The Enchantment of Don Quixote, A Flemish Literary Tapestry with metal-threads, From The Adventures of Don Quixote, Urbanus and Daniel III Leyniers, and Hendrik II Reydams workshop, after cartoons by Jan van Orley and Augustin Coppens, early 18th century

The important Brussels workshop of Urbanus (1674-1747) and his son Daniel II (1669-1747). The Leyniers were one of the oldest and most well known families of dyers and weavers in Brussels. They became involved in 1712 with Hendrik II Reydams (active 1665- d.1719), from a family of dyers and weavers, Dean of the guild in 1687 and had five looms in operation by 1703. They collaborated on both the very popular Teniers and Don Quixote series. The amusing and well executed narrative designs of the Don Quixote series were as successful as the Teniers series, and their workshops capitalised upon this fortuitous position within the tapestry market. Many of their important tapestry series, having originally been woven for princes and aristocracy, not always together as the original sets, are in international museums, royal, state or UK national trust collections, or notable historic aristocratic collections, in Europe.

The designers commissioned by the Leyniers/Reydams workshops were the two most prolific tapestry designers of the turn of the 17th/18th century, Jan Van Orley (1665-1735), and Augustin Coppens (1668-1706), both being sons of painters. Jan van Orley, Brussels born, was granted privileges in 1709, becoming a master in the painters guild in 1710. His good reputation was made through his large number of tapestry designs in collaboration with Augustin Coppens. Coppens was registered in the painters guild in 1698, although by this own accounts was working as a tapestry designer and cartoon painter since 1689. His production was prolific, for Brussels as well as weaving workshops in Antwerp and Oudenaarde. Their collaborative tapestry designs were mainly in the Baroque style and moved into the neo-Baroque style (with the Teniers and Don Quixote compositions). They were commissioned for designs by the important Brussels workshops of van den Hecke, de Vos, le Clerc, van Borght, Auwercx for their weavers and by the Leyniers and Reydams workshops, working on about fifteen series. They were the most important designers of the later collaborative workshops of Leyniers and Reydams from 1713-1725, and of the seven important series for the workshop, they worked on the Don Quixote designs (ca.1713-1714). Van Orley designed the figures and the distinctive, naturalistic landscapes were added to the compositions by Coppens. The result being elegant and balanced compositions. The present tapestry is signed by both Leyniers and Reydams, which is more unusual than other extant examples in collections, with just the Leyniers workshop signature. 

Comparable Tapestries

Enchantment of Don Quixote, Brussels, Leyniers-Reydams workshop, circa 1715-1768, after Jan van Orley and Augustin Coppens, National Trust Collection, Castle Drogo, Devon (Inv. NT 904078), of different composition, with less figures and a lady and gentleman standing in the foreground rather than next to the cart, although the distinctive Coppens landscape is included, lacking borders (approx. 289cm by 480cm).

For a comparable quality of tapestry from the Don Quixote series, depicting the subject of ‘Don Quixote fighting with windmills’, by Urbanus and Daniel Leyniers and Hendrik Reydams, circa 1715-1719, see Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan (Inv/Cat.no. 61.395). It has a wide and elaborate strapwork and shell and cornucopia corner elements (approx. 330cm by 260cm).

RELATED LITERATURE

Campbell, Thomas P, Tapestry in the Baroque: Threads of Splendour, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press, New Haven, Flemish Production, Koenraad Brosens, pp.441-453;

Delmarcel, Guy, Flemish Tapestry, London, 1999, Brussels tapestries in the eighteenth century, pp.305-331.