A Flemish Hunting Tapestry, Brussels, late 16th century

woven with equestrian and running huntsmen, with their hounds in combat with a bull, in a landscape setting, with distant château, woven within a narrow four-sided floral border; with old repaired vertical fold line in centre

Measurements: 533cm across the top, 536cm along the bottom, 273cm along the left, 272cm along the right. Tapestry with linen lining, hessian bands and old hoops. Recommend Velcro should be attached for hanging purposes in the future. There are some water marks in the sky, visible on close inspection, see for example top left corner. Sky generally stable and still with differentiation in colour for light clouds and pale blue/grey sky. There is a small area of horizontal weakness in the sky in the centre background of sky, just above the hills of the horizon. There is some minor oxidisation to the browns, where white foundation warp threads are visible. For example to brown in horses. Some splits and some repairs in areas. The left and right borders have been added later and are not integral to the weave. There is a split between colour joins of divide between border and inner border bottom right vertical border. There is a vertical irregular join up the centre of the whole tapestry (probably from an old fold), which is visible in the photograph as a brown line and is worked in some different colours, including white cream through the bull (and is hand repaired not woven repair) for example in the photograph seen in the sky and foliage and left chateau centre left background. It is not obvious in reality unless closely inspected. There is a repaired horizontal and vertical line making two sides of square in the lower left corner with the vertical and horizontal borders, again only noticeable on close inspection. There is some surface green paint and white paint on edge of the reverse lining (from wall paint), and slightly visible on the far left edge of the tapestry border, in the foliage. It is a wide tapestry, but not overwhelmingly high. This is a very decorative and atmospheric tapestry. Fine quality weave, with some lovely colour and detailing; and small figures, so works as a realistic scale as a view into the distance.
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