A Flemish Verdure Tapestry with Animals, Enghien, last quarter 16th century

woven with a stag and deer against a scrolling foliate leaf background incorporating birds and insects, the foreground with a small pond with ducks and a fruiting strawberry bush and flowering plant, all within a four-sided foliate border with allegorical figures and strapwork against a saffron ground, with narrow inner and outer borders of entrelac and foliate motif design against tabacco ground

The colours are not as yellow in hue as in the photograph. In reality the greens are more attractive and darker and the yellows more subtle and less strident in hue. The overall appearance is more defined and crisper in reality. This tapestry has been professionally restored in the past. Tapestry probably reduced in width and therefore borders altered. Composition not complete on the left side. The border has been restored and there are areas of reweaving, for example lower left and right corners. Faces of the allegorical figures in each corner have repairs due to the fading of the definition of the features. Some minor areas in the border motifs, of areas of green, tan and dark brown and edges in black, are later. For example the strapwork motifs in the borders. Sections of the inner and outer borders rewoven. For example see the corners. With the main field there are some minor repairs to the light areas in sections, such as feathers of bird top right corner. There are some areas of reweaving and repair to the dark green ground. For example in the top right corner above the dragon fly. There are minor repairs to lighter foliage, for example in area of strawberry plant foliage, central foreground. Repairs to some of pale blues and the salmon pinks in areas. For example ducks in water in lower left corner. This is a particularly decorative tapestry, of a good size, with balanced composition and colours.
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For a comparable tapestry composition, of horizontal format, woven with a stag and deer within a foliate background, with flowers and a bird, within a four-sided border incorporating fruit and foliage and strapwork motifs and lion mask motifs, against a saffron ground and the same inner and outer narrow borders as the present tapestry, (approx. 268cm. high, 179cm. wide; 8ft. 9in., 5ft. 10in.), see Sotheby’s, London, 29^th June 2005, lot 201. For another example of a tapestry of similar composition, with a large stag and deer, within a landscape setting and a four-sided border with fruit and foliage and seated allegorical figures in each lower corner, dated to 1550-1570 (Collection précédente French & Company, New York), see Ingrid De Meuter, Tapisseries d’Audenarde du XVI au XVIII Siècle, 1999, pg.131.

For comprehensive discussion and illustrations of Enghien Verdure Tapestries, with and without animals and birds, see Guy Delmarcel, Tapisseries Anciennes d'Enghien, Mons, 1980. Records two similar tapestries incorporating different animals and birds with the foliate background, with variations of a similar border design which includes corner allegorical figures and strapwork with lion masks as found on the present panel, see pp.46-49, pl. 18-19. These particular examples, are attributed to Enghien and dated to the second quarter of the 16^th century, they are of horizontal and vertical format respectively (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, see Hartkamp-Jonxis, 2004), and include animals of smaller proportions, that are less conspicuous within the composition. They both have the Enghien town mark and one has a monogram of initials A and V (Städtische Kunstsammlungen, Augsburg).  The floral and foliate ground is comparable to two other examples of similar date, described as `Verdure with large Flowers’, second quarter 16^th century, woven without animals and insects, both with the Enghien mark, one with an unidentified weaver’s mark and a similar border type including the fruit, flowers and corner figures (Delmarcel, op.cit. pp.26-29, pl.7-8). Two matching verdures with animals are known in the Palazzo Vescovile, Como, with similar borders, and unidentified weaver’s marks. Three other slightly later examples of similar style, attributed to Enghien, third quarter 16^th century, woven with animals, birds and flowers, against a larger leaf ground, within floral and fruit filled borders, all of square format, and one with the Enghien town mark and initial C D for Nicolas de Dobbeleer (ibid. pp. 42-45, pl.15-17).

For an interesting earlier tapestry of a `Wild Park’ tapestry, circa 1550, with a more elaborate composition generally, but with similar border type and comparable corner Allegorical figure of `Music’ holding a lute, as in the top corners of the present panel, within an arch, and with the Oudenaarde town mark and the Jacob Benne weaver’s mark, see Sotheby’s, London, 20^th May 1994, lot 12. It shows the influence of designs woven by neighbouring towns.

Related Literature:
Ebeltje Hartkamp-Jonxis and Hillie Smith, European Tapestries in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2004, pp.88-89, Cat.no.25. Verdure with Animals, Southern Netherlands, Enghien, circa 1550-1600, with the Enghien town mark and unidentified weaver’s mark.