A Flemish Game Park Tapestry, Brussels, second half 16th century

woven with an elaborate formalised and enclosed garden and château, in the style of Hans Vredeman de Vries, surrounded by woodland with various groups of figures in classical dress, wild animals and birds, all within a four-sided `Elements' border, and narrow inner and outer borders with scrolling foliate and flowering trail on a cerise ground

Colours of this tapestry in reality are crisp, defined, and attractive, and the appearance is not as yellow as in the catalogue photograph. The tapestry is slightly faded and there is some discolouration to the sky which is commensurate with age. This tapestry is partially lined with linen, around the four edges, and not within the central section. It is recommended that a full lining is considered and that Velcro is attached across the top for hanging purposes in the future. There are some minor repairs and areas of reweaving, for example to some of faces. The minor repairs present have been professionally undertaken. This tapestry is finely woven, with charming details within the border and main field. It is evocative of the period and well executed. The animals and birds are particularly realistically depicted. The border is highly decorative. The narrow inner and outer borders are original, with charming lion masks in the corners. This highly appealing tapestry is of versatile size, and in very good condition.
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From the 1560's onwards there was an established convention of an iconography for tapestries featuring enclosed courtly settings, set within beautiful landscape, found in weavings from Brussels and other Flemish centres, such as Enghien, Oudenaarde and Antwerp, and were woven by famous workshops of Frans Geubels, Joost van Herzeele and Van der Cammen. The present panel is indicative of the genre type, and due to fineness of weave is almost certainly Brussels and in addition has a distinctive `Elements' border, a reference from The Book of Genesis, of the first five days of Creation, which were found initially on Brussels tapestries of the late 16th century. For example see a comparable finely woven border type on a Brussels, 1567 weaving from the Story of Noah, commissioned by Philip II of Spain, with the same border type incorporating birds within the corners and putti riding on sea animals, within the narrow cerise ground borders, see Ebeltje Hartkamp-Jonxis and Hillie Smith, European Tapestries in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2004, Cat.30. pp.100-103.  The Elements' border type was incorporated in series of Old Testament subjects, and a series of Grotesques with scenes from The Old Testament Story of Daniel, Ebeltje Hartkamp-Jonxis and Hillie Smith, opcit. cat.33. Grotesques with Nebuchadnezzar and the Three Hebrews in the Fiery Furnace, Antwerp, circa 1580-1585, pp.110-113.

For development of the theme with similarities in concept see another series of Garden Tapestries, with figures in contemporary dress, within deep floral borders, and a distinctive foreground term supported colonnade, woven in Brussels, 1585-1600, by workshop of Jacob Geubels and his son Jacob and later by his son's widow Katherine van den Eynde, two of which are in Boston, see A. Cavallo, Textiles - Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, 1986, cat.14a & 14b, pp.70-75. For a comparable Enghien weaving, circa 1589, with similar compositional balance and enclosed fenced garden with fountain, and finely detailed wild animals, with figures in contemporary dress, albeit in a very different allegorical compartmentalised border, see a Hunting Tapestry with the Arms of Croy-Lalaing: Hunt with Peacocks, from Enghien collection, illustrated in Guy Delmarcel, Flemish Tapestries, London, 1999, pp.172-173. 

The ambitious and inventive combination of figures in contemporary dress within detailed, formalised gardens with idealised planting, all finely woven and perfectly balanced, culminated in Flanders with the 17^th century series of Garden Scene Tapestries, designed by Karel van Mander the Elder, circa 1604, woven in Delft, by workshop of François Spiering, a set of which are in the State Bedroom, Warwick Castle, England, a panel of which is comprehensively discussed in Thomas Campbell, Tapestry in the Baroque, Threads of Splendour, Metropolitan Museum of Art Exhibition, New York, October 17, 2007-January 6, 2008; and at the Palacio Real, Madrid, March 6-June 1, 2007, Yale University Press 2002, Cat.4, pp.43-47.