`The Deer Hunt', A Flemish hunting tapestry, Brussels, probably from the workshop of Hendrik I Reydams and Everaert Leyniers, after Peter Paul Rubens and engravings by Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630) circa 1645 -1650

woven with an equestrian figure of a nobleman looking back over his shoulder, and holding a baton of command, with a hound at his feet, the scene behind reveals the hounds and huntsmen with the carcase of one deer and the fall of another, which is about to be killed having been left to the dogs, a woodland and river bank with distant town and hills extends into the background, all within a distinctive border with swags and pendant bouquets of fruit and foliage across the top, attached by ribboned bows, the side panles with a male and femal term respectively, holding floral wreaths, the male supported by an eagle with a basket, the female with a kneeling putti and basket, on plinth supports with lion masks; lacking lower border, reduced in height

The series consists of eight hunting scenes, including the present scene and the dramatic interpretations of the hunt of the leopard, lion, boar, wolf and bear, and two fragments which depict an amazon and cavalier, known by an existing set in the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels.

See Exhibition Catalogue, Tapisseries Bruxelloises au siècle de Rubens, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienne, Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, Bruxelles, 1 Juillet – 7 Septembre 1977, pp. 85-102, nr.25-32, and specifically pg.98-99, ref. 30, for discussion of the series and illustration of a very similar version of the offered tapestry, though with an additional lower border of flowers and berried foliate stems, centred by a basket, and the addition of a lady riding side saddle by his side, a small boy on foot, his hat in hand, and a further figure behind the equestrian figures. The left hand side is the same. Delmarcel records that another version of the Chasse au cerf, from the Collection Martini-Rossi, was known, which corresponds in the description of the composition to the reduced version of the tapestry offered here, in having certain figural omissions and the change of the position of the hand of the equestrian nobleman, to hold the baton, rather than have the falcon resting on his gloved fist.

The series is discussed further in an Exhibition Catalogue, Rubens Textiles, Ruben’s House, Antwerp, June – October 1997, Iris Kockelbergh and Guy Delmarcel, Hunting Scenes, pp. 126-135, and the Lion Hunt of this series specifically by Professor Delmarcel, pp. 135-134, cat. 17c.

Hendrik I Reydams (d. 1699) Everaert III Leyniers (1597-1680), both Brussels workshops which collaborated over various series. Both were members of the craft obtaining privilege, Leyniers becoming dean of the craft in 1635, and Reydams was co-founder of the Brussels tapissierspand in 1657, and became dean of the craft in 1658.