An Italian allegorical tapestry portiere, Rome, Barberini workshop, with the insignia of the Barberini family, probably from cartoons by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli, after an engraving by Agostino Veneziano, circa 1650-1660

with the impresa 'Diversa per aequora', within a cartouche with small putto on a little boat, within a floral surround with strapwork with laurel sprigs centred by the Barberini family insignia of the bee, all within a frame surround and an outer four-sided border with ribbon bound double scroll entwined with a laurel leaf trail with wreaths and interspersed with the bee motif, against a blue surround, with an outer terracotta selvedge

Dipinti, sculture, arredi dai Palazzi di Roma, Exhibition, Palazzo Sacchetti, Rome, 15 May – 30 June 1991

Adam Bartsch, Le Peinture Graveur, XIV, Lipsia 1813, p.179,n.219., and p.188,n.234.
Pascal-François Bertrand, Les tapisseries des Barberini et la décortion d’intérieur dans la Rome baroque’, Turnhout, 2005, pp.55, 289, fig.43., for comprehensive discussion of the Barberini patronage and tapestry manufacture.
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, James, G. Harper, Tapestry Production in Seventeenth-Century Rome: The Barberini Manufactory, pp.293-303.
Edited by Guy Delmarcel, Flemish Weavers Abroad: Emigration and the Founding of Manufactories in Europe, Proceedings of International Conference, Mechelen, 2^nd-3^rd October 2000, Leuven University Press, 2002, Lucia Meoni, Flemish Tapestry Weavers in Italy in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, pp.163-183, and pp.177-183, for discussion of the importance of the foundation of the tapestry works of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, and the tapestries woven.
Fausto Romano, Dipinti, sculture, arredi dai Palazzi di Roma, Exhibition Palazzo Sacchetti, 15 May – 30 June 1991, pp.211-212, fig.172, for entry for this tapestry.

 

 

Measurements: approximately 301cm up the left side, 300cm up the right side, 219cm across the top, 219cm across the bottom. The colours are darker in the catalogue photograph than they are in reality. The colours are not as yellow in hue and lighter and not so strident in reality. It is more subtle colouring and more attractive in reality. For example the blue ground of the border is light sky blue, and not as dark. The dark vertical lines in the centre across the inner border and in the centre of the lower inner border are shadows from photography and are not there in reality. The colour is even. There is slight 'moray' effect across the whole tapestry, visible as the yellow across the figure of the putto, water and sky which are not there in reality. The tapestry is in good and stable condition overall. There are some small repairs in areas. There are some repairs in the corners of the frame pattern border with the bead and reel design, where there are staggered joins (visible in the photographs). These borders are not continuous weave with the main panel. In the right border there is a little of the blue ground that runs up the far outer edge that is not visible on the right border (that is visible on the left). The blue ground border with the entwined scrolling branches and bees are continuous weave with the main field. There are some minor repairs to light silk areas, for example on the body of the putto and to the narrative banner, and there is a horizontal split in the far top right corner where the light silk line of the inner frame meets the brown narrow strips above and below. It is repairable. This tapestry has a cotton lining, with old narrow Velcro attached across the top edge. It is recommended that wider new Velcro replaces the old Velcro for hanging purposes in the future. There are sections of later outer selvedge. This is a rare and unusual tapestry, of charming subject matter with lovely finely woven details, including the bee and flowers, and is a good size.
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The foundation of the tapestry works of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, nephew of Pope Urban VIII in 1627 in Rome, was and important event in the history of tapestry weaving in Italy. Giovanni Francesco Romanelli collaborated with the Barberini workshop on the most important tapestry series by them.

The present tapestry is from an engraving by Agostino Veneziano (1490-1540), which was in turn after an engraving of the subject for preparatory drawings for the Story of Psyche, by Marco Dente da Ravenna (1493-1527), both Renaissance engravers, who worked in the workshop of Marcantonio Raimondi. The drawings were preparatory for the decorative scheme for the Farnesina, in Rome. The subject is taken from the Latin epic poem of The Aeneid: Story of Dido and Aeneas and Troy, a tapestry series of which was woven by Wauters, after cartoons by Romanelli. This overdoor panel depicts a distinctive garland which was incorporated in designs for the papal canopy executed by him in 1637. The putti is also comparable with that used in the series by Romanelli of The Triumph of Galatea, for Palazzo Altemps, which shows the same putto, on a dolphin.

The workshop used the distinctive family motif of the `bee', which is clearly used in the present tapestry. Liasing with Pietro da Cortona, the workshop and the weavers, initially from Flanders, were able to interpret progressive styles at the time with the patronage of the popes and princely families. A distinctive set of tapestry portieres from a series of the famous Castles of Europe, was the first series made in the Barberini workshop between 1627 - 1631, and was woven with the Barberini arms and a sole survivor from the series and the view of Palestrina, is recorded in a private Collection. It bears the weaver's mark of Giacomo della Riviera (Flemish weaver who Italianised his name), after a cartoon by Francesco Mingucci. It is interesting, stylistically to compare these with some other slightly later tapestries (horizontal hangings) from the Baldicchino with the Nativity, with the Arms of Urban VIII and the Barberini motif of the bee, and flanked by putti, 1635-1636, by Michele ‘fiammingo’ (Michiel Wauters), probably from cartoons by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli. There is also an interesting set of tapestries woven for the Vatican, of Giochi di putti, depicting playful putti, 1637-1642, woven initially under direction of Giacomo della Riviera, designed by Romanelli, and following the style of the Tommaso Vincidor’s early 16^th century series of the same subject.