globe, in the presence of her student and attendant putti seated on a balcony, with further putti and Apollo on his chariot coursing the sky behind, in an elaborate four-sided with scrollwork around floral filled vases, ribbon held swags and various putti, the bottom border with putti and further instruments associated with astrology, the top border with a central cartouche containing the inscription Coelvm Specvlando Terram et Aeqvor Arare Docet (By looking at the Heavens, she teaches how to plough the earth and sea); repair generally and particularly to highlights

This tapestry of Astrologia is from a series which includes the other liberal arts, Aritemitica, Geometrica, Musica, Grammatica, Dialectica and Rhetorica. The seven were distinguished from Philosophy and Technical and the seven were in themselves divided into two groups, the first four above being the quadirvium, the second three the trivium. It dates as a group in secular learning from late antiquity. The visual aspect was formulated by Martianus Capella in the 5th century, and used as a classification through the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The Arts were personified by women with appropriate attributes, and accompanied by a well known historical representative of her Art. The Liberal Arts were rare outside Italy except in engravings and tapestry of the 15th and 16th centuries. The historical embodiment may be portrayed alone, when they have the same attributes and Astronomy (once part of broader field of Astrology) was represented by the Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy. As an anonymous female figure her attributes would be a celestial globe, a compass, a sextant and armillary sphere. In this tapestry Frans Floris, astronomer is represented as a classical soldier. The revival of the subject matter during the 17th century Baroque period used the classifications in Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia (first edition 1593). In Ripa, the attributes of the globe and compass and being crowned with a circle of stars, are constantly linked with the muse Urania and are depicted here as Astronomy is also in the realms of Urania.

Cornelis Schut (1597-1655), Antwerp painter, spent several years in Italy, working on tapestry cartoons for the Medici workshop, and returning to Antwerp in 1631 and remaining there. Designs for the first Bruges set of Liberal Arts were woven shortly before his death. Most later Bruges reweaving of this series date from 1675. In 1655 it is recorded that Carlos Janssens sold such sets to a Spanish client, and the workshop probably owned the cartoons, although little more is known. Two other tapestries in this series in addition to the individual Arts were the Apotheosis of the Seven Liberal Arts (only existing example in the Vatican, Rome) and The Consequence of War (two editions known). The name `Carlos Janssenius’ and date 1666 appear on an edition of the Apotheosis now in Milan and the initial CAJ are found on other editions of the same composition.

The Liberal Arts also bear significance as a moral warning against war and the conflict it causes. The instruments of war created by the skills of science in turn destroy everything positive created by the sciences. This subject was represented in The Art of War, after Rubens, from the second half of the 17th century, in a very similar border to the offered lot (Toms Collection, Lausanne). It has been proposed that the series was intended for an Italian army commander, Andrea Cantelmo, stationed in Flanders between 1638-1644, and for whom Schut had dedicated other prints.

See Guy Delmarcel & Erik Duverger, Bruges et la Tapisserie, 1987, chp.65-72, pp. 453-489, for detailed discusion of this series of tapestries and the subject matter, and Guy Delmarcel, Flemish Tapestries, London, 1999, pp.299-303.

Schut is known to be the designer of this series of tapestries, from the existence of prints (an example in the Museum of Art History, Antwerp), which includes an armillary, and an oil painting (now in Ruben’s House, Antwerp), with a similar celestial globe, which are both illustrated in Delmarcel & Duverger, opcit. Fig. 71/4, and Fig. 71/3, pg. 483. The designs are otherwise virtually identical, including the arrangement of clouds and figures in the sky, and the sceptre breaking through the the tapestry plane.

A virtually identical version of this tapestry panel of Astrologia, from the Bruges Museum (Inv. 72.56.XVII) with an alternative border design to the offered lot, is illustrated in Delmarcel & Duverger, opcit. pg. 481, and Delmarcel, opcit, Fig.11.7, pg. 302, and in Stephane Vanderberghe, Gruuthusemuseum Brügge, 1984, pg. 73 The date 1673 is however woven next to the small child’s left arm in the illustrations cited, which is not present on the offered lot.

The first edition, of which a similar set exists in the Hermitage is St Petersburg, had extraordinary borders filled with river gods and figures of Atlas and Astronomy and the later editions had differing borders which were of the type on the offered lot, or of a type which included entwined triple columns on plinth supports, and lacking any putti and architectural strapwork interlaced with contrasting red ribbon.

Of the tapestries of Astology known to be in existence, several of those recorded have the same border as the offered lot. Two are in the Vatican Collection, Rome, two are in Spain (Cordoba and Castrojeriz) and another was mentioned as having been on the Italian art market in 1981, (see Delmarcel & Duverger, opcit. pg. 482). Other tapestries of Astrology, with the alternative border types are in international private and public collections, along with an example without a border in the Rockford Time Museum, Illinois.