A French Armorial 'Portière des Renommées' tapestry with the arms of Bardo di Bardi, Comte de Magalotti (1629-1705), after a design by Charles Le Brun (1619-1690), the cartoons by Beaudrin Yvart le père (1611-1690), woven at the Gobelins manufactory circa 1690, Paris

François-Zénobe-Philippe Albergotti (1654-1717)
French & Company, New York, 1929
Jean Mikaeloff, 1961
Simon Mikaeloff, Strasbourg, by descent from the above
Private collection, acquired from the above in 1976
Christie's Paris, December 19, 2007, lot 536
Acquired by the present owner from the above auction

L'Ancienne Douane, Strasbourg, Tapisseries du Moyen-Age à nos jours, April 4- September 25, 1966

Victor Beyer and Jean-Louis Faure, Tapisseries du Moyen-Age à nos jours, Strasbourg, 1966, no. 41, and illustrated on back

Very good colors. Minor restoration throughout. Lined with velcro.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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The present portière tapestry, made to hang over a doorway in a lavish formal interior, depicts two figures allegorical of Renommées (Fame) flanking the arms of Bardo di Bardi, Comte de Magalotti, the Florentine Lieutenant-General who served under Louis XIV as the Gouverneur of Valenciennes.   Two winged putti support a crown at the center above the arms, and at the feet of the figures rest a cockerel and a lion, symbolic of Vigilance and Fortitude.

The French Superintendent of Finance under Louis XIV, Nicolas Fouquet (1615-1680) is most famous for the magnificent château he had built at Vaux-le-Vicomte and for his fall from favor with the young king as a result of his extreme extravagance: after a particularly lavish party in August 1661, Louis had Fouquet imprisoned for life, and the château sequestered.  The creation of Vaux-le-Vicomte had, however, been the first collaboration of the architect Louis Le Vau, the landscape architect André le Nôtre, and the painter Charles Le Brun.  This group would join forces again at Versailles, and with these two commissions, they defined the Louis XIV style.

The present Portière des Renommées is part of a group based upon designs by Charles le Brun, executed while he directed Fouquet's tapestry workshops at Maincy, near Vaux-le-Vicomte.  This group included portières of various designs, known as Renommées, Lion, Licorne (unicorn), Mars, and Char de triomphe.  After the disgrace of Fouquet in 1661, the manufactory was relocated to the Hôtel des Gobelins on the outskirts of Paris.

A drawing by le Brun relating to the design of the present tapestry, today in the Museé de Besançon (inv. D 1786), bears evidence of the history of its patrons: the arms of Fouquet, a rampant squirrel, are drawn over with the arms of Louis XIV's minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683), a winding snake.  A second version by Le Brun, retaining the arms of Fouquet, is seen in a more fully-realized sketch today in the State Hermitage, Saint Petersburg (inv. 18959); the Hermitage sketch shows the figures without legs but emerging from cornucopiae.  The design of the present tapestry is a hybrid of the two drawings.  A cartoon by Beaudrin Yvart le père, for another portière in the series, probably the one referred to as the Portière de licorne, is preserved in the Museé du Louvre (inv. no. 3486C).  Several tapestry portières with the present hybrid of the two le Brun drawings survive, bearing either the arms of Colbert or the Royal Arms of France and Navarre.

Another Portière des Renommées of the same design, but with the arms of France and Navarre, is today in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession no. 53.57), where it is accompanied by a matching Portière du char de triomphe (54.149).

RELATED LITERATURE

Charissa Bremer-David, French Tapestries and Textiles in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 1997, no. 1, p. 2-9.