Footnotes

Provenance:
The offered tapestry was formerly housed at Penkill Castle, Girvan, Scotland, then subsequently purchased from Keshishian, London, for £31,000 June 3rd 1998. Interestingly, the castle was frequented by many Pre-Raphaelite artists and is referred to by Christina Rossetti, who wrote: "Even Naples in imagination cannot efface the quiet fertile comeliness of Penkill in reality."

The present lot is thought, by repute, to have been made in the workshops of the brothers Michael and Philip Wauters (working between 1679-1704). The design is attributable to Daniel Janssens. Janssens was the Master of the Guild of Painters in Antwerp and, in the case of the present lot, the design was taken from engravings by P de Jode after Antonia Tempesta (1555 -1630)

Literary sources:
The most famous version of the story of Narcissus comes from Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book III (completed circa 8AD). The myth tells how the handsome young hunter Narcissus (son of Cephissus and nymph Liriope) caught the eye of the mountain nymph Echo who fell in love with him. After Narcissus rebuked her advances, the heart broken young nymph, wandered the glens without nourishment until she faded away to a mere echo. Meanwhile Nemesis, the goddess of retribution, decided to punish Narcissus and led him to a pool where he fell in love with his own reflection. As with Echo, Narcissus' love was unrequited and eventually he too faded away until all that was left was a small white flower.

In Bk III: Lines 402-436 Narcissus sees himself and falls in love:

''There was an unclouded fountain, with silver-bright water, which neither shepherds nor goats grazing the hills, nor other flocks, touched, that no animal or bird disturbed not even a branch falling from a tree. Grass was around it, fed by the moisture nearby, and a grove of trees that prevented the sun from warming the place. Here, the boy, tired by the heat and his enthusiasm for the chase, lies down, drawn to it by its look and by the fountain. While he desires to quench his thirst, a different thirst is created. While he drinks he is seized by the vision of his reflected form. He loves a bodiless dream. He thinks that a body, that is only a shadow. He is astonished by himself, and hangs there motionless, with a fixed expression, like a statue carved from Parian marble.

Flat on the ground, he contemplates two stars, his eyes, and his hair, fit for Bacchus, fit for Apollo, his youthful cheeks and ivory neck, the beauty of his face, the rose-flush mingled in the whiteness of snow, admiring everything for which he is himself admired. Unknowingly he desires himself, and the one who praises is himself praised, and, while he courts, is courted, so that, equally, he inflames and burns. How often he gave his lips in vain to the deceptive pool, how often, trying to embrace the neck he could see, he plunged his arms into the water, but could not catch himself within them! What he has seen he does not understand, but what he sees he is on fire for, and the same error both seduces and deceives his eyes.

Fool, why try to catch a fleeting image, in vain? What you search for is nowhere: turning away, what you love is lost! What you perceive is the shadow of reflected form: nothing of you is in it. It comes and stays with you, and leaves with you, if you can leave!''

Literature:
Metamorphoses: A New Verse Translation, Ovid, translated by David Raeburn, Penguin, 2004
Engraving information, Figures 21, 23, 25-26 courtesy of the Soprintendenza per i beni artistici e storiche, Bologna