A Flemish Game Park Tapestry, Brussels late 16th century

depicting the `Offering to the Goddess Ceres’, from the series The Garden of Pomona, within a four-sided compartmentalised border incorporating allegorical figures

Tapestry not as yellow in overall hue, as in the catalogue photograph. Crisper and more defined appearance in reality. The tapestry has possibly been reduced in width in the past, as the side borders have been altered and the top borders misaligned. The tapestry has some repairs and reweaves generally. For example there are areas of 19th century reweaving to a section in the top right corner, and to areas in the lower left corner of the figural group (visible in the photograph as shades of terracotta), and in a vertical lines in the top left corner, and bottom left and right corners, where the borders have been cut and joined in the past. The lower border outer narrow border has a section which is later, again visible as a different colour. The red highlights are later, in both the border strapwork and in the architectural details in the main tapestry field. The light silk highlights have been stabilised and repaired in areas, especially to the leaves of the foliage across the main field. There are some repairs to the figures generally and to the central statue and supporting plinth. This is a finely woven tapestry, with multiple symbols and motifs, woven on a small scale, especially within the border. This is decorative wall covering. The figures are not overwhelming in size. The tapestry was folded under in the past to reduce the height, but the tapestry is now fully opened and the tapestry is fully lined. It has Velcro attached across the top for hanging purposes.
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This tapestry subject, identified as the `Offering to the Goddess Ceres’, from the series The Garden of Pomona, has a comparable weaving, in the Minneapolis Museum, which does not have the plinth and the statue, and a virtually identical weaving in the Galleria di Palazzo Bianco, Genoa, albeit in a different border design. The designer, cartoonist and weaver are unidentified, though woven in Brussels, due to the Brussels mark being present on the Genoa panel, and the series is dated to between 1580 and 1640. Those recorded have a variety of border types, and could therefore have been from various workshops or from one. Due to the fine quality of the comparable Genoa panel, it is considered to be one of the earlier dated panels, and stylistically they all date to the last quarter of the 16^th century, however with their popularity of theme, the garden tapestry series were woven into the 17^thcentury.    

The comparable Genoa panel has an unidentified weaver’s mark in the lower right selvedge. It is a mark which was also used by the Cornelis Mattens (fl.1575-1614), Marcus de Vos (fl.1655 – 1700) and by an anonymous workshop in Oudenaarde.

For comprehensive discussion of the series, and details of the other subjects recorded, which are all in different locations (and two of which are in similar borders to the present weaving), see C. Adelson, European Tapestry in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1994, Offering to the Goddess Ceres, from the series, The Garden of Pomona, pp.147-153.