A tapestry, "Feuilles de choux", tapestry weave, third quarter 16th century, Flanders, probably Audenarde.
Ca 270,5-272,5 x 372-375 cm. A polychrome depiction of a balustrade on which game birds are perched and festooned with trailing grapes. A decor of large scale feuilles de choux, blooming branches, fruits, small birds, a dragonfly and a hare. A wide yellow and blue ground border with lush foliage, flowers, fruits as well as candle-holders/up-side-down bowls.
Reduced. Partly some wear, slightly dirty, minor stains and damages, repairs, restorations, rewoven areas. Later outer border.
Provenance
Christie's auction 6423, 14 February 2001: Davide Halevim "Magnificent carpets and tapestries", lot 89; Swedish private collection.
More information
Christie's: "Lot Essay
The striking use of a balustrade as a horizontal accent on this impressive tapestry, together with the fact that the vegetation flows into the borders, links it to 'feuilles de choux' tapestries from Audenarde. A closely related tapestry in the Art Institute of Chicago with the Audenarde town mark (illustrated in I. De Meûter and M. Vanwelden, Tapisseries d'Audenarde, Tielt, 1999, p. 126) bears many similarities with this tapestry, such as the central floral spray between the balustrades and the fruits suspending from the top border. Another similar tapestry, also attributed to Audenarde, is in Philadelphia (De Meûter, op. cit., p. 106). The main difference between these two tapestries and the Halevim tapestry is in the border design. Both examples have large vases supported by paired animals with leaves in the bottom corners. The link between those and this lot is a tapestry that was sold from the collection of F. S. Clarke, esq. in these Rooms, 9 February 1933, lot 184, that incorporates the same vases to the corners but also the very distinctive bell-shaped and upturned vases of the upper and lower border. The scarcity of signed hangings makes it difficult, however, to say with certainty that identical designs were not also woven in other centres."