The Prodigal Son Begging for Alms
Flemish
Category
Tapestries
Date
circa 1550 - circa 1570
Materials
Tapestry, wool and silk, 4½ warps per cm
Measurements
3.5 m (H); 2.45 m (W)
Place of origin
Belgium
Order this imageCollection
Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire
NT 1129423.2
Summary
The Prodigal Son Begging for Alms from a set of two of the Story of the Prodigal Son, tapestry, wool and silk, 4½ warps per cm, Southern Netherlands, c. 1550-1570. In the centre the Prodigal Son kneels before a farmer and his wife, his chest and feet bare and his shirt torn, carrying a long staff. The farmer holds a purse attached to his belt with one hand and gestures with the other, and his wife looks over his shoulder. In the background the Prodigal Son appears again with a herd of swine, holding a stick and throwing up his arms. Beyond there is a forest and distant hills and on the right a farmstead and a church. The tapestry has wide borders of fruit and flowers interspersed with architectural details and birds. In the lower border there is an elegant chicken-like bird whose head extends into the main field of the tapestry.
Full description
This tapestry has traditionally been described as 'The Return of the Prodigal Son', due to the Son's kneeling pose and supplicating gesture. However the standing figure bears no resemblance to the father in the other tapestry at Hardwick, and moreover the 'Return of the Prodigal Son' does not usually include a woman. Instead the scene probably represents the Prodigal Son reduced to begging for alms from a farmer and his wife, who then let him look after their pigs, the scene in the background. This is a less common scene but occurs for example in a series of twelve prints of the 'Prodigal Son' by the Monogrammist MT, dated 1541-43. The parable of the Prodigal Son is told in Luke, Chapter 15. A father had two sons, and one day the younger son asked for his share of his inheritance and set off on a journey to a far country, where he squandered the money in riotous living. The inheritance and the departure are the subject of the first tapestry at Hardwick. A famine then struck and the younger son was penniless, and sought work from a farmer who sent him to feed swine in the fields. The second tapestry at Hardwick probably shows the son begging for alms from a farmer and his wife, and then tending swine in the background. The son was so hungry that he ate the husks given to the swine. He thought to himself that the hired servants of his father must have more to eat than he, and resolved to return home and ask his father to make him one of his hired servants, as he was no longer worthy to be called his son. As he approached his home his father saw him and ran to meet him, welcoming him into his house. A great and banquet was held to celebrate his return, but the elder son grew angry, saying that he had always been dutiful and obeyed his father but had never had a banquet thrown in his honour. The father replied, "it was meet that we should make merry, and be glad; for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found." The 1601 inventory of Hardwick lists three 'Prodigal Son' tapestries (see below), and the two tapestries at Hardwick probably once formed part of a larger set. Popular scenes from the story are missing, including the Prodigal Son carousing with courtesans, the Prodigal Son tending the swine, and his return home. A single tapestry, with the same distinctive borders as the two at Hardwick, is in the National Museum of Art of Romania in Bucharest. The panel includes a young man approaching a seated older man on the left hand side, and to the right in the background a figure of a man on horseback very similar to the figure in 'The Departure of the Prodigal Son' at Hardwick, again approaching a group of women at the entrance to a building. The tapestry in Bucharest is described as 'The Return of the Prodigal Son', but the gesture of the young man on the left is not submissive as is usual for this scene, and instead he seems to raise his arms in an angry gesture. The subject may in fact be the elder son remonstrating with his father after the Prodigal Son returned home to be greeted by a banquet. This is further suggested by a relief on the wall behind the two men, which appears to represent Cain killing Abel, the archetypal image of brotherly rivalry. The subject of the elder son remonstrating was included in sixteenth-century 'Prodigal Son' cycles, for example a set of prints after Marten van Heemskerck published in 1562. One of the tapestries at Hardwick, 'The Prodigal Son Begging for Alms', bears an unidentified maker's mark in the upper galloon, in the form of a light-coloured anchor with a dark brown bar across the shaft. No other examples of this mark are known. The placing of the mark in the upper galloon, and the use of two colours, are both atypical of Brussels weavers and the tapestry was probably made at one of the smaller weaving centres in the Southern Netherlands, possibly Enghien or Oudenaarde. On stylistic grounds the tapestry can be dated to c. 1550-1570. In 1601 the Prodigal Chamber (now known as Miss Webb's Room, on the first floor) contained three tapestries of the "prodigall sonne", each 11 feet deep (Levey and Thornton 2001). The tapestries are not mentioned again until the middle of the twentieth century when Evelyn, Duchess of Devonshire wrote in her 'Notes' on the house that two tapestries of the Departure and the Return of the Prodigal son 'from the old house' were in the Old Housekeeper's Room and Nursery (now known as the Exhibition Room). Duchess Evelyn mentioned that the borders of both tapestries had been cut and that she hoped to repaint them (Devonshire 1945, Devonshire 1946). Today both tapestries have missing sections of border replaced with painted canvas. (Helen Wyld, 2011)
Provenance
At Hardwick Hall in the collection of Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury in 1601; thence by descent to Andrew, 11th Duke of Devonshire (1920-2004); acquired through the National Land Fund in 1956 and transferred to the National Trust in 1959.
Credit line
Hardwick Hall, The Devonshire Collection (acquired through the National Land Fund and transferred to The National Trust in 1959)
Marks and inscriptions
Upper galloon, right hand side: A maker's mark in the form of a light blue anchor with spiked hooks at the ends of the arms and a dark brown diagonal bar across the middle of the vertical shaft. The top of the shaft is hidden where the tapestry has been folded over.
Makers and roles
Flemish, workshop
References
Levey and Thornton, 2001: Santina Levey and Peter Thornton (eds.), Of Household Stuff: The 1601 Inventories of Bess of Hardwick, London 2001 Bucharest, 1964: Catalogul Exposiţiei de Tapiserii Franceze, secolele XVII-XVIII, Muzeul de Artă al Republica Populară Romînă, Bucharest 1964 Devonshire, 1945: Evelyn, Duchess of Devonshire, Notes on the 6th Duke’s Handbook, written for her daughter-in-law Mary Cecil, 1945 (Unpublished manuscript, Hardwick Hall) Devonshire, 1946: Evelyn, Duchess of Devonshire, Notes on Hardwick following the route of the 1601 inventory, 1946 (Unpublished manuscript, Hardwick Hall)