Atalanta and Hippomenes
Hendrik II Reydams (fl. 1669 – d. 1719)
Category
Tapestries
Date
circa 1670 - circa 1682
Materials
Tapestry, wool, silk, line and metal thread.
Measurements
3.10 x 3.20 m
Place of origin
Brussels
Order this imageCollection
Knole, Kent
NT 130082.3
Summary
Tapestry, wool and silk, Atalanta and Hippomenes from a set of Stories from Ovid, Hendrik II Reydams, Brussels, c. 1670-1682. In the centre Atalanta pauses halfway through a race to pick up a golden apple from the ground, while Hippomenes runs past her. The setting is a wooded landscape. The huntress Atalanta did not want to marry, and agreed to do so only if her suitor could outrun her. None succeeded until Hippomenes, who distracted her by placing golden apples supplied by Aphrodite. The borders are of fruit, leaves and birds on a brown ground. The tapestry is one of six with stories from Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’ made in Brussels by Hendrik II Reydams, whose signature appears on most of the set along with the mark of the city. The tapestries may be the ‘6 peces of Tapestry Storys out of Ovid out of ye ante Chamber to the Rich bed Chamber’, listed among a load of goods ‘Caried from [?Copt]hall to Knowle out of ye Qu[en]es C[?hamber]’ on 13 December 1700. This indicates that the tapestries may have among the goods taken as perquisites by the 6th Earl of Dorset from Queen Mary’s apartments at Whitehall after her death in 1695.
Credit line
Knole, The Sackville Collection (The National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
HR (woven into the galloon)
Makers and roles
Hendrik II Reydams (fl. 1669 – d. 1719), workshop