The ‘Camel Caravan’ tapestry fragment, after the series ‘In the manner of Portugal and the Indies’, Southern Netherlands, circa 1510-1540

Sotheby's London, Haute Epoque, 1st November 2005, lot 38;

V.O.C. Antiguidades, Pedro Aguiar Branco, Porto;

Where acquired by the present owner, a private European collector.

Pedro Dias, À Maneira de Portugal e da India: Uma Tapeçaria Inédita, (dedicated catalogue), Porto, V.O.C. Antiguidades, Pedro Aguiar Branco, 2007, pp.5-32.

Checa, Fernando, Tapisseries Flamandes pour les Ducs de Bourgogne, L'Empereur Charles Quint et Le Roi Philippe II, 2009, (ill.), fig. 45

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

Cavallo, Adolfo Salvatore, Medieval Tapestries in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993.

Cleland, Elizabeth and Karafel, Lorraine, Glasgow Museums - Tapestries from the Burrell Collection, Philip Wilson Publishers, 2017.

Hartkamp-Jonxis, Ebeltje and Smit, Hillie, European Tapestries in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2004.

Quina, Maria Antónia Gentil, À Maneira de Portugal e da Índia, Uma série de tapeçaria quinhentista, Lisbon, 1998.

The style and inclusion of the exotic camel in this early fragment shows inspiration from a very distinctive series (originally of around ten), known as the ‘The Voyage to Calcutta’ or ‘In the manner of Portugal and the Indies', Southern Netherlands, circa 1500-1530, which has been associated with the Tournai workshop of weavers/agents Pasquier Grenier and Arnoult Poissonnier, and described in their inventories.

The series was inspired by the historic travels of the Portuguese explorer, Vasco de Gama, to the East Indies in 1497-1499 and 1502-1503, and probably originated from a commission of king Manuel I of Portugal who sent Vasco da Gama on his epic journey.

There is a document by Manuel I’s secretary of state dated of around 1510 where is discussed in detail a commission of a tapestry series with more than 20 themes that would depict Gama’s travels and the Portuguese achievements in India. It has been suggested that these would be to complement an earlier commission of three tapestries that celebrated the original journey to India by Gama (Quina, 1998), the original weavings of this series.

This would explain that already by 1504 the tapestry agent, Pasquier Grenier supplied Duke Philip the Handsome of Burgundy with a multiple panel set of ‘A la maniere de Portugal et de l’Indye’, and other panels with elephants and giraffes were given to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1522, and another to Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, and a panel of ‘Voyage to Calcutta’ was bought for Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Netherlands.

The tapestries are distinctive for the exotic procession of people and unusual wild animals, a very unusual upper border of bells and tassels, and other borders with repeat stylised flowers alternating with bound bundle motifs, and it also included bands of unintelligible inscriptions within clothing.

The border type was used on other series from the Poissonnier workshop, such as the important set of four ‘Camp of the Gypsies’ , and other series such as the ‘History of the Prophet Daniel’ and ‘History of Judith and Holofernes'. 

The tapestries ‘in the manner of Portugal and India’, as Dias states, became “early on ‘something exotic’ as they represented the unsuspected novelties of the New World and the glory of Portuguese exploration and, as they lost their initial meaning, they became an imagery repository of the never seen lands and people, from where the treasures kept in princely Wunderkammern came” (Dias, p. 32).

Therefore, although a narrative set of several tapestries, they appealed as single subjects. Poisonnier is recorded as having kept pieces in his warehouse on speculation and there was a lively second hand trade in these exuberant tapestries, which included a set of ten of ‘Voyage de Caluce’ acquired second hand in Tournai for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. Tapestries of this distinctive and highly appreciated subject being in demand, were produced in some quantity by the Tournai workshops, as late at 1539, and from cartoons which were adapted and reused multiple times and to various sizes.

For comprehensive discussion of this evocative series, see Elizabeth Cleland and Lorraine Karafel, Glasgow Museums - Tapestries from the Burrell Collection, 2017, Catalogue of Tapestries, Part II: Southern Netherlands and French, Pastoral, Country Pursuits and Folklore, pp.329-391, cat.88 (Exploration of the Indies: The Camel Caravan, Inv. 46.94, without decorative borders), pp.384-387. This panel does not have the camel in both the Burrell Collection panel and the offered lot, has a similarly tasselled harness and has small horns upon its head. Other known panels in existence include notable weavings of ‘Caravan with giraffes’ (Stockholm, Nationalmuseum) and ‘Embarking: Exotic Animals’ (Lisbon, Caixa Geral de Depositos), ‘Malcontent Camels from the Exploration of the Indies’ (Caramulo, Museu do Caramulo - Fundacao Abel e Joao de Lacerda (Inv.FAL.261), and other panels of ‘Camel Caravans’ (Cognac, Chateau de Saint-Brice, and London, Victoria and Albert Museum (Invs.375-1906, 5667 and A-1859).

For an interesting set of comparable small tapestry panels entitled Hunting Parks, Southern Netherlands, circa 1515-1535, which are not of such fine and detailed weaving to the ‘Camel Caravan, see Adolfo Salvatore Cavallo, Medieval Tapestries in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993, pp.575-585, cat.49, and 49d. They are all woven with simple narrow borders with sections of different trails of flowers, with the activities set within enclosures with some wild animals and fountains (in the manner of ‘Hortus conclusus’ - enclosed garden allegorical tapestries). The panel in the set entitled ‘Hunting for birds with a hawk and crossbow’ (49d), has considerable elements that are similar to those of the offered panel. They include the design format and the use of the fenced enclosure with characteristic poles with elaborate finials, the same grouping of sheep in the top right corner, together with the same figural types including the colour scheme of the snoods, hats, tunics, red and white breeches and hose. The tethered wild animal is also incorporated, along with the inclusion of a stream of water in the foreground. There are various figures that are variations of the same personage, and this extends to their similarity in other contemporary tapestries of the time. Designers reused cartoons and design elements and were influenced by other designers and prints. There were stock patterns used by workshops across the Southern Netherlands. Cavallo draws attention to two related tapestries, which although similar in form and style, are from a different cycle, including smaller figures and distinct narrative banderoles. Which could be allegorical or moralising. They are entitled ‘Deer Park’ , Southern Netherlands, circa 1500-1525, Burrell Collection (Inv. 46.132 and 46.133), opcit., Cleland and Karafel, pp.299-302.

See also Ebeltje Hartkamp-Jonxis and Hillie Smit, European Tapestries in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2004, pp.42-43, cat.7a-7b, for two early 16th century, South Netherlands tapestry fragments, on the medieval theme of Wild men and women, which include the exotic animals, including a camel and distinctive fruiting tree design and evidence of an enclosure, as in the offered panel. 

Considering the panels cited and the two distinctive sets of tapestries discussed above, highlights the influences that travel and literature had on the commissions, artists and print makers, agents, designers, weavers workshops and popular subjects of the time. It still resulted in differences and distinct series, some of which are still fascinating in their imagination.