Footnotes

Herzeele emigrated from Brussels to Antwerp in 1580, where he established a sizeable workshop. He kept a relationship with Brussels, even signing a petition in 1586 with the title 'master in the tapestry-making craft of Brussels'. During this period the Brussels tapestry guild tried to distance itself from tapestry manufacturers that worked outside the city. Shortly thereafter Herzeele emigrated to Hamburg where he died in 1589.

This tapestry can be compared to a grotesque tapestry in the Rijksmuseum that has a yellow ground and illustrates a scene from The Story of Nebuchadnezzar. This example, like the present lot, has an egg-and-dart inner border. A similar egg-and-dart border can be found a tapestry depicting The Festivities of Balthazar which is at château d'Azay-le-Rideau. It is probably that the present lot is a representation of Balthazar's banquet. Few known examples of sixteenth century Antwerp-woven tapestries survive.

The precursor to all of these tapestries is, however, a series depicting Triumphs of the Gods after designs by Giovanni Francesco Penni and Giovanni da Udine of 1517 - 1520. It was first woven for Leo X while the earliest surviving example is that which was probably woven by the Dermoyen workshop in circa 1540 for Henry VIII.

The 'zoological' border is based on an example ordered by Philip II of Spain, for a specific set of tapestries -depicting the life of Noah. These borders, depicting the four elements and various exotic animals, recur again and again in individual pieces and sets from the 16th century. A first set of these 'Noah Tapestries,' had been lost in a shipwreck in 1559 and the second (manufactured in 1563 and after) was made with borders where the four elements were depicted. The weaver, Willem de Pannemaker (ca.1510-1581), raised objection to this border, saying it was too hard to weave. Unluckily for him -it was a border that would be used for another fifty years. King Philip had bought the original cartoons, these were fiercely guarded in Brussels, so much so that the officials responsible for them did not let Pannemaker use them again when Margaret of Parma asked for a new edition of the set herself.

Literature

A.M.L.E. Mulder-Erkelens, Wandtapijten 2, Renaissance, Manierisme en Barok, Amsterdam, 1971, fig. 15

G. Delmarcel, Flemish Tapestry, Tielt, 1999, p.177

J. Coural, Le XVIe Siècle Européen, Tapisseries, Paris Mobilier National, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1965, cat. 32

T. Campbell, Tapestry in the Renaissance, exhibition catalogue, New York, 2002, cat. 26, p.246 - 252