Tapestries: Resurgent Threads | November 19, 2024

Tapestries have officially made a comeback from the nadir of popular interior design they were relegated to after the Great Depression. In their heyday, in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, tapestries were a status symbol on par with the finest sculpture and most elaborate paintings (the latter of which would eventually overtake them in popularity). They also served a functional role as a highly-decorative form of insulation in drafty stone castles and manors. Today however, with modern insulation and sensibilities rather far removed from the Medieval and Renaissance eras, they’ve returned to the fore as conversation pieces and sources of visual interest in any room in which they’re hung. Also unlike such eras, tapestries today are no longer only within the means of kings and nobles and those with a surplus of unadorned walls. For your consideration, we have a collection of fine tapestries in superlative condition, freshly deaccessioned from the Brooklyn Museum and dating from the 15th to 19th centuries. Some have been in their collection for nearly a century and together feature an impressive range of subjects and hail from renowned centers of the art such as Aubusson and Brussels. From depictions of Biblical stories to scenes from ancient myth to proud displays of family heraldry, each piece is impressive in its own right, with unmistakable artistry and laudable state of repair across the board.

There are three categories present that deserve special note: the natural, the historical, and the literary. The first category, the natural, boasts two of the most imaginative tapestries we have for sale, each a fantastical landscape with impossible geography (lot 1541) or mythical creatures (lot 1543). Not only are these pieces a charming example of the creativity of the craftsmen who made them, but they also offer a contrast to the more grounded, but no less impressive, hunt tapestries. Of particular note are “The Departure for the Falcon Hunt” (lot 1527) and “Hunting the Wolf” (lot 1529), both from Tournai, both from the 16th century’s second quarter, and both in fine condition.

Additionally, while one would be forgiven for mistaking it for a depiction of a Greek myth, the March 2025 auction will feature a tapestry depicting a scene from François Fénelon’s The Adventures of Telemachus, a French novel published in the late 17th century about the extra-Homeric adventures of Odysseus’ eponymous son. This piece, part of a series also owned by William Randolph Hearst (but not Louis XIII), dates to the 18th century and is an excellent example of Brussels tapestry. More immediately available in our December British & Continental auction, we have a tapestry, again from the 18th century, done after a painting of a scene from the Spanish masterwork Don Quixote (lot 1544) as well as a large tapestry fragment depicting the characters Rinaldo and Armida (lot 1545) from the epic poem Jerusalem Liberated by Torquato Tasso.

Lot 1541
Belgian ‘Fantastic Landscape’ Wool Tapestry

The final category includes several pieces depicting events in the life of legendary Roman general Gaius Marcius, called Coriolanus, who was further immortalized in a tragedy by William Shakespeare of the same name. This series also boasts rare and impressive provenance, having once been owned by media magnate and Citizen Kane inspiration William Randolph Hearst and Cardinal Jules Mazarin, deputy of the influential Richelieu, who may have purchased it from King Louis XIII. These Coriolanus tapestries will be up for auction in March 2025.

These beautiful works of art, and more, will be up for auction in our December 2024 and March 2025 British & Continental sales. We hope you discover the perfect statement piece for your home, or at the very least, a new appreciation for an art form only beginning to regain its rightful popularity.

Lot 1543
Dutch ‘Game Park with Fantastical Animals’ Wool Tapestry